Farewell Continental – 7″ EP

This 7″ is the first release from Farewell Continental, a side project of Motion City Soundtrack frontman Justin Pierre. It’s a so-called supergroup of sorts, at least that’s what they’re billed as, even though I have no clue who else is in the band aside from Justin Pierre. They all  use stage names on this project, satirical pop culture reference ones, but after hearing one song it’s quite clear that Justin Pierre is on vocals.

The 7″ was released by Paper & Plastick Records, another label started up by Less Than Jake drummer Vinnie Fiorello. Those who recall a certain label, Fueled By Ramen, well he was a co-founder of FBR. It was pressed as a square picture disc limited to 500 copies. It costs a whopping $10, and after finally receiving my order after almost a month, I am not pleased at all with the quality of the 7″. Even though it’s a picture disc, which is a draw back in and of itself, the quality of the actual disc/record is horrible. The edges where the record was cut out of the press or cut down to make a square, whichever way they were pressed, are scraped up, chipped up, jagged and rough to the touch. This is the case all around the record.

Now I have a few square picture discs in my collection, and it is in great shape. All the edges are rounded over and smooth, no chips. This Farewell Continental 7″ looks like someone with Parkinson’s cut it out of a big sheet of vinyl with a hacksaw. I’m not sure if all 500 copies of this 7″ have the same issues, just a portion of the pressing or if it’s only my copy, but I’ve contacted Paper & Plastick and am awaiting a response on this damage. You can see the problems in the photos below, and for reference of what a good cut/quality square picture disc looks like, check of the entries for the My Chemical Romance “Famous Last Words” set and the Panic! At The Disco “Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Off Her Clothes” single, which can all be found through the search function or via the side bar menu on the right.

Frontier(s) – There Will Be No Miracles Here (U.S. Press)

This is the debut album from Frontier(s). It was pressed on three different colors, only two available domestically. The record was pressed on white and black for the domestic U.S press and orange for the German/European press, which was done by Arctic Rodeo Recordings. There are 300 copies pressed on white, 300 copies on orange and 600 copies on black. Both of the U.S. colors are still available through No Sleep Records’ store.

Frontier(s) – The Plains 7″

Frontier(s) is another band I recently discovered after skimming through No Sleep Records’ roster. They have two releases, this 7″ and a full length album, which I will get to in the next entry.

The Plains 7″ was pressed on three different colors, green limited to 100 copies, white limited to 300 copies and black limited to 600 copies. The 7″ also comes packaged in a tri-fold jacket. It opens from the side, but then folds out to expand into three different panels. The dust sleeve is actually attached to the center panel, and is made out of rice paper. All of the artwork and lyrics and not just printed onto the jacket, they are imprinted, or pressed into the jacket. The 7″ containts two songs that are not included on their debut full lenght album, “There Will Be No Miracles Here.”

Aficionado – When It Comes To Creation

I recently discovered Aficionado. They’re a seven-piece hailing from upstate New York and are signed to No Sleep Records. Personally I hear influences and hints of bands like At the Drive In, Gatsbys American Dream, Kay Kay And His Weathered Underground, Circa Survive, RX Bandits, Cursive and The Hold Steady. They mix in flutes, organs and various other horn lines to create a unique blend of great music. They also mix in multiple vocal lines asidfe from the obvious background vocals, including two lead parts on some songs, one male and one female.

When It Comes To Creation is their first physical release, at least that I’m aware of, and it was only released on vinyl. It does however, come with a download code. The EP was pressed as one-sided 12″, limited to 500 copies on clear vinyl. The b-side, which is does not contain music, is not exactly blank. The b-side of the record is silk-screened in blue ink with the artwork found along the top of the cover scattered across the entire circumference of the record.

This is actually the first record in my collection that has anything on the actual record silk-screened. I have plenty of silk-screened jackets and even inserts, but until now not even a portion of a single actual record.

Portugal. The Man – The Satanic Satanist (German Pressing)

Since I don’t feel like going back and updating my first entry for The Satanic Satanist to include photos of the German pressing, I will make a new post for it. It’s also because this is one of my favorite records packaging wise in my collection and is the most unique.

The pressing info is quite simple for the Defiance Records German pressing of this album, 500 copies on purple/pink, 500 copies on light blue and 500 copies on lime green/yellow and 500 copies on clear orange. The jacket is not traditional by any means. The front of the jacket opens it up, actually folding out on both sides to open. The dust sleeve is actually part of the artwork as well as the record’s center labels. The center labels on both sides fit into the artwork on each side of the dust sleeve as well. The German pressing also comes packaged with the CD version of the album. For the pressing info on the first press of the U.S. pressing check the older entry by clicking on the tags section on the menu on the right.

The U.S. pressing has just went through a re-press, which features the same artwork/jacket style as the first U.S. press. This second press is all on black vinyl, and at this time pressing numbers have not been released. The German pressing is also supposed to be getting a second pressing, but details have not been announced yet. The only reason I know it is happening is because the guy who did the artwork for this album sent Defiance Records the high-resolution artwork, templates and layout again for this album so it can be re-pressed. So when the pre-order goes up on greenhell.de do not sleep on it, even though the price may seem high. You would much rather pay around $40 now to import it from Germany than spend double that on ebay down the road.

Blink-182 – Cheshire Cat (2nd Press)

This is the second pressing of Blink-182’s Cheshire Cat. The first press, or at least the original copies, have a cat with red eyes, while this pressing has a cat with blue eyes. Another notable difference between the OG press and this pressing is that the border around the cover is much larger on this pressing than on the OG copies. This current pressing is also housed in a gatefold jacket, while the OG press does not come in a gatefold jacket.

This pressing is a Hot Topic exclusive and was/is only available through Hot Topic stores and through the website. Since Mightier Than Sword/Academy Fight Song Records also usually press all of Blink-182’s albums at the same time as the Hot Topic/Universal releases, don’t be shocked when you see a pre-order from one of those labels in the coming months that will more likely than not feature the exact same packaging ad artwork. The only difference being there will be a rainbow of colors to make as much money as possible off the release. So there may actually be a pot of gold at the end of rainbows after all. This hasn’t been confirmed yet, it is pure speculation. But the guy who runs both labels has said he will be doing his own pressing of Take Off Your Pants And Jacket, which leads me to believe Cheshire Cat won’t be far behind, except for the actual ship date of the records.

The exact pressing info for hot Topic pressing is 2,020  copies on yellow with blue swirl. Originally the pressing was supposed to be only 2,000 copies, but a Hot Topic rep stated that there was an exact count on over run copies, which brings the total amount pressed up to 2,020.

V/A – Fat Music Vol. 7: Harder, Fatter + Louder comp

This is the first Fat comp in eight years. It was pressed, obviously, by Fat Wreck Chords and was done as a double LP in a gatefold jacket. Quite the elaborate package for a comp. As per usual, Fat Wreck released a limited amount of colored records for this comp, which is the first time a Fat Music comp was pressed on colored vinyl. the color is mulit- colored, with each record in the set being on a different color. Some known colors are red, purple, grey, light brown, dark bornw, orange, maroon, light orange and smokey orange. it is unknown exactly how many copies/sets there per color/scheme.  There were only 1,000 total copies pressed for this comp, 340 on color, which is out of rpint, and 660 on black vinyl.

Bruce Springsteen – Save My Love 7″

My record store still had plenty of copies of this 7″ left over from the money grabbing second record store day this past year, which was just a ploy to get people to shop at indie record stores on Black Friday. I avoided the crowds, traffic and headache by staying home, like I have the every Black Friday since I’ve had my license, which is almost 10 years now. The pay off, I got to sleep in and save myself all the above mentioned issues while still managing to grab the releases I wanted to for retail price. 

I think there were only 5,000 copies of this 7″ pressed, all on black vinyl.

Bruce Springsteen – Working On A Dream

Finally got around to picking this up after earning a $10 off reward from the frequent buyers club at my local record store. As with most major label releases, pressing info is nowhere to be found, but expect this album to stay in print for a long time. It is however, pressed on 180 gram black vinyl and comes with a download card for high quality, 320 kbps MP3’s.

Piebald/Cave In – Split 7″

First let me start off by saying I have no idea what pressing my copy of this split is from. There are four pressing of this 7″ and it has been out of print for many years now. What complicates things about trying to determine what pressing a particular copy is from is that each of the four pressings was done on black. Only two out of the four pressing have multiple variants, and unfortunately my copy is on black. To my knowledge all pressings have the same artwork, jacket style and insert.

The pressing info is as follows; 1st press: 1,000 copies on black and 100 copies on white. 2nd press: 500 copies on black, 3rd press: 500 copies on black, 4th press: 100 copies on opaque pink.