Archives

Purchase log, 2022-11-15

[Meredith Monk - The Recordings]

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
  • Christine and the Queens, Redcar les adorable etoiles
Vinyl
  • Björk, Fossora
  • Hilary Hahn, Eclipse (Andres Orozco-Estrada, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra)

Catalog

CD
  • Frederic Chopin, Nocturnes: Complete Recordings (Daniel Barenboim)
  • Johannes Brahms, Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77 (Nigel Kennedy, Klaus Tennstedt, London Philharmonic)
  • NSync, No Strings Attached
  • Pat Metheny Group, Still Life (Talking)
  • Rush, Signals
  • Sō Percussion, Amid the Noise
  • Stephen Wilson, Grace for Drowning
  • The Roots, The Roots Come Alive
  • The Style Council, Cafe Bleu
  • Soundtrack, BLEACH BEAT COLLECTION
Vinyl
  • Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion, Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part

Reissues

CD
  • Guns N’ Roses, Use Your Illusion I (Deluxe Edition)
  • Guns N’ Roses, Use Your Illusion II (Deluxe Edition)
Boxed Set
  • Meredith Monk, The Recordings
Vinyl
  • Ride, Nowhere

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Purchase log, 2022-09-27

[Missing Persons - Spring Session M]

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
  • Built to Spill, You in Reverse
  • Chara, Strange Fruit
  • clipping., CLPPNG
  • Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Concerto Grosso / Symbolon / Concerto For Trumpet And 5 Players / Double Quartet For Strings
  • Everything but the Girl, Adapt or Die: 10 Years of Remixes
  • Kylie Minogue, Kiss Me Once
  • Marvin Gaye, Here, My Dear
  • Missing Persons, Spring Session M
  • The Lilac Time, & Love for All
  • The Roots, Rising Down
  • Tim McGraw, Not a Moment Too Soon
Vinyl
  • Beastie Boys, Paul’s Boutique
  • R.E.M., Chronic Town EP
  • Whiskeytown, Strangers Almanac

Reissues

CD
  • Duran Duran, Pop Trash
  • Duran Duran, Red Carpet Massacre

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Purchase log, 2021-04-13

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
  • Sturgill Simpson, Cuttin’ Grass, Vol. 2: The Cowboy Arms Session

Catalog

CD
  • 98 Degrees, 98 Degrees
  • Carlo Gesualdo, Quarto libro di Madrigali a cinque voci 1596 (Ensemble Music D’Arte)
  • En Vogue, The Best of En Vogue
  • Franz Schubert, 21 Lieder (Dietrich Fischer-Deskau)
  • Giya Kancheli, Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5 (State Symphony of Georgia, Djansug Kakhidze)
  • Glass Tiger, The Thin Red Line
  • Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 2 (San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, Herbert Blomstedt)
  • Joe Satriani, Surfing with the Alien
  • John Legend and The Roots, Wake Up!
  • Kylie Minogue, Hits+
  • Kylie Minogue, Kylie Minogue
  • Mike Mills, Concerto for Violin, String Orchestra and Rock Band (Robert McDuffie, MCS Ensemble, Wade Stare)
  • Ludwig Van Beethoven, Violin Concerto / Sonata No. 10 (Pinchas Zukerman, Zubin Mehta, Los Angeles Philharmonic)
  • Soundtrack, The Hunt for Red October

Reissues

Vinyl
  • Soundtrack, Cowboy Bebop

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Purchase log, 2020-08-11

[Charlie Puth - Voicenotes]

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
  • Inventions, Continuous Portraits
Vinyl
  • Duran Duran, Diamond of the Mind Live 2011

Catalog

CD
  • Arcade Fire, Reflektor
  • Charlie Puth, Voicenotes
  • Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca
  • Don Dixon, Most Girls Love to Dance But Only Some of the Boys Like to
  • Fishbone, Set Up the Booty Right: Bonin’ in the Boneyard
  • John Zorn, Taboo and Exile
  • Ride, Carnival of Light
  • Ride, Tarantula
  • T. Rex, Electric Warrior (Special Edition)
  • The Roots, undun

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Purchase log, 2020-08-04

[Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters]

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
  • Fiona Apple, Fetch the Bolt Cutters

Catalog

CD
  • Guided By Voices, Human Amusements at Hourly Rates
  • Peter Gabriel, Passion (Remastered)
  • The Replacements, Hootenanny! (Remastered)
  • The Roots, How I Got Over

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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, 2019-10-08

[Cocco - Star Shank]

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
  • Cocco, Star Shank
Vinyl
  • Sturgill Simpson, Sound & Fury

Catalog

CD
  • Balligomingo, Beneath the Surface
  • Butthole Surfers, Electriclarryland
  • David Del Tredici, In Memory of a Summer Day
  • Iron Maiden, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
  • Iron Maiden, The Number of the Beast
  • Justin Timberlake, The 20 / 20 Experience
  • Meredith Monk, Volcano Songs
  • New Order, Movement
  • Ride, Going Blank Again
  • Saint Etienne, Foxbase Alpha
  • Suzanne Vega, Solitude Standing
  • The Dead Milkmen, Soul Rotation
  • The Ocean Blue, Beneath the Rhythm and Sound
  • The Ocean Blue, Cerulean
  • The Roots, The Tipping Point
  • Thelonious Monk, Underground
Vinyl
  • Kraftwerk, Trans-Europe Express

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Favorite Edition Rewind: 1999

[SUPERCAR - JUMP UP]

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.

Here’s my matrix of the most important years in music for the last 4 decades:

  • 2010s: 2015 (so far)
  • 2000s: 2002
  • 1990s: 1998
  • 1980: 1987

The years adjacent to the ones listed are also pretty pivotal, which is the case for 1999. The list doesn’t change much, but a lot of great music came out that year.

  1. NUMBER GIRL, SCHOOL GIRL DISTORTIONAL ADDICT
  2. Shiina Ringo, Muzai Moratorium
  3. Utada Hikaru, First Love
  4. ACO, absolute ego
  5. Nina Hynes, Creation
  6. SUPERCAR, Jump Up
  7. The Flaming Lips, The Soft Bulletin
  8. Port of Notes, Complain Too Much
  9. Mandy Barnett, I’ve Got a Right to Cry
  10. The Kiss Offs, Goodbye Private Life

Other favorites from the year:

  • L’Arc~en~Ciel, ray
  • Jordan Knight, Jordan Knight
  • eX-Girl, Kero! Kero! Kero!
  • NUMBER GIRL, DESTRUCTION BABY
  • OBLIVION DUST, Reborn
  • UA, turbo
  • Moby, Play
  • Maná, MTV Unplugged
  • Dr.StrangeLove, Twin Suns
  • The Roots, Things Fall Apart
  • Fantastic Plastic Machine, Luxury
  • Asylum Street Spankers, Hot Lunch
  • Café Tacuba, Revés/Yo Soy

A retrospective addition of SUPERCAR bumps L’arc~en~Ciel to the extended list. Futurama was the first SUPERCAR album I owned, and I liked it so much, I was hesitant to explore the band’s early work, out of fear it wouldn’t live up.

As it turns out, Futurama was the last of SUPERCAR’s great albums. The first two albums are classics in their own right. I’ve yet to dig into Ookeah! and Ooyeah!

I’ve only added Moby, The Roots and Fantastic Plastic Machine to the extended list, but albums by Wilco, Rage Against the Machine, Built to Spill and Mos Def could have made it on there. I just wanted to avoid the kind of crowding we saw in 2002 and 2003.

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Favorite Edition Rewind: 2002

[Quruli - THE WORLD IS MINE]

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 you want an explanation for the length of this list, see 2002: An important year in music for the 2000s. This 2002 list has gone through a few ranking changes and added even more titles.

  1. Hem, Rabbit Songs
  2. … And You Will Know Us by the Trail Of Dead, Source Code and Tags
  3. Kronos Quartet, Nuevo
  4. The Streets, Original Pirate Material
  5. Hajime Chitose, Hainumikaze
  6. NUMBER GIRL, NUM-HEAVYMETALLIC
  7. Quruli, THE WORLD IS MINE
  8. Zoobombs, love is funky
  9. Hatakeyama Miyuki, Diving into your mind
  10. Patty Griffin, 1,000 Kisses

Other favorites from the year:

  • UA, Dorobou
  • Queens of the Stone Age, Songs for the Deaf
  • Damien Jurado and Gathered In Song, I Break Chairs
  • Pedro the Lion, Control
  • Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
  • Missy Elliott, Under Construction
  • The Decemberists, Castaways and Cutouts
  • Sonic Youth, Murray Street
  • Sleater-Kinney, One Beat
  • Kylie Minogue, Fever
  • The Roots, Phrenology
  • ISIS, Oceanic
  • The White Stripes, White Blood Cells
  • The Hives, Veni Vidi Vicious
  • Catilin Cary, While You Weren’t Looking
  • BUGY CRAXONE, Northern Hymns
  • N.E.R.D., In Search Of …
  • The Books, Thought for Food
  • Nappy Roots, Watermelon, Chicken & Gritz
  • Minako, Suck It till Your Life Ends mata wa Shine Made Sono Mama Yatte Iro
  • The Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robot
  • Shiratori Maika, Hanazono
  • The Back Horn, Shinzou Orchestra
  • Joan Jeanrenaud, Metamorphosis

I picked up Original Pirate Material for $1 at Lifelong Thrift Shop, and now I understand why it was all over the place in 2002. I couldn’t open a music magazine without seeing Mike Skinner mentioned in it. I’m pretty sure the sample of Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 sealed my admiration for the album.

THE WORLD IS MINE is something of a mea culpa. At the time of its release, I recognized the album as being Quruli’s most complex, but I just couldn’t get into it. I probably felt that it didn’t go far enough if it was going to be ambitious.

Well, the joke’s on me. I listened to it again before its reissue on vinyl, and I really dug it, much more than Antenna, which I praised effusively at the time. So it knocked Minako’s one and only album off the Favorite 10. UA also had to make room for the Streets.

The extended list includes albums I originally dismissed: Murray Street by Sonic Youth and One Beat by Sleater-Kinney.

I remember stocking Nappy Roots during my shifts at Waterloo Records and wondering what the big deal was. A $1 copy from Lifelong Thrift Shop  16 years later educated me. I probably wouldn’t have been exposed to Nappy Roots, The Decemberists or ISIS without having worked at Waterloo.

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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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