Archives

Purchase log, 2024-07-30

[Bad Brains - I Against I]

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

Vinyl
  • Cocco, Beatrice
  • Johnny Blue Skies, PASSAGE DU DESIR

Catalog

CD
  • Bad Brains, Rock of Light
  • Material Issue, International Pop Overthrow
  • Pierre Henry, Collector
  • Split Enz, History Never Repeats: The Best of Split Enz
Vinyl
  • Daft Punk, Random Access Memories
  • DEVO, Duty Now for the Future
  • Einstürzende Neubauten, 80-83: Strategies Against Architecture
  • LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver
  • Shakira, Laundry Service (Washed and Dried Edition)

Reissues

CD
  • Bad Brains, I Against I
  • The Police, Synchronicity (Deluxe Edition)
Vinyl
  • Duran Duran, Big Thing
  • Linkin Park, Meteora

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Purchase log, 2023-05-02

[Tears for Fears - Saturnine Martial & Lunatic]

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

Vinyl
  • easy life, Live at the BBC

Catalog

CD
  • Iannis Xenakis, Metastasis / Pithorprakta / Eonta
  • Kraftwerk, Radio-Activity (Remastered)
  • Martha Argerich, Martha Argerich and Friends: Live from Lugano 2015
  • Nino Rota, Chamber Works
Vinyl
  • Art of Noise, The FON Mixes
  • Nena, ?

Reissues

Vinyl
  • Falco, “That Scene (Ganz Wien)”
  • Tears for Fears, Saturnine Martial & Lunatic
  • The Pogues, The Stiff Records B-Sides (1984-1987)
  • The Police, “Every Breath You Take” (Record Store Day 2023)

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Purchase log, 2021-06-15

[Tokyo Jihen - Ongaku (Music)]

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, Path of Wellness
  • Tokyo Jihen, Ongaku
Vinyl
  • Perfume Genius, Immediately Remixes
  • Tears for Fears, Live at Massey Hall, Toronto, Canada / 1985
  • The Replacements, The Pleasure’s All Yours

Catalog

CD
  • David Lang, Love Fail
  • Hoodoo Gurus, Kinky
  • Julien Baker, Turn Out the Lights
  • Mark Ronson, Here Comes the Fuzz
  • The Highwomen, The Highwomen
  • They Might Be Giants, Lincoln

Reissues

CD
  • The Shins, Oh, Inverted World (20th Anniversary Remaster)
Vinyl
  • Prince, The Truth
  • Robert Palmer, Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley
  • Rage Against the Machine, The Battle of Mexico City
  • The Fixx, Reach the Beach
  • The Flaming Lips, The Soft Bulletin Companion
  • The Police, Live! Vol. 1 Boston 1979
  • The Police, Live! Vol. 2 Atlanta 1983
  • U2, “Fire”
  • VAST, Music for People

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Purchase log, 2019-11-26

[Luke Evans - Luke Evans]

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
  • Alex Cameron, Miami Memory
  • Blood Orange, Angel’s Pulse
  • Luke Evans, At Last
  • Wayne Horvitz, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Catalog

CD
  • John Adams, Naive and Sentimental Music
  • Prodigy, Music for the Jilted Generation
  • Tyler, the Creator, Flower Boy
Vinyl
  • Bananarama, Bananarama
  • Chic, C’est Chic

Reissues

CD
  • The Police, Every Breath You Take: The Studio Recordings
Vinyl
  • Lisa Stansfield, Affection (Deluxe Edition)
  • Queens of the Stone Age, Rated R
  • Queens of the Stone Age, Songs for the Deaf

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Looking ahead, October-November 2019

[Shiina Ringo - Newton no Ringo]

Kim Gordon, No Home Record, Oct. 11

Kim Gordon’s music career spans numerous decades, but only now does she release a solo album. Of course I’m curious.

The Police, Every Move You Make: The Studio Recordings, Nov. 8

I bought a used copy of Message in a Box, so I really don’t need this set. I want it, but I don’t need it.

Shiina Ringo, Newton no Ringo ~Hajimete no Best Ban~, Nov. 13

Many popular Japanese artists release multiple career-spanning retrospectives. Shiina Ringo releases her first after 20 years.

Sam Amidon, Fatal Flower Garden EP, Nov. 15

Billed as “A Tribute to Harry Smith,” this 4-track, 7-inch EP features Amidon performing songs from Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music.

Clannad, In a Lifetime Anthology, March 13, 2020

No details have emerged yet of this career-spanning compilation, but the Brennans embark on a farewell tour to support it. They will be missed.

Vinyl

Everything But the Girl, Walking Wounded, Nov. 8

Yes, please. Thank you.

Shiina Ringo, Sandokushi, Dec. 11

Rule of thumb for Shiina Ringo vinyl releases: place a pre-order because they will be gone.

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Purchase log, 2019-05-28

[Talking Heads - The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads]

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
  • Beck, Midnite Vultures
  • Cannibal Ox, The Cold Vein
  • Electronic, Release the Pressure
  • Frida, Something’s Going On
  • Sparta, Wiretap Scars
  • Talking Heads, The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads
  • The Beatles, Help!
  • The Jesus and Mary Chain, Darklands
  • The Police, Live!
  • The Temptations, All the Million-Sellers
  • Soundtrack, The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Vinyl
  • Abe Vigoda, Crush
  • Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
  • Giovanni Palestrina, Masses and Motets
  • Iannis Xenakis, Metastasis / Pithorprakta / Enota
  • Josquin Desprez, Missa La So Fa Re Mi / Motets / Chansons / Instrumental Music
  • Matsuda Seiko, Tinker Bell
  • Murray Head, Nigel Lived
  • New Order, Brotherhood
  • New Order, Low-Life
  • Santigold, Master of My Make Believe

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Favorite Edition Rewind: 1978

[Blondie - Parallel Lines]

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.

Our retrospective ends at 1978 because my collection starts thinning out at this point. I was 6 years old at the time and just starting to become aware of songs on the radio. Of course, nothing on this list would have appealed to 6-year-old me.

  1. Steve Reich, Music for 18 Musicians
  2. Brian Eno, Ambient 1: Music for Airports
  3. Kate Bush, The Kick Inside
  4. Emmylou Harris, Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town
  5. Blondie, Parallel Lines
  6. Andrew Lloyd Webber, Variations
  7. Andy Gibb, Shadow Dancing
  8. Willie Nelson, Stardust
  9. Kate Bush, Lionheart
  10. The Police, Outlandos d’Amour

Other favorites from the year:

  • Clannad, In Concert
  • Rap Reiplinger, Poi Dog

I loved Blondie’s “Heart of Glass”, but when my dad saw her perform on Solid Gold, he hated her on sight. “She looks drugged,” he would complain, so I wasn’t allowed to listen to Blondie. That didn’t stop my brother from picking up the 7-inch singles for “The Tide Is High” and “Rapture.”

I can only imagine what dad would have said if he saw Kate Bush dancing in “Wuthering Heights.”

If any album on this list would have appealed to 6-year-old me, it would be Rap Reiplinger’s Poi Dog. Local radio played Reiplinger’s skits regularly, and I enjoyed hearing “Room Service” over and over again.

I didn’t realize those skits were available on an album. I thought only radio could broadcast them, so it wasn’t until Poi Dog was reissued on CD in 1992 that I could relive that thrill.

Reiplinger forged the Honolulu stand-up comic scene, and it died when he did in 1984. Or maybe it was the humorlessness of the 1980s.

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Favorite Edition Rewind: 1979

[The Manhattan Transfer - Extensions]

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.

1979 is officially the year I started collecting music. And it’s all because of a post-disco hit about the Twilight Zone theme song. This list, though, couldn’t have been compiled till 2006.

  1. Gang of Four, Entertainment!
  2. Andrew Lloyd Webber, Evita
  3. Stephen Sondheim, Sweeney Todd
  4. Philip Glass, Einstein on the Beach
  5. Midnight Oil, Head Injuries
  6. Talking Heads, Fear of Music
  7. The Clash, London Calling
  8. Michael Jackson, Off the Wall
  9. The Police, Reggatta de Blanc
  10. Emmylou Harris, Blue Kentucky Girl

Other favorites from the year:

  • The Manhattan Transfer, Extensions
  • The B-52’s, The B-52’s

The hit in question is “Twilight Tone” by the Manhattan Transfer.

Though more renowned as a jazz vocal quartet, the group wouldn’t get on my radar till “Twilight Tone” invaded the airwaves. Search YouTube for a performance of the song on a variety show — it’s amazing what people will endure for art. Or gimmickry.

My parents relented and bought the Extensions album for me. Of course, I played “Twilight Tone” to death, but I also dug the other songs on the album. Unlike “Twilight Tone”, they ranged from doo-wop to a capella. One song was a bizarre novelty with the singers voices rendered at chipmunk speed. You could say this was Manhattan Transfer’s disco album.

I’ve included it in the extended list. As fond as I am of the album, I have a better sense of what 1979 really offered as a year in music.

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Favorite Edition Rewind: 1980

[ABBA - Greatest Hits, Vol. 2]

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.

If my 8-year-old self were in control of this list, the soundtrack to Xanadu would occupy the top spot. The only other title he might have recognized would be Diana. And he would have questioned the inclusion of AC/DC.

  1. U2, Boy
  2. David Bowie, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
  3. Kate Bush, Never for Ever
  4. Diana Ross, Diana
  5. X, Los Angeles
  6. Grace Jones, Warm Leatherette
  7. Killing Joke, Killing Joke
  8. Talking Heads, Remain in Light
  9. AC/DC, Back in Black
  10. Emmylou Harris, Roses in the Snow

Other favorites from the year:

  • The Police, Zenyatta Mondatta
  • Soundtrack, Xanadu
  • ABBA, Super Trouper
  • The B-52’s, Wild Planet

The roots of my collecting bug are anchored in 1980.

I would bug my mom to buy me 7-inch singles. I was told I didn’t have the sufficient capacity to judge whether a full album would be worth the purchase price. My mom wasn’t about to drop cash on a set of songs if only one of them would entertain me.

So I amassed quite a lot of singles — “Tell It Like Is” by Heart, “A Lover’s Holiday” by Change, “Stomp!” by the Brothers Johnson.

I was, however, a pest about ABBA. The age of eight seems to be the right level of maturity for ABBA to sink its sugary hooks into an impressionable mind. My niece was crazy for Mamma Mia, the movie musical, right around the age I bugged my parents to get me their Greatest Hits, Vol. 2. The first volume didn’t have “Chiquitita.”

Video games interrupted my interest in music for four years, so it makes me wonder in how much more trouble I’d be today without that disruption.

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Favorite Edition Rewind: 1981

[Go Gos - Beauty and the Beat]

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.

If there were a year I was least interested in music, it would be 1981. And it was a remarkable turn of events, because I had amassed quite a 7-inch collection the year before.

  1. Duran Duran, Duran Duran
  2. Lou Harrison, Three Pieces for Gamelan with Soloists / String Quartet Set
  3. Eurythmics, In the Garden
  4. U2, October
  5. The Police, Ghost in the Machine
  6. ABBA, The Visitors
  7. Black Flag, Damaged
  8. Brian Eno and David Byrne, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
  9. Bucker and Garcia, Pac-Man Fever
  10. Rick Springfield, Working Class Dog

Other favorites from the year:

  • Go-Go’s, Beauty and the Beat
  • Gang of Four, Solid Gold
  • Grace Jones, Nightclubbing

1981 marked the start of my fascination with the classic video games of the era. I would also take an interest in computers and programming. My parents actively discouraged me from pursuing either interest, but it would not stop me from sneaking away to the arcade when we went to the local malls.

That didn’t mean I was totally unaware of music. Of the titles on this list, I would have listened to the Police, ABBA, Rick Springfield, the Go-Go’s and Buckner and Garcia. And I would have definitely seen Grace Jones in the press.

If there was one album I really wanted to get at the time, it would have been Pac-Man Fever by Buckner and Garcia, mostly for the maze patterns on the inner sleeve that would have help you to win the game.

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