Blue Train

 Kicking into the end of the year and I’m trying to get some posts in before things get too crazy over the Christmas period. 

John Coltrane - Blue Train • The Complete Masters - Blue Note 

A damn ass JAZZ record. And one of the best really. I’m still dipping my toe in to the whole jazz thing but I enjoy everything I hear from Coltrane. This record came out a couple months back and I cracked pretty early on adding it to the collection. 

Hype sticker on the sleeve - basically tells you what you’re getting. An incredible sounding record with some new to vinyl stuff, a nice essay on the record and some unseen photographs that capture the recording process. 

The records are house in a thick gatefold sleeve with the liner notes in a centre book. This is one of the highest quality records I’ve bought in years. From the jacket, to the liner notes to the quality of the pressing itself - this thing is so impressive to look at and listen to. If you’re even remotely curious about jazz, I’m sure any of the Tone Poet series will help you fall in love with the genre. 

The back cover is the standard layout of many Blue Note releases of the era. I love seeing this busy format and it definitely brings out a fun nostalgia of those early years of digging. 

I’m sure we’ll be back to regular stuff soon. Or maybe you’ll get a Charli XCX record next. Who knows?

God’s Country

 As we get into the end of the year, I’m starting to consider what albums are going to end up on my AOTY list. Without any doubt the latest LP from Chat Pile is ranking high in the running. 

Chat Pile - God’s Country - The Flenser - 1st Pressing - Transparent Orange /700 

This record is currently up for pre order for the 5th pressing which is likely just about sold out by now, with a new cassette only release on the way. All things considered I’m lucky to have found this when I did for retail. There was also a preorder limited cover with alternative ‘Pamela Voorhees’ artwork - the same image has also been used on a run of merch. I’d love that record too but at this rate I’m definitely considering the hoodie option. 

The photography was handled by the band from what I can gather, and all the scenes are local to home for them. The music matches the environment perfectly and so does the lyrical content. This release is pretty much perfect for The Flenser - it’s dark and weird with a habit of really sucking you in. I’m into it, but I remember a period of having to put it down because it was getting to me a little bit (listen to ‘I Don’t Care if I Burn’ I’d you don’t know what I’m getting at’). 

I scored this record from Wanna Hear It (via mailorder) which is run by Joey Cahill from 6131 records. It’s the 3rd of 4th time I’ve ordered from him and he’s always sound. 

Koyo on Blue

A weird but fun little one for a gloomy Monday morning. Over the last couple of years, Koyo have been steadily building hype and releasing an incredible trio of EP’s. Their debut EP was released overseas as a 7” via Life and Death Brigade; but picked up by The Coming Strife in the UK as a 10”. There was a bunch of variants for this one (including a sick Taking Back Sunday rip PO cover) but this one is the rarest excluding the test press. 

Koyo - Painting Words Into Lines - The Coming Strife Records - 1st Press - Blue Suede Shoes with Misprint Labels /30

The labels are printed to state the record plays at 33RPM but it plays at 45RPM - so they were released in a limited quarter fold cover exclusive to this mispress. I’m not entirely sure how these were released as I picked it up after the fact from a buddy. 

Here you can see the quarter fold cover and the incorrect labels. Koyo are pretty notorious for weird limited run covers and tour exclusive stuff. The ‘Koyo Fucked Your Bitch’ and Brand New rip cover of Drives Out East are big wants for me - but all good things in time I guess. Anyway, if you like Long Island early 2000’s core then this band are for you. 

NO PRESSURE

 A band that has gained a whole lot of hype in the last couple of years is No Pressure. A 7”, a couple of promo tapes and they landed the release of their debut LP on Triple B Records. For those that don’t know, this is Parker from The Story So Far’s other band. 

This pressing however isn’t the Triple B run, and came out on a Polish label called Ratel records. In 2020, Ratel also put out the debut No Pressure 7”. This pressing is on Green Transparent and is limited to 300. It also plays at 45 RPM and sounds pretty unreal. It turned up just before the Triple B pressing too and is already fetching some predictably over the odds prices on resale. 

The release comes with a double sided insert containing all the lyrics and some fun Live Photos. Discogs states it came with a sticker too but mine doesn’t. 

I didn’t pick this up on its release, and nearly missed the boat entirely just like I did the 7”; but a quick message to the Ratel Instagram and a copy was safely on the way. Also, its been fun to do a post on something a little bigger than a cassette. A couple hours of good weather meant I got some photos that didn’t look like they were taken on a BT Cellnet. 

Rouge Carpet Disaster

 Yep, this is a post on a vinyl blog about a CD. But it’s pretty fun, and aesthetically it’s got some real nostalgia to it. 

Static Dress - Rouge Carpet Disaster - Self Released /100 

This was sold at the Static Dress headline show at The Underworld 30-08-22. Remaining copies went out on their big cartel after the show and sold pretty fast. The PS1 rip artwork is different to the standard release but honestly I prefer this. I liked it enough to buy it on CD, which I’m pretty sure is the only one I’ve picked up in a few years. 

Static Dress have made a bit of a habit of releasing small runs of releases on weird formats - from rave case style cassettes and comic books to USB sticks to VHS tapes. Chasing fun releases like this has way more appeal to me recently than buying new release records. Between shitty quality control and waiting 10 months for a record to turn up, I’m just not as enthusiastic for some stuff as I once was. 

 

Halloween at the Metro

 I hadn’t got around to posting this yet, but this is a true grail that I’m beyond lucky to own. The story behind how it came in to my hands is simple; a pal was selling some records at a decent price and I was happy to buy it. I hadn’t spent £100+ on a 7” in a while, if ever - so I pondered it for a minute. But only for a minute. 

Alkaline Trio - Halloween - Asian Man Records - First Press - Orange /3000

I think the story of this one is pretty common lore by now. Alkaline Trio plays a couple of shows at the Metro in Chicago over Halloween a good couple of decades ago. They give this 7” away at the shows, and it has two Misfits covers on it. The cover art is a rip of an old Misfits promo photo, and the back cover has the famous Halloween 7” pumpkin logo. The remaining copies of this 7” were given to Blood Pact members and as far as I’m aware no copies were ever sold by Asian Man or Trio directly. 

For Fiend Club Members Only is a nice touch on the centre label. The version of Halloween on this 7” is perfect, haunting and gives the song a whole new life. Having it physically feels really special. Some Trio fans aren’t into the songs here at all, but this is a match made in purgatory for me. Plus it’s unlikely I’ll be buying any OG Misfits 7”’s anytime soon. 

I ended up with number 0013/3000 which lets be honest is the best damn number you could hope to have for this record. The ticket stub has a little story too. 

The 7” is signed by all 3 members of Trio at the Manchester date that my friend attended. He took the record along and got it signed, and kept the ticket stub in the sleeve. There was a Blood Pact patch in there too, but I passed it to a friend who is a HUGE trio fan (she was in the Blood Pact but sadly never got the patch she was promised, so I felt it was better off with her). She semi recently gave me an Alkaline Trio grail too that I’ll get around to posting. 

So here’s some last little bits of dumb trivia:

•Some copies that were sent through the Blood Pact were not numbered, leading to the assumption that more than 3000 were pressed. 

•Heather Gabel is the person creeping in the coffin on the cover. 

•There was a long standing rumour that Mike Park was going to repress this 7” on Halloween, but it’s never happened. 

•The label designation is AMR97 - which lines up with the Trio song that finished out the Halloween sets at the Metro. The live DVD of those shows is fantastic and I watch it every year when I wrap Christmas presents. 

Final Gasp on cassette

 I assume that everyone has heard everything nowadays and I’m not really introducing anyone to much. But on the off chance you haven’t heard Final Gasp then let’s get into it! 

Final Gasp are from Boston, Mass and although it’s a lazy comparison - Samhain worship springs to mind. Their live shows look fun as hell - lots of great merch and fake blood. 

Here are 3 of the 4 cassettes from this band - variants excluded. There’s also a 12” of the Baptism of Desire EP and another 12” on Triple B. I’m working on chasing it up trust me! There’s a record release of the Triple B EP ‘Final Gasp’ with a limited cover that rips the Halloween 3: Season of the Witch art, and I’m a sucker for that film. 

Final Gasp - Baptism of Desire - Helter Skelter Productions - Green /100

This was previously released by Primitive Propaganda on cassette and sold out - but Helter Skelter (now Regain) reissued it on cassette (and vinyl with 3 different cover variations). They also released a live VHS tape I’m really tempted to pick up. 

Final Gasp - Live at Ralph’s Diner - Kierrepotku Records - 1st Press /50 

A live soundboard recording of Final Gasp from October 2020 and the recording I return to most often. This has a full J-Card with lyrics inside but taking even a half decent photo just didn’t happen. 

Finally - we have Fine Live For A Murder - a bootleg of sorts. Kierrepotku also released this but it’s marketed as a boot, and is another soundboard recording from an August 2021show. The setlist is the same as the other cassette, but there are only 13 copies of this out in the world. 

This cassette comes in its own custom mailer with a hand screened patch and button. 

 

Live At Ralph’s Diner plays on one side, but on this recording the setlist is split into two halves. I assume the label had a few spare C20’s and fancied having some fun. For such a limited release this thing has some real DIY love put into it. 

That’s it for now folks, but I’ll keep buying Final Gasp stuff and I’ll post anything fun I find! Their new cassette has a Husker Du cover too, which is a fun left turn. I’m going to continue the spooky theme with my next post. It’s not an OG copy of a Misfits 7” or anything, but still quite fun. 

Pink Flag

A few months ago, a friend was selling up some of their collection and dropped me a line with a list of what was up for grabs. I passed it on to a friend and between us we picked up a few heavy hitters. Here’s one from my pile that I nearly didn’t pick up because I get in my own way sometimes. 

Black Flag - Damaged - SST Records - Pink/? - ? Pressing

I honestly don’t know much about the numbers of these 90’s SST colour represses, but I know they can be a hassle to track down. I would love to add a colour copy of My War to the collection at some stage. 

There’s no insert included with this pressing as far as I’m aware, so all you really need to know is right here on the back cover. 

The centre labels were changed up a little for this pressing to indicate this is a re-release. I’ve seen earlier pressings with blue, white and grey labels. I’ve always liked the red centre labels, aesthetically it just matches Black Flag so well for me. 

The etching in the run out grooves is pretty wild here - something about Neo Orthodoxy and WHAT THE HELL. Again, this differs from earlier pressings so I assume this was re-tested but I don’t think it was remastered. Who knows? SST are pretty hard to keep on top of with stuff like this. This post has taught me that I have a pitifully small amount of Black Flag records in my possession, and in the UK they’re not the easiest of bands to track stuff down but I’ll keep chipping away at it I guess? 

Lament/ Forget/ Reset/ Collect

Coming down from a weekend for this history books; Outbreak fest 2022 and a headline Touché Amoré show in Milton Keynes. Plenty of driving and plenty of terrible coffee on the road but damn it’s been a blast. I wasn’t ready to end my TA listening quite yet so I pulled out their latest full length ‘Lament’ for a quick spin. Whilst digging through my copies, deciding which one was hitting the turntable I grabbed the record release version and figured I’d do a quick post about it. 

Touché Amoré - Lament - Epitaph Records - 1st Press - Electric Blue /1000 - Record Release Livestream Cover /300

This record was made available during the release show for Lament, which was live-streamed with the merch store going live during the stream. Sadly I didn’t get it during the show, there was a little confusion with the UK store and the US store wasn’t shipping to the UK so initially I missed out on this one.

I reached out to the band who were sweet enough to put the feelers out on their social media and some kind soul reached out to me in a matter of minutes and sold their copy for not much over retail.

I ended up with number 127/300 in the end. The sleeve is a quarter fold type deal that fits over the regular sleeve. I love that there is a limited sleeve for each of their studio albums, and all of them have incredible art. 

The record arrived to me still sealed, so I got the extra joy of peeling the sticker off the shrink and putting it on a nice resealable sleeve because I clearly care about these things a little too much for my own good. 

I’m currently hunting down two variants of this damn record, both the US and Euro tour variants. The band didn’t have copies of the Euro tour variant with them at either date, so the chase is truly never ending. I also wanted to pick up the Scowl LP (who I also caught at Outbreak and at the TA show), but they cleared out of literally everything (that band fucking rip). Finally, the Lament record release is up on YouTube in full and it’s a great show to watch. If memory serves Hate5Six handled the filming so it looks incredible. The livestream was followed by Jeremy Bolm doing a DJ set with some gems from his record collection but I’m sure that’s been lost to the sands of digital time.

Voodoo Leather

 Another post night shift evening, another Doors LP on the Turntable (this time it’s the truly incredible Absolutely Live double LP) and another post. Moving from the 7” format into cassettes, mostly because it was pretty late in the evening and I couldn’t get enough decent light to photograph an LP. 

Give - Voodoo Leather - 1st Press Cassette - Yellow Shell /200 w/ Zine - Heartworm Press - 200 Copies

 

Voodoo Leather was released through Heartworm Press, a label and publication works run by Wes Eisold of American Nightmare and Cold Cave. Putting out a Give release seemed a little left field, but I’m a big fan of near enough anything Wes does so this was cool to grab. 

The J-Card folds out into a weird vibey Live Photo that works well with the cover art and the shell. As a quick aside, the tracks were mostly new efforts with a re-recording of ‘Godspeeding’ from the self titled 12” - I haven’t listened to that 12” EP in a minute, but I’ll likely do a post on it before long, I’m in a real Give mood when the sun comes around. 

This is the central page from the zine, which keeps the colour scheme of the release, and it ties in with the Heartworm connection well. The zine came a little dog eared but I’m more than okay with it, as most copies floating around nowadays are missing the zine completely. The seller also included a copy of a Wes Eisold poetry collection ‘Alternative Useless Irrational Magic’ which was super sweet of them. 

The zine contains a mix of band personnel info, Flowerheads stuff, lyrics, flyers and live photography. I love reading through this kinda shit. 

As something to end on; this was the only piece of correspondence I got as a Flowerhead. This was the newsletter from Fall 2018 saying the band were done and played their last show in DC. The reverse contained lyrics of the last 3 Give tracks (Build Your Own God / Love in This House / We Want New) and those songs came out on a promo cassette released through Advanced Perspective (I think?). There was a sticker with this newsletter too. 

The reason I added this at the end is Give posted from their Instagram account for the first time in a few years this last week. The photo is of the band timestamped in 2022; and who knows what that means for us? Personally I’d love more from this band, and the chance to see them once more. 

First Six Records

 So a little whilst back, Dischord announced they would be putting out a box set containing the first 6 Dischord releases - some of which had been out of print in the 7” format in quite some time. The records would be remastered, and come with an era correct insert. With a label like Dischord, you know you’re going to get a great physical release, and they’ll do the best by their customers. Was I interested in buying it? Of course. Was I aware that there was a time limit on the preorder and that they were only making numbers up to the closest round figure of the preorder? Of course. Did I preorder it? Of fucking course not! But, as is the way - sometimes life throws you another chance.

Long story short, the box sets were sent out - people started posting them on social media and I started feeling some terrible regret. I got wind that the label were setting up an email list for folks who missed out and would like another chance at getting a copy without dealing with flippers. I sent an email, waited like a patient boy. Handed over some money and a couple weeks later I got to crack this open. 

So what we have here is the contents. A booklet, the first six records and something else real fun. Let’s dive in. 

The Teen Idles - Minor Disturbance EP. Dischord No. 1 and a posthumous release to boot. This record was the birth of the label and an early indication of Ian’s love for documenting the world around him. This record rips - true starter pack harDCore. Out of print for decades in the 7” format, and still sounds so vital. 

S.O.A - No Policy - Henry Rollins enters the chat. Before Damaged, before End Of Silence and before Getting in the Van is this collection of damn fine hardcore. I recently watched an interview with Rollins where he briefly outlines being a fly on the wall for the formation of Dischord at Mackaye’s Mother’s house and the effect it had on him. The green vinyl is a cool touch here, and with the red labels I think this is visually the most pleasing release in the box. 

Minor Threat - Minor Threat. Maybe the most influential DC 7” ever? Some days I think Filler is my favourite Minor Threat track. Every song on this 7” makes me want to spin kick through a wall, which at my dusty age is nothing short of a miracle. 

Government Issue - Legless Bull EP. Honestly I didn’t know much about GI other than J. Robbins was a member of the band at some stage, pre Jawbox. I was surprised by how much I ended up enjoying this record, and how clear the recording is. Again, this has been out of print in this format since maybe 1981, so it’s a cool piece of history for sure. HOWEVER, nothing holds up to Dischord 5… 

Minor Threat - In My Eyes. What can be said about this record right? Lovingly restored to look like it did way back in 1981, and sounds INCREDIBLE. Another visual highlight of this box set, and some real starter pack hardcore. I’ve had the S/T 12” comp of the first two Minor Threat 7”s for years, and having them as separate entities feels weirdly more wholesome. Maybe it’s having the benefit of this box laying things out in timeline order, and the booklet providing just enough nostalgia to put you in the moment for just a brief second. 

Youth Brigade - Possible EP. I don’t have much to say on this one really. It’s the record I’ll return to the least in this box set. Apparent the 7” was called possible as a slight to Dischord about this release being a ‘Possible’ release. Kids being kids I guess, but nothing I’m fussed over either way. 

The Slinkees - Who Cares? 

The Slinkees existed for the duration of one show, and one recording made in Jeff Nelson’s basement. This band are really the genesis of Dischord, as they’re essentially a precursor to The Teen Idles. The history of this band, the show and the circumstances surrounding are all detailed in the insert. This record has never been made available before, and is rough and charming all the same. 

Here we are. First post in a while and what a fun ride it’s been. It’s currently around 01:30 AM and I’m listening to Waiting For The Sun by The Doors because apparently I handed in my punk rock card some time ago. I’m going to try and do one post a week for a while and see how I get on. Record collecting is fun, the stories surrounding these often imperfect pieces of plastic are fun and I’m still up for the ride. I kept the mailer for this thing too, it came in a custom screened mailer and I’m sure there’s some sense in keeping it. Maybe?