The Magic of the Celtics

Took a day off from work last week for our annual trip for a Celtics vs. Magic game. Paul, Rob and I headed down to Boston after lunch to get in some record shopping before the game. As always, it was a fun trip, but for some reason this one was one of the best...complete hyjinx from start to finish. Our first stop was supposed to be Re-Generation Records. This was a great punk/hardcore record store in Boston, but when we got there we found out that it had been turned into Re-Generation Tattoo Shop...no records. It was disappointing, but the guy gave us directions to In Your Ear Records.

In Your Ear was a cool little dive of a shop. They did have a punk section, but I felt that the prices were a little too high. Still, I found a few cool records.

• Indestructible Noise Command - Razorback and The Visitor : I loved I.N.C. when I was a kid...I remember Paul had both of these on cassette. They play that great style of generic speed metal from '87/'88. These two records were in mint condition and for $6.00 a piece, I quickly picked them up.
• Alice Cooper - Special Forces : Another one of Alice's weaker records, that doesn't rock as hard as he had in years past. Still, there is some fun songs on this album. This was in great condition, plus it had the gold promo stamp on the front...and for only $3.00, how could I not buy it?

After our trip to In Your Ear, we stopped at Nuggets. Again, I found some cool stuff, and maybe I was just feeling cheap that day, but I felt like some of it was over priced as well. Still, I walked out of there dropping over $50.

• Led Zeppelin - Presence : This was my first Zeppelin vinyl. Quite fitting actually, since this album was the first one that Jeff played for me that got me into the band. It was also the first Zeppelin CD that I bought (complete with packaging that replicates the original vinyl version). I grew up hating this band, and when I first heard the rumblings of Achilles Last Stand to start this album, I realized what I had been missing.
• Deep Purple - The House of Blue Light : Come on, it's Deep Purple with Ian Gillian singing. I haven't listened to this one yet, but Gillian has such an amazing voice I'm sure I'll like this record. Plus it was only $4.99, so what the hell.
• Tokyo Blade - Warrior of the Rising Sun : Back in 1985 this band had a song called Lightning Strikes on a compilation called Banzai Axe. The comp had songs from the likes of Slayer, Metallica, Venom and Raven. I always liked the Tokyo Blade song, but never had the chance to hear anything else by them. About a year ago, I downloaded the Warrior of the Rising Sun album, and I really liked it. Found the double vinyl at Nuggets for $12.99.
• In My Eyes - The Difference Between : One of my favorite bands of all time. I have all their records on colored vinyl. This one was on black vinyl and only $7.99. Now I only need the Nothing to Hide LP on black vinyl and the collection will be complete.
• The Nerve Agents - The Butterfly Collection : Another great hardcore record. The Nerve Agents were so good. I never got to see them live, but their recorded stuff...intense, ripping hardcore.

After our record shopping we headed over to the Garden. Took a trip over to Faneuil Hall before the game and Rob and I got a couple of big-ass M & M cookies. The game was an emotional rollercoaster. I'm ready for them to tank the season for a top draft pick, but Rob is a big Magic fan, and if Orlando won he'd love throwing it back in my face. It was a double overtime thriller, and even though it seemed like Boston was trying to throw the game, the refs kept making calls against the Magic. Seriously, Orlando had this game wrapped up, until the refs made a call with about 3 seconds left on the clock giving the ball to Boston, and then Pierce hit a huge basket to tie the game and force overtime. Boston wins and makes it a sweep for every time we've made a trip to a Celtics / Magic game. It was a fun game, and hey, Boston still has a good shot at a top 2 draft pick.

Nothing Done

Nothing Done just released a new album on Not Just Words Records called Everybody Knows. The pre-order was limited to 100 and came with a different album sleeve. I had never heard that band before, but when you site bands like Black Flag, Negative Approach and Circle Jerks as influences then you have my attention. I checked out a couple of mp3's and liked what I heard, however I wasn't really prepared to pay the price for a record overseas...I think it would have cost me around $20. I checked the Revelation mailorder and they had a copy of Nothing Done's first LP, Powertrip, so I picked that up instead. It was a second pressing on blue vinyl and limited to 525. The record is amazing. It is so much fun. They definitely have that early 80's hardcore sound...fast and aggressive. I love it. When RevHQ carries the new album, I will have to pick it up.

So Here's To Fucked Up Youth

Ceremony play a style of hardcore that is harsh as fuck, brutally ripping through songs that barely clock in at a minute long. Heavily influenced by Infest, with lyrics that are spit with rage, this record is an intense 13 minutes. I had Ceremony's first 7 inch, and thought it was okay, but I never really had the chance to listen to it much. I picked up their newest record on a whim through Revelation, and I am blown away. As a bonus, the packaging of this record is sweet. Gatefold sleeve, with a red, white and grey splattered clear vinyl. I can't stop listening to this. Amazing shit for when you hate the world.

Living Hell

Fuck

So here's to fucked up youth

Here's to burning lies

Here's to each fucking day that just passed me by

Fuck

Higher Learning

Another piece of my order from Revelation Records...Down To Nothing, the Higher Learning 7 inch. This one is the second press on green vinyl. I'm not sure how many were pressed. This one was out for a while before I finally bought the record, and now I'm wishing that I bought it earlier. These three songs are so good, with one of them being a great Four Walls Falling cover. It took me a long time before I finally checked this band out. They were on Thorp Records, and I kind of had that label pegged as a tough guy, metalcore record label, and so I avoided them. I think the thing that pushed me to check them out was when Rob and I went to Posi Numbers 05. They were on the bill, and I downloaded Save It For The Birds to prepare for the show. The album was really good, but didn't really stick with me. They had a good set, and did a great cover of No Spiritual Surrender. I caught them in Maine with Have Heart on the Fourth of July last year, and realized that they were a straight edge band when I saw them all X'd up. Okay, call me biased, or close minded or whatever, but once I saw they were straight edge I became more interested in the band. I bought the Splitting Headache CD at the show but it didn't really do much for me. Save It For The Birds, however, really grew on me, and if this new 7 inch is any indication of how their new album is going to be, I'm looking forward to it.

Get The Most

It has been a number of years since I've bought anything on Crucial Response Records. In the mid-90's, this record label was one of my favorites...I could always count on them to release some great positive straight edge hardcore. At some point I got away from what they were doing, but Get The Most was the band that got me interested again. They play that straight up, generic youth crew style of hardcore that still gets me Xing up my fists and fighting to get up front to sing along and stagedive. Damn, they are named after an Insted song, so how can you go wrong? I really owe it to Tyler for bringing this band to my attention.

I got this record through RevHQ. Black vinyl limited to 700 pressed. I'd love to get my hands on the green vinyl pressing or the record release cover at some point. Great stuff.

Lace And Whiskey

I recently picked up this copy of Alice Cooper's Lace and Whiskey. This is generally not known as one of Alice's better records, but I still enjoy it. Even though Alice had split with the original band years before...the band that helped create the truly classic albums...there is still some solid hard rock songs here. There are also a few radio friendly songs...I guess you could call them ballads. In most cases, I would probably not be interested in that style of song, but there is just something about his voice that allows him to pull it off.

I got this record through ebay for $10. It is a promo, as noted by the giant pink sticker on the front of the album cover, making it more of a collectors item. This copy still had the order form to join the Fan Club.

X-ing Up Strongly Suggested

It has been too long since I've added some hardcore vinyl to the collection. I was killing some time on eBay and saw a first pressing of Champion's first 7 inch, Come Out Swinging. Picked it up for $4.34. I'm not sure how many were pressed on clear vinyl, but I'm going to have to find out. Edit : I checked with Aram and he thinks there were 300 pressed on clear and 700 on black vinyl.

Before it was re-pressed on Bridge Nine, this record was released by Platinum Recordings on vinyl and Phyte Records on CD. I remember when this was first released...it had Timm McIntosh from Trial in the band so I was excited to check it out. I saw the CD at Newbury Comics and was checking out the packaging. The back of the CD case was designed like the credits on a movie poster...complete with a rating. Rated SE, X-ing up strongly suggested, contains straight edge hardcore that may incite finger pointing. Yes! I didn't hesitate to buy this CD. Unfortunately it didn't move me the way that I'd hoped, and I never really got into the band until they released Promises Kept. This record isn't nearly as strong as that LP, but it has grown on me and I can appreciate it for what it is...the starting point of a great band.

Dude, Where's The Vinyl?

Wow, I sure didn't by much vinyl in February. This past month I actually put most of my money into my CD collection. Up until recently, I never put much thought into collecting CD's. Over the past 5 or 6 years, I've gone nuts downloading music. Using Napster, WinMX, and Soulseek, I had created hundreds upon hundreds of burned CD's....stuff that I had no intention of buying because I had limited myself to only purchasing punk and hardcore. Over the years, my interest has moved from that singular focus and has expanded to include Rock and Metal. I grew up on Heavy Metal, and since the nostalgia for those old bands has kicked in, I'm not too impressed with my collection of burned CD's and homemade packaging. The collector in me has taken over, and I need to own the real deal for a lot of it. We are also putting an addition on my house, and I will be gaining a large walk-in closet to store all of my music. The thought of having shelves of my CD's on display, cluttered with a bunch of burned disks, pushed me to start cleaning it up. I still have over 800 burned CD's, so it will take some work, but I'll get there.

Sabbath From Japan

One of my newest obsessions, and if you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that there are quite a few of them. This time around it is Japanese pressings. When I started collecting Iron Maiden vinyl, I knew that I wanted to get a Japanese pressing of one of their albums...just for collectors sake. I ended up getting the Killers LP and their Live Plus One EP. I loved the packaging on these records...the OBI strip around the record sleeve, and the extra insert. When I got my Japanese pressing of Sabbath's Master of Reality, I was hit with the urge to add any other Metal/Rock record from Japan to my collection. The first one that I found was Live Evil from Black Sabbath. Picked it up for $10.50 on eBay.

I think that Live Evil may have been one of the first Black Sabbath album that I had. I don't even know where I got it from, but I had taped it off of someone. I remember, as a kid, blasting this album from my boom box. Cranking these songs as my soundtrack, playing basketball in my driveway under the hot summer sun. Music is tied heavily to my memories of growing up, and this is one of those albums that will always remind me of those days as a kid...just hanging out with my brother and playing basketball and baseball with neighborhood friends.

That's Why It's Called Record "Collecting"

I don't know many people that really "get it". I was talking to my wife the other day about the Sabbath reunion tour with Dio, and I mentioned that they would be releasing a Best of Sabbath : The Dio Years CD. She replied, "Well you already have all the CD's, so you won't need to buy that one.". I told her that I thought that there was going to be a couple of unreleased new songs included, and she told me that I could just download or copy them from Jeff. Nope, I'll need to buy it. I am a collector. I am a completist. I need to own it.

I know that she would never understand this recent addition, and I'm sure she wouldn't be alone. My Black Sabbath addiction has not gone away, and my newest mission is collecting different pressings of the Master of Reality LP. I once saw a picture of someone's collection...about 30 different pressings of this record...I thought it was one of the coolest things I've seen. Such a great documentation of different pressings from across the world. Master Of Reality has always been one of my favorites from Sabbath, and was one of the first CD's that I ever bought from them. I got my first vinyl copy of this album up in Toronto, and then won the promo copy on eBay. It snowballed from there, and I recently got three more copies for the collection. First, I bought the clear vinyl pressing from Jeff for $10. It was released on Earmark Records, and Jeff hated the sound from this remaster so he sold it to me for cheap. After buying that one, I won a couple on eBay. The Japanese pressing is very cool with the OBI strip and special insert. That one was $26.00. The final copy that I got was the US pressing with the green label...only $4.00.

So, even though I know that not many people will understand this fascination, I'm having a good time with it.

King of Rock and Roll

Recently picked up Dio's live EP, Intermission, which was recorded during the '85 Sacred Heart tour. I saw Dio on this tour as they came through Portland with Rough Cutt opening the show. I was 15 years old and this was my third concert. Metal concerts in the mid '80's were all about the stage show, and Dio knew how to deliver, complete with his battle against a dragon. Man, as a kid I was blown away. Funny how everything is stripped down nowadays, with no theatrics.

I won this record on eBay for 99 cents. The seller also had a copy of Black Sabbath's Master of Reality, which I was expecting to win so I threw a bid on the Dio record for the hell of it. Ended up losing the Sabbath one, and was left with only Dio.

Shopping Spree (part 2)

Another stop on the Jeff and Mike record shopping spree was Enterprise Records in Portland. I had been here one other time, about a year ago with Rob, so I had high hopes that the selection would be as good as the last visit. It met my expectations, as I wasn't able to afford everything that I wanted.

• Black Sabbath : Vol 4 - This was a new pressing on the Nems label. 180 gram vinyl. Vol 4 is one of the Sabbath records that I can't resist buying when I find a pressing that I don't have.
• Thin Lizzy : Jailbreak - This is a great rock record. I "discovered" this band about 4 or 5 months ago, and downloaded a few albums. I bought this record so that I would own a copy, instead of just a burned CD. After I got home, I learned that the first pressing of this record came in a gatefold sleeve, and I was a little disappointed that mine wasn't.
• Rainbow : On Stage - Dio has rocked us for a long, long time. Before his solo career and Sabbath, he fronted the Ritchie Blackmore band, Rainbow. Just like when Blackmore was in Deep Purple, live performances produce epic songs with plenty of jam sessions. This double album set has only 6 or 7 songs, with a handful of them clocking in around the 15 minute mark. It was kind of cool to hear Dio perform Mistreated from Deep Purple, originally sung by David Coverdale.
• Fastway : Fastway - Jeff highly recommended this one, and at $3.75, I took the chance. The band has Fast Eddie from Motorhead, who was the original guitarist up through the Iron Fist album. Make no mistakes, Fastway sound nothing like Motorhead. Instead they play a very Zeppelin influenced style of rock. Good album.
• This Is Boston, Not L.A. compilation - This is a hardcore punk classic. Fast and furious early 80's hardcore featuring Boston greats like Gang Green, Jerry's Kids, The F.U.'s and The Freeze. I picked up this album for $7.00 The next day I took a look at eBay to check how much they go for, and found one that sold for $60. I think I got a bargain.
  

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.

Fresh New Look

It took me a while before I bothered switching over to the new version of Blogger. One of the new features is a drag-and-drop edit function for templates. It looked easy, so I decided it was time to change the format. I still need to mess around with the last.fm chart that shows up here, but I'm liking the new look and feel of the blog.

While I'm here and making a general post, I want to take the time to thank the regular visitors to the Record Nerd blog...my friend Rob, and the two cool guys that I've met through Blogger, Tyler and Rold. Thanks, dudes.

A Matter Of Life And Death

I used a $20 gift certificate that I got for Christmas, and put it towards the new Iron Maiden double album. It is a limited edition double picture disc, and the whole thing looks amazing with the gatefold sleeve. When I first picked up the album, I was amazed at how heavy the package felt....very solid. This is a very good album. It doesn't compare to the classic Maiden releases of the 80's, as the band still insists on writing these epic 10 minute tracks, but there is still some great stuff on this record. My only complaint is that this is pressed as a picture disc. I generally don't like picture discs...Especially when the packaging only consists of a clear plastic sleeve. Plus, picture discs tend to have a poor sound quality to them. I would have appreciated this more if it was pressed on regular black vinyl.

Youngblood Pre-Order

I finally got the latest Youngblood pre-order in the mail the other day. I believe that the label had some problems with the Fired Up CD, because they finally just shipped my package and will be sending the CD when it comes in. In addition to the new Fired Up 7 inch (limited to 200 on clear vinyl), I also got the new Lion of Judah LP (limited to 225 on clear vinyl with purple/gold splatter). The LOJ vinyl looks absolutely sick. Both records are really good, but I am liking the Fired Up 7 inch more. It has that youth crew hardore sound that I love, and the energy is just amazing. I saw the band play with The First Step last Spring, and I have been anticipating this release since that show.

Have Heart Collection

Back when I had a day off to myself, I pulled out the Have Heart collection. I received a new pressing of The Things We Carry from Bridge Nine Records, and figured that it was a good time to get a picture. The latest pressing is yellow with green splatter. It was the final gatefold pressing, limited to 1,000. My Have Heart collection has a little ways to go before it is complete, and I'm not really concentrating on it like I was 6 months ago. Still, I aim to get this complete at some point.

Records at Radio Shack

I took another day off from work this week. My friend, Jeff, had told me that the Radio Shack in town had a section for used vinyl in their store, so I figured that I would take a drive up the street to check it out. Truth be told, most of it was junk, but I did find a couple of records for the collection.

• Wasted Youth - Reagan's In : I was very excited to find this for only $3.00. I had seen this sell for around $40 on ebay, and thought that I was finding one of those legendary deals. I took it home and checked again on ebay and found out that my copy on Medusa Records was a repressing. The original on Sanoblast Records is the one that is actually worth some money. Still this record is a lot of fun. Great early 80's style of hardcore punk out of Los Angeles.
• Blue Oyster Cult - Self Titled : I downloaded this CD a while ago, and I really liked the 70's rock sound. I saw this one for $4.00 and didn't hesitate to buy it.

Best Album of 2006

While I was pulling out my Champion records last week, I also decided to pull out my First Step collection. It isn't nearly as big as the Champion records, but I did just receive two new First Step pressings of What We Know, so I figured that I'd just get a picture of the whole collection. For some reason, at this point, I'm not really interested in collecting the 7 inches, so here is my collection of their 12 inch records. I just picked up the Sound and Fury Fest pressing of What We Know. It is on red with white splatter colored vinyl and is limited to 135. The guy from Rivalry Records was selling one on eBay, so I placed a bid. I was outbid, but the guy sent me an email saying that he had a couple of extra copies, so if I wanted one at the price of my maximum bid, I could have one. I checked with him and he also had an extra copy of the European pressing on grey, so I took him up on the offer and bought both copies.

Too Much Time On My Hands

I had the day off from work today...just me...the wife was at work and the kids were at school. Perfect time to pull the records out of the closet, and take an updated picture of my Champion collection. Since I had picked up the last Promises Kept pressing that I needed, I felt it was a good time. The Champion collection still has quite a few holes, most notably is the pressing of Count Our Numbers with the Youth of Today cover. It was fun pulling all of these out today, and examining each pressing. I forgot that I had two pressings of Count Our Numbers on blue. Bridge Nine put up a blue pressing for sale, and then a month later they put up a "purple" pressing. I bought both of them, and they look identical. I've seen Aram selling both the blue and purple on ebay, and he has stated that the blue vinyl was a pressing plant error and is the more limited of the two...damned if I can tell them apart.

The Aram Connection

I bought some more records from Aram. He posted a list of Champion and Betrayed records on the Livewire Records messageboard, and when I saw that he was selling a copy of the Euro tour pressing of Promises Kept, I jumped on it. Nothing too special about the pressing, just grey vinyl with blank, white labels, made for their European tour. Still, I've found this pressing rather difficult to find. The couple of times that I've seen it on eBay, it went for more than I was ready to spend. Getting this pressing finishes my Promises Kept collection.

Another record that he set aside for me was the Betrayed last show pressing of the Champion/Betrayed split 7". I can't remember how many were pressed of this record, but mine is #183. As a cool little bonus, Aram also threw in a couple of laminated tour passes from the Australian and Japan tours.

Two of the best bands from the past few years.

Have Heart From Ebay

Two more Have Heart 7 inches for the collection. The demo on yellow is limited to 125 and What Counts on white only had 225 pressed. What more can I say about this band? In my list of favorite Boston Straight Edge bands, these guys would easily make the top 5. When I saw them at the End of Summer Jam in August, the singer, Pat Flynn was talking about being proud of his edge. I'm 36 years old and there is still something about straight edge pride that gets me excited.

Nuggets Is A Seductive Mistress

Another trip to Boston, another stop at Nuggets for some record shopping. Rob and I headed down for the Celtics season opener against the New Orleans Hornets on November 1st. We started the day off right with some NBA2K7 on the Xbox 360, and then we stopped at Chicago Dogs for lunch...that place has the best veggie dogs.

I had told myself that I wasn't going to go crazy and spend a lot of money at Nuggets this time. I was going to check to see if they had the import Black Sabbath record with the shiny, foil-like cover, and that would probably be it. Well, once I started flipping through all the records, I kept finding things that I couldn't pass up. Before I knew it, I was holding $50.00 worth of vinyl.

• Black Sabbath - Rock Heavies : This was the one that I almost picked up the last time I was in the store, but ended up putting it back. I was crossing my fingers that it would still be there this time around, and I was lucky enough to find it was still here. This is an odd collection of Sabbath songs, coming only from the last two Ozzy-era Sabbath records. German import.
• Black Sabbath - Death Riders : This is a live bootleg from the Heaven and Hell tour. The sound is great, and I thought that it would be a fun addition to the growing Sabbath collection.
• Black Sabbath - Techinal Ecstasy : The main reason why I bought this record was for the ultra-cool record label. Sweet looking U.F.O. artwork from this UK pressing.
• The Doors - Morrison Hotel : I had never heard this particular record before, but I have been loving The Doors, so I figured that I couldn't loose. It was only 6.99, and the record cover and vinyl was dead mint. I can't express how pissed I was that in the process of removing the price tag, the album cover received a small surface tear. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.
• Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers : Another record that I had never heard before, but figured I couldn't loose since it had a $2.99 price tag. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this record. Classic Purple line up.
  
  

After record shopping, Rob and I found some parking and set off to kill some time before the Celtics game. We had a great time walking around Quincy Market and saw the Comedy Connection where he would be doing a show the following week. We got to the Garden for the game and got in line early to get the Red Auerbach commemorative pin. Before the game, there was a special remembrance ceremony with Paul Pierce dedicating the season to the legendary Celtic leader. Game time and the Celtics were disappointing, and ended up dropping the game to the Hornets. All in all, it was still a fun day out in Boston.

Close To Complete

A while back, someone on the B9 messageboard was desperate for cash, and was selling stuff from his record collection. When I saw The Difference Between by In My Eyes on red, I immediately emailed him with an offer. I was extremely grateful that he took me up on it. This was the last rare In My Eyes that I needed. It is limited to 104 pressed, and the only time that I had seen it on eBay, I was outbid. I had originally thought that this completed my collection of In My Eyes records, but I am missing both of the LP's on black vinyl, so I guess you can't really call it complete.

Killer Japanese Pressing

When I first started collecting Iron Maiden vinyl, I knew that I wanted a Japanese pressing of Killers with the OBI strip. While I was browsing the Maiden records on ebay, every once in a while I would see one up for bid. I'm not sure what it was about this record. Maybe it was the OBI strip with the record title written in Japanese, complete with the bloody font. Maybe it was the insert that was limited to the Japanese pressing. Whatever it was, I had to have one in my collection. While watching them on ebay, they were selling for around $40, plus the shipping from Japan, so I kept passing them by. Then a few weeks ago I was able to grab one for $19.50, and the seller was from the States so shipping was only $5. Perfect. Now that I have this one, I'm thinking that at some point I'd like to get other Japanese pressings for the other Maiden records.

Black Sabbath, White Label

I recently won a copy of Black Sabbath's Master of Reality off ebay recently. This thing looks amazing...such great condition...and to top it off, it has a white promo label and the original poster. Won it for $30, and is a great addition to my Sabbath collection.

My Sabbath collection is pretty pathetic right now. It consists mostly of the Earmark Records reissues that were released a couple of years ago. I think my only non-Earmark records are the Mob Rules and Born Again LP's, plus the Canadian pressing of Masters of Reality...oh yeah, I almost forgot the Korean pressing that I have of Volume 4.

A friend of mine recently directed me to a great site that documents the Black Sabbath discography at http://sabbath.se/. This site details all the different pressings for the Ozzy era with Sabbath. Seriously, the quickest way for me to gain interest in collecting vinyl for a band is if I have a list that I can use to check them off one by one. Judging from the size of the the list, the Sabbath collection will be a work in progress for many, many years.

The Fifth Step

I was able to get myself a copy of the Euro pressing of the new First Step album...my fifth copy of What We Know. Rivalry Records posted on their website that they had around 25 copies available, a mix of the white cover and the regular cover, both on grey vinyl. I noticed the posting a couple of day after they put it up, and I expected that they would have already been sold out, but surprisingly, I was able to order one, requesting the white cover. I was happy to get my hands on one. I had almost ordered one through Not Just Words Records, but the shipping from Europe was ridiculous so I passed on it. Glad I waited. This pressing with the white cover is limited to 270.

I love this record...it may even beat out Betrayed and Have Heart for my favorite for 2006. It is just so much fun. It really reminds me of those days when I first heard bands like Insted. Great positive straight edge hardcore.

The First Step

What We Know

Not afraid to say what's in my heart

Even if you put it down or tear it apart

We're standing on a solid foundation

Built on caring, honesty, the edge, and dedication

Scream For Me Boston!

Time for another trip to Boston, this time to see Iron Maiden. I had not seen these guys live since I was 18, when they played in Maine for the Seventh Son tour back in '88 or '89. Since some kind of nostalgia had kicked in a couple of years ago, and I've been on a supplementing my punk rock/hardcore diet with some metal and hard rock, I was excited to go see them tour for their new album. My friend Jeff was a member of the Maiden Fan Club, so he was able to buy tickets before they went on sale to the public, getting third row tickets, center stage. We planned that it would be fun to head down to the show with our wives and spend some time in Boston before the show.

We ended up leaving a little later than expected, but we still had plenty of time to stop at Nuggets to do some record shopping. Having Meesh and Jen with us didn't afford us the luxury to really take our time and browse, but I was able to pick up a few things.

• Ozzy Osbourne - Tribute : Classic live record from Ozzy featuring Randy Rhodes on guitar. This thing was in great condition at $10.99, and had a gold promo stamp on the back. I've got a thing for that promo stamp...my copy of Bark at the Moon has one as well. Promo records are generally the first ones off the press, which means that the plates are brand new and gives the recording the very best sound. Plus, since the were never really made available to the public, they are more collectible.
• Scorpions - Tokyo Tapes : I was never a big fan of the Scorpions while growing up. While discussing live albums with Jeff, he mentioned that I should check out Tokyo Tapes if I was to come across it. Well here it is. The cover for this copy was a little beat up, but for $4.99 I figured that I could give it a try. I like it...it's not as commercial as the MTV era singles.
• Alice Cooper - Muscle of Love : Man, those old Alice Cooper records came in quality packaging...always something different. Billion Dollar Babies has the oversized billion dollar bill and trading cards, the album cover for School's Out folds out with legs for a school desk while the vinyl is wrapped in a pair of panties, and the Muscle of Love album comes packaged in a cardboard box, and it includes a book cover for the kids to use to cover their school books. Great imaginative packaging. Muscle of Love is near the end of the classic Alice Cooper line-up, and I picked this copy up for $6.99.

After shopping and grabbing dinner at Bertucci's, we head up to Boston University for the Maiden concert. Having seats on the floor at a rock show was kind of weak, but it did mean that I was able to stand with my wife and friends for the show. Iron Maiden threw us a curve ball, playing the entire new album, start to finish, and then ended the show with a small handful of classics like Fear of the Dark, 2 Minutes to Midnight, Iron Maiden, The Evil That Men Do, and Hallowed Be Thy Name. While I was disappointed to not hear more of the older songs, hearing the new album live did make the experience more memorable and special.

Addiction to Substance

Here is my Betrayed collection. It is complete unless a Final Show pressing of Substance is made.

The Addiction 12 inch came from Aram. He sent me a message saying that he grabbed a copy for me when they were touring Europe...a "thank you" for helping him out financially earlier in the year when I bought a bunch of records from him. A very kind and thoughtful gesture, but seriously, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to buy the records that I got. It took him a while to mail out the Addiction 12 inch, and after a couple of weeks I noticed that a pink pressing of Substance was sold at the Sound and Fury fest out in California. I dropped him a line to see if he had any that he could spare, and as luck would have it, he did. Sold it to me for $15 and sent the Addiction 12 inch along with it, completing my collection of Betrayed vinyl. This shit is the pride and joy of my record collection...thanks Aram, I couldn't have done it without you.

Red Sox and Records, Part 3 (The Toronto Edition)

ROADTRIP!!! We hit the highway at 3:00 in the morning for our 10 hour drive to Toronto. Rob thought that it would be funny to eat baked beans just before our trip. While the end result of stinking up the car worked as planned, Paul and I did get a good laugh that he had to hit the bathroom stall to unload at each stop. We stopped in Springfield, MA for breakfast, and ended up in the town's armpit eating at Dunkin Donuts across the street from the adult video store. Next stop was Buffalo, NY, which was kind of depressing as well...seemed like the town had nothing but car dealerships and muffler shops. We finally crossed the border and headed to Niagara Falls to catch the sights. It was my second time at the falls, but it is still so impressive...such a massive sight.

Next stop was Toronto. We hit some traffic trying to get into the city, so we got in a little later than we had expected, and got to the hotel around 6:30. We stayed at a place on The Esplande, near the bottom of Younge Street. We could always tell that we were getting close to our hotel from the smell of piss and sewage that covered the neighborhood. It seemed like a good section of town, but it certainly had a stench to it! A couple of things that I learned about Toronto...that city loves it's water fountains, Starbucks and Tim Hortons. The drivers also love to use their car horns, as there was always someone honking at a pedestrian or another car that they didn't think was moving fast enough.

Saturday was a fun day. We spent the afternoon walking around the city, trying to find the Noise Annoys record store. I don't know how we missed it, but we never found it. We even stopped into a comic book store that sent us down the street one way, and then asked for directions in another store that sent us in another direction. It was disappointing to not find it, but truth be told, I was okay with it because I had already spent a bit of money and not finding the store helped me not blow even more money. I did find one small record store that had a lot of old R&B and early rock records, and I was able to pick up a copy of Black Sabbath's Master of Reality LP. I really had to pick it up because it was a Canadian pressing and the back cover had a small maple leaf in the upper corner. It was a cool souvenir of our trip. After checking out the city, we went to the Red Sox / Blue Jays game. Once again the Sox lost...I've never been to a game that they won!

Sunday morning we headed back to the States, and got hassled by the border patrol. I'm not sure what the red-flag was, but we got pulled out of line for questioning. We had to park and then go inside and wait. I seemed to draw the shortest straw as the officer called my name. Two officers took me outside to search the car. I knew that there was nothing they would find, but I did get weak in the knees when they asked me if I had "ever been arrested before". Before? You mean like I'm going to be arrested now?!?! Everything was fine and after searching the car, we could go, but that was a little nerve wracking. The three of us were pretty spent at this point and the ride home was long and uneventful. Good to be home.

Reincarnation of Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden is back with a new album, A Matter of Life and Death. The other day I picked up the first single, The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg. It was released as a 10 inch record on clear vinyl. I love the artwork on this single. It reminds me of those classic Iron Maiden covers that Derek Riggs did for the band years ago. The song is pretty good too, but the two songs chosen for the b-side I could do without. How many more live versions of The Trooper and Run To The Hills do we need?

I'm going to see Maiden in Boston in October. There is floor seating for the show, and I have tickets for the third row, center stage. Sweet seats, but I'm not sure how I feel about floor seating for this show. On the one hand, it will be nice to hang out with my wife and friends during the show, who would not be up front otherwise. But come on, floor seats for a metal concert is kind of weak. The last concert that I went to that had floor seats was Harry Connick Jr. years ago. It is going to seem strange being up front at a show and not getting pushed around and crushed. I haven't seen Iron Maiden since they toured to support the Seventh Son album, and the new album is real good, so it should be a fun show anyway.

Triple Dose Of Triple Threat

Finished my collection of the Triple Threat "New Chapter" 7 inch. I had been casually looking to complete this since last year when I picked up the blue vinyl at Posi-Numbers...occasionally searching eBay for the white vinyl, but never seeing it listed. When I was searching for some Have Heart vinyl, and came across the last Triple Threat vinyl that I needed, I jumped on it for $20.00. This 7 inch is limited to 200 on white, 300 on blue, and 500 on pink.

Deep Purple Rock

As a part of my awakening and appreciation of 70's rock, I fell in love with Deep Purple. I grew up hating this band. Back in the late 80's, when I was getting heavily into Thrash and Death Metal, I had a friend that tried to get me into this band. I wanted nothing to do with them. Shit was too "old and boring" for me. Here we are 25 years later and I'm a bit more open minded (or maybe just old and boring!). I can't remember what inspired me to give them another shot, but when I did, I was blown away by the intensity of the music. Shit is heavy. Not in the sense of heavy like 80's and 90's metal, but heavy with so much power behind those riffs...that voice. Amazing. This entry is for the Deep Purple In Rock vinyl. It is the Japanese pressing. I saw it on eBay for only $7.00 and jumped on it. Shipping from Japan was a little expensive, but I wasn't going to turn down the opportunity. Pretty cool with the song titles written in Japanese on the inside of the gatefold cover and a price of what looks like 2,300 yen on the back.

End Of Summer Jam 2

The day after I get back from vacation, Rob and I head to Massachusetts for the second annual End Of Summer Jam. The show was in Lawrence, which is notorious for being a rough town and Rob and I were not thrilled when we got a little lost once we got off the highway. Nothing to worry about though as we quickly found our way to the Knights of Columbus hall where the show was. We got there a little late, so we didn't have to worry about standing outside in the rain and were able to go right in. First place we headed to was the merch tables. Since this was the record release show for both Have Heart and Verse, we did not want to miss out on that vinyl. The Have Heart record was on the limited pre-order color, and had an X of hearts spray painted on the front cover, while the back cover had "EOSJ2, 8/27/06" spray painted on. The Verse record looked better, with the date spraypainted across the front, and the record sleeve was handnumbered out of 108. Mine was number 83. Other than the Resist demo, that was all that I bought, since money was a little tight. I was also finally able to meet Aram face to face. We had communicated through email a few times, and he was nice enough to send me the 12" of the Addiction EP (more on that in a future post), so it was nice to say hi, and thank him in person for the record.

Tons of great bands played this show...Have Heart, Verse, Betrayed, The First Step, Outbreak, and Resist. Betrayed played the best set for me. Aram had some cracked ribs, and yet he still put so much energy into their set. For their song Understand, Aram told the crowd that "This one goes out to my brother.", and then he rubbed my head. Yeah, maybe it is kind of stupid, but it really made me feel good. Other highlights included finally be able to check out Resist. They are a new band which has Wrench from Ten Yard Fight/Stand & Fight on vocals. It is always good to see Wrench on the stage fronting a straight edge band. The Have Heart set was insane. During Something More Than Ink, kids crowded on to the stage, singing along. It was fun having everyone pack on to the stage for that song, but unfortunately the kids thought it was so much fun that they would do it for each song, even though the singer repeatedly told them to stop so the the band could play and kids could dive. In the end it was a great show. Mark your calendar for the End of Summer Jam 3, next August.

Here is a picture of me screaming along with The First Step.

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!

Metal Massacre Series

As a metalhead growing up in the 80's, if you weren't into Metal Blade Records, you weren't shit. This label introduced the world to Metallica and Slayer. Anything they put out could not lose. Metal Blade had a compilation series called Metal Massacre, which showcased a ton of great thrash and speed metal. I always wanted to own the Metal Massacre records growing up, but never got around to picking any of them up. I found Metal Massacre 6 on eBay for $3.25 and since I seem to be on a Heavy Metal kick, I couldn't let it pass me by. I didn't realize it when I bid on it, but it has a hole punched in the upper corner of the record sleeve. I hate cutouts, and would have passed on it had I known, but for $3.25, it's no big deal. The album art work is classic 80's speed metal...bloody heads and skulls. This record has great tracks by Possessed, Hallow's Eve, Hirax, Nasty Savage, Dark Angel and quite a few others. Death to posers.

From Another Breath and Verse

Here are the latest Rivalry Records pre-orders. First is the new Verse record, 'From Anger and Rage'. The new record is great, at times I feel like a cover of Inside Out's 'No Spiritual Surrender' would fit in nicely with their live set...they have that kind of sound. I got both colors of this record...the red and yellow swirl is limited to 270, while the white pressing is limited to 670. The other pre-order I got was the new Another Breath record, 'Mill City'. I had never heard this band before, but Rivalry posted a couple of new mp3's so I checked 'em out. I was really impressed. They play a hardcore style similar to Go It Alone. The blue and grey swirl colored vinyl is limited to 240.

Straight From The Bronx

This entry is for the new Bronx LP on white vinyl. A couple of years ago I went to a show at The Palladium in Worcester. It was a huge punk/hardcore show with Circle Jerks and G.B.H. headlining. The Bronx was one of the opening bands. I had never heard of them, but I headed down to the stage to check them out. I was blown away by this band. Nobody in the club seemed to be into them, but they had this early L.A. punk sound and I was loving it. The singer was a total spaz on the stage, trying to get the crowd to do this "cobra dance" which everyone was too cool for. The band didn't seem to give a shit if the audience was into them or not, and they just gave off this total punk vibe. I bought their Bats EP at the show, and soon after saw their first CD at a local record store. That first CD completely captured the sound and attitude from their live show, and was one of my favorites from 2004. I downloaded the new album a month ago, and was really disappointed. The new songs were missing that snotty, kick ass sound. I loaded them into my MP3 player and would listen to their songs while I was at the gym. Slowly they started to grow on me, and soon I was loving it. Sure it isn't nearly as good as the first CD, but this new stuff is still some quality punk rock.

More Have Heart From B9

The current trend right now for hardcore records, seems to be gatefold sleeves. The two records that I got from the Bridge Nine mailorder both had that style of packaging. I love the gatefold sleeve. Something about it seems so special. The two records that I got were Have Heart and Dead Stop. I needed the brown/orange pressing of Have Heart's 'The Things We Carry'. It is limited to 700, and since they sent me two of the yellow/blue pressing the first time around, I still needed this color. The colored vinyl looks amazing, and coordinates with the album cover nicely. I also picked up the Dead Stop 'Live For Nothing' album. This is the US pressing on Havoc Records. I had heard all kinds of good things about this band, but had never checked them out. Saw Live For Nothing available in the B9 store, with the gatefold cover, and I figured to give it a shot. Dead Stop play a great style of hardcore thrash, and I would definitely recommend checking them out.

Happy Birthday To Me

Today I turned 36 years old. Birthday's don't mean much to me. I enjoy life, and have a great time on this ride, so I don't really concentrate the number of years that have passed. As a friend of mine has been known to say..."You can't change what is.".

My family had a birthday party for me the other weekend. The only thing I ever really ask for is more music, and that was what I got this year. I did pretty good this year, getting a couple of DVD's, one of Dio and one of Judas Priest, plus I got some CD's which included Triple Threat and Mental. Of course this blog entry is about the vinyl that I got.

• Doomriders "Black Thunder" - Holy shit, the riff from the title track is amazing. Worth it for that song alone.
• The Raconteurs "Broken Boy Soldier" - First off, I love The White Stripes. Jack White has got that classic guitar sound down. Rob surprised me months ago, dropping off a burned copy of the Raconteurs CD. "Jack White plays in this band", he tells me. I had never heard anything about this, and I'm excited to check it out. The band is more polished than The White Stripes, and it took me a few listens to really appreciate it. Good stuff, but pales in comparison to The White Stripes.
• Queensryche "Operation Mindcrime II" - I loved the first Mindcrime CD from Queensryche and saw them on tour with Metallica, who were on the Justice For All tour. Queensryche was the first band that I slamdanced to. I lost all interest in the band by the time they released their next album, and I had low expectations when they released Mindcrime II this year. I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed this record.
• Black Flag "Loose Nut" - I don't know why it took me so long to buy this record. Other than Damaged, this is probably one of my favorite Black Flag records. Great songs like Modern Man, Annihilate This Week, and Best One Yet.
• Black Sabbath "Never Say Die" - This is a re-issue on Earmark Records, pressed on 180 gram vinyl. While this record is often overlooked by casual Sabbath fans, there is still some great songs on this album.
  

Bridge Nine Strikes Again

Bridge Nine comes on strong for this one releasing new albums by Have Heart and Triple Threat, plus a split 7 inch for Death Before Dishonor / Black Friday '29. Purchasing the vinyl package deal for $45 was rough on the bank account, but it was so worth it. Two pressings each of all three records was too tempting of a deal. Bridge Nine mailorder messed up and sent me two copies of the limited pressing of Have Heart. I was thinking of holding on to it and selling it on eBay in a year or so, but Rob was interested in it so I sold it to him for $10 to put towards the color pressing that I didn't receive.

• Have Heart "The Things We Carry" - Amazing. I had high expectations for this record, and I was still surprised at how great this record is. The new songs are played with that level of passion and sincerity that I have come to expect from the band. The record cover and gatefold sleeve are incredible as well. Pressed on blue/yellow and brown/orange vinyl.
• Triple Threat "Into the Darkness" - This record surprised me. I new that it was going to be good, but I wasn't expecting it to be this good. Great Black Flag meets Mouthpiece vibe on this record. There is a picture from Posi-Numbers included in the layout. I believe the back of my head is in the picture, but I can't be sure. Pressed on clear and red with black splatter vinyl.
• Death Before Dishonor / Black Friday '29 split 7 inch - DBD is okay, I guess. Their style doesn't really excite me. The singer reminds me of Some Kind Of Hate, but musically they have more in common with Terror. You know, very tough sounding. I just picture guys in wife-beaters covered with tattoos. Good, but not really interesting for me. Black Friday '29 is much better. Good solid hardcore. I can't think of who they remind me of, but I'm diggin' it, and you should too.