Bold on Pink

So this thing has been on my wants list forever. I put it on there years back when I learnt that it existed, but I have never really seriously gone after one. It's rare as hell anyway, so rarely pops up for sale. But every time it did materialise, the price seemed to be too high, and at a level I considered ridiculous. But as I have got older, this has been the one Revelation variant that I have grown more and more intent on owning. I actually thought I would never get one, but this year I have decided that I need to make a big dent in my want list, so when one appeared for sale at the start of the year, I decided to make a serious play for it. A fierce auction ensued, and I don't want to go into the detail, but let's just say that it went worked out well in the end, and after a nervous couple of weeks waiting for the post office to get their asses in gear, it finally showed up in great shape.

In case you're not familiar with the story on this one, here's what the Rev discography has to say on the matter:

1st press : 3900 black vinyl, 1000 orange vinyl, 60 pink vinyl, orange/pink mixed vinyl
The color vinyl was suppose to be maroon, to match the cover, but the pressing plant couldn't mix the color properly and came up with pink. After pressing a number of the pink they stopped and tried remixing the color, this time coming up with orange. To make life easier Jordan just had them do the 1000 on orange so the mix was created when changing from pink to orange without cleaning the presses. The actual invoice states 60 on pink and makes no mention of the mix, so how many of the pure pink versus how many of the orange pink mix exist is not known, but it is safe to say that that there are more than 10 of the mix as was originally believed. What is more, did the mix of colors count as orange or pink on the invoice? So are there 60 pure pink and a number of the mix color, or are there a even fewer pure pink and a large number of mixed? To add insult to injury, the mix as been referred to as swirl when actually the pure pink, mix, and orange are all technically swirls. The only way to tell is by comparing colors.

I've had an orange copy of this thing for 20+ years now, so I pulled it out for comparison. It really does highlight the colour difference.

With this, the Sick Of It All 7" first press and red vinyl, and the War Zone 7"s on green and clear, my early Rev collection has moved up a notch in the last couple of months. The only area that still needs work is my yellow GB 7" collection, which is weak. If anyone happens to be looking to unload a light yellow or War Zone b-side label copy then hit me up.

4th and 12

It wasn't too long ago that I added two Sick Of It All 'S/T' 7"s to my collection. In fact, it was only last month. I picked up first and second press copies. Well, this brought me close to 'completion' on this record, so when I saw this fourth press copy on eBay UK, I figured it would be a good chance to take another step closer. I thought I had picked one of these up a few years ago, but the copy I got back then turned out to be a bootleg.

The funny thing about this one was that I got the eBay reminder on my phone as I walking towards the Mindset show a couple of weeks ago. By the time I got to the show there was about two minutes left. I paid into the show and then immediately put in a bid on this record with about 20 seconds to go... and won.

There's nothing particularly sexy about this pressing of the record. In many ways, this is the bog standard edition. Black vinyl, so stamps or numbering. Just 2000 copies on black vinyl. The Rev discography mentions that there are two different sleeves however, with one having catalogue and ordering info printed inside the sleeve. Mine, however, has nothing inside the sleeve.

What makes this pressing different from the previous is the cover - the photo is more zoomed in. Here it is next to the first press (first press on the left, fourth press on the right):

The reason I called this post '4th and 12' is simply because this fourth press copy is the 12th copy of this record in my collection. It would probably have been a good opportunity to take a collection photo, but on this occasion I simply couldn't be bothered. Sorry.

Tristessa

When I picked up the Soundgarden 'Room A Thousand Years Wide' 7", I also started thinking about what other Sub Pop releases I wanted that I didn't have. Not the BIG ones that would cost a small fortune, but just some of the releases that I used to want years back but thought were too expensive. One of them was the Smashing Pumpkins 7" on pink vinyl. And wouldn't you know it, I was able to go straight to discogs and grab one for what these days feels like a reasonable price.

I was never a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan back in the day, but I always wanted this 7". I always wanted to own the Sub Pop 7"s that were by the 'bigger' bands that weren't really on the label. Sub Pop used to get bands from other labels to do a 7" as part of their singles club. I picked up a few over the years, but this one always seemed too expensive to go after. But, as with a lot of the Sub Pop catalogue, the prices haven't moved in years. So it's now affordable.

Unfortunately this wasn't even on my wants list, so I can't cross it off. It was on the secondary wants list that exists only in my head... aong with loads of other stuff. One day I will get around to adding them to my actual real life wants list.

Metal Circus

So I started collecting colour vinyl Hüsker Dü records a couple of years ago. When I started out, the one I wanted the most was the 'Metal Circus' EP. The opening song on this record is 'Real World', which the 15 year old me fell in love with when I first heard it featured in Jason Lee's section in 'Video Days', which was the first Blind Skateboards video. It was the second song in Jason Lee's section, and I loved how noisy and raw it sounded. To me, it was the perfect soundtrack to the skating.

I borrowed a Hüsker Dü album a couple of years later, but the mistake I made was that I borrowed one of their later albums, which was much softer and more melodic than the noisy, hardcore sound of 'Real World' EP. Well, I know that now, but back then I had no clue and just assumed that 'Real World' was an anomaly and the band was dull. So I'm glad I gave them a second chance later in life and realised the error in my 17 year old judgement.

I knew this came on grey vinyl, and it has proved quite a tough find. The only thing that is slightly annoying is that I have no idea what the deal is with this record. I'm not sure if this was a 90s SST colour vinyl press, or a recent repress from some point in the last 3 or 4 years. I literally have no clue whatsoever. If I had to guess I would say it was made in the last few years because it looks and feels too new to be 20 years old. Plus it doesn't have the 90s 'color vinyl' sticker on the shrink. So I'm guessing at a 2011 ish repress. But it really is just a guess. Anyone know for sure?

Mindset Sunday

So last Sunday I got off my arse and went to a show. It's not often I can be bothered these days, but the line up was looking too good to ignore. Check the flyer:

The show was pretty cool. I was hesitant at first as I was sick with the flu and had pretty much lost my voice, and also I was worried that I would feel old. But it turned out pretty cool. A decent spread of ages, and I saw a few people I knew to chat to, plus I met a couple of people I'd never met before, including Ev from React! Records. All in all a good day. And of course, there were records on sale...

The first record that I picked up was the debut 7" from Arms Race, which is a newish UK band featuring dudes from other bands. The blue wax had sold out, so I grabbed the black copy.

I wish I could tell you what this sounds like, but I've had a busy week and not had the chance to listen to it yet.

I also found a second press, pink vinyl copy of the debut LP by The Flex. I missed this last year when it came out. I think the band's three week US tour with Violent Reaction probably helped build the hype.

The only other thing I grabbed was this green vinyl Integrity 'VValpurgisnacht' 7".

This was the third variant of the fifth pressing that I was missing. Here are the three together - green, glow in the dark and clear.

The only disappointment of the night was that Praise didn't have the tour copies of their LP left. But they were awesome live. Their LP is still in heavy rotation and I'm really glad that I made the effort to go see them despite feeling like shit.

Year Of The Wants List

Seventeen days into 2015 and I'm finally getting around to kicking off the year's blogging campaign. There was a thread on the Rev Collectors board about wants lists for 2015, and it got me to looking at my wants list, trying to figure out what I should try to pick up this year as a priority (if I get chance that is), and I realised that a significant chunk of my list has been there for a few years. Some of them pop up quite regularly, but I never grab them because, most of the time, I'm waiting to get one at a cheap price, or because I have my eye on something else instead. As a result, my list rarely reduces. So I have made a decision that 2015 is going to be the year of the want list. I'm going to make a conscious effort to cross as many things off my want list as possible. I mean, let's be honest, most of the stuff on it isn't even that hard to find really.

With this new goal in mind, I went straight to discogs and eBay and started seeing if there was anything that I could bag right away. I found this Soundgarden Sub Pop 7". It's not overly rare - there are 5000 copies in total, but I wanted a purple one, of which there were 'only' 1500. I've watched many over the years and not bought them because I believed I would get one cheaper eventually. In the end I just decided to pay the going rate to cross it off the list.

Like a lot of Sub Pop releases, the price on this hasn't really moved at all in the past twenty years or so. It bobs up and down a little depending on who wants one in any particular week, but generally this thing is still trading hands at the price I first saw it for sale for back in the early 90s. Which of course means that, in real terms, it has got cheaper.

Fortunately, this copy still has the Sub Pop Singles Club form attached. I love that these things are attached to the sleeve rather than just inserted on a separate piece of paper. It really helps to emphasise the age and historic significance of the label and bands.

So that's one item off the wants list, and I'm just warming up. I don't really have a target for the year. It'll just be interesting to see what I can achieve with a bit of focus.