No Frills

There is pretty much nothing to say about this one. The No Tolerance 'No Remorse, No Tolerance' 7" on Youngblood on black vinyl. I think this is the second press black vinyl as it comes in the sleeve with silver ink on the front.

I don't usually bother with black vinyl unless it's a band for which I am trying to collect every variant of every record. I don't really like black vinyl. But wouldn't you know it, there are two different black pressings of this, and I don't have the other, so that's another one I still need. Yes, that's right, need. Not want.

Inner Earth Inferno

So there I was a few weeks ago surfing eBay when I stumbled across someone selling a load of Ancient VVIsdom records. They had about three different versions of a split 12" with Charles Manson that I didn't have, so I made a point to bid on one and won it with (I think) one bid.

The art work on this thing is pretty rad. It looks great. I especially like how the fire on the cover goes nicely with the vinyl colour.

The back story on this is also pretty cool. Apparently the Ancient VVisdom songs were recorded in a shack in the woods by a lake. The perfect setting for this band. Apparently these two songs were their first recording, and I was told to consider this their demo. The Charles Manson side I have pretty much zero interest in, although they were apparently recorded over the phone in his cell by his then girlfriend.

Unfortuantely, however, despite this thing looking the business and the cool story behind it, it just isn't very good. The AVV songs don't sound too good compared to everything else they've done, and the Manson side is utter garbage. Still, at least it looks nice eh?

I Bet On Sky Yet Again

More variants that I can't say no to... this time it's the US pressing of the latest Dinosaur Jr LP 'I Bet On Sky' on purple vinyl. I didn't realise at first that the US and UK pressings were on different labels and different colours, but when I did realise what was going on I knew I had something to chase.

I picked up the purple vinyl UK pressing of this one back when it came out in late 2012. Here's a photo to show the colour difference between UK purple (left) and US purple (right):

The two sleeves are also slightly different colours too. It stands out with the two next to each other. The UK press on Play It Again Sam just has more colour in the print, whereas the US press on Jagjaguwar is very washed out.

Every time I buy pick up a Dinosaur Jr record I have the same thought - I need more Dinosaur Jr records.

Tin Cans And Solutions

I've been trying to avoid reissues and represses the last couple of years. I think it was 2009 when I realised that a massive chunk of what I had bought was reissued classic LPs that I already owned. I guess when vinyl started to become more popular again, there was more and more demand for certain titles on vinyl, and I assume a lot of people don't care about owning an original pressing. So a lot of labels started repressing or reissuing old records. I just reached a point where I didn't want to spend money on records I already had. So I intentionally stopped. Except for Revelation and Integrity that is.

The other occasional exception, however, is where a reissue is actually the first time something has been put on vinyl. So here are two examples - a couple of FAR albums, both of which were released by a major label in the late 90s. I only got into this band in about 2001, but these two records I must have played every day for like 4 months or so. You know how sometimes you find an album and it is literally the only thing you feel like listening to? Well, I was like that with these two records throughout the spring and summer of 2001. But I spent the whole time listening to them on minidisc (remember those?), recorded from CDs that I bought used on eBay, as there was no vinyl made. Fast Forward to the end of 2013, and these things have finally been released on a proper format.

First up, the band's third album, 'Tin Cans With Strings To You'. This was pressed as a double LP, on two colours. I picked up the yellow vinyl. I'm not sure why they picked yellow. Perhaps because there's some yellow on the front cover, although it's clearly a different shade than the vinyl.

For some reason, the fourth LP, 'Water And Solutions' was pressed only as a single LP. Don't get me wrong, I don't like double LPs as a rule, but I would have thought that these things being reissued together they would have both been treated the same. So to have both in gatefold sleeves, but only one as a double LP seems not quite right. Anyway, at least this one seems to be on a nicer and more suitable colour. The clear blue goes much nicer with the cover.

Nice to have these things on vinyl, finally. The only let down is that 'Water And Solutions' is a bit of a shit job. The first couple of notes from the first song got missed off, so it sounds wrong. Jake also thinks that the pitch sounds off, although I'm not sure about that myself. Still, I don't really need these for the music at this point. I just want them for my record shelf rather than my CD box.

I'm The One

Here we go again with another Descendents 7". This one was released in support of the 'Everything Sucks' LP back in 1997. For some reason though, this 7" was only released in Europe. I have no idea if they were all on blue vinyl or not. But this one seems quite hard to find and doesn't pop up too often. Seems crazy to me given it's an Epitaph 7" and they probably made like 10,000 of them or something.

I got a really good deal on this one. I guess everyone was asleep. In the last few months this has sold for $130 and $79 in the States, and £40 in the UK. I got mine for about £11 on eBay UK. I guess I got lucky because according to popsike this has never sold for as little. I'm happy as I thought I would never get this as I didn't want to pay much for it simply because I perceive it to be some mass produced piece of crap. So it worked out well in the end.