RSD 2013 Pt. 3: Thelonius Skull Crisis

Here are the left overs for my RSD 2013 buys. Here is the Thelonius King 7" by Blu. I wasn't really excited about this one as I haven't been very impressed by Blu's latest releases. However, I didn't even realize that RA The Rugged Man was on this track as well. What a pleasant surprise. In all actually, this single is a serious banger and Rugged Man absolutely murders his verse on it. Out of /700 on black vinyl. Glad I got it! Check out the video for it below:

Next was the Earth Crisis 7". I have never been a big Earth Crisis fan so I guess it's whatever. I'd rather have it then not have it, in case some day I suddenly get into Earth Crisis. Out of /900 on red vinyl. 

I almost didn't get this copy of the Misfits and Lemonheads split. The super tacky cover art really turned me off, but now I feel good about it. I must be honest with you, I have never really even heard of the Lemonheads. I was really impressed with their acoustic cover of this classic track though. 

RECORD STORE DAY 2013 WRAP UP:

I guess now that I look at the pictures of the stuff I got, it doesn't feel like RSD was all that bad. However, the day of was a pretty shitty experience. My frustration levels were off the charts. I essentially waited in the line above at Streetlight Records in San Jose, CA for almost 2 and a half hours by the time I paid and got to my car. RSD has become a big deal and brings every bozo out of the woodwork that never goes to a record store all year long. I would put my paycheck on it that probably 90% of the people in that line don't even own a record player or give a shit about any of the music. I saw flipper after flipper walking out with shit I wanted and it was just so frustrating. Now, I can either not go next year and boycott it, or I can show up hours early like other people do and be patient...

But to me, it is more about the big picture of how big vinyl collecting has become. I made a conscious decision over 10 years ago to buy strictly vinyl. At the time, I could walk into my local record store and find all kinds of great shit all day long for killer prices. Now, the prices on everything are through the fucking roof and it will only get worse. Until the fad ends and all these sheeple move onto something else that is. It just really saddens me that people have to take a good thing like this and turn it into a chance to make a quick twenty bucks. All that being said, my dumb ass will probably be in line at like 6am next record store day. What did you guys pick up or miss out on this year???

RSD 2013 Pt. 1: I Shot Reagan

Record Store Day 2013. I am going to keep this particular post with no whining and my real feelings on RSD. I will wait for that for the next post. Ultimately, I got a few releases that I was really excited for, but some of the ones I wanted most I missed out on. I'll give the whole story for that later...

Now let's get down to business. Here is a 7" release by New York's late 90's/early 00's underground hip hop group Non Phixion. Non Phixion consisted of Ill Bill, Goretex and Sabac Red. Their single "I Shot Reagan" is a classic and was originally released in 1998 and is very hard to find. Needless to say, when I saw this was being released I was super excited about it. This release is probably still available at my record store since most of those main stream bozos have no clue what this shit is. People were trying to ask me about it in line and I was very cranky, so I ended up telling some jack ass "Heard of google?".

Here I am whining on my non whiney post. Stay focused. This is an AWESOME single. Two of Non Phixion's hardest songs, and I am super happy they re-released this. This was one of the only bright spots of my RSD 2013.

Non Phixion obviously got the name from the Suicidal Tendencies song. Ill Bill is a big fan of hardcore and constantly referencing to hardcore songs/bands in his lyrics. For all you hardcore kids out there, you'll probably find this still weeks from now in your RSD leftovers bin at your local store and it is worth it to pick up for your first hip hop 7". Out of all the rap shit I have, this is my FIRST 7", because it's typically always on 12". My only gripe with this release is that they didn't release it on red or yellow vinyl, which I think would have gone so great with the cover. 

MEGA MINDSET!

After record store day, Mindset put up their RSD version of Leave No Doubt limited out of /100 on their big cartel store. They announced it a few days before on facebook and set the specific time. I was at work that day, so I set an alarm and basically went on break to go sit by my phone for them to post it. They ended up posting it almost 20 minutes later, and I sat there for 20 minutes hitting "refresh" every 2 seconds on my phone. That was alot of work, but luckily I snagged one because these all sold out in just a few minutes. By the time I added it to my cart, paid for it, and then returned to the page to see if any were left they were already sold out. Couldn't have been more than 60 seconds.

Hand numbered #57 / 100. Cats rule.

It was supposed to be on purple, but mine looks almost identical to my blue copy. They should have named it "barely purple". My guess is that these were meant to be blue copies but some of them got mixed a little different and came out different, so they decided to make a special cover for them.

I posted all my pre order copies of this album with a more in depth review when it came out which you can see here. However, back in March I was able to see Mindset live on their California tour at the Gilman and score a copy of Leave No Doubt on white /100. As far as I know, so far only one of these has made it to ebay so far and it went for a pretty penny. Since these all sold on tour and never made it online for sale, time will tell if this becomes one of the more elusive copies to find of this album (even more so than the RSD pressing that is). 

Then, in April I saw React! was selling left overs of their Euro tour press on Clear vinyl out of /300. I had to snag one of them as well. 

Literally about a week before I ordered their RSD copy on purple, I took a group picture of what I thought would be the end of my Leave No Doubt collection, which is all "regular" pressings (no test pressings, record releases, special covers, etc). This is nowhere near the behemoth collection that Mike has got going on, but I am pretty happy with mine. Now I feel bad about being too lazy to drag all these records out again to take a picture with the RSD purple copy, but whatever. 

Pressing info: There have been multiple versions of the pressing info released, but it goes something like this:

Purple (RSD Cover) = /100

White (Cali Tour Press) = /100

Blue Smoke (Pre Order) = /200 or /250. (React has said both numbers.)

Clear (Euro Tour Press) = /250 or /300. (React has said both numbers.)

Red Smoke (Pre Order) = /400

Black = /1000.

If someone from React would like to clarify once and for all the pressing numbers on this in the comments, please do so! :)

Focused Minds - Straight Edge Overload

A few months back Dogyears Records put out the new Focused Minds "Straight Edge Overload" EP. I don't know what the hell I was thinking not getting it right away. If I remember correctly you could score a test press, a special pre order cover and color on pink /50, and the band color on green out of /100. The most common version was on "mixed color" vinyl out of /250. For some reason, like a dumb ass, I slept on it and didn't order right away. I kind of forgot about it, and when I remembered to go check back all of the limited colors were gone. I was so disheartened that I didn't even want to order the common press out of /250.

When Record Store Day rolled around this year, I had a kind of long disappointing day. I was happy when I came home to see that Focused Minds had posted a special RSD Version of their Straight Edge Overload EP out of /25 with a sweet ass cover. I was all over it, and while I was at it I picked up one of the mixed vinyl pressings out of /250. 

Dog Years did a great job with the layout and this is another great released by Focused Minds. If you are not familiar with them, they are a force to be reckoned with. They'll be putting out their debut LP soon, and I won't make the same mistake twice. When those pre orders go up I'm going to get every color I can. Midwest Straight Edge Lives!

Looking at this picture upsets me because I know I could have had a test press, a pre order cover and a limited "band color" on green of this record. What a dummy. I'm stoked I atleast got the RSD cover, which is hands down the coolest of them all! 

RSD 2013 Pt. 2: Liquid Swords Chessboxin'

For this Record Store Day, I was most excited to get Notorious BIG's "Ready to Die" and the GZA's "Liquid Swords" box set. I wasn't able to get Biggie's LP, but Liquid Swords was a great consolation price. Liquid Swords is not only one of the best Wu Tang solo side projects, but one of the best hip hop albums ever recorded. Mention Liquid Swords around any true hip hop head and they'll tell you whats up with it. GZA The Genius drops some serious knowledge over super grimey beats, with almost every song being a classic on this release. 

Here was one of the stickers on the shrink wrap that I unfortunately had to rip off to get to the good stuff. If this was just a regular old LP maybe I would have kept it wrapped, but being that there was an entire chess box inside there is no way I could resist opening it!

As you can see this was a pretty huge box. I won't even be able to put this on my record shelves, I'll have to put it somewhere on display.

This is what it looked like when I first opened it up. Super cool artwork all over this thing!

A very cool sticker set that will surely never be used. 

The cover of the insert booklet. This thing is amazing quality. It's super thick almost like a book more than a record insert. 

The first page, going with the chessbox theme.

The book has a ton of pages and contains all the lyrics as well as really cool artwork all throughout.

This is a 4LP release. It contains the full length on 2 LP's and then the instrumentals on 2 LP's. Hip Hop shit really needs to be on 2LP's. Most of the old hip hop releases were all on one lp, and now everything is pretty much on two because it makes the sound quality so much better with the deep bass lines. 

I was a bit disappointed that it was all on black vinyl. They went so over the top with this release on everything else, I really think it should have been on color vinyl. I think it would have been amazing on light blue or blood red to go with the album art. 

Here it is with the actual chess box in full effect. The chess pieces are very nice quality, they are all wood with the little felt stuff on the bottom of them. I have no idea how to play chess, I just put a few pieces on to give ya'll an idea.

I am really impressed with this release and happy I picked this up. For those of you that aren't that familiar with Wu Tang, you really need to check this out and some of the other Wu side projects. For years there has been a huge argument on what the best Wu solo side project is within the hip hop community. Just search it on google and you'll see page after page of forums with people arguing which is the best. Well, I'm going to give you my top 10 list. 90% of people will agree that OBFCL and Liquid Swords are the top 2 releases, but the big argument is usually about which one is better. In my opinion, here are the top 10 best (in order):

1) Raekwon - Only Built for Cuban Linx

2) GZA - Liquid Swords

3) Ghostface Killa - Iron Man

4) Ghostface Killa - Supreme Clientele

5) Ol Dirty Bastard - Return to the 36 Chambers

6) Inspectah Deck - Uncontrolled Substance

7) Method Man - Tical

8) Masta Killa - No Said Date

9) Raekwon - Immobilarity

10) Killah Priest - Heavy Mental

Check out the video for "Cold World" feat. Inspectah Deck, one of the singles on this album. And yes, this is where the band Cold World got their name from, just so you know...

RSD 2014 Pt. 2: One Man Army

One Man Army's "Dead End Stories" was another re issue that I was drooling over for Record Store Day. I have never been fond of One Man Army's later poppy releases but I've loved "Dead End Stories" since it came out. This album has that unique San Francisco late 90's/early 2000's street punk sound similar to Reducers SF and Swingin' Utters. Over the last decade, this album has logged countless hours of listening time to me. I can pretty much recite the lyrics for every track off the top of my head. Every single song on this album is a banger. I think this album never got the "street cred" that it deserves because it was released on Adeline Records, which was started by Green Day's singer of course. If this was released on TKO Records, I think it would have been forever remembered as one of the best street punk albums of all time. 

Either way, I have never owned a copy of this on vinyl so I was really happy to pick this up. As far as I know they only pressed it on red. I'm not sure of the pressing info on this, but I'm assuming it's in the thousands. This wax takes me back to Freshman year of high school all over again!

Record Store Day 2012 - Finally...

I'm probably the last one to post about RSD 2012 but better late than never. There are still a few pieces I may be getting to complete the RSD 2012 collection, but we'll see. So let's get down to the nitty gritty...

Poison Idea's "Pick Your King" was without a doubt my number one target of all the RSD releases. I have never owned this classic on vinyl and it's on a very nice clear. Perhaps what made me most interested in this is the fact that it was put out by TKO Records. I have been collecting TKO Records vinyl longer than any other label probably, and have always made it a mission to collect (mostly) all their early releases. I was stoked to find one of these left when I showed up at my local store.

Since they were out of Blood for Blood, Misfits and Cause for Alarm, this was the next one on my list. Besides Ignite, I must admit that I had never really heard any of the "Big 4" that Rev released this year except this one. One of my old friends had made me an Ignite tape when I was in like 6th grade, and I remember liking it but hadn't heard it in forever and mostly forgot about it. In anticipation of RSD, I had to track down all the "Big 4" and download them to see what I was (possibly) getting into. This Ignite album definitely brought back some memories and I knew I had to have this one. This one was actually already sold locally, and I was pretty bummed. To my shock and surprise a week after RSD I was at the Street Light Records in Santa Cruz and found this in the "RSD" left over bin. Hell yes! This Purple Marble vinyl is definitely the best looking of all the RSD presses in my opinion.

Upon downloading all of the "Big 4", this was the only other release that I had planned on picking up. Definitely not my style, but rather catchy pop punk that also reminded me of being a kid. My original plan was to pick up just this and Ignite, however on RSD I could not find either of them. That is until b. murphy and Vinyl Noize held a contest where they were giving away RSD releases, and they were kind enough to select me! So about a week ago, this shows up in my mail box (as well as another nice surprise, that will be revealed below). Vinyl Noize fucking rules, OK! So thanks again murphy, you are the man! 

I had no plans at all in picking up this Sense Field LP. When I downloaded it, I couldn't even listen to more than a few songs. Sorry dudes, just way too emo for my tastes. But when I got down there and I couldn't find anything except for the "Pick Your King" EP, the record nerd kicked in when I saw just one copy left of this and Into Another and a bunch of people milling about around them. Fuck it, I guess I'll pick it up and maybe trade it later with someone that appreciates it more. It is on a beautiful orange marble vinyl though. 

I had no desire to own this release either, as I just can't even listen to the music. Not my style at all, but same as the Sense Field LP... With only one copy left, I didn't want to kick myself later for not picking it up when I had the chance, because I seem to be doing that way too often. So I pulled the trigger and yeah, this one will probably be traded as well.

Murphy was awesome enough to also throw in this Run DMC single with the Farside LP, what a kick ass dude! It's also on Profile Records, which is rad. Too bad this one doesn't have an "Age of Quarrel" labeled b-side, haha. This is a really cool addition to my hip hop collection, and this is actually the first Run DMC vinyl that I have ever owned. Thanks again Murphy! Now for those of you reading this, go check out Vinyl Noize and TeeTilDeath.

(Note: I'll probably update this soon as I add a few more additions.)