Wednesday 18 March 2009

Break It Up Test

There's an old saying / piece of advice that I have found can get you a long way in life - "If you don't ask, you don't get". What this really means, of course, is that if you want something badly, then you should be a cheeky bastard and ask for it, because sometimes you'll be lucky and end up with exactly what you wanted. I whole-heartedly subscribe to this theory. It's worked for me numerous times over the years. One time in about 1997 I wanted to see the band Will Haven play in my hometown, but they were supporting The Deftones & it was completely sold out. Undeterred, I went along to the venue, asked to speak to someone from Will Haven, and just told the dude I wanted to watch his band but the show was sold out. He put me on the guestlist. Another time I phoned up the owner of Revelation Records and asked if I could get a Chung King record, and a couple of months later we did a dodgy trade and I had one [NOTE - do not try this now, you will get nowhere]. And today, once more, the simple piece of advice yields great results, as I received a Break It Up test press in the mail:

As you can see, I got the "fucked up" test pressing:

I was interested to know exactly what was wrong with this record, so (for a change) I actually put a record on my turntable. The answer is that there is a constant, high-pitched ringing noise throughout the duration of side 2 of this record. I would therefore concur with the description of this being "fucked up". If you are interested in pressing info on this record, see Lins87's blog HERE.

The dust sleeve also came with a cool message from Lins87 himself:

THANKS DUDE! This is greatly appreciated!

For those of you who don't know, Break It Up were a UK band that existed circa 2003-2006. One of the best shows I saw them play was in some basement in Leeds. It just sticks in my mind. The night was horrible, and I just sat in some kid's room with a load of other old men watching tv, waiting for Break It Up to play. They played, I jumped on someone's head, the night seemed slightly improved. It's funny what you remember sometimes I guess. Anyway, for anyone who never heard Break It Up, check them out:

www.myspace.com/breakitupuk

You can probably still pick up their album somewhere I'm sure if you wanted.

4 comments:

Youthcrewalex said...

i agree with this completely!
its how i got my signs of hope demo test.

Mike said...

Jealous. You get test from Lins, and I can't even get Lecky to mail me the Walk the Plank records that I paid him for. Fuck.

jhulud said...

You and I can attest to that philosophy recently. =)

Anonymous said...

very true. it never hurts to ask. especially from the source. i've landed numerous "out of print", "sold out" releases and always feel that much better on adding it to my collection.