The Scrounger's Report

Most people go out shopping on the day *after* Thanksgiving. Not me. Phuque 
that. I intend to barricade myself in my house and not go anywhere near the 
teeming masses of drooling sale-starved frenzied consumers. They call it 
"Black Friday" for a reason. :)

I knew when I got up this morning that I wanted to go scrounging somewhere, 
but none of my regular towns really seemed that promising; either I'd been 
there too recently for there to be any turnover, or my last visit there 
SUCKED. So... time for a new geographical perspective.

I drove about an hour-and-a-half east of here to Lafayette, Indiana, home 
of Perdue Chickens... err, umm, home of Purdue University. Why is it that 
city planners of university towns always seem to have had epileptic 
seizures at the time of finalizing the layout of the streets??? This town 
is fucked, plain and simple. Over, under, around, through, sideways... I 
even think I was driving upside down at one point. Egads! Zillions of 
one-way streets with double-backs. Not a friendly town for the uninitiated.

Of the 7 locations I mapped out in advance to hit, 2 had gone out of 
business, and 1 I never got to due to time restrictions (and my spending 
WAY too much at the 4 locations I did hit). Excellent selections and 
inventories by and large. I saw a *LOT* of AOR and hard rock discs that, 
had I not already had them, would have been well worth snagging. For 
someone  just getting started, or trying to get into some of the more 
obscure, less mainstream hard rock acts, Lafayette would be worth a trip. 
Be forewarned however, while the selections are great, the pricing isn't 
(at least from this cheapskate's perspective). Used discs are $8-10, new 
CDs $15-18. No $2-5 bargain bins like I'm used to.

I think I'm going to start taking my laptop on these excursions. One place 
had a zillion CD singles, but since I didn't have my lists with me, I 
didn't want to take the chance of duplicating existing discs.

Ok, on to the acquisitions. Lots of cool stuff, IMHO.

A few CD singles:

Alias - Haunted Heart. 1990. EMI Records. Promo.
    2 versions, one supposedly an "AOR Mix". We'll see if it indeed is 
mixed any differently, or if they meant to say "edit".

Giant - Stay. 1992. Sony Music. Promo.
    2 versions, including an acoustic version of the song. Hmm....

Crimson Glory - Lonely. 1989. Roadrunner (Germany).
    Expensive, but way cool. 3-track single. Title cut (remix version), "In 
Dark Places", and "Dream Dancer" (taken from Crimson Glory's first 
recording session. Guys, the makeup looks silly... really.

Savatage - Chance. 199?. Atlantic Records. Promo.
    5-track promo single. Both LP and edit versions of "Chance", LP version 
of "Nothin' Goin' On", and 2 live tracks, "Sirens" and "Conversation 
Piece", both recorded live in rehearsal, 9/24/94.

On to the full-length discs:

ABBA - Super Trouper + 2 (24-Bit Remaster). 2001. Polar/Polydor.
    Picked up 2 of these remastered reissues yesterday. Now here's a third. 
5 more to go.

Sidewinders - Auntie Ramos' Pool Hall. 1990. Mammoth Records.
    Kinda acoustic melodic rock thing. Need to listen further...

Hard Margret - Throw U Away. 1996. Know Moore Music.
    Since I couldn't listen to this in advance I gambled, based on the look 
of the band. It's indie hard rock from Harrisburg, PA. Fairly mediocre in 
execution, unfortunately...

Mortal - Intense Live Series Vol. 5. 1993. Intense Records.
    I know nothing about this band other than they're a Christian band, and 
I think they're heavy. I just happen to want to get all the discs in this 
series...

Witchery - Dead Hot and Ready + 7. 1999. Toy's Factory (Japan).
    This was an expensive annoyance purchase. It was still sealed with OBI, 
the artwork looked like it could either be power metal or death metal. It's 
the latter. The bonus tracks implied power metal since some of them are 
power metal covers, damnit! On the plus side, it's actually fairly decent 
as death metal goes. Instrumentally it's fairly technical thrash and/or 
traditional heavy metal (think UDO's solo stuff maybe). Vocally, the death 
vocals are on the clean end of the spectrum (think Children of Bodom). I'm 
pissed that I blew the call on this genrewise, but it least it doesn't suck 
total rocks...

Bad Boys Blue - S/T. 1993. Zoo Entertainment.
    I dig their brand of dance pop, call me silly.

Allen Collins Band - Here, There and Back. 1983. MCA Records.
    Another gamble based on artwork. Not bad southernish rock and roll.

Crumbacher - Thunder Beach. 1987. Frontline Records.
    CCM pop/lite AOR. This early Frontline stuff is extremely tough to find.

Crossection - Breaking Ground. 1990. Image 7 Records (Canada).
    More Christian hard rock. Never heard of these guys before. Anyone?

Distance - Under the One Sky. 1989. Reprise Records.
    Pretty darned good AOR. Very melodic!

Scorpions - Hot & Heavy. 1989 (1982). BMG/RCA.
    One of the earlier Scorps compilations. I'd only ever seen this as an 
import, so to pick it up fairly reasonably was cool.

Queen - Greatest Hits. 1981. EMI (United Kingdom).
    I had this on cassette when I was in high school, and to me it will 
always be the real Greatest Hits album for Queen. Only available as an 
import anymore...

Metallica - Bay Area Thrashers (The Early Days). 1998. Ranch Life Records.
    Supposedly the earliest recordings from the band, when Mustaine was 
with them. I haven't listened yet, but I'm guessing the sound quality is 
probably poor.

Orleans - Ride. 199? Dinosaur Entertainment.
    When did this come out? There's no year listed anywhere on the artwork 
or CD. I'm guessing this is a comeback album, maybe 1996-99? No clue on 
this one...

Morgan Cryar - Fuel on the Fire. 1986. Star Song Records.
    Apparently this one's fairly tough to find (one just sold on Ebay for 
$50+). I guess you could call it "pre-King's X"? Both Ty Tabor and Doug 
Pinnick not only do the songwriting throughout, but they do backing vocals 
and some of the instrumentals.

Sure Conviction - Get Ready. 1995. Giant/Benson Records.
    Whodafuqueisdis? Excellent Christian hard rock, kinda like a modern day 
Stryper. The message is a bit heavy-handed at times, but musically this 
think kicks. Looking through the liner notes, it appears to have been 
recorded at some never-heard-of place called Pakaderm Studios. Hmmm... :) :)

Y&T - Open Fire (Live). 1985. A&M Records
    FINALLY! I've been looking for this damned thing forever, but have 
never been able to find it. Now, believe it or not, the store I find it in 
has TWO of the damned things! AUGH! It wasn't cheap by any stretch of the 
imagination, but I'm thrilled to finally have it.

and finally we end up with a pair of laserdiscs:

V/A - Pop Sampler. 1987. Polygram Records.
    I didn't realize this until I got home, but it's actually not packaged 
as a "Laserdisc" but as a "CD Video" which falls right into line with my 
CDV collecting. Bonus. The reason I went apeshit when I found this 8-inch 
disc is really only for one of the videos on it. AOR fanatics should 
recognize the last group on the track listing, whose CD is one of the 
toughest finds out there. I never even knew they had any videos...
1. TNT - Everyone's a Star
2. Fat Boys & the Beach Boys - Wipeout
3. David Lynn Jones - Bonnie Jean (Little Sister)
4. Shades of Lace - My Love Is Deep
5. The Robert Cray Band - Nothin But a Woman
6. Tom Kimmel - That's Freedom
7. Kool & the Gang - Stone Love
8. Refugee - Survival in the Western World !!!!!!!!!!!!

The last one is brand new and still sealed, and I'm really tempted to 
preserve it as is for collectibility purposes, but it's the most expensive 
laserdisc I've ever purchased, and damnit I want to watch it! :)

Orleans - Live in Japan 1991. 1998. VAP Super Rock Series (Japan).
    That's one big-assed OBI strip. :) 107 minutes long, it appears to have 
all their good schtuff. :)
Track listing:
SIDE 1
1. Dance With Me
2. If
3. Reach
4. Forever
5. Time Passes On
6. Good Old Daze
7. Let There Be Music
8. Poison Rain
9. Arms
10. Half Moon
SIDE 2
11. Turn Out the Light
12. Love Takes Time
13. Crazy
14. Compared to What
15. Power
16. Juliet
17. Tongue-Tied
18. Still the One
19. Sails

Well, that's all for this time. Rock on...

-Dan