5/30 Half Price 5555 North Lamar

Ok... so hopefully this will be my last post in a while. This blog has made me realize that I spend way too much money on records. But then I laugh and ask myself what else I'm going to spend it on... So EVERYBODY IS A FOOL! but I'm the biggest fool of them all so it's ok.

Anyways... This store has a ton of good stuff. I think they are a little pricey though. I mean is Whip Smart on record really worth 20 bucks? Is Rain Dogs really worth 25? Anyways... they were have a 20% off sale so I don't feel so bad.

Records---

Magical Mystery Tour -- 12 (with sale)
Between The Buttons by The Rolling Stones -- 7

Once again, there is nothing to say about the beatles.

This stones record looks pretty good. Although I find it hilarious that the drawing on the back references a song that was not on either release of the album (Have you seen your mother), if only to be released on flowers.

Well.... see you in two weeks, hopefully!

5/29 Breakaway Records

I know I've already talked about them, but they have a really good selection. I mean every time I go in they have kinks, beatles, and stones. And on their expensive rack there is usually something I want. I don't remember if I said this or not but... at Breakaway, you get what you pay for. Case in point, I was looking for the white album for a friend of mine. They had two, one was ten dollars, one was four. The ten dollar one was in much better shape than the four dollar one.

Ok... so the records:
Abbey Road -- 12
White album --10
Surf's Up by the Beach Boys--5
Tea for the Tillerman by Cat Stevens -- 5
Darkhorse by George Harrison -- 3

There is nothing I can say about the Beatles that you don't already know. I'm most interested in about help onward. I don't know, out of the 3 big british groups (beatles, kinks, and stones), I don't find myself interested in any of their really early stuff. Sure there are some good singles but eh...

Surf's Up is a more interesting subject. It's sort of a forgotten album of the beach boys (let's admit it, everything before and after Pet Sounds and not a single has been pretty much forgotten.) But it's pretty sweet because after Brian Wilson's freak out, all of the beach boys have so much more character. I mean you get to see people like Carl stepping up to the plate more, which is really cool. Also, the one track from smile (the title track) is an excellent addition as well.

Tea for the Tillerman is the album Cat Stevens is most known for. In recent years it's gotten more press because the flaming lips got sued for Flight Test sounding so similar to Father and Son. Over all the album is a pretty solid folk affair. Did you know cat stevens drew the cover????

Lastly, Darkhorse. Remember when I said you get what you pay for? Well a bunch of the jacket is ripped off... it's really weird. But anyways. This album was after a couple albums-- Live in Bangladesh, Living in the Material World. It was mediocre.. Sure it has George's signature slide work, but he had laryngitis at the time of the recording. Still... I'll probably end up listening to it a couple of times, and three bucks was pretty good, I've seen it go for around 10.

If you go to breakaway go through their recent arrivals section, they get a lot in and I found most of the records there.

Twitter Review New York Tendaberry

New York Tendaberry by Laura Nyro is music for IM/texting your lover on a cold winter night. Lurv you Kanye!

5/25 Half Price South Lamar Austin Texas

Well... Let's start off with the store. They do NOT have a big record section. But they did have some pretty interesting records (which will be discussed later) such as ice cream for crow by captain beefheart. What is it with stores not having any beatles or stones records? You should have more than undercover, period. Anyways...

The records:
Rock and Roll Animal by Lou Reed -- 8
The Works by Queen -- 6
God Bless Tiny Tim -- 4

So The queen. I don't know why, but I've been really digging queen a lot lately. Anyways... this is later in their career (I do not count any albums made with half bands after the fact). Interesting because a chick who listens to the radio too much is running the airwaves.

Rock and Roll Animal is a live album. After berlin, so way past the velvets. I was watching a couple of videos of lou reed doing sweet jane. While I do like the one on loaded the best, this version doesn't suck like more of his later ones, in my opinion. Also heroin lacks cale's distinctive viola, but at this point you know if you're a fan of the velvet underground or a fan of Lou Reed, and if you see this album as a Lou Reed album, you won't be disappointed.

Ok... The find o the day. Tiny Tim is sot of what every outsider artist wants to be: unknown but on the edge of everything. Sure most of you that grew up in the sixties know him from Laugh In, but for those younger, remember the first episode of spongebob squarepants???? Those songs are by him. Anyways, he was the son of some immigrants in New York City. He knew a lot of tin pan alley songs and he eventually got a record deal with Reprise. God Bless Tiny Tim is the first, and it contains his signature "Tiptoe Through The Tulips". Yes, this joke is used all the time in christmas carol plays/movies/tv specials/etc... But back to Reprise... Reprise was a pretty cool label in the 60's because it had more mainstream stuff like the Kinks but it also had really wierd shit like Tiny Tim, Zappa, Beefheat, etc...

Well, that's it for me.

Oh and the record o the day at allmusic is Van Dyke Parks discover america. After being a psychedelic song structure genius he decides to do calypso!

5/20 Half Price Bedford

I had an all right run tonight. I've been going to the Bedford Half Price books for years. It's sort of the only place I buy records back home. This is the store with the pricing and selection I'm most used to. It was really wierd today though. They had no beatles records and no rolling stones. But they have been more organized recently. And of course, you can find every kenny loggins record ever made in clearance.

The Records:
Emotional Rescue by Stones--4
Misfits by Kinks --4
I Was Made To Love Her by Stevie Wonder -- 1
Abandoned Luncheonette by Hall and Oates -- 1
Main Course by BeeGees -- 1
Children of the World by the BeeGees -- 1

So let's start with the kinks. As previously mentioned, Misfits is around the era of the kinks trying to be arena rockers. The most common ones that you find are around this era which is unfortunate. While, as a friend pointed out to me, Ray Davies' songwriting didn't change dramatically after Everybody's In Showbiz, I still like the juicy late 60's period the best. Though this album sounds good thus far.

I've seen Main Course so many times that it's impossible to count. If you every pay full price for this record you should just send your money to me. Known as the album where the brothers gibb went disco. Children of the world is the album immediately afterward. Once again, main course and many of the albums afterward can be found in clearance pretty easily. Unfortunatley I just discovered that my copy of main course is warped. Which brings be to a good point, ALWAYS PLAY THE RECORDS BEFORE YOU BUY THEM. Unless you're fine with losing a dollar... which I will probably make my brother pay.

Which brings me to another point. I recently got a Vestax handy trax turntable. It's pretty sturdy and it has pretty much everything you would want in a portable unit. I've read reviews that are critical of internal speaker but I'm ok with it. If you want you can hook up headphones.

Abandoned Luncheonette is Hall and Oates' second album. It's pretty cool. I mean hall and oates are the bad boys of smooth music. HALL AND OATES!

Emotional Rescue is exactly the sort of album that you would expect the stones to make pretty much after exile with the exception of tattoo you and some girls... i.e. a couple good songs but pretty much average. I really wanted some stones but they didn't have any besides this one and Got Live If You Want It and I'm not really in the mood for live recordings, especially one of that era stones for 15 bucks. It was real unfortunate because this other place I went to had a copy of goat's head soup, which I would have preferred over emotional rescue.

The real find o the day was the stevie wonder record. Sure they had a lot of other albums, but this early one was in clearance so it's all the better. Interestingly enough they had a copy of the Beach Boys Wild Honey, which has a cover of the titular track. It's classic motown.

Well that's it.

5/11 Breakaway Records

Yes... another post. Anyways... This store was pretty cool. It's vinyl only so if you're looking for cds you're out of luck. They had an ok selection (better than half price worse than waterloo or antones) but they did have a lot of good records and, more importantly, their prices were really good. They also have 2, count 'em, 2 turntables for listening. Seems sort of weird for such a small store but whatever. The are pretty balanced as far as music genres: the rock/pop section was as big as the jazz and soul sections. They also had a very small punk section which included a record by the Nervebreakers. When did they get so big? it seems that every store I go into has something by them (excluding hp). They were this small punk band from the Dallas area and I have a compilation (called "Are We Too Late For The Trend") with them and a couple of other punk bands of the day. Also they did open for the Sex Pistols when they came to Dallas. Anyways... it's strange that they're getting more popularity.

Anyways on to the purchases. The white album for 12 bucks. They had a lot of early beatles records but the white album is my favorite so there you go.

I think I have a serious problem. If I go into a record store, there is a handful of records I will buy no matter what the price. Such was the case with The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society. Before I saw it I was going to get the white album, Let's Get It On, and Flowers by the stones, then I saw it. The sky parted and light doth shown down on it. Let me remind you that this is in NO WAY an exaggeration. I gladly handed over thirty dollars for said record and caressed it as I would my first born child as I left the store. A review shall come another day.

5/9 Antone's Records/CVS Austin

Ok so the major part of today was record maintenance. Often clearance records are in playable condition but they are beat up/missing inner sleeves etc... The other day I saw a guy at Antone's fixing an old Sinatra record with rubber cement. It works really well if you apply it right. Rubber cement is sort of a glue and you can find it at cvs. It has a brush in the cap so you just dip it and spread it around (usually around the edges). Let it dry and the jacket is no longer falling apart. Also, sometimes cheap records don't have an inner sleeve. The ones that do are pretty interesting. On a Carole King record sleeve there was an ad for budget compilations including a lot of artists on warner brother/reprise records. I got a kick out of seeing Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, and the Fugs next to The Kinks, Neil Young, America, The Grateful Dead, Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix etc... But anyways you can get some paper sleeves real cheap, I got 20 for 3 bucks. Sure these sleeves cost almost as much as a clearance record on sale (more on this later), but they do give your records an extra layer of protection, which is great.

Speaking of the kinks, I got a copy of Muswell Hillbillies by the Kinks. It's really the last Kinks album I'm interested in finding, although I would consider picking up Misfits if the price was right. This album was their first album (not counting the percy soundtrack) after Lola, so it should be interesting. I haven't seen a lot of kinks records ever, probably because they weren't as popular due to being banned from performing in the US, and they are definitely due for a reissue. I'd highly recommend checking out anything between Something Else and Muswell Hillbilies. However, The Village Green Preservation society is considered their classic album by most fans, but they are all pretty good.

As for Antone's, it's definitely the legitimate record store I go to the most. It's within walking distance of the UT campus and it has a pretty good selection. However, it is primarily a USED RECORD STORE, and while they do have some reissues, don't go there expecting them to have a lot of new records. They have a good size clearance section and they do occasionally slip in finds. For example, on record store day (April 17th) they always have a sale, and I found Tim by the Replacements for only twenty cents (compared to the 15 cent sleeve). My advice is, if you're looking for good clearance, check the milk crates around the l-z section in the back, they do have it somewhat alphabetical all around, but I think that they put the newer ones in those crates.

Hopefully, I will go to Waterloo records, which is my favorite record store in Austin thus far, but that's a story for another day.

5/7 Half Price Parmer Lane ATX!

Ok... So here's a new blog for you. I'll go to record stores and tell you what I get.

Today I went to the half price books on parmer lane. They didn't have a lot of records in comparison to other 1/2 price books, but all of the ones on the shelves were in really good condition. I did notice a lot of records that I usually find in clearance were up on the shelves, i.e. rod stewart, barry manilow, doobie brothers, kenny loggins and all the yatch rock ilk. They only had one beatles record (magical mystery tour for 50 bucks???), one stones record (emotional rescue), and one byrds records (best of). Also, the pricing seemed more unusual. I saw laura nyro's fourth record for 8 bucks, a record I usually see in clearance for a dollar. But they did have some newer records which surprised me such as the silver jews latest.

Anyways... to the records.
Here, My Dear by Marvin Gaye ---5 bucks
Cities In Dust by Siouxsie and the Banshees --- 4 bucks
Like a Prayer by Madonna --- 8 bucks
First Songs by Laura Nyro --- 4 bucks

Of these, I have only heard Laura Nyro's First Songs. Laura Nyro was a Brooklyn songwriter who garnered attention when other acts, most notably The 5th Dimension and Peter, Paul, and Mary, covered her songs. As far as this album goes, it's actually a re-issue of her first lp "more than a new discovery". The songs are pretty standard for what will become her style, however, she did not have as much creative control as Herb Bernstein. However, her next couple of albums are really good, especially if you enjoy people like Carole King and Judee Sill i.e. female singer-songwriters. If you're looking to get into Laura Nyro, pick up her second album Eli and the Thirteenth Confession.

Like a Prayer is really cool. I haven't seen any copies before going to this half price, so I definitely wanted to pick it up. It's got some good songs such as the title track, express yourself, and cherish. I can't wait to listen to it.

I bought the Siouxsie and the Banshees record because I knew they were a punk band and I thought it was an album. However, it is a 12 inch single and apparently their first single in the US released by geffen. Judging by what I've read it sounds like it may be a cure-ish song, but who knows. I thought pavement was a heavy metal band when I first heard of them.

The real find of this trip was Here, My Dear. I've wanted to hear this record every since my good friend Chris recommended it to me. I haven't seen a lot of Gaye records through my years of searching, maybe because I go to stores in the suburbs, but that's how it is. Marvin Gaye recorded this album while he was going through a divorce with Barry Gordy's sister, Anna Gordy. The artwork on this album is phenomenal, so definitely check out some images of the cover. The only problem I have with this purchase is that one one side of the jacket the bottom is torn... but that can easily be fixed with some rubber cement or another adhesive.

Well that's all for the first time. I hope you've enjoyed it.