To Live And Die In New York City

Installment 5 of my recent haul from a friend who has decided to sell his collection.

Today's post is on one of the better bands out of New York in the late 90s. There was a point in the 90s where my brain associated New York hardcore with 25 Ta Life and Back Ta Basics Records, and huge tattooed dudes who described their bands as 'beatdown'. I wanted no part of that. But one band of that era that I really enjoyed was Indecision. I don't remember exactly how they originally got my attention, but they definitely seemed like they had a lot to say, and they also had a girl on guitar, which somehow made them less 'tough' and interesting. Well, over the years I have got the impression that most people rate their first LP 'Unorthodox' the most, but for me it was always the third full length, 'To Live And Die In New York City'. It was released in 1999, with the CD released by Wreck-Age Records and the vinyl put out by Jawk Records. I had a couple of colour copies since it came out, but took the opportunity to pick up a few other copies recently.

First up, the silk screened cover version. I'm not sure whether this was made for a special occassion or whether it's just another variant that was put out at the same time as the others. It's hand numbered out of 150 on the back cover and contains a black vinyl record.

Next is one that used to be legendary but took me years to even see one. The Britney Spears cover. I guess this really does show how old this record is now, but this version was put together to mark Britney's 18th birthday. It's just a piece of paper containing a few pictures of Spears glued onto a regular sleeve. It's also appropriately hand numbered out of only 18 copies.

And finally, the test press. It's a good example of why most people have no interest in test pressings, because it has no cover and nothing visually interesting about it whatsoever.

I pulled out one of my other copies just so that I could put the test next to it. I always liked this cover. And here's a fun fact for you - after the events of 9/11 back in 2001, eBay banned the sale of this record. I don't actually know how I know this, but I definitely remember it being an issue that I read somewhere. Somehow this got identified as an offensive record, even though it had been released two years previous.

When taking these photos today, I also took out the two colour vinyl copies to take a photo of the whole lot together.

I figured this was now a complete collection, but I'm clearly out of touch, because there was another version made in 2016. Sounds like it was a limited cover made up to sell some leftover copies, so in my mind it doesn't really count. There's also a test press in a stainless steel cover, which would be impossible to own but would be nice to see at some point.