Holy Terror & Strange Grooves

A few months ago Holy Terror Records put up a new pre-order for an LP by a band called Blind To Faith. However, the main attraction to this LP was nothing to do with the record or band itself, but the fact that the first 250 pre-orders would receive a limited new Integrity 7". Being a big Integrity fan, I placed an order right away. I mean, if you told me that if I'd get an Integrity 7" by mail-ordering a selection of gay porn dvds then I'd be straight over to ilovecock.com with my credit card ready for action. Anyway, after about three months of waiting, the records turned up last week.

The Blind To Faith LP comes on a nice, US pressed clear vinyl:

It's numbered out of 250:

The cover is also really nicely printed:

Also, I played this thing and the record has reversed grooves. Which means it plays backwards. You have to put the needle in the centre of the record, and it plays outwards. This is no problem for me now that I have a decent record player, but I remember a few years ago when I had a cheap record player and it would be impossible to drop the needle at the centre of the record because, when it got it near the centre, it would automatically return to its starting position, thinking the record was finished. So I feel sorry for anyone out there who bought this and has a cheap record player. Actually, no I don't feel sorry for such people. You get what you pay for. Fools. The record is good. Heavy and evil as you would expect from Holy Terror.

The Integrity 7" is a split with AVM. The Integ songs are apparently Septic Death covers (again). Like the last Septic Death covers 7", this sounds kinda like it as recorded on the back of a bus using an old walkman. At first I thought this sucked, but after playing it through about ten times I'm starting to really like it.

I have no idea who or what AVM is. Rumours suggest they are from Japan. Integrity has a history of putting out splits with nonsense bands - Psywarfare, Lockweld, The Kids of Widney High. I guess this is another one for the pile.

This 7" is also numbered out if 250. They seem to have matched the 7" numbers to the 12" numbers too, which is a nice piece of organisation:

Now... the interesting thing about this record is that this has two songs, the grooves of which run parallel to each other on the record. In simple terms, this means that you can drop the needle at the start of the record and one of the two songs will play,but you don't know which one. It almost feels random. In all my years of buying records I have never heard of anything like this before. Really cool.

The only problem with this record was that, just before this arrived, I saw that Dwid was selling test presses on eBay. And he also had a green vinyl copy of the Integ 7". It turns out that there are 100 copies on green vinyl, and obviously I didn't get one. But quite clearly I needed one, so I got in touch with Dwid and negotiated a deal. So now I don't have to stress about missing stuff. Here's the goods:

Integ/AVM on green:

Blind To Faith LP test press:

Integ/AVM test press:

Complete with personalised dust sleeve and Integrity guitar pick:

If you want the songs from the Integrity / AVM 7", Dwid is giving them away for free HERE

Hot Charity

Today I bought a record on my lunch break. This is good because it allowed me to support vinyl and give to charity at the same time. What the hell am I talking about? Well, here's the info (taken from the Oxfam website):

Arctic Monkeys have recorded another music industry first by releasing their new single, ‘Crying Lightning’, through Oxfam’s network of 700 charity shops on the high street and online. The release marks the first time Oxfam shops have sold a new release single for 25 years. All the proceeds from the sale in Oxfam’s shops go to our work fighting poverty.

Kinda cool that you can support two good causes at the same time for the price of a sandwich. If you live in the UK and want to support this cause and don't want to go outside then you can go HERE

All in all, a good thing. Shame the songs are shite though.

Hoover 2nd LP

Not particularly exciting, but I just picked up the 2nd Hoover LP. I bought the first one (the classic 'Lurid Traversal Of Route 7') when it came out in 1994. The second one, I missed. I could have bought it from some distro for about £6 when it came out, but delayed, then it sold out. As is often the case, I kinda wanted it but never really felt the need to chase it hard. Then, somehow, about 12 years went by... and then one popped up on eBay and I decided that it was time to finally cross this one off the want list.

I saw this band play relatively recently. Well, I say that, but it was five years ago now. December 2004. I went to the show on my own. Felt lonely and old. Sat there & didn't say a word to anyone all night. Watched Hoover then went home. Fun.

Necracedia LP

I used to like Wreck-age Records back in the 90s. They put out some interesting bands, e.g. Bad Trip, Yuppicide, Die 116, Mind Over Matter, Milhouse, Indecision, S.F.A, Neglect. Also, as stupid as it sounds, I liked the way that every single record they put out had the same label on side b - the Wreck-age logo. It just gave the records a nice consistency. Anyway, I have most (but not all) of the Wreck-age releases, and most I have tracked down on colour vinyl. A couple of them proved pretty hard to find. But one that I never had was the label's second release, which is an LP by a band called NECRACEDIA. In fact, until a few months ago, I had never even heard of it. The way it came to my attention was that I was chatting about Wreck-age releases with fellow enthusiast Nick Mango, and we tried to patch together a discography, and it was then that I realised I was missing Wreck-age #2. So I put it on my wants list. Then, a couple of weeks back, Nick sent me an email telling me that this record was on eBay. By some stroke of good luck, it was listed on eBay.co.uk, which would make things slightly easier for me. It was listed at £4. I figured nobody else would be interested in bidding. In the end I was right. I won it for £4 and was the only bidder.

I played this once, and then managed to find the mp3s on the internerd. So I've now listened to it twice. It's alright. Nothing too special. I guess it would have probably sounded better when it was released in about 1991. Flex! describes it as "Nice blend of politically aware HC, psychotic stuff à la Negative Approach and NYHC. Production is not that great, otherwise a good record" which is probably pretty fair. Not too exciting really, but another box ticked for me.

By the way - Thanks for the heads up, Nick! Appreciated.

Cave In - Planets Of Old

So it's 2009 and Cave In have just got back together after about three years to crank out a new EP called 'Planets Of Old'. Being a sucker for all of their previous records, I picked one up. Musically, it's interesting. It kind of mixes all of their different sounds and eras together. I'm not sure if it works to be honest... although in trying to work out if I like it or not, I have listened to it several times, and I want to keep going back to it. So I guess that, yes, it's growing on me. Visually though, it's a bit disappointing. The front cover is ok:

Although I'm not so into the back:

As for the sticker on the cover, I don't know whether to laugh or cry:

It describes the colour of the vinyl as "Green Tea Frozen Yogurt"... presumably because if it was just called "green" someone might buy it and then sue the label for false advertising when they took the record out and it looked nothing like the colour of their front lawn. Anyway, I'm going to give Hydrahead the benefit of the doubt on this one, and conclude that this is a joke designed to poke fun at modern record collectors who feel the need to describe the shade of the record like they're looking for a specific shade of paint. I mean, this has to be just about the most retarded name for a vinyl colour of all time.

Also, whilst I'm whinging, I'd just like to pick fault with the sleeve of this record. It's made of super thick, glossy card. "Why would he complain about that?" you may wonder. Well, because it makes the sleeve pretty much useless, that's why. The card is so thick that it is not actually possible to fit the record inside. It's been a couple of years now since Hydrahead started making these sleeves, and it's starting to irritate me. Call me old fashioned, but I actually like to put my records in their sleeves. If someone could please take this up with Hydrahead on my behalf, I'd be really grateful. Thanks.

The other highlight of this record has nothing to do with the record. It's the mailer that it came in. Seriously - how good is this?

Making Boxes

A few months ago I made a post about the mess in my flat, caused by having records all over the floor (you can read it HERE). A few weeks ago I finally got around to tidying them up into a small area of my room. But they were still on the floor, as shown here:

I wanted to tidy them up and move them off the floor into boxes because I was sick of my room looking messy. However, the reason I have had them on the floor for so long is simply because I didn't actually have any boxes to put them in.

Actually, that's not entirely true. I always have boxes. But the records on the floor are ones that I don't like to keep in boxes. Why? Because they are "at risk". This means they have photocopied (or low quality printed) sleeves. About three years ago I discovered over 100 of my 7"s had sleeve damage, where the ink on the covers had gone sticky. I am 99.9% sure that this results from heat, although I also think that it does not help to keep large quantities of records together, since I think that the weight of records pressing onto other records is not a good thing. So I keep my "at risk" records in little boxes like this:

The little boxes don't hold many 7"s, which means that there is less pressure on each record.

Unfortunately, I don't have any more of these little boxes, so I've been stuck with the records on the floor. But a few days ago I decided to sort it out. I figured I would MAKE some boxes, cos if there's one thing I have quite a lot of, it's cardboard:

So here's what I did. First up, grab a few standard mailers:

Next, take one of the little 7" storage boxes and open it up:

Next, open up the mailers and cut the tabs off:

Then draw round the unfolded 7" storage box:

Cut out:

And then make the necessary folds:

Then fold together, and tape to keep it secure:

Then simply repeat the whole process five more times:

Finally, fill each box with 7"s, then put these small boxes into a bigger box:

Job done.

More Free 7"s!!!

It's not too often I get sent records for nothing. I got given two 7"s a couple of weeks ago, and now I got sent some more, this time from Mike. He posted that he had a spare Said & Done 7" on his blog a few weeks back, so I said I'd gladly take it. And, being the nice guy he is, he very kindly sent it to me, along with a couple of other things... although I had no idea what the other things were. So a surprise box landed on my desk, which I was stoked on.

So yeah, the Said & Done 7". I don't know anything about this band really. The record is on Suburban Voice Records who also released the Kingpin 7", which is a kind of classic in some people's eyes. The Kingpin 7" comes on two different vinyl colours - gold and dark red. And the Said & Done 7" that I got sent comes on the same dark red:

Like a lot of records from the early 90s, this suffers slightly from poor production. The mix is not great. But the songs are still pretty interesting. I figured I would use the wonders of modern technology and upload it so that anyone reading this can check it out HERE

The next record out of the box was a surprise... the Daysgone 7" on gold. There are only 100 of these. Mike threw it in figuring that I wouldn't have it. However, I picked this up back in about 1999 in a trade. I gave some dude an Insight 7" on orange, and he gave me ten 7"s in return, this being one. It's amazing what I remember. No idea who it was though.

Since I already own this record, I'm not sure what to do with this spare copy. I figure that the fairest thing to do is to pass this on to someone else via the same means it arrived with me. So basically, I'm making an open offer here - if you want this, just let me know & I shall send it to you for free. But don't just ask for it thinking you can sell it on & make a fast buck - nobody is going to buy this thing if you list it on eBay. So please only ask for it if you actually want it for yourself. If you want to hear it first, you can get the mp3s HERE

Mike also threw in a Suburban Voice compilation 7". I didn't know about this record. This copy has no cover. I'm not sure what the deal is, whether it is supposed to have a cover or whether it was given away with the fanzine. It features Verbal Assault, a band I really like, so I'll probably give it a spin at some point.

Finally, Mike also threw in the record release version of the Betrayed 7" on Bridge Nine, which has plain red labels stamped on one side (90 were made):

This means that I can NEARLY re-create one of the most famous pictures on the internet, as you can see here:

THANKS MIKE!

Iron Age 'The Sleeping Eye' 2xLP

Thew new Iron Age LP "The Sleeping Eye". There was a bit of an internet commotion when the pre-order for this one was announced. At $35 (postpaid) for a double LP, people were saying this was too expensive. Yet still it sold out in two days. And then the people who complained about the price were trying to buy one off of ebay for $50 probably. Clowns.

I wasn't lucky enough to get the pre-order. I missed it. But then, thankfully, it turned out that it hadn't sold out at all, and there were some left, and the order link went back up. So I grabbed one. And boy, am I thankful I did...

The record itself is alright. Nothing too exciting. A double LP on black vinyl in a gatefold sleeve.

It comes with a nice, glossy print, which I think is really cool... except for the fact that it comes folded in half. And because it's on thick, glossy card, folding it kind of ruins it. Oh well.

I've read a lot of good reviews of this record, and rightly so. This is one of the best albums of the year (not that there are many to choose from though). I seriously can't stop playing this. At the moment I'm playing this like 3 times a day. It's just a really interesting record, and a big step forward from their first LP. There are elements of early Metallica and Black Sabbath here, as well as the Cro-Mags style hardcore influence of the first LP. It's not often a new release gets me this stoked. Believe me, you should check this out, even if you heard Iron Age before and weren't too keen.

Free 7"s!

A friend came round to my place a couple of weeks ago and gave me two 7"s. I didn't ask for or expect them, so it was a nice surprise. I gave him a 7" in return, so I guess on paper this may be considered a trade. But no, it definitely wasn't a trade.

The first record I got given was a 7" by the band ON:

I don't know anything about this band other than who the singer is. I don't know anything about pressing info for their records. I don't even know what they sound like as I haven't listened to this yet.

The second 7" is by a band called END OF A YEAR, on Deathwish:

I was determined to give this a listen because Deathwish had taken the trouble to deal with a US pressing plant to have it made. Although I admit that, with it being on Deathwish, I figured it would be metal. That and the cover didn't give me high hopes. But I was pleasantly surprised. This is a good record. Their page on the Deathwish site says that this band brings to mind Rites Of Spring and other 'Revolution Summer' Dischord type bands, and I wouldn't disagree with that description. Pretty good stuff. I guess if I hadn't have been given it for free I wouldn't have heard it. I mean, look at the cover. Who on earth would actually want to listen to a record with a cover like that? Well, apparently the art was done by some dude who used to do art for Dungeons & Dragons, so I guess the answer is - nerds. Anyway, check the band out here if you are interested:

http://www.myspace.com/endofayear

Sick Of It All 7" For Trade

Last year I picked up a Sick Of It All 7" on red vinyl. When it arrived, it turned out that the vinyl had speckles of black vinyl all over it. I emailed Jordan at Revelation & he told me he had never seen one like this. There are known to be some SOIA 7"s on red with a couple of black spots in, but none that he had seen with the black spread so consistently. Basically, it looks like red with black splatter. I didn't pay much for it & thought it to be a total one of a kind. You can read last year's entry HERE

Now, a couple of weeks ago I managed to pick up another. This one has a little bit less black, but still has the same black splatter effect. It also has the same xerox cover. It probably came from the same source as my copy, since both people bought the things from record stores here in the UK back when it came out. I'm guessing they came out of the same box from the pressing plant. Anyway, I paid quite a lot of money for this one, but I picked it up hoping that I could pass it on to a fellow Rev collector who would be willing to trade something nice for it. I've emailed a couple of people I know who collect Rev stuff about this. There are a couple of people interested. But I haven't really had the killer trade offer that I was hoping for. So I'm offering it for trade here. Here are some pictures:

If you are interested in trading for this thing, please get in touch.