Full On Kevin's Mom

I'm particularly stoked to feature this record today as it's one of those records that I thought I would never own. It always seemed so incredibly rare and expensive. Fast forward a few years and it no longer seems as expensive as it once did. I guess I've paid much, much more for other things in recent years, so it's no longer such a big deal. Well, when one came up at a decent price recently, I decided to finally cross it off the wants list.

Soundgarden 'Louder Than Love' LP on A&M Records. There were probably thousands of these things pressed. But the only colour vinyl copies were either red or green vinyl, and these were strictly promotional copies only. They were never on sale to the general public. Not sure who got them exactly. Maybe it was the equivalent of modern hardcore's 'friends press'? But anyway, the green is the rarer colour, with apparently only 250 in existence, making this pretty much THE rarest Soundgarden there is. So, you know, a nice one to have.

Of course, even though obtaining any colour copy of this seemed an impossible find in the past, now that I have a green one I kinda feel obliged to chase a red one. *Sigh*

What Happened To Blue?

Mindset's 'Leave No Doubt' LP was one of my favourite records of last year, so when the label put up a pre-order for two new colours of vinyl, I pulled the trigger. The pressing was to be 250 on yellow and 750 on white/blue mix. Cool.

Well, when the records came back from the plant the numbers and colours got reversed, so that the white/blue mix ended up being the most limited colour out of 250, whereas the yellow ended up being the common colour out of 750. Not really a problem for most I would think, given that most people placing an order who ordered two wouldn't care what the numbers were behind them.

What was slightly puzzling (and disappointing) was that the white/blue mix is basically white. I'm not even sure that Columbo could locate the blue in one of these things. To illustrate what I'm talking about, here's a picture of my white/blue mix next to my plain old white copy.

Study the picture closely and let me know which you think is which.

Rev Catch Up

I'm not sure there are many people still picking up every single one of the Revelation repressings. Besides myself and Geoff, I can't imagine there are more than about two people who are still religiously buying every single colour of every single record that Rev press up each week. I think this ceased to be fun a long time ago, but for one reason or another I can't seem to break the habit. Here's my latest batch...

First, the 7"s. And yes, I'm including the Farside 7" here even though technically it's on Crisis Records.

Somehow I bought two Youth Of Today 7"s on white, but this was not intentional.

Next up, the 12"s. Even though I said that collecting these isn't fun, I am particularly happy with the Civ LP on pink and the Mouthpiece discography on gold. The rest, however, look horrible.

After a quick count, I can now reveal that I own a total of forty thousand pieces of Revelation colour vinyl. And still there are more that I don't have...

Wasted Years

I picked up the latest (i.e. the third) album by OFF! recently. I ordered 'Wasted Years' immediately when it went up for pre-order, not wanting to miss out on the coloured vinyl copies. As the sticker on the shrinkwrap says, this comes on 'limited' red vinyl. I've seen a lot of these on eBay, and I must say that I don't ever recall seeing a black one... which may be something to do with the fact that there are 'only' 2,000 red vinyl copies out there.

I have to be honest, when this finally showed up I was hardly wetting myself with excitement. It looks just like their previous records, and I was pretty confident that I knew exactly what it was going to sound like too.

I was super stoked on this band when they first appeared on the scene, but I think the novelty is starting to wear off a little, for me anyway. I have listened to this album about 4 or 5 times, and I do enjoy it when it's playing. But the problem is that I don't feel myself drawn to playing it too often. I had the same problem with the last album, which I probably played about three times. All in all I think it's because I have their first album, and if you've heard one you've heard 'em all. Sorry.

FP D1C White

I never saw Floorpunch play back in the 90s. I live in the wrong part of the world is my main excuse. But back when they played their final show, in 1999, I was 'friends' with some dude in the States who went to the show. When I say 'friends', we had traded records a few times on the Rev trade board, and we were trying to help each other out where we could. So this dude went to the final Floorpunch show and said he would try to pick me up a record. Unfortunately, he wasn't successful. I still remember his email the day after, telling me how much of a fight it was to get to the merch table.

Fifteen years later, I finally managed to get one. I've had several chances to scoop one in the past, but each time it seemed that there was someone willing to pay more.

In celebration of picking this one up, I got my other colour copies out for a photo:

Funnily enough, I consider myself to have a pretty weak Floorpunch collection. I don't have the NJ/DC press, which is actually the rarest version of this 7" there is. I also don't have the regular black vinyl or the black vinyl in the sleeve with green letters. I feel tempted to start looking for them now.

Sinners & Saints

Believe it or not, at some weird point in life I actually bought a few songs on a format called 'compact disc'. It wasn't just me either. A bunch of other dipsits bought them too. The knock on effect was that other people thought it would be a good idea to make them, and even more incredible still is that some people thought an even better idea would be to ONLY make CDs instead of, say, a useful format.

One such example was an album called 'The Sky Is Falling' by a band called Sinners & Saints. These songs were released by Bridge Nine records on CD only back in 2002. Thankfully, however, B9 realised their mistake some eleven years later and finally released these songs on vinyl. So to show my appreciation, I bought one.

There were only 100 copies on clear vinyl. Unsurprisingly, they are now sold out, but there were also two other colours made which are still available, in case you need a good excuse to bin that CD and move into the 21st century.

In My Blood

I really enjoyed the second Stick Together 7". More than the first 7" in fact. And by far the coolest version out there is this special In My Blood Records version. This is a white vinyl record put out by Triple B Records, with a limited cover made by In My Blood Records (who released some 7" by a band called Floorpunch back in the 90s). The cover was made for This Is Hardcore 2012 and is numbered out of 100 copies. The 7" also has a pretty rad sticker on the paper dust sleeve, although it seems the end got cut off of the band's name on mine.

I got number 48/100, which is cool because it's the same as my 'special' Judge record.

At first I didn't like this second 7". It seemed slower and more bland then the first. But it time it grew on me and I now much prefer it to the first one. Picking this limited version up made me wonder what happened to the LP. I thought it was supposed to come out last year, and it's been quite a while since it was last mentioned. Triple B seems to have gone a bit quiet on the matter too now. I hope it ends up coming out at some point, but at this point I'm not holding my breath. Anyone know anything?

Re-Start Your Heart

I try my best to hold off buying reissues and discographies these days. For most bands and records I like, I have the original pressings, so it feels unnecessary to add records to my collection that are designed for those who weren't lucky enough to be around when the original releases dropped. Sometimes, however, I get sucked in. The repress of Cave In's 'Until Your Heart Stops' made for RSD 2013 was something I was prepared to ignore when it came out. But in the end I eventually ran into some reasonably priced copies and coule resist no longer. I have most coloured vinyl Cave In records, so I figured that I might as well add two more and move one step closer to the illusion of 'completion'.

There are two repress colours for this one. A clear orange with black 'smoke' vinyl, and a white vinyl. I have no idea how many were made of each or which, if any, is rarest.

I now have 5 copies of this album - a first press test press, two first press colours, and two repress colours. I'm almost content. I just want the first press in a back & white tour sleeve and that'll do it. No need for the first press regular black vinyl or the repress black vinyl. Or the repress test press come to that. Unless anyone has them for cheap of course.

Worst Cover Ever?

I was never too fussed about collecting the european pressing of the In My Eyes 'Demo' 7". I got one copy back when it came out, and found the thing to look boring and uninspiring. So no need to own more than one of the things. But back then I never knew that there was a super limited tour version. Recently I decided to pick one up because the price was reasonable, and there are apparently only 40 copies in existence.

This isn't much to look at. Like the regular version, the cover and labels of the record is devoid of pictures or artwork. Instead we are presented with just text. It's unlikely to ever win any prizes for graphic design.

I was looking for info on this online, and I read on Kyle's blog that he used to own #24/40, which obviously suggests that they are numbered. But this one isn't. If anyone out there reading this has one, please let me know if your copy is numbered (and if so where it's numbered). Thanks!

Don't Wait Up III

My Equal Vision copies of the new Bane LP turned up finally. There seemed to be a few people who didn't get their pre-orders, so I feel lucky that mine arrived and were in perfect shape. I got one of each copy that was available in the pre-order:

Usually I'm a big fan of the vinyl colour matching the record cover. So in theory I should like this dark blue vinyl copy. But I don't. It's just a horrible, boring colour.

I also don't really like the yellow vinyl either, for the exact opposite reason - because it seems a stupidly inappropriate colour choice.

Interestingly, these were the only two colours available from EVR. But all of a sudden I see white vinyl copies floating around. And also I have seen a weird (and seemingly top secret) white / blue mix version, which I now know exists but can find no evidence of on the internet at all.

Clearly, this story's far from over...

Column

Another 2014 new release, and (just like the Adult Crash 12" I featured a couple of days ago), this one also comes on clear vinyl. This is the demo by a band called Column, from Seattle. I first read about this band on Chris's blog and was intrigued enough by what he wrote to check the band out. I liked what I heard so decided to order the record. I hoped that if I got my order in quick enough I would get one of the limited to 100 clear vinyl copies... which I obviously did.

As everyone else had already said, this has a very strong Mouthpiece feel to it. There's even a song called 'Can We Know?' which is pretty close to 'Can We Win?', the first song from the first Mouthpiece 7". One of the other songs also reminds me of the Mouthpiece song 'Cinder' too. Not that any of this is a bad thing, by the way.

Already looking forward to what may come next for this band. A full length would be good.

Screaming For A Ninth Change

Back in March I picked up two different coloured represses of Uniform Choice's 'Screaming For Change' LP - one on white, one on blue. About a week after I had ordered them, Jeff who does Start Today records posted a picture of a gold vinyl copy on instagram. Goddamnit, where did that come from? Well, the answer was the same place as the blue and white copies - which was RevHQ. I got my order in quick smart and have now finally received the bloody thing.

So of course, what would any self-respecting collector nerd do once they received their ninth colour vinyl copy of any record? Yep, that's right - lay them on the floor in a square arrangement and snap a photograph. A bit like this:

That's four original pressings and five repressings. I badly need an original grey copy to balance things up. Oh, and a first press with poster would be good too. Someone help urgently.

Adult Crash 'Unfinished Business'

Today I'm featuring a 2014 new release. Yeah, I know, miracles will never cease!

The band is called Adult Crash, and the record is a single sided 12" called 'Unfinished Business'. This was released by a label called Standards Records, which is also the name of a record shop over in San Diego. Both of which are owned by Revelation collector extraordinaire, Colin Tappe. Well, a couple of months ago when he was posting pictures of this thing online, I was curious, and listened to a song or two... which made me badly want to order a 'proper' copy immediately. I was pretty keen to get one of the limited to 100 clear vinyl copies... which I did. Result!

As the sticker on the sleeve says, this features some San Diego dudes from other bands. The singer was in Amenity and House Of Suffering, and Oscar Paz who played bass on this record was also in Kill Holiday and Impel. But this band doesn't really sound anything like those bands.

I think the sticker on the poly sleeve was pretty accurate with the sound. It sounds like SSD vocals over Septic Death guitars. I'm really digging this. My only complaint is that it isn't long enough. Ok, so it's a 12" but these songs would have easily fitted on a 7", as these five songs clock in at around 7 minutes.

I know I don't exactly have my finger on the pulse these days. But trust me on this one. Check it out. Take a trip to the Adult Crash bandcamp and see if you're not hooked after the first ten seconds of 'Tried And True'!

Life On The James Release Show Cover

Revelation aren't always up to date with their pressing info on their discography. Sometimes, especially in recent years, bands make their own covers for their records and the label don't seem to know about it. Such is the case here. The release show version of Down To Nothing's 'Life On The James' LP.

As is often the case, this limited cover is just is a piece of card folded around a regular version of the LP:

What I like about this one is that it looks like the release show version of thee last DTN LP 'The Most'. I'm guessing the same person did the artwork. Shame they didn't also do the artwork for the release show version of the first LP, or there would be a nice little collection going on.

I dug the previous two release show covers out for a group shot. See what I mean about the first one kinda ruining the photo?

I don't think there was any kind of special sleeve for the 'Unbreakable' 12", but if anyone knows differently then please let me know. And ideally, send me one.