Fear Of Smell

Front Cover

“A moulderin’…”

This one courtesy of Alex Sanchez, who has sought out these things like a bloodhound. I’m looking too of course, but can’t get seem to get the scent. Regardless – this is the copy that belongs to the drummer of Mouthpiece. Standard back (although I’d debate the standard back idea, as we’ve seen some weird variations like Richmond addresses, or no Only 5 Made sticker, that occur frequently enough that I’m not sure, even 100+ covers in, that there’s a standard back) . Not a big deal, because I’m sure standard back means just the track listing stickers.

Triangle corner notes pop up again, as they did in Variation #9,Variation #72 and Variation #13.

Front Cover

Back Cover

Gold backed (like Variation #11), with an oopsie painting over the Featuring sticker… weird. I suspect both this one and #11 were done by the same talent, both have some skill with drawing things (if not spray painting things gold). This one comes from Daniel Malin – his third submission (although I swear he’s got more submissions than that) so a big thanks for that. I’ve never seen a cover as intricate as this one and being drawn – it’s very graffiti influenced (or vice versa, seeing as a lot of the circa 1990’s punks in NYC were also throwing up pieces at the time). It also breaks Daniel’s streak of “boring” covers.

Front Cover

OK we’ve been scanning and snooping in peoples flickrs and photobuckets and coming up dry (although we did see what you did on the weekend and we have to report that it wasn’t that interesting). Coming up dry on Fear of Smell covers, then the second in command Alex found these. I hate to get all name-droppy, but they belong to Matt, who plays in a fairly important band on this comp. So these will probably never come out of the storage they’re in, and if they do, well, bid hard. So thanks to Alex and Matt for unearthing these, and helping out the cause. In fact the next five copies will all be from the same spot, and they all have a blank back with the standard two sticker sets.

Onto the cover, well this one has handwriting like the scribbles on Variation #59  and Variation #107 – I would’ve included links to a couple other scribble type covers, but they were done in green marker, which makes me honestly think they could’ve been someone else – unless someone fills in the story, no one will really know.

Front Cover

Back Cover

Here’s an e-mail submission via  Andrew.

Just saw your blog. Great idea. Here’s some pics of my copy of the record. Sorry they’re sideways!

What are the chances that the drawing is an action shot of a fart? Or… ?

Actually it looks a bit like a tiger lily to me… but maybe it’s a rorschach-test type question – it reveals much more about the viewer than it does the actual artiste. The back cover resembles the spray can work of Variation #75 and Variation #45. Maybe even Variation #11?

Front Cover

Our man on the Instagram, Alex, took this picture for Colin Tappe – fine proprietor of Standards, a record store in Vista, California. Don’t recognize the handwriting as similar to any others, and it’s got a flag-y motif.

Front Cover

Back Cover

“Foot Foot Paint!”

This version spotted in the wild in a Philly record store for $30.00 by our man Alex. There’s been a few Foot Foot references: Variation #1 and Variation #72 for instance.

Front Cover

Back Cover

Here’s one that got stuck in cyberspace hell (aka my Inbox – or to riff on a Mens Recovery Project idea, a men’s room). This one was sent in way back in March. Fuck. As a bonus for waiting all that time it’s #100. It looks quite like it might’ve been hit with a shit stain. Here’s the story from the owner, Josh Baker:

Just picked this up at Smash! Records in Washington, DC. The owner played me the Rich Oliver track and I was sold.

Not only a consumer with fine taste, the store didn’t even play the best track, by Sam & Joe.

Front Cover

Back Cover

Found a few stragglers in the e-mail. Sorry about that… spam and the tonne of e-mail I get on a daily basis, guess these slipped. My loss of time, is your gain. Love the ode to the Rolling Stones, or just a giant tongue. You decide.

Here’s what Greh had to say about it:

Submitting one that the record shop I work at is selling on eBay. We had it on the wall for a while and though no one bought, plenty looked at it.

This one bears a resemblance to: Variation#82, Variation #6, maybe Variation #22 and Variation #29. Also, if your record store is selling one, link to your store as well. People who collect records want to know!

Front Cover

Back Cover

This submission comes courtesy of Shivaun – here’s what was said:

Awesome project and really cool blog. I love looking through all the different cover variations. Mine is a pretty tame fingerpainted one with some wacky text organization. I got this from a set sale on a message board a couple years ago for like $15.

Seems like this pattern has struck before – some similarities in the other painted ones for sure. If you’re interested in pursuing this avenue of painting please refer to these examples: Variation #77, Variation #72, Variation #16 or Variation#31.

Front Cover

Surely this is another sun-like masterpiece? What is it about the mid-90’s hardcore aesthetic that was so fascinated with the sun? So many ads for so many labels that featured the sun in various tribal configurations. Never mind the fact I have a very small tattoo of a sun on my back that was put there in the mid-90’s?  Either way, got this in the e-mail the other day, from Michael:

Here’s my copy of Fear of Smell, which I recently acquired. My local record dealer, Phil Spectacle, who used to who have shop here in Vancouver and also used to promote gigs, found this at a yard sale between some really badly warped records.  Luckily this one and the few around it were in good condition.  It looks like it was painted by the same Dave guy who did the volcano one that’s on ebay right now.