Saturday 26 July 2014

Survival Assistance

I first saw this Outspoken 'Survival' 7" on split orange & clear vinyl on instagram. I think it was Lins87 who posted a picture of this and caused a mild panic. I mean, what the hell was this and where did it come from? The second I saw it I was trying to find the New Age Records website, but the site had gone. So where did Lins pick this up exactly? Despite putting a comment on his post to ask, he never replied, but in the end it was Mike who figured it out. In the end it was as easy as placing an order in the band's big cartel store.

Looking at the store, that the photo of the 'Light In The Dark' LP on orange vinyl looks kinda familiar, don't ya think?

Friday 25 July 2014

Same Shit. Different Day.

In October last year I went to see The Rival Mob play in London. In twenty something years, it was one of the best shows I have been to. The amount of energy in the room was off the scale. It was a great reminder of why I still love this crap. The only bad thing was that they didn't have the records they were supposed to have. Apparently they had ordered a repress of 'Raw Life' and there were supposed to be 200 copies for their UK weekend jaunt... but there was some kind of mess up and they only got the black vinyl copies before they left the States. Well, that's what Doug Free told me anyway. This of course meant that I had to find a yellow copy online... which I finally did.

They very subtly changed the color of the 'Raw Life' text on the cover from red to orange. I love stuff like this. It's good attention to detail and let's you know which pressing you got... which is obvious if you have a colour vinyl copy, but otherwise wouldn't be if you had black.

I guess people have short term memories and forget about bands if they haven't brought a new record out for a few months. I assume that's how I was able to score this copy for a reasonable price.

Finally... I didn't film this, but here's a link to the show I went to where these should have been for sale. Worth it for the first two songs, which are insane.

Thursday 24 July 2014

Gold Breakdown

Slowly I've been chipping away at the color vinyl Black Flag 7"s. At the end of 2012, I finished collecting the Black Flag color vinyl LPs, and realised that I had next to no 7"s. So I made a list of what I was missing, and started out shopping. I've picked up a few, and here's the latest... 'Nervous Breakdown' on gold.

I'm not exactly sure why, but this gold vinyl and red and white sleeve combination looks great. Definitely one of the nicest looking Flag 7"s I have.

I'd been looking for one of these for a while and never so much as seen one. Then two appeared on eBay at the same time. One appeared listed at $150. The other started at $0.99. I wrote off the expensive one and watched the cheaper one, which I won for $21 in the end. I was happy enough with that.

I only need three more colour Flag 7"s now - 'Six Pack' on both blue and yellow vinyl, and 'Nervous Breakdown' on red vinyl with large hole. If anyone has any leads, get at me.

Wednesday 23 July 2014

Zen Arcade II

It was only two months ago that I picked up my first copy of 'Zen Arcade' by Hüsker Dü. It happened to be on greenish vinyl. Well, guess these things are like buses (you wait ages for one and then two come at once) because shortly afterwards I picked up a clear blue copy too.

The funny thing is, just after I won this one I missed out on a red copy. It was on eBay and I forgot to bid. To make it worse, it ended cheap. Ah well, you know how it is - there's always another day.

Tuesday 22 July 2014

Hated And Proud

It's been so long since I bought these that I can barely remember what the story was. But I felt like I got a good deal. These are three different variants of the Let Down 'Crossed Off' 7" on Dead By 23 Records, in a limited 'Iron Cross' sleeve. No idea how many were made with this sleeve, but I have to say, it does feel slightly extravagant to have three.

So the story... not particularly exciting. These were on eBay. I think the seller listed them all with a starting bid of something silly like $35. And unsurprisingly, not one of them sold. Then they got relisted with a starting bid of $9.99 each, but each carried a buy it now of $35. I figured nobody would bite at the $35, but figured someone would bid an take the price above the minimum. Well, I watched them and bid and won all three for the minimum bids. I paid and almost expected that the seller wouldn't send them to me. But he did. And three months or so later I finally have them.

I really need a test of this 7" by the way. Just in case anyone can help.

Monday 21 July 2014

Blue Monday

What more perfect record to showcase on a Monday than this Blue Monday 'Rewritten' LP with a special 'Sink With Cali' cover. There were 50 of these special covers made way back in 2005. 20 of them contained the green vinyl and 30 the purple vinyl. I wasn't exactly out searching for one of these. I just stumbled across one on eBay and it was listed pretty cheap, so I just figured I'd have it.

I'd seen pictures of this cover before, but until I picked this one up I hadn't realised that the cover was printed on an inside out regular cover. So inside the sleeve you can see the regular artwork:

I hadn't listened to this record for a long time. I'd for gotten how much I liked it. It came out at a weird time and it didn't make a huge impact with me, but it's a solid record for sure. Until I checked the pressing info five minutes ago I'd actually forgotten that Bridge Nine also made a picture disc version of this one. Weird.

Sunday 20 July 2014

Please Die!

Back when American Nightmare was a band, I only really collected one or two copies of most releases. If a band had like ten versions of a record, I would probably pick up one or maybe two and leave it there. So whilst I had their first 7" on red vinyl, I never took it any further. Then of course the prices of their records started going up and up, and even if I had wanted to collect multiple versions of their records, it seemed too expensive to get into. Recently I picked up this blue vinyl copy of the first 7" with the limited 'Please Die' labels, mainly because it was a pretty good price.

This was, I believe, some kind of pre-release version of this 7" that came out on some tour before the pre-orders went live. There were 300, so it's not really that rare.

I kinda feel that I now need to go after a couple more versions of this one. The white vinyl and grey vinyl copies aren't too rare, so I'd like to bag them. Anything else would be a bonus, but is unlikely due to the scarcity factor. We shall see. Anyway, thanks for reading... now, please die!

Saturday 19 July 2014

Everything Still Sucks

Last weekend I received a box containing 80 records, and during the week I moved house. I'm now settled in and can start blogging my way through three months worth of records. I'm gonna try to post every day until I clear the lot...

So I'm starting with a couple of recent-ish Descendents represses. A couple of months ago a purple vinyl copy of 'Everything Sucks' appeared. Then a few weeks after that, an orange pressing surfaced. I was forced to pick up both. They continue the tradition of having a small round sticker in the corner to denote the vinyl colour.

The purple is the usual clear purple that looks black unless you hold it up to a light source:

I saw something somewhere which said that purple was out of 700 and orange out of 300. Not sure I believe it to be honest. And who really cares?

All I need now is the purple vinyl repress of 'ALL' and I can take the ultimate Descendents colour vinyl photo. Still hoping to get one before the year is out...

Tuesday 15 July 2014

Caged Grave

If you read the page on this site titled ‘about this blog’ (link at the top), then you will know that this blog is not about reviews. This is just an online diary of records I pick up. I do get a few emails from various labels or bands asking if I can review their record, or link people to their latest video or whatever. Most of these requests I just delete without replying. As far as I’m concerned, anyone asking me to help with any kind of promotion has completely missed the point, and therefore I can’t be bothered wasting my time to tell them that’s not what I’m about. But once in a blue moon, someone who very much does get this blog will get in touch and ask if they can send me a record. The good thing is that anyone who knows this blog knows what I like, so chances are the record they want to send me is going to be something decent.

A few short weeks ago I received an email from Craigos. Dude lives in Australia and has a band called Caged Grave. He wanted to send me their latest record, a 7" titled 'Gutless'. Well, until he emailed me, I don’t think I had heard his band before, mainly because I don’t actually listen to too many bands via the internet due to being old fashioned. But given he was offering to send me a record at his own expense, I figured I would check it out. If I didn’t like it then I could at least save him a few dollars in postage costs. So I found the Cagedgrave bandcamp, and about thirty seconds later was replying to his email with my address. The noise coming out of my speakers was brutal, and seemed to be was exactly what I needed in my life at that moment in time. So I gave him address and a couple of weeks later a 7” showed up.

I was lucky enough to get sent one of the clear vinyl copies, of which there are only 100.

This comes in a black and white sleeve, and the band logo is stamped on the paper dust sleeve. I'm generally not good at describing bands, but right off the bat when I saw this I was thinking of Mind Eraser. I guess it's the black and whiteness of it, and the font used for the band name.

If you're still wondering what this band sounds like, the back of the sleeve gives you a clue. I mean, ten songs on a 7" is never gonna be some emo prog rock record.

Interestingly, the band describe themselves as 'powerviolence'. That, to me, is a term that I associate with the mid to late 90s bands that played songs for thirty seconds at 100mph with indecipherable grunted vocals, like Spazz or Charles Bronson. Stuff that was recorded badly. Stuff that seemed kinda cool, but was ultimately not easy to listen to. Caged Grave does not fit this description at all, as the songs are well played and recorded, and sound hard as nails. It's as if Caged Grave is the long lost brother of Mind Eraser who just so happens to have emigrated down under, and who phones now and again to shout at you and tell you how much he hates you.

Check out the Caged Grave Bandcamp and see what I'm waffling on about.

PS Thanks, Craigos. I really appreciate you sending me this.

Sunday 13 July 2014

Guitarmageddon

Instagram seems to be more and more important these days. A few weeks ago, several people on my feed put up pictures of an LP called 'Sacrifice Poles'. I had no idea what it was the first couple of times I saw it, but the more it cropped up the more curious I became. So I looked it up, and I was glad I did, because it was something that I previously hadn't known that I needed. If you read this sticker that was on the front of the poly sleeve, you'll understand why.

Being a big Cave In fan, I decided that I needed this ASAP. Unfortunately, the label was already sold out. I guess pressing only 500 meant that they got through them pretty quick. However, I found an eBay seller in the UK who had some, so I got one pretty quickly and easily. I wasn't given a choice of colour, but by chance I got the black vinyl, which is actually the rarer of the two made (200 black, 300 blue).

As you can see, the packaging is pretty minimal on this. I guess it suits the music. At first I found this quite interesting, but then I got bored before I even got to the end of the record. These are instrumental 'songs' that were outtakes of the recording sessions for 'Jupiter'. I can see why most of them never really went anywhere or got used. Having said that, I need to give it a few more chances. Never write anything off prematurely is a lesson I've learnt many times over the years.

Saturday 12 July 2014

Blue Phobia

I first wrote about Mega City Four two years ago when I bought their 'Tranzophobia' LP. I'd got one of their songs stuck in my head, which had appeared from the darkest reaches of my brain, so I bought a record. Then someone commented on the post that the record came on blue vinyl. So I added it to my wants list and started searching. Last week one appeared on eBay, which was the first one I'd seen after looking on there unsuccessfully every week for two and a half years. I bought it right away.

The day after this arrived, one appeared for sale on discogs for half the price. Typical.

I now have a black vinyl copy of this that I don't really need. Anyone want it?

Tuesday 8 July 2014

WNITA Blue Cover

Youth Of Today are one of those bands that I don't really think that I collect. But somehow I now own something like 32 Youth Of Today records. In the early days I remember I wasn't interested in owning any of the European pressings, but then at some point that changed and I decided to try to pick up the coloured pressings. Oh, and then I decided that I wanted one of the We Bite Records copies of 'We're Not In This Alone' because I liked the blue cover it came in. So here we are. I finally picked one up.

The front cover has the same photo as the Caroline Records version with the red cover. But the back of this blue version is completely different to the Caroline version. A weird blotchy logo in yellow and individual photos of the band members which are very different choices to those chosen for the Caroline pressing.

I love how Ray actually looks like the Incredible Hulk on here. I mean, seriously, this could be a photo lifted straight out of a Marvel comic. Interestingly, Porcell looked a bit 'hulkish' on the back cover of the Caroline pressing. Makes me wonder if they were engaged in some kind of 'who can look most like the hulk' contest at the time this was recorded.

The inner sleeve is one of those that doubles up as an insert. It has lyrics on one side and THAT photo on the reverse:

I might get around to taking a photo of my Youth Of Today LPs at some point soon. I have a lot more than I thought I did. Quiet how I amassed them all I'm still unsure.