Friday 29 October 2010

More New Age Records represses

Earlier this year I ordered some stuff from New Age Records. Unlike back in the 90s, my package took ages to arrive. And when it did arrive the packaging was poor and the records weren't in the best shape (you can read the story HERE). Anyway, after this bad experience I hoped that I would never need to order from New Age again.

Fast forward a couple of months, I was surfing the nerd and saw an update on xStuck In The Pastx about a ridiculously limited (to 38 copies) Outspoken LP. I'm sure you can guess what happened next. I mean, if you're a fellow record nerd then you know how it works - sometimes, you don't even have time to THINK. You see a rare record and your brain sends these little "BUY BUY BUY!" messages straight to your fingers, and then your subconscious takes over and before you know it you have clicked on those "add to basket" and "checkout" buttons so fast that you only realise what has happened when an email receipt drops into your inbox and brings you back into the real world. Well, this was one of those times. Except, as usual, my brain also did its usual "no point buying just one record from the States, might as well buy a few to make the shipping costs worthwhile" trick. So I had a quick look around the store and bagged a few other items, racking up quite a bill in the process. And given that I ordered in late August, I calculated that I would be lucky to see my records this side of Xmas. Surprisingly though, the records came in less than two months. Quite a result I'm sure you will agree...

Let's start with some Strife 7"s. I have the original pressing of this 7" with the blue cover and on blue vinyl. But still I couldn't resist picking up this repress because... well, you know, because that's what I'm like. Plus, they're only like $5 each. The first one is on "grey with yellow" vinyl, of 350 copies. Or, as I like to call it, "brown":

Next is another interesting colour. My receipt says that this is on "red/white" vinyl. Or, as most humans would call it, "pink". This is more limited, being out of 175 copies:

And finally, another "red/white" vinyl 7", although this time with a limited (i.e. cheap, crap) sleeve, and with the Walk Proud labels. This is the most limited. The Walk Proud labels denote that this is the "77 Pressing":

Next we move onto Outspoken records. The first item out of the bag is a recent repress of the first 7" 'Survival'. This never came on colour wax when it was released way back in 1962, and even though I got the special 77 pressing earlier this year, I like this 7" enough to pick up a second (different) colour copy. This one is 'burnt orange' and is out of 297 copies.

Next up, the one I was most excited about - The Outspoken 'A Light In The Dark' LP. This was one of the first hardcore records I bought. I bought it because I loved the 'Survival' 7" so much, but this LP always sounded disappointing in comparison. To add to the disappointment, they also never made any colour vinyl copies of it, only black. Or at least, that was the case until 2010, when they seem to have gone crazy and made 4 different colour vinyl versions of the thing! And, to make it SOUND better as well as look cool, this re-pressing has been remastered, and sounds WAY better than the original. I just wonder how many people have, like me, been around long enough to get excited about and appreciate this thing finally seeing the light of day on colour vinyl. I can't imagine too many to be honest. Anyway, the most common colour is orange vinyl, of which there are 275 copies:

One thing that's really cool here is that the B-side label is plain and hand stamped. I like this because it makes it clear that this is a new and different pressing to the original.

The second version is clear vinyl with black streaks. There are 193 of these.

And again, it has the plain, hand stamped B-side label. And another nice little touch is that the orange vinyl had an orange label whereas this one has a green label to match the green (even though it's clear) vinyl.

The third version is the 77 pressing. This one is the same clear vinyl with black streaks, but this one has the (now over-used) Walk Proud labels. As the name suggests, there are 77 copies of this thing.

And just to prove that this is clear vinyl rather than green like it looks in most of these photos:

So that now only leaves the fourth version, which is the whole point of me placing this order in the first place. Yup, the only photo I have not yet taken is of the ridiculously limited yellow vinyl version of 38 copies. The problem is though that as much as I'd love to show you a picture of one of these things, I can't. Why not? Well, because right after I clicked on the 'check out' button in the New Age store, I got a message saying that the yellow vinyl had sold out! Can you believe it? The record that made me place the order in the first place wasn't actually available. Kinda made me wonder whether it really exists or whether it was made up just to trick people like me into placing another order with New Age...

9 comments:

Doug W said...

Jesus! I can't help but think you are going to regret this whole purchase in about three months! Just feels like a cash grab to repress this far down the line from when these bands and records had their time.
Congrats on the rare shit, I guess?

Fire me an email this weekend. I have record collecting things to bitch about!

Alternate 1995 said...

As much as it pains me to say it bro, DW is dead on. Cash grab central.

Mike said...

I disagree with both Doug and Nick...I love that New Age has repressed this older stuff...and really, I'd rather see them repressing Strife and Outspoken then putting out more of the shit they have been releasing lately. Yes, I'm jealous and want your 77 pressing of the Strife 7 inch.

mcs said...

Come on guys! How is this any more of a cash grab than anything else that gets released these days? I mean, Doug, your latest post mentions an up & coming Have Heart live LP for christ's sake!

I take the point about pressing these things years after their time, but LOADS of labels are repressing stuff these days. Its always tough to know which ones to buy and which to ignore. But i gotta say, there's something cool about getting a record on colour for the first time many years after it first came out. I seriously loved Outspoken when i first got into hardcore and was always bummed that the LP never came on colour. So i'm super stoked on it.

Anonymous said...

I ordered all this stuff also, for me this is quite new. I actually never heard to music of these records. I know the bands by name and their relevance but that's about it. So I'm pretty stoked about getting mine in the mail also.
A bit of a bummer that I ordered in July (the 17th exactly) and that they are already in stores while I still haven't received a thing.
It takes way too long...

Alternate 1995 said...

I will admit, you make some good points. Willem definitely makes a great point that the younger crowd may not have given these bands a shot unless they saw someone pressing it new. Meaning if it's worth repressing now, it must be someone good. So I agree with that. But I think more about the reasoning and less about the result. Mike/Willem you think about the result of the repressing. Younger crowd gets exposed and other crappy music doesn't get pressed. I on the other hand think about why they were repressed in the first place. Dollar signs. But you're right, there's good and bad to come of these represses. Like there is with everything relating to money.

mcs said...

I still don't entirely agree. I mean, its not like the label has started repressing everything in its catalog. I think that part of the reason for the represses was that both bands (Strife & Outspoken) re-formed recently and played some shows. Strife played Sound & Fury this year (and the limited edition 7" of 50 copies sold out in about 5 seconds) and Outspoken got back together to play for their 20th anniversary.

Anonymous said...

Made my New Age order for those strife records at the beginning of September and as usual, no response from my numerous e-mail attempts and still no records. From what I hear all New Age distribution/mailorder is being turned over to hellfish. Which is great because now people will actually be able to receive their orders, unfortunately they aren't taking over the past due orders that were never shipped. I'm bummed that I went against what everyone else told me and ordered anyway. I guess you win some and you lose some

Michel said...

Same here, I ordered some records from New Age early september, but never got them. I'm too late filing a PayPal-claim and got no replies to my emails. I know I will never order from New Age again.