Audition

What the hell are we doing here?

The Replacements are still one of my favorite bands ever. What a bunch of losers. Rocking Pleased To Meet Me as I type.

Today I went to Value Village and picked up AC/DC's Back In Black and the first Santana album for 50 cents each. Go me. Oh, and Nazereth's Greatest Hits. Now you're messin' with a son of a bitch.

I love scouring old used record collections. Generally the ones you find in second hand and non-record stores are in deplorable condition, and you often have to dig through mounds of John Denver and Bing Crosby Christmas records, but a solid find is always so rewarding. It's the thrill of the hunt I guess. Records are pretty resilient as it is, and I don't really mind a few pops and a little static... seems to give it character. I like the idea that someone was listening to the same record in a smoky basement thirty or forty years ago. It's like a window through time.

I think the reason you don't find much of worth in places like that is that the people to whom the music really matters will generally hang on to their records, and there are more rock fans who are like that than pop fans. The few quality records that do end up in the bargain bin at a pawn shop are soon scooped up by ravenous treasure hunters like myself. Once in a while though, you get really lucky and find something that is just obscure enough that whoever is selling it has no clue what it is. You can scoop up some pretty pricey goodies that way. I once fleeced the local hipster record shop (Zulu) when I found a pristine copy of the 1973 debut record by Cleveland, Ohio's severely underrated Granicus for a tenner. Dig those Robert Plant-esque vocals.

Keep your eyes and ears open, droogs. Never know what you might find the next shelf over...