Visitor

A few short weeks ago I was struggling to decide what to listen to, so I set iTunes to 'shuffle'. Quite often it will throw up some interesting stuff that I'm not too familiar with, or potentially something that I had forgotten about. And on that day it delivered something that I hadn't listened to in a long time - a song from the first Onelinedrawing LP 'Visitor'. This came out in 2002 on Jade Tree at a time when I bought pretty much everything that the label released. In 2001 I was really into the band Far and so I was lapping up everything that Jonah did. I loved the New End Original LP that came out in 2001, and so when this record came out I didn't hesitate to pick it up.

Well, when the song came on a few weeks ago I Immediately ended up playing the full record. And then the second record. And suddenly it was back on the daily playlist. So of course I went to discogs and found that the Jade Tree albums were both repressed in 2022 on new colours. But I also found that the original pressings sell for practically nothing. So I decided to pick up this original clear vinyl copy of 'Visitor' mainly because it was cheap.

As I mentioned in my semi recent posts for the Explosion and Trial By Fire LPs, Jade Tree used to commonly press two colours of each release, and here I am 20+ years later buying the second colours of some of these records for no good reason. So this record joins the ranks of Jade Tree releases that I now own two copies of, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

Sliver II

Only last month I finally managed to pick up a copy of Nirvana's 'Sliver' 7" after wanting one for a few years. Except when I finally bought one, I then ended up buying another just because it was there and that's the kind of guy I am.

Well, a month later and there are now two more of the bloody things knocking about in my house.

I spotted this orange copy for sale in the UK and just figured I should grab it. So I did. It's from the same pressing as the yellow one I picked up last month. Apparently there are solid orange copies, and slightly transparent copies which are referred to as 'peach'. I'm not entirely sure which this is, but using the Seaweed 'Measure' 7" as a guide, I think this is probably the peach one.

The next copy I grabbed looks kinda crappy compared to the others. This is the UK pressing on Tupelo Records.

This one comes in a gatefold sleeve, although it's annoying because it opens the wrong way. Rather than open fron right to left, like gatefold LP covers, this one opens from bottom to top. Still, kinda cool that only the UK pressing has the gatefold and the inner photo.

I really, really shouldn't get sucked into collecting this one as there are a LOT of versions out there. But for some reason I just can't help myself. Hopefully at some point I'll manage to find a first press blue vinyl copy. I think that's my main goal for this record now.

Time For A Little Something

So whilst I'm temporarily back on the pop punk train, here's another 7" I picked up recently. This one is by Cringer called 'Time For A Little Something'.

I got into Cringer for the first time at the start of last year during my three month pop punk phase, which ended up coming around roughly 30 years since the band broke up. I wasn't exactly intending to collect their records, but when I saw this being sold by a seller who had something else that I wanted, I figured I would pick it up as the price was very fair.

This 7" was put out in 1991 by a label from Chula Vista called Vinyl Communications. The label put out some great records in the early 90s, and always made limited colour vinyl pressings, often with more than one colour. This red vinyl suits the cover art perfectly, and has an interesting black stain in it. Anyway, there are more Cringer 7"s to collect so I figure this won't be the last Cringer post on here.

Brouhaha

Back at the start of 2022 I took a 3 month journey back into the world of pop punk, and it was a nice reminder of how great some of those bands were (are). It also got me to thinking about some of the records from the early 90s that I used to want but never got around to picking up. A few months later and one of them fell right in front of me when I was pulling that old 'what else has this seller got for sale?' scam on discogs. You know how it works.

The 'Brouhaha' 7" compilation came out in 1991 on a label called Piggly Wiggly Records, best known for releasing this 7" and precisely nothing else. It's never been a particularly hard record to find, although the pink vinyl copies are the limited version and I never really found one for a price I wanted to pay until recently. I also got lucky because this one is in absolutely mint condition.

Back at the end of the 80s & start of the 90s there was probably a new compilation record coming out every other week. This 7" is a great example of how common and cool compilations used to be. On here we have 4 bands of the era who are all interesting in their own way. The record kicks off with Jawbreaker performing 'Caroline' (which I think was exclusive to this record until they released 'Etc' in 2002), and then we get both Cringer and Monsula covering each other's songs, and the fourth band is Nuisance, who are probably less well known but equally as great.

Overall this is a great little 7". Largely pointless in 2023, but cool to have nonetheless.

Downhill Fast

There are lots of records that I don't really think that I collect but for which I have several copies. You know what it's like... you pick up a copy and then you see another cool copy and buy that too, and one and on. And then all of a sudden you have a collection. And then you're left scratching your head and wondering why you have multiple copies of a certain record and where they all came from. And then you want to get even more.

I spotted this Posi Numbers edition of the Drug Test 'Needle In Your Neck' 7" for sale and knew I 'needed' it, because prior to buying this one I only had 6 copies of this 7".

This cover was made for Posi Numbers fest back in 2005. It's hand numberd out of 50 copies on the back cover. There are also copies on yellow vinyl in the same sleeve, but I'm unclear as to whether there are 50 sleeves total with some green vinyl and some yellow vinyl, or whether there are 50 green vinyl copies and 50 yellow vinyl copies. If I had to guess I'd say that there are probably 50 total with this sleeve, and an unknown number of each vinyl colour. But I'm not sure I'll ever know.

I last picked up a couple of Drug Test 7"s at the start of 2021, at which point I celebrated with a collection photo. This time around I couldn't be bothered. Maybe next time...

Freak Out

You can tell you're a record collector when you actively choose to buy a record on a totally impractical and stupid format. And what's the most impractical and stupid format of them all? Yup, it's the album released as a 7" box set. Presumably if you're the kind of person who just hates sitting down or being away from your record player for more than 3 minutes, then this is the format for you. For everyone else, however, this is a total pain in the arse. Yet whenever I have the choice between buying a 12" or a 7" box set, I'm choosing the latter every single time.

So I picked up a Samiam 7" a few weeks ago in a trade, and it got me going back to my old Samiam records, and I was really enjoying them. I used to listen to them a fair bit in the early and mid 90s, but at some point they vanished from my radar. So recently I decided to check out one of their older records that I never heard, 'You Are Freaking Me Out'. With a few plays I was singing along and then went to discogs to see whether there were any copies for sale... and I ended up coming away with this 4 x 7" box set.

'You Are Freaking Me Out' was first released in 1997. This 4 x 7" version came out a year later, and then it was two more years later that a 12" version appeared on the scene. So back in the late 90s your only option was this or a CD. Since then this has been pressed on a whole range of different 12" colours on a few different labels. On discogs there are 43 versions, of which 7 are CDs. Yet of the remaining 36 vinyl versions that exist, I plumped for this one.

Turns out that this is the second pressing. The first press was a black vinyl 4 x 7" box set. I could have bought one of those, but clearly this colour one is way better. Oh yeah, and it's also numbered inside the box out of a massive 2000 copies... which feels slightly unnecessary to me.

So of course, here I am all these years later getting sucked back into listening to Samiam, who look to have at least 4 more albums that I have never heard. Maybe I'll get to another one of them before another 25 years passes by. We shall see...

Post Ejaculation Depression

At some point recently I was scrolling the list of releases on the New Red Archives record label, and I came across the name of a band that I'd heard a friend mention a few months ago. The band was called P.E.D. and their LP, 'Post Ejaculation Depression' was released as New Red Archives catalog number 1 back in 1988. There was a copy for sale in the UK for only £5 still in shrinkwrap, so I figured I'd pick it up.

Considering the age of this record, it is in really great shape. Coincidentally I read a comment on a post this week from somebody saying that you should always take the shrinkwrap off, but I strongly disagree with that. This record feels like it just arrived fresh from the label, and I'm sure that the shrinkwrap is partly to thank.

I tried to find info online about this band, but to no avail. Pretty much the only thing I could find was that they were from New Jersey, and Rob Fish (from 108 / Ressurection / Release) thinks that they were great. Other than that... nothing.

This is a hard record to describe. It's hardcore but kinda goofy in some places, but super catchy in others. It definitely sounds a little dated, but I'm kinda into 80s bands so that's fine. It reminds me of the Ill Repute record that I bought last year. It's great fun. If you fancy checking it out, try the song 'Aye, Aye, Aye" The Pirate Said'.