Flexi Your Head!

This may be one of the weirdest records featured on my blog. It's not even rally a record, it's a flexi disc. Flexi discs are known for their poor quality, which is probably the main reason there not that common. I don't any other flexis, but since this one was made by a band that I collect, I made an exception. You could only get this flexi when you sent in the backcover of a fanzine and in return you'd get the flexi. I didn't take a picture of it, but the back of this flexi is actually a postcard. That's how it was shipped. Now, I never got my hands on a copy of said zine, but I did contact the guys in Punch and asked if they could send me one if there were any left. Brian, I think, agreed, but it got lost in the mail somehow. Since my want list is pretty long and seems to be getting longer instead of shorter every day, I didn't spend a whole lot of time and energy on finding one of these. I stumbled across a copy for cheap on discogs a few weeks ago, plus it was sold by someone in Germany, so shipping wasn't really an issue either. As I said, the quality is rather poor, but I like the whole concept of this release. Plus you get a bunch of covers of classic hardcore songs. But honestly, this one is to be filed entirely under 'collectible'.

Punch

I managed to acquire two more Punch 7"s for the collection. First up is a 'misprint' sleeve of the fifth pressing for their first 7" Eyeless. Apparently they had some left over vinyl, but no more sleeves, so they simply printed front and back cover on one cardboard. There are only 10 of these as you can see.




From the same seller I also got the tour version of their second 7", Nothing Lasts. This one comes on clear vinyl and is out of 100.

A Whole Punch Of Records

Okay, that was admittedly a poor wordplay, but whatever. I'd been really looking forward to the new Punch LP. They didn't invent the wheel new with their third LP, but if you like this band, this is probably a good thing. Angry, pissed fastcore. As usual the lyrics fluctuate between deeply personal and highly political. I love it.

As I said, I was really looking forward to this release, so when I heard about the upcoming pre-order, I kept my eyes open for day x. When the pre-order was up, I tried to put in my order, but either the deathwish webshop didn't work properly or I was too stupid to put in an order, which I wouldn't rule out, but in any case I missed out on the rarest colour. Bummer. Fucking flippers offer it on discogs for way too much money.
I got the clear yellow one, which is apparently out of 3311, and some nice looking yellow-green swirl that I cannot find any pressing info for. The pressing info is a little confusing to be honestly. You could order a coke bottle green version and seeing that this was limited to 1 per customer, I figure this is the rarest version. However, the pressing info page on Deathwish says the rarest colour is transparent gold with opaque light blue. The second rarest colour is supposed to be some white/blue mix according to the official pressing info, but I got this green/yellow swirl mix that you can see in the picture on the right, but again, I can't find any proper pressing info. In the webstore, this is listed as gold/blue mix though. So I'm a little at a loss here. Anyway, time will tell what different variants are out there.

While ordering the latest Punch LP, I also got a repress of their Nothing Lasts EP on black vinyl.

Punch

Ever since I've heard Punch for the first time a few years back I've been hooked on the band. Great on vinyl, even greater live. As far as collecting goes, it's pretty hard to keep up with all the represses. I think this may be the 6th (?) press on Discos Huelga, but I'm not altogether sure. There are also pressings on Assault Records based in Germany, so it's all a little confusing. Anyway, I know that this is the latest repress on Discos Huelga on clear vinyl. Still need to fill some gaps here.

I already mentioned before that I don't like ordering only one record from a seller, so I also picked up this 2nd press of Ruined Families' s.t. 7". Comes in a beautifully designed fold out cover. I believe there are 300 copies of this pressing. I really love the fact that Adagio830 alway put in so much effort to create a nice package for their releases.

Odd and ends

Punch is one of favourite current bands. Powerful music, great lyrics and the band consists of very nice people, too. All the good markings of a good band. I missed out on the latest repress of their debut 7" Eyeless (on Discos Huelga), so I had to pick it up via discogs. This is the 5th press on olive green vinyl. If you are into fastcore and generally dig bands on 625 Thrashcore, you should check out Punch. 

I've heard a lot of people talk very euphorically about The Ropes formerly known as The Repos. I had the chance to pick up one of their 7"s from the same seller I got the Punch 7" from for cheap, so I thought this might be a good opportunity to give a listen to the band. Quite honestly, I don't get what all the hype (is there really one?) is about. The music and the singer's voice are not really my cup of tea. As with most Youth Attack releases, artwork and the overall design of the whole package are superb (custom foldout double-sided envelope sleeve that comes with a sixteen-page booklet!). But since it's still the music that a record should be all about, this is most likely the first and last The Ropes release for me.