Glowing Spazz

Back in 2016 there was a new Descendents album released, and at the time it seemed like a big deal. 'Hypercaffium Spazzinate' was the first studio album that they had released in 12 years, and I was keen to try to collect every version of it. I initially picked up 5 copies and then a year later got another two copies. At the end of that post, which is nearly 7 years old, I wrote this:

I'm still missing the glow in the dark vinyl copy of this record, which is annoying as hell. But at 7 copies already, I'm not losing sleep over it. It'll come one day.

Well, that 'one day' has finally arrived, and I have picked up a glow in the dark copy.

According to the info on discogs, this is one of the three most limited colours, being out of 500 copies. I tried to get a photo of it actually glowing in the dark, and this was the best that I could do:

So one thing that is interesting abotu this is that, little did I realise it at the time, but back when this LP came out in 2016, things in the record collecting world were changing. With hindsight, this was one of the first records to have lots of different colours of vinyl, with each one being available from a different vendor, meaning that anyone who was stupid enough to try to collect all copies would have to place multiple orders and pay multiple postage costs. In recent years I have decided that this practice is shitty, and I refuse the collect records that are sold in this way. So, in accordance with my current policy, I am going to keep this copy and sell all of my other copies.

If anyone wants to buy any one of the other 7 copies that I have, get in touch.

9th And Walnut

It's been a while. After being ahead of my scheduled 10 posts a month work rate for most of the year, the last couple of months have seen a total slow down in both blogging and buying records. The main reason is that I haven't had many records recently due to focussing on other things. But I have recently found myself losing interest in records for the first time in many years, for a few reasons.

Well anyway, I finally got around to picking up a copy of the new Descendents LP '9th & Walnut'. This was released by Epitaph Records a few weeks ago. I was already annoyed at preorder stage by the endless number of colour vinyl options available, so didn't bother ordering one at all. But after downloading the record and enjoying the songs for a few weeks, I was naturally drawn towards wanting a physical copy. So I ordered this white vinyl copy which arrived today.

Of all the colours I have seen for this, the white seemed quite a good match for the artwork. Plus it was still available to buy, which helped the decision making process. And even though the many vinyl colours that exist for this thing are apparently all out of the same pressing quantity of 500, I have seen fewer photos of the white one than some of the others, which somehow makes it feel rarer even though it isn't.

This record is an interesting one. I think I have this right, but these are all old songs re-recorded by the original line-up. I think the music was recorded years ago, and then Milo recorded the vocals recently. I wasn't so into it at first, but after a few listens I was really enjoying it, like all other Descendents records.

That said, there's a lot about this that I don't like. For example, the fact that mine has some dumbass sticker on the back that covers some of the artwork, and that won't peel off easily. But mainly it's that there are already 12 different colours of vinyl, and it's nigh on impossible to buy one and get much change out of £30. I guess this is modern record collecting, and it has sapped pretty much all of the fun out of the game. I stupidly got sucked into collecting several copies of the last LP, but that isn't happening this time. Game over.

Happy collecting!

Suffrage

The calendar may have ticked over into a new year, but I still have a few things from last year I didn't get around to posting for various reasons. So 2021 begins with a few bits leftover from 2020.

A couple of months before the end of 2020, and around the time of the US election that Donald Trump won via a landslide, people started posting what I thought was a Descendents meme, with Milo in the guise of a ballot box. A few weeks later, it turned out to be the artwork for a new 2 song Descendents 7". 'Suffrage' contains two songs, both lyrically based around the theme of the 2020 US election.

There were two colours of this one pressed. This is the more common colour, out of 2000 copies, although I think it looks nicer than the rarer colour, which is some whack grey swirl thing.

I have mixed views on this record. The songs are pretty catchy, and also pretty angry. I get the distinct impression that the Descendents are not fans of Donald Trump. I think what puts me off though is simply that this is based on a theme that will date pretty quickly. In a couple of weeks the US will have a new President and it won't be long after that Trump will start to feel like a distant memory. So outside of the current time I think these songs just won't feel relevant anymore. But I'll enjoy them for now.

Who We Are II

I vaguely remember when I started collecting Descendents records a few years ago. Finding one of their records felt like a rarity, and as such it was kinda exciting. I remember how stoked I was to grab 'I Don't Want To Grow Up' on red, and 'All'on blue. Those were exciting records to buy. These days, however, any excitement has been well and truly beaten out of me by endless pressings of new releases. Yet still I consume. I was hugely underwhelmed with the clear vinyl euro pressing of the 'Who We Are' 7" on clear, but still decided to add a red copy to my collection.

This one was for the States, and is on a better quality vinyl (or so it feels), plus it actually came in a poly bag. But yeah, it doesn't really interest me in the slightest I'm afraid.

Who We Are

So Descendents released a new 7" for RSD 2018. It wasn't the most interesting looking record of all time. A pretty art-less cover and a black vinyl 7". It didn't particularly excite me and I wasn't going to chase it. A few months later and I noticed that it had been repressed on colour vinyl, so I decided to pick one up.

There are 3 different colours of vinyl (and black). Clear is the euro pressing out of 500. I bought this one because it was the cheapest copy I could find.

I found this quite disappointing aesthetically. I mean, first up, the cover art is pretty dull. Let's be honest, it's not even art. It's text. Then secondly, it's on bad vinyl. The 'clear' is a kind of misty clear that looks cheap. Kind of like the stuff the euro plant used to pump out in the early to mid 00s.

What irritated me most, however, was the lack of a poly bag. I know, I know, this sounds dumb, but bear with me. This 7" came sealed in shrinkwrap. I sliced one side of it open to take the record out. And then I noticed that the inside of the sleeve contained the lyrics. So I then had to take the shrinkwrap off completely to unfold the sleeve.

So basically this is a fold over sleeve that comes with no poly bag. I mean, seriously, why? Are Epitaph now so focussed on profit that they needed to save spending an extra $0.02 per record on something for the owner to store & protect it? Especially when they already saved the art budget by not having any.

Anyway, rant over. It's a Descendents 7" containing 3 new songs. It's good. It's just a shame that it doesn't LOOK better.

Hypercaffium Spazzinate Part 2

So almost exactly a year ago I posted on here 5 copies of the Descendents 'Hypercaffium Spazzinate' LP. Five copies, five pretty boring colours. Here are two more that are a little more interesting.

First up, the clear green. I struggle to remember, but I think that this was the US pre-order colour. It's a nice deep clear green... although the photo isn't great. It was shot with my old phone.

And this next copy is the Hot Topic exclusive colour. It's a clear, light blue. I think some people refer to it as 'coke bottle clear', although I can safely say that I have never seen a coke bottle this blue in all of my life. But hey.

What this post shows quite well is that my new phone camera is about ten times better than the old one... although I do still struggle with light issues. It's always either way too bright, or not bright enough.

Anyway, I'm still missing the glow in the dark vinyl copy of this record, which is annoying as hell. But at 7 copies already, I'm not losing sleep over it. It'll come one day.

Hypercaffium Spazzinate Part 1

So unless you've been living under a rock, you'll be aware that there's a new Descendents album which has just dropped. I think it would have been possible to miss either of the last two albums when they came out, but in the modern era I think it's pretty much impossible to have not noticed this one. It's called 'Hypercaffium Spazzinate' and is actually the first Descendents record to have been released since I got into them. The last LP, 'Cool To Be You', came out way back in 2004 when I was not into Descendents and when record collecting was in a different place. In 2004, for example, Epitaph didn't press anything on colour vinyl (save a couple of exceptions) and Fat Wreck saw fit to press only 197 copies of 'Cool To Be You' on color vinyl in total - the rest of the press was black vinyl. In 2016, however, the world works differently and within a week of the new album's released, Epitaph had pressed 8 different colors of vinyl (plus some on black too).

When the pre-order launched I got sent an email containing a link to a special pressing on glow in the dark vinyl. I was on the way out for a walk, and figured I'd order when I got home. Unfortunately, however, by the time I got home it had sold out. I saw this as a sign that there was going to be a lot of interest in this record, so made the decision to immediately order the other versions that were available. These were as follows:

1. 'Clear with black swirl' vinyl. This was the pre-order version from Kingsroad Merch in Europe.

2. Green / black swirl vinyl. This was exclusive to two stores in Europe (Green Hell and Flight 13). I got mine from Flight 13, which is why it has the extra orange sticker on the front.

It does look almost black in the photo, so here's the photo I put on instagram just to prove that it is in fact green:

3. Clear green vinyl. This was the pre-order color available from Kingsroad Merch in the States, but I don't have this one yet.

So that was that. There were four colours made, and I had missed one. I figured I'd get one eventually. But then, when the official release date arrived, there were suddenly 'new' colours being talked about. My approach to life is generally all or nothing, and seeing as I was already down the path to 'ALL' (se what I did there?) then I was left with no choice but to pull the trigger on the additional copies. These were as follows:

Silver / black swirl vinyl. This was the UK indie stores exclusive. No idea how many were made.

Red vinyl. I think this was available in both the States and Europe, but limited to 500 copies. No idea if this is rarer than other colours.

White vinyl. This was the US indie stores exclusive (big thanks to Mike for picking one of these up for me!).

So there you go. That's 5 copies I have, on possibly the most boring looking colours of vinyl I have ever seen. I did take a group shot but it looked so dull that I just deleted it. There's also a clear blue vinyl which is a Hot Topic exclusive, and there's also now a rumour of another blue, although I havent seen a picture of this and currently think it could be just confusion caused by people referring to the Hot Topic version as either 'coke bottle clear' or 'clear blue'. I don't know. But I have all copies covered now except that glow in the dark, which I could have ordered immediately if I hadn't have been confident that it would still be there an hour after I received the email. Ugh.

Clear To Be You

It's funny, but around the time I started collecting Descendents records it seemed that vinyl in general started getting really popular again, and repressing older releases on new colours became a new trend. Kinda cool in a way, because if I had started collecting these things a little later I would have missed out on some represses and had to track them down on eBay or discogs. The other way of looking at it, of course, is that it's kinda shit because I got sucked into buying all these bloody represses, which I may have avoided if I had felt there were too many to chase when I first started.

This latest repress, as pictured here, is a clear vinyl repress of the final Descendents album 'Cool To Be You'. It came out on Fat Wreck Chords in 1997 and, until this colour got pressed a couple of months ago, the original colour (blue) vinyl version of this record was the rarest (and thus most expensive) Descendents record out there. Not sure if the price of that one will now go up or down as a result of this clear repress. Either could happen.

My copy initially looked like the labels hadn't been put on correctly as they weren't properly lined up. But then I realised that the labels were put on right, it's just that one side has an extra label stuck on top. Nice to have something a little quirky.

So I still badly need a purple vinyl reissue copy of 'ALL'. I'm starting to get desperate. It only came out in 2011, and there were loads of them about, yet for some reason it seems impossible to find. Help!

Everything Still Sucks

Last weekend I received a box containing 80 records, and during the week I moved house. I'm now settled in and can start blogging my way through three months worth of records. I'm gonna try to post every day until I clear the lot...

So I'm starting with a couple of recent-ish Descendents represses. A couple of months ago a purple vinyl copy of 'Everything Sucks' appeared. Then a few weeks after that, an orange pressing surfaced. I was forced to pick up both. They continue the tradition of having a small round sticker in the corner to denote the vinyl colour.

The purple is the usual clear purple that looks black unless you hold it up to a light source:

I saw something somewhere which said that purple was out of 700 and orange out of 300. Not sure I believe it to be honest. And who really cares?

All I need now is the purple vinyl repress of 'ALL' and I can take the ultimate Descendents colour vinyl photo. Still hoping to get one before the year is out...

Cool To Be Blue

When I set out to collect Descendents colour vinyl LPs, I don't think I realised how tough this one would be to find. It's taken me something like 4 years to get this thing. The problem has been two-fold. Firstly, this is probably the rarest of all the Descendents LPs. There were only 197 copies on blue vinyl. Secondly, this is on Fat Wreck Chords, and some of the kids who collect Fat Wreck stuff are almost as crazy as Revelation collectors. And thirdly (even though I said the problem was two-fold), this is a colour vinyl Descendents record. You add these factors together and the chances of picking one of these things up is slim. Fortunately though, I like a challenge. So here we are, finally. 'Cool To Be You' on blue vinyl. Done.

I always thought that when I got one of these I would then be able to post a picture of a complete Descendents colour vinyl LP collection. But like a fool I missed out on the purple vinyl reissue of 'ALL' a couple of years back. There were loads of them about and I planned on ordering one direct at some point, but by the time I finally got around to it they were sold out, and for some reason they don't seem to come up for sale. Obviously I badly want one so that I can take a collection photo. Hopefully it'll happen before the year is out.

I'm The One

Here we go again with another Descendents 7". This one was released in support of the 'Everything Sucks' LP back in 1997. For some reason though, this 7" was only released in Europe. I have no idea if they were all on blue vinyl or not. But this one seems quite hard to find and doesn't pop up too often. Seems crazy to me given it's an Epitaph 7" and they probably made like 10,000 of them or something.

I got a really good deal on this one. I guess everyone was asleep. In the last few months this has sold for $130 and $79 in the States, and £40 in the UK. I got mine for about £11 on eBay UK. I guess I got lucky because according to popsike this has never sold for as little. I'm happy as I thought I would never get this as I didn't want to pay much for it simply because I perceive it to be some mass produced piece of crap. So it worked out well in the end.

Liveage!

Slowly but surely. That's the way I've been collecting coloured vinyl Descendents records. I've been slowly adding them since 2009. So here's the latest - a blue vinyl copy of their first live LP 'Liveage!':

I've never really understood why there SST Records released two different live Descendents LPs. I just searched the internet, and found something about this record on wikipedia which, if correct, explains what happened. It tells me that this LP was recorded during their 'FinALL' tour (the tour in support of 'ALL', which at the time they thought would be their final tour as Milo was leaving to pursue a career in biochemistry. Two years later they then later released a different group of live songs from the same tour as the 'Hallraker Live' LP. I guess there was just demand for Descendents records, despite there not being any new material. These days we'd probably call it a 'cash grab'. Ha!

There's only a couple of colour Descendents LPs I am now missing. I need one of the purple/brown represses of 'ALL' that came out a year or two. I can't believe I actually missed those. Surely someone out there must have one of these they can part with? The other one I need is a blue vinyl copy of 'Cool To Be You', which (unfortunately for me) seems to be the rarest and most expensive Descendents record out there. Still, the end is in sight, and I'm really hoping that I can finish this collection off in 2014.

Descendents Bits & Bobs

Today I'm featuring a few new additions to the Descendents collection. Nothing too exciting. I'm just slowly chipping away at the block.

First up is a weird one. This was released on a label called Sessions Records back in 1997 and features two 'songs' recorded at the same time as the 'Everything Sucks' LP. The first song was a b-side song on another 7" - the 'When I Get Old' 7" (which I also picked up recently) and the flipside is an instrumental song that featured on the end of 'Everything Sucks' but as a 'secret' (un-named) song. So all in all this is a pretty pointless record.

Next up I bagged two extra copies of the 'Merican 7". I previously picked up a blue copy and a white copy, both of which were from the second press. I picked up a red vinyl copy, which is from the first press and is out of 522 copies:

I also picked up a clear blue copy. The blue vinyl was from the second press and is out of 218 copies.

The interesting thing about the blue vinyl is that there are different shades. I previously picked up a blue which was very dark clear blue. This new copy is a much lighter shade. Here are the two together which really shows the difference:

There are also some opaque baby blue copies out there. They seem rarer to me. I can tell it's going to be a tough find. I'm now looking for one of those too.

Finally, I picked up another color of the 'Bonus Fat' 12", this time on green vinyl. This is a repress from last year (or possibly the year before):

I picked up a grey vinyl copy almost a year ago. Here's the two together to show the colour difference:

I'm still in need of a blue vinyl copy of the 'Cool To Be You' LP. On the off chance that anyone reading this has one that they want to let go, get at me.

When I Get Old

I was pleased with myself recently for bagging a bargain. I watched one of these Descendents 'When I Get Old' 7"s end on eBay.com a couple of weeks ago for $49. Kinda funny to me that it could go for so much, as this just looks like one of those cheap, mass produced records. No doubt when this came out it was in every record store in the world for a standard 7" price. Now, it sells for a lot even though it looks awful. I guess that's how it goes. Anyhow, I said I got a bargain. About 24 hours after the $49 copy sold, another copy ended on ebay.co.uk, which I won for £8.50. That translates to about $13.50... which is clearly significantly cheaper than $49. I was feeling pretty good about this, until the record arrived in what I can only describe as 'dipshit packaging', resulting in badly bent corners.

The record looks like cheap plastic in normal conditions. But holding it to the light it takes on a life of its own and makes for a much more interesting photo:

Unfortunately, due to the condition, I now need to find another copy. Ugh.

Descendents 'Merican 7"

It's been quite a while since I picked up any Descendents vinyl. There are only two colour LPs that I need now but unfortunately they seem pretty hard to find. On the positive side though, there are a few 7"s out there, none of which I have.

Or rather, I didn't have any. Now I have two. Here are two versions of the 'Merican 7" on Fat Wreck. This was originally released in 2004, which was before I was even a Descendents fan. The first colour vinyl pressing of this was on red vinyl, which I think was pressed back when this was first released in 2004. The copies I have just picked up, however, are (I think) re-pressings done a couple of years ago. They're more limited than the first press on red though just to keep things interesting.

The first copy is on clear dark blue vinyl. Blue is out of 218 copies.

Mine has a big dirty black smear in it.

The second copy is out of 233 on white vinyl.

Just to make it annoying, some of the blue vinyl copies are on a different colour, being a solid baby blue vinyl. I actually have no idea if this is some kind of transition colour (between blue and white) or a separate pressing. But they're definitely harder to find. Plus there are nearly as many first press red copies as there are blue and white copies put together, yet somehow the red seems to come up less often. But whatever the pressing info, I'm sure that the pesky Fat Wreck collectors aren't going to make this collection an easy for me to complete.

Bonus Flag

At the start of the year, SST records repressed a couple of Descendents records on colour wax. 'ALL' came out on purple, and 'Bonus Fat' on grey and green. They were literally all over eBay. I planned to do an SST order and pick up those and the Black Flag colour reissues all in one fell swoop. But time passed and I didn't. All of a sudden, the Descendents represses were gone. Oops! But just recently I managed to track down one of them - 'Bonus Fat' on grey.

This really is the worst and most pointless Descendents record. It combines two 7"s onto one 12". One side is full of joke 30 second songs. The other side is the debut 7" which sounds like a different band. Not even a good band either. Some whackass surf type band. Atrocious stuff. Ride The Wild? Hardly. But you know how it is - if you're going for the full collection then you have to own the rough with the smooth.

At the same time as picking this up, I also grabbed another copy of Black Flag's 'In My Head' on a different brownish color. This is one of the dumbest purchases I have made. I am convinced that these were pressed on scrap vinyl, as there are many different shades of colour. It would be completely futile to try to collect them, as probably every copy is different. Yet even knowing that, I just bought another one. I have to stop now else I am going to end up with ten copies of this and ten copies of 'Loose Nut', which will ruin the collection and cause major imbalance... although I have seen a yellow one which does look kinda cool.

If anyone has a handle on where I can get a purple vinyl copy of 'ALL' please let me know. They probably pressed 500, so there must be somewhere I can get one without having to pay over the odds. Anyone?