Shelter - Quest For Certainty Tshirt

I apoligize for the lack of content lately. Ive been working nights as well as preparing for my wedding next month so its been a little hectic. That said, today I bring you a Shelter shirt I picked up on my last trip to Tokyo. If you ever happen to make a trip out to Japan, make sure to hit up Disk Union, a series of record stores which cater to different genres per store. The 3 floored store in Shinjuku has 2 floors dedicated to just metal...pretty amazing. Anyway, I managed to find this sitting on a rack, marked as Used in the Shibuya store. It only cost me about 800 yen which is roughly about $9 US give or take. This was printed for the Quest For Certainty record and features the original cover art that Equal Vision Records released. Back print has the record title...solid pick up for such a small price. Im a big fan of navy blue (sorry Brian) and the lighter blue I feel compliments it well. Ive seen this on Ebay every so often so hit up our friends the Tee Till Death crew and get them to hunt it down for you. Solid shirt from a great band.

When Layouts Change: Records That Are Repressed With New Layouts, Part 1

This is an article I've been meaning to write for a long time but just never got around to doing so. A pet peeve of mine is when a label re-presses a record but changes the layout. Sometimes, this is because the band and label didn't have the money or time to put into what they originally envisioned or because a label has bought the rights to the record and re-released it, often with remastered sound. Half of me is alright with this idea at times but the other half of me, the half that is the nostalgic collector wants to have the original. Like I said, sometimes this is fine with me because the original layout may have been...well just not very good. Below are a few examples of records that were originally released by their respected labels and then repressed by either the original or another with a different layout. For now, I've just scanned the covers but Ill try to get the rest of the layouts scanned as well. The original is on the left and the repress is on the right.





















Shelter - Quest For Certainty (Original: Equal Vision, 1992. Repress: Revelation, 1998)
An early release for Equal Vision Records when they still concentrated on releasing only Krishna-core record, this records comes in a close second to Mantra as my favorite Shelter release. The original has a black and white cover with a nice sky blue firewheel while the repress has a new black and white photo but the fonts have been changed to red. This is a case where I'm alright with either release. Both have live photos on the cover and there isnt much of a difference other than the actual photo.




















Culture - Born Of You (Original: Conquer The World, 1994. Repress: Goodlife, 1998)
A record that created an incredible amount of controversy over the past few years, controversy that I am not going to go into here (do a search on here for "Culture" and you'll see). The original release features a picture of the famed "Portrait Of Pope Innocent X" by Sir Francis Bacon. While this cover is very representative of the time, I feel that the repress gives the album more energy with the cover depicting Damien handing out the mic to the crowd. Culture was very much about crowd participation and this cover portrays that to the listener. I only wish that the band would have used the logo that Guav created for that them as opposed to the logo on the repress.





















Doughnuts - Equalize Nature (Original and Repress: Desperate Fight, 1994 and 1996)
A much maligned band, Doughnuts were touted as the first all girl SXE band back in 1995. They released their first record with Desperate Fight out of Umea, Sweden and then signed with Victory Records in America. Equalize Nature, their first release, was originally released in a cardboard sleeve in 1994 and features the legendary "Naked SXE Kid" on the cover. To be honest, I'm not sure where they were going with this image on the cover but the re-release (also on Desperate Fight) shows a blurry live photo of the band. Perhaps Victory asked Desperate Fight to change the cover because they would have trouble getting the naked kid cover picked up in America. That's just my opinion, I have no idea if that's the reason. I have to say that the repress is an upgrade.





















As Friends Rust - The Fists Of Time (Original: Goodlife, 1998. Repress: Doghouse, 2000)
Now here's one where I prefer the original. Goodlife chose to use paintings by vocalist Damien as the cover as well as the insert. If you read the lyrics to the songs on this release, I feel that the cover really does a great job of capturing the mood of the record. When Doghouse released this in America, they included a track from the split with Discount as well as their Circle Jerks cover from the God Hour EP. This time around though, the cover shows a package addressed to the band. Not bad but to me, the cover of the original release conveys the band's message much better.

Check back soon for Part 2.

Shelter - Quest For Certainty (1998 Re-Release)

I did a lot of research to make sure this record is no longer available before posting. Originally released by Equal Vision Records, this was re-released in 1998 by Revelation Records and has since gone out of print (again). You can buy a new copy through Amazon for $138 (!!!!)...don't even pretend that you entertained the idea. Maybe Rev is planning on making this available as a digital download through Itunes but as of now, this is unavailable. While Shelter was not the first hardcore band to include members who were Hare Krishna, as far as I know they were first ALL Krishna band. Lots of kids kinda scratched their heads when Youth of Today were broken up by Ray Cappo so he could become a devotee. Ray re-emerged with Shelter which was intended to be his last musical endeavor (it wasn't). Its a tough race between which is the best Shelter record for me...it always comes down to this and Mantra with Mantra just barely winning (hey that's just my opinion). I know labels are going strictly vinyl and digital downloads only but when neither are available, its a pretty big bummer. It also includes 3 tracks of chanting and traditional Indian music as well as a sermon.

EDIT: I was informed this is available through emusic.com so the link has been taken down.