The Doublecross - Keep Bleeding [Test Press]

Test Presses are a fascinating novelty. The idea of them being an essential part of a record collection is laughable - for most bands these things simply never see the light of day, and even if they do your chances of having a "complete" set of test presses are so slim it's next to pointless. It'd be very frustrating to have a complete vinyl collection for a band, but be missing a few test presses that you may never, ever see or have a chance to buy. It's a level I have no (current) plans of getting involved with.

However, they are interesting things, and whenever record labels are selling them off I always have a look. Usually they're priced for collectors only but every now and again the label is just trying to make space. That is certainly the case for Boss Tuneage, who have had a couple of test press sales now. In the most recent one, I picked up this test pressing of Jon's third album. I'm not entirely sure what made me buy it - I had the album on vinyl already - but here it is in my collection. One factor was that it was only £1 (before postage), which in fact explains two reasons - I can't turn down cheap vinyl, but there was also something sad about seeing it there for so little; a pity purchase, in part. There's also the fact I do like the album, as covered in this last post about the album itself. Finally, I was also buying the test press of the last Bedford Falls album, so I couldn't not add this to the basket as well.

Jon's first album was only released on cd, and his second was on another label, so I've never seen the test pressings for sale; this isn't the beginning of a super-thorough Doublecross collection - it's just an interesting curio to have on the shelves.

Format: 12", test pressing
Tracks: 12
Cost: £3.75 new
Bought: Boss Tuneage
When: 04/01/19
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: none

Noise By Numbers + The Magnificent - Split

Before I bought any of The Magnificent's albums, I bought a bunch of their 7" records - it wasn't intentional, but I kept finding them before I found either of their excellent albums. This is a split with a band called Noise By Numbers who I know nothing about. A quick google suggests they're related to some bands I've heard of, so I assume a reasonably big deal if you're into those bands. Their two songs are fine, but don't do huge amounts for me. Perfectly listenable, and I imagine they'd be fun live, but I'm almost certainly not going to check out their albums.

Reading the sleeve, it seems that The Magnificent recorded these songs with the guitarist from Noise By Numbers in Chicago, so that explains the connection I guess. Don't Send Me Flowers starts of a bit flat (but that could just be the very thin vinyl), but then has a huge chorus that comes out of nowhere, full of "woah-ohs" and great guitars. It's a great song and would have been perfectly at home on either of their albums. King of Denim Jackets was the closer on Bad Lucky, but this is a different recording. It's another great song. They really were an excellent punk band.

I bought it because I was doing an online order with Boss Tuneage Records and saw it in their distro - no very interesting story there. It came with a download code that never worked because the website that was hosting it has long since closed.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 4
Cost: £4 new
Bought: Boss Tuneage website
When: 03/08/12
Colour: Grey/purple mix
Etching: Side A: "You're so wise. You're like a miniature Buddha covered with hair" Side B: "I'm an IRS agent. Everybody hates me!"
mp3s: Download code

Doctor Bison - Dewhursts: The Musical | Bring it On

Every since I started buying records I've had this same problem: I'll be in a record shop and see a few things I kinda like, but it's not until I find something I have to buy that my wallet comes out - then all hell breaks loose. There have been times when I've left record shops empty-handed, despite there being a few perfectly fine additions to my collection; there are other times when I've picked up everything I had half a thought about buying. This problem has stayed with me for nearly 20 years, and it seems to be the case online too (but there I'm also saving on postage!).

The reason I'm telling you this, is that this is one such record that got caught up in the after-effects of me opening my wallet for a record I really wanted to buy and came along for the ride. In 2016 Boss Tuneage was selling off some test pressings and I quite fancied the test pressing of Bedford Falls' Elegant Balloons album - I'd bought the album on cd a few years beforehand. The first album was only pressed on cd so I figured they'd be a "cd band", but was too taken with a bargain test pressing to let that idea continue. I'm not a big fan of test pressings - the idea of hunting them down with any sort of intention is horrifying, so I've mostly just considered them nice additions rather than essential parts of a collection. I'm sure I could still buy that Bedford Falls album on vinyl, but I guess the appeal of the test pressing was what won me over that day. Anyway, that was the record that got me to open my wallet and I set about scouring the Boss Tuneage website for anything else I fancied.

A short while before that, Tim PopKid (who runs an excellent blog about his impressive record collection at an enviable cadence - daily!) wrote about this Doctor Bison album. I had a read and thought it sounded interesting, had a listen and was kinda into it and made a mental note to check them out further. Test press sale day and I added this to my basket because I was in a spending-money mood.

The terrible twist to this story is that I soon afterwards received an email saying they'd accidentally sold more of the Bedford Falls test press than they actually had, cancelled mine and refunded the money. Under any other circumstances, this would be little more than a footnote in a blog post about Bedford Falls at a later date, but I was now buying this record and this record alone (they did very kindly send me a free 7" that I'll write about one day).

Doctor Bison aren't a bad band, but it turns out that I'm not quite as into them as I hoped I would be. There are some good moments - For Yourself has a really catchy chorus and is immediately followed by what I assume is the "Marmite moment" for the band, Fractured Jaw. I say "Marmite" because the chorus is huge, but there's a banjo played throughout which I can't stand. I imagine that is quite appealing to some, but doesn't do it for me. Perfect Madness to Put Me Through and Tied to the Tracks are really good songs too. Maybe I do like this band and it's just that one song I don't like? I should probably play it more often. In my memories, it was all banjo, but clearly that was a bad way to remember the music.

If you are a Doctor Bison fan, this package is pretty lovely and worth seeking out - along with the album there's another LP of the Bring it On EP and four unreleased tracks, as well as all of the songs on a cd. There are also notes from the drummer reminiscing very fondly of the bands' time together, which is nice to read.

Format: Double 12", insert
Tracks: 16
Cost: £11.50 new
Bought: Boss Tuneage website
When: 13/06/16
Colour: Yellow and grey
Etching: none
mp3s: cd

Milloy - Creating Problems While Practising Solutions

Milloy were an excellent punk rock band from Leeds that I was lucky enough to see once in Le Pub in Newport, along with Bedford Falls, Harbour and Blackbeard. That line up really covers all the bases of the music I was listening to and the bands I was seeing back in 2009. I remember everyone being really excited for that show and I'm pretty sure everyone I knew in Cardiff would have been there that night (a reasonable number on stage).

Milloy pre-dated my getting into punk by a good margin - that meant they were one of the older bands by the time I was getting into things, one that everyone respected and admired. I'm glad I got to see them at least once. We had a copy of Creating Problems While Practising Solutions in the kitchen - I don't know who it belonged to (either Hugh or Nicky) - and it got played a lot. About a month after seeing them, I picked up More Than a Machine in Damaged, which is an incredible album. On this follow-up they stepped it up again - the songs here are ridiculously catchy, the guitars intense and there's enough layered vocals to please anyone.

Propofol opens the album and somehow takes me back to the kitchen in Cardiff every time. Mary Rose and Textbook are a huge pairing, The Math has a brilliant chorus that keeps coming back, Stone Court is a great finisher and the album never relents. I said the same thing about More Than a Machine, but you really couldn't ask for more from a punk rock album.

Periodically between 2009 and 2016 I thought to myself I should get a copy of this album (turns out they also had two mini-albums that I've not heard either) but in my usual, terrible, apathetic way I didn't. Then Boss Tuneage announced a new series of "made to order" records and I knew it was time to rectify that situation. The idea was brilliant, they would press albums from their past that never made it onto vinyl the first time round - the label has been going for so long that they existed before and throughout the time when cd was king and vinyl the old has-been. It's a great idea, and this was the first album they pressed in that series. Of the records they've pressed so far, Milloy is the only one I've been keen to get, but I always keep an eye out for what they're working on next. The idea is that everyone pays up-front, then they press the exact number of albums needed - minimises the risk and means everyone gets something cool. The pressing is nice - the sleeve a half-gatefold and a nice large insert; the record is white label and the paper sleeve is stamped saying "Boss Tuneage Made to Order Series". The only criticism/improvement would have been to number the records so we could see how many they actually pressed - I assume only the people at the label know the exact number. A minor thing though.

As I often say, I'm really pleased to have this in my collection sat alongside More Than a Machine (I don't thank Facebook for much, but it was a promoted post from the Boss Tuneage page that meant I saw this in time). I felt the closest to the UK punk-rock scene when I was living in Cardiff and I have endless fond memories of it; Milloy and this album are deeply wrapped up in that, so I love listening to them and thinking back to those days.

Format: 12", white label, insert, made to order
Tracks: 10
Cost: £18 new
Bought: Boss Tuneage website
When: 10/11/16
Colour: Black
Etching: None
mp3s: None

The Shitty Limits - Beware the Limits

I saw The Shitty Limits at least once. They were one of those bands I was convinced I'd seen more times than just once, but the one time I do remember seeing them was really good, so I wonder why I'd not had that thought before. I think I'd seen their name on listings for gigs I was planning on going to, then didn't make it to. That might explain my confusion. Plus, I saw a lot of hardcore bands when I lived in Wales.

Sadly, my attempts to document all the gigs I've been to have been far less successful than my attempts to document my record collection and, with that in mind, I have no idea when it was that I saw The Shitty Limits. It was definitely in Le Pub, and after a bit of internet research, I reckon it was this gig with Death is Not Glamorous, Harbour and The Human Race. Hugh was playing in The Human Race and I quite enjoyed Harbour, so I'm pretty certain I would have been there. Anyway, the main reason I remembered seeing The Shitty Limits that night and why they stuck in my mind quite so much was the way the singer moved around the stage. Have you ever seen The Muppets when they get really excited and they just shake the puppet wildly and the head flaps around like crazy? Well, that's what the singer looked like. On top of that they were great fun. Imagine a hardcore version of The Hives (especially on Your Limits Are My Limits).

Anyway, fast forward four years and I finally bought their LP (which plays at 45 rpm, naturally). Bedford Falls had a new album coming out on Boss Tuneage Records and I decided to see what else was in the distro. In the end I got both Bedford Falls albums for a fiver each, a split by The Magnificent and Noise by Numbers and this LP. For £5 it would have been rude not to. It's a nice record. I always found hardcore records good for those times when you need to get a bunch of things done quickly and the pace here never drops.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £5 new
Bought: Boss Tuneage distro
When: 03/08/12
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no