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.