Black and Blue

I have been on a real mission to grab at least one of everything by Give Up the Ghost // American Nightmare. It started with grabbing a couple of cheap 7''s, and from there it went on. Actually it started way before then. I said I had a cool story on how I was introduced to this band. I might concise it down for the end of this entry. Purely as I don't have much to say on the subject of this release. 

Year One. Give up the Ghost. This was originally a 12'' released through Reflections Records, and then Bridge 9 pressed it for a US release on 2x7''. A few years back B9 pressed this on a 12'' too, and then there is a CD copy with a few extra bonus tracks. 

Back cover // B / D labels. This compiles the two B9 7''s - S/T and The Sun isn't Getting any Brighter. Things get a bit weird on this release, as CD versions of certain releases contain tracks not available on the vinyl version. I believe this comp stays true to what are on the 7'' versions of both releases. I would check the B9 board or my copies, but i'm lazy.

The records are housed in a gatefold sleeve and folds out as such. The back cover contains the track-listing, label logo in the bottom right corner and what looks to be the photograph used in the American Nightmare S/T 7'' insert. The colour scheme is changed up a little though. That cover art is now probably more recognisable than the music, which is a sad reality but you can bet that there are at least a few kids wearing this logo on a shirt that have no idea at all. 

The inside of the gatefold. The left side text shows credits for the S/T 7'' and the right shows credits for The Sun Isn't Getting any Brighter. Both were recorded at Godcity, both were released under B9 (B9R007 and B9R009 respectively) and both were recorded under slightly different line ups. Illustration is credited to Linas Garsys, and design is credited to J. Bannon. 

I love that Wes is wearing a Sisters of mercy shirt in this photo. A while back, he started posting pictures of his AN era shirts that he wore live on Instagram. All shit like Depeche Mode, The Cure and SoM, the dude was always an out and out goth at heart. 

Aside from that I don't know too much about this release. There was a Clear // Orange / 500 variant. This was / 1000 and that made up the B9 press of this. I assume these were made as the name change prevented further 'American Nightmare' presses of the 7''s. Plus for anyone that missed out first time, it meant they were kind of caught up on what was going on. It wasn't exactly a necessary purchase for me, as I have both the 7''s, but it was on eBay and fairly cheap and I'll pick up anything from this band. I have a real jonesing for that Demo tape too now. 

Parting note. Long story short, I got introduced to this band by a guy I struck up conversation with in a restaurant when I was 11 years old. I was in Nottingham waiting around to go see Iron Maiden, and asked this guy wearing an American Nightmare shirt what it was all about. He took the time out of his evening to quickly tell me about all things American Nightmare / GUTG. It was December, and We're Down 'Til We're Underground was pretty new to the world then. He gave me a ripped CD copy of the LP he had in his car and I've never looked back. That was over a decade ago, and I still get that impact every time the needle drops.

Viva Love

Is Survived By

50 posts. Who would've thought. In celebration of this, I'm spending my Saturday evening (yes, I live the crazy life) typing about all things Is Survived By. 

Same idea as when I did a post on PTSBBAM. There will be stories, and it will be a long one. Sorry not sorry. However, I am sorry for the off centre photography.

Onward we go. Oh, before we do though. These copies all came shrink-wrapped with the sticker affixed. I had to peel them off and stick them on poly sleeves, tense moment. Thankfully they were super durable. 

1st Press. Clear /100. Friends Press. I bought this from the same guy who sold me the Parting the Sea Friends press. It was nice to score these in one go, and they both arrived sealed. 

1st Press. White /299. The rarest of the pre-order colours. I ordered most of the 1st press variants at the time of pre-order, direct from Deathwish (some were not available to order). I have tried to alternate the records to display A and B side labels from photo to photo. The A-Side label contains a blue 'Asterisk' logo on a silver background; the B-Side switches the colour scheme. Both labels have a small identifying A or B too. The white copies were rumoured to be a little warped from the plant. My copy appears to be pretty fine, it doesn't skip anyway. The band actually had copies of rarer variants (including this) on their most recent Euro tour. How and why there are still copies around I do not know, they sold out in under a day at pre-order. 

1st press. Transparent Dark Blue /397. This was the only other 1st press colour I didn't get at pre-order as Deathwish were not carrying it. This variant was for the release show (well, they stuck around for a few shows after) and a dude on Deadformat picked one up for me, which I was incredibly grateful for. In fact, he grabbed a few records from US stores and shipped them all in one go to save me individual shipping costs to the UK. Above and beyond. 

Transparent Dark Blue held to the light. 

1st Press. Transparent Light Blue /698. Deathwish sometimes get the numbers dead right in their catalogue (general 300 // 700 // X000 breakdown), butsometimes they are a few away from rounding up. All We Love We Leave Behind by Converge was similar in this respect. It's no bother though, and is possibly from warped copies or other plant imperfections. Who knows right? 

1st Press. Clear / Cyan Mix /2006. Most copies I've seen of this variant look way nicer than mine, and have way less blue in the mix. It's cool though. 

It looks all kinds of pretty in the light. 

1st Press. Opaque Blue /11499. Absolutely staggering number. This was obviously the distro colour, and still remains in print. I think Deathwish probably pressed all this in one go to prevent quick re-presses like Parting the Sea needed. Financially it makes sense, and kids are still discovering this record. My local store got copies of this record in, and I come from a small town where not many kids care about music.So for this to finally filter it's way through must mean someone is taking notice. 

Oh, and I bought two copies. This copy has some white in the mix so that's something I guess. More importantly though, it is the Finest Vinyl (finestvinyl.de) exclusive screen print edition /50. In short, the record is still from the 11,499 press but the print that came with it is /50. I picked up the standard copy at pre-order and bought this a little while after. It's not numbered which is a bummer, but grabbing it was probably the important part. 

So far, the standard variant has not been repressed so let's talk about the art. Layout by Nick Steinhardt and photography by Ryan Aylsworth. Same duo that worked on Parting the Sea, and Nick always handles the art direction and layout. This release is incredibly lush, and is honestly one of the most pleasing records to look at. There are tons of small details i'll bring up, like the inside of the sleeve being blue. You don't even see it as a rule, but it's there. 

Back cover. Barcode at the top, DW logo at the bottom. Track-listing spread out all over the place. The Asterisk falling through the circles was used on a tour shirt as a back print. I have that shirt but didn't photograph it. If anyone is really that fussed I can throw a quick photo up. 

Inner sleeve. Cool photo, the effect is really odd and creates some blurring on the faces and kind of distorts the features. I can assume that was not accidental though. 

Back of the insert. Lyrics, thank you's and credits. Brad Wood recorded the LP and so it sounds incredible, and also Jon Simmons of Balance and Composure contributes guest vocals. The whole blue on blue layout makes it a little hard to follow, but it looks perfect and I've listened to these songs so many times that I looks at the insert more for the art than the text now I guess. 

On to the deluxe stuff. This is the deluxe that went up for pre-order with the standard variants, but again is kept separate. When I bought this, I paid over the odds on shipping. The store instructed to order this separately and save money, as the added weight on one order would cause the rise in shipping. I ignored that advice as I was fresh out of bed and way too excited. I just wanted to order everything and get out, and as a result paid a little extra. No care though. This variant was /2000 and is still available through the Deathwish E-store.

B-side and back cover. The labels on this copy are nearly identical to the deluxe Parting the Sea, except for the colour scheme and there is no studio credited here (PTSBBAM credited Black Lodge on the label, not the case here). The speed also indicates 45rpm again, however this time that speed is accurate. This LP (all current variants) were mastered at 45rpm. 

Some photography from inside the booklet. The layout again is similar to Parting the Sea, however this time I can show you a little more. I review for a blog called Jivetalk, and late last year I did a video entry to the blog, talking about some records from 2013 I got into. In the video, I talk about Is Survived By whilst flicking through the booklet, so showing a bunch of photographs seems redundant. If you want to have a look: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFzAiwEZzkM

The record sits in the sleeve, and credits are printed the same as the standard copies. For the most part this is not interesting, however that means that as all photography is credited to Ryan Aylsworth; he must have spent time in the studio with them in order to get the extra photographs used. 

And finally.

Valentines Day Press. Clear  /200. These went up for sale exclusively through the band's Cinderblock store. I think a few may have been kept for their Valentines show, but I could be wrong. Either way, if you weren't at that gig you had to be online to grab one. Both deluxe copies were also pressed on 180 gram vinyl.

Back cover / B-Side labels. I got this at pre-order. I cut my Valentines meal short and stayed glued to the laptop with my iPhone too. It was the most intense pre-order, at one point I had 7 (accidental due to refresh) copies in my cart but no way to check out as it was clogged to death. The site kept on crashing, and I fought relentlessly for nearly two hours and managed to check out with one copy. But fuck me, it wasn't a good time. My wife even joined in the fun once it became clear that this wasn't a simple 5 minute deal. Valentines well spent, and to boot the gifts I received were Try Me by Self Defense Family and an X-Files season. I ramble on. 

These copies were all exactly the same in layout as the black deluxe with the exception of one detail. Each copy came with a Ryan Aylsworth mounted photograph on the inside cover. With 200 about I would assume there were 40 copies of each photograph and they were all given at random. The collector nerd in me would like all 5, but it's probably not going to happen. A similar situation with the West Coast covers of the TA demo. Anyway,  the copy I received contained a photograph of guitarist Clayton Stevens. 

Spine view. Again, these things get a little battered in transit. 

These posters were also given away in orders. Printed on sort of newspaper type stuff, I got a Modern Life is War poster similar to this when I grabbed Fever Hunting. 

Again, I know a bunch of odd facts about this LP. The recording process was pretty unique, especially vocally. But you've probably had enough. I have a few bits of Is Survived By era merch and promo stickers among other bits and bobs. If everyone ever feels the need, I'll happily photograph them and add them to this post. For tonight though I'm done. 

Thanks for sticking with me again. 

DW151

Let Me Tell You What I Think About Frog Spit.

I'm For it. Well, now that's out of the way I'm going to talk about Fun by Algernon Cadwallader. It's actually a really Fun record, you'll get it. 

This was released through Be Happy Records // Protagonist Music. From memory it's the 3rd press on Lime Foam, and was limited to 'very limited'. Great. Bit of black mix in the record that looks kind of quirky. 

B-side (well, C-side) and back cover. Track-listing top left, and labels at the bottom. I don't know how I photographed these to look different, maybe the sun popped out for a quick minute. I suck at photography.

As well as the 7'', the release comes with a bonus CD with the 7'' tracks and 3 bonus songs too. Earlier presses had different CD art, but this looks pretty okay by me. 

Insert. This looks like it was taken at the same time as the cover art. Definitely looks like a good time, works well with the summer and twiddles. 

The insert folds out into this little booklet. The top photo contains lyrics on the left panel. On the right panel, recording and mastering credits etc. at the top; information about the bonus CD at the bottom. 

The bottom photo contains band personnel and a thank you of sorts. Beneath that are the addresses of both contributing labels. Also, you get a bunch of neat photographs. But the fun doesn't stop there...

If you didn't guess. Colouring book. 

Gregory Labold designed this little doodle book. I hope somebody has actually coloured a copy in, as I guess that was probably the intent. The illustrations are quite sweet, if you want to see the upside down set, turn your screen accordingly. Especially if you have a desktop. 

So there you go, a 7'' packed with everything you would ever need to make a record fun. I really wish this band would do something again. 

Consolation Prize.

I've been a little slack with all things Blink 182 this year, and honestly I'm kicking myself for it. Blink are just one of those bands I've loved since I was a young 'un and they'll always be there. Two great things missed this year were: the Hot Topic re-issues; I managed to miss the first couple released, and so opted out of buying the remaining available titles for self preservation (they were expensive enough, so buying the first batch from eBay would've really sucked). Secondly, they played the UK and it completely passed me by. So as a consolation prize I ended up with this. 

This is the Kung-Fu Records 2014 re-press of the Buddha cassette tape. I believe they were all on White shells and limited to 350 copies. 

Back of the case / B-side. Fairly standard packaging for the most part. Track-listing sticks to the classic Kung-Fu release order, not the 15 tracks found on the Filter Records release (that press looks massively different too). Those copies are crazy rare now and are from a pre - 182 era Blink. That's a whole different story though. If you have an hour to kill, hit up the internet about that, it's a fairly weird tale. 

Spine view. Kung-Fu logo chilling at the bottom of the spine and on the left of the shell. I know that there are various promo / original press copies of this cassette. Most can be told apart by the shell or by the text on the cover. I don't have any other variant and honestly don't know enough on previous copies to tell you much more than that. There are some Blink-182 collector blogs out there that get super in depth though. 

Folding out the J-Card you get this. Far left is presentation text from the label and track-listing with the usual legal gumph beneath the barcode. The centre text explains a little about the original 'Buddha' cassette put out under the name Blink, a little about the recording process and a thanks to Kung-Fu for remastering and re-releasing this. Oh, and some art direction and song credits, including acknowledgement of 'The Girl Next Door' as a Screeching Weasel cover. No mention of Pat Secor mind *coughcough*. 

Reverse of the J-Card. Most of the lyrics are here, but not all. 14 tracks on the cassette, and only 10 lyrics accounted for. I know there should only be 13 as one track is a cover, but it's kind of odd that these lyrics are missing. Not a clue why, but it's cool I guess. Finally, I believe the photo in the top right there appeared on the original Blink/ Filter recs copies of this release.

This has been really fun. Not only to talk about, but picking it up was just the right thing to do. I split an order with a buddy, getting them from Shop Radio Cast. They may still have copies, and I'm not sure if other retailers were carrying them.

Over the years, I do hope to pick up more Blink 182 stuff. I mean, stuff like earlier cassette presses of this (and other releases) might be a little too ambitious, but a boy can dream.

 Blonk 196 forever. 

Getting Into It

A couple of days ago I got a package from Get Into It Records. They're based in Newcastle Upon Tyne and possibly more punk than you. I first heard of them when they made CD Copies of Brush Yr Teeth, Again by Dads and  I check back as often as possible, picking up what I can on the way. 

I'll talk about two releases from GIIR in this post. Two bands.  Different formats. Vastly different musical styles. Both absolutely incredible. Let's get going. 

The first release I'll wax lyrical about is Breathe by Fractions. I believe this is their debut release. In a nutshell, Fractions play a charming crossover of synth driven electro-pop with some goth undertones. Kind of spooky, kind of sad and very cute. Oh, and there's remixes. Good ones at that.

I'm not sure camera phones do cassette tapes much justice, but I really like the look of this release. The colours of the J-Card match the cassette shell and the it all seems to flow quite well. This is part 3 of the Singles Series that Get Into It are running. All cassettes, all limited to 60. Similar layouts. All different bands. Singles Series' have always been of great intrigue to me, but I'm always put off by the fact that you have to buy into a selected time frame and gamble on what you'll get, both in terms of quantity and quality. Get Into It don't mess with that nonsense here, you can buy what you like. 

Back of the case and B-Side of the shell. Aside from the A/B markings, the shell layout is identical and the music plays on both sides. Kind of handy, as the handful of times I have played this, it has been popped straight back in and played again. GIIR logos on each side of the shell, track listing and Single Series number along with band title and release name. Similar information is on the back of the J-Card on display. 

Spine view of the cassette case. This is GIIR #16. Cool label logos everywhere on this release. Someone paid great attention to detail as far as layout and art direction are concerned, but it's not credited on the physical so you'll have to head over to the GIIR store to find that one out. Also, for anyone who moans about tapes being awful in terms of audio quality, this sounds considerably better than most, even through my shoddy cassette deck. 

Finally, a small insert inside the cassette case with some extra artwork, along with media contact regarding Fractions. Also, another GIIR logo, along with label designations for the release (GIIR#16 // SS#03). Seems to be a bunch of eyes in the Get Into It artwork, I'd kind of like to know what that's about. Saying that, they seem like spooky dudes, as aside from churning out some sweet releases, they make spirit boards in their spare time. Won't stop me from picking one up mind. 

On to the next. These are the order the releases are logged on their webstore, so I assume this record is GIIR#17. 

Healing Powers S/T 7''. Unlike Fractions, I had been previously acquainted with this lot, courtesy of a split cassette featuring the band Wade. That also came out on Get Into It, but from the looks of things that's long gone. I ramble, on to the record. The front sleeve looks to be stamped with a leaf pattern, make of that what you will. I feel it greatly sums up the content. 

B- Side and back cover. The lettering on the back simply reads: Healing Powers // Wolf Town DIY // Get Into It Recs. From the look of this and the B-Side you get to see that the packaging kind of tells you only what you really need to know. The record itself especially brings out the inner geek in me, as to tell the sides apart before playing it, you have to delve into the matrix numbers looking for any identifying markers on each side (there are, but it's not A/B like they sometimes are) and count the run off grooves to tell what is what. The sleeve has these folded creases along the bottom and right hand edges, looking more like an envelope and kind of feeling like one too. It's a very DIY affair, as all of these sleeves were hand stamped and could well be hand cut. With 250 of these in existence, that's a fair amount of stamping and cutting. The record then sits in a dust cover and slots in the sleeve along the folded edges. 

On to the insert. Single sheet, two sided black and white deal. The main photograph is used as the cover on the GIIR Bandcamp and may well be the original art. I like both, and the more art there is in a sleeve, the more likely you are to really pay attention to what's going on. 

Reverse side of the insert, and we see the leaf logo again. The top left illustration really got me thinking. It looks like a manual for a rocket of some description. But a bit closer to home, it reminds me of the illustrations on the S/T Orchid 7'' and I adore the art on that release, so it's another reason I'm really finding myself spending a bunch of time with this one.

Next to the leaf is the track-listing and lyrics. This band have stepped up their game massively compared to the split release. I enjoy that too, but the lyrics are really developed here. Everything just seems to have been turned up a notch. I don't tend to delve too much in to the sonic elements of a release here, but this has got me excited. Those guitar tones... 

Beneath is a small thank you to Get Into It and Wolf Town DIY for putting this out, and a thanks to Bob Cooper who recorded the EP. For those that don't know, Bob Cooper has recorded a whole host of great bands, Nai Harvest and Self Defense Family spring to mind. 

Long story short, if you don't know now you know. Great label, great bands. Both releases are very different in most aspects but very similar in some. Both releases are incredible, and are presented in a way that appeal to any collector nerd, but for different reasons. Basically, the dudes at Get Into It Recs are some clever fellas, keep an eye out. 

LISTEN: http://getintoitrecords.bandcamp.com/

BUY: http://getintoitrecords.limitedrun.com/

LURK: http://getintoitrecords.tumblr.com/