Days Of Morning Light

Are you the kind of person who enjoys listening to The Smiths, The Cure or perhaps Ceremony's 'The L Shaped Man' LP, then you would probably be into The Living Memories. I first stumbled across this band two years ago when Mike posted about their first record 'Home Truths' in such a way that got me interested. He hated it, but I figured it sounded well worth checking out, and true to his description, I loved it. So when they dropped a second record last yaer, I was all over it.

The 'Days of Morning Light EP' came out at the beginning of 2024 and was put out by Living Sounds, which as far as I can tell is the band's own label. It's a pretty limited pressing generally, with only 50 cpies pressed on red vinyl, so I grabbed it right away.

I played this a lot in a short space of time, and then one day decided to email the label to see if they had any spare test presses that they could possibly sell. After a few messages back and forth, we agreed a deal, and then eventually (monthy later), I got the record. I should add that the label sent it right away, but I only just recently got around to collecting it.

I asked if the test came in any kind of sleeve and was told no, so I asked if there were any spare 'regular' sleeves laying about. So it was cool that I got one. Tests with a sleeve are always cooler than those without.

Well, when I decided to buy the test I then decided that it would seem weird to not also by a copy of the other colour. There were 100 copies on yellow vinyl, and for a good price it felt like it would be rude to not grab one.

I'm not entirely convinced that many people have latched onto this band, but if you're into the idea of a US based version of The Smiths in the modern day then this is the band for you. I have played the hell out of this over the past year, and to date I haven't tired of it.

Despite there being only 150 copies of this pressed in total, there are copies still available HERE. If you trust my judgement then you should probably grab one.

Never Enough

A new Turnstile LP just dropped and I was determined to learn from my mistake when the last record came out. When 'Glow On' came out in 2021 I had no idea how big the band had become, and the colour vinyl copies sold out lightning fast. The black vinyl copies also went quickly, meaning that I wasn't able to pick up a copy until almost two years later. So when I heard that there was a new record dropping in 2025, I got my preorder in on the first day, assuming that the colour vinyl would be gone in a couple of hours.

When it came to placing an order, there were 6 colours available to choose from, with no pressing info published. I decided to buy based on what colour would look the least ugly. But that seemed difficult to tell from the mock ups. So in the end I decided to buy two while I had the chance, thinking that I would then sell whichever looked the least attractive and no doubt make a tidy profit in the process because all colours would be long sold out.

The records came in a week ago on the exact release date.

When I ordered, I thought that the green would look the best, but I actually think that the orange one looks far nicer in real life. However, my main dilemma is that according to the pressing info posted on discogs, the orange is the most common colour that there is, being out of 10,000 copies. So as ever, I'm not sure what to do here. Oh, and one thing that I have noticed about different colours of this record that I have seen posted on instagram, is that most colours appear to have some weird square pattern in the vinyl that is visible when held to the light. The green one has it. I'm curious as to what is causing this. Could it be something to do with the machines that this pressing plant are using?

So far I'm enjoying this record, although I'm not convinced it is as good as the last two. There seem to be a few too many slow, trippy tunes that keep the pace down. And even though I know that Turnstile have moved way beyond being just a 'hardcore' band, this could be a step too far away. I'm not sure though. It's probably too early to tell. But without a doubt this is going to be getting a lot of play over the next few weeks and will end up being a big part of my Summer 2025 soundtrack.

Ultramega OK

Last year my most played record was Soundgarden's 1994 'Superunknown' LP, which I finally got into 30 years after its initial release. This then pushed me into listening to more Soundgarden records, and pushing the ones that I don't own further up my wants list. When I saw a colour vinyl copy of their first LP, 'Ultramega OK' on ebay UK, I knew that I wanted to make a play for it. I watched it for a few days and then threw in a last second bid. Initially I thought I might get it for a bargain price, but at the climax I ended up paying more than I thought I would have to. But still, I got an almost perfect copy.

This LP came out back in 1988 on SST Records. Like a lot of the more popular SST releases, this one originally came on black vinyl but then got repressed on colour vinyl in the early 90s. There are three colour vinyl versions out there, and I would have been happy with any of them, as I have never owned a copy of this LP previously.

For a record that is 30+ years old, this copy is in great condition, still in the shrinkwrap and with the 'color vinyl' sticker still attached. I used to hate these stickers back in the 90s because I thought they looked tacky, but over time I have grown to love them, to the point where if a record comes on colour vinyl but does not have the sticker, I'm less interested.

What's also interesitng about this copy is that it has a small insert. It seems generally pretty rare for any SST releases to have come with any kind of insert other than an SST catalog.

I'd never really spent much time with this record previously as I'd always thought it was sub par. But having revisited it recently, I can safely say that I was wrong... just like I was with 'Superunknown'. Oh, what a fool I have been.