Record Store Day 2011

Each year I eagerly await the holiest of all holidays, Record Store Day. A day dedicated to recognizing and supporting your local record store. Once again, Jeff and I started the day at Bull Moose in Scarborough. This year we were surprised to find a line of nerds waiting outside the store before it opened and ended up about 30th in line. It was chaos as the doors opened and people rushed inside to make sure they didn't miss out on the more limited pressings of the day. Not only was I on a mission for myself, but I was connected to Marcus and Doug via Facebook on my Blackberry, and was on the hunt for them as well. I had no problem getting what I was looking for, and since Bull Moose has a strict "one per customer" policy, I had to hand off some duplicates to Jeff, so that he could buy them for me.

The first mission on Record Store Day was to pick up the three 7 inches that Revelation Records was repressing. Last year, Bull Moose had a handful of the Sick Of It All records, so I was hopeful that they would carry the newest REV repressings as well.

Word soon got out that there was some color variations with each pressing, and the geek level quickly went through the roof. The Quicksand 7 inch was repressed on blue vinyl, and all three that I picked were very similar in color.

The copy that I decided to keep for myself had some pretty significant black streaks.

The Youth of Today 7 inch was repressed on red vinyl. Again, my three copies were pretty similar in color. One had some slight black streaking, and another had some slight white streaking, but the differences weren't that substantial, so I sold off my extra copies to Doug and Wade.

I kept the copy with the slight streaks of black.

The Burn 7 inch was repressed on yellow vinyl.

Of the three copies that I bought, two of them were dark yellow, while one of them was significantly lighter. Because the color variation was so drastic, I decided to keep two copies of this one. However, having two yellow copies of the Burn 7 inch, makes me feel like a tool for not owning the original pressing on pink vinyl. I'll have to move that to the top of my want list.

Bull Moose didn't sell out of many records that I wanted, but after grabbing myself two copies of the Bad Brains Pay To Cum repress, they were sold out.Later that day, I heard that there was also a copy on gold vinyl that was only available through mailorder. So much for celebrating "Record Store" Day. Mine isn't an original pressing, and it isn't on gold colored vinyl...oh well, I'm still glad that I've got a copy.

The other record that I was interested in, and that sold out pretty quick at Bull Moose, was the live OFF! 7 inch. Grabbed one for me and one for Doug, and then they were gone.

Promoting the Live at River Plate DVD that was filmed from their recent Black Ice tour, AC/DC released a live 7 inch just for Record Store Day.

Everything thus far, has felt like a legitimate release, but the Ozzy 7 inch repress for Flying High Again seems like a cash grab. I don't know why. Maybe it is my disdain for everything he has done since the No Rest For The Wicked LP back in 1988. I just don't really see the point in this re-releasing this 7 inch. I struggled over whether or not I really needed to pick this up, and in the end the only reason why I did so was because of the "Record Store Day" logo on the label stuck to the plastic bag the 7 inch was packaged in. I'm retarded.

For as much money I spent on this day, I really tried to be conscious of some of my purchases. Like the Flying High 7 inch, I debated internally if I really needed to pick up the vinyl repressings of Blizzard of Oz and Diary of a Madman. In the end, I only grabbed Diary, since I didn't own the original pressing on vinyl already.

Then there was the Dio picture disc for Killing the Dragon. Fuck. I love this album, but I hate picture discs, and ones that are only packaged in a plastic sleeve, suck even more. I hated to buy this one, but in memory of Ronnie, I picked one up as a tribute to his greatness.

Limited to 2,500 and numbered. Yipee.

Before we left Bull Moose, I headed over to regular vinyl and flip through the Metal section. As a side note, stores that have separate Metal and Punk sections rule, okay? When I saw the Back On Black vinyl pressing of Nuclear Assault's classic Game Over album, and since I only own this on cassette, I didn't hesitate to pick it up.

Double LP on nuclear yellow colored vinyl and includes The Plague EP as a bonus.

By the time Jeff and I left Bull Moose it was past 10:00, and we had spent over an hour picking out records and agonizing over which ones we wanted and which ones we could live without. By now, the store was just about deserted, as the original mob that had ransacked the place had moved on. Now it was time for us to hit the road bound for Boston to take advantage of the 20% off sale for vinyl at Newbury Comics.

It is hard to believe, but the original Articles of Faith line up from the early 80's got back together and recorded a new 5 song EP. Wow, Vic Bondi's voice sounds the same as it ever did...gruff and caustic...damn, a couple songs reminded me of the stuff released by Cheap Tragedies a couple years back. Good stuff that does not taint the AOF legacy.

Other than the Legless Bull EP, I've never really heard much from Government Issue. When I saw Dischord's 2010 release of Boycott Stabb Complete Sessions, I figured that it was time to remedy this oversight.

Speaking of Discord reissues...I already own the recent repressing of the Flex Your Head comp, which has the blurry photo cover, but when I saw the XXX cover at Newbury's, I couldn't resist buying another copy. Red cover, red vinyl.

Sodom released their new album, In War and Pieces, at the end of last year. Part of Germany's Big Three with Kreator and Destruction, Sodom still release some brutal Thrash. Like Accept's album last year, I was starting to think about just picking it up on CD, because sometimes I have no patience for mailorder. I was glad to find a vinyl copy at Newbury's.

Man, I bought Volume 1 of Motorhead's BBC Live & In-Session back on the Toronto roadtrip in 2009. Record Store Day 2011 I finally get the chance to pick up Volume 2.

Clear colored vinyl and capturing Motorhead live on the BBC in '81 and '86.

Finally, I ended the day with a couple of cheap sale prices items, that I may not have normally given much thought to. The first is a picture disc for Hirax's 2009 album, El Rostro De La Muerte. For $5.00, I picked up the picture disc, along with a bonus 7 inch on blue vinyl.

Then, for the sale price of $1.50, I picked up the Malestrom LP. Man, I saw these guys so many times back in the early 90's opening for Slapshot. They were pretty good for that time period, until they wanted to try and be like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and started including songs from Seseme Street into their live set. Seriously.

I wouldn't have normally given this album a second thought, but hey, if these dudes can rock these haircuts, I can drop some spare change for them. Who is more embarassed, me or them?