Brian Fallon released his fourth solo album amidst the pandemic. Night Divine is an interesting album in terms of concept. It’s not an actual concept album, but the idea behind the album is that it’s a mixture of hymns and traditional Christmas songs rangin from “Amazing Grace” to “Silent Night.” The inclusion of hymns like “Amazing Grace” exclude this album from being a holiday album though.Pressed as a single LP, the record is only pressed on “natural” vinyl with black swirls. If I’ve ever heard a bigger oxymoron revolving around vinyl records it’s that anything regarding it can be called “natural.” The record is clear with black swirls/smoke. Pressing info has not been released and likely never will. All copies also come in a single pocket jacket with gold ink finishing. The gold ink is only used on the crescent moon (interesting choice for a Christian hymn inspired album) on the cover art. Each copy has the same gold circle hype sticker. An insert is included but there is no download card/code.This may be a hard release to find as time goes on. I for one know it’s difficult because it’s not widely distributed. So buying online can be tricky unless you order from Brian Fallon’s web store (sold out as of posting this) or an indie record store. The pandemic might have impacted supply chains to the point where distros simply couldn’t get copies in stock reliably. Retail price on this is around $22. I was happy to find a copy online from Target for $15. Tack on their latest buy two get one free on media items sale and I got this even cheaper.
Brian Fallon released his third solo album, Local Honey, in 2020, and there was quite a bit of confusion surrounding the vinyl release. It all stems from the label (Lesser Known Records – which is owned by Fallon) choosing to do different variants that are all the basically the same color. Things got messier when it came time to figure out where these variants were being sold, and further details like if they are exclusive to certain outlets. As the marketing and distribution firm (Thirty Tigers) supporting this album provided convoluted and downright wrong information.
Let’s get this out of the way now before delving deeper into the finer details of the vinyl release. Local Honey is not a great album. I know that is not the popular opinion, but that is my opinion. That’s not saying Local Honey is a bad album. That’s not the case by any stretch of the imagination. Local Honey has a more mellow vibe than Painkillers and even Sleepwalkers, to the point where it’s almost boring. But you could see this transition happening on Sleepwalkers. It’s simply not my cup of tea, especially by comparison. You can also put it this way; Painkillers is more of a Gaslight Anthem album whereas Local Honey isn’t. Some people are also comparing this to a Horrible Crowes, which is apt. What further hurts Local Honey is that it’s a ridiculously short album; clocking in at around 32 minutes, with only eight songs.
As expected the demand for Fallon’s second solo album was high. To the point where despite the first pressing not selling out, a second pressing was done. The first pressing is where the confusion lies, and that pressing is what will be focused on in this entry. But if people would use common sense, or simply their eyes should they have normal vision, you could easily tell the difference between the two variants.
First up is the indie record store exclusive, which is on “honey.” The other variant is on translucent orange, and is not exclusive to anywhere. People initially assumed it was exclusive to Brian Fallon’s web store, and some went as far as to think it might be a pre-order exclusive. But once Amazon put up copies that second notion was squashed. People were also apparently led to believe that there was a black variant, but that is completely false. There was also a mention of someone receiving a copy from Amazon that had “clear orange” printed on the hype sticker, and I have questions about that person’s literacy skills. Now, after I explained all that, more confusion was sprinkled in about a “caramel” variant exclusive to the UK and/or possibly Europe as well. This turned out to also not be true, as the “caramel” variant is the same as the indie exclusive “honey” variant.
As just hinted, each variant has its own hype sticker, which denotes the variant. The indie exclusive “honey” has “honey” printed on it, while the mass retail variant has “translucent orange” printed on it. Once copies started making their way out into the world, Banquet Records tweeted out a picture of both of the variants side by side so people could tell the difference. The second pressing is planned to be released in October 2020 as part of the Ten Bands One Cause project benefiting Gilda’s Club, and as such will be pressed on pink vinyl. But the 2020 edition of the project will only feature 4 records instead of 10 because COVID-19 now apparently puts restrictions on how many different titles you can press on vinyl. Despite things like the Hey Arnold soundtrack getting re-presses.
All copies come housed in a gatefold jacket, with the record coming in a printed dust sleeve. There is spot gloss on the jacket and dust sleeve, which is everything that is printed in the gold ink. A download card/code is also included, but its for awful 160 kbps MP3s. Pressing info for any variant from either of the pressings has not been officially released. Yes, I’m aware that numbers are being floated around out there, but I do not trust them (the numbers), and as such I won’t re-post them here. Retail price on this is at least $22, which is steep for a single LP.
Typically I try to hold off on buying new releases until there is a sale that drops them beneath the price caps that I try to stay below. This method has worked out very well for me for years now. But with Local Honey, the desire to have a copy from the first pressing outweighed my desire to save a couple bucks. So the pressure was on a bit to find a copy from my usual go to places to ensure I actually got a copy from the first pressing instead of being sent a copy from the second because that is what the distro had and decided to send me without noting it was a different pressing.
That may sound odd, but the distro I lean on for good deals does a lot of shady things, like literally not refunding people their entire purchase price hoping the customer doesn’t notice. And it’s like pulling teeth dealing with their customer service, and this was pre-pandemic. But their deals are too good to pass up, they basically have a monopoly on the entertainment media distribution business, and I’m sure they’re well aware of this and is part of the reason why they’re shady, and getting shadier by the month.
With The Gaslight Anthem seemingly on a hiatus, Brian Fallon has kept himself busy by diving head first into his solo career by releasing two albums since Gaslight’s most recent album was released in 2014. His newest solo album, Sleepwalkers, was released in 2018 and picks up with where his previous effort, Painkillers, left off. Though if I had to choose one album, it would be Painkillers.
With that said Sleepwalkers is not a bad album by any stretch. The album’s one downfall is its length; with every song close to if not much longer than four minutes. Unless you’re Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin or Lynyrd Skynyrd, the sweet spot for any song is three-tofour minutes in my opinion. Anything longer than that and interest can start to fade, and when every song on an album is longer than that, it’s tough to listen to the entire thing with an earnest ear.
Sleepwalkers was pressed as a double LP (speaking again to the 12 track album’s run time) with two distinct pressings spread across some variants. In this case, when I say pressings it corresponds to a U.S. and Euro pressing; not a first and second pressing. The U.S. pressing is the only one with variants, two in total. Pressing info has not been released for either variant, and it appears as if neither is limited. There is a deluxe variant on red translucent vinyl and a standard variant on black vinyl. The red is/was exclusive to Brian Fallon’s official web store, and comes with a series of 12 exclusive art prints.
One lame thing regarding the purchase options on Brian’s web store is that only bundles are available regardless of variant; you can’t buy just the record. The deluxe bundle costs $35 before shipping ($45 if you want it autographed along with a t-shirt) and the standard bundle costs $30 before shipping (no autograph option but includes same t-shirt). All bundles come with a poster, but one catch with the poster though, only the deluxe bundle comes with it autographed. Regarding the price, if you were to buy this anywhere other than via Brian’s web store, the price would be between $20-$25.
There seems to be some confusion regarding the Euro pressing, as some people think there is a separate German pressing aside from the broad Euro pressing. There is only one Euro pressing. It’s not a UK pressing, nor is there a German pressing of any kind. It’s one broad pressing meant for distribution across all of Europe. Though that is not to say someone outside of Europe can’t order it for import. All copies from the Euro pressing are on black vinyl. Where the confusion comes in is due to the German exclusive bonus 7” that was included for free if you ordered from either German distros Greenhell or Flight 13.
The confusion/misinformation does not stop there either, as some sites have the aforementioned bonus 7” being limited to 500 copies. Pressing info for the German exclusive bonus 7” has not been officially released, anywhere. The only concrete info on the bonus 7” is that it’s pressed on translucent brown with black marble/translucent blood red with black marble vinyl, and it’s a promo. The track listing for the 7” includes “Forget Me Not” on the a-side with an exclusive acoustic version of the song on the b-side.
As a U.S. resident, if you were to buy the Euro pressing from one of the aforementioned German distros, you would have to fork over a good chunk of change. After the exchange rate it comes out to close to $40 before international shipping. As of posting this copies of the album including the bonus 7” are long sold out directly from distros, but Greenhell occasionally sells copies on Discogs including the 7”, and from personal experience it costs around $60 buying it off Discogs from them after shipping.
Despite the record being a double LP, only the deluxe edition form the U.S. pressing comes in a gatefold jacket, all the other variants/pressings come in a cheap, flimsy single pocket jacket. An insert is included with all copies though, but no download card/code since this is an Island Records release. Island records seems to be one of the pioneering major labels to not include a digital download card/code in any of their vinyl releases as of 2017. And the music industry wonders why they lose money.
Brian Fallon’s debut solo album, Painkillers, is exactly what you’d expect if you have been following his career to this point. A perfect blend of The Gaslight Anthem and The Horrible Crowes. Some people are disappointed with Painkillers, but I have no idea what those people were expecting.
Painkillers essentially has two separate pressings. You could call it variants, but I would go as far as saying separate pressings. But technically, they are part of the first pressing. There is an LP pressing and a 7″ box set pressing, both of which are featured here. Both versions were put up for pre-order at the same time, with the box set getting a much later release date than the standard LP version. The 7″ box set was slate for May or June, and for once a record was released in the early portion of an estimate. The LP was released around the album’s release date of March 9, there were not any delays with it. However, with that said, there may have been a problem with the pressing that caused the distributor or label to pull it. It completely disappeared from many stores and couldn’t be ordered online anywhere for about 2 months. Of course if you looked hard enough you could find it online, but places like Amazon, Interpunk, other online distros and my local record store had it out of stock.
I haven’t heard any complaints about the pressing and there aren’t any glaring errors with it like the wrong music being pressed on the LP (yes, that does happen) or horrible typos anywhere. I asked my local store whether they would get in more copies, fearing the record may have actually gone OOP, and was told it was on hold in their system. Hold essentially meaning un-orderable but the title will be made available again at some point in the future.
The LP version is pressed on black vinyl and features the standard album. It comes with a download card (for WAV files, so be prepared for about a 500 MB file) and an insert. The insert has the lyrics printed on it, which go onto both sides and is divided up by side. The liner notes are printed on the side with the Side B’s lyrics. Pressing info was, and likely never will, be released. Expect there to be thousands of these out there and if it ever does go OOP for it only to be briefly as it will probably be re-pressed to stay in print for the foreseeable future. Given this distributor pull, the record did not get a second pressing during this time. Everything matches up between copies from before the pull and after; the barcode, matrix, etc.
The 7″ box set version comes with seven 7″ records, slid into a slip case box. There are two album tracks per record, with the last record in the set containing the two box set exclusive bonus tracks. These bonus tracks are “The Blues, Mary” and “Digging In The Dirt.” The box set version does not come with a download card, and you don’t get the bonus tracks via the download emailed either, so getting MP3s of the exclusive bonus tracks will be tough. It’s a pretty lame move on Island Records’ part, as you’re already spending $65 on the box set the least they could do is include a download card containing the exclusive bonus tracks. If you order the box set directly from Brian Fallon’s web store you will be sent a download code for the studio album only.
Each 7″ in the box set has unique cover art. They don’t come all come in a jacket with the same artwork, plain sleeves or stock label sleeves. It’s a nice touch, a similar one done with The Gaslight Anthem singles collection 7″ box set, The Killers Hot Fuss 7″ box set (although they all had a similar running theme) and the Taking Back Sunday Happiness Is 7″ box set. The center labels are also color coded to match the colors on the respective jacket. I don’t know how many copies 7″ box set were pressed on, but they’re all on black vinyl.
The 7″ box set is available from a multitude of places. You can buy several options from the official Brian Fallon store ; just the box set for $55 plus shipping, the box set with an autographed poster (same artwork as the booklet cover) for $65 or the box set with the autographed poster and t-shirt (same image as poster) for $85. Island Records’ web store is also selling the box set (without any of the extra goodies) for $55 before shipping. Many indie records stores are also carrying the box set, but they all seem to be charging $65 for it. So the whole sale price of the box set is obviously $55 and stores are marking it up $10. I bought the box set from Amoeba during one of their monthly 15% off sales, so I got it for cheaper than I would have had I bought it from either of the official online stores.
After having the worst Record Store Day (RSD) ever last year, where I missed out on getting the most stuff on my list than ever before, I decided to head over to my store earlier than I ever have. Prior to last year the most I’ve ever missed out on getting from my local store was one thing, whereas I usually get everything on my list with ease after lining up 3 hours max before opening. But last year I missed out on 3, and I wasn’t sure if it was just because the line formed earlier at my store (I was out of state in 2014 and couldn’t see how the line formed) for some reason or simply because Deja Entendu was being re-pressed. It turned out to be the later as I could have gotten on line by 3 a.m. (which is still hours earlier than my norm) instead of midnight and been fine. But I wasn’t going to complain about being eighth in line, my best position to date, as I slept for those 3 hours anyway.
With that out of the way here is the Brian Fallon – Georgia 10″. There were 2,000 copies pressed on black vinyl and every copy comes with a white rectangle ‘RSD exclusive’ hype sticker on the cover. Three new songs are on this 10″, some are demos that have made the rounds for a while credited to multiple different artists Brian Fallon has been a part of; either The Gaslight Anthem, Molly And The Zombies or Brian Fallon. The songs are (in order) “Tin Pan Alley,” “Low Love” and “Georgia.” These songs were likely b-sides from Fallon’s debut solo album and recorded during those sessions, but no official word on what these songs were originally meant for. They’re all good songs, but it quite obvious why they were left off Painkillers if in fact they are b-sides form that album.
No download code is included, which sadly is a running trend with majority f RSD releases this year. Nothing I bought this year had a download card/code, no matter the label releasing it. The only thing that did was the Nirvana Tribute comp released by Robotic Empire, and that wasn’t an official RSD release.
I’ll add this note in here from my experiences on RSD regarding this Brian Fallon 10″. I was astonished at how many copies my store had. I was part of the first group let into the store and they easily had at least 50 copies of it, likely far more. They had at least 20 copies out in the display where employees could grab them for you (my store does it menu style) and another 10 or so copies on a rack anyone could grab for themselves. Plus there were at least two, maybe even three boxes full of them on the floor. Granted my store is in The Gaslight Anthem/Brian Fallon’s home state, but that is a completely ridiculous amount of copies for a single RSD release for one store. To the point where I feel bad for other people around the country because by my store getting in that many copies it meant there was far less supply to get divvied up amongst all the other stores . And for better or worse they sold out of every single copy on RSD, I know this because it was not part of the RSD leftovers they put up online the next morning.
Even though The Horrible Crowes had only played one show prior to this live album being recorded, it was someone’s brilliant idea for the band to release a live album. Now in no way does that mean this live album is terrible, it’s just not the most logical thing to do. The album was recorded at, as the title suggests, the Troubadour in Los Angeles. Continuing the not enough to make due theme going on here, since The Horrible Crowes have only released one studio album to date, this live album is that sole album played front to back with the exception of two cover songs mixed in.
The record was pressed as a double LP and comes packaged with a DVD of the performance. So not only was the band’s second show recorded for audio but video as well. The show also aired on some TV networks well before this live album was announced. A download card is included as well. The album comes in a gatefold jacket with no inserts. There are three variants for this record, with two being for a U.S. pressing and the third being an European exclusive. There were 500 copies pressed on blue/black swirl that was/is only available in various bundles through Side One Dummy, 1000 copies on black and 1000 copies on orange, which is the Euro exclusive.
The aforementioned bundles started out as expensive ones that included everything (CD, vinyl, shirt, print) but since I already bought a bundle from the band’s last release that included a shirt and print I have no need for more of those. I wasn’t going to spend more money just to get the rarest variant. Apparently I’m not alone as the bundle exclusive color is still available.
This is a split featuring a band, Lanemeyer, that out of its ashes spawned a fairly popular band and arguably a huge star in today’s scene. Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem fame was at one point, albeit briefly, in Lanemeyer. And some members of the band also went on to form A Day At The Fair, who had a brief stint on Drive Thru Records/Rushmore Records. The other band on this split, Emanuel Nice, went on to change their name to Emanuel, who some people may recognize after their brief flirtation with popularity back in the early and mid 2000’s.
There were 500 copies of this split pressed, I believe all on red vinyl. It was released by ? Records.
I was under the assumption that The Horrible Crowes’ 2012 Record Store Day release would be called “Live At Fingerprints,” but when I picked it up at my store i was surprised to find it simply titled “Record Store Day 7″.” The artwork was also far different from what was initially released, as rather than a cartoonish drawing of Brian Fallon and Ian Perkins with crows heads, it’s a candid photograph of Fallon and Perkins.
As implied by the original titled, the songs were recorded live at Fingerprints, a record store in Long Beach, CA. There were 1,000 copies pressed, a Fingerprints exclusive on blood red limited to 300 copies and black limited 700 copies, which was made available to all other stores. I’m not a big fan of the regional or certain store exclusive colors. While it is a special thing for the store the songs were record in, it penalizes variant collectors who don’t happen to live anywhere near southern California. It also further perpetuates flipping. The blood red and black colors continues the theme going with Horrible Crowes vinyl releases, as all of their releases have been pressed on blood red or black vinyl.
The Horrible Crowes’ latest and second overall 7″ is not officially released until February 21, 2012, but Side One Dummy started shipping out copies the week before the release date in order for them to reach everyone on the release date. The 7″ features an a cover of the INXS song “Never Tear Us Apart” on the b-side, which I believe is exclusive to this 7″ and was unreleased up to this point.
The 7″ has a U.S. pressing and a UK pressing. The U.S. pressing was pressed on three colors; blood red limited to 300 copies, clear yellow limited to 300 copies and black limited to 400 copies. Red copies were exclusive to Side One Dummy, yellow copies were exclusive to Shit Radio Cast and black copies were widely available as they were distributed everywhere. The colored copies for the U.S. pressing sold out during the pre-order phase. The record for the U.S. pressing comes in a printed dust sleeve rather than a regular paper dust sleeve. The UK pressing is apparently done on the same colors as the U.S. pressing, but were pressed at a plant in Europe. Pressing info for the UK pressing has not been released yet to my knowledge. I believe Banquet Records is the exclusive retailer for the UK pressing.
Initially it was advertised the b-side for this 7″ would be a cover of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream,” but that turned out not to be the case. Side One Dummy apologized for the mixup and stated that the Katy Perry cover would be featured on a future The Horrible Crowes release.
This 7″ was only available through a deluxe package deal pre-order for The Horrible Crowes debut full length Elsie through Side One Dummy Records. There were only 330 copies pressed, I believe all on blood red vinyl, the same as the Elsie LP. Since the color of this 7″ was never announced or made known, I am not sure if there are other colors out there, especially since my blog is one of the first, if not the first place to post photos of the record. I am not sure if there is an official title for this 7″ either. Also included in the deluxe package was a t-shirt and a screen-printed poster, both which turn out features the album artwork for this 7″.
If you are familiar with the Circa Survive b-sides 7″, this Horrible Crowes 7″ features the same packaging. This 7″ also features an exclusive track on b-side, “Joey,” which is a Concrete Blonde cover. Each copy of the record is individually numbered, which is printed underneath the flap on the bottom half of the jacket, and only becomes visible when the envelope type packaging is. opened.
Stitches and Grooves 