No Forgivance

A few years ago I traded away my Statement 7". I think it was on grey vinyl, although It may have been red. To be honest I struggle to remember now. But it always sat in the back of my mind that I needed to replace it at some point. Finally I have gotten around to it, although this copy is on blue vinyl.

I was struggling to remember when I traded my previous copy away. But then I thought that maybe I don't need to remember. Maybe my blog will tell me... and it did! I traded it away in August 2008 for an Engine Kid test press. Has it really been 7 years? Jesus...

Give Stuff

It seems to me that a few people have given up collecting Give records. And who can blame them? It seems there are more every other week, to the point where it's starting to get annoying. Well, unless you're me of course, in which case it's still a bit of good fun.

The first record of this post is the Revelation released 'Sonic Bloom' 12". Despite still really enjoying Give, this feels like the most pointless of all their releases. It has five songs, of which two were on the 'Electric Flower Circus' LP, which came out first. So really this is a 12" for three songs. Or in my case, three 12"s for three songs... which doesn't seem to represent good value for money.

I also managed to find a yellow vinyl copy of the 'Live' 7", which I missed at pre-order stage because people actually cared about Give records back then.

And finally, it's the second press of the Euro pressing of the 'Electric Flower Circus' LP on purple vinyl. I think this marks the fourth copy of this LP that I have bought, and there are another couple on the way.

If anyone is interested, I have a couple of spare Give records. I have the above purple copy of the LP, a first press Euro pressing copy on green, and also a red vinyl copy of the live 7". Get at me if you want any of these things.

Hardcore For Hardcore

When Six Feet Under Records released The Rival Mob's 'Hardcore For Hardcore' 7" back in 2010, I missed out. Or maybe I just didn't fancy it. I don't remember exactly. But I don't own a single copy of the SFU release, and there are something like 8 or 9 versions. It's a total disaster.

So I guess it was for people like me that Quality Control HQ decided to repress this thing in 2015. I was sat there, minding my own business on a Saturday afternoon, when Mark sent me a message to let me know that this thing was available for pre-order. Roughly 5 minutes later I had placed an order. I knew there was no time to waste and it would go fast. I was right. The 100 purple vinyl copies disappeared in a flash.

You may have noticed that this 7" is now actually a 12". It also features two extra songs, one of which is a Crippled Youth cover.

So a couple of weeks after this arrived I went to a record fair in London somewhere, and the label that released it had a stall. There were a couple of the release show copies of this thing for sale, so I bagged one. It's on the same purple vinyl, but comes in a special sleeve which is pretty much an inverse Straight Ahead 12". There were 200 copies in total on purple vinyl, of which 100 came in this special sleeve and the other 100 came in the regular sleeve.

Even though this thing is on a quite dark, solid purple vinyl, it looks a lot more interesting when held to the light. It then becomes a kind of pink with black swirl type thing.

Overall this is a pretty cool release for a UK based label to have put out, and I feel pretty lucky to have got hold of both copies.

InteRgrity Stuff

No matter how many Integrity records I pick up, there are always more that I miss and more that get pressed and repressed. It's an endless quest in itself just trying to keep up with everything that this band puts out on vinyl. Here are a few bits that I picked up in the last couple of months...

Here's my third copy of the split with Mayday.

Continuing the white vinyl theme, here's the Indie Recordings pressing of the 'Black Heksen Rise' 7". This white vinyl copy was out of 200 copies.

Next are the A389 Records second press copies of the 'Seasons Of The VVitch' 7" - one each on turquoise, purple and red vinyl.

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And here's one that I missed on colour completely when it came out - the 'Kingdom Of Heaven' 7". This one is the band exclusive pressing on 'purple' (which looks a lot more like dark red to me) vinyl.

And finally, a test press of last year's Record Store Day split 7" with Vegas, 'Love Me, I'm Bedazzled'.

Notice how the pressing plant have inserted an extra letter 'R' into the band name.

Despite picking these up there are still LOADS of Integrity records I do not own. This is one chase that will literally never end, mark my words.

Behavioural Resistance

I was tidying some records a while ago and realised that I had somehow missed the more common colour of the Rot In Hell LP on Deathwish. Not sure how that happened exactly. So then I found one selling for cheap, which allowed me to fill that gap. This is the 'beer' vinyl copy. Otherwise known as clear yellow.

This is now the fourth copy of this record that I own. And here's a fun fact for you - there was no test press made for this record. It doesn't exist. Which means that I am done here.

Not sure what this band is up to now. Things seem to have been a little quiet for a while. However, the rumour mill suggests that there could be a new record in the works, which you can read all about in this top quality interview.

Box

Sweet Jesus are one of my favourite current bands. Their LP is about to drop in the next couple of weeks, and I've listened to it a lot via a free download that I got when I placed a pre-order. It rules. I'm really looking forward to getting the record, and slightly bummed that I missed the test presses they were selling. Ah well. Can't win them all. Anyway, despite having listened to the LP loads, I'm only just getting around the checking out the 7". This came out at the end of 2014, but I only received my copies in late April, and still haven't properly listened to it.

There were two colours of this thing, and both are still available direct from the label. White vinyl (330) and red vinyl (770).

It feels to me like this band haven't got anywhere near the attention they deserve, especially considering who's in the band. Kinda weird how people can just miss some bands when they have superstar members. Anyway, I just noticed that Sweet Jesus are playing over here in a couple of weeks. Hopefully I can find a way to get to that one and pick you all up a tour press of the LP.

It's Been A While...

... since I did one of these posts where I post pictures of all the recent Revelation reissues I've picked up. The last one was in October last year. I received most of these in my last shipment from the States (received back in April - I still haven't finished posting eveything up that I received!), so some of these could have been pressed at the end of 2014 or the start of 2015. I have no idea. All I know is that I quite like the first two pictured here, and could definitely live without the rest of 'em.

I wonder if I will ever break this habit? I mean how much is too much? Is there such thing? Will we ever know?

Something Less

Did you ever end up with a record and wonder how on earth it happened? Well, I spotted someone selling a gold vinyl copy of the first Comeback Kid LP a while ago, which was the first press out of 100 copies. There are literally about 20 different versions of this LP out there, and I have no intention of collecting them, but way back when I decided to add the three first press colours (gold, white and red) to my want list. And they have stayed on there ever since. So I kinda decided to bag the gold one and then forget about the rest. Well, that was the plan, but somehow I ended up bidding on the gold copy and not winning it. So, feeling disappointed, I decided to go for the white copy that the same seller was also selling, which I did end up winning. This was, I believe, out of 200 copies.

After that, however, I started looking at what else the seller had and spotted another copy of the same record which was giong fairly cheap. I had no real intention of buying it, but figured that I would place a low-ish bid and be happy if I ended up winning. Well, wouldn't you know it I ended up winning it, but immediately felt the opposite of happy. I felt like an idiot who had been fished in to buying something that I had no intention of buying. Oops!

So now I'm not sure what to do. I'm gonna keep the white one, but not sure I want this other one. Oh, and I also have one on grey vinyl that I've owned for years. If you may be interested in either then get in touch.

Clouds Burned By Sunshine

I'm convinced that there are some records out there that literally nobody except me is still interested in. Here's an example. This is a test press of a 7" released by Second Nature records back in 1997. The band is called KRAKATOA and the 7" is titled 'Clouds Burned By Sunshine'. I really liked this when it came out. Who could have guessed that 18 years later I would be buying a test press from the label?

This is one of those bands who were barely a band. They recorded the 7" and then went their separate ways to join others bands. One dude went on to Harvest and another dude went on to Threadbare. But this was where they started.

Other than this 7", the band reformed a few years later and recorded a full length (which was CD only), and that was it - game over. I prefer the 7" to the album, but it's all good stuff, heavy and metallic and a few years ahead of its time I would say. If you've not heard this 7" before then there are quite a few clear vinyl copies on discogs for cheap. Why not treat yourself?

Retribution

Being a longtime Revelation fan, it's cool to see that the label is still investing in new bands. Here's one that I struggled to decide whether it was a 2014 or 2015 release - a 7" by a band called Forced Order titled 'Retribution'. This came out on 23 December 2014, meaning that it is technically a 2014 release... but with it coming out then, barely anyone would have received or heard it until early 2015. So I'm calling it a 2015 release. Sue me.

This band sounds a bit like Integrity, and features members (or possibly a member) of Soul Search... another current Rev band. Whilst I'm quite into these three songs, I'm not convinced that Rev is the right place for them to be honest. Although, that said, there's been so many bands with so many sounds on the label over the year, that I have no right to say that at all.

There were three colours of vinyl pressed, and of course I had to buy them all - yellow (300), burgundy (500) and grey (700).

As I type this, a whole seven months after it came out, Rev have just put up a pre-order for the band's first full length, due to ship in late September. Could be one of the records of the year I would guess. Well, for me anyway. Assuming I receive it before the year ends that is.

Get In The Pit...

... You motherfuckers!

Life's Halt were one of my favourite early 00's bands. Great music, great lyrics, great artwork and some great record covers. But I never got around to picking up their 97 Demo 7". I think this came out after their other records. It was kind of an odd release - not on a record label and only 300 copies. I think.

This 7" has plain labels - one orange, the other blue. For some reason I really like these blank labels. I guess I'm just a sucker for nice colours.

This thing also comes with two separate inserts. One might be the inside of the cover, although I can't remember as I took this photo about three weeks ago now, and I can't be arsed to go check. It doesn't really matter anyway.

Kinda funny to think that this has been on my wants list for a few years. I added it and then never really went after one. I always figured the price would drop to like $3, but it never really did. Then lots of years rolled by. So I finally decided to cross this one off the list once and forget trying to save like ten bucks or whatever.

Bug Live III

I picked up this purple vinyl copy of Dinosaur Jr.'s 'Bug Live' LP a while back. I already picked up the most common green version and also the most limited green in limited sleeve versions previously, so needed this one to 'complete' the set.

Well, wouldn't you know it, as soon as I received this the label repressed it on two more colours - a red vinyl and a white with purple splatter vinyl. I'm tapping out here though. Having three copies from the first press is enough for me, I dont really need two more. At least, that's the plan at the moment.

No Warning - Done

Now this one took me a long time to find. It's the No Warning 7" on purple vinyl. Only 100 were made in 2001. I remember this coming out quite vividly as I had traded records (via Revelation's trade board) a few times with each of the two dudes who ran the label. I remember them telling me that they were setting up a label and had this band called No Warning lined up for their first release. I also remember that when it came out I got in touch to then be told that the colour copies were sold out. And here we are fourteen years later with me finally getting around to picking one up.

In the end there isn't even an exciting climax to this long saga. This just appeared on eBay one day and I bid and won it. The only bonus was that it cost me quite a lot less than I would have paid.

This copy seems to have originally been owned by someone called Jim Connolly, who it would appear was 'the mk master'. If anyone knows who this dude is and what mk is then do please let me know as I'm intrigued.

Well as luck would have it, the same seller was also letting go of their copy of the same record with the Summer Tour 2001 sleeve, which I also didn't have. So I made a play for that one too. There were 400 copies of this, which seems like quite a lot for one tour to me.

And to round things off, I also picked up this 'Yeti Demo Sessions' 7". This came out last year as a freebie in the mystery boxes that Bridge Nine sold as a means of clearing out some old stock.

I think this pretty much wraps up No Warning for me. There's nothing else I need or want. I mean, I'd gladly take a test of the first 7" or the first LP, but realistically that ain't gonna happen, and I'm not gonna stress about it so I'm done here. Not often I say that, and it actually feels good. The only thing left to do is to go see them play live in London in October. Maybe see you there...