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. 

Clarity

Usually I really enjoy exploring record stores in new cities, but on this trip I wasn‘t too bothered by the fact that I didn‘t have that many opportunities to go digging. The main reason for this was that I knew I was going to an excellent record store in Adelaide. My friend Dan had been telling me about this fantastic record store called Clarity. And what can I say, he didn‘t exaggerate. Clarity is the kind of shop I would love to have close to where I live because the selection of new records is excellent, the second hand section is equally as good and all of the records are priced fairly. Hell, the section on hardcore and punk related books alone would be enough for me. I would also hate to have a record store like this so close to    where I live because I would spend way too much time and money there. But as always in life, love prevails.

The first LP I got was Liveage, the Descendants live LP. Great selection of songs from their early period. I was pretty excited to find this LP because I in my head this record was high on my want list. Well, I should have checked my actual want list and, more importantly, my spreadsheet, because I could have seen that I already own a copy. As much as I like this album, I certainly don’t need two copies.  So if anyone wants a copy for cheap or do a quick trade, let me know. 

Most Recent Repress (?) on Black on SST

I love Fucked Up as a band, but their discography is such a nightmare. They’re such a prolific band, it’s hard to keep track with all of their released. 7”s are much worse than LPs, so I mostly stick to their full lengths or compilations nowadays. Do All Words Can Do is a collection of B-sides and demo versions from the David Comes To Life era, which in my opinion is their album. When I read the information on the hype sticker, I knew I had to get this. This record is probably not a necessity, but I really enjoy the songs on here. 

1st Press on Black on Matador

Last, but certainly not least is the first LP by Tørsö called Sono Pronat A Morire. This was originally released on Agipunk, but later on it was re-released by Sorry State. I love both 7”s they released on Revelation a few years ago, especially Build and Break. But for some reason I never bothered to pick up their other releases. When I saw this record in the wild, it was a no-brainer to pick it up. I’m usually not a fan of swirl records and yellow-green is definitely not my favourite color combo, but for some reason this colorway works for me. 

5th Press on Yellow / Green Swirl on Sorry State (no further pressing info)

I also have to say that the prices of the records were incredibly fair. Not only for Australia, but for records in general. Big shoutout to Clarity Records. If I ever get back to Australia, I’m definitely going there again. 

I Against III

The other record I‘d mentioned in my previous post was another colored version of Bad Brains‘ I Against I. It‘s been a lot of fun collecting different colors of this repress from the early 90s. I‘m missing only the clear one I think. This might be hardest one because no copy has shown up on Discogs in a couple of years. If you have one or know someone who has one, let me know.  

Repress on Clear Green on SST

I Against II

A couple of weeks ago I posted about a gold vinyl copy of I Against I that I’d picked up recently and now I managed to find a copy on blue vinyl from a seller in Germany for a fair price. 

The record is not in mint condition because one owner, I’m guessing the original owner, put his address on the A-side label and also wrote his name on the dust sleeve. What’s more interesting though is that he also wrote down a date: February 19, 1991. I’m guessing again that this is the date he got the record. I checked on Discogs and the colored versions are listed as represses. However, there’s no release date listed on Discogs for any of the represses on colored vinyl. The sleeve of the records says 1986, but I’m not sure if the colored records were pressed back then as well. If the original owner actually got this record early in 1991, the coloured represses, or at least the blue one, was probably released sometime in 1990. Obviously this is just guess work. The Flex Discography doesn’t provide any information on this either unfortunately. Does anyone have more info on this? 

I Against I

Sometime during fall last year I was sort of obsessed with Bad Brains and more particularly their third LP I Against I. Now, there are maybe individually better songs on their earlier recordings, but I Against I is the album that flows the best as a whole. I was listening to that LP over and over again, and at one point I decided to check out which different versions are out there. There are a bunch of different pressings on coloured vinyl, so I thought it‘d be fun to start collecting those. Let‘s see how this will go. 

Repress on Gold on SST Records

TV Party

Black Flag sort of fall into the same category as Dead Kennedys: there are plenty of copies of their records that are readily available and that's exactly why I always postponed getting the records I was still missing. Well, this has been rectified now. This is the last Black Flag 7" I really 'need'. There are so many different versions out there, but I like this cover version the best. Added bonus that the record/label match the cover so well. I'm sure Marcus doesn't approve though.