Shopping Spree (part 1)

Last weekend Jeff and I took the afternoon to go on a record shopping spree. Both of us have an affinity for vinyl and hard rock / heavy metal music, so I was looking forward to spending some time visiting a couple of record stores with him. It was the perfect way to kill an afternoon...flipping through stacks upon stacks of vinyl.

We hung out at Jeff's house for an hour or so, talking about 70's rock and checking out his impressive collection of records that take up a whole wall in his basement. He had a Metal Massacre box set from Metal Blade Records that caught my eye...it was hand numbered and pretty limited. After spinning a couple of records we headed out. One of our stops was at Bill O'Neil's House of Rock n Roll in Saco. I have never been to Bill O'Neils, so I was excited to check it out. The place was exactly how you would expect to find a small independent used record store. It had crates full of records stacked in the aisles and stored in the back room. It was chaos to the untrained eye, but Bill knew where everything was. Jeff asked if he had some vinyl for Blue Oyster Cult, and he knew exactly which stack to find them. I tried to pace myself and only picked up four records.

• Motley Crue : Shout at the Devil - I really wanted to listen to this again, so I was happy to find it. The gatefold sleeve was a little beat up, but the condition wasn't too bad, so I grabbed it. As a kid, Shout at the Devil was the first album that I bought without hearing any songs off it. I think I was in 7th grade, and I was starting to get into Heavy Metal with AC/DC, Def Leppard and Quiet Riot. At the time, this was the coolest record to own. Still a fun listen.
• Black Sabbath : Eternal Idol - A continuation of my current Black Sabbath fascination. This album was released well after the classic Ozzy, Dio, and Gillian years, and is very underrated. At times the singer sounds like Ronnie James Dio....still worth checking out.
• Van Halen : Van Halen II - Over the past couple of years, I have downloaded and burned all the David Lee Roth era Van Halen albums. I never liked them as a kid, but have come to really appreciate how much fun they are. Van Halen II is an amazing record, with my favorite track being D.O.A..
• Scorpions : Lovedrive - Scorpions were another band that I never really liked while growing up. When I was first starting to get into Heavy Metal, this was a band that I was afraid would be too heavy, and then I quickly moved from Iron Maiden and Dio to Metallica and Slayer, and the Scorpions weren't heavy enough. Jeff convinced me to give them a chance and check out their earlier records, and once again, he was right. Some of the songs on Lovedrive are so heavy and fast, I'm surprised that I wasn't into them at the time.

All in all, I enjoyed Bill O'Neil's. I'll have to make a point to hit this store a couple of times a year.