10-8-83 Seattle show flyer

Cool flyer for the record release show for the Accused/Rejectors split LP. Offset printed in blue ink on the back of a chunk of a larger poster for a property management company... whoever made these must have worked in a print shop. Original art by Ernst Fuchs, titled "Lucretia Restrained".

(click to see bigger)

SP 86: Taken By Surprise 7"

PI's entry for the Sub Pop singles club for the month of November, 1990. The fourth of five singles from the Feel The Darkness session, the A-side is the same as the LP version and the B-side is the same as the Plastic Bomb cassingle and the Official Bootleg 2x7".

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TEST PRESS - ??? copies

No known sleeve. B-side label has "SP 86" written in black felt tip marker.

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FIRST PRESS - 4500 copies

Sub Pop official discography states 3000 green vinyl and 1500 black vinyl (back cover says (EDITION OF 4,500), while PI's discography (from Pajama Party LP insert) incorrectly lists 4700 black and 300 green.

FE 5: Drinking Is Great 7" compilation

Classic Portland compilation and the 5th release on Fatal Erection from 1985. One song each from PI, Lockjaw, E-13 and Final Warning. "Laughing Boy" is one of my all time favorite PI tracks, and can be found tacked onto the various reissues of Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes. The other three bands all have great records of their own — two 7"s from Lockjaw (skinhead hc a-la Agnostic Front, collected on CD along with an unreleased LP), two 7"s from E-13 (snotty hc) and one 7" from Final Warning (wayyy underrated Discharge style hc) — search them out, you won't be disappointed.

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TEST PRESS - ??? copies

Two variations of the test press exist — some with silver labels and some with yellow labels — but the FE overlords say they were pressed at the same time and there are equal amounts of both. My yellow label copy came with the first press tan sleeve, but other copies I have seen were sleeveless.

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FIRST PRESS - 1000 black vinyl

Tan foldover sleeve printed on card stock, with legal size (8,5"x14") glossy insert. No known variations. Classic cover art by Buns, who did a lot of PI's early artwork.

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SECOND PRESS - 500 yellow vinyl

Thin white paper folded sleeve has "goes GolD 1 of 500" added under the title, in what appears to be Pig's handwriting. Insert is identical to the first press.

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RR-001: Getting The Fear 12"

To plagiarize my own writing: in my opinion, this 12" is the ultimate Poison Idea collectible — an exclusive 2-song, limited edition, colored vinyl 12″, available only through mail order — true collector scum status right from the get go. Not to mention the songs a total rippers!

Apparently PI were fed up with other labels (presumably Pusmort and/or Alchemy) so they took things into their own hands and self-released the Filthkick 7" (July, 1988) and this 12" (early 1989), and then took matters even further and started their own label (American Leather) a few months later. This 12" was released by the band in conjunction with a local record store in Portland, and comes in many flavors. Read on...

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REJECTED TEST PRESS - 6(?) copies

Matrix number RR-001. No sleeve issued, though some copies came with an 8.5"x11" reproduction of the label art. I can't say the 6 copies thing is 100% certain, as I heard it second hand from someone who got their copy from Pig back in the day, but the guy sounded legit so I'll take his word for it. For what it's worth, I've seen at least 3 copies. Not sure why this one was rejected, as it sounds identical to the re-cut. Label is hand written "Poison Idea test press".

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APPROVED TEST PRESS - 6(?) copies

Matrix number RR-001 Re-1. No sleeve issued, though some copies came with an 8.5"x11" reproduction of the label art.

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FIRST PRESS - 1000 copies

PI's official discography states "900 red & white splattered and 100 multicolor splattered", and I've seen people go as far as trying to break down the multicolor copies into more specific color combos — one ebay listing said "About 20 were pressed on Blue & White, 20 Red White & Blue, and 20 marbled, all the rest were White with Red splatters". So where does that leave the other 40 multicolor copies? I can't say for sure how many there are of each, but the multicolor copies are definitely rare, and some colors seem particularly rarer than others.

In general, these were issued in clear picture disc jackets with a 24"x36" poster and a xerox-copied green obi strip that's about 14"x2" and folds around the record (a word to the wise if you own this record — store the obi outside of the plastic jacket, as the copy toner on the obi will stick to the inside of the jacket and then stick to the vinyl). I've seen copies without the obi strips that were obtained straight from the band, so it's possible they either had some overrun on the 1000 copies, or they gave some out before the obi's were made. The obi's are numbered, though the numbers do not correlate to the color variants as far as I can tell (ie, the rare variants are not always #'d under 100).

"STANDARD" VERSION - white vinyl with red/pink splatters - 900 made

OBI STRIP


POSTER

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MULTICOLOR VARIANT COPIES

Red/white splatter with tiny blue spot (around 10 o'clock on the outside edge) - insignificant but interesting

Red/white/blue splatter - these appear to be the most common of the multicolors

Blue/white splatter - seems to be rarer than red/white/blue copies

Solid purple with red/blue splatters - I've only ever seen three of these and they all came from the Rockport Records guy, so presumably not too many made it out. Second copy shown here is #1/1000.

Solid green with red splatters - this is the only copy I've ever seen, or that anyone in the know has heard of existing. Came directly from the Rockport guy, #7/1000.

RR-42568: Accused/Rejectors split 12"

OK, so it's not a Poison Idea record, but I thought it would be cool to include this here since it was originally slated to be Fatal Erection #1. Malcolm still ended up putting it out, but I'm not sure why there's no label name on the record. This is the first release for the Accused, before they had Blaine Cook singing in the band. No metal influences yet, just pretty straightforward meat 'n potatoes '83 hardcore. I actually prefer the Rejectors side, which is not much different to the Accused, but packs more of a punch. Check out their Thoughts Of War 7" if you haven't already.

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TEST PRESS - unknown amount

Plain white labels and generic sleeve. I got this out of the collection of Ruth Schwartz of Maximumrocknroll/Mordam fame when she sold everything off a few years back. Included with the record was a hand written letter/promo sheet from Malcolm, pictured below (side note: when was the last time an LP was $3.50 wholesale??). Based on the letter, there have to be at least 3 copies of this record, since he mentions two being sent to Ruth and I can safely assume he kept at least one for his personal stash.

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FIRST PRESS - 1000 black vinyl

Nothing too exciting to report here. There's no info on the jacket, though there's a 2-sided insert with one side for each band. Sleeve opens at the top for some reason.

Random stuff...

Got these stickers a million years ago with a copy of Just To Get Away. Not sure if there are also stickers for Mondo or Vegetable, anyone ever seen 'em?

AL-003: Discontent 7"

The third release on American Leather (AL-003), these songs are from the Feel The Darkness session but do not appear on the original pressing of the LP. "Discontent" later appeared on the Epitaph reissue of FTD, as well as the CD version (though the first split second of the song is clipped on the CD). "Discontent" is an absolute scorcher, much faster than anything else on FTD and really bringing to mind Extreme Noise Terror, especially with Jerry faking a dual vocal style during the choruses. "Jailhouse Stomp" on the flip is a bit more rockish and fits better with the rest of the FTD roster.

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ORIGINAL PRESS - AMERICAN LEATHER RECORDS 1990

TEST PRESS - unknown amount

Crude xerox sleeve is cut with scissors, not sure if this is original or made after the fact, as I've seen other copies for sale without the sleeve.

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FIRST PRESS - 4000 black vinyl
No known variations that I have ever seen. Pocket sleeve printed on thin paper with rounded top.

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REISSUE - FAREWELL RECORDS (Germany) 2004

FIRST PRESS (FWR#26) - 500 white vinyl
Available with mail order copies of the Plastic Bomb label reissue of Feel The Darkness. Art is faithful to the original, the sleeve is cut straight across the top though as opposed to the rounded original.

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AL-002: Just To Get Away picture 7"

The second release on American Leather (AL-002), and the first of several singles off of Feel The Darkness. I got this record along with Darby Crash Rides Again, as well as the Ian Mackaye 12" and Discontent 7", from an older kid in high school (as mentioned earlier). Needless to say my 16 year old just-got-into-hardcore/all-fast-all-the-time brain was pretty confused when I switched to this record from the demo ep, but putting on Ian Mackaye after that tied things together nicely. I always loved the cover versions on their records, they sound just as comfortable covering the MC5 as they do covering GISM.

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REJECTED TEST PRESS - unknown amount
No known sleeve. Matrix number AL-oo2. Not sure why this was rejected, the sound is about the same as the approved version. This large hole copy came from the Discourage guys, so it's likely that it previously belonged to Pig or another band member. The small hole version was sold on ebay a couple of years ago, and based on the seller's other listings I believe this was a file copy from the pressing plant.

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APPROVED TEST PRESS - unknown amount
No known sleeve. Matrix number AL-oo2 RE1.

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FIRST and ONLY PRESS - 3500 picture discs
Vinyl is tinted on the A-side, and comes in various colors — yellow, blue/green, purple and red/orange. Flex lists red and orange as separate colors but I think they may actually be one in the same. Some copies came with a set of stickers with cartoon drawings of each band member, I'll post those later.

TR-001/AL-004: Pick Your King 7"

Not much to say about this record other than it's my favorite hardcore record ever, and should be yours too. Thirteen tracks of unbridled HATE that has been copied a million times over but never equaled.

Recently I had the opportunity to chat with Malcolm of Fatal Erection, and he was able to answer some lingering questions I had about this record. Anyways...

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FIRST VERSION - FATAL ERECTION RECORDS

TEST PRESS - 6 copies
Matrix number TR-001. 

Update 5/2/2012: One copy, formerly belonging to Pig Champion, has surfaced including a crude homemade picture sleeve. The original paste-up to the sleeve currently resides with another test press in the Fatal Erection archives. The copy pictured below the sleeve was sold on ebay in 2009 by Minor Threat drummer Jeff Nelson, and included correspondence from Fatal Erection head honcho Malcolm Conover indicating that only 6 test pressings were made. The copy below that was sold on ebay in 1999 and is inscribed "MY OWN PRIVATE TEST PRESSING PRESENTED TO ME BY TOM ROBERTS 2/17/83" by Jerry A. Drummer Dean Johnson's copy was allegedly traded away for a case of beer in the 80's... anyone know where that copy or Glen Estes' copy are residing these days?
 

Jeff Nelson ebay copy —



Jerry A. ebay copy —


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"FIRST" PRESS - 1000 clear vinyl
These were technically pressed second after the black vinyl copies due to a mix up at the pressing plant, but they were released to the public first. Sleeve is a hand-made glued pocket, offset printed with much more detail in the photos than subsequent versions. Includes a lyric insert as well as a small piece of paper with contact info that typically has the address corrected in pen. Also many copies come with a sticker. I've also seen some random copies with the letters colored in, and copies with various Pig and Jerry signatures.



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"SECOND" PRESS - 700 copies on black vinyl
These were actually pressed before the clear copies, but were released after the clear copies were sold out. Blue paper cover is offset printed but does not have as much clarity/detail as the original pressing, and has the lyrics printed inside the sleeve instead of a separate insert.



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THIRD PRESS - 1000 blue vinyl
According to Malcolm FE, these were pressed by Pig on his own around 1985. Sleeve print job is similar to black vinyl press, but utilizes off-white paper and the printing is even more washed out than the blue paper version. They must have lost the original label art, as the label text is slightly different to the clear and black copies. The vinyl is pressed from the same stampers but has different tool marks than the previous versions (note the ring impression around the outside edge of the clear and black label areas, whereas the blue copies have a much smaller pressing mark closer to the center hole.)



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SECOND VERSION - AMERICAN LEATHER RECORDS

TEST PRESS - ??? copies
No known sleeve. Matrix number AL-004.
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FOURTH/FIFTH PRESS - 1000 copies each, black vinyl
Sleeve is offset printed and is better quality than the sleeves on the black and blue vinyl Fatal Erection pressings. Inside of sleeve indicates 4th or 5th press — 4th press from 1990 and 5th press from 1991. Vinyl is identical.