Various Artists-Happiness Is Dry Pants (1987)
Artist: Various (Yo La Tengo/Big Black/Kilslug/Moving Targets)
Title: Happiness Is Dry Pants
Label: Chemical Imbalance
Format: 7" EP
Cat #: CI 002A
Year of Release: 1987
Country and Year of Edition Issue: UK 1987
Sold Price: $4.99
Listed Condition: VG+/GEN
Sell Date: 9/25/20
Discogs Last Sold: 7/28/20 $8.97 M/GEN
Low: $3.83
Median: $5.76
High: $45.00 (with color sleeve)
Current low price: $2.49 VG/GEN
Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 20
Have/Want: 272/75
Where Sold: Parish, FL
Time it took to sell: 4 years
Where and When Bought: Allston, MA at In Your Ear for $5.99 used late 80's
Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A+
Sad To See It Go? Yes
I considered this 7" one of the crown jewels of my collection and was saddened and shocked that the value had dropped to $4.99 before it sold, a dollar less than I got it for used in the late 80's or so (the In Your Ear sticker was still on the generic sleeve). However this is the caveat. There are a ton of low end copies on the net well below $5-10. A picture sleeve copy went for $45.00, the high without the accompanying magazine.
I was about 5 Shiner Bocks in, watching a Boston Celtics improbable comeback when the paypal notification arrived that this had sold Friday night. I was so moved that I would be parting with the Kilslug track "Warlocks Witches and Demons" I almost sent Curtis from Taang $150 plus shipping to get one of the two original singles he had up from his legendary stash. Almost. Remember, I am The Reverse Collector, as painful as it is sometimes. Defeat, as the Celtics discovered one last time last Sunday, must be swallowed again and again, and sometimes as the result of ones own making. I must accept Reverse Collecting even if I'd much rather send that large amount of cash and possess that fucking record.
"Warlocks Witches and Demons" is the track the late bass player Cheese would call from West Boylston to WICN in Worcester during my overnight show at 5 in the morning to hear it at 33 RPM which we dutifully complied. He was oblivious that I was 15 and demanding we come over to his place after the show for beers, weed and coke! "I'll call my dealer!" he emphasized to make sure there was enough weed and coke in case the beers ran out. Never made it to West Boylston, probably wouldn't have been good optics to ask my dad to drop me off there early Saturday morning instead of our weekly post radio show pancake breakfast at some local diner or Friendly's or whatnot.
The rest of this 7" is uniformly great. The stop and start rush of Big Black's "Burning Indian Wife" pulses like NIN or Drill beats never happened, because they thankfully hadn't yet. Yo La Tengo feedbacks away with Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams". And Boston Taang legends Moving Targets "Squares and Circles" concludes the EP. This vinyl was around the days that I had a 3rd generation dub of Brave Noise, the follow up to Burning In Water a year before it came out. Speaking of the Targets, the new album Humbucker is one the Reverse Collector may have a relapse and mail order. It's been on my mind.
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