The Scrounger's Report

Apr. 29, 2000

Sam Spade, CD Hunter.

There I was. Standing on Main Street of a burnt-out little backwater
town. I'd seen a million towns just like this one. They're all the
same. Where once a downtown thrived, now all that remained were
boarded-up storefronts, prison ministries, and pawn shops. To some,
this would be a barren wasteland, devoid of any redeeming feature.
All they'd smell in the air was despair, reeking like a month-old
burrito under the back seat of a '74 Pinto. Not to me. The smell in
the air was CDs! An invigorating fragrance, wafting upon the airwaves
like the finest of French perfumes. CDs. I could smell them a mile
away. My job was to flush them out and snare them.

I spotted my elusive quarry in the first pawn shop I entered. As I
made my way past the 10-year-old Zenith televisions, the SoundDesign
rack steros, and the GE boomboxes, my eyes strayed from the CD racks
to an angel standing behind the jewelry case. I could tell instantly
she was trouble. Blond and curvaceous, her mouth had a sensual twist.
Her smile lit up the room, and when she said "Hi", I could hear a
choir of cherubim in the background. Her eyes sparkled, as if she held
a naughty secret that no one else could share. She could have been 16.
She could have been 24. Who knows? She had that ageless beauty that
called out "I might be jailbait, but you'll just have to take that
chance, now won't you?" As our glances met from across the room, all
thoughts of CDs were forgotten. She strolled across the room to me,
her hips bouncing lightly as she walked, her breasts defying gravity,
straining to be released from the sheer skin-tight button-down shirt
which constrained them. With the temperature being 78 degrees, I don't
see how she could have been chilled. Must be a female thing. As she
stood on her toes to whisper in my ear, her fingernails brushed lightly
along my arm, and she whispered huskily "Daddy will be running the shop
until 3. Can you help me with this problem I have out back?" She looked
up at me with those beautiful doe eyes, her supple lips quivering, and...


Well, enough about that. This is a music list, right?

I drove the 30 minutes to my namesake Danville, IL, this morning and
hit a couple of pawn shops and a used CD store. There's nothing to make
a CD scrounger swoon more than hearing the pawn shop owner say "Oh, you
like metal? I've got a whole bunch of stuff I haven't put out yet. I
think it's metal; I don't recognize any of the groups. Wanna look through
'em?" At this point my heart is fluttering faster than that of a
middle-aged housefrau front row at a Rick Springfield concert.

(sorry, was in Sam Spade mode again).

At any rate, I came away with some pretty interesting stuff. Some were
gambles. as I couldn't preview the stuff. Most of it is heavy metal,
but there's some AOR and hard rock in here as well.

First, for my worthless and weak compatriots in our local metal listening
group, I picked up a video:

Celtic Frost - Live at the Hammersmith Odeon 3-3-89.
   1990. Strand VCI Entertainment. $3.00
   A bucket of popcorn, a 6-pack of beer, a sacrificed virgin, and a
   pint of goat's blood. Toss in a metal video, and it's a fun evening.

A few cassettes:

Under Fire - Fame Is Only Borrowed. 1990. Under Fire, Inc. $1.00
   I was hoping there would be a few tracks not on their CD, but no such luck.

The Steve Grimm Band - Prisoner of Passion. No label. No year. $1.00
   Who the hell knows? It has the cover art that one would expect of an
   '80s hair band. If I had to guess age, I'd say mid-1980s.

Okeydoke, on to the CDs:

First, one for the trade pile (no, not under the terms I've been giving
this last week :) or Ebay:

Manowar - Battle Hymns. 1982. EMI Records (Holland).
   Many Manowar fans claim this as one of their best. Me, I happen to
   prefer their later material. 

Stryper - Shining Star (single). 1990. Enigma Records. $1.00
   Every now and then I pick up singles if they're cheap.
   Now here's the question of the day: This single has
   the "Edited Version" and the "Album Version", but both
   versions are 3:49 in length. So what was edited? The talent?
   Or was this their attempt at humour?

Milwaukee Metalfest XIII Metal Compilation. 199?. Nightfall. $3.00
   2 CDs of death metal, black metal, and grindcore. The perfect
   followup to a Barry Manilow album.

Felony - To the Core. No year given. F.I.T.H. Records. $3.00

Massacra - Enjoy the Violence. 1991. Shark Records. $2.00
   Vintage death/thrash stuff. Pretty good.

Panic - Fact. 1993. Metal Blade Records. $3.00

Violence - Nothing to Gain. 1997 (1993). Powerage Records. $3.00
   I wasn't all that impressed with "Eternal Nightmare". Hopefully this
   is better.

Metal Church - Masterpeace. 1999. Nuclear Blast. $3.00
   Their newest studio effort.

Tourniquet - Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance. 1992. Metal Blade. $3.00
   No longer on a CCM label. Was this their 1st mainstream release?

Meliah Rage - Death Valley Dream. 1996. Backstret Records. $3.00
   Why do I think Dave Tedder had something to do with this album?
   "Impaling Moose-Screaming Sheep Publishing"

Laaz Rockit - Annihilation Principle. 1989. Enigma Records. $3.00
   Evidently stuff by this band is pretty sought-after, and tends
   to command some hefty prices on Ebay. We'll see if it's warranted.

And now the non-metal:

Rick Springfield - Karma. 1999. Platinum. $2.00
   I didn't think a whole heck of a lot of this disc when
   I heard it once, but finding a sealed copy for $2, I'll
   give it another spin... see if it gets any better.

The Brojos - S/T. 1990. Warner Brothers. $8.95
   Light dance stuff bordering on AOR.

Jeremy Dalton - Language of Love. 1986. Home Sweet Home. $2.00
   Obviously CCM. Could be pop, dance, AOR, or holly roller stuff.
   Isn't uncertainty exctiting?? :)

Thomas Lang - Fingers & Thumbs. 1988. Portrait Records. $2.00
   I'm guessing pop. Buehler?

Various Artists - The Earthquake Album. 1996. Aardvark. $3.00
   Basically a compilation, including tracks from Free,
   Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Genesis, Whitesnake, Asia,
   Starship, Iron Maiden, Mike and the Mechanics, and
   Boston. Also a cover of "Smoke on the Water" by
   Rock Aid Armenia.

AD - Reconstructions. 1986. Kerygma Records. $2.00
   Kerry Livgren (Kansas) et al.

Bob Halligan - Window In the Wall. 1991. ATCO. $0.50
   I'd seen this on a number of people's collection lists,
   so I figured I'd give it a shot...

And lastly, one that I hesitated on (hey, $8.95 for a used
CD is mucho denero!), but it had that "OOP as a MOFO" look to
it, so I bit (also because I recognized the title track):

Dan Hartman - I Can Dream About You. 1984. MCA Records.
   From what information I've been able to find online, this
   does appear to be OOP. Not bad stuff, a little poppier
   than most would like I'd imagine.

Until I go in search of the Maltese Falcon,

-Dan