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