Collecting The Wonder Years - part 4 : "Punk Is Dead Get A Job"

This is the latest thing to be released by TWY, and so shouldn't have proven too tricky to get hold of in my long-game odyssey to pick up everything they've released. But, this thing sold out so fast at pre-order, I hadn't even realised it was available to pre-order before it was gone. 1000 copies in all, spread between 500 black swirl, 300 black/clear split and 200 black. Gone. Once they started shipping out, it was pretty easy to see where a few of the copies went : straight to the flippers

 

Fuck that. I was pretty mad. But as luck would have it, Craigos had a spare copy and offered to sell it me, at the same price he bought it for, plus postage from Australia to the UK obv. Top dude. It was the clear/black split version, and I was more than happy with that. A few days later, it turned up, and life was good again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love what they did with the artwork on this, making it look like a filled out IRS form, with band name, record label and lyrics in the boxes, pretty cool.

 

Oh yeah, I should probably mention that this is actually a split with Stay Ahead Of The Weather, who feature members of Into It/Over It and CSTVT. That song is great, but it's all about TWY side for me, their song is fucking magnificent.

 

For the iNerds among us, that Blogger app is actually pretty shit. Not letting you dictate the order of photos, not allowing you adding text in between them, no ability to create links. So I've abandoned that. BUT I did just get one of the 'new' iPads, and have been using an app called Blogsy. Which is a shit name, but it let's you do everything. In fact I think it let's me do more than I can work out on the Blogger site. This post was made with it and look, links and everything.

 

Collecting The Wonder Years - part 3 : The Upsides 1st press

I finally acquired a 1st press of The Wonder Years second LP (their first to be pressed onto vinyl) The Upsides. This is the second to rarest color, orange, 300 pressed and released by No Sleep Records in 2010. It marks a huge leap forward from the debut, indicated along the way by a handful of  of 7"s, and thankfully drops all those synth keyboards that plague Get Stoked On It (sorry, just cannot get down with those). In terms of pop-punk, and as a statement of just how crucial and creative this genre can be, it's untouchable and is rightly regarded as a modern classic.

The Price didn't go TOO high on this, which is good for my wallet because I was willing to just keep bidding until I won. A blue pressing that was up at the same time went way above what I paid for this though. The blue is the rarest colour out of 200, which must be the main reason behind the price difference. I can't remember the final sale price of the blue, but with 4 days to go it was up to £66 ($107). It was either the blue pressing or the fact that it was being sold by the guitarist from Such Gold that drove the price up. I'd predict it was the limited pressing. Anyway, I paid £36 for this in the end. Which was later bumped up to around £50 by being charged import tax. The import tax is fine to be honest, it's £4 or something. But it's Royal Mail that pisses me off. Seriously, their "handling fee" of something like £9 is disgusting.

Getting this marks completion of part of this quest to own at least one copy of every TWY vinyl pressed, with all of the LP's now in my grasp. Ok, there's only 2 LP's (3 if we're counting the Upsides repress with new art) but still...

Plenty of 7"s to go though!

Collecting The Wonder Years - part 2. Leavenhouse 11:30 7"

The first 2 posts in this series logging me building a Wonder Years collection were simple to get hold of. Bought whilst still in print, from a webstore. This 7" marks the first of many that I'm going to have to fight other Wonder  Years fans to get hold of unless some private sale opportunity comes along.

The Leavenhouse 11:30 7" was only available as part of a pre-order package for The Upsides 1st press on No Sleep Records. 492 of these pressed (8 were rejected with screen print defects). The A side contains the song, the B side an incredible looking screen print. It looks amazing, almost like its been hand painted on.

Not much to look at from the outside, no actual sleeve to this. Just a dust jacket and a protective plastic SHEATH.

This surfaced on Ebay UK, which was kinda surprising as there is a serious imbalance between UK and Ebay US when it comes to The Wonder Years, especially rarities. I genuinely didn't think I'd win this to be honest, it's the first Wonder Years rarity I'd perused and despite looking on Popsike I wasn't too sure how it would go. It reached a total number of 15 bids, 4 from me and the rest from four other dudes. £16.08 won it for me in the end (I put £20 on) with me being £1.08 ahead.

In related TWY collecting news, I achieved my little target-within-a-target today of landing all of the LP's. I wanted to get these locked down before I go throwing my money all over the internet in the pursuit of the rest. All I need now is for it to arrive from Houston,Texas and land safely in Merry Olde. More on that next time.

Collecting The Wonder Years - part 1. The Upsides 2nd press, purple /500 & discography pressing info

This is the 2nd press of The Wonder Years' 2nd LP, and their first to get a vinyl release. The Upsides is completely untouchable. This press handled by Run For Cover Records and was put out last year. It differs from the 1st press with different artwork and its housed in a gate fold sleeve which is the reason I'm after this and a 1st press to hit the target. Wasn't too difficult getting hold of it, though the UK distro I got it from is now out of stock of all colours. I ordered a brown, the only one they had, but was e-mailed asking if a purple was ok as the browns were all gone.  RFC still has some and there's probably a few dotted around various places. 2000 pressed in total across 4 colours: brown, purple, clear and yellow.

I'm yet to hold a 1st press in my hands (edit: got one now), but this 2nd press is pretty impressive. Nice marbling on the record itself as well. To be honest, I prefer this cover art. 

So a relatively simple first addition, the next TWY post will  feature something a bit rarer that I had to work a bit harder  spend a lot more to get. 

Right, if the thought of reading a fuck load of pressing info for TWY discography  fills you with boredom, I'd look away now. This is here first and foremost for my reference. A place where all the info from multiple websites is all in one relevant place. Maybe it will aid other collectors too. If I'm wrong on any of it or missing any of it (tests etc) , please help me out and comment.

Some of those subscription 7"s are going to be a challenge.

Won't Be Pathetic Forever - 7" EP
1st Press
No Sleep Records   - 2008    
(Each with a color coordinated screened jacket)
20 Test Pressing (Black)
100 Purple
200 Brown
200 Orange
30 Record Release (10 Purple/10 Brown/10 Orange - Arigato Pack)
30 Cornerstone (10 Purple/10 Brown/10 Orange - Arigato Pack)

2nd Press 
No Sleep Records - 2008
(Jackets were misprinted and say FRONT on the cover)
1000 Black

3rd Press
No Sleep Records - 2010
500 Purple/Yellow Marble
500 Orange/White Marble


split with All Or Nothing titled Distances - 7"
No Sleep Records - 2009
20 Test Pressing (Black)
300 White w/ Blue/Red Splatter 300 White w/ Red Splatter
400 Clear Blue


split with Fallen From The Sky - Under The Influence Vol. 13 7"
Suburban Home Records - 2009
300 transparent brown (whiskey coke colored)
700 transparent blue vinyl.

The Upsides - 12" LP
1st press
No Sleep Records  - 2010        
20 Test Pressing (Black)
150 Record Release (Black Vinyl, 30 records for each of the 5 record release shows with different spray painted dust sleeves for each city)
200 Blue
300 Orange GOT THIS ONE!
400 White (Hot Topic Exclusive)
450 Black

2nd press
Run For Cover Records - 2011
500 Purple GOT THIS ONE!
500 Brown
500 Clear
500 Yellow


Leavenhouse - The Upsides 1st press pre-order exclusive one sided screen print 7"
No Sleep Records - 2010
20 Test Pressing (Black)
50 Purple Screen Print (Friends Press)
492 Grey Screen Print GOT THIS ONE!
8 Grey Screen Print Rejects


split with Heroes For Hire 7" - Australian release only coinciding with 1st Australian Tour
Boomtown Records - 2010
Half Green / Half White
Half Red / Half White
Half Green / Half Yellow


Suburbia: I've Given You All And Now I'm Nothing - 12" LP
No Sleep Records - 2011
20 Test Pressing (Black)
500 Orange/Gray GOT THIS ONE!
500 Baby Blue
500 Gray
600 Orange (Hot Topic Exclusive)
1000 Black



Don't Let Me Cave In - Suburbia... CD pre-order exclusive 7"
Hopeless Records - 2011
500 grey marble

Don't Let Me Cave In - No Sleep Records subscriber exclusive 7"
No Sleep Records 2011
35 pressed, black, hand numbered


Came Out Swinging - Alternative Press Magazine 2011 Subscription Exclusive 7" 
250 Green

split with Stay Ahead Of The Weather - 7"
Hopeless records - 2012
200 Black
300 Half Clear Half Black GOT THIS ONE!
500 Clear w/ Black Splatter

Collecting The Wonder Years - Introduction & Suburbia 1st press orange & grey /500

It's time for a new crusade.

It's been a while since I feel like I've concentrated on a particular band and put a lot of effort into hunting down and completing their discography. I've decided I'm going to do exactly that with The Wonder Years. Introduced to them by various members of Birmingham's Best Band, they've been a favorite of mine for a couple of years but I only own one LP on actual vinyl. My iPod is full of their songs, but my record shelves are seriously lacking in Soupy and co. Listening to them the other day I thought "this is a madness, and I must change it".

In my opinion, TWY, along with bands like Iron Chic, Such Gold  and The Story So Far sum up just about everything that's been right about pop-punk in the last few years. The resurgence of late has seen some incredible bands come about. I didn't consider it a genre that I could ever give a fuck about again, but I've been proven so wrong.

So the hunt begins. The one release I do have is this one: Suburbia I Have Given You All And Now I Am Nothing.

The orange/grey split 1st press of their 3rd LP released by No Sleep Records last year and limited to 500. I had no problems bagging one of these, I was waiting in line at pre-order stage when it was announced. I've got a couple of TWY records on the way in the post, a couple of records from later presses that were easy to round up and ill post about them when they arrive. But it gets a little trickier from here on out.

My criteria at the moment is simple: to reach my goal of owning a complete discography I want at least 1 copy of each of their records pressed so far, with 1st press being the ultimate aim but I'll have no problem picking up a later press if one becomes available. The one exception with this rule being their 2nd LP The Upsides. The 2nd press of this was in a gatefold with different cover art. I consider this different enough to warrant getting both a 1st and 2nd press to consider it a complete discography.

Their first LP was a CD release only so that rules that one out but as well as both presses of the 2nd LP to get there's a load of 7"s : a mixture of EP's, splits, pre-order exclusives and subscription only deals. One subscriber 7" of the track Don't Let Me Cave In was limited to 35 copies. Jesus Christ what am I doing to myself.

So that's my goal. Let's go! Multiple copies of the same record, test presses and record release presses are obviously fair game, but 1 copy of everything is my primary goal at this stage.

My next TWY post that I do when I've received the stuff that's on it's way I'll probably include a back catalogue list with pressing info to the best of my knowledge so I can nerd out over the information all in one handy Internet place and maybe help anyone else who might want to know someday. The information is already out there, but who wants to flick between multiple websites? Not this dickhead.

The Wonder Years 'Suburbia...' 12" - The most bendy release of the year

And so the arrival of The Most Anticipated Pop-Punk Album Since The Wonder Years' Last One was met with a heavy rumble of disgruntlement. Not the ACTUAL album, the music itself is incredible, and shoved TWY even more heads and even more shoulders above their contemporaries. But it seems that a fair few people around the world are receiving this vinyl in unplayable condition.

'Suburbia I Have Given You All And Now I'm Nothing' dropped through my door yesterday, and after checking it was what I thought it was, I sent a message to a few mates who I knew were waiting on the same record to let them know it had started arriving.

I opened it up, and basked in the loveliness of the Orange/Grey split. A pressing of 500.

Then I received a message back from one of the before-mentioned mates saying how there'd been reports of a shit load of people receiving their records in a varying degree of a warped condition. Checked mine, and yup, warped. 

It was slight, but no where near as bad as some of the reports on the VC Boards, which had lit up with people reporting the condition in which their LP was arriving, despite no damage to the sleeve or mailer. I stuck it on, and was greeted by it turning on the deck like a wobbling spinning plate and 3 skips in the first track. 

Fabulous.

On closer inspection, it's the thinnest vinyl I have ever touched, its like a fucking flexi-disc. This can't have helped. The package overall has a pretty cheap feel. My picture of the back cover almost makes the slightly blurred picture look alright.

The insert is cool, big fold out poster, which has the lyrics and some pictures of band mascot Hank The Pigeon at various spots around what I guess is TWY's home town. Lyrics are printed with an individual dedication for each one.

Luckily, despite the slight warping, on repeated plays I get no skips anywhere. So it plays ok, which means no complaints to No Sleep Records from me. With some higher quality sleeve production, I would have zero problems. But still, shouldn't moan. Some people's records turned up looking like a piece of modern art, and No Sleep are going to have a pretty full Inbox to start wading through.