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Purchase log, 2019-10-29

[Betty Davis - They Say I'm Different]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

Catalog

CD
  • Bad Brains, Bad Brains
  • Betty Davis, They Say I’m Different
  • Boris, Sound Track from Film Mabuta no Ura
  • Dreams Come True, Love Unlimited
  • Foreigner, 4
  • God Is My Co-Pilot, I Am Not This Body
  • God Is My Co-Pilot, Straight Not
  • Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Hits
  • Howard Jones, Dream Into Action
  • Leila Josefowicz, Solo
  • Pavement, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
  • Swing Out Sister, Get in Touch with Yourself
  • The Jets, The Jets
Vinyl
  • Boston, Boston
  • Doctors’ Mob, Headache Machine
  • Emmylou Harris, The Angel Band Interview
  • Gabby Pahinui, Gabby
  • Kalapana, Kalapana III
  • Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin IV
  • Miles Davis, Bitches Brew
  • Peter Moon, Cane Fire!
  • Soundgarden, Superunknown
  • T. Rex, Electric Warrior
  • The B-52’s, Whammy
  • The Ordinaires, One
  • Yvonne Elliman, Rising Sun
  • We Are Going to Eat You, Everywhen

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Purchase log, 2019-04-16

[Duran Duran - As the Lights Go Down]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

Another Record Store Day is in the books, and this year, I found everything I wanted and a few things I didn’t know I wanted.

New releases

Vinyl
  • a-ha, Hunting High and Low: The Early Alternate Takes
  • Bingo Hand Job (i.e. R.E.M.), Live at the Borderline 1991
  • Fleetwood Mac, The Alternate Fleetwood Mac
  • Leann Rimes, Live at Gruene Hall
  • Prince, His Majesty’s Pop Life: The Purple Mix Club
  • Sly and the Family Stone, Woodstock Sunday, August 17, 1969
  • Townes Van Zandt, The Best of Townes Van Zandt
  • U2, The Europa EP

Catalog

CD
  • Boris, Smile
  • Boris with Michio Kurihara, Rainbow
  • Hapa, Hapa
  • Hiroshima, Hiroshima
  • Huey Lewis and the News, Time Flies … The Best of Huey Lewis and the News
  • Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel (Security)
  • Sly and the Family Stone, There’s a Riot Goin’ On
  • The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Time Out
  • The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Time Further Out
  • The Who, Quadrophenia
Vinyl
  • Lou Reed, Transformer

Reissues

Vinyl
  • Bruce Robison, Wrapped
  • Duran Duran, As the Lights Go Down
  • Santigold, I Don’t Want: The Gold Fire Sessions
  • Weezer, Weezer (Teal Album)
  • Yaz, Reconnected Live
  • Soundtrack, Hidden Figures
  • Soundtrack, Multiplication Rock
  • Soundtrack, Office Space

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Favorite Edition 2018 Catalog

[Art of Noise - In No Sense? Nonsense!]

This past year, I started keeping a log of purchases every week, and a cursory look at those entries show how much catalog has taken over my collection.

Like last year, many of these purchases come from Lifelong Thrift Store or Goodwill. A month-long CD sale at Easy Street Records contributed quite a number of titles. I’ve whittled down nearly 600 purchases to a list of Favorite 10.

Catalog

  1. Patti Smith, Horses: The first time I played this album, I didn’t get it. So I played a few more times and became fascinated with it on each play.
  2. Boris, Pink: I remember other Japanese indie rock fans fawning over this album, and it’s taken me 12 years to get around to finding out why.
  3. David Bowie, Scary Monsters: At first I was going to be boring and choose Ziggy Stardust or Let’s Dance as my favorite Bowie album, but this one takes it, hands down.
  4. Bruce Springsteen, Nebraska: I like the story of how this album came about just as much as I like the end result.
  5. Fugazi, The Argument: Fugazi didn’t make a bad album, just less good ones. The Argument would probably be Fugazi’s best album if 13 Songs and Repeater weren’t in the way.
  6. Joni Mitchell, Court and Spark: I went on a Joni Mitchell binge this year, and this album is the only one I really like. Sorry, Blue.
  7. Roxy Music, Avalon: Quite the dapper album.
  8. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced: It’s weird how familiar this album feels after years of hearing covers by Kronos Quartet, Sting and Emmylou Harris.
  9. The Pogues, Rum Sodomy and the Lash: I didn’t accommodate the Pogues during my Celtic phase of the mid-90s because they were more rock than Celtic.
  10. Wire, Pink Flag: I’m also fond of the self-titled Killing Joke album.

The last half of the year was stuffed with reissues that were of particular interest for me.

Reissues

  • Art of Noise, In No Sense? Nonsense! (Deluxe Edition): (Who’s Afraid Of …?) The Art of Noise! may have all the hits, but the post-ZTT albums from 1986 and 1987 are the band’s creative peak.
  • Camouflage, Voices and Images (30th Anniversary Edition): This reissue received a limited run in Germany, so pick it up before they’re all gone.
  • Johnny Hates Jazz, Turn Back the Clock (30th Anniversary Edition): The acoustic re-recording of this album works quite well, given how reliant the original was on MIDI.
  • Kate Bush, Remastered Part I and Remastered Part II: It’s apparent on which side Kate takes in the loudness wars, because these remasters do nothing with the volume. In the case of The Red Shoes, it’s actually pulled back. But they sound great, particularly Part I.
  • Julee Cruise, The Voice of Love: I so dug Floating Into the Night that I didn’t think it could be topped. It wasn’t, because The Voice of Love is a different beast.
  • Sasagawa Miwa, Houjou -BEST 03-18-: I passed on the two most recent Sasagawa Miwa albums, but this retrospective does a good job of highlighting the best parts of her output.
  • Frank Ocean, Endless: This album was better than Blonde.
  • Prince, Piano and a Microphone 1983: How about a vinyl reissue of the Love Symbol album?

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Favorite Edition Rewind: 2006

[BORIS - PINK]

A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.

At the time, SLOTH LOVE CHUNKS edged Utada Hikaru for the top spot of 2006, but Ultra Blue has proven far more durable. This list has gone through quite a number of changes.

  1. Utada Hikaru, Ultra Blue
  2. SLOTH LOVE CHUNKS, Shikakui Vision
  3. VOLA & THE ORIENTAL MACHINE, Waiting for My Food
  4. Furukawa Miki, Mirrors
  5. Tokyo Jihen, Otona (Adult)
  6. Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere
  7. Boris, Pink
  8. The Roots, Game Theory
  9. Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson, Neruda Songs
  10. Nick Lachey, What’s Left of Me

Other favorites of the year:

  • ACO, mask
  • J Dilla, Donuts
  • Hajime Chitose, Hanadairo
  • Now It’s Overhead, Dark Light Days
  • Envy, Insomniac Doze
  • The Gossip, Standing in the Way of Control
  • ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, Fan Club

I’ve known about Boris for as long as I’ve been following Japanese music, but I never made time for them until I picked up Pink at Goodwill for $2. Well, hell …

I wouldn’t have listened to the Roots or J Dilla at the time. Hip-hop had diversified to have its own underground, and that was just so much history that I wasn’t willing to unpack. I’ve only started exploring hip-hop with any seriousness in the last year.

Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson was quite the late discovery. I didn’t pick up Neruda Songs till 2008, but it quickly became a favorite, dislodging Ex-Boyfriends completely off the list.

When I was first introduced to ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, I dismissed them as “eastern youth lite”. The joke was on me — I don’t even own an eastern youth album anymore, and I’ve purchased ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION on vinyl.

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Purchase log, 2018-10-23

[Jason Isbell and 400 Unit - Live from the Ryman]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

New releases

CD
  • Jason Isbell and 400 Unit, Live from the Ryman

Catalog

CD
  • Benjamin Britten, String Quartets 2 & 3 / Sinfonietta (Amadeus Quartet, Vienna Octet)
  • Cyndi Lauper, She’s So Unusual
  • Hot Hot Heat, Make Up the Breakdown
  • John Zorn, The String Quartets
  • Kahimi Karie, The Best of Trattoria Years Plus VCD
  • Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, The Heist
  • Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels, Live 1973
  • Simon and Garfunkel, Sounds of Silence
  • Talking Heads, Little Creatures
  • Various Artists, Trojan Reggae
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Symphonies Nos. 40 and 41 (John Eliot Gardiner; English Baroque Soloists)
Vinyl
  • Boris, Pink
  • Icicle Works, Icicle Works
  • Frida, Something’s Going On
  • Painkiller, Guts of a Virgin
  • Robert Palmer, Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley

Reissues

Vinyl
  • Kylie Minogue, Fever

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Purchase log, 2018-08-07

[Parquet Courts - Wide Awake!]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

New releases

CD
  • Parquet Courts, Wide Awake!

Catalog

CD
  • BADBADNOTGOOD, III
  • Band of Horses, Cease to Begin
  • Boris, boris at last -feedbacker-
  • Cypress Hill, Cypress Hill
  • Eminem, The Slim Shady LP
  • Jesu, Silver
  • Oscar Peterson Trio, Night Train
  • Pelican, Australasia
  • Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel (third album)
  • The Velvet Underground, Loaded
  • The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground
Vinyl
  • Animotion, Animotion
  • Cliff Richard, I’m No Hero
  • Robert Palmer, Some People Can Do What They Like
  • The Stone Roses, The Stone Roses
Files
  • Brandon Stansell, Dear John
  • Brandon Stansell, Slow Down
  • Trey Pearson, Love Is Love

Reissues

Vinyl
  • U2, Achtung Baby

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Purchase log, 2018-07-31

[Boris - Pink]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

Catalog

CD
  • Boris, Pink
  • Brian Eno, Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)
  • Joy Division, Unknown Pleasures
  • New Order, Low-life
  • Pedro the Lion, Winners Never Quit
  • The Drums, Portamento

Vinyl

  • Grace Jones, Warm Leatherette
  • The Pogues, If I Should Fall from Grace with God

Reissues

Vinyl
  • U2, Zooropa

 

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