STILL SEALED SUB POP TEST PRESS Rev. Horton Heat FULL..

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THE REVEREND HORTON HEAT   THE FULL CUSTOM GOSPEL SOUNDS    SUB POP 202     MEGA RARE 1993 SEALED TEST PRESSING  

What is a test pressing?

In the record making process, there is a step where the plates are lined up to press the records and a few are stamped out, right at the beginning of the run. These are used for a variety of purposes, most of which have to do with checking alignment of the plates, looking to see that the grooves don't have any distortion, and that the correct "a" and "b" versions of the songs are on the record. They're also sent out to the artist themselves as an advance of an upcoming release. Insiders at the record company itself may get some too, just to keep up on the latest from their label. And finally, a few might be mailed out to influential DJs to give them a long-range advance on a hot new artist or record. All in all, there are usually no more than a few dozen stamped out. They all have plain, generic labels with the name of the pressing plant on them with the artist information usually written on by hand. They truly are the first pressings of a given record and catch the pressing plates at their best and most crisp.

Biography

by Steve Huey

The Reverend Horton Heat is perhaps the most popular psychobilly artist of all time, his recognition only rivaled only by the esteem generated by the genre's founders, the Cramps. The Reverend (as both the three-man band and its guitar-playing frontman were known) built a strong cult following during the '90s through constant touring, manic showmanship, and a twisted sense of humor. The latter was nothing new in the world of psychobilly, of course, and Heat's music certainly kept the trashy aesthetic of his spiritual forebears. The Reverend's true innovation was updating the psychobilly sound for the alternative rock era. In his hands, it was something more than retro-obsessed kitsch -- it had roaring distorted guitars, it rocked as hard as any punk band, and it didn't look exclusively to pop culture of the past for its style or subject matter. Most of the Reverend's lyrics were gonzo celebrations of sex, drugs, booze, and cars, and true to his name, his concerts often featured mock sermons in the style of a rural revivalist preacher. The band's initial recordings were released by that bastion of indie credibility, Sub Pop, at the height of the grunge craze; after a spell on the major label Interscope, the Reverend Horton Heat returned to the independent world, still a highly profitable draw on the concert circuit.

by Ned Raggett

With fellow Texas maniac Gibby Haynes on production, Heat and his trusty sidemen go at it again on The Full Custom Gospel Sounds and do so with all the style and sass one could want. Kicking off with "Wiggle Stick," a perfectly lubricious number that ended up scoring the band some airplay with Beavis and Butthead, the good Reverend serves notice that his services are once again the type of affairs where the Blood and the Body aren't necessarily spiritual. Full Custom is arguably more frenetic and metal-leaning than before -- not that Heat has turned into Robert Plant or anything like that, but the likes of "Livin' on the Edge (Of Houston)" would sound perfect smack dab in the middle of a Motörhead set. When it comes to matters lyrical, meanwhile, Heat is still the clever, leering bastard he's been before, and why not? The absolute killer on that front is "Bales of Cocaine," arguably the only English-language equivalent to narcotraficante corridas worthy of the comparison. Then there's the classic rockabilly strut and swing of "Beer: 30," where everything's boiled down to the doesn't-need-more triad of "Party! Get naked!

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