Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

I remember my dad buying a copy of Wish You Were Here on cd when I was a teenager. I'd been properly into music for a little while and remember thinking how strange it was that he'd just go out one day and spend £15 on a new cd when I'm sure he could have found it cheaper with a bit of hunting. But I guess he was just in the mood to hear the album again and fancied buying it. Pink Floyd had always been a favourite of his, probably more-so than Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, the other two bands I'd assumed were his top-three from back in the day, based on his record collection. He'd shared a place with some friends when he was younger, and they took turns buying new records, hence his patchy collection. Wish You Were Here was one of the ones his friends had bought, so he'd gone a good number of years without playing it (I think this all happened after the release of the Pink Floyd best-of, Echoes, so perhaps hearing two of the songs on there made him want to play the rest).

I borrowed the cd and had a listen in my room at some point afterwards and enjoyed it. I've always had a bit of a soft-spot for middle-era Pink Floyd (the early days do nothing for me, not that familiar with the tail end); Black Sabbath are my favourite of the three "dad bands", and Led Zeppelin have their moments (and in the right time and place can sound amazing), but Pink Floyd just had something about them. In my rough memory of the timeline, I'd bought myself a live recording of The Wall in early 2001, and Echoes was November 2001, so this would be after that. 

I enjoyed Wish You Were Here. I loved how long Shine On You Crazy Diamond was, and how (almost obnoxiously) long the song is before any vocals come in; the saxophone was amazing and the way the guitars nearly sing the chorus was brilliant. Welcome to the Machine and Have a Cigar felt angry, or as angry as you could expect from a band that weren't metal. The title track was just a truly incredible song, a little pool of normality in a sprawling (in song length, not quantity), quite difficult album (in a lot of ways). I don't know if there is any generally accepted ranking of their discography, but I can imagine this one is number two or three in most cases. I didn't know that going into it at the time (I knew Dark Side of the Moon was number one, I'd always assumed The Wall was number two. It was years before I heard Animals).

Like my father before me, I also went for years and years without hearing Wish You Were Here again. He certainly went longer; the gap for me would've been about 16 years. I found this copy in one of the greatest charity shop hauls of all-time (18 albums by Floyd, Zeppelin, Dylan and REM for £6, all in incredible condition. It was like someone had discarded the record collection of someone as anal as me, but marginally younger than my dad). I couldn't believe my luck as I flicked through the records, ignoring my infant daughter in her pushchair as I pulled out classic record after classic record. I don't remember which album I found first, or when I realised I was onto such an incredible find - after a while I stopped being surprised to find great albums and was even eventually a bit disappointed there weren't more Floyd and Zeppelin. I certainly don't remember thinking "yes, Wish You Were Here!", it was more likely "another Floyd, great". The sleeve is in amazing condition given its age, and the previous owner used to keep the records in paper sleeves rather than the picture sleeves, so the inner sleeve looks new.

This Christmas just gone, between waves of pandemic, I visited some more charity shops and was very pleased to find a copy of Wish You Were Here on cd (meaning I'd have mp3s of it too), along with a standard version of a Manics album on cd that I needed. I think I was actually more excited to find those than I was the vinyl, mainly because the rest of the haul that morning was a bit shit. I plan to buy all the Pink Floyd albums in time, but I see them more of a cd band than a vinyl one. That said, I'm of course pleased to have a handful of their best on vinyl.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 5
Cost: £0.33 second-hand
Bought: Blue Cross charity shop, Kidlington
When: 01/12/18
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: none

ONSIND + Ghost Mice - Split

 

I have a huge amount of time for ONSIND. As soon as I got into them I started listening to all their songs on Bandcamp - that was around 2011 so this 7" would have been on there (although isn't there any more). I started buying any of their records I could find, and this was a very pleasant surprise on my first trip to All Ages. As a side note, I should have visited All Ages much sooner into my time living in London, but I was rarely that far north except in the evenings for gigs; I later realised that it was worthy of dedicated trips on its own. I've also not been there anywhere near enough - not only do they stock all the punk records you could possibly want, but they also have a good selection of metal and obscure heavy stuff (two genres I'm leaning more into these days).

The second ONSIND song, That Takes Ovaries, also ended up on their superb second album, Dissatisfactions. They've stopped playing it after taking some criticism for the blunt lyrics, but certain lines aside the point they're trying to make remains as valid as ever and is often one that comes to mind when watching some bands. The first song, Call Me If You Ever Feel Too Old to Drive, is a perfect ONSIND song and worth the price of the record alone.

Ghost Mice are on the second side of the record and that's really about the most I know about them, other than that they're from the USA. To sum them up very briefly, they're too nasal and high pitched for me to really find them enjoyable. I do love their energy though. They sound a bit like a Chuck Ragan song played 50% too fast, which you can either choose to take as a compliment or not, depending on how that summary lands with you. Their third song, Exit #2, paints a nice picture.

Format: 7", insert

Tracks: 4

Cost: £4 new

Bought: All Ages, Camden

When: 03/10/12

Colour: Black

Etching: no

mp3s: no

The Draft - The Fest 12 Edition

 

I don't have mp3s of these songs, so they've had a fraction of the number of plays as The Draft's excellent, only album has had. Devil in the Shade is worth digging the 7"s out for alone, and Hard to Be Around It is pretty strong too. I really should play this much more often.

I wasn't aware of what this record was when I bought it - I'd been buying the "Fest Edition" version of any records I was into that weekend and they're all pretty cool. At the end of the weekend I found this in Arrow's Aim, the No Idea record shop in Gainesville and added it to the stack of records I was buying (before we jumped in the car, realised we mis-calculated our timings a bit and had to drive very fast back to Tampa to catch our flight home). I'd seen The Draft for the first (and only) time at Pre-Fest a few days earlier, but not seen the record there. If they'd played the main event too they must have clashed with someone else, otherwise I'd have watched them again.

The strangest thing about this record is that it's a double-7" version of a triple 7" they'd released for a separate tour (which Discogs refers to as "Tour Edition"). That record comprises all three 7"s they released in 2007, the year after In a Million Pieces came out, but this one is only two of those records; I've not heard the other two songs. I should probably check them out one day.

Format: Double 7", Fest edition

Tracks: 4
Cost: £7 new
Bought: Arrow's Aim, Gainesville
When: 04/11/13
Colour: Purple
Etching: Side A: "Mini soccer? Are you kidding me?" Side B: "I like grown up JB even better" Side C: "Draft beer, not me" Side D: "Draft is a fine cleaning product"
mp3s: no

Radiator Hospital + Martha - Split

 

I should really like Martha more than I actually do. I love ONSIND and have done for years, but this is the only Martha record I own (and that's only really because I got it as part of the Specialist Subject subscription I had for a couple of years). I've listened to all their albums and each time thought "yeah, it's nice, but I don't love it". I'm clearly missing something because everyone I know loves them way more than ONSIND and they've had what appears to be far more success as a foursome too.

I can see the appeal for sure. Chekhov's Hangnail has a huge chorus and a big full sound. Mendable is actually much closer to ONSIND territory and I like it more. I guess what I always quite liked about ONSIND was that weren’t a rock band, but wrote songs that definitely worked as rock songs. The last time I saw them was effectively the Martha line-up (I think) playing an ONSIND set and it was incredible. Maybe I just need to see Martha for it to all fall into place.

I don't really remember having any opinions on Radiator Hospital before, but I'm quite enjoying them now. I can’t put my finger on what it reminds me of (frustratingly) - the singer's very nasal voice is very reminiscent of something, but for the life of me I can't think who. The final song, Dark Sand, has some extra vocals which do break things up quite nicely and adds a lot to the song. Good effort squeezing three songs onto one side of a 7" playing at 45rpm - I don't think I've ever put this record on at the right speed the first time - I always think "three songs must mean 33rpm".

Format: 7", insert
Tracks: 5
Cost: £5 new
Bought: Specialist Subject Records
When: 08/10/15
Colour: Mint green
Etching: Side A: "Put the kettle on" Side B: "Sexy willy riff"
mp3s: Download code

Muncie Girls - Picture of Health

 

I only own this 7" because it was included in my Specialist Subject subscription. I like Muncie Girls, but not enough to bother buying 7" singles of theirs. That said, it turns out I have nearly everything they've released, so maybe I am a collector? The a-side is from their last album, Fixed Ideals. It's a strong song with a huge, catchy chorus. But it'd be more than sufficient for me to enjoy it on the LP  alone (which was also part of the subscription, although I would have bought that regardless). The b-side, Rain, is a perfectly nice song, but less memorable. Nice poster sleeve.

Format: 7", poster sleeve

Tracks: 2

Cost: £5 new

Bought: Specialist Subject Records

When: 14/06/18

Colour: Black

Etching: None

mp3s: Download code

Pale Angels - Strange Powers

 

I genuinely wasn’t sure what speed to play this record at just now - it didn’t sound right at either. Turns out it was 45. I guess this record came out after the Four Live Songs 7", although both were in 2014 at some point. I think this is a live EP recorded at a studio in Amsterdam - none of the songs are on the albums. It's far faster and more punk-rock than anything else they've recorded - the grunge vibes are barely apparent at all.

The final song, Romantic Depression, is the best by far and worthy the cost of the 7" alone. La Esquina is so short that it’s nearly taken me longer to write this sentence than to listen to the song. It's a nice enough record, but probably not essential

Format: 7"

Tracks: 4

Cost: £5 new

Bought: Specialist Subject Records

When: 05/12/14

Colour: Black

Etching: None

mp3s: Download code

Pale Angels - Four Live Songs

 

When I bought the first Pale Angels album, I figured I'd pick up the two 7"s that Specialist Subject had as well. It'd been nine months since I'd seen them and been really pleasantly surprised at how good they were, and the fact they were basically a grunge band and not a punk band. I'm not sure why it took me so long. I've got a feeling I had a discount to use with Specialist Subject so put in an order for a bunch of things. Either that, or I was just in the mood to spend some money.

The four songs here make up nearly half of the songs on their debut, but these were recorded live on a UK tour in December 2013. The quality, as you'd expect (for a number of reasons) varies from charmingly shit to just shit - Mama sounds like it was recorded on a dictaphone cassette, and it sounds like Reza was playing drums on a table; the "woo-oohs" near the end sound amazing though. I get the desire to get some songs out there, but I can't believe these were the best four live recordings from that tour unless they were the only four live recordings from that tour. Slow Dance is great though - pure Nirvana, but brilliant for it. Slow Jangle has a nice build up to a satisfying beat.

Anyway, it's a nice little package - white vinyl and the sleeve is printed on black card and numbered (mine is 124/143). It also comes with a zine of tour photos, which is nice. I hadn't realised that the cover of the Strange Powers 7” was shot in the Exchange until looking through there. 

Format: 7", zine, numbered (124/143)

Tracks: 4

Cost: £5 new

Bought: Specialist Subject Records

When: 05/12/14

Colour: White

Etching: None

mp3s: None