Jesu 'Infinity' LP

'Infinity' is the new album by Jesu. At least, I think it's an album, although the reason I am unsure is that it's only one song... albeit a forty nine and a half minute long song. However, despite being billed as one song, this is actually like several songs all put together. The tempo and style changes relatively frequently. So really it is like an album, but one which has been all blended together to be enjoyed as one long 'experience'.

Once again, the artwork is of landscape, this time trees against a grey sky. And for some reason this needs a gatefold sleeve:

I don't have much to say on this. I love this band and I love this record. The only fault is that, at nearly 50 minutes long, you need a long time to listen to it. Stopping it halfway through would be missing the point.

If you've never heard this band then I suggest checking them out. This is the perfect soundtrack to desolate & barren landscapes and times when you want to sit around & wonder what the fuck the point of everything is.

http://www.myspace.com/officialjesu

No 'No Control'

Years ago I used to wonder if Epitaph Records ever made colour vinyl. I figured not, since I never saw any, but then I wondered if it was so rare and old that it was just seldom seen. I remember thinking that surely Down By Law's 'Blue' LP just HAD to exist on blue vinyl somewhere. But no. The only colour vinyl they did make was the rare instances where the entire press was on colour, such as the second Rancid LP on double white vinyl 10" (I wonder which genius came up with that stupid format?).

Well anyway, Epitaph recently re-pressed some of their older titles on limited colour vinyl. I'm not sure why, and I'm not sure how they decided which titles to repress, although part of me suspects it is their better sellers, so they could be confident of selling the lot. Each colour pressing is out of 300 copies, and most of the records sold out within a few hours. Unfortunately, I missed the ones I wanted, but as usual my old buddy eBay was there to help me out. I picked up two of the three colour Bad Religion LPs they made - 'How Could Hell Be Any Worse?' on red:

And 'Suffer' on orange:

The one I have had more trouble tracking down is 'No Control' on green, which seems to be selling for more, kinda suggesting that this is their most popular 'early' album, which puzzles me since I thought 'Suffer' was widely acknowledged to be their best moment. Hopefully I can grab myself a copy of 'No Control' soon enough to complete this little set.

Oh yeah, the eBay seller I picked this up from also runs some kinda online store for rare stuff, which might interest some of you fellow collectors. Most of the stuff they carry is toward the more melodic end of the spectrum, but there are a few nice items available for purchase. Check it out:

http://www.rarepunkmusic.com/vinyl1.html.

Jeremy Enigk 'Vale Oso' LP

I've been revisiting the band Sunny Day Real Estate lately, due to all the talk about them on the internerd, brought on by their first two LPs being reissued and the band reforming for a US tour. Then I read that there was some new Jeremy Enigk LP out, which I managed to find for sale at a UK distro.

Nothing too special about the record or packaging. Black vinyl in a regular sleeve. But notice the sticker on the front boasting that the LP "includes free download of entire album".

So I took the record out to find the download code on a sticker on the dust sleeve. Cool. Except I had real trouble downloading it, because it seemed that the URL doesn't actually exist. I was annoyed.

Then I realised something that I have never heard of before - the URL is case sensitive! Try it yourself - type in the URL above, but all in lower case & it won't work. Then change the 'D' of the word 'Download' to upper case and it works. Now, seriously, who ever heard of a case sensitive URL before? Not me for starters. I mean, they're like email addresses - they just CAN'T be case sensitive, because that would be stupid and cause confusion and problems, like it did for me.

Anyway, download problems aside, what's this like? Well, it sounds pretty much like his previous stuff I guess. Dude has a pretty distinctive voice. The main change seems to be in his appearance. These days he's bald and podgy with a beard. Aside from that, this is exactly what you would expect I guess. Those into his previous stuff will like it.

The Lookouts 'Spy Rock Road' LP

Been listening to some of the early Lookout! Records catalog recently, and listening to a couple of their old compilations. One song I really like on there is by a band called THE LOOKOUTS. This band featured the owner of the label, Lawrence Livermore, as well as some fartknocker called Tré Cool (who went on to drum in Green Day). I never really listened to this band back in the day, but after really liking the comp tracks I hit up eBay and bought one of their records - an album called 'Spy Rock Road':

I was really impressed with the condition of this record. A lot of records of this era & age are pretty battered, but this is mint. Also comes with a mint condition fold out poster style lyric sheet:

Condition aside, I'm not that into this record. It seems pretty disappointing compared to the comp tracks. If I could find the mp3s somewhere then no doubt I'd find the time to give it a proper listen.

Iron Age LP - UK Version

I'm not entirely sure why the UK warrants it own pressing of the latest Iron Age LP, but regardless, it has one. I managed to get one of the limited clear vinyl pressing:

The clear vinyl is limited to, and numbered out of, 100 copies. However, my 'number' kinda suggests that there are more than 100 copies out there:

This version also features an artsy print on thick card, similar to the US 2xLP version. And again, like that version, it has a big fold down the middle, which kinda ruins it:

I did order three copies of this, thinking that I could send couple to friends in the US. Yet somehow the label fucked up and only send one copy despite me paying for three, and now they don't seem to be replying to my emails. So if anyone is reading this and thinking about trying to order a copy then my advice would be, quite simply, don't bother.

Crucial Response Order

A few months ago I found out that there was a version of the Brotherhood LP with a limited cover. I just assumed it was some limited version from like 1989 or something when the record came out. And because I had never seen one over the years, I figured it was super rare and would thus be super expensive to acquire. However, recently, Mike bought one direct from the label... so I cruised over to the Crucial Response store and sure enough, it's still available. This version is part of the third press. There were 101 copies with this limited sleeve as a part of the Crucial Response 'Raw Data' series... which seems to be where Crucial Response have made limited, screen-printed covers for some of their releases. Being a cynic, I'm guessing that this idea was probably conceived in order to sell left over records that had been sitting around for a few years. I mean, come on, what kind of idiot would fall for that?

Given that I had taken the time to venture all the way to the Crucial Response store, I figured I might as well stop and have a look around for a while. And by chance I found a few bits to pick up to keep the Brotherhood LP company in transit. First up, the new 12" from Insurance Risk:

This isn't actually a new release, just a 12" compiling both their 7"s on to one handy 12". The first 259 copies are on red vinyl.

Also picked up a green vinyl copy of the first Insurance Risk 7":

Also picked up the same Insurance Risk 7" with a screen-printed cover (part of the same 'Raw Data' series, out of 107 copies):

Then grabbed a couple of Get The Most 7" repressings. One on blue vinyl:

And one on red vinyl:

The Crucial Response website is really impressive. Not only does it have a good discography detailing the pressing info of all their releases, but the whole site is written in both German and English, and you select the language you want by clicking on a little flag. Really clever stuff.

27 / Bug Split 12" Test

So a few weeks ago I was really lucky and found a 27 test press on eBay. Which somehow kicked me into trying to track down more of their tests. One interesting record that they released was a split 12" with an Austrian band called Bug, which was released as a joint effort by two Austrian labels. So I just emailed one of the labels and asked if they wanted to trade - one of their test presses for one of mine. And fortunately for me, they went for it. I was pretty stoked. They only had two left and weren't overly keen to let one go, insisting that I promise to never sell it. Now, of course there's no danger of that. My collection is like a one way street. Stuff comes in but doesn't go out. They even gave me a regular sleeve to keep the thing in. Stoked.

The sleeve on this record is really nice. Not a standard sleeve by any means:

Here's a pic of the test next to the regular version (which is 525 copies on clear pink vinyl):

Great score. Sometimes I even impress myself.

My Luck 'Cleaver' 7"

So there's me thinking I collect Youngblood Records, and I didn't even know this one existed until a couple of weeks ago. My Luck 'Cleaver' 7" on red vinyl.

I looked it up on the Youngblood website and this is the second press of 500. I got this one from the label when it came out. I ordered two copies and got sent two orange copies, each with different colour labels:

To this day I still have no idea how many have red labels and how many yellow labels. Here's an arty picture of the three together for no reason other than I like to take pictures of records:

Yellow Seaweed

I was helping John Pette with a couple of pics for his Sub Pop discography recently. He was putting together a comprehensive Seaweed discography. When he had finished I had a look & it jogged my memory. He had their 2nd 7" listed as being on green vinyl. I emailed him to tell him that I was sure it also existed on yellow vinyl. Pretty much as soon as I emailed him I decided to look around the internet to see if I could find any evidence of its existence. I then managed to stumble across one for sale, sent an email, and then a couple of hours later paid. Simple.

There were only 1500 of these 7"s in total. Previous thinking was that the first 500 were on green and the remaining 1000 were black. But the numbering on this one casts doubt on that theory. This is 1263/1500. So even if this happens to be the first yellow one (which is unlikely) then there are at least 237 yellow copies. I'm guessing there are at least 300. The yellow is definitely rarer than the green. Strange though that the later numbers would be rarer than the early ones. Will we ever know the pressing info of this? Probably not.

A couple of pics showing the difference between the two colours:

If anyone reading this knows anything about this 7", please get in touch.

When I bought this I also picked up the first Velocity Girl LP at the same time. The only Velocity Girl LP I didn't previously have on vinyl.

According to John's site there are four colours of this thing. I'm happy enough to have one. Not my favourite band, but I used to listen to them quite a bit in about '94. I just never got around to picking this one up. Good to finally cross it off the list.

The Thing That Ate Floyd

Nearly two weeks since I last updated this thing. I've got slack. Partly due to other more important things going on right now, and partly because updating this thing is starting to feel like a chore lately. I guess that's my own fault though - my posts have been getting longer, including mp3s and video and long written pieces. So making a post feels like a big effort right now, which puts me off posting and creates a backlog. So I'm going to try to catch up with my posts in the next few days by writing less guff.

I got these records a few weeks ago. A couple of versions of the classic Lookout! Records compilation "The Thing That Ate Floyd" 2 x LP. I put in a couple of pretty low bids on eBay before I went to bed, and then somehow won both. I think they were like $20 each or so.

First, clear vinyl with red & yellow bits around the edge:

Second, a nice solid green vinyl:

Both come with a little booklet giving info about each band and lyrics etc:

Also contains minimum pressing info:

I already have the orange vinyl. Got it a few years ago when I had no idea about the pressing info. So I guess I got lucky.

This is a classic Bay Area punk compilation. It came out in 1988 and contains some early songs by some now quite well known bands, such as Operation Ivy, Neurosis, Crimpshrine, No Use For A Name, as well as a few bands who later put out their own records on Lookout! like Corrupted Morals, Cringer, Isocracy, Mr T Experience, Stikky, etc. I used to listen to quite a lot of this kinda stuff a long time ago, and I'm quite enjoying listening to it all again. Cool.