Drop Dead

Just over a year ago I saw Mind Eraser play live. One of the songs from their set that night was a cover of the song 'Drop Dead' by Siege. I remember talking to Mark about it that night, and saying that I had never heard Siege. Well, a few weeks later I remembered and downloaded some songs, and then about ten months later I decided to buy a record. I grabbed this grey vinyl LP for less than $10.

I think that this 12" reissue (of a CD) may be the only official version of these songs. The songs were pressed on a 7" way back when, but apparently it wasn't an official release... although that doesn't seem to stop people paying big money for it.

I can see why people have always talked this band up. They're in the same vein as Infest, although came before them and are cited as being influential by some pretty big bands. I can see why. It seems crazy to think that these songs were recorded back in 1984 and thirty years later I'm listening to them for the first time. But that's part of the fun of music I guess.

No idea what the pressing info is for this LP. My copy is grey vinyl in a grey sleeve, and I've also seen gold vinyl in a gold sleeve. Not sure which came first or which is rarest, but both look pretty cool. I just went for this one because it was cheap.

Grey Pistachio Ice Cream

One of my many collections that I have been focusing on for the past couple of years is my Cave In collection. I've been a fan of the band since the very early days, and bought one or two colour copies of each release when they came out. But recently I have been going back and picking up any additional colours that I passed on originally.

Back when this 12" originally came out, I picked up a 'green tea frozen yogurt' copy. Somehow five years have passed since then, and I've finally managed to get my hands on one of the 'all natural vanilla pistachio ice cream' copies.

Five years ago I said that I wasn't sure if I liked this record. Today my feelings are still the same. It's funny how some things don't change.

I was a lot more stoked on this grey vinyl, second press copy of the 'Tides Of Tomorrow' 12". Well, it says grey on the shrinkwrap, but it looks a little more like a turquoise to me.

When I received this I started to worry that I'd actually made a mistake and bought a second copy of the green one that I already had. So I got the green one out to compare. Fortunately, the two copies are completely different. It was just my memory that was shot. But once I had the green and grey next to each other, I also pulled out the white one just for the sake of having my three colour copies together.

I kinda feel that I need to make a list of everything I don't have now and make an effort to finish this collection off. Although, having said that, I don't think I have ever finished any collection ever, so why change the habit of a lifetime?

Won't Get The Best Of Me

As I've said many times on here, I used to be ahead of the crowd on a lot of bands a few years ago, but these days I'm generally behind. And here's another example:

Most people were getting pumped by Beware and their Chain Of Strength sound-a-like 7" two years ago when it came out. Me, I finally found the time to listen to them this year. After enjoying the six jams on my ipod for a while, it was time to pick up a physical copy, and I managed to find this second press, green vinyl copy going for a reasonable price. As everyone knows already, this is a pretty awesome 7" and I hope to pick up the purple and red copies at some point.

Remember - you heard it here last, folks.

Just Another Day

The life of a record nerd is never straight forwards. Sometimes you feel compelled to buy something that isn't on your want list just because it's cheap. I actually used to like Holding On, but I don't listen to them much anymore. But seeing their 'Just Another Day' LP on green vinyl for sale for a pathetic $6, I couldn't wait to buy it.

I used to like this band a lot about ten years ago. I loved the album on Bridge Nine. I think I have like three copies of it. Haven't listened to it in a while, probably the same as everyone else. I'm guessing there are probably even fewer people interested in buying Holding On records in 2014 than are listening to them. I'm probably about the only one.

Blue Vinyl Sale?

So here we go again. Another batch of Rev represses on new colours that they haven't made before. Each time I do one of these posts, I wonder how much longer I can keep going at this game. I don't think I actually wanted to buy any of these, or took any joy from receiving them. It has reached a point where I sigh when I order them and I sigh when I receive them. I think the only reason I carry on is because of the illusion of 'completeness'. If I miss out then I won't have a 'complete' Rev color vinyl collection anymore. Plus, I vaguely remember that I almost didn't bother with the 2001 'final' presses when they came out, but with the gift of hindsight I'm glad that I did. That said, this is getting to the point of ridiculousness now. I guess I need to deal with this issue in the near future and decide what matters. There has to be a point where I decide that enough is enough, and I feel I am getting close to it. We shall see.

The main theme this time around seems to be blue vinyl. I can only assume that Rainbo Records (Rev's pressing plant) had large stocks of blue vinyl laying about and decided to offer their customers a discount, e.g. 'Order 2000 blue vinyl records, get 1000 blue vinyl records free' or something similar. How else do you explain someone choosing to press 'Ignaurus' or the Judge discography on blue?

As usual, these are presented in alphabetical order (7"s and then LPs):

The most interesting out of this batch is the Sense Field LP on red. The pressing info says that there were only 145 of these made, which is one of the lowest numbers made for any repress since this whole game began. Unless of course the pressing info has been updated incorrectly and it should be 415 instead of 145.

I think this batch brings me fully up to date with all the represses. I'm never really sure as there seems to be a new one every week, although I don't think there are any that I'm missing. No doubt that will change in the next few days...

Don't Wait Up V

Another strong contender for the record of the year is Bane's fourth (and final) LP 'Don't Wait Up'. I've already posted about this record four times, and had amassed seven copies, including a test press of the German version. Well, I then became aware of three more versions, so started trying to track them down...

First was the US white vinyl pressing on Equal Vision. This was a weird one. EVR sold out of the blue vinyl and yellow vinyl copies at pre-order stage, and there was no mention of any other copies being available from the label. It was listed as being sold out. But then a couple of distributors got copies, and it turned out that these were on white. I grabbed one from Deathwish, along with the Cold World LPs I posted about a couple of days ago.

The next copy is more of a mystery. It all started with a photo that someone posted online. Some kid had a copy with a 'yellow vinyl' sticker on the front, but the record was a blue & white swirl vinyl. The internet gasped and then stood around looking puzzled in a typical 'what the fuck?' moment. Next up I caught a glimpse on instagram of a photo of a sealed copy with a 'blue & white swirl vinyl' sticker on the front, which suggested that this was a legitimate variant rather than a mis-press or transition copy. The race was on to find one. In the end, and as often seems to be the case, I just plain got lucky, and someone offered me one.

So that's nine copies and there are yet more out there. I still need a black vinyl copy of the German pressing, and also an EVR test press. I imagine that one of these will probably be a little easier to find than the other...

Jane Doe Split

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I've always backed Coalesce over Converge. Well, that's true, but that doesn't mean that I don't like Converge. Au contraire. I always liked Converge, although I mainly up to and including what is widely acknowledged to be their greatest record - 'Jane Doe'. I bought two copies of this one back when it came out in 2001, but I always hoped that at some point I could add the most limited version to my collection, and I finally did. It comes on red & orange split vinyl. Apparently there were only 150 made.

I really struggled to get a picture of this where the split was obvious. It's one of those records where the colour is more impressive and interesting in real life. The only way that I could capture it was to hold it up to the light:

I've actually been listening to quite a bit of Converge lately. The funny thing is, at the moment I'm really into the first LP 'Halo In A Haystack'. I remember buying it from Very Distribution when it came out because Very's catalogue said that it sounded like Resurrection. Ha!

Cold World 'How The Gods Chill' LP

Here's another record that will undoubtedly feature in my 'best of the year' list - the new album by Cold World. This is slightly confusingly called 'How The Gods Chill'. The reason it's slightly confusing is because Cold World released a 12" EP about three years ago which was also called 'How The Gods Chill'. I mean, why would any band recycle the name of a record when the two records didn't even have any songs in common? Anyway, aside from that small gitch, this is a damn solid record.

Judging from the pictures on the sleeve, it seems that how the gods chill is by walking their dogs on the train tracks and sitting in puddles:

... and by putting water pistols in their mouths:

There are four colours of this thing out there, and I managed to bag three of them - blue, clear and white:

The pressing info on this thing is pretty crazy. 300 on opaque blue, 720 on clear and a whopping 3136 copies on white vinyl. Also, not pictured (because I don't have one) is a clear blue of which there are 328 copies. So in total across the four colours, there are 4484 copies of this LP. Now I don't know about you, but these seem like pretty high numbers to me, and really shows the popularity of vinyl in the current day. Pretty cool huh?

Give Them Tests

I've always loved Coalesce. I remember in the mid 90s when I got into them, and not long after Converge appeared and the two did a split 7" together. It seemed like the hardcore world was being dominated by these two powerhouse bands with names starting with a 'C'. I decided there and then that if someone pushed me to pick a side, I was backing Coalesce. And nineteen or so years later, I'm still backing them.

Back in 2011, No Sleep Records re-pressed the first album, 'Give Them Rope', as a double LP. It contained two different mixes of the album on two seperate records - the first contained the original mix of the album as released by Edison Recordings back in 1997, and the second contained the re-mixed version that was released by No Idea Records in 2004. I didn't bother with this when it came out because I felt that I could live without another reissue. But I recently spotted a test press going for cheap on eBay, so I placed a sneaky bid and won it. It comes in a nice sleeve with a large Coalesce logo screened on the back and is numbered out of 20 copies:

This is now the second Coalesce record for which I own only test press and not a regular copy. Sometimes I think it would be cool to ONLY buy test pressings and sell everything that isn't a test press. That would be some next level collecting right there.

Angel Dust 'A.D.'

Angel Dust's 'A.D.' LP is definitely a strong contender for the record of the year in my book. I wrote a comment on Mike's blog a couple of months ago about this record. In case you don't read it, here's what I wrote:

Bought everything React! put out, up to a point. Lost interest. Completely stopped buying React! releases. Decided to check out the batch of releases that came out a year or so ago. WarXGames, Caught In A Crowd and Angel Du$t. Liked CIAC, wasn't keen on WarXGames, and thought Angel Du$t was one of the worst things I had ever heard. Nearly a month ago I saw Judge play. At the end of the night I was given a flyer for a show the following week, being Turnstile & Angel Du$t. Decided to download the Angel Du$t new LP to check out before the show. Got addicted to the Angel Du$t LP and couldn't stop playing it. Played it like 4 times a day before the show, to the point where I probably knew the songs better than anyone else at the show. Wanted to go down the front and sing along, but felt too old so stood back. Still can't stop playing the album. Know all the words. Got a clear one coming, badly want a white one, would give my left arm for a pink.

Well, fortunately for me I didn't have to give my left arm for a pink one. Instead, I had to give three records to Willem in trade for a spare copy that he had. Man, I love pink vinyl, and it seems especially fitting here with the pink cover of this album. There were 200 copies on pink, making this the rarest colour pressing of this record.

There were also 400 White vinyl copies, available to order from React! Records. I actually missed the white one when it was up for sale as I thought at that point I didn't actually like Angel Dust, so I had to buy this one on discogs.

Clear vinyl was the Reaper Records exclusive colour. There were also 400 copies of this one. It seems that the Reaper copies didn't see as fast as the React! copies as I was able to buy this one direct from the label.

One of my copies (I think it was the one from Reaper) came with this promo shot of the band. I haven't actually seen 'Iron Man 3' but this makes me want to watch it.

So here are all three copies together. The observant among you may notice the severe absence of a test press and release show copy. One day... maybe.

War Zone Trade Of The Century

So a couple of weeks ago I posted up an 'aborted' copy of the War Zone 'Lower East Side Crew e.p.' that I'd picked up. At the end of the post I mentioned that, after owning it for one week, I was sending it off to someone as part of a trade. Well, my side of the deal came in this week. So for anyone who was keen to see what I traded it for, here's the answer...

I traded with someone who had been looking for the aborted press for many years. Someone who has an incredible Revelation collection (which makes mine look amateur) and who just happened to have doubles of two of the most elusive War Zone 7"s out there. So, rather fittingly, I traded my War Zone 7" for two War Zone 7"s...

First up is a third press copy on green vinyl, of which only 200 were made.

The second is the fourth press on clear vinyl. There were apparently 300 of these made. According to the Rev discography, 150 of these were given to the band without sleeves, whilst the rest went nowhere and still reside at RevHQ, apart from a few that got given away over the years. So even though there are more clear than green, the clear is way harder to find.

I actually used to own a clear vinyl copy, but stupidly traded it away in 1997. I've never owned a green copy though. To say I am stoked with this trade would be a huge understatement. I've wanted both of these for so long that it's ridiculous. To pick them up in one go is the stuff of dreams. Here's a couple of pics of the two together, just because I can:

It's funny, but I always felt that my War Zone 7" collection was embarrassing. Well, not any more. It just hit a respectable level. I figure I'll never own another aborted press, and I'm fine with that, but I would like a first press copy at some point. Hopefully I'll find one in less than the 17 years it took me to replace my lost clear copy.

Stone Dagger

One of my top 3 favourite records from last year was the Magic Circle LP - Sabbath style doom from some Boston Straight Edge superstars. Well, earlier this year I heard that pretty much the same dudes had recorded more songs in a similar vein, this time going by the name Stone Dagger. A two song cassette came out last year, but the rumour was that it was being pressed on to vinyl. Seeing as I don't believe in tapes, I decided to wait for the vinyl version. As is always the case with these Boston bands, I missed out on the first press because I was too slow, but I grabbed a second press as soon as it appeared.

I love the minimal packaging on this one. Basic artwork and a bunch of text on the flipside. I also love the colour of the cover, although I can't seem to get it to look the same in the photos as it is in real life (it's a nice bright pink). It sounds kinda like Magic Circle, but sped up a bit. I don't know metal genres or bands at all, so can't really describe what (or who) it sounds like, but what I do know is that this is one of my favourite records of the year. If only there were more than two songs!

RSD 2014... Only 6 Months Later

Six months after Record Store Day happened, I'm finally posting the last of my haul. I only received these items three months after the day, but it's taken me an additional three months to get around to posting the last of my haul (the other stuff was included up in other posts).

The first thing I'm posting today is The Fix double 7" reissue. Clearly a lot of time and effort was put into this. It comes in a gatefold PVC wallet with a sticker wrapped around to seal it, which is numbered out of 1,000 copies.

I didn't mind slicing through the label so that I could open this thing up. As you can see, this features both of The Fix 7"s reproduced exactly as per the original pressings. The label is proud to boast that no text has been altered.

Firstly, the 'Vengeance / In This Town' 7". There were only 200 copies of this thing made originally, and it remains one of the most rare and expensive hardcore records there is. An original will set you back anywhere between $3,000 - $6,000 depending on condition. So a repress is the only way that a lot of people are ever going to own this, me included.

The second 7" is the 'Jan's Rooms' 7". There were 1,000 of the original copies of this, so it's easier to find than the first 7", but it's still a $300-$500 record. So again, a repress is quite welcome.

The original of this one came with one of two different inserts - a white one with typed lyrics, and a bigger, yellow one with spray painted centre. Rather than go for one or the other, the reissue gives you both, which I think is a pretty nice touch.

Overall this is one of the best reissue packages I have ever seen. I really like that they have recreated the originals so closely, but doubling the two records up into one pack was a real stroke of genius. I think it works really well. Clearly, everyone else must have thought the same as this thing sold out pretty much instantly and has sold for a fair price itself over the past few months.

Next up, another RSD reissue, although this one seemed like an odd choice to me - the Up Front 'Spirit' LP on red vinyl. Do people really care about Up Front in 2014? I mean, don't get me wrong, I've had a copy of this LP for years, but I just don't think that it's one of the classics that everyone has and loves like, say, Judge or Turning POint. Still, the artwork is rad and it IS a good LP, so I'll gladly take one. I just find it weird that someone picked this one to press 700 copies of in 2014 is all.

Picking this up reminds me that I never did get around to collecting all the different pressings of this one. All I have is a black vinyl first press. I used to have the blue and white vinyl copies but I traded both away at different points in the past. I really should try to pick them back up again.

The next one is another weird one, but for a different reason. This is a split 7" between Sunny Day Real Estate and Circa Survive. I only picked it up for the SDRE side, I've never heard Circa Survive to be honest and I am not really fussed about listening to their side of this record.

I was interested to hear this as it is a new SDRE song, but after hearing it I felt disappointed. I guess I shouldn't have let me expectations build. I mean, clearly it was never going to touch 'Diary' or the pink record. I've seen this on clear vinyl as well as this maroon colour, although I have no idea which is rarer or if there are other colours.

Finally, another reissue of a rare hardcore classic. This repress of The Dicks 'hate The Police' was given to me for spending $100 in a store on RSD... which I didn't do, but someone else did on my behalf.

Again, the original pressing of this record is a very expensive record if you can find one. You'd need at least $500 to bag one of these, so a repress is going to be more than good enough for a lot of people. Even more so if it's free. There were different colours pressed of this but again I'm not sure what the deal is. But if anyone wants this yellow one then I'd be down to trade or sell it.