Razorblade Suitcase

So I bought a bunch of Revelation and Equal Vision Records test presses from some dude earlier this year, and when they arrived it turns out that he had thrown in something extra - an unmarked test press with the standard Rainbo Records labels. I was initially excited, and then immediately disappointed, as I put the matrix into discogs to then find out that it was the second album by Bush, titled 'Razorblade Suitcase'.

This record was released by Interscope Records in November 1996, and wikipedia tells me that it sold 293,000 copies in it's first week in the United States, which saw it debut at number one in the Billboard 200. So yeah, it seems that this record was a pretty frickin' big deal when it first came out.

I had never herd this record before, so can't take a photo of it next to the regular copy, so here's an image I grabbed from the internet of the cover art for this record, which is most notable for featuring neaither a razorblade nor a suitcase.

I was vaguely aware of Bush in the 90s. What I recall was that they were a British band, but they were practically unknown over here, yet somehow they were absolutely huge in the States. Back then I had zero interest in them. But being sent this test press I thought I'd give it a chance.

After a couple of listens, I really started to enjoy this record. It sounds even more like Nirvana than Nirvana do, which at this time in my life I am really into. It's a little longer than I like, but I've been mainly listening to this one during the working day, so length is less of an issue.

I've also been reading a little bit about this band online, and there are a couple of hardcore connections to this. Firstly, that Revelation handled the pressing of this record on behalf of Interscope. One day I'll ask how this arrangement ended up happening. Secondly, the band broke up in 2002 but then reformed in 2010, and the current line up features Chris Traynor, who previously played in Fountainhead and Orange 9mm.

My initial plan was to put this on discogs for a stupidly high price and invite offers to see if anyone was interested. But after listening to this for the past 3 months or so and loving it, I decided to keep it. But if someone wants to offer me a lot of money for it, I could consider letting it go. Maybe.

Dicknail

WHen I finally got around to picking up a Nirvana 'Sliver / Dive' 7" (as per my last post), I started thinking about other older Sub Pop releases. I remember back in the early 90s when the label was blowing up that there were a lot of big bands of the time who had 7"s put out by the label. A lot of them I have, but there are a few that I never really was too fussed about back int he day. But now I feel nostalgic and feel that I want to pick up smoe of the 7"s that I wasn't overly fussed about when I was young.

So the natural next step after the Nirvana 7" was the Hole 7". There are quite a few different colours of this one out there, but I wasn't particularly fussed which version I got. I decided that the solid pink vinyl would be fine, largely because it was being sold by a UK seller.

I do love solid pink vinyl. Definitely up there as one of the best colours of vinyl. ANd it seems like a great match to the text on the front cover, and pretty apt for a band that was three quarters female.

As I am sure everyone knows, the singer of Hole was Courtney Love, who ended up marrying Kurt Cobain. I was never interested in Hole back when this came out as there was zero appealing about them, and I figured that they mainly got coverage just because Kurt Cobain's wife was in the band. As I mentioned, I mainly just wanted this for the Sub Pop collection, but I have to acknowledge that the two songs here are really good. Without a shadow of a doubt I would listen to more Hole. In 2023 this sounds incredible to me. Funny how much difference 30 years makes huh?

Sliver

In all my years of collecting records I have very few regrets. There are a few things over the years that I let go that I wish I hadn't, but if I had to count how many it would probably be less than 10. A few things I sold and then a few years later I bought back. But there's a small handful of things that I wish I'd kept that I still didn't manage to reacquire.

Nirvana is an impossible band to collect, and there is no way I would bother. However, the one record that I would mess with is the 'Sliver / Dive' 7". There are quite a few different coloured vinyl copies, and most of them aren't too expensive, especially when compared to some of the rarer Revelation items that I am stupid enough to try to collect. For a few years I have wanted a copy of this record to replace the one I sold in the early 90s, and recently I spotted one for a good price and made a fast move.

This copy on clear vinyl is a second pressing. It comes in a glued card sleeve rather than a paper fold over version that the first press copies came in. The copy I used to own in 1992 was part of the same pressing, although I used to have a turquoise copy. So this is a fair replacement.

And then of course, whilst shopping around I also then found a clear yellow copy going on eBay for what looked like a great price. This colour is much rarer, although still not one of the real top end rare versions.

There are only 2 songs on this 7", but as far as Nirvana songs go, they are up there for me amongst the best. It came out after the first album 'Bleach' but before 'Nevermind' came out and changed the world. This was also recorded before Dave Grohl joined the band, and before they got picked up by a major label. And as you can see, it's a Sub Pop 7" with the classic label design and large centre hole. And whilst I thought I would have been happy to pick up just one color copy of this 7", all of a sudden I can feel myself wanting to collect more. Because hey, if there's one thing I need in my life it's another record to collect...

This Won't Get Any Fucking Better

At some point earlier this year Rev announced a new record by a band called Planet On A Chain. I hadn't heard of the band before, and thought that it sounded like a weird name for a band, but mentally I am still in the same place that I was at 20 years ago whereby I assume that any new hardcore band signed by Rev must be good, so I was down to check it out. I ordered the LP but don't have it yet, but I listened to it a bunch of times and I have found that the nore I listen to it, the better it gets. There is absolutely no doubt that this band rips.

Well, whilst I wait for the LP to arrive, I managed to satisfy my vinyl needs with a couple of 7"s being sold by a UK distro. The first is titled 'This Won't Get Any FUcking Better' and is, I believe, the demo pressed to wax.

This version I have obtained is part of the second press on 'eco' vinyl. 300 made.

The second is called 'Last Word. Last Act'. On the bandcamp page this is referred to as 'Demo 2' and was recorded in July 2021 and was sold on cassette. Obviously the vinyl format is far superior, although slightly disappointing as this one was pressed at the shitsville pressing plant. Apparently there were 200 pressed on orange.

About a week ago Rev announced that they were putting out another Planet On A Chain LP soon of a record that was released digitally only. So at some point in the future I'm gonna end up with a pretty big pile of POAC records... which is fine by me. After a couple of months of casually listening to this band, I feel that I am now really starting to get it, so it's cool that there is a pile of material to get stuck into.

Kito

I love how sometimes I can just be reminded of bands from the past that I haven't listened to or thought about in a long time and then end up discovering them as if they were new. Case in point, the UK 90s band Kito. They had a 7" released by Armed With Anger Records back in 1994, and even though AWA was a pretty small UK label, it had pretty good distribution. This means that a lot of AWA releases made it overseas, which means a lot of people who have been into hardcore since the 90s have generally heard (or heard of) a lot of the bands on the AWA roster. Well anyway, I was flipping through the used section of a UK record store's website recently, and I found a couple of cheap records that grabbed my interest. One was the Kito LP. Now, I have had the 7" in my colletion for quite some time (I even have 2 test presses of it), but I never ever heard the LP. So I decided to pick it up as it was super cheap

This record was put out by Flat Earth Records in 1998, which was a whopping 4 years after the 7". Even by today's standards where time moves at triple speed, four years would be considered quite a long time between releases, but back then the hardcore world looked very different in 1998 as it did in 1994. I think I was aware of this record coming out at the time, but by then Kito felt like something old to me, and the lack of colour vinyl (or indeed any kind of cover art) meant that there wasn't a lot of appeal in this record. I was probably more interested in chasing Coalesce, Elliott, and Ink & Dagger records at the time.

By the time this came out, a couple of original members had left the band. But listening to this for the first time all these years later, it doesn't sound significantly different to the 7" in my opinion (well, apart from the final song, which sounds like a totally different band). This is some heavy and dirty sounding hardcore that the north of England did so well back then. I think I saw this band play only once, at one of the 1in12 Club weekend festivals, so this record brings to mind the many times that I trekked over to the dark, wet and cold city of Bradford to listen to one or two bands I'd heard and 12 more that I hadn't. Fun times! But anyway, given that I am hearing this for the first time in 2023, I think this holds up pretty well. This is a good listen and well worth the pittance that I paid for it.

Give One More Blood

Back at the start of this year Bane announced that they were coming back to play some shows. The first couple were set to take place in Boston in June, and there were more shows to follow a couple of months later at some big festivals. Then the day before the first of the shows, the band posted a pic of a couple of records that would be for sale - both different colours of a new 'anniversary pressing' of the 'Give Blood' LP (originally released in 2001). Being a longtime collector of Bane records with an almost complete collection, I felt that I needed these records in my life.

Well, fortunately Mike was going to the show and offered to try to pick up a record for me. And then a week or so later he took the trouble to fly it over and hand deliver it at my house.

There were 250 copies of this marble green colour, and also 250 copies on neon pink. I don't know how many sold at the show, but there were a few left adter the event.

I have to say that this seems like a really high quality product. The sleeve is a gatefold thing with a cut out cover, and there's a thick booklet included. I haven't seen inside it as I didn't want to remove the shrinkwrap.

Where the story gets slightly interesting is that a few days later, a whole bunch of other colours were announced. I think that in total there are 9 different colours, with most being allocated to different retailers as 'exclusives'. Not to mention that each copy costs $40 or more. So I decided that I wasn't going to bother trying to collect this. After over 20 years of collecting Bane records, modern collecting has finaly extinguisehed the flame for me. It's a game I no longer want to play. I mean, if they had cost half as much and if I would have been able to buy them all from one source, then I might have considered buying 9 copies of this, but with things the way they are it's a pretty easy decision to exit the game at this point.

Too Many Buttons

The third and final installment in my recent trade, and this one is the same as the previous two posts insofar as it another version of a record I already own.

I haven't listened to Samiam in quite a long time. I initially got into the band in the early 90s and have always liked their early records, but they weren't a band that I kept up with as the years rolled by. I think I lost interest when they moved to a major and their new album was CD only. But recently I've been listening to a lot of music through the daytime whilst working, and I've been enjoying some quieter and more melodic stuff as a result. I mean, it's tough to focus on fill out insurance forms with some youth crew jams blasting out in the background.

So this is a red vinyl repress of the first Samiam 7" on Lookout! Records. I'm not exactly sure of what year this was made, but I do know that it is a later press because it comes in a brown sleeve, and the label's address is Berkeley. The first press copies came in a purple sleeve and have the Laytonville address. I had always thought that the colour vinyl copies were all part of the first press until only a couple of years ago when I spotted this colour vinyl version in the brown sleeve.

The sleeve on this one is made from quite flimsy paper, so it could be from relatively early in the 90s. I have no idea. But I do like having a third copy to sit with the other two that I have had in my collection for many years, and it's kinda cool sometimes to not know any pressing info whatsoever.

Field Days

Continuing from my last post, this record was also acquired in a trade along with the burgundy vinyl ‘Flip Your Wig’ LP. And, along the same kinda theme, this record here also represents the second version of this particular record that I am now adding to my collection.

‘Field Day’ is the third Dag Nasty LP and I think it is fair to say that it is commonly regarded as their worst record. Even though it came out a year after ‘Wig Out At Denkos’ and two years after ‘Can I Say’ it somehow manages to sound more dated than both. Listening to this now, it does have a very 80s sound to it. Like, I can definitely imagine the kids hanging on the boardwalk in 'The Lost Boys' listening to this during the day.

This version I just picked up is the green vinyl pressing on Giant Records, which is the limited version of the US pressing. I have no idea how many were made but it doesn’t pop up as often these days as it used to. Then again, does anything?

To make things slightly confusing, this record was also pressed by We Bite Records in Germany for the European market and the more limited copies of that version were also pressed on green vinyl. Putting the two copies side by side, the two colours are quite different.

I usually feel that the European vinyl colours don’t look as nice, but this is an exception. The lighter shade of green looks a little nicer in my opinion, especially with a lightsource behind it.

I’d say that this is kinda similar to ‘Staring At The Sun’ by Uniform Choice in that probably a lot of fans of the previous record struggled with the newer sound when this came out. But if you have a little patience, there are definitely some great songs on here. It's not a bad record by any means, but it certainly isn't in the same ballpark as the two that came before it.

Flip Your Wigs

It's almost exactly ten years since I wrote on here about picking up a purple vinyl copy of 'Flip Your Wig' by Hüsker Dü. It must be a tradition to pick up a colour vinyl of this record in October of a year which ends in '3'. Well, sadly this isn't quite true as I received this one about two weeks ago (i.e. in September).

This album was originally released in 1985 on black vinyl only, but like a lot of SST releases, it was repressed on colour vinyl around the 1990-92 era. This burgundy vinyl version is one of 3 different coloured versions pressed at that time.

I was offered this record in a trade and was keen to find something to trade for it. I was happily and slowly collecting Hüsker Dü records and building a nice collection until the rest of the world started doing the same, and then suddenly it became super difficult to find anything for sale at a reasonable price. So it's been a while since I have added anything to my Hüsker Dü collection.

So here's this copy next to the purple copy I picked up a decade ago. These dark but clear colours look so much nicer with a lightsource behind them, don't you think? This is actually a photo which I then cropped using some basic technology. Anyway, I'm still looking for a clear pink copy, and no doubt that at this rate I'll be due to pick one up in October 2033.