Record Store Day 2017 - Part 2: Love Gun

I had high hopes as I headed to the second used record shop of the day. Moody Lords has provided some great Metal records in their bins in the past, and I was looking forward to seeing what treasures awaited me this time around.

The Metal section at Moody Lords didn't have much to offer on this visit, but I was happy to grab a couple of early Riot albums.

Quite honestly, these Riot covers are just embarrassing. When I got home from record shopping, and was showing my wife what I'd purchases, even her reaction was "What the hell is that?", when she saw the Narita cover. Oh you know...just the head of a seal on the body of a sumo wrestler...in a field of skulls. Nothing wrong with this picture. Ha! Weird.

Honestly, I wasn't too familiar with these Riot albums. I liked them, but in the ten years or so since I'd downloaded them, I'd only listened to them an average of once a year. Outside of Swords And Tequila off Fire Down Under, I couldn't have told you a single song off either of these albums, but listening to them today...this is some ripping late 70's/early 80's Metal. I need to listen to these records more often.

I've been holding out on buying Love Gun from Kiss because I kind of wanted a copy with the merch insert and the love gun. The painful truth is that if I was going keep holding out for this, chances are that I wouldn't end up pulling the trigger on it (see what I did there?), for probably another five years. Hey, I'm a busy collector, and don't have the time or finances to get everything I want immediately. Seeing this copy in the used bin for under $10, and even though it was incomplete, I figured that this was a good enough opportunity to add it to the collection. I can worry about upgrades at a later date.

It is an extremely rare occasion for me to buy an album these days without actually having heard at least a couple of songs from it. I was torn when I saw the Leslie West record in the used bins. While I hadn't heard this album, finding it still in the shrinkwrap, and looking like it was still near mint...and for under $10...I figured that I'd roll the dice and take a chance on it.

Released back in 1969, this could be considered the first Mountain record. Raw and bluesy with Leslie West's gritty vocals. Mountain isn't my favorite, but it is still cool stuff for when I'm in the mood for those older sounds.

The Punk section at Moody Lords usually sucks. It's typically full of New Wave bullshit that I couldn't care less about...but I still take the time to flip through just in case. This time the cover of M.I.A.'s Murder In A Foreign Place record jumped out at me. I'd never heard of the band before, but flipping to the back cover, I noticed they were on Alternative Tentacles. Released in 1984...this held some promise.

This record was a cool find. It is pretty much what you would expect from this label in '84.