One Buck Landfill

After adding a record from a Discogs seller to my cart, I have no choice but to check to see what else they may have for sale. This is my system, and I kill way too much time scrolling through page after page of records, waiting for something to catch my eye. If we did an in-depth study of this process, discecting the data on when this "one more record" strategy has paid off, I think that things would lean heavily in the direction of "buying shit that I wouldn't have picked up otherwise".

Case in point, this Sleeper 7 inch. I really liked the Display EP that Sleeper released in 1991, but I kind of go luke warm on them after they changed their name to Serpico and released a couple of albums on Equal Vision. I figured that a record under the original Sleeper name might be interesting... and with the cheap price, it made it too easy to add it to an order that I already had going with a seller.

It looks like this 7 inch from 1993 was the last thing that the band would release as Sleeper. In fact, the song Splinter here will also show up on the first Serpico album... and that is a great song. It's cool to hear this earlier recording. I certainly wouldn't have actively hunted this down, but I'm kind of glad that I have it.

Obviously the "$1 Buck Landfill" sticker on the front of the record is a pretty good indication that very few people are actually going to give a shit about this record.

Cheap 7 Inch Haul: 1994 - Serpico

Originally released under the band name Sleeper in 1991, this 7 inch ended up being reissued in '94 after they changed their name over to Serpico to avoid conflict with a UK band of the same name. I bought the original Sleeper record back in the early 90's, but when I saw this Serpico reissue on colored vinyl, I couldn't resist it.

I absolutely love the three songs on this record... for early 90's melodic punk, this record hits the spot... but for some reason I've never been able to connect with any of other stuff by Sleeper or Serpico. Their two albums on Equal Vision were okay, but nothing very exciting. A lot of potential, and being on EVR helped to get their name out there, but their stuff just never clicked. This first 7 inch is great though.

I really like the packaging for this 7 inch and think the white vinyl with the brown center labels and cover looks great. 500 pressed on this color.

There are a number of different versions for this record under the Sleeper name, but the copy I have on gold vinyl is probably all I'll need...you know, until I see happen to see one of the white or pink vinyl pressings for cheap.

Serpico Is Not Dead

While I was picking up a few other records from a Discogs seller, I saw they had a Serpico 7 inch for sale that I'd never heard of before. I've got their two Equal Vision CDs from '95 and '96, and a couple other 7 inches, but I'd never heard of this I'm Not Dead record. I was in an adventurous mood, and with a $2 price tag, I figured that I'd grab it.

Even though I own the two Serpico CDs that were released from Equal Vision Records, I still haven't listened to them in around 15 years. No exaggeration. So I'm not sure why I felt the need to buy another Serpico record...just caught up in the moment, and looking for something new, I guess.

I'm Not Dead was released in '94, and definitely sounds of that time. Good enough to be enjoyable for a spin when you want to revisit that time period, but there isn't anything here to set it apart and above those bands that were doing it better at that time. Good stuff, but not too exciting.

Numbered and limited to 1,000 pressed...which I guess explains why this record goes for so cheap these days. I can see the band sitting around in the late 90's with half of these still sitting in their basement and bummed out that they took the effort to actually hand stamp and number all 1,000 of these.