Top Ten Of The Week-The Crabbys

What's a person to do when he's out and about and looking for places to hit up for new or good music?  20 years ago it was hard to compile a best places to go for records and CDs, there's was so many in town.  Nowadays the 10 or 12 that I know about are spread over two hours driving distance.  Even in Arizona or Madison, the music places are dropping off like flies but thank Zia's for coming through this year and not bother me so much.  I also give Hastings a shout out, they seem to be the go to place if you want Sony Music stuff for 3.99 or a buck more.  For cheaper CDs, Bookman's got the nod but I have yet to find the Half Priced Bookstore in Phoenix, I'm sure they have some cheaper stuff too.

Up here's it's different.

Best Record Stores In the 200 mile range.

1.  Mad City Music Exchange (Madison)
2.  Record Collector (Iowa City)
3.  Moondog Music (Dubuque)
4.  CD's 4 Change (Dubuque)
5.  The Exclusive Company (Madison and other places in Wisconsin)
6.  Co Op Records (Moline/Davenport)
7.  Borders (RIP)
8.  Best Buy (Cedar Rapids)
9.  Barnes & Noble (Cedar Rapids)
10. Strictly Discs (Madison)

Do you see a pattern here?  All the record stores are not in the Cedar Rapids area since there are no record stores anymore in the CR area.  Or Waterloo, or if there is I don't know anything about it.  I didn't include FYE in Moline or Des Moines, haven't been to the latter and the former has a crappy CD section.  I think I'm overrating Co Op since most of their inventory is basically the same that doesn't get moved all that much.  Besides nobody wants to pay 8 bucks for that crappy 90s cd that you can find for 2 bucks at the local pawnshop if lucky.  Pre Played fell off the list simply of the fact that they have really upped the DVD section and made the CD section a quick glance and go.  I think I'm shortchanging Strictly Discs in Madison, they continue to have a fine vinyl section and sometimes I do come across out of print CDs in their store.  But when I'm in Madison, a trip to Mad City Music X remains priority number 1, they tend to have a lotta good LPs in the dollar bins and sometimes have some hard to find oddities as 45s or CDs too.  There's a couple more Madison stores up there B sides and another place which escapes my mind but I have yet to go to those places.  Maybe someday I will.  As for Borders, their budget section did have some fine albums (Sly & The Family Stone, Paul Desmond) but also their 30 percent off closing sale benefitted them dearly.  They'll never be rated again since they're now history but they did go out with a bang.

Best Used Places For Music

1.  Half Priced Books (Madison, Des Moines, Marion)
2.  Frugal Muse (Madison)
3.  Goodwill (CR, Marion, Coralville, Iowa City, Plattville, Dubuque, Madison)
4.  Stuff Etc. (CR, Coralville, Iowa City, Davenport, Waterloo)
5.  Sweet Living Antiques (Iowa City)
6.  Segal's Pawnshop (Cedar Rapids)
7.  Salvation Army (Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Moline, Marion)
8.  St. Vincent De Paul (Waterloo, Madison)
9.  Hastings (Various Locations)
10.  Pawn America (Madison)

Thank God for Half Priced Books.  The only place that can actually challenge me with  a different inventory of albums, cds and even 45s to keep the top ten lists interesting.  With the closing of Relics and Ratz Records, the only place to find music outside of Goodwill or The Army is HP Books and they still have an award winning dollar bins to beat.  If you want to hear Limp Bizkit 3 Dollar Bill Y'all for 2 bucks or less or get some Alan Jackson or Len Steal My Sunshine for a price of a 45, you can't beat it.  If nothing else you have a decent jewel case (sometimes.)  Sweet Living in Iowa City remains ideal for the great lost vinyl piece (or Record Collector for that matter).  Stuff Etc is a consignment place, kinda like Savers' but unlike Savers' I do manage to find some cool 2 dollar cds from time to time.  Savers is so hit and miss.  Just like Goodwill to which most of the places up in Waterloo or Dubuque are so picked clean I rarely find anything of note.  Frugal Muse can surprise me from time to time in their 2 dollar bins, you have to outsmart the Madison collectors since they're on the ball but I know last year I did find John Hartford Aereo Plain  for 2 bucks on CD.  And Frugal Muse gets points for having the hard to find Train Meets Truck Never Been There cd (TMT features Sean Beal later of Big Back Forty fame).  Promos are hit and miss but if Half Priced Books didn't have that Rockpile Live In Montreaux 1980 CD, I know that Best Buy would have never had it.  Despite what that zit face sales associate at Best Buy tells you.

Pawnshops really suck when it comes for used CDs but Segal's Pawnshop is the exception.  I've been known to find new stuff up there.  And Pawn America at the old Circuit City Building in Madison still has a big CD section and although they have been picked clean from the last dollar sale, if you can invest 2 hours to look through it all, you might find something of note.  Led Zeppelin 4 for a dollar anyone?  The St. Vincent De Paul in Madison gets the nod over Waterloo in terms of where to find music, I found some 45s in Mad City last year and usually Waterloo has junk but the Waterloo store has a nice music room where they have the records.  The owner tends to be a bitch though but still if I get the urge to go up to Waterloo (which isn't too often anymore) St. Vincent De Paul is the destination.  As for other pawnshops, with Mister Money now a thing of the past or a shadow of itself, going thru their cd's takes about 20 seconds at best.  Not like it was 10 years ago when it took a good hour to sort through them.   Another causality of the internet it seems.

Top Ten Of The Week:

1.  Here We Go-Shelter 1995   Long time ago during the big Green Day Dookie outbreak, labels were signing up punk bands to see who would be the next big thing.  This band was one of the more successful hardcore punk bands but Ray Cappo was into Hare Krishna Straight Edge philosophy which made their albums somewhat hard to get through at times.  I think this was probably as close to a hit single that Shelter ever gotten and after a second album they parted ways with Roadrunner Records.

2.  Man Sized Wreath-REM 2008  Continuing our band of the month preview, this is off Accelerate.  Never you mind, they earned it.

3.  Hell On Heels-Pistol Annies 2011  A month after issuing this as a digital only album, Sony Music quietly put their album out on physical product and it is one of the better country albums of this year.  Good enough to make the top ten remains to be seen but it is a strong effort from Miranda Lambert's side project.  Next week, her new album Four The Record will be out and already Spin has called it one of her least interesting albums.  I'll be the judge of that next week.

4. Can't Be Who (You Want Me To Be)-Lizzy Williams 2005   When I was over at My Space a few years ago I ended up buying Magic 8 and it became of my go to albums of the last decade.  Kind of lost track with Liz Chaffe till she found me on Facebook and we rekindled our friendship.  Anyway, this song was the basis of a Townedger song but with a different spin on the title.  Liz has informed me that she's working on some new material for a new project and I guess she got some help from Universal in terms of releasing it.  In the meantime Super 8 still can be brought at CD Baby..

5.  Six Days On The Road-Johnny Rivers 1974   Johnny Rivers has always been to me a singles artist.  He makes great singles that sound great on the radio but could never get into any of his albums except for a long ago comp for Pickwick that showcased some of his earliest material before hitting the Go Go scene and hitting it big.  9 years after the fact, he recorded what might be his best album for Atlantic and a top 20 cover of the Dave Dudley number and it did get some airplay on the radio here.  Next year found him on Big Tree with Slow Dancing.

6.  Public Image-Public Image 1978  Life after the Sex Pistols and he never rocked harder since.  If anybody notices Johnny Lydon reformed the Image a couple years ago.

7.  You Let Yourself Down-Rollins Band 2000  Big story was Rollins ditching his old band in favor of a more harder rocking outfit called Mother Superior and went from a funk sound to a more of MC5 sound although this song has a bit of a nod to Motorhead.  Album also features a Thin Lizzy cover called Are You Ready to which Scott Gorham plays guitar on it.

8.  Satin Sheets-Jeannie Pruett 1973  This gets played on classic country radio and even KHAK has been known to play it (although I'm sure it goes against Cumulus wishes of playing Need You Now every hour on the hour).  Found the 45 up at HP Books for 50 cents.

9.  Memories Of El Monte-The Penguins 1963  Produced by Frank Zappa who had a genuine love of doo wop.  Co written with Ray Collins who you all know would be the lead singer for the Mothers Of Invention.

10.  Wrong-Train Meets Truck 1994  No used explaining this one to y'all but I'll try to do my best.  Band came from Ohio and made a hard to find CD called Never Been There but it features Sean Beal  who went on to another band named Big Back Forty which made a great album for Polydor and made it to Gabe's in 1998 with the Honeydogs.  But anyway, Never Been There owes a lot to the Crazy Horse sound and somewhere Nirvana figures into the equation.  But it's more hard edge Americana than grunge.  Worth finding if you can.  All Music Guide will not help you, it's not even in it's data base.  After Can't Smile Without You on the Dunce Bigalo S/T, Sean Beal disappeared or simply retired from music.  Such a shame really, he was one of my favorite artists of the 90s.

Side Note: After they opened for the Honeydogs at Gabes, at some point I had Sean right next to me as he was digging the tunes from The Honeydogs.  For an encore, the guys of Big Back 40 and the opening act Arthur Dodge and the Horsefiles did some backing vocals for I Can't Turn You Loose, an old Otis Redding song.  It was a fun time.  If Sean Beal is out there reading this, if ya get a band going again and need some help with it, look me up and maybe we can come up with something.

Side note 2:  Blood should have been a hit single for Big Back Forty.

Late news to add.
What does Jani Lane and Amy Winehouse have in common?  Both died from alcohol poisoning.  In Amy's case an irony.

The blog that will not die: Sick Of Summer Ready For Fall has once again popped up on the all time top five blogs.  Would it be easier just to compile the ten songs into a sellable album (Hits of Sick Of Summer Ready For Fall).  While it will not be anywhere near the Brains Blog for all time best.  I'm sure second place isn't out of the question, especially when Sick Of Summer has been the second most read blog of two months straight.  Can't figure that one out, may as blame the links for that.

Paul Leka passed away at age 68 from lung cancer.  Better known as a producer (Peppermint Rainbow, Harry Chaplin, REO Speedwagon come to mind) he may have penned the best B side turned A side with Kiss Him Goodbye (Na Na Na Na) for a fictional band called Steam to which he hated the song that much that Mercury put it on the Fontana label.  And ended up being the best known song for Steam which did become a real band, and put out a real album for Mercury and had a few more Mercury singles which may have been better but never sold as well as that throwaway Na Na song Leka calls it.