On Saturday I went to the Independent Label Market in Spitalfields and ended the longest period of not buying records since I started buying records - a whole two months. My job search was taking way longer than I expected and, sadly, record shopping wasn't a priority. For a while I still picked up the occasional record here and there, but that eventually dried up. However, I now have a job, so I can begin buying vinyl in earnest to make up for the past six months. I plan to head to Banquet very soon to stock up on all of 2013's new releases.
So, on Saturday, to celebrate finally being able to blow money on music again, I went out and blew a lot of money on new music. I'd not been to the Independent Label Market before and only really heard of it from last year when I distinctly remember wanting to go, but not being bothered in the end; East London often seems so very far away. The short summary is that a lot of independent record labels set up stalls in Old Spitalfields Market, and it turns out it's very nice to meet the people who run the labels. It's like going to the individual label's websites and doing an online shop, but instead of crazy-expensive postage, you get to have a nice chat. I like it. I also ended up with a stack of free promo cds and pin-badges of bands I've never heard of. The other LPs and singles I'll write about on here in the coming weeks and months (or years, at the pace I've been going lately).
Finally getting round to this record, one of the first stalls I properly looked at was the Matador stall. They had a box of 7"s at £4 each or three for a tenner and I found a couple I liked in there. At the very back was this Modest Mouse test pressing, only identifiable by the post-it note stuck to the front. I'm a fan of Modest Mouse and, like most, consider The Lonesome Crowded West to be one of their finest albums. I bought the cd years ago and Heart Cooks Brain was certainly one of the better songs. I always adored Shit Luck too for how heavy and different it was to all their other songs. It was like a punk Black Sabbath song, and that appealed to me. So, to have those two songs on a 7" seemed like a winner. If I had the album on vinyl, I might not have bothered, but I don't (yet).
Of course, the most notable thing about this record is that it's a test pressing. I've never really been one to dabble in buying test pressings - it's like the next level of record collecting and there are still LPs I want to hear and bands I want to get into before I can start putting all that time and effort into finding test pressings. Also, I always thought it would be impossible to complete a collection if you include test pressings, since they can be pretty hard to come by. However, since I've started this blog I've spent a lot of time reading other people's similar blogs and I'm very impressed by some of the test pressings some people have in their collections. I'm not such a big Modest Mouse fan that I'll seek out all their other test pressings, but I do enjoy having this one. Maybe this will be the first of many posts on here that I tag with "test pressing"...
Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £3.33 new
Bought: Independent Label Market
When: 13/07/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
