Two landmark releases by two giants of hardcore

Over spring break, which was last week for teachers like myself, I went to Washington D.C. Now I don't always go somewhere looking for record stores, I just happen to find them everywhere. My wallet is very upset with this. While in DC, I stumbled upon Melody Record Shop in the Dupont Circle area close to where I was staying. After telling myself I'd just look, which is always a lie, I picked up two records that I had been looking for for awhile.
Fugazi - Fugazi (EP)
How could I realistically be in a DC record shop and not walk away without some DC hardcore? A classic album that really ushered in the post-hardcore genre, and a really cool piece of DC history and culture. I wish I was around to see the DC hardcore scene when it was something chaotic and magical. I don't know what else to say about this album; if you haven't heard it, do that now!

Black Flag - Damaged
A California band, and perhaps the most influential to hardcore, with a DC based singer. This is Henry Rollins first album as the front man for Black Flag, and what an addition he was! This is nothing but intense, ass kicking hardcore; well a bit comedy too. If you haven't heard this chances are you don't like hardcore, and probably not punk at all. It's worth checking out, just for the genius that is Rollins; the man really is a hero of mine.

Record Store Day 2011

Record Store Day is one of my most anticipated days of the year. Some people have calendars where they countdown the days until Christmas, or the last day of school, or their birthday; for me its none of the above. I love waiting outside a record store with similarly minded individuals who love buying and collecting music. We just have to get that limited edition 7" or cd or dvd, and we are willing to stand outside for long periods of time in nasty weather just to get our hands on it. My Record Store Day spot was The Record Store in Howell, NJ. It's a great spot that I've been to tons of times over the last 10 or so years and it's not far from me. It was cold, windy, and just starting to rain when I got on the back of the line at 9:40, 20 minutes before opening. Not too many people in front of me, only about 10; and the owner of the store let us in early which was awesome. Last year I went to Princeton Record Exchange in Princeton, NJ and I waited on line for an hour and a half. Don't get me wrong, I love PREX, but being a much larger store it had a huge crowd. The fact that I could get in quickly and start hunting this year made it even more enjoyable. But before getting to the finds I should introduce myself.

This is the first post of Vinyl Record Nerd, a blog dedicated to my endless hunt for music on a format that largely died around the time I was born. My name is Geoff; I'm a 23 year old teacher; I love music and always have; history is my area of study/teaching and my main interest; finally, I'm a big nerd. All of these things come together to form my obsession with buying/collecting/listening to vinyl records. I've been collecting for about a year and a half, and have spent more money than I care to count. Now that we've got that out of the way....
The finds



Dio - Killing The Dragon picture disc
Not the best Dio album by any means, that honor goes to "Holy Diver" of course, but a solid traditional style metal album from the late great Ronnie James Dio. I always loved the album art on this and when I saw it pressed onto the wax I needed to have it. This release is limited to 2500 copies.

Foo Fighters - Medium Rare
A compilation of B-sides, live recordings, and other rarities along with two brand new recordings. The catch is these are all covers performed by the band. I really like covers albums; they show you a band's influences and help you to understand that band's own sound. As much I hate Nirvana, the Foo Fighters are awesome and they do all of these songs justice. My favorites are "I Feel Free", the classic Cream song; and Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar". I remember buying the Mission Impossible II soundtrack over a decade ago and hearing the latter track for the first time and loving it. I had to later go and listen to the original.

Kings of Leon - Holy Roller Novocaine 10" clear red wax
Back in 2003 Kings of Leon was not all over the radio with songs like "Sex on Fire" and "Use Somebody", in fact they were a little known southern rock band. I remember reading about this debut EP in Guitar World magazine and hitting the internets to listen to it, I've been a fan of the band ever since. This EP was not released on vinyl in the US before today.

ZZ Top/Mastodon - Just Got Paid 7"
That yellow record above is the ZZ Top/Mastodon split, which is really cool. Not only is it colored wax, which everyone loves, but it has the original artist(ZZ Top) and a cover version on the other side. The Top has always been a good band and it's fun to have it paired with a really well done cover.

Queen - Keep Yourself Alive 7"
The Queen single is great and one that I was surprised to see. What we have here a repressing of the original Portuguese single from 1973, Queen's debut song. Queen's first album is really underrated, while it's not quite the prog rock masterpiece that "A Night at the Opera" was some years later, it still delivers great rock music with an incredible vocal. The B-side is "Son and Daughter" from the same album.