Are You Happy, Or Is That Just A Smirk?

I don't know if everyone else is the same as me when it comes to discogs, but I have way too much on my want list on there. I took the time to add my collection to the site a couple of years ago, and in the process of doing so I added loads to the want list, a lot of which were test pressings. I get emails every day of things for sale from my want list, most of which are full of 'lesser' wants and I delete. But a few weeks back I opened one of the emails and nearly fell off of my chair with surprise, because someone was selling a test press of the second Seaweed 7"! This was one of those records that I had added to my want list mainly because there was a listing on there for it, so it was easy to click 'add to want list', but I never really expected that anyone would actually list one for sale. Even more surprising was the fact that when I clicked on the link, it was still for sale and nobody else had bought it. Well, I added it to my cart, and then checked what else the seller had for sale, added another couple of items (more on those later), then hit the 'Place order' button. Done.

As with most older test pressings, this is just a black vinyl record in a plain paper sleeve, although it does have some nice hand written labels.

This 7" was the band's second 7" and second ever vinyl release. It was put out by a label called Leopard Gecko, which I just learnt was a label run by the bass player of Seaweed. Which pretty much means that this was self-released by the band. But this thing is numbered out of 1500 copies, so I guess they were pretty popular right off the bat.

I thought it was worth getting the other copies I own out for a group shot. As far as I am aware, there was only one pressing of this, numbered out of 1500, with 500 copies on clear green vinyl and 1000 on black. Except there are a small number of copies (amount unknown) on clear yellow vinyl too, which is super hard to find. I'm so happy to have these three records it's hard to put it into words.

I've spent the last 20 minutes or so before writing this post looking at other Seaweed records on discogs. I have so much love for this band it's crazy. I really hope that I get a chance to pick up more Seaweed tests in the future. Every single record is flawless.

Brown Seaweed

Back in 2011 Seaweed released a new 7" on No Idea Records. I'm not sure how many were made, but until a few short months ago I had thought that all copies came on green vinyl, as that was all I had ever seen. Then, earlier this year, someone mentioned to me that they were looking for a brown copy. A few clicks later and I discovered that they weren't as confused as I had first thought, and there was indeed a brown vinyl copy out there. It jumped to the top of my want list and I looked everywhere I could think of to find one without success. Well, one day someone posted one for sale on instagram, and I jumped on it.

So even though I now have one of these, I don't know how what the deal is with it. Is it a second press? Was the first press divided between green and brown vinyl? Could this be a rare first press colour variant? Excuse the pun, but I have No Idea.

Regardless of pressing info, with this copy I think I have a complete collection of this 7". Not too tough as there are only three different versions. Here's the evidence if you need it: