The Mekons ‎– The Quality Of Mercy Is Not Strnen

Label:

Virgin ‎– V2143

Country:

UK

Released:

30 Nov 1979

I used to have a Mekons t-shirt in camo with hammer and sickle proclaiming some desperate railing "last to get paid/first to die". I say used to, since this was in the 90s and as my love for The Mekons has grown since then, so has my abdomen--to the point I had to leave the shirt behind.

It really typifies for me their plugger, underdog, earnest and dogged attitude of the band still thriving on low expectations. In putting together this debut album, they famously borrowed the gear of Gang of Four who Virgin -- apparently in error -- pictured in the lower right of the jacket reverse.

From the jacket

Not on the jacket

Here the A-side Runout Inscription "A PORKY PRIME CUT" is indicative of George Peckham. This British lacquer-cutting and mastering engineer, better known as "Porky" has had an illustrious career that includes work on records of The Beatles, Genesis and Led Zeppelin. The B-side Runout Inscription echoes the spirit of the band: "BOTTOM OF THE POPS".

Dead Kennedys ‎– Bedtime For Democracy

Label:

Alternative Tentacles ‎– VIRUS 50

Format:

Vinyl, LP, Album, Gatefold

Country:

US

Released:

1986

A-side dead wax reads: JOHN SCOPES DIED FOR YOUR SINS
B-side dead wax reads: "POWER IS THE ULTIMATE APHRODESIAC" - HENRY KISSINGER

I got reading this as I listed to and admired the cartoons on this early (first?) pressing. I like that a band that includes Klaus Flouride misspelled aphrodisiac. Also, among the most intellectual of punk rock acts, they reference the so-called Scopes Monkey Trial.

The Coctails ‎– Hip Hip Hooray!

Label:

Hi-Ball Records ‎– HBS-8255

Format:

Vinyl, LP, Album

Country:

US

Released:

1990

Side A and B are etched with "Where is Bobo?" What I like about this is that it is self-referential for the album. The dog it refers to emerges in the story song "Ghost Town".

Cruel Frederick - The Birth Of The Cruel

Cruel Frederick - The Birth Of The Cruel

LP, Album
SST Records SST 127
1988 US

Free jazz on this largely punk rock label is unusual. As a matter of fact, I know of no other example. I like the two beat worship-to-incursion rhythm of their deadwax message:

• Side A runout, etched: ANGELS SING
• Side B runout, etched: SAINTS GO MARCHING IN

Big Tube Squeezer - I Have A Thing For Love

Been on the fence on this one... recorded by Jack Endino in 1988... should I keep it or trade it? I do like the fugs cover....

The band can probably relate to a love/hate feeling since Side A is etched "Ed sucks" and Side B with "Joe Loves Beatrice"

Don't know anything about the triangle of Ed, Joe, and Beatrice...

So what censorship?

November 1981 saw the release of Anti-Nowhere League's first single, a cover version of Ralph McTell's "Streets of London". The single peaked at No. 48 in the UK Singles Chart and spent five weeks in the listings. The profanity-laden B-side of the single, "So What" later became the group's anthem. Copies of this single were seized from indie distributor Pinnacle by the Metropolitan Police's Obscene Publication Squad shortly after release. "So What?" was covered by Metallica, being released as a B-side to the "Sad But True" single, and later included on the Garage Inc. album; "So What?" would go on to become an in-concert standard for Metallica.

We Are...The League is the debut album by Anti-Nowhere League. Original, first pressing European editions contained uncensored lyrics for the exaggeratingly self-deprecating "Animal". Later, the line in the song "I'm a child molester" was changed to "I'm your next door neighbor". My first US edition has the censored version. Is that artistically compromised to gain entry to the large US market? It also has a runout inscription not found as far as I know in the earlier editions across the pond: SO WHAT….

L7

From my 2008 interview with Donita Sparks:

First I have to confess. I’m kinda a record geek.

DS: “Ok.”

So, I pulled out my pristine copy of Smell the Magic to play some tracks today. And I also happened to always be interested in‑kind of a more recent thing‑a run out groove inscriptions. And I don’t know if you know this, but on at least my copy, it’s inscribed in the runout groove “ROCK SHOW tONIGHT - BIG BUttS LIVE ON StAGE”.

[Laughter]

I actually do a blog about run out groove inscriptions and try to explain them. Do you know anything about that one and what it means?

DS: “Oh, well that was our idea.”

Ok.

DS: “And I believe it was being mastered in LA. And you know when you’re mastering on vinyl or for vinyl, you know a lot of times the mastering person will say, hey do you want to write anything in there? And I think on our first album, on Epitaph, we had put ‘PLAY LOUD DROP TROU’ or‑”

[Laughs]