And Out Come The Descendents

After only just getting into The Descendents (20 years too late), my timing seems pretty good, because Epitaph just repressed their 1996 full length 'Everything Sucks' as a limited white vinyl LP. Pretty cool that, just after I get into them, this album gets pressed on colour vinyl for the first time ever. Also pretty cool that they chose a colour that matched the cover of the LP.

At first I wasn't into this record because the sound is not like other Descendents records. It sounded very much like a typical Epitaph release to me. However, I got over that after a couple of plays and now I am really into this record. I have been listening to this and nothing else for the past ten days or so. Such a great album.

Whilst browsing the Epitaph store, I also picked up another classic LP that has just been repressed on colour wax for the first time ever - Rancid's classic 1995 LP 'And Out Come The Wolves'.

This is the first time I have owned a copy of this record. I bought the two albums before this when they came out, and the one that followed this one, but somehow I missed this one out. I think it was because I taped it from a friend so that I knew the songs before they toured the album. But then I listened to it so much that there didn't seem much point in buying it. Then fourteen and a half years rolled by. But good to finally have it.

Gameface 7" Purple

When I posted the story of the Pitchfork 7" a few weeks ago, I posted a copy of my wants list from 1996. One of the items on there was this one:

It's a 7" by the OC pop punk band Gameface. This is their second 7" and was released in 1992. As you can see, it is on purple vinyl. I was after this for many years... but it was never THAT urgent since I did acquire a clear vinyl version several years back. Still, it was on the wants list for far too long. Glad to finally have it.

This 7" came wrapped in the worst condition sleeve that I have ever received. The cover is bent and torn, and the insert seems to have been half eaten or burnt. Check it out:

I now have two different anecdotes about this record, as follows:

1. I only ever saw this on eBay once before. It was about 3 years ago. I watched it for a few days, and (as anyone with half a braincell would do) I saved my bid for the last few seconds on the final day. I think it had been on about $3 or something all the way throughout the auction. I figured that nobody else would be interested. So I decided to bid an amount that I thought would win it comfortably. I bid something like $36... and immediately got outbid! The auction ended and I was left feeling puzzled as to how any other human on the planet would be willing to pay more than me for this record. Even though that's not a lot by rare record standards, it seemed way more than I expected it might go for. I mean, seriously, as if anyone other than me would be interested in Gameface vinyl in 2006/7! Anyway, a few short weeks ago I was cruising eBay and stumbled across this copy with a buy it now price of $8. I guess this shows that, three years later, I am the only person in the world who is bothered about Gameface records.

2. I saw Gameface play in Leeds in (I think) 1996 at The Duchess. After the show I spoke with guitarist Todd Trout about records and asked if he had a spare of this 7" on purple vinyl that he could sell me. As luck had it, he did, but it was back home in CA. So he gave me his address and told me to send him $5 and he would send me the record when he got home. I figured that $5 wasn't much, so I sent $10 in cash to cover the record and shipping. As was often the case in the days before they switched the internet on, I never got the record or heard so much as a word, and I had o real way of getting in touch with the dude. But then, four years later, I saw Gameface play again in Leeds following the release of their 'Every Last Time' LP on Revelation. The show took place at a pub called The Feast & Firkin (which later changed its name to The Library). It was a really good show. I guess because they were on Rev, a lot of people were excited and the place was packed. It was one of those shows that sounds shit on paper, and people now would lie about and pretend they weren't actually there, or they didn't enjoy it... but everyone was there and everyone really loved the band and it was a really good show. Anyway, after the show I spoke to Todd Trout and asked if he got my money four years previous. Predictably, he seemed to have no idea what I was talking about. But to try to make things up to me, he gave me a free CD of their early material that had just come out on Dr.Strange Records. The funny thing is that, even though I was some nobody kid and he was giving me a free CD, I was totally ungrateful. I remember looking at the CD and thinking "what the fuck use is this to me?" and, without seeming stoked, I just kinda looked at it in disgust and asked "don't you have any records instead?". Ha!

To close out, here's a pic of both versions of this 7" (excluding black of course, which clearly doesn't count):

3 More Flags!

A good friend of mine recently told me he was thinking about selling some records because he was short of money. He offered me first dibs before he put his collection on eBay. Unfortunately though he didn't have a list of his collection, and he wasn't going to make one for me. And he lives quite a way away, so I couldn't go round and have a look. So I could only make offers on things I knew that he had, which wasn't many things. Probably for the best I guess. I need to try to control my spending anyway because the last month or so was quite an expensive one for one reason or another. Anyway, as a consequence of this I am now two steps closer to a complete Black Flag colour vinyl LP collection...

First up, my third colour copy of 'Damaged'. This one is on clear pink:

The only other colour of Damaged that I am aware of that I still don't own is a dark, clear purple. In the unlikely event that anyone reading this has one they wanna part with, get in touch.

Next up, one that I am totally stoked on - 'My War' on blue:

Even though this is probably at least the fiftieth pressing of this record, I don't care. This looks great.

I also have this one on red vinyl. It's easy to tell that this blue one is a much more recent pressing than the red one because the blue one has a barcode on the back of the sleeve, whilst the red one does not, as you can see here:

I also picked up another Black Flag record from the same dude, but this one is kinda weird. This is a test press of 'The Process Of Weeding Out' 12". It has no sleeve, but does come with a photocopied piece of paper which states the record title, catalog number and release date:

What seems strange to me is that the labels on this test are in French:

I know that SST used to use Rainbo to press their records, which is based in California. So I have no idea what is going on here. I always thought SST records were all pressed in the States and then shipped around the world. But I must be wrong. The pressing plant is called SNA and is definitely in France. So some SST records must have been pressed in Europe. How many SST releases were also pressed in other countries around the world? Anyone with any info please leave a comment. I am intrigued. Thanks!

Descendents ALL

So I have noticed something kinda weird recently - sealed records on eBay seem to sell for less. In the past few months I found three sealed LPs for sale on eBay, all of which have sold for way less than the usual price. The third and latest example is the Descendents 'ALL' LP:

I'm admittedly a new Descendents fan. I only really started listening to them about six months ago after I decided to give them a second chance, because a long time had passed since I initially decided I didn't like them somewhere round 1994. So I only really just started looking around for their records. I'm not really sure what's out there, or how much things are worth, but I knew that I really like the 'ALL' LP, so when I spotted this sealed LP on eBay I figured I wanted it. I was then happy to end up winning it, and for a very reasonable $66. Popsike had kinda suggested that colour Descendents LPs usually go over $100, so I think I got a pretty good deal.

I can only assume that people don't like bidding on a sealed LP because they can't see the record, and are worried that it might not actually be color at all. Me, I just figure you can't lose. If you buy it & it turns out not be be colored as advertised then you have a solid case for a refund. If you do win, you get a good deal. Anyway, as any decent human would do, as soon as I received it, I broke the seal to reveal the record within:

I had seen this one on both blue and grey vinyl before, so it was a 50-50 chance. I was hoping for blue. But since I always lose on a 50-50 gamble, I got grey:

I THINK that the color vinyl of this record is a tour press. That's what people who have it in their collections seem to think. I haven't got a clue. It does have a pic of the band inside and mentions the ALL tour. Dunno if this is because this record was supposed to be for a tour, or whether it's just a pic taken on the tour that found it's way into a later color vinyl pressing. I didn't think bands made special tour pressings until only a few years ago. Anyone know for sure what the crack is with this?

Bane - 3:58 PM Los Angeles 7"

Finally got my final Bane 7"s in the recent "Time & Place" series. This one is called "3:58PM Los Angeles" and contains the same songs as the "12:58 Rome" 7". I gotta say, my main gripe with these 7"s is that they really should have used the 24hr clock. I seriously HATE any clock that isn't on the 24hr setting. 3:58PM? Why not just say 15:58? Less chance of confusion with the 24 hour clock... unless of course you're trying to communicate with a complete moron who can't subtract 12 from a number in the 13-23 range.

As usual with these records, there are three colours, as follows:

300 on green:

700 on yellow:

1000 on greyish white:

In total, the past three months or so have given me (aka tricked me into buying) 14 new Bane 7"s. Fourteen!

Add this to the 17 Bane 7"s I owned before this series, and that gives you a grand total of one shitload of Bane 7"s sitting in my house. And the sad thing is that there are at least ten more that I don't have that I need. Yes, need. Not want. Need.

Piss.

Chain Of Strength 'WHUA' 7" on Blue

Chain of Strength 'What Holds Us Apart' 7" First Strike Records pressing on blue vinyl. This record is a funny one for me. I've had three copies of this before over the years and traded them all away.

I remember trading one to Anthony Pappalardo back in about 2000 for a couple of 7"s (one of which was the first Rain On The Parade 7" on clear numbered out of 100, not sure what the other one was though, possibly a release show version of the In My Eyes demo 7"?). I also traded a couple of these with dudes from the Revelation trade board back in my trading glory days. But since then I haven't owned one for myself... which is funny considering this is the most common version of the First Strike pressing.

It always seemed relatively easy to pick this record up over here in the UK, probably because the label, First Strike, was based here. So I would pick them up cheap and then trade them for good stuff with my American cousins. But then at some point the stream dried up and these things became harder to find... and then I realised that I kinda wanted one for myself. But I always used to be able to pick them up for like £4 or so, and then in the past few years the price on eBay started going up, but when you're used to paying £4, paying over £20 seemed crazy. So years went by with me not wanting to pay for one. But here we are, ten years later, and finally I got one at a fairly decent price. I guess I could have picked one up sooner if I had really wanted, but it wasn't high priority I guess. God knows why though. A great record. Every home should have one.

The colour itself is pretty bland, but I held mine up to the light and it looked WAY cooler, so I decided to snap a shot for you. Not sure if they are all like this:

I'm extremely close to having a full set of the First Strike pressing now. Only need the blue vinyl in the red sleeve to complete the set. Come on!

Mind Eraser 7" on Clear

Mind Eraser 'The Prodigal Son Brings Death' 7" on Youngblood Records on clear vinyl. Picked this up at the same time as the DTN 7"s, but it didn't seem right to add it on to the end of that post.

Somehow though, it doesn't seem right to have this as a post on it's own, since I have precisely fuck all to say about it.

Oh well.

Down To Nothing 1st 7"

Once again I've been slack on here. But at least I have a reason - daylight. Or rather, lack of. I've got to a point where I HATE taking photos in artificial light, since the lights in my house are very yellowish and this gives crap results. So I like to take photos in the natural daylight. But I don't get to see any daylight at home right now. The sun isn't up when I go to work and it's long gone by the time I get home. So the only time I get to take photos is the weekend, but half the time I don't get around to it.

Well I got a few bits last week, so decided to just get on with it, so there are going to be a lot of updates this week to clear the backlog. The first is a post that is long overdue, because I picked these things up just before the new year.

I have a friend who used to have probably the best Down To Nothing collection in the world. But recently he decided to sell most of it off because, let's face it, DTN aren't as cool in 2010 as they were in 2004. So I took the opportunity to pick up three of the rarest versions of their first 7" on Dead By 23 Records...

First up is the first press swirl version, number 9 of 31:

This is part of the first press of this record. There were 31 copies which were definitely a "transition" between black and purple (if you want to see the transition, check THIS PIC which is of Stefan Sonic's collection - he owns 8 of the 31 copies!). This one is largely black. This also has a Blacklist Booking stamp embossed on the dust sleeve. No idea how many have that, but probably not many.

I also picked up another copy from the same range, but a later number which is more toward the purple swirl of the regular press:

The third version I grabbed is one of the regular versions on purple swirl... although this one is quite transparent compared to most copies (you'll have to take my word for it):

Here's a picture of the three together to show how they compare:

Not content with three copies, I also grabbed a fourth version, which is one of the swirl versions from the second press:

The second press was on clear red, but the first 30 were a transition that ranged from orange to pink to red. (Again, if you want to see the transition, see THIS PIC which is of Stefan Sonic's collection. Dude owns 10 of the 30 copies!). This one is one of the later ones which is nearly all red. Oh yeah, notice that this version also has the sleeve coloured by hand, which is a nice touch.

So, aside from having multiple versions of the transition colours, I have a pretty much complete collection of this 7" now. Test press, release show version, and multiple colours. It's not often I actually complete a collection, so I figured it was worth taking a photo of the lot together... even if I did have to take it inside and use the flash.

Nirvana 'Bleach' 20th Anniversary Double LP

Twenty years since Nirvana's first album dropped, Sub Pop have decided to reissue 'Bleach' as a double LP. Given that I don't own this one on vinyl (and haven't done for many years) I figured I would pick one up, which I did a couple of weeks back on a post-xmas shopping trip to London:

As is now custom for every record, this comes in a gatefold sleeve. The cool thing is that they have stayed true to the original issue of the record, and pressed this on white vinyl (the first pressing of this was 1000 copies on white vinyl). Both of these records are on white vinyl, although one looks off-white due to being housed in a clear plastic dust sleeve that has a pink tint to it:

For anyone wondering how they could have stretched this album onto a second record, disc number two contains a live set, recorded on February 9 1990 at the Pine Street Theatre in Portland, OR.

The best bit is that this comes with a large, 16 page booklet of photos:

Some of the photos are shots of the band playing live, whilst others are of the original artwork layouts, and original master tapes. My favourite though is a shot of the original recording contract as signed by label and band:

This is a great reissue of a classic album. Overall though, when I hold this I feel nostalgic, old and a bit sad. It reminds me of my later teenage years, and a time when music was, for me, new and exciting... unlike today, when everything seems like a rehashed version of something from 10-20 years before. It also reminds me of my early days of buying records and trying to collect colour vinyl. It also makes me want to try to acquire an original first pressing white vinyl copy of this album.. although I imagine that could be pretty expensive.

Anyway, if you like looking at photos of pretty coloured records, there's a great discography here which shows all the versions of this record that you should check out:

http://www.sliver.it/nirvana/test/index.html

Green Bane 7" (again) & A Roaster

I got two things in the mail yesterday. Two very different, but very nice items...

First, a brand new Anolon Advanced 36cm rectangular roaster. This is some prime hard-anodized nonstick cookware right here, and features the most advanced nonstick inside & out. Stoked!

The second item that the postman brought me was a green vinyl copy of the Bane 'Free To Think, Free To Be' 7":

Regular, long-term readers may remember seeing this record before HERE. This new copy is number 38/100.

This copy is much darker variant than the other ones I already own. It actually has thousands of tiny little black speckles in the vinyl. I couldn't really get them to show up in the photo, but if you click on this and look closely you can probably just about see what I am talking about. The overall effect is a darker green. Here's a comparison with number 3/100 to show the difference:

I now probably have enough copies of this record. Maybe.

Now all I have to work out is which I like best - Green Bane 7"s or hard-anodized nonstick cookware. Hmmmm...