Searching For a Test Press...

Touche Amore and La Dispute did a split together in 2010, but everybody knows that I guess? Another thing that everybody by now should know by now is that I love Touche Amore, and have all intents on grabbing everything and anything I can. For the most part it's probably as complete as it can be. I am only missing tests (I only have a re-press test of the demo 7'') and the Youth Parade Zine they did. I mean, if you want to get super picky I only have one of the West Coast Tour 7'' sleeves (one is kind of enough for me, but if I saw one cheap I'd grab another) and there are transition presses of the Blue 2nd press To the Beat of a Dead Horse, but I can live without it as my copy is a nice go-between. Again, if one came up cheap I wouldn't say no, but I can definitely live without it. 

Today though, I'm waxing lyrical about the Touche Amore // La Dispute Split entitled 'Searching For a Pulse // The Worth of the World'. I have a few stories to tell about this one, and I'll do my best to remember where they all came from. This one was a fun ride, and probably the most stressful of the 7''s to complete as La Dispute collectors want in on the action just as much. I'll start from the 1st press and work my way up but I'll warn you now, it's going to be a long ride. Any questions, drop me a message as I'm sure my email is in my profile. 

Touche Amore // La Dispute - Searching For A Pulse // The Worth Of The World - No Sleep Records - 1st Press - Black /Gold Marble /500 

I say I'm going to try to remember where all these came from. I actually can't recall when and where I grabbed this one, so great start on that front. 

Back Cover // B-Side

Although we'll get way more into it later, the centre labels reflect the colour scheme of the bands' respective inlay. This split is about as even as it gets, in terms of splitting stuff up. The Touche side of the insert is yellow, so Side A (their side) has a yellow pattern centre label. I'm not sure what people count as the front and back cover. If you open up the packaging from the left though, the 7'' slots between the folded packaging without sticking out of the die-cut, so this is how it works for me. 

Also, notice that the dust sleeve matches the record. I got way more enthusiastic about that than I probably should have. 

Touche Amore // La Dispute - Searching For A Pulse // The Worth Of The World - No Sleep Records - 1st Press - Black /Beige Marble /500 

This copy (I think) was part of a trade with Darren Harvey over at Dog Knights Productions. I had a tour version of the Orchid demo 7'' he was after, so I grabbed this and a 2nd press Orchid demo in return. I liked having that record in my collection, but having this meant more. Getting another copy of the Orchid demo in it's place was cool too. 

B-Side // Back Cover. 

Again, the dust sleeve matches the colour way. Whilst we're at it, the colour ways match the sleeve too. It's funny how things work out sometimes, and it's no surprise that this is up there in my favourite splits of all time. 

Touche Amore // La Dispute - Searching For A Pulse // The Worth Of The World - No Sleep Records - 1st Press - Black /1000 

These are the 3 colours that make up the 1st press. I'm sure I bought this from Dan Flanagan back in the day. At one point, Dan had a really close to complete Touche Amore collection. Although that collection has been broken up a little now, his Full of Hell collection is incredible. Hopefully I'll talk him into a guest entry on that one. 

Back Cover // B-Side 

No black dust sleeve here, what a bust. 

Touche Amore // La Dispute - Searching For A Pulse // The Worth Of The World - No Sleep Records - 1st Press - Black - 72/75 (S+F 2010) 

To round off the 1st press we have this little bag of fun. I was going to do all the special covers and stuff at the end, but I guess since we're starting from the beginning it makes sense to keep things this way. This was again bought from Dan Flanagan, I think I offered part trade part cash and was super happy to get this in my collection. I've never had to go crazy over the odds on any record so far yet, and this came in at a pretty fair deal. 

Back Cover // B-Side

The record itself is from the black /1000 1st press. 75 were taken and placed into these screened Arigato style sleeves, and made up for Sound and Fury 2010. They also did a similar deal with the demo, but that's a story for another time. There's 5 Touche Amore S+F items I think, and they're all up there in my favourite parts of this collection. This copy of the split also came with a regular sleeve tucked in the poly-sleeve, but it seemed a bit redundant to photograph. 

On to the 2nd Press I reckon. 

Touche Amore // La Dispute - Searching For A Pulse // The Worth Of The World - No Sleep Records - 2nd Press - Transparent Yellow /500

The 2nd Press remains the same as the 1st in a few aspects. The sleeve is identical between the presses as far as I can see; and the pressing numbers are the same (500/500/1000). 

Back Cover // B-Side 

One thing that changes here though is that there are no matching sleeves for the /500 colours. It's cool by me though, something special for the 1st press. I guess this time you get transparent colours that didn't happen on the 1st press. 

I bought this direct from Chris at No Sleep along with a couple other Touche Amore records as part of a private sale. I saw this go up in the store at pre-order, but I never went for it at the time; but a little more on that in a paragraph or two. 

Touche Amore // La Dispute - Searching For A Pulse // The Worth Of The World - No Sleep Records - 2nd Press - Transparent Brown /500

Back Cover // B-Side 

This was grabbed super cheap on eBay through a UK seller. It sold on one bid at 99p, and I think in total came to about £2.50 shipped. I don't know how it happened, but something fell right for me on that one. Definitely the least I've ever spent on a TA record. Funnily enough, this is one of my favourite variants too. 

Again, the colours match up pretty well with the artwork, and the centre labels remain the same as the 1st press. 

Touche Amore // La Dispute - Searching For A Pulse // The Worth Of The World - No Sleep Records - 2nd Press - White /1000

This was the first copy of this 7'' I bought, and comes with kind of a funny story. First off though, this is such a solid and vibrant white; no other colours bled into the mix accidentally so it looks great. 

B-Side // Back Cover. 

I grabbed this version first, and at the time I was fairly new to the whole variant collector game. I thought one copy of this would do, and later found out I was wrong. But the catch on this one was it went up for sale with the final press of the TA demo (I also didn't have that on vinyl at the time and wanted both) and I wanted both. The shame was it fell on a date and time that I was due to be in an exam at school (which sounds really odd to say but I was still in school in 2010/2011 when this came out, I can't remember the exact date but the main idea is all there). So long story short I was late for my exam as I lurked on to the library computers at school to buy one. I got in a bunch of trouble, and nearly wasn't allowed to take my exam. The things I do for this band. 

Touche Amore // La Dispute - Searching For A Pulse // The Worth Of The World - No Sleep Records - 2010 Box Set Press - Clear - 175/200 

Back Cover // B-Side

This is from the box set that Touche Amore released in 2010 that I have already covered way back in this blog, so I won't spend too much time on this one. As this variant not listed on the No Sleep discography, I'm popping it here at the end of the 2nd press. The demo 7'' from the 2010 Box Set has centre labels from the 2nd press (A/B labels as opposed to T/A labels, I'll do a post at some point I'm sure), and as the TA/LD 7'' doesn't change too much between pressings, i'll just pop it here for the time being. If anyone knows any different though, please let me know? I'm guessing it's not in the No Sleep discography as the Box Set was self released...

Touche Amore // La Dispute - Searching For A Pulse // The Worth Of The World - No Sleep Records - Record Store Day 2012 Pressing - White - 21/48

This was probably the most difficult to track down, but not too bad from a financial perspective. I ended up grabbing this from a US guy, trading a duplicate 7'' I had by The Police and 7'' by The Smiths I have since replaced. I don't like trading or selling and avoid it like the plague, but in this case I had to cave. 

Back Cover // B-Side 

The sleeves are screened and hand numbered. The sleeve itself is made from the same heavy stock card as the Arigato sleeves, but this one opens up at the top and is sealed round the other edges. The vinyl itself is from the White /1000 2nd press, and this copy didn't come with a regular sleeve. Originally, these were sold through the No Sleep store and sold out way too quick. Now they make consistently mad money on eBay, so I'm glad I got the deal I got. I think this was the last copy of this I had to grab; unless we start talking tests (there's a 1st press test and a repress test I believe, similar deal as the demo 7'').

Close up of the numbering on the back cover. 

Touche Amore // La Dispute - Searching For A Pulse // The Worth Of The World - No Sleep Records - 3rd Press - Black /2000 (W/ Updated Artwork and Labels) 

Although there has been a 4th Press since this one, all future pressings will be identical to the 3rd. So this is where I'll stop unless something fun happens. 

Back Cover // B-Side

Although the centre labels have been updated, they remain largely the same with only the colour scheme change. Same with the sleeve, although the colour scheme is different, the design and information has always been there. This is handy as it cuts down the amount of photos I have to take! It's cool that everything still fits into a colour scheme though.

To wrap everything up, I'll talk about the sleeve design and extras that come with the records. First up is the printed download cards. No Sleep used to make specific download cards for their releases, instead of the plain cards you get now, I guess when you're pressing upwards of 5000 copies of a record, this method isn't very practical. So it's a nice piece of histrory I guess. 

Other side of the download card. These stopped coming after the 2nd press, and some had been removed from their sleeve by the time it came into my hands. 

The poly sleeves for most copies I own are stickered too. All of the stickers are the same throughout the presses. I believe the Touche Amore // Casket Lottery 7'' has a similar sticker. 

Finally, I'll have a quick run through the packaging. The packaging is made up of 4 panels and you can tell that the 7'' will only fit in one place without coming between the artwork and die-cut sides (between the lyric panels). The sleeve is ridiculous though, and some of my favourite design work on a record. Adam Vass (of La Dispute) and Nick Steinhardt (of Touche Amore) split the art and design on this split. Both bands contribute songs about their home environments and the themes of day to day life, and both sides have guest vocals from the other contributing band. Everything on this split is a collaboration, and it couldn't work out better. The songs are incredible too.

Cover // La Dispute lyrics and thanks. I'm sure if you zoom in you will see everything you need to. 

The art from the La Dispute side. I'm not sure how the art and such was split. I assume Adam Vass illustrated, and Nick Steinhardt came up with the split typeface and I'm pretty sure designed the packaging. I could be wrong though. 

Back Cover // Touche Amore lyrics and thanks. 

Art from the Touche Amore side. 

Jordan Dreyer on the LD side opens up about life in Michigan and the lyrical content of the songs. Nick Steinhardt on the TA side explains how the split is evenly split (he does a far better job explaining it than I do). Zoom in or buy a copy.

Jeremy Bolm simply leaves: 

These are more songs dooming myself to be alone. I hope they are worth it.

I hope I haven't left anything out. But this has been a long one and my eyes hurt from staring at a screen for too long. If I've missed anything or you want to know more, please let me know. Thank you for sticking out this one.