The Scrounger's Report

Mar. 17, 2000

Porno mags and used CDs. Is there a causal relationship?

I've simply encountered too many seedy places that sell both.
What is the link? :) Then again, for some reason I've seen
a number of places that for some inexplicable reason sell both
new/used CDs and cheap seedy furniture. Weird.

More on that later...

Begin travelogue:

I ducked out of work at noon and drove 45 miles to Decatur, IL.
I'd never been there before, but figured it was about time to
see what it held. Before going, I hit ameritech.com and printed
out maps and information to the 12 CD stores and pawn shops in
town.

Talk about a dismal, dingy, pox upon humanity. A blue-collar
town that is, for all intents and purposes, dead, but doesn't
have the good sense to fall over. Everywhere you go in the city,
there is this industrial "smell" that just permeates everything.
Decatur gives a new meaning to the term "Urban Blight". Bleagh.
Of the 12 stores I attempted to hit, all but 4 were either
closed, shut down, or in areas of town that I would not stop my
vehicle in unless I was heavily armed (to paraphrase the movie
Airplane: "Does anyone speak Jive?"), not to mention that rap
music just isn't my cup of tea.

Out of the remaining 4 stores, 2 were pawn shops that had such
a pitiful selection, I don't know why they even bother. Of the
2 remaining stores, one was a little mom&pop pawn shop that
had a few interesting discs that I snagged (Duran Duran - Notorious
for, Iron Maiden - Fear of the Dark [Castle 2-CD version] for a
friend, and a disc I'd been looking for for quite some time:
Kingsuite - S/T; slightly underproduced, but quite good indie
hard rock out of Texas).

This leaves one store.

One store out of an original 12 that I travelled to see. Was it
worth it? You bet.

G-B's CDs and Tapes is a hole-in-the-wall joint in a rather
seedy section of town (who the hell am I kidding, the whole
[CENSORED] city is [CENSORED] seedy! Sorry, I just really disliked
this town). After my eyes adjusted to the dimly-lit interior,
I felt I had been transported to West Virginny. Looking at both
the proprietors and the clientele, I was firmly convinced that
family trees, no....make that family "shrubs" don't fork in these
parts. I kept eye contact to a bare minimum, as I didn't want
to be mistaken for a federal agent who might want to shut down
their crystal meth lab...

There were boxes upon boxes and stacks upon stacks of new and used
CDs, cassettes, video tapes, DVDs, comic books, porno magazines,
and other things which I really did not explore...all covered with
layers of dust and dirt. The place was FILTHY.....in just about
every context you could imagine.

Bizarrely enough, the selection was quite good, and unfortunately
NOT cheap (the cheap used CDs were $6.00 and most were $7-9,
imports were $12-20). Evidently being inbred doesn't eliminate
the ability to realistically price items.

Another weird thing (why stop now?) Is that this place had just
about THE largest selection of bootlegs I've ever seen. Live stuff,
unreleased studio stuff... you name it. All priced $20-30 each.
I'm not real big on live boots, so I bypassed all of that material
(as it turns out I may go back and take advantage of some of that
material). All genres...live boots from Nirvana, Tori Amos, Pink
Floyd, Black Sabbath, Ozzy, Queensryche, Guns 'n Roses, you name
it.

This was in the middle of my trip, so I only spent about 2 hours
there. I should go back (once I recharge my credit card...what's
that spell again? :) with a portable CD player so I can review
some of the boots.

Even better, it turns out they're willing to discount the more
expensive discs if you buy a bunch.....BUMMER! :)

I came away with a bunch of real interesting stuff:

Tristania - S/T. 1997. Napalm Records (Germany). $2.50
   What can I say, I love gothic doom...

Dan Reed Network - Slam. 1989. Polygram. $5.99
   I hadn't seen this one before. As it turns out, it's better
   than the 2 others I've heard (as far as I remember).

V/A - The Best heavy Metal From Europe. 1989. Ironbound Records. $6.00
   This was weird. I have another disc by the exact same title.
   Tracks from: Lenny Wolf's Germany, Skanners, Mogg, Tygers of Pan
   Tang, Rash Panzer, Zero Nine, Blind Petition, Crosshead, May Linn,
   and Kingsize.

V/A - L'Amour Rocks. 1987. Celluloid/Mercenary Records. $6.00
   This looks OOP as a sonovabitch. Tracks from: Wrathchild,
   Jett Blakk, Lethal Aggression, Attacker, Halloween,
   Mean Streak, and The Boys.

Joey C. Jones and the Glory Hounds - S/T. 1993.
   Tony Nicole Tony Records. $6.99
   A friend had stumbled across a copy of this and said it was
   quite good, so I was glad to find this.

Jaded Heart - Slaves and Masters. 199? Seagull (Germany). $6.99
   Yo labels! Put a [CENSORED] year on yer [CENSORED] artwork or
   disc! Grrr.. What the heck was this doing in the middle of
   Hicksville? Not that I'm complaining, mind you...

Slade - In Flame. 1991 (1974) Polydor (United Kingdom). $14.99
   Damn. They wouldn't budge on this pricewise. Oh well...it looks
   interesting. Appears to be a soundtrack of some sort.

Manic Eden - S/T. 1994. C.N.R. Music. (France).
   Marked $21.99..."I'll let you have it for $13." POUNCE!
   Features ex-Little Ceasar vocalist Ron Young, along with
   Adrian Vandenberg, Rudy Sarzo, and Tommy Aldridge.

The last 3 discs I already had CDRs of (if anyone wants them
in trade), but it's always nice to find pressed versions,
even if they are bootlegs (and at non-Ebay prices to "boot"):

GTR - Nerotrend (unreleased 2nd album). 19??. Element of Crime Records.
   $21.99....again "Take it for $13.00".
   I never even knew there was a pressed version of this. Cool.

Pantera - Power Metal/Villain (pre-Vicious Rumors).
Pantera - Projects in the Jungle/I Am the Night.
   These were both stickered at $25.00 each..again, $13 each. DEALSKY!
   These "pre-heavy metal" Pantera albums are the coolest things
   on the planet...especially when you can spring them on unsuspecting
   fans of current Pantera. :) :) :)

   Considering that they go for $35+ each on Ebay, this was a score.


Well, that's the day. Suckage from a number-of-stores perspective,
but major coolness concerning this store. I have a feeling that more
money will be spent there....soon.

Till next time,

-Dan