Big Chief

Here's another Sub Pop band that I got around to checking out recently. The band is called Big Chief and they were from Ann Arbor, Michigan, active circa 1989-1994. They had a guy named Barry Henssler on vocals, who used to be in a band you may have heard of called Necros. Anyway, I decided to listen to this band online, and cued up their first full length, 'Face'. Two songs in and I knew this was a band that I needed to get into. So of course I went internet shopping and found that their records are, in 2026, quite easy to come by and also quite cheap.

'Face was released by Sub Pop in 1992 as Sub Pop 147. As far as I can tell, this orange vinyl is the rarer version, with the rest of the pressing being black. It's a nice looking colour and matches nicely with the front cover art.

This record really reminds me of that early 90s grunge sound, and is similar to early Mudhoney. Just what I want from an early 90s Sub Pop release.

I also found a very cheap cope of the second album,'Mack Avenue Skullgame - Original Soundtrack'. I didn't think too much about this one before I ordered it. After hearing the first one I just figured that I needed this. The funny thing is that When it came and I checked it out, I realised that this one is very different to the first. With the gift of hindsight, the clue is in the title.

Similar to the first LP, there was only one colour vinyl pressing of this LP, which is this blue. The rest were black. And once again the vinyl colour is a good compliment to the front cover.

Here's what wikipedia has to say about this record:

Produced in Detroit with Al Sutton, it departs from the grunge sound the band were known for, instead reflecting the influence of 1970s Blaxploitation films and their funk soundtracks. Considered a funk album, it was also influenced by Detroit bands like the MC5 and contains a horn section, wah-wah effects and psychedelic blues guitars... The record is conceptual, serving as the soundtrack to a non-existent Blaxploitation murder mystery film projected by the band members which concerns a tragic love triangle between a pimp, a prostitute and a third character.

It's funny, because if I had heard this one first then I probably would have figured that this band is not for me and not checked anything else out. But after enjoying the first LP I had decided that I liked this band, so I gave this one a couple of extra tries, and bizarrely have started to enjoy it.

Pink Sliver II

It was getting on for three years ago that I picked up my first copy of the Nirvana 'Sliver / Dive' 7", which ended up kickstarting an interest in old Sub Pop releases, and which is a journey that I am still on. It also ended up starting me on a road of trying to collect different versions of this Nirvana 7", even though I figured that this was a path that I should probably avoid. The problem is that this record is just too collectible. And to prove my point, here is yet another copy.

So I was chatting to someone else who has a pretty good collection of this one, and it got me to looking around to see if there were any other copies for sale that I could pick up. I ended up with this second pink copy because it was cheap and it is technically different to the one I already have. The difference is quite subtle, although obvious once you understand. The 'second generation' pressings had additional text at the bottom of the label underneath the word 'Nirvana'. This wording relates to the pressing plant that pressed these, and reads 'Made in the U.S.A. by Erika Records (310) 926-8992'. So that's the difference between these two copies. Some small text on a label. Every other aspect of the records and the sleeves are the sane.

In theory my first pink vinyl copy is a first pressing copy, as it does not have the Erika text on the label. However, it comes in a glossy sleeve, which is a second pressing sleeve. It could just be a second pressing copy with first pressing labels. Or a first pressing in a second pressing sleeve. It's probably impossible to know. All I know is that I now also need a clear pink copy with a first pressing sleeve.

Just Lilac Heaven

Anyone who has followed this thing for a while knows that Dinosaur Jr are one of my favourite bands. I've had them in my life since about 1990 and never really grown bored of them. After a bit of a break they got back together (back in 2007 I think) and ever since they have carried on cranking out great records. I didn't bother trying to collect multiple copies of their last LP as there were just way too many versions, but I still have an eye on picking up copies that I don't have of the earlier releases. This lilac copy of the 'Just Like Heaven' 7" appeared for sale this week and as soon as I realised that I didn't have this colour I had to grab it.

There are a few colours of this 7", and also a few colours of the 'Freak Scene' 7" too, and I never remember which colours of each I am missing. But after this arrived and I went back to discogs to remind myself what the deal was, to find out that this now means I have all the colours.

That said, there is a variation of one of the above that I would also like to find. Just like a couple of the Black Flag 7"s, there's a version of the clear red vinyl with a small centre hole. So this collection isn't quite done yet.

Metallica x Walmart

Back in 2023 I started another collection whilst on holiday in Florida. Having never having been interested in buying Metallica records on vinyl, I got sucked into trying to collect the Walmart exclusive pressings of the Metallica albums. I picked up the first five albums, and then also picked up the latest ('72 Seasons'). Even though I was happy at the time, after I got home and did some research it turned out that the rest of their cataloge had also been pressed as Walmart exclusives too, yet for some reason I hadn't seen any of those for sale in the stores I went into.

A year later we went back to Florida and stopped in way too many Walmarts to count on a mission to find the later albums, but none of them were available at all. Yet almost every store had at least one of the first five LPs in the racks. I could only assume that they pressed the records in quantities that aligned with each record's popularity. As far as I can tell, a lot of older Metallica fans are only really interested in the first three records, and the ones from the 90s are the least popular. So this seemed to make sense as to why the later records seemed impossible to find. The diehard fans had bought them when they were released, and then it was deemed unneccesary to press any more.

I then found that a couple of the later records were still available from Walmart, but online only. This meant that I could scoop them for a good price, and then have to potentially resort to picking up the others on discogs or eBay. So over the last two and a half years I started picking them off one at a time. I decded that I would wait to post about them until I had acquired them all. It seemed a good idea at the time, but of course now it means I have a shitload of work to do.

I have decided to post them in the order that they were released, rather than the order I picked them up. I did it the other way round when I picked up the first five, but that was more of an interesting story, whilst this is less so.

'Load' (1996). I had never listened to this record prior to two weeks ago. In my mind it was their worst. It's actually not bad.

'Reload' (1997). I still haven't listened to this record. I'll get to it eventually. Of all the records in the Walmart collection, this is the one that seems the hardest to get. I can only assume they pressed numbers that matched with the perceived demand. So this is probably the least popular, so pressed in the lowest quantity... which then ends up making it the most expensive one. This was the last one I got.

'Garage Inc' (1998). Technically this is an album, although it's a compilation of cover songs. In theory I don't mind bands doing things like this, but this one is 27 songs and over 2 hours long. File under 'unnecessary'. I wonder what people thought of this when it came out?

'St. Anger' (2003). Definitely a candidate for 'worst Metallica record' in most peoples' eyes, although I love it.

'Death Magnetic' (2008). I got really into this record about five years ago. It's definitely a strong record, and the first to feature Rob Trujillo.

'Hardwired To Self Destruct' (2016). I like this one because both of the records are on different shades of orange, one lighter and one darker.

It's rare as hell that I actually finish any collections. But in celebration, I spent some time pulling out the whole set for a couple of pictures.

Above are the record sleeves, all in shrinkwrap with the all important Walmart exclusive hype stickers. And below, the records out of the sleeves:

In total there are 12 albums, and 22 discs in this photo. Here's what's included:

Top Row:
‘Kill ‘Em All‘ – 'Jump In The Fire Engine' vinyl
‘Ride The Lightning‘ – 'Electric Blue' vinyl
‘Master Of Puppets‘ – 'Battery Brick' vinyl
‘...And Justice For All‘ – 2 x 'Dyers Green' vinyl

Middle Row:
‘S/T (Black album)‘ – 2 x 'Some Blacker Marbled' vinyl
‘Load‘ – 2 x 'Poor Twisted Orange' vinyl
‘Reload‘ – 2 x 'Flaming Fuel' vinyl
‘Garage Inc.‘ – 3 x 'Fade To Blue' vinyl

Bottom Row:
‘St. Anger‘ – 2 x 'Some Kind of Orange' vinyl
‘Death Magnetic‘ – 2 x 'Magnetic Silver' vinyl
‘Hardwired… To Self-Destruct’ – 2 x 'Flame Orange' vinyl
‘72 Seasons‘ – 2 x 'Yellow & Black Swirl' vinyl

I Against I

I remember abuot twenty years ago realising that I didn't want to attempt to collect Bad Brains records. Someone on HYE had a huge long list of Bad Brains records, which made me appreciate how many versions of all the records there were, and it felt like something only a madman would get involved with. So it's kinda funny that here I am in 2026 and I have just bought my third Bad Brains record in as many months.

A few weeks ago I picked up a copy of 'Rock For Light' on gold vinyl and then not long after chanced upon a copy of the live LP on green on eBay for cheap. Last week I went to eBay and searched for Bad Brains and spotted a green vinyl copy of 'I Against I' with no bids and three hours to go. Three hours later and I sneaked in a last second bid and I won it as the only bidder.

I got this for what felt like a really good price. I think this was a case of a bad listing, where the lead photo of the record was the front cover only, and the item title misspelled 'vinyl' as 'vynil'. Probably these two factors together meant that fewer people spotted this than otherwise may have. So not a great result for the seller, but it made me very happy. You can't beat a bargain.

I listened to this thinking 'I think this might be my favourite Bad Brains record' and then, around halfway thruogh, I decided that I must have dreamt this, and that it is probably is my least favourite. It starts out really strong, with that awesome intro (helpfully titled 'intro'), but after the third song ('House Of Suffering') it just kinda plods along a bit. It doesn't have anywhere near the energy of the previous records, nor the ones that followed it. Ironically though, its one of the more collectible records with a few different colour vinyl options (see Ralf's post). And whilst I still don't really intend to collect Bad Brains records, I feel that I could make an exception for this one if any other cheap copies fall in front of me.

Blood Music

A couple of years ago I picked up a lot of early Sub Pop 7"s, and it has hugely shaped my listening habits ever since. I have discovered a lot of new bands which are all really old, defunct bands. But it continues to be a fun journey, as I picked up forgotten albums for £10 that clearly nobody really knows or cares about anymore. Which brings me on to my latest find...

One of the 7"s I picked up in 2024 was a two song 7" by Green Magnet School. I wrote 'I've enjoyed this record and would definitely seek out more by this band.' So here I am doing just that, with this copy of their debut LP 'Blood Music'.

First observation is that the front cover is pretty terrible. I mean, not only is the picture a mess, it's also thw wrong shape, so there then ends up being thick black borders down the left and right side. This was also only pressed on black vinyl, with most copies having black labels. Aesthetically, there is not much going on of interest.

There's also an insert with photos of the band members, which I like because they all kinda look like they're in different bands.

The band is described as an 'experimental rock band'. I'm not really sure I agree with the term 'experimental', but it's certainly difficult to pigeonhole. At first I was disappointed by this record. It seemed different to the 7" which vaguely reminded me of Helmet. This was a more challenging listen at first. The songs all felt a bit long, and it sounded a bit like a noisy AmRep style band. But after giving it more of a go, I have really come around to it. It's definitely not an instant hit and takes some time to appreciate it, but now I am at a point where I like it more with each play. It's an interesting record for sure. There's a song where they sound a lot like Placebo, which sounds really different when it kicks in, but which I absolutely love.

The moral of the story is that you shouldn't judge a record by its cover. Oh, and that the 90s was by far the best era for music... but we already knew that, right?

Visions Beyond The Ape Cave

Last year I visited RevHQ and, amongst other things, saw a test press for a new release by a band named Birdlegs. It was just a test press so there was no cover art and no information, and despite searching for the band online I found nothing. After a few months I started to question whether I had imagined the whole thing, or misremembered the band name. And then, out of nowhere, the record was announced and up for order. If nothing else, it was confirmation that I wasn't going mad.

The band features Eric Ozenne on vocal duty. You may know him from The Nerve Agents, Redemption 87 or Unit Pride. It's been a while since he did anything, but his voice still sounds the same here. I guess the vocal sounds so familiar that this just instantly brings to mind those older bands. This isn't dissimilar to any of them.

The first pressing was relatively small, with 210 on 'jade marble' and 440 on 'burgundy marble' (which looks almost brown in this pic). The former was only available from Rev directly, whereas the burgundy one was for distros/stores and so has an extra sticker on the shrinkwrap so that people in record shops have a hope in hell of figuring out what the record is.

On the first couple of plays I wasn't overly excited by this. But after a couple of plays it started to sink its hooks into me, and right now it's on the daily playlist. It's only 16 minutes, and is pretty much a perfect hardcore record. Yes, I know that sounds like a big statement, but that's where I am at with this. Check it out and tell me I'm wrong... but not after only two listens.

Duck And Cover

My recent interest in exploring the SST Records catalog a little further led to someone offering me a compilation LP titled 'Duck & Cover'. I'd not heard of it before, and when I looked it up and realised that it was an album of cover songs, I figured it sounded like a pretty pointless record. But with it being on red vinyl, I kinda wanted it anyway.

There are some big names on here - Hüsker Dü, Meat Puppets, Black Flag, Dinosaur Jr, Minutemen and Descendents. All of their songs have appeared on other records, and I own them all. But there are also a bunch of lesser known SST bands, such as Volcano Suns, Saccharine Trust, Revolution 409, Trotsky Icepick, none of which I had heard before.

There's a press release with this copy, which is from somewhere in the UK (presumably a distributor). What they have written is total pointless garbage, but it's cool to have as it is dated 25th September 1990.

I played this once and it was a strange experience. Half the songs I knew really well, the other half I struggled to get through as they were so awful. As I said earlier, a compilation of cover songs is pretty unnecessary, although still a kinda cool thing to own. I suppose in a way I could say the same about all records in the current day and age...

Janitors Of Tomorrow

The past few years I feel that I have started a few new collections. I never seem to really ever finish any collections, but I never seem to learn. A couple of years ago I picked up some records by Gas Huffer. This was a band that I used to listen to back in about 1992, thanks to learning of them via a split 7" that they did with Mudhoney. After picking up their third and fourth LPs in a shop in America, and then earlier this year I managed to get their fifth LP. I was stoked to find these, all in great condition with the comic books included. But I was having no luck in finding the first and second LPs, which are the two that I used to own back when I was 17.

Recently I realised that this was another collection going nowhere fast, but instead of search for the records in the usual places, I did a couple of google searches and found a copy of the first LP for sale in a record store in Ireland. I guess not everyone sells on discogs. The record mentioned it was in shrinkwrap and had the comic book, and was also a really good price, so I took a chance and place an order.

This LP is titled 'Janitors Of Tomorrow' and was released in 1991 as a split release between two labels (US label Empty Records and German label Musical Tragedies). All copies were on black vinyl.

Every Gas Huffer LP comes with a comic book, and this record is where it started. Interestingly, the comic included with this record is printed completely on flimsy newspaper, whereas all the ones that followed had proper glossy, colour covers.

Gas Huffer were always a fun band with a great sense of humour, and this comicbook includes cut out masks of each band member. I wonder if anyone did actually ever cut any of these out? I hope not.

The human brain is an amazing thing. Having not heard this record for well over 30 years, the songs were immediately familiar and I found myself singing along. Why I ever decided to sell my Gas Huffer records I have no idea. But thankfully I'm now only one away from having them all back again. Just the second LP, 'Integrity, Technology & Service' to find and I'll be happy.

Total Soul Ignition

It's great when my friends turn me onto cool bands. I mean, I can't listen to everything, and so people whose opinion I trust are really helpful in steering me to stuff that I might enjoy. Back in 2023 I picked up the 'Staring At Patterns' 12" by Method Of Doubt thanks to a glowing review from Mike at the time that I just couldn't ignore. And here we are in 2026, and after seeing both Mike and Ralf post about the new 7", 'Total Soul Ignition', I figured I would check it out. After a quick search, I then found a UK distro selling copies and placed an order.

The purple is a second pressing and is out of 300 copies. Seems funny to me that they only realised after selling out of the first pressing that purple might be a suitable colour to press these songs on.

I enjoyed the band's 12" a few years ago, and at the time I remember reading about how they had broken up, so this 7" was unexpected. I have no idea what changed and why they decided to come back, but it's good that they did. These four songs pick up where that last record left off, and I can immediately see why the first press sold out so quickly. This is really good stuff and reminds me of other modern bands who are hardcore without being too hard. There's a quote on the bandcamp page which made me chuckle:

Listeners also enjoyed: Four Walls Falling, Supertouch, the sound of their own voice.

Haha!

Dreamy II

Earlier this year I picked up a Beat Happening LP. I'd never really been interested in the band before but got around to listening to them as a part of my journey into the early Sub Pop catalog. 'Dreamy' was their fourth album from 1991 and it turned out that the turquoise vinyl copy that I picked up was quite rare. I've really enjoyed the LP this year, and not long ago I stumbled across a copy of the more common grey vinyl version for sale at a much lower price than it usually sells for, and I couldn't help but grab it.

This is absolutely top condition, with shrinkwrap intact as well as both stickers still present.

This copy also has a Sub Pop singles club subscription form included. A lot of the 7"s had these things built into the folded covers that were printed on the same glossy paper as they were kinda part of the sleeve. But the ones that came with 12"s were just photocopied pieces of paper. They don't look as good, but seem generally rarer. This one is advertising releases from February to July 1991.

As I mentioned in my last post, this is unlike anything else I have ever listened to, but I'm loving it. I'll definitely get around to investigating more of their catalogue at some point.

Feral Sorrow

I don't often bother with demos. I guess historically most were on cassettes, which is a format I have never really had any interest in, so any time anyone mentioned a demo my brain just said 'no thanks'. But at some point last year, I checked out a demo from a new band called Colossal Rains. There were only three songs, but I was really into it. So when a 12" went up for order earlier this year, I was all in.

The band features a couple of members of Blacklisted doing something a bit different. George Hirsch (vocals in Blacklisted) plays guitar and sings in this band, and Dan Sausages (bass in Blacklisted) plays guitar here. There are also a couple of other dudes, but I'm not really familiar with their work.

This record was released by a label called Memory Music (a label owned by Will Yip), and this colour is called 'Koi Pond' and is out of 100 copies.

This has been my daily go to for the past two weeks or so. It's very slow and brooding stuff, as the title alludes to. I'd say that this is ideal late night listen rather than Summer afternoons. A really interesting record with a lot going on, and well worth checking out. Probably my favourite release of 2026 so far (although it may also be the first one I have actually obtained come to think about it).

This Is A Call

Last week (or possible the week before) I was chatting with Nico and he was telling me about some recent Foo Fighters 7"s that he had picked up. He was enjoying the vinyl colours, saying how they looked different to modern records (probably because they weren't pressed at the place that most records are these days). Well, this reminded me that back when Foo Fighters first appeared on the scene, in 1995, I bought their first release. It was a three song 12" on glow in the dark vinyl. I owned it for a short amount of time and then sold it, probably thinking that it was mainstream rock garbage. Well, a little over ten years ago I actually got really into Foo Fighters and listened to all of their records a lot, although I wasn't really too bothered about trying to collect their records. But I was feeling nostalgic for that first 12" single that I bought back in 1995, and went to discogs to see how much it might cost these days. On average it looked to sell for about £25. I then went to eBay and found a copy for auction with no bids and only a couple of days to go. I watched it and ended up winning it as the only bidder for £10. Good deal.

I definitely remember owning this thirty years ago (!). I distinctly remember the front cover, and the photo on the back cover. But I had no memory of the second and third songs, which (unlike the first song) did not end up on their debut album.

I'm not really planning on picking up any other Foo Fighters records. I just felt like I wanted to correct the mistake I made when I sold this many moons ago, as I think that this is a cool record.

No Strings Attached

Recently I've been checking out some SST Records releases by bands that I hadn't been interested in previously. So here's another one. Idecided to check out Meat Puppets and immediately found this pink vinyl copy of their 'No Strings Attached' double LP. It was pretty cheap, and I was sold on it when I saw that it still had the shrinwrap on with the original 'color vinyl' sticker attached.

Technically this isn't really a Meat Puppets LP. It's more of a compilation of songs from their first six full lengths and their first 12" EP. This was put out in 1990 after the band left SST, and it contains 24 songs. It does seem a slightly weird / pointless release in some ways, but I guess things were different in 1990. I imagine that it was probably designed to be a cheap introduction to the band in the hope that anyone who was into it would then buy seven more records. But I'm just guessing.

A bit like the Minutemen record I got into a few weeks ago, this isn't exactly a punk record. The band are described as being punk mixed with b2country and psychedelic rock, which I think is fair. Generally this is really interesting and definitely has me curious to check out more of their records, although I am slightly put off as they have about 20 albums out. We shall see.

The American Scream

As mentioned a few times recently, I've been spending time trawling through the discographies of some older or longstanding record labels, trying to find things to listen to that I had never heard (or heard of) previously. At some point recently, I ended up perusing the Nemesis Records discography. Back in the early 90s I picked up a lot of their catalogue, but quickly realised that some of it was a bit questionable, so it ceased to be a label that I tried to collect every release by. But still, it seems there are some bits that I overlooked altogether, and included in this category is the Final Conflict 'The American Scream' 7". I had never heard this before, but checked it out online and it was definitely worth my time, so then and out of curiosity I looked to see if I could find one for sale. Immedistely I found a green vinyl copy for sale in the UK. Done. Easy.

The green vinyl is very pale. It's a nice colour, although I'm not sure that I captured it too well in this pic.

So when I went to add this to my collection on discogs, I noticed another copy for sale in the UK, and the description said that the vinyl was more yellow than green. So I couldn't help but grab that too. I mean, the brief bit of online research that I did on this seemed to suggest that all colour copies were on green, and all the photos I could find looked like the same pale green. So I took a chance on the yellowish copy.

Apparently this band formed in 1983, and in some form or other are still going. They don't appear to have released any new music for twenty years, but still play out from time to time. I wonder if they still play any of these songs? Anyone know?

Rock For Live

So I never really wanted to get into collecting Bad Brains records. Until recently, all I had was some 90s repress of the first record (originally a cassette). I remember like twenty or so years ago someone had a Bad Brains collection listed on HYE, and it just went on and on and on. At this point I realised that there were a lot of Bad Brains records, and my overriding thought was 'do not go there'. I have most of their records digitally, and figured that this would be ok, especially as there are so many different pressings of their records. Heck, a lot of them were pressed on different labels to, so it always felt like just too much to get into, and even twenty years ago I felt like I was too late to the game. But all it took recently was Dave Byrd posting a copy of 'Rock For Light' for sale on instagram for my brain to immediately think 'I want that!'... and here we are.

So this is a Caroline Records pressing of 'Rock For Light' on gold vinyl. One of the reasons that I wanted this one is that it has two differnt hype stckers on the intact shrinkwrap. I figured I would be highly unlikely to see another one of these is such pristine condition, so if I was ever going to consider wanting this, it had to be this copy.

To the left is a white 'Limited Edition Colored Vinyl' sticker, and to the right is a sticker which proudly announces 'Remixed & digitally remastered by Ric Ocasek, contains 3 bonus tracks'. Probably if I had seen this for sale back in 1991 when it came out I would avoid this like the plague for being a dirty reissue (actually, that's not quite true, as in 1991 I had never even heard of Bad Brains, but you get the point). But in 2026, this feels like a cool version to own.

Only a few days after receiving this, I did a search on eBay for 'SST colour vinyl' and chanced across this green vinyl copy of the 'Bad Brains Live' LP. It was for sale in the UK and it felt like it would sell for a good price. In the end I won it for a little less than a new release costs these days, so I definitely got a good deal. This was put out by SST Records 1988, although this colour pressing is more likely from the early 90s, when SST rerpessed a lot of their records on colour vinyl.

To me this is a more typical live record. It's ok, but doesn't add enough for me to be likely to revisit it very often.

Interestingly, this live LP was reissued a couple of weeks ago for Record Store Day 2026 on a different label and on a yellow/red swirl vinyl, which actually looks ok. If I wanted one of those (which I don't) then I couldn't get it for less than I paid for this green copy, so this helps reinforce that I got a good deal, which is satisfying.

I'm not sure where to go from here. I think I'll try to get other Bad Brains records, but one copy of each will probably suffice.