Posts on: record haul

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Mar 4, 2012
@ 10:54 am
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Record Haul No. 21

Les/Larry Elgart - Girl Watchers
Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
Asia - s/t
Flashdance: The Original Soundtrack
Little River Band - First Under the Wire
Joni Mitchell - Ladies of the Canyon
Olivia Newton-John, Jane Fonda Workout (gifts for my cousin)
The Smiths - “William, It Was Really Nothing” (b/w “How Soon Is Now?” and “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want”) 12” Maxi Single 

This need to see inside other people’s lives has resulted in an obsession with estate sales. Yesterday, we drove to a neighborhood north of here for one particular sale, stopping in a Half Price Music & Books on the way and scoring a German Smiths maxi single in purple marble vinyl. Let me get what I want…

The house was in a little cul-de-sac near a golf course. Unremarkable brick houses and man-made ponds. “Neighborhoods like this depress me.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know why; they just do.”

We wander through the dining room, speckled with crystal goblets and chandeliers. The built-in wall radio peeps classical music, and we discover the bathroom with its heart-shaped tub and vintage powder canisters. The bedroom with a massive walk-in closet full of shoes and furs and afghan blankets. The cliched femininity of it was overwhelming.

Then downstairs: walls littered with arcade games, electric probes, a working Skee-ball machine. In another room, a hot tub sits covered, shaded by a tall fiberglass palm tree. A bar stocked with tiki mugs and gag gifts: “This Bar Is For High Class Patrons (Excepting the Bartender)” and a geezer crutch with a little flip-down panel for one’s old drooping genitals. In another room, a large workshop, and an office with a drafting table and photo developing equipment.

“The upstairs was really hers, and the downstairs was his, wasn’t it?” 

Two red silk jackets hanging on the wall with names stitched onto them: Cindy and Bob, Corvette Club members. 

“Cindy and Bob must have had some fun parties.”

We dig deeper through their lives, their book collections, their kitchen cupboards, their model train sets with model Kentucky Fried Chickens and vintage tin cars. Their ashtrays from Hawaii and boxes and boxes of jolly Christmas decorations. Behind the Skee-ball machine, we find a closet of records, full of standards and some light jazz, and on the bottom shelf, tucked at the back, the video cassettes with handwritten titles: Corporate Assets, Dreamgirls, Emmanuel… a brown cardboard box…

“Is that their porn?”

“XXX… it sure is.” 

And there, right next to the brown cardboard box, another stack: cassette tapes of inspirational Christian sermons. (The things we see when we look behind closed doors.)

Lives are stories: Cindy and Bob’s must have been a good one.

(Previously: Albums Purchased One Hot Weekend, Record Haul, Record Haul No. 2, Record Haul No. 3, Record Haul No. 4, Record Haul No. 5, Record Haul No. 6, Record Haul No. 7, Record Haul No. 8, Record Haul No. 9, Record Haul No. 10, Record Haul No. 11, Record Haul No. 12, Record Haul No. 13, Record Hauls No. 14, 15, and 16, Record Haul No. 17, Record Haul No. 18, Record Haul No. 19, Record Haul No. 20)

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Feb 14, 2012
@ 3:21 pm
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Record Haul No. 19 (Valentine’s Day Edition)

Dobie Gray - Drift Away
Minnie Ripperton - Perfect Angel

This was the plan: after lunch, we’d go to Shake It and pick out a record for each other. The rules: it had to be cheap, it had to have something to do with love. 

I held up T’pau’s “Heart and Soul” from the 99 cent bin. “Would you hate me if I bought this one for you?”

“Yes.”

I found a reggae album of 20 love songs by John Holt.

“Will this do?”

“That’s okay, sure.”

I lingered over The Romantics’ In Heat for a few minutes before putting it back in the bins. (“Talking In Your Sleep” is a love song, right? I might have to go back to get that one.) He was wandering into the country section when I coughed and gestured to Madonna’s Like A Prayer. 

And so we headed towards the register with a reggae version of “Touch Me In The Morning,” and Madge’s “Open Your Heart.”

“I guess these are as good as Valentine’s Day purchases get?”

Before we got there, though, we both paused to flip through the R&B section. Hello, Dobie; hello, Minnie. That’s when we realized it’s not about finding the love songs, necessarily, but about finding the songs we love to listen to together. 

(Previously: Albums Purchased One Hot Weekend, Record Haul, Record Haul No. 2, Record Haul No. 3, Record Haul No. 4, Record Haul No. 5, Record Haul No. 6, Record Haul No. 7, Record Haul No. 8, Record Haul No. 9, Record Haul No. 10, Record Haul No. 11, Record Haul No. 12, Record Haul No. 13, Record Hauls No. 14, 15, and 16, Record Haul No. 17, Record Haul No. 18)

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Jan 19, 2012
@ 10:20 am
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Record Haul No. 18 The Smiths - Shakespeare’s Sister 12”The Smiths - Boy With A Thorn In His Side 12”Nancy Sinatra - SugarLes Paul - Feedback As I’m leaving, I glance back at the bearded guy behind the counter. He’s looking over at where The Smiths singles I didn’t buy are still leaning against the shelf, shaking his head. “Did I take the ones you wanted?” I shouted back. He continues to shake his head. “Or are you shaking your head because I didn’t take them all?” “This will NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.” He seems offended. “They do seem like they should all go to the same home. I wish I could take them all.” “Why can’t you?” “Money.” “Money? MONEY?!? Money comes and goes. This will NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.” “Why are they all here? Did somebody die?” “Death, divorce, drug habits… all sorts of reasons this stuff ends up here.” “Well, unfortunately, I had to make choices myself.” “Like I said: this will NEVER…” “…HAPPEN AGAIN. I know. I KNOW.” (If you live in Cincinnati, stop by Shake It. They still have a good deal of the singles left and some albums they have yet to put out because “it seemed too ostentatious.” As Jim said when he rang me up: the singles are like works of art on their own. “I’ve slipped your Nancy Sinatra between The Smiths.” “Well, really, she belonged on a Smiths singles cover anyway…”) (Previously: Albums Purchased One Hot Weekend, Record Haul, Record Haul No. 2, Record Haul No. 3, Record Haul No. 4, Record Haul No. 5, Record Haul No. 6, Record Haul No. 7, Record Haul No. 8, Record Haul No. 9, Record Haul No. 10, Record Haul No. 11, Record Haul No. 12, Record Haul No. 13, Record Hauls No. 14, 15, and 16, Record Haul No. 17)

Record Haul No. 18

The Smiths - Shakespeare’s Sister 12”
The Smiths - Boy With A Thorn In His Side 12”
Nancy Sinatra - Sugar
Les Paul - Feedback

As I’m leaving, I glance back at the bearded guy behind the counter. He’s looking over at where The Smiths singles I didn’t buy are still leaning against the shelf, shaking his head.

“Did I take the ones you wanted?” I shouted back.

He continues to shake his head.

“Or are you shaking your head because I didn’t take them all?”

“This will NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.” He seems offended.

“They do seem like they should all go to the same home. I wish I could take them all.”

“Why can’t you?”

“Money.”

“Money? MONEY?!? Money comes and goes. This will NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.”

“Why are they all here? Did somebody die?”

“Death, divorce, drug habits… all sorts of reasons this stuff ends up here.”

“Well, unfortunately, I had to make choices myself.”

“Like I said: this will NEVER…”

“…HAPPEN AGAIN. I know. I KNOW.”

(If you live in Cincinnati, stop by Shake It. They still have a good deal of the singles left and some albums they have yet to put out because “it seemed too ostentatious.” As Jim said when he rang me up: the singles are like works of art on their own. “I’ve slipped your Nancy Sinatra between The Smiths.” “Well, really, she belonged on a Smiths singles cover anyway…”)

(Previously: Albums Purchased One Hot Weekend, Record Haul, Record Haul No. 2, Record Haul No. 3, Record Haul No. 4, Record Haul No. 5, Record Haul No. 6, Record Haul No. 7, Record Haul No. 8, Record Haul No. 9, Record Haul No. 10, Record Haul No. 11, Record Haul No. 12, Record Haul No. 13, Record Hauls No. 14, 15, and 16, Record Haul No. 17)

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Dec 11, 2011
@ 11:02 pm
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Record Haul No. 17

Bon Iver - s/t
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
Dan Fogelberg - High Country Snows
Dan Fogelberg - Souvenirs
Dan Fogelberg - Nether Lands

“Dan Fogelberg?”

“Eh, I already own the shirt.”

I honestly bought all of these Dan Fogelberg albums because they were 99 cents. And because I love the way Carrie Brownstein says “Dan Fogelberg,” and because this video of his starts with a story of him cross-country skiing to an abandoned cabin in the mountains and finding old pictures in the walls. And because last May I bought a Dan Fogelberg t-shirt in a thrift store in LA and didn’t want owning it to be ironic any more. I honestly didn’t expect to like the Dan Fogelberg.

But then I’d forgotten about this song. This song! 

I love this song.

(Previously: Albums Purchased One Hot Weekend, Record Haul, Record Haul No. 2, Record Haul No. 3, Record Haul No. 4, Record Haul No. 5, Record Haul No. 6, Record Haul No. 7, Record Haul No. 8, Record Haul No. 9, Record Haul No. 10, Record Haul No. 11, Record Haul No. 12, Record Haul No. 13, Record Hauls No. 14, 15, and 16)

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Nov 28, 2011
@ 1:19 pm
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Record Hauls No. 14, 15, and 16 Buckingham Nicks - s/tThe Raisins - s/t Abba - Greatest Hits Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IWarren Zevon - Excitable BoyCocteau Twins - Bluebell KnollTones On Tail - Pop Kansas - LeftovertureYes - The Yes AlbumPercy Faith - The Beatles AlbumThe HobbitDylan Thomas Reads A Child’s Christmas in WalesThe Edgar Winter Group - They Only Come Out At NightHerb Albert & The Tijuana Brass - The Christmas AlbumEngelbert Humperdinck - We Made It Happen The moment we purchased the shag rug, I knew it belonged in my life. The room made sense. ABBA made sense. I started buying albums for that rug; the synthetic beast from China had its talons in me. Its soft, soft, shaggy talons. One night while J was still away in England, I went out to buy sausages and contact lens solution from the grocery store and ended up taking an hour detour because I suddenly had to buy a Led Zeppelin record. For the rug? Possibly. Probably. The desperation of the errand made it feel like I was on a tampon run. I think I may have been wearing my pajamas. I made it back home, ripped open the brown paper bag and spent all night lying on that rug listening to Jimmy Page play guitar like he’d invented rock and roll. (I think Jimmy Page would really like our rug.) This morning I shuffled across the rug, kneeling into its depths to put on Kansas and Percy Faith. I’m turning us whiter and more midwestern one needle drop at a time, swollen with Grand Funk and bongos. The rug is putting ideas in my head for fondue parties and a wardrobe of deep green chiffon evening dresses. I instigate slow dances. I am not alone: my cousin and his partner recently brought their own record haul to our house, spreading them out on the rug: Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Bare Trees, Court and Spark. A gift to the rug gods. It looked like Our Lady of the Shag had given virgin birth. What is it in these old records I love so much? Why do I keep feeding this addiction? Probably there’s something comforting in bringing an older time back to life. Maybe there’s even something to it that makes me feel the tiniest bit immortal. Maybe it hints at the possibility of aural time travel. Or maybe, in all likelihood? They just go with the rug. (Previously: Albums Purchased One Hot Weekend, Record Haul, Record Haul No. 2, Record Haul No. 3, Record Haul No. 4, Record Haul No. 5, Record Haul No. 6, Record Haul No. 7, Record Haul No. 8, Record Haul No. 9, Record Haul No. 10, Record Haul No. 11, Record Haul No. 12, Record Haul No. 13)

Record Hauls No. 14, 15, and 16

Buckingham Nicks - s/t
The Raisins - s/t
Abba - Greatest Hits

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I
Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy
Cocteau Twins - Bluebell Knoll
Tones On Tail - Pop

Kansas - Leftoverture
Yes - The Yes Album
Percy Faith - The Beatles Album
The Hobbit
Dylan Thomas Reads A Child’s Christmas in Wales
The Edgar Winter Group - They Only Come Out At Night
Herb Albert & The Tijuana Brass - The Christmas Album
Engelbert Humperdinck - We Made It Happen

The moment we purchased the shag rug, I knew it belonged in my life. The room made sense. ABBA made sense. I started buying albums for that rug; the synthetic beast from China had its talons in me. Its soft, soft, shaggy talons.

One night while J was still away in England, I went out to buy sausages and contact lens solution from the grocery store and ended up taking an hour detour because I suddenly had to buy a Led Zeppelin record. For the rug? Possibly. Probably. The desperation of the errand made it feel like I was on a tampon run. I think I may have been wearing my pajamas. I made it back home, ripped open the brown paper bag and spent all night lying on that rug listening to Jimmy Page play guitar like he’d invented rock and roll. (I think Jimmy Page would really like our rug.)

This morning I shuffled across the rug, kneeling into its depths to put on Kansas and Percy Faith. I’m turning us whiter and more midwestern one needle drop at a time, swollen with Grand Funk and bongos. The rug is putting ideas in my head for fondue parties and a wardrobe of deep green chiffon evening dresses. I instigate slow dances.

I am not alone: my cousin and his partner recently brought their own record haul to our house, spreading them out on the rug: Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Bare Trees, Court and Spark. A gift to the rug gods. It looked like Our Lady of the Shag had given virgin birth.

What is it in these old records I love so much? Why do I keep feeding this addiction? Probably there’s something comforting in bringing an older time back to life. Maybe there’s even something to it that makes me feel the tiniest bit immortal. Maybe it hints at the possibility of aural time travel.

Or maybe, in all likelihood? They just go with the rug.

(Previously: Albums Purchased One Hot Weekend, Record Haul, Record Haul No. 2, Record Haul No. 3, Record Haul No. 4, Record Haul No. 5, Record Haul No. 6, Record Haul No. 7, Record Haul No. 8, Record Haul No. 9, Record Haul No. 10, Record Haul No. 11, Record Haul No. 12, Record Haul No. 13)

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May 3, 2011
@ 8:06 pm
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Record Haul No. 11

Laura Nyro - Christmas and the Beads of Sweat
Laura Nyro - Eli and the Thirteenth Confession
Beyond the Fringe: Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller, Dudley Moore
The Alan Parsons Project - I Robot
Joni Mitchell - Song to a Seagull
Stevie Nicks - Bella Donna

Record buying has taken on a desperate, scrambling nature. I’ve started to become possessive, to think of records as ephemeral things that must be owned or forgotten. If I don’t get that record, it might be gone the next time I come to this shop. And then I’ll never ever hear it again ever.

Today, as I was listening to my Stevie Nicks Pandora station, I remembered a copy of Bella Donna I’d seen while browsing the record store last time, a record I’d hovered over, then shoved back in the stacks. Not now.

Late in the afternoon as I was tidying my desk, I noticed my heart rate rising. I was thinking of that album. If I didn’t get it, it might be gone. It might be gone now.

As soon as my little work clock wound down to its end with a rattle, I raced outside, onto the subway, racing through the turnstiles, tapping my toes impatiently by the doors, raced up the stairs, out onto the street, and, sweaty now, into the shop, quickly greeting the man behind the register.

“I just came to get a record I saw last time but didn’t get,” I said, a bit breathless.

More than fifteen minutes later, I emerged from the stacks. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

“Yes. That. And quite a few more.”

Because if not, I’ll never ever hear them again ever.

And so I sit here singing whoo, baby, whoo, said whoo along with Stevie. Satisfied for the moment. My pulse slowed. Until I think about that copy of Kick Inside I passed by, lingering in the dusty stacks, waiting, haunting the moors, it might be gone…

(Previously: Albums Purchased One Hot Weekend, Record Haul, Record Haul No. 2, Record Haul No. 3, Record Haul No. 4, Record Haul No. 5, Record Haul No. 6, Record Haul No. 7, Record Haul No. 8, Record Haul No. 9, Record Haul No. 10)

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Apr 28, 2011
@ 8:27 am
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Record Haul No. 10

Laura Nyro - The First Songs
Laura Nyro - New York Tendaberry
Heavy Metal: Music From The Motion Picture
The Virtuoso Oboe Vol. 3
Tom Verlaine - S/T
April Wine - Stand Back
The Move - Shazam

“Where would your Betty Davis be?” I clutch a dusty Best of Sam & Dave and wonder if it’s better than other best ofs.

“I assume you don’t mean the actress?”

“Not the actress.”

“Funk & Soul.”

I find no Betty Davis, but plenty of Laura Nyro and others. I bring my stack to the register.

“Huh.” Here it comes. I used to fear the assessment of my collected albums from record store staff. But I’ve been shopping here long enough to know to expect and welcome a little nugget of musical knowledge in place of judgment from the man behind the register. My mind flips open its stenopad. “You know, when Blood, Sweat & Tears were looking to change their sound they nearly asked Laura Nyro to be their singer. She auditioned and everything. This was before David Clayton-Thomas. Then she did something to alienate the rock journalists. I still can’t figure out what it was.”

I think it must be pretty easy to alienate rock journalists.

“Do you ever get any King Crimson in here?”

“Sometimes. We had a nice copy of In the Wake of Poseidon recently. If you like King Crimson you should seek out Giles, Giles & Fripp. I know it sounds like a law firm but…”

“You close?” says a man with an accent browsing soundtracks on a stepladder.

“Five more minutes.” In those five minutes he digs through the Ms to find an album by The Move — remembering that I’d previously asked about ELO — and promises with a shake of the hand that I’ll find something on there I like.

With a ding of the bell, I’m on the street again. Hours later: he was right.

(Previously: Albums Purchased One Hot Weekend, Record Haul, Record Haul No. 2, Record Haul No. 3, Record Haul No. 4, Record Haul No. 5, Record Haul No. 6, Record Haul No. 7, Record Haul No. 8, Record Haul No. 9)

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Apr 16, 2011
@ 3:01 pm
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Record Haul No. 9 (Record Store Day Edition)

Big Star - Third (test pressing reproduction)
WILD FLAG - Future Crimes/Glass Tambourine 7”
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love Collector’s Edition 10” (on pink vinyl)
Velvet Underground - Foggy Notion/I Can’t Stand It 7”
Superchunk/Coliseum 7”
The Rolling Stones - Brown Sugar/Bitch/Let It Rock 7”
Bruce Springsteen - Gotta Get The Feeling/Racing In The Streets 10”
Kill Rock Stars sampler
Built To Spill - Ripple 7”
The International Submarine Band w/ Gram Parsons - Safe At Home
Peter Tosh - Legalize It/Equal Rights 7” (on green vinyl, for J)

There is something to be said in this world for kindness. For helping your neighbor, for saying please and thank you. For understanding the rules and playing fair. For civility. These are rules I grew up with. I use these rules with my fellow men. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Yes, no matter what I said about sharp elbows: do unto others, even on Record Store Day.

I had a plan. And a list. There were only two limited releases I really, really wanted: the WILD FLAG 7”, and the Big Star Third test pressing reproduction. The rest would be icing. I was there to buy music, after all, not collectibles, and this is the music I truly love. Kim’s, who opened at 9, had the WILD FLAG, and J&R, who opened at 10, had the Big Star. I had a plan.

I arrived at Kim’s at 9 on the dot, just as the block-long line started to move inside the store… (Read the rest here.)

(Previously: Albums Purchased One Hot Weekend, Record Haul, Record Haul No. 2, Record Haul No. 3, Record Haul No. 4, Record Haul No. 5, Record Haul No. 6, Record Haul No. 7, Record Haul No. 8)

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Feb 7, 2011
@ 12:02 am
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Record Haul Nos. 9 & 10

R.E.M. - Chronic Town E.P.
Todd Rundgren - Initiation

“Which section might I find Laura Nyro in?”

“Let me see… let’s try here first.” The bespectacled clerk flips through Female Rock. “Nope.”

We try Used Rock - N. Nope. He heads for Female Solo Artists before I cut him off. “I’ve tried Folk, Rock, Blues, and Female Solo Artists already.”

“I think you have it covered then.”

I fan the two albums in the air. “Can I pay for these down here, or…?”

“Sure.” He punches some keys. “That’ll be seventeen thousand five hundred and forty-two dollars.”

“Totally worth it.”

*

Gram Parsons - GP
Kurt Vile - Constant Hitmaker
Kurt Vile - Childish Prodigy
Os Mutantes - s/t

“Could you tell me where your Laura Nyro might be?”

“I know where we might have one.” The lipstick-and-lace clerk flips through Used New Arrivals. “Nope. Sorry. We get one in every once in a while.”

Jess and I browse the new records, shiny and taut in their plastic.

“I know I sound like a cliche to say this while standing in a record shop, but I can only listen to vinyl now.” (This is me saying this. I have no shame in fessing up to that.) “There’s just something…”

We take our records to the counter, where the clerk has just turned up The Stone Roses and is singing along. Page after page after page. The clerk compliments Jess’s choice of a Japanese noise band gatefold import. “Oh that is soooo good.”

I realize I’m past the point of impressing anyone.

(Previously: Albums Purchased One Hot Weekend, Record Haul, Record Haul No. 2, Record Haul No. 3, Record Haul No. 4, Record Haul No. 5, Record Haul No. 6, Record Haul No. 7, Record Haul No. 8)

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Jan 17, 2011
@ 11:03 am
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Record Haul No. 8 The Byrds - (untitled)Seals & Crofts - Summer BreezeElton John - Madman across the WaterSteve Hillage - LSoft Cell - Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret Leon Russell - Best of Leon RussellJethro Tull - Thick as a BrickSupertramp - Crisis? What Crisis?Supertramp - Crime of the CenturySupertramp - Even In The Quietest Moments…Supertramp - “…famous last words…”V/A - The Super Hits Volume FiveHall & Oates - Big Bam BoomHall & Oates - Voices (Later.) “Are you an artist?” “Excuse me?” “I saw the drawings you have in your bag…” He points to Hall, and to Oates, staring out in black and white from behind plastic. “Oh these! These are records.” “Are you a record collector?” “No, I’m… I’m a record listener.” (Previously: Albums Purchased One Hot Weekend, Record Haul, Record Haul No. 2, Record Haul No. 3, Record Haul No. 4, Record Haul No. 5, Record Haul No. 6, Record Haul No. 7)

Record Haul No. 8

The Byrds - (untitled)
Seals & Crofts - Summer Breeze
Elton John - Madman across the Water
Steve Hillage - L
Soft Cell - Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
Leon Russell - Best of Leon Russell
Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick
Supertramp - Crisis? What Crisis?
Supertramp - Crime of the Century
Supertramp - Even In The Quietest Moments…
Supertramp - “…famous last words…”
V/A - The Super Hits Volume Five
Hall & Oates - Big Bam Boom
Hall & Oates - Voices

(Later.)

“Are you an artist?”

“Excuse me?”

“I saw the drawings you have in your bag…” He points to Hall, and to Oates, staring out in black and white from behind plastic.

“Oh these! These are records.”

“Are you a record collector?”

“No, I’m… I’m a record listener.”

(Previously: Albums Purchased One Hot Weekend, Record Haul, Record Haul No. 2, Record Haul No. 3, Record Haul No. 4, Record Haul No. 5, Record Haul No. 6, Record Haul No. 7)