Sabato 11 Ago 2007, 23:23
A good day for CD shopping, and not nearly as hard on the wallet as it could have been thanks to some dollar-bin savvy.
1st stop- Aquarius Records. Sometimes I feel too nerdy to shop here, but I'm addicted to their selection so I will have to endure the record store employee "shade" I get from some, though not all, of the employees. Anyway:
New
Circle - Arkades. Been loving these Finnish guys. Haven't listened to this one yet, but from the lengthy description on the Aquarius website I'm expecting it will be as awesome as their other stuff and apparently it's more drone/ krautrock inflected as opposed to their NWOFHM releases like Tulikoira and Sunrise. Seriously though, these guys release too many damn albums for their own good.
Expo '70 - Animism. A one-man drone project from LA, or Kansas City, or something like that. I've purchased a couple of the limited CDRs in the last few weeks, and I'm really impressed. This seems to be more "song" structured, or at least the indivdual tracks have titles, unlike Center of the Earth, which sort of drifts in and out and some big, fuzzy riffs with some very subtle bleeps and squiggles here and there. Really trance inducing stuff.
Dollar Bin
Blackalicious - A to G. I sold this disc many years ago when I was selling all of my CDs in order to eat. It's always nice to get things back and I haven't really been paying hip-hop enough attention lately.
Next stop was Streetlight Records, a smaller store with a slightly less adventurous selection, and a more down to earth staff. It isn't like they don't have good stuff, just more like the buyers were really big into music in the 90s and not as much anymore. They have a big selection of Brian Eno and Stereolab, likewise a lot of shoegaze, but groups like Animal Collective, Jesu, etc., don't quite seem to get the same treatment. I scored 4 CDs for less than $10. Suh-weet.
Anyway…
Used
His Name is Alive - Home is in Your Head. It's nice to hear Post-Rock from a time before Post-Rock came to mean almost exclusively instrumental loud/quiet/loud/quiet music. Dreamy music with elements of neofolk and dream pop, and maybe even a little bit of 60s psychedelic (thinking Jefferson Airplane for some reason), but maybe that's just me.
Dollar Bin
Dot Allison - Afterglow. I kind of like her music. Sad, slow, almost as awesome as Beth Gibbons, with a lot more white fuzz and a little less ka-doonsh, or razzmatazz, or basically less percussive than Portishead. Which reminds me I haven't listened to Portishead in a long time. Time to rip those CDs finally?
Add N to (X) - Avant Hard. I'm not sure what this is. I've heard the name and I'm guessing electro-dance. I can take that in small doses or if I'm out and about (a rare sight these days), but I do need something to cut into all of the hard and dark that I've been putting into my head lately. Dollar bins aren't the place to be unadventurous.
Math and Physics Club - Weekends Away. I like these guys. Sweet nearly to the point of saccharine, but still really good. A friend sent me this in mp3s last year, which was definitely my "year of total tweedom."
All in all, my wallet's barely over $40 lighter, which I'd say makes this a good run indeed. Tomorrow I might make a couple more purchases. I really want some Swans and Current 93.