Wreck-Age Odds & Ends

Installment 9 of my recent haul from a friend who has decided to sell his collection.

Today's post is a bunch of odds and ends and the only connection between them is that they were all releases on the same label, so I thought I'd group them together.

To start, a test press of the Die 116 'Dyna Cool' LP. Die 116 was a NYC band who put out two records on Wreck-age - a 12" EP in 1994, followed by this full length in 1995. I initially picked up on them because they had Gavin Van Vlack on guitar and I was obsessed with the Burn 7" at the time. The band also featured two members of Rorschach. I really enjoyed these records back when they came out, but it was pre-internet and I have no sense as to how popular they were. But given I never heard much about them even back in the day , I assume they had a fairly low profile.

I dug out my other two copies for a group photo. I rarely bought two copies of any record back in the 90s, but I made an exception. I picked this up from a local distro at a show, and flipping through the records I noticed that there were two very different green vinyl copies. SO I bought both. This was when LPs from a distro were £5 each. But I always liked the green vinyl and the cover of this record.

Next, another little known record and band. This is a test press of a 12" titled 'Patron' by a band called Gin Mill, released in 1994.

This record is such an underappreciated gem. It sounds huge. It's not the typical NY hardcore type sound that Wreck-age was known for. Instead, this is a heavy noise rock type band. It's one of those records that I wish more people knew about, so I could talk about how good it is with them. But as it stands, I don't think I have ever met anyone else who has ever even heard this. But if you even remotely trust my judgement at this point, you should check this record out. For reference, this is what the cover looks like:

Next is a test press of the 2nd release on the label, the Necracedia 'Now I See Clearly' LP. This was released in 1991, and the band were active from the late 80s. To me this was always a bit more 'punk' than the rest of the Wreck-age catalogue. It's far from my favourite release on the label, but I picked up the test because it was pretty cheap.

Given that this one came in a sleeve, I also took a pic with the regular sleeve, just because it helps show which record this is. Not that any of you will know this one anyway.

And finally, a test press of the Neglect 'Pull The Plug' 7". This band was always slow and heavy and seemed to be generally focussed on suicide and death. In theory they should all have topped themselves years ago, but I bet they're still knocking about.

I'm pretty stoked on this one as I don't think I have ever seen another copy, and years ago just finding a green vinyl copy seemed difficult enough. This one came in a regular sleeve too, which is an added bonus.