Ultraman Vs. Godzilla

Over the last three years or so, a German label (Thirty Something Records) has been reissuing some Orange 9mm releases on vinyl for the first time. I was never really a big fan of any of the band's later records, because they originally came out on CD on a major label, and I was kept fully occupied buying records on independent labels. Years later, when technologiy had moved on, I downloaded the CD only Orange 9mm releases to listen to them for the first time, and at that point I wasn't overly excited by any of them. In my opinion, each successive release is less interesting than the one before. But still, even though none of them really ever made it onto regular rotation with me, I was still keen to pick up the records.

The third and final CD only release given the vinyl treatment is the 5 song EP 'Ultraman Vs. Godzilla'. This was first released in 1998.

Despite this being far from the best Orange 9mm release, the packaging on this vinyl version is pretty damn cool. I got a version which comes in an additional, wraparound style cover.

Like a lot of records these days, this is one sided 12", with a screen printed design on the flipside. For some reason, it kinda looks like a CD in this photo. Also, the back cover is hand numbered out of 200, although the label's website states that this version is out of 100. So who knows which number is correct.

When you open this additional cover, inside is a copy of the record in the regular sleeve.

For me this is the weakest O9mm record. By this point, original guitarist Chris Traynor had left, and the landscape was changing. My memories of 1998 are a little hazy, but I certainly remember that hardcore scene was fragmenting and moving in different directions at that point, and older bands on major labels didn't really have much of a place. But if this vinyl version would have come out back in 1998, no doubt I would have picked it up and given this record a real chance.

Spaced Jams

Quite possibly my favourite hardcore record this year has been 'This Is All We Ever Get' by Spaced. I immediately realised that I was going to have to pick up a copy of their first record too. At this point, there were three different colours that had been released by a US label (New Morality Zine) and also three colours that had been pressed by a European label (Genet Records). The US copies were sold out, and I wasn't overly excited by the colours of the Euro pressing. So as I was trying to decide what to do, a third pressing appeared. There were two colours available - yellow (100) and red (200). Given the cover art, I decided I wanted the yellow as it seemed the most suitable, but this was a RevHQ exclusive and only available in the States. And then a UK distro got some of the red vinyl, so I figured that would suffice.

Well, a couple of weeks later and I was ordering something else from a different UK distro, and lo and behold they had the yellow vinyl in stock. So I decided to order one, as this was my preferred colour.

I figured that the yellow was the most suitable colour as it similar to the band's smiley face logo, although the red goes quite well with the background colour of the cover.

So anyway, this record came out in 2022, and whilst it sounds similar to the new record, it's not quite as good. It's still a really good record, it's just that it isn't as good as the one that came out this year, which is hardly surprising. You can definitely tell that the band has got tighter in the time since this came out. But this is still a great hardcore record for sure.

When I bought the ywllow, I figured I would sell the red. But I haven't got around to it yet. If anyone wants it, let me know.

A Hundred Percent

I stumbled across this Sonic Youth promo 12" on eBay a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was kinda cool looking. It was listed for £10, which seemed ok, so I added it to the watch list. I then checked discogs, to discover that it wasn't hard to get at all, and that there was another copy for sale in the UK for only £8. So I let the eBay auction finish but didn't bid, and neither did anyone else, so it got relisted at a starting bid of £0.99. So with seconds to go I whacked in a low bid and won it for £3.31 (plus postage).

The song is called simply '100%' and was released in 1992 as a single from the newly released 'Dirty' LP. This was only a few months after Nirvana had released 'Nevermind', and Sonic Youth were now signed to Geffen. They were just one of many, many bands that got picked up in an attempt to cash in on the grunge explosion. The video even featured skateboarding (Jason Lee, Guy Mariano & Spike Jonze). Even though I never really got into Sonic Youth, I always had a soft spot for this song, and this record right here now represents 100% of my Sonic Youth collection.

This Is A War

Last year I was stoked on the debut release by Unified Action, a UK band playing old school 1980s styled UK hardcore. The debut 12" EP looked and sounded great. The band mainly came to my attention as it has Lins87 from Tied Down on vocals, and I really liked the 12", so when the same label put up preorders for a 7" up around a year ago, I was on it immediately. Somehow the label flaked for months and then the band managed to find another label to put it out, so I ended up getting mine about 8 months after I initially expected to. But you know what they say - good things come to those who wait.

The record is titled 'This Is A War' and comes on two different colours of vinyl, white and green, both being limited to 120 copies each.

I was also lucky enough to pick up a test press in an inverted cover, which is hand numbered out of 10 copies.

This is a really good follow up to the first 12". Five songs in seven minutes in a black and white cover probably tells you everything you need to know. Fast, no frills old school hardcore from the north east of England.

The label still has copies available to order HERE if this sounds like your thing (which in theory it should do if you're reading this in the first place!). Go get it.

Cornflower Blue

A couple of years ago I was stoked as hell to find a pink vinyl copy of the Fuel / Phleg Camp split 7". This record came out as the second release on Allied Records in 1990, and I'd had a black vinyl copy in my collection for probably 25+ years before I found out that colour vinyl copies existed at all. At the end of my post two years ago, I wrote 'I'll probably pick up additional colours of this one if the chance presents itself'. And here we are two years later, and I managed to unearth another copy. .

This one was listed as purple, although I'm not sure that I think this is technically purple. I asked Anna what colour she would call this, and she suggested 'Cornflower Blue', which I think is pretty much spot on.

Two years and two colours down, and I am hoping to eventually find more. There are at least 4 other colours to collect (red, white, blue and purple), but they aren't overly common. Hopefully when another reappears I will be able to grab it.

I love this record. Part of that is definitely nostalgia, but having listened to this again yesterday I'm convinced that the first Fuel song is not Fuel at all, but a secret Fugazi song. Yeah, that's right. Listen to it and tell me I'm wrong.

Clear Rage

Three years ago I bought two copies of the Green Rage 7". I'd always liked the record but never bothered to pick up additional copies. But seeing a couple for sale for relatively cheap, I figured I'd waste my time and money on them. But this meant that there was another copy that I wanted to pick up to 'complete' the collection. And then a year or two ago I managed to pick up a copy of that missing version. The only con was that I got it shipped to Nico to hold until a suitable time. Well, that time came this year when he came over to the UK for Outbreak fest, at which point he sent me a parcel of 7"s.

This copy comes on clear vinyl and in a full colour, glossy sleeve. I have no idea which pressing this is nor how many were made.

This represents my 4th copy of this record, and unless a test press appears on the scene, I think I'm now done with this one. Technically there are three other versions that I could go after, but I'm happy to stop here.

I listened to this again today. I think that it was around this point in the year (October / November) that I first heard this record back in 1994. I got a green vinyl copy from a friend in a trade (or maybe I bought it?) and that is now thirty years ago. Crazy. And just like I said whe I last posted about this record in 2021, I always thought that this was the best vegan straight edge record. I think it's the mix of the chugging guitars and the raw sounding recording, but it sounds really vicious. It still sounds just as good today as it did back then, and I'd still pick this over Earth Crisis every damn time.

Gas Huffer

Another band from the past that I used to listen to a long time ago, and then gave up on, was Gas Huffer. I was listening to them circa 1992 and they are one of many bands I abandoned when I got heavily into straight edge hardcore. But then last year I reacquired a copy of the Mudhoney / Gas Huffer split 7", and it reminded me of the band, and how catchy they were. I ended up downloading the old records that I used to own and I still knew a lot of the words over 30 years later. Funny how that happens huh?

Well, my recent drive to collect Sub Pop records also led me to the Gas Huffer 7" that came out in 1992. I am pretty sure that I originally bought one of these in Virgin Records on Oxford Street in London when it came out, but I sold that a long time ago. I'm also pretty sure that the copy I used to own was on blue vinyl, but the one I picked up this year is green.

This record only has two songs on it, but both are really catchy and a lot of fun. We get 'Hotcakes' on one side, and 'Beer Drinking Cavement From Mars' on the other. You can kinda tell from the cover art that this band is a lot of fun.

I was keen to buy back the albums that I used to own by this band after listening to them, but as seems to be the case with everything these days, it is practically impossible to buy the records for a fair price. I don't believe for a minute that anyone really cares too much about this band in 2024, but try telling that to fools who sell on discogs. However, but a stroke of good fortune, I popped into Celebrated Summer Records in Baltimore earlier this year, and they had two used Gas Huffer albums for $15 each. These were not records I had been previously been familiar with, but there was no way I was going to not buy them. The first, 'One Inch Masters', came out on Epitaph in 1994, which was after I had stupidly given up on the band.

Seems kinda crazy that this band was on Epitaph in 1994. That was the year that Green Day blew up, and Offspring released 'Smash', which was pretty instrumental in making Epitaph the huge success that it is today. Gas HUffer, on the other hand, managed to stay below the radar with this record.

Another fun thing about Gas Huffer was that each of their albums came with a comic book. The band apparently illustrated these themselves, and they are full of lyrics. Some copies seem to be for sale without the comics, which makes me wonder how people manage to separate things from records once they have bought them. I mean, surely you just keep the comic book inside the record sleeve, right? Fortunately the comic was included with this copy I bought.

The second album that I bought was 'The Inhuman Ordeal Of Special Agent Gas Huffer' LP. This one was also released by Epitaph in 1996. I'd also never heard this one, or even been aware it existed.

And thankfully, this one also comes complete with the comic book.

I generally don't like getting more than one album by a band at the same time. That's partly why its taken me a few months to getting around to posting this. I wanted to get around to listening to each properly first. I listened to one for a bit, and then recently started listening to the other. My conclusion is that I was mad to ever give up on this band, because their songs are super catchy and just a lot of fun. For example, one of the songs is about someone having their appendix removed at sea, and then it being thrown overboard. Another is about trying to find out what is inside someone's bag. Total nonsense, but lots of fun.

If you've never heard this band and fancy giving them a chance, I'd suggest simply starting with 'Hotcakes'. It's a pretty good representation of their sound and attitude.

There are 4 more albums that I will need to hunt down. Two that I used to own, and two I had no idea existed. I'm sure that they will come in time.

Live Through This

Almost exactly a year ago I posted about a Hole 7" that I picked up. This was the beginnings of my Sub Pop obsession which has dominated my record buying this year. I really enjoyed the two songs on that 7", and kinda figured that I'd end up buiyng at least one more copy, as there are about ten colours to collect. So here we are and here is another one.

And after liking these songs, I downloaded a couple of their albums, which I have also really enjoyed this year. But I was surprised at how much the albums cost these days. I had always considered that Hole were a second rate band, only really popular because of the obvious link to Nirvana. But I think that these days, in a world where any form of nostalgia is bought and sold at a premium, it seems that Hole records cost quite a lot of money. Well, the colour vinyl copies do. But then I noticed there is a recent repress of the second LP on a nice looking colour vinyl that is for sale at new release price, so I figured that would do. For now at least.

'Live Through This' came out in 1994 and is probably the band's most well known record. Back then I was getting stoked on Chain Of Strength, Outspoken and Judge and feeling that everything else I had previously been into was weak and mainstream. So I would not have cared one bit for this record back then. So it's kinda crazy to think I am listening to this for the first time thirty years after it came out and that I now seem to be into Hole. But there's no denying that this is a really good record. It's definitely a little less aggro than the first album, and has a bit more melody. I'd say this is an 'alternative rock' record, whereas the earlier material is angrier and more 'punk'. But this one is without doubt a more mature and variend record, and one that is far easier to sing along to.

Take Back The Night

I've been grabbing a few bargains recently on eBay. Well, maybe not 'bargains' exactly, but I've managed to buy things cheaper than they would usually sell for on discogs. This is a great example. 'Take Back The Night' is one of the later Dwarves albums, released in 2018. By my count, this is their 11th studio LP. I actually gave up on this band years ago, after the release of their 6th LP, 'Come Clean', in the year 2000. At that point I realised that they weren't quite the same band I fell in love with back in 1992 and decided to ignore them. But somehow they have carried on going and continued to churn out records, and even though I thought I wasn't overly interested, I saw this on eBay for relatively cheap and decided to buy it.

I have no idea on the pressing info for this record, but it doesn't feel that red vinyl is particularly rare. But I am pretty sure that this is a first press copy.

The biggest surprise about this record is that it's really, really good. I mean, obviously it's not on a par with 'Blood, Guts & Pussy' or 'Thank Heaven For Little Girls', but it is really good. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but the guitars sound really strong on this, and some songs sound kinda hard. This has been a getting a lot of play the past week or two and now I'm more interested then ever in trying to track down more of the later Dwarves albums that I have ignored over the years.

Misshapen World

A couple of years ago I bought a record by a band called Sinking, which I found out about from a promotional postcard that I received inside a parcel of records. At the end of that post I wrote this:

It also now turns out that they have just released another 12" EP for which there are less than 200 copies total, with 25 copies coming in a nice Rival Schools rip off cover that are long gone. Damnit. I get a record I am stoked on and then it leads to getting bummed out that I missed another.

Well, two years later and I got lucky, and got a copy of the second record with the limited cover. The record is called 'Misshapen World' and came out in 2022 on Patient Zero Records. It's a 5 song 12" EP (with three live songs on the flipside) that clocks in at around 16 minutes, and continues in the same vein as their first record with a hint of Mineral & Sunny Day Real Estate style mid 90s emo.

As is often the case, the limited cover is a folded sheet stuck over the top of the regular sleeve.

It's kinda cool to see a Rival Schools rip off sleeve, rather than some older 'classic' record... although that said, 'Unified By Fate' is now itself 23 years old, so I guess by definition it probably is fair to consider it a classic by now.

I don't listen to too much stuff that sounds like this these days, but this is really good. After a quick look it seems that both records are still available from the band's bandcamp page, which I am surprised about. But could be good for you if this sounds like your cup of tea.

Anthropocosmic Nest

A few months ago Nico told me that he had just ordered a new record by The Messthetics. He seemed quite excited about it. I only had one question - who the hell are The Messthetics?

Somewhere I missed the memo, but it turns out that The Messthetics is a band that features two members of Fugazi (Brendan Canty & Joe Lally) plus some other dude. That information was enough for me to check them out, and within about 5 seconds I was super into it. I made a mental note to pick up a record at some point.

Anthropocosmic Nest is the band's second album, from 2019. Clear vinyl is a second pressing, which I am ok with as the first press was black vinyl only.

So without wanting to ruin the surprise if you have never heard this band, there are no vocals. This is kind of like a funky Iceburn update. The record starts out so strong and fast, but then slows as it goes on. The second half is definitely very chilled and quite heavily jazz influenced. Once you get the first couple of high energy songs out of the way, it's perfect background music for when you need to concentrate on something. I see that the first album has also been repressed on clear vinyl so I hope to pick that one up too at some point.