Record Day Reckoning

See, this is what I'm talking about...


Last Saturday afternoon I took a drive down to the end of Willie Street to visit MadCity Music Exchange, which is a small independent record shop participating in Record Store Day, and the first person I run into when I enter the store is Sal, a middle-aged punk and classic rock dinosaur like myself, and a guy whom I used to work with in the shipping department back in the old Sonic Foundry days, circa 1998 to 2001...I think the last time I actually saw Sal, and had an actual conversation with him, was about 2003, so it was great to run into him like that.


After we wished each other a "Happy Record Store Day", Sal held up three Stiv Bators' solo records he had found with that giddy look on his face, like a kid in a toy store. And then he puffed out his chest to show me the Ace Frehley t-shirt he was sporting...


"I was at the show at The Rave last month, and Ace was killin'!"


You see, Sal is a KISS fan, although it's largely a nostalgia thing these days, and it's not as serious as his Tommy Bolin fanaticism, and maybe not even as big as his Blue Oyster Cult love...He's also a junkie for American Hardcore in general, although one night he dropped by my place to spin a rare Billy Cobham record for me, cuz he wanted me to convert...Convert me to what, I dunno, cuz I never had any beef with Cobham...


Anyways, Sal and I spent some time catching up on things at Madcity, then I made my way over to the import CD case, and he rushed home with his Stiv Bators stash, and that's exactly the kind of encounter that we're missing in this digital world. Posting short reviews at eMusic in response to someone else's review just isn't the same, you know?


Madcity was the most crowded I have ever seen it in the 10 years I've been frequenting the place, which means there were about 15 people in the shop, at least half of them flipping through the vinyl, which is always a heartwarming sight...And while I did go hunting for some Kinks vinyl, I came up empty, and ended up buying some CDs...

As the album cover suggests, As Mercenarias were an all-female punk/post-punk band back in the 1980's who hailed from Brazil. This album caught my eye immediately, sitting there in the A section, a bright yellow light of marketing saavy with the Soul Jazz Records imprint right on the front. Soul Jazz Records is a wickedly cool label outta the UK who keeps on releasing amazing genre compilations and single-artists sets, and this As Mercenarias collection doesn't disappoint. They remind me of The Minutemen a bit, without the virtuosity, especially spastic guitar soloing all over the place like d. Boon...I guess the ladies in As Mercenarias actually heard mortar shells...It's spikey, and cracklin', and even though it's all sung in Portuguese, the songs are damn catchy, and I find myself shouting along with my best approximation of the actual words...It's kinda like singing along to old REM in that respect...

Gary Lucas used to play guitar in Captain Beefheart's Magic Band, once upon a time...

Fuck, that's such a dismissively simple way of describing the man's life and career...

Gary Lucas is one of America's finest guitar players and songwriters, who's career has now spanned close to 40 years, and includes collaborations with dozens of other gifted songwriters and musicians - Nick Cave, Lou Reed, John Cale, John Zorn, Damo Suzuki, John Williams, DJ Spooky...Based on those names, you might guess that Lucas' style lays somewhere in between trad blues based noodling, and supreme avant garde excursions...Excellent stuff, to be sure...

And finally, the new M83 album you see at the top of this post...To be honest, I haven't given the album more than a quick overview yet...

Anyways - my only point to this post is that I ran into an old friend/coworker who I haven't seen in awhile, and we talked for a bit about music, and we chewed the fat with Sophie behind the counter, and it was a damn good RECORD STORE DAY, the kind of thing that just doesn't happen at iTunes...

Hotcha! Hank