The reason was simple, “M” was demanding I spend some time
attending to things around the house and could barely refuse given I was
heading off to the footy on Saturday night. After attending to the most pressing matters,
“M” decided the time was right for us to dispose of some items by donating
them to our local op shop. Given this
did not include any aspect of my collection, I readily agreed, thinking that
perhaps I might be able to get some CDs after all.
So, after dropping off our donations, I headed eagerly into
the shop itself, eager to see whether they had any CDs or books on sale. Unfortunately this proved not to be the case,
the shop’s stock being the same stack of albums that seems to reside en mass in
every such store. I’m not going to
identify the culprits – you know who they are!
By now it was past lunchtime and “M” wanted to reward me
with a feed at our favourite sushi place, incredibly, an owner operated space
in the food court at a nearby shopping centre.
But on the way back home we took a different route and two things happened. As we passed through one of our neighbouring
suburbs, “M” decided she wanted to go into their op shop. Feeling slightly deflated by my lack of
success at our earlier stop, I wasn’t overly enthusiastic but “M” held
sway.
We walked in and I saw the shop had a largish collection of
CDs along a couple of shelves. I started
to go through them, cursing I didn’t bring my reading glasses. Why is the print on the jewel case spines so
bloody small? But then, I saw something,
and then something else….. a few minutes later I had purchased 5 albums all for the princely
sum of three dollars each and with the money going to a good cause to boot. Even better, the first album I played when I
got home was something that has long been deleted;
(# 458) Kings Of the
Sun – Kings Of The Sun (1988)
I remember the first time I saw this band. It was a film clip for their first single
Bottom Of My Heart. Neither the clip nor
the song with its “You’re on top of the bottom of my heart” hook line impressed
me. Then a considerable time later, I
caught the band as a support to an act that escapes me for the moment. By now they seemed to have mutated into an
over the top rock band full of attitude and a lead singer so full of showman
strut that he made David Lee Roth look retiring. I was hooked and raced out and got the album
on vinyl. I don’t think it sold all that
well but it is one beast of an album. Serpertine which opens proceedings is a monster
of a track that should have been a
massive hit. Get On Up, Black Leather, Hot To Trot and Wildcat all follow in
the same vein. Still don’t like Bottom
Of My Heart though.
(# 459) M.I.A. – Arular
(2005)
I was staggered to find this, as I don’t think I’ve ever
previously seen a copy of this, M.I.A.’s debut in the shops. It is a full on attack from the British based
Tamil who could have possibly thought this was going to be the only album she’d
ever release. Musical styles (notably
funk, hip hop and dance, political themes and righteous youthful anger all
collide at a million miles an hour to produce a remarkable album not all that dissimilar
to The Silts magnificent Cut album. Bucky
Done Gun, Sunshowers and Galang prove that you can dance and make a point at
the same time.
By the time I’d played this, the other discs had to wait, as
it was time to head out to the game. Despite
the 10 degree weather I travelled to Eithad Stadium where the Bulldogs promptly
rewarded me with a 10 goal loss for my fortitude. After that, I didn’t feel
much like playing stuff for the rest of the weekend although I did manage to
get through this on the Sunday;
(# 460) Live – At The
Paradiso, Amsterdam
Fortunately the band had the common sense not to title this “Live
Live” or “Live Squared”. A CD version of
a concert DVD, this could easily function as a greatest hits compilation. It contains solid versions of mainstays such Selling
The Drama, Lightning Crashes, Turn My Head, The Dolphin’s Cry, Heaven and
Lakini’s Juice. I Alone Is marred in
part by an overreliance on the audience singing the lyrics and a version of
Johnny Cash’s I Walk The Line is, ahem, interesting. The two studio tracks tacked onto the end are
unremarkable.
No comments:
Post a Comment