Happy End

Today's post is about the third band (besides Internal Affairs & Right Brigade) where I try to get every record variation that is out there - Bitter End.
One record that I've been after for a while now, is the most recent version of their awesome "climate of fear" LP:


The "clear pilsner beer vinyl with silkscreened/cutout acetate covers sold at United Blood Fest 2009" out of only 54 copies.
This is really awesome. It's not just a silkscreened cover. They cut out a square and covered it with a transparent layer that is silkscreened/printed as well. This is supposed to look like a TV screen with white noise (at least that's what I think). Through the white noise, you can either see the record or the picture that is glued to the inside of the sleeve.


Six Feet Under (or Bitter End themselves) did a very good job with this one. I can't think of a similar special sleeve like this. And I really like how the TV idea fits to the amazing intro of the record with all those TV and radio samples. Well done!!
Okay, maybe one bad side note:
There are 5 different inside images amongst the 54 records....
I don't think that I need all of them... or do I?
In germany we say: "Irgendwo hört's dann aber auch auf..." :o)

The next one that I picked up is the "mind in chains" 7" repress on orange vinyl out of 500:


I didn't even know that Malfunction/Deathwish made a second press. I was surfing around at record trade posts on the Bridge 9 board and at howsyouredge, where I saw that various dudes had this variation. I was totally wondering and couldn't understand how I never heard of this one. After a little research, I found out that it was still available at the Deathwish E-store. Lucky me.
So that's two more records to add here:

Heroes from the past

Unlike all the other trendy kids (yeah, those kids you see at shows for a few months/years before they disappear, following the next trend) who started with the current "cool" bands, my musical life has been more of a progression.
A slow progression from metal to punk to hardcore (and maybe back at the moment.. with some side trips to recent and 70s rock stuff, but that's another story :o).
If you ask me about the band that brought me from punk to hardcore, I guess I have to say:


I loved them from the first tunes I heard and still do. I think they once played here with H2O, who opened the door for NYHC for me. I believe that I even saw them with Sick of it all, who later toured with Ensign... and so on.
As I was listening to one of their records, being sad that they split up, it came to my mind that Fat Wreck released their last show on vinyl. I knew I had to get it:


And this record blows my mind. Nice gatefold, handnumbered (#266 out of 1100) two different colours of vinyl (old school colours by the way, not that swirl or splatter bullshit that once was interesting, but nowadays comes with almost EVERY record), an awesome maybe 100 page booklet with thousands of pictures and HITS HITS HITS. I put the needle on the record and couldn't believe what I heard. I usually don't like live records, but this one almost made me destroy my room, moshing and dancing and singing along. There is not a single song where you think: "oh yeah, they have this song and they have to play it, because it is their last show, but I don't like it" NO, every song you think: "oh yeah, they have this song and they have to play it, because it is their last show and now I wanna smash my chair against the wall and want to scream the lyrics out loud!!!!". Awesome!!! It is such a pleasure to listen to this selection of songs in a row. I hope they make a DVD out of this. The sound is perfect. Not too clear, not too raw. Everything on this release is simply awesome. Now go get it, before it is sold out (by the way, for the first time I ordered something from Fat Wreck directly. I ordered the new Paint it Black 7" as well. It rules, but today's topic is "Heroes from the past". :o).


Although I really like Good Riddance, my favourite band back in the days was:


yes, NOFX.
A few weeks ago, Epitaph announced some coloured vinyl represses of classic records.
Unfortunately, I was too late (like so many times before). My favourite records were gone.
I only managed to pick up two releases. NOFX - Animal liberation on yellow vinyl out of 300 and:


Bad Religion - How could hell be any worse on red vinyl out of 300.
Both records rule. Actually I never owned this Bad Religion record. A while ago, I tried to pick it up on ebay, but was always outbid. So this was a nice way to pick it up.
I have "Animal Liberation" on CD for years now, but to be honest, I hardly listened to it. So this was also a nice occasion to give it a try again.
And man, there are some awesome songs on this....
Last words for today: "Beer Bong"......

Nerd Brigade

So this one is interesting: I call my Right Brigade collection almost complete (minus two tests).
But the other day, I found a pressing of their s/t 7" on ebay advertised as clear red vinyl. I was very curious, because I never heard of such a pressing. So I clicked the button and it was mine.


After examining this record for several hours, I came to the conclusion that this isn't a different pressing than the well-known pink ones. I am not that familiar with record pressing processes, but I guess you get the pink vinyl by mixing red and white. So I believe that this bad boy is one of the early birds when the white has been thrown into the machine. Look at this picture (pink on top, red below):


you can clearly see a difference. But still, if you look closer, you can see a few white streaks in the red vinyl. And below, you can see that it really is transparent compared to the pink one:


Yeah, this is what I think about this one. Must be the same principle like the Gorilla Biscuits 7", where there are various yellow colorways and even a few white ones. If anyone else has another idea about this record, feel free to tell me.

two steps closer

After receiving an empty box that should have contained my Iron Age 12" pre-order and without even getting a reply from the guy who put out the record, I thought this would be a fucked up week (regarding records).
Well, today this week came to a good end. Two (filled) packages, two times Internal Affairs!

The first one:


A Test Press for the IA/Allegiance split. A very early release. Rivalry Records wasn't even called Rivalry, but just Rival Records when this came out. Bidding at ebay, I was afraid that I have to compete not only against IA collectors, but against Allegiance collectors as well. It turned out that there was no need to worry. I got this record for way less than I expected (Two days earlier, somebody outbid me on the s/t 12" Test Press...).


Impossible to see it in my stupid picture, but mine is #15 out of 20.
I think it's weird that this isn't the rarest version, as somewhere are rootbeer variations out there. Still have to pick up one of those....

The other grab was the following:


The Dalek 12" on clear vinyl out of 100, as far as I know.
When this record came out, I wanted to order all four versions. So I put them in my shopping cart and noticed that the Triumvir store wanted around 120,- $ including shipping to germany....
I mean 60,- $ for shipping four records, are you kidding me? Keep them!
I was angry and didn't want to collect Internal Affairs anymore. A few days later, the records where sold out and I knew that I needed them... In the end, this would probably cost more than 120,- $. Stupid me. After picking up two colors from Deathwish and Grave Mistake Records and the black one for cheap from a spanish record store through ebay, I still needed the clear one. Turned out this wasn't easy. One day, I was posting stupid things in a record collector thread on the Bridge 9 board and got a PM that someone had a copy and wanted to get rid of it. As I had been looking so long without finding one, I instantly made an offer (which might have been a bit too high) and we had a deal. So now, 8 days later I finally have all four of them:

Kurzarbeit again

Another Monday, another day off from work, another record shopping tour at the "Schanze".
This time I spent too much money, but here we go:

The very special limited edition of Turbonegro's "Scandinavian leather" LP. If you ask me, this is their best work after the reunion. Take this one and forget everything they recorded after that. It comes in a nice leather sleeve, a double gatefold like I never saw before, it contains a one-sided bonus 12" with an unreleased track (which pretty much sucks, by the way) and is limited to 2000 pieces.


Mine is #1972. When this came out, I held it in my hands and wanted it so badly, but it was too expensive for me. Well, it was worth the wait, as it was way cheaper today!
Another nice feature: There are various pictures of all band members and by using a "key hole" on the back of the double gatefold, you can show your favourite Turbonegro member:


The next one comes in an awesome package as well:


The new Franz Ferdinand. I am sorry, but they are easily one of my favourite non-hardcore bands. Their third record is slightly different from their previous efforts, and it takes some rotations to get used to it, but still it is awesome! I am so looking forward to their Hamburg show in November. I have seen them so many times and everytime it was absolutely amazing.
The record itself comes in the heaviest gatefold ever.


Not your average gatefold sleeve, but very very heavy carton - awesome!

Last, but not least, I picked up the following:


Led Zeppelin - II.
I already have the CD, but wanted to upgrade to the vinyl sooner or later.
When I saw this nice spanish version on red vinyl, I had to get it.
I think I like this one more than their first record. "Whole lotta love" is one of the best openers ever.

Sooooo, let's see what next Monday brings... :o)

Internal Affairs Demo again

My buddy Dan is into collecting demo tapes for a while now.
At the moment, this is not really my business. Sometimes at shows I would pick one up. Of course, I need the tapes of bands that I am specialized in, but that's it. So make sure not to send me all your demo tapes, send them to Dan -> Danny's Tradelist. :o)
As I dig Internal Affairs, I couldn't refuse an offer on the Bridge 9 board, where someone wanted to get rid of IA's demo tape. A few mails and incredibly 5 days later (for the distance Kansas City -> Germany) I finally held it in my hands:


This is #82 of 100. After completing the 7" repress a few days ago, I finally have the original demo as well. Let's see what's up next. :o)

Iron Boots - Easy green TEST PRESS

Like i said before, sometimes good things happen. So one day I stumbled across the following record:


A test press of Iron Boots' latest and last effort, the easy green 7". I wasn't searching for it, I wasn't waiting for it, I didn't expect it, but suddenly it was there and I had to get it.
Do you want to know, what's the best part?


This is number 1 out of 24. For some stupid reason, when it comes to numbered records, I prefer the lowest number, as it feels more exclusive or something like that. Maybe it's just record nerd stupidity... Is this the trigger to collect anything from Iron Boots? I don't know, yet...
The record itself is awesome, like the other two 7"s. Close your eyes and it's Warzone. It's a shame that they never released that full length that was announced a few times. On the other hand, who knows.. Maybe it's better this way.

A Step Apart to the Future

I love rip-off covers and "Back to the Future" is easily one of my favourite movies (at least it is in my top 10, I guess). So there was no excuse to miss out on the following record:


I only had a regular black vinyl pressing of A Step Apart's debut 7" so this was a nice way to upgrade to a more limited version. These guys from the Netherlands were pretty big a few years ago, but I am not sure about the long term test... We will see. But it was definitely nice to hear these songs again.


Not Just Words Records' (one of the best european labels, by the way) pressing info says this is out of 110, the back of the record says mine is #54 out of 100. I have no clue which one is right.

Set your Control

Last week, two pre-orders came in. The first one was Soul Control's new effort:

Not much to say about this one, as I only heard it once, yet. Plus I am not that into the hype about them. For some stupid reason, I even didn't go to their show last month. The first time listening to this record was a fun time, though. Typical stuff you would expect. Similar to Burn or Lion of Judah. I bet the next time I listen to this, it will blow my mind. And i really have to admit that the artwork is absolutely beautiful!

Much easier to access was the second record that came in:


The new Set Your Goals LP. I only listened to it once as well, but this one blew me away, instantly.
This is simply how summer sounds like to me! The perfect combination of bands like Blink 182 and New Found Glory, but still with a little hardcore edge. If you liked their last releases, no need to hate on this one. I was afraid it would be super poppy, but I was wrong. Seriously, just check it out and enjoy the last sunrays. Too bad that the only possibility to get your hands on the very limited blue vinyl was buying a package with the blue/white/black vinyl. I decided that one copy would be enough, so I have to deal with the white vinyl out of 700.

On & Trapped under Floyd

Last Sunday was awesome. ON played a matinee show in my hometown. That means hanging around with friends and having a few beers while watching one of the few "newer" bands that really attracted my attention, recently. Like I expected, the show was amazing. Not that much crowd reaction, but the band showed some energy that made up for it. For some stupid reason, I missed out on the pre-order for their second ep, even though I liked their "Vital times" 7" a lot. But sometimes good things happen -> they had copies of their new 7" to sell - on white vinyl.


Plus it has a Legitimate Bros stamp on it, which makes it (according to various trade lists on howsyouredge) 1 out of 150.


No need to say that the songs are great as well, you know the story...

The next day, I had a day off from work. I used it to shop around at some record stores.
Too bad that there aren't so many left in Hamburg. So I only managed to pick up two records:

Pink Floyd - meddle.

Do you know the famous movie "2001" from Stanley Kubrick?
They say, if you play the (only) song from the B-side to the last (very strange) 20 minutes of the film, it matches perfectly. I always wanted to try that and was curious, what this very very long song would sound like. So I decided that I needed this record. It contains nice psychedelic stuff you would expect from the 70's. I yet have to listen to it parallel to the movie, though :)

At another store, I picked up the new Trapped under ice LP. Here, I also missed out on the pre-order. I heard that the whole first press is sold out as well, but at Burnout they still had copies on clear vinyl out of 1000.


Basically I missed out on this record, because I don't like trends and hypes and I feel that there is a very big hype about TUI at the moment. Recently, I saw them play with Terror and they blew my mind. Amazing grooves and mosh parts. Maybe the missing gap between Terror and Guns Up. At the store, I gave the record a listen and after the first tunes I knew that this copy was gonna be mine. You should give it a try.

Wise Up

When I started out, I was not yet into the idea of getting multiple copies of records (Maybe because I simply couldn't afford it). My goal was to get everything on vinyl in at least one version and that's it. I would prefer the most limited versions, but I thought that it would be impossible for me to get every record in every version. As I wanted something similar, I started the hunt for complete collections of bands I really really like. I don't know why, but it happended to be Right Brigade (will tell that story later) and then Internal Affairs. So here we go with my latest addition to this obsession:

The Internal Affairs demo 7" with Wise Up Zine out of 50.
I already own this, but only without the zine. That obviously didn't feel "complete" to me, so I had to get another copy (now I have a zine-less spare copy for you). The zine contains interesting interviews with Matt Summers and John Joseph, the record awesome tunes by an awesome band that I truly miss. This makes the demo 7" part of my collection complete. Too bad that there is still so much more IA left to search for...

I love SFU!

Okay, let's start this with this one. The Barfight 12" repress out of 105.


Recently, i came home after a tough day at work and found a mail from Six Feet Under regarding this mailorder-only secret record. "Oh no, not again" i thought, as i missed out on the last one, because i wasn't able to order within 2 hours after the newsletter was sent...
but not this time - order placed and there it is. that i never had the chance to get the original 7" made this purchase even more interesting. besides the awesome spraypainted artwork with real blood (Dave - is it you??) the songs are all killers!
Definitely another proof that SFU only concentrates on putting out quality releases - Thanks!!