Matt Embree – Rare Breed Flexi 7″

And thus ends one of the longest pre-orders I’ve ever foolishly bought into (more details later). Paper + Plastick Records (P + P) partnered up with Obi Fernandez (Westbound Train) to form Rare Breed Recording Company and subsequently release a flexi series. The Rare Breed Flexi Series features one artist per release, usually the lead singer of an established band. They even did a subscription where all the flexis would come in a box set. Thankfully that box set/subscription was sold out before this Matt Embree flexi was announced. Not that I would’ve been stupid enough to go for any subscription series, but the temptation wasn’t there with the subscription sold out already.

There are two variants for the Matt Embree Rare Breed flexi; white limited to 250 copies and black limited to 135. White is a subscription exclusive and black is the ala carte variant. The flexi comes in a ply sleeve with a white square sticker affixed to top right corner of the poly sleeve indicating artist and track listing. Earlier flexis in the series apparently use to come with the artist and track listing printed on the actual flexi. The flexi cost $5 plus $3 shipping.

The two songs on the Matt Embree flexi are a cover of an Ellie Goulding song entitled “Guns And Horses” and an original song entitled “Dehumanizer Dub.” Both songs have a reggae vibe to them, which is the theme/vibe for this flexi series, which is right in Matt’s wheelhouse. If you didn’t know it you’d think these two songs were RX Bandits songs and not Matt solo.

Now as promised, here is more details about the insanely long pre-order for this flexi. P+ P launched pre-orders for the ala carte Matt Embree flexi in December 2015 without announcing a release date. That should have been the second red flag to not pre-order this. The first should’ve been P + P. The label is notorious for atrocious customer service and length pre-orders that border on ridiculous. The label also seemed to branch out into other, non music related ventures, like making plastic toys and comics. And it seems like they’re focusing on those things because they churn out a new plastic skull every month is seems without shipping delays.

I got a bit off track there. So let’s try that again. From past experiences I should have known not to pre-order, let alone buy anything, from P + P. But I bite the bullet because of the limited nature of the Matt Embree flexi, fearing it would sell out before it actually started shipping. That fear turned out to be no concern, as this flexi is still available. I contacted P +P back in March 2016 asking if there was at least an anticipated release/ship date and was to my surprise received a response two days later saying “they have a couple weeks left on them.” Fast forward to the end of July 2016 when I contacted P + P again asking about this flexi because it was well past “a couple weeks” and was told “we’re trying to get an updated ETA, as last I heard they should be on their way to us.” You should see a common theme developing here; no concrete answers or any sort of actual information being provided.

About a month after my previous email I was shocked to see an unsolicited email from P + P in my inbox, and it said “just got word we are receiving this next week!” That exclamation point was put in there by them, I didn’t add it for sarcasm. That email was sent on August 24, 2016, and it apparently went out to everyone who pre-ordered or subscribed to the flexi series as I wasn’t the only one to receive it, as several people chimed in on a message board to say they got the same email. Needless to say I wasn’t holding my breath to see if that timeframe would hold up. And wouldn’t you know it, P + P was full of crap again.

I waited a little over one month to contact P + P again about this flexi because it obviously did not ship. I never received a reply to that email. On October 25 everyone who pre-ordered or subscribed to the flexi series received an email saying their flexi shipped along with a download link for the digital version of the flexi. Despite getting that email my flexi didn’t actually ship until November 5. Unbeknownst to most customers, P + P shipped out the subscriber flexis first, then waited about a week to ship the ala carte ones. Not the end of the world considering I already waited 11 months for the flexi, so another week was nothing, and it’s fair to ship out the subscriber’s copies first. But you should never send out a shipping notice without actually shipping the order. It a big pet peeve of mine, along with many others. I never even received a tracking number either. I only know when it shipped after checking the ship date on the mailer once it got here.

Frank Iero And The Patience – Parachutes

Frank Iero is back with another solo album, only this time under a different moniker. The new release is done under the name of Frank Iero And The Patience. His new album, Parachutes, was released on October 28, 2016, with the vinyl version being a delayed by about a week. The album is in line with previous solo releases.

Pressing info for Parachutes is a but unclear. The official pre-order for the record has a white variant limited to 2,000 copies. There is also a blue variant that may be either a Banquet Records (UK indie record store) or a UK/Euro exclusive. The copy I bought from a U.S. based distro (because I was able to snag it for $14 shipped instead of $19 plus shipping from the official pre-order) arrived on black vinyl. I have no idea how many copies were pressed on black vinyl, and considering I had no idea it existed, it’s not too surprising pressing info isn’t out there. Vagrant Records hasn’t been too helpful after contacting them about it, not even so much as a reply back with a simply “sorry we can’t/don’t want to divulge that info.” At this point I’m wondering if there are any other colors on top of the white, blue and black floating around out there.

What makes it hard to track down pressing info for this record is the fact that it’s a joint release with four different labels. Vagrant Records handled the U.S. release, Hassle Records handled the UK release and BMG Records is also involved as well as Frank’s own label B. Calm Press. BMG is a major label and it’s a 99.99% certainty they won’t respond to any sort of communication, and I just mentioned Vagrant’s lack of response above.

The record comes housed in a full color, printed dust sleeve. The lyrics are printed on one side of the dist sleeve, with an image of Frank’s parents on the reverse side where he thanks them. A download card is included, netting you high quality 320 kbps MP3s. There is a hype sticker affixed to the top right corner along with a parental advisory sticker in the bottom left corner. I hate those parental advisory warnings, but at least this is a sticker and it’s not actually printed on the album cover so it becomes an obtrusive part of the cover art.

About two weeks before the album’s release date Frank and his band were involved in a freak bus accident while on tour in Australia. I say freak because it’s not the typical bus/van crash you hear about with touring bands. The band was unloading their van on a public street in Sydney when a public transit bus (which wasn’t carrying any passengers) hit their van, which left Frank badly banged up and two other band members needing surgery. Everyone thankfully survived the accident. The accident forced the cancellation of the band’s tour dates for the foreseeable future.

V/A – The Walking Dead Original Soundtrack Vol. 2

Spacelab9 released both The Walking Dead Soundtracks (Volumes 1 and 2) in quick succession. The soundtracks were first released on CD and digitally (2014), then Spacelab9 licensed them out to be pressed on vinyl. Another soundtrack specialty label, Spacelab9 seems to do good work with their releases. This is the first Spacelab 9 release I’ve bought, so I can’t speak to quality on a mass scale. But my only complaint is their releases tend to be on the pricier side.

For Vol. 1 of The Walking Dead Soundtrack, Spacelab9 had a handful of variants and did a second pressing. They even printed up individually numbered certificates of authenticity for some of the variants from the first pressing. Clearly a gimmick that I’m not sure actually drove up sales or not. A fold out poster was even included. None of that stuff is included with Volume 2 though.

Vol. 2 of the soundtrack is just a record crammed into a standard single pocket jacket with a pointless insert advertising/promoting an irrelevant season premier of the show (season 6). No poster, no certificate of authenticity; in other words no frills. That didn’t stop Spacelab9 from charging $20 for it though. It even has the same artwork as Volume 1 save for the minute difference of swapping out a 1 for a 2 in the title. Granted the artwork for the initial CD/digital release of both soundtracks was the same. But at least Spacelab cut down on the variants for the Volume 2.

The first pressing of Vol. 2 was a Record Store Day 2015 exclusive pressed as a picture disc limited to 1,800 copies. I missed out on the RSD release of this soundtrack thanks to the re-press of Brand New’s Deja Entendu where it seemed like everyone came out of the woodwork to wait eight plus hours in line for it at my local record store. But in the grand scheme of things it was not the end of the world. The RSD picture disc was overpriced, and it was a picture disc. Plus, I was hedging my bets that Spacelab9 would eventually re-press it in a standard jacket on traditional, non-picture disc record. And my patience and bets paid off as they did just that in the fall of 2016. But I knew the standard release was coming as I emailed Spacelab9 way back in January (2016) asking about a non-picture disc release and was told yes. So I knew to hold off on buying a RSD picture disc, despite prices of it falling down to $15 (from the original $25 on RSD) on the secondary market.

The second pressing of Vol. 2 was pressed on only three variants; black limited 600 copies, half black/half orange limited to 200 copies and splatter limited to 200 copies. The splatter color is pink/red with black splatter and was a New York Comic Con (NYCC) exclusive (though leftover copies were sold online via Spacelab 9’s web store). The NYCC variant was made available for purchase at the event before the record’s official release date of October 23, 2016. The splatter was initially called “brains on blacktop” splatter then later changed to “splatter brains.” Half black/half orange was a Spacelab 9 web store exclusive and black is a mass retail exclusive (Amazon, other online distros, indie record stores, etc.). This pressing info is exclusive to this blog and is the first place it’s appearing anywhere. At least until Spacelab9 gets around to updating their discography page.

I would like to point out that some distros ran with the pressing info of Vol. 2 being limited to 1,000 copies during the pre-order phase, without being more specific than that. Ultimately that info panned out to be correct as there are 1,000 total copies for the second pressing. But I want to stress you can’t always trust what online distors say when they say a record is “limited to xxxx copies” because sometimes they are provided inaccurate info or simply lie about it to drum up business. Case and point, the distro I found that said “limited to 1,000 copies” also made the claim of “makes its official vinyl debut” despite the fact what they were selling was a re-pressing.

The track listing for Vol. 2 features an exclusive, brand new song from Portugal. The Man, which is why I wanted the soundtrack. The song is entitled “Heavy Games” and was featured in the trailer for season 4, it never actually played during the show. The soundtrack also features songs from Sharon Van Etten, Lee DeWyze, A.C. Newman and Ben Nichols.

To be perfectly clear I was not drawn to this soundtrack because I’m a diehard Walking Dead fan. I do watch the show as a casual fan, but I did not follow it from the beginning nor have I ever read the comics. I binge watched it when AMC was doing a marathon where they replayed every episode in order leading up to a season premiere, I think it was either season 4 or 5. I’m not heavily invested in the show, and to be honest I fast forward through 95% of every episode at this point because I can’t stand the soap opera nonsense anymore. The fast forwarding has gone up and up with every episode. I haven’t truly enjoyed the show since they left the prison, and season 2 on Herschel’s farm was my favorite. That season was what drew me in to the show. I caught bits and pieces of a few episodes from season 2 when they originally aired, but even then my interest was fleeting because there were soap opera elements that far back. And dramas are not my favorite entertainment genre. But the show has gotten so bad I don’t even care if I miss an episode, and I’m on the verge of cancelling it from my DVR recordings.

Two Door Cinema Club – Gameshow (Regular & Deluxe Editions)

Two Door Cinema Club has matured with each album they’ve released. Granted, they’ve only released three full length albums to date, but their latest effort, Gameshow, is almost a perfect blend between their debut album Tourist History and their sophomore release Beacon. It may take a couple listens to fully appreciate the quality of Gameshow, and it’s an album well worth picking up on vinyl.

Gameshow was put up for pre-order way too far in advance of its release in mid October 2016. June the pre-order was launched; a full four months before its scheduled release. There are two ways to look at multiple month wait pre-orders; 1) your money is tied up for months and you may still end up waiting for you record for weeks if not months after the album’s release date, and 2) the long wait between pre-order and release date may ensure there are no shipping delays once release day finally arrives, and your order may ship before release date to ensure release day delivery. I can see why people fall into either category, but personally I try not to pre-order anything anymore because I can usually pick up a record for at least $5 cheaper months after its release, and I don’t mind waiting. On top of that it seems for every record that ships on time there are four that have shipping delays, and with as long as I’ve been buying records I’m tired of dealing with delays.

There are two different vinyl versions of Gameshow; a deluxe version and regular version. Both are double LPs, despite what Discogs and other sources say about the regular version. Yet another reason Discogs should be taken with a grain of salt. Since there are many differences, both major and minor, between the deluxe and regular versions I will tackle them one at a time in their own paragraph(s). But before I delve into the finer details, pressing info for either version and not been released, and you shouldn’t expect it to ever be released.

The deluxe version comes with an exclusive bonus 7″. The album itself is pressed on 180 gram blue vinyl. The 7″ is on black vinyl however. The cover art for the deluxe version differs from the regular version, so you can call it alternate artwork. There is no band name or album title printed on it. The finish of the cover/jacket is also rainbow wrap, which is reflective. The spine has a silver foil wrap finish. The entire jacket has this rainbow foil wrap reflective finish. You can see the rainbow effect on the cover and inside the gatefold in the pictures below, and it looks different from different angles. There is a small black square hype sticker affixed to the top left corner of the shrink wrap as well. The records comes housed in a gatefold jacket, and an insert is included, which has the lyrics printed on one side.

There are five bonus tracks exclusive to the deluxe version; two brand new studio songs, two remixes and one live version of songs that appear on the regular version of the album. However, only the two studio songs appear on the physical vinyl format, and they are on the bonus 7″ included with the deluxe version. The two songs appearing on the 7″ are “Gasoline” and “Suckers.” The two remixed bonus tracks are “Ordinary (Sam Halliday Remix)” and “Bad Decisions (Kev’s Summertime Madness Remix).” Kevin Baird did the “bad Decisions” remix. The live song is “Gameshow (live at Bonnaroo 2016).” and accessible via the download card included. The download card nets you WAV files, which I can’t stand. It’s nice to have great quality audio tracks at your disposal, but because the album comes in WAV form it’s over 1.5 gigs in sizes, and you have to convert it to MP3 in order to import it into iTunes. The deluxe version retails for around $30. I bought it for $21 shipped from an online distro after taking advantage of a ridiculous sale.

The regular version is pressed on standard weight black vinyl and does not come in a gatefold jacket. The cover art is the standard album art, with a normal finish. You can see the differences between the deluxe and regular artwork in the pictures below. There is no hype sticker on the regular version. No insert is included either, but each record comes in a printed dust sleeve. Each dust sleeve has the corresponding lyrics printed on it, with the same imagery found on the reverse side of both sleeves. These dust sleeves are extremely thin, and I imagine it’s impossible for any of them to arrive without splits in them as a result. There is no 7″ included with the regular version and you don’t get any of the bonus tracks that come with the deluxe version either. There is a download card with the regular version, which nets you the same WAV files minus the deluxe exclusive bonus tracks. The regular version retails for around $20. I bought it for $13 shipped from an online distro after taking advantage of a ridiculous sale.

The Killers – Sam’s Town [1st Press, 10th Anniversary Edition (3rd Press) & 4th Press]

I finally got around to picking up The Killers’ sophomore album, Sam’s Town. The first and second pressings were pressed as a picture disc, and it starts the trend of the bulk of Killers vinyl releases being pressed as picture discs, mainly their singles. Prior to this album they released zero picture discs.

Pressing info was never released for either the first or second pressing, but all of The Killers vinyl releases are getting harder to find. They may be close to going out of print. But in 2016 some of their albums started getting re-pressed. Sam’s Town comes housed in a picture disc sleeve and comes with a fold out poster that doubles as liner notes.

There is some confusion as to whether or not there are actually two different pressings of Sam’s Town. I am leaning towards two separate pressings based on the time frame of when they were released. What I am dubbing the first pressing, and is featured here, has a black rim around the edge of the picture disc. These were the first batch released in 2006. Some years later, not exactly sure when, copies with a red rim started popping up. The matrix numbers, bar codes and all other identifying marks are the same between the black rim and red rim copies. Both variants also come with the same packaging, poster and hype sticker.

To commemorate the 10th Anniversary of Sam’s Town, Bong Load Records released a special 10th Anniversary pressing of the album in 2016. It was pressed as a double LP on 180 gram black vinyl mastered at 45 rpm, housed in a hardcover book packaging. There were 5,016 copies pressed, all individually numbered on the back cover. two exclusive bonus tracks are part of the 10th Anniversary edition; “Peace Of Mind” and “Read My Mind (Pet Shop Boys Stars are Blazing Mix).” If it wasn’t obvious enough Pet Shop Boys did that remix of “Read My Mind.” There is no download code included because this is a licensed release.

This 10th Anniversary edition has alternate artwork. It’s pretty much the same as the original, it has the same girl on the original artwork only in a different pose, wearing a dress and in front of a different backdrop. The ram is no longer featured in this version’s artwork.

The records themselves slide into pages inside the book, with those pages being essentially dust sleeves made out of card stock. All the pages inside the book are actually made of the same material. I have also included picture of the binding as well, which is done the same way as those oversized children’s pop up books. The packaging is nicely done, but there should be more to it. It’s just the cover, literally six pages inside the book of completely meaningless, frivolous space wasting filler. There should have been far more substance inside the book. Something like a note from the band, an in depth story or interview about the recording process, a reflection of what the band was going through during this time frame or the history of the band around this time, or even never before seen photos would’ve made this set far nicer. But for whatever it’s worth, Bong Load includes a label sticker with all orders, which is pictured below.

Many people are complaining about sound quality, and there are also complaints about smudging and scuffs on the records. I checked out my copy and there are only marks on the second LP, my first LP is fine. This re-press doesn’t sound stellar, even with it being mastered at 45 rpm and being pressed on 180 gram vinyl. It’s a little muddled and the mix isn’t right either as the vocals overshadow the music on some tracks while they are drowned out by the music on other tracks. Some tracks are softer too, with others being louder. Even after adjusted the tracking and skate on my turntable, it makes no difference. After hearing the complaints I feared the worst, especially considering the price of this set; $45 before shipping for a total of $54 after shipping. Paid for expedited 2-3 day shipping, Bong Load sent it media mail. But hey, I guess those “custom made” mailers are expensive and are the reason for the $8 and change shipping.

Those aren’t the only questionable moves Bong Load made with this release. They released the pressing in small batches. They put it up for pre-order but held back many copies to sell after it was released/shipped in early October. At some point they cut off pre-orders, making it appear as if it sold out. The only reason to do this is because it didn’t sell well and/or to drive up excitement for the release by making people buy it thinking it sold well so they should buy a copy before it sells out again. Supply and demand, but when you artificially control the supply to make false demand, it’s a business/sales tactic I don’t agree with.

Each batch, (released two after pre-order closed/record was released as of posting this), sold out in under 20 minutes. But I have no clue how many copies were available in each batch. The first batch sold out in 18 minutes according to Bong Load, while the second batch lasted about half that time (I checked 11 minutes after it was put up for sale and it sold out, so it could’ve sold out faster than that), so their ‘release in small batches’ system clearly works.

Bong Load also “hand selects” indie record stores to distribute their releases to. That is fine, it’s their right to choose who sells their releases if they opt not to go with the traditional distribution route. But for people nowhere close to any of those “hand selected” record stores it’s not the fairest shake. And a fair shake is all I ask for. On top of that, most of the stores who got copies of this re-press marked it up at least $5. Understandable on their part but still not an easy pill to swallow. Some stores were even shadier though and marked it up to $75, when this release cost $45 from Bong Load.

I didn’t pre-order this because of the price tag mentioned above, and also because of the label’s name. To be honest I never heard of Bong Load before, and their name doesn’t exactly instill trust. On top of that, I try not to pre-order anything anymore for a multitude of reasons. The fact that Bong Load pulled the pre-order made the decision not to buy it even easier. It eliminated any temptation. But after the 10th Anniversary Edition started shipping and I listened to Sam’s Town more and more, it made me want it. Even more so after seeing the insane prices people were paying for this set. Not that I would flip this, but if I ever decided to sell my entire collection this release would clearly appreciate in value and pay for itself. Basically it made the price point I didn’t like before a bit easier to swallow. And I felt if I didn’t buy it during one of Bong Load’s small batch releases I would regret it.

It took a long time, but we finally got a pressing of Sam’s Town housed in a legit jacket with the original artwork. Two pressings of the picture disc happened and the deluxe 10 year anniversary pressing was also released prior to this album getting the simple, but proper treatment it deserved. By simple I mean a regular jacket of any sort, with the original album art, with the record not being a picture disc. Deluxe editions are not for everyone, and picture discs are for nobody. Or at least they should be. My one complaint about this latest pressing of Sam’s Town, which is the fourth overall, is that it’s a bit overpriced.

Retail price on this re-press was around $25 (before shipping should you be charged for it). Anticipating that this re-pres would be around for a while, I waited for a price drop or good sale to buy it. And it didn’t take long for a great sale to pop up where I was able to buy this for $14 shipped, while earning a good deal of ebay bucks (large order was placed) to apply to a future record purchase.

I mentioned simple up above, but this re-press actually has some nice touches to that weren’t exactly necessary. Which is a nice touch by a major label that is cutting corners so much that they no longer offer download cards/codes with most (if not all) of their new releases. The record is not only housed in a gatefold jacket, it comes with a full color double sided insert as well.  Pressing info was never released for this re-pressing. But considering you can still easily find this and the fact that Island Records opted to release a Killers discography box set for no apparent reason after they just re-pressed all their studio albums, there are likely thousands of these things floating around.

 

 

Green Day – Revolution Radio (1st Press)

Green Day released their 12th studio album in 2016. The album, Revolution Radio, is their best since American Idiot in my opinion. Is it 90’s era Green Day? No. But is the album still enjoyable and have less of the cheesy pop music influences found on Uno, Dos and Tre? Yes.

Revolution Radio was pressed as a single LP and comes inside a single pocket jacket with an embossed cover. An insert is included, which has the lyrics printed on one side. But you might need a magnifying glass to read the lyrics because they’re printed in very small print. No download card/code is included with any copies of the record. Which is inexcusable these days. If you buy a copy of the record from Green Day’s official web store you get a download link either via email or with your order receipt after purchase. But I stuck it to Reprise by complaining about the record not having a download card by contacting them through the contact form on Green Day’s web store, and in response they sent me a download link. And it’s not the first time they’ve done that for me either.

The record has three variants; black, red and hunter green. Red is exclusive to Green Day’s official web store and hunter green is an F.Y.E. exclusive. Yes, you heard right, an F.Y.E. exclusive. It appears F.Y.E. is stepping into the ring (or octagon if you want to be trendy with an MMA reference) to take a piece of the overpriced exclusive colored vinyl game. Pressing info has not been released for any of the variants, and never expect it to be because this is a major label release. But both the hunter green and red variants have hype stickers that read “limited edition,” for whatever that’s worth.

Retail price on this record is around $20. But if you don’t care about vinyl color you can shop around and find this for under $15. I bought this for $13.46 from an online distro after taking advantage of an insane discount code.

Yellowcard – s/t

2016 saw the release of Yellowcard’s final album. After 19 years (will be 20 after their final tour concludes), 15 releases (12 albums, 3 EPs) and one hiatus they eventually reunited from, it seems the band will be calling it quits for good. It’s a bittersweet moment for many, including myself. I remember seeing Yellowcard at Skate & Surf back in 2004, and being one of the last people in Convention Hall before the fire marshal shut down entry under a strict in/out head count. Boy does that make me feel old.

The more I think about Yellowcard’s music over the years, I’ m actually somewhat indifferent to their break up. To be perfectly honest, their later albums were drastically worse than their earlier ones. I’m not one of those people who swear by a band’s debut album or consensus best album and say “it’s not as good as *insert name of debut album here*” or “nothing will top/be better than *insert name of best album here*” whenever said band releases a new album. It’s just you saw Yellowcard build up to Ocean Avenue, and you had high expectations for them going forward. But it seems they peaked with Ocean Avenue and never really made another standout album after that, and not only that, the quality went steadily downhill with each successive album. So I’m not overly bummed they’re calling it a day.

Yellowcard’s final album is self-titeld, and the opening track is “Rest In Peace.” It would only be more fitting if the song was the final track. Yellowcard is a solid album, but again, nothing stands out about it. Parts of it are boring with a begrudging pace while other parts stand out despite that because they’re great lyrically. The flow of the album is a bit off too, which really turns you off from the entire thing. It makes you lose patience with it as you try to find any redeeming value.

Hopeless Records released Yellowcard, and while they didn’t milk the album for all its worth like they did with Taking Back Sunday’s Tidal Wave, especially considering this is Yellowcard’s final album, they came pretty close to matching it. There are only six variants for Yellowcard. I say only six because Tidal Wave has seven. Once again though, Hopeless opted to go with a handful of colors that, while matching the album art, make for a convoluted mess of variants. They literally took the same three or even four colors and just put them in a different configuration. And of course there are discrepancies between what Hopeless calls the variant and what retailers call that same variant. You’ll see what I mean when I delve into explaining the pressing info below, which is exclusive to this blog and hasn’t been posted in its entirety anywhere else:

300 copies on grey in clear / cloudy clear in grey. It’s a (UK/Banquet Records exclusive. Banquet calls the color grey in clear while Hopeless calls is cloudy clear in grey.

600 copies on cloudy clear w/ opaque grey, black & cream heavy splatter, which is a Hopeless web store (Merchnow) exclusive. Important note about this variant, it was originally stated/slated to be limited to 300 copies. But apparently Merchnow oversold the variant. They sent out emails to everyone who bought/pre-ordered this variant explaining the situation, saying Hopeless was having more copies of this variant pressed, but it would be delayed till after the release date. They offered to either let the customer keep their original order for this variant, or switch to an opaque grey variant. And if the customer switched to the opaque grey their pre-order would ship on time with hopes of being received on or close to release date.

So after getting in touch with my contact at Hopeless about the pressing info for Yellowcard, I discovered they actually doubled up the pressing amount for this variant. Going from the original 300 up to 600 copies because of the oversell. Whether or not you believe the oversold story or not is up to you, some people do, some don’t. I’m not taking sides in it because I have no dog in the fight. But I will say pre-orders for this album and this specific variant sold very well, so well that it sold out pretty quickly, which lends credence to the money grab “oversold” theory.

700 copies on opaque grey w/ cloudy clear, black & cream heavy splatter, which is a Hopeless web store (Merchnow) exclusive.

1,000 copies on opaque grey & black / grey in black, which is a F.Y.E. exclusive. F.Y.E. calls it opaque grey in black, Hopeless calls it grey in black. There really isn’t that big of a difference between the two though, I’m just laying out all the details I have to try to make things as clear as possible for everyone. The band actually posted the pressing info for the F.Y.E. variant on their instagram, and it’s refreshing for a band to not only do this, but be right about it too.

1,000 copies on clear & grey half & half w/ black, cream & silver splatter, which is a tour eclusive variant, being sold on Yellowcard’s final tour.

4,000 copies on grey, which is a mass retail exclusive. Places like Amazon, various other online distros (except Merchnow) and indie record stores all sell this variant.

No matter what color you opt for, all variants have an etched d-side of band’s logo. All copies also come with a hype sticker indicating the color of the vinyl. The album was pressed as a double LP, if that wasn’t clear enough based on the etched d-side just mentioned. The records come housed in a gatefold jacket, with each record coming in a printed dust sleeve. Each sleeve has the lyrics for the corresponding record on one side, with a photo on the reverse side. The artwork inside the gatefold is poorly chosen in my opinion. I would have went with the train tracks found on dust sleeve 1 (see photos below). It would have been more symbolic laid out like that.

Retail price on this record is around $25. Unless you care about vinyl color or rarity, you definitely should wait to buy this record. Especially considering there are a whopping 4,000 copies of the opaque grey variant. It will inevitably go on sale. I opted to buy it now instead of waiting for a price reduction because I was able to get it on sale for $15 shipped after taking advantage of a ridiculous sale an online distro (which already has prices $2-$3 cheaper than retail) was having, and I don’t see it going below that price even on clearance. Say it did eventually become $10 on clearance, you would still likely have to pay shipping on it, which would likely drive the price up to at least $14.

 

Taking Back Sunday – Tidal Wave (1st Press)

After a short two year break in between albums Taking Back Sunday released Tidal Wave, the band’s seventh studio album. It’s not their best work. In fact, I feel it’s one of their weakest efforts to date. I have realistic expectations too; I don’t expect them to write another Tell All Your Friends or even What It Is To Be. The band has matured over the years and have gone through some lineup changes, but listening to any song off Tidal Wave it would actually take you a while to realize that it’s Taking Back Sunday. And that is not a good thing. Even with that said, Tidal Wave is not a bad album. It’s just not a homerun and is completely forgettable.

Hopeless Records pulled out all the stops with packaging for the vinyl version of the album. The album, pressed as a double LP, comes housed in a gatefold jacket. The records themselves are housed in full color, printed dust sleeves which really ties the packaging together nicely. You’ll see what I mean when you look at the photos of everything below. The dust sleeves are not over the top in terms of grandeur, they’re subtle, but it works perfectly. Inside the gatefold jacket is where the lyrics are printed, and you’ll notice the imagery carry through inside the gatefold. And if that wasn’t enough, a foldout poster is included.

A download card is included for high quality 320 kbps MP3s. Thankfully it hasn’t happened yet, but don’t fret, or worse yet, go online complaining if you think your copy has ring wear. It’s part of the artwork and is there intentionally. The faux ring wear has been happening more and more lately with album art, especially with the growing popularity of vinyl over the years. With everything you get retail price on this record is around $25. A bit steep in my mind, but considering how nice the packaging is the price is easier to swallow. Especially compared to other labels who charge $25 or more for just a single LP stuffed into jacket without an insert or anything extra like that.

I mentioned above Hopeless pulling out all the stops with this release, and it can’t be more noticeable with how many variants they opted to go for. They’re definitely milking Taking Back Sunday. There are a total of seven variants for this, and the pressing info could not be more convoluted if you wanted it to be. It’s nice when a label/band want to stick with colors that fit the artwork or theme/concept of an album, but they went a bit overboard with Tidal Wave. I will do my best to lay out the pressing info a straight forward and easy to understand as possible. It took me a bit of time to straightened everything out, and as far as I know this blog is the only place with the complete, let alone accurate pressing info.

My contact at Hopeless was very helpful, and the pressing info is straight from them. Part of the confusion with the pressing info is that the names/colors Hopeless uses do not match up with what was announced with the item descriptions in various web stores (Merchnow, Hot Topic), and the band themselves describe the colors differently too. Nothing matches up. So that is where it took some time to match up what Hopeless gave me with what Merchnow has/had up with each respective variant and the info that was previously announced. I will outline everything below.

300 copies on coke bottle clear & turquoise half & half w/ white splatter, which is a Hopeless web store (Merchnow) exclusive.

300 copies on transparent blue w/ heavy white splatter, which is a UK / Banquet Records exclusive.

500 copies on “ocean wave” half coke bottle clear/half turquoise w/ coke bottle clear splatter. This is a tour exclusive variant. The band called the color “teal and turquoise half and half with dark blue splatter” on multiple social media sites. Based on photos I’ve seen of the tour variant, it looks like the splatter is blue and not coke bottle clear.

500 copies on coke bottle clear & turquoise half & half / half coke bottle clear/half turquoise, which is a Hopeless web store (Merchnow) exclusive. Hopeless calls the color coke bottle clear & turquoise half & half, while the Merchnow item description called it half coke bottle clear/half turquoise.

500 copies on turquoise / turquoise in light blue (color in color), which is a $hit Topic exclusive. $hit Topic calls it simply “turquoise” while Hopeless calls the color “turquoise in light blue (color in color).” The picture $hit Topic posted illustrates the color in color aspect, so they should have been smarter and not called their exclusive color “turquoise.”

700 copies on turquoise swirl / a-side coke bottle clear/b-side turquoise, which is a Hopeless web store (Merchnow) exclusive. Hopeless calls the color turquoise swirl (which hype stickers also say), while the Merchnow item description called it a-side coke bottle clear/b-side turquoise.

3,000 copies on clear with blue & turquoise splatter. This color was initially thought to be an indie record store exclusive, but turned out to just be a retail exclusive. Retail meaning if you bought a copy from anywhere other than Merchnow, $hit Topic or from the band on tour.

And if all that wasn’t enough somewhere along the line an incorrect hype sticker was affixed to one of the variants, citing a nonexistent color. This incorrect sticker said “black w/ red splatter” and according to Hopeless it was affixed to some, not all of the coke bottle clear & turquoise half & half / half coke bottle clear/half turquoise copies. I came across a photo of that hype sticker on Discogs (I’m sure someone will add this new info I’m providing to Discogs) and asked Hopeless about it. That was the answer I was provided. I’m also including a photo of the erroneous hype sticker below to show I’m not a nutcase.

To further illustrate Hopeless milking TBS, they had not one, not two, not three or even four, but seven pre-order bundles for this album. In my opinion one pre-order bundle is too many. But having bundles with unnecessary nonsense like coffee mugs, pint glasses and coffee beans is just that; unnecessary and nonsensical. I’m not being sarcastic and making up odd and/or ridiculous items for a bundle. Coffee beans were included with all of the bundles while the limited 100 unit supply lasted. Apparently having an exclusive blend of coffee beans is the new hip thing any band has to have in order to be considered a legit band. TBS weren’t the first and likely won’t be the last.

The bundles were done in tiers, ranging from a mind-boggling $200 down to a more reasonable $59. The bundle items included test presses, t-shirts, sweat shirt (no, not a hoodie), coffee mugs, exclusive coffee beans, pint glasses, wall flags, slipmats, photo booklets and vinyl and CD copies of the album. Obviously the cheaper bundles included fewer items, with the top-tier $200 including all of those items. The test pres cost $57, based on the fact that the bundle #2 (second most expensive, cost $143) had everything in bundle #1 (most expensive) except the test press. The first 500 bundles regardless of what bundle you ordered received an autographed booklet. No mention of if it’s the booklet from the CD version (which it likely was) or the photo booklet from some of the bundles though. For the sake of space I’m not including the breakdown of all the variants or how much each item cost. Though I do have that information copy and pasted from Merchnow into a word document.

In 2017, Hopeless inexplicably decided to re-press this on two new color variants to go along with their annual holiday “sale.” It’s not so much a sale as it is an excuse to release holiday themed merch and new variants of records they previously released. This first pressing of Tidal Wave has not sold out and is still easy to find. You can even find copies from the first press in Hopeless’ own web store hosted by MerchNOw.

Chris Farren – Can’t Die (1st Press)

Chris Farren’s debut solo album, Can’t Die, was released in September 2016 on Side One Dummy Records. I say debut because I don’t count a Christmas album (even if it has some original songs) as a debut. This album is the fifth (not counting the ton of one off covers he’s released over the years plus all comps he’s appeared on) solo release from Chris, and it appears as if Fake Problems may be over, which is sad. But at least it spawned a new career with new music in the same vein as Fake Problems.

Can’t Die is in line with Chris’ other solo stuff, and Fake Problems stuff too, but not to a tee. From first glance the album may have a dark side, but that can’t be further from the vibe of the album. The album is fun, and it’s definitely a grower. The more I listen to it the more I enjoy it.

From the obvious title contradicting with cover art, the funeral/death theme continues with the insert included with this release, which is a funeral program. When you open the insert up the lyrics are spread across the two inner pages. A download card is included with the record, which lands you high quality 320 kbps MP3s. Retail price on this single LP is $18.

The record apparently sold very well, as a second pressing is already out. The first pressing did sell out online via Side One Dummy’s web store, but copies of the first pressing can still be found at indie record stores and some online distros. But be aware that if you buy a copy of this record anywhere at this point you may get a copy from the second pressing; a first pressing is not guaranteed at this point.

It’s great for Chris that this album sold so well, and I’m happy for him and Side One, but to be honest it surprised me that the first pressing sold out so quickly. I knew it would eventually sell out, I just thought it would a lot take longer than a little over a month after release date. Granted it was up for pre-order since July 2016. And there was the pre-order incentive of an autographed head shot of Chris, on which he wrote goofy notes.

Here is the pressing info for the first pressing: pink and blue color in color limited to 200 copies, baby blue limited to 400 copies and baby pink limited to 400 copies. Pressing info for the second pressing: “ectoplasm” (color in color – doublemint inside milky clear) limited to 500 copies.

Saosin – Along The Shadow

One of the most highly anticipated albums of 2016 was Anthony Green’s return to Saosin for the band’s third album. Along The Shadow is the first Saosin full length album with Anthony Green on vocals. The last time Anthony Green was a member of the band was for the seminal Translating The Name EP. Those hoping this new album would hearken back to the Translating The Name sound were hugely disappointed. I was one of those people, but once you get past those expectations this album is not awful. I’ll be honest, on first listen I thought this album was an utter piece of trash. Along The Shadow is basically a harder, more aggressive Circa Survive than a throwback to the Translating The Name days.

A lot changed with Saosin. Yes, Anthony Green is back but guitarist Justin Shekoski left to join The Used full-time. People don’t give Justin enough credit. Being down a guitarist, going from two down to one, is a big deal. The sound will never be the same no matter what you do in post production.

Along The Shadow has a handful of variants; opaque orange, clear, purple/clear swirl and black. The purple/clear swirl is a $hit Topic exclusive while the orange and clear were Epitaph web store (Kings Road Merch) exclusive. All the variants except for black have a small circle sticker on the cover indicating color of the vinyl. So if you see a copy without a sticker it’s on black vinyl. An interesting note with some of the variant, some of the colors were put up for pre-order, then some disappeared only to reappear ether days later or in entirely different continental web stores. Kings Road Merch has separate North American and European web stores mainly for shipping purposes. Ironically it was actually cheaper to order from the Europe web store if you lived in the U.S..

All copies come in a gatefold jacket with a spot gloss finish. The spot gloss also continues inside the gatefold jacket and back cover, it’s not just on the cover. There is no insert, and there are no lyrics included with this release. The only thing printed inside the gatefold jacket are the credits and more artwork. Along with the sticker indicating vinyl color, there is also a small, silver square hype sticker affixed to the top right corner. A download card is included with all copies for high quality 320 kbps MP3s.

Here is the full pressing info, which is exclusive to this blog and is the first time appearing anywhere. Opaque orange is limited to 1,000 copies, clear is limited to 1,000 copies and purple/clear swirl is limited to 500 copies and black is limited to 2,000 copies. Amazing what can happen with a simple email huh? Before posting this info here the only color to having pressing info released was oddly, the $hit Topic variant. So far, as of posting this, the only variant to sell out is the clear.

There was some miscommunication that didn’t get completely squared away with the $hit Topic exclusive either, so it’s not completely smooth sailing. Their exclusive color was initially stated to be opaque orange by a $hit Topic rep. He was called out for being wrong and then corrected himself to say it was going to be opaque blue, which also turned out to be wrong. This incorrect blue information is even printed on the barcode stickers on all the $hit Topic copies, despite it actually being purple/clear swirl with a sticker on the cover saying as much. The $hit Topic rep that repeatedly said “blue” “blue” “blue” never made a peep about the color once someone posted a photo of the record actually being purple instead of blue.

Retail price on this is $20, but of course $hit Topic has to gouge your wallet further and charge $25 for their exclusive variant. Since it’s been so long after the album’s release you should be able to snag this for well under $20. I got this for $12.63 shipped.