Today is Tuesday, which means I’m going over to Pure Pop Records to see what the new releases are. It’s a habit I’ve had since 1987, when I was anticipating Motley Crue’s “Girls Girls Girls” to come out. There’s a couple stupid rules I set for myself with this shit:
- vinyl first, if possible, unless the vinyl is ridiculously expensive (I felt like a real chump paying $24 for that last Boards of Canada LP)
- must buy the record upon first sight, meaning have the money for the record and be able to purchase it the very first time you see it available in the store. If you see it elsewhere first and don’t buy it, the record and your devotion to it are tainted.
Buying records on the exact dates they come out also helps me remember dates and times when things in my life and the world in general occurred. For instance:
GBV’s “Alien Lanes” and Pavement’s “Wowee Zowee” came out around the time of the Oklahoma City bombing. I was working at the Peking Duck House with Kochalka and playing bass in The Fags. Spring, 1995
Breeders’ “Last Splash” came out when I was in-between apartments, depressed about possibly having to live with my mother again, depressed at her choice of new live-in boyfriend, depressed that my friends were doing heroin, happy that I was working at a movie theater, happy there was a new Breeders CD since the Pixies had broken up 7 months earlier. September, 1993
Sonic Youth, “Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star”…got the vinyl a week before the official release date. Super-hot sunny day, living with a couple of burgeoning junkies I had recently met, record collection growing, getting into Half Japanese, Boredoms, Daniel Johnston, etc. Mildly disappointed with the new Sonic LP. Later that night our building burned to the ground. May, 1994
Sonic Youth, “Dirty”, Helmet, “Meantime”…fun, good summer…first “Real World” all over MTV as well as Pearl Jam and Nirvana. High school was over and this would be the last summer living at home with parents. A few weeks earlier I had gone to NYC for the first time, to see Sonic Youth preview their new album at a free July 4 concert in Central Park with Sun-Ra. I was in the front row (incidentally, Mr. Eric was also at this show, didn’t know him then) and caught a banana Thurston threw into the crowd. In my rock-star worship mode I stuck the banana in my pocket. After the show we saw actress Julie Hagerty on the street. A week later the show was on MTV news (SY getting promoted cuz these were Nirvana days) and you could see my little brown head bobbing to “100%”. A few more weeks after that I lost my virginity. July, 1992
Pavement, “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain”…making a pathetic Valentine’s day card/mix tape for this girl I was in love with. Pretty stupid. Yeah, I’m one of those mixtape guys. I was living with a couple of morons I knew from high school…one tried to beat me up because he thought I was fucking his ex-girlfriend (my best friend was) and the other ripped me off for months rent and many utility bills. A few months later we’d be evicted. I was getting into CCR around this time. February, 1994
See how it works? I could go on forever. But I won’t.
3 Comments
1 Eric Olsen wrote:
I love this entry.
2 jon wrote:
hi, this new webpage really sucks. i want to try and buy something. but i can’t figure out how. it just keeps directing me to another dumb post. do you still sell music recordings? 3″ cd series?
please get back to me or direct me to a page that carries icebox recordings… i would really appreciate it. thanks
3 Cooley wrote:
We’re working on getting our shit back together. It’s been a crazy few years. Kids, home-buying, break-ups, etc. …we’re humans. That said, I think the new site is the absolute opposite of suck.