Wow. Time really does fly. It was 7 years ago today that I started this blog.
To prove it, and for nostalgia's sake, here's a link to my first post from 28 February 2008. It was a for a Rain On The Parade 7" - First Post
Life has moved on a lot in 7 years, although in many ways everything is still the same. I think this blog gets less readers now than ever judging from the stats, but I'm ok with that. Thanks to anyone who still reads or comments though, it's appreciated.
After partaking in the 'January record a day' thing on instagram, I've been listening to a lot of Two Line Filler. The band were my choice for day 5, for which the category was 'underrated artist'. After putting up a picture of their LP and first 7", it occurred to me that they had other records that I didn't own. So I went to discogs to see what I could get, and found this split 7" with Fadeaway for cheap. The Two Line Filler side has the worst cover of all time, as you can see:
I actually used to own this 7" on black vinyl, but traded it back in about 1999 or so for a Slugfest 7". I thought it was a good trade at the time, and it still seems like a good trade to me in the current climate.
This always seemed like an odd spit to me. Two Line Filler were a poppy punk style band, whilst Fadeaway were the epitome of 90s chugga chugga hardcore. They were from Buffalo and featured Scott Vogel on drums, as well as (I think) some dude from Snapcase doing something else. They had a CD out on Conquer The World Records, and this split 7". They were good. I wish CTW had pressed the album on vinyl as well as CD. No idea why they didn't, as the label did release a lot of vinyl back in those days.
This copy that I have just picked up comes on limited purple vinyl. It's not really visible in the photos above, so I took the obligatory photo of the record with the light behind it to prove that I'm not making it up.
This here represents what is good about the internet. When this came out in the mid 90s, I didn't even know that a purple vinyl copy existed, and even if I did it would have been impossible to find one. But to get this in 2015, all I had to do was go to discogs, click with my mouse a couple of times, pay a trivial amount of money that probably wouldn't even buy me lunch, and a few days later it was in my hands. It feels a lot more fun to buy low cost, forgotten rarities like this than paying big money for something that every man and his dog is chasing. I think I need more cheap gems like this in my life...
2015 is off to a good start. Here's another one of my wants bagged. This version of the Floorpunch 'Division One Champs' 7" is actually THE rarest version of them all. Yes, even rarer than the gold vinyl... although that one sells for 5-10 times as much. This is the DC/NJ pressing, made for a tour back in 1999. It has the same Judge rip off cover as the Euro tour press, but this version has regular labels on the record.
This version is a red stamp inside the sleeve and is numbered out of only 75 copies. This means that there are 13 fewer copies of this version than the gold one. I'm not exactly sure why this one sells for so much less, but I would say that it's because it's not too significantly different from the Euro tour press with Judge sleeve, and it's on black vinyl. If this version were on color wax, and had a cover which was different and unique, then I'm sure this one would go for a hell of a lot more.
It's funny, but now that I have this I'm only missing two variants, which are the regular black vinyl copies, both first and second press. I was never really into collecting regular copies, but I now feel kinda compelled to pick them up...
If truth be told, I've never been the biggest 7 Seconds fan. Some of their stuff is good and some is a bit meh. But there's no denying that the first LP is an absolute classic. And there was one version that I always wanted but figured I would never own. So when one came up for sale recently I jumped at it.
'The Crew' was put out by BYO Records waaaaay back in 1984. At the time I was 9 years old and probably had no interest in music at all. Kinda weird to think that this LP is now over 30 years old.
This version that I've been searching for is on a dark, clear blue vinyl... although it's only really visible when you hold it up to the light. Otherwise it looks almost black, as these photos show. It's a very interesting colour for sure, and is also a very similar colour to the first Youth Of Today LP on Wishingwell. In fact, I'm sure I read somewhere once that the 'Break Down The Walls' layout took a lot of influence from this LP, so perhaps the vinyl itself did too.
Some people have speculated that this colour vinyl pressing was not intentional. Some cheap vinyl from back in the day appears to be clear brown, just because it is super thin, although some people would actually think that it was brown vinyl rather than black. I also have a Lincoln 7" in my collection which is not thin vinyl at all, but when held to the light is dark red in colour. I would guess that the Lincoln 7" is not supposed to be red, but by a similar token, I struggle to believe that this blue vinyl 7 Seconds LP came about by accident. If nothing else, the vinyl colour just so happens to match the cover. So I firmly believe that this was intentional. But regardless, who really cares? It's a great record on a great colour.
