Transitioning

So I lied in my last post, there were a few more arrivals before I moved. Here is a copy of Inside Out's No Spiritual Surrender. This is the final press, as indicated by the white bar on the top of the cover. I'm not sure how many copies there were of this however, if anyone knows please let me know.

I won three Frostbite 7"s from Tre of Deathwish on eBay a ways back. The top is on grey from the second press out of 225, made exclusively for Very Distro. The middle is on blue/white mix, almost baby blue. I don't know anything about this one, so if you've got some info please share. The bottom is a pre-release cover numbered out of 299. Dead by 23, from a collectors stand point was a very cool label, lots of different things going on to make things interesting, it feels like there was never a dull release.

So when I came home for Thanksgiving this is what had piled up in my room. If only everyday was like that one.

I won this on eBay from someone. I'm really in to this band now, so I'll have to track down all of the versions I can. This, the most common is out of 400.

I was happy to get my first copy of this, Keep It Clear's s/t. Again the black is the most common out by Not Just Words out of 480.

Here we have the last copy of the DTN/OTI split that I was missing. This as the cover says is the Euro Tour '06 cover. I believe the guy or one of the guys who ran Dead and Gone Records posted on the React board that he was getting rid of some of his personal collection along with some Dead and Gone rarities. I wanted to get a lot of different things, but this was the main thing. The guy seriously hooked me up with a great price. I have 14 copies of this record, 8 of which are black.

So Dave Sausage sent out an e-mail that he was looking to make some extra money for the label so he said for people to send him offers on rarities. I sent him an offer on this and another rarity I'll get to later.

This is the True Colors Consider It Done with the Sound and Fury cover. When I first heard about these on the internet I was mad that once again there was another True Colors record that was made limited again for the people like myself to have to get a copy of. What made me more upset about this one was that True Colors didn't even play Sound and Fury. I don't know if they ever have. How do you make a special version of a record for a fest that the band isn't playing? So that was a bit annoying. Either way I'm glad I have this one. This is by far the most limited, only 50 copies.

So I won these a while back on the Bay for what I thought was a pretty good deal. The clear is out of 150 and from the second press and the red is out of 200 and from the first. Both are the two rarest of the regular pressing (special sleeves, test presses and transitions aside). I hope these guys do an LP soon, they're due.

This is the European version of Not Sorry's Moving On on blue out of 96. Salad Days did a good job on this release. I think it's awesome when it's hard to distinguish which is the better version, the U.S. or the European. I'm still bummed I didn't do the big pre-order package they had for this.

Almost Been a Month...

and there's plenty of things for me to post about. I'm not even sure I can fit them in to one post so I'll try to put as much in this one for now and try and catch up hopefully in a week or so.

I won two Pulling Teeth records on eBay from the same dude. Both I got for a pretty good deal, and were crucial additions to the collection. Up top is a copy of Martyr Immortal on red with blue splatter, out of 350 copies. As you would expect, this thing looks sick, and this was my first copy of the record that came with the big poster, will be hanging up in the room. On the bottom is a copy of Paranoid Delusions/Paradise Illusions on green with a whole lot of splatter. This is the other copy of the pre-order that I didn't take advantage of. Happy I finally have this. This now means I have every version of PD/PI other than the test, which is cool. I've got the copy of Martyr Immortal that I'm missing on the way, once I get that and have a reason to take out all the records, I'll take an updated collection pic.

This is my Cruel Hand Lock & Key pre-order. In order to get the white version I believe u had to get the "package" which had a shirt, poster and screen print. Wasn't too happy that I had to do it, but it wasn't much more for what you got, if I remember correctly. I'm guessing this means the white version is the most rare? The artwork and layout are pretty good, overall not bad. As you can see I framed the screened print, which I will be hanging up soon. I don't understand why they had a screen print and a poster of the same artwork in the same package, seems redundant. As far as the record goes, Prying Eyes is defiantly better, this is still a Cruel Hand, but not as good as I would like it. I think these guys are gonna be going on tour with Backtrack soon, so that will rule.

This is the new split from Pulling Teeth and Shin to Shin. Shin to Shin has Dwid from Integrity in it, go figure Pulling Teeth puts out a split with them. Haven't listened to the Shin to Shin side, but the Pulling Teeth song is good, I'd say it's a mix of the past two LPs. As Dom usually does, cool layout design and vinyl. The man puts out some amazing looking stuff. I believe the yellow version is from the record release show that I attended in Baltimore with Ceremony and Magrudergrind. Ceremony and Pulling Teeth were awesome as you would think, and Magrudergrind, well let's just say I really need to buy their latest LP.

Here we have another addition to the now infamous DTN collection. This is a copy of the On Thin Ice split with the 05 Euro tour cover.

Cool cover and defiantly worth picking up if you get the opportunity, which by the way for me has been hard to come by.

Of course numbered out of 100.

Here we have an order I made from GIVE. This is the second press of their self-title LP and a copy of the soon to be released 7" on React!. The 7" was left over from Sound and Fury, where the band made some quick covers for the record, since the real ones had not been finished. Overall a pretty cool DIY looking record. Two pink records, awesome. To make it even cooler, the singer John added a cool note in with the package to make it much more personal. I'm starting to get more of these in packages, which makes opening them that much better.

Here's a look at the back of the LP on the back, this thing just plainly looks awesome. I believe Ev of Mindset did the layout for this bad boy, man does great work.

So that's all for now, because I'm just too lazy to post the rest. Should have another post up soon hopefully, I'm falling behind, but I'm okay with that.

Some Serious Scores

So the past week or so I've picked up a decent amount of records, but some pretty awesome stuff has made it that much better. First I'll start with what has been a bit of a long time coming.

So a guy on the React! board posted his On Thin Ice collection and mentioned that he'd be willing to part with his Down to Nothing split Test Press from Dead & Gone Records. So I sent him a private message and a price was agreed and shortly payment was sent. Within a few days the dude shipped the record from Austria, and the waiting game started. I thought it might take about 2 or 3 weeks to get to me. It took about 2.5 months to finally get to my doorstep. Several messages were sent about it not yet getting to my house and he kept reassuring that he sent it and offered to send me the scanned receipt. So I knew the guy had to have sent it, and he had good feedback on the React! board. So I just figured I'd wait a little longer, after 2 months my patience begins to thin. So when this finally got to me I was more than relieved. It's limited to 8 copies. Here's a picture of the back:

The first reason why this post is awesome is because there are two tests, Graham over in the U.K. who I've dealt with on past DTN deals sent me this one.

This is the Test Press of the Splitting Headache release. It is limited to 2 copies, so pretty awesome that I have one. Here's a close up of the labels.


Inside the sleeve Rich wrote this message.

Basically explaining how the color of the vinyl came back from the plant and that there apparently is another version out there numbered out of 3...damnit. Anyway Rich seemed like he just wanted this to stay off eBay, no worries Rich. Also this came with plastic inner sleeves but I don't like those and put the two 7"s in paper sleeves, don't worry I kept the original plastic sleeves too.

In yet another addition to the DTN collection I picked up a copy of the 3 song demo, this one is the record release, numbered out of 30.

I picked up my first copy of the 6 song demo from the same guy. Dave sent me an e-mail after he heard from Alex of Grave Mistake Records that I'd probably be interested in some of his records that he was looking to get rid of. Thanks Dave and Alex. This is the clear copy out of 34. Pretty cool looking record. The color of the vinyl doesn't seem like a straight forward clear, it almost looks like a really light colored coke bottle clear.

Here we have the last DTN release. This is the demo tape from 2002 that I also picked up from Graham. Nice to finally have this, I think there are other tapes out there from DTN but I don't know much about them. I think there's a hand drawn cover maybe from a different year and I think a colored cover version of this. If anyone's got details let me know.

ON just recently set up a bigcartel store, so I stopped over and picked up a copy of the LP from Powered. This is on white and limited to 200. Nice to be able to pick this up especially after all of the problems with the pre-orders with this from Powered. Luckily I didn't partake in the pre-order.

Here we have a great pick up. The React! Records Showcase box set. Aram posted these in the store one night and I believe the 20 copies left from the showcase sold out in like 2 minutes. I was happy to be able to jump on the opportunity as I sat at my computer and hit refresh every second.

These are numbered on the back out of 94 and have a 3-side screen print on the box.


As usually Aram loaded this up with quality. You've got a copy of both Mindset releases, GBNF, Praise and Damages all on black and all stamped on the dust sleeve. Each release comes with what it usually would, the download code, sticker and the full page essays. You put all of those essays together and the list of names in hardcore who have contributed are pretty impressive. Also included was a booklet with all of the lyrics from the records and some special notes from Aram. Very cool addition. Overall an incredibly awesome thing to have.

In another React! release, I got a copy of the Praise 7" pressed for the Showcase also, out of 100. Andy put some of these up in Praise's new bigcartel store. Very nice.

I got my first The First Step record, oddly redundant. This is from the second press out of 885. Nothing special but a good start I think. More to come I'm sure.

Here we have another copy of the Swamp Thing 7". This is on gold, so I can now differentiate between the tan and gold copy. Limited to 112.



So my buddy Bobby Egger had a show about a week ago for one of his label's bands, ANS. He had his distro out in full force to help raise money for a few releases he has in the works, including his first LP. So I knew I needed to at least pick something up from him. I picked up a copy of the Iron Boots demo from Grave Mistake, 3rd press out of 500; Iron Age Constant Struggle 3rd press on clear out of 300 and Pulling Teeth Paranoid Delusions/Paradise Illusions on Coke Bottle Clear with regular cover out of 900. Nothing too special, but all solid pick ups from a solid distro. Keep an eye out on Headcount Records.

Pressing Confusion

So I bought a record off ebay a little over a week ago and I've been delaying posting about it because I wasn't sure if it actually existed. When I bought my test press off Alex of Grave Mistake, I asked him if this record actually existed. He said no and that I should try and get my money back. After about a week of procrastiantion I finally sent the guy I bought it from on ebay a message. As I figured, he had no idea about this version not being a valid version. So what did he do? He e-mailed Alex, and got about the same response. So who really knows if this exists technically, either way I've got a copy of it, and that's all that matters.

This is the pink version of the Down to Nothing/On Thin Ice split, with the Posi Numbers 2005 Stamp.

Just a comparison, here are all three versions of the pink color. The furthest being the regular 1st press, the middle being the pink with the Posi Numbers fest and the closest one being the record release. The posi press and the record release are very similar in color, the 1st press version is much darker. Maybe the record release and the posi number stamped ones are the same batch? I sure don't know.

With all this said I realized I have 10 versions of this record, including the European versions, so I decided to take a picture of them all together.

This is pretty sad, but I think its awesome. On top of that I'm still missing 3 versions. As always if you've got Down to Nothing records, get in contact with me.

Impatience leads to Irony

So I've been waiting a while for some packages to come in the mail, and I'm still waiting for some. That being said I was up at the University of Delaware this past weekend visiting my friend and I knew a stop at the local indie record store was a must, especially since I was so deprived of some new vinyl. So we took a trip to Rainbow and I picked up my favorite Metallica album, ...And Justice for All. It's the remastered fancy version, double LP. I didn't take a picture of it because it's pretty boring, it's on black, and it does happen to come with an insert, but not worth a picture still. So anyway on top of that I get home and the next day I get 3 packages. Ironic?

Up first was a package from the U.K. blogger sensation, Marcus of The Endless Quest... fame. Marcus saw the post I had of my Down to Nothing collection and let me know that he had an extra copy of the On Thin Ice split Release Cover from Dead and Gone Records. Of course I wanted it. So after a couple of e-mails he was a mate and sent it to me, stateside. If you're reading this Marcus, you pack your records very well, you should be proud of the job you do. It's nice to see that someone else cares enough about records to take the time out to package them well.

The record itself was also in awesome condition. Mine is numbered 4 of 50. Thanks again Marcus. Anyone else out there who's got some dtn records they wanna part with let me know.

In another addition to the collection, I scored this copy of the Hem Hem 7" on eBay. I've been after a copy of this for a while but never wanted to pay as much as what they were going for. I got this for $8.76, including shipping, so I think the wait was worth it for the deal. This is a joke 7" the band put out on Six Feet Under, and it sold out pretty fast, being limited to 270 copies. I'll gladly upload this for anyone who wants it, due to it being hard to find and being OOP.

The last package was the longly waited pre-order for the ON LP from React!. This was a relief to finally have. It was worth the wait completely. I got the standard black version and the React! exclusive white. I'm a little bummed to see that I didn't get the Blue version which is even more limited, but I did pre-order very very late in the game. I should be hitting up Aram at some point to see if I can get a copy, once I can afford it. I wanted to buy the Reaper Records color and Powered Records pressing, but once again not enough dough, eventually.....

With the ON pre-order I also picked up the 2nd press of the Mindset 7" which I will also be hitting Aram up for more copies of once I can afford it, this addiction is starting to make me a very poor person. Evan mentioned to me that they are in the process of writing and soon recording their LP, so that should be dope. I remember seeing Mindset a while ago when they played with The Effort and Hostage Calm on their tour, and I wasn't really sure what to think of them, but they weren't bad. They've really grown on me since I've seen them a few times now and listened to the 7" several times. If you haven't seen them before, I suggest you do it, they're great. They're playing A Time We'll Remember Fest and Youngblood Showcase soon.

Down to Nothing Collection

So I decided to put up my updated DTN collection. It's been a good process for almost a year now. I'm missing 3 LPs, plus test presses and a whole lot of 7"s. You might notice that for the Down to Nothing/On Thin Ice split towards the middle (the black and white covers), there are two black vinyls. They're not the same, one is the 3rd press with the normal label and the other is the 4th press with blank red labels.

Down to Nothing – The Most (Orange & Transparent Purple, 2nd Press, 500 Copies)
Down to Nothing – The Most (Transparent Purple, 1st Press, 542 Copies)
Down to Nothing – The Most (Transparent Blue w/ Green Splatter, 1st Press, 268 Copies)
Down to Nothing – Save It For the Birds (Yellow Marble, Record Release, 100 Copies)
Down to Nothing – Save It For the Birds (Black, 400 Copies)
Down to Nothing – Unbreakable (Transparent Red, 330 Copies)
Down to Nothing – Unbreakable (Black, 438 Copies)
Down to Nothing – Unbreakable (White, 330 Copies)
Down to Nothing – Down to Nothing (Red, 2nd Press, 470 Copies)
Down to Nothing – Down to Nothing (Red, White & Blue Swirl, 1st Press, 220 Copies)
Down to Nothing – Higher Learning (Transparent Blue, 3rd Press, 524 Copies)
Down to Nothing – Higher Learning (Orange, 1st Press, 328 Copies)
Down to Nothing – Higher Learning (Yellow, 1st Press, 609 Copies)
Down to Nothing – Higher Learning (Green, 2nd Press, 500 Copies)
Down to Nothing/50 Lions Split (Grey Marble, 1st Press, 300 Copies)
Down to Nothing/50 Lions Split (Transparent Purple, 1st Press, 600 Copies)
Down to Nothing/50 Lions Split (Black, 1st Press, 165 Copies)
Down to Nothing/50 Lions Split (Transparent Green, 2nd Press, 300 Copies)
Down to Nothing/50 Lions Split (White, 2nd Press, 100 Copies)
Down to Nothing/Kids Like Us Split (Green, ? Copies)
Down to Nothing/Kids Like Us Split (Coke Bottle Clear, 300 Copies)
Down to Nothing/Kids Like Us Split (Pink, 100 Copies)
Down to Nothing/On Thin Ice Split (Pink, 1st Press, 500 Copies, Grave Mistake Records)
Down to Nothing/On Thin Ice Split (Clear, 2nd Press, Posi Numbers 2005 Press, Stamped, 300 Copies, Grave Mistake Records)
Down to Nothing/On Thin Ice Split (Black, 3rd Press, Blue w/ Purple Label, 500 Copies, Grave Mistake Records)
Down to Nothing/On Thin Ice Split (Black, 4th Press, Red Blank Labels, 300 Copies, Grave Mistake Records)
Down to Nothing/On Thin Ice Split (Pink, Record Release Cover, #45/125 Copies, Grave Mistake Records)
Down to Nothing/On Thin Ice Split (Transparent Blue, 300 Copies, Dead & Gone Records)
Down to Nothing/On Thin Ice Split (Black, 700 Copies, Dead & Gone Records)