Lessons Learrrrrrrrrrrned

Since I really got into Youth Of Today a couple of years ago, I wanted to get my hands on a Can‘t Close My Eyes 7“ on Positive Force. They just looked like a cool record to own. Unfortunately any press of that record comes with a hefty price tag these days. So I waited patiently until I found a rather cheap copy. Here‘s where the lesson learning starts:

#1 Buying from eBay in the US nowadays sucks. While the price for the record was okay, I almost paid the same amount for shipping, VAT and other fees. So, all in all I just could have bought a more expensive copy in Europe and saved me some heartache and money.

#2 Because I was so happy to finally have found a reasonably priced record, I didn‘t check for all of the details of the auction. Which is why I ended up with a record without a lyric sheet. So not only did I pay too much when all was said and done, I also paid too much for an incomplete record. If anyone has a spare copy of the lyric sheet or could provide a copy, I‘d be most grateful. 

I knew that the sound quality of this record was always describe as poor and I am definitely not an audiophile, but this does sound incredibly thin. I can appreciate the record for what it is - a documentation of a band at a certain time under certain circumstances, but I know I‘m not going to listen to this version that often. 

I know this was a rather negative post, which is kind of ironic, but having said all of these negative things, I‘m still happy to finally own a copy. 

4th Press on Black on Positive Force

The B-side label is just so rad. It deserves a picture of its own. 

Pezcore Forever

As much as I love original pressings, sometimes getting a repress is just much more convenient and of course affordable. Pezcore is the debut LP by Less Than Jake and was first released in 1995. To commemorate the 30-year anniversary, Pezcore was rereleased at the beginning of this year. It comes on nice 180g vinyl. The rerelease comes on a bunch of different colors, but the mock ups were all incredibly ugly splatter vinyl and there‘s no way those could have looked good in real life, so black vinyl was definitely the better choice (sorry, Marcus). 

While this is not my favorite LTJ LP, there are some real tracks on this album. I mean, each of the first five LPs has a bunch of absolute hits in my book. All of them are just a good time. 

Close-up of the hype sticker. I‘m not quite sure what makes this the ‘forever version‘, but that‘s ok. 

 

…Home Is So Far From Here

I have a weak spot for emo music (sorry, Ian), be it Revolution Summer style music or 90s emo. I’ll draw the line at what became known as emo in the early 2000s, but I’m still down with the two aforementioned styles. So, when newer bands play music of that ilk, I‘m always willing to check it out. … Home Is So Far From Here is the debut LP by The Arrival Note. The cover has a very 90s feel to it, but with a modern touch. Someone also put in real thought when it came to choosing the vinyl colors. Both, dark blue and white, match the artwork really well. The music is what you‘d expect by my introduction, but the band managed to add a modern touch to it that works really well for me. 

1st Press on Dark Blue Marble on Sunday Drive /200

I Against I(V)

A couple of weeks ago I got to spent a quiet Saturday evening lounging on the sofa, having some TV show I’ve seen a hundred times in the background and browsing for records. I happened to find a listing of the last colored version of Bad Brains‘ I Against I that I needed for a really good price. Since this clear variant  hadn‘t sold in four year on Discogs and I hadn‘t found any other copies on local listening or eBay in the past year, it took me only about a second or two to buy this record right away. 

Time for a family picture of the colored represses from the early 90s, most likely 1990/1991.

I also added the German pressing on white vinyl, just for the fun of it. The German pressing is the only solid color version and comes with different label art as well. 

After I’d taken the picture of the clear vinyl copy and applying the setting I usually use for the pictures on my blog, I noticed that the picture looked different from the ones I remembered posting on here. So, I compared the sleeves and the colors of the sleeves are slightly different. You can see it especially when you look at the band name, the album title and the hair underneath the band name. It‘s like someone played around with the contrast. If the albums were repressed at the same time, why not have thousands of  covers printed? That would be the cheaper option, wouldn‘t it? Or does that mean these colored represses weren‘t repressed at the same time?

Close-up of the covers. Check the band name and the hair color. Top cover = lightest version, bottom cover = darkest cover. The covers of the clear variant and the yellow variant look kinda similar, as do the covers of the green and blue versions, but they’re still noticeably different. 

I also checked the back cover to see if there are any differences, but they look pretty much the same to me. They all have the same barcode as well, so you can‘t differentiate them that way either. It all remains sort of a mystery. 

Fugaziture

Another band I still have some gaps of in my collection is Fugazi. I have all their full lengths, but there are still some bit and pieces missing. Furniture is a nice three song 7” from 2001, released in the final stage of the band’s existence. The songs however date back to the beginnings of the band. Furniture is actually one of the first songs Fugazi ever wrote and they performed it at their first show. The music for Hello Morning was written in the late 80s, but the lyrics came much later according to Wikipedia. It‘s a fun three song 7“ for sure. I‘m not 100% sure what pressing this is, but my guess is that it‘s a recent repress. 

2023/2024 Repress on Black on Dischord

The reason why I assume this is a pretty recent repress is based on the fact that there‘s no ppd price listed on the back cover. For all the versions listed on Discogs there‘s a ppd price printed in front of the address, which is not the case on this sleeve as you can see. 

It All Comes Down

Getting the repress of It All Comes Down To This hasn’t been this hard. Pricey, yes, but not really hard. The only variant that was hard to get was the band variant, which was to be sold in increments of 100 each at shows on the east coast and west coast respectively. Since I wasn’t going to attend any of these shows, chances of getting a copy were slim. 

A couple of weeks ago, the band posted on Instagram that not all of the copies had sold at those shows and that the remaining records would be made available through the Equal Vision web store. Now, while I am happy that this made it much easier and cheaper to get this variant, it’s kind of sad that a band like Bane didn’t manage to sell 200 copies of a record on two legs of a US tour. Bands made tour or even festival pressings in similar or higher quantities and sold through them easily. Not anymore apparently. I get it, money's an issue for many people and especially records have become really expensive, but bands of the calibre of Bane not being able to sell through tour presses is not a great sign. Now enough of another old guy ranting about the good old times. 

The mock up on Instagram of the aforementioned band variant looked pretty great and it was easily the variant I was most excited about. So when I received my actual copy, I was really bummed out. I included a picture of the mock up for reference, so you can judge for yourself, but I mean, come on. The difference is easily a thousand miles wide, right?

Anyway, that's one more Bane record taken care of. 

2024 Repress on Green and Violet Eclipse (Band Variant) on Equal Vision /200
 

Source: @banecentral on Instagram

Gainesville Rock City

Unlike Marcus, whose recent dive into Less Than Jake was inspired by an actual trip to Gainesville, Florida, I merely wanted to close another gap in my collection when I picked up a copy of Borders & Boundaries. The first five Less Than Jake records are all really good and each one has a bunch of hits on it. And Borders and Boundaries is no exception. Just a fun records to listen to and lift my spirits during winter time. After Anthem, which was released in 2003, I sort of lost touch with the band. I liked the Sound The Alarm 12” I picked up some time ago, but I’m not really familiar with any of their other material post 2003. So I might join Marcus in his quest to dive deeper into the Less Than Jake discography. 

2023 Repress on Black on Fat Wreck

Fan Boy

Towards the end of last year I saw Quicksand for the first time and thus crossed off one of my main wants on my bucket list of bands/artists I want to see. They opened with Omission and for the next 45 minutes or so I was completely captivated by the band, and in particular Walter Schreifels. He’s just such a talented musician and you could clearly tell he was having a great time. Dude couldn’t write a bad song if he wanted to. 

After the show I made the resolution to buy any Walter related material I didn’t have already. I’ve had United By Fate for quite a white and it is a a great record. I don’t know what kept me from buying the second Rival Schools LP for so long, but here we finally are. Not quite as good as United By Fate, but Petals is another excellent album. The artwork fits the name of the album really nicely and the vinyl color is chosen really well. I’m very glad I was able to add this to the collection. 

2024 Repress on Clear Pink Swirl on Run For Cover /1000

Okay Player

Another classic by what now can also be considered a classic band. Illadelph Haflife is The Roots‘ third LP and is broader in its musical approach, but also darker in some respects. Can‘t go wrong with The Roots. 

Return To The Classics

On my quest to add more non-hardcore/punk records to my collection I picked up this absolute hip hop classic from 1989. I‘d never listened to Three Feet High And Rising in total to be honest, but it appears on many greatest hip hop records lists, so I decided to get a copy. The artwork is pretty cool too. This could easily be a Turnstile cover as well. 

I don‘t know what it is, but hip hop from the 80s and 90s was just different. This, to me, is the golden age of hip hop. But most likely, this is a me issue and I just don’t know enough about the current hip hop scene. Be that as it may, this is a great album and I recognized a lot of songs from skate videos. Usually I‘d prefer picking up an old copy on black vinyl, but this repress on yellow vinyl was not only cheaper, it also looks really cool. 

2023 Repress on Solid Yellow on AOI

April 19th, 1982

People seeing the Bad Brains in the late 70s and early 80s usually run out of superlatives when they talk about those shows. I sure wish I could have seen then in their prime, but since I‘m neither from the US, nor had I been alive yet, I‘ll have to make do with videos and live recordings. One of the more legendary Bad Brains shows took place at 9.30 Club in Washington on April 19, 1982, which was roughly one month before I was born. Great song selection (including Banned at DC, which is kinda funny) and pretty good quality for a live bootleg from 1982. 

Uprising

Last year I picked up a couple of Bob Marley & The Wailers records and I always knew I wanted to get more of their discography. When I saw this copy of Uprising sitting in the record store my friends and I went to for a really good price, I just had to get it even though there’s a stain on the bottom right corner. The songs on the A-side are alright, but on the B-Side there are some real hits. 

Live At The Hollywood Bowl

When a bunch of record collectors hang out together, obviously they will go to the local record store sooner or later. Well, that‘s exactly what we did and we all walked out of the store with a few more records each. Mission accomplished.

I might have been influenced by the two Beatles records I had already received on that trip, so picking up another one just felt right. I‘ve stated before that I really like live records and this is a great one! Actually it’s not a live records of once concert, rather songs were taken from two or three different concerts. Opinions on this vary. Be that as it may, the song selection reflects the time period of the band quite well. This album came out way later in 1977, so seven years after the band The Beatles had disbanded and a good 12 to 13 years after the songs were recorded. People often complain about the audio quality of live recordings, but the songs on here sound really, really good. It must have been quite the effort to find a balance between the band and the about 19,000 (most female) people screaming at the top of their lungs to make the audio experience as enjoyable as it is. That‘s actually one of the reasons why I like this album so much, even though most of my favorite Beatles songs aren‘t even on there - because the recordings manage to show what Beatlesmania was like: C-R-A-Z-Y! 

The best moment on the record for me occurs during Help!, which is one of my favorite Bealtes‘ songs. At one point during the song, John Lennon‘s voice cracks and he has to suppress a slight laughter because he seems to be in disbelief / in awe of what‘s happening around him. I mean, he was only 24/25 at the time the song was recorded and he was playing in the biggest band in the world, so playing in front of thousands of people in the US must have still felt like a dream at this point. 

Another thing I really like about this record is that they played a bunch of covers. You could argue that playing five covers out of thirteen songs total might be a bit much, but I like bands paying homage to their heroes. Plus, some of the songs they played live back then had also been released on Beatles LPs. 

Last, but not least I got this record because of the leaflet it came with advertising a book for Beatles fans. I‘m just a sucker for stuff like this. The book title translates to “The Beatles - Their Career, Their Music, Their Successes“. The book not only gives info on the band history and the members, but also on the pressing info on the various Beatles records, so basically it‘s like  the Flex! Discography, just for Beatles records, at least that‘s how I picture it in my head. Makes me wonder if there was a scene of Beatles collectors around back then. I already checked and you can get a decent used copy for under 10€ and I‘m really intrigued to get one of these at one point. The leaflet still contains the original postcard you could use to order the book back then, but I doubt that will still work, haha. Even though I‘m tempted to try it. Sleeve, record and all the extra gimmicks are in pristine condition and considering what I paid for the record, this might end up on my list of favorite pick ups this year in the category Value for Money.

A Collection of Oldies

A Collection of Oldies, not only an apt name for this record, but also if anyone wanted to refer to three older guys hanging out talking about music, amirite?

This record was another gift I received from my friend who gave me the Beatles 7“ I wrote about in the previous post. To give you some context: my friend collects Japanese pressings of Beatles records. I love how people buying records come up with all of these unique micro collections and I must say, those Japanese pressings are pretty awesome. The lyric sheets are pretty interesting with Japanese and English on them, and all of the records come on this really amazing dark shade of clear red vinyl. The details on these Japanese pressings are pretty neat. For example, they all have this red dot on the spine, which is usually white, so you get a Japanese flag to make them easily recognizable. A bunch of these next to each other on a shelf look pretty sweet. Usually they come with an OBI strip as well, but this copy doesn‘t have one unfortunately. 

I really like the songs on this collection, too. Judging by the cover art, which is sort of trippy, you‘d probably think this is a collection of later era Beatles songs, but they‘re all songs from the early days of their carrer since this compilation was originally released in 1966. I‘ve heard all of them a million times, but not in this particular order, so this is still a fun listen.

While this is not an original, this repress from 1970 still is one of the oldest records I own. Considering it‘s a 55 year old record, this is in pristine condition. I‘m very grateful for this cool record and even more so for having such good friends. 

1970 Repress on Clear Dark Red on Apple /???

Edit: Forgot to include the close up of the lyric sheet in my original post. The song titles are listed in English and Japanese, the lyrics are English only. This is printed on quality paper as well and has a really nice feel to it. 

Now And Then

Happy new year, everyone. I spent the beginning of the new year with a good friend and his family. People I love and don‘t nearly get to see as often I‘d like to. We did the same thing two years ago and I wrote similar words and they are still true. But such is life. Having said that, the five days we spent together were an absolute bliss. Not only did my family and I get to see them, another person we‘re friends with was travelling Europe, so we all got to hang out for almost a week despite living in three different countries spread over to continents. 

Daytime was for food, sightseeing and family activities, night-time was for sports and music talks. We always pick up stuff for each other we think the others might like, but this time we got exchange records personally instead of receiving parcels, which was pretty cool. We all have different tastes in music in some regards, but we also have some bands we all can agree on. One of these is The Beatles. I was graciously given a copy of Now And Then, which just came out in 2023 and is the final single by The Beatles. Originally it was recorded as a demo by John Lennon in 1977, but the other three members of The Beatles all worked on the song after John Lennon‘s death, albeit to varying degrees. It‘s a good enough song, but not as good as their biggest hits. On the b-side you get Love Me Do, an absolute classic from the early days of the band. It says it‘s a 2023 remix, but I also found info on Discogs that this is 1962 singles version. Since I don‘t own one of these, I can‘t really attest to that. 

The artwork is whatever, but at least the vinyl colour is pretty cool. A really cool shade of baby blue with some white marble. 

I really hope we can make this New Year‘s hang out a biannual thing, so I can make a similar post in two years. 

2023 Press on Baby Blue w/ White Marble on Apple/Parlopahone /???