Today's Albuquerque Record Convention

Today, another of the bi-annual record conventions was held in Albuquerque, and I think I did pretty well. I've been going to these pretty consistently for the last 3 years. A lot of the sellers are the same, but there are always new people that bring some good records. This time I felt like I'm going to grow out of this convention, as my collection is growing and there isn't a whole lot of common stuff I'm really searching for anymore. Anyway, I'm still happy with what I picked up, which for the all that is in the picks below, set me back about $140. In addition to what I have pictures of, I also grabbed 4 45's, 3 from Albert King and one from B.B. King for $1, a reissue copy of Mingus' Black Saint and the Sinner Lady for a friend, and a dealer gave me a free 10" 16rpm record that I have no idea what I will do with. 

This time around, I didn't smell anybody, which I was happy about (although I have really bad allergies right now and can't breathe that well through my nose). The last few times, there have been a few really smelly guys that reeked of cat urine. 

Every convention there is this older lady that keeps a Cabbage Patch doll in a strap-on baby carrier on her chest. She was here again, I think she is married to a dealer, and I heard plenty of other dealers gossiping about this woman. No one seems to know why she carries the Cabbage Patch doll, I think next time I will ask her.

I also heard some people saying the local Krazy Kat Records store was condemned by the city. I'm not sure if that is really true, but I don't feel that sad about it. On the one hand, its sad to lose a local record store, but on the other, the owners of this shop were gross, seemed to be engaging in shady activities, and consistently overcharged for many of their records.

On to today's finds:

John Coltrane-Coltrane's Sound

Return to Forever-Where Have I Seen You Before

John Coltrane-Mating Call

Sonny Rollins-Worktime

Duke Ellington-Money Jungle

Herbie Hancock-Blow Up Soundtrack

Sun Ra-Sound of Joy

Jimmy McGriff - Red Beans

The Deuce Coupes-The Shutdowns (a split? maybe...)

The Bob Seger System-Mongrel

The Royal Guardsmen-Snoopy vs the Red Baron

The Frost-Frost Music

Al Green - Let's Stay Together

Sam Cooke - Live at the Harlem Club

Otis Redding - Live in Europe

Marvin Gaye- What's Going On
Sodom - In the Sign of Evil

Satan-Into the Future

Warfare - Total Death ep

Exciter - feel the knife

Jughead's Revenge - Unstuck in time

Speed Kills - (V/A speed metal comp)

Exciter-Heavy Metal Maniac

Exodus - Pleasures of the Flesh

Death Angel - Ultra-Violence

Top 10 things I despise about records and record collecting

1. Colored Vinyl – Yeah, sometimes it looks cool, but I don’t buy records to stare at them, I buy them to listen to. I’m not totally convinced about the argument that colored vinyl sounds worse, I just don’t have a setup where I think I could tell, and there are so many other reasons why a record is going to sound shitty that are likely more important. I just think it looks cheap, and makes me think the band/label are more concerned about selling a cool looking collector’s item rather than a functional product. It costs labels more to press on colored vinyl, and serves absolutely no functional purpose, spend the damn money on the recording or the artwork. Thankfully I don’t buy a whole lot of new records where this is an issue, but I’m annoyed when I have to pick between 4 ugly colors, and none of them are black.

 

2. Picture Discs – I like to buy metal on vinyl, but it seems more prevalent among metal bands and labels to release picture discs. They tend to cost more, look like garbage, and don’t even have covers. What is the fucking deal? Of the few I have, they always come in already split plastic sleeves, so even if one wanted to buy these abominations, they are a pain in the ass to take care of and store with other records.

 

3. European Pressings – Talk about low quality knock offs, why does vinyl pressed in Europe always sound bad, come on paper thin vinyl, and come packed in the cheapest possible jackets? And this isn’t just ethno-centrism, the Japanese press great quality vinyl and use sturdy covers just as well as Americans.

 

4. Single LPs longer than 45 minutes – Hell, even 45 minutes is pushing it. Some examples might be the Cure’s Disintegration, Death’s Symbolic, and the new reissue of Sepultura’s Beneath the Remains. These records sound worse than cassettes soaked in water. Do the companies who press these even care about what their records sound like? Are they under the impression people don’t listen to records?

 

5. Bonus tracks – Some bands like to put extra tracks on either the vinyl version of their album, or the cd. Why? Can’t they decide on what the album should be? Are they trying to make their fans buy two copies? A bonus track is like a big kick in the face to a bands biggest fans. I also tend to appreciate an album as a cohesive whole. When there is an extra track unique to a particular format, it messes with that cohesiveness, or suggests the band doesn’t give a fuck.

 

6. Records that are anything other than 7”, 10”, or 12” – All those stupid punk and hardcore labels that think 8.5” records, and skull shaped discs are cool, just stop it. Anyone who has tried to play a 5” record knows what a joke this novelty crap is. Make good music, don’t hide it by putting out some crazy package trying to mask the garbage inside.

 

7. Double LPs where the 1^st record has sides 1 and 4, and the second record has sides 2 and 3 – If I ever listen to these albums, I almost never listen to them in order. Off the top of my head, I can think of John Coltrane’s Live in Seattle and Miles Davis’ Live Evil that were pressed this way. What a pain in the ass. Someone once told me they used to make record players with two turntables, so that is why these double LPs were pressed with the sides out of order. Is that true? I have no idea, but if that was case, how many people could afford these?  I even have a Leadbelly triple LP box where the records have side 1 and 6 together, sides 2 and 5 together, and sides 3 and 4 together. Totally obnoxious.

 

8. Elaborate packaging – I don’t want to work to get the LP out of the jacket. It just makes me want to not listen to these records. I’d prefer to just slide the record in and out of the jacket, I don’t need some triple gatefold design where I have to open up the whole thing to get to the music (I’m thinking of the Black Angels Directions to See a Ghost), or some type of annoying clasp (like the original pressing of the Los Crudos/Spitboy split LP) that just leads to wear on the jacket over time from opening it.

 

9. People that don’t collect records telling me they have a bunch old Beatles records – I don’t care, and there is a 99% chance they either don’t play or are later worthless pressings. Just because it is the Beatles or it is old does not mean it is somehow valuable.

 

10. Mold and cat piss – I know record collectors are a weird bunch, but come on, don’t show up at a record show wearing a shirt your 10 cats sleep and piss on. Also, what is with storing records in dirty places? I’m not a freak for cleanliness, but having black and grimy hands after a good day of digging is just gross. Record collecting may be damaging to my financial and emotional health, I’m ok with that, but I don’t want to end up at the doctor because I caught some weird disease from touching a bunch of dirty ass records.

 

Honorable mentions:

 

The waiting period between record shows – Its like the day after the Super Bowl, knowing there is no football for another 8 months...

 

The credit card bill – This is my own fault, but its not quite so bad if I resist the urge to add up all the frivolous music purchases I make each month.

I just won Sodom's Agent Orange LP!

For $9.08 on the 'bay. Hot damn! I don't know what this is really worth, I guess the stupid picture disc version that comes in a tin can is valuable, but I just won the normal LP version. I am excited though, Sodom vinyl is generally hard to find, and their Agent Orange album is awesome. 

Today's finds

Yardbirds - Little Games (1967)

Killing Joke-s/t (1980)

Linn County-Fever Shot (1969)

I found all of these at the local store, We Buy Music. I was basically just bored today, so I spent a couple hours just browsing the store, and as I was about to leave, the store owner mentioned to me he had this pile of boxes, full of records, that he hadn't yet gone through to put out on the floor. There was a ton of stuff in there I was interested in, but I found this Yardbirds record and the first Killing Joke album. The Yardbirds record is ok, it has Jimmy Page on it, so that is what made me purchase it, but there are a number of amazing songs on there mixed with weird and mediocre psychedelic songs. 

I was more excited about finding the Killing Joke album. I have been keeping an eye out for this record ever since I began collecting records. The only reason being is that it has the song "The Wait" that Metallica covered on their $5.98 Garage Days Re-Revisited ep. I have always wanted to find the original vinyl versions of all the songs that Metallica covered on that ep, since it was the first thing I ever heard from Metallica, and also one of the first metal albums I ever heard. The Killing Joke record is only the second one I've managed to get. Having the Misfits Last Caress and Green Hell on vinyl is just too easy (well, at the least the reissues anyways), so I was never that motivated to seek out the other songs by Diamondhead, Holocaust and Budgie, but now that I have the Killing Joke record, I might be more motivated to finish off this search. 

The rest of the Killing Joke record is actually pretty amazing too, its very hard and gritty, mixing post-punk, industrial, and metal, which would probably turn out incredibly shitty if done today, but sounds great when its from 1980. I recently saw that this record was reissued and had been pondering picking it up, but I got lucky today in finding an original EG pressing.

The Linn County record was free, its pretty beat up, and I had no idea who they were, but I was curious in hearing it. It had the look of a late 60s hard rock/heavy blues album, a style of music I really love, so I figured I would take a chance. When the owner told me it was free, I was surprised as hell. Sometimes this guy is pretty weird about pricing, but maybe the terrible economy is hurting him and he needs to encourage more business? The record isn't bad, and I guessed correctly on the style. It sounds a lot like a mediocre version of the first Allman Brothers Band album, but not a bad find for free! 

Broken Hope

God damn I have not posted in a while. Not only have I been super busy, but I sometimes find blogging to be annoying and self-indulgent. Since I have been listening to almost nothing but metal for the last couple months, I decided I would post this 7" record from Broken Hope that came out in 1993. This record is one of the first records I ever purchased at my first ever show. I more or less remember the show, but I can't remember at all what the first record was that I purchased, I have a small collection of records I know were among my first, but its all a blur now.

So my first show was at the Thirsty Whale (I think?) in Chicago in 1993. The headlining band was Unleashed from Sweden, and Demented Ted and Broken Hope from Chicago. I only knew who Broken Hope were, and loved their cd that had just come out at the time, The Bowels of Repugnance. I think this was the first death metal band I really got into, the cookie monster vocals and the extremely disturbing lyrics were just the coolest thing to me when I was 13-14 years old. Now, I have a hard time listening to this album, but it does have a lot of sentimental value for me. 

My first show was not supposed to be this death metal show. My parents were really hesitant to let me go to a show, but for my 14th birthday, they bought me tickets to go see the Butthole Surfers and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the club (the Riviera in Chicago, if I remember correctly), the show had been canceled at the last minute. I was really disappointed, since I also was really into the Independent Worm Saloon album by the Surfers that had just come out. The next show I could find that I wanted to see was this Broken Hope show. Me being a dumb 14 year kid, and my parents being completely ignorant of the type of music it was, agreed to it, so I went to this show with my dad. I was a slightly puggy, nerdy looking kid, and I remember wearing this ridiculous Chicago Bulls Starter jacket to the show, and my dad was the only normal looking person there. Everyone else was dressed completely in black, had long hair, and to me at the time, were frankly just scary people. The club was gross and dirty, and I felt like everyone was just staring at us the entire time. 

But, the show was awesome, Unleashed were incredible, I eventually picked up one of their tapes, and Demented Ted were good too. The singer in Broken Hope actually talked like he sang in between songs, which was just the best thing at the time, and as souvenirs for the show, I picked up this 7" and a shirt. I maybe listened to the record 2 or 3 times, there was never any reason to play it since the songs were all on their album, but the shirt I got had the cover of the record on it (I can't believe my dad let me buy that, I don't think he was really paying attention...). I wore the hell out of that shirt through high school, occasionally having to turn it inside out when a teacher would look at it closely. 

I really have to give my dad a lot of credit, I don't remember him ever saying anything bad about the show, it was a little bit of a crazy experience, but no one bothered us, he had a beer and I just enjoyed the hell out of the bands. 

I wonder if Blogger is going to now flag this site for posting objectionable material, let's hope so.