"I'd buy that for a dollar!" Great purchases for a buck or less

all the musicians are identified in my copy of spitballs. you know, jonathan richman, greg kihn, members of earth quake, etc. in fact i think it even has a group picture of everyone who played on the album.

― scott seward, Sunday, 5 April 2009 19:54 (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yup, mine too. It's the UK edition.

Maybe that Superpitcher album in the Zavvi (now called HEAD wtf) sale on lunch - I will know once I've listened to it

you made me pull out my Spitballs mine has no info, it is Dutch. I paid 99 cents for it in 1991. I forgot to remove the inner price tag.

I must have known what it was from reading Trouser Press Record Guide or something. Nope, just looked it was in the Rolling Stone blue guide.

$1 each, Half-Price Books, Lamar at Airport, Austin, today:

Aaron Copland Appalachian Spring (EAV Music Appreciation Series LP, 1968) (The "Study Version" on the first side is "desigined to be played with the filmstrip," and includes "electronic signals superimposed on the music to indicate when filmstrip frames are to be changed." Filmstrip not included, of course, so that means I only have to listen to the "Listening Version." Sounds easy!)
The Farm Spartacus (Sire/Reprise CD, 1991) (Post-Manchester/pre-big beat U.K. rock-techno, or something like that. I believe "Groovy Train" was some sort of hit in England. I'll probably hate this, but thought I'd try it anyway.)
Wilson Pickett The Wicked Pickett (Atlantic LP, 1966) (Scratchy, but it looks like he does a lot of great songs)
Southside Johnny And The Asbury Jukes The Jukes (Mercury LP, 1979) (Was kinda disappointed by This Time It's For Real which I paid a buck for last year, but by the looks of things this was probably their new wave record, if they had one)
Widow Rockit (CBS Associated, 1985) (Never heard of them, but looks promising -- L.A. corporate mid '80s fake new wave rock with a girl singer. They actually had two different cheesy-looking 1985 LPs at the store; went with that one because it's got two possible Holly Knight songwriting credits plus a cover of Joni Mitchell's "This Flight Tonight," which Nazareth did an awesome version of once. If I like this one, I'll go back and spend a buck on Gone Too Soon or whatever it's called, which has a tombstone on the cover. If I don't, I won't.)

The Farm Spartacus... I'll probably hate this

Too bleh to bother to hate, actually. "Groovy Train" clearly the most tolerable song, and still not so hot. But then I never got Happy Mondays, either.

Southside Johnny And The Asbury Jukes ...probably their new wave record, if they had one

They apparently didn't, despite Johnny's skinny tie on the cover and the 1979 copyright. Though "I'm So Anxious" might the closest they ever came. I should have been over it decades ago, but I still never fail to be astonished by how mediocre these guys always seem to sound, in a genre (white bar-band r&b-rock) I basically like. They're never that funky, never that rocking, never that soulful, never that catchy, and their songwriting was nothing special. Seems they just did all that stuff enough to get by. Guess they were really lucky Bruce was their buddy.

More duds:

Glen Campbell Southern Nights (Capitol, 1977)
Gil Scott-Heron Moving Target (Arista LP, 1982)

Probably Daddy Cool, too -- amazed to learn "Eagle Rock," which is really no great shakes, was a gigantic hit in 1971 in Australia, where it somehow topped the charts for ten weeks. Maybe I'll force-feed it to myself a couple more times, but I doubt it'll hit. (Copyright on my 12-inch single says '82, so I guess it's possible this is a re-recording.)

on the local weekly market there are one or two bookstands that also have a couple of rugged looking boxes holding slightly less rugged vinyl. checked these out yesterday

JJ Cale - Naturally (Ariola, 1971)
Tom Lehrer - Revisited (Lehrer Records, 1960)
Franz Schubert - String Quartet No. 13 by the Janáček Quartet (Supraphon, 1962)
Walter Carlos - The Well-Tempered Synthesizer (CBS, 1969)

The Motors Tenement Steps (Virgin, 1980)

Weird record. The band had basically broken up, but the two guys who had once upon a time been in Ducks Deluxe stayed together as a duo, and got Jimmy Iovine to produce, and wound up moving away from the pub hard rock of their earlier records toward an almost showtune-rock kind of archness and ornateness. Everybody seemed to notice back then how much "Love and Loneliness" sounds like Stephen Stills' "Love The One You're With," but I'm not sure if anybody noticed how much "Tenement Steps" sound like "MacArthur Park." Those are the two side openers, both almost five minutes long, and they're the two songs I used to hear on college radio in the '80s. Not til halfway through Side Two -- with "Nightmare Zero" and then "Modern Man" (because every fake new wave band back then had to do a song called "Modern Man" that tried to sound like Devo) -- do they speed up and let the new wave rock in.

Turns out Daddy Cool's "Eagle Rock" does have some kind of archival riff and primal structure to it, best overheard loud from the next room over after a couple beers (which is how it was probably often heard in Australia at the time, I bet.) So not as great a pub-boogie single as say "Teenage Head" or "Smokin' In the Boys Room," but still not bad. (And the lyrics to their B-side "Daddy Rocks Off" basically go something like "boogie woogie woogie woogie woogie woogie woogie woogie woogie boogie.")

Widow Rockit (CBS Associated, 1985)

Sound like Scandal, and do it well -- bright sun-shiney hand-clapping hard pop. Maybe a little Quarterflash thrown in there, too (though no saxophones.) Cover of "This Flight Tonight" does sound based on the Nazareth version, to me ears.

"Esperanto Dance Macabre (A&M, 1974) (Apparently prog, though looks decadent in an early Eurodisco kind of way. Zero stars for all three albums in first RS guide!)"

I bought this when I was in high school and loved it for about two months. Never looked into the later two. More Roxy Music prog than Yes prog, features a violin prominently. Haven't played it in years, in fact I may have gotten rid of it because I can't remember seeing it since I played it last. Still have a soft spot for it, though.

And the first Ambrosia is worth getting. "Nice, Nice, Very Nice" was the hit from that one, which had some kind of Kurt Vonnegut connection, I think.

Dollar CDs from the KTRU Outdoor Show:

Volcano Suns-The Bright Orange Years (expanded reissue)
Carbon/Silicon-Last Post
Mark Olson & Gary Louris-Ready For The Flood

xp Not hearing any Roxy Music I can identify on that Esperanto LP, unfortunately; not much Yes, either, though. Really wish there was more rock (as in guitars) in their prog, and more singing too. First side ("The Journey"/"The Castle"/"The Duel," woaagh) is mostly instrumental, at least 'til the sub-Focus operatic hocus-pocus in the final track; second side the high male singer stays sparse and gets lost among the Belgian/Italaian/Brit octet shuffle, who don't really crank their changes silly and over-the-top until the two-minute concluding title track. So though I really want to like the record (the cover illo of leotarded lesbians battling with bull-whips in mid-air is pretty sick), I'm actually bored by most of it. (One website on line compares them to Curved Air, who I've barely ever listened to; was under the impression they were jazzier and folkier, though. Also, Esperanto sadly lack a lady singer, not to mention anybody who wound up in The Police.)

One Amazon reviewer's dissenting opinion, fwiw:

Side One (of the LP) is very much an orchestral ELP, with a touch of orchestral Caravan thrown in for the few vocal tracks. Side Two, in retrospect, is much more interesting, because it contains many of the elements that the Alan Parsons Project would use a year later in their debut album, TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION: highly visual orchestrations, rhythmic bass-lines, John Miles-like vocal. I'm not aware that they have credited the influence of Esperanto, but it's hard to believe that Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson had not heard DANSE MACABRE before composing their first album.

It turns out I have the Last Tango LP (their third) and not Danse Macabre. They do a cover of Eleanor Rigby on it. This one seems to have more vocals than DM, and I kind of remember a female vocalist doing some of the singing (but it may have just been backup).

So Widow actually turn out to be more Motels/Scandal than Quarterflash/Scandal, and like I said not bad, but the only cut that really sticks with me when the album ends is their "This Flight Tonight" cover (which is absolutely schooled in Nazareth's rumble.) Nothing else gets anywhere near that level of kick, and this kind of pop doesn't mean much without hits. So I think I'll pass on picking up their other album.

Motels/Scandal than Quarterflash/Scandal

that is an incredibly fine distinction. More moody than you originally thought?

Nah, just thinner. And less jazzy. (Quarterflash totally had that Fleetwood Mac/Steely Dan thing going on, especially on the debut. Check out "Williams Avenue" if you don't believe me. Not to mention "Valerie," where sax-playing Rindy Ross sings about a lesbian fling in art school. One of my favorite albums ever, no shit.)

Turns out Daddy Cool's "Eagle Rock" does have some kind of archival riff and primal structure to it, best overheard loud from the next room over after a couple beers (which is how it was probably often heard in Australia at the time, I bet.

Has great rhythm thump and guitar turnarounds without being heavy. Song used in the opening sequence of "Wolf Creek", Australia's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," mostly for its bonhommie in the car with three students, one guys/two girls, on their way for a tour after a night of excessive drinking and barfing with friends.

some recent LP finds for 50 cents

robbie basho - rainbow thunder
robbie basho - art of the acoustic steel string guitar 6 & 12
fleetwood mac - rumours
django reinhardt - djangology

That Southside Johnny LP I bought and complained about above turns out to have a pretty decent rock-disco crossover track at the end -- "Vertigo," somehow a paralell to when Phil Lynott and David Johansen made similar moves around that time. And maybe even more than Lynott and Johansen, these guys really come naturally to it, basically being a soul band and all. Also don't mind the E-Streety soul horn arrangements on most of Side Two, and the two semi-new-wave rockers at the album's start ("All I Want Is Everything," "I'm So Anxious") are pretty catchy. So like most of the early LPs I've heard by these guys, this one gets a pass, but just barely.

$1, Top Drawer Thrift, on Burnett in Austin today:

Afro-Cuban Band Rhythm Of Life (Arista 1978) (Latinish disco from Michael Zager)
Mac McNally Cuttin' Corners (RCA 1980)
UTFO Doin' It! (Select 1989)

Passed up these; any reason I shouldn't have?: Lane Caudell Midnight Hunter (1979 apparent disco from an actor I think); June Millington Running (early '80s lesbian folk from ex Fanny member I think); The Pattons Homesteading (1975 Christian hippie folk duo looks like); Maureen Steele Nature Of The Beast (sleazy looking white woman singer on Motown in 1975).

About a year back, I found a copy of the classic ROIR compilation New York Thrash -- featuring seismic tracks by Bad Brains, Kraut, Adrenalin O.D., Beastie Boys -- on compact disc for a dollar. I hadn't heard it since someone swiped my cassette of it in college. Major score.

john coltrane - kulu se mama
jackie mclean - it's time
herbie hancock - maiden voyage
melvin van peebles - br'er soul
canned heat - living the blues
al green - gets next to you
al green - is love
thelonious monk - alone in san francisco
nitty gritty dirt band - uncle charlie and his dog teddy
john mayall - blues in laurel canyon
john mayall - crusade
james brown - black caesar

I picked up the Screaming Trees SST Anthology (21 songs!!!) for $1 the other night.

$1, Top Drawer Thrift, on Burnett in Austin today:

xhuxk, since when are you in Austin?

Since the end of March...

Anyway, bought this CD for 50 cents at a garage sale here today:

Emerson Lake & Palmer Lucky Man And Other Hits (Flashback/Rhino, 1997) (Looks really cut-rate, like something that'd get sold in truck stops or at the drug store counter. Songlist goes: Lucky Man, C'Est La Vie, Paper Blood, Still...You Turn Me On, Karn Evil No. 9 -- 1st Impression Parts 1 & 2, Fanfare For The Common Man)

...and these three LPs at a Goodwill at 183 and Burnett, $5 total:

Richard "Dimples" Fields Tellin' It Like It Is (Columbia, 1987) (Actually, though I'll file it with the other two LPs I have under his whole name, he is just called "Dimples" on the cover and on the label; had no idea he would up doing that)
New England New England (Infinity, 1979) (Includes a song called "Punk {Puny Undernourished Kid}," ha ha)
The Sylvers Something Special (Capitol, 1976)

Would have definitely bought a few more if they'd been selling for $1 instead of $2, and may yet go back to get one or two in a moment of weekness: Robbie Dupree LP with "Steal Away" and "Hot Rod Hearts"; Shirley Murdock self-titled Roger Troutman-produced '87 LP with "As We Lay"; Duke Jupiter LP from 1984 on Motown (not sure if they were ever any good); Bob James Touchdown; Don Williams Cafe Carolina; self-released-looking LP by some Canadian jazz guy who covered a Frank Zappa song.

The Canadian jazz-guy LP was from 1976, fwiw (which made it seem more interesting, since self-released LPs weren't as common back then, jazz or otherwise.)

Also, the Maureen Steele Motown album I mentioned that I didn't buy a week ago was from '85, not '75.

And oh yeah, that Goodwill also had something like 20 different Keith Jarrett LPs from the '70s and '80s for $2 each; apparently some former Keith fan had dumped their whole collection.

25 cents each, garage sale, North Central Austin today:

Bill Doggett Honky Tonk Organ (Harmony LP, c. late '50s or early '60s I assume)
Fats Domino Fats Domino (United Artists Legendary Masters Series double-LP, 1971 -- this is the cool-looking set that got five stars in early editions of the Rolling Stone Record Guide)
S-Ban Hour Best Hit Parade (Hit Songs) (some Japanese label LP, probably mid '60s, beautiful translucent lime-green vinyl -- Maybe "S-Ban Hour," or "S-Ban Haur" as the label inside says, is the group? Three mod-looking non-Asian gals on the cover; songs include "Diana," "Calendar Girl, "One Way Ticket," "The Three Bells" "Day-O," "Sinno'Me Moro," "Mama Guitar," "The Rose Tattoo," "Uska Dara," etc., many of which I never heard of before.)

xpost to xhuxk re: Lane Caudell.

He was in a kinda interesting glam-pop group called Skyband in the 70's, along with Pete Beckett (later of Player) and Steve Kipner (I think you'll know his history? From Bee Gees to Natasha Bedinfield...) I have no idea if his solo album is any good, but it might be interesting depending on who was involved in the songwriting/production. FWIW, the Skyband album looks like it's disco if you judge by the cover, but doesn't sound disco at all. Granted Lane was probably the least musical of the three, but I'd be at least slightly interested, especially for less than a buck.

Hmmm, it looks like one of Caudell's songs was covered by The Cats (another one of those European groups like Gasolin' who were apparently huge at one time...somewhere?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cats

Thanks, dlp -- That does sound kinda promising. Maybe I'll pick it up next time I'm at that store.

And fwiw, S-Ban Hour are apparently not a group. Guess those mod gals are just for decoration. The LP turns out mostly to be a fairly musically pointless compilation of actual hits by the(uncredited) original artists (Anka, Sedaka, Belafonte, etc.) But it sure does look pretty, and weird.

i have a cats album on rare earth that sucks. they were dutch, right?

"they were key figures of what came to be called the Palingsound (eel-sound), an umbrella for artists residing in Volendam (the country's top seafood city)."

meow!

The Cats seem easier to find on youtube. Bee Gees alert! Based on this song, I'm suddenly slightly interested:

Trying that again:

I'm finding a lot of crap and a few things I kind of like. Wonder of this is a job for Geir to sort out?

And fwiw, S-Ban Hour are apparently not a group. Guess those mod gals are just for decoration.

s-banned you for this fwiw

john coltrane - kulu se mama
jackie mclean - it's time
herbie hancock - maiden voyage
melvin van peebles - br'er soul
canned heat - living the blues
al green - gets next to you
al green - is love
thelonious monk - alone in san francisco
nitty gritty dirt band - uncle charlie and his dog teddy
john mayall - blues in laurel canyon
john mayall - crusade
james brown - black caesar

― "Together we could rape the universe" (omar little), Friday, May 1, 2009 6:31 AM (2 weeks ago)

this is one sweeeeet haul. unbelievable.

The best second-hand shop in Vienna (moses records) had another one of their, come in and take free records day today - the third such event they've had this year...

Today was 20 free records per visitor from the bargain bin section at the back of the shop.. Me and the gf left with two big piles including...

Peter Gabriel - So
Tracey Ullmann - You Broke My Heart In 17 places
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Damn The Torpedoes
ABC - Up
The Cars - Heartbeat City
Chic - Real People
Linda Ronstadt - Living in the USA
It's Immaterial - Song
Kadydids - Katydids
Nils Lofgren - Night Fades Away
The Immortal Billie Holiday
Fuzzbox - Big Bang
Carole Bayer-Sager - ST
Pete Wylie - Sinful
OMD - The Pacific Age
Bruce Wooley and the Camera Club - English Garden
Gerry Rafferty - City to City
Celi Bee - Alternating Currents
The Colour Field - Virgins and Philistines
Amii Stewart - Images
plus a load of other rubbish..

I also bought a copy of Modern Lovers Live from the 2 euro bins there..

I love free records...

Sonic Youth, "Murray Street"

99 cent promo at Record and Tape Traders in Reisterstown, MD (RIP) like a week before it came out

$1 each, Recycled Reads on Burnett in Austin (overrun from Austin Public Library, every LP $1 -- 10 of these, plus a sturdy free complimentary green canvas carrying bag) and Antone's on Guadalupe (4 of these -- $1.99 albums on sale now for $0.99 each):

Bellamy Brothers -- Featuring Let Your Love Flow LP
Champaign - How 'Bout Us LP
Mink Deville - Coup De Grace LP
Dave Edmunds - Tracks On Wax 4 LP
Head East - Live! double LP (their most metal album, according to Martin Popoff)
ZZ Hill - I'm A Blues Man LP
Meredith Monk - Dolmen Music LP
T.S. Monk - House Of Music LP
Rank and File -- Long Gone Dead LP
Dee Dee Sharp Gamble - Dee Dee LP
Slave - Just A Touch Of Love LP
The System - Don't Disturb This Groove LP
Tierra - Together Again LP (from 1981; incl covers of "La La Means I Love You" and "Tequila")
Yello - One Second LP

Also, for $3 at a generally way overpriced and totally disorganized but ridiculously overpacked junk store next door to Recylcled Reads

Collin Raye - Extremes CD from 1994

T.S. Monk - House Of Music LP

I love you.

We can post $1 CD purchases on here, right?

Sure!

TS: TS Monk House of Music vs Meredith Monk Dolmen Music

Overall, Meredith. For the greatest single of all-time, T.S. Monk.

Planet Replay on Research, Austin. Entire wall of $1 CDs. Tons of boy band. Passed up that Pimpadelic CD. bad move?

Circuit Sessions 7: Barry Harris - Afterhours Harder Deeper Faster (4 Play 2001)
A Night at the Tunnel (mixed by DJ Jason Ojeda) (Nervous, no yea but the CD booklet is a sticker!!!)
Rigo Star: Attention! (Ima 1998)
Sugar: Beaster (Rykodisc 1993)

Overall, Meredith. For the greatest single of all-time, T.S. Monk.

Sorry, Kevin, but this makes no sense, and carries your delusion about "consistency" to an absurd extreme. Af if Meredith Monk could really make an album as good as THE BEST SONG EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE (not that I'm saying that, but you did) plus filler. Though oddly, Xgau gave Meredith an A- and TS an B-. And neither album seems to be in his '80s book? How weird is that?

I have a delusion about consistency?

Well, what do you want me to say? Ok sure I'd take House of Music to a desert island because it contains THE BEST SONG EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE. But I wouldn't be listening much to the rest of the album. And all that wear and tear on just "Bon Bon Vie" might erase the song from my universe forever. Maybe not such a wise choice.

You're in the ratings game. How would you star or letter grade a crap album that just so happened to contain THE BEST SONG EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE vs. a pretty damn good album, esp. one that DJ Shadow sampled to create the greatest album of the 1990s?

P.S. The House of Music review is in Xgau's 80s book. It's under "T" since T.S. Monk was the name of the band.

I have a delusion about consistency?

See also: Chambers Bros.

a crap album that just so happened to contain THE BEST SONG EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE

Is an oxymoron. If it's got the best song ever on it, it isn't crap. And the T.S Monk LP, which I just listened to, definitely isn't. It's got a few good pop-disco tracks ("Stay Free Of His Love" and the rock-disco "Hot Night In The City" especially) and pretty ballads that surround "Bon Bon Vie" just fine. "Only one great song" does not equal "crap."

Haven't played the Meredith Monk LP yet (at least since the last time I owned it, a couple decades ago), but I'll be really surprised if I like it more. (And while I love "Bon Bon Vie," I pretty clearly don't love it as much as you do.)

under "T" since T.S. Monk was the name of the band

Ha, I had no idea this was the case. I've always just assumed T.S. was Thelonious Jr's pseudonym, but judging from the notes, you're apparently right. Still don't get why Dolmen Music is missing from the '80s book, though. (I checked under "Meredith" too, by the way, just in case.)

Also; never logged in there here: $2 each, antique/ junk store in Giddings, TX two or three weeks ago:

T Graham Brown - I Tell It Like It Used To Be LP (1986)
Tom T Hall - Homecoming LP (1970)
Tom T Hall - For The People In The Last Hard Town LP (1973)
Billy Joe Royal - The Royal Treatment LP (1987)

See also: Chambers Bros.

Oh right. Well, the Chamber Bros. and T.S. Monk's albums, even at a dollar, are why Napster, etc. was invented (but for what it's worth, I have purchased House of Music twice).

Also, I noticed you sidestepped the more difficult question of what to rate these things.

Still don't get why Dolmen Music is missing from the '80s book, though.

A lot of jazz and new music or new classical or modern music or what Meredith Monk is was left out of the book. But that doesn't explain the jazz and new music, etc. that was left in. I seem to recall a page on his site about it but can't find it now.

what to rate these things

Depends how good they are, just like anything else. Also depends on the rating system. But if we're talking letter grades, a 40-minute LP with one all-time great track of fairly substantial length plus consistently enjoyable if generic filler that elucidates the context the great tracks emerged from would sure seem pretty darn A- to me, in most cases.

"Stay Free Of His Love" and "Hot Night In The City"

These are actually great hard disco tracks in their own right, btw -- maybe not on a level with "Bon Bon Vie," but still dark and propulsive and substantial, not lightweight filler at all. And "Candidate For Love" and "Can't Keep My Hands To Myself" and "House of Music", if lighter and sweeter, are real good as well. This is a solid album; not one song I don't like. (Unlike the Dee Dee Sharp Gamble LP I bought, which as Xgau points out in his review, starts with two great disco burners then a nice soul ballad, but devotes all of side two to show-tuney ickiness. His B grade still underrates it, though; "Breaking And Entering" and "Let's Get This Party Started" are worth the price of admission in their own right. Especially if the price of admission is just $1.)