• Against Me! - Cavalier Eternal & Disco Before The Breakdown

  

  These are my fave Against Me! singles. They came out between the first and second LPs, and all my mates and me were massively caught up in the AM hype, so these were both super exciting. It's always nice when a band cares enough to re-record songs for singles, instead of just using the album version. Even nicer when some of the re-recordings are acoustic versions of electric songs, or visa versa. Awesome sleeve designs, as well as see-through orange and lickable-lollipop vinyl! Love it.

• New Bomb Turks - Raw Law

  

  This was my first experience of what I like to call “special” vinyl - vinyl that looks better but sounds worse. I was about 15 or 16 and at some sort of BMX festival somewhere in the west of England, stoned out of my mind, and we were browsing through the second-hand-smelling record shops. Flicking through the punk section, a flash of red wax caught my eye. It have been my state of mind that found the marble effect so entrancing, but I bought it anyway and it’s still one of my faves today - arguably garage punk at it’s best. It’s also beautifully cut, and each side needs to be spun at different speeds.

• The Ramones Eaten Alive!

  

  During my first trip to my favourite city of all time, San Francisco, I'd planned a whole day of walking around the city, visiting all the cool record shops I’d made a list of. There was about 12 or so, and I’d drastically underestimated the distance - the first one, somewhere on Mission, took me an hour to walk to, and it was closed when I got there. I figured I’d wait for it to open (it was about 9:30am) and somehow ended up loitering with some Mexicans who were hanging on the corner (typically under a "no loitering" sign). I knew they were only entertaining me with their Mexican tales so they could pinch more of my Lucky Strikes, but I didn’t care. When the store eventually opened (about an hour later) I spent a surprisingly short amount of time inside - what I wanted was in the window anyway: The Ramones Eaten Alive! volume 2 - Live in New York in 1982 cut into the sexiest picture disk I've ever laid eyes on. I left the store proudly clutching my expensive purchase underarm, with a massive grin on my face and it took me an hour and a half to reach the next record store.

• The Shins - Phantom Limb

  

  One of my best friends gave me this as he had two. It’s special for two reasons. A limited run of 1000 of these each had a different polaroid taken by the band stuck on the front - mine’s of the sleeve of the Wincing the Night Away LP leaning against a guitar amp. A pretty cool concept I think. Also the song “Phantom Limb” is a different version than that on the aforementioned album - it’s fast, upbeat and generally awesome.

• Rumbleseat

  

  A friend and I used to play in a two-piece acoustic band - the song “California Burritos” off this two song EP was our main inspiration. Every time we practiced we played this song, every time we stumbled out the pub we sang it to the streets at the top of our voices, but we never played it live for some reason. If there is a song to define that small part of my life, then this is it; it brings the memories back more than a set of photographs ever could.

• NOFX - Regaining Unconsciousness

  

  NOFX have always been one of those staple bands you can rely on to release a good album, and the singles that come with them are always decent. I’ve included this particular one here not only because the song is ace, but because of the artwork. Despite my love of zombies, I’ve never been able to draw them. I still can’t to be honest, but this single made me try at least; I nearly went through a roll of tracing paper during one rainy Sunday afternoon.

• The Queers - Suck This

  

  When I lived in Bristol I worked on a few travelling record fairs with one of my best mates, who lived in Newport. We basically had to go to any given town somewhere in the west country, haul loads of boxes of heavy records out a van and set them up in a hall/warehouse/whatever. We then had to go around said (often shite) town, telling every Tom, Dick and Harry about the fact that they could buy proper music in town for that day only. The second half of the day was spent selling stuff, taking money etc

  and we were paid £30 plus a record of our choice. I’d spotted this see-through picture disk of a Queers live show earlier in the day, and it was going to be mine. It was however, getting quite a lot of interest; I planned numerous ways to put people off it and actually had to say to one guy that it was a shite recording. Needless to say, I won it in the end, and I love it. It also features some of my favourite song titles ever, notably “Granola Head”, “Fuck You”, “Fuck the World”, and “I Hate Everything”.

• The Stands - Singles

  

  Sometimes a seemingly average indie album has the power to make a selective few people fall in love with it. No one else will understand why you love it so much, and neither will you. The Stands’ Horse Fabulous is one of those albums for me; every one I play it to, people who generally like a good dose of Beatles-inspired North Western indie music, can’t get into it. But I love it, the melodies, the simplicity, the subtleties and the artwork. Oh the artwork - how beautiful it is. The LP and the singles (pictured) all follow the same conventions of graphic representations of stereo equipment, and when combined with the type, the whitespace, and of course the graphical ‘backs’ of the stereo equipment on the reverse side of the sleeves, is genius.

• Okkervil River - The Stage Names

  

  Because I was a bit skint when this LP came out, I had to download it - after all there was no way I could’ve waited a month to listen to it, especially following the genius that is Black Sheep Boy. As is common with music downloads, it soon blended into the vastness of an iTunes library, a place where it would get listened to, but never really treasured. Then, on one dreary day in the Erskine office (probably during the Dark Ages), Till it Kicks came on over Swinfield’s shuffle, and the feeling of elation that came over me was immense. The cold suddenly felt tepid, and the office seemed to brighten a little. The feeling spurred me immediately to spend one of my last tenners on this baby. I can also now say that if you haven’t heard OR on vinyl, then you really need to get to your local record store.

There are 11 comments on this entry; nice. Post a comment

1. 

   #1 // Wez Maynard // 26/11/08

   Great post Greg - as a musician also - its great being able to hold what you’ve put all your time into making.

   Dont get me wrong, mp3’s are great for spreading the word - but you cant beat a nice bit of vinyl and sleeve art.

   Digging your css as well dude, tidy stuff!

2. 

   #2 // Patrick // 26/11/08

   Great post. You touched on some of my favorite records too, both current and from the past. That Rumbleseat record in particular (and all the Rumbleseat 7"s) brings back a ton of memories.

3. 

   #3 // Andy Field // 26/11/08

   Great article both in the writing and design. Records seems to hold more of a story than CDs and mp3s, All my CD covers are boxed in the loft but the vinyl’s still on the shelf ready to be thumbed through and reminised over. Nice work by Yes Studio on the Stands album as well.

4. 

   #4 // Steve Rydz // 26/11/08

   That’s a great article Greg, I really love the way that it’s been ‘designed’.  It makes me feel very nostalgic as I remember spending hours wading through vinyl in record shops.  Unfortunately the only 4 decent record shops in my area have all closed down.  This really echoes a sentiment I’ve been wanting to convey for a long long time.

5. 

   #5 // Derek // 26/11/08

   The Disco Before the Breakdown was my first introduction to AM! and I’ve been hooked ever since! I’ve been a longtime fan of HWM, Rumbleseat and pretty much anything else that spawns from Gainesville.

   Great fucking post man! Definitely feeling inspired by this.

6. 

   #6 // Greg // 26/11/08

   Thanks for your comments gents.

   @Wez yeah I know what you mean mate - I’m in the middle of writing some music that I simply can’t wait to hold in my own hands, let alone see in other peoples!

   @Patrick - awesome, it’s rare to find people with similar tastes in music in this oh-so-digital age, glad you liked it.

   @Andy I agree, but I used records here because they’re better looking and they illustrate my point a little more effectively. A lot of the CDs I own have awesome stories behind them too.

   @steve, it’s shite isn’t it. Selectadisc in Nottingham has reduced in size massively since I came here a year ago.

   @derek, yeah I’m a massive fan of most Gainesville stuff, me and my mate have been planning to fly out for The Fest for a while, but have never been able to afford it

7. 

   #7 // Simonski // 27/11/08

   I love this page mate…

8. 

   #8 // Chris Cox // 27/11/08

   Loving this page… you can’t beat the buzz of picking up some records from somewhere and rushing home to listen to them. Whether they’re from a record shop or some second hand bargains from a charity shop, market or boot sale.

   It’s great taking a gamble too and buying something just because it looks interesting. Some gems can be found in this manner but some crap too!

9. 

   #9 // Reuben Whitehouse // 27/11/08

   Wow this article layout is great.  And yes indeed that’s some great album art, partic. The Queers see-thru disc - too awesome!

10. 

    #10 // pab // 08/12/08

    First time here, and I find a post regarding some of my favorite record,

    and the page is just amazing. i love the design

    the early against me stuff is unbeatable those 7” are classics, my band toured with them a bunch of times and they are by far one of the most deserving bands out there.

    Rumbleseat is great, one of the best road records along with jawbreaker’ 24 hour revnege therapy

    have you listened to Chuck Ragan’s solo record?

    really great songwriting.

    Pab

11. 

    #11 // Greg // 08/12/08

    Pab - 24 Revenge Therapy is probably in my top 10 of all time records - it trades places with Dear You on a regular basic. Yeah I bought Chuck’s record too, which I thought was good, but still prefer Rumbleseat and of course HWM.

    Thanks for your comment and your compliment mate, it’s nice to be able to chat about music on the internet without being lynched.

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