Post Record Fair Digging

I took a few days off last week and amongst the things I wanted to get done was record shopping at the local opp shops. I wasn't too enthused about this, I was mainly doing it out of convenience. Do I need more records? No. Do I have an impulse drive to get more records? Not at the moment.

The truth is, the record fair really made me reassess what I'm doing with my records. Fellow Dollar Brander -M has constantly got at me for having records for the sake of having records. What is the point of having something if you never play it? If it just stays in a shelf collecting dust? After the record fair and seeing how much the records I own are being sold for (not bought for), I started to take stock. What couldn't I part with? What would I sell or swap?

With this in mind, I went record shopping. I purposely went to the opp shop that I hadn't been to in months, possibly a year. I played it cool. I circled the box like a shark circling prey. I held a few vintage tavern shirts against my chest; convincing myself I was here to buy pub-wear. Not records. I thumbed through some old books. The records could wait. I looked through the vintage glasses looking for a particular glass I'm always trying to find. No, records and I, we're not talking at the moment.

But the moment someone else walked into that room the thought hit me: They might look through the records before I do! Never mind the fact that all day people might have been rifling through that box and picked up untold gems. But for some reason I felt a slight panic as that person filed into the room. I tried to rush over the old ENZA apple box without looking hurried. Like a stilted shuffle. Like the sugar-water addicted alien off Men In Black. I was awkward.

As I flicked over the titles, the familiar chant in my head, "Got it, got it, got it, James Last, got it, James Last, James Last" - when suddenly...!

Besser & Prosser - Dark Wind/Spring Rain

As far as cover art goes, this is what I'm looking for. Look at that design! David Kent did an incredible job. But what it is? Well, it's basically Jonathan Besser and Chris Prosser going ape shit on the violin and piano. Maybe some of it is over my head but some of it I really mess with. In certain movements they're beating the crap out of the violin, or playing it with paper under the strings or strumming the piano strings inside the piano. It sounds like the sound track to this mental black & white art film my brother took me to when I was about 11 or 12. What the hell was it about? I dunno. But I liked it.

Naganuma's Practical Japanese

I picked up this tidy little 10" strictly for the cover art. Holy shit man, look at thing! Gold.

Jesse Colin Young - Light Shine

I know what you're thinking: Hillbilly Blues. A) you're right B) nope, that's it. But for some reason, nestled in between all the crap house songs and the slightly cross-eyed cover photo there is a beautiful piece of music. Now the question is: Can I keep this just for one song?

Run D.M.C - Walk This Way

If this was made these days it would be titled "Run D.M.C featuring Aerosmith" but it was made back in the day I guess. I debated whether to get this but then I thought about the fact that it had an instrumental on the B side and also the cultural significance of the single. I mean, it was the first ever proper rock/hiphop crossover song. Right? Right? I saw that one BBC documentary, you can't fool me.

Tour Of Duty Soundtrack

Fellow Dollar Branders, answer me this: There were about three or four volumes of the Tour of Duty soundtrack cassette tapes released back in the day. But for some reason I have only been able to find one album on LP. Are there other volumes on vinyl or what? Also, smartypants, was this the first time a TV shows soundtrack was turned into a chart-topping album (ie: Music From Sopranos, Greys Anatomy Soundtrack etc)? I'd love to know. Either way, this record was coverless but features a great Janis Joplin voice break and I'm sure that it's the same sample used on this song (that shit cray).

Laurie Styvers - The Colorado Kid

Truth: I bought this for the cover. Talk about bunnyish. But it turned out to have two great songs on it, very sampleable. Apart from that, it's mighty forgettable. Oh well.


I took them up to the counter and the guy said $1 each. My wife was like "Did the price go up? They used to be 50 cents?". Yup he reckons. Now, here's where things have changed. I really couldn't care less. $1 was a bargain compared to the $55 Richard Clayderman records I'd seen at the record fair the weekend before. Bring it on! So I got them.

Fast forward to the next day and I picked up Steely Dan's Royal Scam and the self-title Rikki Lee Jones album for 25 cents each. That's the karma for not haggling over $1 records I think.


Thanks for reading. Bonus mix:


Run D.M.C
Laurie Styvers
Jesse Colin Young
Naganuma
Besser & Prosser
Tour of Duty

PS: Turns out I was wrong about that Fat Joe sample. Oh well, next time.

Four Crates: Episode Eleven

This just in! I found another crate of unlistened to records. I'm debating whether to call the series Five Crates now.

In other news, I went record shopping on my days off in Whakatane and Te Puke and pulled a few good scores. You should read more about it this week.


Enjoy your weekend.

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Here's a quick bit of a roun dup:

That's my lil cousin diggin in the free box. The only box i really got a look at myself because i was selling and stuck behind a table all day. It was torture not being able to spend all my money haha. Got some free duds, plus a cool Talking Heads, Grace Jones and a Beatnuts 12". But from the free box this was a nice surprise:

Kirk Lorange - No Apostrohe

I loove finding the breaks. especially when the record sounds like total cheese ball garbage (Bro you gotta bring that MPC up for a holiday). These drums are crisp! though at times it sounds like the drummer is struggling to hold the beat. Ausi cheese rock. And who says nothing rhymes with orange - i don't know how to pronounce his name.

From the other bargain bins of Auckland came this one:

Junie - Bread Alone

Awww yeah. This guy's voice is novel as, and some of the funky 80s grooves this record tucks into are stinkin' How good is that cover? flip it over and see all the thanks going to Ohio Palyers, George and P-funk.

From the same "nobody loves me" bin:

Drop the needle anywhere on this album (except the cover of Baker Street, eww yuk) and you'll be grinning! A pot of gold.

And finally from the sales bin of Conch:

On one hand there's singing soulfully from the heart like say.. Al Green. On the other, there's singing soulfully from the heart like Melvin Van Peebles. I'm so excited to have this one in the collection. I will collect em all. I know the snippet here is all about the break, but this guy.. this guy.. i'm telling ya. He can really sing! no question.

Whakatane Record Fair

When the bro text me to say there was a record fair on in Whakatane I thought he was joking. But after a few back and forward texts we figured out it was for real and he was picking me up on Labour Day to go check it out.

So many questions: Will anyone turn up? Will I be picking up score after score as I'm the only one there? Are people in Whakatane sitting on vinyl that they want to get rid of? Who is organising this thing?

After walking through the door it was instantly recognisable what was going on. On one side there was a guy selling beat up copies of everything. Going through the racks I found that I had about 80% of the records. Either I was holding on to them, or had them in my chuck out pile or had given them back to Sallies. Whats more they were selling for $10 or more. Am I sitting on a gold mine?

There were a few good records in there but way too expensive for someone who is used to paying 50c to $1 for records. Hell, even $2 makes me think twice. I did find something I've been looking for for a while. Truth be told I could have it any time I wanted, if I felt like paying $10 on Trademe. It was unpriced so I asked the guy how much? $20. OK then, I'll think about it (code for: if there's nothing else good here and I can talk you down, we're good).

The thing about this guys stall was he had two crates of brand new releases (Jakey Jake got the SBTRKT album for $35!) and a bunch of CDs, so it was obvious the guy ran a shop and was traveling around selling records and making a buck. Big shout to DS Des who asked shocked "You want $100 for this?!!?".
"Yes," the guy replied, "it's very rare.".
To which Des muttered under his breath "Great because I have doubles of this at home". Classic.

On the other side was another guy with, truth be told, pretty good records. Good quality. Prices pretty high for me but not out of this world. Was pretty weird seeing stuff I've drawn all over or am using as a mouse pad going for $50. Anyways, he had a few crates of unpriced records which I figured out is the way to go. Because, you can say "how much?" and when you hear the answer you can do the old whistling while sucking in noise. Pretty steep bro. I found two 'nice-to-haves' with no prices so held on to them. As I made my way to the crates I was saving til last (the $2 each or 6 for $5 crates) I found two records I was pretty stoked with:

Found one of the records for Focus 3 by Focus. I used to have a Focus record and it was bananas but I had lost it. I knew this was going to be good going so I slapped down the $2 with confidence. Some great Dutch pysch-rock shit. Makes me feel like Margaret when I play it.

Neketini Brass. I'd heard about this record but never had the fortune of coming across it. When I saw it I had to stop myself going "AWWWWW YEAH!!!", lest the guy say "oh sorry, that was sposed to be in the $1m crate". Herb Alpert style brass arangements of Trad Maori songs. This is my cup of Dilmah with a side plate of Lamingtons. Lamingtons with a capital letter even!
(This is probably a dime a dozen up your guys ways).

This next one, you guys probably already have. I've always wanted it but never really thought I would come across it. Apart from something like this fair where there are seven copies floating around. But I mean, I have this on mp3 so I was happy not to have it. I found an unpriced copy and asked the guy "How much?". $7.50 he reckons. Fair enough, I would probably pay that, except that I saw the exact same record in another one of your crates for $5. So, I'll take the$5 copy. On some, that's what you get but also some "Don't try to play me like I got a flower pot head, son" - (c) Ghostface. T

Another unpriced one I wanted was this amazing looking Gospel album on a label I'd never heard of out of Philly but with 7 globe-sized afros on the cover. I can imagine it was going to be a banger and should've kept my mouth shut as the guy clicked straight away this was something I was very interested in. $7.50 for that one too. I had to let it go. I'll see you in my dreams, sweet record.

Finally, there was a guy from Whakatane, who I've seen around and thought he must've been some old rocker or something. He had a crate full of pretty cool rock records but most of them I have, or am not interested in or are probably on my way to being inherited in 30 years. But what I did notice was that he had a spreadsheet with all the records written on them and a bunch of them had been rubbed out. I was thinking there must have been a big rush before I got there or something because he'd done real well selling. Maybe I should have a stall next time.


So, after that I felt $9 was a pretty good effort as I'd come to the place with $40 in my back burner. Pretty happy I was, strolling down Domain Road when I thought "hang on a second, I've got that pile of records I've been building since doing the Four Crates series. Why don't I gather them up and take them back down, see if I can make some money?". So, that's what I did.

An interesting thing happened. I had planned on taking down my Elvis, Beatles, La Gloria and Apple Records 45 collection as well. But I forgot it. But no worries. One guy ended up picking up a bunch of 80's 45s I've been holding on to (Roxette, Bon Jovi) and was like "How much?". I guess, I dunno, maybe I'm new to this, maybe I'm not doing it right or maybe I just did it for the love of not having a whole pile of shit I don't even care about, but I said "aaaaaah, $15?". Quick as a flash the dude opened his wallet and paid up. I thought "Dam, shoulda said $50", but then, they'd probably be out there writing a blog post about me.

The other guy picked out a bunch of stuff and said "Grab whatever you want out of the crates". Now, at the time I was gutted because a) I was hoping for dinner money and b) I knew there was hardly anything I wanted in there. In fact, today I thought of something I saw in there and didn't get and it's going to piss me off for weeks. Either way, I picked out two records. In my mind I was like "Were my records worth the two $10 records I'm going to try and get?" but then reasoned that the $10 records I was getting weren't worth $10 in the first place - so it all evens out, right?

Right?

Am I a novice or too much of a softie? Dunno.

I saw this and, really, got it for the cover and the potential that it would be some throwdown in Harmonica town. Turns out it is. Daniel would love this shit to pieces. Real happy with it.

I got this. It's pretty good. Female Blues. I was indoctrinated with a distinct hatred towards Blues when I was growing up but I can't lie, I'm feeling this. Pretty bad ass if you ask me.

So in the end I got three great records, two $10 records, my money back and made $4 for ice creams for the way home. Not bad, I thought.


So here's what I learnt: The records seemed to be secondary to the experience of going to a record fair and FULLY nerding it out with those guys about records. The stories, the "Oh yeah bro, my Wife tells me to get rid of records too. Hurr hurr hurrrr". I mean, if I was a Rugby head, it would be the equivalent of going down the pub to watch the game and meeting someone who you could talk about the fine intricacies of the game with. It was something I've never experienced outside of sly boasting with my fellow Dollar Branders. I was hooked straight away. I was happy to give away my records for possibly cheap. I was happy to pay more than I would for stuff I probably don't need - all because I got to have that experience of being in true record nerdburger heaven.



Sidebar 1: One of the guys was pulling out records he had bought from the Whakatane guy, including a UK pressing of 'Dark Side of The Moon' with the original posters and postcards in it. Faaaarking hell. Not to mention all the other ridiculous scores he got off this guy. I hate to think what he paid him for them.

Sidebar 2: One of the guys put one of my records he'd bought into his 'New Arrivals' crate. One part of me wanted to go over to the rack and be like "How much for this?". Well let's see, I bought it for $2 and so that'll be $15 thanks. I think I'm going to have a Wingman to help me run that scam next time. Then go patchmember crazy on that ass.

Sidebar 3: Met a really nice guy from Wellington who played some pretty hilarious music and played a Theramin. Absolutely bonkers/cool. Well done.

Sidebar 4: I'm thinking of writing a movie based on Record Fairs. This would require me to go to more than one, but shit, I've already got the characters and story arc doooooown after this weekend. Hilarious times.

Sidebar 5: If either of the guys are reading this, no hard feelings.


BONUS Mix:

1) Koko Taylor - Voodoo Woman
2) Nick Nicholson & The Neketini Brass - Pokarekare Ana
3) Big Walter Horton - I Hate To See The Sun Go Down
4) Focus - Round Goes The Gossip
5) The Ramsey Lewis Trio - And I Love Her

Pre-Loved Curiosities

Does that make sense?

This guy nails the hammer on the head with this one. Sometimes, the reason I hold on to a record is due to a note that's written on the cover or a photo I found in the cover. Check out this great write up by Shelf Stacker.

Pre-Loved Bush and 'Head

Do you have any interesting tid bits? I've had a lot of lyrics written out. Another cool one I had was a letter from the publisher of the record saying a song was missed off the album and that they could write to them for a free 7" of the missing song. I'm sure there are more.

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Azaph - Highways to Zion
Some of the factors that lead to this purchase: The price. At 25 cents it makes the gamble that much easier. The fact that it is a New Zealand group, from Dunedin, during a time when Flying Nun were dominating. And the big draw factor, the photos of them playing in the studio with a synth and a crazy looking drum kit.

The music is pretty out there with some really great moments and instrumentation. Drums and flutes, hell yeah! (ops, i mean heck yeah!) If they weren't singing about the lord, maybe they would've made a bigger impact on the NZ rock/devils music scene. A nice surprise this one.

Ruben Rodriguez and His Guadalajara Kings

This is one of 13 i got for 25 cents each. It was also the first of 13 I played when I got home, which turned out to be good and bad. It was good because the record is really really good. It's got tasty breaks throughout and it's a real feel good record. It was bad because the other 12 records were made to look pretty stink balls in comparison. But how bout that Money Tree aye? The back of the record describes it as, "truly an attention getter."

That's all I have time for tonight. Till next time.

I Am Still Here

A trip to Real Groovy last week came up trumps. That said, if it was my actual job the hourly rate would be pretty low. I listen to records for four hours and only selected 5 albums. That said quality over quantity. Was this selection quality? Time will tell.

First up, Vince Guaraldi's Oh Good Grief (1968). I have a weakness for Guaraldi and his whole Peanuts output. I think it is the groovy syncopation. This album is a little unusual in that while he is playing the classic Peanuts tunes he lays an electric harpsichord over the top (listen here).

Next up is Jan Hammer's Oh Yeah? (1976) I am seeing some kind of trend - cartoon cover, punctuated titles. The music falls into that mid 70s mess of prog, jazz and rock that I love. A couple of listening options to get a taste: Oh Yeah? and One to One.

Listening to album reminded me that I had another album with Jan Hammer from around the same time, David Earle Johnson's Time is Free (1977). Listen to Grandma's House, especially from 2:10 where it turns into a freaky echo jam.

Following on in a jazz rock vein I also picked up Michel Colombier's self titled album (1979). I didn't know anything about this guy but he is in good company on the album - Herbie Hancock, Jaco Pastorius, Tom Scott, Steve Gadd, Airto Moreira etc. Sample listen: Do It. This is probably the pick of the album. Not too bad though.

And just in case you thought I was only about the jazz I also picked up some disco. Silver Convention (1975). The copy that I have has no record company label info and the back cover is very contrasty. I suspect it is a bootleg. Sample track: Fly Robin Fly. According to wikipedia this track carries the distinction of being a Billboard chart topper with one of the fewest nmber of unique words: six. Apparently it is sampled by a few of those hip hop people too (check out the Silver Convention video!!)

And finally I picked up The Legendary Taj Mahal (1981). As much as I love Taj I do not have anything of his on vinyl - until now. Satisfied and Tickled Too is my all time fav. Let's take that record for a drive.

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Got a bunch of records on Saturday morning, too many to mention, but have a look anyway. this lot is from the first stop:



Bit of a Spanish thing going on. Rosana (self titled) had this funky number on it (excuse the poor recording, its about as quality as my photography):

This bunch from an unexpected spot, but i had an inkling and it paid off! indie galore:

annnnd these not so great ones:

(jack tempchin is from the 'funky kings' and like the 'funky kings' is not all that great).

It was a good morning, but now i've got too many records that i'm not sure if i'll listen to often enough to justify keeping. There is another record fair next month.. hmmm...
sorry for the brief update, don't seem to have enough time to write this thing up proper.

Four Crates: Episode Ten

Howdy team. Man it's been a while. You've been in the back of my mind but I had been flat tack with the release of my EP. So my updates may be few and far between for the next few whiles. Rest assured I haven't picked up any new records in a while but the four crates stay calling me. Let's go!

The Mace Brothers - The Mace Brothers

Australian Gospel cheese at its best. Some good samples to grab on this. Chapel Records is a new one on me but I have to keep an eye out for them. I made these two beats with my youngest, Otto, on my lap so both of the beats have been named by him: Naughty Song & My Mirror.



T-Connection - T-Connection

I've had this for the longest time and only really kept it for a vocal sample at the very start of the record, but I thought I better give it another go. Managed by Don Taylor, T-Connection where making misleading funk music straight out of Florida on this one. Just when you think there's going to be some ill funk breaks and liner notes breaking down their astrological signs, you get bummed out. Still, I managed this one:



Carol O'Halloran - Jazzercise

I kept this because it has the instruction booklet, a poster and an order form for the leotards. How can you not love that? Plus Carol is getting down on the cover (3rd pose on the right is me after eight Mac's Gold and some Jefferson Starship songs). Love the Kiwi accent. I wanted to file it away so I had to make something. This is pretty wack but it still counts. Right? It still counts?



Andrae Crouch & The Disciples - Take the Message Everywhere

Yo, take the message EVERYWHERE, son. EVERYWHERE. When you see black men on the front of a Light Record LP you think "This could really be something!". Gospel style gospel and maybe a Motown session band brought in to help out? Man, anything is possible. Think of the coolest this album could be, OK got it? It's about a 7 out of that. 7/Imagined 10. In other news, the 'Auto Smile Recognition' function on the camera had a field day with this cover.



Yeom Kwang - Singing Mission


I've used this before and thus, I'm allowed to keep it. But I was needle-dropping it and picked out two good samples. The one used below and another one that seemed like some sort of Kanye West joint but it requires a lot of hard work. Another time. For now, check out this beat. The sample is reversed and I named it 'Eesop' like some sort of Dilla trick where he makes you think the sample is saying 'Player'. Legend.




Nice one. Thanks for your time. I'll be back. Not soon, but when I do, there'll be some new beats and pieces. Many thanks to my fellow Dollar Branders for keeping things going.