Gypsy Test

Back in 2012, I was introduced to the Giant's Despair album from Gypsy. I really didn't expect much from it, but man, it really got to me. The more that I listened to it, the more I wanted to listen to it. In a year that had some of my favorite hardcore records post-2010, Gypsy still made a case to climb into my top 10 of the year.

At the time that the album was released, was released, I was still getting down with multiple pressings for my favorite new releases...except I made a conscious effort to not play that game with the Gypsy record. I bought one copy, and committed to stick with only buying that one. It took seven years to break that promise.

Given the dark pink colored vinyl, and the special cover, I've always been drawn to the test pressing for this record. I never expected to get the opportunity to get my hands on one at a fair price, but I'd always told myself that if I was going to buy additional copies of Giant's Despair, it was going to be the test pressing. Discogs had one for sale from the record label with a $130 price tag, and I wasn't going to get involved for that money. Fuck that.

Then back in September, Marcus gave me a heads up that there was a test pressing on eBay with a low starting bid. I had hopes that no one had this in their sights, and maybe I'd get the chance to pick it up at a reasonable price.

The tip paid off, and I was happy to scoop this up at a fraction of the Discogs price.

Limited to 16 for the test press.

Striving For A Gypsy

When Six Feet Under put up pre-orders for the new Gypsy LP, I couldn't give a shit. I thought that their track on the Striving Higher comp sucked, and the comparisons to Jawbreaker and Dinosaur Jr were enough to discourage me from checking them out any further. When Marcus posted about Gypsy's new LP, Giants Despair, and stated that he had listened to the album five times in one day...it was enough to get me to reconsider my hardcore stance on avoiding them.

I checked the youtube link that Marcus had posted for the song Stuck, and it interested me enough so I downloaded the entire album. I soon found myself listening to it a couple of times a day, and in the context of this album, I was even digging the Gypsy song from the Striving Higher comp. I knew that I needed a copy of Giants Despair on vinyl.

Six Feet Under still had the lavender vinyl, limited to 208, in stock. I really shouldn't have spent any more money on records that month, but I got nervous that the lavender vinyl would sell out if I hesitated...plus I was pretty stoked on the album, so I quickly ordered it.

I honestly don't know what it is about this record...it probably won't end up on my top 10 list for the year, but yet I am still somehow in love with this album. I love the album cover, the colored vinyl, the songs...can't get enough right now, and I need to track down the band's first 7 inch.

While the Gypsy song from the Striving Higher comp didn't immediately interest me, the LP did serve to turn me on to a couple of bands that I'd never heard before. The Mongoloids were one of those bands. I'd heard the name tossed around for the past few years, but I'd never considered checking them out. As much as I question the necessity of compilations these days, Striving Higher seems to have paid off in this case.

This Mongoloids 7 inch is a blast. Sometime soon, I'm going to have to check out some of their other stuff.

Another band that Striving Higher introduced me to was As We Let Go. I vaguely remember pre-orders going up for this 7 inch back in 2009...I may have given the preview track from SFU a listen, or I may have just ignored them because they were from Japan...sure it might be prejudice, but I can't think of any Japanese hardcore bands that have interested me. Either way, it was my loss because this record is really good...the track from Striving Higher kind of reminded me of an old early 90's band called Ipecac, but this 7 inch has a strong Cruel Hand vibe to it.

200 pressed on blue.

As a bonus with my order, Six Feet Under threw in a free copy of the Eshas 7 inch. I'd never heard of this, and was interested to check it out when I saw that Rob Fish was the singer.

Unfortunately Rob Fish hasn't been in a band that I've cared about since Ressurection. This record didn't come with a download code, but seeing how I'll probably never listen to this again, I guess it was no loss. Too bad, because the packaging on this is top notch.