Coffin Break

Another Sub Pop 7" that I was missing was the Coffin Break 7". It's not really that hard to find, but I knew I wanted a colour vinyl copy and I just had to wait for one to pop up in the UK for a reasonable price. Eventually it happened. This is SP85 and came out in September 1990.

Despite this being on SubPop, this isn't grunge. The band are described on discogs as 'hardcore punk', and on their bandcamp page as 'metal/punk'. Whatever it is, this was one of those records where it was an instant hit after one play and I wanted more. I immediately hit up the internet and quickly found two full length LPs for sale in the UK for only £10 each, so I grabbed both.

Both records are later releases. Also, both are on Epitaph Records. As we all know, a lot of bands on Epitaph became very popular over time. Coffin Break are one of the exceptions. I mean, of course they were relatively popular, but less so than other Epitaph bands of the same era (Bad Religion, NOFX, Rancid, The Offspring, Pennywise etc.).

'Crawl' is their third LP, and was released in 1991. A lot of this record is what I would call 'melodic punk', which is more in line with what I'd expect on Epitaph. Regardless of what you might call it, this is my favourite record at the moment.

'Thirteen' is the fourth LP, released in 1992. So far I'm less into this one, although it may be because I haven't listened to this one as much yet.

There are two albums that came before these two that I now really want, but sadly they aren't readily available at a decent price. So onto the wants list they go.

This made me curious about what other less known bands / records Epitaph may have put out. More on that in the next post...

A Couple More Sub Pop 7"s

I'm slowly continuing with my Sub Pop collection. Still regularly searching for the things I want. Recently I found a couple of different colours I was missing of a couple of 7"s I already have. Nothing overly rare or exciting.

First up, a clear red vinyl copy of the Afghan Whigs 'Conjure Me' 7" (Sub Pop 142). This is my fourth copy of this one, and there are two more I still need after this.

The other one is a green vinyl copy of the 'Deeper Road / R.K.' 7" by Rein Sanction (Sub Pop 160). This is my second copy of this one, and there's only one more to find.

Note to self - I need to put together a want list of all the Sub Pop 7"s that I am missing that I want. It's easy to lose track otherwise.

Masks

In late 2024 I picked up a record by Chat Pile. I'd never heard them but was drawn in by the artwork of the record. I still listen to it semi regularly. It's an interesting record, although I haven't got around to checking anything else that they've done, until semi recently when it was announced that they were putting out a 7" on Sub Pop. Given my interest in Sub Pop over the last couple of years, I knew that this was something I was going to

This 7" is very reminiscent of the Sub Pop 7"s of old. It has the same layout (with the Sub Pop logo, band name and song titles in a bar across the top of the front. It also has the same labels. And like a lot of the early Sub Pop 7"s, it contains only two songs.

The first song is an orignal song, and the second is a cover of 'Sifting' by Nirvana. They obviously chose a song by a classic Sub Pop artist, and the song that they chose fits their style really well. Even though I'm not a fan of covers generally, this is a good choice and they do it really well.

The white vinyl version is the rarest colour. There are 300 exclusive to Rough Trade. The other first press colour was green with smoke, but despite that colour being much more common, I managed to miss out. It seemed to sell out everywhere in an instant. A couple of months later and they announced a second press on dark blue vinyl, so I scopped one of those quicksmart.

Hopefully one of the green smoke copies will show up soon. Even though it's the most common colour, it looks the best, so it would be good to round this collection out and go back to focusing on older Sub Pop 7"s.

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.

Blood Music

A couple of years ago I picked up a lot of early Sub Pop 7"s, and it has hugely shaped my listening habits ever since. I have discovered a lot of new bands which are all really old, defunct bands. But it continues to be a fun journey, as I picked up forgotten albums for £10 that clearly nobody really knows or cares about anymore. Which brings me on to my latest find...

One of the 7"s I picked up in 2024 was a two song 7" by Green Magnet School. I wrote 'I've enjoyed this record and would definitely seek out more by this band.' So here I am doing just that, with this copy of their debut LP 'Blood Music'.

First observation is that the front cover is pretty terrible. I mean, not only is the picture a mess, it's also thw wrong shape, so there then ends up being thick black borders down the left and right side. This was also only pressed on black vinyl, with most copies having black labels. Aesthetically, there is not much going on of interest.

There's also an insert with photos of the band members, which I like because they all kinda look like they're in different bands.

The band is described as an 'experimental rock band'. I'm not really sure I agree with the term 'experimental', but it's certainly difficult to pigeonhole. At first I was disappointed by this record. It seemed different to the 7" which vaguely reminded me of Helmet. This was a more challenging listen at first. The songs all felt a bit long, and it sounded a bit like a noisy AmRep style band. But after giving it more of a go, I have really come around to it. It's definitely not an instant hit and takes some time to appreciate it, but now I am at a point where I like it more with each play. It's an interesting record for sure. There's a song where they sound a lot like Placebo, which sounds really different when it kicks in, but which I absolutely love.

The moral of the story is that you shouldn't judge a record by its cover. Oh, and that the 90s was by far the best era for music... but we already knew that, right?

Dreamy II

Earlier this year I picked up a Beat Happening LP. I'd never really been interested in the band before but got around to listening to them as a part of my journey into the early Sub Pop catalog. 'Dreamy' was their fourth album from 1991 and it turned out that the turquoise vinyl copy that I picked up was quite rare. I've really enjoyed the LP this year, and not long ago I stumbled across a copy of the more common grey vinyl version for sale at a much lower price than it usually sells for, and I couldn't help but grab it.

This is absolutely top condition, with shrinkwrap intact as well as both stickers still present.

This copy also has a Sub Pop singles club subscription form included. A lot of the 7"s had these things built into the folded covers that were printed on the same glossy paper as they were kinda part of the sleeve. But the ones that came with 12"s were just photocopied pieces of paper. They don't look as good, but seem generally rarer. This one is advertising releases from February to July 1991.

As I mentioned in my last post, this is unlike anything else I have ever listened to, but I'm loving it. I'll definitely get around to investigating more of their catalogue at some point.

Dreamy

Another installment in my journey into the old Sub Pop catalogue, 'Dreamy' is the fourth full length from Beat Happening, an indie pop trio from Olympia, WA. They were active from 1982 - 1992, and this record came out towards the end of their life, in 1991.

There were a couple of different colours pressed by Sub Pop. This one is turquoise, and the other is grey. I have it on pretty good authority that this colour is a lot rarer than the grey.

This is really different to the usual style that I would listen to. Even by early Sub Pop standards, this one kinda stands out. Some of the songs have a male vocal, and some female. I much prefer the female vocal overall, but the male vocal reminds me of, say, Nick Cave. Generally I would say that this is the kind of music I would expect to be playing in the bar in the Tarantino film 'From Dusk 'Til Dawn'. It's very different to anything that I would usually listen to, but I have become fascinated by it these past couple of weeks.

Just Beautiful Music

Back in 2024 I rediscovered the band Gas Huffer. I used to listen to them in 1992/93 and then a couple of years later sold their records and forgot about them for the best part of three decades. As often happens with bands you move on from, when you rediscover them you realise what a fool you were. Back then I picked up their third and fourth albums, and recently I added the fifth to my collection.

'Just Beautiful Music' was released by Epitaph in 1998. As the photo shows, the cover art on this seems like a slightly odd choice.

As with all other Gas Huffer LPs, this comes with a comic book, which also looks a bit like a birthday card made for a grandma in the 1970s.

This fifth LP continues in very much the same vein as the previous four. I'm very happy to have picked it up because, even though it is on Epitaph, it feels that there weren't too many pressed. I guess in 1998 vinyl sales were generally falling and given that this band wasn't exactly massive, they probably pressed a relatively low number. Well, low for Epitaph anyway.

In addition to this LP, I also snagged another colour of their Sub Pop 7" too, this time on blue.

There is also a brown vinyl version of this 7". And also, I really want the first two LPs back that I used to own at the end of my teens. I guess the moral of the story is 'never sell anything'.

Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

Back in the early 90s I would sometimes spend a day record shopping in London. There were a few record stores dotted around the city, and it would take the best part of a day to travel around to them all. Back then there were about 5 different shops in Camden alone, and these were where I saw and held a lot of Sub Pop Records for the first time, many of which I ended up buying and listening to for the first time only a couple of years ago.

One of the records I used to see a lot back then was a 10" by The Reverend Horton Heat, 'Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em', with a cover that featured a photo of guitarist and vocalist James Heath looking very much like he had just arrived fresh in from the 1950s. The teenage me was confused as to why this would be on the same label as Nirvana, Mudhoney, Tad etc. and I would always think to myself 'who the hell would be interested in that?'. Well, it turns out the answer is me... thirty four years later.

There were three different colours of vinyl for this one, and at this point I was happy to just have any of them. This particular copy is in great condition, with the shrinkwrap still intact and the 'color vinyl' sticker is still there too. Oh yeah, and it's on some kind of swirl vinyl before that was even a thing. Records that looked like this in 1990 were rarely seen.

This is not the kind of thing that I would usually listen to, or would even have thought that I would like, but back in 2024 I picked up a Sub Pop 7" that featured two songs (both of which are on this record, annoyingly) and I really, really liked it. Ok, so it may be psychobilly or rockabilly or whatever, but it's just some damn catchy music. Hey, maybe I'd even like Hifi and the Roadburners these days too?

Sunshine, Lollipops & Rainbows

I gave up on Record Store Day years ago. I literally don't even look at what is being released for it anymore. Then last year my attention was drawn to a Dwarves record that sounded interesting which it turned out was being touted as a Record Store Day release. It sounded kinda cool, but then when it became available for sale, the price was utterly stupid (and I'm not referring to the second hand market). I decided not to bother chasing one down. However, a few days later, the band announced that they had 300 copies for sale directly in their online store for a much lower price than every other fucker. And even better, their version came with an extra limited, numbered cover. I was all in.

Ignoring the limited cover, this is a picture disc that comes in a gatefold sleeve, which is signed by the singer.

This version also comes with a few other extras - a copy of an old flyer, a sticker and a mock $100 bill (Bobby bucks) and a sticker:

So this record is actually an old recording. The story is that when the bane went into the studio to record their first two song 7", they also recorded twelve other songs, most of which then ended up being re-recorded and released as their 'Blood, Guts & Pussy' LP. So here we are all these years later and those 'demo' recordings of the first LP have been released. And what makes this so cool is that they have used original, unused photos from the first LP cover shoot, and also used the same layout style as the original release.

Here are some photos I took that show the orignal picture disc and the original LP sleeve (which did not come with the picture disc version) next to this new release to show the comparison. In all photos, the original is on the left and the new release is on the right.

Ever aspect of this is really well done. And because the recording is from back in the day, it sounds great. And even though I generally think that Record Store Day seems to be totally pointless, this is a good example of something that I am really glad was brought into existence.

Primal Rock Therapy

I pretty much had a year off in 2025, but I'm now right back on my 2024 mission to pick up old Sub Pop releases again. The late 80s and the early 90s were such a great and exciting time for music that there are so many forgotten gems out there that still sound good in 2026. And some of these things are really very affordable in the current day, which is a nice bonus.

Blood Circus was one of the first bands that Sub Pop put out. They had a 7" that was the second 7" that the label released. Their full length, 'Primal Rock Therapy' was then the ninth 12" that they put out, back in January 1989.

Apparently the first 1,000 copies of this LP were pressed on red vinyl. It also originally had some kind of hype sticker on the shrinkwrap, but sadly this copy doesn't have it. The sticker simply had the name of the band and the record, probably as whoever designed the front cover art didn't believe that text was in any way necessary.

Reading about this record all of these years later, it seems that the band didn't survive much longer after this came out, apparently partly due to the terrible reception this received. I'm really surprised by this because, to my ears in 2026, this sounds pretty good. It is without doubt a text book example of the late 80s Seattle grunge sounds that became huge just a couple of years later.

Blue Balls

Record collecting moves in funny ways sometimes. A couple of weeks ago, I had no idea that there were two very different blue vinyl variants of 'God's Balls', the first full length by Tad. I've owned a light blue copy for a long time, but only recently I saw a pic for a darker, greyish blue copy. I had literally never seed one before in my life. Then, as if by magic, a copy appeared for sale in the UK. I have loved this record since about 1992, so given that the price wasn't ridiculous, I felt that I couldn't really not buy it.

Even though this version is referred to as 'blue', depending on the light it can look greyish or slightly lilac.

Obviously as soon as I received this I had to pull my other copy out for a comparison. As the photo shows, the colours are quite different. And this is a rare example of the word 'variant' being used correctly, as these were both part of the same pressing.

Of course, having been happy with one copy of this record for years, I now feel that I am going to need to pick up a first pressing copy too. I was never overly fussed about one of these as they are on black vinyl. However, the crucial difference is that the first press copies come in a gatefold sleeve. So clearly, I need to find one. I mean, why have one when you can have three?

Four More Dicknails

I added a lot of Sub Pop 7"s to my collection in 2024, but the obsession began at the end of 2023 with a Nirvana 7", and this led me to pick up a Hole 7" on Pink vinyl. At the time, I seemed to think that one copy of this 7" would be enough, but then when the Sub Pop 7" purchasing got into full swing a couple of months later, I added another copy on and blue vinyl. Now here we are in 2026, and a week ago I was sat around one evening and ended up looking for more copies of this 7" for sale, and I ended up buying four copies, which all came a few days later.

I was happy to get this grey vinyl copy as this is a true first press. It comes in a foldover sleeve. Even though it is the most essential copy to own, it's also possibly the most common, with 3500 copies pressed.

Well anyway, as I mentioned, I also bought three other copies at the same time:

The green is a really nice colour, and also comes in a first press foldover sleeve and also has first press labels, although it is not a first press. The turquoise and purple copies are later pressings, denoted by the additional text on the label, and the fact that they come in a glued card sleeve.

Clearly I'm too far into this to give up now, having six different versions. As far as I can tell, there are another four or five copies to go, excluding black. But as with all Sub Pop 7"s, some of those colours are really hard to find, so I'm not expecting much progress on this one for a while.

Uncut

Next in my series of 'cheap records that nobody knows or cares about anymore' is a record that I discovered from my journey into the early Sub Pop catalogue in 2024. I heard some great (old) bands for the first time, and some of them I knew I would explore further at some point. I picked up a 7" by a band called Sister Double Happiness, and it was an unexpected gem. Recently I got around to looking at what else they had put out, and I found a green vinyl copy of their third LP, 'Uncut', for sale in the UK for a low price.

This was released by Sub Pop in 1993. The hype sticker on the cover says that there were 500 on green vinyl. There were also copies on black, but no idea how many.

This record is my current obsession. I played it three times today. At this rate I will be sick of it within three weeks, but for now I cannot wait to get up in the morning to put this on. On paper I would avoid this, as the band is described as 'an alternative blues rock band', but it's so good. The band was active from 1986-1995, and there are clues that they were a bit of a big deal in some circles back when. Their first LP was released by SST Records, then they jumped to a major label for the next one, then they were on Sub Pop. In addition, the band contained two members of The Dicks, a punk band whose debut 7" ('Hate The Police') will now set you back a couple of grand.

If you are remotely curious in any way, please check out 'Doesn't Make Sense'. I can't see how anyone could not like this song.

Punch N Judy

The Fluid is a band that have always been, in my mind, a b-list band. For the longest time it felt that the only reason that anyone had heard of them was that they once did a split 7" with Nirvana. But even with that in their armoury, it feels that they never really gained much recognition. I guess in recent years someone at Sub Pop must have thought the same, and decided that they wanted to try to change that, so a couple of years ago their catalogue got reissued. I wasn't interested in the represses of the records that I already have, but I was more than happy to pick up a colour vinyl repress of their first LP, 'Punch N Judy':

This LP was originally put out ni 1986 by a label called RayOn Records, which it turns out only ever released this one record. These days it sells for a reasonable amount, but it's not that expensive really. But still, it would likely cost me three to four times as much as the reissue.

I have two other Fluid 12"s (they were actually featured on here as the third post I ever made, back in Feb 2008), and this one sounds a little different. Being their first record, this one sounds a little more raw. It's really good stuff, if you like this kinda thing.

Well, you know how it goes... when it rains it pours, so to speak. So after picking this up I also stumbled on another copy of their Sub Pop 7".

The good thing about this record is that there are lots of different colours, and they are all pretty cheap. A collector's dream.