Way back in the 1980s I got an Adolescents 7″ in a record trade from a good friend of mine. This single was called Welcome to Reality and it quickly became one of my favorite singles at the time and is a record that still gets played regularly whenever I’m listening to old punk records and the title track also became a staple of damn near every punk rock mix tape (you kids call them “playlists” these days and they don’t require cassette tapes) I made for myself or others over the years and believe it or not I play it even more than the band’s legendary first album. In short, it is a perfect classic punk EP.
A couple of years ago that 7″ EP was discontinued and got upgraded to a 10″ EP which added a fourth song that was recorded at the time of this EP but went unreleased for more than two decades. That song, “Richard Hung Himself” was later retooled and became the best song that D.I. (the band started by Casey Royer after leaving the Adolescents) ever recorded.
Frontier Records has just pressed up a new colored vinyl batch of the Welcome to Reality 10″. This time out it was pressed on “random mixed vinyl” which means what color you may end up with is a mystery. The entire pressing could look like the one in this picture (a sort of lime green) or perhaps that is a one of a kind and there is a number of other variations. Personally I like to think I have the only lime green one and your copy will be some sort of purplish/gray mess but I’m sure it’s not the only one.
This limited edition 10″ can be found at better record stores (you know, the kind that actually stock punk vinyl) but if you can’t find one or are too lazy to go on a hunt for one then head over to the Frontier Records website and snag one direct from the source. You will have it in plenty of time to show off at Thanksgiving dinner with the family.
