US East Coast Trip, Part 5 - Generation Records

When I was in NYC last year, I was very disappointed by Generation Records. But I was always going to go again, because looking in record shops is such a novelty for me.

As I learnt on my previous US trip, the 7" bins are where the interesting items are generally, so I went straight downstairs to the 7" section to have a browse. I had low expectations based on my previous visit, and I was pleasantly surprised as there were quite a few little gems for reasonable prices. I didn't have much space in my bag as I had already filled it with other stuff, so I limited myself based on scarcity and price.

It seemed to me that someone had dumped their collection in there at some point just before I arrived. There were lots of used 7" from the early 00s, and as was the case with that era, most hardcore 7"s got pressed on several different colours and also with several limited covers. So there were lots of 7"s in the bins with multipe copies. Lots of these things I already had, but there were some I didn't. My favourite find was a Damage II 'Broken Bloodlines' 7". There were 4 copies in the shop and after checking out all four copies, I found one I didn't have, which was this hand numbered transition copy.

The regular colour of this record was clear yellow (gold), but this numbered copy is a kind of dirty yellow colour. I can't actually remember as the DB23 site vanised years ago, but I'm pretty sure that the numbered copies are transition colours. I thought this was a pretty cool find for $1.99.

Another band that had their fair share of different versions was Internal Affairs, and I never owned a copy of their 'Casualty Of The Core' 7" with this tour cover before.

The tour cover comes wrapped around a regular cover, allowing me to line everything up in a nice instagram friendly square.

The 00s collection also had a couple of Over My Dead Body split 7"s I didn't own, which were also pretty cheap. First up, the split with Swindle on brown vinyl:

And the split with Time X on orange vinyl:

There were a few more 7"s I found, but the prices weren't quite so attractive. So these 4 were all I took from the 7" section. But after going back upstairs, I then found a section of used LPs that I'm assuming the same person's collection went into, as there were a few versions of LPs from the early 00s. Most I already owned, or didn't want to carry, but I did come across this American Nightmare (Give Up The Ghost) LP that I couldn't resist. This is the original Equal Vision pressing on clear vinyl.

Funny story about when this LP came out - I heard it was coming out so phoned up EVR to place an order. Dude on the phone told me that they weren't taking orders for another week. He also told me there were 4 colours of vinyl. Somehow I managed to talk him into taking my order there and then, but for some reason I ordered only 3 of the 4 colours. Maybe I just thought that clear was the common colour and not rare enough to waste my time with. I don't remember. But the way it went down with my premature phone call and my jedi mind trick on the dude on the phone meant that I was actually the first person to place order for this record when it came out. A few months later I heard from other people that there was some kind of drama with this release. Apparently lots of kids didn't get the limited colours and were not happy. This was back when AN were like THE band of the moment. Apparently lots of people thought that there was some kind of conspiracy to only give the limited colours to scene kids or something. I don't know. All I know is that I got the 3 limited colours without a problem and I was the least 'scene' kid ever.

Anyway, years later and I finally have all 4 EVR colours, so I pulled them together for a pic:

After buying these records I left the shop and went on with my business. But the story doesn't quite end there. There was actually one 7" on the wall that I was going to ask to have a look at, but somehow forgot after I got stuck into flicking through the records. Two or three days later we were in the area, and happened to end up back on the same street that Generation is on. So I decided to pop back in to ask about the record on the wall. Well, funnily enough, when I walked in I recognised the dude on the counter. I'm not sure if he was more surprised to see me than I was him, but it was a pretty cool and funny moment. Miles used to work in All Ages Records in London, and sold me a few nice items a few years ago. I haven't been in All Ages for a long time, as I generally never leave the house anymore, so I had no idea he'd left and moved to NYC. But after each of us explaining why we were there to each other, it was nice chat briefly with a friendly and familiar face.

Miles also works one day a week in Limited To One too. So if you ever go record shopping in NYC then there's a reasonable chance you might bump into him in one shop or the other. If you then please say hello from me.

Anyway, after having been to Generation Records twice, with one time being disappointing and the other being quite good, I can only conclude that it totally depends on when you go. If you're lucky then you'll get lucky, and if not then you'll miss out. I guess the sheer numbers of people moving through NYC mean that stuff comes and goes quickly.

This post marks the end of the US trip in terms of records. Normal service will now resume...