Guided Tour

Without doubt one of the most anticipated new releases of 2024 is the third album by High Vis. It was announced back at the end of July that this was coming out, and I was not expecting it at all. It felt to me that the band had been pretty active since their last record ('Blending') dropped in late 2022, partly due to it being such a huge success. The band has played a lot of shows and played overseas a lot, so I was surprised to find out that somehow they had also written another record. But what a cool surprise. In a rare move for me, I preordered immediately as I didn't want to miss out.

'Guided Tour' was officially released on 18 October, and arrived at my door on the same day. I was impressed that whoever dispatched this obviously planned to make sure that people like me who ordered a physical copy got it on the same day it came out, so we could enjoy it at the same time as people who used new fangled technology to stream songs through the ether.

At the point I preordered, all colours were available and I had a choice. I ignored any splatter sounding colours, and then ended up choosing the 'onyx' vinyl because it was described as the 'artist version', which was not available through the same link as all the other versions. I figured that the artist version and the harder to find link would mean that this would be the coolest one to have. But if the info on discogs is correct, it seems that this is the second most common. Oh well.

I've had this for just over a month now, and I have played it every single day without fail. And even though I'm enjoying it, I still don't feel that it has grabbed me in the same way as 'Blending', although I guess it's always going to be a tall order for any band to follow up their breakout record. Still, this is a solid record, and I'm nowhere near bored of it, which is rare these days as my interest lasts on average three weeks. So I'm sure this has a lot more mileage in it yet.

Make It Fit

This post is about the power of friends and their influence on each other and my life.

This year Ralf got really into the band Karate. I hadn't listened to this band since about 2006 or so. My journey with the band was basically that I got the first LP when it came out in 1995, the second LP when it came out in 1997, and then I saw them live around this time and recorded the show with my video camera (and still have it on a tape somewhere). After this I gave up on them, although I eventually got around to giving their 3rd LP ('The Bed Is In The Ocean') a go years after it came out, in 2006 I think, and got really into it and cursed myself for ignoring it when it came out. I also bought a 12" of covers called 'In The Fishtank' which I only played about twice. But for some reason I went no further. Well, this year I dusted off those old records following posts from Ralf (here, here, here and here. And then it seemed that Ralf also caught Mike's attention too, and he got sucked into buying and posting a couple of Karate records (here and here. And then I noticed an announcement that there was a new album coming out this year, which was going to be the first in twenty years. Suddenly it felt like Karate was everywhere, so I did what I often do in such situations.. I jumped on the bandwagon and bought the new album.

It was nice to see that there were only two different colours of vinyl available for this record, in a world where every new record seems to get pressed on ten different splatter variations, each available from different a different retailer. I wasn't sure which colour to choose, but decided to go for the 'blonde' vinyl as it looked like it would be a good match to the cover... which it absolutely is. I don't know the pressing info, but this is definitely the more limited of the two colours.

'Make It Fit' was officially released a little under a month ago, on 18 October 2024. I think it landed on my doorstep on the day of release, and I think I have listened to it once a day since. It's a really great record and I am really thankful to my friends for reminding me how great this band was, and still is. This id definitely one of the highlights of 2024 so far.

Hey, wait... where did Geoff go?

Cool World

A few weeks ago I was scrolling down the infinite feed of instagram and, for once, I had the volume on. At some point my ears were met with a strange tune that immediately had me captivated. It's hard to describe, but the music I heard was like nothing else I had heard. I'm not even sure I thought it was great, more that it was just strange and fascinating.

Scrolling for another tenth of a second and I realised that it was music from a band called Chat Pile, and was being played on a post to tell me that their new album was in stock in a UK distro that I have used a couple of times. I'd never heard of the band and to be frank thought that the band name was kinda stupid, but I sure did like the cover of the record and the colour of vinyl on show.

The next day I found myself seeking out that post again, and then decided to order the record.

I've said it before, but this is a great example of how the aesthetics of a record can make me want it. I mean, this just looks... interesting... right?

This is a strange mish mash of a record. The band simply describe themselves as 'an American rock band from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma'. They have a black metal style logo, but the rest of the cover looks like an indie rock record. Yet they sound like the soundtrack to some kind of dark, creepy as fuck, weird film... which is pretty much what the video to the song 'Funny Man' is.

Without a doubt this record has come along at the right time of year. It's the perfect soundtrack to cold, dark gloomy days, especially if you happen to be a serial killer.

The Fluids

This year has been mainly about old Sub Pop releases for me. It all started with a message from a friend and then we both kinda decided to start trying to collect all of the 7"s up to catalog number 200. I mean, we both had quite a few already, and the catalog numbers include 12"s. But we were both essentially taking on a mission to pick up at least 80 different 7"s. This has led to me buying and listening to a lot of Sub Pop releases from the late 80s to the early 90s, which with hindsight, was a really great period for music.

I was in Baltimore earlier this year, and took a brief trip to Celebrated Summer Records. I didn't have too much time there, and there was a lot in the shop to look through. I focussed on the used 7" and 'new in' sections and found a few gems. In the 'new in' section I found a couple of used 12"s by one of the early Sub Pop bands, The Fluid. I guess these days they are mainly remembered for being a band that had a split 7" with a band called Nirvana.

The first LP I grabbed was this blue vinyl copy of their second LP (their first on Sub Pop) 'Clear Black Paper'. This was released in 1988 as SP16. Apparently the first 500 copies were on blue.

I also picked up this pink vinyl copy of the band's third LP 'Roadmouth'. This came out in 1989 as SP36, with the first 500 copies on pink vinyl. It's an interesting colour. It's such a pale pink that it barely looks pink at all. It's pretty cool in real life as it is quite distinct.

Fun fact - I actually posted different colour vinyl copies of both of these two Fluid LPs as my 3rd post on this blog back in February 2008.

I also managed to pick up two different colours of the 'Tin Top Toy' 7". I already owned an orange vinyl copy of this one, but there are about 9 or 10 different versions you can collect if you want. Most of them are pretty cheap, so I figured I would start picking them off and see how it goes. These two copies (purple and grey) are mid rare, in that they are far from the most common, but also not the rarest. This one came out in 1990 as SP57.

Sub Pop announced in the last few weeks that they are going to repress all of The Fluid's records from their back catalogue. I'm kinda surprised, as most of their records are still relatively easy to pick up and not that expensive, so I have never had any real reason to believe that they are particularly popular. But I guess part of it is to make sure that these old bands don't get forgotten, and hopefully some younger people will finally get a chance to listen to these records. If there does turn out to be a huge resurgence of interest in this band then I'll be glad that I picked these up when I did.

The Fire Theft

When I was picking up the Orange 9mm tests and Understand test press from Thirty Something Records, I also decided to pick up another record that I have had in my life for a long time but never owned on vinyl previously... the self titled album by The Fire Theft.

This band was around for a relatively short period, from 2001 to 2004. This was essentially 3 of the 4 original members of Sunny Day Real Estate who got back together with some other dude to crank out tunes that (surprise surprise) sounded similar to Sunny Day Real Estate. They cranked out one full length that came out in 2003 on CD only, and that was it. Thinking back to this era, when I had just bought a house and was spending all my time studying, I'm not exactly sure how I even knew that this band existed. But somehow I did, and I also managed to buy a promo copy of the CD in a cool card sleeve.

Unknown to me until semi recently, this album was first pressed on vinyl sixteen years after it was first released, in 2019. There were just under 1400 copies pressed, which these days isn't that many, especialy considering how big Sunny Day Real Estate are / were. Unsurprisingly, this pressing sells for a fair amount these days. So it was probably about time for this to be pressed again, and Thirty Something Records got the job, and pressed up another 1,000 copies, split across three different colours of vinyl.

By the time I got around to ordering this, the only option available was the most common colour, which is 'Red-transparent w/ black & white marble'. It looks pretty good though, I think, and it's kinda cool to be able to finally own these songs on vinyl after having them for twenty one years.

Burning Bushes And Burning Bridges Test

I've posted about a few Understand records on here over the years. I've said it all several times. I won't repeat myself again (you can read some old posts HERE, HERE and HERE), but they were a pretty important band to me for a few reasons, and I will happily talk about them anytime anyone wants to listen.

Well anyway, back in the lockdown era, Thirty Something Records put out their debut album, 'Burning Bushes and Burning Bridges', on vinyl for the first time. At the time I emailed the label and asked if they had a spare test press they could part with, and I was told that no, sorry, there was only one 'unallocated' test press and it was not for sale. I was disappointed, but that's how the gane plays out sometimes. As Mick Jagger might say, you can't always get what you want.

Earlier this year, when I was picking up the Orange 9mm test pressings from the same label, I had a look around the store and was excited to see that there was also a test press for the Understand LP for sale. Four years after I first asked about buying one, it seemed that I was actually going to get what I wanted after all.

Just like those Orange 9mm tests, this comes in a custom Thirty Something Records sleeve, and is personalised and numbered 11 out of 13 copies. I figured this was reason enough to pull out the other copies that I already owned for a collection photo:

I'm super happy to have this record, and feel pretty lucky to have bagged it. And even though it was back in April that I ordered this, I have just checked and as I type this almost 7 months later and it is still possible to buy a test press of this record in the label's store, in case anyone is interested. If it's still there in a few weeks I might just buy another for myself.

Orange 9mm Tests

My last post was for the Orange 9mm 'Ultraman Vs Godzilla' 12". I mentioned how I was never overly excited about any of the later, (previously) CD only Orange 9mm releases... however, when the opportunity arose to buy test presses of them, I was all in. The prices were pretty good, and somehow the shipping price for these from Germany was also really low, so I had no excuse to not buy them. These are all kinda cool as they come in standard, custom Thirty Something Records sleeves, which are numbered and also personalised, so they look like quite a cool lilttle collection in themselves.

First up is 'Tragic', number 7 of 13:

Next is 'Pretend I'm Human', number 10 of 13:

And finally, 'Ultraman Vs Godzilla', number 4 of 13:

In the hierarchy of Orange 9mm test presses, these are probably at the bottom of the list, with the first 12" on Rev at the top, although I figure it's unlikely that any normal mortal will ever find one of those. But only 13 of each makes these cool to have, and I'm happy to have got one of each before they sold out.

Ultraman Vs. Godzilla

Over the last three years or so, a German label (Thirty Something Records) has been reissuing some Orange 9mm releases on vinyl for the first time. I was never really a big fan of any of the band's later records, because they originally came out on CD on a major label, and I was kept fully occupied buying records on independent labels. Years later, when technologiy had moved on, I downloaded the CD only Orange 9mm releases to listen to them for the first time, and at that point I wasn't overly excited by any of them. In my opinion, each successive release is less interesting than the one before. But still, even though none of them really ever made it onto regular rotation with me, I was still keen to pick up the records.

The third and final CD only release given the vinyl treatment is the 5 song EP 'Ultraman Vs. Godzilla'. This was first released in 1998.

Despite this being far from the best Orange 9mm release, the packaging on this vinyl version is pretty damn cool. I got a version which comes in an additional, wraparound style cover.

Like a lot of records these days, this is one sided 12", with a screen printed design on the flipside. For some reason, it kinda looks like a CD in this photo. Also, the back cover is hand numbered out of 200, although the label's website states that this version is out of 100. So who knows which number is correct.

When you open this additional cover, inside is a copy of the record in the regular sleeve.

For me this is the weakest O9mm record. By this point, original guitarist Chris Traynor had left, and the landscape was changing. My memories of 1998 are a little hazy, but I certainly remember that hardcore scene was fragmenting and moving in different directions at that point, and older bands on major labels didn't really have much of a place. But if this vinyl version would have come out back in 1998, no doubt I would have picked it up and given this record a real chance.

Spaced Jams

Quite possibly my favourite hardcore record this year has been 'This Is All We Ever Get' by Spaced. I immediately realised that I was going to have to pick up a copy of their first record too. At this point, there were three different colours that had been released by a US label (New Morality Zine) and also three colours that had been pressed by a European label (Genet Records). The US copies were sold out, and I wasn't overly excited by the colours of the Euro pressing. So as I was trying to decide what to do, a third pressing appeared. There were two colours available - yellow (100) and red (200). Given the cover art, I decided I wanted the yellow as it seemed the most suitable, but this was a RevHQ exclusive and only available in the States. And then a UK distro got some of the red vinyl, so I figured that would suffice.

Well, a couple of weeks later and I was ordering something else from a different UK distro, and lo and behold they had the yellow vinyl in stock. So I decided to order one, as this was my preferred colour.

I figured that the yellow was the most suitable colour as it similar to the band's smiley face logo, although the red goes quite well with the background colour of the cover.

So anyway, this record came out in 2022, and whilst it sounds similar to the new record, it's not quite as good. It's still a really good record, it's just that it isn't as good as the one that came out this year, which is hardly surprising. You can definitely tell that the band has got tighter in the time since this came out. But this is still a great hardcore record for sure.

When I bought the ywllow, I figured I would sell the red. But I haven't got around to it yet. If anyone wants it, let me know.

A Hundred Percent

I stumbled across this Sonic Youth promo 12" on eBay a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was kinda cool looking. It was listed for £10, which seemed ok, so I added it to the watch list. I then checked discogs, to discover that it wasn't hard to get at all, and that there was another copy for sale in the UK for only £8. So I let the eBay auction finish but didn't bid, and neither did anyone else, so it got relisted at a starting bid of £0.99. So with seconds to go I whacked in a low bid and won it for £3.31 (plus postage).

The song is called simply '100%' and was released in 1992 as a single from the newly released 'Dirty' LP. This was only a few months after Nirvana had released 'Nevermind', and Sonic Youth were now signed to Geffen. They were just one of many, many bands that got picked up in an attempt to cash in on the grunge explosion. The video even featured skateboarding (Jason Lee, Guy Mariano & Spike Jonze). Even though I never really got into Sonic Youth, I always had a soft spot for this song, and this record right here now represents 100% of my Sonic Youth collection.

This Is A War

Last year I was stoked on the debut release by Unified Action, a UK band playing old school 1980s styled UK hardcore. The debut 12" EP looked and sounded great. The band mainly came to my attention as it has Lins87 from Tied Down on vocals, and I really liked the 12", so when the same label put up preorders for a 7" up around a year ago, I was on it immediately. Somehow the label flaked for months and then the band managed to find another label to put it out, so I ended up getting mine about 8 months after I initially expected to. But you know what they say - good things come to those who wait.

The record is titled 'This Is A War' and comes on two different colours of vinyl, white and green, both being limited to 120 copies each.

I was also lucky enough to pick up a test press in an inverted cover, which is hand numbered out of 10 copies.

This is a really good follow up to the first 12". Five songs in seven minutes in a black and white cover probably tells you everything you need to know. Fast, no frills old school hardcore from the north east of England.

The label still has copies available to order HERE if this sounds like your thing (which in theory it should do if you're reading this in the first place!). Go get it.

Cornflower Blue

A couple of years ago I was stoked as hell to find a pink vinyl copy of the Fuel / Phleg Camp split 7". This record came out as the second release on Allied Records in 1990, and I'd had a black vinyl copy in my collection for probably 25+ years before I found out that colour vinyl copies existed at all. At the end of my post two years ago, I wrote 'I'll probably pick up additional colours of this one if the chance presents itself'. And here we are two years later, and I managed to unearth another copy. .

This one was listed as purple, although I'm not sure that I think this is technically purple. I asked Anna what colour she would call this, and she suggested 'Cornflower Blue', which I think is pretty much spot on.

Two years and two colours down, and I am hoping to eventually find more. There are at least 4 other colours to collect (red, white, blue and purple), but they aren't overly common. Hopefully when another reappears I will be able to grab it.

I love this record. Part of that is definitely nostalgia, but having listened to this again yesterday I'm convinced that the first Fuel song is not Fuel at all, but a secret Fugazi song. Yeah, that's right. Listen to it and tell me I'm wrong.

Clear Rage

Three years ago I bought two copies of the Green Rage 7". I'd always liked the record but never bothered to pick up additional copies. But seeing a couple for sale for relatively cheap, I figured I'd waste my time and money on them. But this meant that there was another copy that I wanted to pick up to 'complete' the collection. And then a year or two ago I managed to pick up a copy of that missing version. The only con was that I got it shipped to Nico to hold until a suitable time. Well, that time came this year when he came over to the UK for Outbreak fest, at which point he sent me a parcel of 7"s.

This copy comes on clear vinyl and in a full colour, glossy sleeve. I have no idea which pressing this is nor how many were made.

This represents my 4th copy of this record, and unless a test press appears on the scene, I think I'm now done with this one. Technically there are three other versions that I could go after, but I'm happy to stop here.

I listened to this again today. I think that it was around this point in the year (October / November) that I first heard this record back in 1994. I got a green vinyl copy from a friend in a trade (or maybe I bought it?) and that is now thirty years ago. Crazy. And just like I said whe I last posted about this record in 2021, I always thought that this was the best vegan straight edge record. I think it's the mix of the chugging guitars and the raw sounding recording, but it sounds really vicious. It still sounds just as good today as it did back then, and I'd still pick this over Earth Crisis every damn time.

Gas Huffer

Another band from the past that I used to listen to a long time ago, and then gave up on, was Gas Huffer. I was listening to them circa 1992 and they are one of many bands I abandoned when I got heavily into straight edge hardcore. But then last year I reacquired a copy of the Mudhoney / Gas Huffer split 7", and it reminded me of the band, and how catchy they were. I ended up downloading the old records that I used to own and I still knew a lot of the words over 30 years later. Funny how that happens huh?

Well, my recent drive to collect Sub Pop records also led me to the Gas Huffer 7" that came out in 1992. I am pretty sure that I originally bought one of these in Virgin Records on Oxford Street in London when it came out, but I sold that a long time ago. I'm also pretty sure that the copy I used to own was on blue vinyl, but the one I picked up this year is green.

This record only has two songs on it, but both are really catchy and a lot of fun. We get 'Hotcakes' on one side, and 'Beer Drinking Cavement From Mars' on the other. You can kinda tell from the cover art that this band is a lot of fun.

I was keen to buy back the albums that I used to own by this band after listening to them, but as seems to be the case with everything these days, it is practically impossible to buy the records for a fair price. I don't believe for a minute that anyone really cares too much about this band in 2024, but try telling that to fools who sell on discogs. However, but a stroke of good fortune, I popped into Celebrated Summer Records in Baltimore earlier this year, and they had two used Gas Huffer albums for $15 each. These were not records I had been previously been familiar with, but there was no way I was going to not buy them. The first, 'One Inch Masters', came out on Epitaph in 1994, which was after I had stupidly given up on the band.

Seems kinda crazy that this band was on Epitaph in 1994. That was the year that Green Day blew up, and Offspring released 'Smash', which was pretty instrumental in making Epitaph the huge success that it is today. Gas HUffer, on the other hand, managed to stay below the radar with this record.

Another fun thing about Gas Huffer was that each of their albums came with a comic book. The band apparently illustrated these themselves, and they are full of lyrics. Some copies seem to be for sale without the comics, which makes me wonder how people manage to separate things from records once they have bought them. I mean, surely you just keep the comic book inside the record sleeve, right? Fortunately the comic was included with this copy I bought.

The second album that I bought was 'The Inhuman Ordeal Of Special Agent Gas Huffer' LP. This one was also released by Epitaph in 1996. I'd also never heard this one, or even been aware it existed.

And thankfully, this one also comes complete with the comic book.

I generally don't like getting more than one album by a band at the same time. That's partly why its taken me a few months to getting around to posting this. I wanted to get around to listening to each properly first. I listened to one for a bit, and then recently started listening to the other. My conclusion is that I was mad to ever give up on this band, because their songs are super catchy and just a lot of fun. For example, one of the songs is about someone having their appendix removed at sea, and then it being thrown overboard. Another is about trying to find out what is inside someone's bag. Total nonsense, but lots of fun.

If you've never heard this band and fancy giving them a chance, I'd suggest simply starting with 'Hotcakes'. It's a pretty good representation of their sound and attitude.

There are 4 more albums that I will need to hunt down. Two that I used to own, and two I had no idea existed. I'm sure that they will come in time.

Live Through This

Almost exactly a year ago I posted about a Hole 7" that I picked up. This was the beginnings of my Sub Pop obsession which has dominated my record buying this year. I really enjoyed the two songs on that 7", and kinda figured that I'd end up buiyng at least one more copy, as there are about ten colours to collect. So here we are and here is another one.

And after liking these songs, I downloaded a couple of their albums, which I have also really enjoyed this year. But I was surprised at how much the albums cost these days. I had always considered that Hole were a second rate band, only really popular because of the obvious link to Nirvana. But I think that these days, in a world where any form of nostalgia is bought and sold at a premium, it seems that Hole records cost quite a lot of money. Well, the colour vinyl copies do. But then I noticed there is a recent repress of the second LP on a nice looking colour vinyl that is for sale at new release price, so I figured that would do. For now at least.

'Live Through This' came out in 1994 and is probably the band's most well known record. Back then I was getting stoked on Chain Of Strength, Outspoken and Judge and feeling that everything else I had previously been into was weak and mainstream. So I would not have cared one bit for this record back then. So it's kinda crazy to think I am listening to this for the first time thirty years after it came out and that I now seem to be into Hole. But there's no denying that this is a really good record. It's definitely a little less aggro than the first album, and has a bit more melody. I'd say this is an 'alternative rock' record, whereas the earlier material is angrier and more 'punk'. But this one is without doubt a more mature and variend record, and one that is far easier to sing along to.