Mar 27, 2010 Boom Goes the Dynamite

Back in the very late 90s I struck a trade(one of the very few I've ever done) with the owner of shotdownstars records. He wanted some LP from me, I think it was the Promise Ring or something, and I wanted this 7" he had just released. The 7" was called The Dynamite Rose Compilation. It had some really great bands on it, Milhouse, atom and his package, good clean fun, and my favorite band of all time Silent Majority. Not only that, but the SM song(cover of Cranberries - Salvation) wasn't released on any other record. It was a MUST have. So back to the trade....He was getting what I believe was a Promise Ring 12" and I was getting all 3 colors of the comp(black, blue, and red) plus the Test Press. Now at the time, collecting test presses wasn't exactly a huge deal. I got them when I could, but it wasn't like the most sought after variation of the record. So I figured, 3 variants plus a test press, easy deal for me and him. He put the 7 out, so 4 records was no skin off his nose, and whatever I was giving him didn't compare to locking up every SM record plus a test. The deal went down quick and smooth.

For a long time after that the test really didn't mean much. It was probably not until say 2004, when I decided to see if I could collect every long Island record, did it really hit me that I had a test press of a record with a silent majority song on it. It became one of my most prized possessions. It was up there with my Inside My Funeral test press, and my H2O s/t on grey marble which is the first 12" I ever bought. Records that I would never part with. It also kind of became a joke because people would ask me if I had any SM test presses. Cause really I have so many damn LI records it's absurd. Including SO many LI test presses. Blood Red, both Capital LPs, Heads vs Breakers, Inside, every Dead Broke Records release, Backup Plan, Milhouse, Sons of Abraham, I could go on forever. But I never could get my hands on a SM test press. And considering they're my favorite band, and I have an SM tattoo that goes from the knee down, annnddd I'm the biggest LI collector on the planet, you'd think I'd have one if not all. But I didn't. All I had was the Dynamite Rose comp test, and it meant everything to me.

Soooooo let's fast forward to about 6 months ago. My good friend Brian Norrby came to my place in Manorville to hang for a bit and take a look at my records. He hadn't seen them in a while and 2009 was an insane year for vinyl. The stuff I got last year WOW, just ridiculous. So we're there with my brother Tom, and I'm pulling out all the monsters and we're reminiscing and having a great old time. Then he asks the question, "Do you have any Silent Majority Test Presses?" and I give him my customary, "welllll sort of. I have the dynamite rose comp test." So I pulled out the 4 record pack and handed him the color variants first. He was saying that he didn't even realize it came in 3 colors. Then I go to hand him the test press and as I'm pulling it out of the paper sleeve I catch a glimpse of the martix. It says WHR-002. Now for a second I pause and think to myself, "I must have grabbed the wrong test press." But then I think, "But I couldn't have, I packed them all together. This is the one I got from SDS recs. But this says WHR-002. Witching Hour Records #2?" I started to freak a little bit. I grabbed my laptop, did about a seconds worth of research and realized that for 10 years I didn't have the Dynamite Rose comp test, I had the Witching Hour Records - Between a Rock and a Hard Place test press. This is the one with Cave In - Pivotal on it. So I went right over to the turntable and dropped it on there. Boom, Cave In ripping Pivotal like a son of a bitch. Great song by the way. So basically my SM world crumbled. I was back to square one. For 10 years I thought I had an SM test, when in reality, I had little more than one of the most influential metal hardcore bands crowning achievement song on test press.....god fucking damnit, I WANT A SILENT MAJORITY TEST PRESS!

Sooooo let's fast forward again to about 3 days ago when Brian Meehan(guitarist for Milhouse and KYI) posted a thread on the local LIHC board about some stuff he had on ebay. We got to talking about my blog and how I have Milhouse tests that he hasn't even seen before ahah and I asked him if he had any TPs he was looking to dispose of. He said he had some Rocket from the Crypt tests that he was going to be buried with, but other than that, nothing. Well I went back to working on Clinton Park, and then the next day I get a private message that says:

ok found a test press that i am fairly certain no one has.
it's a compilation called the dynamite rose
here is the track listing

side DYNAMITE -

good clean fun - you're only punk once
milhouse - post cards from a concentration camp
filmshow - everything dies with time

side ROSE -

euclid - cha-cha-changes
silent majority - salvation
atom and his package - peavy rage

let me know if you are interested


AHHHHHHHHH WHAT?! You're offering me the Dynamite Rose comp test? So basically within about millisecond, he had a bunch of cash, and my record was in the mail.



Once I got the record, it all started to make sense to me. See this record was made for the guests of a wedding. A wedding for a guy named Timothy Towslee and a girl named Shoshana Francis. See the initials and date on the special test cover? Well when I did this deal, it was before the wedding. Those covers weren't made yet. The guy just had the test presses. So check what the Witching Hour Records comp test looks like:


Big hole and generic test press label. The WHR label is black and the DRC one is red, but it's still easy to screw up. And he did. He sent me the wrong one. And for 10 years I didn't know it.

Each test press is numbered as well. Guess what number I got?


oh yeah I got #10.

Needless to say, Brian Meehan is my new bff. But not because of this record....

...to be continued