Spacelab9 presents The Addams Family

Here are some photos I took of my Addams Family soundtrack from Spacelab9 (w/ Sony Music and RCA apparently). Released on October 16'th 2015 in honor of this television show's 50'th anniversary, this deluxe vinyl edition was released in 4 Limited Edition variations: A Glow-in-the-Dark "Fester's Lightbulb" version (exclusive to Barnes and Noble), a "Lurch Green" version (exclusive to Newbury Comics), a "Cousin Itt Brown" version (exclusive to Hastings), and an extremely limited "Black Pumpkin Splatter" version that sold at NYCC with some leftovers sold online.

I of course bought the Glow-in-the-Dark version because you know, that's just damn cool. Even though the Black Pumpkin Splatter is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, I actually didn't even know that it existed at the time. If I had known, my decision would have been a lot more difficult. As it were with the three I was aware of the glowing vinyl was a no-brainer. And that's how I like to make all the decisions in my life... without using my brain. Haha, wow. This release is a single sleeve with a 12x24" foldout insert which is a pretty nice read and rather colorful to boot.

For anyone not familiar with the music (what in the fuck!?) it's old school as a motherfucker. It's real shnazzy, and jazzy and a little funky. Think in the realms of the scores for Barbarella or Vampyros Lesbos. That's where this kind of music would fit in. Probably not as weird as those two though as it's mostly upbeat tunes, but genre-wise for sure. The album itself has a pretty moderate hiss throughout the whole thing and sounds a bit aged, but in this case that really doesn't bother me at all since this music is old as hell and that just adds to it for me. It's approximately only a half hour long as well, which goes by pretty fast so it's good for a quick listen.

Guns N' Roses - Paradise City

Guns N' Roses - Paradise City (7" Black Vinyl, Artwork Sleeve, Single) [1988] US.

1. Paradise City [6:46] *

2. Move To The City [3:42] **

* Album Version. Taken from the LP "Appetite For Destruction".

** Album Version. Taken from the EP "Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide".

Hi. Welcome to another edition of 'Shit I Own', by me. :) I was thinking the other day, if you saw a wheat-thin guy with long strawberry-blonde hair running around like a madman, rockin' an oversized bright-pink fishnet t-shirt, stark-white super-short spandex tights and super-white high-top pump-up Nike sneakers, would you think to yourself: "Wow, this guy's really cool!"? Probably not. If he happened to be rollerblading down Hollywood Blvd, you'd probably pull out your 9mm gat and f'n super-soak the fucker. But... what if the dude broke out with some Raspy ass vocals and fuckin' killed it? Hmmm... I guess if anything, that's a good way to test the power of your music. Not that that's what Axl was doing, since he's obviously GONE INSANE since the UYI sessions. (You can see it evolving further after those recordings with their live shows when things got Ghetto Extravagant!) So sad. It's this type of insanity that makes a band leader forget about what's really important. [Note: A bit like Glenn Danzig, I feel bad for both of them since they both fuckin' tripped out and lost their main players.] I guess we all at one time or another lose the best thing we've got going in life huh? Yeah... they regret it. I can tell. Their subtle facial twitches may not be noticed by the laymen, but to me, they may as well be crying tears of blood. Don't you cry tonight, Axl.

It's a damn shame that those two ego-tripped their strongest supports out the door only to overproduce unremarkable and regrettably forgettable music later in their careers. Glenn at least slowly worked his way back in the right direction through 6, 7 and 8, perhaps ending up where 5 should have been with 9. But even through his rough times at least he kept putting out albums. It took Axl fifteen years to finally get his baby "perfected", and even then, it doesn't sound like anything near his former self. He took things too far, and while I have at times complained about songs being overly-simplistic, the stuff on Chinese Democracy doesn't even sound like music half of the time. There was no reason to go "above and beyond" the expansive materials utilized on the Use Your Illusion albums. And for an Axl solo album, he sure as fuck had a lot of different people playing on it. Glenn seems to have gotten back to core band direction and sound. As for Axl Rose, I don't see him ever working on another song that sounds anything like Paradise City. He's got his head in too much shit obviously and I can't imagine him sitting down with a band and creating real music anymore.

Guns N' Roses - Welcome To The Jungle

Guns N' Roses - Welcome To The Jungle (12" Black Vinyl, Fold Out Poster Sleeve, Single) [1987] England.

1. Welcome to the Jungle * [8-Bit Remix!]

2. Whole Lotta Rosie (Live) ** [CHECK IT, broooo...]

3. It's So Easy (Live) **

4. Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Live) ** 

* Album Version. Taken from the LP Appetite For Destruction.

** Recorded Live at the Marquee, London: June 28th, 1987.

This 12" Vinyl was available in a Standard release (GEF30T), Picture Disc (GEF30TP) and Poster Sleeve (GEF30TW). [Note: The Picture disc is the front cover (pictured left) with the blue border. There is also a version of this Single with a red cover and a Red Picture Disc border. Supposedly the red picdisc is "super scarce" according to this guy selling it for 100$, but I'm having trouble finding info on this release. Even my Catalog # isn't listed on most sites so who knows.] The one I own is obviously the one with the special Fold Out Poster Sleeve (I took some snapshots with my shitty digicam and posted 'em below). Got this Vinyl for 20$ way back in the day.

 

I really miss these old record shops that I used to visit when I was a teenager. Maybe there are places still out there that have cool shit like this for sale, but when I look around here all I see is trendy stores selling the latest pop culture fad bullcrap! I had to travel two hours the last time I came across a dingy, smokey, dark and dank record store with old Vinyl, bootleg Live CDs and Lucio Fulci Zombie posters for sale. When I was eighteen and back home I went downtown, walked into a hole in the wall Metal shop and bought a longsleeve Marduk shirt right there on the spot. Now I'm stuck in lameville and gotta drive long distances (and man I am sick of driving) to even attempt to find something sweet like that. But I can easily just take a trip down to the local mall and grab a lifesize standee of the newest dumbshit fad spokesmodel (don't feel like naming names, because that gives them power).

 

And I'm not trying to sound like a bearded old man here, but like many of you I miss the old days. At least when I got here there was a mom and pop VHS rental place with all sorts of fucked up horror films that I had been dying to see (Like Andy Warhol's Dracula, Shocking Asia 2 or 555). That place is now selling small garden figurines, wind chimes and fuckin' chocolate bars! Same owners, they're from Holland or some shit. I know there are still real places out there, I just gotta look em up instead of stumbling upon 'em. Even if some places are selling heavy metal records and rare shit on the net, unless it's a single guy in his mum's basement, there probably is a real store there too. And I don't mind buying things online, but I haven't recently and I'd rather walk down some stone steps into a real place that sells knives, pipes, CDs, Posters, Concert Tees, possibly things more illegal than bootlegs, and hopefully there's a chick at the counter with tattoos and piercings and she don't got the G-Wartz. Know what I'm sayin'?

 

Sorry about the camera glare, but I lost my photoshop... and even if I had it, I don't got the time to fix the lines, nor their make-up. ;) Ghey.