The Offspring – Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) 7″

The Offspring has been quite for a few years now. In 2020 they released a Christmas tune, a rendition of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home). It’s not quite new material; in fact, it’s the second cover they have released in the past two years. Their last new material was a one off original song for the made for TV movie Sharknado, which goes by the same title. And as you would guess, the song is just as cheesy as the Sharknado film franchise.

You can never tell what you’ll get when a band decides to release a Christmas song or album. Will they try to meld it into their own musical stylings, try to stay as true to the original as possible, or maybe just do a stripped down acoustic version. The Offspring opted to bang out this classic Christmas song in their own stlyings, and they did a pretty good job with it. The song came out of nowhere, and wasn’t hyped much, it was just dropped; to the point where I had no idea a 7” was released for the song.

Thankfully I didn’t have to play catch up and pay exorbitant prices on the secondary market. Initially the label’s (Concord Records) official web store devoted solely to this single was the only place selling it, and later on it made its way out to indie record stores and a handful of select distros. Which is where I bought it. Prices on this are around $10.

You may see copies pop up on ebay for upwards of $50. Do not fall for these, at least not yet. The ones being listed for that high amount include an autographed cover/insert, which was something the band sold for $24 before shipping. As mentioned above, initially this was the only place to buy the 7”. A test press bundle was also sold for a mere $100 (test press by itself was $80). The autographed copies were limited to the first 300 orders. They’re not hand numbered.

I’m not sure if the label sold non-autographed copies, or cut it off after the 300 were sold. The line “limited to the first 300 copies” implies more were available. The point I’m trying to get at is the label could have ripped people off had they sold more than 300 at the $24 price point considering retail copies are selling for around $10. Everything has been sold out from the label for a long time however.

All copies were pressed on red vinyl, with the b-side featuring an etching of the band’s skull logo. They do not come sealed, but come in a poly sleeve with a hype sticker affixed to it. My copy came with the sticker on upside down and not along the opening side of the sleeve. A small blunder on the plant’s part, but a major annoyance on my end. No download card/code is included with physical copies. Though I’m not sure if the label sent out download codes to anyone who ordered from them. Pressing info has not been released for the entire run. The 300 number only refers to amount of autographed copies.

Seeing as it’s now a few months after the holiday season, chances are this 7” will linger for a while. I already some distros marking this down by pretty much 50%, and they sold out of them after doing so. So if you’re still looking for a copy of this, you may be able to score one for below retail price. Discogs may actually be your best bet, because ebay is flooded with overpriced ones as of posting this. Many indie record stores have turned to Discogs amidst the pandemic as another online outlet to sell their inventory. My advice would be to monitor prices and inventory levels so you can buy one before this 7” becomes harder to find; and therefore more expensive.

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Senses Fail/Saves The Day – Through Being Ghoul 7″

A release that caught lots of people by surprise was a split featuring Senses Fail and Saves The Day. Buddy from Senses Fail was teasing new music for a bit before this split was released, but there was no formal announcement that there would be a 7” released. It just went on sale at midnight EST, on a week night, which is an awesome time to launch a pre-order or regular on sale if you ask everyone east of the Rockies. Had there actually been an announcement saying what would be coming out, it would have made things a bit better. Especially considering what wound up happening.

Because this split 7” was put up for sale/pre-order at midnight eastern time, it sold out pretty early that morning. So by the time the majority of people woke up, it was no longer available. Personally, by the time I even heard about this it was already sold out, and that was around 6 am east coast time. This is a Halloween themed split, I get it, but Halloween lasts for 24 hours. It could have, and should have, gone on sale at a reasonable time.

To make matters worse, this split is overpriced. Yes, I know I bought it and my complaints at that point are meaningless. But that still doesn’t change the fact that a 7” should never cost close to $14 before shipping. Regardless of if it’s a split or if it features covers of a band not featured on the release. During the pandemic more and more bands and labels starting upping their prices. While understandable, many fans are hurting for income just as bad if not worse than artists. Yes, nobody was forced to buy this; but if you were compelled to for whatever reason, there wasn’t a cheaper option. In cases like this upcharging for colored vinyl or the rarer variant(s) is better, and almost seems justifiable.

I hinted at it above, but this is a Misfits covers release. Both bands cover Misfits songs, with each band getting their own side of the 7”, resulting in two songs each. Senses Fail is on the a-side, covering “We Are 138” and “Attitude.” Saves The Day is on the b-side covering “Some Kinda Hate” and “Where Eagles Dare.” Admittedly, Misfits is not my cup of tea. So this split was bought to keep collections complete and/or going.

If you’re a variant collector, I feel sorry for you, because there are four of them for this split 7”. And with the already hefty price tag for a single copy, and no bundle option for all four colors available, you wound up paying over $55 before shipping to get all four variants. And as a slap in the face to everyone who bought a physical copy of this release; both the physical download card included with the record and the download you’re e-mailed are for crappy 160 kbps MP3s.

Here is the pressing info. Since this is a split release, the bands apparently each got two variants out of the four total, despite this only being available from one, newly registered web store. All four variants are limited to 250 copies each. The Senses Fail variants are deep purple w/ “heavy” black splatter, and black & silver a-side/b-side. The Saves The Day variants are “Grimace” purple & neon green a-side/b-side, and “Halloween” orange.

Some more pertinent info about this split 7” are the it’s fetching crazy amounts on the secondary market. Some variants are going for wayyyy more than others, despite them all being limited to the same amount. And it’s not based on the fact that less or more of them are popping up for sale. There is a steady stream of them, as unfortunately lots of people appeared to have bought these with the sole intent of flipping them. To complicate the pricing on the secondary market is the fact that these cost so much initially. So just to break even flippers have to get over $25 for every copy. A useful tip is to just play the waiting game at this point. Copies have randomly popped up for sale in the past few weeks at the split’s Through Being Ghoul web store. Which is when/where I bought a copy for retail price. Wait till after the holiday season, after Valentine’s Day would be best. Yes, it’s longer out from the point the split sold out, but by that point most of the nut jobs who desperately need or want a copy will have filtered out. Prices may actually come down because the demand dropped, and I don’t see the prices climbing higher than the $85 benchmark some idiot set.

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