New Blog

I have started a new blog on record hunting and craft beers in Mexico City. Please visit it here: http://beerandrecordsinmexicocity.blogspot.com

Grand Rapids, MI Punk and Ska

The Bounty Hunters were a punk/ska band that was around from 1997-1999. They mostly played around Michigan, but did play a few shows around the midwest. The later stuff has more of a hardcore influence, and the members went on to form With Arms Still Empty.

The Bounty Hunters - Less Rock, More Sock (1997)

The Bounty Hunters - Less Rock, More Sock.zip

The Bounty Hunters - The Answers Don't Mean Anything (1998)

The Bounty Hunters - The Answers Don't Mean Anything.zip

Just For Kicks were a great pop-punk band that played around Grand Rapids in the late 90s, transformed into Hunter Rose for a few years, and then reformed in the mid-00s.

Just For Kicks

JFK - MediaFire

I'm looking for more digital copies of 90s Grand Rapids punk rock from bands like: PR Stunt, misled youth, The Addictives, Slamdunk Rancore, The Krabs, and anyone I have forgotten or don't know about. Most of this music was released on cassette, I don't remember too much vinyl floating around during this time, except for a Krabs 7".

Um sure, I'll buy that for five dollars...

I found this on Friday at a local record store, which shall remain nameless, for a whopping $5. Not sure what was calling me to the 12" singles section loaded with depeche mode, erasure, and madonna singles, but as I was flipping through this dreck, I came across At the Gates' first ep, Gardens of Grief. At first, I couldn't believe what I was looking at, and became really nervous. Was this for real? Was the owner of the store really going to let me buy this once I brought it up to the counter? I continued to browse for about a hour or so afterwards, but I kept this hidden in between the other records I had found (the 2nd killing joke album, what's THIS for...!; Linn County's till the break of dawn, and Econochrist's trained to serve), just in case any other customers saw it and decided to talk to me.

I've been looking for At the Gates records for years, but I never thought I'd actually find one in person.

Finds in Connecticut

It has been a long time since I last posted. Too many other things going on in my life to worry about blogging. But alas, I am back for the first post of 2010.

I recently spent a week in CT for the holidays, and came back with a few finds. I visited three stores while I was there. Unfortunately, I didn't have more time to hunt, but I still came away with some records that are next to impossible to find here at home.

First up, I visited Brass City Records in Waterbury, where I came away with The Stranglers - Rattus Norvegicus, Life Sentence-No Experience Necessary, Pharoah Sanders-Black Unity, and Joe Henderson-Power to the People. The store itself is quite the unorganized dive, has records scattered all over the place in some strange categorization scheme that really only works for personal collections. The prices, however, were pretty reasonable, and if anyone is looking for old 80s youth crew and straight edge hardcore records, this place has a lot of early gems. Supposedly, this store also doubles as a woodworking tool shop, so I brought my dad along who collects old planes. The tools were in terrible shape, and that goes for many of the records too. While the vinyl was in generally good shape, the owner doesn't seem to care much about the condition of the jackets. I almost purchased Life Sentence's 7" but it had a serious warp in it.

For me, the Pharoah Sanders and Joe Henderson records were great finds, I love both of these albums and I'm glad to finally have some copies on vinyl.

I was staying almost an hour away from Brass City, and got caught in a terrible snow storm on the way there. Luckily, we made it back in one piece, although I saw 7 or 8 car accidents on the drive home. Living in NM has made me soft, I can't handle the snow like I used to.

I also made it to Redscroll records in Wallingford, which was a pretty great store for punk and metal records. I picked up Out of Order-Paradise Lost, Overkill-feel the fire, and Believer-Dimensions.

They had a slew of 80s thrash metal records I would have liked to brought back with me, but I was trying to be selective. The space was incredibly tiny but had so much crammed into the place it was hard to find anything. One of my pet peeves in record shopping is having to look at records by the spine, and most of their used records were organized this way. Hopefully they fix this in the future.

I've been trying to collect old Chicago punk and hardcore records from the 80s for the last couple years, and was pleasantly surprised to find the life sentence and out of order records in CT.

Reverend Columbus Mann-They Shall Be Mine b/w Jesus Loves

There was another record show in Albuquerque last week, and this was the first time I tried to look for gospel records at this show. I didn't do too well, and I'm not surprised, how many gospel records are floating around the southwest? I did find a few 45s from one seller, and since he didn't know anything at all about the records he had, I got a pretty good deal. This record here by Rev. Columbus Mann I got for free. I had never heard of him before, but after some checking around online after I got home (one of the few slightly successful gospel searches), the LP this single came from is a highly sought after and very expensive gospel gem. The first track is much better, check it out.

The Virgil Lights - what a meeting b/w I've got a new home

My search for the perfect gospel song continues. I've managed to start a small collection of 45s from the Memphis-based label, Messenger Records, and nearly every record from this label has ranged from decent to mind-blowing. The first track on this record, "what a meeting" is one of those mind-blowing tracks.

I don't know anything about this group. It is both incredible and frustrating how little is available online about gospel. This means to find anything, I have to just take a chance. Luckily, chance is exactly how I found this record. I purchased 3 45s on ebay for literally pennies from a seller who had a few gospel records. The Virgil Lights was one of those records, and while the other two (from The Jubilee Hummingbirds and the Sensational Six) were just ok, the first track on this disc made it all worth it. Enjoy.

The Jubilee Hummingbirds-Help Me to Make It

First, let me start off by saying I know virtually nothing about gospel music. A couple months back I picked up a really cheap Sam Cooke record called the Two Sides of Sam Cooke. I knew very little of his music, and thought I would be more into the pop stuff, but his gospel stuff with the Soul Stirrers blew me away. Thus started my most recent obsession with gospel music. 

Yesterday I found this 45 from the Jubilee Hummingbirds at my favorite local shop, Mecca. The A side, Help Me to Make It is phenomenal, the B side, Heaven Bound is just ok. But the A side has the really gruff male gospel vocals that I like, and the backing band is very similar in style to Booker T and the MGs or James Brown's Famous Flames. 

Check out the song, I won't be doing this too often, but hey, I'm spreading God's word, or some shit like that.

If anyone out there has any gospel recommendations or good sites to check out where I can learn more about this music, let me know. 

Finds in Denver

So I had another conference in Denver last weekend, and this time I spent as little time as possible "conferencing" and as much time record shopping as possible. Too bad I didn't do this in Chicago, because the finds in Denver were pretty weak. I first went Wax Trax Records, which I had planned on going to since I'd been there about 9 years ago and remember it being pretty cool. My memory really failed me, or my tastes have completely changed, but I thought Wax Trax was pretty weak. They have a ton of records, but almost all of it is common junk. I did manage to find these two Esquivel records for $2 each, and my wife wanted the Jay & the Techniques, but we spent a lot of time here for very little. It was a huge disappointment.

A few blocks from Wax Trax my wife and I found another place called Jerry's(?) Record Exchange. They had a slightly better selection, but it was also pretty unorganized, smelled like smoke, and the owner had all these boxes of cds on top of all the records, so it was a little bit of an ordeal to flip through the records. Some of the prices were outrageous, but I did grab this Ten Years After record which I had been wanting for a while, and Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak. I'm not sure why I got the Thin Lizzy record, I think I felt like it was one I needed to have in my collection, but its pretty terrible. 

The rest of the finds were pretty random. We were walking around a neighborhood on South Broadway and happened upon a bar having some kind of rock n roll swap meet inside. I found this fifteen record, and the Miroslav Vituous record which I have been searching for online and off for over a year. The really drunk guy who sold me the Miroslav disc told me him and his buddies used to listen to this and do mushrooms in Alabama back in the 70s. He also kissed my hand. 

There was a book store near the bar, and they also had a big pile of records. The Runaways was probably the best find of the trip, I don't think I've ever come across this before. The Bobby Brown was my wife's pick, and we had a little argument over whether or not I would even add this to the collection list. I grudgingly have...

Finally, I picked up this Cure record (looks mint and unplayed) at a farmer's/flea market. While it was super cheap, I don't even know why I really got this. I have a bunch of Cure records, but I also already own this on cassette and cd. I'm never going to listen to this record. The more exciting part about this flea market was this guy who had a couple portable wind up 78 players that I almost bought. I'm mad at myself for not getting one, but at least I learned a lot about how they worked from the seller. The thought of carrying a big metal box and another box of 78s on the plane with me just was too horrendous. 

Anyway, I'm not that impressed with digging in Denver, although almost everything was pretty cheap. This whole lot cost $46. What a great city though!

Chicago Finds at Reckless

I just got back from a political science conference in Chicago, and luckily I had some spare time to snag a few records. I wasn't even planning on looking for records since my time was so short, and since I stayed right downtown near the Millennium Park, I just figured there was no way a good record store was going to be within walking distance of that part of the city.

Fortunately, I was wrong. Just as I was going back to my hotel to practice the presentation I had to give, I happened to walk by Reckless Records.  I literally started moving in slow motion as I passed by, contemplating skipping my practice time in order to look at records. Thankfully I wasn't so 'reckless' (I needed the practice) and waited until my presentation was over. 

There was a ton of stuff I wanted, but I settled on these four records:

Joe Yamanaka-Live at Nippon Budokan

Sidekick Kato-1st Class Chump

Limp Wrist-one-sided 12"

Archie Shepp-Mama Too Tight

Joe Yamanaka was/is the singer for Flower Travellin Band and I couldn't believe I actually found this laying around a record store. Its a live show from 1978, where he mostly plays his solo material, but he also does some interesting versions of Shadows of Lost Days and Make Up by FTB. Hideki Ishima, the guitar player for FTB, also plays on the album. Its fairly decent, but definitely more traditional hard rock than any of the FTB stuff, although I love his voice so its a decent disc. Some of the FTB records I have are the most expensive records I've purchased, and to find this for cheap was pretty exciting for me.

The Archie Shepp record is great too, and I bought this not having heard this particular album at all. For a while now I've been trying to get my hands on copies of the Magic of Ju-Ju and Fire Music. Amazingly, I won a copy of Fire Music right after I got to Chicago on ebay, and then found this record the day afterwards. I didn't think one could mix free jazz and big band, but that is more or less what is going on with this album; glad I picked this up.

The Sidekick Kato record I heard years and years ago when these guys were still playing around a lot, but I never found a copy until this weekend. I almost wasn't sure I was going to like it, since it had been near 10 years since I heard it last, but its still good. They somehow manage to mix the anthemic punk of the great chicago bands like Sludgeworth and Naked Raygun with the more emo/post-hardcore sound that was so prevalent in the late-90s.

Finally, the Limp Wrist record is great, I had no idea these guys had just put out another record. (It has Martin Sorrendeguy on vocals, the singer of Los Crudos, if you haven't heard of them...). More great thrashy hardcore, not much of a surprise here, but still good. I generally try to avoid buying new records when I travel, but getting copies of Lengua Armada records is so hard and they go out of print so fast that I broke my normal travel rules. 

Today's Albuquerque Record Convention

Today, another of the bi-annual record conventions was held in Albuquerque, and I think I did pretty well. I've been going to these pretty consistently for the last 3 years. A lot of the sellers are the same, but there are always new people that bring some good records. This time I felt like I'm going to grow out of this convention, as my collection is growing and there isn't a whole lot of common stuff I'm really searching for anymore. Anyway, I'm still happy with what I picked up, which for the all that is in the picks below, set me back about $140. In addition to what I have pictures of, I also grabbed 4 45's, 3 from Albert King and one from B.B. King for $1, a reissue copy of Mingus' Black Saint and the Sinner Lady for a friend, and a dealer gave me a free 10" 16rpm record that I have no idea what I will do with. 

This time around, I didn't smell anybody, which I was happy about (although I have really bad allergies right now and can't breathe that well through my nose). The last few times, there have been a few really smelly guys that reeked of cat urine. 

Every convention there is this older lady that keeps a Cabbage Patch doll in a strap-on baby carrier on her chest. She was here again, I think she is married to a dealer, and I heard plenty of other dealers gossiping about this woman. No one seems to know why she carries the Cabbage Patch doll, I think next time I will ask her.

I also heard some people saying the local Krazy Kat Records store was condemned by the city. I'm not sure if that is really true, but I don't feel that sad about it. On the one hand, its sad to lose a local record store, but on the other, the owners of this shop were gross, seemed to be engaging in shady activities, and consistently overcharged for many of their records.

On to today's finds:

John Coltrane-Coltrane's Sound

Return to Forever-Where Have I Seen You Before

John Coltrane-Mating Call

Sonny Rollins-Worktime

Duke Ellington-Money Jungle

Herbie Hancock-Blow Up Soundtrack

Sun Ra-Sound of Joy

Jimmy McGriff - Red Beans

The Deuce Coupes-The Shutdowns (a split? maybe...)

The Bob Seger System-Mongrel

The Royal Guardsmen-Snoopy vs the Red Baron

The Frost-Frost Music

Al Green - Let's Stay Together

Sam Cooke - Live at the Harlem Club

Otis Redding - Live in Europe

Marvin Gaye- What's Going On
Sodom - In the Sign of Evil

Satan-Into the Future

Warfare - Total Death ep

Exciter - feel the knife

Jughead's Revenge - Unstuck in time

Speed Kills - (V/A speed metal comp)

Exciter-Heavy Metal Maniac

Exodus - Pleasures of the Flesh

Death Angel - Ultra-Violence

Top 10 things I despise about records and record collecting

1. Colored Vinyl – Yeah, sometimes it looks cool, but I don’t buy records to stare at them, I buy them to listen to. I’m not totally convinced about the argument that colored vinyl sounds worse, I just don’t have a setup where I think I could tell, and there are so many other reasons why a record is going to sound shitty that are likely more important. I just think it looks cheap, and makes me think the band/label are more concerned about selling a cool looking collector’s item rather than a functional product. It costs labels more to press on colored vinyl, and serves absolutely no functional purpose, spend the damn money on the recording or the artwork. Thankfully I don’t buy a whole lot of new records where this is an issue, but I’m annoyed when I have to pick between 4 ugly colors, and none of them are black.

 

2. Picture Discs – I like to buy metal on vinyl, but it seems more prevalent among metal bands and labels to release picture discs. They tend to cost more, look like garbage, and don’t even have covers. What is the fucking deal? Of the few I have, they always come in already split plastic sleeves, so even if one wanted to buy these abominations, they are a pain in the ass to take care of and store with other records.

 

3. European Pressings – Talk about low quality knock offs, why does vinyl pressed in Europe always sound bad, come on paper thin vinyl, and come packed in the cheapest possible jackets? And this isn’t just ethno-centrism, the Japanese press great quality vinyl and use sturdy covers just as well as Americans.

 

4. Single LPs longer than 45 minutes – Hell, even 45 minutes is pushing it. Some examples might be the Cure’s Disintegration, Death’s Symbolic, and the new reissue of Sepultura’s Beneath the Remains. These records sound worse than cassettes soaked in water. Do the companies who press these even care about what their records sound like? Are they under the impression people don’t listen to records?

 

5. Bonus tracks – Some bands like to put extra tracks on either the vinyl version of their album, or the cd. Why? Can’t they decide on what the album should be? Are they trying to make their fans buy two copies? A bonus track is like a big kick in the face to a bands biggest fans. I also tend to appreciate an album as a cohesive whole. When there is an extra track unique to a particular format, it messes with that cohesiveness, or suggests the band doesn’t give a fuck.

 

6. Records that are anything other than 7”, 10”, or 12” – All those stupid punk and hardcore labels that think 8.5” records, and skull shaped discs are cool, just stop it. Anyone who has tried to play a 5” record knows what a joke this novelty crap is. Make good music, don’t hide it by putting out some crazy package trying to mask the garbage inside.

 

7. Double LPs where the 1^st record has sides 1 and 4, and the second record has sides 2 and 3 – If I ever listen to these albums, I almost never listen to them in order. Off the top of my head, I can think of John Coltrane’s Live in Seattle and Miles Davis’ Live Evil that were pressed this way. What a pain in the ass. Someone once told me they used to make record players with two turntables, so that is why these double LPs were pressed with the sides out of order. Is that true? I have no idea, but if that was case, how many people could afford these?  I even have a Leadbelly triple LP box where the records have side 1 and 6 together, sides 2 and 5 together, and sides 3 and 4 together. Totally obnoxious.

 

8. Elaborate packaging – I don’t want to work to get the LP out of the jacket. It just makes me want to not listen to these records. I’d prefer to just slide the record in and out of the jacket, I don’t need some triple gatefold design where I have to open up the whole thing to get to the music (I’m thinking of the Black Angels Directions to See a Ghost), or some type of annoying clasp (like the original pressing of the Los Crudos/Spitboy split LP) that just leads to wear on the jacket over time from opening it.

 

9. People that don’t collect records telling me they have a bunch old Beatles records – I don’t care, and there is a 99% chance they either don’t play or are later worthless pressings. Just because it is the Beatles or it is old does not mean it is somehow valuable.

 

10. Mold and cat piss – I know record collectors are a weird bunch, but come on, don’t show up at a record show wearing a shirt your 10 cats sleep and piss on. Also, what is with storing records in dirty places? I’m not a freak for cleanliness, but having black and grimy hands after a good day of digging is just gross. Record collecting may be damaging to my financial and emotional health, I’m ok with that, but I don’t want to end up at the doctor because I caught some weird disease from touching a bunch of dirty ass records.

 

Honorable mentions:

 

The waiting period between record shows – Its like the day after the Super Bowl, knowing there is no football for another 8 months...

 

The credit card bill – This is my own fault, but its not quite so bad if I resist the urge to add up all the frivolous music purchases I make each month.

I just won Sodom's Agent Orange LP!

For $9.08 on the 'bay. Hot damn! I don't know what this is really worth, I guess the stupid picture disc version that comes in a tin can is valuable, but I just won the normal LP version. I am excited though, Sodom vinyl is generally hard to find, and their Agent Orange album is awesome. 

Today's finds

Yardbirds - Little Games (1967)

Killing Joke-s/t (1980)

Linn County-Fever Shot (1969)

I found all of these at the local store, We Buy Music. I was basically just bored today, so I spent a couple hours just browsing the store, and as I was about to leave, the store owner mentioned to me he had this pile of boxes, full of records, that he hadn't yet gone through to put out on the floor. There was a ton of stuff in there I was interested in, but I found this Yardbirds record and the first Killing Joke album. The Yardbirds record is ok, it has Jimmy Page on it, so that is what made me purchase it, but there are a number of amazing songs on there mixed with weird and mediocre psychedelic songs. 

I was more excited about finding the Killing Joke album. I have been keeping an eye out for this record ever since I began collecting records. The only reason being is that it has the song "The Wait" that Metallica covered on their $5.98 Garage Days Re-Revisited ep. I have always wanted to find the original vinyl versions of all the songs that Metallica covered on that ep, since it was the first thing I ever heard from Metallica, and also one of the first metal albums I ever heard. The Killing Joke record is only the second one I've managed to get. Having the Misfits Last Caress and Green Hell on vinyl is just too easy (well, at the least the reissues anyways), so I was never that motivated to seek out the other songs by Diamondhead, Holocaust and Budgie, but now that I have the Killing Joke record, I might be more motivated to finish off this search. 

The rest of the Killing Joke record is actually pretty amazing too, its very hard and gritty, mixing post-punk, industrial, and metal, which would probably turn out incredibly shitty if done today, but sounds great when its from 1980. I recently saw that this record was reissued and had been pondering picking it up, but I got lucky today in finding an original EG pressing.

The Linn County record was free, its pretty beat up, and I had no idea who they were, but I was curious in hearing it. It had the look of a late 60s hard rock/heavy blues album, a style of music I really love, so I figured I would take a chance. When the owner told me it was free, I was surprised as hell. Sometimes this guy is pretty weird about pricing, but maybe the terrible economy is hurting him and he needs to encourage more business? The record isn't bad, and I guessed correctly on the style. It sounds a lot like a mediocre version of the first Allman Brothers Band album, but not a bad find for free! 

Broken Hope

God damn I have not posted in a while. Not only have I been super busy, but I sometimes find blogging to be annoying and self-indulgent. Since I have been listening to almost nothing but metal for the last couple months, I decided I would post this 7" record from Broken Hope that came out in 1993. This record is one of the first records I ever purchased at my first ever show. I more or less remember the show, but I can't remember at all what the first record was that I purchased, I have a small collection of records I know were among my first, but its all a blur now.

So my first show was at the Thirsty Whale (I think?) in Chicago in 1993. The headlining band was Unleashed from Sweden, and Demented Ted and Broken Hope from Chicago. I only knew who Broken Hope were, and loved their cd that had just come out at the time, The Bowels of Repugnance. I think this was the first death metal band I really got into, the cookie monster vocals and the extremely disturbing lyrics were just the coolest thing to me when I was 13-14 years old. Now, I have a hard time listening to this album, but it does have a lot of sentimental value for me. 

My first show was not supposed to be this death metal show. My parents were really hesitant to let me go to a show, but for my 14th birthday, they bought me tickets to go see the Butthole Surfers and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the club (the Riviera in Chicago, if I remember correctly), the show had been canceled at the last minute. I was really disappointed, since I also was really into the Independent Worm Saloon album by the Surfers that had just come out. The next show I could find that I wanted to see was this Broken Hope show. Me being a dumb 14 year kid, and my parents being completely ignorant of the type of music it was, agreed to it, so I went to this show with my dad. I was a slightly puggy, nerdy looking kid, and I remember wearing this ridiculous Chicago Bulls Starter jacket to the show, and my dad was the only normal looking person there. Everyone else was dressed completely in black, had long hair, and to me at the time, were frankly just scary people. The club was gross and dirty, and I felt like everyone was just staring at us the entire time. 

But, the show was awesome, Unleashed were incredible, I eventually picked up one of their tapes, and Demented Ted were good too. The singer in Broken Hope actually talked like he sang in between songs, which was just the best thing at the time, and as souvenirs for the show, I picked up this 7" and a shirt. I maybe listened to the record 2 or 3 times, there was never any reason to play it since the songs were all on their album, but the shirt I got had the cover of the record on it (I can't believe my dad let me buy that, I don't think he was really paying attention...). I wore the hell out of that shirt through high school, occasionally having to turn it inside out when a teacher would look at it closely. 

I really have to give my dad a lot of credit, I don't remember him ever saying anything bad about the show, it was a little bit of a crazy experience, but no one bothered us, he had a beer and I just enjoyed the hell out of the bands. 

I wonder if Blogger is going to now flag this site for posting objectionable material, let's hope so.

Saints and Sinners...

No, not the terrible Whitesnake album, but Charle's Mingus' magnum opus, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. I just got this in the mail today, and I'm super excited to finally have a copy. And a mono white label promo copy to boot.

The loss of a record collection.

This is an extremely sad and depressing story about a man who hired a moving company which lost most of his record collection. Last time I moved, my records sat in the passenger seat next to me in a moving truck. Now, that would be impossible because of its size, but I would never let someone else touch them. What was this guy thinking??

Phoenix Hunting Trip

I just got back from a nice trip with my wife to Phoenix. We basically just spent money, drank, and ate (and some other things...). Last year we went to Phoenix to primarily go to Ikea, and I found a bunch of decent record stores then. This time I went back to the better ones I found, as well as a few new ones. Luckily for us, the new light rail just started running the day before we arrived and was free the entire time we were there. Many of the records stores were within walking distance from one of the metro stops. I also brought a pile of records to trade with me, to not only cut down on costs, but also to get rid of stuff I probably couldn't get rid of here in ABQ. Amazingly, I got rid of everything I brought to trade.

1. Stinkweeds

Stinkweeds is an ok store, not my favorite, but since it is just across the street from Tracks in Wax, it doesn't hurt to stop in. I did pretty well here, scoring the 1st 88 Fingers Louie 7" for $2, after just selling it a few months back for much more than that. I also got a nice copy of Herbie Hancock's Empyrean Isles. Not an original, but I'm pretty sure its either a late 60s or early 70s pressing (it has the dark blue Blue Note labels). Mostly, Stinkweeds is a hipster record store, lots of punk, indie, hip hop, and small selections of jazz and other styles. They carry a lot of new vinyl, and a lot of cds so if you are looking for for that its worth checking out. The one plus is they seem somewhat selective with what they carry, so there is no wading through hundreds of bad classic rock and 80s synth pop to find a treasure. 

Since I was on the light rail, I wasn't able to bring many records with me on the first record buying trip to Stinkweeds, Tracks in Wax, and Revolver. I traded in a copy of Guns n' Roses-Appetite for Destruction, and Mike Heron's Smiling Men with Bad Reputations, but I didn't get very much for them so I wouldn't recommend trading in records here.

2. Tracks in Wax Records

I went here on my last trip as well, and its also just across from one of the new light rail stops. It is almost all used records, with 1000s of rock lps, and large country, comedy, soul, and jazz sections. They also have a large 45 collection, and carry a good amount of pretty rare records that are hanging on the walls. Unfortunately, there $150 copy of Gene Vincent's Bluejean Bop was out of my price range as well as some Sam Cooke lps. I did ok here as well, the Lighting Hopkins record was an excellent find. The John Coltrane-Expression, and Herbie Hancock-Maiden Voyage are both later pressings, but I'm glad to have found these for cheap. 

Here, I traded in a copy of Captain Sensible's Women and Captain First, and Plainsong's In Search of Amelia Earhart. These aren't bad records, but I never listen to them, and thought they deserved a better home. The owner traded me these two for the Coltrane record, which was ok with me, but still on the low end. I probably wouldn't trade here again. He originally offered me $3 for the two records, but then decided he'd do the 2 for 1 deal. In general, I like this store, and they had a lot of other records I wanted, but the condition on a number of records was not great. Definitely a store to return to, but it seems a store like this should either have better quality control or have a vinyl listening station.

3. Revolver Records

Near the end of the 1st trip out hunting, I went to Revolver. I think this is a relatively new store, and I had not been there before. It has a large new and used rock section, and decent sections for soul, jazz, and punk, plus smaller sections for prog, blues, and metal. I think there was large classical section, but I don't remember. This place is really tiny and its hard to move around the store, but I'd definitely come back here. It was a little over whelming and my wife was mad by this point, so I didn't have much time to look at everything. I was really excited to find Aretha Franklin's 1st album for almost nothing. Maybe its not worth much, I don't know, but I also recently found her 2nd album and fell in love with that. The 1st one is just as amazing. I also picked up new reissue copies of Jimmy McGriff's Soul Sugar and Roland Kirk's left and right. I'm increasingly trying to move away from buying the new reissues, but these were pretty cheap and I wanted to support the store. The one plus Revolver has over other stores in Phoenix is that they have a vinyl listening station, which helped me put back a crummy James Brown lp I might have purchased if I hadn't been able to listen to it. The listening station itself is pretty crappy, the headphones were taped together and it required some acrobatics to get things to stay on my head, but at least they have one. No trades here.

EDIT: I obviously have no idea what I'm talking about in regards to the Aretha Franklin album. It was her second for Atlantic, and the other one I was talking about, I Never Loved A Man the Way I Loved You, was her first for the label. She had several previous albums on Columbia, and her first came out in 1956. These early Atlantic albums were her first major hits.

4. Hoodlums Music and Movies

Hoodlums may also be new, I don't know, but I didn't go there on my last trip. Its located in South Tempe, fairly far from the light rail, which may affect my decision to go back there if we go back to Phoenix in the near future. They have a large selection of used (and some new) rock lps, and a good amount of jazz and soul records. Not much else in terms of punk or metal, but I did see a few. Since we were in the car, I was able to bring a decent haul of records to trade, and I thought I did well at Hoodlums. This store is definitely a great place to trade in records, I came close to getting what I had paid for everything they took. 

I was able to get rid of:

Weather Report-Mysterious Traveller (absolutely horrible record)

McCoy Tyner-Enlightenment (I thought it was boring)

Miles Davis - Dig (a later reissue, and it has Sonny Rollins on it, but this is one of the first recordings for both these artists and does not compare to their later work)

Chick Corea-Three Quartets (ok, but I only listened to it a couple times)

Alice Coltrane-Trancendence (I just got this record, but I don't like it much)

Stanley Clarke-Journey of Love (just ok, a decent dollar find from Krazy Kat, but not worth listening to again)

Bjork-Alarm Call 12" single (I used to have 3 different versions of these, and this is the last one to go. I'm slowly purging my Bjork singles collection because I never ever listen to this stuff)

I was happy to find the Wayne Shorter lp, which I had never heard of, but its pretty good. I'd been wanting to get the live Coltrane record for a while, and I'm glad I found that as well. The Utopia record was only $1, and friend of mine had turned me on to them over the summer. I finally found one of their earlier records and its definitely some great prog rock.

The owner here (I think) saw me checking the condition on a number of records and asked me what I thought about the condition of his selection. I kind of started rambling, but generally their records were in decent shape. I did find a Return to Forever album that they were asking $5 for that I thought should have been a dollar because of a pressing flaw and told him so. I also asked him it would be easier to make decisions if they had a listening station and said they are working on it. I got the impression they just started carrying vinyl so maybe this is a place to check out in the future after they get their feet on the ground. 

5. Eastside Records

This place is located right across from ASU, and was my favorite store from the last Phoenix trip. I'm not so sure I'd say the same now, but it is definitely worth a visit. I picked up a pretty trashed copy of Booker T and MG's Hip Hug Her, but it does play well. I also got an original of Roland Kirk's Volunteered Slavery, and an excellent reissue lp of an early Maytals record.

I was able to trade in a copy of High on Fire's The Art of Self Defense, a punk comp called Hysteria from Lengua Armada Discos, and I gave them a copy of this Norwegian hardcore comp I had called ... and they have tears in their eyes. I gave it away because I have two copies that were leftover from my punk distro days, and I haven't been able to find anyone who wanted this in the 6+ years I've had them. The same is true of the Hysteria comp, but this is a much better record and I wouldn't give this away for free. In addition to Hoodlums, Eastside was the other worthwhile place to trade records as they gave me a good deal. Eastside has good selection of punk, rock, soul, and jazz records, plus smaller sections for reggae, metal and hip hop. The condition of a lot of their records is somewhat questionable, but there are definitely some good finds here.

6. Zia Record Exchange

I wasn't planning on going here, but my wife had to return some pants she bought on the morning we left, so I waited here at the Tempe location. I found a used copy of the Frodus/Trans Megetti 7" which I was happy about, but in general the vinyl selection here isn't great and its almost half new lps. (I'd show a picture of the 7" but I haven't been able to figure out how to upload more than 5 pics per post). A better place for used cd's and movies, but its definitely at the bottom of my list of places to return to.

Christmas Eve Finds

Ahmad Jamal-Freeflight

War-The World is a Ghetto

Leadbelly-The Legend of Leadbelly

The Supremes-Where Did Our Love Go

The Astronauts-Everything is A-OK!

The George Benson Quartet-It's Uptown

I found all these records yesterday. The Jamal disc was a mailbox find (from ebay) which I wanted because its the first disc where he uses the Fender Rhodes, my current favorite instrument of choice. The War, Leadbelly, Supremes, and Astronauts albums (along with the Alex Keack record from the previous post) I picked up from Krazy Kat for a whopping 9 bucks. The Supremes and Astronauts records were also 25 cents a piece but these records surprisingly play very well. The Astronauts disc is the most thrashed, with the cover basically held together with a couple pieces of scotch tape and the vinyl has some pretty bad scratches, but no skips and barely a pop. The Supremes album has one bad pop (luckily on a bad song) but plays very well. The Keack record is actually in decent shape, the vinyl is clean and the cover is still very much intact.  I'm not sure I really needed another Leadbelly record, I do have a nice vinyl box set of his Library of Congress recordings, but it doesn't have the song "Where Did You Sleep Last Night." This one does, so I'm glad to have it.

The George Benson record is surprisingly good. He is another one of those artists where their records just litter dollar bins, but I had never run across this record until now. It came out very early in his career, and has a great upbeat swinging jazz feel accompanied by Lonnie Smith on organ, as well as baritone sax, bass and drums. Benson even does a couple vocal tracks that have more a soul vibe to them, but don't feel out of place on the album.  

I picked this up at the newest vinyl spot in town, Natural Sound. Natural Sound has been around for a while as a new and used CD shop, but just starting carrying vinyl in the last few months. I'll have to dedicate a post pretty soon to some of my finds there, there have been some really great ones. Hopefully the vinyl will help the store stay open, as it never seemed to have much business when I went there.  It never really was one of my favorite places because their cd prices can be worse than mall shops, but its an indy shop and I'd hate to seem them pack it up. But, now that they have vinyl, I think I've spent more money there in the last two months than I have in the over four years I've lived in this town.

Christmas Eve playlist

Back to the vinyl! Yesterday my wife and I made a nice dinner to celebrate Christmas Eve. Not that we care so much about the holiday, but it is a great excuse to drink and stuff our faces. Here is what accompanied us throughout the cooking, eating, and cleaning up.

While we were cooking, we were listening to some Madness and Carl Perkins. The Madness record my wife brought to the collection, and the Carl Perkins record I picked up a weeks ago from a flea market my suegra suggested I go to to check out the vinyl they had. Usually when we cook a big meal it takes a long time, but the preparation went pretty quickly and we didn't even finish the Perkins disc.

While we ate dinner, we listen to a couple more mellow albums. I actually just found the Alex Keack record yesterday from Krazy Kat Records for a quarter, and it was the best 25 cents I spent in a long time. I was expecting a surf record, but this is more lounge/exotica along the lines of Esquivel. It was a great surprise from Crown records, which I had blogged about in my first ever post. The Perez Prado disc was probably not the best dinner music, the voodoo suite is great but a little dark and my suegra hated it.

After we finished dinner, we jammed out to a little Yardbirds while doing the dishes. I also just recently picked this disc up at Charlies for a meezly ten bucks, original mono issue and all.

The menu:

-Spinach salad w/feta, olives, and red onions

-Cheese plate with and Irish cheddar, some kind of white cheese from Seattle's Pike Place Market, and smoked mozarella

-Penne pasta with pesto, roasted tomatoes, kalamata olives, and portabella mushrooms

-Veggie casserole with zucchini, mushrooms, onions, green chile, marinara sauce and cheese

-Garlic bread

-Champagne (we didn't want to wait until midnight, so why not for dinner?)

-Dessert: Apple Pie and Chocolate Mousse cake from the local Flying Star cafe.

Over-priced reissues

As I work on a response to my previous post, there is a short article over here about all the recent vinyl reissues of old records. I definitely agree with the author that recent reissues of records easily available at most used record stores is really a greedy scam to get people to pay much more for something worth much less. Yeah, artists don't make anything off the used record market, but also many of these artists don't depend on the sales 20-40 year old albums to make a living, if they are even still alive. 

EDIT: Case in point, some decided it would be a good idea to re-release Weather Report's Heavy Weather. Not only is this album a complete turd, it litters virtually every record store I have walked in to. I picked this up in close to NM condition for about 75 cents about a year ago. I'd have a hard time giving this away, but maybe I can now play the vintage angle, instead of getting the new reissue for 18.99 why not get the original vintage press for the same price? Hell, I'll even sell it for half the price of the new reissue...

I want my 75 cents back.