Rounding Up the Screen Printed Bootlegs

Updated: November 22, 2012
Added: White Stripes, The Clash, The Damned, Captain Beefheart, Nirvana, Violent Femmes, Can, plus more colors.

In early 2011, I came across a series of bootlegs put out by a couple different people in Long Beach, California. All of the covers are hand screenprinted and most of the music is post-punk/alternative, etc. Needless to say, I fell in love with them.

As they were released, I did my best to collect them all, also gathering as much of the pressing info as I possibly could. It became an obsession for me.

All of the boots are done by pretty much the same people. The bulk of them seem to come from Long Beach, California. Many of the boots use fake labels like Alti Philosophi or Arkain Filloux. They also have fake addresses from Germany and Italy printed on them.

I can (almost) safely say that all of the records come from the same pressing plant. I can also (almost) safely say that all of the covers are printed with the same inks on the same blank covers.

One thing to keep in mind. These are bootlegs of a fairly mediocre quality. Most are sourced from MP3s. This seems to be little more than a money grab with the twist of screen printed covers. They seem hastily put together and are hit and miss when it comes to quality. The press runs that I list are based only on the information put out by the folks that do them. I can assure you that this is not an accurate representation of reality. What little hand numbering that is done may or may not be honest and all of the other figures are suspect. These are bootlegs, after all.

Let’s have a run down, shall we?
The first series started with CDs, I think. I don’t know if the covers were screen printed, but CDs were released by Adam & The Ants, Oingo Boingo and Brian Eno. Since I don’t really care about CDs so much, I’m very glad they moved on to vinyl.

The first vinyl released was an Oingo Boingo bootleg called Marching In Time. It was on black vinyl and originally had a three color printed cover. It was later rereleased with a two color cover and then, more recently, with a one color cover. From there, I don’t really know the order of things, but I’ll try to list them as close to chronologically as possible.

Oingo Boingo – Marching in Time (Polyrhythm Industries) (discogs)
-Black 500(?) (three color print)
-White 75 (two color print)
-Orange 20 (one color print, though there are probably some with two colors)

The Boys Next Door – The Lost & Brave Exhibitions Of…1977-1979 (Il Cane Lento Records, Italy) (discogs)
-Yellow 100
-Black 100

The Cure – Pillbox Tales 1977-1979 (Arkain Filloux Records, Belgium) (discogs)
-Brown 100
-Black 500
-Clear 100
-Yellow 100
*some have brown cover – also, probably a LOT more in number than listed.

Brian Eno – The BBC Sessions (Il Cane Lento Records, Italy) (discogs)
-Blue 100
-Orange 100
-Black 500?
-Purple 100
-Yellow 100

Echo & The Bunnymen – BBC Radio Tapes ’79 – ’80 (Arkain Filloux Records, Belgium) (discogs)
-Green 100
-Black 500
*Second cover has same design, but it’s red ink on black.
-Clear 100 (second cover)
-Black 500 (second cover)

The Smiths – The Old Guard – BBC Tapes 1983 – 1986 (Alti Philosophi Records, Germany) (discogs)
-Red (first cover) 100
-Black (first cover) 500
-Clear (second cover) 100
-Black (second cover) 500(?)
-Green (second cover) 100
-Red (second cover) 100
-Purple (second cover) 100
-Blue (second cover)

My Bloody Valentine – Lost Tracks And Rare Cuts (Alti Philosophi) (discogs)
-Test Pressing (white cover/label) 30
-Purple 100
-Clear 500
-Black 500
-Red 100
-Green 100
-White 100

The Pixies – Into The White (Tensionesque) (discogs)
-Black 500
-Blue 100
-Green 135
-Orange 100
-Red 100
-Clear 100

The Smiths – The Old Guard – BBC Tapes Volume Two (Alti Philosophi) (discogs)
-Black 500
-Clear (dark) 100
-Blue 100 (possibly 200)
-Brown 100

Siouxsie And The Banshees – Songs From The Void – BBC Recordings 1977-1979 (Alti Philosophi) (discogs)
-Purple 100
-Black 500

Slowdive – Hide Yer Eyes (Alti Philosophi) (discogs)
-Black 500
-Mauve 100
-Yellow 100
-Green (tealish) 100

New Order – Western Works Demos 7/9/80 (discogs)
-Black 250

Joy Division – Autosuggestion (discogs)
-Black 500
-Purple 100
-White 100 (with white cover)

Morrissey – Reader Meet Author (Alti Philosophi) (discogs)
-Black 500 (with white or brown covers)
-Orange 100 (with brown paperboard cover)
-Dark Gray 100
-Off White 100
-Maroon 100
-Bright Blue 100
-Orange 100
-Light Blue-Green 100

Swervedriver – Planes Over The Skyline (Alti Philosophi) (discogs)
-Black 500
-Purple 100
*Second cover has blue and purple ink with black background
-Black 500
-Purple 100

Velvet Underground – Prominent Men (Arkain Filloux) (discogs)
-Black 500
-Green 100
-Blue 100

Nirvana – Almost Everything – The BBC Sessions (Marble Four Records) (discogs)
-Black 500
-Yellow 100
-Red 100

Joe Strummer – Nefertiti Rock (Arkain Filloux) (discogs)
-Black 500
-Red Marbled 100
-Bright Green 100

The Fall – Container Drivers – The BBC Sessions (Arkain Filloux) (discogs)
*comes in both black and white covers
-Black 500
-Pink 100

Syd Barrett – Scarecrow (Arkain Filloux) (discogs)
*side b is syd with pink floyd
-Black 500
-Purple 100

Radiohead – Other Colors (Marble Four) (discogs)
-Black 500
-Green 100
-Light Baby Blue w/ pink label 100
-Pink w/ black label 100

The Smiths – Panic (1986 live show)
-Black 500
-Purple 100

Can – Horrortrip in the Paper House
-Black 500
-Purple 100

Violent Femmes – Good Ideas
-Black 500
-Purple 100

Captain Beefheart – Bat Chain Puller
-Black 500
-Blue 100

The Damned – At the BBC
-Black 500
-Orange 100

The Clash – Ties on the Line
-Black 500
-Gold 100

White Stripes – BBC Sessions
-Black 500
-Red 100

—————————————————————-

The folks who put out the above LPs also released four 7″s.

Oingo Boingo – All The Pieces 7″ (discogs)
-Red 200
-Green 200
-Blue 200

The Mars Volta – A Plague Upon Your Hissing Corpse (discogs)
-Clear 300
-Purple 300
-Green 300
-Red 30 (screen printed on the blank b-side – no covers)
-Blue 30 (and possibly 300 more)
-Black/Clear Swirl 300
-Dark Purple 300

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – The Willow Garden / The Ballad of Robert Moore and Betty Coltrane (discogs)
-Black 300
-Red 100
-Clear 100
*Note – The song “The Willow Garden” doesn’t appear on this release. Instead, “The Ballad of Robert Moore and Betty Coltrane” is where “The Willow Garden” should be. Originally, the covers and labels on the vinyl were wrong, but a new run was made with corrected covers (with the vinyl still wrong). Some of the second covers were also printed on white stock with gray/black and red/black ink.

Nirvana – …And the Rest
-500 black
-100 red

From what I can tell, the covers have remained the same for all of them, except the first Smiths boot, which was changed once the second Smiths boot was released. Some covers switch the color of the actual album (from white to black to craft paper).

All of these have some copies that were hand numbered, but many of mine are not. This throws into doubt the number of total copies, but from the best that I can tell, my figures are fairly accurate, at least according to the people who release these.

Moving on, the second (and possibly third) series, I know much less about.

I believe their first release was the Talking Heads CBS Demos. They pressed 500 (hand numbered) copies of black vinyl and then 250 on very pretty blue.

Talking Heads – The 1975 CBS Demo Session (No Label) (discogs)
-Blue 250
-Black 500

The Jesus and Mary Chain – Send Me Away – Early Demos (No Label) (discogs)
-Black w/ white printed label (Number unknown)
-Black w/ red stamped label 100
-Clear w/ red label 100
*Also some with white covers and blank ink.

The Cramps – Memphis Poseurs, The 1977 Demos (Embassador) (discogs)
-Maroon (?)
-Purple 500
-Black (?)

The Birthday Party – Welcome to the Car Smash (No Label) (discogs)
-Black (200)
*There was probably more than this

Adam & The Ants – The Decca Demos & More (No Label) (discogs)
-Green 100
-Black (?)
*The paper label of the record is very sloppily spray painted black. The reason for this is because the labels were actually labels for the Birthday Party bootleg Welcome To The Car Smash, which is put out by the same people.

Pulp – The Demos (1981-1984) (No Label) (discogs)
-Black (500)
-Pink (?)

Sonic Youth – Kill Yr Idols (No Label) (discogs)
-Black (?)
-White (100?)

Nick Drake – Demos Collection Vol. 1 (No Label)
-Black (300)

Nick Drake – Demos Collection Vol. 2 (No Label)
-Black (300)

I can (pretty well) safely say that, at the time of this post, these are all of the screen printed vinyl bootlegs from Long Beach, California. Granted, my figures might be off and incomplete, so if you know something different, drop me a line, okay?

Below are images of the front/back covers and center labels to each release!