Around and around we go on the music obsessive merry-go-round, looking for satisfaction through price and medium and, oh yea, quality. My general pattern has been vinyl >cassettes> cds> vinyl> soulseek> and vinyl again. But we've had another quantum leap in record prices, and who wants to lay out 18 bucks for a new slab based on Internet raves when you've been burned so many times before? So many folks have left the sterility of the Soulseek game, so it's harder to hear new music for free first to purchase later, which leads me back to the bargain cd bins, a place I thought I'd never return. These serve a couple of functions- they let you hunt for dollar nuggets, which are more fun to listen to than just throwing down plastic for brand new stuff (maybe because expectations are so low), veritably risk-free and make finding treasures far more likely (assuming you can call any cd a "treasure"). They also allow you to take chances without blowing cash that could be better spent getting really drunk.
So I snuck out of work recently and headed out to Concord Rasputin's to escape consciousness by flipping through hundreds of misfit cds, and lo and behold some are some purty darn good: Espers II (gorgeous female singing backed by bearded Pennyslvanian Renaissance reenactors), that Ministry record with "NWO" and "Jesus Built my Hot Rod" on it, a Jesus Lizard ep I'd never seen, and a number of others that will probably get a listen and then get shelved. The big winner, though, is Outrageous Cherry's Out There in the Dark, which is jam-packed with enormous hooks and inventive songwriting. I have one other record by these guys and it has some great tunes, but this one is just so relentlessly consistent that I wonder if I missed the hype boat when it sailed or if it (mixed metaphor and cliche alert) flew under the 1998 tastemakers' radars. I say get your 90s version of a 60s psych-pop freakout on and be fully prepared to press repeat and have these songs stuck in your head the rest of the week, a plight you really ought to thank me for in cash.
5 comments:
Gary Ferrari was a friend of mine.
A year ago my family moved to the Marina. About a week later I net Gary Ferrari, the bartender of The Marina Lounge. To be brief, he was a native San Franciscan born in North Beach, played for the Seals and always welcomed me with a smile after another shitty week at my job.
So today when I came in with a real thirst, it hurt me to find out Gary passed at the age of 67. Aneurysm.
Don't know what to say. Just had to post this bc I can't believe it really happened.
i don't mean to jest, i read it as guy ferreti or whatever that dudes names is
Oh, that a-hole cook on TV? I can't stand that guy!
Thanks for adding some humor to an otherwise shitty deal.
I'm a big Outrageous Cherry fan (thanks to Clark Mosher playing them relentlessly during the summer I moved in to his den of good-vibes). There isn't a bad place to start with them, really. Their last few LPs are easily their best. Spiritual Equinox, Our Love Will Change The World, Stay Happy and Universal Malcontents are flawless LPs and sound PERFECT when the sun is out. All are used CD bin mainstays, but the vinyl is available for all of them just as cheap via the usual internet outposts. They're so good, you'll want them on wax for a few bucks more.
I lean toward Universal Malcontents, their first LP on Bomp AND their only boasting cover art by Mr. Timmy Vulgar of Human Eye/Clone Defects fame.
Yea, I have Our Love Will Change the World, and the title track is as good as pop gets. I'll be on the lookout for the ones you mention, but if you haven't listened closely to Out There in the Dark, give it a few more spins- in my humble opinion, it has many more 'hits' than Our Love Will Change the World.
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