Cave In White Anomalies

The latest addition to my record collection is this here Cave In record, called 'Anomalies Vol 1'. It was released in December 2010 and it has taken me since then to find a white vinyl copy at a decent price ($20). Initially I wasn't going to bother with it because I was under the impression that I had all the songs on it anyway, and because the packaging looked boring. But that was when I was under the impression that all copies were on black vinyl. Then I found out that there were 100 copies on white vinyl, exclusive to Vacation Vinyl (which is Hydrahead's record store in Los Angeles), and upon seeing one of these, with minimal cover and plain white labels, I couldn't help but change my mind and add it to my wants list. And a little over a year and a half later, I finally got one.

So as I was saying, this has a very minimal look. Here's the front cover:

As it turns out, I didn't have the majority of the songs on this already. There's a song from a Japanese version of 'Until Your Heart Stops', a song from the 'Creative Eclipses' recording session, a Bad Brains cover, a Cure cover, a Black Sabbath cover (which is the only song I previously did have), a demo version of a song that was on 'Jupiter', and a Codeine cover.

The back cover is even more minimal:

The insert is a single piece of paper. Looks & feels like it just rolled out of a photocopier.

And this also comes with a Vacation Vinyl postcard, which is kinda cool.

As dumb as it may sound, this is one of the best looking records I have seen for ages. Sometimes less really is more I guess.

Yet More YOT Represses

Not really much to say about these - the latest Youth Of Today repress colours from Revelation.

First up, yet another pressing of 'Can't Close My Eyes', this time on clear vinyl. I didn't think there would be demand enough for another pressing of this one. But I guess there must be enough fools like me willing to buy another copy to make it worthwhile.

Next is 'Break Down The Walls' on blue. I guess after they did it on red it was inevitable that they would then also do it on blue. I wonder where they'll go next though? Perhaps change the sleeve colours to black and yellow? Only time will tell...

Also, not too exciting, but these records are the first to feature the new sticker on the shrink wrap. Making good use of the 'R' in a star, these look way better than the old ones in my opinion.

And finally, 'We're Not In This Alone' on red. This seems like a much more suitable colour choice than white, which was the previous colour. Looks good.

The funny thing is that I wouldn't really class myself as a Youth Of Today collector, but these records now mean that I own a total of 21 YOT LPs. Yes, that's right. Twenty One. Crazy.

Medusa Seven Test

I used to love the band Shudder To Think. They were just so different to every other band on Dischord and, in fact, to every other band I'd ever listened to. I guess at first my thoughts were that they were just weird. And then, when I started buying their records, there was one 7" that stood out as weird to me too. Weird within weird. It was a 7" called 'Medusa Seven' which was put out by a UK label. I got this from a distro and at the time the distro's description said something like 'this 7" is highly sought after in America'. I'm not sure if that was ever true or not, but it sounded good and made me think that I should buy it because if people in the States wanted it, it must be good. Ha! Anyway, that was probably in about 1994. And now, in 2012, I have picked up a test pressing from eBay.

This has a label on one side, which I can only assume is a stock pressing plant label. The other side's label is blank.

This also comes with a piece of paper which looks like the kind of thing that would be sent to radio stations or whoever else might get sent promotional copies. So I can only assume that this is one of those examples of a test doubling up as a promotional record. Anyway, the promo sheet is a nice little piece of history.

And just for completeness, here's a couple of pics of the regular version of the record.

I wonder whether this thing ever was highly sought after in America? Somehow I'm not so sure. But if any Americans did badly want this thing then I imagine I'd probably trade it away as it's not one that keeps me awake with excitement.

A Reason To Believe

Generally it seems that most message boards these days have a special buying / selling / trading section separate from the shit talking section. I guess that's to keep the boards from getting clogged with too much selling type spam. Anyway, I prefer the old style 'mix everything together' type boards. I don't want to have to navigate to two different boards. I don't have time. Thankfully the Livewire Board still keeps it old school. So when I read a post on there a couple of months ago about Reason To Believe, where some dude called Zack Nelson said 'I have a test press of the LP' and left his email address (effectively inviting offers) I decided I would respond. A few weeks later it landed safe and sound.

Reason To Believe 'When Reason Sleeps Demons Dance' LP Test Press on Nemesis Records. I'd seen a picture of a test of this LP before and it had plain labels. This copy came in a regular sleeve and also has the name of the band hand written on the labels in a different style for each side.

Here's a pic of the test next to the regular version of the LP. This is a nice one to have as there was no colour vinyl of this one, so the test is the only 'limited' version of this LP that there is.

As usual, however, the story did not end there. Whilst trying to work out a deal the dude was also kind enough to offer up his Life's Halt 7" with skater sleeve. This is the second most limited version of this 7", being numbered out of 75 copies (there is also another skater sleeve version out of 50 which I do not have). This is one Youngblood Records variant that had eluded me for many years. To be honest, it doesn't come up too often. So I was pleased to add it to the Youngblood collection.

This version comes with a full colour photo insert. Good stuff.

And finally, a surprise freebie. This is an LP by a band called RETALIATE. The band are from Oxnard, CA and started life as a side project for the vocalist of In Control, Zack Nelson. Yup, the same dude who sold me the two records above. He threw this LP in as a free extra.

I've listened to this three times so far. It has some hard riffs and sounds like at least three different bands, although I can't quite seem to put my finger on who. It's pretty good stuff though. Hard. I need to give it a couple more spins I think. But I certainly appreciate the gesture of a free record. Thanks Zack!

Treasure Chest

A couple of not overly exciting 7"s here which are just variations of records I've had for years.

I can't imagine anyone cares about Engine Kid at all in 2012. I have owned this 7" on blue vinyl since forever, but a while ago found out that it also existed on red. I made a note to look out for one. When one popped up on eBay, I knew I'd take it. There was one other bidder though, so clearly there must be one other human out there who still likes this band.

A quick look at the seller's other items and I spotted another variant of another 7" I already own. Dinosaur Jr 'Just Like Heaven' 7" on white. Don't think I've seen this one before. I have it on green, and I've seen red and blue. But not white. This was even cheaper than the Engine Kid 7", surprisingly.

Side B is a really dirty colour. Has some brown splotches on it. It looks really dirty in real life but I don't think the pictures bring it out.

I imagine I'll probably start collecting the other colours of this 7" now that I have two. No sense in owning two. Generally it has to be one or all. No middle ground here.

Deadly Visions Test

Only a couple of weeks ago, fellow blogger J over at Screaming For Records posted up a copy of an Internal Affairs 7". 'Deadly Visions' was the band's second 7" on Malfunction Records and was originally released in 2007. I have a good few Internal Affairs records, but somehow I never picked up a single copy of this 7". What I do remember, however, is that probably two or three years ago I won a copy of it on eBay, but somehow I never ended up getting it. I didn't get ripped off. It was just that I never ended up paying for it. Good job buyers can't get negative feedback else I would have been screwed. Ha!

Well anyhow, a couple of months ago I was surfing eBay and I saw an Internal Affairs 7" test press which was only about two minutes away from ending. So I sat and watched the clock tick, then put in a last second bid, and I was pleased to win it for a pretty low price. It took the seller over a month to mail it out, but eventually it arrived in good shape.

Interestingly, I decided to google this 7" to see if anyone had any cool photos of a full collection, as I don't know how many variations of it even exist. What I found was interesting to say the least. On this weird site (which seems to be some kind of poor man's Vinyl Noize) I found a post about this very same copy that I now own, number 2 of 15. It would appear that this sold on eBay a couple of years ago for $41. I imagine the seller must have been overjoyed at having to pack it up and mail it to me for the paltry sum of $11.50. Ouch.

Your Favorite Trainwreck LP

Probably about two or so years ago I got some email from someone in the States asking me to review a split 7" featuring a band called Your Favorite Trainwreck. It did peak my interest a bit because the email said it featured the vocalists from Farside & Gameface, two bands that I enjoyed a lot when they were active. I think the email may have linked me to an mp3 or something. Dude seemed to have missed the point of what my blog was. I said I would feature the record if he actually sent me a record. He never did. A couple of years later and a full length has just dropped. I wasn't sure whether to bother with it, but after checking a couple of songs online and finding them better than I expected, I figured it was worth picking up.

I got this from RevHQ. It's not on Revelation, but you'd be forgiven for thinking it was as bits of the packaging look just like Rev releases, such as the 'color vinyl' sticker and the Revelation logo on the back of the sleeve.

As much as I like this record, I think this is a poor example of a gatefold sleeve. Pictures of some random crap. I'm getting a massive deja-vu vibe from this but I can't for the life of me figure out what it is that this reminds me of.

After being initially unimpressed with this LP, I have since found myself playing it every day for the past week or two. Popeye from Farside takes lead vocal duties on a couple of songs, and the way I see it, his voice is/was Farside. So these songs may as well be Farside songs in my book. And given that Farside are one of my all time favourite bands, this is not a bad thing. Jeff Caudill also has a great voice, and the songs that he leads on are also good, and again, because of the vocal, just make me think of the later Gameface stuff. Ok, so there are a couple of songs that have keyboards in, and although these irritated me at first, I now barely notice. And as was the case with the Gypsy LP a couple of months ago, I can feel this LP still growing on me with every listen. At this rate it may well make my best of the year list, if I do one. It's just a shame about the record cover though, which is (by anyone's standards) pretty damn awful. Still, once I file it away I'll never have to see it again, so it's not too much of an issue.

ISIS 'Oceanic' Clear

I never set out to collect ISIS records. I mean, I like the band an' all, but I was happy enough with one copy of each record at the time when each record came out. But especially in the later years of the band's existence, they sent record collecting into new territory, whereupon each release got reissued time and time again on many different colours of vinyl. The original pressings of each record weren't TOO bad, with probably an average of three colours each. But then the re-pressings started coming, and I just completely lost track of where it got to, especially as most were done on horrible splattery vinyl which I hate. Ugh.

Still, as far as I'm concerned, the original pressings on the original labels on good old US vinyl are still cool, and I am always tempted when they pop up for sale. As such I couldn't resist this clear vinyl copy of 'Oceanic' on Escape Artist Records.

I think this is second press. I already have both first press green colours. There are also two third press colours on this label, then a whole host of reissue colours that came years later. For once though, I don't want any more than what I already have. I'm done here.

Power Trip

Thrash. Crossover. Hardcore. Whatever. I don't know what the correct genre description would be for the band Power Trip. I generally don't believe in genres. All I know is that I like this 7". To me, it sounds like the last couple of Iron Age records, which I totally loved.

This 7" is on Lockin' Out Records, which I didn't realise was still going to be honest. This purple vinyl is the regular color. The limited version was black I believe.

As usual, I'm so far behind that there's now a second press of this one on clear red vinyl. I don't plan on picking that one up but then again, you never know.

Pelican 'Ataraxia / Taraxis'

I haven't listened to Pelican much these past couple of years since their last album came out. But I went to see them play a couple of months ago, which was a nice reminder of how good they still are, and now there's a new record out. 'Ataraxia / Taraxis' is on Southern Lord and contains four 'songs'. It starts out quietly and then builds into the usual chugging riffs for the remaining songs. Unsurprisingly, if you already like the band then you'll like this as it is no great departure from their previous records, despite the last song on their last album hint that they may start experimenting by adding vocals.

I've seen this on clear, 'bone', black and the blue vinyl that I picked up. No idea what the pressing info is for this one. Anyone know?

Oh, also I picked up a spare if anyone in the UK wants it. Get in touch if you do.

Surprise Tests

I read something on Nick's blog recently that struck a chord with me. Here's what he said:

I always say bid, even if you believe you can't win. The reason is because no one does that. They think they can't win, and decide not to waste their time. Or they forget about the auction cause they're not excited enough to win it, because they don't think they can win.

I can now attest to this being great advice. Here's the proof...

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across a test press for sale on eBay that I wanted. I then checked out the seller's other items & saw that he was selling two other tests, both of which I also kinda wanted. But I figured that people would probably go after these, especially as the seller was selling three tests at the same time, and was thus three times as likely to pull in the buyers as if he were selling only one. So I clicked 'watch' and sat back to see what would happen...

Well, after a few days the last couple of hours of the auction came around and I was surprised to see that all three records were still sitting at pretty low prices. Now, I really thought that other people would be going after these things, and that at least one of them would go for big money. I figured that, as usual, all the action would go down in the last sixty seconds. But even though I didn't think I would win any of these auctions, I remembered Nick's advice and decided to bid anyway. So I put in my bids and then went to bed.

In the morning when I awoke I was pleasantly surprised for two reasons. Firstly, because I ended up winning all three records, and secondly, because they all sold for what I consider to be low prices. So what were they?

Firstly, a test press of the Internal Affairs LP on Malfunction Records. I always liked Internal Affairs but I consider this LP to be their best record. This one comes in a sleeve and is numbered out of 20 copies. I won this one for $26.55.

The second record is for a test press of the first Metroschifter LP. Unfortunately this is not the original pressing on Slamdek records, but the reissue on Conversion Records. Still, it's a nice one to have. This comes in a paper dust sleeve and has the standard Erika labels. This one ended on only $19.41, even though there were 7 bids. That means that there were 6 other people other than me who wanted this, but I guess none of them wanted it enough to pay more than $19... which almost suggests they didn't really want it at all.

And here's a pic of the test next to the regular sleeve as it makes for a more interesting photo.

And finally, the one I wanted most. This is a test pressing of the 108 'Holyname' LP on Equal Vision Records. I figured this would sell for a reasonable amount, but somehow I won it for only $27.

And again, here's a pic of the test next to the regular sleeve.

The only thing that's weird about this one is that I got the regular record out to compare that the matrix is the same (which I actually do for all tests I receive), and lo & behold they are different. This suggests that there were two pressings of this record, probably a few years apart, and possibly using different pressing plants. But now I'm not sure which version my regular copy of the record is. I bought mine about two years after this record originally came out. Does that mean that the copy I have owned for about 18 years is a first press, or a repress? And if I have the first press, then what does the second press look like? Does it have different labels or insert or anything? Anyone got a copy so we can compare notes?