Condolences on Condolences

So this record was my first mail day of 2016 and in my eyes that gets this year off to a pretty good start on the record front. 

Touche Amore - Condolences // Available - Condolences - 1st Press - Black /1000 

This was self released through Touche Amore's own label, much in the same way the Live at WERS 7'' was. A giveaway sign is the centre label staying the same, with the old familiar noose logo. 

There are two tracks here, a re-recording of the song Condolences that first appeared on 'Parting The Sea...' as a piano led track. On recent tours this song has been played as a full band and it sounds great, I'm glad an official recording was made. 

Secondly is a cover of Available by The National that originally surfaced as a digital only bonus track on the No Sleep benefit comp 'A Comp For Mom'. Again it's nice to see this surface on a physical format. 

As flexi discs are prone to not sounding the best and perishing faster than a normal record (due to being made from a thing flexible vinyl sheet), I added a double to my order so I'd have one to play and one to keep the collection clean. Plus it seemed weird to have a new Touche Amore record come out and only order one. 

This is how it looks from the back, you can see how the grooves almost penetrate through the record. The record has a single moulded groove or something that causes this apparently. More weird though is that this is still available through TA's webstore. 

Blue Galaxies

Another Christmas post, another late favourite from last year. I was blown away by the 'Spike & Wave' 7'' from 2014, and this new 4 track is picking up right where Kindling left off. 

Kindling - Galaxies - No Idea Records - 1st Press - Opaque Blue /? 

There were 3 colour options here: Translucent Blue, Translucent Green or this. Although no pressing info is around at present (although with it being a No Idea release I'm sure Alan will know!) I can safely assume this was the most common as it's the one I've seen floating around more. The centre label matching the art is a cool touch here, moons and stuff. On their previous 7'', the polysleeve came stickered similar to the one in the top right of the sleeve, although this isn't a sticker at all and just part of the artwork.

Back Cover // B- Side 

4 tracks sit on a single sided 12''. The B-Side is a single silent groove though I haven't dropped a needle on this side to find out. All variants were pressed onto 150-gram vinyl and it sounds great! 

Photocopied A4 insert with handwritten lyrics sit on this side. 

Live photo and credits on this side. 

This release is great, and I've really enjoyed picking up a bunch of No Idea releases this year as my appreciation for that label grows. This year is kicking off for them with a new Chris Wollard LP, so it's safe to assume you will see that here at some point! 

Cheers 

Kane

Clear In The Dust

So here's my first post of 2016, written about one of the late contenders in my 2015 top 10 LP's. 

Fell To Low - Low In The Dust - Revelation Records - 1st Press - Clear /500 

I pretty much gave this record a blind chance on the fact that it got a few Rev collectors feeling weird. A bunch of dudes from hardcore bands releasing a record on a classic hardcore label that sounds nothing like you would assume, based on those two previous facts. 

Another thing that sticks out here is that the 2 tracks that take up the B-Side span about 13 minutes a piece. There were only two colour options here: 180gm Black /300 or Clear /500, and as this was a Christmas gift I didn't get much of a choice in the variant, though I would have picked this anyway as it looks lovely. 

What pushed me to talk about this record early however isn't just the fact that it's incredible, or the fact that it gives me a kick knowing that Revheads are not sure how to take it. I have been pretty hard into the packaging and concept of the artwork from the moment I saw it. Before I owned it, the cover art had a really creepy undertone that I wasn't sure how to take; but having the physical really puts it into context. This is the printed inner.

The other side of the inner contains band personnel, photo and recording// mastering credits. Bob Weston from Shellac mastered this album, which is pretty cool right? However, what's more important for me is this little story at the bottom that explains the artwork. 

For those that can't be bothered to upscale and read it tells the story of the art, which is made of 2 photographs taken in August 1992 by the US Marshall Service. The photos were of Randy Weaver and his family on their property in Idaho. Weaver was under investigation for possessing and making illegal firearms. You can see his Son and Wife in these photographs. Days after these photographs were taken, both Weaver's Son and Wife were killed, by Six US Marshalls and an FBI Sharpshooter respectively. Vicki died holding her 10 month daughter in her arms, and a search of the property yielded insufficient evidence and later a full acquittal of all charges for Weaver. If the artwork wasn't haunting before, it certainly is now. 

On top of the printed inner you also get this poster style insert with live photos on one side and the lyrics on the other. 

According to Discogs there is also another variant of this Clear copy with an additional pre-order insert /35. Considering this is one of the times that the artwork is as important to me as the record is, I would love to see what that is all about. 

Rev159 is fast becoming a favourite from this label for me.

Ringleader

So this is likely to be my last post of the year, and so I thought I'd deviate away from the Christmas theme just for a second to show you something I managed to score off my wants list a week or so ago. 

Morrissey - Ringleader Of The Tormentors - Attack Records - 1st Press - Black /? 

Pretty much every Morrissey album I am after now is considered a big want, as they are all fairly unlikely to be seen for under the £75 mark. Thankfully I paid a lot less for this one and it's fairly mint. There's a small ding in the bottom left corner, and a small seam split on the inner sleeve but for an album that's nearly a decade old it has been incredibly well looked after to say the least. The material of those printed inners pretty much begs them to be fucked with too.

Back Cover // B-Side 

I would love to know the pressing numbers for certain Mozzer records, as there must be thousands of the things around and yet we will still pay an incredible amount for them if pushed to it. Listening to this all the way through on wax really brought back my appreciation for the post Maladjusted era. I have spent most of this year chasing down old singles, so it was nice to change the pace a little. 

Close up of the B-Side centre label.

The record is housed in a gatefold sleeve with super lush packaging. It's got a real high quality feel to it, and everything just looks nice. The left panel is this photo of Morrissey sat on a Vespa; when in Rome and all that. Next to the panel is the printed inner sleeve. I've had a CD copy of this for years, and the layout is much the same, down to the printed inner and gatefold packaging. 

The right hand panel contains all the lyrics, thanks and credits. Not the easiest thing to photograph, but you get the idea right? 

Finally, the printed inner sleeve also matches the print inside of the jacket. Although the other side is sealed, you can see it's the same all the way through. A small touch, but definitely a point in favour that this is some of the nicest packaging out there. 

Also, I bought this from a dude who runs a Smiths and Morrissey record collectors page on Facebook. It's a cool place to lurk as he's always getting in cool promo pressings and some really hard to find items. He regularly auctions things off (much the case here!), and ships a record better than most. Record and inner sleeve separate, the jacket in a polythene sleeve, all bubble wrapped and tracked, stiffened, mailered, the works. 

This was cool, and I'm beyond chuffed to have this among my slowly growing Morrissey collection.

Braid on Tape

So I am going to start my 'look at all the cool stuff I got for Christmas' posts about now, and I thought I'd start with a good one. It's my favourite time of year, and I am always astounded at the generosity of my family and friends. I got to spend time with loved ones and eat more than I should have, and on top of that I got an incredible haul. This particular gift came from my in-laws, and as usual they went over the top and got it spot on. 

Braid - 6 Cassettes Box Set - Polyvinyl Records - 1st Press - Multicoloured Shells /500 

Before we even get to the contents of this incredible package, let's have a look at this. All of the contents are held in a hand made wooden box. The lid is hinged as opposed to a lift-off type deal and the fact that these were made one by one just makes everything seem a complete labour of love. The design was made by Jay Ryan who played Bass for Braid. I've always had a lot of love for his design work, especially the Hum tour posters where he initially caught my eye. Anyway, enough of my rambling and on to the contents! 

6 cassettes, a booklet and a Polyvinyl sticker just in shot. 

Although these records were released on a bunch of different labels, it's nice to see that Polyvinyl were able to put this lovely package together. The way I see it, the label that released Frame & Canvas really should be allowed to carry the torch right? This Box Set truly couldn't have come out any better in my eyes, and to not jump straight to a vinyl collection is great. Offering these songs on a completely new format (on all counts I believe) was a cool move in my eyes for sure. 

The booklet presents all the lyrics. Due to it having to fit an odd size box, it's a little hard to photograph in any great detail. Individual thanks for all the records are in the respective J-Cards.

Finally, here it is in all it's glory! Each shell matches the art to some degree, and it looks truly beautiful. Definitely something to be seen in person for the full effect of what it has to offer. I'm still making my way through the albums, but so far it's turning out to be a true gem of my collection. 

I'm hoping to squeeze in as many Christmas related posts as possible, but I'm still catching up on stuff I got a few months ago. I won't post about everything I got for Christmas, but if anyone wants I can make a collective 'Christmas Collection' photo or something. 

Hope everyone had a great one. 

Cheers!

Marble Letter Day

So RSD Black Friday came and went and typically nobody really cared, myself included. It seemed a little rushed, the UK got barely any releases in and 99% of what came out sucked anyway. However, there was one or two cool things about, and Alan managed to get me my main want from the day (again, cheers dude!) 

The Get Up Kids - Red Letter Day - DogHouse Records - 2nd Press - Marble /? (RSD Black Friday '15) 

It was really only this and the NIN boxset for me, although I would've taken that repress of Barbed Wire Kisses too. However, more about this. I like 10'' records a fair amount and they seem to be the perfect format for an EP of any description. Although it's hard to photograph, the art looks super crisp here and the record is a really nice mix of colours. 

Back Cover // B-Side 

All of the lyrics and credits are printed on the back in favour of an insert. Sometimes (especially on an LP) this can look pretty messy but here it works quite well, and only having 5 tracks allows the lyrics to be printed in a semi-readable sized font which is always a bonus. 

Close up of the record so you can get a bit more of an idea of some of the marble going on here. It looks like a bit of a No Idea job, but I love that crazy colour mix thing they have going on in some of their records so I have no complaints whatsoever. Also, Anne Arbour sounds great whatever color this is pressed on so who cares right? 

Finally, stickered shrink. 

Would I have paid the £20 that Banquet were asking for this? Maybe not, but Alan was ordering a couple of things overseas and got me it for a bit less because he's a great dude. Maybe in future for RSD I'll fight off the spoiled brat instant gratification and save myself some money (to spend on more records obviously). 

Cheers!

Fight Off Your Demons

As soon as I got wind of this, I knew I had to order it. Have I had these songs for years and years under the guise of Fight Off Your Demons? Sure I have, in fact I've had them so long that my friend Mark sent me them over MSN nearly a decade ago. But I still couldn't contain my excitement, especially considering this band have been more active in the last few months than they have been in the last few years. Plus, these songs are great and it's wonderful to see them get some sort of official release from the band. 

Of course I was talking about this: 

Brand New - Leaked Demos 2006 - Procrastinate! Music Traitors - 1st Press - Red Shell /? 

Straight away the cover got me excited. I never knew any of the band had a love for horror films, so seeing Leatherface on the cover here was something neat. The shell is pretty swell too, nice and simple design. This is the first cassette release from this band, and for these songs it's the perfect format. 

From the sound of things, the songs also got a bit of a remastering job for this release too which is always nice. Considering these songs are from such a long time ago, nothing about this seems even remotely throwaway. Not that I was concerned about that in the first place, it's just comforting. This was also self - released on the band's label, and it's cool to know that this came out at the right time for them.

The full extent of the J-Card is pretty neat. I assume the shark is a bit of Jaws action, but the rest of the panels I have no clue about. Either way, the artwork is quite dark and a definite departure from their previous releases. 

A note from the band, explaining the nature of the release. Although knowing that more demos exist out there makes me really want to know the full extent of what they were working on at the time. Knowing that these demos have kept in circulation for nearly a decade is quite a testament to how good these songs are, and how much this band mean to a lot of people (myself included). 

I don't know what the 418 means, and Brand New still don't know who leaked their demos. 

Free stickers with an order is always a bonus right? 

Also as a parting note, this is my The Devil And God tattoo, taken from the insert of the P!MT press of the album. I believe it to be in Lacey's hand-writing.