Blink-182 – California (Deluxe Edition)

Welcome to the craziness that is the deluxe edition of Blink-182’s California. There are so many variants it was tough to keep up, and then it seemed like more and more and more variants kept popping up randomly every couple months. There are jacket variants and record variants. Loads of exclusives, and insane price tags to go along with a lot of them.

Let’s start with how the deluxe edition differs from the standard/regular edition. The deluxe is a double LP in a gatefold jacket, and essentially has a whole other album included as bonus tracks. There are 12 additional tracks found on the deluxe edition, which are a mixture of b-sides left off the firs studio album and brand new songs written specifically for this deluxe edition. All of these additional tracks are found on the second LP, so sides C and D. The cover art remains the same between the two different editions.

When the deluxe edition was first put up for pre-order there were five variants; four of which were available for purchase directly, so you were guaranteed to receive said color. The fifth was a special variant randomly given out in orders. The four variants available for direct purchase were green, yellow, pink and blue, and were all pressed on 180 gram vinyl. The special variant was gold metallic, which was limited to 182 copies and hand numbered on the front of the jacket. Pressing info for the green, yellow, pink and blue variants has not been released and likely never will be. They’re all sold out though.

All of the aforementioned variants; the green, yellow, pink, blue and gold were exclusive to the band’s web store. They all came housed in unique gatefold jackets, which was also exclusive to all the band’s variants (notice how I didn’t say band’s web store. Which is an important note; keeping reading below for full details). It’s a pop up jacket, so when you open the gatefold an image pops up. The artwork inside the gatefold differs from that which is found with all the other variants as well. I’m including a photo of the pop up gatefold in the gallery below, which was posted on social media by the band.

Another nice touch Blink’s store did with all their web store exclusive variants was ship them in mailers that had a color corresponding sticker on them. So green had a green sticker, yellow had a yellow sticker, and so on. The gold variant also came with an exclusive greeting card, which is signed by all three band members.

On top of these band web store exclusives, there is a mass retail variant on 180 gram black limited to an unknown amount, a Euro exclusive on pink/black marble limited to 2,000 copies (Banquet Records was the exclusive UK retailer of this variant) and an Australian and Canadian exclusive on yellow/black marble limited to an unknown amount

Those are all the variants from the first batch, which went up for sale before the deluxe edition’s release date, which was in May 2017. Not all the variants shipped at the same time, some were delayed, but only slightly, so there is not an exact release date. This is where things start to get a bit more confusing.

Some sites list the batches of the variants as different pressings. Since it’s impossible to know if they actually went back and pressed more copies after the initial run, I am not going to label them as separate pressings. Even more evidence for this is that it’s highly unlikely that a major label would order as few as 182 copies of one color in a separate order, only a few months apart from the larger order that included thousands of copies.

The first variant released after the initial batch of variants is a Chicago “pop up” store exclusive on teal/white marble limited to 182 hand numbered copies, with the pop up jacket. This variant was only available in a physical store front during the band’s run of Chicago shows in August 2017. It’s not exactly a tour exclusive, as you didn’t have to have tickets to a show in order to gain entry into the pop up shop. There was inevitably a line to get into the pop up shop well ahead of it opening, and this variant sold out that day. These surprising weren’t flipper gold, as only 10 or so have been sold on the secondary market, with the highest selling for $200 and the lowest for $55.

If that wasn’t enough, just in time for the holiday shopping season (November 2017), the band released two more variants; teal marble and royal marble. Both are limited to 182 copies. The royal marble is a royal blue base with white and black marbling, while the teal marble has only black marbling. Both of these variants come with the pop up jacket.

If you’re variant hunting, each of the variants come with color corresponding hype sticker. So green has a green sticker, gold has a gold sticker, and so on. It gets a bit confusing with the Chicago pop up exclusive though, as it has a white sticker. And I’m not sure what color the royal marble and teal marble hype stickers are.

All copies, regardless of variant, come with the same printed dust sleeves and a download card/code as well, which gives you access to every track on the deluxe edition. So the original California studio album plus all the extra tracks found exclusively on the deluxe edition. All in high quality 320 kbps MP3 form. Though I will say that my download card did not work at first, getting an error message so the card expired, so I had to contact the card’s host customer service to have this issue fixed, because while I know some labels put expiration dates on their download cards/codes, there was no explicitly stated expiration date on the download card/code included with this record. Despite the fact I bought list well over two years after the deluxe edition’s release.

Retail price on this was ridiculous; between $30-35 before shipping. As such it took quite a long time for prices to start falling, and in reality, they haven’t really fallen far if at all. I bought a copy in June 2019; yes you read that right, June 2019, and still paid way more than I wanted to for it. Mainly because at that point in time, copies were becoming harder and harder to find from distros I rely on for good sales. And despite all the variants, the deluxe edition was slowly but surely going OOP entirely. So I had to bite the bullet and bought this for $23 shipped.

With all the variants, and many of them being insanely limited, prices for some of them on the secondary market are completely absurd. Copies of the gold variant topped out at $600. The Chicago pop up variant went for a high of $182 (though I have sneaky suspicion there were shill bids in order to get to that ironic price). Copies of the royal marble and teal marble (w/ black marble) each went for $100. Even copies of the green, yellow, pink and blue each went for $78 apiece.

Ace Enders – Silver And Gold 10″ lathe (1st Press)

In what has become an annual tradition, intheclouds Records once again did their 12 Lathes Of Christmas, releasing a new, extremely limited lathe one day at a time for the 12 days leading into Christmas. Each day gets a new release, with the amount made increasing with each successive day. So the first release on Day 1 is limited to 1 per day, the second release on Day 2 is limited to 2 per day, and so on. By the time the 12 days are over the Day 1 release becomes limited to only 12 total copies, but on the other hand, the releases on Day 6 and Day 7 have the most copies; with 42 total copies of each.

Up until this year (2017) there was nothing released that I had any interest in. But this year there was one I immediately wanted, and another I become more and more interested in to the point where I finally caved and bought one on the last day. The release I wanted immediately was the Ace Enders lathe for his Christmas EP entitled Silver And Gold. The EP was first released in 2015, but didn’t have a physical release until now. The eight songs are crammed onto a 10” lathe cut record. The cover art, like the title of the EP, is inspired by the animated Christmas classic Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.

This Ace Enders lathe was the Day 7 release, so it is limited to only 42 total copies. All copies are hand numbered /42 on the back of the sleeve. The sleeve is just a piece of glossy printer paper with a quarter fold. So everything about these lathes is completely handmade at home. Each 10” lathe cost $16 before shipping, which was an additional $6.

All this hype for the 12 Lathes Of Christmas and all the love for intheclouds and I just don’t get it. I was not impressed at all. Another lathe label, Little Elephant, does a much better job. And charges less for their lathes, when they come in not just real jackets, but upgraded jackets made out of thick card stock  Oh, and their jackets are screen printed too. At least for some batches of jackets they used, Little Elephant has since mved on to different style jckets, but they’re still legit single pocket jackets. All for $15. Little Elephant also has to record and master each live session they release. So they just don’t have a lathe, they have to invest in both audio and video recording equipment, plus any editing software and equipment they need.

All the visuals with these intheclouds 12 Days Of Christmas lathes are printed on a laser jet printer. While it’s not a grab your pitchforks and torches complaint, the hand numbering also doesn’t make much sense. I ordered the Ace Enders lathe the second day it was available, and received number 32, while I ordered the Madison lathe the final day of the 12 Lathes Of Christmas and received number 11. When the Madison lathe did not sell out a couple of the days, but not all of them for every day like the Ace Enders lathe.

Due to the nature of this release series, with people ordering one record a day for 12 days for the simplest example, shipping refunds for those who ordered multiple lathes spread across multiple days were issued, but it took many months anyone to actually receive a refund. And Some people who received shipping notifications before me are actually still waiting for the packages to be dropped off at the post office. From what I remember hearing about the 12 Lathes Of Christmas from years past, they all ran much smoother than this year’s. Considering how poorly 2017’s series went, it’s no surprise intheclouds did not do the 12 Lathes Of Christmas in 2018.

In late 2023 Near Mint Records released a re-press/proper pressing of this record on 12″ vinyl. Though this release/pressing is under the I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody’s Business moniker. It features new/alternate cover art.

Madison – For The First Time In Years… I’m Leaving You 10″ lathe

In what has become an annual tradition, intheclouds Records once again did their 12 Lathes Of Christmas, releasing a new, extremely limited lathe one day at a time for the 12 days leading into Christmas. Each day gets a new release, with the amount made increasing with each successive day. So the first release on Day 1 is limited to 1 per day, the second release on Day 2 is limited to 2 per day, and so on. By the time the 12 days are over the Day 1 release becomes limited to only 12 total copies, but on the other hand, the releases on Day 6 and Day 7 have the most copies; with 42 total copies of each.

Up until this year (2017) there was nothing released that I had any interest in. But this year there was one I immediately wanted, and another I become more and more interested in to the point where I finally caved and bought one on the last day. The release I eventually caved and bought was the Madison lathe for their EP originally released in 2004 entitled For The First Time In Years… I’m Leaving You. Madison is a band that hardly anyone has heard of in all likelihood. They were a local band from my home state of New Jersey that was just starting down the road to hitting it big, but it was over almost as quickly as it began as they were caught up in the downfall of Drive-Thru Records, which ultimately ended their careers. They called it quits after this EP, their one and only release. Never releasing anything on their new label; the Drive-Thru affiliate/sub label Rushmore Records, aside from one new song on one comp.

For anyone curious, Buddy Nielsen from Senses Fail does guest vocals on one song on this EP entitled, “Gang Fights With Irish Accents.” So if you’re a completionist nut who also happens to be a Senses Fail collector/fan, this lathe might become your white while. Madison’s sound was a blend of Underoath, Thursday, Senses Fail (From The Depths Of Dreams era) and Reggie And The Full Effect. And they looked the part of most scene bands from the early 2000s.

This Madison lathe was the Day 5 release, so it is limited to only 40 total copies. All copies are hand numbered /40 on the back of the sleeve. The sleeve is just a piece of glossy printer paper with a quarter fold. So everything about these lathes is completely handmade at home. Each 10” lathe cost $16 before shipping, which was an additional $6.

All this hype for the 12 Lathes Of Christmas and all the love for intheclouds and I just don’t get it. I was not impressed at all. Another lathe label, Little Elephant, does a much better job. And charges less for their lathes, when they come in not just real jackets, but upgraded jackets made out of thick card stock  Oh, and their jackets are screen printed too. At least for some batches of jackets they used, Little Elephant has since mved on to different style jckets, but they’re still legit single pocket jackets. All for $15. Little Elephant also has to record and master each live session they release. So they just don’t have a lathe, they have to invest in both audio and video recording equipment, plus any editing software and equipment they need.

All the visuals with these intheclouds 12 Days Of Christmas lathes are printed on a laser jet printer. While it’s not a grab your pitchforks and torches complaint, the hand numbering also doesn’t make much sense. I ordered the Ace Enders lathe the second day it was available, and received number 32, while I ordered the Madison lathe the final day of the 12 Lathes Of Christmas and received number 11. When the Madison lathe did not sell out a couple of the days, but not all of them for every day like the Ace Enders lathe.

Due to the nature of this release series, with people ordering one record a day for  12 days for the simplest example, shipping refunds for those who ordered multiple lathes spread across multiple days were issued, but it took many months anyone to actually receive a refund.  And Some people who received shipping notifications before me are actually still waiting for the packages to be dropped off at the post office. From what I remember hearing about the 12 Lathes Of Christmas from years past, they all ran much smoother than this year’s. Considering how poorly 2017’s series went, it’s no surprise intheclouds did not do the 12 Lathes Of Christmas in 2018.