Thursday 1 December 2016

Black Saturday

I went to see Infest last Saturday in my old stomping ground of Leeds. Whilst there I found myself in an actual record store, and you know how it goes... when you find yourself in a physical store holding actual records, there's a law that you can't walk out without taking some with you. And even though I've grown tired on the Revelation repress game this year, I couldn't help but purchase the two releases that they cranked out in celebration of Black Friday.

The first repress was the third (aka worst) LP by Elliott, 'Song In The Air'. This one comes on a yellow with black swirl color vinyl:

The second repress was a green vinyl pressing of the 'Generations' compilation that came out in 2005. This LP was a solid release when it came out, and features a lot of the best bands of the era, although for some reason is a pretty forgettable record. Still, good to see that they finally had the sense to press it on the most natural choice of colour.

And nothing to do with Black Friday, but there was a sale section of the shop, and I found this purple vinyl copy of the Ignite 'Past Our Means' 12" in there. This one was pressed with an additional song on the end (the Bad Brains cover from the split 7" with Good Riddance that Rev also released).

I have mixed thoughts on these things. In the store they somehow stood out as records that I wanted, but then as soon as I got home I felt like I got suckered (again) into wasting more money on three records that I already own. And even though I have said this before, this time I mean it - I'm not sure I can play this game any more.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I fully recognize your feeling of being put to the test with all those represses. In my case all those colours of recent records pressed. Sometimes you get cornered and the only way out is to buy them, but that doesn't break the circle

Mike said...

Wouldn't mind picking up a couple of these that you posted...and I no longer try to keep up with the REV reissue machine.

geoff said...

every month i tell myself im done with the rev represses, and still.... im buying them. when will it end? theres only so much room in my closet for my records. :)

Doug W said...

Something happened to me that changed everything.
My friend's wife was looking at my records in the shelves and said, "You don't have a record collection, you have a distro." It hit hard. What are these represses for? I'm not listening to them. They collect dust. Do I even like music or do I like red, blue, green, clear...
If I like music then why am I not exploring new bands or old ones I have never heard.

Worse still was taking a look in the mirror and asking myself whether I was buying my 20th copy of Break Down the Walls for some misplaced need for recognition. A cool blog post or instagram picture. How many likes I would get. Am I any better than the Kardashians?

It's all very unnerving. It still is as I hit 47 years old.