Give More, Give Everything, Give Blood

So, here it is. The most expensive record I have ever purchased and probably will purchase in a long time: the test pressing of the reissue that Triple B did for Bane's Give Blood LP for the album's ten year anniversary. I'd been hunting down one of these for a long time, contacted a lot of people - to no avail -, missed out on one on a few occasions on eBay, but finally was able to score one. Didn't come cheap, but it was well worth it.

I didn't buy the whole set when Triple B released this re-issue a few years back because I was a little strapped for money then. I reasoned that with black being the least rare colour, chances would be good that I might pick up this particular version along the road for a reasonable price. And that's just the way it happened. I stumbled across this black vinyl copy at a distro at one of the shows Bane recently played in order to promote their upcoming LP. Nice coincidence, right? So ironically, the least rare version completes this set for me. Triple B truly did a great job with this re-issue. Embossed cover, new cover art and an awesome booklet with lots of pictures and some bonus texts by the band. Plus, the choice of colours for the vinyl is excellent. You can really see that the label wanted to honour this record and the band with this re-release.

Bane - Give Blood (reissue on Triple B)

Bane - Give Blood - test pressing - toothpaste green - /15
Bane - Give Blood - red/white splatter - /200
Bane - Give Blood - white - /400
Bane - Give Blood - clear red - /400 (Equal Vision exclusive colour)
Bane - Give Blood - black - /1000

No Spiritual Surrender

So, I went a little crazy last month as far as buying records goes. At least for my standards. But dammit, there were so many good records to get for reasonable prices that I figured I might save some money in the long run. Funny how our mind plays these kinds of tricks on us… Now the records are slowly showing up on my doorstep.
I finally got one of my main wants - a first press copy of No Spiritual Surrender by Inside out on blue vinyl. 1000 of these exist but they're not easy to come by. Probably because this is an awesome record. Maybe because it looks so damn good. Most likely because of both points. I love everything about this record and I often wonder what an Inside Out LP would have been like…

Here's a little family picture.

1st press on blue /1000
'Final press' on white /350
Later press on black vinyl /???
2013 press on clear /510 or 550
[Apparently there were  two different pressings on clear vinyl. Don't know which one this is or if there's a difference between the two clear version.]
2013 press on clear red /550

Shall Be Jugded

Sorry, Shall Be Judged of course. My bad. Or actually it's Rev's bad since they made this spelling mistake on the back cover 24 years ago (and never bothered to correct it!). This is one of the best records that Rev has ever put out. I can never decide between this one, No Spiritual Surrender by Inside Out or the two Gorilla Biscuits records. Tough choice if you ask me. Godhead is probably one of the best hardcore songs ever written.
This is also one of the few Rev releases I care about in a true collector's sense, meaning I want all of them! This is a 2nd press copy. Comes with a black&white insert and there's still the Connecticut address on the back cover. I picked this up when I was at a festival recently and some guy had a box of 2nd hand records with him. Not mint condition, but it plays fine and at the price I paid it'd have been stupid to not pick it up.

A Life Less Plagued

This is one of my favourite LPs from the early 2000s by one of my favourite bands from that time. Much better than the 7"s imho. A Life Less Plagued is actually one of the few albums I don't want to skip any songs on. Very rare in my book, cause there's usually at least one song on LPs I don't like.  Back then it helped Bridge 9 getting really big and becoming one of the most important hardcore labels of that era. (For an excessive read on Carry On check Kyle Whitlow's blog). This is the first press on orange /150. I had this record before but traded it years ago to make some progress with one of my collections. I didn't really regret making this trade because I probably wouldn't have got the other record at all. I've never seen another copy of the record I got pop up after that. But I knew right away that I needed this specific LP back in my collection at one point. Took me some time, but sometimes patience is the way to go. The orange vinyl, which this picture sadly does not do justice, looks so sick if you hold in your hands. There are some white swirls in this mix, looks great. Matches the artwork really well, too. This one actually doesn't look quite as nice as the one I had before, if I remember correctly, but it's still a sweet piece of vinyl. Really glad to have this one back.

High scores

A buddy of mine has been selling a couple of his records to finance a few releases of his own (check koepfen.tictail.com). Win-win for everyone, because I was able to pick up these two Highscore LPs. Good fastcore made in Germany from the early 2000s. If you don't know them, make sure you'll give them a listen. They didn't end up on 625 Thrashcore later on without a reason. If you make it on a US label as a European band, you know you got something good going.

The first LP is called New Fuel. It was released in 2000 first on Bushido Records (no connection with the German rapper…) and later on Deranged Records. This is the latter version. Nothing fancy, but I'd wanted to have these LPs for quite some time, so I wasn't particularly picky about the pressing. Plus I could help out a good dude.

I also picked up the second Highscore LP - Unsuspecting Actors In A Bad Soap Opera. This is the Stereodrive Records version. I have no idea about pressing numbers, but honestly, I don't really care about that. Just wanted to have the records.

It All Ain't Gold That Glitters

On my seemlingy never-ending quest of collecting Bane records I thought I was one step closer to completion when I came across a Holding This Moment 7" on green vinyl - the last version I needed for my collection. Minus test pressing that is. Oh well, one can dream I guess. Anyway, I contacted the seller and we quickly agreed on a fair price. Fast forward, the record finally arrived on my doorstep some time ago and I eagerly opened the parcel, but only to be disappointed. As it turned out, the dude selling the record "got confused" and mixed up the records he had. I contacted him and he told me that he also had Free To Think, Free To Be on green vinyl, but unfortunately not Holding This Moment and that he had put the wrong colour in the description. To add insult to injury, it even says "Gold" on the plastic sleeve, but since I hadn't asked for pictures, I hadn't seen that before buying it. Stupid, really, but that's how it goes sometimes. So instead of finally getting the last puzzle piece to this particular record, I ended up with another copy on gold. It would have been too much of a hassle to send it back to the States, so I decided to keep it. It's not that bad though since a buddy of mine is still looking for this particular record and we've already worked out a trade.

I don't know if I'm alone with that tick, but whenever I want to buy only one record from a seller or online distro, I can't shake the feeling that buying only one record doesn't justify the shipping cost. I'm aware that this is rather stupid and there's no real logic behind it, but that's just the way it is. So I usually end up scouring lists for (at least) one more record I could buy in addition to the one I originally wanted. Sometimes that's hard, sometimes it's rather easy to find more records. This one was an easy choice. Grade's Triumph & Tragedy holds a special place in my heart. I had heard of this band before, but never really gave it a listen. That changed when I got a mix-tape by my then girlfriend-to-be and now current girlfriend and there was this one song on it that just floored me. Turns out it was Triumph and Tragedy by Grade. So when I finally had the chance to pick up this record on vinyl, I had to get it. 543 copies on gold vinyl exist of this record.