The Scrounger's Report

Well, thanks to our wonderful recently-elected Democrat governor and his desire
to cut education funding for the sake of social programs and handouts, there are
all sorts of layoffs happening here in Illinois, both in state agencies, and the
educational systems. I got my 60-day notice last week. Layoff production and
technical staff so you can give raises to paper pushers and political
appointees. Gotta love it. I still have some options within the university (they
pretty much suck though) so I'm not pushing the panic button yet. In preparation
for my exit from the university, I'm burning up some unused sick time (hell, I
earned it, I might as well take it, since they don't pay you for it). So today I
went on a mini-scrounge (only about a half hour away). I'll combine this with
some discs I picked up last weekend. Some pretty cool indies in the bunch.

First, a bunch of stuff I picked up to trade/sell. Make offers offlist if
interested.

Gowan - Lost Brotherhood. 1990. Anthem Entertainment (Canada).
Gowan - Great Dirty World. 1987. CBS Records (Canada).
A pair of discs from DDY's replacement in Styx. A bit poppy for my taste, but
melodic nonetheless.

Boston - Third Stage. 1986. Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs.
Gold disc release of this Boston classic.

Pretty Maids - Jump the Gun. 1990. CBS Records (Austria).
Quite possibly their finest moment.

Metallica - One. 1989. CBS/Sony (Japan).
Japan-only EP. No OBI.

Harlequin - Greatest Hits. 1986. Epic Records (Canada).
Excellent Canuck AOR; tough to find too...

Banshee - Race Against Time. 1989. Atlantic Records.
Egads, check the cover art on this one. As stereotyped as one can get for
melodic metal of the time.

Pretty Boy Floyd - Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz. 1989. MCA Records.
Quintessential glam rock.

Rumbledog - S/T. 1993. Mirror Records.
Basically Dirty Looks with a bunch of guests; solid gritty hard rock. Tough
find.


And the ones I'm keeping:

Joan Jett - Bad Reputation. 1992. Blackheart Records.
Actually a reissue of her first album from 1980 with 4 bonus tracks. Fairly
primitive; at times the punk + new wave + oldies + hard rock approach is kinda
cool; at others it's downright ANNOYING.

Bad Boys Blue - Dancing With the Bad Boys. 1993. Coconut Records (Germany).
Not sure why I dig this brand of dance pop, but I do.

Medicince Wheel - Immoral Fabric. 1998. DeRock Records.
Decent, but not stellar. Much too "modern" of a sound compared to their prior
material. I think Keith St. John does better here than in Burning Rain though.

Kris Kristofferson and the Borderlords - Repossessed. 1987. Mercury/Polygram.
Poorly executed country music. The man cannot sing. Why did I pick it up? 1.
CHEAP. 2. Looks OOP as hell (one of those mid-1980s Mercury pressings with the
red and white designs).

Anthrax - State of Euphoria. 1988. Megaforce/Island Records.
Anthrax - Among the Living. 1987. Megaforce/Island Records.
Classic thrash; just filling in some holes in the collection.

Nazareth - No Jive. 1993. Griffin Music.
Wow, I didn't even know these guys were still around in 1993. More commercial
than their early "classic" material. Also, hearing them with production quality
outside of the early 1970s doesn't hurt either.

The Affair - Solid Ground. 1996. Main Stage Productions.
Independent AOR out of Toledo, Ohio. Decently keyboard driven, but the
production suffers (typical of many self-released efforts).

Various Artists - Heard It on the Radio, Vol. 1. 1998. Renaissance.
Excellent and varied compilation from this now defunct label. Tracks:

1. Hunters of the Night - Mr. Mister
2. Such a Woman - Tycoon
3. Say Hello to Ronnie - Janey Street
4. Right Between the Eyes - Wax U.K.
5. Turn Up the Radio - Autograph
6. Headliner - Fandango
7. Shades of '45 - Gary O'
8. Seasons - Grace Slick
9. Down by the Neonlights - Bullet
10. Nobody Said It Was Easy - LeRoux
11. My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone) - Chilliwack
12. I Couldn't Say No - Robert Ellis Orrall and Carlene Carter
13. If Looks Could Kill - Player
14. Escalator of Life - Robert Hazard
15. You Don't Want Me Anymore - Steel Breeze
16. She Wants You - The Breaks
17. Lovin' the Night Away - The Dillman Band
18. Echo Beach - Martha and the Muffins
19. Save Your Love - Jefferson Starship

Voodoo Gypsy - Can't Break the Spell. 1999. Self-Released.
This disc and the next one are some local efforts, both releasing their own
material via CDR. There was a time that if you found a release on CDR, you knew
it was a copy of something, not an original. With more and more local bands
going this route to get their material out there, not every CDR you run across
is a non-bona-fide copy. It's tough to tell the difference. By the cover art,
this would appear to be southern rock or country. In fact it's straight ahead
hard rock, fairly melodic. Again, the production suffers somewhat.

Eat a Peach - Turbulence and Thunder. 1999. Self-Released.
A blend between Stevie Ray Vaughn and Molly Hatchet. Pretty decent, but could
use some more backing vocals to liven it up.

Asia - Axioms. 1999. Snapper Music (United Kingdom).
2-CD compilation of material strictly from the John Payne era of Asia.

Paul DiAnno and Killers - South American Assault Live. 1994. Magnetic Air
Productions.
This is an oddball CD. From doing some searching online: 'The only other album
that I know of to feature Battlezone songs (other than the three main albums) is
the awesome "South American Assault- Live", which remains today my favorite live
album. It has four Battlezone songs which are all from "Children Of Madness"
(The Promise, Children Of Madness, Metal Tears, and Overloaded), and the rest of
the songs are old songs from Paul Di'Anno's days with Iron Maiden with the
exception of a mix of We Will Rock You/Smoke On The Water. Much controversy
surrounds this album. Originally a bootleg, Magnetic Air Productions signed the
album and released it in stores. The album is under the moniker of Paul Di'Anno
& Killers (Killers is Di'Anno's most recent project, which he formed in 1992
with Battlezone drummer Steve Hopgood), and the liner says that it was recorded
live during the summer of 1993 in Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela. This is odd
since it's hard to believe that Killers would only play old Di'Anno songs and
not work with their newly written stuff which they would soon record on their
first album 'Murder One'. Also, there is speculation that Killers never went on
tour in South America in 1993. Many believe that this album was actually
recorded live in the studio over a fake audience. I have recently been notified
by serveral different sources that, although Di'Anno was indeed scheduled to
appear in South America in 1989 *AND* 1993, due to contractual problems he never
made it either time. So with this information I can only assume that this album
is indeed a dubbed in fake audience.'

The Believers - Extraordinary Life. 1992. Savage Records.
This was a sleeper. Extremely melodic lite AOR with great harmonies. The only
other CD I'm aware of on this label that falls near melodic/hard rock is the
brilliant "Saints & Sinners" S/T album. Any others?

Threshold - Wireless (Acoustic Sessions). 2003. NSM Records.
I've touted the heck out of this prog band as of late; in my mind the most
melodic and accessible prog material currently out there. This is a studio
acoustic album (similar to Firehouse - Good Acoustics). It's cool to hear
acoustic versions of prog material; I didn't know how well it would translate...
it works well. Available ONLY from the band: http://www.thresh.net

Various Artists - Rock the Night Volume 1. 1987. Arcade (The Netherlands).
Very interesting compilation:

1. Europe - Rock the Night
2. Berlin - Like Flames
3. Heart - Barracuda
4. Journey - Open Arms
5. Genesis - Abacab
6. REO Speedwagon - Don't Let Him Go
7. Aerosmith - Dream On
8. Beastie Boys - Fight for Your Right
9. TKO - Rock and Roll Remains
10. Judas Priest - You've Got Another Thing Comin'
11. Madison - Oh Rendezvous
12. Vendenberg - Different Worlds
13. Highway Chile - Christine
14. Motorhead - Doctor Rock

Missing Persons - Private Live. 2001. Out of This World.
Yeah, it's a bootleg. It just seemed unusual and it was cheap, so why not? 12
track recorded live at the BBC in 1982 and 6 tracks recorded at the US Festival
in 1983.

Antics - We're Just Bad Boys. 1994. Blue Penguin Records.
It don't get much more local or minor label than this. Low-budget AOR with the
vocalist wanting to be Steve Perry. We'll give 'em an "E" for Effort...

Hat Trikk - S/T. 1997. Self-Released.
This one is a puzzler. It's semi-local (out of Indiana), recorded in 1997. The
artwork looks like it's from 1987, and the production quality is vintage 1967
(yeah, I know... for every "Journey" there are 1,000 "Sea Hags").

and lastly,

Juliet - S/T. 1993. Shark Records (Germany).
No, not "Julliet". Female-fronted hard rock; I've never seen this one before. I
really like the lead guitars on this one (performed by Pete Sorrentino).

Well, that's all for now. Depending on how the job situation turns out, this may
be the last Scrounger's Report for a long, long time...

Keep Rockin'!

-Dan