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ventaThis weekend, I was in Oxford. And the best thing about being in Oxford on the first Saturday of the month is that you can go to the secondhand record and CD fair in the Town Hall. For extra indie-cred, wave your antique IMSoc membership card at them and demand to be let in for half-price.
Then scour the boxes they hide under tables for hidden treasure. Two albums for a fiver ? Why, I don't mind if I do...
Aerosmith - Nine Lives : I make no apology for this. Shame Permanent Vacation was in the slightly more expensive box :)
Black Tape For A Blue Girl - : I have vague memories of having had this band recommended before. And they've got a good name. First impression of the album is positive overall, but I have a feeling it'll be one of those where I can never tell the tracks apart. Big, swooshy, dripping arcs of etheral melody; music to cry to. Sometimes the violins remind me a little bit of Ed Alleyne-Johnson's stuff.
Catchers - Stooping To Fit : OK. All right. I s'pose. Disappointing, really, because their other album, Mute might even make it into my top-ten-albums-ever. For some reason on Stooping To Fit they decided to ditch the haunting melodies, spare arrangements and fragile tunes and instead to sound a bit like every band, ever. Still, (a) I was warned to expect to be disappointed, and (b) it was a quid.
The Coral - The Coral : I thought I already owned a copy of this. Turns out I didn't, though. Must have mp3'd someone else's.
Devo - Smooth Noodle Maps : Note to self. Do not buy an album you have never heard of out of a bargain basement box. It may be in there for a reason. When I was 15, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We are DEVO! sounded like nothing else, and seemed wonderful. Catchy, quirky, and sometimes terribly serious and awkard. I've barely heard any Devo since. Smooth Noodle Maps is the last album they made before splitting up, sounds a bit like they'd been overrun by the Ghost of EBM Yet To Come, and does not, on one listen, appear to be a Good Thing. I'm hoping that (a) it might grow on me and (b) earlier Devo hasn't degraded and become rubbish while I wasn't listening.
In The Nursery - Duality : Having never seen any ITN albums secondhand before, I found two. By playing eeny-meeny, I chose Duality (the other was Anatomy of a Poet). Duality makes for rather pleasant listening - it occupies that strange halfway house between orchestral music and rock - but isn't at all what I was expecting. Where's the Big Drums ? Serves me right for completely ignoring the advice I was given.
Garbage - Version 2.0 : I think I had a taped copy of this at one point, but I've either lost it or recorded over it or something. It's certainly not new, but seeing Garbage recently reminded me that they've actually got a surprising number of good songs.
So, that's a neat half-BerWick (ie seven albums) for me.
Kind of. I'm keeping quiet about one other purchase. Coming soon to a Desk near you on a Friday afternoon.
Second hand CD shops are as much fun as secondhand bookshops. And that's not an accolade I bestow lightly.
Then scour the boxes they hide under tables for hidden treasure. Two albums for a fiver ? Why, I don't mind if I do...
Aerosmith - Nine Lives : I make no apology for this. Shame Permanent Vacation was in the slightly more expensive box :)
Black Tape For A Blue Girl - : I have vague memories of having had this band recommended before. And they've got a good name. First impression of the album is positive overall, but I have a feeling it'll be one of those where I can never tell the tracks apart. Big, swooshy, dripping arcs of etheral melody; music to cry to. Sometimes the violins remind me a little bit of Ed Alleyne-Johnson's stuff.
Catchers - Stooping To Fit : OK. All right. I s'pose. Disappointing, really, because their other album, Mute might even make it into my top-ten-albums-ever. For some reason on Stooping To Fit they decided to ditch the haunting melodies, spare arrangements and fragile tunes and instead to sound a bit like every band, ever. Still, (a) I was warned to expect to be disappointed, and (b) it was a quid.
The Coral - The Coral : I thought I already owned a copy of this. Turns out I didn't, though. Must have mp3'd someone else's.
Devo - Smooth Noodle Maps : Note to self. Do not buy an album you have never heard of out of a bargain basement box. It may be in there for a reason. When I was 15, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We are DEVO! sounded like nothing else, and seemed wonderful. Catchy, quirky, and sometimes terribly serious and awkard. I've barely heard any Devo since. Smooth Noodle Maps is the last album they made before splitting up, sounds a bit like they'd been overrun by the Ghost of EBM Yet To Come, and does not, on one listen, appear to be a Good Thing. I'm hoping that (a) it might grow on me and (b) earlier Devo hasn't degraded and become rubbish while I wasn't listening.
In The Nursery - Duality : Having never seen any ITN albums secondhand before, I found two. By playing eeny-meeny, I chose Duality (the other was Anatomy of a Poet). Duality makes for rather pleasant listening - it occupies that strange halfway house between orchestral music and rock - but isn't at all what I was expecting. Where's the Big Drums ? Serves me right for completely ignoring the advice I was given.
Garbage - Version 2.0 : I think I had a taped copy of this at one point, but I've either lost it or recorded over it or something. It's certainly not new, but seeing Garbage recently reminded me that they've actually got a surprising number of good songs.
So, that's a neat half-BerWick (ie seven albums) for me.
Kind of. I'm keeping quiet about one other purchase. Coming soon to a Desk near you on a Friday afternoon.
Second hand CD shops are as much fun as secondhand bookshops. And that's not an accolade I bestow lightly.
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-05 11:27 pm (UTC)i dispute that ! without buying unknown albums on spec from bargain boxes and their equivalents i might never have come to possess albums by Crush, Dark Sun Riders, Ednaswap, James Hall, Minxus, Rowland S. Howard, Ryan Downe, Sixteen Deluxe, Slingbacks, Subrosa, Toiling Midgets, Torcher, Traci Lords or Your God Rules, all of which i'm rather fond of.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-06 07:42 am (UTC)But buying an album you've never heard of buy an artist you do know about is often not such a good idea.
Not that I'll stop doing it, of course, because sometimes it works well. But you know, sometimes albums get forgotten because they're bobbins :)
no subject
Date: 2005-07-06 09:43 am (UTC)Sad but true. But I can reassure you that earlier Devo is still just as it was. Freedom of Choice I would recommend ahead of Q. Are We... if you're looking to re-investigate -- it's equally wonderful in parts, but in more parts.