Archives

Purchase log, 2023-02-14

[INXS - Shabooh Shoobah]

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
  • Kelela, Raven

Catalog

CD
  • Arthur Honneger, Symphonie No. 1 / Pastorale D’été / Pacific 231 / Rugby / Mouvement Symphonique No. 3 (Charles Dutoit, Bavarian Radio Symphony)
  • Bruce Springsteen, The Promise
  • Okkervil River, Black Sheep Boy Appendix
  • Q-Tip, The Renaissance
  • Queens of the Stone Age, … Like Clockwork
Vinyl
  • INXS, Shabooh Shoobah
  • Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mother’s Milk

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Purchase log, 2021-12-08

[Helmet - Live and Rare]

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
  • Helmet, Live and Rare

Catalog

CD
  • Anton Webern, Complete Works, Opp. 1-31 (Pierre Boulez, London Symphony Orchestra)
  • Bruce Springsteen, The Ghost of Tom Joad
  • David Sedaris, Live at Carnegie Hall
  • Johnny Cash, American III: Solitary Man
  • Martha Argerich, Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 / Listz: Piano Concerto No. 1
  • Marvin Gaye, What’s Going On? (Deluxe Edition)
  • Orchestra Baobab, Made in Dakar
  • Paul Jacobs, Paul Jacobs Plays Blues, Ballads & Rags
  • Roxy Music, Country Life
  • Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, The 5 Violin Concertos (Itzhak Perlman; James Levine, Vienna Philharmonic)
Vinyl
  • The Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour

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Purchase log picks, December 2020

[Animotion - Animotion]

Animotion, Animotion

I owned this album on vinyl, but I never played Side B all that much because the two hit singles were the two first tracks of the album (“Obsession”, “Let Him Go”). This album also had to compete with Duran Duran, Tears for Fears and ABC for my attention, and it didn’t fare well. Eventually, I would sell the record for cash.

I picked it up again at the thrift store and actually gave Side B a few spins. As a whole, the album holds together incredibly well. I went so far as to find the expanded edition reissued by Cherry Red on CD.

Big Black, Songs About Fucking

The arm of Big Black stretches long.

Richard Goode, Beethoven: The Complete Sonatas

Nonesuch offered a priced-down reissue of this boxed set for $25 to celebrate Beethoven’s birthday. That same week, I spotted a used copy of the original boxed set selling for that exact amount.

Sam Hunt, SOUTHSIDE

On Twitter, I said, “I find Sam Hunt simultaneously fascinating and disappointing.” The disappointing part are the bro country lyrics. The fascinating part is the use of hip-hop beats in country, which I hear is actually a thing.

Bruce Springsteen, Letter to You

Spike Lee has been described as someone who doesn’t know how to end his films. I sometimes feel the same about Bruce Springsteen. This album does drag after a while, but the stronger moments rank up there with his most renowned works.

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Purchase log, 2020-05-05

[Nakamori Akina - AKINA BOX]

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
  • Nakamori Akina, AKINA BOX, 1982-1989
Vinyl
  • … And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, X: The Godless Void and Other Stories
  • Bruce Springsteen, The Rising
Files
  • Torche, Part Time Punks Sessions
  • TOUMING MAGAZINE, 4 TRACKS EP
  • Wayne Horvitz, Simple Facts

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Purchase log, 2019-08-20

[Sleater-Kinney - The Center Won't Hold]

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
  • Sleater-Kinney, The Center Won’t Hold

Catalog

CD
  • Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jesus Christ Superstar (Original Broadway Cast)
  • Bill Frisell, Good Dog, Happy Man
  • Branford Marsalis Quartet, Requiem
  • Bruce Springsteen, The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle
  • CHVRCHES, The Bones of What You Believe
  • Devo, Greatest Hits
  • Don Byron, Bug Music
  • Information Society, Peace and Love, Inc.
  • LFO, LFO
  • Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Spanish Fly
  • Los Amigos Invisibles, Arepa 3000: A Venezuelan Journey into Space
  • Mr. Lif, I Phantom
  • Queen, A Night at the Opera
  • Wye Oak, Civilian
Vinyl
  • Béla Bartók, Mikrokosmos, Vol. 6 / Out of Doors / Sonatina (Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich)
  • Fugazi, End Hits
  • George Crumb, Makrokosmos, Vol. II (Robert Miller)
  • George Crumb, Music for a Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III)
  • Grizzly Bear, Shields
  • My Bloody Valentine, Isn’t Anything
  • Nico Muhly and Teitur, Confessions
  • Re-Flex, The Politics of Dancing
  • Run DMC, Raising Hell
  • Ryan Stout, Touché
  • Sting, 57th and Ninth
  • The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds

Reissues

Vinyl
  • Explosions in the Sky, How Strange Innocence
  • Explosions in the Sky, The Rescue
  • NUMBER GIRL, NUM-HEAVYMETALLIC
  • NUMBER GIRL, SAPPUKEI
  • NUMBER GIRL, SCHOOL GIRL DISTORTIONAL ADDICT

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Purchase log, 2019-07-30

[NUMBER GIRL - Kanden no Kioku]

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
  • NUMBER GIRL, Kanden no Kioku

Catalog

CD
  • 2Pac, All Eyez on Me
  • Béla Bartók, Mikrokosmos
  • Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphonies (Complete) Vol. 1 (Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Ladislav Slovak)
  • Ed Sheeran, x
  • Everything But the Girl, Adapt or Die: Ten Years of Remixes
  • Everything But the Girl, Worldwide
  • Franz Josef Haydn, String Quartets, Op. 54, Nos. 1-3 (Kodály Quartet)
  • Franz Josef Haydn, String Quartets, Op. 55, Nos. 1-3 (Kodály Quartet)
  • Franz Josef Haydn, String Quartets, Op. 64, Nos. 1-3 (Kodály Quartet)
  • Janet Jackson, Janet Jackson
  • Kalapana, Kalapana
  • Leonard Bernstein, Mass
  • Lin-Manuel Miranda, In the Heights (Original Cast Recording)
  • Madonna, Rebel Heart (Deluxe Edition)
  • Missy Elliott, Da Real World
  • Neko Case and Her Boyfriends, Furnace Room Lullaby
  • Nelly, Country Grammar
  • Pavement, Slanted and Enchanted
  • Pierre Boulez, Messiaen: Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum / Couleurs de la Cité Celeste / Stravinsky: Symphony of Wind Instruments
  • Robert Palmer, Secrets
Vinyl
  • Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Live 1975-1985
  • Franz Schubert, Die schöne Müllerin (Deitrich Fischer-Dieskau)

Reissues

CD
  • Janet Jackson, Control: The Remixes
Vinyl
  • Janet Jackson, Rhythm Nation 1814
  • Janet Jackson, The Velvet Rope

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Purchase log, 2019-06-18

[Shiina Ringo - MoRA]

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
  • John Luther Adams, Become Desert
  • Madonna, Madame X
Vinyl
  • James Blake, Assume Form
  • Midnight Oil, Armistice Day: Live at the Domain Sydney

Catalog

CD
  • Bruce Springsteen, Tracks
  • Chuck Prophet, No Other Love
  • Hank III, Risin’ Outlaw
  • InfoMatik, Identify
  • John Coltrane, Live in Seattle
  • Kid Koala, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
  • Lounge Lizards, Voice of Chunk
  • Shiina Ringo, MoRA
  • Stephen Sondheim, Follies
  • Whitney Houston, I’m Your Baby Tonight
  • Soundtrack, Captive
Vinyl
  • Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus
  • Soundgarden, Badmotorfinger

Reissues

CD
  • Marvin Gaye, You’re the Man
  • MONO, Hymn to the Immortal Wind (Anniversary Edition)
Vinyl
  • Art of Noise, In No Sense? Nonsense!

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Purchase log, 2018-12-18

[James Ehnes - Howard, Kernis: Violin Concertos / Tovey: Stream of Limelight]

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
  • Bruce Springsteen, Springsteen on Broadway
  • James Ehnes, Howard, Kernis: Violin Concertos / Tovey: Stream of Limelight

Catalog

CD
  • A Flock of Seagulls, A Flock of Seagulls
  • Hole, Celebrity Skin
  • Hole, Live Through This
  • Meat Puppets, Too High to Die
  • Morrissey, Viva Hate
  • Mudhoney, Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge
  • Public Enemy, Apocalypse 91 … The Enemy Strikes Back
  • Rabbits, Lower Forms
  • Rolf Lislevand, Diminuito
  • The Doors, The Doors
  • The Smashing Pumpkins, Pisces Iscariot
  • The Who, Tommy
  • Torche, Torche
  • Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fever to Tell
  • Soundtrack, Good Night, and Good Luck. (Dianne Reeves)

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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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