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Buried Treasure: The Cali-Frag, Part III

Okay, so I never called it “The Cali-Frag” before. If I’d thought about it, I would have, so that makes this part three. End of explanation.

It is currently 1:16AM local time, which makes it 4:16AM back east. My plan is essentially to keep myself awake until I have to get on the plane back to Newark, then to conk out. I don’t know whether it will work. The Patient Mrs. and I have acquired a room at the Super 8 for the next several hours, so here I am. How this is all going to pan out, I don’t know, but at least I’ll get to shower before tomorrow night.

Today was a long day. Aside from driving back from Napa (a valley to humble my own) to return a rental car, catching the BART to the airport to pick up another so we’d have a place to stow our stuff, going to the park, seeing the ocean and catching the Snail/Flood show at Kimo’s, I also revisited Aquarius Records, Shaxul Records and Amoeba Music San Francisco today. As far as days go, it was long enough.

Purely on a record-rundown level, I wanted to pick up some stuff that I had seen but not grabbed already. Bong‘s triple-CD Novum Castellum at Aquarius was especially on my mind, given its limited run. While there, I also grabbed Exit 13‘s 1995 full-length, …Just a Few More Hits, from the used bin, just for the hell of it. I was in and out, but didn’t at all regret stopping. Gotta get it in while I can.

It should be noted that, on the way to Napa Valley yesterday, for an afternoon of tasting and spending entirely too much money on wine (everywhere except the Robert Sinskey vineyard, where the guy was such an unreasonably, unwarranted rude asshole I didn’t even bother to tip him — which, if you’ve ever seen me in a tipping situation, you know means something), I stopped in at the Vallejo store of Rasputin Music and grabbed Daredevil by Fu Manchu. It was the 2003 Cube Farm reissue, but I wanted to get something from the store, and it was $14.99, where everywhere else I’d seen it, it had been at least a dollar more. Record rules anyway, so no regrets.

Going back to Amoeba was the highlight of today’s record shopping intent, though, whatever else was incidentally accomplished en route. After the whole Berkeley thing, I knew I wanted another shot at Amoeba San Fran, and during the course I managed to get the self-titled Bloodrock record, Earth‘s Pentastar: In the Style of Demons, and two more records by Six Organs of Admittance, one of which, called You Can Always See the Sun, I’d never even heard of. Neither had the dude at the counter. “Hmm, this looks cool,” he said, and I agreed.

And post-Amoeba, I huffed it across the street to Shaxul Records‘ hyper-metallic store and picked up the last solo album from Leif Edling (hey, remember when I interviewed him?), Songs of Torment, Songs of Joy, a copy of Asunder‘s A Clarion Call, mostly because I felt like I should, H.P. Lovecraft‘s Live May 11, 1968 and Dio‘s The Last in Line, on cassette. Before you go calling me Mr. Retro Hipster Metal or whatever for buying a cassette, please be aware that I’ve got a cassette player in my car and that fucking rules, so kiss my ass and consider the matter settled.

Oh yeah, and at the show tonight, I bought Razorhoof‘s apparently self-titled disc, just because their set was cool.

Here’s the total haul for the last 36 hours or so:

Asunder, A Clarion Call
Bloodrock, Bloodrock
Bong, Novum Castellum
Dio, The Last in Line (cassette)
Earth, Pentastar: In the Style of Demons
Leif Edling, Songs of Torment, Songs of Joy
Exit 13, …Just a Few More Hits
Fu Manchu, Daredevil
H.P. Lovecraft, Live May 11, 1968
Razorhoof, Razorhoof
Six Organs of Admittance, Dust and Chimes
Six Organs of Admittance, You Can Always See the Sun

No more to come, at least as regards California. I’m due to get on the plane in about five hours. Might try to crash in the meantime, might not. Would be nice to sleep on the plane, either way.

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One Response to “Buried Treasure: The Cali-Frag, Part III”

  1. Doomslug says:

    Have you listened to A Clarion Call? It fucking rules! that should’ve been the motivation for picking it up ;-)

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