Missing pieces

So recently I managed to bag a job lot of Touche Amore stuff I was missing. What I paid for essentially completes my collection aside from tests. I mean, there's always other stuff to find. However, the items took a while to arrive, and resulted in a Paypal claim. Long story short, the items came after 3 weeks of waiting and then opening a dispute. Then the items weren't sent until after the dispute was opened. It was a bit of a shitty experience. But they turned up, and the claim is cancelled. Anyway, on to what I got. 

These are all different versions of the Demo or S/T release as it is also known. Some of the oldest and rarest Touche Amore items, let's get into it. 

The first item I'm going to talk about is the Demo cassette. This was released under the label name Destroy Religion. I believe Clayton Stevens (TA guitarist) worked under this name with a friend. This is Destroy Religion #1. Maybe the label name and the Black Metal type font have something to do with one another. This may have been used on a T-Shirt or something, certainly not a common design for the band.

Back cover // B-Side shell. Shells are all black with no identifying markers. If you look at the track-list, the cassette is missing track 5 (Hipsterectomy). The track order then follows as 1/2/3/4/6/7/8. This could be for one of two reasons: certain tapes have specific allotted 'playing time', and due to shortage in length maybe a track had to be axed, and it would make sense to remove a B-Side track as closer 'Honest Sleep is the longest track on the EP, and 'Hipsterectomy' is the shortest. But (far more unlikely) it may have had something to do with old drummer Jeremy Zsupnik not wanting it on the release following his departure. I'm going with the playing time theory myself. 

Spine view. 

The J-Card folds out to show this illustration (more Black Metal stuff apparently) and then a small note was inserted into the case of each tape, telling us a little about the release. These look to have been made for Sound and Fury 2009 (a /100 copy of To the Beat of a Dead Horse was also made for S+F '09, look back to earlier posts...) and then any left over copies were to be sold on tour. I ended up with number 47/50. I nearly got a copy of this a couple of years back on eBay, but the seller had a bunch of TA items and I got caught up in a few records that finished beforehand. It feels really good to finally have this. 

On to the CD versions... 

No idea what these were made for. I know they were on the band's Bigcartel for a while and I know that this was /100. 

Back cover. This black and white version is known as the 'photocopied' variant. The CD copies actually came in handy, as the vinyl (and tape apparently) due to time constraints had to cut down the track-listing. The tape has 7 tracks, the vinyl has 6. Huckleberry (track 2 on the full listing) and Hipsterectomy (track 5) (neither of these are on the vinyl release) are available here, and it is the only case where the complete track-listing is available physically.

The insert comes in 3 separate sheets on this copy. Lyrics, band personnel and recording credits are placed throughout, alongside a map and some photography. 

Reverse side of the inserts. 

This is the other CD variant. Same rules apply, I don't know much about it. This is known as the 'Silk-screened' variant. 

The cover art is similar on both, however the Silk-screened copies have a little extra art on the front cover, and a colour scheme change. 

The insert is also a little different. The map along the inside cover is also screened, and these copies are numbered. I ended up with number 17/100. 

As the black and white copy shows the insert laid out separately; these copies were stapled together and show the insert as a booklet. It makes a little more sense this way. 

Lastly, we are on to the ever elusive 'West Coast Tour' cover variant. Long story short, a 7 date tour with special covers made up for the occasion. 5 copies sold a night, 35 copies in total (at a guess). One copy was Red vinyl (from the 1st press /300) and 4 copies on White vinyl (from the 1st press /600) per date. The dates are screened on the cover, 3/24 (24th March) was apparently the Seattle date of the tour. I messaged Nick from the band when this arrived to see what the deal was with it, and he kindly explained that the covers were made from a Silk-screened map cut into pieces that were relative to the geographical location of the tour date. There was a cancelled date on the tour too, so the copies were kept by the band for that one. One of the five copies were sold by an ex band member, so that is the rarest of all the covers with only one in circulation. There's a bit more to it than that, but nevermind. 

The standard cover was also slotted into the sleeve, as is the same with all these copies I assume. The vinyl copy on the left is from the standard press which I already had. The copy on the right is the tour copy. As you can see on the tour copy, there is a patch of brown and black swirl in the mix that isn't present on my standard copy. I'm not sure if this was done on purpose, and that any copies with mix in the vinyl were given as tour copies. It's probably a happy accident as I haven't seen any other copies that weren't dead white. I'm sure there are other mix copies mind, it just feels like I got a bit more with my money for having a slight transition in the variant. 

So is this complete as I have a copy from the tour, or is it only complete when I track down a copy from each date? Of course I want a copy from each date. I have one, so I guess you could call it complete. But as I mentioned in the beginning of the post, this collection could go on forever. It could go too far, like I could seek out an Is Survived By - Valentines press containing a photo of each band member, but I probably won't. No promises though. I still would like the Youth Parade Zine, I still don't have a test press for most releases. I have one copy of each variant, and one copy of each limited cover (such as the No Sleep sub cover, the S+F /75 jackets etc. but they're posts for another day). It could end now, it could never end. Either way, I'll keep you updated. I know it feels way more complete to me for having this in my collection. I also know that i'll be doing another 'collection photo' at some point too, as I've grabbed a couple of re-presses (and the BBC vol. 2 7'' is on pre-order) as well as these items. The last one took something silly like three hours to put together and pick apart. I can't quit.