Recently...
(I know! A lot of random selections here but I'm way behind)
...
Hrvatski - Räume 7" (Tonschacht) 2000
^Starting with the good old nice and chunky sounding 7" records. This weird German experimental electronic 7 inch was too weird and too magnificent to pass up. Very non-linear music, sounds like a street sweeper one minute and golden eggshells falling down hollow wooden stairs the next. Um, yeah! Why wouldn't I buy this?
Bonobo - Nightlite/If You Stayed Over 7" (Ninja Tune) 2006
^If you stayed over is such a nice downtempo indie rock tune. Buying Ninja Tune is sort of a no brainer for me but especially Bonobo records.
Innerzone Orchestra - Programmed 7" (Talkin' Loud) 1999
^A sweet Jazz infected side project of Carl Craig. Definitely still techno with the Detroit sound, but also Jazz. Nice to find this import seven for a mere 2 dollars locally.
Bill Cosby with the Bunions Bradford Band - Hikky Burr 7" (UNI Records) 1969
^Bill Cosby did funk too ya know! And this is one of his funkier numbers. Sounds like something that coulda made it on Dumpster Funk 2 but I didn't have it in hand at the time. Oh well, better late than never.
REM - Superman 7" (I.R.S. Records) 1986
^You are looking at the only song I can tolerate by REM. Something about that Michael Stipe guy's voice just grinds my gears. This band was actually cool at the time of this release and this song was one of their best. It's nice to have it on a seven inch because I don't need the LP. This is one of those records I learned to love courtesy of my big sister's boyfriend's mixtapes when I was just a little kid. I liked that guy, whoever he was. I can't remember his name but he gave me mixtapes and shakes when he was courting my big sis. Now that was a cool dude.
The Stranglers - The Stranglers 7" (A&M) 1977
^Nice 33 1/3 speed 7" EP from the incomperable Stranglers. A few of their bigger songs on this. File under prog punk?
Donald Byrd - the Cat Walk LP (Blue Note) 1962
^ Don't you just love finding a Blue Note classic vastly underpriced? I got this OG for a mere 2 dollars the other day. The seller graded it fair and it was just needing a little TLC cleaning. Other than a few visual marks this cleaned up into a VG+ sounding album. This was his pre funky era but he was definitely dabbling in the funk at the time. Such a staple album, I'm still thrilled I got this so cheap days later.
Al Dimeola, John McLaughlin, Paco DeLucia - Friday Night in San Francisco LP (Columbia) 1981
^Speaking of cheap, this one you'll find in every store and it's almost always cheap. The trick is to find one in Mint condition though because it's accoustic jazz with a lot of quiet parts so to truly appreciate it you need to find it in great shape. If you are unfamiliar with this, it's really wonderful flamenco acoustic jazz from some real virtuosos of Latin Jazz guitar. They have a lot of great playful back and forth free styling on this, it's a live masterpiece IMO.
Morton Stevens – Original Hawaii Five-O TV Soundtrack LP (Capitol) 1969
^Da Da Da Da DAAAAHH... DAHHHH! That's right ponks! You know the song! But did you know the whole thing is pretty damn funky? I found this OG at a nice price and was happy to discover a few HH samples reside on some of the slower funk tracks. This is such a great soundtrack for diggers.
Urban Guerrillas - Darwin's Theory of Pelvic Revolution LP (Camouflage Records) 1983
^An amazing record that I took a chance on from this Minneapolis based post punk band. Kinda reminds me of early Cure in a way but it's a little bit more punky sounding. Honestly, I don't know how to describe this and still do it justice, it's just a great album and I've worn it out in 2 weeks of owning it. I think this will be the first record I put on the platter when I get done with work today.
Moon Duo - Mazes LP (Sacred Bones Records) 2011
^A great recommendation from Brainchild and something I bust out every so often because it's timeless psych rock. I don't know too many modern psych rock bands nowadays but this one is the best I've heard. Sacred Bones is such a great label too, I'm sure they have quite a few bands that I'd like with this throwback fuzz vibe like this one.
Various - The Iowa Compilation LP (South East Records) Unknown Year (80s)
^Iowa punk and indie rock comp from the early 80s. It goes without saying I've never heard most of these band names but I love them. This one is very well compiled. When I think of Iowa, I think of a boring ass state with a shit ton of corn fields and nothing else but because of this I'll also equate 80s punk to the state.
Various - You Bet We've Got Something Against You LP (Cathexis Recordings) 1986
^File under WTF angst industrial punkish. It's really great, but you gotta be a little pissed off to listen to it all the way through cuz it's darker than dark.
Sick Boys - Two Man Conga Line LP (VML Records) 1996
^Took a shot in the dark chance at this punk album based on the cover and label and I'm glad I did. Nothing real groundbreaking, the singer is kinda too normal sounding to be a punk singer but the music is tight as can be.
Beck - Morning Phase LP (Capitol) 2014
^Slightly disappointed in this follow up to Beck's Sea Change. As a huge Beck fan I was hoping for a little more raw sounding country\folk and instead this one feels a bit overproduced. Not nearly as simple sounding as I'd hoped. But it's still pretty good and in my opinion the best album from Beck in years.
Sonic Youth - Peel Sessions 1986-1988 LP (Sonic Youth) Unknown Release Year
^Ever since I saw these guys live back in the early 90s I loved these guys. This LP/EP is fantatsic and a great collection of the BBC recordings. Great sound quality, I expected it to be a little bit more bootleg sounding but it's nice and loud.
Jesus and Mary Chain - The Sound of Speed LP (Blanco Y Negro) 1993
^Now this one is more bootleg sounding. Still pretty good, and a lot like the one above in terms of having a compilation feel to it but it's no where near as impressive as Sonic Youth's Peel Sessions.
Do Make Say Think - Goodbye Enemy Airship The Landlord Is Dead LP (Constellation) 2000
^A great trade record from Vamos that I've grown to love. I've played this maybe 10 times already and I'm not sick of it yet. This one is a really interesting sounding rock group, kind of reminds me of NEU! in a way but much more modern. I'll be looking for this group that I knew nothing of from now on.
Durutti Column - The Return Of The Durutti Column LP (Factory Benelux) 2013 RE of 1980 OG
^THE ALBUM KILLER!!! OK, you got me, it's just a reissue, but it's got the sandpaper sleeve!
For those who don't know these guys are a punk group and what's more punk than creating an album out of sandpaper in your garage so that when it slides against other albums it destroys them. I say nothing is more punk than that! However, the thing is, this isn't punk. It's more like really great new age music with weird tape loops. It's really nice and chill and worthy of repeat listens.
The reissue packaging with the sand paper sleeve was a bit of a logistics nightmare though. For one thing, the sand is coming off the glue right off the bat. When I opened the record for the first time I noticed grains of sand inside the inner sleeve. As you can imagine, sand ain't too good for wax. Simply removing the record out of the sleeve for the first time was kind of a nightmare.
So I put the sandpaper sleeve in it's own separate plastic outer sleeve and the record in a safe for other records outer-sleeve and then I put them both in a third outer sleeve to keep them together. Frankly, I could have gone for just the basic brown reissue instead of this logistical, record-destroying nightmare of a sleeve, but the company wanted to be as true to the original as possible, so I guess I can't blame them for trying.
But like most people, most of the time I buy records for the music, not the packaging regardless of how unique the packaging is, so I woulda been happy either way just to have the music... but it is what it is.... an ALBUM KILLAH!!
“Lesser artists borrow... great artists steal.” - Igor Stravinsky
OP OP Blog CDC
Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Beat Junkies Blog
. Kep making serious connections. 
but I'm always game for a trade!
