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Buried Treasure: The Latest Record Show Haul

I mentioned last Saturday the self-titled album fro Icelandic proto-heavies Icecross that I picked up at the monthly Second Saturday Record Show in Wayne, but that was by no means the only piece of buried treasure I managed to unearth. Along with new albums by Mogwai (meh; people keep telling me I need to like them, I keep meh’ing out every time I hear them), Arbouretum (fuzzy freak folk that’s way too hip to see in person but not awful on record), Charlie Parker (I’m taking a class on him this semester), Primordial (Metal Blade‘s reissue of Storm Before Calm) — and perhaps most notably, three other heavy ’70s delights: Warpig by Warpig, Megaton by Megaton, and Wonderworld by Uriah Heep.

Some might recognize Warpig‘s Warpig from the reissue Relapse gave it in 2006, trying to keep a little momentum going in that direction after the success of unearthing the material for Pentagram‘s First Daze Here compilation. It didn’t really work out in terms of sales, but I dug Warpig well enough to grab the original CD release this weekend. The Canadian band, who reunited in 2004 and may or may not have put out an album since (they have a cover, but I couldn’t see anywhere on their website to buy it), only put out this one album before breaking up in 1973, so it’s not like I’m embarking on a massive discography, but for the pre-NWOBHM gallop of “Sunflight,” it was worth picking up. This may actually be a bootleg version, and that’s fine too.

Knowing literally nothing about the band, I bought the self-titled Megaton CD solely based on its cover. Not much is really known about the band — there may be some connection to Les Humpires (which sounds like the French TV Guide‘s description for True Blood but is/was apparently a person) — but I officially have no idea. There’s a couple cool tracks, but nothing really landmark, and among the canon of the decade, it fits in more than it stands out. Whatever. I got my money’s worth out of the cover alone, which is as good an argument for LP over CD as I’ve seen. I’d love to hang it on my wall. The Patient Mrs., probably not so much.

By the time they got around to putting out 1974’s Wonderworld — amazingly, their seventh album since 1970’s debut Very ‘eavy, Very ‘umble — British rockers Uriah Heep had long since “gone prog,” and there’s no looking back to the band’s bluesy start across these nine drama-filled and technically intricate tracks, though “Suicidal Man” doesn’t lack for heavy crunch in its central riff. The seminal outfit apparently will have a new album out in 2011, and while I don’t know if I’ll stick with Wonderworld the way I did the first record or 1972’s Demons and Wizards, it’s definitely worthy of future investigation as the weather begins to let up. No regrets, in any case.

The Icecross record might still have been the highlight of the haul; so much darker than everything else and a complete out-of-nowhere surprise as it was. I got that, the Megaton and the Warpig from the same vendor, all ridiculously overpriced. I talked the woman down to an acceptable ask for all three, but I think doing so puts me in a different category of “record show asshole,” so there’s an additional cost there. You pay the price one way or another, I suppose. At least my way left me with enough cash for lunch afterward.

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One Response to “Buried Treasure: The Latest Record Show Haul”

  1. Mike H says:

    Warpig…good call.

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