The Most Serene Republic - Population

There are two reasons I have this record in my collection (and have any idea who The Most Serene Republic are at all): it's on the Arts & Crafts record label, and it was the Tuesday-Record-From-Spillers year. I bought this in the July, so the plan was fully under way (to buy an LP every Tuesday from Spillers for a year) and I'd already had some highs and lows. I was taking lots of chances on things and, in the grand scheme of things, £10 isn't too bad.

This record isn't bad, it just doesn't do a whole lot for me. There is one great song, Present of Future End, which far surpasses anything else on the record. Being on Arts & Crafts I had high hopes of them being my new Broken Social Scene - that label and group of people had produced some great music and I was a huge fan at the time - but ultimately they come across as BSS-lite, which no one really needs. There are some interesting moments (which are mostly too short-lived), Present of Future End is genuinely a great song and Why So Looking Back is one of the more exciting tracks, but it mostly just fails to grab me in any way. There are lots of layered vocals throughout, which normally works for me, but here neither voice really catches me. There are also quite a few instrumental interludes, which doesn't help. I occasionally give it a play but it does have a tendency to fade into the background a bit.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Spillers Records
When: 15/07/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

The Offspring - Smash

Everyone has a copy of this album, don't they. It's an album that everyone knows backwards. The cool thing about Smash though is that creates instant good-times. I was driving with a colleague who got very excited to find this on my iPod - the next 40 minutes were far more fun than driving around the M25 should be. God knows that Bad Habit is a dangerous song to drive to, not just for the sentiment but also for the loss of concentration whilst everyone tries to remember the order of the swear words to sing along to the break.

Smash has so many huge songs - Nitro, Bad Habit, Genocide, Come Out and Play, Self Esteem, Not the One, Smash; that's a lot of highlights. The intro even deserves calling out for setting the scene so well.

I picked this album up along with a huge haul of records from Selectadisc Nottingham on my first visit there. I had found so many albums I wanted (and mostly at bargain prices) I found I was having to put some back because my arms were hurting. Smash made the cut - I knew it was a classic and an album I'd love to have in my collection. I had a few other Offspring albums on cd and had listened to Smash at various friend's houses over the years but didn't have a copy anywhere. I paid £5 for this, which is a bargain by anyone's measure.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 14
Cost: £5 new
Bought: Selectadisc, Nottingham
When: 20/02/03
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Crackout - This is Really Neat

Crackout and I go way back. When I was 16 there was a band called Vex Red who I very quickly became a huge fan of. They'd had songs played on the Radio 1 Rock Show, had been in Kerrang! magazine and seemed like a really exciting new band. The first time I saw Vex Red was on the NME Upstarts Tour - a national tour NME was putting on of three new bands - Vex Red, The Pattern and Crackout. I think four of us ended up going to the show in the Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth. Crackout impressed us way more than we were expecting - I have memories of the drummer going between sitting and standing a lot during songs and the whole band wearing suits. There was a free cd given out at the end of the night featuring one song from each of the bands, which would serve as our introduction to Crackout's recorded output.

My friend Olly was the most impressed by Crackout that night and ended up buying their debut album, This is Really Neat. I don't think I heard it before I eventually got a copy, but I knew he'd been enjoying it greatly. I found a copy in MVC in Winchester when they were having a huge sale one day (it was the same day that I first discovered The Paper Chase, which was a pretty significant day for me musically). It was £4 and I figured if Olly was enjoying it that much that I'd get £4 of enjoyment out of it. Turns out that This is Really Neat is a huge album and one that I still get a kick out of now, 13 years later.

I think the charm in This is Really Neat is that it's not trying to be clever, it's just a really fun punk-rock record full of huge songs and great choruses - 142 is such a strong opener and then they take it up a level with I Am the One, which might be their finest moment and has one of the best choruses on the album. And if that wasn't a strong enough start, you then get Joey Lost His Mind; I love that no one told these guys about not blowing their load too soon. Breakout also has a huge, memorable chorus and Guillotine and Barricaded round off an incredible Side A (despite the latter being listed as being on Side B - presumably since the layout matches that on the back of the cd). You Dumb Fuck doesn't hold back in opening the second half and I remember thinking that song was great from the first time I heard it - the little break before the chorus is so pleasing, and the chorus itself is even more pleasing. I have a great acoustic version on a 7" b-side where the word "fuck" is replaced with "truck" to great effect. Over My Head is another great song and Fairytale Nothing is the classic "epic closer".

A year and a half later, I found this copy on vinyl in a record shop in Leeds that I'd almost certainly never find again (assuming it still exists). If I remember correctly, I'd been to see the Manics the night before in Manchester and stayed with my friend in Leeds. He'd left me to my own devices during the day, so I tried to seek out some record shops. I remember being disappointed I couldn't find any great shops (this was long before smartphones and Google maps) but eventually found one shop of interest. Even they didn't have much, but did have two promo copies of This is Really Neat (again, for £4). At the time I was on the fence (partly because I was knackered by this point in the day) but I'm so glad I bought this album. Strangely, the gatefold opens the wrong way to normal, and the record slides out of the middle like cds often do. It's also worth noting that I love the artwork on this album almost as much as the music.

When I went to that NME show in Portsmouth that night I expected to enjoy Vex Red (which I did) but I certainly didn't think that 15 years later I'd still be listening to one of the bands, and certainly not the support band. It says a lot about how much fun this record is that it's endured so well. It's a shame that the same can't be said for a lot of the other music I was listening to back then (and, indeed, that night in Portsmouth). This album really is really neat.

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve, picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £4 second hand
Bought: Leeds
When: 18/12/04
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Weezer - Make Believe

Oh Weezer. Like most people, the first Weezer album I got was the Blue Album. What a way to start. I was pretty late to the Weezer party and they'd already released a couple of dubious albums by this time. I picked up a few more albums although, rather embarrassingly, I never got round to Pinkerton. I like that I still have that as a treat for one day in the future.

Make Believe is firmly from the dubious years and I think I knew that when I bought it. I remember people commenting on how bad Beverly Hills was at the time. However, for €5 (from the epic Virgin Megastore January sale) I figured I should chance it, despite knowing the odds of actually getting much out of it was slim. In truth, Beverly Hills isn't a terrible Weezer song - it has all the makings of a good Weezer song but Rivers' couldn't-give-a-shit lyrics really rub it in your face that this isn't early 90's Weezer anymore. My Best Friend and Freak Me Out are some of the worst Weezer songs I've ever heard; in fact, My Best Friend is just one of the worst songs I've ever heard. Perfect Situation, We Are All on Drugs and The Other Way all sound like crappy pop-punk songs by some mid-2000's band who achieved moderate fame with one album then faded away. If this was, indeed, a record by such a band, I wouldn't be inclined to defend it as much as I want to because it's Weezer. Since this is the vinyl version, it contains the "wrong" version of We Are All on Drugs with a different closing two lines to the intended release version.

There are three very positive quotes from reviews on the front, which feels like it must have been a hard job to select. On the back there is a sticker with the original price Virgin were selling it for - €25 - I'm not too surprised that Make Believe found its way to the bargain bin in that case.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £3.35 new
Bought: Virgin Megastore, Paris
When: 10/01/07
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Q And Not U - Different Damage

Different Damage was my introduction to Q And Not U. The reason why I started with this album and the reason I got into the band at all was simply that I was in Banquet and it caught my eye. I'd already found a handful of other records that day, but I also had a £10 voucher to spend so felt like being adventurous. I'd heard of the name and knew they were on Dischord. I also knew they were a little bit more experimental than the usual Dischord band and I think the description banquet had stuck to the sleeve mentioned the words "dance-punk". It's worth noting that one of my all-time favourite Dischord bands is Black Eyes, who were incredibly experimental, so I had high hopes.

I remember enjoying Q And Not U from the first listen. The music was up-beat and interesting and there was so much going on. On the other hand, they were undeniably a punk band; songs like Black Plastic Bag hit pretty hard and makes their presence on Dishord less strange. It feels like in the early 2000's there were a lot of edgy, trendy, indie-dance bands about (!!!, LCD Soundsystem) and I was worried that Q And Not U might fall into that category, but there's enough of a strong punk influence to firmly distinguish them (although that's what you should expect given that it is on Dischord). It's also given the band a longevity that I think a lot of music in that scene was missing (for me at least).

There are great songs throughout the album, although I especially like the opening duo of Soft Pyramids and So Many Animal Calls. The closer, Recreation Myth, has one of the biggest choruses on the album. I spent a lot of time listening to Different Damage when I first got it, then a month later bought their first album No Kill No Beep Beep, which I'll write about another time. This is the 2009 remastered reissue. I can't speak to the quality of the remaster since I've not heard the original, but the blue vinyl looks great and matches the sleeve very well.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £8.37 new
Bought: Banquet Records
When: 08/02/07
Colour: Transparent blue
Etching: Side A: "Love to I.B. and St. Nutritious" Side B: "It had hands!"
mp3s: Download code

November Coming Fire - Dungeness

November Coming Fire were an under-rated metalcore band, at least as far as I could tell. In certain circles this album is considered a classic; in others it's unheard of and I suspect some of the people in those circles would really enjoy it. 

Just after Christmas one year when I was in Cardiff, Hugh gave me a couple of cds - I think he'd acquired some bundle of cds that included Dungeness by November Coming Fire and the State Run discography, both of which he already had copies of. I was happy to take them both, despite not knowing either band.

November Coming Fire are heavier than a lot of bands I listen to - at their quieter moments they sound a bit like Envy; at their heavier they sound like a hardcore band. We were going to a lot of hardcore shows back then and I was starting to appreciate it better as a genre. I always enjoyed Dungeness despite it being so different to what I normally listen to. HMS Blackwater, Argonaut and Mascot are stand-out songs for me. I enjoy the album as a whole, albeit not very often. It's a pleasant surprise to play it and remember how much I enjoy and that I know the songs much better than I ever think I do.

I picked this vinyl copy up in All Ages a few years ago. I definitely felt that for a tenner it'd be rude not to buy it, and as an added bonus it turns out it is on a very nice gold/black splatter (which is apparently one of 250).

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £10 new
Bought: All Ages Records
When: 03/10/12
Colour: Gold with black splatter
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Small Brown Bike - Dead Reckoning

Dead Reckoning is not only my favourite Small Brown Bike record, but it's one of my all-time favourite albums in general. It also served as my introduction to the band - nearly 10 years ago I was at a friend's gig in Cardiff and someone had brought along a distro. For £5 each I picked up Fuel For the Hate Game by Hot Water Music and Dead Reckoning both on cd; it's hard to imagine a tenner better spent - those two albums are amongst the finest albums No Idea Records has released. I didn't know that at the time, and I had help in choosing (in the form of very strong recommendations) but it worked out very well.

I instantly became a very big fan of this album - it's heavier in it's sound than a lot of gruff-punk-rock records and I like it for that. Throughout most of the songs is this rumbling bass line quite high in the mix that is really fun to focus on as you listen. Strangely, I struggled with their other albums a little more because they felt less heavy in places (although I mostly got there in the end). I stocked up on their other albums at Fest one year, so had quite the backlog to work through when I got home.

I guess the strangest thing about Dead Reckoning is its lack of choruses - very few of the songs have anything remotely resembling a chorus. What that means is that you end up getting excited about parts of songs that you might not otherwise, like the shouted lines "This is mine" and "We must understand" in More or Less or "Death is contagious / Death is courageous" in Hideaway. Needless to say, the album has many huge songs - Like a Future With No Friend, See You in Hell, My Own Disaster, This Ship Will Burn and I Will Bury You in Me to name but a few.

For years, Dead Reckoning was the hole in my SBB vinyl collection because I had a copy on cd and there were almost always other things to buy on the times when I did find it in shops. I was putting in an order with Specialist Subject Records at the end of last year so treated myself to a copy. This copy is the pink-ish marble from the 7th pressing (I think) and features some comedy lines etched into the run-off grooves.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 11
Cost: £9.75 new
Bought: Specialist Subject Records
When: 17/12/15
Colour: Pink marble
Etching: Side A: "Bed wettening?" Side B: "Bread wreckening?"
mp3s: Download code