Red Sox and Records, Part 2

Right now I have a large stack of albums sitting here next to the computer. I was away on vacation last week and unable to listen to any music, let alone keep the blog updated. Now that I'm back I'm working through the stack and trying to get things caught up.

The day before I left for vacation, I went to Boston for a Red Sox game with Paul, Rob and Heidi. I was looking forward to hanging out in Fenway Park on a beautiful August afternoon, but I was more excited about stopping at Nuggets Records before the game. The last time I went shopping there I got all kinds of great rock albums, and I was looking forward to thumbing my way through the stacks of vinyl in search of more great finds.

• Agnostic Front - Cause For Alarm : My brother used to have this on cassette tape, but I had never owned a copy. This is a great hardcore album from AF. This copy has a gold promo stamp on the back of the album cover, which I thought was pretty cool. Picked it up for $9.
• Exciter - Unveiling The Wicked : I loved Exciter in High School, owning their classic Long Live The Loud album, but I never had Unveiling the Wicked...I don't think that I ever saw it for sale, or I'm sure I would have bought it. I even had a t-shirt with that album cover on the front of it, and I'm wearing it in one of the pictures of me in my High School yearbook. Damn, I thought that album cover was so cool! This album is a European import on Music For Nations Records, and was $11.
• Blood Feast - Kill For Pleasure : Another album that I loved when I was in High School. Great speed metal band from New Jersey, but obviously influence by early Slayer. This one was a little more expensive than I would have expected to pay for it, $15, but this is such a great record, I didn't think twice about buying it.
• Metal Massacre 4 and 7: After just picking up number 6 in the Metal Massacre series, I was happy to find these two albums. I hadn't heard a lot of the bands on these two records...the only bands that I knew was Lizzy Borden on number 4, and Flotsam and Jetsam and Cryptic Slaughter on number 7. Still I'm looking forward to checking out the other metal bands included. These were in great condition and were $9 a piece.

After lunch and record shopping, the four of us headed into Fenway park to watch the Red Sox take on the Yankees. We got inside too late to see Joey McIntyre sing the National Anthem, but we were excited for this great rivalry. Johnny Damon had gone to the dark side, signing with the Yankees, and the crowd rained boos upon him to show their disapproval. Unfortunately, Damon set the tone for the game hitting a triple to start the game. Boston showed off how bad of shape the pitching staff is in losing the game 12 to 4. It felt like the longest game in history, as the Red Sox pitcher was walking players while the bases were loaded. Even though there were some bright spots for Boston, with Hinske hitting three Doubles, it was still a rough game to sit through, getting to the point of hysterical that Boston could not throw a strike.

Great day and I'm looking forward to heading to Toronto with Rob and Paul at the end of September to watch the Sox play the Blue Jays. Of course the trip will include some record shopping!