Sunday 30 September 2012

Random Records Part 2

I wasn't gonna do this again, I wasn't going to just post up a random batch of records again as I did a few weeks ago but god damn it I'm busy at the moment and I once again have to clear the blogging decks a little. If I posted these all up separately it would take me an age and frankly I ain't got the time, patience or inclination. So it might be a disservice to you dear reader that I'm not giving these records the write up they deserve, but they'll be more in depth posts on the horizon...honest.

I guess I got the records I wrote about in the earlier Eleven Random Records and the Records From Andras and this little lot all at the same time pretty much, which is why blogging about them was such a daunting task. That's a hell of a lot of records all at once. Anyway, bar I think one of these I again got all of these from the same seller on eBay.

So what we got?

Let's start with 'Margate's Least Wanted' Age Of Kali


This is their 2006 Demo and the Pre-order sleeve version numbered 78/100 on clear vinyl. Normally I couldn't willingly get behind an Ugly Kid Joe reference but that's a fantastic little play on the 90's chart botherers Ugly As They Wanna Be cover.


Sticking with the theme of English bands and limited sleeves.


This is What Hope Remains S/T release on Courage To Care Records. I'd had the regular release on black for a while now so couldn't resist this version. Decent little record for sure.


The Maiden cover version is the record release show cover on blue vinyl with the date and bands that played. I think I've seen all of those bands at some point.


Numbered 2 out of 50

Staying on these shores. Sheffield's The Legacy - Dead Weight. I saw this band a few times around 2002/2003 but never picked up any vinyl at the time (doh!). Fine band though.


Turn Cold - S/T on white vinyl. 300 pressed.

 
Next two from Iron Boots, their '04 demo and Weight Of The World. Both on standard black vinyl.



Cloak & Dagger - S/T on Grave Mistake Records. Man, Grave Mistake release some quality stuff. White Vinyl.

Outspoken - Survival, I do like those Conversion Records centre labels. The Insted 7" I picked up a while ago had the same and they look really striking and classically bold.
 
 
To round off this little lot. Piece By Piece - We've Lost Our Minds on Malfunction Records. This is the black vinyl version but I think it was pressed on blue vinyl too which I can imagine looks much better with that cover.


Saturday 29 September 2012

Never cross a black cat with a Gypsy and the Out Crowd

Impulsive purchases, I talked about it a little in my last post. Well here's another one. Gypsy - Giant's Despair is my surprise record of the year, I just keep going back to it. It's just a great record that kinda suits any musical mood I'm in, so if I'm pondering what to listen to and don't instantly decide I tend just to reach for that record. I've always been a tad miffed that I joined the party late on them and missed out on some of the slightly more limited pressings. So when Six Feet Under posted up some left over records from the This Is Hardcore fest I instinctively bought one of the Giant's Despair versions.


Now the impulsive part to this is that this version is only really different because of the TIH stamp on the inner sleeve. Also, it's again on the same white vinyl I bought previously. However it's still a rare version of a great LP. Limited to 50 copies and I'm still strangely pleased with it.


 Less impulsive was a TIH version of a record I'd been meaning to buy the standard version of. Wrong Answer - Cross A Black Cats Path.


This is a cracking release and as I was waiting to buy the normal version anyway I picked up this version which has a different limited cover and also as per the Gypsy record a TIH stamp on the back.

It's again limited to 50 copies and is on what is usually described as Coke bottle clear vinyl.


I seem to have written about this band loads on this blog but in reality I think it's only twice. Six Feet Under also had a copy of the Out Crowd / Written Off split release from 2011.

So I think this is the third release I have from Out Crowd and they are a crackingly consistent band, I like all their stuff. Written Off are a band I've not heard anything by previously but they are also good. This was released by Like Glue Records and Iron Mind Crew Records.


This is the red pressing of the record, no idea of numbers though.



I think I'm only missing Out Crowd's 7" demo now, I should track that down really.

Thursday 27 September 2012

Old stuff and OLDER stuff

Seems I've been posting up a right mixed bag of stuff recently. I don't know why I've been picking up so much random stuff but I have. I wasn't actually going to write about any of these but I was sitting there looking through the newer harder stuff I've bought recently and my eyes went straight to these four records and I just thought Fuck it! Why not.

In my record store day 2012 post I'm sure at the end of it I mentioned not picking up the Sensefield Killed For Less record. I put it back that day as I felt I'd bought enough already. A few weeks ago I was in a record store and finally picked it up.

 
Good looking Orange vinyl which suits the cover nicely, it's another Revelation reissue I'm pleased to pick up.
 


So I don't know about you but when I'm in an actual honest to goodness record store rather than buying over the interwebs I tend to get a bit impulsive. So on the same day from the same store I also picked up this

 
Jawbreaker Unfun. I like Jawbreaker so it's cool to pick up this reissue of their 1990 debut album. Strangely it's promoted on the front as being on 'Jet Black' vinyl, like they chose black as the colour, maybe they did, it certainly is one of the blackest records I've seen. I'd have liked it to be on colour though, maybe the colour of the JAWBREAKER text on the front cover?
 

 
Okay so I like Jawbreaker so that wasn't that impulsive granted, but this fucking was.

 
So yeah I picked up The Stooges 1969 self titled debut. Now here's an admission, might not be that crazy I dunno but truth is I've never really cared for The Stooges, not one bit, maybe I'm too young who knows. I've met people in the past whose eyes have popped out at that sort of talk, but also people like me who are also a bit meh! about them.
 
 
However, and this is the thing about actually being in a store with all those lovely records infront of you, something about the record, the look, the packaging, the price, called out to me that day. It really is a nicely packaged record and I figured it's a classic and there must be something I'm missing that other people hear so I bought it.

And you know what, it's alright actually, probably not aged that well, I suspect the follow up Funhouse has aged better but it's a decent listen if the mood takes me and another 'classic' for the collection.


Following day I went to a record fair and bought a record that needs no introduction.

 
I'd been looking for a cheap clean copy of this to also add to the 'classics' part of my record collection and I found one. I probably hadn't listened to this record for the best part of 15 years, yeah I'd of course heard tracks off it during that time but I was instantly struck by how fresh and ripping most of it still sounds. Say what ya like about the pistols and god knows they are fairly easy to criticise but this is still a barnstormer of an album.
 


So yeah random shit indeed.

Saturday 22 September 2012

Records From Andras

It's a small world isn't it? It's an even smaller record collecting world. I was looking through the buy/sell pages of a forum I frequent recently when I spotted someone selling some things I wanted, so I sent them an email asking how much etc, on their reply I realised that the guy selling was a guy who had emailed me a couple of months previous to say he's read this 'ere blog. Nice little coincidence. Nice guy.

So that's the background. Here's what I picked up from Andras. Let's start with the three records that had initially caught my eye.

Terror - Don't Need Your Help b/w Push It Away


Terror's debut 7" from 2002 on clear vinyl, and it is super clear. I think they were all on clear and 1000 were pressed.
 
Blue Monday - What's Done is Done


I'd only just bought this record on standard black vinyl when I spotted this one. Hell, if I've got the black version I may as well have the red posi-fest limited to 100 pressing too right?

Most Precious Blood - Do Not Resuscitate

 
On green marble vinyl
 


Limited to 350 copies this is number 71


Whilst I was at it I also decided pick up a couple of other things from Andras. Mainly for the hell of it.

Rain On The Parade - Full Speed Ahead

 
This is the third pressing of the record, I know this because it tells me on the back cover. It's on what I guess is a yellow coloured vinyl.
 
 
Question! Do you ever pick a record up just because the kid in you loved that record? I do from time to time.
 
Biohazard - State Of The World Address
 
 
Working from memory this album came out in like '94 right? boy did the 14/15 year old me like this record. I thought it was the shits. I can vividly recall me and my friends of the time acting like tuff guys declaring that we were indeed 'brothers of blood' who were 'down for life'. Sadly we were more five streets from the bus stop than 'five blocks to the subway'. But yeah can't say I've listened to this for a while. This is a promo copy of the LP.
 
Lastly Andras chucked this into my package
 
 
A split 7" between Outlast and Crimethinc that appears to have been given away with a fanzine in '97.
 
I don't know a lot about it or about either band other than Crimethinc go to great lengths to explain their band name and the subsequent spelling and pronunciation of it on the centre of their side of the record. It's an Orwellian pun don't ya know!

Thursday 20 September 2012

Have Mercy

I've been listening to Mother Of Mercy a fair bit recently after getting their Symptoms Of Existence LP at the steal price of $5 dollars, so I was pretty keen to also pick up their previous album III, which is also great. I was about to buy it from somewhere, I forget where exactly some distro or something maybe, when I happened to check out David from Six Feet Under's personal eBay sales he had up, sure enough he had some previously sold out versions of the album for sale. Seemed like the best place to buy it from - put money straight back into the labels hands.
Anyway, of the versions for sale the one that caught my eye the most was the brown/black swirl version. They were described as 'a bad idea', apparently the colours didn't mix well and the record just looked black. Like the record collecting sicko I am I kinda felt sorry for the thing and decided that's the one I wanted.
 
 
Here it is. Just looks black doesn't it? It isn't, there is some definite almost Coca-Cola colour in there but try as I might I couldn't get it to show up in a photo.
 

The front cover is pretty great and the album it's self is on a gate fold sleeve. Seems like loads of records I've bought recently have been gate fold, what up with that?

 
This version of the record is limited to 149 (bet they are glad they didn't try this colour mix for more) and sold out during pre orders of the album.
 
 
Kinda fitting I have this version of the record really, because the version of Symptoms Of Existence I have is also a colour mix that by Bridge Nine's own admission didn't work either, read about that one here. Must be a Mother Of Mercy curse or something. One thing's for sure though if they don't have a messed up mix for future releases I for one am gonna be pretty pissed off!!