SFA 'Unclean' 7"

I don't think that many people collect Wreck-age Records releases. Especially in 2010. But it was one of those labels that seemed to churn out quality releases throughout the 90s by bands that mainly stayed under the radar. After I had a few Wreck-age releases, I realised that they put out good stuff and then just picked up everything new that came out figuring it would be good. Even better, they did limited colour vinyl for nearly all of their releases. Here's one I never owned before - the 'Unclean' 7" by SFA:

The thing I liked about Wreck-age was that they would make their colour vinyl properly limited. The pressing info on this one is 200 on red, and 3050 on black. That's right - only one copy in every 15 was on colour. I also liked how they put the same label on the b-side of every record (the Wreck-age logo) as seen here:

I don't know too much about SFA to be honest. I don't even know what SFA stands for. But I like this:

I got this for $5 buy it now. I am stoked.

Other Wreck-age releases I still need are:

Madball 'Droppin' Many Suckers' 7" on burgundy
Neglect 'Pull The Plug' 7" on green
F.T.E. 'Front Toward Enemy' 2x7" on green/gold vinyl

Get in touch if you can help.

Pelican 'What We All Come To Need'

So here it is... the latest LP from Pelican, entitled 'What We All Come To Need'.

Rather than make 200 different colours, there's only one limited version of this one - 1,000 copies on red vinyl only available from Southern Lord directly.

Rather unsurprisingly, this comes in a gatefold sleeve. The photography is beautiful:

Consensus on this band seems to be that they peaked with their second album, 'The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw'. That record was, at the time, different, new and fresh. The songs were over ten minutes. Then the third album ('City of Echoes') came out and the songs were around 5 minutes long, and they just didn't sound as interesting. This one, their fourth album, sits somewhere in the middle. From the opening of the first song, it just feels right. It sounds heavy and hard, and the first time I heard it I was like "YES! They're back!" after that poor last record. I've played this through every day for the past couple of weeks and I am loving it. And most surprising of all, one songs has vocals... and it's damn good! Who knows where this will lead them next, but I can't wait to find out. This is going to be my theme to this summer, I can just tell.

Oh yeah, shame that Southern Lord can't removing records from sleeves for the mail. My copy is split on both sides:

United Blood

Out of the blue and unexpectedly, I got a text message a couple of weeks ago from a friend saying he was at United Blood fest and there was a limited Bane 7" on sale. He was asking whether I wanted one. Well, of course I wanted one!

It turns out to be the '6:58 PM Boston' 7" on Triple B records with a limited sleeve (aka an extra piece of card shoved on top of a regular sleeve).

A couple of days later I got an email from the label telling me there were some leftover copies in their store. I thought best to order one just in case the one my friend got me went missing. But I wasn't allowed to buy only one item, so I had to buy two. Which means I ended up with three. Anyone want one?

Anyway, back to United Blood. Once I confirmed that I wanted the Bane 7", my friend asked me if there was anything else I wanted. I hadn't paid any attention to who was playing the show, since at no point had I planned to go. So I checked the line up to see who was playing, and ended up replying to say "get me any limited records by these bands… blah blah blah". I then got another text telling me that there was a Mindset release show 7". Did I want that? "Yes please" I replied. Unfortunately though, a few minutes later I got another text saying that, in the time it had taken for my friend to go to the ATM to get cash, the Mindset release show 7" had sold out. Oh well. The other three versions of the 7" were for sale though, so I ended up getting them too. For some reason, I had failed to pre-order this record, even though I usually pre-order every React! release the day it goes up for sale. I guess that, by not ordering it, I have missed out on the usual piece of screen-printed cardboard. The sad thing is that this actually bothers me. Ha!

Finally... on a loosely related note, the dude who sent me these 7"s also emailed me this picture:

This is a photo of the birthday present he gave his (now ex) girlfriend. Pretty cool huh? If I came home and found my most wanted records wrapped up like this on my bed, I'd probably not even want to open them & ruin the wrapping.

Fastbreak 'Where It Lies' 7"

I like Fastbreak. And because of this, I have all their records. Well, I do now. But one managed to elude me for about 13 years, which is their second 7", 'Where It Lies', on Stand Hard Records. I just picked it up recently:

There were only 250 of these in total, all on black vinyl, numbered on the back of the sleeve:

Clearly numbering the back of the sleeve was deemed insufficient form of numbering, so they also numbered the paper dust sleeve as well:

Because I had never seen this before, I didn't know much about it. But the insert is interesting. It says that the four songs on this 7" were recorded for two compilations ('East Coast Assault Part 2' and a Blackout! Records compilation). I have no idea if either of those compilations ever came out or not. Anyone?

Pretty funny that this has taken me like 12 or 13 years to find. When the band were active, this was in demand and really hard to get. So I did what I always do, and decided to leave it until the frenzy died down a bit. I then got outbid on eBay several times, because I never really bid too much for this, since it was never something I was desperate to get. All of a sudden a ridiculous number of years float by, then I decide that it's stupid to still have it on my want list, spot one on eBay & think "this is the one" and then take it. And then I'm left feeling like an idiot for picking something up long, long after it came out, even though I was around at the time. I mean, seriously, what kind of moron is picking up a Fastbreak 7" for the first time in 2010 (other than 18 year old kids... who probably aren't interested in Fastbreak anyway since they've never heard of them)?

Integrity 2009 Japan Tour 7"

Did you know that Integrity played in Japan in 2009? No? Me either. But apparently they did. And to prove it, here's a tour press of a split 7" they did to mark the occasion...

This 7" is a split with a Japanese band called Creepout. I checked their myspace and these dudes kinda remind me of Fury Of Five or something. Consequently, I have no intention of ever listening to their side of the record. There are only 340 copies of this 7" in total, but there are three different sleeves (see here for a pic of all three). The version I got is the second rarest, out of 88 copies. The Manson family sleeve ties in nicely with the 'To Die For' 10" artwork.

Mine also came with a couple of stickers...

Which both have tour details on the flip side:

There are two Integrity songs on this 7". They are good. But don't just take my word for it - download them legally and for free here.

Sixteen Records for a Rainy Weekend

It's not often I get packages like this anymore:

This package contained sixteen LPs from a dude who was/is selling a collection. These records are mainly from the late 80s & early 90s, and were owned by someone from an era when records were actually PLAYED, so the condition isn't so good on a lot of them. Still, they were priced quite fairly, so I can overlook the condition, but no doubt I will want to replace some with better condition copies at some point because that's the kind of idiot I am. I'm going to run through them in alphabetical order...

Billingsgate 'No Apologies' LP. Picked this for a friend:

By The Grace of God 'Perspective' LP. I got this on blue when it came out. Nice to now have the girl's version too.

Cro-Mags 'Best Wishes' LP:

Cro-Mags 'Alpha & Omega' LP:

Down By Law 'All Scratched Up' double LP. I used to love this band, but never heard this one:

Face Value 'Coming Of Age' LP. This one is a spare if anyone wants it:

Gwar's first LP, 'Hell-o'. Used to own this one years ago but sold it.

Mighty Mighty Bosstones 12", which I wanted for the cover of 'Enter Sandman':

One Step Ahead LP, which I picked up for a friend. Such a great, and yet unknown, record:

Rocket From The Crypt 'Hot Charity' LP:

A Snuff 12" of one of their early 7"s. I used to love this band. One of the first bands I ever listened to.

Snuff 'Flibbidydibbydob' 12", which I never owned before. Only ever had a taped copy on cassette back in 1991.

Snuff 'That's Fine' 12" EP. I picked this up because I thought I traded mine away 10-12 years ago, but it turns out I still have it.

Spermbirds 'Something To Prove' LP. I picked this up because it has the song 'Americans Are Cool'. I never heard any other Spermbirds songs before, but I'm really into this LP. Probably the best of the lot in this post.

Suicidal Tendencies 'Join The Army' LP. Again I used to own this years ago & sold it.

This copy comes with a giant poster, which I didn't have with my previous copy:

Tad '8 Way Santa' LP. This copy is on Sub Pop Europe. The story with this LP is that the cover was banned. Apparently the couple on the cover objected to their image being used, so subsequent versions has a completely different cover... but only for the CD. As far as I am aware, all vinyl copies have this cover.

Not a bad haul for a Saturday morning huh?

Lard LP Test

My god, writing about this one makes me feel old! I just picked up a test press of the Lard 'The Last Temptation of Reid' LP, which came out in 1990 on Alternative Tentacles.

Here's what the regular version of the record looks like:

For anyone who doesn't know anything about this band, Lard is/was a band featuring Jello Biafra (vocalist of legendary Dead Kennedys) and and the dudes from Industrial noise metal band Ministry. This was one of the first punk/hardcore (whatever you want to call it) records that I listened to and bought, back when I was 17 years old. I probably wouldn't listen to stuff like this these days, but this album holds a special place in my heart. It reminds me of an interesting time in life. So I'm glad to have picked this up, even more so because it was cheap.

Even though this test press comes without any kind of sleeve, I can tell that this is a test of the UK pressing of this LP. How? Because it says 'A Porky Prime Cut' on the matrix. This means it was mastered by some dude in London (who you can read about HERE).

This record is from an era when vinyl was pretty much the only format, and so most records that were likely to sell more than a couple of thousand copies were pressed in multiple countries, rather than have huge volumes pressed in one country to then be shipped around the world. I've always assumed that the records pressed in the States would have a different matrix and also a slightly different sleeve (which would not include the UK Alternative Tentacles address), but admittedly this is just a guess. If anyone in the States has this record and can confirm, I'd be grateful.

Isis LP Trade

A few weeks ago I got an email out of the blue from someone who had read this blog, asking if I still had a spare copy of the first Quicksand LP (as shown on THIS POST from nearly a year ago), because if so he wanted to buy it. As it happened, I did still have it, so I asked the guy to make me an offer, which he did. I was all due to accept, but then I noticed the signature on his email and realised this guy was in a band that I have been listening to for about ten years. The band is called ISIS. You may have heard of them.

At this point, even though I had been offered a decent amount of money for the Quicksand LP, I asked whether the guy might be into trading instead of buying, and asked if he had any spare Isis records laying about. A few emails then flew back and forth as a deal was worked out. I ended up sending the Quicksand LP, a Cro-Mags LP (and also a third mystery LP which was not actually part of this trade, which I will refer to at some point in a future post) over to Los Angeles. And a few days ago, I received a couple of Isis records in return.

First up, a clear green vinyl copy of the 'Oceanic' LP:

This LP (like most Isis records) has been pressed on several different colours since it was released, but this version is part of the first pressing of this LP on Escape Artist records, released in 2002. Deep in my collection I also have this on a solid dark green marble colour. I always knew there was a clear green as well, but I don't know which is rarest. But since this is one of my favourite LPs of the past decade, I'm not overly fussed about knowing. I'm happy just to have them.

The second LP is a clear vinyl copy of the latest album 'Wavering Radient', which got released in 2009 and which I hadn't got around to picking up previously. When this came out, it sold out in about ten minutes and there were numerous different vinyl colours on different record labels. There were also then re-pressings on different colours not long after in order to satisfy the demand. I missed getting an order in for the first pressing, and because there were so many versions floating about in a short space of time, I had no clue about the pressing info. So I decided to wait until the dust had settled and then pick one up on eBay at some point. Fortunately, now I don't have to! I was given the chance to pick any one of the many colours of this thing that exist. I didn't know which one to choose, so I asked my buddy Juan, who advised me to pick the clear vinyl. Apparently this version was limited to 100 copies and could only be obtained from some record store in LA, or from the band direct. As we all know, most exclusive = best, so that was the one I plumped for and got sent.

I was also lucky enough to get my copy personalised, which is a really nice touch and makes it more special:

In case you can't read what it says from the photo above, here are a couple of close-ups:

All in all, a great parcel containing two fantastic records. This totally made my day/week/month/year. The only thing left to say now is

THANKS MIKE!