Patsy Cline - Greatest Hits

Patsy Cline – Greatest Hits

MCA, 1973

Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2007

Price: $5

Patsy Cline is the greatest singer of all time. I wrote an article for the KJHK zine about being raised by her Heartaches compilation, which was constantly playing in my parents’ car in my formative years and how Patsy Cline pretty much shaped the person I am today. Or at least the kind of music I like. There’s no way I would love Neko Case as much as I do now had I not been raised on Patsy. And I stick by that greatest singer remark because no one else can make me fall apart so completely. Listen to “I Fall to Pieces” and think about the last break-up you went through. Even though she didn’t write that song you know she’s been through that and you know what she is singing is true. This Greatest Hits comp is pretty amazing, which is why I bought it I think. It’s got the jams I grew up on, or at least the key jams. The ones I hear at Harbour Lights and stop what I am doing to mournfully sing along. “Walking After Midnight,” “Crazy” (which I recently found out was written by Willie Nelson), “I Fall to Pieces,” and “She’s Got You.” I was less familiar with the other tunes but they’re all jams. Everything Patsy Cline does, that I’ve heard at least, has been a jam and this is the record I put on during the sad times when I am lying alone in my dark room wanting to die. And though these songs will mirror my misery, they somehow make me want to die a little less. These are the saddest songs you’ve ever heard.

The Clientele - Strange Geometry

The Clientele – Strange Geometry

Merge, 2005

Acquired: Love Garden, New, 2008

Price: $14

This is one of those records that I really liked but bought on vinyl because it had beautiful cover art. I have a habit of buying records with amazing cover art because well, it’s just so wonderful to pull it off the shelf and admire it. At KJ we get hundreds of CDs with really awful cover art with awful fonts and I almost immediately toss them aside because really, if you’re not going to put effort into making your cover art great, why should I believe that you put that much effort into your music? Anyway, that aside, I love the cover art for this record and I knew it was one of those records I’d get really, really into if I bought it. And I did, it’s a fantastic record. It sounds like a modern classic, something people will still be listening to fifteen years from now or something. Nothing that’s going to be like, life changing, but a great gem to dust off after the years that people will be selling on GEMM for high, high prices. Or at least that’s how I see it in my head. It deserves it though. The single and opening track “Since K Got Over Me” is a mope-pop jam that I haven’t grown sick of in the three or so years I’ve known this record. The whole record has this sort of great, upbeat yet maudlin tone that I’m a sucker for. It’s a dreamy record that sounds like a city at night. Actually, it sounds like the beautiful painting they used on the cover. It has this wonderful string section that runs through the background of the songs and not only does it sound great, beautiful, and unique (yet still referential, in the sense that it sounds so familiar), but it’s packed with great lines, or at least lyrics that make sense and sound meaningful. “Leaving came to us just like a song/ A dull geometry of lawns,” sticks out. The Arab Strap-esque spoken “Losing Haringey” is one of those songs that only British/Scottish/Welsh bands can pull off and it’s a nice little penultimate track. I can’t shake the feeling that these guys would probably be incredibly rude if I actually met them (I remember someone telling me that when they opened for Spoon a few years ago the guy made some crack about how their name was pronounced “The CLEE-entel” and was snide about American audiences or something), but who cares? Really, a great record is a great record.

Beulah - The Coast is Never Clear

Beulah – The Coast is Never Clear

Velocette, 2001

Acquired: SXSW Record Sale, Used, 2009

Price: $10

This isn’t my favorite Beulah record (that would be When Your Heartstrings Break), but the cover art was so pretty and I just couldn’t resist. Plus it has “Popular Mechanics for Lovers” and “A Good Man is Easy to Kill” on it, which makes it totally worth it. That and I have a sort of undying love for Elephant 6. Granted, aren’t my favorite E6 band, but their records are always enjoyable enough and the documentary about them, A Good Band is Easy to Kill is really funny and features scenes of John Vanderslice acting REALLY weird and funny. “I heard he wrote you a song, so what/Some guy wrote 69” is the kind of reference that makes me love a band based solely on the fact that they referenced one of my favorite bands. The A-side pretty much unabashedly rules, yet the B-side is kind of lame sometimes, like the opener “Gravity’s Bringing Us Down,” which is the longest and worst song on the record. The hooks just don’t work there. But overall, enjoyable record for the most part!

Bedhead - Beheaded

Bedhead – Beheaded

Trance Syndicate/Touch and Go, 1996

Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2009

Price: $5

While sounding like they were in the pocket of Galaxie 500, Bedhead are still one of my favorite bands to sleep to. I mean, c’mon, if you’re going to pioneer a movement called “Slowcore” then you’ve got to expect that. So that’s what I did last night, I put this on when I went to sleep and it was wonderful. I could hear all of the influences swirling around. The 90s post-rock stuff like a less dark, creepy Slint and doing a more epic sounding slowcore than Low. A quiet epic sound, that’s what it is sometimes. I don’t know, it’s “slowcore,” whatever that means. Why is it core? I thought adding core to the end of a something meant it was kind of aggro. Slowcore sounds like an oxymoron. But whatever, this record is still really great. “Losing Memories” is the jam, that just played as the record wound down and I was pretty much blown away.

Asobi Seksu - Hush

Asobi Seksu – Hush

Polyvinyl, 2009

Acquired: Music Staff mail, New, 2009

Price: $0

Oh, the perks of being music director at a college radio station! You see, sometimes to get you to chart an album higher labels will send you free shit. Usually it’s just posters or something, but occasionally you’ll get the record you’re playing on the air on vinyl! This is what I love, and something that every music director should enjoy as a fringe benefit of the job. Granted, getting vinyl in the mail (or, vinyl that you want) is rare, when it does show up it’s pretty exciting, no matter what it is. So, when I saw that Polyvinyl sent me a copy of the latest Asobi Seksu record as a sort of thank you/please chart our album higher gift (note: it is immoral to tweak your charts based on gifts, so just let them send you the free stuff and then you know, be honest), though I hadn’t listened to the record or had any attachment to it beyond the few tracks I heard (and liked) at music staff, I was still excited. And I’m listening to it and I must say, when they say music sounds better on vinyl, music sounds even better on vinyl you got for free. Oh, and this record is really, really pretty. It’s not anything I would ever buy with like, real money, and I doubt I’d waste ratio downloading it on a torrent site. But for a really beautifully packaged (though the cover does look like a poster for a j-horror film) record on heavy 180 gram vinyl, for free, sitting in my collection for me to randomly stumble across someday, this isn’t bad at all. Although, it is what Blonde Redhead would sound like if they were totally boring. It’s also completely disjointed, as the ultra-serious sounding “Gliss” is immediately followed by the really upbeat indie-pop jam “Transparence.” “Transparance” is the best song on the record, and has earned this record’s keep in my collection.

Alkaline Trio - Goddamnit

Alkaline Trio – Goddamnit

Asian Man Records, 1998

Acquired: SXSW Record Convention, Used, 2009

Price: $11

Man, I am a nerd. This is one of those records I’ve wanted since I was 16 (and a rabid Alkaline Trio fan) and seeing it at the Euclid Records lot at the SXSW convention center made me eep. And for only $11! And I’m pretty sure it’s an original. I can’t be sure, but it looks like one and Nick verified that it probably is given that it was on black vinyl and the re-press had been on marble. Anyway, despite their recent sins (i.e. putting out two really really really terrible records) I still love this one. Sure, part of it is nostalgia, but the other part is that these are just amazing songs. Despite writing amazing love and longing songs like “Nose Over Tail” and “Clavicle,” Skiba also writes a bitter break-up song like nobody’s business. Granted, his masterpiece “Radio” is on Maybe I’ll Catch Fire, but tunes like “Cringe” and “As You Were” still bring the house down.

The Clash - London Calling

The Clash – London Calling

Epic, 1979

Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2007

Price: $20

One of the more expensive records I’ve bought, but seeing it at Love Garden I knew I needed to have it. How can you have a record collection and not have London Calling? Seriously. This was one of the handful of records that saved my life in the middle ground of nu-metal and punk. One that I picked up from the public library and was instantly blown away by and here, now, in 2009 on my turntable it sounds as fresh as it did back then. It’s timeless. Blah blah blah, and everything else that’s ever been said about this album. It’s packed with monster jams. Anyway, I can’t even think about anything to write about this because, as I’m listening to it I’m rocking out too much. Other than the fact that “Lost in the Supermarket” runs through my head EVERY SINGLE TIME I go grocery shopping (playing over whatever sad music they are playing (it’s always sad music) or ABBA).

Now! Off to St. Louis and Austin after that for SXSW! AHH. Here's to hoping that my liver does not incur too much damage over the next week.

The Church - Of Skins and Heart

The Church – Of Skins and Heart

EMI Parlophone, 1981

Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2008

Price: $8

I should probably let it be known that I bought this album specifically for “The Unguarded Moment,” which, when I saw it was track 3 on this record, I freaked out. It’s easily one of the greatest songs of all time, unarguably good, and a song that has been in stuck in my head since freshman year. That, and the album art is gorgeous. It’s a record I like having, one I’d want to put in a frame or something, it’s beautiful. And on top of the art and “The Unguarded Moment,” the rest of the album is pretty stellar too. Ironically, the record’s first single “She Never Said” is the lamest song on this record, which I have decided has only one lame song, that one. The rest live in this world of burgeoning new wave influence and straight up post punk power-pop jams. Of course, the band is Australian, which I see as something like a seal of approval for power-pop and indie-pop/rock in the 80s. Closers, the upbeat listen-to-on-repeat jam “Fighter Pilot…Korean War” and the somber “Don’t Open the Door to Strangers” is amazing and absolutely makes me want to flip the record over and listen to it again.

The Chinkees - Peace Through Music

The Chinkees – Peace Through Music

Asian Man Records, 1999

Acquired: Asian Man Records Mailorder, 2002

Price: $1 (it came in a box of vinyl that cost $25)

One reason I always really liked the Chinkees was because when Mike Park sang songs loaded with political and anti-racist themes I knew that he meant them. I think he actually believed he could achieve peace through music, and honestly that sort of positivity and optimism is really wonderful. He always seemed like one of the most genuine guys in punk rock (emphasized by the fact that he ran Asian Man Records out of his parents garage). The Chinkees were an all asian ska-pop-punk band that really won my heart when I was getting really into ska-punk in late junior high. Listening to “X-Mas” I’m really reveling in this, the mass of instruments and voices coming together and forming a cohesive little unit of a pop song (I love the little organ! Fantastic!). Where other bands of the time were singing about socio-political stuff, you could tell that the Chinkees were having a blast making this music. Who says socio-political ska-punk can’t be fun? On top of that, the liner notes state that the bands name is intended to be “a direct look at racism and the reality of its presence.” Actually, this is written on the back of the record because I’m sure Mike Park thought people would misconstrue the band’s name and lump them in with the slew of Aryan-punk bands of the day, or thought that he was being racist through this, it’s the way I think. I’d have done something like that and I guess that’s why I identified with Mike Park so much. That and like me, he can’t sing like a real singer, but his voice is precious and I couldn’t imagine anyone else singing these songs. They’re off the cuff and honest and on top of that the music is FUN. It’s a record that I was kind of not wanting to listen to and when I put it on the turntable (for the sake of the project) I realized that I was dumb for thinking that because I loved this record years ago and of course I love it now. I’m glad I had this album in my life when I did, right at the point when I was getting into punk and started freely thinking. That must have been around 9^th grade, I remember I didn’t really get into punk and politics until a few months after 9/11. Anyway, this came in a box filled with Asian Man Records vinyl that I got for $25 and yeah, I still think Mike Park is pretty fucking rad. Also, “Will I Have a Chance?” is his masterpiece. Amazing tune.

The Chills - Brave Words

The Chills – Brave Words

Flying Nun, 1987

Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2008

Price: $6

I’m pretty sure this is technically the Chills first full-length if I don’t include their magnificent singles compilation Kaleidoscope World, which I would immediately recommend anyone looking to get into the Chills, Flying Nun Records, or just good goddamned late-80s indie-pop. I remember I was buying this with the self-titled Kid Dynamite record and Kelly seemed surprised and said something along the lines of “I guess you’re just a Kid Dynamite dude living in a Chills world” which I thought was funny.