Another July Has Passed...

...which means one more month until summer's end. I've been doing this thing where I keep track of what I accumulate through the month, and then culminate it with a monthly photo. I hadn't posted any here, but I suppose I'll start doing that starting now with the month of July.

I spent much less on records in July because my summer was basically over. I was no longer travelling to Montreal or Toronto every week, my vacation had already been spent on a trip to LA, and I mentally switched from vacation mode to workfulltimeandpayforschool mode. Regardless still found a couple decent things.

The bottom of this picture is the four 7"s that came with the BEGN of the new Fucked Up album. I love that band, and I think the album is decent, but I think they went overkill with all these releases. Ideally I would have trimmed down the 2XLP in length a bit, and avoided these redundant 7"s. There is nothing about them that makes me want to jam them. This is especially true of the middle ones, but it's just pictures of people or things, and nothing really attention grabbing. What made the slew of the Fucked Up releases in their earlier period exciting was the fact that tons of different (and much smaller) labels were putting them out, meaning each 7" had its own unique vibe. All 7"s released since signing to Matador however come in the exact same packaging and format, rendering their run of releases somewhat stagnant if I were to speak boldly. The constant white bar and text that has been there since "Police" is great because it creates a subliminal bond with their whole catalogue while securing an aesthetic, but all other format opportunities have been somewhat lost in recent times. Long story short: shake things up!

Other notable finds in this lot: A French Cure bootleg (whose picture disc properties are excused by the fact that it features a picture of Robert Smith with Santa), The Cure Happily Ever After (a double LP compiling Faith and Seventeen Seconds for American audiences, Billy Bragg Peel Sessions, some New Order and Depeche Mode, and finally the gayest record I now own: the "Disappointed" 12" single featuring Neil Tennant by Electronic (the music duo of Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr). In conclusion, not enough punk this month.

Shoutouts to: Ross P., AK, Erin Power, Krista, Beatnik Records, Aux 33 Tours, and Vertigo Records.

Finally, I figure I would post the past couple of months here, because they are no longer posted anywhere else. April, May, June:

 

A Forked Path - The Two Worlds of Collecting Fucked Up

As I mentioned just a few hours ago, I got in a few records today. From Free Cake I got the Virgin Witch 7" I pre-ordered, along with Pulling Teeth - Paranoid Delusions | Paradise Illusions. The Virgin Witch 7" is pretty cool; it's limited to 666 copies (evil!), with a screened cover and B side (the band logo). The first 100 copies had a different colour cover, and a different screen on the B Side (the leviathan style pentagram). Both songs are pretty good, they'll certainly get some rotation over the coming weeks, so not much to say yet, although right off the bat the two songs are very different, and would have worked well serving opposite sides of the record. The first song is very slow, with a long buildup, where as the second song kicks off at a frenetic pace and has a blitz of a solo near the end.

I moreso just had to mention those as a formality, as this post is more concerned with the second package, the new singles compilation from Fucked Up, Couple Tracks. This one was also pre-ordered a few months ago. Thinking back on the process of initially hearing about this record, to actually heaing it today was really an archetypal example of why I love records.I have been following Fucked Up for a few years now, albeit not as long as others, right before Hidden World came out. In my mind, they are not the type of band for the casual listener, and to truly appreciate them, you have to dive right in and explore all their material. It is no secret that they have built a reputation for a constant slew of odd, rare releases spanning many genres of the alternative type. So as it so happens, I became a big fan, and any big fan will attempt to acquire all their releases, as they would with any band.

Fucked Up however, are different than any band, and they truly epitomize the joys of record collecting for me. Part of this lies in fortunate timing, as I am glad I discovered them mid-way through their career, as they began experimenting and evolving from the simple punk/hardcore formula. Being able to say you were there from the start is just some boring elitist sentiment, and makes it seem like you're only still here because it caught on. In my case, with Fucked Up I was able to enjoy the two worlds of record collecting as I see it divided; discovering the old vanguard classics, and following the current evolution of music. You see, finding one of the many, many old Fucked Up 7"s, released before their first LP, is on par with finding some classic Dischord record. Sure Fucked Up are still around, but not strictly in that format, and songs such as "Circling the Drain", "Police" and "Generation" have cemented themselves as classics of this generation, and I get a similar excitement from these songs as punk classics from other times. With their back catalogue so thick, its as unlikely that you'll complete a Fucked Up collection as fulfilling all your classic punk wants.

Meanwhile, following this plethora of golden hits, they're still an extremely active band, in fact amongst the most active of punk bands, as they continue to release material and tour incessantly. At this point the band fulfills my other favorite side of record collecting, and that is keeping up with a band you love, and not only getting what they put out, but watching them evolve, and wondering what they will do next, a question that is constantly asked with a band such as Fucked Up. And with releases coming so often, the excitement sticks around, and doesn't die with some tortuous two year wait time between albums.

I will admit that the one record collecting quality Fucked Up does not fulfill, through no fault of their own, is that following either side of their career is one that must be done online. Surely you can find represses of the classic 7"s in record shops, but the gems are hoarded for eBay, and new records are best to be pre-ordered if you want first dibs, which you surely do. This was the case for the new double LP singles collection, Couple Tracks (Quick hint: Matador seems to always have some coupon, whether its some holiday season, or just because it's a pre-order, so sniff one out before ordering from them!). I ordered it as soon as I saw it, in late October, and knew there would be a couple months  long wait time before I got it, but no worries. Over this time, there were many updates as to what was going on with it, which just added to the excitement of getting the record. Normally I totally forget I pre-ordered something and it's just a welcome surprise when it comes, so this created a different welcomed anxiety.

I first got an e-mail from Matador a month after ordering, explaining that there was now a very limited 7", with the same name and cover as the collection (those tricksters!), that would be sold, as a bundle with the collection, and that because I ordered so early, it would be included gratis. Ideally they probably would have included it as a surprise, but knowing the chaos fans would raise for thinking they missed out on a record, they had to send out an email. As time went on, the Fucked Up blog was posting about both records, with pretty hilarious explanations. Finally I received in the mail today, six days before it's official release date. I listened to the 7" first, excited about  new material. The A side, fittingly, is about record collecting, while the B Side is a positively proud song about the birth of Pink Eyes' son. Listening to it I noticed that the labels were backwards, and finding these sort of oddities about records on your own really rather than reading about them is thrilling as a record collector.

Finally, the compilation of singles and rarities only helps other newcomers to the band understand and appreciate the band, while the faithful fans read the liner notes and laugh at the appropriately unflattering photo on the back of the jacket.

Progress Report

The following things are happening:

• I got a really long stapler for Xmas to enable the binding of the zine
• Essentially finished my interview with Pink Eyes
• Confirmation that I will be releasing copies of the new Germ Attak 7", Death to Cops, with the zine.

So yes, as I have been mentioning for the past 3 posts, blog activity has been scarce, but the zine is still thriving. I wanted to do a post about Christmas punk, not sure if its too late.

In my personal record life, I got a copy of Iron Maiden - Powerslave and Sleep - Dopesmoker for Xmas, along with a couple other records I already owned (I suck at keeping lists organized apparently). I have a bunch of records coming in the mail (from Forcefield, Free Cake, 1234 Go), and the anticipation/anxiety will be the death of me.

From the Pink Eyes interview:

Q: Are there any records that scared you somehow the first time you heard them or perhaps you just found them strange or intolerable, but are now an essential part of your collection?

A: Oh yeah! I hated Integrity the first time I heard them and now they are one of my favorite bands. I remember going over to this dude in Toronto house to buy the Turning Point 7" and seeing a poster of Poison Idea on the wall and laughing at the fact that they had a guy called Pig in the band. I used to just ignore any record with a synth on it when I was digging for obscure records and now I kick myself for doing that.  G.I.S.M. was another band I didn't get at first.

A Quick Update

Posts have been sparse, mostly because this is the worst time of the year for school work. Anyway, update on the zine portion. I was aiming at having this out in  January. This is still totally doable, but I'm  going to push it back to sometime in February, because this zine will be released with a 7", and it just takes a while to get those in.

In the mean time, rather than reading my ramblings about records, check out the new post on Looking For Gold about Fucked Up's new singles collection, Couple Tracks. It's pretty entertaining. You'll see in the photo below the sleeves for the singles included, but some of these don't actually exist... it's all explained in the post.

The Writing is on the Wall

Of course there are numerous factors that make records desirable to record collectors. Obviously not all records we own can be extremely rare, so sometimes they need additional attributes to make them stand out from all the Fat Wreck in your collection. Amongst many different options, posters definitely match this criteria.  And I mean something more substantial than an insert with lyrics. The appeal of a poster is somewhat ironic because as a record collector, Ill never use the poster for its intended purpose. If the value is of any financial or personal value to me, there's no way I'll allow it to face the peril of everyday life on my wall. Rather, I'll leave it tucked in its sleeve, folds remaining crisp until I decide to look at it again in a few months time. In any case, a good poster will make one record stand out over another. So anyway, here are some examples from my own collection.

A classic has to be the poster for Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables. Actually, the Dead Kennedy's did a great job of the packaging of most of their albums, but I'll get some of their other examples another time. Anyway, its basically just a great black and white collage parodying nuclear family values. A great example of punk art propaganda, but less powerful then what Crass would be constantly creating. This poster is is a 6 panel double sided print, with the lyrics printed on the bottom of one side. Lyrics weren't often printed with records in those days, but most politically motivated bands would print their lyrics, as we'll see with Crass. On another note though, I'll admit this was one of the first records I bought (a used repress), and I had this one on my wall for awhile, but I was not a Pretentious Asshole at that point. I have since learnt the error of my ways.

Next up is Crass - Stations of the Crass. I'd consider this to be Crass' magnus opus, but others would disagree. Maybe not the best punk songs, as they begin to become more noisy, but it is definitely, like its artwork perhaps most representative of the Crass idea. On a personal, emotional level, I associate this album with the fall, which has somewhat of a depressing effect, but that's the way I like my punk. This is most seen with songs like "Contaminational Power." Anyway, most Crass records were not issued in regular sleeves. Rather, a 6 panel posters, similar to the Dead Kennedys one, was printed on a heavy paper and folded around the records. Folding this album is somewhat tricky because it's a double album, but it's an interesting concept. They even did this for many of their 7"s. To elaborate on my previous point, I  certainly couldn't put these posters on my wall because then the records would be left without a sleeve. You'll notice in the pictures that Crass, being a very political band, also printed their lyrics.

Alright, so their poster for their first album is so... powerful that I had to include it too. And now that I'm going over these records again, I notice that these posters are extremely powerful. Perhaps the only presenting their message stronger than their music were these posters. It is possible to readily identify their message and ideals, mostly of a pacified anarchism through the printed lyrics, the artwork (by Gee Vaucher, who was considered a band member although she did not contribute musically), the graffiti campaigns represented in the poster, and even news clippings about them are presenting, acknowledging the huge difference in ideals between them and mainstream culture. Gee's artwork, as seen on the cover and throughout appears at first glance to be collages, similar to the Dead Kennedy's aesthetic, but they are actually intricate original paintings.

Many bands would follow the archetypal Crass imagery as well as format, and Fucked Up would do this with their Litany single. This was a 7" released on Test Pattern records, but would also be released as a very limited 12" single to further emulate the Crass albums. The 6 panel design follows many Crass precedents, especially with another common Crass motif, crucification. Another Fucked Up project, Bergenfield Four would follow the aesthetic with the stenciled letters around the border on the limited version of their 7" on Lowdown records. The version shown is a repress on Havoc, but for those interested I do have the first press on Test Pattern on White out of 2500.

A final poster that I don't know too much about is the Disfear // Doomriders split put out by Deathwish. This one is different from the others that it is a 7" with a 9 panel design and is in... colour! This poster is also one that wraps around the record as the sleeve. It was also available for a short time as a separate print, without the band names on it.. Artwork was done by Thomas Hooper, who seems to have quite a bit of similar artwork being put forth in this scene. This version is the Cream/Beer coloured vinyl out of 300. "All paths lead to nothing, there is only death."

On a final note sorry for the poor photos, Im working on coming up with a better photo set up.