Horror Stories

One of my current projects is to own at least one copy of every Dwarves LP. I already picked up a couple of them earlier this year, and have been keeping my eyes open for others. Last week I found a copy of their first LP on eBay UK for cheap, and decided that I probably would never find a cheaper one, so pulled the trigger.

This record is titled 'Horror Stories', and this copy is a first press copy on Voxx Records, released in 1986. It has different (and far better) cover art than the later pressings. I actually love the art of this LP, although I'm not sure I can explain why. It just looks cool.

As the photo on the back cover shows, they were a very different band back then. Even though this is the first Dwarves LP, technically it is the band's second album. The first was released under their original name of 'The Suburban Nightmare' (which I think is a pretty cool name, and actually better than The Dwarves). They had also moved from Illinois to California. So even two albums in, they were still experimenting and trying to find their place and style.

I used to own a second press of this back when I was about 17, although the copy I had back then was a second pressing copy with a different (and boring) cover. I bought it after hearing the band's two greatest LPs ('Blood, Guts & Pussy' and 'Thank Heaven For LIttle Girls') and I was both confused and disappointed by this thing. Time hasn't really changed my view. This is a pretty bad record. Interestingly, the young me decided that I did not need to own this and sold it, and the old me is now buying it back just so I can have a complete collection.

In Mass Mind

There are some bands that I have never been remotely interested in checking out for various reasons. One of them is The Make-Up. Yeah, I know that they are ex Nation Of Ulysees, which is a band that I think is pretty cool, but I always thought the name was lame, and either the photos of the band or artwork on whatever records I saw made me think that they were too 'artsy' and probably not for me. So why the hell did I just buy one of their records?

This record is the band's fourth LP, 'In Mass Mind', which was originally released in 1998. This pink vinyl version is a repress from 2023.

I bought this because someone who reads this blog regularly offered it to me for a very reasonably price. No doubt he figured that the Dischord Records and pink vinyl combination would be too much for me to resist. I wasn't overly keen on buiyng a Make-Up record, but it felt rude to say no. Plus, I figured that I would easily be able to sell it on for the price I paid if I hated it. So I took it home.

Given I had paid money for this and brought it into my house, I thought it only fair to give it a shot. So I cued it up and pretty much straight away found myself thinking that this was ok. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I had prepared myself for. It kinda reminds me of when I first heard Shudder To Think somewhere around 1994. Visually and musically they were not really what I was into at the time, but there was something alluring to them, and I had to admit that they were very cool. It's similar here, although the main difference is that I'm about twenty years late this time around. But yeah, this is a really cool record. I'm glad that I gave it a chance.

Big Chief

Here's another Sub Pop band that I got around to checking out recently. The band is called Big Chief and they were from Ann Arbor, Michigan, active circa 1989-1994. They had a guy named Barry Henssler on vocals, who used to be in a band you may have heard of called Necros. Anyway, I decided to listen to this band online, and cued up their first full length, 'Face'. Two songs in and I knew this was a band that I needed to get into. So of course I went internet shopping and found that their records are, in 2026, quite easy to come by and also quite cheap.

'Face was released by Sub Pop in 1992 as Sub Pop 147. As far as I can tell, this orange vinyl is the rarer version, with the rest of the pressing being black. It's a nice looking colour and matches nicely with the front cover art.

This record really reminds me of that early 90s grunge sound, and is similar to early Mudhoney. Just what I want from an early 90s Sub Pop release.

I also found a very cheap cope of the second album,'Mack Avenue Skullgame - Original Soundtrack'. I didn't think too much about this one before I ordered it. After hearing the first one I just figured that I needed this. The funny thing is that When it came and I checked it out, I realised that this one is very different to the first. With the gift of hindsight, the clue is in the title.

Similar to the first LP, there was only one colour vinyl pressing of this LP, which is this blue. The rest were black. And once again the vinyl colour is a good compliment to the front cover.

Here's what wikipedia has to say about this record:

Produced in Detroit with Al Sutton, it departs from the grunge sound the band were known for, instead reflecting the influence of 1970s Blaxploitation films and their funk soundtracks. Considered a funk album, it was also influenced by Detroit bands like the MC5 and contains a horn section, wah-wah effects and psychedelic blues guitars... The record is conceptual, serving as the soundtrack to a non-existent Blaxploitation murder mystery film projected by the band members which concerns a tragic love triangle between a pimp, a prostitute and a third character.

It's funny, because if I had heard this one first then I probably would have figured that this band is not for me and not checked anything else out. But after enjoying the first LP I had decided that I liked this band, so I gave this one a couple of extra tries, and bizarrely have started to enjoy it.

Pink Sliver II

It was getting on for three years ago that I picked up my first copy of the Nirvana 'Sliver / Dive' 7", which ended up kickstarting an interest in old Sub Pop releases, and which is a journey that I am still on. It also ended up starting me on a road of trying to collect different versions of this Nirvana 7", even though I figured that this was a path that I should probably avoid. The problem is that this record is just too collectible. And to prove my point, here is yet another copy.

So I was chatting to someone else who has a pretty good collection of this one, and it got me to looking around to see if there were any other copies for sale that I could pick up. I ended up with this second pink copy because it was cheap and it is technically different to the one I already have. The difference is quite subtle, although obvious once you understand. The 'second generation' pressings had additional text at the bottom of the label underneath the word 'Nirvana'. This wording relates to the pressing plant that pressed these, and reads 'Made in the U.S.A. by Erika Records (310) 926-8992'. So that's the difference between these two copies. Some small text on a label. Every other aspect of the records and the sleeves are the sane.

In theory my first pink vinyl copy is a first pressing copy, as it does not have the Erika text on the label. However, it comes in a glossy sleeve, which is a second pressing sleeve. It could just be a second pressing copy with first pressing labels. Or a first pressing in a second pressing sleeve. It's probably impossible to know. All I know is that I now also need a clear pink copy with a first pressing sleeve.

Just Lilac Heaven

Anyone who has followed this thing for a while knows that Dinosaur Jr are one of my favourite bands. I've had them in my life since about 1990 and never really grown bored of them. After a bit of a break they got back together (back in 2007 I think) and ever since they have carried on cranking out great records. I didn't bother trying to collect multiple copies of their last LP as there were just way too many versions, but I still have an eye on picking up copies that I don't have of the earlier releases. This lilac copy of the 'Just Like Heaven' 7" appeared for sale this week and as soon as I realised that I didn't have this colour I had to grab it.

There are a few colours of this 7", and also a few colours of the 'Freak Scene' 7" too, and I never remember which colours of each I am missing. But after this arrived and I went back to discogs to remind myself what the deal was, to find out that this now means I have all the colours.

That said, there is a variation of one of the above that I would also like to find. Just like a couple of the Black Flag 7"s, there's a version of the clear red vinyl with a small centre hole. So this collection isn't quite done yet.