Toybox Records

I don't remember when exactly, but at some point last year a lot of grown men got very upset at not being able to buy a toy monkey. Super 7 put up a Gorilla Biscuits boxset for order, containing a blue vinyl pressing of the self-titled GB 7" and a gorilla toy. I tried to buy one but failed. I'm not going to pretend that I wasn't disappointed, but I accepted it, didn't whinge and moved on with life.

A few months later and I got the chance to pick one up for cost price, which I couldn't really turn down.

I have to say, the box is pretty cool. But the record looks a little cheap, mainly due to the plain looking labels.

And it doesn't have a sleeve. There is a folded up poster, but I'm not sure whether this is supposed to act as a cover or whether it is just supposed to be a poster.

And then a few weeks after I picked this thing up, another one went up for order at RevHQ. A 'second pressing' purple box was made and again I couldn't say no.

This one is kinda the same yet kinda different. This one opens in a different way. Rather than open like a book, it's a slipcase style to reveal the toy inside.

This one comes WITH a purple vinyl pressing of the GB 7", which (unlike the blue version) has a more typical style sleeve.

The sleeve itself is a booklet which contains a bunch of photos and some blurb about the record from various people involved in its release.

As I mentioned, the purple box comes WITH a 7". I'm emphasising this because it doesn't actually fit inside the box. Well, the record fits inside, but the sleeve is too big. So a bit of a major cock up.

And I think this is how I feel about both of these things. They both feel like a missed opportunity. The blue one doesn't have a proper cover, and the labels look too plain. And the purple record doesn't actually fit in the box. So slightly underwhelming really.

California Son

There seems to have been a lot of controversy around Morrissey lately. I only really know of this because of stuff popping up on my facebook feed. It follows pretty much the same format as always, with some people slagging him off and other people defending him. I don't really pay attention to this stuff, because I've seen and heard it too much over the past fifteen years or so. But when a new record was announced my first thought was 'it feels like there was one released only a few months ago'.

This new one is a covers album. I wasn't actually intending to buy it. I downloaded it and made it through three songs before turning it off because I was bored. But then I found myself feeling tired and wanting to listen to something a little 'quieter', so I tried again... and really enjoyed it. And as often happens, I then found myself listening to it two or three times a day. So last week I decided to see if it was in the record shop that's about 5 minutes from my work during my lunchbreak.

Well, it turned out that they had two versions for sale - a black vinyl, and a 'limited' blue version for £1 more. So I paid up.

It's certainly a novelty for me to buy a record on my lunchbreak. It's a good job the shop is really poor else I'd probably be spending too much money there.

Anyway, I'm quite surprised that I have been enjoying this record so much. Could well be the soundtrack to Summer 2019...

Final Transmission

A few weeks ago I went to see Cave In play a show in London with Old Man Gloom. It was a benefit show for the family of bassist Caleb Scofield who sadly passed away last year. I hadn't seen Cave In play for probably about 13 years or so, and it was an interesting night for sure. One nice treat was that the new Cave In album, 'Final Transmission', was available to buy, a full two months before it would be sent out to those who had pre-ordered. Fortunately I hadn't pre-ordered (due mainly to the postage cost), so I was able to pick up both of the two coloured versions that were available fresh off the merch table.

The first colour is grey marble, out of 400 copies. It goes pretty well with the glossy grey front cover.

This is a pretty unique looking sleeve. The front is high gloss, whilst the back is a matte finish. I don't think I've ever seen one like this before as it's usually one or the other.

This also comes with an insert which has a really simple design. I love this image of a satellite blasting through the surface of a planet. There's something utterly fascinating about the infinite size of outer space that makes everything in human life seem to small and insignificant. And somehow this image of of the lonely satellite evokes similar feelings.

The second copy that I picked up is clear with white mix, also out of 400 copies, which also goes pretty well with the artwork.

I thought I'd put the two side by side to show the difference:

There is also a yellow vinyl version, which is the most limited colour, and which I don't have. I hope at some point to pick one up from somewhere or other.

So what is this like? Well, on first listen I found it pretty dull. But after a couple of goes it started to sink its hooks into me, and pretty soon I was feeling the addiction. It really does remind me of 'Jupiter' a lot, and in a similar way to when 'Jupiter' came out, I have been devoting a part of my day to this for the past three weeks or so. I could go on, but I won't. I'll simply say that this is my favourite record since 'Tides of Tomorrow', which came out in way back in 2002.

Minority Of 8

It's not too often the opportunity arises to pick up a Revelation Records test press. Despite test pressings becoming 'cool' over the past ten to fifteen years, Rev carried on making small quantities of tests (4-8) for most of their releases. Which makes them hard to get. So when a chance arises to pick one up, it's tough to say no.

So yeah... I was lucky enough to get this Dag Nasty 'Minority Of One' LP test press a few weeks ago. The cool thing about this particular test press is that Rev actually made up a sleeve for it. OK, so it's just a plain white jacket with a sticker on the front and a sticker on the back, but it's more than they usually do. Most of their tests just come in plain paper sleeves. But this looks pretty rad. Simple but effective, as they say.

The next thing I noticed was that the labels are plain white. Pretty much all Rev tests come with the standard Rainbo labels, so seeing this one with plain white labels left me slightly confused. I mean, was this record actually pressed somewhere else? Or did the plant run out of their standard labels? These are the kind of issues that can keep a nerd awake at night.

Well, after picking up the test press, I felt obliged to pick up the latest repress on 'clear and white marble' vinyl (which looks a lot like grey marble). I'm not sure how many of these exist but would guess at 500.

I remember being disappointed when this record came out back in 2002, but in the years since I have accepted this as a fully fledged Dag Nasty LP. Although I still think I prefer the other reunion record, 'Four On The Floor'.

Anyway, forget my opinion and enjoy this collection shot of my 8 copies of this record...

Mindforce

I'm always late to the party but generally I get there in the end. The latest example is this here Mindforce 'Demo' 7" that got released in 2017. I decided to add it to the order when I picked up the Sunstroke LP on a whim. It was pretty cheap and I'd seen a lot of Mindforce records get posted on instagram, so figured I would grab one while I had the chance.

There are about a million different versions of this record out there. I grabbed this second press gold vinyl copy. Apparently there are only 33 of this colour.

I have to admit, after listening to this a bit, it is very good for what it is... which is that Leeway type thing. I don't really know what the term crossover refers to, and I've always hated it, but that term gets attached to this band. All I know is that these songs have been creeping into my regular playlist recently and the more I listen, the more that I feel I need MORE songs. It's a good one for the gym, but barely long enough to get me through three sets of shoulder press.

Cave In Pre-Release

I remember buying Cave In's first release on Hydrahead Records when it came out. It was 1997 and the label was young and exciting, and I was into what they were putting out. I'd never heard of anything they were putting out, but I bought it all and lapped it up. A few years later, so did everyone else. But even though I bought multiple copies of some of their releases, especially Cave In, it was only a couple of years ago that I discovered that there was a pre-release cover made for a few copies of the first 7". So I did what I always do and waited it out until one came along.

Not sure how I managed to neve see one of these in 20 years, but hey, never mind. The cover is literally just a piece of paper to cover the record. It's not even folded. DIY or die.

I would have paid a decent amount to get this into my collection, but this was only $5 because the record has a small chip in it near the edge. I wasn't buying it for the record so didn't really care, so it was cool to grab a big want for next to nothing.

Still Hiding From Reality

One of my favourite records from last year (even though it actually came out the year before) was the Protester 'Hide From Reality' LP. I was lucky enough to pick up a gold vinyl copy last year on my travels, but part of me still wanted a blue one too. Well, all things come to those who wait, and I scooped one for a pretty damn good price on a site called 'discogs' (some of you may even have heard of it).

There's not much more to say on this one really, other than this is one of the best current straight edge bands around and this record rips.

Given that I'm always behind, it's no surprise that I missed out on the gold vinyl edition of their latest record, but hey, you can't have everything I guess.