The Scrounger's Report

Jun. 02, 2000

A few of the discs I got at UltraSound 2K.

I ended up coming home with about 50 new CDs, some purchased
directly from bands, some given to me for review, and a whole
boatload purchased from Century Media's table.

I haven't had time to listen to many, but the few I have
listened to for the most part are phenomenally good.

I'll talk about just the handful I brought with me to
the office today:

Radar - RPM. 2000. Kivel Records.
   Excellent female-fronted hard rock. The lead vocalist
   is Pamela Moore, the female vocalist from Queensryche's
   magnum opus "Operation Mindcrime".

The rest of these I got from Dane Spencer of Song Haus Music/
Rewind Records. DAMN, does he have some good shit on his
labels!

Britton - Alien Romper Room. 1999. Song Haus Music
   Hard rock. While not in the "gem" category, it is
   a step up from their first 2 discs.

Phantom's Opera - S/T + 4. 1999. Rewind Records.
   When was this recorded? It doesn't say in the liner
   notes. It's somewhat bizarre; the lead vocalist has
   characteristics like a blend of Lizzy Borden in mid-
   register crossed with Davy Vain....set to a backdrop
   of melodic AOR. Different.

Phil Vincent - Thunder in the East. 2000 Song Haus/AOR Heaven.
   Great AOR, although the Casio keyboard sticks out like
   a sore thumb...:)

Stan Bush - S/T. 1999 (1983). Rewind/Sony Music Special Products.
   Classic AOR! Since this is on Sony, I'm guessing you
   should be able to find it just about anywhere.

Stonebolt - Regeneration. 1999. Rewind Records.
   Wow! '70s Melodic AOR at its finest! This is a [CENSORED] gem!

Thrills - 3. 2000. Rewind Records.
   The best of the bunch! Unreleased 3rd album, originally
   recorded in 1983. Dane is planning to release a live
   album from these guys, as well as releasing the first
   2 studio albums on CD later this year/early next year.
   Don't be fooled by the quasi-modern cover art; this
   is vintage pomp AOR!

He's also now handling Faith Nation. "Ordinary People" has
been reissued with all new artwork and remastered. He's
sending me the S/T debut which I've been trying to find
forever.

Coming in the next few months on Rewind:

I-Ten - Taking a Cold Look
Kick Axe - (2 of the 3 albums; I forget which 2).

I was able to spend about 2 hours chatting with Dane at
UltraSound poolside during the acoustic sets on Sunday.
The man not only has been through the biz (member of
Sojourn, worked with Joe Cocker, Loggins and Messina,
and a host of others), but he is doing the stuff right.
Extremely throrough, excellent quality production,
quality artwork layout and comprehensiveness. He said
he has rights to quite a bit of material in the Sony
vaults, so we may see some real interesting reissues
from him over time.

YUM!

-Dan