Wanna Haul It: Part 1 - AFI

Once again I'm deviating from my regular process of posting the oldest acquisitions here first. I spent last Saturday in Boston catching up with my friend Mark, who is visiting from the UK. He is spending a number of days in New York City, but he made the 4 hour bus ride up to Boston, and I made the 2 hour drive down to pick him up at the bus station. Our plan was to then drive over to Wanna Hear It Records and then get some vegan food at Veggie Galaxy before dropping him back at South Station for his return trip to NYC.

I love having an excuse to make the trip to Wanna Hear It. While most record stores tend to be a disappointment, at Wanna Hear It it's pretty much a guarantee that I'm dropping $100 while I'm there. I picked up seven records from the store that day, and figured that I'd run another series of posts to try and get them all up on the blog this week. Let's go.

Shocking, but one of the first records that I picked up was the new AFI album, Silver Bleeds The Black Sun. I've never been a big fan of AFI, although there are a few songs off Sing The Sorrow that I've found this year that I really enjoy... but when my friend Sarah sent me a link for AFI's newest single, Behind The Clock, a couple of months ago, I really sat up and paid attention. It didn't sound like the AFI that I expected... it had some kind of synthy new wave gothic thing going on, and I was surprised with how much I really loved that song. It was almost as if AFI listened to the last couple of Ceremony albums and was like, "hey we should do something really different like this". A few years ago, before I discovered how much I enjoy The Smiths and The Cure, I wouldn't have given this any attention... but today I really appreciate what AFI is doing here.

When Mark and I walked into Wanna Hear It, I saw the new album on the wall, and realized that the guys working there had it playing in the store. I listened to a couple of songs and very quickly I decided to pick up the record. This is a very different sound than I usually reach for, and I'm not sure how it will hold up over the rest of the year, but right now, I'm very much enjoying this record.

The copy that Wanna Hear It had available was the First Run Club edition from Run For Cover Records. The OBI strip states that this is a limited edition, first press vinyl edition, that's available only at independent record stores. "The FRC edition of this record is pressed on an exclusive First Run Club variant, and includes unique extras not available elsewhere." Not knowing any of the pressing info, I thought that this sounded like a cool edition to pick up. Little did I realize that this is basically the most common pressing. The unique extras are a poster that I'll never hang up, a CD sampler that I'll never listen to, and stickers that I'll never use. Hey, at least the vinyl looks good.

4,000 pressed on white/violet colored vinyl.

Hallows AFI

Some people really love AFI, but I've always kind of been lukewarm on the band. I enjoy some of their stuff, but I've never really taken to them the way some people have. I tuned into them sporadically in the late 90's when tough guy shit started to take over the hardcore scene, but the band never hooked me the way that bands like Good Riddance and Bouncing Souls did at the time. I still have downloads for the early AFI stuff, and when I was going through my playlist for records that came out in the year 2000, I queued up their Art Of Drowning album, and surprisingly I was digging it. As I usually do when I'm listening to something that I'm enjoying at the time, I immediately started checking out vinyl options.

I seemed to remember at some point that Newbury Comics might have done some exclusive pressing for some AFI stuff, so my first move was to check out their online store. Surprisingly the 2019 Newbury pressing for The Art Of Drowning was already sold out, and listed on Discogs for stupid prices. Having missed out on taht one, I happened to notice a colored vinyl option for the All Hallows EP was available through Newbury Comics, and given the cheap price for the 10 inch, I figured "what the hell" and bought it.

While it was sold by Newbury Comics, I don't think it is one of their exclusive pressings. Either way, this is a cool little EP...with three original songs and a great Misfits cover. It is just long enough to keep me entertained, and not get bored with the style. Good stuff when I want to listen to something a little different.