Frank

Here's another one that I brought home a year ago and have only recently got around to properly checking out, largely due to the mess that my record room has been in for months...

My last post mentioned my trip to the New Jersey record store (and record label), Sky Valley Records. As well as the Christ discography, I also picked up a 7" by Sunstroke titled 'Frank'.

The 7" is a tribute to Frank 'Skip' Candelori, the singer of Turning Point (and Godspeed, Memorial Day and Twelve Hundred).

This is a two song 7", with one song being an original and the other being a Memorial Day cover. And, quite unusually for a 7", the sleeve is gatefold.

When I went into the shop I figured I would buy a copy of this 7", but somehow I ended up coming away with five. I was struggling to decide which colour I wanted, and in the end Chuck did me a deal for five. What's funny is that when I entered these into my collection on discogs, I realised that there are two other colours that were not offered to me. So now I'm in a weird place where I can't decide whether to buy two more to be 'complete', or to potentially get rid of some. The eternal dilemma.

I also managed to buy a test press. Or rather, two test presses. Chuck explained that each test press came on a different colour of vinyl, and he had two spares. So for some reason I ended up buying both of those too... and also being given a t-shirt that apparently came with each test press.

Slightly annoyingly, the next day Chuck sent me a message to say that he had forgotten to give me the covers for the test press. They should come in a rip off of the 3 LP that Dischord released. Despite a couple of attempts to get in touch with Chuck in recent months to get hold of those test press covers, I haven't had any luck. Hopefully one day I will get them. If so, I will post them up here.

Christ

Here's another one that I brought home a year ago and have only recently got around to properly checking out, largely due to the mess that my record room has been in for months...

This time last year I took a short trip to the States and one day ended up visiting a New Jersey record store called Sky Valley Records, which is owned by a guy called Chuck Miller. Chuck used to run a label in the 90s called Temperance Records, which is probably mainly remembered these days for being the label that released the Turning Point / No Escape split 7" and the 'Rebuilding' 7" compilation (that featured Gorilla Biscuits, Burn, Turning Point and No Escape). Well, a few years ago Chuck started releasing records again, and is now running a small label with the same name as his shop, i.e. Sky Valley Records. I bought a few records from him the day that I was in his store, and even though I mentioned only two posts ago that I was trying to avoid buying discographies, one of my purchases was a discography of a little known band called Christ.

For those of you who have never heard of Christ (which I am guessing is pretty much everyone reading this), they were a band from Philadelphia active around 1996-1998 ish. Members were also in other 90s bands that only a small handful of people in 2025 still give a shit about, such as Prema, Autumn, I Hate You, Genuine & Grip. Temperance put out two CD only releases by Christ in the late 90s, and I bought one of them at the time just because it was on Temperance. The label's press release mentions comparisons to Engine Kid, Black Sabbath, Sunny Day Real Estate and Drive Like Jehu, which almost sounds like they are trying to cover all the bases, but I can absolutely hear elements of all of those bands here.

This 2 x LP forms a discography that compiles the songs from both of their 2 CD EPs that released way back in the 90s (one of which I still have in a crate upstairs, the other I never owned nor heard before) and their demo. I had a vague recollection of the two songs from the CD I have, but I have listened to this a lot more in the past month than I ever listened to the CD I own in the past twenty something years.

One of the songs here is 16 minutes long, which sounds ridiculous, but is without doubt my favourite on here. As I wrote this post, I listened to that song and then when it ended I put it on again. To have a single song that is longer than some hardcore LPs is in itself an achievement.

Anyway, I can see why Chuck wanted to press this discography to vinyl all these years later and hopefully bring Christ to the attention of people who have never heard them before. This truly is an unknown gem from a period when things were starting to splinter into various sub genres and scenes, but I can see that this band could have been popular with many of them. Well worth a few minutes of your time to explore if you're looking for something other than generic hardcore.

Big Cupcakes

Here's another one that I brought home a year ago and have only recently got around to properly checking out, largely due to the mess that my record room has been in for months...

This one seems like a slightly strange record to bring into existence. This is a reissue of two different records that were released many years ago on one handy 12" disc. However, where this seems slightly odd is that it brings two different artists and releases together.

'Cupcakes' by Gameface was originally released by Dr. Strange Records in 1997 as a 3 song 7" and a 5 song CD. It was an 'in between' record, being released smack in the middle of the four year period between the release of the 'Three To Get Ready' and 'Every Last Time' LPs (which are, in my opinion, their best two records). In 2023, Dr. Strange reissued 'Cupcakes' as a 12" with an extra song tagged on the end from some obscure compilation that I had never heard of before.

When it came to placing an order, there were about 5 colour options available, all of which were out of 100 copies. I decided to only order one copy.

Where this then gets a little weird is that the b-side of this record is a reissue of a solo record by Gameface singer Jeff Caudill. There were 5 acoustic songs put out on a CD by CI Records in 1999, which I believe was Jeff's first solo recording. There is also an additional song tagged on the end of this side of the record too, which was previously only available on a lathe cut 7". Also, interestingly, the original artwork from this CD features on the inner sleeve:

So one 12" featuring two different records by two different artists, using the title and same cover art as one of the two releases. Overall, an interesting concept I suppose, although I feel that I would have preferred if each were released separately. But maybe I'm just overthinking it?

(P.S. For the avoidance of doubt, I love both of the original releases, but I just find it weird to bundle both together on one record)

C.R. In Forty Six Songs

Here's another one that I brought home a year ago and have only recent got around to properly checking out, largely due to the mess that my record room has been in for months...

I decided some time ago that vinyl discographies are not for me. I used to end up buying discographies of bands that I had liked for many years and whose records I already owned anyway, and for the most part discographies didn't have anything extra to make them 'essential'. So I sold a few a couple of years ago (Brotherhood, Turning Point, Unbroken, Undertow and maybe a couple of others that I forget) but as things go in the world of record collecting, it's easy to break these self imposed rules when something interesting gets dangled in front of your eyes.

In 2023, the C.R. discography, 'The Compassionate Revolution In Forty-Six Songs', was pressed to vinyl for the first time. It was originally released on CD back in 2001, which was only 3 years after he band had broken up. I think this was supposed to come out many years ago, but the people invovled were busy for ten years or so and it kept getting put back. Anyway, when it went up for order I had initially decided that I didn't need it. I have their original LP (which accounts for 25 of the 46 songs) and figured that was enough for me. But then after successfully ignoring the preorder and then not getting overly excited by the photos that got posted once people started to receive their records, the label put some really limited versions up for sale, and it was at this point that I got sucked into placing an order.

This version is known as 'Aquarium Splatter', and there were only 25 made. Usually I hate splatter vinyl, but actually a big part of that is due to most splatter vinyl coming out of the Czech plant which always looks like cheap plastic to me. But when you get splatter from a good quality US plant it looks different. So to me, this splatter version actually looks pretty good.

Both the back cover of the sleeve and also the inner dust sleeve are stickered with 'Aquarium Splatter (25 made)', presumably in case you may forget which version you bought.

C.R. was never really a big band on my radar and they're pretty far from my list of favourite bands. They play songs that are short, fast and intense. The average length of a song here is about one minute (25 are less than one minute, 21 are over one minute, the longest is 2:50 and the shortest 0:09). I find this style tough to listen to at times as it is full on and relentless, but when you are in the mood for something like this then this absolutely hits the spot. If you're not really familiar with C.R. then all in I think that this is a pretty good record to have in your collection and probably a rare case where a discography seems to be a really good buy.

Blue Presence

My record room was a total and utter mess. Pretty much all of the records that I have bought over the last two years just ended up on the floor in various piles, all of which had some kind of meaning. But it reached a point a few weeks ago where I was looking for something and absolutely could not find which pile it was in, and it was driving me craxy, which provided the motivation I needed to sort the mess out. So I recently spent quite a few hours over several evenings tidying up.= the room, and this also unearthed a small pile of records that I brought back from the States almost exactly a year ago that I hadn't listened to or put up on here. So I figured I should work my way through those next.

II am starting the backlog with this record by Bluebird titled 'Black Presence', which is presented on blue vinyl.

This record was originally released back in 2002 on CD format only. This vinyl pressing was put out in 2022 to mark the 20th anniversary. I purchased it in 2023, picked it up from Geoff's house in 2024, and here I am listening to it and writing about it in 2025. What a journey!

So most people know Bluebird as a band who once had a 12" on Revelation. Back when that record came out in 1997, I'm not sure that anyone who regularly bought records from Rev had a clue who the band was. The same is probably true today. I'm not sure I know of anyone who bought that record and liked it. Well anyway, Bluebird's bandcamp describes them as a 'Power-psych-punk-experimental band from Los Angeles, CA, USA'. I'm not going to disagree with that. This record sounds absolutely nothing like the other records of theirs that I have heard. This is more of a slow and gentle instrumental record. The bandcampe description of is as follows: 'A 10-part collection of hypnotic and amorphous, mostly instrumental tracks, featuring a wide range of guest musicians on largely improvised songs'. It's kinda like the mellower moments of Iceburn. This is actually a really 'nice' record, although definitely one for listening to late at night when trying to relax, or as working from home background music, rather than gym motivation.

Cat Butt

Last year I got really into early Sub Pop releases. It was a really fun time for me, discovering lots of bands I had never heard before many years after they existed, and picking up a bunch of cheap 7"s. I ended up buying 64 Sub Pop 7"s, but at some point I knew that I would turn my attention the 12" format. One of the early 12"s that I had somehow never heard of until 2024 shot straight to the top of my want list, based purely on the band name alone... Cat Butt.

This 12" is titled 'Journey to the Centre Of' and was released by Sub Pop in August 1989 with the catalogue number SP41. The first 1,000 copies were on green vinyl.

Cat Butt (sometimes written as one word, Catbutt) was a band from Seattle active from 1987-1990. They are absolutely from the same era and scene that spawned 'grunge' and this sounds like a text book example of a grunge record. I've done some internet reading and it seems that they were pretty popular in Seattle back in the day and apparently toured with Nirvana, Tad and Mudhoney... although I have no doubt that all of these bands played with each other week in, week out back in the day.

Anyway, there you have it... Cat Butt. Instantly the best band name in my collection.

Rev 200

It became apparent a couple of years ago that Revelation had reached the 'Rev200' catalogue number, although we quickly saw this number surpassed. New Found Glory 'Make The Most Of It' was Rev199, but then Planet On A Chain's 'Boxed In' appeared as Rev201... and then came releases from Morning Again, Big Laugh, more Planet On A Chain, Calling Hours, Spaced and Paint It Black took us to Rev215. It felt that whatever was allocated the 'Rev200' catalogue number was somehow stuck in the system somewhere, and I pretty much forgot all about it.

And then almost without warning Rev200 appeared at the back end of November last year. It was announced that the label had decided to reissue Judge's infamous 'Chung King Can Suck It' LP. There was a lot of online chat about this, and I wasn't sure what my thoughts were, but a few months later and I'm a little clearer where I sit with this. Overall, I still find it a slightly odd decision, given that this isn't a real record (i.e. it's essentially a rejected version of 'Bringin' It Down' LP) but I don't have any issue with it. And I really like how they inverted the artwork so that this one could never be confused with the original, making this reissue a kind of different record entirely.

I also like how the inner dust sleeves are covered in the Judge hammers logo. It shows that they were ok with spending a little bit more to make this a bit more special.

The only thing that I was surprised about was the number of versions pressed. The first pressing was 4 different colours, and then we got a second press colour, and then a third press colour too. And here they all are:

Shown above are:

Clear w/ black marble (Rev exclusive /250)
Pineapple (Generation & Coretex exclusive /300)
Bone & Purple (Retail exclusive /700)
Clear blue (/1000)
Black & White split (2nd press /1000)
Olive Green (3rd press /1000)

I'm not sure why, but it feels that it would have been more appropriate to press this on only one colour. Maybe two. Sure, make like 5,000 copies, but ending up with 6 different versions (so far!) slightly detracts from this being a cool reissue. But I'm sure a lot of people would disagree.

Also, for anyone who is curious, despite this having been remastered, it still doesn't sound anywhere near as good as 'Bringin' It Down'.

Caution Is Advised

A couple of years ago I decided to slow down on the Integrity collecting as it felt like it was just incessant and increasingly expensive. I have definitely slowed on the newer releases / represses, but that doesn't mean that I am completely out of the game. Even though I own a crazy number of Integrity test pressings, I always wanted some of the Victory Records tests. And finally I have one.

I won this test press of the split 7" with Psywarfare on eBay. This came out on Victory in 1996 as a picture disc, and contains two songs by Integrity - 'Sarin' (which was included on the 'Seasons In The Size Of Days' LP a year later) and 'Learn How To Die' which was not (and isn't really a song, more of a noise track).

There are also two Psywarfare 'songs' on here. I'm not sure I have ever listened to the Psywarfare side. I'm sure I must have played it once back when this came out. It's not my thing. It's not even music. It's literally just noise.

In getting the picture disc out for these pics I had forgotten that this came with a sticker on the pvc sleeve which is slightly amusing:

A fun fact about this record is that when I visited Erika Records back in 2022, they had a copy of this picture disc pinned to the office wall. I was surprised to see a copy of this given that this pressing plant cranks out millions of records per year, and does a lot for major labels, including Elvis and One Direction records. So it was kinda cool to see an Integrity record on the wall.

I had always thought that the test press for this was relatively common. I was convinced that I had seen a few over the years. But upon receiving this I went to discogs and there is apparently 1 person who owns a copy. Me. And according to the Victory discography that I referred to in my last post, there are only 5 copies of this test press. So it's much rarer than I thought.

Blue Snapcase

I've always said that you have to have patience to collect records. Sure, you can pay silly amounts and buy a lot of rare things quickly, but the real fun is just waiting, sometimes years, for things to pop up for sale. A few years ago I madea conscious decision to collect as many different versions of the first Snapcase 7" as I could find. I last picked one up in 2021, and here we are four years later and I have managed to find one of the elusive blue vinyl copies.

I had seen the blue vinyl a couple of times over the years, but I knew that this one was much rarer than most of the colours. So when one popped up for sale I grabbed it without hesitation. This now takes my collection to five copies.

I stll have an old Victory discography which states that the pressing info of this record was as follows:

1003 Red
  460 Opaque Yellow
    85 Lime Green
    51 Blue
    12 Orange
    44 Transparent Yellow-Orange
    38 Yellow
      3 Opaque Yellow-Black
      8 Opaque White
      8 Clear

The thing that never made sense to me about this pressing info was that there are 460 'opaque yellow' (which is the one I have) and then there are also apparently '38 yellow' without a clear explanation of how the two colours differ. Also, there are a lot of copies with the second press glossy sleeve with red lettering in clear yellow vinyl (as per my picture) but these do not seem to be included in the pressing info, so I assume the above info is for the first pressing only.

Realistically, there is probably only one more than I have a chance of finding, which would be a 'transparent yellow-orange' in a yellow sleeve. Other than that, the rarer colours are stupidly rare. A white or a clear would be great, although at this point seems highliy unlikely. But hey... never say never.

Upgrades

So back in the 90s I used to just try to obtain the rarest version of any record I liked. One copy was fine. If I bought a copy and then later had the chance to pick up a rarer version, then most of the time I would let the more common version go, either by trade or sale. And then at some point in the early 00s my approach changed, and I started collecting multiple copies of things. But with the way that record collecting has developed in the last few years, I find myself drifting back to my 90s approach of 'one copy will suffice'. This is partly because there are way too many different versions of some records pressed these days, and partly because so many are pressed on cheap plastic that looks like shit.

Well anyway, reverting back to my 'one copy is enough' approach has also made me want to be a little more picky on which one version I want to own. And just like in the 90s, I recently found myself wanting to replace the 'common' versions that I had bought with rarer versions. I guess sometimes I just want the satisfaction of knowing that I have something that is a rarer than the one that most other people have.

Towards the end of last year I picked up the Chat Pile 'Cool World' LP. It's a really great record. And even though I liked the clear blue vinyl copy I bought, I then checked out the pressing info and realised that it was quite a common version and that the rarest copy was still available. So I just decided to just buy it again.

Checking discogs, the pressing info on this record is insane. To date there are almost 13,000 copies of this record pressed, with 23 different versions available. Absolute nonsense. The blue version I originally bought looked nice, but was out of 1000 copies. This 'eco mix' (aka grey) version is out of 100 copies. So its rarer, and it seems like a more suitable colour to me compared to the artwork, so replacing the blue with this one feels like a win / win scenario.

Next up, High Vis 'Guided Tour' LP. I preordered this and bought what I thought was a nice, limited version, which turned out to be one of the most common. I then decided to buy this orange vinyl pressing, which was exclusive to some store in California and one of the most limited colours of 'only' 400 copies. Just like the Chat Pile record, this version seems more suitable when compared the artwork, and is rarer, so has a much more deserving place on my shelf.

And finally, a blue vinyl copy of the Strike Anywhere 'In Defiance of Empty Times' record. I bought a white vinyl copy last year and even though this record isn't that great, I figured it would be a smart move to upgrade my 'most common' white vinyl copy for this rarer and much prettier blue vinyl copy.

The added benefit of upgrading these things is that I can (and will) sell the other copies I bought, which makes the upgrade process much cheaper.

I have lots of records in my collection that I have wanted to upgrade for years, and I'm starting to think that this could be a good project for this year. Let's see how it goes...

Poison Oranges

Last year Revelation Records made a couple of limited records for the New York City Tattoo Arts Convention, which took place on 26 July 2024. Record nerds like me were panicking about how they were possibly going to get their hands on these thngs, as they were quite limited and only available in NYC on a specific day. I would say that I was in mild panic mode as to how I was going to get hold of them, but thankfully in the end I had a little help and I managed to get one of each for very fair prices. I'm gonna say right off the bat that one of these is a lot more exciting than the other...

First up is Rev 42, which is the Into Another 'Poison Fingers' 7". This was always a great 7", with one song from their second LP 'Ignaurus' and two other exclusive songs which absolutely should not be missed. It was originally released in 1995, with 4000 copies on black vinyl and 300 on purple. And here we are 30 years later with another purple vinyl version, only this time there are only 100 copies and they are on purple glow in the dark vinyl.

The labels are also plain white and one side is stamped with the date of the event, which I think is a nice touch.

At first this appears to be a nice purple vinyl, but if you beam some light onto it, it starts to glow, and it then becomes apparent that most of the record is actually clearish glow in the dark vinyl, but there are purple whisps that make it look purple in regular light. But the more that the light level drops, the more apparent it becomes that this isn't really purple vinyl at all. This next photo shows it in low light with some of the glow coming through:

And this next photo shows it in full on darkness:

Without doubt this is one of the coolest looking records I have ever seen, and I'm still surprised that Rev only seem to have made 100 copies. I really thought that they would have made more, potentially with a couple of hundred other copies with regular labels or in a slightly different sleeve, mainly because pressing just 100 copies of something is never cheap. But if they have made more, they've been sat on them for a long time now, which has forced the price of this up quite high. Between discogs and eBay I found evidence of 4 copies selling for over $200, which in a way is not surprising, but makes me very happy that I had a little help to get one.

The second record sold was a yellow vinyl Orange 9mm. This is basically just the latest pressing (of 536 copies) on yellow vinyl, but 100 of them come in this screen printed plastic sleeve, which isn't overly exciting. Not surprisingly, the price of this one hasn't really skyrocketed too much, so you should be able to find one for a reasonable price if you want one.

This one slightly worries me from a storage perspective, as these mylar sleeves do tend to rip quite easily around the edges. I'll be placing mine into an additional poly sleeve for added protection.

Apparently this tattoo convention is going to be an annual event going forwards. From a record collecting point of view I really hope that Rev don't get sucked into providing something rare every year. Even though these records are cool, I don't think my stress levels could handle it.