The Scrounger's Report

When we last left our intrepid scounger, due to an management-wide case of
recto-cranial inversion, he had been given a 60-day layoff notice. I'd told 'em
"you guys are underestimating all the projects this is going to affect." One of
our biggest clients agreed and pushed the panic button, realizing that with me
going bye-bye, so would their project. They offered to pay my salary for a
minimum of one year; hopefully this will be enough to get our department past
its current budget problems. Worst-case scenario is that I'm jobhunting a year
from now. It's an annually-recurring project so this may work out.

So how do we celebrate? We go scrounging... as if I needed an excuse.

First, just a few remarks about a few cover songs: The new "From Nation Under"
album has a cover of Phil Collins' "I Don't Care Anymore." It's ok, but nothing
to write home about; this new album doesn't grab me as much as their debut did.
Probably old news to everyone else, but I just got the CD: Disturbed's cover of
Tears for Fears "Shout" just absolutely smokes! Then again, that entire album
just rules... in a melodic nu-metal sorta way. It and the new Godsmack make
excellent loud-volume driving music.

Now on to the stuff I picked up today. No rarities here, but a few of the discs
really surprised me in the quality of the music. Not a bad bunch of stuff for a
few mom-n-pop stores in backwater towns.

Dismal Euphony - Autumn Leaves - the Rebellion of Tides. 1997. Napalm Records.
Gothic metal. Not a bad group, but I think others do it better.

Tragedy Divine - Visions of Power. 1996. LMP (Germany).
Haven't listened a whole lot to this. Mid-'90s Euro power metal. Sounds like
Geddy Lee is doing the vocals...:)

Streets - 1st. 2002 (1983). Wounded Bird.
Streets - Crimes in Mind. 2002 (1985). Wounded Bird.
Finally replacing those bootlegs I had. Absolutely classic material from Steve
Walsh while on hiatus from Kansas, with Maike Slamer, Billy Greer, and Tim
Gehrt. I wish they had provided some liner note commentary or a few bonus
tracks, but I guess when you're putting together a bargain-priced line (these
were priced at $10.99 and weren't on sale), something has to give. Better to
have this stuff officially released than not. Absolutely essential!

Brighton Rock - A Room for Five - Live. 2002. Z *spit* Records.
I've got their studio stuff, I might as well check 'em out live. I really had to
convince myself to by something on Z Records, but since it was a used CD they
won't be getting any extra dough from it. *THPPT* *THPPT*

Black Moon Rising - Opium for the Masses. 1996. Avalanche Records.
I've got one other from them that's decent, so I figured I beef up my
discography. Haven't listened yet.

Helloween - Rabbit Don't Come Easy. 2003. Nuclear Blast.
Maybe it's just me, but anymore Helloween, Gamma Ray, Primal Fear, and Iron
Savior are all starting to blur together. Maybe it's because between them, the
four bands share a total of 6 members. :) I've only listened to half of it; it
sounds solid, but nothing stellar (it ain't no Keeper of the Seven Keys...)

Raging Slab - S/T. 1989. BMG/RCA.
Some heavy southern hard rock for what ails ye.

Psychotic Waltz - A Social Grace. 1990. Bullet Proof (U.K.)
Interesting prog metal, I have some of their other material.

UFO - Re-Flyin'. 19??.
Not sure exactly what this is. Definitely a bootleg, 2 CDs. No label information
or year, other than disc 2 was recorded in June 1994.

Biloxi - Right the Music. 2002. MTM Music.
I've read that some people have been disappointed by this one. I haven't given
it a solid listen, but from the riffs I've heard, while it may not be at the
same level as "Let the Games Begin" (then again, what is?), it doesn't sound bad
to my ear.

Nordica - Rebel Heart. 2003. Adrenaline (Italy)
I'm familiar with Adrenaline Records for some of the tribute albums that they've
put out, but I didn't know they'd made the foray into AOR. The band appears to
be from Portugal (the first that I'm aware of). Decent, but a little bit rough
around the edges.

and the last two, both of which surprised me as to how good they are:

Bai Bang - Attitude. ????. Riverside Records.
I've got 3 other CDs by this group, but I always found them to be fairly
mediocre. This one is a gem! Excellent production, and the choruses are quite
catchy. No clue as to what year it was release though...

On the Rise - S/T. 2003. Frontiers (Italy).
Wow!! Major hooks on this one. Very melodic stuff; for some reason the higher of
the two vocals reminds me a lot of Tommy Shaw, so I keep getting a Styx vibe
from them, but this is more traditional AOR in structure than Styx. Excellent
production, and all the songs are catchy. Great replay potential. Seriously
recommended!

Well, that's all for now from the back woods of central Illinois.

-Dan