Sonic Bloom

So I thought I'd take a break from my pop punk nostalgia phase and post something else for a change...

It's been quite a while since I gave the band GIVE any real thought. I spent some time today reading all my previous blog entries for their records, and two things kinda stood out to me. FIrstly, that I own a shitload of Give records and, secondly, that it's been over ten years since I got into them. Looking back, it seemed that they put out a bunch of great 7"s, then an LP which seemed way too long and everyone kinda lost interest. Then they put out another couple of 12"s with songs that were outtakes from the LP recording session, and then they called it day.

The band's second to last release before they called it a day was the 'Sonic Bloom' 12", released by Revelation. At the time this came out I was pretty disappointed as it contains 5 songs, two of which had been released a few monhts earlier on their full length. But listening to it today, I enjoyed it a lot. Anyway, I picked up a test press. Apparently 10 exist.

This one definitely made me feel that I have been missing Give for a while. Aside from the overly long LP, they have a pretty flawless catalog. It's a shame they called it a day before putting out a second full length, but that's the way it goes I guess.

Give Me More RSD 2017

Earlier this year Give announced via instagram that they had a couple of records available on Record Store Day. As with previous years, these things were only available at one shop in the whole wide world (Joint Custody Records), making them pretty hard to get for someone who lives approximately 3700 miles away. However... the difference between hard and impossible is a thousand miles wide...

The first record is the band's first release - the 'S/T' 12" on Moon Flower Records. Apparently they 'found' 25 copies leftover, so put them in a plain black sleeve with a sticker int he top right corner. Looks pretty cool if you ask me (although was tough to photograph on a black background!).

The second record was the 'Boots Of Faith 7" with a limited 'Anthony Dye' cover. This 7" was their second release, back in 2010, so I'm guessing these are also 'found' (or leftover) copies.

I'm glad that they made this because this 7" was, until now, the only one of their 7"s that didn't come with a limited cover featuring one of the members of the band on the front. So now it finally fits nicely into the series.

Overall, a slight con that these 2017 RSD releases are just old records in different covers, but hey, that's what record collecting is about. And with there being only 25 copies of each of these records in existence, I'm very happy to have them.

The Cult

Earlier this year Lockin' Out Records released the 'Electric Flower Cult' 12" by Give. It contains 4 songs recorded at the same time as their last two releases (the 'Electric Flower Circus' LP and the 'Sonic Bloom' 12") as well as a re-recorded song from their full length. It was quite a surprise to see this pop up on Lockin' Out Records... although in a way it's not too surprising if you think about it - the band has released 10 different records on vinyl, all on different labels except for two (the 'Electric Flower Circus' LP and their first 12" both came out on the band's own label - Moonflower Records). And because Lockin' Out color vinyl sells out in two minutes flat, I ordered one right away.

The funny thing is that MOST Lockin' Out color vinyl sells out in two minutes flat. But not all. Because this record on gold vinyl is still available from the Lockin' Out store as I type this. I'm guessing this is because fewer and fewer people seem to care about this band as time goes on, rather than because the label pressed a few thousand too many.

I eventually got into their full length, although I have to agree with Mike that Give is better in smaller doses. The LP was just too long. This record, however, is a much more digestible length. The one thing I am intrigued by is what's next for Give...

We Are Love

It seems like only yesterday that Give appeared on the scene with their fancy flower imagery slapped over everything. It seemed new and interesting, as did their Swiz-like sounds. But it's been 6 years ago now since that they appeared, and in the time since they've released quite a lot of records. And especially after the last LP, it feels to me like people are losing interest.

Well, when people start to lose interest then I see it as an opportunity. One of the items I have been missing for nearly 4 years now is the 'Singles Going Confetti' 12" with limited sleeve. Back when I saw them play in 2012, they were selling their newly released 12", and I bought a yellow vinyl copy and was happy... until I discovered that I had somehow missed out on the limited cover version.

There were 110 copies with this limited cover and on yellow vinyl with black swirls. Some were sold by the band on tour, and some were sold via the label directly. The giant flower logo looks perfect blown up to this size, don't you think?

When I was a kid I used to think that 8 was my lucky number. I guess some things never change.

If anyone else is looking to offload any Give records, I'm still looking for a pink vinyl copy of the 'Electric Flower Circus' LP. Email me if you're looking to sell.

Give Again

I'm sat here watching the 'Salad Days' documentary and thought it would be the perfect time to whack up this post about a modern day DC band. If you read this thing regularly then you probably remember seeing a few records by GIVE over the last few years. Heck, you probably even remember a few versions of their 'Electric Flower Circus' LP in recent months. Well, guess what? Yup, I got a couple more of the damn things. Both are pretty cool variants, and even though I don't really feel that I need four or five versions of this LP, I don't see how I could do without these two as both are super cool in their own right.

As we all know, Record Store Day is a pile of crap, but this year there was one thing that I wanted badly - a purple vinyl copy of 'Electric Flower Circus' with limited sleeve. The only problem was that this was only available from one store in the whole world - Joint Custody in Washington DC, which is approximately 3650 miles away from my house, and probably a little too far to venture to buy a record. So I was very kindly assisted by fellow Give collector Chris, who lives a great deal closer.

This version comes in a photocopied sleeve featuring another part time member of the band, Azriel Nathan Mendoza.

At this point I'm starting to wonder exactly how many temporary members of Give there are. I must have at least 5 records with limited covers featuring temporary members. And some other dude played guitar with them when they toured the UK this Summer. In fact, at this point I must be just about the only person not in Give.

The record itself looks like black vinyl in the above photos but as I said, it's a dark, clear purple. There's only really one way to showcase the colour:

The second version is a special Spanish version that was made for a tour of South America this year. This is the regular US version of the record but in a special sleeve and with special insert made by Amendment Records. This is a cool item. It's basically the same sleeve and insert as the Euro press, but with everything translated into Spanish.

The back of the sleeve is hand numbered out of 150 copies:

The only thing that slightly lets this down is that it uses the same vinyl as the US press, including the labels. So whilst someone has gone to a lot of trouble to translate everything into Spanish, the labels give away that this is a prime piece of American vinyl. And there I was about to award them ten out of ten for attention to detail. They'll just have to settle for nine I guess.

I've pretty much lost count of how many copies of this record I have bought now. But I still need a blue vinyl and a pink vinyl vinyl copies. The pink especially seems almost impossible to find. There are 100 copies out there but it seems that nobody who has one is selling. Surely someone must be starting to tire of this band now as they've been around for an age in hardcore terms. If so, sell me your pink vinyl.

Give Stuff

It seems to me that a few people have given up collecting Give records. And who can blame them? It seems there are more every other week, to the point where it's starting to get annoying. Well, unless you're me of course, in which case it's still a bit of good fun.

The first record of this post is the Revelation released 'Sonic Bloom' 12". Despite still really enjoying Give, this feels like the most pointless of all their releases. It has five songs, of which two were on the 'Electric Flower Circus' LP, which came out first. So really this is a 12" for three songs. Or in my case, three 12"s for three songs... which doesn't seem to represent good value for money.

I also managed to find a yellow vinyl copy of the 'Live' 7", which I missed at pre-order stage because people actually cared about Give records back then.

And finally, it's the second press of the Euro pressing of the 'Electric Flower Circus' LP on purple vinyl. I think this marks the fourth copy of this LP that I have bought, and there are another couple on the way.

If anyone is interested, I have a couple of spare Give records. I have the above purple copy of the LP, a first press Euro pressing copy on green, and also a red vinyl copy of the live 7". Get at me if you want any of these things.

Electric Flower Circus II

Right at the end of last year I posted up the debut full length from Give, 'Electric Flower Circus', pressed on a European label called Adagio 830 Records. The US pressing had completely sold out at pre-order stage, leaving me the option of either eBay or Discogs to pick up the US colour vinyl that I so badly wanted. Or so I thought... but then once again, a kind soul reached out and helped me. Some guy commented on here to let me know that the US green vinyl copies were for sale in the Deathwish Inc. online store, so I quickly grabbed a couple of copies before other fools could block me.

Green vinyl was the mailorder colour out of 300 copies. Initially this was supposed to be the record release colour, with pink vinyl being the mailorder colour, but the colours got pressed the wrong way round, with pink then being used as the record release version.

Black vinyl was out of 600 copies.

I love the artwork for this thing. It shows the band members all painted head to toe in green with flowers on top. Talk about dedication to your art...

I struggled to get into this record at first. Not sure if it just takes more time to get into than their previous releases, or whether I was just getting bored of listening to Give, but I wasn't digging it. Then a couple of week ago I was playing it whilst painting the walls, and it suddenly clicked. Right now I'm loving it. I don't think I have even seen a picture of a pink copy, but damnit, I badly need to find one. If anyone can give me a lead on one it would be greatly appreciated.

I Am Live II

The day after my birthday this year, I woke up to an email from a friend letting me know that there was a new, red vinyl pressing of the Give 'I Am Live' 7" available to order. However, at the point I woke up, the email was already over 7 hours old, and it mentioned that there were only 45 copies in existence. I therefore assumed that when I followed the link to the Photobooth Records store, that it would already be sold out. I mean, Give are pretty hot right now. The US pressing of their LP sold out insanely quickly, so I figured 7 hours would be more than enough for 45 Give fans to add a 7" to their carts and check out. Fortunately, I was wrong and I was able to place an order.

After I successfully placed an order, I could relax. I then did my bit to help my fellow nerds out, so I emailed the link out to people who I thought would appreciate it. I think that they all managed to get one too. I'm not sure how long the records were in stock for, but it was cool how this came about and that a circle of record nerds were able to help each other out. Go nerds!

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.

I Am Live

Nothing is more irritating than missing out on a limited version of a new release. Once these things sell out, the only places to get them is on discogs or eBay for several times what you could have paid if you hadn't been so damn slow off the mark. And such is life. One such record I missed out on recently was the yellow vinyl copy of the new Give 7", a live record entitled 'I Am Live'. I had to settle for the black vinyl, which to be honest I probably would have bought anyway even if I had have got to the store in time to bag a yellow.

Well, just when I thought that I had missed any cool versions of this record, good old Chris came to the rescue. Dude picked up one of the limited sleeve versions which was made for RSD this year. In the spirit of the previous Give 7"s, this one comes in a limited sleeve featuring one of the 'part time' members of the band - this time Dan Horres.

Numbered out of 50 on the inside of the cover.

A while later I found out that there is also another limited cover of this one, featuring Ashley Sykes. Damn. Between that one and the yellow vinyl, I think this one will be lingering on my want list for a while. Ah well, it ain't called 'The Endless Quest' for nothing...

Photocopied Paper

Are you the kind of person who would buy a record you already own for a second time just because it has a piece of paper slapped on the front? If so, you've come to the right place. Here's my third copy of the first GIVE 12", and the second copy on grey vinyl. The difference between this one and the first grey vinyl copy that I bought is simply that this one comes with a photocopied piece of paper craftily slipped in front of the record cover.

Ok, so this particular piece of photocopied paper does look particularly awesome compared to most, but still... do I need to own two grey vinyl copies because of it? Apparently yes, I do.

Going Confetti Again

It's been a while since I've seen any Give records on any record blogs. The band's output seems to have slowed. I guess they must be in between records or something. Well anyway, I'm not sure if people didn't notice or if they just aren't bothered, but this second press of the 'Singles Going Confetti' 12" appeared a couple or months back. There were 100 on clear and 400 on black. Naturally, being a fan of both Give and clear vinyl, I couldn't resist picking one up.

Not only is clear the best looking vinyl, but it also makes for the best (and most effortless) photos. But despite how rad this clear copy looks, I still can't believe that I didn't pre-order the European press with the limited cover. I think that one is going to haunt me for a while to come.

Gimme Gimme Gimme... Gimme Some More

I figured that I didn't have enough Give records recently. I mean, as usual, I took the time to collect all of the coloured versions, but never bothered with the black. And recently I just figured that, at $5 a pop, I might as well grab the ones I was missing before they vanished and I would have to resort to eBay.

Actually, having said that I needed the black vinyl, I also realised that I never picked up the second press of the React! 7" on white because... well, because by the time that came out, React! was being distributed by Hellfish, and I didn't want to go there.

I also picked up the same React! 7" on black, along with the Deranged and Youngblood 7"s also on black.

Obviously these are not exactly exciting, but essential in order to build that complete Give collection... which I'm still a long way away from owning. I'm not in a hurry though. They will come eventually.

Black & White Confetti

Back in early October last year I saw Give play and bought the 'Singles Going Confetti' 12". The 12" compiles three of their 7"s and was released by Assault Records over here in Euroland. For some stupid reason, I didn't order the limited sleeve version (which I regret) nor the black version. Ah well, I have to leave myself something to aim for I guess.

Well wouldn't you know it, the same record has also been pressed for those Stateside by Deranged Records. The front cover is the same as the Euro version, although the colour scheme has changed. This new version has the band name and border in white rather than yellow, which looks way better in my opinion. Unlike the Euro version, I picked up one of each black and white vinyl copies.

The best thing about this is that the black vinyl copy contained this piece of paper:

This says that if you send the band a letter or postcard you can get free stickers, shirts, records and other cool shit. Seriously? That seems pretty damn generous to me. I wonder if they ship overseas?

Give Me Seven Inches

Seems we're all collecting Give records these days. Mike, Doug and I are now potentially all chasing the same stuff. At some point, I'm sure it's gonna get messy. For now though, things seem to be ok. We've each got pretty good collections and are each missing different items.

Just like Mike, I now have 19 pieces of Give vinyl in my collection, although a different 19. The 19th is the limited cover version of the 'I Am Love' 7" on Triple B records.

This now completes my mini-collection of the three 2012 released 7"s with limited covers, each featuring a 'part time' member of the band. This one features Austin Stemper. I think that these 'part time' dudes just fill in for shows or tours when the other members are unable to play out. A pretty cool set up if you ask me.

Give 'I Am Love'

One of the few current bands that I listen to these days is DC's Give. They sound like Swiz to me, which is a good thing. There's a series of three 7"s just about to drop on three different labels. Here's the first, courtesy of Triple B Records, entitled 'I Am Love'.

What I love about Give's 7"s is that they go for the same layout every time. Even though there are three new 7"s just coming out, and the layouts all follow the same theme (live shot on the front with the flower logo in the top left corner, and lyrics on the back cover), the same layout was also used on the previous two 7"s from last year (or maybe it was the year before).

The pressing info for this one is 200 on clear, 300 on red and 400 on black.

Also, all three new 7"s can be downloaded for free (along with all previous Give releases) on the Give bandcamp page. Enjoy!