Triggerman LP

Somehow I never picked up the Triggerman LP before. It came out in the 1992-93 era, which was when I was discovering hardcore, and it's on the same label as the 411 LP, which I totally love, so not sure how I missed it really. Pathetic.

As I was looking at the cover, it struck me that I'd seen the exact same font before on a record... although admittedly, on a record that came out about 7 years later:

Now, does anyone know if this LP comes on colour vinyl? I've never seen or heard of it on colour before, but I'll bet it's out there somewhere.

Trade!

Today I received a couple of 7"s which were part of a trade. I was stoked, seeing as I haven't done a trade in a LONG time. Nothing particularly exciting, but still, it was cool to get records without having to spend cash and damage my money collection.

First up, yet another version of another new-ish crap-ish Revelation release, the Down To Nothing 7" on yellow:

In my opinion, this record is probably the worst piece of vinyl that Revelation have ever created. The cover is horrible. I don't know what is going on here. It's like they tried to make it look retro with the words at the top and pictures underneath. "Tried" being the operative word, because the result is not "retro", but rather "crap". The card that the sleeve is made from is also horrible. It's way too thick, and somehow has "mass produced" written all over it. Worse, the vinyl is from the (thankfully brief) period when Rev used GZ to press its records, and is consequently a cheap, nasty looking plastic. And this one is an awful colour. I hate this record, but still I need it, because the collector nerd within me dictates that I have to have all Revelation colour vinyl. I hate everything about this record, but still I own three copies of it... and need two more. Christ.

Next up, the first Flagman 7" on clear vinyl:

I used to own this, but at some point I must have traded it away. I can't remember when or why I did that, but it must have been a long time ago. Maybe 10 years now. Jesus. Anyway, now I finally have this back. I like this record a lot. I think it's the best of their 3 7"s. The vocals remind me of Mean Season.

I traded these two for a Conviction 7" on blue, and the very same Flagman 7" on black. A fair (if unexciting) trade to kickstart the week.

RZL DZL 'Strictly Saucers' LP

It's not often these days that I get excited about a new release. But I was excited about this one. I literally could not wait for it to arrive. After receiving it, it's even better than I expected.

First up, I have to say, this is the coolest idea of all time - a record packaged like a pizza. The cover looks like a pizza box, and the record looks like a pizza. I can't believe that nobody has thought of this before. Genius!

Cover:

Record (A side):

Record (B side):

Inside the gatefold sleeve:

Back Cover:

This band is so good. I don't really understand if they're a "hardcore" band or not, but to be honest it doesn't matter & I don't care. They're just rad. A mix of hardcore and 'Licensed to Ill' era Beastie Boys, they're definitely having fun, which seems pretty fresh these days.

At first I didn't understand the title of the record. But after listening to the song 'Strictly Saucers' it all makes sense. Lyrics include:

Pizzas!
Pancakes!
Foods that are round.
Bagels!
Cookies!
It's how we get down.
When we meal, we keep it real.
I eat STRICTLY SAUCERS 'cause it's how I feel.


The whole thing clocks in at just under 18 minutes. I have listened to it all the way through about 6 times today. In my opinion, the best album I have heard in a long time. Get into it.

Yet More Rev

Today I got a couple more variations of newer Revelation releases. More copies of two records I don't think are very good. Sinking Ships LP on clear green, and Shook Ones 7" on white. I think I have four copies of each of these things now, and I still don't have them all. God help me.

I also got the Bold 'Looking Back' LP on purple. I already have this, but picked up a second copy to try to trade with someone who might want it.

The sleeve is in pretty poor condition, but the vinyl is mint. A nice colour purple. If you want it, get in touch.

Sick Of It All

I have pretty much every piece of Revelation Records colour vinyl there is, save for a small handful of variations of the newer releases that I missed. One that I never owned is the Sick Of It All 7". Until now.

Actually, that is not true. I did own it for approximately 24 hours back in about 1994. I bought one from some dude at a two day hardcore festival in Bradford. I think I paid £10-15 for it, which back then was a lot of money. Then I took it home and played it, and it skipped. I wasn't happy about this, so the next day I took it back to the dude and forced him to take it back and give me a refund. If I would have known that it would take me 14 years to get another, I probably would have just kept it. I mean, as if it matters that it skips. Clearly, these things aren't meant to be PLAYED :o)

So last week I saw one for sale on eBay uk, which looked to be selling at a low price. I think that the reason is that the description said it had no lyric sheet. I can't think why else people wouldn't bid. This thing usually sells for about £40, but I won this copy for £6.50. For any American readers, that's about $13. Which is pretty cheap by today's standards.

So it came today in the mail, and it's the coolest thing ever. I had never seen one like this before. It's red but with black speckles all over it. According to Jordan who released this record, "Most of the speckled copies didn't have the black as even distributed as that". Which, in case you're wondering, means that this copy is pretty unique.

I scanned it in because I thought that the black speckles would show up better using a scanner, but then I was conscious that it almost looked like a photoshop creation. So rather than have people think I made the picture on my computer, I also took photos, so you can see both. Here are the results:

The only thing I wasn't particularly happy with is the sleeve. It's a crappy photocopied version. I know that the red copies came in a regular, glossy sleeve with glued tabs, and they were numbered. But not so with this copy. I emailed the seller on ebay, and she tells me that it was bought at Selectadisc in Nottingham when it came out, and is 100% legit. I have no reason to not believe this. So I'm guessing that it was made by Revelation when they ran out of proper covers, although Jordan can't actually remember, so I guess nobody will ever know the story behind the sleeve variations.

What is interesting about this sleeve is the absence of the Revelation logo. Notice - no R in a star. So not a copy of a later pressing.

Anyway, regardless of how legit the sleeve is, the record itself is cool as hell and I paid next to nothing for it, meaning that today was a good day... which makes a nice change for a Monday.

Black Flag Loose Nut

A few months ago I bought the Black Flag "Loose Nut" LP on eBay uk for about £8. I thought it was a good deal. Unfortunately though, it arrived in a crappy thin mailer and had been destroyed in the post. It was the first (and remains the only) record that I have bought in the past 16 years that has arrived broken. And although the vinyl was shattered, it had somehow remained intact. So I framed it & put it on the wall:

Last week I was checking eBay uk, and came across another copy for sale. I expected I would have to pay more for it second time around. But somehow there was still no interest, and I got it for £7.50, which I consider to be a bargain. I can't understand why nobody else would want this. Strange. Not that I'm complainig of course. Anwyay, that's another Black Flag early 90s colour vinyl repress ticked off the list.

I know that "My War" and "Damaged" both exist on colour. I also used to own the live record "Who's Go The 10 1/2" on clear purple. But apart from that, what is there? Anyone know? If so, please get in touch. I'd like to know what I'm chasing.

Thank Heaven For Little Girls

My first exposure to The Dwarves was when my friend Simon Nash loaned me a vhs tape called "Sub Pop Video Network Programme 1". This was about 1992. They've reissued it on dvd now (HERE). It features bands like Mudhoney, Tad, Seaweed, Afghan Whigs and my favourite back then... The Dwarves.

After watching them perform the song "Drug Store", The Dwarves were a band I wanted to know about. I bought a few of their records. In my opinion, their output from the early Sub Pop era is their only decent stuff. "Thank Heaven For Little Girls", their second LP on Sub Pop, is debateably their best. For many years I had this on marble yellow vinyl. I recently picked up a rare variation on marble green vinyl:

The LP starts with a sample; "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?", and then rages through ten songs in about 15 minutes. Such a good record. I think they played the "Fuck Reading" festival in London in about 1993 or so and reportedly came on for about ten minutes. They were one of about ten bands playing. I wish I had gone to that. Shame that the band seem to be still going, churning out crap record after crap record, fifteen years after they ceased to be relevent.

Another interesting thing about the package I got was that the sender had used an old Steve Martin gatefold LP cover as packing. I looked at it and was like "Who the hell is Steve Martin?"

Then I opened it up, and was like "Oh, THAT Steve Martin!". He looks pretty damn cool in the shots inside the sleeve:

I had no idea he made records. I also never knew he looked that cool. I bet he got plenty of chicks with hair like that. What a dude.

Swiz 7"

One of the first batch of bands I got into was Swiz. This was because, when I hadn't been into hardcore very long, some dude I met who had been into it for a few years decided to drop out, and wanted to sell his records. I was in the right place at the rigth time and bought most of his collection for next to nothing. In the batch were the two Swiz 12"s, who I had never heard before, but was immediately into. Over the next few months I went about tracking down their 7"s, the weirdest of which was the "Rejects" 7", since that had come out a few years after the band had split and was on the THD label, which at the time seemed to mainly put out pop punk type bands. My copy of the "Rejects" 7" was on green vinyl. In fact, every copy I ever saw was on green vinyl. I assumed that it was the only colour that existed.

Fast forward 15 years, and I stumbled across the 'Rejects' 7" on ebay on white vinyl. It featured my new favourite "best offer" option, so I offered a couple of dollars less than the asking price and won it. Stoked!

This also happens to be one of the best condition used records I have ever received. Totally mint.

EDIT - I got a reply from Jason at THD. There were 3000 pressed on green vinyl, and 100 on White. Cool.

Brotherhood... again

After only getting hold of a rare variation of the Brotherhood 7" a few weeks ago (see HERE), I never thought I would get another one in such a short amount of time. In fact, I never thought I would get this one at all, given its rarity.

None the less, today I got the "Found In My Closet Records" version of the Brotherhood 7". An interesting record. I don't know anything about this record, but i would hazard a guess that the guy who released it "found" 40 records in his closet (as so often seems to happen in hardcore, although how people manage to misplace boxes of records I have no idea) and then made up some sketchy covers using manilla envelopes and a photocopier.

Here are the pictures...

Sleeve (front):

Sleeve (back):

Insert:

Insert (close up):

This brightened up my otherwise boring Monday no end.

RevHQ Order

Feels like ages since I've had any new records. But fortunately the postman brought a package yesterday from RevHQ, which gave me something to do.

I used to order from Revelation all the time. Their service is really good. Really fast. I usually get my order in a week. But at some point about three or four years ago I seemed to stop ordering from them. The main reason is that I seemed to get this idea in my head that it wasn't cost effective to order one or two records because of the shipping rates. Maybe that was a point when the dollar wasn't so weak. But these days I still have the same stupid idea. That if there's one thing I want from Rev then I have to find a few other things to order or it's just not worth it. And half the time I want one record, but there's nothing else, so I wait until there's something else, and then the first thing I wanted has sold out. Even though I have collected Revelation's colour vinyl for about 15 years now, and have been ordering directly for at least 13 of those years, the last couple of years I have missed everything they have released, due to being slow off the mark. So I'm playing constant catch up. Oh yeah, and it doesn't help that they started putting out everything on 5 different colours these days. I mean, as if I want 5 Sinking Ships LPs....

So here's a question - what do you do if you have 70 Dagnasty LPs lying around that nobody is interested in? Well, the answer is that you make up a limited sleeve, hand number it, then sit back & watch the orders roll in as idiots like me buy another version of a record they already have (and don't even like):

That said, it does look good. Glad I pulled my finger out and ordered this one.

Next item out of the box was the "final pressing" of the second In My Eyes LP. This was disappointing though, since there is absolutely no difference between this one and the original pressing. So a pointless purchase really:

And to go with the grey vinyl version, I got the red vinyl version of the Living Hell LP:

Next, another of the recent Dischord colour vinyl reissues. I'm missing about three of them. I keep meaning to place an order with Dischord, but got this one from Rev because it was only $7.70, which is actually cheaper than Dischord sell it. Even though I don't like the vinyl colour, I like how someone has at least had the sense to try to match it to the cover:

Eleven Thirty Four 7" on gold, which was apparently "found" recently. I always liked this band and only previously had this 7" on clear:

Finally, the latest Coheed & Cambria album. Slightly embarrassing to admit that I like this band, but still, the vinyl is cool and features a cool etching on one record:

This album also featured a code so that I could go to the band's website and download the songs. Pretty good idea. However, I tried it and all I got was a stupid error message saying "Not available in your country". And there was me thinking that the whole point of the internet was that it was "international"...

The Reason I Failed History

When I bought the Cross My Heart LP a few weeks ago, I remembered how good this band was. Picked up a 12" ep called "The Reason I Failed History", which I previously only had on cd.

This marked my first use of the "best offer" feature on ebay. The thing was for sale at $12 with $12 shipping and a "best offer" option attached. So I offered $8 to make it a nice round $20 with shipping and dude accepted. Cool huh?

Nirvana / The Fluid

Another Sub Pop 7" that seems to have remained static in value for about 15 years. Back in 1992 this seemed expensive. In 2008 it doesn't. I particularly like this shade of green vinyl.

Dead By 23

When Dead By 23 Records started putting out about 10 versions of every record, I thought it was insane, and a step too far. I was happy to buy one copy of each and leave it there. A few years later DB23 releases started cropping up on ebay with increasing frequency, and the prices seemed to drop to next to nothing. So I started collecting them. Today I got a couple of particularly nice ones.

Down To Nothing 7" with alternate sleeve numbered 9 of 30 (I think this is the record release show sleeve):

Scraps & Heart Attacks 7" Test Press, number 12 of 12. The best thing about this is that it was originally stamped "112 of 112", and the first digit of each 112 was tip-ex'd over. Nice work.

Union 7"

In 1996 I bought a 7" compilation called "The Sunny Side Of Louisville". Unsurprisingly, it contained songs by bands from Louisville, none of whom were particularly well known. It featured By The Grace Of God (the "big" band of the time), Castner, Four Rose Society, and Union. At the time, I liked the comp a lot, and tried to find more music by all of the bands involved. I managed to get a Four Rose Society 7", but that was about it. Around the same time, some dude I knew somehow picked up a 7" by Union. I tried to track it down, but accidentally bought a 7" by a different band called Union, who were on Ferret Records. And that 7" was pretty good at the time. But the 7" by the Louisville band Union always eluded me. Until now.


I picked this up on ebay for $3.25. As I write this it has just occurred to me that this has been on my want list for about 12 years. That seems completely crazy to me. I've never seriously chased it, but still... how did 12 years pass since I decided I wanted this record? I guess in that sense it's nice to finally pick it up. But is it any good? Well, in 2008 it's difficult to say. It sounds a little like the final Unbroken 7" after two listens. Not really the kind of thing I'm into these days. But I wouldn't say this is a bad record by any means. Now, does anyone know if this was pressed on colour...

Jawbreaker Chesterfield King

I've had this record pretty much since it came out. Controversially, I don't even think it's very good. But I've always known that mine had a cover flaw, and should be replaced at some point. So I picked one up for a fair price on ebay last week.

The worst thing is that the new one I just got is not flawless either, and has a weird mark on the cover just under the Jawbreaker logo. However, this is by no means as bad as the mark my copy had left, which was caused by me removing the price sticker when I bought it. But to make up for it, the new copy is a little more discoloured and dirty than my copy. So now I have to decide which one to keep and which to sell/trade. And I'm not sure what to do. Should I get rid of the new one with the spot, or the one I've owned for 15 years with the sticker residue? Here are the two faults, side by side:

Hmmm. Not sure what to do. Any thoughts anyone?

Cave In Test Press

I've always loved Cave In, throughout all of their phases. As long as Caleb Scofield is in them, they will rule. I was stoked to get a Cave In test press today... even if it is their worst record.

Not sure I believe what was written on the poly sleeve though:

There must have been more than 3 tests. I've emailed Magic Bullet to find out. Hopefully they'll reply.

Rot In Hell / Hordes 7"

Yet another Rot In Hell release! That's three 7"s in only a few short weeks. I think this one is my favourite so far musically speaking, although as an all round package I'd still say that demo 7" is by far the best - it's like a piece of art [see below]. There are 2 RIH songs on here and both rip. Total Integrity worship. But I figure that if you're gonna worship any band, Integrity is a good choice. There's also some advice on the lyric sheet - "Buy a fucking Integrity record". As long as it's not "Closure" of course...

Hordes I had never heard before. First song sounded really good... right up to the point at which the vocals came in. I think it would have been better if the vocals didn't come in at all. The second song was better though. I don't remember how it goes, but I found myself thinking "actually this is pretty good". Hordes also offer some advice on the lyric sheet, which is that I should "listen to Entombed", but I'm going to ignore that.

The worst thing about this record is that it was sent in paper-thin card, and the cover got bent to fuck in the mail. The creases are going to piss me off forever.

More Rev

For some reason, I am crap at ordering new releases these days. I miss pre-orders and then end up having to pay two or three times more for the things on eBay. I really need to sort my shit out. A couple of recentish Revelation varations I missed:

(Already had the Shook Ones 7" on purple with regular labels, as below)