Billy No Mates - S.F. Sourdough LP - Green Vinyl (/100)

10 Past 12 / Unless You Try (2021)

You may or may not know that I am a gigantic Snuff fan.  They are one of my very favorite bands in the world and I usually mention them, Leatherface and Rocket From The Crypt as the three most important bands to me.  Like John Reis from Rocket and Frankie Stubbs from Leatherface, I tend to follow Duncan Redmonds from Snuff to whatever other project he has brewing.  Guns N Wankers is probably the most famous of his other bands, but Billy No Mates is the one that has the most non-Snuff records out.

S.F. Sourdough is the fourth Billy No Mates album and this time Duncan is joined by luminaries of the US punk rock scene.  On this recording are Joey Cape from Lagwagon, Sergie Loobkoff from Samiam/Knapsack and some guy named Chicken.  He's from a band called Dead to Me that I'm not familiar with.  I have to say, I was especially intrigued by what Duncan and Sergie would do together as they both have some much great work under their belts and both have a really distinct point of view in their punk rock.  In that regard I was a little let down.

This album sounds pretty much like the other Billy No Mates albums.  That's not really a bad thing or a complaint, but I mostly hear Duncan's point of view on these songs.  I like his point of view, so that's good, but unless you told me Sergie was on this record, I would have never known.  That said, we have a bunch of nice melodic punk songs that have similarities with some of the more modern Snuff albums and some others that are more unique to what Billy No Mates has cranked out in the past.

It's a good record and it's nice to have something new that has come out in 2021 that I really dig.  Even though this is technically from 2010...

Billy No Mates - S.F. Sourdough LP:
https://snuffuk.bandcamp.com/album/s-f-sourdough-2

Snuff - The Wrath of Thoth 12" - 3 New Vinyl Colors

10 Past 12 / Unless You Try (2020)

Several weeks ago I received an email from the Snuff mailing list alerting the world that they had pressed 2 more color variants of the Wrath of Thoth 12".  I will admit that I swore a little.  Having already purchased 6 different versions of the LP, I was not really up for buying more right at that moment in time.  But, as I read through the email, my concerns dissipated a bit. There was a note acknowledging that some people were buying all of the versions and it wasn't their goal to get these duplicate sales when they repressed the records.  So the deal was this, if you had all six prior versions and you took a picture of them and sent them in, they would send the two newest variants for free to the first six responders.

Very luckily, I was one of the six.  To my surprise, I actually received three new records.  I have the new splatter variant (/295) and the silver/white split color variant (/105) and these both look great.  Split color vinyl is my person favorite color way and it's always nice to add more of those to the collection.  In addition to those two that were advertised, I also received one on orange vinyl.   This orange is darker than the orange one I have from the first pressing, so I'm not really sure of the story with this one.  I'll have to dig around and see what I can sleuth out.  It may just be a transitional color, but maybe not.

As far as the music goes, I wrote more about that in my write up of the other six colors here.  The songs on here are great and it makes me eager for another Snuff full length, even though they did just put one out last year.  Snuff is an all time favorite band and I love buying their records, but I will definitely be content if the variants for this release end here.

Snuff - The Wrath Of Thoth (This is a link to one of those link tree things that take you to a bunch of places you can stream the record, but really you should just go buy the vinyl, shouldn't you?) https://ditto.fm/the-wrath-of-throf

Snuff - The Wrath of Thoth 12" EP - Six Different Colors of Vinyl

10 Past 12 / Unless You Try (2020)

I don't know what's wrong with me.  I don't know why I need six copies of this 12".  But I do.  The first pressing of this EP occurred pretty much right as the pandemic was getting underway and my record buying income was reduced to essential nil.  I watched as the orange and green vinyl pressings of these albums sold out without me having bought them.  I scraped together enough cash to at least get the version that Unless You Try was selling, but I felt sad and incomplete.

Then, it was repressed on three more colors of vinyl.  So, I sold a 1980s Rat guitar pedal on eBay.  This gave me the money to pounce on the Snuff website when they miraculously found a few more of the sold out first pressing copies.  So I picked up four copies in total from them and the last one I needed on blue vinyl from Dead Broke.  This was too complicated for me, but I just can't help how much I love Snuff and have for decades.

The songs on here are quite good too.  Every Snuff record has at least a handful of transcendently incredible songs and this one is no exception.  Opener "Drink Freely From The Chalice of Lunacy" is not only in the running for best Snuff songs of the past fifteen years or so, it's also a pretty good description of the year 2020 as a whole.  Yes, have some.  All of the songs on this EP are fun and provide an excellent follow up to the last Snuff full length, There's A Lot Of It About.  I like the idea of more frequent Snuff releases, but next time I would prefer maybe two versions instead of six.

Snuff - The Wrath Of Thoth (This is a link to one of those link tree things that take you to a bunch of places you can stream the record, but really you should just go buy the vinyl, shouldn't you?)
https://ditto.fm/the-wrath-of-throf

Guns n' Wankers - The Complete Recordings LP - Yellow Vinyl (/200)

One Wank/Unless You Try (2019)

I finally picked up the yellow vinyl variant of the Guns n' Wankers compilation LP.  I don't go as wild variant hunting as I did ten or fifteen years ago, but there are still a few bands where I feel that I really need to make sure I have everything.  Snuff and Guns n' Wankers are bands that still fit in that category.  As of now, I am comlpete.  Until Duncan & Co. press it again anyway.

I don't really have much to add to this write u regarding the music that I didn't say when I talked about the other versions of this LP that I bought.  But to quickly summarize, this LP contains some of my very favorite songs of all time.  I highly suggest picking up a copy.

Guns n' Wankers - "Raise Your Glass":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZqqydweYtA

Guns n' Wankers - "Blah Blah Blah":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8KYC1eYbTo

Guns n' Wankers - The Complete Recordings LP - Orange (/100), White (/100), Blue (/100) and Black (/300) Vinyl

One Wank/Unless You Try (2019)

In a conflict of interest plug.  I have copies of the white vinyl and blue vinyl version to sell on the PopKid site.  I wasn't able to find anywhere in the US carrying these records, so I worked out something with Unless You Try to distro a handful of them myself.  I do not have many.  As of this posting I have 5 left in total. There's also some other interesting stuff added to the distro, but I'll talk about that more in depth tomorrow.

Guns n' Wankers - The Complete Recordings LP for sale in the PopKid web store:
https://popkid.limitedrun.com/products/649494-guns-n-wankers-the-complete-recordings-lp-white-or-blue-vinyl

In 1994 Guns n' Wankers released their only recordings over the course of four 7"s.  Pop, Hardcore and Metal were joint released by Rugger Bugger, Damaged Goods and Gap.  The fourth 7", Silly, was released as part of the September '94 issue of the zine Feat and Loathing.  Later, most of the songs from Pop, Hardcore and Metal were compiled onto CDs that came out on Rugger Bugger/Damaged Goods/Gap and a Japanese version on Snuffy Smile.  In America the songs from Pop and Hardcore were released on Fat Wreck Chords as For Dancing and Listening.  That's a lot of milage for thirteen songs.

I picked up the CD on Fat first, way back when.  I had just gotten into the band Snuff and was told GNW was an offshoot.  I loved those songs so much and that's when the record collector bug set in.  Over the next year or so I hunted far and wide for all of the other weirdo versions.  The Silly 7" and the Japanese version of the CD were the trickiest to find, but those have both been in my collection for over twenty years.  Funny enough, the only one I don't have anymore is that CD on Fat as I gave it to my brother.

All these years later, Guns n' Wankers started playing shows again.  With that came this reissue of every song they recorded from those '94 era releases.  And in typical Wankers fashion, they gave me some variants to track down.  There are 100 copies on orange vinyl that were only sold by the band at their shows.  There is a blue vinyl version and a white vinyl version both limited to 100 copies and both sold via the label Unless You Try.  300 were put out on black vinyl for general release to stores and distros.  And there are 200 more on yellow vinyl as part of a second pressing.  I don't have one of those just yet, but it's on my to do list.

As far as the actual songs go, the ones from the Pop and Hardcore 7"s are some of my favorite songs of all time.  "Raise Your Glass" is often in the discussion as my actual favorite song ever.  There's something truly special about the way the incredible drumming makes that song pop. These songs have a hint of Snuff to them, but I've always felt they stood on their own as Jools' backing vocals create dynamic that's very much only part of GNW.

The Metal songs are fun, but not ones that I go back and listen to repeatedly.  I love it as part of the three 7" gimmick, but just mixed in with the rest of the songs they tend to stand out.  The two songs from the Silly 7" were certainly the hardest to track down prior to this compilation LP coming out.  Now everyone can hear the jingle for "Gillette" and "For Whom the Bing Bongs," a song made up of catchy guitar riffage and a doorbell.

Guns n' Wankers - "Raise Your Glass":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZqqydweYtA

Guns n' Wankers - "Blah Blah Blah":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8KYC1eYbTo