This month the last two weekends found me buying out record stores in Ann Arbor and Davenport and not to be forgotten the pawnshop and Half Priced Books' 20 percent off sale this weekend has given me no shortage of music to dive into. Still hoping that we can make it to the Iowa City Arts Festival next weekend although I have a bad feeling we may have to work it and miss out on Los Lobos.
While the CD collection grew big with forgotten stuff, the new music of this year has been very slight. In fact I don't think I reviewed more than 20 new cds of this year. Mostly reissues and unreleased live albums of Omniverse and somehow scored The Live Jellyfish which is supposed to be released next week and I'm sure Best Buy won't have it. So far in my new file I still have 9 CDs from last year in regular play. Hell the new music is is animeic that I might not even submit a best of 2012. Not that it matters, nobody bothered to read the best of 2011.
With finding Chicago Line at Ragged Records, this completes my want list of Cd's traded away that I wished I never did and even at 25 dollars it was still a bargain compared to Amazon.com cheapest of 50 dollars. Common logic says that if you can find it, if you figure in time and gas expenses that it's better to pick things up when you see them. But then it's a tough job trying to keep a record store going in business but Ragged Records along with Record Collector and Moondog and CD's 4 Change have managed to stay afloat in a biz that's more downloading tracks rather than having records or CD. Ragged may be the best of what they do, after seeing their huge 45 selection I'm convinced that I have yet to really see it all judging by of the obscure stuff that they have. I may have err in judgement of paying 6 bucks for Call Me Lightning, especially on the scratch on the B side but that falls upon me. The slight thing about Ragged is that they keep the CDs up front and not in the jewel case (for security reasons) which sometimes you get plastic sleeve blemishes that diminish the quality of the CD should you want to resell it back. HP Books does that on some Cd's as well. I know in past blogs I was bitching about the lack of quality music stores in Davenport but with this weekend has indicated, I overlooked two major stores of note and both Ragged Records and The Source Book Store make going to the Quad Cities a whole day event in search of the forgotten record.
More Michigan Madness: Jackson. It was over 35 years ago that I was there and driving by that city last weekend I thought about stopping there and seeing what was there for entertainment. Had a old friend that lived in Vandercook area and lived close by to Ted Nugent's hideaway out in the country but I think their Grandpa passed away in the 80s and lost contact soon after. Jackson has an Old Country Buffet unlike Coralville anymore but then again I've been pissed at Old Country for closing the Coral Ridge Mall one and pretty much boycotted them on my exodus to Madison. Next time when I'm up there I may stop in Jackson and see if I can remember the places that I used to go way back then back in 1975 when I'd go beer can hunting and finding a whole bunch of oldies but moldies potential spider homes in a 12 oz can. Still, I marvel at the fact that in the time that me and the girlfriend ended things, it took less than 36 hours to move her back home, picking the truck up at 11 30, having everything moved in and then out on the highway at 3 and back to Michigan by 9.
Ratings should be stable here. I took the the More Crabb Pitchers blog off simply of no value and that Mexican hat pic was not one of my better poses. I did like the long hair on the other pic so maybe I'll repost that at another time and place. The Boone Novy tribute got the most views but I'm kinda intrigued by the 13 views of The Randy Cliffs' classic album Trixie Trailer Sales. I found the balloon spike on that blog to be the most interesting and maybe that might generate some interest in that band. One day 11 views went to the Brian Howe Bad Company Blog and maybe people still enjoy that forgotten era. After all they picked up where Foreigner left off in the late 80s and both Dangerous Age and Holy Water still sound good, Here Comes Trouble I'm not so sure about.
Gordon Anderson has been doing great things at Real Gone Music even though I haven't purchased anything from Real Gone but he has quietly been reissuing the ABKCO stuff from Collector's Choice Music which still functions as a place to buy CDs and DVD's But he has let known that The New Christy Minstrels 2 CD will be reissued once again. Or maybe the Paul Revere And The Raider's Singles Collection. Whatever the case he has put out Mark Lindsay's best of to which was more pop and less interesting than the rock outs of The Raiders. Still I wished that somebody would issue Tom Gray's old band The Brains albums on CD since Universal sees no need of doing so (But they will rehash every GD greatest hits and rename it ICON) so basically we resorting to old LPs and Cassettes to hear it. Even Tom Gray gave up on seeing it reissued too. But there's a new Delta Moon to review and hear. Real Gone Music picks up where Collector's Choice leaves off and I'm sure their catalog will rival that of CCM. After all most anything that came out on CCM was worth hearing once (including the Mitch Miller protest album that Atlantic quietly put out in 1970 thereabouts SD 8177).
With Ann Arbor and the Davenport Record tour behind, next month promises a return to Iowa City, Mad City again in July and Dubuque somewhere in between. And whatever Segal's Pawnshop has for tunes. Or you can find me at my second home Half Priced Books at any given moment. I'm surprised nobody has called me by my name there yet.
http://blog.billkopp.com/
Link of the day: Bill Kopp's music blog. Another music blog worth reading.
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