Rifle Sport-White (1987)

 

Artist: Rifle Sport

Title: White

Label: Ruthless Records

Format: LP

Cat #: RRRS-016

Year of Release: 1987

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1987 White Vinyl

Sold Price: $14.99

Listed Condition: VG+/VG

Sell Date: 10/13/20

Discogs Last Sold: 9/20/20 VG+/VG+ $12.00

Low: $8.99

Median: $11.13

High: $23.69

Current low price: $11.90 NM/NM (Spain Only) $15.00

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 11

Have/Want: 108/64

Where Sold: Brooklyn, NY

Time it took to sell: 4 years

Where and When Bought: 1989 Blackout Records Mailorder in San Francisco (the Maximum Rock n Roll mailorder)

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B

Sad To See It Go?: No

"I remember that Rifle Sport LP being boring as hell" said the former Pinch Point literary zine editor before berating Killdozer (save Intellectuals Are The Shoeshine Boys...") and extolling the virtues of Breaking Circus.  Much was said about Killdozer and little was said about Breaking Circus or Rifle Sport.   

Todd Trainer's drums before the aforementioned Breaking Circus, as well as Brick Layer Cake and Shellac were flanked by the high wail of guitarist Gerard-Jean Boissy, who also served on Brick Layer Cakes releases and Flour, the bass player  who was another mid-tier Touch 'n Go act under his own moniker.  The second most iconic Chicago engineer Iain Burgess recorded this.  Was it as boring as the pop culture writer says it was?

This was clearly a play once and file away, although the Complex EP of 1985 got more radio spins from and the Yuletide 7" "Little Drummer Boy" from 1990 was as good as Joan Jett's b-side.  I played White a few weeks ago when the order shipped out and still had very little to say after an afternoon of 18 noise rock singles and albums in headphones from that era.  "Good sounding Chicago 80's indie rock" was the best I could come up with, and the cover jpeg stayed on my desktop for weeks in the "for review" corner of my desktop. 

As I write this I'm listening to a stream of the album and some cuts perk my ears up like the side one closer "Certain Situations" and "King Of Trash" which opens side 2.  I guess I like it the more I hear it, but there comes a point where there are so many minutes in a day and you gotta shit or get off the pot.  It didn't make the heavy rotation cut for a reason, even though I not only bought it, but mail ordered to get the gorgeous white vinyl slab.   I remember mail ordering from Maximum Rock n Roll's Blackout Mailorder in the summer of '89 a few times, stuck in Worcester and working at Friendly's long hours between first and second years at Emerson in Boston,  where there were record stores for every man, woman and child.   "Burn 'Em Up" closes the album nicely.  I would say this is better than "boring as hell" but you need to get to that 3rd listen, which took me more than 30 years to do.

I guess when it comes down to it, I don't like Boissy's voice that much.  It's kind of like a reserved Jello Biafra or Guy Picciotto which a decidedly "Chicago cusp of noise rock" sound emerging in the mid-80's post hardcore.  I didn't really like Rites of Spring for the same reason, vocal-wise.

Glad I got $15 for this, although someone got $23.69 a couple years back.  I probably opened at $23.99 and dropped to $19.99  and $17.99 before getting the sale at $14.99 over 4 years or so when I listed the "R" box in storage.  Still the median is under $12, and from the 21 streams of this album on youtube, Rifle Sport fans are a scattered lot with this getting a 104/64 have/want ratio.

Recap.  Played once in 1989, filed away.  Maybe brought to radio a time or two.  Played a second time a few weeks ago 31 years later and streamed a third time today.

Third time brought no change in my overall feeling of the record.  I will probably never play it again on my own volition, but would not run out of the room if someone else did.