XClaim!

There was a time when I thought that I owned an original pressing of SS Decontrol's The Kids Will Have Their Say. I bought it about 20 years ago, and at the time I didn't know anything about record collecting. All I knew was that I needed to hear this classic record from one of the pioneers of the Boston Straight Edge. Fast forward 15 years and I'm getting back into buying vinyl, and stumble upon a messageboard post about some SS Decontrol bootleg that Jordan from Revelation released years ago. The record lists the label as EXClaim instead of XClaim. Yup, that's what I have. The bootleg. I had no idea.

I came into a little extra money last month...my wife wanted to buy new blinds for the living room, and gave me $100 to go and buy records. Pretty good deal. I knew that I wanted to make a solid purchase...something big. A few things didn't pan out, but I was happy to finally land myself my first true XClaim record...Get It Away by SS Decontrol.

Prices on this record seem to fluctuate. While I may have paid near the high end of that range, this record was in such great shape that it didn't bother me. The scary thing is that this seems to be one of the least expensive XClaim records to obtain.

When the record arrived in the mail, and I saw the return address was from Minor Threat guitar player, Lyle Preslar, it made this purchase even better. Original Boston Straight Edge purchased from someone that helped originate the Straight Edge.