Record Lad's Vinyl Finds

2010-11-27T21:48:00.001-08:00

2006-11-13T21:06:00.000-08:00

Recordlad's Vinyl Finds... Now with Paragraphs!

2006-10-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to the new and improved RecordLad's Vinyl Finds! As you can see, we now feature paragraphs instead of giant blobs of text!

This new feature was spearheaded by Rabbit Girl, (author of Rabbit Reads) in response to my question: "Why does nobody read my blog? What sucks about it?"

Yep, it's true. paragraphs. Nobody ever believes me, but I was sick the day we learned the rules of paragraphs in school and I've been completely lost since then. But whatever, this is a blog about records, so I'll just do my best.

Unfortunately, I haven't found any interesting records lately, so I have nothing new to write about.

Later! your pal,
RecordLad

Coloured Vinyl Makes You Into a Moron....

2006-10-19T12:15:00.000-07:00

Yep. It's true. I can admit it. When it comes to coloured vinyl, I turn into a complete and utter drooling mongoloid.

Take for example the top left square on the right. Those four records are four copies of Bryan Adams' crap-fest of a Christmas song: "Reggae Christmas." A record that sucks so bad there's no way I could even manage to listen to it once, and I have four of them. Why? Because it's on green vinyl! Granted, they were only 50 cents each, but still!

Two Squares down and to the right is me with my two copies of a single by Los Del Mar. Who is Los Del Mar? Well, I'm glad you asked! After a quick check on Wikipedia I discovered that Los Del Mar covered the 'Macarena' and released it at the same time of the original's reign of terror. AND I HAVE TWO IDENTICAL SINGLES BY THESE BASTARDS!!! WHY??? BECAUSE IT'S ON GOLD VINYL!!!!!

So do you see what I'm getting at? Basically no matter what crap it is, if it's coloured vinyl and it's fairly cheap I'll probably buy it. Four Blue Vinyl Christian 10 inches for 50 cents each? Sure, wrap 'em up! A crazy priest rambling on at 16 rpm on red vinyl for a quarter? Don't mind if I do!

That's not to say that all the coloured vinyl I have is bad, it's just that if it'll look cool on my wall, I really don't care what it is.

It's actually a good way to insure that people will keep your records. If you suck, press it on coloured vinyl and at least your album will be hung on a wall somewhere instead of in the trash where it belongs. I'm sorry Paul Horn, that's just the way I feel. Luckily you had the foresight to go with blue vinyl, so you'll always have a place on my wall and in my heart.

The one thing I've managed to resist lately is red. I probably have about 50 red 45's and 10 0r 12 LP's. Now that's just ridiculous. What, am I going for the world record or something? So yes, when I see red vinyl, even for 25 cents, I can walk right on by! maybe I'm on the road to recovery. But probably not.

Yow!

2006-10-10T15:51:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's funny what you find when you do a little cleaning. If you read the last post, you'll know that I'm moving so I'm cleaning out a lot of crap. And so today we'll be looking at some of that crap!

Up first, possibly the gayest album cover ever, Loverboy's 'Get Lucky.' Now I'm not saying 'gayest' as any sort of insult, I just think this album cover is very homo-erotic. I mean, check out those red leather pants, eep! And whose ass is that anyway? Probably Mike Reno's I guess, isn't that kind of embarrassing?

Oh well, speaking of embarrassing, check out the 2nd pic, that's Corey Hart's band on the inside cover of 'Fields of Fire'. Now I'm not gonna tell anyone how to live their life, but guys, when you're being photographed for an album cover, maybe you should forget about wearing sweatpants. I mean, Corey's previous album sold a million copies (in Canada, which means that in 1985, 1 in 20 people had a copy!), you gotta figure a few people are gonna end up seeing this thing. God Damn, look at the guy in the middle, he's got the full sweat suit thing going on. I guess the 10 minutes he spent getting photographed was way too long to be slightly uncomfortable. And the dude second from the left looks like he's wearing his old junior high school photo outfit! Also there's five beautiful mullets happeing, this thing is pure gold!

Now onto the Captain and Tenille. They have cute dogs. C'mon, look at those little fatties! And a weird sidenote to these two is that when Mego made the KISS dolls in 1978, they used all the extra Darrell Dragon (the Captain) heads they had lying around for the Paul Stanley doll. I guess the Captain wasn't a huge seller, they probably would have been better off making action figures of the dogs...

Cleaning house...

2006-10-04T17:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm moving in a month into a smaller place, so I figured, "what better time than to clean up the old record shelf and clear out sone of the crap that's been taking up valuable real estate?"

And wow, I couldn't believe how much junk I'd been harboring. Check out that stack, I wasn't even being that harsh, just getting rid of stuff that hasn't been listened to in at least a year.

Unfortunately, when you have a big pile of stuff like this it's kind of a burden. On the one hand, you really want to take it around to all the record stores and see if anyone will give you any credit. But then again, since I no longer have a car, do I really want to carry this huge pile of records on the bus? It weighs a ton and it's really awkward.

So, what to do? I guess I'll probably break it up into manageable piles of stuff that people might actually want and take it around over the course of a few days. Then again, even out of this huge monolith, there's probably still only about 5 or 6 discs someone may be interested in. But what can you do with old records?

That's when I came up with the idea of starting a record trading club. Think about it, you could put up posters, meet at a coffee shop or something and trade all the old stuff that you no longer want, but that you don't want to just toss in the trash. It would be good for thinning out the impulse buys and stupid things you've ended up with over the years. (Bon Jovi New Jersey, it was only a dollar and I still feel ripped off) And it would also be good if you had something that was worth a few bucks, but you didn't want to take it in and get $4 credit and then see it on sale for $25 the next time you go in. Don't you just hate that?

So, that's my idea. I may never get it off the ground, but I think it could be great. If you're interested, e-mail me and maybe we can hook it up. Later, Record Lad

Paul DiAnno's Lament....

2006-09-28T17:57:00.000-07:00

Since my last post was kind of depressing, I figured I'd stay in that vein and talk about that poor bastard Paul DiAnno.

Who's Paul DiAnno you ask? Well, you should probably know, but if you don't, he was the first singer of Iron Maiden. Well.... actually that's not entirely true. He was the first Iron Maiden singer to be immortalized on vinyl. Iron Maiden had a few singers before our boy Paul, but they've been forgotten by history! (or at least by me)

So yeah, DiAnno made it onto a ton of Maiden singles, including their first release, "the SoundHouse Tapes". If you have a copy of this you're lucky. I apparently am unlucky, as I do not own the SoundHouse tapes. Are you listening Santa? I've been really good this year, you fat S.O.B!

Anyway, PD was a pretty decent singer, but he just didn't really fit in with the rest of the band. For one, he had short hair and back then, that just didn't fly with most metalheads. I know, I know, you're saying "RecordLad, you ignorant bastard, what about Rob Halford?" Well, I guess he was the exception to the rule.

So anyway, I'm getting off topic here, the point is, PD could really wail, and the two Maiden albums he appeared on could only be described as EPIC.

So what happened? I've heard tons of stories, he was unreliable, a drunken buffoon, etc. etc. etc. but the main reason seems to be that they thought they had gone as far as they could with poor old Paul DiAnno.

It really does seem like they made the right choice though, as the band is still doing incredibly well with Paul's successor, Bruce Dickinson. But there's the rub. Mostly when you get kicked out of a band, it's by your idiot friends in high school who all end up working at the Dairy Queen anyway. Or you get kicked out of your stupid airband cause they only want four guys in the band so they can do all Poison songs. (That's right you assholes, I still haven't forgotten about that!)

But getting kicked out of Iron Maiden in 1981 would be just about the worst thing that could ever happen to you. Right after you got the boot, they would release classic album after classic album and pretty much dominate the rest of the decade. You would have to go to mars to avoid seeing kids with Iron Maiden t-shirts.

And then just when you thought they were done, since Bruce left the group and the new singer Blaze Bayley is even worse than you were, that F*CK@$$ comes back and they're back doing just as well as they ever were!! AAGGHHH!!!!!

Even just typing that was awful, can you imagine living it? Paul DiAnno, you need a hug.

Hey, I'm Back...

2006-09-26T22:22:00.001-07:00

Hey, I've been gone for a while but now I'm back.
I had to go back to Alberta for my Grandmother's funeral. It's always weird to go home but for a funeral it's even stranger.

I always find funerals kinda bizarre, I suppose everyone does. To me the religious stuff never really gives me much comfort, I would usually rather hear people's memories and thoughts.

Also, I don't know if this is weird or not, and it would depend on the person and their wishes, but I think it would be really cathartic to give a round of applause as the casket is carried out.
I don't know, it seems to me that a huge standing ovation would be somewhat fitting for a person's final exit. Maybe it's just me, I dunno.

Anyway, that's why I haven't posted in a while, in case anyone was wondering. So, that's all for now, I'll write more about records later, Record Lad.

The First KISS Album Ever!

2006-09-12T18:26:00.000-07:00

Not only is this the first KISS album, it's the first pressing of the first KISS album, which means it's possible that it was the very first KISS album ever pressed. Hey, I just said it was possible, not that it was likely.

But still it's kind of neat to think of all the KISS albums that would later be pressed, this was one of the first. When this was being manufactured, KISS were just a bunch of sweaty goofs with no money who wore makeup. Not a good combo.

How do I know it's the first pressing? Well, it's simple. It doesn't contain the God-awful "Kissin' Time", quite possibly the worst KISS song recorded. (until the solo albums when all Hell broke loose)

"Kissin' Time" was actually a re-working of "Twistin' Time" by Bobby Rydell. Apparently the label needed a hit and some numb-nuts thought this crappy song would do it. The record industry: clearly a haven for the dim-witted and the retarded, God bless 'em!

So "Kissin' Time" peaked at number 83 (it's surprising it got that high) and was added to subsequent pressings of the disc. This one was actually quite a find for me, I've been keeping an eye out for it since I was probably 9 or something like that,but I never expected to actually find it. And when I did, I almost passed it by!

It was in a bargain bin for $3 and I was grabbing a bunch of other stuff and I thought, "well, I already have this album, I guess I'll put it back." But as I was doing so, the KISS nerd in my head shouted out "Wait you stupid idiot, it could be the first pressing without 'Kissin' Time', aren't you even gonna check?"

Well, I turned it over and couldn't believe that there in the bargain bin for $3 was one of the most sought after KISS records ever. (besides "the Originals II", but you can pretty much forget about ever even seeing that one in real life) So there it was, years after I even cared anymore, I was now the proud owner of what would have probably given me a heart attack when I was 12. Isn't life funny?

I'm glad I found this disc though, it reminded me of why I used to like KISS so much. This is definitely their best record. Most people would say "Destroyer" but that would rate a close second for me. This one has almost all the songs that would make up their set list for the next five years! How can you argue with that?

In fact, the KI$$ tribute band currently calling themselves KISS still play half of these songs live. Those poor bastards, can you imagine how sick they are of them? Oh well, I guess as long as Gene gets to wipe his ass with hundred dollar bills he's happy.

So long and thanks for all the out of print NOFX records...

2006-09-08T21:35:00.000-07:00

Wow, after finding NOFX's "Pump up the Valuum" last week, I never expected to find this one too! At the same store no less! Is anyone else impressed by this? Well, judging by the number of views this blog gets, I would guess no, but oh well.

Anyway, I was super stoked to find "Pump up the...." but this one is even more impressive I think. It was pressed only once (to my knowledge) in 1997, so that means that this record was shrinkwrapped and probably stuck in the Epitaph warehouse for almost 10 years!

It's also a really good disc. After the dissapointing "Heavy Petting Zoo" (It had it moments, but overall I wasn't a huge fan) I had almost lost interest in NOFX, until they won me back with this one. The songs are short and sweet and some of their best.

"Murder the Government" is a classic, and "Monosyllabic Girl" always makes me laugh. Not to mention "Eat the Meek" and "All Outta Angst", although I don't think that one is true anymore, if it ever was... Wow, there's really nothing like reviewing an album people have known about since 1997. Is there anything more useless?

Oh well, I was really happy to find this on vinyl and the cover looks way better than the CD version. Also I got it with store credit, so this baby didn't cost me a dime! Yay me!

The good finds continue...

2006-09-02T16:42:00.000-07:00

So this is kind of a continuation of the last 2 posts, the Iron Maiden ones..

So anyway, as I said, I had taken some stuff in to my local record store and found the Iron Maiden clear 10 inch I reviewed below.

"Sweet!" I thought to myself, if I get any credit, I'll definitely grab this. Then I headed over to the NOFX section and was amazed to find their 2000 album "Pump up the Valuum". This thing is so out of print it's ridiculous.

So now I had a dilemma, If I only got enough credit for one, which one would it be?

While thinking it over, I walked past Joan Jett's "Album" pictured on the bottom left. Oh man, my stepdaughter would flip over this one, now what the hell am I gonna do?

Being a glutton for punishment, I flipped to the "I" section, only to find the Iron Maiden album "Piece of Mind" the one I've been looking for for so long. "AAARRGGHHH!!!!!" This was so much worse than not being able to find anything, I was sure I'd never get enough credit for all of them, crap! crap! crap!

So, I had to decide. I figured I'd go for the NOFX, then the Maiden 10 inch, and figure it out from there depending on the credit situation. So I walked up to the desk and was surprised to find that I had earned over 50 bucks in credit! I could afford everything and still have money left over! I felt a great wave of relief flow over me, and then I realized I was a huge loser for getting so excited about records.

But for a while there, it was a beautiful moment. So the NOFX album is pretty good, I've only heard it once so far, pretty standard NOFX, I actually like their new one a lot better, I'll probably review that one soon..

And Joan Jett, well, what else can you say about Joan? She's always pretty solid and this disc doesn't dissapoint. It doesn't contain any of her huge hits, but it does have what is in my mind, one of the greatest album covers ever. I mean, look at that thing, it's a classic! It pretty much defines rock 'n' roll for me, simple, but effective.

So, all in all, a pretty decent record finding day. Even though some stuff was going on to make it a crappy day otherwise, a good find can seemingly always bring a smile to your face. So if stuff sucks for you, just quit your whining and go buy some records! And if that doesn't work, you should probably just shoot yourself.

Actually no, don't do that, maybe just eat some candy or something.

I finally found my Piece of Mind!

2006-08-31T13:05:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was a pretty good day for me. I was able to trade in a bunch of old bootleg videos and find a few records I've had on my wanted list for a while.

One was the Iron Maiden single reviewed below, another was this beauty, Iron Maiden's 1983 classic, "Piece of Mind." This was the last of the "classic" Maiden LP's on my list.

Classic for me is the period starting with the first album, and ending with "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son." I think most people would agree with that, though I've heard some argue that "Somewhere in Time" was the end for them, but who cares about that, this is MY blog!

That being said, this is actually my least favourite of the classic Maiden era. There are some deadly songs on here, most notably "The Trooper" and "Flight of Icarus", but there's also some uninteresting ones too. Not that they're bad, mind you. Least favourite Iron Maiden album is still a zillion times better that "The best Warrant album (an oxymoron?)" for example.

But "Sun and Steel" and "Die With Your Boots On" just never really seem to go anywhere. "Revelations" starts out with one of the best intros ever, but can't really keep up the pace. But, as I said, it's still Maiden!

The main thing I really remember about this disc is that the cover used to scare the Hell out of me! I always found this painting to be the scariest, even more than "the Number of the Beast". I dunno, maybe it's the colour scheme, or Eddie's menacing look, or maybe the breaking chains, who knows? But that's got to count for something!

The new Iron Maiden Single!

2006-08-29T15:06:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I picked up the new Iron Maiden single "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg" at my local record store. I'm happy to say the song is actually really good, in fact it's stuck in my head right now!

The only problem I have with it is the intro, not because it's bad, just because Maiden seems to put a long intro at the front of every single song these days, whether it needs it or not. I think that started in the "Somewhere in Time" era and they've decided to stick with it, it seems.

The single is also noteworthy because it comes on 10" clear vinyl and includes the "crossed guns" logo sticker you see on the top right.

So anyway, I'm looking forward to the release of the full album on September 5th. If you want to hear the song, check out Iron Maiden's Myspace page here.

Lagwagon's return to form

2006-08-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

You know how you have all those bands that you used to like? And they keep putting out new albums, and they're kind of OK, but they just don't really seem to care that much any more?

Well, Lagwagon used to fall into this category for me, but they reversed the trend with their latest, "Resolve". If you know anything about Lagwagon, you'll know that they used to be super-fast punk-metal and the first two albums were probably some of the best things ever.

Their third record "Hoss" was alright, but a change was in the air. After that, I thought they completely lost it, and I was diassapointed because I was a huge fan of their earlier stuff. I was even lucky enough to see them on the "Trashed" tour way back in about '94 at the Republik.

So they had fallen into the nostalgia category, and I'd dig out their discs once in a while to remember the good old days, but when I heard the song "Heartbreaking Music" from the newest album I was surprised. It sounded like old Lagwagon!

When I started to read up on the album, I got the sad news. Derrick Plourde, the original drummer committed suicide before the recording of the album, inspiring all the songs to be written in only two weeks. It's a fitting tribute.

The lyrics are heartfelt and sometimes heart-wrenching and the music is a throwback to the days when Derrick was the man behind the kit. I'm a little late with this review, as it came out in '05, but I wanted to write about it anyway.

To hear some samples, you can head over to Lagwagon's MySpace page or order it at Fat Wreck Chords. The version you see above is my copy, luckily I ordered early enough to get one of the 220 green vinyl copies.

Crap!

2006-08-20T23:36:00.000-07:00

Dang, I can't believe this! So, I walked into Scratch records and saw the neat-o mosquito Billy Talent Devil Head shaped picture disc you see in the picture on the left. Look how excited I am! (also, kind of fat, apparently...)

And hey, it's only $5.98, not too shabby! So, I'm not the hugest Billy Talent fan, but a record this cool is not an easy one to pass up, so of course I buy it and bring it home.

Now I'm not one to buy a record just because it looks kinda interesting, I at least want to hear the thing, so I go to toss it on the old turntable and guess what? It doesn't fit! The hole is way too small, what's the deal with that?

So, you can see how dissapointed I am, so I'm not sure if I should try to widen the hole somehow or just forget about it. I don't know what I could really do, but I wonder if this was all of these records, or just mine that's a little tight.

Hopefully they didn't know about it and just went ahead with it anyway, thinking "hey, nobody's gonna listen to this thing anyway, they'll probably just hang it on their wall or something, so let's just make 'em all crappy!" or something like that.

Wow, that would be really lame.

Anyway, I guess I'll just hang it on my wall....

Hooray for Canada?

2006-08-17T19:19:00.000-07:00

So I was at the thrift store the other day, and I found this in a box of 45's.

It's "the Heart of Rock n' Roll" by Huey Lewis and the News on red vinyl. Well, what with my penchant for all things coloured vinyl, I of course decided to grab it.

I noticed on the label it said "Canadian Version", and I thought, "Hmm, what could that possibly mean?" I also saw that there was no "A" or "B" side, but "East Side" and "West Side" instead. Weird, but oh well.

So, I get home, throw on the "East Side" and the song plays as I remember it, until the very end. After where the lyrics usually end, Huey Yells out "Toronto! Montreal!" in a completely bizarre voice. In fact, it may not even be him, but some random dork who just happened to be mopping up the studio or something.

So of course I then flip over to the "West Side" to hear Huey (or whoever) yell "Vancouver!" Vancouver. That's it for the west side. Sure, Vancouver is the biggest city out west, but come on, the East Coast got two shout outs! Couldn't he have yelled out "Victoria!" or "Calgary!" or even "Winnipeg!" for God's sake?

I wonder whose idea this was anyway. Like when people in Canada heard it, we thought, "wow, our country rules, Huey totally shouted us out!" or if some numbnuts DJ accidentally played the wrong side of the record so people in Vancouver heard Huey yell "Toronto!" Montreal!" and got all pissed because they didn't get mentioned and they went to Huey's concert and threw stuff at him and cursed him out and he was all, "what the hell was that all about? I yelled Vancouver! Did some DJ play the wrong side of the record or something?".

That would've been awesome. But seriously, Canada doesn't really have THAT many major cities, why did they bother with the two coasts? Doesn't that just make us look bad? Like Vancouver is the ONLY city in Western Canada?

I'm sure most of Canada's big cities would have fit neatly on the one side of this 45, and the other side could've contained something useful, like a recipe for cookies, or perhaps Huey's theories on the Kennedy assassination, or maybe , oh I dunno, ANOTHER SONG?

The worst KISS album ever!

2006-08-16T16:22:00.000-07:00

There's no doubt in anyone's mind that "Music from The Elder" is the worst thing KISS has ever done. And KISS has done some terrible, terrible things. (Which we'll get into on another post, I promise)

So, it was 1981 and KISS was rapidly losing it's fan base due to some disco albums that were commercial hits, but didn't do much for their hardcore fan base. (Even though I still think Unmasked is a pretty good album, just not a good KISS album...)

So they decided to recreate "Destroyer", by bringing back Bob Ezrin. Now, how many times has KISS tried to recreate Destroyer anyway? Well, if you listen to their interviews, pretty much every album since 1976 has tried to be Destroyer, but none of them has really matched up. But that hasn't stopped the KISS hype machine!

Anyway, It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but this disc is truly awful. There's weird falsetto vocals, strange themes, and huge opera sections, it's all pretty much a big mess.
So, it's really no surprise this was their worst selling album, which also makes it one of the harder ones to find.

If you're into torturing yourself, you should really listen to this thing. It's worth it, even just to see what NOT to do when you're recording an album. However, it's rare status does make it one of the gems of my KISS collection.

I managed to find this in Calgary when I was a kid, and I couldn't believe my luck. It was in brand new condition, but I suppose most copies were probably listened to once at best, and probably not even all the way to the end. It's really that bad. I guess it was supposed to be a movie too, if it worked out, hence the "music from" in the title. I'd heard that Revolutionary comics was going to turn it into a comic book from Gene Simmons' story ideas, but I'm not sure if it ever happened or not...

Anyway, I think new pressings of the CD should definitely come with a disclaimer letting people know not to expect a regular KISS album when they buy this thing.

But with that said, it is an interesting listen, especially when you consider they went from this right to "Creatures of the Night" the very next year, probably their most underrated album!

Unfortunately they then went on to totally blow it again with the whole "Asylum", "Crazy Nights", "Hot in the Shade" thing, but oh well.

Light of Day Soundtrack!

2006-08-04T16:16:00.000-07:00

Wow, I was stupidly excited to find this thing at Salvation Army for 50 cents.

After Seeing Joan Jett at Warped tour I've been looking out for her records so I was pleasantly surprised to come across this.

It's actually not too bad, the Barbusters (Joan and Michael J.'s fictional band in the fim) songs are alright, but the best part of the album is when Michael J. Fox SINGS! Yes, he sings. He sings. He sings. Even though I've heard it and typed it four times, I still find it hard to believe.

It's funny, he sounds like he doesn't really want to do it, but he was talked into it by someone and so he's just going along with it and hoping for the best. It could be worse I suppose, he's better than Don Johnson. (More on that one later)

And hey, this is the guy that made us all want to skateboard and play guitar, so we should cut him some slack, right? Anyway, if you haven't seen the film, it's pretty boring and crushingly joyless, so I would have to say the soundtrack is much better. (though I guess that's not really saying all that much)

Also, check out Joan's leather neck thing, is there anyone else out there who could pull that off? I doubt it. Well worth the 50 cents my friends, well worth it.

Hey, what's with all the Smiths?

2006-07-27T16:40:00.000-07:00

It's funny, you'll go for months without seeing something, then all of a sudden you can't get away from it. Case in point, Smiths records have in my experience been pretty hard to come by. (Reasonably priced ones, anyway)

I'd been lucky enough to find "Meat is Murder" (did Morrissey coin that phrase?) at Value Village for $1.50 about a year and a half ago. Then I happened upon "Rank" and "the Queen is Dead" shortly thereafter.

Then nothing.

I saw a few singles sure, but at $25 a pop, I said "no, thanks!"

Until a couple weeks ago when I walked into a record store and saw Morrissey's first single "Suedehead"(not pictured, it made things uneven, sorry!) for only $4!

After a bit more digging I unearthed "Hatful of Hollow" and "Strangeways, Here we Come". Wow, that was pretty sweet.

A few days later, same store, but this time I found the 12" single "the Boy with the Thorn in his Side". Dang, I was having a good week, I thought. Then just a day or two later, I found a 7" single, "This Charming Man" in a thrift store of all places! Holy Crap!

I nearly passed out when I pulled it out from between a Diana Ross picture disc and a Police 45.

Well, after that I figured my run must have ended, but lo, fate had a few more surprises in store, as I found out yesterday when I went to trade in some CD's and found another 12", "This Charming Man". I quickly scoped it out of the "New Additions" bin and headed over to the "S" section to see if my roll was still holding, and there it was, the Interview picture disc pictured above on the bottom left.

And luckily, I was able to trade it all straight across for CD's, yay! Man, you haven't lived until you've heard Morrissey whining at 45 rpm, he sounds like a chipmunk with severe depression!

So, hopefully this isn't the end of my current Smiths finds, but unfortunately, now I'm getting weirdly superstitious about it, I'm hoping it'll pass...

Warped tour for FREE!!

2006-07-19T22:28:00.000-07:00

Hey, this isn't about records, but I wanted to write about it anyway, so forget you, pal!

Anyway, Warped tour was coming up and my stepdaughter and I wanted to go, but couldn't afford the tickets. Well, I worked on Monday, and gave Josh of "From Autumn to Ashes" a haircut and he put us on the guestlist.

Thanks again man, that totally ruled.

So we saw F.A.T.A., checked out the Dollyrots and bought their CD's, I FINALLY saw NOFX, (they were as good as I thought they'd be and Eric Melvin came down after the set to make sure some kid who fell in front of the stage was OK. What a rad guy.)

Joan Jett, (a living legend, Joan, please kill Courtney Love, p.s., we're likin' the new CD) AFI, and the Living End.

I didn't shake any hands, but I did get NOFX's setlist, so that was alright. And I loaded up on free stickers and buttons, I couldn't help myself.

I also met some Numbnuts who claimed to be in some band that wasn't even on the tour, I still don't know how he got that laminate...

Anyway, what with the internet, it's not that tough to look people up, so why even bother lying about being in a band?

So all in all, a pretty rad day, even though I'm now the proud owner of a killer farmer tan.

I did see some vinyl there, but there really wasn't anything that exciting, and I didn't feel like lugging around an LP all day so what are ya gonna do?

Dollar Records, Huzzah!

2006-07-16T19:35:00.000-07:00

Dollar records and dollar slices of pizza are perhaps the greatest things ever invented. What noble visionary created them? We can only wonder...

The only problem is seeing the same garbage over and over again and wondering, "Who would have bought this, even then?" Kenny and Dolly's Christmas album, I'm looking in your direction!

While recently flipping through a large pile of dollar records, I came across some ok finds. The first was "Let it Be" , probably the Beatles worst album. (though you could make a case for disc 2 of the white album, yech)

Coincidentally (?), I also found the worst Ozzy-era Black Sabbath album, "Technical Ecstasy". The Sabbath album also has quite possibly the most retarded album cover ever, seriously, what the hell is that thing? Good god, it's just awful!

Anyway, these records have a bad rap but they're actually not THAT bad. I've always disliked "Get Back" but otherwise "Let it Be" has some pretty good moments, like "Two of us", "Across the Universe" and "I, Me, Mine". And after reading up on this disc on Wikipedia I found out that I ended up with original "red apple" pressing. neat.

"Technical Ecstasy" is kind of OK, I've only listened to it once and nothing has jumped out at me yet... But for a dollar, I don't think you can really complain!

One thing I cannot stress enough though people, when dealing with dollar records, check for warps, they will totally ruin your day if you don't! There's nothing more heartbreaking than getting home and tossing your new find on the turntable only to have the needle fly off into space off a huge vinyl ramp ala Evel Knievel circa 1978.

Recordnerd.com update!

2006-07-11T10:18:00.000-07:00

Hey, I just got a comment from the guy who runs recordnerd.com saying that you can now use the site to search by format! (If you read my earlier post, this will make perfect sense to you. If not, I accept no responsibility for your current state of confusion, just read it, it's only half a page down, how lazy are you?)

Anyway, this makes a great site even better, so for gosh sakes, go over there and sign up, it's free and fun.

How Records are Made!

2006-07-07T09:55:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know, this is on about a million other blogs, but it's really cool to see, and after last night's Supernova rant, I wanted to get back to the main reason this blog is here... records! Anyway, not too much for me to say, just watch these videos:
Video 1
Video 2
Video 2 is where it really starts to get interesting, it's so weird to think that all the records you own were just a glob of crap waiting to get squished into something far more interesting.

Supernova = Superlame

2006-07-06T18:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, this isn't really about records, but since I have Motley Crue, Metallica and Guns 'n' Roses records, I feel like I can comment on this truly crappy show.

The show itself is pretty average reality fare I suppose, but it's embarrassing to see people you used to think were super-cool being such knobs on TV. And personally, I'm getting REALLY sick of seeing Dave "I'll do absolutely anything to get on TV, please look at my pretty face" Navarro everywhere I look.

I guess the main thing that bugs me is the completely lame songs the contestants sing, Nickelback?, Goo Goo Dolls? A former member of Metallica is "rocking out" to these crap-fests? And all the ass-kissing, basically the show boils down to an hour of hearing "Dude, that totally rocked, you killed it, bro".

Anyway, I guess it's just tough to see childhood idols involved in something so dorky, but you just know I'm gonna watch this whole thing and hate myself for it. Oh well, I'll write more about records later, I promise, your pal, Jeff

Hooray for Canada!

2006-07-04T18:10:00.000-07:00

Some of the time, living in Canada can be kind of annoying.

Mail order from the States is usually about double the cost once you figure in the exchange rate and shipping, (though the rate has been pretty good lately...) and everyone thinks we live in igloos and say "eh" all the time.

But sometimes, we flat-out rule.

Mainly when it comes to Canadian-only coloured vinyl pressings. (Yep, there's a 'U' in colour)

So in honour of Canada Day, (which was three days ago, whoops) let's check a couple of them out.

The two I've come across are of the Who - Who are you on Red vinyl (I got lucky and found this one for only one Canadian dollar, roughly 67 cents US, ha) and DEVO - Q. Are we not Men? on super-sweet marble grey vinyl. Unfortunately this one cost me a bit more than a dollar, but I was able to trade some stuff and offset the cost a bit.

The one Canadian colour pressing I haven't been able to get yet is the Beatles -Sgt. Pepper's on grey marble vinyl. I've seen that one, but never for less than $40, and dude, It's just not in the budget, sadly.

Anyway, I guess I don't really know why these were Canadian exclusives. Maybe we latched onto the colour vinyl trend more heartily than other countries and were rewarded in kind, who knows, I'm just glad we did.

I do know there were a lot of different pressings of the DEVO album, picture discs, alternate cover, etc. I guess this was just another variation.

And on a completely different note, I heard on the radio that today is Mitch Miller, the 'Sing Along with Mitch' guy's 95th birthday.

Now, if you've spent any time going through thrift store vinyl sections, you'll have seen about five thousand of this guy's records. Judging from the sheer volume I've come across, he was selling 'em by the truckload. Happy 95th, Mitch.

recordnerd.com!

2006-06-30T11:50:00.000-07:00

recordnerd.com is a really fun site. It's easy to join and it's handy too, because it helps you keep track of all the stuff you own.

And yes, it is totally great for being a bastard and bragging about all the great stuff you have.

I stumbled across it on a MySpace group about a week ago and since then I've been adding to my list as I remember what it consists of.

The main problem is that my records are downstairs and the computer is upstairs, so I don't have everything listed yet, just the things I've been able to remember.

A really good aspect of the site is the search feature, which lets you look for records you want in other peoples 'for trade' lists, or search their 'wanted' lists for things you may want to get rid of.

The only bad thing about the search feature is that you can only search for bands, not specific albums, or even formats. So if you're looking for a 7" by Iron Maiden, you have to just type in "Iron Maiden" and sift through everything, CD's and all.

But otherwise it's a cool site and I reccomend it to fellow record nerds. If you want to check out my list, it's at: http://www.recordnerd.com/lists/rebelboywonder

Maybe you'll see something you need and we can do some trading. Later, Jeff

Vancouver Complication!

2006-06-29T15:01:00.000-07:00

This is probably my greatest find so far, the original vinyl release of Vancouver complication.

What is Vancouver Complication? Well, it was a comp of Vancouver (and Victoria) area punk bands first released in 1979.

It's recently been re-released on CD by Joey Keithley of DOA's Sudden Death Records, which is how I first heard about it.

I was lucky enough to come across this copy at the Salvation Army for 50 cents! Actually, my friend Aaron came across it first, but he's not really a punk fan, so he'd never heard of it and I was able to keep my poker face long enough to get a hold of it.

I've since seen it on eBay for $50 and up, but I would never sell it. For me it's not about the money at all, it's about the find. $50 would disappear so easily it would hardly even be worth it, but seeing that record brings back the rush of excitement I got when I first saw it in a thrift store.

Unfortunately, that rush is insanely addictive, and when you get one great find, you always think there's another just around the corner, if you just keep going to "one more thrift store, I promise, then we can go home!" But, it's better than being addicted to crack! At least, that's what I keep telling myself...

Anyway, do yourself a favour and check out some stuff from Sudden Death, especially DOA and Pointed Sticks! Later, Record Lad

Welcome to my nightmare, er... blog

2006-06-28T22:13:00.000-07:00

Hey, my name's Jeff, aka recordlad, aka rebelboywonder, aka the lardlad, aka Jef Leppard...

Anyway, since I was a kid I've always loved vinyl. I used to look at the grooves of my Van Halen albums and try to understand just how the music got in there.

Since then I've read about the process, but it still seems like more goes on than just the technical aspect of it, it's like something else goes into the grooves than just music.

I never liked the way Metallica "and Justice for All" sounded until I heard it on vinyl with my headphones on. On a CD it was just music, but with the headphones and the needle in place it was like I was in the room with them as they were playing it.

So as you may have figured out, this is a blog about vinyl. Not just vinyl, but the different aspects of collecting it.

The dank sweaty thrift shops we scour, the snobby record store clerks we endure, and the time we spend going through a box of 45's just to find that one gem.

So hopefully you'll enjoy some of my posts, and maybe see a bit of yourself in them, and if you have a great find that you want to share with someone, by all means send it in! TTFN, Jeff