Last year flew by and now here we are in 2023 and already at our first month purchases wrap-up. It was a good start to the year if I do say so myself. I started a new collection, found some stuff for other collections I have, treated myself to an album I’ve been wanting for years and even found a Jeff Scott Soto CD that I didn’t even know existed. I would say that all makes for a solid month.
The month kicked off in full glory when 2nd & Charles kicked off the year with a buy 5 get 5 free sale on their CDs and so I pounced on it. Sadly, my memory sucks and one is one I already had, see if you can guess which one because it was in my November purchases as well.
If that wasn’t enough, later in the month I went by Repo Records here in Charlotte and found a handful of picture sleeve 45’s. I love the picture sleeves and so I bought about 9 this time around. Some great stuff to add to the collection…
You, my reader, are going to pick an album for me to review each month. It is really simple…first, I will give you 5 albums to choose from and second, you will tell me which one of those you would like to see reviewed on the site. See…simple! Now, if you want to cast more than one vote, comment on the Twitter and Facebook post and you could get up to 3 votes on your favorite pick.
There are no longer rules for my selections, maybe themes. I’m just picking albums in my collection and this time they are all from the 90’s. I’m not a huge fan of the 90’s so my collection is limited and don’t expect grunge. What are the 5 albums you ask? I have them right here…
Saigon Kick – ‘The Lizard’(1992)
Queensryche – ‘Hear in the Now Frontier’(1997)
Stryper – ‘Against the Law’(1990) – Apparently I’ve reviewed this so don’t pick it. My memory sucks!!
Arcade – ‘Arcade’ (1993)
Collective Soul – ‘Collective Soul’ (1995)
Let me know which one you would like to see and sometime in February, I will post a review of the album that gets the most votes. You have one week to decide and from there I will start listening to the album and do a review.
Happy Friday everyone…you did it! You made it to another weekend and not a moment too soon. To celebrate, why don’t you help yourself to some new music. I know I will as there are two I’m really interested in and they are highlighted in Blue. Take a look through the batch we have for your this week as we have over 35 releases today. See which ones you want and let us know. Also, let us know what we may have missed so everyone else knows as well. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Hollywood Undead – Hotel Kalifornia – (BMG Rights Mgmt): I’m not a huge Rap fan by any means. Not something I like much. However, throw in some metal and hard rock beats and Hollywood Undead is something I really enjoy. They are now on their 8th Studio album and I am still along for the ride.
Collective Soul – Vibrating – (Fuzze-Flex Records): Collective Soul has been around since 1992 and 30 years later, still going strong. These local boys (well, close enough as they are from Stockbridge, GA and was from Marietta, GA) have been a favorite since the beginning and I am happy to add another album to the collection. They are on their 11th studio album and can’t wait.
Summer has been heating up and so did the purchases for this month. This month had some serious quality for me and at the same time some quantity as well. And the month came in with a bang as all my Def Leppard albums I ordered finally made it in. When I say “all”, I mean the new one and all the formats I ordered. I’m starting to like it too!
And it kept on going with a huge sale at 2nd & Charles having a buy 5 CDs get 5 CDs free and I took advantage of that discount. My daughter joined me and picked up some DVDs and CDs as the sale applied to those as well. First batch is all Kiss!!
We are in the middle of the month and still a ton of releases. This week we have around 50 releases for your viewing pleasure today. I actually have a bunch I want to hear (before I buy) and one that is already on order and will be here today. Those are first up and marked in Blue. Let me know what you are digging this week and what we may have missed as that does happen. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you all have a great weekend.
Lit – Tastes Like Gold – (Round Hill Records): It has been 5 years since their last album and it was more tinged towards country than the pop punk they usually do. This time they are going back to their original sound…thank goodness. Here’s hoping for a return to form.
Iconic – Second Skin – (Frontiers Records): Another Frontiers Supergroup which is actually getting kind of ridiculous…but is one is featuring Nathan James (Inglorious), Michael Sweet (Stryper), Joel Hoesktra (Whitesnake), Marco Mendoza (ex-Journey, Whitesnake), Tommy Aldridge (Whitesnake). It was co-produced by Michael Sweet and Alessandro Del Vecchio (Hardline, Revolution Saints). Hard to argue with a line-up like that. And the fact Michael Sweet isn’t even singing is a huge surprise. Nathan is a beast on vocals so this should be good.
Welcome to my monthly wrap-up of all my purchases for the month. Now I am cheating as there are a number of items that came in at the end of August after I had already done my August post and I wasn’t about to go update that and have to change a few pictures so they will start out our September update.
First up is an brand new album from one of my favorite bands, Needtobreathe. Their new album came out on Friday, August 28th and luckily I got release day delivery and it came with a CD. I have already done a review (Click Here) and an update to their Album Rankings will be coming shortly.
August 29th was the first 3 of RSD days for 2020. As you know, due to Covid the April Record Store Day was delayed until June and then split in to 3 days in hopes of decreasing the # of people showing up on the day of release. The first one of these 3 days was August 29th and there will be one in September and October and if I am not mistaken, November will still see the normal Black Friday RSD. I tried to keep this one simple and I only bought 4 albums, one of which was for my daughter. I bought an Ace Frehley album, Collective Soul and a Def Leppard one. The album for my daughter was a live album by Billie Eilish (I will probably listen to it as well as she is quite interesting.
And I guess it wasn’t the only thing I bought as it was raining and he let everyone come in early, but he couldn’t actually ring us up until 8 and it was around 7:30. So after we got to pick out or RSD items, I had time to walk around the store and see if there was anything else. I wasn’t going to actually buy anything else as I spent enough on the above. If you follow the site you know I have started collecting Kiss Tour Books. I picked up a Bon Jovi one when I was out and I wasn’t looking to do anyone else other than Kiss. Well, Repo Records had a Bon Jovi Tour Book from 2011. And you guessed it. I bought it. I will do a full review of this soon.
Normally on Record Store Day, Repo Records gives us a goody bag. This year he didn’t have a goody bag (Sad face)…No, he had a goody album cover…WTF? He had old useless album covers and inside he had a Record Mat for your turntable, a sticker, an RSD guitar pick and a button of someone but I have no idea. And that was it…wasn’t much.
And that was it for RSD, but on the same day I had delivered another item from Needtobreathe. I was on eBay only about 3 days earlier and checking to see if any of their rare Fan Club Insider CDs were for sale. You can only purchase these if you sign up for their fan club and pay the annual premium of like $60. I hadn’t done that up until this year so the new one will come in December, but I have been trying to find these on eBay or Discogs at reasonable prices (something less than $60…and I did). I got my second one, Volume 5, for $25…yeah me!! And within a week, I found another one for $27 after eBay was kind enough to give me a $25 Off coupon for being a member since the beginning of eBay. That is two for less than a year membership for one. Not bad!!!
Next up was an album I ordered back in June or so and when it was released in August, Amazon apparently ran out so I had to wait and wait to finally get it. My local record store had it but sold out so I kept waiting, plus Amazon’s price was only $16 so I was willing to wait. It is the self-titled album from Collective Soul that was finally issued on vinyl to celebrate its 25th Anniversary.
I forget what day, but the kids wanted to get out of the house and so we took a ride over to 2nd & Charles, the whole family, and we all searched for books or music or movies or whatever floated our boat. I found one item that I needed for my collection and at $8, it was a steal. Peter Criss’ book ‘Makeup to Breakup’ another book in my long list of Kiss books I have to get through.
Next up is an autographed copy of the Storm Force album ‘Age of Fear’. My fellow bloggers Deke and LeBrain have raved about this album and then during LeBrain’s live stream on Facebook, the boys from the band joined him and Deke and talked for an hour on a fun-filled Friday night. I thought that was really cool of the guys so I supported them by buying this. You should do the same.
And then something else popped up. I was on Amazon and I saw Art Alexakis’ solo album for only $8 and free shipping so since I am fan of Everclear, I jumped on it. It came quick and is below…
And finally we get to the 2nd Record Store Day and this was just this past Saturday on Sept. 25th. I picked up three things including The Alarm’s Celtic Folklore Live, a Mott the Hoople compilation called The Golden Age of Rock and Roll and then a live album from Hootie & the Blowfish. That one wasn’t on my list, but when I saw it and that it was from 1995, their heyday.
And like last time at Repo, they let us in before they could check us out and it gave us time to look around and shop. Let me tell you that is never a good thing. The first thing I found was a 7″ Kiss single for Beth and Detroit Rock City and then it was a bootleg from Van Halen for the Women And Children First Sessions full of the demos. I’m a sucker for that stuff….
And Repo gave out his typical swag….at least the mat was a different color this time…
And that is everything…yes, that was plenty. Here it all is in one big picture…
Thanks for stopping by. I already have a few things coming for October and there is another Record Store Day so shaping up to be another big month.
For the August 29th, 2020 Record Store Day, Collective Soul issued a 12″ EP called Half & Half. It is played at 45 RPMs and consists of 2 new songs and 2 cover songs…thus half and half. The vinyl isn’t an exclusive RSD issue, it is a First Release meaning the band will release this at a later time. I am hoping the fact that his is a clear transparent vinyl will be the exclusive RSD part otherwise the only good about it is that I got to hear it before anyone who gets the regular release.
A few interesting notes on the back cover, the band mentions that their new album ‘Vibrating’ will be coming out soon which probably means this two new songs will be on it, but I hope not the covers then this stays a little special. Also, I find it funny they are all wearing some form of sunglasses and I still get a kick out of Ed Roland now going by E Roland because a) it is must have been hard with such a long name as Ed that E is just easier for his mind and b) he is starting to think he is Prince and we will soon be getting a symbol as a name and he is just prepping us.
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”… Continue reading “August 2020 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs”→
I can’t believe we are finally to end of April. The days get confusing as we have now been home for at least 6 weeks thanks to Covid-19 and the basic lockdown from the governments to help save our lives. The month started out with Amazon saying they wouldn’t be delivering any albums as they aren’t “Essential”, what the hell do they know, it is essential to me. And then the local record stores started shutting their doors which meant no crate digging for a long while.
Somehow, that didn’t stop. My crate digging was done virtually. Amazon actually delivered music and some of my local record stores posted stuff on line and they would ship or you could go by their house or the store and pick it up. And that is just what happened. We learn and we adapt. Human nature.
First up for the month was an E.P. by a fairly new artist I discovered as the opening act on the Needtobreathe tour. I got to meet him, but his debut E.P and get an autograph. So when a new E.P. was announced, I was excited, but less so because I didn’t see a Vinyl option. And then on the day of release, I saw on Amazon a vinyl option. And when I got it, I was pleasantly surprised as it was the E.P. plus all the singles & B-Sides he had released the prior year so I basically got a full album of material. I love little surprises like that.
For My Sunday Song #180, we come to our final Collective Soul song of the series, “Disciplined Breakdown”. This song is off the band’s platinum selling album called “Disciplined Breakdown”. The song wasn’t a single but didn’t need to be to easily be a favorite. The album ended up reaching #5 on Billboard album chart.
The song is about frustration and how things seem to be falling apart and he doesn’t feel it is his fault. I believe the song about the frustration the band felt in recording this album and that his normal routine had been disrupted and it is causing the process he had for writing to breakdown. Pretty straight-forward.
The song is full of heavy guitar and even bass riffs. An instantly recognizable sound. That repeat riff throughout drives the song into you consciousness and you find yourself singing that riff later. I feel that sound adds to the frustration. There is also a driving beat with maybe a little hip hop sound to it…although minor…I still feel I hear it. Ed Roland sounds great and as the song goes on he seems a little angrier with the frustration building.
Saigon Kick – ‘The Lizard’ (1992)
Queensryche – ‘Hear in the Now Frontier’ (1997)
Stryper – ‘Against the Law’ (1990) – Apparently I’ve reviewed this so don’t pick it. My memory sucks!!
Arcade – ‘Arcade’ (1993)
Collective Soul – ‘Collective Soul’ (1995)
Hollywood Undead – Hotel Kalifornia – (BMG Rights Mgmt): I’m not a huge Rap fan by any means. Not something I like much. However, throw in some metal and hard rock beats and Hollywood Undead is something I really enjoy. They are now on their 8th Studio album and I am still along for the ride.
Collective Soul – Vibrating – (Fuzze-Flex Records): Collective Soul has been around since 1992 and 30 years later, still going strong. These local boys (well, close enough as they are from Stockbridge, GA and was from Marietta, GA) have been a favorite since the beginning and I am happy to add another album to the collection. They are on their 11th studio album and can’t wait.
Lit – Tastes Like Gold – (Round Hill Records): It has been 5 years since their last album and it was more tinged towards country than the pop punk they usually do. This time they are going back to their original sound…thank goodness. Here’s hoping for a return to form.
Iconic – Second Skin – (Frontiers Records): Another Frontiers Supergroup which is actually getting kind of ridiculous…but is one is featuring Nathan James (Inglorious), Michael Sweet (Stryper), Joel Hoesktra (Whitesnake), Marco Mendoza (ex-Journey, Whitesnake), Tommy Aldridge (Whitesnake). It was co-produced by Michael Sweet and Alessandro Del Vecchio (Hardline, Revolution Saints). Hard to argue with a line-up like that. And the fact Michael Sweet isn’t even singing is a huge surprise. Nathan is a beast on vocals so this should be good.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 