Times Together Test

I was offered this one through a private message on a message board. It's a test press of the first Times Together 7" on Just Another Day Records. Some dude just wrote me and told me he was looking to sell it and asked if I was interested. The price seemed pretty reasonable, so I said yes and about 4 days later it had arrived, all the way from Italy. Impressive stuff.

Visually this isn't too exciting, but it's still cool. The dust sleeve and labels are stamped. Very Bridge Nine-ish.

I think I may have a complete Times Together 7" collection, although that probably isn't the case as I don't think I have a compete collection of anything. I'm sure there's some obscure variant of one of the 7"s that I don't even know about. Always seems to be the case.

Test press count for 2013 is now 35.

Carry On

Crossed another item off my want list recently that has been languishing on there for way too long. This is the white vinyl press of the first Carry On 7", 'Stabbed In The Face' on Jitsu records. I have had a blue vinyl copy for many years. In fact, probably since 1999 or something. But I never had a white one before. It was never a big deal. I mean, it's not a good record really. But just one of those that I felt I needed to cross off the list. Anyway, just like the blue vinyl, this is hand numbered using the biggest, ugliest penmanship I have ever seen on a record.

I don't have a huge Carry On collection or anything, but I would like a copy of the Teamwork 7" with the weed cover. I always thought that was quite a novelty. At this rate I figure I'll probably be picking one up somewhere around 2025.

Perfect Pitch Black Test

Anyone who reads this blog with any degree of regularity may realise by now that I'm a fan of Cave In. Always have been, and ever since Hydrahead brought out their first 7" release I've bought (it seems) two copies of each release. No reason why. But even in the earlier days of collecting, when owning one copy of each record seemed acceptable, I seemed to pick up two copies of each Cave In release. Recently I've picked up more than my fair share of test pressings. And here's another. A test press of their 2005 album 'Perfect Pitch Black'. Unlike a lot of tests, this one comes in a regular sleeve.

This one came out at a weird time for record collecting. This was 2005, when it seemed that some bigger labels who had always supported vinyl seemed to stop supporting vinyl. This album came out on Hydrahead, but for some reason they released this on CD only and licensed the vinyl to a dutch label called Garden Of Exile Records. There were 900 copies pressed on vinyl in total, across two pressings of 500 and 400 respectively. I have no idea how many tests were made, but given the general scarcity of this LP on vinyl at all I'm just happy to have one.

2013 Test press count is now 34.

Quicksand Blues

Back on Record Store Day 2011, I picked up two blue vinyl Quicksand 7"s. One was noticeably much lighter than the other. That was over two years ago and I was happy with having picked up two very different variants with ease. Then, as time went on, I became aware that there was at least one other distinctly different, and much darker, shade of blue out there. I wasn't stressed or particularly bothered about it, and I certainly wasn't going to chase one, but I always knew that if I came across one then I would pick it up. Well, last week I saw one for sale so I grabbed it. Just like two years ago, it was easy and hassle free. So here it is, the dark blue Quicksand 7":

This picture does do it justice. It looks VERY dark blue. But like a lot of records, when held to the light it looks much lighter and much more interesting:

See what I mean? I guess it's the black streaks that make this blue so dark. Anyway, I had to dig my other two copies out and take a photo of the three to show the range of variation:

I don't think there are any significantly different variants, so three is probably where this one ends for me. Probably.

Integrity Catch Up Volume 20

After missing a few variants of a few releases in the past couple of years, I'm constantly playing Integrity catch up. Just when I manage to grab a few and catch up, another release or two will appear with at least 4 versions of each, three of which I will miss. It's pretty much a constant cycle.

Well, 2013 brings us a new Integrity album and this one is called 'Suicide Black Snake'. There are about 9 versions of this one (unfortunately I'm not exxaggerating). I managed to pick up two. The silver one was an A389 pre-order. The white one came from the Holy Terror webstore. I have no idea how many there are of each. But there are at least 7 more versions I need.

It also comes with a massive poster of the cover art. Did I mention that it's massive?

Next, I picked up a grey vinyl copy of the 'Black Heksen Rise' 7". This record is basically the split with Rot In Hell, but without the Rot In Hell songs. This came on three colours, but this is the only version I have, meaning I still need two.

Next, yet another copy of the VValpurgisnacht 7", this time on glow in the dark vinyl with a green Charlie sleeve:

I also picked up a clear green copy. I think in the store it said clear, but I got sent a clear green one, which I already had, so I now have a spare. Bummer. I still need a clear one, and probably some other versions of this given thet there are hundreds of variants out there. It's a sad day when you have about 18 different versions of a 7" and there are still more that you need.

Next up, a test of the Integrity / Gehenna split 7". The test is probably the rarest, so I'm glad to have picked it up, but I still need three more versions of this one.

And finally, a test press of this year's Integrity release made for Record Store Day - the 'Systems Overload' A2 / Orr Remix LP. I have this test and the red vinyl, but I don't have the black vinyl.

Anyway, as this post shows, no matter how many Integrity records I pick up, there are at least the same number that I missed. I wonder if I'll ever be able to catch up... let alone make a dent in the older releases I'm missing.

Two more tests brings the total for the year to 33.

Pink Faith

Sometimes I get steered towards certain records by fellow bloggers. I'm not sure if I would say that this is a good thing or a bad thing, but it's undeniable that now and again I get drawn to things that other people have blogged about. Well, when Nico recently posted up a red vinyl copy of the Faith 'Subject To Change' 12", it just made me want to obtain one for myself. I already have a blue one that I've had for years, but suddenly that wasn't enough. So I started looking out for extras, and it didn't take long to find this pink copy. And hey, everyone knows that pink is the best colour vinyl...

Obviously now that I have a pink and a blue copy, I'll be needing a red one. There's also a clear vinyl version, although they are so rare that I will never own one as I don't want to pay hundreds of dollars. So for now, just a red one would be great, thanks.

Blue City Streets

Today I watched Andy Murray win Wimbledon. I'm not really a tennis fan, but regardless, it was one of the best things I have ever seen. There hasn't been a British winner at Wimbledon for 77 years, but today history changed and it was awesome to watch.

So as well as tennis, it seems Britain is also ahead of the world when it comes to hardcore right now. Violent Reaction, the one man straight edge army from Liverpool, has pretty much taken the world by storm in the past twelve months, and with this album, 'City Streets', it's easy to understand why. It's the perfect mix of punk, hardcore and attitude and there is no doubt that this will be on everyone's best of 2013 lists.

I was lucky enough to get the US pressing on Painkiller on red a few weeks ago, and this week my blue vinyl UK copy turned up too. This was released by Quality Control HQ (who released the Violent Reaction 7", and also the No Tolerance 12" last year) and this blue vinyl version is limited to 100 copies. Just like the No Tolerance 12", this comes in a super glossy sleeve that you could put on your wall and use as a mirror.

This is undoubtedly one of the best UK hardcore records in years. The more I listen to it, the more I want to listen to it. That's pretty much all I can say. Record of the year? Probably, yes. The only problem is that there's a red vinyl UK tour press and I don't have one. If anyone has one, or can get one, and would be into trading, please get in touch.

A Godlike Test Press

This is definitely one of my favourite pick ups of the year so far. One of my favourite records of last year (even though I was late to the party and it came out the year before) was the debut album from Ancient VVisdom, 'A Godlike Inferno'. I listened to it non-stop for weeks and was also fortunate enough to see the band play live. And recently I had an opportunity to pick up this, which is a test press and tour press combined in one handy record.

It's definitely a test press. I can tell that because it has the standard United labels which contains the words 'Test Pressing'.

But it's also a tour press, because it comes in a special, hand numbered dust sleeve. I guess the band must have obtained the test pressings and sold them on tour. Kind of a weird thing to do if you ask me, but hey, what do I know?

Test press count for 2013 is now 31.