Electric Flower Circus

So it would seem that there is just time for one last post in 2014 before the clock resets and it all starts again.

Just like the Supertouch live LP that I posted a few days ago, this post has taken me a lot longer to get around to than it should have due to the difficulty of getting some half decent pictures. Lack of light is a constant issue at this time of year. In the end I had to use a different background just to get this post done.

When Give put their 'Electric Flower Circus' LP up for pre-order a couple of months ago, I messed up. I imssed out on the colour vinyl copies, which sold out in a day or so. But then it was announced that a European label was also releasing it, so I made sure to get on the case quicksmart. Adagio 830 was extremely efficient and had these things mailed out to people across the world within two weeks.

The cool thing about this European press is that it has a different cover to the US version. I love this cover. So simple, yet looks so good. There were 100 copies on green and 400 on black. I got the green. It's pretty dark and I struggled to get it to show up in the pics.

I grabbed a second copy of this one for trade purposes as the US colour vinyl was sold out. If anyone gets an extra US copy and wants to trade for one of these then get in touch.

White Lights

Back in 2010 I picked up a couple of records by a band called Frontier(s). The main attraction was that it was Chris Higdon's new band. Dude used to sing in Falling Foward and Elliott, both of which I loved when they were active, so when I heard he had a new band I was keen to check it out. I ended up going to see them play in London in early 2011 too. They were a great find back then, although I probably haven't listened to them at all in the last three years if I'm honest. However, when I heard they had a new record coming out, I was keen to check it out, as I had assumed that three years of silence meant that they had broken up.

The new record is a 5 song ep called 'White Lights', and was released in Summer this year on a label called Tiny Engines. Unfortunately, it now appears to be completely sold out. I picked up a grey vinyl copy, of which there are 150 copies.

This release continues where they left off previously. I said before that this band sounds halfway between Elliott and Falling Forward, and I stand by that. I don't listen to much stuff like this these days, and because of that I've been enjoying this. It gives me a nice break from the stuff at the heavier end of the spectrum.

Delayed Reaction

So I placed an order for a couple of new React! Records releases a few months ago. The release date seemed to get delayed a little, and then my order seemed to go out later than everyone else's. Oh, and I got sent a partial refund, as they had sold out of one of the records that I had ordered. All in all it felt like a bit of a journey for these to get here.

The main point of interest when I placed the order was the Keep It Clear 'A Lesson That You're Gonna Learn' 12". I was quite excited about this one. I ordered all three colours available for pre-order. However, the smoke colour somehow sold out so I got a refund for that one and just received the 'maroon' (which looks like a burnt orange to me) and black.

I was less excited for the Praise 'Lights Went Out' LP, although I ordered it because I felt like I should try to keep up a little more. I had picked up their first 7" when it first came out, but was never overly excited by it. I orderd one copy of this LP and received the blue vinyl.

It also comes with a cool little zine about the history of the band.

What's funny is that I was way more excited about the Keep It Clear record, yet I have ended up listening to Priase a lot more. The Praise LP is a real grower. It seeed a bit dull at first, but I stuck with it and then reached a point where it got better with every listen, and I'm still very much in that zone. It definitely deserves a place in the best of the year list.

Get Involved

There was quite a lot of anticipation earlier this year for a Brotherhood release that Southern Lord were putting out. Test pressings were sold before anyone knew exactly what was coming out, and then teaser pictures of a three coloured record were put up on the label's facebook page. It felt like a lot of people were excited to see what was coming. Well, everyone except me. I already have a pretty good Brotherhood collection, so felt like I could probably get by just fine without owning some kind of reissue. So I didn't bother to order any of it.

Well, then what happened? The same as always - every man and his dog started posted pictures on instagram of their new Brotherhood records, and all of a sudden I wanted in on the action. Unfortunately, at that point, I had missed out and the colour vinyl copies had all sold out, and I cursed my stupid decision to pass on this record. Idiot.

But then Jeff sent me a secret link to the Southern Lord store where the limited colours were still for sale. You couldn't access this link from the front end of the Southern Lord website, but it allowed you to buy the (apparently sold out) limited vinyl colours. It seemed like I was being offered a second chance, so I gladly took it.

All copies of the LP came sealed in a poly sleeve with a sticker on the front to indicate which colour vinyl was inside.

Once the poly bag was opened, I realised that each LP has a piece of paper folded over the top of the sleeve to tell you what it is.

The most limited colour is the 'Seahawks' vinyl, out of 300 copies.

The red vinyl is out of 600 copies.

The red vinyl copies come with either a red or blue vinyl 7" inside. Mine was red. It does seem pretty stupid to do two different colours of the 7" and put them both with the red LPs. I mean, why not include two different 7"s with two different colour LPs? Surely that would make more sense. Anyway, as I didn't want to buy two red LPs I left it there and didn't bother trying to pick up the version with the blue vinyl 7".

All copies of the LP come with a glossy 7" sized booklet inside which has lots of photos inside, as well as a weird and pointless write up by Nate Mendel. Surely Greg Anderson would have been far more appropriate?

The blue vinyl version was exclusive to Revelation Records. After picking up the other two colours, I figured there was no logical reason to not grab this one too. Like the red vinyl, there were 600 of these things.

So that was that. Three copies deep after intending to buy none. Good job, dipshit!

Protester

I first read about the Protester 7" on Chris's blog a couple of months ago. Something about his post made me want to check the 7" out, so I went to the Protester bandcamp and gave them a listen. I was instantly into it. It was inevitable that I would then buy a 7".

The cover looks like something that someone would doodle whilst on the phone. It's hardly high quality artwork. But nevertheless, I really like it. Simple, but effective.

This reminds me of all my favourite bands from the 00s era. Kinda like all the best stuff from Bridge Nine, Malfunction and Dead By 23 all rolled into one band ten years later. Really good stuff. Wish I'd been early enough to bag one of the tour press covers. Speaking of which, if anyone has one, please send me a pic. I'm just curious as to what it looks like.

Now Is Still What Matters Now

Back in June this year I picked up a new Gameface LP, 'Now Is What Matters Now', which was pressed by a European label called Redfield Records. Well, when I had ordered the Bane LP from Equal Vision, I couldn't help but add their version of the Gameface LP to my cart too. And when I was in the EVR store picking one up, I noticed that they were also selling some test pressings of their latest vinyl releases, and I couldn't resist picking up one for the Gameface LP. EVR now make their own test press sleeves with the EVR logo printed on the front, which is a nice touch.

The EVR press was/is 500 copies on grey vinyl. That's it. No black, no other colours, just 500 on grey.

There was also a Gameface 7" that came out as a teaser for the LP, but I only got around to picking it up with the LP. Not much to say about this one, other than it has one of the worst covers of all time, as you can see.

Can't Get Ahead

Pretty sure I'm the last person in the world to receive (and post) their last Painkiller order. But I'll make up for it some other time. This pre-order went up and I jumped on it quicksmart. The main point of interest was the new Violent Reaction 'Dead End' 7". Just like Mike, I placed my order immediately, and got one of the colour vinyl pressings that is not very colourful at all. Most copies I have seen on instagram are a camo green kinda colour, but mine is a greyish marble mess that is difficult to photograph.

I do like this colour, solely for the fact that it appears to be a rarer variant than the green. But at the same time, and because I am an idiot, I am keen to also find a green copy.

Well anyway, when this went up for pre-order, so a new 7" from Step Forward went up at the same time. Knowing how much the first one still sells for eight years after it came out, I made sure to grab one first and think about it later. And just like the first 7", this one comes on a crystal clear vinyl... although my copy looks like it's been playing football down the park with its mates - it has what looks like a dirty grass stain in the middle.

The funny thing is that I have never owned the first Step Forward 7" before. Doug used to rattle on about it on Vinyl Noize all the time, which helped keep the price up, especially as he used to blog about every copy that appeared on eBay. So I had little chance of grabbing a copy at a bargain price, and every time I thought about bidding on one it always seemed to climb to a price higher than I wanted to pay. But recently I finally found one for a reasonable price and pulled the trigger. This is such an awesome 7", and although I am stoked to have grabbed the second 7", it pales in comparison to this one.

I had also added the second press of the Magic Circle 7" to my cart, although had pretty much forgotten about it until the parcel arrived. The first press of this one came in a plain paper sleeve, so this second press puts things right with some fancy graphics:

I actually prefer the back cover to the front. Those cartoon boobs are almost as good as the real thing.

I Am King

I couldn't help but notice how many people posted pictures of the new Code Orange LP on instagram recently. It was everywhere. I'd never had any interest at all in checking the band out previously, but the sheer volume of photos of this record made me curious. So I went to some website or other that was streaming it and gave it a chance. And wow, fuck me, this was a powerful and interesting record. I listened to it one evening and after it finished, I immediately went to grab a download. I then listened to it a few times over a few days, and then decided that I was going to invest in a vinyl copy. Of course, I wanted the most limited colour, which is white, and I managed to find one for a bit less than the going rate.

One of the early photos I saw on instagram, someone had left the comment 'Ham King', which made me laugh.

It's hard to describe what this sounds like. It's heavy and chaotic with weird song structures. I can't really liken it to anything. But what I can say is that this is really unique and interesting, and fully deserves all the attention it has been getting. I imagine it will be in a lot of peoples' 'best of 2014' lists.

This record was released by Deathwish Inc, and the pressing info is even more insane than the Cold World LP that I posted about last week. There are 340 on white, 736 on black w/ green mix and a mind-blowing 6360 on opaque green... which adds up to a total first pressing of 7436 copies! Will be interesting to see if they get around to doing a second pressing or whether seven thousand is enough.

Don't Wait Up V

Another strong contender for the record of the year is Bane's fourth (and final) LP 'Don't Wait Up'. I've already posted about this record four times, and had amassed seven copies, including a test press of the German version. Well, I then became aware of three more versions, so started trying to track them down...

First was the US white vinyl pressing on Equal Vision. This was a weird one. EVR sold out of the blue vinyl and yellow vinyl copies at pre-order stage, and there was no mention of any other copies being available from the label. It was listed as being sold out. But then a couple of distributors got copies, and it turned out that these were on white. I grabbed one from Deathwish, along with the Cold World LPs I posted about a couple of days ago.

The next copy is more of a mystery. It all started with a photo that someone posted online. Some kid had a copy with a 'yellow vinyl' sticker on the front, but the record was a blue & white swirl vinyl. The internet gasped and then stood around looking puzzled in a typical 'what the fuck?' moment. Next up I caught a glimpse on instagram of a photo of a sealed copy with a 'blue & white swirl vinyl' sticker on the front, which suggested that this was a legitimate variant rather than a mis-press or transition copy. The race was on to find one. In the end, and as often seems to be the case, I just plain got lucky, and someone offered me one.

So that's nine copies and there are yet more out there. I still need a black vinyl copy of the German pressing, and also an EVR test press. I imagine that one of these will probably be a little easier to find than the other...

Cold World 'How The Gods Chill' LP

Here's another record that will undoubtedly feature in my 'best of the year' list - the new album by Cold World. This is slightly confusingly called 'How The Gods Chill'. The reason it's slightly confusing is because Cold World released a 12" EP about three years ago which was also called 'How The Gods Chill'. I mean, why would any band recycle the name of a record when the two records didn't even have any songs in common? Anyway, aside from that small gitch, this is a damn solid record.

Judging from the pictures on the sleeve, it seems that how the gods chill is by walking their dogs on the train tracks and sitting in puddles:

... and by putting water pistols in their mouths:

There are four colours of this thing out there, and I managed to bag three of them - blue, clear and white:

The pressing info on this thing is pretty crazy. 300 on opaque blue, 720 on clear and a whopping 3136 copies on white vinyl. Also, not pictured (because I don't have one) is a clear blue of which there are 328 copies. So in total across the four colours, there are 4484 copies of this LP. Now I don't know about you, but these seem like pretty high numbers to me, and really shows the popularity of vinyl in the current day. Pretty cool huh?