Sit On My Face

Earlier this year I picked up a cheap Dwarves 7" and wrote here '...this seems to be one of the band's least expensive records to buy, and there are a few different colours out there, so I feel a strong tempation to pick up more'. And here we are seven months later and I grabbed another one, this time on red vinyl.

It's interesting to consider at what point you're collecting a record. A few months ago I just happened to have two copies of this thing. And now I have three, and would definitely like ot pick up more. But I'm not sure at what point I decided that this was a 7" that I wanted to collect. Was it at the point I bought a second copy, or the third? I'm not actually sure. But what I do know is that there are 3 other colours out there that I need to now track down - purple, blue and white. I'm not sure how easy they are to find, but I think it could take a while.

Agression

Once again I found myself sucked into buying a record on It's Alive Records because the pacckaging looked top notch. The record is titled 'SSL' and it is by a band called Agression. I will admit that I picked this up just based on the label that released it and the front cover. I didn't really know or research anything about the band.

I'm not even sure what this record is to be honest. I say that because it's not a studio album. It's some kind of compilation. The label doesn't seem to have any kind of website or online store, so there's no 'official' description of what this is. DIscogs simply says 'Demo/Live/Studio Recordings'. Still, whatever it is, it comes on a 'hot' pink vinyl with a hand written b-side label. It looks good.

The paper inner sleeve is printed and numbered out of 300 copies.

As usual with most It's Alive releases, there are plenty of extras packed in here in the form of posters, flyers, stickers, etc. A really impressive package.

It turns out that I have probably been living in a vacuum for most of my life having not heard of Agression before. They were a band for many years and started very early, and are considered one of the earliest 'skate rock' bands. They play kinda 'classic' sounding west coast early 80s punk. Their debut LP was released by BYO back in 1983 and a 6th album was released in 2006. A couple of the early LPs have pretty iconic front covers too. So I'm looking at this record as a gateway to finding out more about this band.

Lost My Ways

So I mentioned in my last post about keeping my Supertouch collection complete, which brings me seemlessly to my next post... a Supertouch 7".

The 'Lost My Way' 7" was released ten years ago now, in 2011. WHen it came out I picked up both colour vinyl options that were available (blue and green). And then at some point not too long after, they sold two black vinyl copies in different limited covers, each out of 50 copies and only sold with some kind of shirt that made them really expensive. So I didn't buy either, and then spent the next decade trying to track them down. They limited covers were related to a couple of sites that were quite popular at the time. The first was the 'Double Cross' version, and the second the Vinly Noize version. The Double Cross version I managed to pick up in 2013, but the Vinly Noize one has taken quite a few years to land... which is slightly ironic given that I actually ended up writing for Vinyl Noize for a while.

As the picture shows, this one has a cover that is unique to this version, and it comes in a brown paper dust sleeve which is hand numbered out of 50. It's also numbered in the bottom left corner of the back cover.

This was the last version that I needed to complete my collection. So of course, this meant that I was legally obliged to get all of them out for a photo. Given I have 7 different versions, I wasn't sure of the best way to lay them out, but it kinda worked out ok.

Shown in the photo are:
Test press /15, Blue vinyl /208
Green vinyl /803, United Blood 2011 Stamp /20, Generation Records RSD 2012 cover /70
Double Cross cover /50, Vinyl Noize cover /50

I think that technically there is one that I don't have, which is a black vinyl in regular cover. But I'm not going to buy one of those. Of the 7 copies I have, 5 of them are on black, which is way more black than anyone needs in their life. Plus, one version is just a black vinyl in regular cover with a stamp on the front, so it's practically the same thing.

Consolation Prize Test

The great thing about hardcore is how many bands come and go and leave like one great record. We all have those records that we love and that they know most other people either haven't heard, have forgotten about, or just aren't interested in, and we all spend time now and again trying to persuade other people to give these records a chance. Pretty much every record that exists seems to be someone's favourite for one reason or another, so I just find it fascinating that something can be loved by one person and flicked past in a $2 used bin by someone else.

I picked up a 7" on Lockin' Out about three years ago by a band called Consolation Prize. I know nothing about the band whatsoever. I mainly just bought it because it was on colour vinyl on Lockin' Out Records, but it turned out to be a great find. The band sounds so much like Supertouch from 'The Earth Is Flat' that it's impossible for me to think anything other than this was completely intentional, but that's fine by me. This could easily pass as an unreleased Supertouch record, or songs that were cut from the LP due to length restrictions.

Anyway, I managed to grab a test press for this record, because you know how it is - I gotta keep my Supertouch collection complete.

A colour vinyl test press is always a nice thing to find. It's just a shame that there isn't a sleeve for it to sit in. I think United started issuing tests on colour for records that were going to be pressed on colour. I assume it was a way of testing not only that the record sounded correct, but also that the colour was what the customer wanted too.

Living With 2 God Complexes

Back in 2015 I picked up an orange vinyl copy of the Harvest 'Living With A God Complex' LP. I'd wanted one ever since the record was released back was 1997, and I really don't know why it took so long to find one, but hey, that's how the game plays out sometimes I guess. Anyway, I also hoped that one day I would also track down one of the more limited grey vinyl copies, and finally that day has arrived.

They grey vinyl is actually what the plants used to call 'scrap', being made up of lots of leftover colours that all got blended together. There are traces of other colours in there. It looks pretty rad.

Just in case you were wondering where the title of this post came from, here you are:

There are two other releases that I own released by the same label (Trustkill) that came on grey vinyl with hand numbered labels. One is a Harvest 7", the other is an Endeavor LP. I thought it would be fun to dig them out for a group photo. If nothing else, it shows how the grey for this LP isn't really grey like the others.

There is one more Harvest 7" on Trustkill that comes on grey vinyl with a hand numbered label. Given the amount of time that it has taken to get the LP, I'm probably scheduled to track it down in about 2038.

Tides Of Tomorrow

It's been a while since I added anything to my Cave In test press collection, so I'm stoked on this one. This is a test press for the 'Tides Of Tomorrow' EP. However, specifically, this is a test press for the picture disc version. I already have a test press for the regular version of the record, but at some point I found out that there was also a different test press for the picture disc. Just like the other test press for this record, it comes in a white paper sleeve with a Cave In sticker on and it's hand numbered out of 23 copies.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that this was a white vinyl record with no labels. The main thing that shows that this is a faux picture disc is the black rim around the outside edge. Admittedly, without labels, this isn't the most visually interesting record in my collection. But it was necessary to fill in a missing hole in the Cave In test press collection.

I'm not a fan of picture discs generally. In fact, I'm not aware of anyone who is. But I decided to take a photo of this against the 'regular' picture disc that I own of this one, and I think the photo is really cool.

I also decided to take a photo of the two different picture discs next to each other. Regular test press with Erika labels numer 1/23, and the picture disc test number 3/23. Pretty cool that there were 23 of each version.

Land Of The Free

A few years ago I thought it would be fun to try to collect multiple copies of the first Snapcase 7". I had two copies for years, then picked up another about three years ago. This copy I have just picked up is my 4th copy. I'm pretty sure that this latest version is a second pressing. You can tell because the sleeve is glossy and the lettering is in a pinkish colour.

I actually owned this version before many years ago. I bought it in 1996, but either sold or traded it away a couple of years later. Seems kinda weird to be reacquiring a record I used to own over 20 years after letting it go.

When I decided to make an effort to collect these it was partly because there are quite a few different colours and I thought it would be fun. But admittedly, it's been slow progress. They don't actually seem to come up for sale very often. But also, there are a few colours of this that are ridiculously rare and hard to find, which means I'm probably not going to get very far with this one. So maybe I've reached the end of the line with this one already.

The Most

Ten years ago, in 2011, Revelation made some screen printed covers for some left over copies of the Down To Nothing 'The Most' LP. It was only announced on Twitter (which is in my mind THE most pointless of all social media things), and there were only 33 copies made. Unsurprisingly, it sold out in minutes. I knew it was going to be tough to find, but I never really thought it would take a decade. Damn.

In reality, it 'only' took me 6 years to find this. A friend sold it to me 4 years ago, but for various reasons I have only just received it now, 4 years later. I am a patient boy... I wait, I wait, I wait.

Even though there were only 33 copies, there were two slight variations of this one. Numbers 1-13 were on colour vinyl (orange / purple split), and numbers 14-33 were on black. I'm actually happy to have a black one as I don't have any other version of this one on black. At least, I don't think I do.

Open Your Eyes

When Revelation repressed the first two Warzone LPs a few years ago, I wasn't interested. I just figured that they were records that I could live without. But of course, when I saw one selling for cheap on eBay recently, I found myself feeling tempted. I guess I am still a sucker for a piece of Rev colour vinyl that I don't own.

'Open Your Eyes' was the second Warzone album, originally released in 1988 by Caroline Records, and Revelation repressed it 30 years later, in 2018. This is the more common colour option, being out of 1315 copies.

The main difference between the original pressing and this repress is the insert. The original release came with a single sheet, folded in half, which had the lyrics on it and a photo of each band member. This repress comes with a large, glossy booklet, which has the lyrics printed in a massive font as well as some action shots of the band. Its kinda cool, although its very thick, and probably could have been condensed into half as much paper without too much effort.

I never liked this album as much as the first, or even the later ones on Victory. But listening to it again recently and I've definitely appreciated it more than ever before. Turns out it's not bad after all.

Dot Class "C"

I first got into a band called Inch back in (I think) 1994. This was an era when I was discovering a lot of new music, bands and scenes, and I would read descriptions of records and just take a chance. I was keen to discover bands that my friends didn't know about so that I could bring stuff to their attention and feel like I was ahead of the pack. I don't know why that seemed to matter really, but it meant that I was always looking for something new. I think Inch ended up on my radar because their first LP was listed on a mailorder list from a record shop I used to buy from at the time, and it said that the band featured a dude on vocals who used to be in the band Sub Society, who I knew about due to H-Street skateboard videos. So that was enough information to buy their first LP. I also picked up 3 or 4 7"s back then too. I enjoyed them at the time, but probably within a year I had moved on and rarely listened to them again.

A couple of years ago I was adding my collection to discogs, and I found that Inch had two more albums that I never knew about. I guess there were so many bands and labels in the mid 90s that I couldn't keep up. So I lost touch with Inch. But I was interested to see that there was a vinyl pressing of their second LP, 'Dot Class C', although it seemed relatively hard to get. So I added it to my want list and waited. The copies that came up for sale seemed to be more expensive than I wanted to pay. But last week I was googling around and I found a brand new copy for sale for a super good price.

This album was originally released in 1997 on CD, and the LP was limited to 750 copies, which come in screen printed, hand numbered sleeves.

The band were from San Diego, and apparently these covers were made by another San Diego legend, Rick Froburg. I imagine he must have regretted agreeing to make 750 screen printed covers after making the first couple of hundred.

If you haven't heard this band before, which is probably most people reading this, then be aware that they sound like an indie / alt rock type band. Same vague ballpark as Drive Like Jehu. Not hardcore. You probably won't be into it.

The Closure Of Closure?

In June this year I bought 3 colour vinyl copies of the Integrity album 'Closure', which was officially issued on vinyl for the first time since it was released back in 2001. At the end of the post I wrote this:

...at this stage, it is unclear as to whether there will be another pressing or not. Although if I know Integrity, it seems more likely than not.

Well, it was iterally one week after my post went up that I saw someone post a photo of two more different versions on instagram. Obviously I had to pick them up to keep the collection as close to 'complete' as possible... although obviously this is a total illusion as there is no such thing as 'complete' as far as Integrity is concerned, so I'm not sure why I keep on chasing the impossible. But never mind.

These two colours were also, I believe, limited to 100 copies each, just like the previous three copies I picked up. The first one is known as 'absinthe ice':

The second copy is referred to as 'Halloween':

This album is defiitely the odd man out when it comes to Integrity records, although the record has grown on me over the years. And whilst it's good to see an 'official' release on vinyl, and I quite like what has been done to the original artwork, I'm not such a big fan of the vinyl colours chosen. So it's a good job I only have 5 copies.

The Mutt's Nuts

Another new post and another new release. Will wonders never cease?

I would guess most people reading this are already aware of this one, but this is the sophomore LP from Chubby And The Gang, titled 'The Mutt's Nuts'. This was one officially released a couple of weeks ago so I'm actually quite up to date for once. I downloaded this and wasn't impressed after a couple of listens, finding it slower and less of a jolly romp than the first album. But after a couple more listens it started to grab hold, so I decided that I'd buy a copy. The dilemma was then whether to buy the more limited black vinyl, gatefold sleeve version, or the common colour vinyl version. Given that neither seemed particularly limited, I just went with habit of a lifetime and picked up the colour vinyl.

Cool to see that this one also features the same style artwork as the first LP, although the cover of this one looks way nice in my opinion. I guess it must be the colour scheme.

My copy arrived sealed, but outside of the shrinkwrap was included this 'insert' with signed pictures of the band members. I'm unsure as to whether every copy comes with one of these or not, although I would guess probably yes. But if that's the case then why was it not included inside the cover? Strange.

In some ways this record seems to have come along at a similar time to the first one for me. The first album always reminds me of January 2020, as I went through a short period back then of listening to it whilst walking along the River Thames on the way to my new job that I didn't like. And here we are a year and a half later, and this second album is now proving to be the soundtrack for me finishing up at that very same job, which I decided to leave as I recently realised that I still don't like it.

9th And Walnut

It's been a while. After being ahead of my scheduled 10 posts a month work rate for most of the year, the last couple of months have seen a total slow down in both blogging and buying records. The main reason is that I haven't had many records recently due to focussing on other things. But I have recently found myself losing interest in records for the first time in many years, for a few reasons.

Well anyway, I finally got around to picking up a copy of the new Descendents LP '9th & Walnut'. This was released by Epitaph Records a few weeks ago. I was already annoyed at preorder stage by the endless number of colour vinyl options available, so didn't bother ordering one at all. But after downloading the record and enjoying the songs for a few weeks, I was naturally drawn towards wanting a physical copy. So I ordered this white vinyl copy which arrived today.

Of all the colours I have seen for this, the white seemed quite a good match for the artwork. Plus it was still available to buy, which helped the decision making process. And even though the many vinyl colours that exist for this thing are apparently all out of the same pressing quantity of 500, I have seen fewer photos of the white one than some of the others, which somehow makes it feel rarer even though it isn't.

This record is an interesting one. I think I have this right, but these are all old songs re-recorded by the original line-up. I think the music was recorded years ago, and then Milo recorded the vocals recently. I wasn't so into it at first, but after a few listens I was really enjoying it, like all other Descendents records.

That said, there's a lot about this that I don't like. For example, the fact that mine has some dumbass sticker on the back that covers some of the artwork, and that won't peel off easily. But mainly it's that there are already 12 different colours of vinyl, and it's nigh on impossible to buy one and get much change out of £30. I guess this is modern record collecting, and it has sapped pretty much all of the fun out of the game. I stupidly got sucked into collecting several copies of the last LP, but that isn't happening this time. Game over.

Happy collecting!

Another Live Record

Last year I won a test press of a Down To Nothing 'Live On The James' LP in a raffle. I was pretty stoked on it as it's a Revelation release, and their test pressings remain hard to get. I also then picked up a pink vinyl copy of the same record as I didn't own a regular copy and it didn't feel quite right owning just a test press. At some point a few months ago I spotted a sealed copy for sale on ebay UK that was up for sale for a pretty low price, and even though it would be a third copy of a pointless live record, I was drawn in by the bargain price. Including postage it worked out cheaper than buying a new copy direct from Rev in person, so I added it to my want list and figured I'd do my usual trick of bidding in the last ten seconds. But I forgot about it and it ended with no bids, then was immediately relisted. Well, I watched it again and the same thing happened. And then it happened again. I was in a weird cycle of watching this record and not bidding and having it end with no bids. I lost count, but I must have watched this thing end with no bids probably 6 times. And then one day a couple of weeks back I got an eBay alert that it was about to end, so I decided to bid and (surprise surprise) I won it.

The pink vinyl copy I bought last year was the rarer colour, so I figured the eBay copy would be the more common gold version, and when I opened the shrinkwrap I was proven correct. I think the main reason I picked this one up is because it would mean I would have a complete collection of this one, which is obviously REALLY IMPORTANT to my daily life. And of course, having a complete collection means one thing - a collection photo.

Another Sledgehammer

Earlier this year I picked up a 7" by a band called Sledgehammer. The band put out one release back in 2004 and it took me until 2021 to buy one or hear it. With Dwid on vocals and dudes from 90s Belgian metalcore bands Congress and Liar, it's a pretty ferocious little 7". So I initially picked up an orange vinyl copy, then also picked up both red vinyl and black vinyl copies. And now I have also acquired a clear yellow vinyl copy too.

This one came to me from a reader of this blog, which makes a nice change. I used to get quite a few people contact me and offer me stuff, but it rarely happens these days. But always nice when it does happen.

So here's an updated pic of this collection:

I think I am only missing one version of this one now, which is a limited sleeve preorder version numbered out of only 30 copies. I don't expect to be seeing one of those anytime soon, unless anyone has a lead on one of course.

Asclepius

So this one caught me totally by surprise. A new LP from Iceburn that came out a few weeks ago. It's funny though how it came onto my radar. I saw a post on instagram for an Engine Kid box set that came out on RSD a few weeks back. I haven't listened to the band for a long time, but the box set looked great and really caught my attention. I did some research and then realised that they have a bandcamp page where you can download all of their songs for free, which I did, and I then spent a few days re-acquanting myself with their catalog. I then listened to the 'Where It Went' podcast episode on the Engine Kid / Iceburn split 12", which talked about a new Iceburn LP. I was intrigued as to what Iceburn would sound like in 2021, thinking it would probably be the worst thing I had ever heard, so I headed to the Iceburn bandcamp to check it out... and about 20 minutes later I had ordered a copy.

The Southern Lord store only offered me a black vinyl option, but I then found a Southern Lord Europe store which also had a clear vinyl option. It didn't actually mention pressing info anywhere, so it was surprising to see that the clear is out of 300 printed on the hype sticker.

The record came sealed within a loose fitting poly sleeve which had a perforated top that you could tear off to allow access. But once you tear off the top bit, the poly sleeve isn't tall enough to contain the sleeve. As you can see, the top of the sleeve sticks out. Without doubt the worst poly sleeve I have ever seen.

Anyway, onto the record itself, and I have to say it looks great. The artwork, the colour scheme, and the vinyl sum to a really nice looking piece of art.

This is a full length album in terms of running time, but as you'd expect with Iceburn, not in terms of number of songs. There are only two songs here, which average 18 minutes each.

Now, this is the point where I sense you may be slightly sceptical, but this record is incredible. Seriously. And as bad as it sounds to say it, I think it's because it sounds absolutely nothing like Iceburn ever sounded before. When I first played this on the bandcamp page, my first thought was that it sounded like Clutch. The riffs are heavy and the vocals are deep, and it kinda reminded me slightly of Clutch from an era long ago when I actually used to listen to Clutch, around the time that they released their self titled LP. Upon further listens I have moved away from this comparison a bit. Today I decided that the guitars are kinda reminiscent of 70s stoner rock and at times the vocals remind me of Mastodon. I may change my mind tomorrow and decide that it sounds more like something else, but you get the picture. Slow and heavy and possibly the best Iceburn record there is. I've been listening to this one twice a day for the past couple of weeks and it's one of those records that I get excited just thinking about listening to. Crazy huh?

Thug Life

I've not had many records recently, and also haven't had much motivation to post for various reasons. But today seemed like a good day to try to get back on track with one of the cheap 7"s I picked up a bit earlier in the year.

Reinforce is one of those bands that I never really knew much about, given they were around before the internet really got going properly. I picked up their 'One Life Thug Free' 7" back when it came out in 1999. I had picked up on Underestimated Records as a couple of their early releases had found their way to a UK distro that I helped run for a short period, so by the time the Reinforce 7" came out I was automatically interested in this 7". And I do remember enjoying it at the time, although I haven't listened to it too many times in the 20 or so years that followed.

Well anyway, I was enjoying picking up cheap 7"s for a while, and ona whim decided to purchase the blue vinyl version. It was priced similar to a cup of coffee, so seemed worthy of some pocket change to grab it.

As you can see, the blue marble colour goes pretty well with the record cover. And its also just a nice colour generally.

Back when this came out I picked up a clear vinyl with blue stripe copy. And then many years later I finally managed to find the extremely rare Melanie C cover version, so this blue copy takes the collection to three copies. They do look pretty good together I have to say.

One other cool thing was that the band released a full length back in 1999 which was CD only and, as such, I didn't bother with. But due to the magic of modern technology, I was able to download it and finally listen to it for the first time. I'd consider buying one if it was for sale for a reasonable price (i.e. $1), but as usual the discogs crew want considerably more, the fools. So I'll stick to my download and party like it's 1999.