Sunday, October 3, 2010

108 - Songs of Separation


With the news that Rob Fish was back in the band, I decided to pull out one of my favorite records not only from 108, but from the entire decade of the 1990's. 108 - "Songs of Separation".
108 were the front runners with Shelter in Krisha-core, picking up the themes and consciousness that the Cro-Mags had preached, but were way more upfront about it.

This album pretty much wraps up hardcore in the 90's for me. Heavy and aggressive music with some metal influence, experimental parts, spirituality (duh), race, and gender - all dropped in a time of 90's political correctness. It was a strange time!

As far as the vinyl goes, there were two separate presses, both on black vinyl put out by Equal Vision Records. I'm afraid that is where it gets muddy for me.

One press I assumed was the first press (and the first copy I had) has the following labels.
The next press (which could be the first - maybe) has the following labels:


Both presses had the exact same covers and they also had the same insert. A two sided glossy black and white one sheet.


Now, I had the first one I showed for years. Definitely bought in the 90's so I assumed it was the first press. Fast forward to last fall when my buddy Shaun and I were record shopping here in town and he runs across the album. I don't pay it much mind as I already have it but then he pulls out the holy grail - the zine insert.


I had never seen it before. I took a closer look and I had never seen that second set of labels before either. I was able to wrestle it away from him and $10 later I had both presses. Now I just have to figure out which is which. I always assumed the first press would have the zine, but maybe not as I was on top of this record when it came out. I also have no idea how far apart the pressings were either.

Anyone who can shed some light, it would be appreciated. In the meantime, I am going to go listen to "Deathbed". Peace.

4 comments:

  1. My copy, which I bought when it came out, has the set of labels the same as the first record shown in your post. I didn't even know there were two sets of labels to be honest, but I'm glad I have the first set because they look the best in my opinion.

    As for the zine... well, here's the thing. I am pretty sure that it didn't come with the LP as standard. As far as I remember it, you had to buy it separately. I bought the LP from one record shop, and then in another they also had the zine for sale. So I bought it & then put it in the LP jacket, where it still resides today. However, I guess it is possible that some copies may have come with the zine? Maybe later in the day they had a load of zines left & just put them in with the LPs? Who knows?

    The other thing I vaguely remember is seeing some kind of old EVR catalog around this time, and I am sure that there was an issue 1 of this zine to accompany the first 108 record. Again, I vaguely remember when I bought the second zine being bummed because I realised that I was missing issue 1 to make my collection complete.

    Pretty funny what memories from 1994 I can dredge up when prompted. Unfortunately though, there is no guarantee that any of this is fact.

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  2. Nice post. I have two copies of that record and I never even noticed the different labels. Glad to have both? presses.

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  3. I still can't believe i let you take this from me!! Then again I was pretty tired that day, wasn't thinking straight.

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  4. MCS's memory was dead on. The record did not come with the magazine. The magazine was sold separately. I have no idea why they would have done it this way but that was the deal. Could have been created by the band as an afterthought because I remember there being some lag time before the magazine started showing up.

    I saw 108 around this time with Shelter and World's Collide. That show to this day is still one of the best shows I have ever seen. They played "no spiritual surrender" and just killed it.
    Dave Sams

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