Hydrahead Are Faggots

Recently someone from Cave In was selling some records on eBay as a benefit to help some dude whose studio had been wrecked due to flood damage. I stumbled across the auction on eBay and immediately had my eye on some of the test pressings on offer. There were three I wanted badly but the prices were high. So I sent the seller a message asking if we could maybe work out a deal if I bought three records. I sent the message and then went back to view the item. But during the time it had taken me to write the message, all of the records had sold. Fuck. I was gutted. Some dude somewhere must have dropped about a thousand dollars and bought most of the records using the massive buy it now options. Damn me for trying to save money!

Then, coincidentally, a couple of weeks later, a completely different dude was selling more Cave In tests on the bay. I bid on a couple but got outbid by a dollar or two. And given the amounts I bid, I only bid on two of the three he was selling... and then, wouldn't you know it, the one I didn't bid on went for way less than the others! So I won none out of three. After having never seen any of these Cave In tests for sale before, I'd just missed out on some TWICE. I figured it would be a longass time until I had another opportunity. I was again gutted.

However, the next day I got an eBay email to tell me that one of the tests had been re-listed. I clicked the link to the re-listed item but there was nothing there. It said the item did not exist. So I emailed the seller to ask whether the record was available or not as it was confusing. He said he still had it as the buyer had flaked. That was all I needed. I was in. We then exchanged several messages where I discovered that the dude had several other Cave In tests, and in the end a pretty major deal had been agreed. Oh yeah, and I was pretty damn pleased.

So here's the test that somebody flaked on - 'Tides Of Tomorrow'. As you can see, this one comes in a plain paper dust sleeve, although it is numbered, this one being 1/23.

A pretty cool score. But the next test is the big one. The one I wanted more than any other. I missed it when the band auctioned it, but when I found out this other dude had one, I wasn't going to miss it a second time. This is a test press of what most consider to be the band's finest moment, 'Jupiter'. As someone I know recently said, a truly timeless record.

I could write a thousand words about this record. I won't, but I could. When it came out it was one of those records that I could not tire of. I wanted to listen to nothing else. I played it at least three times a day for several weeks. I remember as if it were yesterday. It came out in summer 2000, but I didn't get it until about September (I think that was because it only came out on CD initially. I waited three months for the vinyl and then just gave in & bought the CD because I couldn't wait any longer to hear it). What I remember most is listening to it in the evenings as I walked to the library to study, and then on the way home again at about 11 o'clock. These were the dark and cold October & November nights. Always a hard time of year, but this in itself was a hard year as I had started professional exams and hadn't long broken up with my long term girlfriend. I guess looking back it was a pretty lonely time. I was spending most of my time alone and I didn't have time to do anything but go to work in the day time and then go to the library to study in the evening. I needed motivation and without wanting to sound corny, this album gave it to me and for three months it was pretty much my best friend.

I haven't played the actual vinyl since I bought it. So when I got this test and read the matrix it made me laugh. What does it say? Well, I used the matrix as the title of this post. Brilliant huh?