Acceptance – Black Lines To Battlefields

Shortly after Phantoms was released Enjoy The Ride Records/Thunderbeard Records released their vinyl pressing of Black Lines To Battlefields. In fact, this release was announced almost immediately after Phantoms was announced, in the same thread on a message board. This is about as no frills of a release as Enjoy The Ride has put out. No gatefold jacket and no insert. But for the price, $12 before shipping, you can’t complain too much. All copies come with a download code though, for high quality 320 kbps MP3’s.

As usual there are several variants for this, and all of them are exclusive to certain retailers. There are 150 copies on red, which was an Interpunk exclusive, 200 copies on “jungle mix,” which is clear with random color pellets mixed in and was exclusive to Enjoy The Ride Records. This is the first time this type of color variant, the “jungle mix” has been attempted.There were also 250 copies on clear with white swirl that was a Thunderbeard Records exclusive and 350 copies on black which was a Hot Topic exclusive. There is also a secret/hiddden variant limited to 100 copies that was randomly given out in orders from all retailers. Each retailer got a percentage of the secret variant based on the amount of copies they were selling, so your best shot at getting one of the secret variants was from Hot Topic as they had the most copies of the pressing. This secret variant was pressed on clear with red and black splatter. Pictured below is the Interpunk variant.

Acceptance – Phantoms (1st Press)

I’ll get the pertinent info about this record out-of-the-way now, before I go into the sad and hilarious circumstance about the release of this record. Pressing info for the first pressing is as follows; 200 copies on half royal blue/half clear, 300 copies on dark blue with white and grey marble and 500 copies on royal blue. All copies come with a full color printed dust sleeve instead of an insert, and come in standard single pocket jackets. The b-side labels are a laughing-stock; all they say is the “label’s” name. Plainest center labels I’ve ever seen, stock major label center labels like Atlantic or A&M look better than these. The entire first pressing sold out in a few hours, with the rare variants obviously selling out first. I was hoping it would last longer, hopefully not even sell out so I could hold off on buying from a “label” I knew would have issues. Sadly it didn’t so I was forced to sit through all the ridiculousness that you can read about from here down…

Just what the world needs; more people who think it’s cool to start a “label” and/or think they should start a “label” because they think they’re cool. Wasn’t even put up for sale yet let alone released and there were already six issues with this pressing. Which was fully expected by me after seeing who was potentially behind this “label.” Here they are in no particular order: 1. The price, $19 for a single LP before shipping. 2. Shipping price, $5.50 for a single LP. 3. Even though the records were done the geniuses who run the “label” wanted to avoid a pre-order but decided to put the records up for sale when neither one of them were in the actual state where the records were located in order to ship them. 4. One of the guys who runs the “label” got into an argument with someone in a public forum and in his typical fashion was condescending and acted like he is right and nobody should take an exception to how he is doing things. 5. One out of the two guys who run the “label” is clueless and has no business running a label. 6. The two out of two guys who runs the “label” is an aforementioned condescending jerk who also happens to work for another label that is infamous for insanely long delays with fulfilling pre-orders and providing shoddy customer service which he typically handles with the again aforementioned condescending attitude.

In regards to the price it was a calculated move to price it at such an odd number, $19. They knew people , at least more people, would flip out if they say a $20 price tag, so the purposely went one whole dollar below $20 so the sticker shock would be minimal and fewer people would refuse to buy it out of principle or because of the price tag. One of the guys who runs the “label” said as much. The same guy also said they based their price off of the already insanely high prices places like Hot Topic and Shit Radio Cast charge. So to all the people eagerly throwing their money at records they know are overpriced this is what you get; you just set the norm for pricing. Congratulations. And before people leave comments here saying “well you bought stuff that was deemed overpriced and you even bought this,” I’ll let you in on a little secret. Majority of the stuff I buy costs me very little if anything out-of-pocket. My Paypal balance covers a good chunk of most of my purchases after selling tons of random band merch I got, and well anybody can easily get, for free. America at its finest, a profit to be made off people’s ignorance.

One of the guys who runs the label defended the price point to no avail, without making any strong points, intelligent statements or valid arguments for his case. Some of the other records he used for comparison’s sake as a price point for single LP’s weren’t even single LP’s. He claimed it was the cheapest they could go, but we all know that is not true. There were plenty of cost costing routes they could have gone. Someone who runs a different small indie label brought up they could have went with no variants and pressed all 1,000 copies on black. The guy’s response; we wanted to do something cool with the colors and the price to change the presses around for three different colors did not cost that much. In my mind something “cool” with the colors does not mean using two different shades of blue, none of which really match the artwork, for three different variants. Solid blue, real cool and creative! Half solid blue/half clear, doubly not cool or creative. Blue mush, wow I’m impressed.

Regarding the $5.50 “flat rate” shipping, it’s nonsense. They use the argument “well it’s $5.50 for any amount of records you buy.” They only have one release. It’s not like people will, or even can buy multiple records from their extensive catalog. These guys could have easily set up their store to charge $4 for one item orders while adding a small amount per additional item should people want to buy multiple copies of their sole release, and charge $5.50 just for the bundle. Buying supplies in bulk is not that costly, less than $1 per mailer. Plus we all know it costs less than $3 to ship records coast to coast via media mail, and odds are these chumps will print out shipping labels and be charged less for tracking, or won’t add tracking at all.

In one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard, the “label heads” aimed to avoid a pre-order but opted to put the records up for sale when neither one of them were able to ship the records for over a week. With the records at least being done before putting them up for sale/pre-order, which is a good step for labels to take these day and should be a mandatory one, one would think they could’ve waited the 1-2 weeks to put them up for sale. Avoiding a pre-order means they ship within a few days after orders are taken and that there is no wait time for manufacturing the product you are selling.

When the record finally went live there were serious problems ordering. The “label” did not have their ducks in a row and maxed out their Paypal account. Everyone started receiving something nobody has ever seen before; an “account xxxx has been restricted” error when trying to pay.  Had they set it up properly it could have been avoided, there could have been no transaction or monetary limit placed on the account. Site traffic was also so high it caused everybody trying to check out to get cart errors and loading errors. Personally, I had the /200 variant in my cart at 1:59 pm EST, but the site froze and by the time I got through I received the account restricted error, so I missed out on it. By the time I got through 11 minutes after the record went live I was barely able to get the /300 variant. This is the first pre-order in well over three years that I was not able to snag the variant I wanted. I wouldn’t be upset if it just sold out on me, but I am upset because I missed it due to someone else’s incompetence.

Also stated publicly that the records would ship properly, as in an LP mailer and with the record outside of the jacket. Only half of that actually happened as all the records shipped inside the jacket. Luckily my copy does not have any seam splits, just a seam split in the dust sleeve, which I know is unavoidable even if you shipped records outside their jackets. The fact that the records were not shipped outside their jacket when it was stated that they were was brought up on a message board. One of the “label” owners response was this, quoted directly from the message board; “basically it came down to the fact that if we had taken each record out of its cover and replaced it in the polybag, we simply wouldn’t have gotten all the orders out.” How lazy do you have to be and what a poor excuse for not sticking to your word. It takes less than 15 seconds to pull a record out of its poly bag, then pull the record out of the jacket and then slide everything back into the poly bag. Another important aspect of pulling the records out of the jacket is to verify the colors going into orders to make sure the orders are being fulfilled correctly. There have been multiple times where I received the wrong color of a record because the label pulled a record out of box from the plant that was supposed to be full of only a one certain color. There has been at least one person who received the wrong color from what they ordered, but it was a step up as they received a rarer variant than what they ordered.

Hot Rod Circuit – The Underground Is A Dying Breed (w/ Bonus 7″)

After a long wait Hot Rod Circuit’s The Underground Is A Dying Breed was released on vinyl. A joint release between Enjoy The Ride Records and Thunderbeard Records, there were four variants for the record which was spread out across the 1,000 total copies pressed. There were 225 copies on orange with black smoke, which was an Enjoy The Ride exclusive, 225 copies on sky blue, which was a Thunderbeard exclusive, 400 copies on gray, which was a Hot Topic exclusive and lastly there was a secret variant limited to 100 copies that was a quad split consisting of orange with black smoke and a darker blue than the sky blue regular variant. The quad split is patterned after a radioactive shield, so going clockwise a ¼ of the record is orange with black smoke, the next ¼ is blue, the next ¼ is orange, the next ¼ is blue.

Enjoy The Ride has been doing these secret variants for their last few releases. They’re the most limited variant and are randomly given out in orders. This time around all outlets selling any of the variants were allotted a percentage of the secret variant pressing ( % out of the 100 copies) and they were shipped in orders in place of the regular variants ordered (orange with black smoke, sky blue or gray). All copies were sealed so odds are people packing up orders did not even know who or what orders were getting the secret variant.

All copies of the record also came packaged with a bonus 7” featuring the acoustic EP that was released a bit after the regular album came out back in 2007. Also include on this bonus 7” is a cover of the Hot Rod Circuit song “At Nature’s Mercy” performed by Max Bemis. The download code included with the record includes the full album and all the songs found on the bonus 7” as well. This release is the only place to get this Max Bemis cover, at least to my knowledge. This bonus 7” is pressed on cola brown and since it came with every copy of the record it’s limited to 1,000 copies. The 7” does not come with any jacket or sleeve, just a plain white paper dust sleeve. The 7” is housed inside the gatefold jacket for the LP. It slides into a pocket cut into one of the panels.

Chris Shiflett & The Dead Peasants – Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young 10″

This is the first single ever released by Chris Shiflett & The Dead Peasants, which features the song “Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young.” It was pressed as a 10″ on black vinyl and does not come with a jacket. It comes housed in a plain manilla envelope colored dust sleeve. All copies come autographed by Chris on the sleeve. The b-side is an instrumental version of the a-side.

The only way to get this 10″ is/was to buy the deluxe bundle for the album All Hat And No Cattle from Side One Dummy Records’ web store, which included All Hat And No Cattle on vinyl and CD, a t-shirt and this 10″. Pressing info has not been announced, but I’m assuming it’s fairly limited since the bundles themselves were limited in nature. Apparently Side One Dummy did not have a hand in pressing this 10″, as it came directly from Chris Shiflett’s management for inclusion with the bundle.

Chris Shiflett & The Dead Peasants – All Hat And No Cattle (1st Press)

All Hat And No Cattle is the second solo album from Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett. This album is a honky-tonk tribute album full of covers of classic honky-tonk songs from the likes of Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. There is one original song on the album, the ninth track entitled “A Woman Like You.”

The album was released by Side One Dummy Records and was only pressed on black vinyl for both pressings. Both pressings are also limited to 500 copies. All copies come with a download code and a full color printed dust sleeve instead of an insert. The dust sleeve is pretty bland however, no lyrics or any liner notes of substance or significance.

Jimmy Eat World – Damage

Jimmy Eat World’s latest album, Damage, was pressed on black vinyl and is on the pricey side for a single LP. Most places are selling this for around $25 and you’ll be hard pressed to find this for under $20. Unless you get a good deal on this record hold off on buying this until it starts to get marked down on clearance at most places because they can’t move all their copies.

It was initially thought this album might be self released based on statements from the band and the fact they were the only place to pre-order the album from, but was eventually picked up by RCA. The “Damage” 7″ that came out on Record Store Day 2103 was self released by the band, which added more substance to the self released idea. Pressing info will likely never be announced so don’t get your hopes up. The record comes with an insert and a download code.

V/A – Nick And Norah’s Infinite Playlist Soundtrack

This soundtrack is getting harder and harder to find. It’s most likely OOP at this point and you’ll be lucky enough to find a distro that still has copies on stock. What I do know is DO NOT order this from Best Buy, and they will send you the CD version of the album even though they have it listed as vinyl, and when you call them up to get your problem rectified they will send you yet another CD. I have not seen pressing info for this soundtrack anywhere, but it’s safe to assume there are a few thousand copies out there.

Vampire Weekend has a song on this soundtrack entitled “Ottoma,n, which is exclusive to it. Other artists on it include Band Of Horses, We Are Scientists, Shout Out Louds and Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo fame wrote and performed the theme song to the movie. Included with the double LP is a nice insert, which gives a back story  from the director of the film of how and why the soundtrack was compiled.

Larry And His Flask – The Battle For Clear Sight 7″ (Fill The Flask 7″ – 1st & 2nd Press)

For Larry And His Flask’s latest album, By The Lamp Light, the band held their own Kickstarter type fund-raiser called Fill The Flask. There were several rewards to choose from and one was a vinyl package that included the album and a bonus 7″ from the recording session. Up until the point where the band had the records in their hands the songs that would be included on the 7″ were a mystery.

It turns out there are two tracks on the 7″, disappointingly both the same song. On the a-side is the album version of “The Battle For Clear Sight” and the b-side features an acoustic version of it. I was fully expecting two b-sides, not an album track and an acoustic version of that same album track. At this point the only place to get this 7″ was through the Fill The Flask campaign and hopefully it stays that way as it was supposed to be exclusive to people who pledged a decent chunk of change through Fill The Flask. But I have my doubts after seeing the track listing for this 7″

There were 220 copies pressed, all on red and white swirl vinyl. The record comes housed in an envelope style jacket. It’s similar to The Horrible Crowes – Elsie 7″ and Circa Survive – B-Sides 7″. It has a foldable flap in the back and is printed on card stock.

To my disappointment this 7″ was re-pressed by Silver Sprocket sometime well after the Fill The Flask campaign for the By The Lamplight album ended, around two years later. This perfectly illustrates why I rarely participate in crowd funding, because 99% of the time people who pre-order/buy stuff though crowd funding get screwed in some way shape or form at some point. This 7″ was only suppose to be available through the Fill The Flask campaign, not randomly re-pressed years later.

This re-press, the second overall, is limited (for now because I’m sure it will be re-pressed yet again) to 300 copies on black. The cover also appears to be different than the first press; the first press has brown/dark red ink and the second press has black ink. The second pressing has Silver Sprocket printed on the back for the label credit while the first pressing has Cascadian Record Co. (likely Larry And His Flask’s label) printed on the back. A black Larry And His Flask logo sticker is also included with the second pressing.

For whatever reason, this supposedly pledge/backer exclusive record was re-pressed by Silver Sprocket Bicycle Club. Not sure who to blame for this BS, both parties are likely to blame considering the BS the unfolded regarding crowd funding campaign lies. I don’t’ care if it’s a matter of the band, which apparently has unceremoniously broken up or gone on hiatus at some point following the release of their latest album in 2018, making a living on releasing as much stuff on a physical format that they know will sell. This was supposed to be exclusive to people who actually gave them money and supported them via a crowd funding campaign for the recording process an album that was supposedly going to be self released. But why should I be surprised because said album, All That We Know, was in fact released on a label, and one they worked with n the past, Silver Sprocket Bicycle Club. This kind of BS is exactly why I rarely partake in crowd funding nonsense.

This re-press of The Battle For Clear Sight 7” is done on black vinyl instead of red and white swirl from the first pressing. The cover art was also slightly tweaked along with the packaging. The first pressing was done in a envelope style package, whereas this re-press, the second pressing, was done in a traditional jacket. There were 300 copies pressed on black vinyl for the second pressing, and it’s the only variant.  All copies of the second pressing come with a Larry And His Flask sticker. Apparently it was done to celebrate the second anniversary of All That We Know.

I was on the fence about buying the second pressing because of the BS surrounding it. But the label was running a good sale and t ate into the shipping cost of the Beyond The Lamplight EP. So I bit the bullet to round out my Larry And His Flask collection. After Silver Sprocket Bicycle Club (SSBC) closed up shop, Flail Records, an Oregon indie label, picked up Larry And His Flask, and started selling old stock from SSBC along with re-pressing some records that they owned the rights to. Which is where I bought my copy from; they have since sold out as of posting this.

Larry And His Flask – By The Lamp Light

Larry And His Flask used a Kickstarter esque funding source called Fill The Flask for the recording and release of their latest album, By The Lamp Light. It was essentially the same as Kickstarter except the band hosted the fund-raiser themselves on their own website. The rewards ranged from patches, CD’s, t-shirts, the vinyl version of the album all the way up to the expensive rewards like a camping trip with the band and private house shows. The one reward that drew my attention was the vinyl package, which included the album on an exclusive color variant and a bonus 7″ from the recording session. There will be another post dedicated to the bonus 7″.

The album ultimately wound up being release by the band’s own label, Cascadian Record Company and Silver Sprocket Records, who the band has worked with in the past. The Fill The Flask exclusive color turned out to be an orange/red/yellow swirl and is limited to 250 copies. There is also a regular variant which is available everywhere else, which is on white vinyl and limited to 250 copies. The vinyl version of the album was ultimately delayed by over a month, with the release date at the end of June 25 and the records starting to ship August 5.

Everyone who contributed to the Fill The Flask campaign has their name mentioned in the liner note thank you’s, which is printed on one side of the insert that comes with the record. For helping to fill the flask, I also received two patches and a key chain along with my LP and 7″

Portugal. The Man – Evil Friends

Evil Friends is Portugal. The Man’s second album on a major label, Atlantic Records. Since then variants and pressing info have gone the wayside. Whatever your opinion on that stuff, their music has not suffered the dreaded drop off after singing to a major label. Evil Friends is their best album in a while, and that’s saying something. Danger Mouse was the producer for this album, and he made a big difference.

The record was pressed on 180 gram black vinyl and has the stock Atlantic center labels which match the artwork, being half yellow and half black. The marketing campaign the band did over social networking services with the different faces is fully utilized in the artwork for the record. The vinyl version of the album features alternate artwork for starters. Inside the gatefold are two different faces, a third face is on the back of the jacket and a fourth face is on the insert, all with the various symbols or pieces of artwork plastered over them. Instead of a download code a CD is included with the record.