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I can’t make out what the fuck is behind the Mr. Pringles/happy face. Clearly, the artist tried to put some effort into their first attempt at the cover, which was either smudged or proved to be less than permanent. One sharpie later, problems solved. Which should be someone’s mantra. This one is currently up for auction here, currently at $6.66.
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I haven’t been keeping up with ebay at all, which is totally due to the fact I have zero cash. Anyways, a dim rememberence that I should check it out once in a while, has yielded this gem. It could be a yeti eating a hot dog dropped from the sky, or perhaps a volcano exploding. It’s currently on ebay here if you have a hole burning in your pocket with the $350 buy it now offer on the table. I would be an asshole and offer 1/10th of the price, but well I guess I’m not that much of an ass. Either way, great cover, good restart to the blog. This cover has similarities between it and #24, #16 and #10.
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Here’s the second of the set that belong to Mark Grady and his girlfriend. This one’s Mark’s and has the Vermiform sticker with the Cooper Station address on it, which is before Sam and co. moved to Richmond and even later California. Here’s what Mark had to say about this:
My copy: “I shoona eated all them hot dog.”
I was working as the punk/hardcore buyer at Vinal Edge Records in Houston when Fear Of Smell came out, and probably ordered between 5 or 10 copies for the store from Ebullition upon it’s initial release. I got first pick of the cover I wanted when the order came in, and this was the one I liked the most. I still think it rules. There’s nothing drawn on the back, but does include the “Only 5 made” and “Featuring John Woods” stickers.
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This cover comes courtesy of Mark Grady/Twistworthy, who put out several great records on Twistworthy Records and used to be the guy who I’d bother at Sound Exchange in Austin Texas during the years of 1997 and 1998. Here’s what he had to say about this platter:
My girlfriends copy: ”Black heart”
My girlfriend bought this at Epicenter in San Francisco sometime in the 90′s not long after it’s release. It remains unplayed to this day. It also has the “Only 5 made!!!” and “Featuring John Woods” stickers on the back with no additional art.
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Dear Broox: Here’s a picture for you to love.
From Chase Corum, who wrote: “Friend of mine owns this one. Bought when it came out in Southern California, probably at Vinyl Solution.” Wish I could see the back cover, if only to see if there’s stickers on there and wish there was more of a story to this one. Oh well. This is unlike any of the others I’ve seen. No handwriting matches, so it’s not likely to have been done by the usual suspects (Sam, Kent, Charles M.). I don’t know how involved Brooks was beyond playing drums in Born Against, but maybe he was putting together comps on the last Born Against tour and this was some correspondence re-used?
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Don Windham wrote earlier this month and stated thusly: “PULLED THIS OUT OF A THRIFT STORE A COUPLE MONTHS BACK, IT HAS A SUBTERRANEAN DISTRO STICKER AND THE RICHMOND VA ADDRESS. I SELL USED RECORDS IN MY GUITAR / AMP / DRUM REPAIR SHOP IN PHOENIX AZ”. So if you’re in Phoenix, stop off and try to visit Don and buy tons of stuff.
Might have to add the Richmond address variation to the categories – seems like there’s more than a couple with them on it.
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Here’s one from long-time record and tape trader Dobek Ohashi – who found this copy in his library of records, posted about it on Livewire and sent me a copy of the pictures. Considering this is #88 I had hoped for some nazi-regalia encrusted version for maximum irony. Not to say that I’d sympathize with nazis – the exact opposite in fact – I hate nazis. Instead I get the youth-crew sanitized version of what 88 could indicate (the year 1988, which I suppose points to Youth of Today’s popularity, rather than the nazi’s insistence that the eight letter of the alphabet is something important).
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Trying out some larger images – 850 pixels wide – let me know if things break and I’ll try to fix em. This cover comes courtesy of Jon Boucher who didn’t have much to say about it. Strikes me that the collage work is very similar to my copy, with the giant spray painted “shit” on the back might be a relatively early offering – just after the spray paint and tinsel debacle that Sam wrote about. Also the lettering for the Fear of Smell bears a resemblance to Variation #37, although only in passing.
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“Typical Fear of Smell purchaser”
“Mommy bought it for me for x-mas & I hate it boo-hoo”
So does that mean that Leo Ferrandino, Fear of Smell collector extrordinaire, is Bill Clinton? Quite possibly. Either way, this one resides in Leo’s collection who bought it recently and thought enough of the blog to send it in. Clearly this has a connection to Variation #25, although I wouldn’t have recognized the younger Clinton had Leo not pointed it out.
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Another cover, similar in form to Variation #32.
Here’s what Brad Wallace had to say about it:
Here’s another copy for your blog. Pretty sure I traded for this copy with my friend around 97/98. Don’t remember what record I traded but I kind of think it was some other comp that I felt was musically inferior, but he needed for some sort of collection completion.