August started off with a bang on purchases.  We went on vacation down to St. Augustine, Florida and like I do on every trip, I hit the local record stores to see what I can find.  There were three to choose from on this trip and of course, I hit all three on different days.

The first was actually in a little house that was selling Antiques.  The record shop goes by the name On The Record – Vinyl Records and More and it was two blocks from where we were staying which made for an easy walk from the house.  It was a small shop and didn’t have a ton, but enough that  I found some albums.  First up was a Crowded House album and then 2nd was The Cult.  I also picked up a 45 Single for the song from the TV show The Greatest American Hero which I loved (at least the first season).

The next shop was a record store called MusicMatters. It was in a strip mall and looked promising but was far from it.  They didn’t have anything really cool and everything was overpriced.  Not a great shop in my book.  I did find a Kiss Bootleg and thankfully I already had that one because they wanted $200 for it.  That is right $200.  CRAZY!!!…no F$&KING CRAZY!!  I paid $50 for mine and the quality was no different at all.  I did find one cool piece at this store and that was a compilation that I bought for two reasons, 1) I had when I was a kid and 2) it was $5.  It was “Masters of Metal”…

And the last store was the coolest store called Tonevendor and it was a really great shop down in the St. Augustine Historic District off King Street.  Tons and Tons of vinyl from all different genres plus a good selection of new and used.  I could’ve spent more time in that one, but the kids were with me and I felt rushed.  I did pick up a few things here, but it could’ve been more if I had time.  I picked up another The Cult album, a Def Leppard interview disc and a 45 Single from The Alarm with an unreleased B-Side.  All great stuff…

And then upon my return, the next day in the mail came another addition to my Kiss Tour Book Collection.  The write-up is coming up very shortly.  It is from the 1997 Alive/Worldwide Tour…

And that wasn’t all.  I had pre-ordered several re-releases on vinyl for both Collective Soul and Slaughter and both of those arrived with two problems on the Collective Soul.  First, they didn’t actually send me Collective Soul…nope.  They sent me Nina Simone’s ‘The Hits’…yeah, not the same thing.  Amazon quickly remedied the situation and sent the right one.  The other problem was I ordered two Collective Soul albums that had been reissued and only one came. They other has not shipped yet and no signs of when it will.  And unluckily, my local store is already sold out of it.  Oh well.  Here are at least the two that came in…

And after that came some books, yes…I can read.  I had some ad money that was burning a hole in my pocket so I bought some books that had been in my wishlist for a long while.  They are all related to one band and you know who it is…KISSS.  I got a picture book (more my style) and then 3 books on individual albums.  One on Destroyer, one on the Solo Albums and one on The Elder.  I can’t wait to get in to the minutiae.

Another trip out to a record shop was not very fruitful, but I picked up a couple things and one was a Bon Jovi Bootleg on CD and dirt cheap. The review is coming soon.

And if that wasn’t enough, one of my favorite record shops posted a couple Picture Disc 12″ Singles of Def Leppard that were dropping at 10am on Saturday.  I got up and headed over there and the placed was PACKED!!!  No Social Distancing…okay, minimal, but everyone was wearing mask.  I socially distanced the best I could and when I got to the bin that housed the albums, thankfully, they will still there and I grabbed them and got out as fast as I could…I don’t like crowds.

And then the last thing for the month was a picture disc re-issue of Ace Frehley’s covers album called ‘Origins, Vol 1’. I missed getting the original release and now it is like $100 if you find it, so I will take a cheaper version any day of the week.  It is a 2LP set and pretty sweet. I might have to review this one.  Now, Origins, Vol. 2 is coming out soon and that is already on pre-order.

And that is it…thank goodness, what a great month of finds.  September is already shaping up as I have 3 on order…one is actually coming at the end of August, but not in time for this post.  I can’t wait for those. I am sure there will be other items as the last week of August is also the first of 3 weeks of Record Store Day and there is a Def Leppard and Ace album I want to get.  Fingers Crossed!!