Smoke & Cowards

I just realised a few days ago that there were some records I received a few months ago that I never got around to posting about on here. I distinctly remember taking photos, but somehow the photos vanished, and I forgot about the records. So this weekend when I realised, I took the photos again. This means that I have a few more records to post about before the 2021 well runs dry.

Earlier this year I posted about the latest LP by The Casket Lottery, but I also picked up a couple of test pressings of a couple of their earlier releases. I've loved this band for 20 years now, so I'm stoked to have been able to find some test pressings, which are from an era when tests were scarce.

The first is a test press of the third album, 'Survival Is For Cowards', which was released by Second Nature Recordings in 2001. I still remember the excitement of receiving my copy of this in the mail back when it came out. I was REALLY into this band back in 2001. But I was still just as excited to receive this test press 20 years later.

The record comes in a plain black sleeve which is sealed shut via the use of a sticker. On the back of the sticker it's stamped with a number. Mine is number 000006 out of only 8 copies that exist.

The characters on the sticker are from the scene on the front of the regular cover.

The second test press I scored was for the band's last release before they went on a hiatus for 8 years, the 'Smoke And Mirrors' 12" EP. This one was released as a 12" 'picture disc', although its a bit of a weird one. It looks like a clear vinyl 12" with a picture disc style centre label. It comes in the same cover as the regular release, i.e. a plastic sleeve with a sticker on the front.

It doesn't really look or feel like a traditional picture disc. But the test press is kinda cool, because it contains the same proportion of vinyl vs. picture disc. It basically just looks like a 12" with a giant label.

Here's the test press next to the regular version of the 'picture disc'.

In typical style, as happy as I am with these tests, the sad thing about this story is that I could have bought tests of the first two LPs a few years ago but didn't. I wish I could go back and buy them. The chance of finding them now seems pretty remote, and having the set of all 3 would have been pretty damn cool. Ah well.