The Scrounger's Report

Aug. 25, 2000

Beautiful day. Slow at the office. Must be time for CD hunting...

And so it was. Everyone else was leaving in droves, so I threw
caution to the wind, flipped my boss the bird, and strolled out
to go CD scrounging. Today's destination: 45 miles south to
the twin cities of Charleston/Mattoon, Illinois, with a loop
up to hit Tuscola. As usual, I spent quite a bit more than
anticipated (gee, what a surprise). Spent about $100, but came
home with 33 CDs and singles. Some gems, some mediocre, some
crap, as usual. A nice blend of the obscure and esoteric...

Since I recently started up BrutalMetal.Com, my emphasis as of
late is on HEAVY metal, but I picked up all sorts of genres.

First, a few for the trade pile (email me offlist if interested):

Jon Bon Jovi - Blaze of Glory/Young Guns II. 1990. Polygram Records.
   For some [CENSORED] reason, I didn't think I had this. Well,
   I do, so *PUNT*

Glen Burtnick - Heroes and Zeroes. 1987. A&M Records.
   Fairly tough find. J-card has faint cutout notch, disc is
   absolutely PRISTINE! 

And the keepers:

House of Lords - I Wanna Be Loved. 1988. BMG/RCA Records.
   1-track promo CD single; supposedly it's a "remix". Doubtful.

Dino - Swingin'. 1990. Island Records.
   Pop/dance schtuff. Mediocre. It's been done better.

TKA - Greatest Hits. 1992. Tommy Boy Records.
   One of the early "boy bands". Pretty darned good stuff!

A bunch of metal for "discography purposes"; some death metal,
some thrash, some generic heavy metal:

Reign - Exit Clause. 1995. Mausoleum Records.
Epidemic - Exit Paradise. 1994. Metal Blade Records.
Coroner - Mental Vortex. 1991. Noise Records (good stuff!)
Harter Attack - Human Hell. 1990. I.R.S. Records.
At the Gates - The Red in the Sky is Ours. 1991. Deaf Records.
Autopsy - Mental Funeral. 1991. Vile Music.
Beherit - Drawing Down the Moon. 1993. JL America Records.
Goatlord - S/T. 1992. JL America Records.
Meliah Rage - Solitary Solitude. 1990. Epic Records.
Realm - Suiciety. 1990. Roadracer Records.
Forte - Division. 1994. Massacre Records.

Ok, enough of that. On to some different stuff:

Jamie LaRitz - S/T. 1990. Startrak Records
   Looks like instrumental rock guitar stuff. Album cover is
   cool.

Upfront - S/T. 1991. Self-produced.
   Christian AOR. Local band (Benton, IL).

Scott Stewart and the Other Side - S/T. 1988. Allegiance Records.
   This is a weird one. Its sound is a cross between lite westcoast
   AOR and that mid-'80s Christian godrock praise sound. But
   from reading the liner notes I don't find any reference to
   God, faith, etc. The label name sounds like it could be CCM,
   but I've never heard anything on this label before. Anyone
   have any info on either the group or the label? Pretty
   melodic stuff, even if it does border on the poppy.

Various Artists - Campus Edition. 19??. Delco Electronics.
   This one is interesting. It appears to be a demo/freebie
   compilation given away by Delco at some point (no year listed).
   The interesting thing is that the disc itself was put out
   by Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs. Not to mention a pretty
   damned good lineup:
    1. Bryan Adams - Summer of '69
    2. The Bangles - Manic Monday
    3. Huey Lewis & the News - Heart & Soul
    4. Eddie Money - Take Me Home Tonight
    5. The Grateful Dead - U.S. Blues
    6. Journey - Anyway You Want It
    7. The Hooters - And We Danced
    8. Jethro Tull - Jump Start
    9. The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Tuff Enuff
   10. Huey Lewis & the News - The Heart of Rock & Roll
   11. Bryan Adams - Run to You
   13. Eric Clapton - After Midnight

Voices that Care. 1991. Giant Records.
   Evidently this one is a toughie. It's a 4-track CD single,
   kinda like the "We Are the World" project. Music of the
   song is by David Foster and Peter Cetera. The personnel list
   is HUGE (the choir list is 50+ people), but just the lead
   vocalists comprise a "Who's Who":
    Ralph Tresvant, Randy Travis, Celine Dion, Peter Cetera,
    Bobby Brown, Brenda Russell, Warrant, Luther Vandross,
    Garth Brooks, Kathy Mattea, Nelson, Michael Bolton,
    Little Richard, Pointer Sisters, Fresh Prince, Mark Knopfler,
    Kenny G, Warren Wiebe.

Little America - Fairgrounds. 1989. Geffen Records.
    Meow! Not bad, not bad at all. Buncha youngsters doing
    hard rock that has slight "midwest rock" tones at times.
    They knew somebody high up - Jimmy Waldo does keyboards,
    and it's produced and engineered by Paul Sabu....not to
    mention that it's a John Kalodner project.

John Kay & Steppenwolf - Rock & Roll Rebels. 1987. Qwil/K-Tel Records.
    K-Tel records? Eeps! Talk about flashbacks!  Not bad stuff.

John Kay & Steppenwolf - Paradox. 19??. ?????
    What the [CENSORED] is this??? I can't find any information
    on this album at all. It looks dated as hell. Moreover,
    it's a CDR taken from vinyl (not too great of a job; could
    use some de-clicking in a few places, but sonically it's 
    quite sound. I may spend some time on it). The
    front and back plates are high-quality color copies of
    what appears to be the vinyl artwork (Attic Records, no
    year readable). AllMusic doesn't list the album, nor do
    any online retailers I can find; AltaVista comes up with
    zilch. It has a fairly poppy sound to it. Any information?

    Here's a scan of the cover:

    http://heavyharmonies.com/cdcovers/STEPPENWOLF1.JPG


And the last of the used CDs:

High Tension - Leather Beauty. 1987. LaserLight Records (Germany).
   WHADDAGEM! Truly representative of '80s heavy metal. The
   lead vocalist sounds (for lack of a better comparison) like
   Vince Neil with a slight German accent. Even better, it has
   what I'm thinking is just about *THE* quintessential '80s
   metal cover art from a stereotype perspective. You have all
   the key elements:

   1. Cool looking logos.
   2. Evil monster/dragon/demon.
   3. A naked chick.

   For your viewing pleasure, I made a 200-dpi scan:

   http://heavyharmonies.com/cdcovers/HIGHTENSION1.JPG


Well, by this point in the day I had exceeded my budget, so
I started the drive home. However I simply could not resist
the lure of "Music For a Song" in Tuscola. FYI, this is a
nationwide chain of music "outlet" stores. The one thing they
have that is worth checking out is that they get importer
remainders. They're not cutouts, since they aren't drilled
or sawed. I guess they're simply leftovers. The selection
can be spotty, but every now and then some absolute gems show
up. Import CD singles are $2.97, which you can't beat with
a stick. Just to give you an idea what stuff I've found there
in the past: Terraplane  - Moving Target (Japan), Terraplane - 
Black and White (Japan), V2 - S/T (Japan; Tommy Heart pre-
Fair Warning) all for $7.97 each, and Fair Warning - Save Me
EP (Japan) for $2.97 (2 copies). Everything is brand new and
still sealed; all Japan imports have OBIs intact; you can't
go wrong!

I came away with some decent (not earth-shattering) CDs,
most are import singles:

Psychotic Waltz - Live and Archives. 199?. I.O.A./Rough Trade.
   2 CD set. Looks like metal. Virtually no information on
   the outside. I'll gamble for $8.

John Farnham - Whispering Jack. 1986. RCA Records.
   Solo effort from LRB member. I'll gamble for $3.

Near Dark - White Wedding. 1998. Poison Ivy/SPV Records (Germany)
   Hmmm...looks like metal. It's on the SPV label.
   CD single.

Savage Garden - Break Me Shake Me. 1998. Columbia Records.
   CD single. Also has acoustic live versions of
   the title track and "I Want You".

Harem Scarem - What I Do. 1998. WEA (Japan).
   From the "Big Bang Theory" album. Also contains "Climb the
   Gate" (acoustic live) and "Without You" (acoustic live).

Helloween - Hey Lord! 1998. Raw Power (Germany).
   Also contains "Perfect Gentleman" (live bootleg version),
   "Moshi Moshi - Shiki No Uta" (unreleased, recorded live
   in Japan), and the video for the title track. Cool disc!

Stratovarius - S.O.S. 1998. Victor (Japan).
   4-track single of material from the "Destiny" album.
   They had 2 copies, so I picked up the spare for trade.
   With OBI, sealed, email me offlist if interested.


*whew*

Whaddaday. Time to go eat some ice cream and listen to muzik.

Till next time,

-Dan