Work for Three, Bill for Twelve

The day it came out I was at work. Six or seven am.

I was excited for it. Actually excited. I had been underwhelmed by the first single. Still. Excited.

Sitting there. In my cubicle. Waiting for Best Buy to open.

Ten am.

I left. Walked to Best Buy.

A few blocks up.

Made the purchase.

For a change of pace. I went back to work.

Often. I would call it a day around nine. And head home.

Sometimes. I'd go shopping. Return hours later.

Did it pay really well? No. Was it conducive to my irresponsible, carefree, mid-twenties lifestyle? Yes.

Was the album any good? Not really.

Oasis - Heathen Chemistry. Purchased at Best Buy. Chelsea.

Spend Some Time in the Syracuse Bus Station

Freshman year saw a number of bus trips to Buffalo.

One went to Virginia. The other. Cleveland. Most ended in Buffalo.

Mark would pick me up at the bus station.

Everything coordinated through the sxe-l. The straight edge mailing list.

(eventually IRC.)

Trying to remember how the mailing list worked.

First on CompuServe. Then AOL. Then Telnet. My Pine account. At Syracuse. Most distinctive. Kong. Mothra. Gamara.

Coming home to hundreds of emails. No idea how I kept track of threads. Not like a message board.

I remember names from Buffalo. Mark. Valiant. Gerald.

I remember Gerald's house. Being there. Briefly.

I remember Gerald in Hourglass. Not Halfmast.

I've been wrong before.

Hourglass. Digital files picked up on Livewire.

[Image via www.lib.utexas.edu]

A Firehall at or Around Five Points

Shift. Prema. Chamberlain. Shortly after Split Lip.

Brian. Mike G. Joined me.

I appreciated that. Not their scene.

I returned the favor. Years later. Phish.

Denise was there. Nicole. Edgely Firehall?

Driving by yesterday. Stirred memories.

Prema played in the middle of the floor. I think. Drivel era. The better era.

Chamberlain looked like cowboys. Trending towards cowboys.

Shift. An exercise in diversity. Always enjoyed Shift. Still do.

Bristol an odd choice. Or Newtown. Or Yardley.

No complaints.

I enjoyed those rare occasions when shows came to suburbia. Saving my sixteen. Seventeen. Eighteen year old self. From parallel parking. Or paying.

Prema - Pebble. Used on Amazon.com.

And Was Finley Quaye Actually His Cousin?

Years later I realized Black Steel was a cover.

I also realized this was the only good full length.

And I also realized I regretted selling the Tricky versus The Gravediggaz compact disc.

Ten bucks and an Ink & Dagger t-shirt.

Tricky - Maxinquaye. AKA bargain bin.

This Is a Local Shop for Local People, There's Nothing for You Here

I would pick up a lot of releases.

On the criteria of. Is the band "local?"

Meaning Southeast Pennsylvania. And occasionally Allentown. Wilkes-Barre. Scranton.

Mostly Southeast Pennsylvania.

They were one that I never particularly loved. Or hated. I would say I liked.

Their compact disc was sold. Along with many others. In the later nineties.

A trip to Generation Records. Past six months. I came across Silent Rage in the used section. It was important that I buy it. With other forgotten gems.

It holds up well. Surprisingly well. I like it more than my seventeen year old self.

Edgewise - Silent Rage. Generation Records. Used.

Technical Difficulties

On the iPod. Occasional "skipping."

The disc does not skip. The mp4/mp3 file does.

I had an issue with my combination drive.

Some things may have ripped poorly.

Years ago.

It has been replaced.

Happy Mondays. New Order. The Jesus and Mary Chain. Each. Have had an issue.

Hate Rock 'N' Roll is an issue album. I Hate Rock 'N' Roll. The issue song actually.

Re-ripped. Please let me know if the problem persists.

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Hate Rock 'N' Roll. eBay purchase. Seven or eight years ago. While filling in the blanks of their discography. In my collection.

Old Eyes Scanning

Running your finger down the spines. The length of the sale rack. Princeton Record Exchange.

Things catch your eye.

Familiar names.

Past names.

A familiar compilation.

From a familiar 'zine.

With familiar bands.

A Document of Nothing. Princeton Record Exchange sale rack.

She Was the Lilith Fair Target Audience Before It Existed

Kim's taste trended towards the women of rock.

She was an early adopter of artists who "got big." As many women of rock did during the mid to late nineties. Mostly late nineties.

An early Alanis fan. An early McLachlan fan.

Some better than others. Some forgettable.

Some better. Frente! Suzanne Vega.

Suzanne Vega. Not exactly mid to late nineties. Tom's Diner. Luka.

Kim would play 99.9 F. The title track stood out. Continues to stand out.

Inaugural Lilith Fair. Extra ticket. Camden.

On the grass. A long day. Festivals always are. Too long.

Kim. Christie. Laura. Maybe. Kim. Maybe. Bill was there. Co-worker.

Highlights. Juliana Hatfield. Susanna Hoffs. Eternal Flame. Tracy Chapman. The Cardigans.

Other highlights. Jean shorts. Tank tops. Boots.

Lessons of Lilith Fair. Not empowerment. But that pornography had. Has. Lesbianism all wrong.

Suzanne Vega - 99.9 F. AKA bargain bin.

Van Trouble, Lateness and Cro-Mags

Earth Crisis and Both Worlds at the Trocadero.

We were there for Earth Crisis. We. Colin. Me.

I didn't know anything about Both Worlds. We didn't know anything about Both Worlds.

They weren't bad. I didn't have the most discerning tastes in 1995/1996. I still don't think they're bad.

To me. At the time. Just another band.

I didn't even realize it was John Joseph until late in the set.

The Both Worlds set went on. And on. Earth Crisis was late. Van trouble. Apparently.

To fill the time. Both Worlds began to do Cro-Mags songs. The crowd went nuts.

I went less nuts then. Compared to today. I was there for Earth Crisis. I was a casual fan of the Cro-Mags. I gained a greater appreciation as I got older.

Now. I have a history of remembering bands doing Cro-Mags sets. Cro-Mags songs. I often doubt my memories. Although they have been verified in the past. I still doubt my memories.

I left the show with a bloody nose. I think I had my mom's car. This was a concern.

Both Worlds - Memory Rendered Visible. Princeton Record Exchange bargain rack.

This Is Not About the "The" but They Dropped It

Q used to have a monthly feature. On the website. Not in the magazine.

I had stopped purchasing imported magazines. Costly.

Actually. Q probably still has the monthly feature. Because I stopped reading it. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

At the beginning of the month. I would go through the Q50. Write down what I wanted. Based only on the blurb. I wouldn't listen to anything.

I would order the singles and albums I wrote down. Over the month. Imports mostly.

I found some winners. Some losers. And a lot of Gang of Four, Libertines and Coldplay worship.

Young Knives - Superabundance. Used at AKA.

Taking Risks Can Lead to the Highs of 108 or the Lows of Doughnuts

There are a lot of reasons to buy an album.

You like the band. You like the music. You like a song.

Or even a review. Or word of mouth.

However. There are other reasons to buy an album. Or a single.

The willingness to spend money. On something. Based not on the above parameters. Is key.

The buyer must be willing to make a mistake. In taking a risk.

A mistake can always be re-sold. For a fraction of the original cost. That is part of the fun. It has always been part of the fun.

• Thank you. Look at the "thank yous" in the liner notes. If a band thanks another band. Buy the releases by that other band.


• Producer. Do you like the producer? Has he produced other bands you enjoy? Is the producer from a band you enjoy?

• Label. If you like a band or bands on a particular label. Buy other releases from the label. Buy releases advertised for the label. This tends to work best with independent labels. Buying the output of Warner Brothers would be poor form.
  
  (In my early days of buying tapes I preferred CBS releases. Columbia? I believe they used red letters on a white background on the spine of the cassette liner. Culture Club-Kissing to Be Clever, Colour By Numbers, Waking Up With the House on Fire. David Lee Roth-Eat 'Em and Smile. Michael Jackson-Thriller. The Rolling Stones-Dirty Work. Uniformity.)

• Art. Buy releases based on the album art. Regardless of what you know about the band.

Cathy does not usually take such risks. She did with The Veils. She loved the album art. It was a Rough Trade release. Giving it a fifty percent chance of being good. Closer to seventy/thirty. Seventy percent chance of it being bad.

She did not care for the album. Complaints about strings. Pianos. A miss.

Months later I pulled it from my "to listen to" pile. I like it. Keeper.

The Veils - Nux Vomica. AKA purchase.

It Isn't Sound Affects

Always described as "mod."

Right down to scooter references. Scooter imagery.

I didn't get it then. I don't get it now.

I liked it then. I like it now.

Mod. I don't think so.

Chisel - Nothing New. AKA used.

The NHL Should Be Able to Do Better than VS

I didn't listen to them at the time. I knew of them.

I associated them with Simple Machines. Teen Beat. Merge to a lesser extent.

Since deciding to purchase the Teen Beat discography over the next years of my life. This was a good find. Well. It is technically a Caroline release.

I'll take it.

Versus - Secret Swingers. AKA bargain bin.

If I Took Anything from My Trip to New Zealand It Would Have to be Compact Discs

New Zealand. A diet of lamb. A quest for compact discs.

Funded by unemployment checks.

I would hit record stores in every city. Every town.

The Libertines full length. In Christ Church. I regret leaving the Simian disc behind.

In Wellington. Or Auckland. There was a huge store. I was let loose. For a few hours. Ian Brown imports. The Hellacopters. Singles I was missing. And Warsaw.

I did not know Warsaw had ever been recorded or released. It was the undisputed find on the trip.

City to city. Town to town. Homegrown items. The Datsuns. The D4. The Dead C. Goldenhorse. The Brunettes. Minuet.

I sold The Dead C. Before leaving the country. I wish I didn't.

Only one album featuring the Brothers Finn. Split Enz.

Traversing the country with new purchases. I traveled with a backpack. And a smaller bag. Getting everything back to the United States was going to pose a problem.

I considered shipping. Via mail.

However. A new bag was the answer. An orange Puma bag with the specific purpose of getting my music home. Thirty-plus compact discs.

I picked up a nice pair of Pumas as well. Different store.

Warsaw. Purchased in Auckland or Wellington.

The Interest Pre-Dated the Premier of Season 3.5 of The Hills

Although I would have been fine discovering it via LC.

But not Lo.

I came across a video. Online. Instantly hooked.

French. Dance. Hip hop. Often go hand in hand in hand. Or hand in hand.

No domestic release. From what I could find. In stores.

A week. Two weeks. Later. A song appears on The Hills in Paris. Fittingly.

Hopefully. Highlighting one of Lauren's many bouts of irresponsibility.

Then. Featured artist of the week. On MTV.

My search intensified. Trying to avoid purchasing an import. My taste for twenty and thirty dollar compact discs has been replaced by a taste for one dollar and two dollar compact discs.

Michaela was going to Paris. I asked her to seek it out. That has become my first question. For anyone. Going anywhere. "Can you look for any _____ albums?"

"I'll give you money in advance. Or after."

I'm good for it. I just have an addiction.

I found the domestic release date. The Paris request not needed. Saturday after the release. I made my way to AKA. What had been a moderately intense search. For a few weeks. Had finally ended.

The things that occupy my time. Are very trivial.

Yelle - Pop-Up. AKA purchase.

Lollapalooza 1994

Overall. 1993 was better. More interesting. Tool. The Goats. Alice In Chains. Fishbone. Primus. Front 242.

Rage Against the Machine. In the nude.

Most aren't on my radar anymore. Except for Front 242. At the time. All very important in my alternative world.

The Breeders were there in 1994. I spent most of the day at the second stage. The Breeders from a distance.

I did hear them. Walking.

I was going to see The Verve. Verve at this point in time?

Seeing The Verve in 1994. I felt lucky. I still do. They were one of the bands I wanted to see. A Storm In Heaven.

In retrospect. I wish I tracked down some merchandise.

That would be the last time I saw them.

Maybe not. Reunion. I skipped. Maybe next time. If there is a next time.

1994 also gave us Smashing Pumpkins. The Beastie Boys.

Rob loved the Beastie Boys. So much he almost broke his back.

The Breeders - Mountain Battles. Purchased at AKA. Expectations low. Initial impressions high.

I Should Have Had More Respect for the Wellness Floor

I need the time line of when people lived where.

Adeet. Sean. Brian. Lived in Shaw. When?

Eventually they had a suite. When?

I was in a sublet. Half a year. Second semester.

Following fall. In a house. Across from Mike.

Were they still in Shaw?

Chris was in Shaw. Wellness floor. He wasn't pleased when I had a forty. Or two. In his room. I don't think he'd mind now.

When did the rest move to the Suite? Tim too.

I can't put it together. I remember meeting Adeet's mom. Fall or spring? I think fall. I had drinks.

Adeet had Morrissey posters. The Smiths. He fully embraced both. I want to say over a summer. I could be wrong. I am having trouble.

In that room. I think Shaw. Tom? Roommate? Adeet played Godspeed. Kill Holiday. Falling Forward. I remember pushing The Verve. Another time. Another place. Maybe.

Sean and Brian. Their room. I brought over The Get Up Kids first seven inch. On their record player. Middle of the room? Candyland Car Crash as well. Am I the only person that knows this band?

I sold Sean my Frail records. A Frail shirt. Tight shirt.

Sean and Brian talked about their band. An Earth Crisis compilation. Anti-Earth Crisis.

This was Shaw? Not the suite. Almost certain.

Kill Holiday - Monitor Dependency. AKA bargain bin.

My Childhood Hamper

Through the Powell Peralta stickers. The Santa Cruz stickers. Gotcha. Quicksilver. Hutch. And novelties. Novelty stickers.

There it was. On the lid.

The JFA sticker.

A token of gratitude. Or an effort to get me off the phone.

Thank you.

JFA - Mad Garden. Acquired online. A blog. Perhaps.

The Canterbury Tales

AKA has shelves around the store. Each focusing on a different genre. The content rotates. I haven't noticed a change in some time.

LA Punk. Japanese Psych. Glam Rock. The Canterbury Scene.

The Canterbury Scene intrigued me for months. Not quite a year.

I knew Soft Machine.

Every visit. Which ranges from week to week. To twice a month. I would look at the featured albums. Always putting them down. To go root through the bargain bins. Buying for quantity. If not necessarily quality.

Still. I would come back to it. Gong. Matching Mole. Soft Machine. Hatfield and the North. Each release. A blurb.

I decided to go with Hatfield and the North. Canterbury supergroup. According to the shelf. The blurb. Gong next. Maybe Caravan. Matching Mole.

Initial purchases. Before increasing my Soft Machine collection. Which stands at one.

For years. I walked a fine line when it came to prog rock. My share of Krautrock. Rush. Limited Yes. More and more I find myself in those sections in record stores.

Magma in hand. Debating what is a good Hawkwind starter.

And realizing I am lacking when it comes to Genesis. And King Crimson.

Hatfield and the North. AKA Music. Not in the bargain bin.

The Value of a Good Sale: Lessons in Shoe Shopping with Mom and Michelle circa 1980

I really am a bargain shopper. At least when it comes to compact discs.

I've been told I spend too much on clothes.

Discs. I seek out the bargains. The sales. The unloved. The unsellable.

My love of the bargain bin is well documented on here.

So many gems. This past weekend. Great work at the Princeton Record Exchange.

I often do well at AKA.

And going out of business sales.

The record store in the Schine Student Center.

An appliance store at the Carousel Mall. Like Best Buy. But not. More like Silo.

Wrecking Crew - Balance of Terror. AKA bargain bin. This appears to be out of print. Apologies if it isn't.

If Photographic Evidence Doesn't Convince Me

Every time I read a story about Gavin Van Vlack.

All I can picture is Bane from the Batman comics.

However. I know what the man looks like.

Not in person.

But. Over the years. I have seen my share of photographs.

Still. Bane.

Die 116 - Damage Control. Acquired on Livewire.

[Image via upload.wikimedia.org]

Understanding the Concept of Long Distance Calling

Christian and I would stay up late. Sometimes Mark. We were ten. Eleven. Or twelve.

Paging through the advertisements in the back of Thrasher.

Focusing on those companies that provided telephone numbers.

We almost always reached someone. If not. We would leave messages.

These weren't prank calls. Or crank calls. Depending on your preference. We were calling to talk. We wanted to ask about California. Skateboarding in California. Genuine interest.

There was never any contact with Powell Peralta. To us. The holy grail of skateboarding. Mid to late eighties.

We did better with smaller companies. JFA Skateboards in particular. The guy manning the phone must have hated us. He put up with us though. He would send us stickers.

One sticker might be on my hamper. My childhood hamper. At my parents.

JFA - Blatant Localism. Acquired on Livewire.

Have You Seen the Dunks?

No. Really.

I sort of hate them. I sort of love them.

Dinosaur Jr - Without A Sound. Purchased used on Amazon.

I Wore Extremely Light Blue Jeans (Bordering on White)

The first time I went to The Lost Horizon.

I don't know who played. Don't remember. It was a matinee.

I knew of The Lost Horizon. I had never been.

It was very early in the school year. Either during orientation. Or the first week or two.

I met Harris. He was in my communications advising group. He was wearing a green Sense Field long sleeve t-shirt. We went around the room. Introducing ourselves. Harris was from Bensalem.

He described Bensalem as "where people go when they want to move out of the city, but it is really just Northeast Philadelphia." I paraphrase.

I talked to him after class. About Autumn. He was in a band. Shallow.

I decided to go to the show at The Lost Horizon. I didn't have a car. Or access to one at this point in the school year. I saw Harris sitting outside of Flint Hall. I told him I was going to a show. He declined.

I took a cab. Alone.

I saw Amy at the show. She graduated high school a year ahead of me. She offered me a ride back to campus after the show. I accepted.

Syracuse cabs are less than spectacular.

After the show I stood around awkwardly with Amy and her friends. She introduced me to them. I only remember Josh. Mostly because I read his zine. I didn't tell him that. I felt a little out of my element in that parking lot. I'm not sure why.

I went with Amy, Josh, some others to eat. Taco Bell. Erie Boulevard. Everyone was vegan. Of course. Syracuse. 1995.

I got a ride back to Day Hall.

Framework - Never Again. Purchased. Sold. Downloaded. Repurchased. On sale. Very Distribution.

Brian's Favorite Record, By The Stones That Is

Greatest hits collections would give you Ruby Tuesday. Let's Spend the Night Together. Mother's Little Helper.

So I didn't understand the greatness that was Flowers.

Until Liberating it from the vinyl collection. Collecting dust. Sneaking it upstairs. To listen to in its entirety.

Side A. Side B. Over and over. Middle school. High school.

Brian loved Flowers. Loves. Ruby Tuesday in particular. Those memories separate from my solo listening parties.

Memories nonetheless.

As much as I love the band. And always have. I own very little. Start Me Up is one of my earliest memories of rock music.

The Rolling Stones - Flowers. A Christmas gift. Years ago.

Gavin from Burn

When I got into hardcore I never had a huge interest in New York Hardcore. Outside of the Revelation standards.

I knew a lot of the older bands. I loved Agnostic Front. But this was from a time when punk was punk. And the hardcore sub-genre wasn't even on my radar.

I knew Cro-Mags. Warzone. Murphy's Law. But in the mid-nineties. My interest wasn't there.

But mostly. I was listening to the popular sounds of the day. Vegan metal. Ebullition screaming. Generic "emo." I can think of myself as a victim of the era. But I don't.

I still loved Mouthpiece. Turning Point. 108. And even Shelter to a lesser extent. So I knew better options existed.

I've come to love New York Hardcore. Beyond Revelation. Yet I still wax nostalgic for things considered less than hardcore by most. Earth Crisis. Snapcase. Struggle. Still Life. Unbroken. Chokehold. A broad base of listening. I don't see the point in limiting hardcore. To a certain time. Certain bands.

What I did ignore during the nineties. Until about pretty recently. Meaning this past year. Is a lot of New York Hardcore of the nineties. Wreck-Age-centric.

I recognize most of it. As not being very good.

Bad Trip is one.

Die 116. The other.

My searching. My purchasing. Has not gotten too involved. But I hope to find more bands. In compact disc form. To add to my collection.

Die 116 - Dyna-Cool. A Very Distro purchase. On sale. More Wreck-Age NYHC recommendations welcomed.

Deadguy, Rorschach and the Work Ethic

Deadguy and Rorschach have always been linked in my mind. I know they shared some members. It's more than that. I can never think of one without the other.

I think it goes back to something in the Very catalog. Like so many things do. So many memories of circling items for my birthday or Christmas. When it was on newsprint.

I think Nicole Orlando gave me my first copy.

Circling items. Handing it to my mom. As mentioned before on here. She dealt with her share of labels and distros over the years. The same held true for skateboards. As it did for music.

Phone calls. Mailing checks. Pre-Internet. Well. Pre-Internet as we know it. CompuServe world.

At some point around graduation or the start of freshman year. I picked up Work Ethic. Something about the cover has always stood out in my mind. It's very clean. Almost like New Order. Or Erasure. But nothing at all like that. Only to me. No one else.

Maybe the way "Deadguy" appeared.

It isn't worth trying to make sense of. Or understanding. Personal impressions. Not worth investigating.

Unrelated to my feelings on album artwork. I was interested in Kiss It Goodbye immediately. Upon hearing about them.

I never followed up. Or through. Never purchasing an album.

Kiss It Goodbye - Demo. I'm sure this was posted on Livewire at some point. And I'm sure that is where I got this digital version.

M*********t Weekend

Michael G's body destroyed the wall.

The house was shown.

Chad cuddled.

Michael A sported a classic 7 Seconds t-shirt.

We listened to ELO.

7 Seconds - Walk Together Rock Together. Acquired online at some point. What little I have to say on 7 Seconds. Has been said.

[Image via www.vintageshirtstore.com]

Regrets

I never saw Crud.

Crud Is a Cult - Triple Corpse Horror. From Sam.

[Image via www.thcphotography.com]

Louisville, Kentucky

I've been to Louisville. Once. To the airport actually. Welcomed by Colonel Sanders. A statue at least.

I went to visit Jen. She was an intern. In Lexington. I flew into Louisville. She picked me up. Drove me to Lexington. I picked up a cheap Black Sabbath tape at a gas station. During the drive.

She had an old Jetta. It was a pretty great car.

I remember her pointing out an ugly apartment building in Louisville. However. My mind pictures an apartment building in Barcelona. Gaudi.

Going into the trip. I didn't know much about Louisville. Lexington. Kentucky. I ended up liking it. I like it. I would like to go back. Part one in my not so secret love of The South.

My true love is The Deep South.

Prior to this trip. Everything I knew about Kentucky. Beyond Sanders. Was related to Louisville hardcore. Slamdek.

Actually introduced to me by my cousin's friend. During the 1994 World Cup. He had an Endpoint disc. He was not into hardcore. But had this Endpoint release. Discography maybe.

I like and liked a lot of the bands to come out of Louisville. Except for Enkindel. The Enkindels. I wonder how they hold up. Probably not well. I'll wait for Very to discount them further.

A few years ago. And by a few. Probably seven at this point. Tim and I were discussing the top ten bands of various scenes or labels. He pointed me to a discussion on The Black Table. And the rest is post-Syracuse history.

By the Grace of God - Three Steps to a Better Democracy. From Very Distribution. On sale. Of course.

I Knew Mike Would Take Me Up on the Offer

I said I would post the Slow Life EP that came with Phantom Phorce. If requested.

It was requested.

For a period I was only ripping B-sides from singles and EPs. I am rectifying that situation as I go through my iTunes.

This EP was ripped during the space saving era.

Super Furry Animals - Slow Life. Part of Phantom Phorce. See below.

This Is Not About Asteroid #4

Colin's house. Deep Dale. East.

It was a party. His parents were there. As well as friends from school. Anthony as well. I hadn't seen him in some time.

I was sitting by the stereo. With Eric. And Sean. Colin's brother.

I wanted to listen to Aja. Rock jazz. Jazz rock.

Eric. Sean. Me. Discussing My Bloody Valentine. The Verve. Northern Soul.

Alcohol fueled. The conversation moved to Spiritualized. Excitement over Spacemen 3. Mentions of Spectrum.

(I never enjoyed Sonic Boom's post-Spacemen output.)

Maybe I would prefer Spectrum now.

The conversation turned. Brian Jonestown Massacre. To the Stones. Logically. Their Satanic Majesties Request. Never heard of it. I thought I knew most Stones records. I did not.

I didn't think anything would top Flowers. I expressed that opinion.

Within a few days I went out to buy the album. Something did top Flowers.

The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request. I picked this up around 1999. Not sure where.

Credit Goes to VH1 Classic

Watching VH1 Classic. Their "video" came on. It was the standard "video" aired for bands of the era.

Live footage. Or lip sync footage. From an American Bandstand, Soul Train, Top of the Pops. And their equivalents.

I liked what I saw. Going forward I would casually look for releases.

This was prior to Seth's wedding. My parents were going as well. I took the train down early. A day or two in D.C.

Before the wedding. Fourth of July wedding. Fourth of July weekend rather. In Maryland.

Possibly the same trip as Dizzee Rascal and The Streets. Possibly not.

I arrive early. I often did. Chad was still at work. I picked up his keys. Took the Metro to Arlington. Dropped off my bags. It was hot. Sweaty hot. D.C. hot.

I made my way back into town. There was a bar next to Chad's office. I have spent many hours in there. Waiting for him to finish work. This particular day. I made an early appearance.

Around lunch. Maybe mid-afternoon. I had food. Drinks. More drinks.

I made a friend. As afternoon drinkers tend to do. He had lived in South Africa. And Australia. We talked. He put on The Easybeats. We talked more. He was shocked I had heard of them. This went on for an hour or so. No substance. Drinks. Easybeats. South Africa. Australia. I couldn't contribute on the last point.

I was useless by the time Chad arrived. The night had just started.

The Easybeats - The Very Best of The Easybeats. Christmas 2007. Finally.

Twenty Years of Listening and I Missed It

I never heard it. Or knew of it. Until the past year. When I started buying the deluxe editions of the discography.

I stumbled on it. I had no idea. I knew. And know. Everything before. And everything after. I knew from early on. Even as a new fan. A child.

I had never seen the album. Much less heard it. The artwork didn't impress me at thirty. I doubt it would have at ten.

I know some songs. Of course.

A mystery release. To me. Maybe not to others.

The Cure - The Top Rarities 1982-1984 (Disc 1) and (Disc 2). Purchased online from Barnes and Noble. I used a coupon. And a gift card. This is as far as I've gotten in the deluxe purchasing.