Archives

Looking ahead, November-December 2020

[Alice in Chains - Facelift]

Onitsuka Chihiro, HYSTERIA, Nov. 25

Syndrome was a return to form for Onitsuka Chihiro, and the pre-release singles seem to indicate she’s retracing those steps.

Sigur Rós, Odin Raven Magic, Dec. 4

It’s not so much a “new” album as a “new-ish” album. This orchestral collaboration premiered in 2002 and finally sees a release 18 years later.

Sturgill Simpson, Cuttin’ Grass, Dec. 11

Simpson returns to his indie roots with a survey of his early works filtered through a bluegrass lens.

Vinyl

Alice in Chains, Facelift, Nov. 13

Nirvana may have ushered in alternative rock in 1991, but Alice in Chains had softened the ground a year before with their major label debut, which turns 30 years old in 2020.

Soundtrack, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away), Nov. 20

A big vinyl reissue campaign of Joe Hisaishi scores for Miyazaki Hayao films finally reaches Spirited Away.

Spice Girls, Forever, Jan. 22

I don’t even have this album on CD, but I already have the other albums on vinyl. Might as well be consistent. I’m sure the thrift store will have a CD copy at some point.

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Purchase log, 2020-11-03

[Eponymous 4 - Shinkyoku Moratorium Nihongohan]

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
  • Midnight Oil, The Makarrata Project
  • Mr. Bungle, The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo
  • Sam Amidon, Sam Amidon
  • Sam Smith, Love Goes
Files
  • Eponymous 4, Shinkyoku Moratorium Nihongohan

Catalog

CD
  • Chanticleer, Magnificat
  • Dixie Chicks, Fly
  • Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 9 (New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein)
  • Old 97s, Wreck Your Life
  • PJ Harvey, 4-Track Demos
  • Propellerheads, Decksandrumsandrockandroll
Vinyl
  • Andrew Lloyd Webber, Song and Dance: The Songs (Bernadette Peters)
  • Roger Daltrey, Under a Raging Moon
  • Whitney Houston, Whitney Houston

Reissues

CD
  • U2, All That You Can’t Leave Behind (Deluxe Edition)
Vinyl
  • Soundtrack, The Descendants

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Purchase log picks, October 2020

[Ned Doheny - Hard Candy]

Ned Doheny, Hard Candy

Tokyo Jihen introduced me to Ned Doheny with a blistering cover of “Give It Up for Love”. Doheny’s original is far mellower but epitomizes his blue-eyed soul. This album wasn’t a success at the time, but the collector’s market all but demanded a reissue.

Soundtrack, Schoolhouse Rock: Grammar Rock

When I was a kid, I dug the Schoolhouse Rock shorts between cartoons because they were catchy. As an adult, I find the Schoolhouse Rock songs rather sophisticated. Strip the didacticism from the songs, and you get pop music every bit as durable as anything in the American songbook.

PJ Harvey, 4-Track Demos

I have a TASCAM four-track recorder from 1991 that still works, but I’ve never really perceived it as a very robust tool. Then I heard this album, and I wonder if I can push it’s capabilities. I’m nowhere near the performer of Polly Jean, though.

Mr. Bungle, The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo

My interest in Mr. Bungle pretty much started and ended with the self-titled debut, although I did own California for a brief time. But I couldn’t pass up hearing the band’s earliest work re-recorded with Slayer’s Dave Lombardo and Anthrax’s Scott Ian.

Propellerheads, Decksandrumsandrockandroll

Propellerheads was one and done, but Decksandrumsandrockandroll was good enough to garner a Mercury Prize nomination. My introduction to the band happened in a gay bar in Chicago.

Fischerspooner, #1

I don’t really care for the album cover, but it doesn’t take away from the music.

Camouflage, Methods of Silence

For some reason, I had it in my head that this album was boring compared to Voices and Images, but I was mistaken.

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Purchase log, 2020-10-13

[Schoolhouse Rock - Grammar Rock]

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
  • Kronos Quartet, Long Time Passing
  • Mikami Chisako, Emergence

Catalog

CD
  • Calexico, Feast of Wire
  • Fischerspooner, #1
  • M. Ward, Post War
  • Surfer Blood, Astro Coast
  • Soundtrack, A Single Man
  • Soundtrack, Schoolhouse Rock: Grammar Rock
Vinyl
  • Alice In Chains, Facelift

Reissues

CD
  • Tears for Fears, The Seeds of Love (Deluxe Edition)

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Purchase log, 2020-08-18

[Heart - Greatest Hits / Live]

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
  • Dixie Chicks, Gaslighter
  • The Streets, None of Us Are Getting Out of This Life Alive

Catalog

CD
  • Astor Piazzolla, Tango: Zero Hour
  • Cause and Effect, Innermost Stations
  • Cause and Effect, The Sunrise EP
  • Living Colour, Pride
  • Marshall Crenshaw, Marshall Crenshaw
  • The Crystal Method, Vegas
  • The Sundays, Static and Silence
Vinyl
  • Heart, Greatest Hits / Live
  • Soundtrack, Avenue Q

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Purchase log, 2020-03-10

[The National - Boxer]

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
  • Björk, Selmasongs
  • Bill Frisell, The Intercontinentals
  • Herbie Hancock, Future Shock
  • Herbie Hancock, Head Hunters
  • Julieta Venegas, MTV Unplugged
  • Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift
  • Teresa Stratas, The Unknown Weill
  • XTC, Mummer
  • Soundtrack, The Book of Mormon (Original Broadway Cast)
Vinyl
  • Michael Kiwanuka, Home Again
  • The National, Boxer

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Purchase log, 2020-03-03

[Sam Sparro - Boombox Eternal]

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
  • Sam Sparro, Boombox Eternal
Vinyl
  • Eluvium, Virga I

Catalog

CD
  • Ciccone Youth, The Whitey Album
  • DJ Krush, Kakusei
  • Gabby Pahinui, Gabby
  • Soundtrack, This Is Spinal Tap (Remastered)
Vinyl
  • Kendrick Lamar, untitled unmastered.
  • The Roots, Phrenology

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Purchase log picks, February 2020

[Robyn - Body Talk, Pt. 1]

Various Artists, Studio One Rockers

The Studio One compilations planted a notion that maybe I didn’t hate reggae music after all. My coworkers at Waterloo Records would play these compilations, and I would find myself liking what I heard. Dawn Penn’s “No No No” left a particular impression, but many years would pass before I learned the song’s title. The only reggae music I heard growing up was sifted through a Hawaiian music filter, and I didn’t like it.

Robyn, Body Talk, Pt. 1

OK, fellow gays, I understand why you all love Robyn now.

The Faint, Danse Macabre

I stocked so many copies of this album during my Waterloo shifts, I got sick of it, having never heard a single note. If it’s that popular, it had to suck, right? Maybe in my more judgmental days …

Tyler, the Creator, IGOR

Another 2019 release up to which I am catching.

Soundtrack, This Is Spinal Tap

It’s not satire. Fight me. (It’s totally satire.)

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Purchase log, 2020-02-11

[Various Artists - Studio One Rockers]

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
  • Dub Specialist, Studio One Dub
  • Huey Lewis and the News, Fore!
  • Robyn, Body Talk, Pt. 1
  • Roger Sessions / John Harbison, Sessions: Symphony No. 2 / Harbison: Symphony No. 2, Oboe Concerto (San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt)
  • Sun Ra, Space is the Place
  • Soundtrack, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
  • Various Artists, Studio One Rockers
  • Various Artists, Studio One Soul
Vinyl
  • KC and the Sunshine Band, Part 3
  • Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway, Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway
  • Run-D.M.C., Run-D.M.C.
  • Starship, Knee Deep in the Hoopla

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Purchase log, 2020-02-04

[Black Sabbath - Paranoid]

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
  • Ben Watt, Storm Damage

Catalog

CD
  • Band of Susans, Hope Against Hope
  • Dirty Three, Whatever You Love, You Are
  • Matsuda Seiko, area62
  • Ponga, Psychological
  • Soundtrack, This Is Spinal Tap
Vinyl
  • Black Sabbath, Paranoia
Blu Ray
  • Shiina Ringo, Electric Mole
  • Tokyo Jihen, Ultra C

Reissues

CD
  • Neneh Cherry, Raw Like Sushi

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