A to Z Music Challenge

 A usual with these things I am super late to the party, but when I saw it, I thought it was pretty interesting, and the timing was good with more or less being priced out of buying new cards, my hobby budget has been going towards music.

It was also pretty easy as my collection is not only sorted into Discogs, but physical sorted alphabetically as well (at least the tapes and CD's, the vinyl is kind of all over and sorted by how much I like it right now until I sort out my shelving situation.

Prepare for serious genre hopping and lots of weirdness. I have seen this done with logos, but I am going to use my favorite album from said band. I am also (mostly) limiting this to bands I have physical releases of, so I might miss something, but if I haven't bought their stuff, they might not belong here.

 AC/DC – The first band I adopted as my own, the second concert I ever saw (Ballbreaker tour in 1996ish), and a band that still gets some play, but almost exclusively the Bon Scott era.

B.T.O. – Every time I have moved or set up a new sound system, “Not Fragile” is the first song I play to break the ice, the riff is what “Smoke on the Water” wants to be when it grows up. Ignore the hits "Takin Care of Business" and "You ain't seen nothing yet", those songs are bad, just check out anything Fred Turner sings on. Runners Up: Burzum and about 5 bands named Black something.

Corrupted – ‘C’ is probably the easiest choice, the band I have the most releases from, 33 according to my Discogs and at least one version of every release, is this Japanese sludge band that sings in Spanish, I acquired most of their stuff early, but the “El Dios Queja” 10’ is probably the most I have spent on a record. This band is probably the biggest reason I got into vinyl, as most of their stuff is only in that format.

Danzig – Danzig and the Ramones made up most of my early listening, the old stuff is still classic and there is enough interesting in the newer stuff to keep me interested, also lots of Misfits and Samhain which could be lumped in here as well.. Honorable mention to Darkthrone, especially the "Panzerfaust" album.

Electric Wizard – I count Dopethrone as one of the heaviest albums of all time, the rest of the stuff still gets some play, see Supercoven and Black Masses, but Electric Wizard earns a spot on this album alone.

Forteresse - Métal Noir Québécois at its finest, although it is a little embarrassing that even as a Canadian, I speak no French have to use google translate to find out what they are going on about.

Godspeed You Black Emperor! – This and the closely related “Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band” (See the album “Horses in the Sky”) or whatever they are calling themselves at the moment were a big part of a rougher period in my life, and I still hold some reverence to these albums for being there at that time. Album shown is F♯ A♯ ∞.

Hate Forest – Black Metal from Ukraine, “Battlefields” being one of my all-time favorite albums. The guitar tone, the vocals, the tempo, everything about this album just crushes you. Also not much competition at 'H'.

Iron & Wine – No other musical project has inspired my guitar playing more than this one, I always loved the fingerpicking and spent countless hours learning I&W songs. I actually bought my first microphone to record a cover for a long forgotten fansite/webforum compilation years ago. Just ignore pretty much anything recorded from around 2007 and newer, also known as the crappy "World Music" era..  Iron Maiden comes in a close second.

Judas Priest – So many great songs over the years, from the early Rockier stuff to the later Metal stuff, just a great band. “Desert Plains” still get the blood pumping. I don't own much Priest so I am going to take the easy way and post a Greatest Hits, although this was probably the first double cassette album I ever owned, so points for that. Jesu gets and honorary mention as I own a bunch of their stuff.

Khanate – One of my favorite bands from the period between my card collecting years, also known as the spending all my money on records period, evident by the fact I have multiple copies of their releases, and despite the fact I hate picture discs, I have two of theirs. Album shown is Capture & Release. Vocals not for the weak of heart.

Looking Glass – “L” doesn’t carry much for options, the Canadian drone/ambient project Loscil almost made the cut, but Looking Glass is the pick, Brandy is a great cheesy song, but they have some other great stuff including the amazing “From Stanton Station”

Megiddo - This is how I want Black Metal to sound, dirty, heavy, raw, mid-paced and smashed full of riffs. A band I have loved since finding them on Unsung Heroes Records many years ago . Also Canadian. Mgła comes in a close second, with My Dying Bride deserving a mention.

Nick Drake – Maybe cheating by putting this under “N’ and not ‘D’, but ‘D’ has much more competition. I just absolutely love Nick Drake, everything he ever did is great, but Pink Moon does it for me, subtle an not as heavily produced as his first two albums.

Om – Meditative doom band formed by 2/3 of Sleep, very cool, laid back stoner/doom. All of their releases are good, but according to my last.fm account Pilgrimage is my most listened to. I was spending a lot of time on the Southern Lord forums at this time and was buying a lot of related stuff, (see also Khante).

Pink Floyd – What do you need to say about Pink Floyd, go watch “Live At Pompeii” and tell me that is not the greatest band to ever live. I am going way out in left field with "The Final Cut", but I love the album and can probably sing the whole album off by heart. I find "The Dark Side of the Moon" overproduced ( I don't need horns in anything). Honorable mention to John Prine.

Quest for Fire – A great Canadian Stoner Rock band with one of my favorite vocalists in Chad Ross. Album shown is the self titled.

Ramones – Just simple fun and catchy, 3 chords, short songs, 1-2-3-4, get in, get out, no messing around. So much respect for these guys. "Too Tough To Die" isn't my favorite album by them, but it's my favorite album cover. Loco Live would probably be my favorite, but pick any live release by them really.

Summoning - A controversial choice as I own 26 different Sloth (Ohio) releases, but the Tolkien inspired Black Metal band Summoning gets the nod. Epic and bombastic, hard to pick a release as Stronghold is great, but Oath Bound has been getting more spins recently.

Thorns – A big part or the early Norwegian Black Metal movement, I started a fansite back in the day (grymyk.cjb.net) and got to correspond with a few former band members a couple times. The split with Emperor gets the album pick for the inclusion of "Ærie Descent", and that the double album version was probably my first "big" ebay purchase, back in the old money order days.

Ulver – Norwegian Black Metal pioneers that moved into their current state of a kind of Synth Pop. Despite the genre hopping, I do like most of the bands output, including the new one, "Flowers of Evil". They narrowly edged out Urfaust, the tiebreaker being that I have the album cover from “Nattens Madrigal - Aatte Hymne til Ulven i Manden” incorporated into an arm tattoo. (Actually, I probably should have picked Urfaust with the album "Verräterischer, Nichtswürdiger Geist")

Velvet Cacoon – Another super weirdo project that was seemed to be as much about internet rumors and inside jokes (look up the diesel-harp if you want to go down that rabbit hole) as the music, but was still pretty decent washed out Shoegazy/Ambient/Black Metal. Not a not of competition at "V" either. Album shown is "P aa opal Poere Pr. 33"

Wall, Colter – A fellow Saskie, have seen him live twice and both times were great, all his stuff of good, and I have all of it. Nothing like a cold Great Western and some Colter.

X - Nothing to speak of.

Young, Neil - If you total all the hours I have spent listening to music, Neil Young ranks in the top 3 for sure, I have seen him multiple times and every time was great, such a big catalog it's hard not to find something that fits the mood. (I honestly didn't intent to have so many Canucks on this list, it just happened).

Zpoan Vtenz – The only option under ‘Z’, a folky Black Metal band from Lithuania, only released one album and I happened to pick up a copy at some point in time. I don't own any ZZ Top and it would be too easy to put them here.

 Damn, that was fun. Who's ever idea that was, have a drink on me, Brother.

Football Frankenset - April 2021

The scan folder is full enough to post while watching the NFL draft, so here we go.

002 -  2008 Upper Deck Rookie Exclusives - Ryan Clady

I really wanted a card featuring the blue turf of Boise State, so here it is. Clady also had a pretty damn good career, 100+ games played, 4x Pro Bowl, 3x All-Pro, 2x 1st team All-Pro and a Super Bowl ring.

008 - 2011 Topps - Blair White

White didn't have much of a career, but at least he got a great photo on his 2011 Card.

018 - 2002 Score - Randall Cunningham

Randall Cunningham had a really weird career, from a star with the Eagles, followed by injuries, retirement, a comeback with the Vikings, going 15-1 and being named All Pro, to backup in Dallas and finally, one season as a backup in Baltimore.

037 - 2007 JOGO - Kelly Bates

A beauty of a Grey Cup celebration, with a bonus for a local guy who I have met a couple times.

 129 - 2011 Topps - Lawrence Timmons

Another from 2011 Topps, this time a sweet throwback with a bonus "Defensive player with ball" shot.

218 - 1999 Score - Rich Gannon

Always weird to see a guy taking a beat down on his own card.

256 - 1993 Playoff - Seth Joyner

This may be one of my favorite base cards of all-time, special teams shots just have so much going on, love it.

262 - 1997 Score - Dale Carter

I don't notice seeing this much anymore, but the mid 90's had a real helmet on backwards thing going on. Also just noticing how grossly off-center this card is.

325 - 1993 Skybox Impact - Anthony Munoz

Not much going on here other than a Hall of Fame lineman? That is, until you notice the Bucs logo in the corner from a short lived comeback attempt, that I didn't either didn't know about or remember until seeing this card recently.

551 - 1991 Pacific - Brett Favre

There is just something fascinating about Brett Favre in a Falcons uni, so until something better at number 551 comes along, here we are.

Retro Team Collecting Trade

A couple things I know about myself as a collector, I am team collector, and I don't really like vintage. As a Rockies collector, that is fine, 1993 is as far back as you have to go, but as a Redskins collector, you can go back to 1932 for a couple, starting at 1948 for real team sets. That is why I love this set. 1994 Topps Archives includes both the complete 1956 & 1957 sets, the first two NFL Topps sets, along with gold parallels of all the card. Where else is an obsessive team collector going to pick up a modern card of Leon Heath?

TCDB Trade #100

I honestly don't keep track of these things, but looking at completed transactions, I now have 100 on TCDB. A site a be-grudgingly joined after the death (heartless murder) of Zistle has become a pretty big part of my hobby-ing. Fittingly trade 100 is a pretty big one, with some stuff I am pretty excited about, starting with the last 2 Redskins for need for the 1990 Fleer Update team set. I have mentioned before this is the first football set I remember opening packs of (I pulled a Jeff George rookie) so it has sentimental value. I also just like the design with the strong team color.

RLC Custom Card Project: Milt Thompson

The Player: Milt Thompson ended a fairly decent career with a very forgettable 5 weeks in Colorado, he was selected off waivers from the Dodgers in late June of 1996, played in 14 games, all but one as a pinch hitter, going 1-15 and then being released on August 2nd, ending his 13 year MLB career. He received MVP votes in 1987 and 1989, but is probably best known for his time on the 1993 Phillies team that lost the World Series to the Blue Jays.

The Card: Based off the 2019 Gypsy Queen Autograph card design, with a couple slight changes, shows how far behind I am on posting these as I have been sitting on this one for close to 2 years.

The Link Thing.

RLC Custom Card Project: Yonder Alonso

The Player: Alonso was signed a free agent by the Rockies in July of 2019 after being released by the White Sox a week before. Yonder would go on to hit .260 with 3 home runs and 10 RBI for the Rockies, mostly used as a pinch hitter, appearing in 54 games, but only starting 10 (and hanging around long enough to wear these gross "Player's Weekend" things). This would serve as his final MLB stop, as he failed to make the majors in 2020, and then retired after the season. Probably best know for being in the big Mat Latos Reds-Padres trade, or his lone All-Star appearance with Oakland in 2017.

The Card: 2018 Panini football flagship, very simple and classy design, say what you will about Panini, but they have put out some really nice sets over the years. One small change, replacing the Panini logo with a team logo and adding the RLC logo in the upper corner.

The Thing

February Mail Round-up

Things are very slow card-wise here, but a few trades and purchases this month give me something to post about. Starting off with this beaut, I don't buy singles on everyone's favorite auction site, but the odd time a card jumps out and says "Hey, if you can find me at a reasonable price with reasonable shipping, probably from a Canadian sellers, you should buy me." This time I listened to the talking cards unnecessarily long ramble and bought this from the new Upper Deck. These inserts come in different colors and are all pretty nice, but this is pretty close to team colors, and the alt jersey appearance sealed the deal.

Football Frankenset - Feb 2021

 

039 - 1995 Score - Ron Moore
Is it a Jets card or a Cardinals card, either way it is a rare photo of the Cardinals white version of the 1994 throwback unis. I am totally a fan of the small front number in the upper right.

063 - 1995 Upper Deck - Ethan Horton
More 1994 throwbacks, lots of Redskins, lots of 1995 Upper Deck, get used to it.

117 - 2003 Upper Deck - Champ Bailey
Keeping with the throwback Skins theme, this time from 2002, the beloved "spear helmet" throwbacks that I would love to see make a comeback at some point.

126 - 1991 Pro Set - Bill Belichick
I miss coach cards, also a jacket so sweet he couldn't stand to cut the sleeves off.

144 - 1988 Topps - Brian Bosworth
"The Boz", a lot of hype and not a lot of production from the Super Rookie, partly in thanks Bo Jackson knowing a thing or two about running over linebackers.

278 - 1990 Fleer - Lomas Brown
I think the first pack of football cards I ever opened was from 1990 Fleer, so I have a soft spot for it. Also a great O-Lineman card with the tinted visor (zip tie sighting) and the crazy plastic facemask.

311 - 1991 Pacific - Greg McMurtry
I really, really love great special teams photo like this one.

354 - 1989 Pro Set - Rod Woodson
Rookie card of a Hall of Famer, for no reason other than I like Rod Woodson and I like Pro Set. Potential defensive player with the ball card, put he returned a lot of kick in his day, so it's kind of cheating.

374 - 2003 Upper Deck MVP - Taylor Jacobs
A pre-color rush rarity, the Redskins never wore the All-Ketchup getup until 2008, this was just an oddity from a rookie photo-shoot.

486 - 1991 Score - Dean Biasucci
1991 Score is another low-key great set from the junkiest of junk wax era. Triple exposure shot of a kicker, sign me up.