Lard LP Test

My god, writing about this one makes me feel old! I just picked up a test press of the Lard 'The Last Temptation of Reid' LP, which came out in 1990 on Alternative Tentacles.

Here's what the regular version of the record looks like:

For anyone who doesn't know anything about this band, Lard is/was a band featuring Jello Biafra (vocalist of legendary Dead Kennedys) and and the dudes from Industrial noise metal band Ministry. This was one of the first punk/hardcore (whatever you want to call it) records that I listened to and bought, back when I was 17 years old. I probably wouldn't listen to stuff like this these days, but this album holds a special place in my heart. It reminds me of an interesting time in life. So I'm glad to have picked this up, even more so because it was cheap.

Even though this test press comes without any kind of sleeve, I can tell that this is a test of the UK pressing of this LP. How? Because it says 'A Porky Prime Cut' on the matrix. This means it was mastered by some dude in London (who you can read about HERE).

This record is from an era when vinyl was pretty much the only format, and so most records that were likely to sell more than a couple of thousand copies were pressed in multiple countries, rather than have huge volumes pressed in one country to then be shipped around the world. I've always assumed that the records pressed in the States would have a different matrix and also a slightly different sleeve (which would not include the UK Alternative Tentacles address), but admittedly this is just a guess. If anyone in the States has this record and can confirm, I'd be grateful.