Thursday, January 02, 2014

P&T Test Pressings

I was thinking about posting up "just another record" for my first post of 2014, and then I saw what Chris put up on his blog, Unwavering Spirit. Damn. I'm not going to be able to complete with him on this, but it did make me rethink how I wanted to start the blog off for 2014.

Back in May of last year, Carlos from Police & Thieves dropped me a line, letting me know that the band was looking to record some new songs over the summer, and to help fund it, he was selling a bunch of records from his collection. I told him that if he had some P&T rarities, then I would definitely be interested. By June, we had worked out the details on what he was able to dig up, and I sent the payment over to him for what I could afford at the moment. There were a few false starts and delays in getting the records out, but I was in no rush, and I knew the dude was good for it. By the time we were saying goodbye to Summer, I finally had my records in hand.

First up, we have a test pressing of the Fracturing 12 inch that Police & Thieves did a couple years ago. It looks similar to the record release pressing that P&T did, except the test cover is on green cardstock instead of white. Such a great record, and a great band...plus, anytime you get a chance to grab a Youngblood test, you've got to take it.

One of the reasons for the delay in getting these records out to me was that Carlos was waiting on the test press covers from Youngblood. Yeah, I'm cool with waiting for stuff like this.

The other test that Carlos had available, was for the split 7 inch that Police & Thieves did with Remission. This one was put out on Amendment records, and comes in a nice envelope-type sleeve. The packaging looks great for this one.

Stamped labels and numbered out of 20. I've got number 7.

After everything was said and done, and I had these two tests in my hand, I was starting to feel the pinch of some reckless record spending. I knew that it was time to reign myself back and in and chill for a little while. Then Carlos lets me know that he has a third test press available if I want it. I was torn, and I dragged my feet on it for a month or so, but in the end, I couldn't pass it up.

This time around we have a test press for the Amor Y Guerra 7 inch that Police & Thieves released back in 2008 through Youngblood. Just a simple red sleeve with a glittery silver "P&T" painted in the corner. Nice.

The catalog number for this is YB25, so I'm not sure if the number on the label means that this is number 7 from the pressing, or what. Either way, I'll take it!

Week one of 2014 and my test press count is at three. I wonder if I'll be able to keep up this pace for the year.

7 comments:

J@screamingforrecords said...

Happy new year Mike and a great first post of 2014!!! It's all down hill from here haha

Chris said...

Thanks for the shout out and definitely great pick ups! Are you gonna take up the test press challenge?

Mike said...

No way. I was joking. There is no way that I could keep up with it!

Wei L. said...

another great post man. what's this test press challenge?

Mike said...

The test press challenge was something that Marcus did over on his blog. At some point during the year, he made an offhand comment about trying to get 52 test pressings over the course of a year...one for each week. The crazy bastard almost made it too.

At the end of this post, I made an inside joke about it.

mcs said...

Man, how big is your post backlog if you are only just getting around to posting records that arrived at the end of Summer? Or does Summer end in December where you live?

Carlos offered me one of those Amor Y Guerra 7" tests when I got my Remission split from him... but then he realised he didn't have one after all. I guess you got it. Damn you!

Pressure is now on for me to come up with a good post to get the year started. Hmmmm...

Wei L. said...

that's one hell of a challenge! holy crap, i have to read through all of it.