USA Trip, Part 5 - Washington D.C.

After leaving Philadelphia we headed further south to Washington D.C. I hadn't been overly excited about visiting DC before we booked the trip, but the more I looked into it, the more interesting it seemed. In the end it was probably my favourite city because there was so much to see, and so many big spaces (of which I am a huge fan). We spent three days there and filled each day with great sights and people.

Day 2 started with rain and a trip to the Smithsonian, after which we hooked up with fellow blogger and record nerd Chris. A little after meeting Chris, we hooked up Dave & Geert and went to the Dischord House where we took this photo:

The rest of the afternoon we spent doing tourist stuff. Aside from a little rain, it was a really great day. Then before Dave left he gave me a record that he was supposed to give me in Philly but forgot - the Disengage 'Expressions' LP on white. This originally came out in 2012 and there were only 120 on white. I was holding out for a white one, so I guess it took 6 years before one came along at the right price.

After parting company with Dave & Geert, we headed up to Joint Custody Records. I've bought stuff from this place on discogs, so was keen to check it out in real life.

Once again, the boxes of 7"s proved more interesting than the LPs, and I managed to find a few things that caught my eye...

First, the Angel Du$t 'Stay' 7" on clear Photobooth Records. There were 200 of these. This copy replaces the one that I lost in my vanishing box a couple of years back.

The next is the Blacklisted 'So, You Are A Magician?' 7" on clear purple. I couldn't help but wonder whether Dave had perhaps dropped this here by magic for me to find?

I couldn't resist this red vinyl copy of the Edgewise 'Silent Rage' 7". I think this is a tour pressing although I'm not 100% sure.

Next, Endpoint 'Idiots' 7" on Doghouse on clear. This has been on my want list for an insane amount of time. I would always forget which colour I had and which I needed. When I stumbled upon this I checked my list to make sure I didn't get it wrong and was able to finally cross it off once and for all.

It's rare that I add older Integrity records to the collection, but I was missing the split with Mayday on red. This leaves only one version of this one that I am missing - the purple.

This next one is an interesting one for sure - a limited cover version of the Peace 7" on React! It's numbered out of 40 copies on the back and, according to discogs, was made for RSD and sold at Celebrated Summer Records in Baltimore.

Red Death 'Detterence' 7" on Lockin' Out on red. You can't really go wrong with Lockin' Out releases.

Another small hole in my Malfucntion Records collection - the second press of the Right On 'No Joke' EP on on pretty pink:

And one from the bargain box - a first press of the R'N'R 'I've Had It b/w/ Your Rules' 7":

And finally, the Lee Harvey Oswald sleeve version of the Striking Distance 7". Technically the most common cover, yet somehow I didn't have it.

So as had become routine, after the 7"s I went on to the LPs, feeling I couldn't really be bothered.

I didn't really find anything, but Chris found a sealed Praise 'Leave Them All Behind' 12" release show edition. Given that I didn't get around to picking this record up at all yet, I figured this was as good a copy as any to grab, and it seemed like the right location to pick it up from.

I didn't find anything else. But the one thing I had kinda hoped to pick up in the store was a blue vinyl copy of the Protester 'Hide From Reality' LP. The copy in the rack was sealed, so I asked the dude working (who just so happened to be the drummer in the band) whether if a record int he rack did not say a colour on the sticker, whether it was definitely black. He asked what record in particular I was referring to. When I mentioned that I had hoped to find a colour Protester LP, he told me that he had one gold copy left in the back, and went to get it. A couple of minutes later he emerged with it, and when I asked how much he wanted for it he replied with the regular store price. So obviously I had to take it.

What's cool about this is that the gold is the most limited colour, being out of 85 copies. Apparently 100 were pressed but 15 were intentionally destroyed. These were only for sale at Joint Custody on RSD 2017 I think. One copy has sold on discogs for $120, so I guess I was pretty lucky with this one.

Once again I managed to negotiate a discount for buying a bunch of stuff in one go. So I got this cool haul of records for a really, really great price. This helped me to stretch my record budget just that bit further. But again, after getting back to the hotel I then realised that the downside of my negotiating skills was that this haul added another 10 7"s and 3 LPs to my holiday collection, bringing the total haul to 56 records (38 7"s and 18 12"s). My lack of a suitcase strategy started to annoy me, but it dawned on me that if things got too bad I could just throw my clothes in the bin to make some more room.

Next stop, Los Angeles...