Record store haul: August 3, 2014

Finally! It's been nearly a year since I was able to make it down to good ol' Used Kids Records. It was worth the wait.

Deafheaven – Roads to Judah (LP, $15)

Deafheaven's first and best album. This edition is a really nice translucent red vinyl (I think every red record I have is translucent; what's up with that?). Honestly I don't remember this album too well, but I know I liked it, so this is a good excuse to revisit it. Also, check out my review of Sunbather here!

Descendents – I Don't Want to Grow Up (LP, $10)

Classic old-school pop punk back at its finest hours. No, it's no Milo Goes to College, but it's still one of their best. They had All too but apparently it sucks so I didn't get it.

Æthenor – Deep in Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light (LP, $6)

Æthenor – Betimes Black Cloudmasses (LP, $6)

It looks like someone dropped off a whole load of Southern Lord Records products, and pickings were pretty good. Æthenor's first two albums were good (as was their third, I suppose), especially Betimes (which I learned a few years after first hearing it that it's not "Bedtimes"!). Great avant-garde dark ambient which I bet is gonna sound great on wax. Nice packaging on Deep in Ocean with its paperboard insert. (There was a KTL album too but KTL sucks so I left it for some other sap.)

Pentemple – O))) Presents... (LP, $10)

I had second thoughts on getting this one since I wasn't sure if I actually liked this album or not (I think I did), but I'm glad I did. It's a beautiful package—an embossed front cover, hefty cardboard sleeving, and a really nice marble brown color on the record. It's more improvisational dark ambient like Æthenor, but definitely blacker and doomier stuff.

Isis – Wavering Radiant (CD, $5)

Despite Isis being basically my favorite band in high school and still a band I very much enjoy, I never got around to actually getting a hard copy of this album when I own almost everything else they ever put out that wasn't live or very limited. It's probably their second-worst album (Celestial takes the bottom spot) but that's not saying a lot since their whole catalog is still very much the pinnacle of atmo-sludge.

Nasum – Grind Finale (2×CD, $9)

These guys have been one of my favorite grind bands for a while, and this is a fitting wrap-up to their career. A nice two-disc digipak of all non-album tracks, plus a really cool 80-page (yes, eighty) booklet of biographies, anecdotes, lyrics, posters, etc. Really looking forward to a long flip through it.

Offspring – Smash (cassette, $1)

Erasure – The Innocents (cassette, $1)

These two tapes are for Jordan; I've never really listened to much Offspring and hardly any Erasure. But mostly I was surprised to find any good tapes at all; we basically cleared them out of good stuff a year or two ago but they must have gotten a small bunch in since the last time I was there.

7" Grab Bag ($1)

It looks like the store has been rearranging some things, including paring down their once-massive indie 7" section. There were a few of these 10-packs of miscellaneous 7"s left for a buck, so I couldn't resist grabbing one. They did the same thing a few years ago with CDs, but I think those were 5 for $5 or something; not really the greatest deal. Anyway, over the next few posts, I'll be digging through what I got and seeing if there is any new good obscure crap to play. Stay tuned!