Start Today needs no introduction to anyone serious about hardcore. Released July 14, 1989 on Revelation Records as REV-12, it became the label’s all-time best-selling record and one of the defining documents of the youth crew movement. Recorded at Demo² Studios in New York City with engineer Don Fury — the same room and producer behind records by Youth of Today, Sick of It All, and Agnostic Front — and featuring CIV on vocals, Walter Schreifels (later of Quicksand and Rival Schools) on guitar, Arthur Smilios on bass, and Luke Abbey on drums.
The original 1989 pressing came in two variants pressed simultaneously: 4,977 copies on black vinyl with the shrink wrap seal running left to right, and 1,015 on purple vinyl with the seal running top to bottom — both with the embossed cover art that’s been the instant identifier of an original ever since. A second pressing dropped the embossing; every pressing after that is noticeably less desirable to collectors. The record is currently in Japan, which is telling — the Japanese hardcore import market in the late ’80s was ferocious, and copies that went to Japan often came back in better shape than anything that stayed in the US and got played to death at basement shows.
