Ep. 4 – Hot Hits and “Love” – June 16th, 2008

Today i decided to check out Hot Hits, another record store on gratiot not a mile from Record Time.  My first impression of the place was less than optumistic.  It was dirty, cluttered and disorganized.  It looked like a pawn shop with dvds and videogames lying around in piles, no prices on anything.  I decided to give them a chance and browse through the music they had.  I was actually surprised by what i found.  I suspect the reason i found what i did was because they get very few costumers, especially costumers looking for the obscure stuff i was looking for.  A few of the titles i found but did not buy were:  “Chase the Sun” – The O.C. Supertones (maybe next time), “The Adventures of the Orange County Supertones” – The O.C. Supertones, “On Your Feet” – Spoken (i was very surprised to find one of spoken’s very early albums since they aren’t very big… i’m not a huge fan of the album though, so i passed it up…), and “Payable on Death” – P.O.D.

I did find a few albums on the list that were worth getting at Hot Hits, sadly Hot Hits charges $7 for used CD’s instead of $6 like Record Time so I oly got a few:

“Satellite” – P.O.D.

This album and I go way back.  This is probably the first hard rock album i ever owned.  Back in the day (7th grade) when my top recording artists were MXPX, Audio Adrenaline, DC Talk, and the Newsboys (i know, i’m sorry, i was a kid… and everyone else liked them 😉 ) my friend Eric told me about this band, P.O.D. and he burned me their album.  I was in love right away, the music was so powerful… heavy distortion, screaming, i loved heavy music… now, i know people are like P.O.D.?  That’s your exposure to heavy music?  You can’t get much more mainstream than P.O.D… I know, but this album opened the door… and really if you give it a listen now, it is pretty heavy, you have to admit (especially in contrast to the Newsboys 😉 )  So this album has been a part of my collection since i started defining my musical tastes, so when i saw it, i had to pick it up.  Price Paid: $7

“Wake Up, O Sleeper” – Cool Hand Luke

I’ve already said how my love for cool hand luke has grown in the last six months.  I had all their albums downloaded and recently found “the Balancing Act” at Record time.  Well, Hot Hits actually had their second release, “Wake Up, O Sleeper” so i snatched that bad boy up!  Price Paid: $7

“Love” – The Juliana Theory

When i really started to get into the christian alternative and rock scene in high school, i found out about the Julianna Theory.  I gave them a listen, but at that time i was listening to bands like Underoath (early Underoath, with Dallas on vocals) As I Lay Dying, Extol, and Christian hardcore or metal.  What i heard of the Julianna Theory was not “heavy” enough for me.  Then somewhere along the line i downloaded some pack that had a bunch of christian albums in it and “Love” was one of them.  It found it’s was onto my ipod and stayed there for awhile, just waiting.  Waiting until i started college… every once and awhile a song from the album would pop up on shuffle and i would think “this is pretty good, who is this…” I’d look and it would be a song off this album.  When i compiled the hunt-list i decided that i would buy this album if i ever come across it.  I came across it today and I was pretty shocked, the only Julianna Theory album that Hot Hits (or Record Time for that matter) had was the only one i like!  Hah!  Price Paid: $7

After Hot Hits i made a stop by record time because i had a trade in.  I traded in a sealed copy of Bon Jovi’s “Slippery When Wet” (it was a gift) and got $3 store credit.

“Shadows are Security” – As I Lay Dying

Though my interest in metal is not as strong as it used to be, I can’t deny that this is a good album.  For $3 i couldn’t pass it up.  Price Paid: ($6 – $3 store credit = $3)

Pretty productive day.  Not sure if i’ll be going back to Hort Hits anytime soon, but the trip todday was worth it.  I found out about a couple more record stores in the area so i might try those sometime soon… after i get paid again.

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