eric's little black star » Mega-haul of new used records for me! I went crazy.

eric on Jan 19th 2009 at 3:00 pm Listen, Music, Records

Mega-haul of new used records for me! I went crazy.

I guess you could say that I out-did myself on a recent trip to Jive Time Records in Fremont. Thankfully, I didn’t spend that much. Most of these were picked up for $1 or $2. Usually at that price, you can expect some skips and scratches, but with a bit of inspection, you can avoid most of that.

I need to buy a carbon fiber brush though. Some of these are fairly dusty. I know, I should already have a brush and even some cleaning solution – alas, I fail as a record collector.

I got enough to take up two pictures! See?

and

Want to see what I got? By now, I’ve listened to most of them, so tiny reviews follow each item. Many of these, I hadn’t heard before. At a buck or two, I can take chances. Let’s go! Woo!

(Stuff in bold can be listened to at the bottom of this post.)

LPs and EPs
-The B-52s – Party Mix EP (Fun remixes of songs from their first album!)
-Big Country – Steel Town (it’s not as good as their first, but still good)
-Big Country – The Seer (if you like Big Country, you’ll like this)
-Echo and the Bunnymen – The Sound of Echo (They can do no wrong!)
-Embrace – LP (What Ian did after Minor Threat, but before Fugazi… wow)
-Fine Young Cannibals – The Raw and the Cooked
-Peter Gabriel – Scratch (amazing)
-Peter Gabriel – Plays Live (This is beyond amazing… of course)
-Peter Gabriel – Melt (Also amazing!)
-Peter Gabriel – So (Good, perhaps amazing? Oh yes!)
-Go West – Dancing on the Couch (crap – sounds very much like generic 80’s movie music)
-Go West – s/t ( I used to like this, but after a quick listen… I don’t)
-Grateful Dead – Blues for Allah (one of my favorite dead albums)
-Hooters – Nervous Night (Wow.. pretty good. They were from Allentown. Not bad, really!)
-Huey Lewis and the News – 1st Album (This is just good brit-inspired rock & roll! Yay!)
-INXS – Dekadance (Remixes of a few songs from ‘83)
-INXS – The Swing
-Joe Jackson – Look Sharkp! (on Double 10″ Gatefold!!)
-Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark – Crush (Actually really good. Wasn’t expecting that.)
-Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark – The Pacific Age (Even better than Crush!)
-REM – Fables of the Reconstruction (Kind of dark, but still jangly)
-Simon & Garfunkel – Wednesday Morning, 3am (The one S&G album I didn’t have growing up)
-Simple Minds – Sparkle in the Rain (I love this band now. Yay!)
-Simple Minds – New Gold Dream (Good, but not nearly as large as their other stuff.)
-Spandau Ballet – Diamond (Sort of brassy – odd, but I liked it.)
-Split Enz – Time and Tide (I need more of this.)
-Bruce Springsteen – The River (picked this up for a buck – pretty good condition – last Boss LP I needed)
-The Style Council – My Ever Changing Moods (I love side one… side two.. ehh)
-They Might Be Giants – first LP (truly a classic)
-Thompson Twins – Into the Gap (I really thought I’d hate this, but quite the opposite!)
-Ultravox – Vienna (Holy freaking crap! YES!!)
-Ultravox – Lament (Really good – it’s no Vienna, but Smartz likes it.)
-Wang Chung – Mosaic (This gets dangerously close to generic 80’s dance music…)

12″ Singles
-Big Country – Fields of Fire (Good song, but not an interesting remix)
-Depeche Mode – Get the Balance Right! (I’ve never met a DP song I didn’t like)
-Depeche Mode – Strangelove (my third unique 12″ release of this amazing song)
-Duran Duran – Notorious (on CLEAR vinyl!!)
-Erasure – Chains of Love (five or so remixes of this gay dance song! yay!)
-Fine Young Cannibals – Good Thing (Odd as hell remix, but I dig it.)
-Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush – Don’t Give Up (Very good – duet w/ Laurie Anderson on Bside – still sealed!)
-Go West – We Close Our Eyes (Not good)
-Go West – Eye to Eye (not as bad as “WCOE,” but still not great)
-Cyndy Lauper – She-Bop (not a bad remix – lame instrumental on the B-side)
-Ministry – Cold Life EP (Yep, their first release from 1981 – Very not typical Ministry – but still charming)
-OMD – Secret (this is pretty amazing, especially the “new” remix)
-Simple Minds – Someone Somewhere
-Power Station – Get it On (It’s ok. “Some Like It Hot” is better. Decent remix though.)
-Spandau Ballet – Lifeline (not as good as “True, ” but still really fun)
-Tears for Fears – Mothers Talk (again, I had one version, but this is another w/ diff B-side)
-Ultravox – Dancing with Tears in My Eyes (US Version w/ different remix than UK version, which I already owned)
-Urth – Laptinek Overture (from Return of the Jedi – much more on this at a later date)

So what can I take from all of this? Well, I should seek out more Split Enz, Spandau Ballet, and OMD (at least the early stuff). Huey Lewis’s first album is actually pretty good. This is before they got into the Do-Wop thing, which I also enjoy (in a very non-ironic way). There must be literally thousands of Depeche Mode singles. Oh, and did anyone actually like Go West? Their music sounds like the music you’d hear in the background at dances on 80’s sitcoms and crappy comedy movies like Zapped or Just One of the Boys. Horrible. But wow… Simple Minds is amazing. Really amazing.

But this haul did have a few surprises and great finds. Would you like to hear some? Awesome! Me too!

Also, this is a little experiment for me. Usually, any music that’s posted here comes from MP3s that I’ve downloaded. However, all of the following songs were recorded directly off the vinyl that I bought. I plugged my turntable into the Edirol UA-1EX and then into my computer. I used the audio program Audacity running in Linux Mint 5.¹ I didn’t do any tweaking to these. I didn’t digitally remove the pops and clicks. If I ever make a mix CD from vinyl, I will. But with Linux’s Audacity.. it ain’t ready for prime time just yet.

Ok, let’s go!