Like a lot of people. I didn't really have an interest in the band until the Legos.
My favorite toy.
Animated. Represented. In a music video.
Although my interest in the band has waned.
I still thank you Gondry.
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells. ??? New.
I had been listening to the genre via My Bloody Valentine.
Unbeknownst to me.
To me. My young self. It was punk. All-encompassing.
My Bloody Valentine. Agnostic Front. The Cure. Nirvana. The Clash. Fugazi. Depeche Mode.
With time. Things separated.
Dutifully reading Thrasher. One of my top resources for finding new music. Between 1986 and 1996.
In or around 1993. I'm guessing the Sounds section of the magazine. I am introduced to Velocity Girl.
Mentions of Primal Scream. In regards to their name.
Mentions of My Bloody Valentine. In regards to their genre.
"Shoegaze."
I had the word. I ran with it. Ride. Slowdive. Lush.
Although not Velocity Girl. Except for a few tracks on Copacetic I don't consider them part of the genre.
Even if they indirectly introduced me to it.
(That's not to say they aren't one of my favorite bands in their own right.)
Chapterhouse - Whirlpool. Princeton Record Exchange. Bargain rock.
I've been unfair to The Music.
At least in my previous post.
My only post. In regards to them.
They are on my current iPod rotation. I forgot how much I enjoyed them.
Nothing groundbreaking. Nothing special. Rock n roll.
I'm not getting bored. I'm not scrambling to skip ahead.
So yes. I'm sorry.
The Music - The People E.P. eBay. New.
If I had to choose. I'd take Morrissey over The Smiths.
This doesn't diminish how much I enjoy The Smiths.
I love The Smiths.
Though I'd rather listen to Morrissey than The Smiths.
This opinion is subject to change. It has. It will again.
But right now. Today. 7:55am. My preference is Morrissey.
Morrissey - The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get. ??? New.
It is probably their most popular release.
At least among people I know.
People who never listened to them. Many of them made this their first purchase.
I already owned the previous full-lengths.
The album was on my list of things to buy. My plan was to pre-order it from Amazon.com.
It didn't happen.
I know people who loved it. The same people encouraged me to make the purchase.
It didn't happen.
I even bought the follow up.
It still didn't happen.
I held it in my hand many times. Various used sections. New York. Pennsylvania. New Jersey.
Three years later and a $1.99. It happened.
Embrace - Out of Nothing (Disc 1) (Disc 2). Princeton Record Exchange. Bargain rock.
First through middle school. Then through high school. I never bothered to listen to them.
I was put off by the name.
In my mind, something about it was stupid.
Yet I had no issue buying releases from The High Back Chairs. And many other Dischord bands of the early nineties.
In retrospect. Equally stupid.
The ways I would justify buying or not buying albums for a good chunk of my teenage years. Ridiculous.
Dag Nasty - Can I Say & Wig Out at Denko's. Princeton Record Exchange. Unsorted bargain bin.
Up late. Up early.
Leaving early.
An abbreviated post. For an abbreviated release.
Assuming two songs count as such.
The Jesus Lizard / Nirvana. AKA Music. Used.
The first time. I wasn't sure what to expect.
Maladjusted tour. The Electric Factory. Philadelphia.
We drove down from Syracuse. Me. Eric. Adeet. One or two others.
It might have been well past his prime. But still. The crowd was like nothing I had ever seen.
The adoration. It was like footage of The Beatles. Of Elvis.
Bouquets of flowers. The flowers being thrown on stage.
Fans crying. The fans throwing themselves on stage.
People crawling down from the balcony.
People climbing up from the floor.
Running to touch him. To kiss his hand. Only to be dragged off stage. Removed from the venue.
The experience was incredible. Intense. Potentially overwhelming.
Adeet went down. Eric was standing with him. To this day I don't know if it was caused by the heat, Morrissey or both.
Morrissey - The Boy Racer (Single 1). ??? New.
One of a number of mediocre bands that I obsess over for a few months.
Buying every available release.
Import or otherwise.
Singing their praises. No one listens. Rightfully so.
Fading from my rotation.
At some point. They release a follow up.
A few listens. File away. Like before. Everything is forgotten.
The Music - Take the Long Road and Walk It (Single 1). eBay. New.
There was no way the show would last.
I reconciled my hatred of Rosie O'Donnell and my love of Boy George. It was time to buy tickets.
Part of a Christmas gift for Cathy. A trip to New York. Dinner. A Broadway show. Not just any show.
Taboo.
Boy George. Leigh Bowery. New Romantics.
It wasn't very good. I didn't expect it to be. Cathy agreed.
Seeing the campy disaster during it's brief run. A super-sized Boy George.
The important things.
Boy George - Sold. Princeton Record Exchange. Unsorted bargain bin.
After my first listen. I dismissed them.
This was a few years ago.
I might have called them the worst band in the world.
Actually. I know I did.
Listening to off-hand remarks. Made by me. There are many. Many. Worst bands in the world.
In this case. They really aren't.
I was fed up with all things Brooklyn.
Now that I think about it. I don't even know if they are from Brooklyn. I know they are from New York. For the era. Everything seemed Brooklyn.
TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain. Gift to Cathy. New.
Discs piled up.
Matt tried to avoid the shopping basket. It's impossible.
Every so often. We would go through our baskets. Keepers, maybes and discards. Putting things back.
Compare and contrast. Taking some of Matt's discards. Matt taking some of my discards.
Neu! didn't make his cut. Ultimately it did not make mine.
Christ did.
Christ - Page 15. Princeton Record Exchange. Bargain punk.
Before last week I had never heard Camper Van Beethoven.
Considering my age. What I listen to. What I listened to. This might be viewed as strange.
They slipped through the cracks of my late eighties listening.
Cathy insisted I had heard them. I insisted I had not.
She cited a song about skinheads and bowling. I had no idea what she was talking about.
On the second listen. I made the Cracker connection.
I get excited about insignificant things. So when I got home it was imperative that I tell Cathy about my Cracker epiphany.
"Well, duh."
Camper Van Beethoven - Key Lime Pie. Princeton Record Exchange. Unsorted bargain bin.
There is no doubt my favorite stories about Shields and Co. are exaggerated.
That has never stopped me from passing them along. The way they were passed along to me.
An inordinate amount of folklore seems to follow the band.
1. Kevin Shields bankrupted Creation while working on the follow up to Loveless.
2. The band sold all of their equipment to purchase drugs.
3. Kevin Shields became a perfectionist. Scrapping the hypothetical album again and again. Becoming reclusive and Brian Wilson-like.
There might be some truth to these. Or none at all. I don't dislike the mystery of the band. Since the reality is probably a bit more pedestrian.
My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything. Christmas 1990s. New.
The new album took me by surprise.
I didn't know anything about it. Until I heard "Regret" over and over as the family traveled England and Ireland.
A few months later. I bought it.
It moved to the top of my New Order rotation. My favorite listen for the summer of 1993.
Seth and I spent a lot of time hanging out at Megan's that summer. He liked her. I did too. He had greater success.
I vaguely remember the announcement on the radio. New Order was playing. I thought about going. I went to Megan's instead.
It never crossed my mind that the show would be sold out. I never found out if it was.
I don't even know. To this day. If the show ever existed.
New Order - Republic. The Wall. New.
I made my way to Generation Records.
It was the middle of the day. I was on the clock.
Browsing. I was looking for things I had sold. Things I had never heard. Things that I had missed while immersing myself in other genres.
Here was something.
The album had come out a few years earlier. It was never something that I felt I needed to buy.
I had been indifferent to Jawbreaker. The indifference carried over.
The artwork was clean. Like a lot of Jade Tree releases. I decided to make the purchase.
Based on that alone.
After a few listens my indifference took over. Collecting dust. It was sold.
It became a standard reference for me when discussing underwhelming albums.
How wrong I had been.
A few more years. A repurchase. Ultimately. An appreciation.
Jets to Brazil - Orange Rhyming Dictionary. AKA Music. Used.
Spending money to see Tricky in 2008 is not something I was willing to do. The only thing I ever liked came out in 1995.
The email from The Trocadero changed that.
Enter to win. Free tickets to see Tricky.
I won.
I suspect the tickets were not selling. In a late effort to fill the room. A ticket giveaway. A contest.
Their motives were not important. I was going to see Tricky.
We ran into Tim. We discussed how empty the space was.
I couldn't imagine people spending fifteen dollars to see Tricky. In 2008. In Philadelphia.
Tim assured me the new album was good. Though it hadn't been released yet.
I was curious to hear new material.
I did. My expectations were exceeded. Cathy's expectations were exceeded. The music. The show. Ultimately. The album.
Tricky - Knowle West Boy. Target. New.
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Manchester.
These two details conspired. Convincing me to make the purchase.
Conniving.
Wasting no time. The album was re-listed. Re-sold. A memory.
A memory revived by Cathy. A bargain bin. It was years later. Another copy.
Brassy - Got It Made. AKA Music. Bargain bin.
Nigel wanted to know. "New Order or The Smiths?"
I wasn't aware that I had to make a choice.
"New Order or The Smiths?"
"Both?"
I was told I couldn't like both. In England you couldn't like both.
This is what Nigel told me the first time we met.
"I guess New Order."
New Order is my favorite band. If given a choice. They will always come out on top.
I don't choose New Order at the expense of The Smiths. I like both.
Then again. I spent a few years choosing Blur over Oasis. Looking at my history. I'm not above taking illogical positions. Over the unimportant.
New Order - (the best of) New Order. ??? New.
The band didn't die. Not even a member.
Completely irrelevant. Totally unrelated. Potentially morbid.
Bluetip - Post Mortem Anthem. AKA Music. Used.
Spectrum was going out of business.
Skipping class was always an option. It was important to get there early.
Skipping class would have been the option with or without the sale.
Skipping class happened more often than class. As reflected by my grades.
It was the height of my Morrissey worship. I made sure to purchase every single in stock.
I left some doubles. Hoping my friends would benefit. Adeet in particular.
I cleared out Morrissey. The Smiths. Pizzicato Five.
Leaving behind George Best.
Morrissey - Our Frank. Spectrum. New.
Chris and I decided we only wanted to work in the stockroom.
For some strange reason, management didn't mind. We no longer had to work on the floor. We no longer had to work on the registers.
Rarely did we have to come up front.
We preferred the freedom of the stockroom. Able to wear what we want. Stashes of beer. The ability to wander off for extended periods of time.
We brought in a television. FIFA tournaments were hosted. Our co-workers would rotate on and off of the floor. To play their scheduled matches.
There was a boombox. Access to our own music. Over the in-store playlist.
(Which wasn't bad. It got repetitive.)
Piles of compact discs. Rap. Rap. Rap. Almost all rap. This was the soundtrack to our stockroom.
I thought Skarhead could find a home in our rotation. They did not. A return to rap.
It was a party atmosphere.
How it went on for as long as it did. I may never know.
A non-existent stockroom position. Filled by two people.
Eventually Chris got a real job. I moved to Queens. It was over.
Skarhead - Kings at Crime. ??? New.
You can't go wrong with anything by Swiz.
Or Swiz associated acts.
This is not a theory. But a fact.
One-hundred percent.
Bluetip - Join Us. AKA Music. Used.
I was told somewhere along the line that the EP was an aborted full-length.
Beyond that. I've never felt the need to dig any deeper.
Because on its own. It's incredible.
That said. A definitive answer would be nice.
So if any Shields-philes care to elaborate.
I'd love to know.
My Bloody Valentine - Glider. Wall to Wall Sound and Video or The Wall. New.
I had always said "If they get back together, I will see them play. Anywhere."
They did. I didn't.
I've said that about a lot of bands.
Stone Roses. Happy Mondays. The Libertines. Abba. The Smiths. Judge.
If given the opportunity. Each will likely end with the same result.
Making a trip. Spending the money. On any of them. Doubtful.
In the case of My Bloody Valentine. It was actually accessible.
Not even that pushed me to follow through on my proclamation.
I didn't even look into it.
I listened to but never saw them during their first run.
Here was an opportunity to change that.
Squandered.
My Bloody Valentine - Feed Me with Your Kiss. eBay. Used.
I had hoped to post the text of the Vice Magazine story.
At the very least. A link to the story. A link to the site.
It is no longer there. I cannot find it anywhere else.
Any help would be appreciated.
Skarhead - Drugs, Money, Sex. eBay. Used.
The album came out as I was moving away from hardcore and its associated acts.
I owned it. I enjoyed it. Yet because of where my tastes were. And were going to. Never a lot of plays.
It collected dust on my shelf. Finally sold.
Since I enjoyed the album. The band was always in the back of my mind. Something I wouldn't think about. For years.
A few months ago I saw they were playing a show. I was surprised to see they were still around. Which in this environment means they have come back around. After being away.
No longer relegated to the "sold bands" portion of my brain. I casually started looking for the album. Or any album for that matter. I assumed they had released additional full-lengths.
In the midst of looking for used Lungfish discs I remembered to check for Bluetip.
There it was. Ten years on. Dischord No. 101. And another. And then another.
No. 101. No. 116. No. 126. Twelve dollars.
Bluetip - Dischord No. 101. AKA Music. Used.
Like a lot of people. I didn't really have an interest in the band until the Legos.
I had been listening to the genre via My Bloody Valentine.
I've been unfair to The Music.
If I had to choose. I'd take Morrissey over The Smiths.
It is probably their most popular release.
First through middle school. Then through high school. I never bothered to listen to them.
Up late. Up early.
The first time. I wasn't sure what to expect.
One of a number of mediocre bands that I obsess over for a few months.
There was no way the show would last.
After my first listen. I dismissed them.
Discs piled up.
Before last week I had never heard Camper Van Beethoven.
There is no doubt my favorite stories about Shields and Co. are exaggerated.
The new album took me by surprise.
I made my way to Generation Records.
Spending money to see Tricky in 2008 is not something I was willing to do. The only thing I ever liked came out in 1995.
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Manchester.
Nigel wanted to know. "New Order or The Smiths?"
The band didn't die. Not even a member.
Spectrum was going out of business.
Chris and I decided we only wanted to work in the stockroom.
You can't go wrong with anything by Swiz.
I was told somewhere along the line that the EP was an aborted full-length.
I had always said "If they get back together, I will see them play. Anywhere."
I had hoped to post the text of the Vice Magazine story.
The album came out as I was moving away from hardcore and its associated acts.