She & Him | A Very She & Him Christmas

Oh oh oh, merry christmas, this a true Hardcore time ! Heavy, intense, tortured with a lot of sing alone and mosh part, this time is A Very She & Him Christmas by She & Him. Yes, so Hardcore.

In this festive period, I decided to talk about this LP that a good friend offered to me for christmas. He knew my huge love of Zoey Deschannel since I saw her in Almost Famous (she's William's sister). This LP has been released by Merge Records last year. I wanted to buy it but I doesn't have enough money.

I don't really like She & Me, this is a fuckin' hipster folk. Despite I love Zooey, I hate when she sing and I doesn't like his TV show New Girl essentially for that reason.

But this album is different, this is a christmas record and he's very cool. I love heard that stuff when I prepare food or presents, it's totally in the mood of christmas. And, oh my god, Zooey in Mother Santa on the back cover !!!

I got the "first press", or maybe the "2011 press" is a better word. Vinyl is Clear Red on the first edition. Merge released a new edition this year with a White vinyl. The snowflake is not on the vinyl, it's just the inner sleeve that appears in transparency.

I really love this back cover. Zooey, Mother Santa !

This stuff is really neat, Merge put a lot of fun things : printed inner sleeve, download card, wish card in envelope with tracklist ...

... And an "handwrited" word.

Champion | Demo 2000

In this christmas period, time is missing for everyone, so just a little word about a Tape. Let's come back in the year 2000, Champion have released one year before his first demo tape - Demo '99 - and changed a little bit his line up.

So, the band put two new songs and an intro on a new demo tape, logically called Demo 2000. There are two different editions of this tape, the first one with only three songs, and the second one with an additionnal "song" called O.M.J. (One Man Jam) and recorded for fun by some band members during the recording sessions. You can hear this incredible hip hop beat on the bonus track of the Time Slip Away's CD released on Bridge Nine.

Concretely, the difference between the two editions are those : the mention of the song on the cover and a clear tape without band name or songs.

Mine is the first one with only three tracks. I don't know how many tapes have been produced, but despite the first demo, this time this was a professional release. A self released, but a professional self released !

The Tape came with an insert with lyrics and credits.

Refuse Records, a polish record label, also released two Champion's tapes : Promises Kept and Time Slip Away.

Have Heart | Demo 2003 (Test Press & Olive)

Yes, I know, I talking about Have Heart, once again. This is not my fault, I presume some guys around the world want some bucks before christmas. So they sell their collection and I take advantage of that. I'm evil !

Whatever, today, two brand new stuff for my Demo 2003 collection : Test Press from the fourth press and Olive with color cover. I'm so glad because I wanted those two things since a long time ago.

7 press, 57 editions, but only two Test Press : the first from the... first press and the second from the fourth press. I think Bottled Up made a new Test Press when the pressing plant threw away the stampers and labels. The new cover appeared at this time.

Mine is the one from the fourth press out of 13 copies. Test Press comes with a special cover. In fact, this is the first regular cover with the mention "Test Press". I love this design ! But, despite the first Test Press, this edition doesn't got a transparent cover, this is a classic paper sheet.

Vinyl is stamped on both side of the label : "Have Heart Demo 2003 Test Press" on the front and Bottled Up logo (in color) on the back. It's pity, Test Press are not handnumbered.

It's funny because this Test Press isn't my rarest and expensive edition of this record. I got the Celuloid Acetate cover out of 10, the Negative cover out of 10, the Olive one out of 8, some alternative covers from the last press out of 10 or 11, ... But hey, this is a Test Press and this is Have Heart. I always love Test Press, like each vinyl collector I presume. This is like you have a piece of music's history, a stuff you're never supposed to get.

At the beginning, the pressing information always spoke about only one color cover edition : Olive. But, in reality, they are four different edition from the fifth press with the new cover in color : Olive (8 copies), Easter Egg (6), Dark Grey (5) and Dark Green (4).

You probably understand, this cover is the new regular cover, used since the fourth press to the last one, but the picture is in color. No big deal but the fanatic in me always wanted to own that stuff.

So, this is the Olive edition from the fifth press out of 8 copies handnumbered on the inner sleeve. I got the n° 6.

At this time, I see the final line. It only remains for me to get the Gorilla Biscuit's rip off cover and the Halloween's cover and it's done. But I don't care about the Yellow Summer Tour cover or the Green alternative cover. I have the chance to buy that stuff but spend 100 bucks for a cover that I have 3 times ? Na !

And don't forget to check my website with all editions and all pictures of Have Heart's vinyls.

The Damage Done | Never Wash The Dead

The Damage Done was a californian Hardcore band created in early 2K. The singer of the band was Kyle, who created later the great record label Rivalry Records. You can check his blog Seeking The Simple, this is the best blog ever made about vinyl collection ! Really amazing !

So, The Damage Done released only four 7". Today we gonna talk about two of them : Never Wash Away and the Split Single shared with Day Of The Dead.

Never Wash Away was the second 7" of the band, next to the Demo. The record was technically released by Western Front Records, but in fact this is the first production of Rival(ry) Records. Kyle explained this situation on his blog :

"Western Front did not have the time or resources to put out the record at this time, and I did not really have a record label up and running. So we worked out a deal where I would pay for the pressing and they would help me with sending out mail order and getting into the small distribution channels.  In a way, I guess this was the first record I ever put out… I sometimes think of it as Rivalry #0 or Rivalry #-1 (negative).  In fact, when I started sending copies to Revelation, it needed a new catalog number, so I called it RIVAL000".

Two regular editions exist : Yellow out of 350 copies and Clear Blue out of 500 copies. Each colors got many variations, more or less dark, with or without swirl, ... Western Front was honest and doesn't split does things into many and many "different" colors (who said Bottled Up ?).

I got the Yellow one. The design is really cool and of course influenced by many bands like Champion, In My Eyes, ...

Then this is the alternative Pre-cover. After the record release show, the band still didn’t have the covers.  So, they made these cover just to sell at shows until they got the real covers. 

The Damage Done used the left-over Orange vinyl from the Record Release edition (but removed the “Record Release #/90″ portion of the stamp), as well as some Clear Blue copies when the orange ran out.

I got the Orange one, with blank stamped label. I love this color !

Despite the regular edition, this alternative edition came with an insert.

The rest of the pressing was : Test Press (15 copies), Orange with (amazing Jaws) Record Release cover (90 copies), and Clear Blue (500 copies).

The second thing we gonna talk about today is the Split Single between The Damage Done and the portuguese band Day Of The Dead released by Goodwill Records.

You may know Day Of The Dead because they also shared a Split Single with Ruiner few years ago. I talked about that a few times on my blog.

Goodwill is a great european record label. They do an amazing job and it's always a pleasure to deal with them. Anytime I ordered some records, they always gave me some extra CD's and cool stuff.

Goodwill Records had a specifity : they handnumbered every record (exept the Test Press) without considering color variation or press number. So, this split was handnumbered out of 1560 copies including : 1 Red / Black, 49 Red, 50 Red with alternative cover, 1000 Black from the first press (handnumbered with white ink) and 460 Black from the second press (handnumbered with silver ink).

First, I got the Fucked Up & Photocopied Cover specialy made for the mailorder edition. They used the Red vinyl from the first press and made an ugly alternative cover. Yeark !

This edition is out of 50 copies handnumbered on the cover. I got the n° 4.

But, like I said, every copy is handnumbered. So, I also got the n° 054 on the regular cover inside the alternative cover.

Then, I got the Test Press out of 10 copies on Black vinyl without label. Like every Goodwill's release, each Test Press got the regular cover. Too bad.

This is also the only stuff who doesn't handnumbered. They wrote "Test Press" in remplacement.

Some people got a Test Press who was hand written on the label. Mine is blank.

And to finish, I got a Black copy from the second press, out of 460. The difference between the Black copy from the first press and the Black copy from the second press is the color of the ink used to handnumbered the record : white for each edition of the first press and silver for the only edition of the second.

I got the n° 1506 ! Yeah, 1506 out of 460. Like I said, each copy is numbered out of the entire press, so 1560.

The regular cover is very neat ! You can open it in three parts.

Credits and lyrics are inside.

Have Heart | Demo 2003 (Celuloid Acetate)

Last week, I got a brand new edition of the famous Have Heart's Demo 2003 released on Bottled Up. I'm still far from some huge and fanatic collector, but my collection start to be interesting. I got 13 variations from this record, without forget the Tape edition. Like all my collection (maybe except What Feeds The Fire) I collecting essentially editions with alternative cover. I'm not very interested by color variations with the same cover. Maybe I'm not enough rich for that...

So, last week I bought a new alternative edition from the third press : the Dark Green one with the huge acetate celluloid cover. This is probably one of the more expensive records I never bought. I'm poor (in all sense) and stupid !

The vinyl is Dark Green. There is no really difference with the Mint Green of the same press (see below). Mint Green is stamped on the label, Dark Green's not. In my opinion, this is the only real difference between this two colors. 

All the particularity of this edition is this amazing cover. Not the design, this is just the alternative cover from the second press. The material ! This cover is print on a fuckin' celuloid acetate, you know like a transparent platic. 

This is not my first vinyl with that, but hey, this is so cool ! You can see the innersleeve, or the vinyl, by transparency.

Bottled Up released only 10 copies of them. For information, the cover (and the vinyl) of the Test Press from the first press was also on celluloid acetate film.

On this picture, I took off the innersleeve, so you can see the vinyl by transparency behind the cover. I love that.

And on this picture, you can see the "difference" between the Dark Green (on the left) and the Mint Green (on the right). Yeah big deal...

As always, you can check my website about Have Heart's vinyl for many information about all release.

Casey Jones / Traitor | Split Single

Christmas approaching and the finances are not in good shape. So this is an opportunity to get out some old stuff from the boxes for future posts.

Today let's talk about Casey Jones. Fuckin' great name and very good Hardcore band from Jacksonville.We can blame them one thing, they do not apparently like vinyl. All their albums are released only on CD, with the exception of the last released in vinyl by german label last year.

Before that, the band had still shared a Single Split with Traitor on Music City Six Records. Only one pressing with four versions : 500 copies on Black, 202 (handnumbered) copies on Grey, 101 (handnumbered) copies on Clear Blue and 15 (handnumbered) Test Press.

I got my only copy on eBay a few years ago. This is the black one out of 500. This edition isn't hand numbered, but initials of the bands are handwritten on the labels. So cool.

Lyrics and credits are on a mini insert.

Yeah, so now let's talk about Casey Jones and my life. I see Casey Jones on stage for the first time in 2007 at the Pressure Festival in Herne, Germany. During a few years this show was their only appearance in Europe. Members of the band were roadies for Evergreen Terrace, the group in which Casey Jones singer also played. So they make a special guest show on this festival. Three years later, I've seen them again in Eindhoven (Holland) on their only one european tour.

I really appreciate their nervous Harcore Punk. The band have a great energy on stage despite a Straight Edge speach a little boring. Too bad they've split last year.

Oh, yes, Traitor is also a great band. Their first EP is pretty cool ! 

Champion | Come Out The Truth

I'm not a man very original. Champion is one of my favourite band and Promises Kept is one of my favourite record ever. Yes, like many people. But I never really collect Champion's vinyl. I have my european press copy of Promises Kept, one anonymous pressing from each two classics singles and I bought the two LP repress from Bridge Nine this year.

I'm ok with that, I spend a lot of money in my various collections like The Effort, Have Heart or What Feeds The Fire singles and it's enough.

But, last time I thought : why not at least buy the discs that I miss. So I took this two singles and I'm fuckin happy with that.

First this is the one shot pressing of The Truth, a single released by Bridge Nine in 2004. One song on each side : The Truth on side A and an unreleased cover of SSD's Glue on side B.

This record came with the Bridge Nine 7" pre-orders in Summer 2004 : Give Up The Ghost, Ramallah and The Distance.  If you ordered all three records, you got a copy of this 7" for free.

Exept the Test Press, Bridge Nine made only 500 copies of this on Black vinyl.

Then, I bought a copy from the first press of Come Out Swinging. I already have the Bridge Nine repress, but I also want the first edition by Platinum Recordings because, hey, different covers !

Phyte Records released the first Champion’s record only on CD, so Platinum Recordings, from Germany, released this on vinyl in 2001.

There is only one press with 12 Test Press, 143 Clear White with Tour Cover, 157 Clear White with regular cover, 900 Black and 20 very rare Clear White / Black with blank labels.

I got the Clear White with regular cover. Platinum released 300 copies and used 143 of them to the tour edition. So, the others Clear White are out of 157 copies. 

Finaly, Bridge Nine repress the single in 2003 with a brand new cover.