Yellowcard – Southern Air (1st Press)

Yellowcard’s latest album, Southern Air, was pressed on three different colors; black limited to 2,000 copies, green limited to 500 copies and red limited to 300 copies. Green is a Hopeless Records exclusive that is only being sold through the label’s webstore hosted by Merchnow and red is a Hot Topic exclusive. Even though Hot Topic has not said a word about their exclusive color of Southern Air, I have confirmed it, twice, with Hopeless Records. Copies on red should be available sometime next week. All other retailers are carrying the black variant.

A slight issue arose with the green copies of this record, as when pre-orders went live it was advertised (and still is listed as such) to be opaque dark green and wound up being translucent green. Some are saying it’s similar to the color that Paper Walls was pressed on from the box set featuring all of the band’s albums from Ocean Avenue up to When You’re Through Thinking, Say Yes. Not the end of the world, but some people are upset about it. I would be more upset if they pressed say 1,000 copies when it was supposed to 500 copies, but to each their own.

Yellowcard – Always Summer 7″

With Yellowcard’s latest album, Southern Air came a few different pre-order incentives through different outlets. One of the biggest incentives was one of two different 7″ singles for the lead single off the album, “Always Summer.” The version featured here was exclusive to select indie record stores across the country. It features the album versions of “Always Summer” and “Here I Am Alive.” While they were initially advertised as pre-order exclusives, my local record store had quite a few copies left over for anyone who bought the album on vinyl or CD. Apparently I was the only person to actually pre-order the album. There were 1,000 copies pressed on yellow vinyl.

This version is not to be confused with the Always Summer Acoustic 7″. The artwork and track listing are both different between the two singles. While it’s the same songs featured on both, obviously the acoustic 7″ features acoustic version of “Always Summer” and “Here I Am Alive.”

Socratic – Socratic (The Album)

Leaving out the personal touches from the Lunch For The Sky entry, Socratic’s latest album is self-titled and was released on vinyl by Broken Heart Records. There were 500 total copies pressed spread across three different colors; white limited to 100 copies, yellow limited to 200 copies and black limited to 200 copies. There were also 100 copies on black that came with autographed jackets, which were only available in a bundle deal that included a t-shirt and a copy of the band’s debut album Lunch For The Sky on both vinyl and CD. A download code for the s/t album is included with the vinyl version.

Socratic – Lunch For The Sky

When I first heard that Socratic albums were going to be pressed on vinyl I was shocked, then slightly disappointed, then thrilled. I  went to high school with a couple of guys from Socratic and played various levels of baseball and soccer with Duane growing up as well. If I was going to start a label I would want to work with these guys and help release any new music they created, along with getting their back catalog on vinyl. Which is where the disappoint hit, but only briefly as I knew I would never have the time to see a label through to a high standard and run it the way it should be run. After that realization I was very happy that someone would think enough of their albums to press them on vinyl.

Broken Heart Records released both Lunch For The Sky and the band’s most recent, self-titled album on vinyl. Pressing 500 copies of each spread across three color variants, with Lunch For The Sky getting 100 copies on horizon green, 200 copies on horizon blue and 200 copies on black. The insert for Lunch For The Sky is on thick card stock, which is a very nice, unexpected touch. The only catch with this record is that two tracks are cut off, the eighth track “Too Late Too Soon” and the 14th and final track, “Spending Galore” were left off the vinyl version of the album. This resulted in the label calling the record a “special edition.” The guy who runs the label was also very annoying with promoting these releases (Lunch For The Sky and Socratic s/t) as he bumped threads on message boards multiple times a day and cross posting, I should say cross plastering the same text/post between different message boards, news sites, Facebook and Twitter in a desperate attempt to sell copies.

At The Drive-In – In/Casino/Out (2nd Press)

The second At The Drive0In release to get re-pressed in 2012 was In/Casino/Out. The variants were pretty straight forward and easy for everyone to get with the record, unlike Vaya. In/Casino/Out was pressed on two colors with one being limited as of now. The limited variant was a Hot Topic exclusive, which was on gray with hot pink splatter limited to 2000 copies (although 500 copies were sold through Fearless Records’ webstore hosted by Merchnow). The record was also pressed on clear, which is unlimited and going to be kept in print on for the moment. There were mumblings that clear was limited to XXXX copies, but unless something changes or an official announcement is confirming anything, the record is being kept in print on clear vinyl.

Brand New – Jude Law And A Semester Abroad 7″

Arguably the hardest and most expensive Brand New record released thus far. More emphasis on the hardest to find though since the couple hundred people who have it are not in the selling mood. Price wise this 7″ rivals Deja Entendu as when it does pop up on ebay or other means of sale it tends to go for close to $300. There were only 200 copies pressed on black vinyl and it was released in the UK on Eat Sleep Records.

I was not only fortunate enough to find a copy up for sale, but very fortunate it to be on the very cheap side all things considered. My out of pocket expense on this was $30, and no, I’m not joking. I couldn’t believe my luck but was a little skeptical because of the low price tag. While I’m not 100% sold on Discogs because of some of the people who sell on there (rude, uptight, refusal to cooperate  answering questions) and how wrong and/or out of date some of their information is this, but time it was a huge benefit. Actually one of the few times everything worked out, where I got the email update for things on my wantlist quick enough for the record to still be available and the price was not somewhere on Jupiter. In the end it was not too good to be true, as the 7″ was shipped the next day, was packaged properly and was not beat to hell when it arrived.