Re: Record and CD show haul

I attended the Tampa Record and CD Show yesterday, about a 35-min drive or so from my house in the northern suburbs of Land O Lakes. I've been to a few of these things over the years, most recently last November. I'm usually pretty frugal (or, cheap as most people would say) when it comes to purchasing music. As I explained to a friend recently, I go for quantity over quality--meaning, I'll buy a more abused copy of a record over the pristine or newly remastered version provided the vinyl is VG grade or better. I also am not picky about original pressings or reissues or this or that unless track listing is affected. For CDs, it almost doesn't matter...at a record show especially, they are mega cheap.

This brings me to my haul from yesterday. I've never bought so many items in one shopping spree for so little money. If you have thoughts on any of these, I welcome it! All items except the Nektar album are in great condition.

Vinyl
Magazine - Real Life ($20) - the real jackpot of the day; it was $40..then $28, then $25, then he offered $20 and I took it!
David Bowie - Scary Monsters ($10)
Nektar - Down to Earth ($2) - VG condition or slightly less; definitely worth the price

CDs
They Might Be Giants - Flood ($0.20)
The Stills - Logic Will Break Your Heart ($.20)
Cracker - Kerosene Hat ($0.20)
King Crimson - Larks Tongue in Aspic ($0.20)
The Waterboys - Fisherman's Blues ($0.20)
The Blue Nile - A Walk Across the Rooftops (I already have it on vinyl, and when I mentioned it to the guy, he said, "and now you have it on CD" and threw it in for free)
REM - Green ($1) - replacement for CD stolen from me years ago
REM - Automatic for the People ($1) - same as above
Richard Thompson - Amnesia ($1)
Richard Thompson - Daring Adventures ($1)
Richard Thompson - Across a Crowded Room ($1)
Fleetwood Mac - Rumors ($1) - for my daughter

All told, $39. Plus $5 for two beef empanadas they were selling at the venue. Oh, and a $3 entry fee. Total for the day: $47!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2024 04:05PM by zoo.

Were the empanadas any good, though?

Good to get caught up on the Capitol Records-era solo Richard Thompson. There is some great stuff there, amidst sometimes dodgy production choices.

RT’s Across a Crowded Room and Daring Adventures were the start and the end of the 2-LP PolyGram run, stuck between his longer stints on Hannibal and Capitol….

oh good catch? I cannot remember which are Capitol and which are Polydor.

Daring Adventures was my first RT album. It was a revelatory experience. Still a big favorite of mine, though I know it's not well regarded by the fan base.

Last night a neighbor posted on the local Facebook group that he was getting rid of a bunch of records for $1.

I went over around 9:00 and found him in his backyard with a firepit going, and three boxes full of vinyl. It was mostly folk, country, old-time rock, and some other genres, but I found some good stuff: Bryan Ferry solo records, Flatt & Scruggs at Carnegie Hall, Bonnie Raitt's early records prior to her mainstream success, some best-ofs from Buddy Holly and the Crickets, and other cool stuff.

Michael Toland Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Daring Adventures was my first RT album. It was a revelatory experience. Still a big favorite
> of mine, though I know it's not well regarded by the fan base.

I'm listening now (second song now playing). Sounds good so far! I'm familiar with his work up to Hand of Kindness, which I own, then Rumor and Sigh forward. The 3 I purchased on Sunday are largely unfamiliar to me other than a few songs.

Amnesia's also a good 'n.

Several years ago I noticed a tendency amongst the hardcore to dismiss the music he made with Mitchell Froom as producer. Not sure why - I've always thought they worked well together.

They were from a chain called Mr. Empanada. Average at best. Definitely not as good as the one I had a few weeks ago from La Bahia bakery.

Excellent haul, all around, Zoo! Scary Monsters is one Bowie album that shows up frequently in the used bins, though I couldn't tell you why. It may not be an indelible classic like Ziggy Stardust or Station to Station, but it's an excellent album overall, with several choice songs. It certainly doesn't display any bad faith or questionable taste, like Tonight or Never Let Me Down.

And a very cool purchase on the Magazine album!

Oh, I've listened many times (I downloaded it years ago)--just never owned a physical copy. It's in my top 3 Bowie albums for sure.

That's awesome - I have nearly all of those already, though I paid much more for them! It's funny how the economics have reversed for vinyl and CD's - I think 15 years ago, cheap and used vinyl opened up a pathway to explore new music, but the market value for vinyl has gone through the roof while CD's have become an amazing bargain, including those lavish box sets I used to covet.

And I'm still bewildered that Rumours has become this colossal landmark for teenage and college age listeners. It was always popular, but more with an older crowd - it's also gained the sort of reverence that Pet Sounds and Revolver had when I was exploring in the '00s. I can never put it on that exalted level, but I still love it and think it's great in its own way.

That's a healthy haul. I'm a cheapskate, too! In the old days, I would wait decades to buy a cheap used CD that I might want. Now with print runs for all physical product effectively less than "limited editions" were in the 80s, I've learned the hard way that if I don't twitch when it is in pre-release, the odds are poor that I'll get it at all.

I used to go to the Tampa shoes in the early 90s and come away with $500 worth of CDs back when import prices were substantial.
Last month I went to one of those HUGE Record World shows in the Netherlands that used to blow my mind as advertised in Goldmine magazine 30+ years ago. I took the 90 minute train ride from Amsterdam to s'Hertogenbosch to find a space the size of two and a half huge aircraft hangars and almost 600 dealers… and struggled to find €80 worth of goods of interest over the day. It was the place to be if you wanted Beatles or Metal. TP fodder…not so much!

Mostly vinyl. Few CDs. What CDs were there were dumpchaff; unsorted though cheap was €1.00 each. I got two new CDs for €7 and one prize used CD [The Nits: Hjuvi - A Rhapsody In Time] was the most I spent at €15. I did find one dealer with Euro 12" singles for €1.00 each. I got a baker's dozen. Occasionally there were dealers with carefully sorted stock, but they were in the minority. I told my friend that were this 1988, and at the height of CD mania, we wouldn't have gotten out of there for less than €500. I was surprised to see a lot of bootlegs. Mostly boxed live sets. How I hated bootlegs in the late 90s crowding everything I wanted to buy out of the floor! Here's the whole report on the Mega Show from a TP Generation perspective.

Ghod, how I've hated the insufferable and omnipresent "Rumours" ever since it came out! I actually saw kids in my junior high school carrying copies on the hallway! I could never figure out why. I never brought my records to school!

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/2024 07:37PM by Post-Punk Monk.

Monk, I know you're an ex-central FL guy. There's a 3-day show in Orlando coming up, which I think they do every year. Ever been to one of those?

Yeah, Ex-Orlando for damn near a quarter century! So O-town does 3-day-shows now? Back in the day they were typical Sunday morning only. At some hotel ballroom or the Central Florida Fairgrounds near the end of my time there. And the Orlando shows really didn't start until the early-mid 90s as I recall. Hence the need to attend the Tampa shows, which were usually held in the Curtis Hixon Hall and much bigger [and better] than the Orlando small potatoes…back then at least.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

I've always liked Rumours but man did I get a lot of shit for that. The low point was getting mocked by a guy who got a lot of shit for owning that first Rod Stewart box set, Storyteller. (Stewart's first four albums, best Faces material and earliest Jeff Beck Group collaborations are still among the best rock of its time, so I didn't do that to him.) I was feeling kind of smug and vindicated when I moved to Brooklyn and saw local indie bands cover the Buckingham-Nicks era without irony, but now it's over a decade later and it's like the pendulum has swung way too far in that direction. I want to compare it to the director Michael Mann - there was a long time in the '80s and much of the '90s when he was this underrated film director doing interesting work better than most Hollywood films. At some point the world caught up, but now he's got this enormous base of devotees who think he's up there with Stanley Kubrick or something.

I don't dislike Rumours, but my hand doesn't usually land on it when I'm picking out a record to play. Its songs, one after another, are what I call "familiars" -- songs that I don't dislike, but have heard plenty of times and don't really care to hear again.

I had a bit of a haul last night too. I visited the local Goodwill store to check out the cd shelf and found some real gems among the sparse selection.

Soup Dragons - Hotwired
Soup Dragons - Lovegod
Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble - Greatest Hits (2 cd)
Various Artists - Broadway Hits (2 cd) Not a fan of musicals or Broadway shows, but they've crafted some wonderful tunes over the years
Marvin Gaye -Motown Greatest Hits
Johnny Cash - Number Ones (Hits)
Dirk Freymuth - Pachelbel (and other classical composers)
Mannheim Steamroller - Extraordinaire (Christmas album).

The total for the 10 cd's was only $23, I actually utilized restraint, after buying 33 cd's in one week last month. The Soup Dragons albums were a great find, they are a band I have yet to fully discover, but it's a good start.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2024 12:59AM by Fleeingbandit.

Nice! I have found a gem or two over the years at Goodwill and Salvation Army, but I mainly strike out at such places...except for that time I found Japan's Tin Drum and Assemblage at a local Goodwill. I couldn't believe my eyes!

I am pretty sure I saw Soup Dragons open for somebody back in the early '90s, but other than the song "I'm Free" I don't remember much about them.

Some great stories here, gents! One of my fellow DJs is heavily involved with the Lake City Record Show, in north Seattle, twice a year. He keeps inviting me to come join the fun. Problem (so far): it's always on the third Saturday of the month, when I cover "The Gumbo Mix." Maybe this fall, I'll make arrangements with that show's regular host to shift to a different Saturday.

I don't usually shop for music at our local Goodwill, or at the local pawn shops. The merchandise at those places usually is in shoddy condition, or else it's just something I don't want. (One visit where I was confronted with one Ozzy album after another leaps to mind.) And as I've mentioned, the used music store here in Everett is not much to crow about, although I shop there pretty regularly.

A new music store is opening soon in Everett, just a few minutes' walk from my house. I met the soon-to-be proprietor a few months ago, at a stereo shop in Seattle. The salesman was just introducing himself, asking what I was shopping for, and beginning his pitch when he stopped and said, "Wait a minute ... you're on the radio, aren't you?" It turned out that he's a fan of KSER; he eventually gave me a 10 percent discount on a new turntable. He told me he'd be opening the new store in Everett on Memorial Day weekend. I saw him yesterday, though, and he wasn't quite as ready as he'd hoped, so it's looking more like mid-June. But he did give me a tour ... and he'll not only offer new & used vinyl and CDs, but he'll have local microbrews on tap. I think I may have found my home away from home.