I finally made it out to the Austin Record Convention last Saturday, and after fighting audio issues (third time was the charm), I’m breaking down the whole experience and my best pickups. I went in with a different strategy this time: I built a real want list on Discogs, then I targeted the “easy stuff” first—things I knew I’d see multiple copies of—before hunting for the harder-to-find gems. I also got to meet up with Jason Roas and his friends, grabbed some great burgers, and somehow ended up at a dive bar in the middle of a parking garage. On the haul side, I knocked out a big chunk of the Rush catalog (Fly By Night, 2112, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves, Signals), plus some key one-offs like the MoFi Weezer Blue Album and early R.E.M. (Chronic Town and an original Murmur). I also scored a near-mint first Japanese pressing of The Pretenders debut, a Deep Purple Mark 1/Mark 2 hits comp, and an Analog Productions 45 RPM Stevie Ray Vaughan. The jazz and Sabbath finds were the real highlights: an original mono Pepper Adams Quintet on Mode (with the new Gammaut reissue on my radar), some strong Blue Note/Prestige picks, and then the “crème de la crème”—original UK Vertigo swirls of Paranoid and Vol. 4, plus a Dutch Vertigo Master of Reality and a white label promo US copy with posters for a future shootout.