So let's talk about a band that I like a lot, but know very little about? There are people out there that know way more than I do, and that is fine, I can't expect to know anything. But I'm heading into this, knowing little more than you do. I'm sure Alan will be able to tie up any loose ends for me.
Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me - SST Records.
Everything else is a mystery to me. I know it isn't a 1st press, as the 1st press hasn't got the 'Jr.' added to the names. I assume it isn't a particularly rare press, as it isn't Green. However, I know it isn't new as it has SST labels and not Jagjaguwar ones like most of my Dinosaur Jr. records.
Story time. Paraphrasing, I bought Bug from Alan at Different Kitchen, and fell in love. Pretty soon after that I was bugging him for anything Dinosaur Jr. related he could get in. A few weeks later, I get an email saying he got an SST copy of You're Living All Over Me for about the same price as a Jagjaguwar re-press, did I want in? I assumed it was a good thing and said yes. It looked like a new record, played like a new record, smelled like an old record. I was pretty intrigued.
B-Side // Back Cover. I honestly could not tell you how many of these were made, but as it was SST in the late '80's, I'm assuming it was a fair few. SST went through a phase of being super up there in terms of popularity and were pressing some quite 'out there' stuff and people were loving it. I'm guessing that this was slightly more listener friendly than some stuff, and they made a bunch of 'em.
At this point, I may quickly apologise for the slightly grainy and somewhat weird lighting on these photos. It's getting dark pretty early nowadays and I had missed the boat on photographing some stuff so had to stick a lamp on.
The cover art was designed by the fantastic Maura Jasper. I've been over this a little, but in short, Jasper handled all the Dinosaur Jr. art for a number of years from the mid '80's to the early 90's, and then didn't work with them ever again. Her and J. Mascis still remain good friends, but I think some of the artwork created in this period was absolutely perfect. You're Living All Over Me is a personal favourite.
With this record, there is no insert, and all the information you need to know is here. I feel that as a consequence of this, the artwork on the back cover was scaled down to accommodate this space. This has upsides and downsides I guess. At least the art stays intact and doesn't have a bunch of writing over the top; however the downside is that the art may have been cropped slightly. I guess I'll never know. I do like the SST logo in pink though.
I don't know if this was a legitimate mistake, or whether it was Dino // SST sticking a sneaky middle finger to someone. Either way, I have seen that on the spine of the sleeve, despite the cover name change to Dinosaur Jr., this stays true to the original name of Dinosaur. It could just be an overlooked and honest mistake. I'd like to think differently though.
Just a quick peek at the centre labels for both sides. The main photos were a little grainy, so this stuff may have been missed. All red text on black labels, I'm not sure if there was anything different on consequent or subsequent pressings. I think the first time I laid eyes on the SST logo was on a CD copy of The First Four Years by Black Flag with red text, so it's always a nice feeling of nostalgia to see it in this colour. This is definitely up there with my favourite Dinosaur Jr. material, and it's possibly the album I spin the most nowadays.
No comments:
Post a Comment