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.