Category Archives: Retail

B-Sides in the Bins – #5 – Tower Records in San Jose, CA

Posted on by
Reply

If you’ve been reading any of the bigger blog sites like Stereogum or Idolator, you are probably aware that the Tower Records chain of music stores is closing and the end is in sight. In these last days the locations are having progressive sales. In the beginning, the sale prices weren’t that great since most of the titles at Tower were $15.99 and higher! I was in San Jose last week for business and I made it a point to hit a Tower while I was there. I visited the Tower Blossom Hill off Highway 85. According to the website, this location is infamous for a “surprise” appearance of Metallica in June of 1996.

I made it to the store some time after 8 PM on Thursday, December 14th. All CD’s in the store were at 70% off and DVD’s were at 60% off! Rap titles were $1.99 apiece. The store was very picked over, while there was some organization left in the original bins, there were additional bins scattered throughout the store that weren’t organized in any fashion– so it was cratedigging through those. The in-store audio was playing David and David’s Welcome to the Boomtown album which was appropriate in a kind of ironic way. One of my justifications for this run was to get some Christmas gifts, so I’ll be leaving a couple of things off in case the recipients are reading, however unlikely that might be.

Everything All The Time – Band of Horses (CD SubPop SPCD 690, 2006) (List $14.99, Paid $4.00) There were a bunch of copies of this one in the bins. Band of Horses was a big deal earlier this year, and I liked what I’d heard, so I picked this up.

‘Sno Angel Like You – Howe Gelb (CD Thrill Jockey Thrill 167, 2006) (List $15.99, Paid $4.80) The only copy of this in the bin. I reviewed this CD last spring glowingly. I had borrowed this to review it and wanted to get a copy for myself.

Around – Tom Verlaine (CD Thrill Jockey Thril 174, 2006) (List $15.99, Paid $4.80) I haven’t had a chance to hear this, yet. This is the instrumental album he released this year which is considered to be the follow up to Warm and Cool, which Thrill Jockey re-released this year.

Megaforce – 707 (CD MTM Classix 0681-99, 2004 – Italian Import) (List $31.99, Paid $9.60) This is a guilty pleasure, I guess and a surprise find. Megaforce was 707’s third album and included the theme song to the 1982 movie of the same name starring a very blonde Barry Bostwick. I was at some party my Sophomore year of high school with some Seniors who were playing this tape. I went to Musicland in Dubuque shortly afterwords and bought a cassette for myself. This was a tape that got a lot of play while riding around in my ’74 Firebird. 707 sounds like a cross between Journey and REO Speedwagon, which might be due to the fact that Kevin Cronin was a fan and got them signed to a label and Jonathan Cain helped write the song “Megaforce.” I’d been wanting to get this on CD for a while, but it quickly fell out of print. This is an Italian import and contains bonus tracks of additional “incidental” music from the movie. Recommended if you like motorcycles that fly.

…until we felt red – Kaki King (CD Velour Recordings VEL 0604, 2006) (List $15.99, Paid $4.80) This was a CD that I had forgotten about until I saw the very distinctive cover. Kaki King is mostly known as an instrumental guitarist, but on this album she does some singing and adds a band. This album is produced by John McEntire who is from Tortoise and the Sea & Cake. As a result, this album sounds a lot like those bands. It also seems to have moments of shoegazing similar to the Pale Saints. Pitchfork gave this album a damning 4.7, somewhat unfairly. This sounds like an album from an artist trying to expand her sound. Very listenable.

Son – Juana Molina (CD Domino Recordings WIG176, 2006) (List: $16.99, Paid $5.10) I first read about Juana Molina in the July 2006 issue of “The Believer,” which was their annual music issue and came with a CD. In the magazine was a very interesting interview. The album is an eclectic mix of Argentinian pop and electronica according to the sticker on the sleeve. Juana says in the interview that she is very influenced by sounds around her. She evidently imitates birds and other animals in her music. I can’t wait to hear this one!

All-in-all a good haul. I could have left with much more, though. Other titles I saw but didn’t pick up included: Don Dixon’s new The Entire Combustible World in One Small Room, an SACD of The Black Orpheus by Vince Guaraldi (still kicking myself), the 2 CD Deluxe edition of Matthew Sweet’s Girlfriend (multiple copies), Grant Green’s Greene Street, the expanded reissue of Spoon’s Telephono, *many* copies of the Flaming Lips’ At War With the Mystics, Japanese import slipcase edtions of Springsteen’s The River, and The Clash’s Sandinista, and many copies of the MSTRKRFT album.

If you get a chance to, you should hit a store. I read someplace that when a location closes, they have a 90% sale!

B-Sides in the Bins – #4 The Mugs US Tour by Brett Tieman

Posted on by
Reply

This week we have a special guest digger contributing to “B-Sides in the Bins!” Brett Tieman is the bass and guitarist for a four-piece band out of Brooklyn called The Mugs whose music can be described as coming from the same sonic place as and often draws comparisons to college rock bands like REM, The Smiths, and The Stone Roses. Brett contacted me before the Mugs departed on their first US Tour asking for advice on Midwestern record stores to visit. Brett sent me a copy of their first full-length album Paper Scissors Rock in 2005 on their own SkinnyFat Records. It’s been a part of my regular rotation of CD’s since I got it and it is a good change of pace from the regular diet of indie rock. The Mugs are going back into the studio shortly to record the follow up. Visit their MySpace page to sample songs from Paper Scissors Rock.

Special Coorespondent Brett, The Mugs (of Brooklyn, NY)

In July, the four of us Mugs decided that after four years of playing almost solely inside NYC, it was time to treat ourselves to a little tour of the States. Since we all juggle the band with our day jobs, we were only able to allot 3 weeks (9/28-10/22) for the journey. And, since we are our own label, we had minimal resources to commit to the project (ie: no booking agent, no publicist). While Ryan (drums) set about booking the tour (it took a month to set 15 dates), I decided to surf the web and find some folks along our path to invite out to the shows. After perusing (literally) hundreds of indie rock blogs touting the next big thing (though I do love live show writeups), I came across Mike’s account of his shopping trip to Spaceboy Music in Philadelphia. I loved it. Being a record junky myself, it was a very enjoyable read; something I understood and could relate to. I spend my hard-earned dollars on very few things: rent, food, booze, my wife, the band, and records. Despite the fact that I was (am) broke, I knew these things would not change on the trip so I decided to take inspiration from Mike and organize a record store tour along side the serious business of delivering rock and roll.

Basically, I gave myself a $100 music budget for the tour. This fit well with my shopping style; I typically hit bargain bins. Random vinyl is so cheap it worked out pretty well. You can get a vague sense of my tastes here. I have a pretty large rock collection on disc so I’m not necessarily a strict jazz head- I just find that jazz is more fun to buy on record. I definitely make my selections based on the cover art.

Stop #1 – Bart’s CD Cellar & Record Shop (Boulder, CO)
www.bartscdcellar.com/vinyl.html

This is the perfect college/small town shop. Great inventory. It’s located in the heart of Boulder’s shopping commons. The ground floor is predominately CD’s. I scanned their ample selection and the prices (~$14.99 for new though I think they had cheaper used discs) and decided to head directly upstairs to the vinyl “attic.”

It was early on a Wednesday so it was just me and the clerk. As I picked through their very excellent and well-organized selection (there is a photo in the link above), he lazily played some Zappa on the house stereo. I spent an hour sifting through the different sections (they have a very large and intriguing soundtrack section), sampled a few tracks on the test turntables, and picked up the following:

Grace Jones – Nightclubbing
McCoy Tyner – Atlantis
Dollar Brand – Capetown Fringe [#3, I buy this record every time I see a copy]
Dollar Brand – Memories
Donald Byrd & 125th St. NYC – Donald Byrd & 125th St. NYC
Total: $30

Last minute decision: Since this was the first stop, I put back B-52’s self-titled debut and Eddy Grant’s Killer on the Rampage to keep costs below $30.

Hindsight: After visiting a few more stores, I realized that they had a very reasonably-priced reggae section. I find most record stores really inflate their reggae prices. Should have put back the Donald Byrd album; not so good despite it being a collaboration with Isaac Hayes.

AMEX? Yes. This place is all convenience.

Stop #2 Amoeba (Haight/Ashbury – San Fran, CA)
http://www.amoebamusic.com/

This is a pretty famous store so I won’t describe it in too much detail. I spent about an hour and half combing through trying to find the right combination of selection and value.

Jazz Suite on the Mass Texts (conducted by Lalo Schifrin)
Midnight Oil – Blue Sky Mining (CD)
Gary Burton/Steve Swallow – Hello Hotel
Gary Burton – A Genuine Tong
Leonard Feather Presents Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records Vol. 1 (20’s) & 2 (30’s)
George Lewis – Memorial Album
Total: $20

Last minute decision: I opted against getting the entire Dire Straits collection on vinyl despite it being one of the few record shopping missions with which I began the tour. I guess I expected their albums to be cheaper.

Hindsight: The Burton albums were definitely inspired by the artwork and album titles. They’re solid, but probably won’t get too much playing time at home. The Jazz Suite, however, is a great Sunday morning record. I saw it a few times at the other stores I visited, and it always seems to be cheap. Recommended.

AMEX? No. Probably for the best.

Stop #3 – Bop Street Records (Ballard – Seattle, WA)

http://www.wahmee.com/bopstreet.html
http://www.ballardnewstribune.com/articles/2006/05/17/news/local_news/news01.prt

This place is a trip. I found it on a blog (forget which) and knew I had to visit. Why? Radiohead dubbed it the greatest record store on the planet. One of the features to the place is the wall of fame on which noteworthy patrons sign their names. Thom Yorke wrote “My credit card got ill here.” Colin wrote “Radiohead got very dirty here.” So, is it the greatest record store on the planet? It very well might be: it’s huge and has a massive selection (over 700,000 records). We asked, Dave, the owner if he organized it himself. He laughed and said that he has about 3-4 people whose job it is to put everything in its right place.

Ryan’s father Joe used our gigs as an excuse to visit Seattle. He is a garrulous lover of rock and immediately engaged Dave in conversation. I missed the majority of the conversation, but I heard a lot of laughter. Apparently after they covered a mutual love for classic rock, Joe informed Dave that we were in a band. I’m generally shy about that fact in record stores, but I’m glad Joe was there to break the ice. Long story short, Dave eventually turned off ‘Eat a Peach’ and began playing our album over the store. He had it nice and loud too. I think I would describe the experience of hearing our music blasting at an international record mecca as “fucking awesome.” It went well. He decided to check out our show later that night at Sunset Tavern which was a very short walk from the store. Oh yeah, we got to sign the wall (but not next to Radiohead).

Meanwhile, before he played our album: I had a hard time shopping at Bop Street because of the sheer volume of choices. In record shopping, I don’t do well so many options. My eyes started to glaze over and my credit card started tapping on my shoulder: DON’T DO IT. I only had $50 left in my budget and a week of tour to go. After a time-foldingly short hour, I took my stack of records and decided to find out how much I was about to spend (none of the records have price tags). Dave flipped through the selection while providing assessments and commentary. Bop Street is not the cheapest store. Deflated by the appraisal, I retreated to the listening booth to sharpen up the selections. After separating the wheat from the chafe, I proceeded to check out fairly exhausted from searching. This is great home-town record store, but a difficult one to pass through. I could easily spend a full day rifling through the bins and shelves. When I returned to the check out, Dave observed good naturedly that I “put back the expensive ones.”

I paid and went to the basement to check on Ryan. The basement is just ridiculous (photo in the links above). Ryan had a huge stack picked out. The moral: the more you buy at Bop Street, the better the per record value. Dave will definitely discount bulk purchases. In fact, I should mention he gave me Bohannon for free since it’s not a very coveted or rare record.

Now, onto the best part: Dave came to the show and hung out all night practically since one of his employees played a few bands after us in the excellent Iceage Cobra. He enjoyed our set well enough and was very kind and congratulatory. He even bought me a drink. But the best part, and one of the highlights of the whole tour, he went back to the store and returned bearing gifts for Ryan and myself: two records (“the expensive ones”) which we had opted against at the last minute: a mint Grateful Dead Europe ’72 (one of my top 10 favorites) for Ryan and a mint Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street. I was absolutely floored and had my faith in the benevolence of mankind restored. Such a simple, but grand gesture.

Bohannon – Too Hot to Hold
Upchurch & Tennyson – Upchurch/Tennyson
Phil Woods & his European Rhythm Machine – Live at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival
Charles Tolliver (w/Gary Bartz, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Joe Chambers) – Paper Man
Total: $40 (all vinyl)

Bonus: Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street

Last minute decision:Returning Exile on Main Street

Hindsight: Ballard kicks ass. Seattle kicks ass. KEXP kicks ass. Bop Street Records kicks ass. Sunset Tavern kicks ass. Dave kicks ass. Exile on Main Street kicks ass. Touring kicks ass.

AMEX? No (thank god).

Stop #4 – Jazz Mart (Chicago, IL)
http://jazzmart.com/

Chicago was the last stop on our tour so I was feeling pretty broke when we rolled into town. We did have a full day off so I felt compelled to hit up at least one store. I went with Mike’s suggestion and set out for Jazz Mart. It’s a nice, large well-organized store. Since I was questing for vinyl, I skipped through the pricier CD section. Ryan’s budget was a little more resilient so he set about perusing the discs. Their vinyl section is interesting: They have a decent-sized used record section and a large new vinyl reissue section (organized both by label and by artist). Brand new factory-sealed jazz vinyl reissues are great, but they didn’t fit my $10 budget. I was pretty shopped out after the 3 weeks, so I was fine digging up some randoms in the used bin. Meanwhile, Ryan kept chiming in and how amazing the selection is. So:

Joanne Brackeen – Snooze
Claude Goaty w/Gerard Calvi – Chansons de Paris
The Buddy Tate Celebrity Club Orchestra – Unbroken
Total: $10 (all vinyl)

Last minute decision: Deciding the get a drink at the pub we passed on the way to the store.

Hindsight: Jazz Mart advertises itself as the world’s largest jazz & blues store and delivers (though I didn’t see hardly any blues on vinyl). It is a great resource for people looking to fill in the gaps in their collections. Nice vibe, clean, friendly place. Good recommendation by Mike.

AMEX? Not sure. I tendered genuine US currency.

So, start a band, go on tour, support the independent record stores of America. Hope you enjoyed.

B-Sides in the Bins – #2 – Iowa City 11/10/06

Posted on by
Reply

Hello, and welcome to another episode of B-Sides in the Bins where the author deals with the eternal battle of collecting records versus managing a personal budget.

My wife had a doctor’s appointment in Iowa City that Friday, so I took the opportunity to make a run to the Record Collector. It was pouring down rain so that was kind of a bummer, but I set out to make the best of it. I had an hour’s worth of change for the parking meter.

The Record Collector has a prominent used CD table in the middle of the store, so that is usually where I start, and then move to the racks around the sides where the new CD’s and vinyl are. A small haul this time, but some gems, I think.

Aphrodisiac – Andre Williams with The Diplomats of Solid Sound (CD Pravda PR 6383, 2006) ($7.00) This was in the “Recent” section of the used bin. I hadn’t had a chance to hear this record, yet. I know that the guys in the Diplomats have been playing shows with Andre recently. A pretty fun CD, really. Reminds me a lot of RL Burnside. Andre evidently has the distinction of being the earliest recorded rapper with his hit single “Bacon Fat.” He’s had a career that spans 50 years in recording, writing and producing. It’s great that he’s still recording at 70.

“Do You Remember?” b/w “Prove It To Me” – Andre Williams and the Diplomats of Solid Sound ( 7″ VampiSoul 45032, 2006) ($4.00) I had actually not noticed the Andre Williams CD in the bins until I found this 7″ in the singles section of the store. I really like this VampiSoul collection. The Diplomats released a single last year on that label. The label calls it their “jukebox series” so I guess that means they don’t need to have cool sleeve art. No matter it is still cool to get these singles. These two tracks are on the Aphrodisiac CD, no rare b-side, here– too bad. It might have been cool to even get a 2006 version of Andre’s “Bacon Fat” with the Diplomats backing him.

“Hayloft Stomp” b/w “Can Your Frug Do The Boogaloo” – The Monroes split single with The Diplomats of Solid Sound (7″ Speed! Nebraska Records, Speed A-300, 2006) ($4.00) The boys in the Diplomats had been busy in 2006! More 7″ fun. I haven’t had a chance to throw this one on the turntable, yet. Nifty classic purple-on-silver screening on the label. The A side says “Punk!” and the B side says “Funk!”

Manna – Bread (LP Elektra EKS-74086, 1971) ($1.00) While the guys in Bread made their big hits with soft-rock songs like Manna’s “If”, and “Guitar Man, “Make It With You” and “Baby I’m-A Want You” they actually fancied themselves a more edgy rock band than AM Radio would ever have given them credit for. You can tell that the band has a rift in it as the big singles are the ballads penned by vocalist David Gates, and the more uptempo rock songs are written by the partnership of James Griffen and Robb Royer.

This was an album that got a lot of play at the Roeder house in 1972. We had just moved back to my mom and dad’s hometown and into a new house. Both sets of my grandparents lived there and I had a lot of aunts and uncles and cousins there. After a big gap in my dad’s record collection starting around when he was in college in the mid-60’s, he started buying records again and this was one of the first ones he got. This record reminds me of those times and in retrospect it was a new life for our family and a more optimistic time. The track “If” really is still as schmaltzy as it has been– but the great tunes on this record are the uptempo tracks “Let Your Love Go,” “Take Comfort,” and “Truckin’ (not the Grateful Dead song).” Beautiful harmonies layer through the soaring “Too Much Love.” This album was out of print for a long time. In the early 90’s there was a Japanese release on CD. I bought a copy for myself and one for my dad as a gift– complete with OBI strip. In 1995 Elektra released the entire Bread catalog including Manna and it has since fallen back out of print in the US. Apparently a new pressing of Manna occurred in the UK in August.

Download “Let Your Love Go” from Manna

Days to Come – Bonobo (2 CD Ninja Tune ZENCD119, 2006) ($15.00) This was playing in the store and I really liked it. I paid full price for it! I’d heard of Bonobo, but really hadn’t heard anything from him. I would categorize this album as Drum and Bass or maybe Trip Hop. Not to sound all-1997 or anything. The album reminds me of Roni Size and Reprazent’s landmark Newforms album or Morcheeba. The vocals of Bajka have have that lazy, lispy quality that Bahamadia brought to Newforms and a little like Skye the original singer for Morcheeba. I knew that my wife would really like this one, so I picked it up. One of the reviewers on Amazon says that this release– while great– will fall through the cracks of the releases of 2006. I certainly hadn’t heard much about it.

Download Nightlite (featuring Bajka) from Days To Come

What I put back : Pyramids by Pit Er Pat– brand new release, I hadn’t had a chance to hear anything from this, so I held off. In retrospect, I should have grabbed this one. Sherry and I saw Pit Er Pat open for Tortoise on their Minneapolis stop in 2004. Sherry thought the lead singer sounded like Bjork. The couple of tracks I sampled on the Thrill Jockey site sounded like they have matured. Songs and Other Things from Tom Verlaine– another relatively new release on Thrill Jockey. He released two new albums this year– one with vocals and one without. This one is the vocal release.

B-Sides in the Bins – #1 – Minneapolis 11/3/06

Posted on by
Reply

I thought it would be a good idea to keep track of my music purchases, and where I found them as a kind of diary. A friend of mine from the early days of endtroducing.com and The InFlux Mailing list John Book used to post to his website his record purchases from thrift stores and garage sales around the Greater Pasco, WA area. John’s deep and extensive knowledge of music always made for an interesting read. It is from this that I take my inspiration for these articles. I would like to have guest contributors to this section of my site, and have been talking to a couple of people who might be interested.

As you may have read below, my wife and I were in Minneapolis for the Lyrics Born/Cut Chemist show around 11/2. The next morning after the show, Sherry seemed to have come down with the flu and we ended up cancelling our plans with her sister and aunt. We hung out in the very small hotel room at the Millennium for most of the day. Sherry told me I didn’t need to stick around with her and suggested that I should go out for a while. So, I decided that I’d visit the Cheapos in Uptown. I’d been there for a couple of minutes a while back, but ran out of time before I could really dig. My favorite Cheapo’s location is usually the one on Snelling in St. Paul. That one works for us because there is a Whole Foods in that area as well, so we can do something for Sherry, too. She likes to go to the Electric Fetus more than Cheapo’s because they have other things besides records.

This Cheapo’s is set up pretty similarly to the other locations in the Twin Cities. It has an Applause in the basement, which is all vinyl. I didn’t have time this trip to go down there, but I will plan to go next time. My favorite thing about Cheapos is the way they arrange the last week’s worth of Used CD’s by the day of the week that they arrived. I always start there before looking into their other bins that have new and used mingled together by genre and artist. This was a good run for me as I picked up some new stuff that I’d been meaning to get.

Songbird – Willie Nelson ($9.99): Wow! This one was released on that Tuesday! (10/31). This is Willie’s new album produced and performed by Ryan Adams with his band the Cardinals with which he recorded his trilogy of albums last year. Pitchfork didn’t know what to do with this one. I believe that the review called Adams’ production “gloppy.” But, they gave it a 7.4. I think it is well-known that Pitchfork doesn’t like Ryan Adams so probably Willie was penalized a bit due to association. The album is a good listen all the way though. This album is the best that I’ve heard Willie’s voice sound in a long time. I like the choice of the Christine McVie song from Rumours “Songbird,” and I like Gram Parson’s “$1000 Wedding” as well. I question– as the reviewer from Pitchfork does– whether the world needed another cover of “Hallelujah” but it is done with care. “Amazing Grace” is a good wrap-up choice, too.

The Outsider – DJ Shadow ($9.99): Another relatively new release. I’m finally deciding to buy this one to give it a fair shake. I will probably post a review much later. If you’ve been following my blog for long, you are probably aware of my past with DJ Shadow and might be surprised I hadn’t purchased this one, yet. Frankly, I missed the $9.99 sale at Best Buy when it was released and what I’d heard of the album at that point I wasn’t sure I liked. BTW: There were no less than three copies of this CD in pristine condition in the bins this week. If you haven’t purchased this yet, take a look for it used if you are interested.

The Audience Is Listening – Cut Chemist ($8.99) : Another one I missed for $9.99 at Best Buy when it was released. This copy is a stamped promo. A very good effort. It amazes me that Mr. Macfadden waited this long for his first solo record. He has been a mainstay in the Bay Area HipHop scene and has participated in some very notable collaborations over the years: “The Number Song Remix,” Brainfreeze, Product Placement, his own “Lesson 4,” Ozomatli’s first album, Jurassic 5. My favorite tracks are “The Garden,” “What’s the Altitude,” and “The Audience Is Listening Theme Song.” The first two have been singles, and the last one is the new iPod commercial with the guy “painting” with the light of an iPod. A fun album that demonstrates the production and turntable skills of Cut Chemist and doesn’t take itself very seriously. That last part might be the advice I’d give DJ Shadow. Sometimes records need to be fun to listen to.

4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up – The Gift of Gab ($8.99) : This is one that I’d wanted to pick up for a while. I wasn’t sure what I’d think of The Gift of Gab without Chief Xcel on production, but this album is great! Vitamin D and Jake One take turns producing tracks for Gab, and turn out a fantastic record. I really like what the Quannum “old school” is turning out these days. As they approach their Forties, they seem to be improving. While The Gift of Gab isn’t braving new ground on thie record, his familiar flow and rhyme work on this record.

I hadn’t planned on buying so much HipHop on this trip– or so much Quannum-related for that matter, but I was pretty happy for the haul. At one point in the browsing, I had so much stuff in my hands that I needed to go grab a shopping basket because my back was getting sore! I didn’t want to spend a bunch of money– I gave myself a budget not to exceed $50.

What I put back The Red House Painters 2 CD Retrospective, and Mark Kozelek’s tribute to AC/DC What’s Next To The Moon, The Gorillaz Demon Days (for some reason I haven’t bought this yet– there were many copies of this one), Gnarls Barkley’s St. Elsewhere (I’m waiting on the expanded edition of this one), Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels (waiting on buying the Deluxe Edition), General Public’s All The Rage, mint copies of the reissues of AC/DC’s For Those About To Rock and Back In Black.

Title I would have bought if I didn’t already own it: Tortoise Standards

New titles to become bin fodder include the new one from Courtney Love (many copies!), DJ Shadow’s The Outsider, anything Coldplay (I still haven’t picked up X&Y, but I could have had many copies of that), Tom Petty’s Highway Companion (there must have been five mint copies of this one), either album from Jet sadly. Scissor Sisters. Phish is hitting the used bins. I saw lots of titles that you wouldn’t have seen three or four years ago during the peak of their popularity.

Stay tuned for another action-packed episode of B-Sides In The Bins!

New Deluxe Edition of Car Wheels on a Gravel Road out

Posted on by
Reply

Last Tuesday a new Deluxe Edition of the Grammy winning Car Wheels on a Gravel Road by Lucinda Williams was released. The Deluxe Edition takes the album and adds some bonus tracks from the original session work in Nashville with Steve Earle at the helm, and adds a second disc with a live concert that was originally taped for WXPN in 1998. Bo Ramsey lends his guitar work to this album and is also part of the backing band on the live disc. Most of the reviews I read make it sound like the bonus material really just illustrates that those were songs best left off of the album and that the live disc sounds good but the band sounds uncomfortable with the then-new material. I hadn’t bought the original release of Car Wheels, so I may pick this one up.

Calexico and Oakley Hall Live in Iowa City 9/29/06

Posted on by
1

On Friday night my wife, Sherry, and I and our friends Andrew and Jennifer went to Iowa City to see Calexico and Oakley Hall at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City. This is the second time Andrew and I have seen Calexico this year. We saw Calexico in Philadelphia at the Trocadero Theatre on June 25th with Jason Collett.

This was the first time I’d been to the Englert since the late Eighties. The last time I was there I saw Michael Moore’s cinematic debut “Roger and Me.” Back in those days, they used to do Midnight showings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” as I recall. The Englert served as a movie theater for most of its 94 years. It closed in 1999 and was held in trust by the City of Iowa City until funds had been raised to restore the landmark. In 2004 it reopened. I don’t remember what it used to look like before the restoration, but they’ve done a good job of restoring it and making as nice a venue as we have around here. I think that we are pretty fortunate to have places like the Englert and the Paramount in Cedar Rapids. I understand that the Globe Theater in Cedar Rapids will be restored as well. These venues help draw acts that aren’t big enough to fill Carver-Hawkeye or the US Cellular Center, but are too big to play bars.

After parking at the Old Capital ramp and dinner at the Atlas World Grill, we walked over to the Englert arriving after the doors open at 7PM. I visited the table in the lobby where they were selling CDs, teeshirts and other things. I was happy to see that they had two of the tour-only CD releases I was missing. When Andrew and I saw Calexico in Philly, I picked up the tour exclusive CD The Book and the Canal that has been available since the tour they did with The Iron and Wine. This time they had that as well as Travelall, a collection of instrumental music, and 98-99 Road Map, which has some tracks used on an audio book plus a couple of extras. I got these for $15, so I saved a buck in shipping. All I need are the 2001 tour CD Aerocalexico and the 2002 tour CD Scraping. They also had the same three shirts as Philly, which are the green shirt with the red star and the bull, a tan shirt with an iguana on it, and a blue one.

After the purchases, we made our way to our excellent seats. Calexico uses Ducat King to pre-sell tickets to fans before they are generally available through the regular ticket outlets. From what I can tell, we got the first four tickets sold. So, we had the first four seats from the center aisle on the right. BTW: What a bargain these tickets were! We paid $16 apiece for them.

Oakley Hall opened very punctually at 8 PM. Interestingly, the house lights didn’t come down until the band hit the stage. I hadn’t heard of Oakley Hall until I saw that they were the opening act for Calexico. After I got the tickets, Daytrotter helpfully had a session with them, so I had a chance to hear them. They fall into the Americana genre as they pull some of their sound from country music, but they also have a distinct rock sound with influences from the Seventies. With their female singers and the electric fiddle, they remind me of early Jefferson Starship pre-Red Octopus, or any of the Bay Area related bands from that period like Hot Tuna. Rachel Cox has a very good voice, and she certainly becomes the center of attention when she sings, plays her yellow Tele, or just hippie dances. The other lead vocalist is Patrick Sullivan. When Rachel and Patrick harmonize it reminds me of the harmonies of Exene Cervenka and John Doe from the great L.A. band X.

While I think that Oakley Hall put on a good performance, I agree with my wife that they seem like a band better suited for a bar setting. I felt at times like they were a bit uncomfortable playing to a mostly seated audience. What little familiarity I had with their catalog came from the Daytrotter sessions and they played two of them that I recognized, “All the Way Down” and the very catchy “Lazy Susan.” I woke up this morning with “Lazy Susan” stuck in my head! On a couple of songs Paul Niehaus from Calexico played pedal steel, and on one song, the two trumpet players from Calexico– Martin Wenk and Jacob Valenzuela helped out.
Oakley Hall Live in Iowa City 9/29/06

After Oakley Hall was finished, they immediately started tearing their gear down to get ready for Calexico. The guys from Calexico helped out and they soon started setting their own equipment up. A couple of people from the audience went up to talk to Joey and Paul as they got their gear together.

The first song from Calexico was “Convict Pool” with only Joey and John. Then were joined on stage by the rest of the band for a song from Garden Ruin that I don’t recall. That was followed by “Across the Wire” and “Jesus and Tequila.”
It was pretty clear right from the start that Calexico was in good form and spirits. Joey’s between song banter was frequent and funny. The set had most of the regular songs from Garden Ruin including “Letter to Bowie Knife,” a rocking version of “Deep Down,” and an amazing “All Systems Red” which is quickly becoming one of my favorite songs to hear live. It is a soaring anthem of the doubt surrounding the loss of the presidential election that reminds me of the live passion that U2 used to have with “Bullet the Blue Sky. We also heard some of the standards from Feast of Wire, including “Not Even Stevie Nicks.”

Calexico Live in Iowa City 9/29/06

We were treated to some different songs from a regular Calexico show. Jacob Valenzuela sang on a song that Calexico did on the Los Super Seven album Heard it on the X called “Ojitos Traidores.”

At one point Joey suggests that it’s about time for a “Seventh Inning Stretch” and told everyone to stand up. It was certainly refreshing! I think that maybe this is something that most concerts need. I didn’t realize how uncomfortable the seats were until then. It was at this time that a couple of guys ran down to the floor in front of the first row. They stood around uncomfortably until a bunch of others joined him. From that point forward people started filling the aisles and moving to the floor in front of us. Unfortunately, blocking the view for anyone who didn’t feel like standing. We also got to experience people who felt it was necessary to demonstrate their poor dancing skills when it comes to Latin rhythm. This is the problem with theater shows– it really suggests that you’d sit for most of it, and really doesn’t have a floor to accommodate people who want to get close to the stage and stand. Sherry said that she thought it would be fun to see Calexico at a venue that had more of a floor to dance on– I can think of a couple venues like that, so maybe the next time we see them it will be at one of those.

We were treated to another surprise for the encore. Calexico brought out Oakley Hall to do a couple of songs. The first song was a Doug Sahm song that I think was called “The Song of Everything.” After that song, I noticed that Joey brought out a piece of paper with what appeared to be lyrics. I think that the members of Oakley Hall were surprised. They also do a Gillian Welch cover of “Look At Miss Ohio.” Joey and Patrick Sullivan trade verses. From where I was sitting I could hear Joey calling out chord changes.

Joey asked if we wanted to hear “Corona” or “Guero Canelo.” The crowd shouted out their favorites, and it was decided that they would do both, which was a nice surprise. During these songs, some of the members of Oakley Hall were doing dance lines behind John which was fun. I’m glad to see that they are having fun on tour. Then, the show was over and Joey wished Iowa City good luck with “Football, Soccer, Hockey, or whatever.” This was the big weekend for the Iowa Hawkeyes as they were playing Ohio State (I think… I’m not a sports fan).

Calexico With Oakley Hall Live in Iowa City 9/29/06
Calexico With Oakley Hall Live in Iowa City 9/29/06

Here is the Calexico Setlist (courtesy the Caliposa Setlist Database)

1. Convict Pool
2. Yours and Mine
3. Gypsy’s Curse
4. Across The Wire
5. Jesus and Tequila
6. Deep Down
7. Minas de Cobre
8. Roka
9. Not Even Stevie Nicks
10. Sunken Waltz
11. Alone Again Or
12. Sonic Wind
13. Smash
14. Senor
15. All Systems Red
16. Ojitos Traidores
17. Letter To Bowie Knife
18. Crystal Frontier

————————

19. Song of Everything *
20. Miss Ohio *
21. Guero Canelo

* = w/ members of Oakley Hall

Playbsides.com Introduces Swag!

Posted on by
Reply

Look appealing to the opposite sex! I have had a cafepress store for a while and made a shirt that I wear frequently proudly proclaiming that it’s time to play b-sides. That shirt is the really expensive black one ($20!). I decided to make some white ones available and officially announce the store. As you can see by the picture, it utilizes the full version of my blog page header including the “hidden” records.

Visit the Play B-sides Swag Store!

Trip to Philly / Spaceboy Music Closing

Posted on by
Reply

I was in Philadelphia last week for business and managed to take a rare trip downtown. It seems that although I’m in the Philly area frequently for work, I don’t seem to venture outside of King of Prussia enough. So, last week between the thunderstorms I went downtown with a couple of guys from work. I wanted to do some record shopping. We really wanted to see some live music, but there wasn’t much going on that we wanted to see.

I have been downtown a dozen times or so since 2002 for varying reasons– mostly to find some place to eat other than the restarants that are part of the King of Prussia Mall area. I’ve only been record shopping one other time and that was two or three years ago. My method for going downtown involves locating South Street and just parking some place and walking around. So, that was the method we used this time. We found a pretty cheap parking area off South around 4th Street for about $7 for the whole night. It was after 7PM by the time we got down there so we decided to hit some record shops before finding some place to eat.

The first place we stopped was Noise Pollution (619 South 4th Street). This is a typical small used record store with a good stock of vinyl and a particularly good selection of 45’s. On this trip I was looking for rare Calexico singles or vinyl, rare Tortoise singles or vinyl. That is really the approach that I recommend when you don’t have time to scour a store. I found a 12″ of Calexico’s Black Heart EP for $15, but that was more than I wanted to pay for it consideing the condition of the cover. This is still in print, anyway. The price sticker said it had been in their bins for a couple of years. The guy behind the counter was pretty helpful, but spent most of his time on the phone. One noteworthy thing I saw was a cardboard box near the front door full of VHS tapes that appeared to have live concerts or appearances taped from TV. I saw a Neil Young tape that looked pretty cool, but I wondered if they were dubs of another tape, which might have made the quality questionable. Somewhere around my house is a tape of Neil Young appearances from three Farm Aids, a couple of SNL appearances, MTV Music Awards with Pearl Jam doing Rockin’ in the Free World, and the live performance of “Philadelphia” from the Academy Awards.

The next place we went was Repo Records (538 South Street), which we saw online and looked promising and they have a basement dedicated to vinyl. We were very disappointed to find that the downstairs was closed temporarily. So, I flipped through the little bit of vinyl they had and we headed for Spaceboy Music up the street.

Spaceboy Music (704 South Street) is one of the stores I visted when I was shopping down here last time. I was impressed by it’s selection of music. Unfortunately, this time they are having a 20% off all inventory going out of business sale. Most of their vinyl was stacked in cardboard boxes in the middle of the room and was pretty well picked over. They still had a very good CD selection available and it looked like they had just received an order from one of their distributers judging by the pile of new CD’s behind the counter. I found a couple of interesting things in vinyl. One item was an REM fanclub 7″ of “Ghost Reindeer in the Sky” b/w the Gershwin classic “Summertime.” This was the Christmas single from 1990. They wanted $29 list, but that was more than I wanted to spend on that. I also found an opened “Freeze” 2 LP from DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist. Unfortunately, it was used and had quite a bit of surface scratches on it.

I hit the CD’s and found three CD’s I wanted. The first find was a promo for the re-release of the two Manitoba albums under the new Caribou moniker: Start Breaking My Heart and Up In Flames. The official releases are 2 CD affairs and the second disc includes singles and remixes released around the same time as the original albums. This is a single disc sampler of the four CDs. It’s pretty cool, and makes me want to go get those releases. $6.40.

The next CD I got was in their “discount used” section in the middle of the store. That section didn’t have much, but I picked up Thrill Jockey band Town and Country’s 2003 release 5. I hadn’t heard anything from Town and Country, so I picked that up. Upon first listen it is very mellow atmospheric acoustic music similar to some of Tortoise’s music, or a little like Pullman. $3.99

I also picked up Eleventh Dream Day’s new CD Zeroes and Ones. I had a chance to hear this at Tower Records in Chicago at one of their listening stations. This is also on Thrill Jockey, and includes Tortoise bass player Doug McCombs. I like this album, it reminds me of pre-Grunge period bands in the late 80’s early 90’s. Sounds a little like Sonic Youth.

While we were walking around we saw a couple of other record stores that seem interesting. One I want to visit next, and when I have some time is The Philadelphia Record Exchange. They seem to have a huge vinyl selection.

After Spaceboy, we ate at a wonderful Italian restaurant called La Fourno Trattoria. They have fantastic Pizzas.

So, it’s sad to see yet another music store going out of business. I’m not sure what is going to help these stores stick around. I think that used CD’s and vinyl is part of the equasion. There is more mark up in a used CD or record than there is in new, so that helps, I think. Earlier this year, Des Moines lost one of the big indie record stores in Iowa known as Peeples Music after 30 years in business. In an article in the Des Moines Register, owner Mike Enloe stated that he needed 25 customers per day just to keep the doors open. The value of an independent record retailer is hopefully the knowledge that the typically passionate people who work there have. A lot of the important purchases I have made over the years came from the advice of a trusted employee of one of these stores.

Recent Purchases in Boston

Posted on by
Reply

As stated earlier, I had been in Boston twice in three weeks. Unlike previous trips to Boston, I got some shopping in. I hit record stores and book stores.

Trip #1:

I managed to hit Newbury Comics while the group was waiting for our table at the fantastic Capital Grille, which was just down the street. Newbury is one of the great record stores and I would recommend hitting it if possible. Plus it is down the street from one of the best ice cream places I have been to. It seems this was my vinyl trip.

Cat Power : The Greatest on 180 Gram vinyl (!) Thank goodness for Matador Records and their devotion to the preservation of vinyl. This pressing allegedly has “an extra track not on the regular version of the CD.” That said, I can’t find a version of this on CD that has less tracks on it.

Cat Power : “The Greatest” b/w “Hate” 7″. Sticker says “Pay No More Than .99” and damned if I didn’t!

Stereolab : “Whisper Pitch” b/w “Widow Wierdo”

Stereolab : “Eye of the Volcano” b/w “Vodiak”

Stereolab : “Excursions into ‘oh, a-oh'” b/w “Get A Shot of The Refrigerator” These last three singles complete the set of singles released last year. All of these tracks are compiled on the economy-priced Fab Four Suture collection. I’ve been building a collection of Stereolab releases since last year. Stereolab are very prolific and have a tendency to release great songs on one-off tour releases or on limited-pressing singles. Attracts the collector in me, unfortunately.

A good run, but a pain in the arse to bring back on the airplane!

Trip #2

This is the LinuxWorld trip last week when I went to the Blackalicious show. Hit a number of stores this time.

Newbury Comics:

Athens, GA Inside-Out (DVD) Finally! One of my favorite music documentaries from the late 80’s. I owned this on VHS. The OOP soundtrack came out on IRS at the same time and is one I listened to a lot at the time. The rare R.E.M. acoustic tracks “Swan Swan H” and “Dream (All I Have to do is)” eventually came out as extra tracks on the UK import release of Life’s Rich Pageant. This movie made me a fan of Love Tractor and Pylon.

I didn’t find anything else I was really interested in.

Virgin Records on Newbury:

(If) I’m A Ham, You’re A Sausage: The Don Dixon Collection. Frankly, the big find as far as I’m concerned. This is a drilled cut-out that I found in their discount bin. The only copy! Very Out-of-Print. Unfortunately, Don is one of those lost great Pop Rock guys. He produced some of the greatest records from the 80’s including the first two R.E.M. albums and two Game Theory albums in addition to most of his wife Marti Jones’s albums. He had a notable solo career as well. Mostly known for his song “Praying Mantis” that got some airplay on 120 Minutes back in the day. His best works were on the Restless label– home to the Smithereens (who he worked with), Game Theory, and Poison. Capital ended up buying Restless– I suspect for Poison. Most of the catalog from Restless is OOP. After retiring from music for a big stretch, Don has a new album due out in June on 125 Records titled The Entire Combustible World In One Small Room. I plan to try and get all of his back catalog.

Looney Toons:

Looney Toons is a great old record store with vinyl stacked to the ceilings in moving boxes! Next time I’m in Boston I plan to dedicate some serious time in here digging. They had Dark Side of the Moon on the original Harvest pressing with stickers and poster for $24. I just about bought it, but I didn’t like the cover condition. I think I’ll hold out. I did get some CDs:

Calexico : Convict Pool EP Has their great version of Love’s “Alone Again Or” which is pretty much a live staple for them. Includes a Cartoon Shorty from the Cartoon Network titled “El Kabong Rides Again.”

Calexico : Even My Sure Things Fall Through EP This one has some videos on it as well. I haven’t listened to this one, yet.

Calexico : Feast of Wire. So this is the real beginning of my Calexico collection…

Fargo Rock City Chuck Klosterman (Book). I picked this up at a book store/cafe on Newbury in their cheap book section. This is Chuck’s thoughts about Heavy Metal and growing up in a small town in North Dakota. I like this book quite a bit. Before I discovered REM in 1985, I was a Heavy Metal fan, so this book rings true for me. It seems that Chuck held on to Metal a bit longer than I did, but I remember most of the stuff he’s talking about.

Radio Shack:

Sony MDR-NC11 Noise Cancelling Headphones. This was a bit of an impulse buy. We stopped in the Radio Shack and I saw these headphones on sale for $79, but the sale had passed. So, the manager of the store offered to sell these to me for the sale price, which was $20 off. I already have a pair of Philips noise cancelling ‘phones, but these work better as they seal in the ear canal, so that helps keep the noise out.

Cedar Rapids Sam Goody Closes

Posted on by
5

It just shows you how much I pay attention to big retail music chains. Musicland files chapter 11, and also closes a bunch of Sam Goodies and Suncoasts. Included in that is the Sam Goody in Lindale Mall in Cedar Rapids. Over lunch on Friday I was at Lindale and happened upon a store closing sale. Everything in the store was 40% off! I left with some things that I hadn’t gotten around to buying. I picked up the new Big Star In Space, the turntablism documentary “Scratch,” DJ Shadow’s “In Tune and On Time” DVD/CD, and Namco Museum Battle Collection for my PSP. I can see why this chain is in trouble. Everything in this store is overpriced! Most CD’s were between $16.99 and $18.99 before the 40% off. Musicland is attributing their poor performance to “big box retailer competition” and increased music downloading. If they can’t figure out how to charge less for CD’s, I doubt they will be successful. They state in the press release that in most cases, the local impact of the closing will be lessened by the fact that the consumer will usually be able to find another one of their chains close by. In Cedar Rapids, this isn’t the case. The nearest Sam Goody is Des Moines, and the nearest Suncoast is Waterloo. It looks like TransWorld Entertainment Corporation is making a move to purchase Musicland. Transworld seems to own most of the interesting record store chains: Strawberries, Coconuts, Wherehouse, CD World, fye, and Second Spin. It would be cool if we got one of those stores here.