The Scrounger's Report

May 16, 2005

The Back from the Dead Scrounger's Report

It's been over a year since my last Scrounger's Report. Other interests, the high price of gasoline, and an unstable employemnt situation contributed to the lack of dumpster diving, but this weekend I "felt the urge" to go back out hunting again... and so I did.

I put about 350 miles on the car, hitting 5 different stores in 3 towns. Gorgeous weather, decent finds, all in all it was quite a fun day. I missed this. Sadly, in the year since I'd been to these towns, two stores that I expected to hit have since closed down. Sorry state of the retail music industry. :(

Many of the discs I picked up, I already owned at one point, but went away with the big collection selloff of '04. Why would I deliberately buy discs I've already owned? Doesn't that mean I'm an idiot for having sold them in the first place? Yeah, probably. But for me, half the fun is the thrill of the chase. CDs have a tendency to languish on my shelves; this is a way of "rediscovering them." Also, there are quite a few titles, that while I didn't think much about them at the time I was deciding what to sell and what to keep, in the ensuing months I wish I had them back... so this is an excuse to hunt them down again. ;)

I picked up some of the discs strictly as sale/trade fodder. I'll make a tradelist posting in a few days.

Enough chit-chat, let's get to the haul!

1. Some promo discs...

You know, the ones in cardboard sleeves that labels send out. At $2 each, a good way to preview stuff while deciding whether to get the real thing:

Candlemass - S/T. 2005. Nuclear Blast. Got Doom? THE frontman of doom, the Messiah himself, back in action!

Jag Panzer - Casting the Stones. 2004. Century Media. I haven't kept up with these guys lately. There stuff started sounding kinda samey for me a while back.

Grave Digger - The Last Supper. 2005. Nuclear Blast. Essential German power metal.

Sonata Arctica - Reckoning Night. 2004. Nuclear Blast. A major oversight that I hadn't picked this up yet. I've heard good but not great things about the CD; we'll have to hear how it compares to previous efforts.

2. Some singles...

Harem Scarem - New Religion. 1998. WEA Japan.
Title cut plus two live tracks.

Hurricane - Little Sister. 1990. Enigma Records.
2-track single (edit, complete version) from Slave to the Thrill.

Tigertailz - Heaven. 1990. Music for Nations (France).
Way cool! Two versions of the title track (radio edit, "Bezerk Extended Mix" clocking in at over 6 minutes), plus two covers: Metallica's "Creeping Death" and Megadeth's "Peace Sells".

3. Some soundtracks for my burgeoning reference collection

Soundtrack - Rock Star. 2001. Posthuman/Priority Records. Another long overdue purchase. Classic hard rock... with JSS and Mike Matjevic thrown in? Brilliant!

Soundtrack - The Wonder Years. 1989. Atlantic Records. Tracks from Joe Cocker, Was (Not Was), Judson Spence, Buffalo Springfield, Indigo Girls, Debbie Gibson, The Escape Club, Julian Lennon, CSNY, Van Morrison, Carole King, and Richie Havens.

Soundtrack - Ghostbusters II. 1989. MCA Records. Tracks from Bobby Brown, New Edition, James "J.T." Taylor, Run DMC, Oingo Boingo, Elton John, Glenn Frey, and Howard Huntsberry.

Soundtrack - Running Scared. 1986. MCA Records. Tracks from Klymaxx, Michael McDonald, Ready for the World, Fee Waybill, New Edition, Patti LaBelle, Kim Wilde, Rod Temperton Beat Wagon featuring Larry Williams, (ditto) featuring Tommy Funderburk.

V/A - The Rocky Story. 1990. Volcano Entertainment. The best known tracks from the Rocky series -- some instrumental cuts, two Survivor tracks, and one each from James Brown, Robert Tepper, and John Cafferty.

Soundtrack - Tequila Sunrise. 1988. Capitol Records. Not only was this an excellent movie, it also had a very good soundtrack. A pair of good duets (Ann Wilson & Robin Zander, The Everly Brothers & The Beach Boys), two tracks from Dave Grusin & Lee Ritenour, and tracks from Duran Duran, Crowded House, Andy Taylor, The Church, and Bobby Darin.

4. And the rest...

Various Artists - Nativity in Black. 1994. Columbia Records. Black Sabbath tribute with tracks from Biohazard, White Zombie, Megadeth, 1,000 Homo DJ's, Ozzy Osbourne & Therapy, Corrosion of Conformity, Sepultura, Bullring Brummies, Bruce Dickinson & Godspeed, Ugly Kid Joe, Faith No More, Type O Negative.

W.A.S.P. - The Sting. 2000. Snapper Records. I've read that the recording quality blows on this one, and I'm not a real big fan of live albums anyway, but being a W.A.S.P. completist I had to pick it up...

Shining Fury - Last Sunrise. 2004. Metal Blade Records. Good sounding heavy metal, with kind of a thrash feel.

Chris Caffery - Faces. 2004. Black Lotus Records. I've only listened to disc one, but thus far I'm not overly impressed. Nothing bad about it, but nothing memorable either...

Artica - As It Should Be. 1995. AMS Records. Yeah, I know this is getting a reissue, but I felt like listening to it again as is. Excellent AOR!

Tall Stories - S/T. 1991. Epic/Sony Music. One that I never should have sold off. Steve Augeri is in fine form!

Gorky Park - Moscow Calling. 1993. BMG/Ariola. Another one I'm glad to get back. My favorite of all of their stuff, more polished than the debut.

From the Inside - S/T. 2004. Frontiers Records. Best thing that Danny Vaughn has done since Tyketto. Period. In fact, a few of the tracks would be right at home on "Don't Come Easy." (listening, MJ?). A must-have for any self-repecting Tyketto fan!

GTR - S/T. 1986. Arista Records. Never should have sold this one. Great supergroup effort. "When the Heart Rules the Mind" got a lot of airplay back in the day; I remember having this on cassette when it came out in '86.

Prism - The Best of Prism. 1996. Renaissance Records. You know, Renaissance released a lot of cool stuff. This is first class pomp AOR.

White Sister - White Sister. 2000 (1984). Zoom Club Records. Yeah, more stuff I once had. Who would have thought that this band would eventually become Tattoo Rodeo? You know, this is about the only Zoom Club release I've ever seen that actually looks legit and doesn't have 5th-generation scanned artwork with a moiree.

White Sister - Fashion by Passion. 1986. FM Records. Reissue (sealed in a slipcase). Musically not quite as good as the debut, but the production is better.

	Victory - That's Live. 1988. Rampage Records. Victory - Culture Killed the Native. 1989. Rampage Records. Victory - Hungry Hearts. 1987. Rampage Records. I *never* should have sold off my Victory collection. Classic hard rock that is essential!

John Waite - Ignition. 1982. Chrysalis Records. The 2-on-1 reissues of John Waite's material have caused the value of the originals to drop, but they're still a tough find.

Skrapp Mettle - Sensitive. 1991. PAR Records. Another must-have for any self-respecting Jeff Scott Soto fan. Hilarious parody of the rock industry...

Sad Cafe - Facades/Misplaced Ideals. 1998 Renaissance Records. Nice find. More obscure stuff on Renaissance. Good late 1970s melodic rock.

TNT - Knights of the New Thunder. 1984. Mercury Records (Japan). Nice little find... alternate artwork, complete with OBI.

Heavens Edge - S/T. 1990. Columbia/CBS Records. This one's actually going for a decent penny these days ($20-40). On top of that, it's a solid album.

Onslaught - In Search of Sanity. 1989. London Records. So what does Steve Grimmet do when he's not busy with Grim Reaper? He makes some thrash. Definitely old school...

Dirty Looks - Rip It Out! 1996. Mirror Records. Probably the toughest of all the legit Dirty Looks releases; sounds like vintage AC/DC. Beware of all the shitty bootleg CDR demo/live Dirty Looks discs out there.

Various Artists - Hollywood Underground. 1996. Ear Candy Records. Star-studded affair -- Erik Turner: guitar, Jerry Dixon: bass, Jeff Scott Soto: vocals, Butch Walker: guitar, Todd Poole: vocals, Joey Allen: guitar, Tommy Thayer: guitar, Brad Bailey: guitar, David Brookes: vocals, Jani Lane: vocals, Galen Walker: guitar, Kelly Keagy: drums, vocals, Jesse Hart: vocals, James Kottak: drums, Bruce Nauman: vocals, Rick Steier: guitar, Mark Ferrari: guitar, Michael Mulholland: vocals This one is getting *VERY* tough to find. I already have one, so this one is available. There's one on Ebay now with a BIN of $60, but I think that's a tad high. This one is still sealed... make me an offer.

Gemini - S/T. 1990. Nightmare Records. Getting tougher and tougher to find. Balance of Power frontman Lance King and friends.

Gene Walk Group - GWG. 1993. Park Avenue Records. I had this one before. A very tough find these days, in the $40-60 range. This is a 6-track EP that a lot of people compare to vintage Bon Jovi. No matter how you slice it, some good solid hard rock.

5. The big cahuna...

France - Lay It On Me. 1990. Self-Released. Yowza! One of the rarest indies out there, on want lists from here to Timbuktu. The second one I've found in my life. Even though it is only a 4-track EP, my guess is it will go in The $100-150 range.