Fumble

No matter how much time you spend listening to music, it is impossible to listen to everything, and as a result it's easy to overlook stuff for a long time. Here we are in 2023 and I've only just got around to hearing this 1993 LP by Scream for the first time.

I've had the first two Scream LPs in my collection for a number of years, but I was never really overly interested in hearing anything later simply because I had made the assumption that it would be weak. Still, when this recent yellow vinyl repress popped up, I figured I'd grab one along with the Hammered Hulls LP mainly just because I was in the mood to buy records.

Well, what an absolute moron I was for ignoring this for so long. I put this on and within about 20 seconds it was clear that this is a great record. The first song sounds kinda like Bad Brains, and the rest of the record sounds bigger than anything else I have ever heard by Scream. It is such a huge step forward from 'This Side Up'

This record features some dude called Dave Grohl on drums, and there's one song that he sings on too. I had always assumed that Dave joining Scream was towards the end of their career and him joining the band pretty much marked the end. But goddamn I was so wrong. I think I have had this for two weeks now, and I have listened to it at least once a day in that time. So not only is this my favourite Scream record, it's also my favourite record that I have heard in months. Shame it came out 30 years ago else it would definitely have been my record of the year. Still, better late than never right?

Localism

So I had arranged a trade for the Pillsbury Hardcore 7" (in my last post) but when I opened the mailer after the trade went down I found that the other dude had thrown in an extra record. This wasn't random though. When we were working through the trade I identified a list of records that I wanted, and this was one. So it was really cool extra surprise.

Last year I picked up two different 'Nardcore compilation LPs ('Nardcore' and 'Nardcore For Life') and I became aware that there were a couple more out there it kinda became another collection to complete. This compilation is titled 'Localism... A Compilation LP Of Bands From The Oxnard, California Area' and was released by It's Alive Records back in 1996, which was a time when compilation records served more of a purpose than they do today. Looking at discogs, this was pressed on a few different colours, although the one I have ended up with isn't actually shown.

There are 17 different bands on here, but other than the three big names (Stalag 13, Ill Repute, No Motiv) I hadn't actually heard of any of these bands before. Oh yeah, and Strife, although I'm not really sure how they ended up on here given that they are definitely not from Oxnard.

As usual for It's Alive releases, this one comes with a lot of extras in the form of flyers and stickers, which I thought was a recent thing with the It's Alive represses from the last couple of years. I guess not.

There's still one more Nardcore comp LP that I know that I don't have, so you know how it goes. I'm gonna have to go after one now.

In A Straight Edge Limbo

This one has taken me ages to get around to posting because I struggled to get a half decent photo. It happens sometimes. I put time aside for photos and then after they are taken and I review them on the computer, they don't quite cut it. I waited until I had a day with good light (which took way too long), so this post is happening months after I picked up this record in a trade that took place in Philadelphia airport. I had arranged the trade in advance and it was one of those moments that I will probably never forgot, because within 5 miuntes of getting off the plane I was hanging out with a fellow hardcore enthusiast, swapping records and chatting about Rocky filming locations and their varying degrees of sketchiness.

I picked up the Pillsbury Hardcore reissue LP last year, and after spending some time with it I kinda wanted the 7"s. So when an opportunity came along to get this in a trade, I was pretty excited.

The 'In A Straight Edge Limbo EP' was released in 1985. This orange vinyl version is a second press copy (first press were all black), but it looks great, and this copy has all of the inserts. For a record that is getting on for 40 years old, this is in pretty damn good shape.

There's also a green vinyl version of this one out there, and I kinda want one now. Funny how that happens isn't it? I figured I'd be happy with one and then when I have one I suddenly want a second one. What the hell is wrong with me?

Careening

One of the best releases of last year was the debut LP by Hammered Hulls. 'Careening' came out at the end of October 2022, and was initially received on black vinyl only. I really loved their 7" that came out back in 2019 and had been expecting a full length for the last couple of years. I'm surprised that it took as long as it did to come out. Anyway, when this album was released I told Nico that I was going to wait for the second press on coloured vinyl to come out before I bought a copy. And here we are.

The second pressing is on blue vinyl, which I think is a pretty good choice as it goes well with the cover. I guess a lot of other people think the same, because Dischord is now sold out of this one.

Another thing that I like about this one is that it comes with a small booklet with the lyrics inside. I think it's cool that they made a booklet in 2023, rather than the usual single sheet. It has more of a 90s DIY feel about it which, being an old fart, I love.

If you haven't checked this out then I'd recommend changing that situation ASAP. This is a really great record. I've been playing it pretty regularly for the last 3 months and I'm nowhere near to getting tired of it. If I'd have bought it last year then it would definitely have made it into my list of best releases of the year, without a doubt.

Too Much, Too Late

The goal for the complete Revelation Records collection is in many ways a futile one to chase, but one that I have been chasing none the less. Pretty much every month I take more steps forward, but then the rate at which they crank out the new releases and represses puts me right back where I started, miles from the goal. Still, some steps forward mean a lot more than others, and this one is a super important record for me. A test press for Revelation 69... Farside 'The Monroe Doctrine'.

I clearly remember this album coming out back at the end of the 90s. I was already a huge fan of Farside, and so the release of a new full length was super exciting, especially back then as all music was generally more exciting from a position of youth. A lot of people consider this to be their best record, and I can see why, although for me that's not the case. A couple of the songs on here are the best they ever wrote, but I feel that the greatness of the record is slightly lessened by the 'non traditional' songs that kinda break the flow of the record a little. But that's just me. And whilst I'd always put 'Rochambeau' as the best Farside record, this is a close second.

At some point in the past there was a thread on a message board about what people's top 10 Rev wants were, and my top 10 was Into Another, Farside and Sensefield test presses. I haven't made much of a dent into that list in the last ten years or so, but this is a particularly satisfying one to get. The number of test presses made is not known, but it is likely to be either 4 or 8, as those seem to be the common numbers of tests that Rainbo Records would send out. Either way, this is a nice one to have and I am honoured to be able to give it a home.

Well, after I picked up the test press I also wanted to get hold of the other two repress colours that I was missing. The red came out in 2015 and there were over 1000 copies made.

The green vinyl came out in 2020 and there were around 450 copies. The main thing I notice about this one is how the colours on the label have changed slightly from previous pressings.

So this one represents an almost complete collection. Although as ever there are more copies that I still need... most notably a new test press for the 2020 version. But that's the game I play... endless.

Until Your Heart Stops 25th Anniversary Box

I've been a big fan of Cave In for a long time now. Over the years I collected more and more of their records that I ended up with a pretty extensive collection. My spreadsheet tells me that I have 74 Cave In records, which seems kinda nuts, but that's because I have multiple copies of every release. But last year when the band released their latest album 'Heavy Pendulum' I decided to give up collecting multiple copies, because the label put out about 15 different versions right off the bat, with most of them being exclusive to some place or other. Making lots of different versions is one thing, but making them exclusive to different places makes it way more expensive, as it requires the payment of umpteen different postage charges. So I decided to pick up just one version and leave it there. The game was well and truly up.

Well, it was then announced that Relapse Records were going to reissue all of their previous albums too. And whilst I decided to give up chasing a complete Cave In collection, when the first one was announced a few weeks ago I was still tempted. 'Until Your Heart Stops' was Cave In's first proper full length, released 25 years ago in 1998. I remember buying it when it came out, and I played it a hell of a lot. It was a HUGE record back then, and it felt super advanced compared to everything else at the time. And even though I am trying to not buy as many reissues these days, the deluxe version looked so good that I decided I wanted one. The only rule, however, was that I would only buy a clear vinyl copy. Relapse always press 100 copies of each release onto clear vinyl, which they don't sell, but give to the bands and friends of the label. The clear vinyl Relapse pressings are without doubt the best version of any release you can buy. They are the rarest and always look the best, especially these days when the label presses everything on splatters and swirls from my favourite pressing plant.

I managed to bag a clear copy and it turned up yesterday. And goddamn, it is a pretty amazing item. The label describes it as 'Housed in a custom designed hardcover 4xLP book, sheathed in a rigid board slipcase'. Basically it is a box set, and the outer box is a thick slipcase.

Inside the exterior slipcase is a big thick book, with a 12" record slipped into every page.

The first two records contain the original album, which has been remastered.

The second two records contain demos, outtakes and alternate versions of the songs from the original recording session.

Even though I am not a fan of the euro vinyl, I will freely admit that their clear vinyl these days does actually look good. It's pretty much the only acceptable colour of vinyl that they make. Ther are 3 other pressings of this and all are on horrendous looking splatter and swirl colours. Looking at pictures of them on discogs, I'm very happy with this one.

There are also 3 different colour pressings of a 2xLP version, which is the remastered original record, without the two records with the extra demos and unreleased stuff. There were over 7,000 copies pressed and the label is sold out of those already, which seems nuts to me. But if nothing else just shows how popular vinyl records are these days... unlike back in 1998 when this was originally released.

I have to say, this is a really beautiful item, but to I have to acknowledge that it is pretty much totally unnecessary. In my mind, the demo versions and earlier outtakes were deemed not good enough to release 25 years ago, so I'm not convinced that they really needed to be put out there on a format that required money to be paid to hear them. But having said that, there's a great version of the Sabbath cover 'N.I.B' with Dave Scrod singing instead of Steve Brodsky, which is worth hearing.

Involution

I've spent a little time the past couple of weekends tidying up my record room. I had a year and half's new records in various places and had wanted to find some time to file them away in the correct place in the collection. In doing so I found a couple of records that I didn't really know I had. Or rather, I had but didn't plan on keeping. This is one - a black vinyl copy of the Soul Control 'Involution' LP.

My friend Kyle sent me some copies of a 7" of his old band a couple of years ago, and also threw in a couple of other bits and bobs. One of the extras was this black vinyl Soul Control LP. I added it to a pile of things to sell as I had no interest in a black vinyl copy of a record that I already owned on colour vinyl.

Well, last week I was tidying up and decided to list this for sale... at which point I realised for the first time since it entered my house that this is actually the rarest version of this record. There were 100 copies on black which were sold as record release copies back in September 2007. So based on this 'new' information, I decided to keep this one and sell the orange & yellow swirl vinyl copy that I had in my collection since I bought it from the band on their 2008 european tour. I don't feel that I need two copies of this LP, and if I'm going to get rid of one then a second press swirl copy would be the one that I would be happy to send out into the void. If anyone happens to want it then get in touch.

Integrity x Bleach Everything

If you want proof that record collecting is an endless quest then try collecting Integrity records. It really does never end. Even when you think you have a complete collection of a particular record, sometimes more copies surface later. There was a split 12" released back in 2019 with Bleach Everything that initially came on three colours of vinyl - greenm red and clear. Back at the time, I picked up a clear one and two different test pressings. Then time passed. Then last year (2022), the label that put this out suddenly put up for sale a small number of extremely limited transition copies. Each were officially stamped and numbered to make sure that they couldn't be mistaken for other versions. There were three different versions put up for sale, but one of them was out of only 4 copies and it sold out before I could get one. But I did manage to get the other two.

The green with red is numbered out of only 10 copies.

The clear with blue looks much cooler in my opinion, although this one is relatively common, being numbered out of a whopping 18 copies.

With those copies bagged I also finally got around to adding a red copy to the collection too. No idea how many of these exist.

And of course, despite now owning 6 different copies of this one, the collection is still not complete. There's a regular green vinyl version that I am missing, and also there's a third different version of the test press too. Goddamn, why do I never have a complete collection of anything?

Knife Manual

This is another record that I was gifted by an old friend which may originally have been mine. A split 7" between Mudhoney and Gas Huffer, which came out in 1992 at a time when Mudhoney were on a high, having been signed to a major label and potentially on the brink of blowing up.

I originally bought one of these in HMV in Southend on the way home from school one day. I remember being really excited by how rad it looked. At that time I had never seen anything that looked like this.

Turns out that the label that released this made a shitload of these sawblade shaped records. This was the first, and then after this they put out loads of the damn things, all of them splits and all on colour vinyl. Kinda cool I guess, although having trawled through the list of them on discogs, none that interest me. Which is good, because I'm trying to collect too much already.

The songs on this are good fun. Each band plays one cover song. Mudhoney do 'You Stupid Asshole' (originally by Angry Samoans) and Gas Huffer do 'Knife Manual' (originally by some obscure band called Silly Killers). I also really like the artwork, with both bands dressed up in martial arts outfits and posing for photos. Always good to see that two bands on a split 7" have met up in real life.

Slip 30

It can be easy to get sucked into hype these days. I saw the posts about the 30th anniversary pressing of Quicksand's 'Slip' LP go up online and I went to have a look at what was on offer, and was surprised to see that they all sold out in the blink of an eye. So when I saw that RevHQ were getting 500 copies on yellow vinyl, I figured that maybe I should grab one, because if I left it a day or two the option probably wouldn't be there anymore.

Well, I did actually leave it too long and it was sold out, but then it turned out that a UK distro got some copies from Rev, so I was able to get one from there. Although it ended up being a bit more expensive than I was expecting.

As soon as this arrived I felt my enthusiasm drop. I'd never be remotely interested in the previous reissue of this record that came out back in 2012 because I have my first press copy from when this was originally released in 1993. But also partly because those copies were pressed on pretty gross vinyl colours. And when I opened this, I thought that the yellow looks pretty lame as it's pressed on crappy, cheap looking vinyl. But at least it doesn't look as bad as most of the other colours it got pressed on this time around.

I'm not sure what the lesson is here for me, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to sell this in the near future to someone who is a little less fussy about these things than I am. As long as I can get the money back that I paid then it's not a total disaster.