Salutations™!!

The BCPF and I got off to a late start yesterday and finally made it to Underdog Records, which was jumpin’, by the way. We bought our four records and went and had some delicious brunch at a new place in town called Clementine’s Gourmet Toast and Juice Bar. Check out The Man Who Ate the Town’s IG for more on that. Here’s the haul:

Genesis – A Trick Of The Tail — This is the seventh studio album by the band. It was released in January 1976 and was the first album to feature drummer Phil Collins as lead vocalist following the departure of Peter Gabriel. It did quite well in the UK and U.S., reaching No. 3 and No. 31 respectively. As I have stated so many times, I have a love/don’t care attitude with the Genesis brand. I love Peter Gabriel. I really like Phil Collins-led Genesis. I do not like Genesis with Peter Gabriel. This is a great album, still with Steve Hackett on guitar, and it sounds amazing! I had never had this on vinyl, only on CD after the remastering in 2007. Gatefold, 180g Yellow Vinyl. Rhino “Start Your Ear Off Right” Release. New.

Genesis – Duke — This is the tenth studio album by Genesis, released in March 1980. The band had been dormant for a bit. Phil Collins moved to Canada in an effort to salvage his failing marriage, while Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford recorded solo albums. Collins returned to the UK and wrote a a lot of material in the wake of the end of that relationship. Some of the tunes were used for Duke and some tunes were reworked for his first solo album, Face Value. This has two of my favorite Genesis songs, because I like hits: “Misunderstanding” and “Turn It On Again.” They were still doing their prog thing at this point but the radio-friendly hits (the ones that I like best) were starting. We had this but it was only in VG or so. 180g Vinyl – Rhino “Start Your Ear Off Right” Release. Limited edition of 3350.

Sebadoh – III — As you may have guessed, this was Sebadoh’s third album, released in 1991. Sebadoh, if you’re not aware is one of The BCPF’s favorite bands. At least her favorite kind of band. We have seen them live once together and I believe she had seen them before. She has a “secret” crush on Lou Barlow, one of the founders and lead singers and guitarists. He’s also part of Dinosaur Jr. and Folk Implosion, probably best known for their tune “Natural One.” She got to smell his hair at that Sebadoh show we saw. It’s classic Indie rock at it’s best and it was a good listen. NM.

Battleaxe – Burn This Town — One thing I noticed yesterday was that someone had come and off-loaded their entire heavy metal collection. Most of it was later-year death metal but this one interested me. I knew it was from 1983 and that it looked like that period. So, I said, let’s give it a try. I haven’t listened to it, yet but I asked Eugene and Bob (drummer from Heavens Sake who was all over this kind of music), both who are my 80s heavy metal gurus, so to speak and neither had heard of them. Bob did some digging and found this: They were a relatively obscure early 80’s NWOBHM band. Imagine Saxon, Motorhead, early Priest…with a raw, 70’s style sound. I heard like 3 songs and liked all three. Would’ve loved it when I was young. They just never caught on. I have recently gotten into the early Judas Priest so I’m looking forward to hearing this. Eugene said he would have overlooked it because the cover looked cheap, but there’s a reason for that. According to Wikipedia (the end-all/be-all of internet truths): …they entered the recording studio to make a demo called “Burn This Town”. In doing so, they garnered the attention of Roadrunner Records and the result was their first album… It went on to say: Once a deal had been struck with Roadrunner Records, the master tapes were sent to Roadrunner Records and the album title was agreed upon as Burn this Town. The record company asked the band for some concept ideas for the cover artwork, so the guys asked a friend and local artist Arthur Ball if he could come up with anything. He then produced the first Burn this Town cover artwork as it is now, but only as a rough proof drawing, and stated that, if it were approved by the record company, he would redraw the whole thing again to a much higher standard. However, when Roadrunner received the proof artwork for approval, they went ahead and pressed 2000 units for a worldwide release without the band’s consent. The original Burn this Town cover artwork is one of the most talked-about album covers in heavy metal history. The graphic looked amateurish, and the band worried what it might do to their reputation. However, the music did the talking and the album sold well. The band began developing a reputation in the region as a solid heavy metal outfit. The sleeve is VG/VG+ but the media is EX.

Sorry that last one was extra verbose, I just wanted to give what I knew about it and let on that I was really looking forward to hearing it.

Underdog Records is open Thursday-Saturday from 11a-7p and Jonathan does in-store pickups, curb service, and store-to-porch deliveries Monday-Wednesday. You can shop his new inventory, day or night, 24/7 by visiting the Underdog Records website. I know I keep teasing this, but there is news coming from Jonathan and me in the (hopefully) very near future. I use Discogs to track my collection, value the collection and sometimes buy for the collection.

Until tomorrow, keep spinnin’…
Scorp out!

—
“Since then I’ve been running around trying to find you. I went to the places that you always go. I rang your house but got no answer. Jumped in my car, I went ’round there. I still don’t believe it. He was just leaving.” – “Misunderstanding” (Collins)