Pop Will Eat Itself - Sweet Sweet Pie

There were three distinct periods of Pop Will Eat Itself. Middle-PWEI had all the hits and late-PWEI had the potential to make some really exciting music beyond their final album Dos Dedos Mis Amigos. Early-PWEI, however, do very little for me at all. Before the programmed drum beats and dual vocals they were just an indie band, playing fairly twee, simple songs. This 7" is from that early period.

I'll write more about early-PWEI another time but Sweet, Sweet Pie is a pretty good example of how they sounded. It doesn't do much for me, but I guess it's what they had to do to become the band they were going to be.

I hadn't planned to buy this record and it was a good four years after the golden age of buying every record I could find. I was in Brighton visiting some friends and we were browsing the various stalls in the excellent Snooper's Paradise. I'd spotted this one in a box of 7"s but wasn't going to buy it. Hugh was amazed that I wasn't going to get it given how keenly I'd bought PWEI when we were at school and college and so took it out and put the record in my hands. I didn't have to buy it, but he had a point. Plus, it did have one song I didn't have on it (Runaround, although being early-PWEI I'm not that into it).

Format: 7"
Tracks: 3
Cost: £1.50 second hand
Bought: Snooper's Paradise, Brighton
When: 16/09/06
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Pop Will Eat Itself - 92F

Around 2002 I was in that rare and lucky situation of having a steady income (from my part time job pushing trolleys) and no real outgoings (because I was a teenager living at home) which meant I bought a lot of records by bands I liked, regardless of whether there was really anything notable on that record or not. A prime example of that is this Pop Will Eat Itself 7".

The a-side is a remix of 92F, a song which I have more remixes of than I care to count. That said, it is one of the better mixes (there's a piano in the mix which adds a lot), although the recording with the female vocals is far more enjoyable than it is with the normal Poppies vocals. Certainly one of their stronger songs either way. The b-side is an instrumental and, whilst interesting enough, isn't anything to write home about; it's the sort of song that might find it's way onto an album as filler.

I probably wouldn't have done anything more interesting with the £2 this record cost me, but it is fairly redundant in my record collection.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £2 second hand
Bought: Record Fair, Southampton
When: 26/10/02
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Texas is the Reason - If It's Here When We Get Back It's Ours

The story of me buying this record has far more parts to it than it really ought to. I went into Banqet Records one day and saw the sleeve in amongst the 7"s and decided to buy it. I'd been a fan of Texas is the Reason for quite some time and I was way past due on buying their first 7", but I just hadn't seen it in any shops for a while. When I took it to the counter JT told me that they didn't have it, which seemed strange since I was holding the sleeve. I still don't quite know where the 7" that lived in that sleeve was, but I couldn't buy it that day either way. JT said they were getting some more copies in and that he'd put one aside for me.

A few weeks later I was leaving a pub by the river in Kingston when I bumped into Piers from Banquet who told me he had a "record for me on his desk". He couldn't remember what the record was, but we figured out it was probably the Texas is the Reason 7". I went in a few days later to pick it up but it took ages to find because Piers didn't have a "desk" as such. They eventually found it and I went home with copy #1 of this record.

Copy #2 came in the post one day (I remember the day because I'd slacked off job applications for the day to go to Thorpe Park with a friend). This copy was a gift from my friend Hugh for getting us tickets to see Texas on their reunion tour (and for lending him the money for the tickets). I discovered later that he'd sent me his copy, so we agreed it was probably fair to just give it back to him.

I then ended up with copies of the songs here again on the 20th anniversary reissue of Do You Know Who You Are? Like I said, a far longer story than it needs to be. As for the songs, they're great. The title track is particularly excellent, but given how much I like the LP it's not surprising that I like these songs too.

Format: 7", insert
Tracks: 3
Cost: £6 new
Bought: Banquet Records, Kingston
When: 11/09/12
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Cold & Wet

This 7" truly acted as a sampler of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy for me. I'd heard a song of his on 120 Minutes late night on MTV and shortly later found this 7" in HMV in Lancaster. I'd enjoyed the song I saw on MTV and made a mental note to check him out; it seemed like too much of a coincidence that this 7" would be there so soon afterwards, so I bought it and began a journey of discovering his vast back-catalogue (something I'm still working on). Five days later I was in Brighton and decided to buy an album, opting for his classic I See a Darkness by complete chance (perhaps the title drew me in). It's almost worrying that I might have easily bought Sings Palace's Greatest Hits instead and had a far worse third impression of Will Oldham's music.

Cold and Wet is from his most recent album at the time, The Letting Go, which received some pretty high praise at the time. I've fairly recently bought The Letting Go and it is a pretty great record. Buried Treasure is a live BBC recording of, what I have just this minute discovered, a Bee Gees song. Needless to say, it sounds nothing like The Bee Gees, but does sound excellent. It says a lot about Will Oldham that he can make like a Bee Gees song without me knowing.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £2 new
Bought: HMV Lancaster
When: 20/11/06
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Thom Yorke - Harrowdown Hill

Despite enjoying this record, I still haven't got round to buying Thom Yorke's solo album, The Eraser. I remember it being pretty big news when it came out and I heard the album a few times when I lived in Cardiff, but I've simply never bought a copy. I will one day, probably.

Around the time it came out, Harrowdown Hill was released as a single and I found this copy in HMV in Winchester. Harrowdown Hill is an excellent song (to the extent I'm wondering now why I didn't buy the album). The simple but upbeat bass line carries the song through fading only when Thom's vocals rise for the chorus. The b-side Jetstream is a glitchier affair and less my thing, but still quite listenable.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £1.50 new
Bought: HMV Winchester
When: 11/09/06
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Martin Grech - Open Heart Zoo

Who remembers Martin Grech? I suspect the answer is very few. I was briefly very obsessed with his song Open Heart Zoo in 2002. I remember seeing the video on MTV2 as I was about to leave the house one day for college, but stuck around to hear the rest of the song and find out who it was by (meaning I missed my bus, although that wasn't a huge problem). Shortly afterwards I found the 7" in FM Music in Southampton for £1.50 so added it to the pile of records I'd bought that day. Apparently the song was used in a car advert, although I have no memory of seeing the ad.

Listening to it now, I can see why I liked it back in the day. Despite sounding nothing like the sort of music I was listening to, it was dark and brooding and had violins so appealed to me. I still quite like it now. A very slow, heavy (programmed) drum beat kicks in near the end which sounds excellent. The b-side is quite nice too, although much more Radiohead-y than the the a-side (this was around the time Radiohead released Kid A/Amnesiac and sounds like it). I was given Martin Grech's album (also called Open Heart Zoo) for Christmas that year and it was nice enough on the first few listens but wouldn't stand the test of time so well. I can't think when the last time I played that cd was, but it might be time to dig it out and see how it sounds in 2014. I'm not holding high hopes for the rest of the album, but the title track has aged well.

Format: 7", numbered
Tracks: 2
Cost: £1.50 new
Bought: FM Music, Southampton
When: 29/10/02
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

The Twilight Sad - I Became a Prostitute

I often go through periods where I don't really bother buying 7" records, and other periods where I buy them quite a lot. Sometimes they just seem quite expensive when you only really get two songs, one of which is on an album I either own or will end up buying. I can count on one hand the number of times I bothered going through the 7" records in Spillers whilst I lived in Cardiff, but on one of those occasions I found a bunch of records I quite fancied and bought them all. One of the records was this 7" from The Twilight Sad's second album (which either wasn't out yet or I hadn't bought yet).

I'll save the story of how I got into The Twilight Sad for another time, but I quite fancied hearing some new songs of theirs and £3 seemed like a reasonable price to pay for that. I Became a Prostitute is certainly one of the catchier and darker songs on Forget the Night Ahead and makes for a good single (although more because of it's catchiness, not how dark it is). The b-side In the Blackout is slower and less accessible (not that their music is particularly accessible the rest of the time) but not quite so memorable. A nice enough 7", and kept me happy until the new Twilight Sad album came along, but not a forgotten gem in my collection.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £3 new
Bought: Spillers Records, Cardiff
When: 08/08/09
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Million Dead - Living the Dream

This is the only Million Dead vinyl I own. I have both of their albums on cd, but I don't think either were ever pressed on vinyl. They caught our attention pretty early on when some of their singles made their way onto MTV2. I didn't really know what sort of style of music Million Dead played at the time but I knew I liked. It would be years before I discovered that Frank Turner was also from Winchester, but that's another story.

I'd got A Song to Ruin shortly after it came out and thought it was great (it's an album I still go back to regularly now). I was pretty pleased to find this 7" in the HMV in Winchester when it came out, mostly because I had no idea they had a second album coming out. This was back in the day when 7" records were dirt-cheap and this one in particular set me back £1. I could have saved a further 10% by using my student discount card, but it just didn't seem worth the effort. Anyway, Living the Dream is another fine Million Dead song and builds up to a huge outro, which is always nice. Tonight Matthew might be the only post-hardcore song written about Stars in Their Eyes and probably very confusing to any non-British fans. It's a pretty good song too; the sort of b-side that could easily have been an album track (although perhaps it was the obscure lyrical content that put them off including it).

The thing that always amazes me most about Million Dead is that I think I never actually saw them live. According to Wikipedia, the only time they played Reading Festival was the one year I didn't go (2005 - I was living in Australia so I had a good excuse). They almost certainly played nearby a bunch of times and toured with bands I probably would have gone to see, but I somehow never saw them. I've seen Frank solo many times since they broke up, but he's pretty adamant that a reunion is off the cards. I've heard they were quite something live and they certainly had the songs. It's shame but another reminder to check out bands when you get the chance.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £1 new
Bought: HMV, Winchester
When: 28/03/05
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Latterman - Our Better Halves

A couple of years ago I was putting in an order to the Different Kitchen distro and added this Latterman 7" to my basket. I was still in the middle of discovering music by all the various related bands at this point and had seen Latterman play in Kingston a couple of months beforehand. Our Better Halves was listed as a tour 7" but I didn't remember seeing at the show. For £3 it seemed rude not to buy it.

It may only have one song, but it's a catchy one and what I've come to expect from Latterman. The trumpet is a pretty nice addition. Nice white, one-sided vinyl too.

Format: One-sided 7", insert
Tracks: 1
Cost: £3.85 new
Bought: Different Kitchen distro
When: 14/11/12
Colour: White
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Rocket From the Crypt - Shy Fly

A few weeks before Rocket From the Crypt played London last December, a friend sent me a picture of an article she'd seen in the paper saying that Rocket were going to be releasing a tour 7" for each date of their UK tour, each one a cover of a band from that city. Once I saw that, I knew I'd be buying this 7" regardless of what was on it. We got to the gig nice and early (to see The Computers, an excellent choice for a support act) and swung by the merch stand first to get the tour 7". At £5, it's pretty much the most I'm willing to pay for a 7" (especially given that it only has one song) but it's a very nice record to have. Nice one-sided green vinyl, and the sleeve is printed onto a paper sleeve with the title of the song stamped on the relevant part of the UK.

The London band they choose to cover is Status Quo, a band who I've never consciously sought out but I certainly know many songs by. I can't say I've heard the original version of Shy Fly, to the extent that I had to Google it when I got home to find out who it was by. There are plenty of other bands from London I'd sooner hear Rocket cover, but they do an excellent job with this one - the chorus is huge and the piano in the background adds so much. It's a pretty catchy tune and Rocket make it sound like it could be one of their own.

Format: One-sided 7", printed paperr sleeve
Tracks: 1
Cost: £5 new
Bought: gig
When: 06/12/13
Colour: Green
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Jesu - Duchess / Veiled

The third 7" I bought in my three-for-a-tenner offer at the Matador Records stall of the Independent Label Market last year is this Jesu record. I've been a casual fan of Jesu for a few years now, picking up his records whenever I find them (which isn't all that often). I've largely not enjoyed them quite as much as I did his Lifeline EP, but I think I just started on a highlight. They have their moments, but I find that 70 minutes is more bleak showgaze than I can usually handle. I like it, just in smaller doses.

This 7" fits that bill quite nicely, and Veiled is an awesome song. It feels like more of a traditional rock song and it works. Duchess is a cover of The Stranglers, a song which I can't say I've heard the original of. Jesu's take feels more the b-side to Veiled's a-side, but that's just my take on it.

The Matador Singles Club looks like it's produced some pretty awesome records over the years, and they've done a pretty nice job on making them consistent - the cover is whatever the cover would be, but the reverse is always the Singles Club logo. The record itself is a very shocking-pink and has the witty phrase "Singles going home alone" written on the b-side (which works on many levels).

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £3.33 new
Bought: Independent Label Market
When: 13/07/13
Colour: Pink
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Fucked Up - Year of the Pig

At the Independent Label Market in London last year I got some gems on vinyl. Some of the highlights came from the Matador Records 7" box, which was three records for a tenner. There was a good handful of records I could have happily bought, but in the end I opted for this Japanese release of Fucked Up's Year of the Pig, a Modest Mouse test press and a Jesu record from the Matador Singles Club. Three records by bands I like that I certainly wouldn't have sought out unless they were in front of my eyes like that. I'm very glad I bought them.

Fucked Up have released more 7" records than I care to count and I've not made much of an effort to buy any of them, despite becoming a big fan over the last few years (David Comes to Life was my album of 2011 and the albums either side of it were excellent too). This hasn't become the beginning of a collection (yet) but it is very pleasing. I think I've always been fascinated by Japanese versions of records since I got a few Japanese Manics cds back in the day. If I ever go I know I'll spend a small fortune on music. It will be excellent.

Year of the Pig is a pretty interesting song - it spends most of the time with some gentle vocals before briefly becoming a song more similar to Fucked Up's other material. It's much shorter than some of the later Year of the... songs but hints at where that series was going. By contrast, The Black Hats sounds very simple and almost reminiscent of 70's punk. The artwork is different to the UK/US release and included is a mini-poster with Japanese lyrics, which is a nice touch. All in all, a pretty lovely find for £3.33.

Format: 7", a4 poster
Tracks: 2
Cost: £3.33 new
Bought: Independent Label Market
When: 13/07/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

William Elliott Whitmore - The Day the End Finally Came

I have a lot of records by William Elliott Whitmore and they're all excellent. He has a fantastic voice and both times I've seen him play live were incredible and are some very fond memories of mine. Strictly speaking, this record is a bit redundant as each of the three songs appears in some form on another album - Does Me No Good on Hymns For the Hopeless and The Day the End Finally Came and The Buzzards Won't Cry on Ashes to Dust (although these are different recordings, the latter of which was recorded by John Congleton of The Paper Chase, another favourite of mine).

I received this 7" as a Christmas present along with the Hymns LP from my parents; all three are lovely songs, so there's no harm in having different versions of them. The Day the End Finally Came is rounded out by some extra musicians and The Buzzards Won't Cry has a more country feel to it. It's also worth pointing what an incredibly bleak title for a song The Day the End Finally Came is. Will Whitmore, unsurprisingly, is the man to do such a title justice.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: free, new
Bought: Gift
When: 25/12/12
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium

Expensive vinyl reissues - I wish I could could stop buying them, but I can't. I bought De-Loused in the Comatorium on cd nearly 10 years ago, but when Banquet Records put up the pre-order for the reissue vinyl I jumped at the chance. I'd never seen a copy of De-Loused on vinyl in person, but had seen it change hands for crazy amounts online (I once saw a copy of the very rare 4-vinyl, glow-in-the-dark version of Frances the Mute in a record shop in Melbourne, but it was Au$300 which was, and still is, more than I can justify spending on one record). I'm glad to have this album on vinyl, and £27 is much cheaper than original copies ever go for, but a small part of me feels a little stupid spending that much on an album I have on cd (not to mention knowing how The Mars Volta felt about having their albums re-pressed - I'm pretty sure Hum can sympathise there). However, it's neither the first nor last time I've bought an album on vinyl that I already had on cd, and cost much less than at least one other such album (more on that record another time).

There's no denying that Music On Vinyl have done a pretty lovely job on the reissue - everything feels like money well spent - gold vinyl, glossy gatefold sleeve, picture sleeves, a 24"x24" poster and it's numbered (mine is #446). The artwork was pretty cool before, but it looks so much better here than it does on the cd.

The album itself has long been a favourite of mine. I got into At the Drive-In at the tail end of their time together (and narrowly missed out on seeing them the first time around - they were due to play the Pyramids in Portsmouth on the day of my last GCSE but cancelled the tour half-way through and subsequently broke up). The Mars Volta then came about and the video for Inertiatic ESP was all over MTV. I saw them play at Reading Festival in 2003 but did not get it at all; they played two songs over 45 minutes and seemed to enjoy knowing their extended-jam wasn't what anyone wanted to see. Despite this, I still bought De-Loused and loved it (and Francis the Mute even more when that came out). The times I've seen The Mars Volta since have been far more enjoyable (although, curiously, always at festivals and never on their own).

Inertiatic ESP was always the hit-single and the go-to if I was ever putting The Mars Volta on mixtapes (although possibly because they had very few songs short enough) but I think Cicatriz ESP might be my favourite; a lot happens in those 12-and-a-half minutes, but when they bring it all back together with an even longer pause before the chorus (or the closest The Mars Volta ever really get to a chorus), I always smile (although the same can be send for the end of Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt with Cedric screaming the lines "Who brought me here?" towards the end). Roulette Dares, This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed and Televators (their attempt at a ballad?) are all incredible moments too. If the album has a weak point, it's side B, but perhaps it's all relative. Maybe I should play those songs on their own a bit and see if they shine.

I have no idea what Cedric is singing the vast majority of the time, and even if I knew the words I don't think I'd be much closer to understanding the meaning. If there really is a story in this album, I have no idea what it is. It's quite cool that a concept album can still work so well when after 10 years I have no idea what the concept is. Maybe one day I'll make an effort to try and follow it and get even more out of De-Loused in the Comatorium.

Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve, picture sleeves, 24"x24" poster, numbered
Tracks: 10
Cost: £27 new
Bought: Banquet Records
When: 30/05/14
Colour: Gold
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Chuck Ragan - Gold Country

Another day, another Chuck Ragan record. However, I shouldn't complain - there's a reason I keep buying them and that's because I do love his music. Gold Country is his second solo record which I bought after nearly two years of excessively playing Feast or Famine. I picked this up when I saw Chuck play live for the second time, which was in TJ's in Newport and on the last day of my job. I'd been working in Cardiff for nearly two years and I'd first seen Chuck shortly after I arrived in the city, just before I started said job. It felt like an excellent way to book-end my time there, especially given how much I'd listened to his music in between.

I think the album had been out a short while before the show, but I knew it would just be easier to buy it at the gig. They also had the Live in Zurich LP (on a lovely white and blue splatter vinyl) there that night and I bought both for £16. I'd heard Glory before on the split 7" he released with Brian Fallon and it remains to be one of my favourite songs on the record. Others have grown on me over time, but that is still the highlight for me.

I wasn't as instantly into Gold Country as I had been with Feast or Famine. The years have treated it well though and now there are loads of songs I think are great. For Goodness Sake is a great opener, The Trench and Let it Rain are great too. There are also some lovely slower moments too, like Don't Say a Word, Ole Diesel and Get 'Em All Home. All in all, a pretty excellent album.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £8 new
Bought: gig
When: 26/08/09
Colour: Black
Etching: Side A: "Mind the forked tongue" Side B: "Or wake up missing one"
mp3s: no