A Day In June

A couple of months ago I posted a Gameface test press, and said this at the end:

...there are a couple of other releases that I could realistically aim to find in the fullness of time, so fingers crossed...

And here, by coincidence, is one of them - a test press of the 'Day In June' 7":

This 7" came out on Dr. Strange Records back in 1995. I've owned my regular copy since then. So 22 years later it's cool to add the test to the collection. It didn't come in a sleeve, so here's the test next to the sleeve just for fun.

That's now 5 Gameface tests I own. The chances of picking up any more seem slim. But never say never...

Lost Time

Is it ok to still be collecting records from the 90s? I'm not sure why in 2017 I decided that it would be cool to own a third copy of this Pushed Too Far 7", but nonetheless, that is what I decided.

This version is some tour press, numbered out of 100 copies on the back cover.

It's funny, but I could have sworn that I took a photo of this with my other two copies. But as I come to write this post, I can't seem to find that picture. Maybe I imagined it? Ah well. Never mind.

Words...

It's odd how, as time moves on, I care more about things that I didn't care for at all a few years ago. Take this here repress copy of the classic 'Words To Live By, Words To Die For' compilation 7" on red vinyl for example:

This is the second press of this comp, which apparently came out in 1994. The first press was released in 1991 and came on both yellow and also clear vinyl in a photocopied sleeve. I always thought that the repress, in this glossy sleeve featuring different artwork, looked inferior and was ultimately not something that I needed to own.

I guess sometimes I can switch my opinion based on a low price. So I saw this for sale and my thought process changed from 'no need to own that' to 'might as well buy that for that price'. If nothing else though, it was a good excuse to listen to this again and attempt to pick a favourite song. And I still think it's the Drift Again song, which I imagine is not the popular choice. Right?

True Gold

Back in January, I picked up the debut 7" by True Vision released by Quality Control HQ in the UK. Featuring the singer of Violent Reaction on drums, this is a blistering hardcore 7", musically sitting somewhere between early Sick Of It All and Youth Of Today. So even after picking up the blue vinyl UK pressing, I couldn't resist also picking up the gold vinyl US pressing on Painkiller.

Just like the Arms Race 7" that Painkiller and Quality Control HQ both also released, the US and UK pressings of this 7" have the same cover art, but are printed in different colours. I have to say, I do think that the US version, with the black cardstock and gold ink, looks the nicer of the two.

It was the start of the year when this came out, so I thought I'd try to find some information on whether there is a full length in the pipeline. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything. I really hope that there is one coming though. This band is too good to stop after just one 7".

Hypercaffium Spazzinate Part 2

So almost exactly a year ago I posted on here 5 copies of the Descendents 'Hypercaffium Spazzinate' LP. Five copies, five pretty boring colours. Here are two more that are a little more interesting.

First up, the clear green. I struggle to remember, but I think that this was the US pre-order colour. It's a nice deep clear green... although the photo isn't great. It was shot with my old phone.

And this next copy is the Hot Topic exclusive colour. It's a clear, light blue. I think some people refer to it as 'coke bottle clear', although I can safely say that I have never seen a coke bottle this blue in all of my life. But hey.

What this post shows quite well is that my new phone camera is about ten times better than the old one... although I do still struggle with light issues. It's always either way too bright, or not bright enough.

Anyway, I'm still missing the glow in the dark vinyl copy of this record, which is annoying as hell. But at 7 copies already, I'm not losing sleep over it. It'll come one day.

All My Heroes Are Tests

I'm getting into the idea of linking posts together, so the natural follow on from yesterday's Victory records post is this test press of the first Amendment Eighteen LP, 'All My Heroes Are Dead'.

This one was released by New Age Records back in the year 2000. I vaguely remember it being released, but don't remember where I got my first (red vinyl) copy from, which is strange because I remember where I got most of my records from. Anyway, what I enjoyed about this record back when it came out was that it sounded a bit rougher than the average New Age release. And with hindsight, it's more punk and less metal sounding than the two albums that followed.

This test came with the regular LP sleeve. Not sure if all copies do. But it's always good when a test comes in more than just a paper dust sleeve.

Victory Style

Following on from the last post, and here's yet another Damnation A.D. record that I picked up recently:

'In This Life Or The Next' is the band's third full length, released after they reformed back in 2007. I actually went to see them play live in London, around a year before this was released. Unknown to me at the time was that the show started early, and when I arrived I had already missed Damnation. That was pretty much the last time that they were on my radar until recently. First up the rumours of the 'Pornography' LP, and then Victory pressed this album onto vinyl for the first time. There are only 327 copies pressed in total, all on white vinyl.

Despite thinking that I was over this band, I couldn't help but pick up a copy... even if this meant ordering from Victory for the first time in about 18 years. I have to say, despite not expecting much from this, it's is a really good record. Super heavy.

The Damnation LP was one of three old releases that Victory just got around to pressing onto wax for the first time. And wouldn't you know it, I also wanted the other two too, which are both A18 (aka Amendment Eighteen) records. First is the second full length, 'Forever After Nothing', originally released in 2003, with a total of 322 copies pressed on red vinyl:

And secondly, the third full length, 'Dear Furious', which was originally released in 2004. Only 326 copies were pressed on cool clear vinyl.

And finally, despite intending to buy only these three LPs in the Victory store, I got sucked in by a fourth. I'd seen a couple of pics of the latest press of the first Hatebreed LP and it looked like such an interesting colour record that I couldn't help but add one to the cart.

I have one copy of this record, which I picked up back when it came out, and I probably haven't listened to since about 2000. But in the spirit of this post, and on the theme of 'I'd forgotten how good this is', well... I'd forgotten how good this is.

Pornography

One of the only records that I was interested in for this year's Record Store Day was this Damnation A.D. 'Pornography' LP released by Organized Crime Records.

Given that there were 800 copies of this pressed, all on blue vinyl, I figured that finding one would be easy, and that over time there would be lots of copies for sale, and the price would fall due to lack of demand. Yup, I figured that not many people would give a shit about this band in 2017. However, I was wrong. Lots of people were after this and it proved quite tough to acquire.

For anyone not aware, this LP is a cover of an album by The Cure called 'Pornography'. I'm not really a big Cure fan, so I'm not familiar with the record myself, but the beauty of the situation is that I've still managed to enjoy the Damnation version anyway. I'm sure that if I knew the Cure version then I'd appreciate this more, but regardless, this is a good listen.

Skate Tuff

Last year I picked up a coupe of copies of the Atari discography LP, and this got me to listening to the band again for the first time in a while. You know how a band can vanish from your radar, and then re-appear again years later? Yeah, well that's what happened. And you know the next step - you start looking out for more of their records, so that the old band can feel like a new band through the joy of new records.

This time around I picked up two copies of the 'Skate Tuff' 7". This 7" was released by a Belgian Record label, Siton Records, back in 1999. When it came out I bought a red vinyl copy and left it there. All these years later and I saw fit to pick up the other two colour vinyl copies - blue and green.

I have no idea what the pressing info is for this record, or whether one colour is rarer than another. All I do know is that the three look pretty damn good together.

Vanished Crusade

Last year I picked up three copies of the debut Forced Order LP, 'Vanished Crusade'... and then lost them in the mail before I even laid a finger on them. Over a year later and I've eventually got around to replacing all three copies...

First up is the rarest copy of them all, the record release show edition. As you can clearly see, there were only 50 of these made for the release show which took place almost two years ago. TWO YEARS! Time is absolutely flying these days, it's crazy. Anyway, grey vinyl is actually the SECOND press out of 228 copies. Quite how the release show copies are from the second press I don't get. I mean, who was selling the first press BEFORE the release show? In theory the band, but that doesn't make sense.

I picked this up from eBay only a couple of weeks ago. It had only been a couple of weeks before that when I last whinged about how I was still pissed that this would be really difficult to replace. I guess fate smiles on me sometimes.

The release show 'sleeve' is simply a single piece of paper placed in front of the regular sleeve. It's not overly exciting. But inside the sleeve were also a bunch of stickers and a poster, which helps make it into a more interesting item.

The other two copies I picked up are the 'regular' copies that Rev sold. These two colours are from the THIRD press. Clear vinyl (out of 329) and clear orange vinyl (out of a whopping 1200 copies).

So of course after picking up three copies, I still need more. Specifically, one of the first press copies on pink vinyl, and ideally about three more grey copies, as the 'grey' seems to range from grey to purple to blue to yellow. The problem is that the pink and grey copies were sold by the band on tour, so as well as being pressed in lower quantities, they don't pop up too often. So I could be chasing this one for quite a while.

Blue Scene

Yet another Dinosaur Jr 'Freak Scene' 7" for the collection. This one is on clear blue vinyl, and has a small hole.

There isn't much more I can say about this record. Every time I post one, it gets harder and harder to find some words to talk about it.

This here is the 5th version of this 7" that I own. Red, purple, grey, clear and now blue. And if you're the kind of person who reads this blog but doesn't like Dinosaur Jr, then you can relax, because there are only two more versions of this thing that I don't have. One is the test press, and the second is a mythical yellow vinyl copy that nobody has ever seen. So there probably won't be too many more of these posts in future.

Blue Bold

So I recently decided that I wanted a Bold 7" with a blue cover. It's funny, but for years I thought that the blue cover looked cheap and inferior to the maroon cover, but then over time I started to appreciate the blue cover more. It finally reached a point where I REALLY wanted one. So I started to look. I wanted one for a low price and in good condition, and it took a lot longer than I expected, but eventually eBay came good.

The reason this is tough to find in good condition is that the sleeve is flimsy as hell. The maroon cover is printed on a thick cardstock, but the blue is on a really thin glossy paper. This kind of paper creases very easily. You can see a couple of very small creases at the top of my copy in the photo above, but only because the angle reflects the light. In these photos, you can't realy see anything:

It's funny, but as much as I used to hate the blue cover, I now think it looks better. And I think it would sit better alongside the 'Speak Out' LP.

On a different note, however, did anyone ever wonder why the band name / logo on the front cover isn't centrally alligned, either vertically or horizontally? It just looks stupid to me, especially when you see two copies next to each other. Annoying.

The Door

It's been a while since I won this one. A test press of the Casket Lottery 7" entitled 'The Door', released by No Sleep Records back in 2012. What was cool about this one was that I snagged it on eBay and I was the only bidder. I can't remember how much the auction ended at, but I THINK it was $0.99. Including postage, I got it for just under $7, which isn't bad considering I had bid on a couple of these in the past and been outbid.

As you can see, this comes in a a standard label sleeve. Kind of a good idea in one sense, but also kinda dull.

All I Need

Back in 2012 BEWARE were the thing. I was late to the party and only actually got around to listening to them in 2014, but I quickly realised what the fuss was about. They sounded a lot like Chain Of Strength for the modern age, and hopes were high that they would crank out at least as many records as Chain... although, as time has shown, that didn't happen. Their discography consists of a demo, a 7" and then some cassette release. In my world, that amounts to one release because demos and cassettes don't count.

Well anyway, I picked up some more copies of their 7", to the point where I now have a half decent collection. I picked them all up from the same seller, which is a nice and convenient way of collecting, and a little more postage-costs friendly.

First up is the pre-release version of the US pressing, on Back To Back Records. There's nothing more hardcore than a record blank labels in a photocopied sleeve. Numbered out of 100 copies.

Next is the limited first press colour vinyl version of the US pressing. Purple vinyl out of 100 copies.

The third copy I picked up is this test pressing of the Euro pressing on Control Records.

Adding these three to the two copies I already had, as I mentioned, I now have a half decent collection of this record. Technically I am missing three black vinyl pressings, but I have zero intention of picking those up. So unless I get offered a test press of the US pressing, this one ends here.