The Desert Sessions - Vol III. Set Coordinates for the White Dwarf!!! / Vol IV. Hard Walls and Little Trips

When I first read about The Desert Sessions, one of things I got most excited about (beyond the ridiculous list of musicians) was the artwork for Vol. 3. I still love it. When I bought Vol. 1 & 2, I nearly bought 3 & 4 first just because of that artwork (but I also wanted to hear them in order). Even though it is slightly stretched over 12" rather than 10", it still looks incredible. If this were a legit copy I'd definitely have it in a frame.

Musically, this record did a lot more for me than Vol. 1 & 2. The first two records were stoned jams, but here they recorded actual songs. It's so easy to hear Queens of the Stone Age in these songs, not least because Avon and the great Monster in the Parasol made it onto the first two Queens records. Nova is a great song too. Some of the songs on Vol. 4 were already beginning to tend on the slightly stupid side.

The cover of Vol. 4 has a pen smudge on the top that was there when I bought it, which has always bothered me. Luckily, no one is ever really looking at that side of the record.

Format: 12", a4 insert
Tracks: 9
Cost: £13 new
Bought: Spillers Records
When: 04/11/08
Colour: Orange
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Radiohead - I Might Be Wrong - Live Recordings

I was pretty late to the party when it came to Radiohead. Towards the end of the 90's everyone at school was reaching an age where they were getting into music and a lot of people were getting very obsessed by Radiohead. I don't remember having very strong opinions on them either way for quite a long while - I knew and enjoyed Karma Police and a few other songs from OK Computer. People started going crazy when Kid A came out and it took me nearly a year to actually listen to it.

The turning point for me was a well-timed concert. It was the summer after GCSEs and I was on holiday with my family visiting my uncle who was living in Boston at the time. He was going to see Radiohead whilst we were there and asked if my sister and I would be interested in going. We'd both started going to gigs and were really excited to see a show in the US. Radiohead were playing outside at a horseracing stadium/track. It was probably the biggest concert I'd been to at that point (excluding Reading Festival), or it at least felt that way. I remember being blown away by the new songs from Kid A; there was something mesmerising in how loud and intense it all was. Songs like The National Anthem and Idioteque are just mean to be played loudly.

After that trip I bought a copy of Kid A, then this live album, then filled out the rest of the back-catalogue. I was very excited to hear these live versions in the hope they'd remind me of that time first time I saw, which they do. I've seen Radiohead countless times since and they always impress me, even though I'm not such a huge fan of all of their records. This record always takes me back to that first time. I'm sure I would have got into Radiohead eventually, but I love that it was a chance-concert that converted me.

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve, picture sleeve
Tracks: 8
Cost: £13 new
Bought: Tower Records, Southampton
When: 07/06/02
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Pitch Shifter - Industrial

My introduction to Pitchshifter came in the form of Everything's Fucked from their 2000 album, Deviant; listening to Industrial you'd never know it was the same band.

It's now been 14 years since I first heard this album and, up until a few weeks ago, many years since I'd last listened to it. When I bought a copy on cd - the very same day that I bought Deviant - I had no idea what was going on. Whilst I'm not surprised that 16-year-old me didn't get it, I am surprised that 31-year-old has been enjoying it so much lately. With my hindsight-hat firmly on, I have a lot of respect for early 90's Pitch Shifter.

I can't quite seem to find the words for why I'm feeling that way about, but mostly I love how this album fully embraces bleak, angry, brutal industrial music in every way: the title - just one word that sums it all up - is brilliantly simple; the sleeve says in giant letters "VASECT SEETHE DESPISE"; the lyrics to the first song are just "Hate / I hate / You motherfucker / Drown / Bleed / I wish you would"; the black-and-white picture of the band hanging out by a freight train (of course). This record paints a pretty bleak image of the midlands in 1990. I think what it is is that there's no pretentiousness to be had anywhere. That's what I can see in this album now that I couldn't before.

This particular copy I found on eBay in 2004 for the bargain price of £2.85 (including shipping!). I never really intended to have a complete collection of Pitchshifter records but I thought it'd be a good one to buy. I'm glad I did pick it up back then. As I mentioned before, this record hasn't had a huge amount of play by me and spent many years quite unloved. I do love rediscovering albums though and I'm pleased that I'm finally able to get so much out of Industrial.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 8
Cost: £2.85 second-hand
Bought: eBay
When: 11/05/04
Colour: Black
Etching: Side A: "Deity embodiment" Side B: "With more clout"
mp3s: no

The Desert Sessions - Vol I. Instrumental Driving Music for Felons / Vol II. Status: Ships Commander Butchered

On a Tuesday in 2008, just over 7 years ago, I nearly crapped myself with excitement whilst in Spillers Records. I was flicking through the racks, as I did every Tuesday that year, and found copies of the first six Desert Sessions. I'd read about them before and Vol. 7 & 8 and Vol. 9 & 10 had been released on cd gathering a lot of attention (and had been on frequent rotation in my friends' cars). I knew the first six were originally all on 10" but I'd read somewhere about them being paired up on 12". Either way I was excited. I'd long been a Kyuss fan (but never that big on QOTSA) and was mostly just really keen to hear the music on there. A part of it was definitely the idea of hearing music that was considered quite rare.

I should have, of course, been suspicious. Why would Spillers, a shop that only stocks new music, be selling copies of long out-of-print Desert Sessions? Many years later, a few quick internet searches proved that these copies are from a series of bootleg reissues from around that time. A better question might be why were Spillers selling bootleg reissues? I even asked the girl in the shop if she knew much about the pressing, but she didn't. I assumed I'd stumbled across some unearthed old stock and excitedly bought Vol. 1 & 2. A week later I bought the remaining two 12"s, despite the idea of the year being one record a week. I skipped the following week knowing I'd basically stuck to my rules. It's worth noting that at £13 a pop, I don't feel too ripped off.

What about the music? Well, of Vol. 1 & 2 I was mildly underwhelmed initially. Now I can listen to it as what it is - some stoner jams from some excellent musicians, but at the time I was expecting more. Maybe it's because I was hoping for Kyuss but instead got Queens (quite literally on later records). As the title suggests, the music here is mostly instrumental (except for Cake (Who Shit on The?)). There are some pretty good moments and I wish a lot of them lasted longer; any of the proper songs on Vol. 1 could have been twice as long. The only exception is Screamin' Eagle, which goes on for too long (there's no pleasing some people).

Expect posts about the other two 12"s to follow sometime soon.

Format: 12", a4 insert
Tracks: 7
Cost: £13 new
Bought: Spillers Records
When: 28/10/08
Colour: Purple
Etching: none
mp3s: no