My record collection
Recent acquisition #09 and #10: Galaxie 500 - Uncollected Noise New York '88-'90

Galaxie 500’s Uncollected Noise New York ‘88-‘90 was a lovely surprise announcement back in July, while I had heard quite a few of the previously unreleased tracks on bootlegs over the years there were certainly a few I knew nothing of.

Galaxie 500 Uncollected - handmade vs indie (front)

Of course there is always the concern as to why material that wasn’t considered good enough 35 years ago (or even 28 years ago when the box set was compiled) is suddenly good enough now?

It was fine when the disc of extras turned up on the box set back in 96 because it gave us a look under the bonnet, but… a release that was only extras?

As a fan, and a completist, these things don’t matter. At the time of the box set release I bemoaned that it wasn’t complete - it was missing the Peel Sessions. Now I discover it was missing quite a lot! Maybe it was naive of me to think that the box set and the Peel Sessions was all there was.

So, some new stuff and better versions of the tracks that had been kicking around as bootlegs (you can see my announcement post for more detail on what is included) what could I possibly find to not love about this! Well…

So when this new collection was announced I sat with the very expensive “Handmade TMOQ Edition” in my Bandcamp basket… but this was going to end up (with shipping, and probably HM Revenue & Customs taking their share) the most expensive album I’d ever bought. There was a UK record shop edition that was cheaper, so can I justify this. I decided not and headed off to Monorail and ordered a coloured vinyl copy from there. And was content with my decision. The handmade edition sold out and I relaxed.

A couple of months passed and release day approached and the band announced that there were a few more copies of the handmade edition. I was being taunted. How could I keep resisting!? Turns out I couldn’t. So I bought the most expensive album I’d ever bought.

Last week both copies turned up, on consecutive days, the one from the US arrived first and managed to slip by the revenue unnoticed. Here’s why I am happy with my decision to buy it…

Now, I understand that the design is based on the TMOQ bootlegs and so the design is because of that somewhat pre-determined, even if to me it seems like a waste of a 12” canvas, but more bothersome to me is that the non-handmade one has fake grubbiness added - I guess to make it look more authentic but this is a mistake for a number of reasons:

• grubbiness is rarely beautiful.
• when those TMOQ bootlegs were new, they weren’t grubby.
• fake grubbiness doesn’t look like real grubbiness (so bang goes your effort at authenticity) and therefore looks awful.

Galaxie 500 Uncollected - handmade vs indie (gatefold)

BUT, the handmade copy doesn’t have fake grubbiness added, it is pristine, the reverse has a flyer attached (rather than fake sellotaped track-listing), and because of that it is a much more beautiful artefact. It is made of beautifully superior card (although that superior card makes it trickier to actually fit the discs into the sleeve), has a lovely blue and silver type/print inside the gatefold, and came with a print of one of Macioce’s fab Galaxie 500 “in the trees” photos.

Whether all of this makes the additional expense worthwhile is I guess open to debate but I think if I only had one copy I’d like it to be the handmade one - and becuase of that I’m glad I have it.

To be honest I can’t get too excited about vinyl colour these days, once upon a time it was an occasional treat and as such a thrill. Now it’s so commonplace that it barely matters, and some are even horrendous. Fortunately that doesn’t apply to these - the handmade copy comes in what is described as a “silver and blue iridescent” and is pleasant enough. The UK indies copy is purple and silver swirls and again is perfectly fine. Discogs also mentions editions in…

• clear blue marble
• cyan and semi-transparent black
• clear pink marble
• black phew

also, CD and cassette, and a vinyl test pressing that was too pricey even for me to consider

Galaxie 500 Uncollected - handmade vs indie (discs)

WOW! That all sounds like I’m a bit disappointed which I most definitely am not. It is a lovely package and I’m so glad it exists.

BUT… this still isn’t everything, there’s no sign of the tracks on the extended demo tape, also the fast version of Ceremony that gets mentioned in interviews is awol. So… this might not be the final word, I for one am OK with that.

• Catalogue Number: AHFOW 12/102 / AHFOW 12/103
• Artist: Galaxie 500
• Title: Uncollected Noise New York ‘88 - ‘90
• Notes: Two copies
• Packaging: See above!
• Format: 2 x (2xLP)
• Handmade bought from Silver Current via Bandcamp for a price I can’t bring myself to write down
• UK indies edition bought from Monorail for more than the black vinyl… which is wrong but I’ll spare whinging about that since I’ve moaned enough in this post!
• Buy ‘Uncollected Noise New York ‘88 - ‘90’ on Bandcamp