I’ve been forced into having to buy my music from the web
for a number of reasons. First, there
are few stores around the stock a lot of the music I want to purchase. There are the JB HiFi’s and some independent
stores such as Greville’s, Missing Link and Polyester but all of these are a
distance from my place. Moreover, there
is no guarantee that they’ll have what I want and even if they did I might have
to pay significantly more for the privilege.
That prices over the web can be quite reasonable is simply the cherry on
the cake. Whilst I’d prefer to keep
Australians in a job and would be willing to pay a modest mark up, I simply
refuse to pay the outrageous mark ups that many of the chain stores used to
charge. JB HiFi exposed them and they’ve
all paid the price, so to speak, at least in Melbourne.
My copy of The Fall’s Complete Peel Sessions is a case in
point. When I decided to buy it, I did
the rounds of about 6 JB’s, plus Grevilles and Missing Link only to discover
that no one stocked it although Missing Link claimed they had sold their only
copy a few weeks prior. Everyone offered
to order it for me at a price ranging from $60 – 120 and a delivery estimate of
2-4 weeks. I eventually got it over the
web via an English site and it cost me approximately $40 including postage and
I received it in 5 working days. How can
any bricks and mortar shop compete against that?
This doesn’t mean that I’m happy with having to purchase my
music this way. Previously one of my
favourite pastimes was the hunt. I had a
network of chain stores, independent stores, second hand places, record fairs
and others in which to fossick. Usually I set out with no real intention of buying
a specific album. I let their stock surprise me preferring the thrill of
finding something unexpectedly that I’ve desperately wanted.
But as we all know, time marches on and the world and my
life changed and I’ve had to embrace the brave new worlds of the internet and
marriage. If the shops hadn’t started to close, I would have needed to abandon my
expeditions anyway due to marriage. This is not coincidental. As the movie adaption of Nick Hornby’s great
book High Fidelity makes perfectly clear, the art of record shopping is an existence
pursued almost exclusively by single men as a substitute for absent female
company. I know that it applied to me;
let’s face it I never managed to pick up anyone as I flicked through a CD or
vinyl rack. No woman ever came to me
saying, “Oh, I really want that extra rare album that you’re about to buy for a
steal. Can you make a copy for me? Maybe we could meet for coffee?” Don’t get me wrong here. I wasn’t like one of those anonymous geeks in
the comic book store in The Big Bang Theory staring whenever a woman entered
the store. I wouldn’t have noticed because
I was focused on the search attempting to uncover that gem before anybody else. (Well, it’s either that or comic book fans really
are different.)
So onto today’s listening brought to you by a warehouse
somewhere in Europe and Australia Post.
(127) La Dusseldorf –
Individuellos
This is the third and last La Dusseldorf album, at least
with Klaus Dinger as a member. This is
about as close an album to anything resembling mainstream sounds (Kraftwerk
included) that any of the German experimental bands of the 70s got. There were even moments on this which appear to
foreshadow the New Romantic movement. Is
this why Dinger left the band?
(128) Howlin’ Rain –
Magnificent Fiend
Howlin’ Rain was formed by Ethan Miller as his previous band
Comets On Fire came to the end of it life.
Both bands played modern versions of psychedelic rock crossed with blues,
folk and other influences. The
difference is that Comets On Fire played a more ragged and primitive form and
Howlin’ Rain favours a more melodic and cleaner sound. Yet when Howlin’ Rain truly rocks out as they
do on the glorious Lord Have Mercy, such differences are moot.
(* I’ll be damned if I’ll title any post after a line in Eye
Of The Tiger, hence the otherwise unnecessary “Tis”.) 
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