Cave In White Anomalies

The latest addition to my record collection is this here Cave In record, called 'Anomalies Vol 1'. It was released in December 2010 and it has taken me since then to find a white vinyl copy at a decent price ($20). Initially I wasn't going to bother with it because I was under the impression that I had all the songs on it anyway, and because the packaging looked boring. But that was when I was under the impression that all copies were on black vinyl. Then I found out that there were 100 copies on white vinyl, exclusive to Vacation Vinyl (which is Hydrahead's record store in Los Angeles), and upon seeing one of these, with minimal cover and plain white labels, I couldn't help but change my mind and add it to my wants list. And a little over a year and a half later, I finally got one.

So as I was saying, this has a very minimal look. Here's the front cover:

As it turns out, I didn't have the majority of the songs on this already. There's a song from a Japanese version of 'Until Your Heart Stops', a song from the 'Creative Eclipses' recording session, a Bad Brains cover, a Cure cover, a Black Sabbath cover (which is the only song I previously did have), a demo version of a song that was on 'Jupiter', and a Codeine cover.

The back cover is even more minimal:

The insert is a single piece of paper. Looks & feels like it just rolled out of a photocopier.

And this also comes with a Vacation Vinyl postcard, which is kinda cool.

As dumb as it may sound, this is one of the best looking records I have seen for ages. Sometimes less really is more I guess.

Yet More YOT Represses

Not really much to say about these - the latest Youth Of Today repress colours from Revelation.

First up, yet another pressing of 'Can't Close My Eyes', this time on clear vinyl. I didn't think there would be demand enough for another pressing of this one. But I guess there must be enough fools like me willing to buy another copy to make it worthwhile.

Next is 'Break Down The Walls' on blue. I guess after they did it on red it was inevitable that they would then also do it on blue. I wonder where they'll go next though? Perhaps change the sleeve colours to black and yellow? Only time will tell...

Also, not too exciting, but these records are the first to feature the new sticker on the shrink wrap. Making good use of the 'R' in a star, these look way better than the old ones in my opinion.

And finally, 'We're Not In This Alone' on red. This seems like a much more suitable colour choice than white, which was the previous colour. Looks good.

The funny thing is that I wouldn't really class myself as a Youth Of Today collector, but these records now mean that I own a total of 21 YOT LPs. Yes, that's right. Twenty One. Crazy.

Medusa Seven Test

I used to love the band Shudder To Think. They were just so different to every other band on Dischord and, in fact, to every other band I'd ever listened to. I guess at first my thoughts were that they were just weird. And then, when I started buying their records, there was one 7" that stood out as weird to me too. Weird within weird. It was a 7" called 'Medusa Seven' which was put out by a UK label. I got this from a distro and at the time the distro's description said something like 'this 7" is highly sought after in America'. I'm not sure if that was ever true or not, but it sounded good and made me think that I should buy it because if people in the States wanted it, it must be good. Ha! Anyway, that was probably in about 1994. And now, in 2012, I have picked up a test pressing from eBay.

This has a label on one side, which I can only assume is a stock pressing plant label. The other side's label is blank.

This also comes with a piece of paper which looks like the kind of thing that would be sent to radio stations or whoever else might get sent promotional copies. So I can only assume that this is one of those examples of a test doubling up as a promotional record. Anyway, the promo sheet is a nice little piece of history.

And just for completeness, here's a couple of pics of the regular version of the record.

I wonder whether this thing ever was highly sought after in America? Somehow I'm not so sure. But if any Americans did badly want this thing then I imagine I'd probably trade it away as it's not one that keeps me awake with excitement.

A Reason To Believe

Generally it seems that most message boards these days have a special buying / selling / trading section separate from the shit talking section. I guess that's to keep the boards from getting clogged with too much selling type spam. Anyway, I prefer the old style 'mix everything together' type boards. I don't want to have to navigate to two different boards. I don't have time. Thankfully the Livewire Board still keeps it old school. So when I read a post on there a couple of months ago about Reason To Believe, where some dude called Zack Nelson said 'I have a test press of the LP' and left his email address (effectively inviting offers) I decided I would respond. A few weeks later it landed safe and sound.

Reason To Believe 'When Reason Sleeps Demons Dance' LP Test Press on Nemesis Records. I'd seen a picture of a test of this LP before and it had plain labels. This copy came in a regular sleeve and also has the name of the band hand written on the labels in a different style for each side.

Here's a pic of the test next to the regular version of the LP. This is a nice one to have as there was no colour vinyl of this one, so the test is the only 'limited' version of this LP that there is.

As usual, however, the story did not end there. Whilst trying to work out a deal the dude was also kind enough to offer up his Life's Halt 7" with skater sleeve. This is the second most limited version of this 7", being numbered out of 75 copies (there is also another skater sleeve version out of 50 which I do not have). This is one Youngblood Records variant that had eluded me for many years. To be honest, it doesn't come up too often. So I was pleased to add it to the Youngblood collection.

This version comes with a full colour photo insert. Good stuff.

And finally, a surprise freebie. This is an LP by a band called RETALIATE. The band are from Oxnard, CA and started life as a side project for the vocalist of In Control, Zack Nelson. Yup, the same dude who sold me the two records above. He threw this LP in as a free extra.

I've listened to this three times so far. It has some hard riffs and sounds like at least three different bands, although I can't quite seem to put my finger on who. It's pretty good stuff though. Hard. I need to give it a couple more spins I think. But I certainly appreciate the gesture of a free record. Thanks Zack!

Treasure Chest

A couple of not overly exciting 7"s here which are just variations of records I've had for years.

I can't imagine anyone cares about Engine Kid at all in 2012. I have owned this 7" on blue vinyl since forever, but a while ago found out that it also existed on red. I made a note to look out for one. When one popped up on eBay, I knew I'd take it. There was one other bidder though, so clearly there must be one other human out there who still likes this band.

A quick look at the seller's other items and I spotted another variant of another 7" I already own. Dinosaur Jr 'Just Like Heaven' 7" on white. Don't think I've seen this one before. I have it on green, and I've seen red and blue. But not white. This was even cheaper than the Engine Kid 7", surprisingly.

Side B is a really dirty colour. Has some brown splotches on it. It looks really dirty in real life but I don't think the pictures bring it out.

I imagine I'll probably start collecting the other colours of this 7" now that I have two. No sense in owning two. Generally it has to be one or all. No middle ground here.

Deadly Visions Test

Only a couple of weeks ago, fellow blogger J over at Screaming For Records posted up a copy of an Internal Affairs 7". 'Deadly Visions' was the band's second 7" on Malfunction Records and was originally released in 2007. I have a good few Internal Affairs records, but somehow I never picked up a single copy of this 7". What I do remember, however, is that probably two or three years ago I won a copy of it on eBay, but somehow I never ended up getting it. I didn't get ripped off. It was just that I never ended up paying for it. Good job buyers can't get negative feedback else I would have been screwed. Ha!

Well anyhow, a couple of months ago I was surfing eBay and I saw an Internal Affairs 7" test press which was only about two minutes away from ending. So I sat and watched the clock tick, then put in a last second bid, and I was pleased to win it for a pretty low price. It took the seller over a month to mail it out, but eventually it arrived in good shape.

Interestingly, I decided to google this 7" to see if anyone had any cool photos of a full collection, as I don't know how many variations of it even exist. What I found was interesting to say the least. On this weird site (which seems to be some kind of poor man's Vinyl Noize) I found a post about this very same copy that I now own, number 2 of 15. It would appear that this sold on eBay a couple of years ago for $41. I imagine the seller must have been overjoyed at having to pack it up and mail it to me for the paltry sum of $11.50. Ouch.