Adobe Glows

Occasionally I like to dig back into my collection and see if I have anything worth writing about that possibly predates this blog, or something that's somehow slipped by the wayside. It doesn't happen often as I have enough new stuff coming in to keep me busy, but this is pretty cool so we'll break all the rules. 

Adobe Homes // Beau Navire - Split - Texas Toast DIY // Kyeo Speaks // Radical Friend // Black With Sap // Olhar De Vidro - 1st Press - Glow In The Dark / 300 (W/ Screened B-Side and Texas Toast limited cover /?) 

This record can still be picked up fairly cheap. Well, the standard cover can. Weirdly enough there is no note of this cover anywhere, and it certainly doesn't resemble the standard one. I bought this from Texas Toast DIY a few years back, and was surprised to find this cover in the mail. Funnily enough, the owner of the label (sadly now defunct I believe) sent me two to make up for a delay in getting this out and I traded the other away to Darren over at Dog Knights if memory serves. 

The screen print looks great on this record, and it has a real DIY look to it that I love.

Quarter fold cover, photocopied paper sleeve. 

The text is the Tracklisting, along with label names and the credit of the sleeve design to Jonathan Ruis. There's also a cool cloth cover of this 7'' /25. It's a shame that the information is so limited here. There could be 5 of these, there could be a couple hundred. Who knows right? 

Inside the sleeve you also get this little Handmade By note, which makes me assume the band assembled these alongside the label, possibly for a tour or record release. Back then I was dumb and never thought to shoot the dude an email. I think it's pretty neat that you can see some streaking from the screening in the dust cover too. 

So there's a lot in this record to love. Mysterious cover variant, screened B-Side and I almost forgot to mention that the record glows in the dark. It's definitely a cool release, and Beau Navire were always one of my favourite bands for this genre, and I grabbed at least one of every release. 

Hot Topic 'Hoods

So my last post was about a record I grabbed from Hot Topic, so it's only right I talk about the other record I got from Hot Topic next right? 

Blink 182 - Neighborhoods - 1st Press - Geffen // Interscope - Clear W/ Black & White Splatter / 2700 (Hot Topic Exclusive)

I've been a fan of Blink 182 since before I hit my teen years, and so it's fair to say this band have been a long standing staple in my musical tastes. So it seems odd that I hadn't even heard this record in full until a few days ago when I spun this for the first time. I guess I was worried, as with the exception of a few great bands, comeback records suck. And since this record, nothing about this band has made me want to stick around for the fallouts, cancelled shows etc. so I put it off. Also, I was so into whatever side projects were going on that I was kind of fulfilled.

Back Cover // B-Side 

What I will say is that these records look incredible, and they sound fine to my ears too. The LP's match the art and colour scheme of the record. Plus, the artwork is so busy that you're forever finding new stuff in there, I like it far more for grabbing a copy on wax I think. Plus, against my initial fears I am really warming to this record. 

The records are housed in a triple gatefold sleeve, so it made sense to photograph it in sections so you don't get too much of a blurry mess. I find it a little funny that I bought two double LP's from HT and neither came in a normal gatefold sleeve. Unimportant anomalies like that make me chuckle I guess? These are the first two panels of the inside gatefold. 

The third panel contains the lyrics and credits, alongside a greyscale Smiley logo. The amount of times in my life I nearly had this tattooed on my body. I'm still certain I'll end up with a Blink 182 tattoo at some point, even if it's something little and dumb. I've certainly got more embarrassing band tattoos on me with no regrets so it'll be fine I'm sure! 

The first two panels of the outside. You can see the third panel for the most part in the 2nd photo in this post; and for the detail in the artwork, you struggle to see much without having it in your hands anyway I guess. 

Overall, I'm really chuffed I finally made the dive with this record. The downside is this is my first piece of Blink vinyl, and now I want to try and collect all the HT splatter variants this late in the game. I'll never learn...

Yellow Harm

I've been slowing down on blogging a little. At this time of year I like to get the bulk of my Christmas shopping done, and sadly that leaves less time and money to devote to buying records, let alone waxing lyrical about them here. One good thing is that my shopping is nearly done, and I can carry on as I like to. 

Whilst lurking about on Hot Topic for a few presents a couple weeks back, I decided that since I was there and the international shipping was 50% off, that it would be rude not to buy a couple of things I was after. First one up is this: 

The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die - Harmlessness - Epitaph Records // Broken World Media - 1st Press - Opaque Yellow /500 (Hot Topic Exclusive) 

Up until a couple weeks ago, most UK places weren't stocking this record, so when I saw it I jumped on it. This band delivered some of their best and most cohesive material earlier in the year, so I've been really excited about this LP dropping, and it definitely does not disappoint. 

Back Cover // B/D Side 

This is a double LP housed in a single sleeve jacket, much in a similar vein to the Sunbather LP, but without the fancy die-cut stuff. The records themselves also came in black dust jackets which look a little nicer than the standard paper sleeves. 

One cool thing I love about this band is how they always manage to keep the same centre labels on all their releases, regardless of label change and regardless of whether it is a contribution to a split 7'' they are always this trippy swirl. It's cool, and a nice common theme. 

Band personnel and credits here. 9 musicians contributed to this record, and most of them are kept in regular rotation in the lineup. 

Lyrics and praise to the salt this side. I don't have a clue what it means either. I like how some of the lyrics in this record work into lyrics from previous releases. I'm assuming that Formlessness plays a large part in the name of Harmlessness too. 

Stickered shrink wrap. 

Now if I could make an order with Hot Topic and not get royally badgered by customs charges that'd be swell. Thankfully, with an album this good I don't mind too much. 

Pink Libertine

It's quite rare nowadays that I go searching for a record purely for wanting it. I really have little need for this 7'', as it only contains 2 tracks from a record I already own. In fact, I've paid for the privilege of hearing them in their original form before the remaster (from what I can tell). On paper, this was a little bit of an unnecessary purchase, but being honest I'm pretty happy to have it. 

Deafheaven - Deafheaven - Deathwish Inc. - 1st Press - Black /1000 

So this was a promotional 7'' made by Deathwish and given away in random orders. I'm assuming it was to coincide with the release of Roads To Judah, but at the time I picked up Roads... at distro and can't know for sure. 

This record contains 2 of the 4 demo tracks, that Sargent House later compiled onto a remastered 12''. Funnily enough also on black and /1000 copies. 

Back Cover // B-Side 

Plain black centre labels, plain black vinyl. I'm a big fan of how this looks. The cover art is nice, and something different from the original demo art, and the 12'' art. That was probably a larger factor than it really needed to be. I grabbed this off eBay with surprisingly little fight considering the hype around the newest LP. 

Close up of the text on the black cover. 

The inside of the sleeve is plain white. Although I had to pay for a record that was once given away for free, I really like the fact that Deathwish did this in the first place. There was no way to squidge the entire demo on a 7'', as it cuts in at about 24 minutes over 4 tracks, but these two songs are great together. 

I think I now own one of every Deafheaven release that has been put to vinyl. I'd never jam into variants with this band, but it kind of helps to make everything feel a little more complete. 

Cheers!

Tape Slang

Few bands have got me excited this year like Beach Slang have. I probably stumbled on them in late 2014, picking up their 7'' that Tiny Engines released, and ever since rumours of a full length through Polyvinyl started surfacing, I haven't gone more than a few days without spinning something from this incredible band. When pre-orders came up for the new LP, I jumped on the Big Scary Monsters cassette. Normally I would grab an LP, but the Joyce Manor cassette BSM put out always sticks out as one of the best looking cassettes I own and so I assumed (correctly) that they would be on top with a tape of this one too. 

Beach Slang - The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us - Big Scary Monsters // Polyvinyl - 1st Press - White Shell - 078 /250 

This cassette sounds great, which is lucky as I've heard one or two people having issues with the B-Side with the LP coming off a little sluggish. Barely any surface noise and plenty of clarity to get all the low end punch this record has. One of my favourite things about buying a physical release from this band is how perfect the art looks. It follows a similar theme (for the most part), and you could almost pick it out flipping through the racks.

B-Side // J-Card 

Printed up shells always look cool. More often than not they're stickered or handwritten nowadays, and having them printed up almost gives them a little more of a classic look to me. I don't know, it's definitely great. 

The J-Card folds out and the text is a line from each song, and it flows together remarkably well, but I assume that was the intention! For us - All of us. 

The other side of the J-Card contains credits and this nice little story on how the album title came to be. James Alex is a great frontman, offering everything other than an apology for his sincerity. I don't think this band are really re-inventing any wheel as such, but the heart makes it more infectious than most. 

And here you see the numbering of 078/250.

Next up is their Cassette Store Day release. And I know this doesn't follow their normal look for their releases, but with good reason.  

Beach Slang - Here, I Made This For You! (Beach Slang Mixtape - Volume 1) - Polyvinyl - 1st Press - Red Shell /500 (CSD '15) 

I managed to grab this from the Polyvinyl Store as nowhere in the UK was stocking this. I get that Cassette Store Day isn't a huge deal, especially in the UK so it was nice to find this without a hassle. This is exactly what is says; a mixtape of cover songs played by Beach Slang. The Ride cover would've been enough to get me to grab this anyway! 

B-Side // Inner J-Card 

Again, we're back to the trademark Beach Slang artwork I love! 

This looks pretty convincing as a mixtape. My Mum's old car only had a cassette deck, so I spent an awful lot of time in my early teens making mixes for her car whenever we went anywhere. I'm likely to romanticise this more than I should as a result of that, but I don't mind at all. 

I have the previous releases across the two 7''s they were originally destined for. But having these together kind of makes me want to own the Broken Thrills cassette too. I'll likely never listen to it, but the weirdo in me likes things to be a certain way sometimes. If I ever grab it, assume you'll see it here. 

Cheers! 

RePuking Year

I'm sure I've said before that I hate talking about stuff that came out on No Idea Records, as Alan has a far better collection and knowledge on the subject. Not only is this true for this post, but the good dude went out of his way to find this for me. He also paid for it from a Discogs seller he was getting some stuff from and helped me save on shipping. Totally above and beyond man. Now since the No Idea discography page is down, do you know the pressing info? Ha! 

Bridge & Tunnel - Rebuilding Year - No Idea Records - 1st Press - Gold & White split /? (Mailorder Exclusive) 

This has been on my wants list for the longest of times, and it feels cool to finally have it. Not even for the cool bonus thing I'll show you in a second, it just looks great in these colours. Ever since Alan pulled out his copy for me to see years ago, I've been lurking. 

Back Cover 

Classic Stress Face logo on the back there. I'm not pulling out a photo of the inside gatefold as it just isn't easy to get a photo that does it any justice. But the teeny tiny cardboard models of guitars and pedals here look really neat. 

However, the main selling point of this variant was the bonus 7'' that No Idea slipped in with this variant at mailorder. 

Bridge & Tunnel - Live At Fest 9 - No Idea Records - 1st Press - Puke /? 

6 Live covers recorded live from the Fest jammed on to a 7''. The cover of D.E.A.D.R.A.M.O.N.E.S by Modern Life Is War is the highlight here for me though. 

The record comes in a photocopied sleeve with a quarterfold back cover. However, I'm a little confused as to why the 7'' is called Live At Fest 9 on the front, and Live From Fest 9 on the back? I'm sure no one else gives a shit either way right? 

The sleeve comes with a neat little sticker, as the art itself is left blank. I really like it when this happens in artwork. Unless you have a MoV repress of The Devil And God, in which case you probably don't like it too much. 

And just for funsies, here is the copy I've had for years. Also from the 1st press /525 on random mix. There are tons of variations of this mix thing, and I assume this particular colour match is fairly common. I'm also okay with having a second copy of this record, it's not quite up there with East//West for me, though I may just be a little too sentimentally attached to that LP for my own good. 

Cheers!