Icebox Records » Purchases

Crystal

Jason Cooley — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:42:23 +0000

I bought two old magazines that both had a great affect on my life. I purchased them at Speaking Volumes, a great record/book/art store here in ol’ Burlin’ton. I went there initially to get an old Playboy but found a copy of an old Rolling Stone I’ve been thinking about lately.

The Playboy. September 1971. I wasn’t alive yet, but Olsen was. Somehow when I was 23 this issue fell into my hands. The centerfold is Crystal Smith, who is stunning in both her beauty and her taste in American Flag bell bottom pants. Among her favorite films at the time are M*A*S*H and Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. So, there’s that. Whenever my old band Bag Of Panties would play I would always put this centerfold up. There’s no bush, so it seems sort of innocent. And cool. If a gig was going bad or if I just needed some inspiration to play better than I was, I’d just look at Crystal. I know I’m way too young for her, but…Then there’s an interview with Jules Feiffer, a weird “surrealistic nudes” pictorial, movie reviews of Two Lane Blacktop and Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (which I’ve sampled many times), a negative review of McCartney’s “Ram” (lame, but fun to read) and the ads. My god, the ads. Apparently in the early 70s the kind of man that read Playboy was into leisure suits, Hush Puppies, and newfangled stereo equipment. TONS of ads offering new turntables, reel-to-reels, portable 8-track players, etc. There’s also a Datsun ad in there that I once used to design a ticket for a Wide Wail CD release party. Anyway, the centerfold is getting custom mounted and framed tomorrow.

The Rolling Stone issue which just happened to be there also changed my life. It’s the Best Albums Of The Last Twenty Years issue, August, 1987. When I was 14, the upstairs college student neighbor (C.K. Walls) gave me this issue. All I listened to at the time was metal and The Beatles. It’s an informative issue that explains very well why each album is great and why you should have it. It also has impressive reproductions of the album covers which is what drew me in initially. Through this issue I found The Sex Pistols, The Velvet Underground, Television, Otis Redding, New York Dolls, R.E.M., Todd Rundgren, The fucking STOOGES…they turned my feeble little mind on to great shit. I spent years finding these albums. Looking through it today I realized I don’t own 6 of them. Someday I will.

Getting One’s Egg On

Eric Olsen — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:06:33 +0000

So, not to sound like an utter d-bag, but what is it with the Japanese? They do it like no other. For instance, their vending machine culture blew me away when I was there (sakura, 2004). Hot coffee in a can? Really?! Why, yes indeed (and they’re dee-lish). Used schoolgirl’s underwear? It’s true.

And then there’s this:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hotter Than Hell (after a few beers and waxing on the virtues of young instinct)

Jason Cooley — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 13:38:18 +0000

In December of 1986 I remember sitting in my room on a Saturday night listening to KISS’ “Hotter Than Hell” and getting incredibly sad at the realization that there would one day be a time where I would be old and dying and not able to listen to that album again. Someday I wouldn’t be able to pull that record out of that (fucking) awesome sleeve and hear the click of the needle adjusting to the groove and as the octave/chord/whatever you call it riff of “Got To Choose” came ringing through the speakers I wouldn’t be able to look at the back cover and let the image of Paul Stanley making out with some chick enhance the experience…well, a few years later I scoffed at this notion I once had. I ridiculed myself.

These events have a way of finding their way onto your back and biting your ear. Yeah, I spent years alone in my crappy bedroom thinking I was the only person in the world smart enough to realize the virtues (ok, I wasn’t smart enough to know that word back then) of both KISS and the Beatles, and with help from my tormentive (is that a word) classmates I hid my obsessions of BOTH bands. Now they come onto my iPod and I relish each minute I get. How is it 20 years later I still find the same satisfaction from both “I Am The Walrus” and “Goin’ Blind”?

I’ll tell you why. It’s because I’m fucking smart, and the only stupid thing I’ve really done that caused massive wastes of time and money was listening to tasteless idiots dictate (vaguely…I mean, I did keep listening to KISS and The Beatles alone in my room all weekend for years instead of getting short spiky rich-kid haircuts with OP jams and Banana Republic t-shirts…oh, who am I kidding: if my parents could have afforded them I would have taken them…except for the jams) what I listened to. For fuck’s sake, in February ’86 I saw the video for “Rise” by PiL and got caught by some dumb hick girl singing the chorus to myself. She told me I was a geek and the lyrics were stupid. Great. How many years could I have saved if I’d discovered “Metal Box” at 13?

Anyway. Don’t let Joe-87-spiky-cut-guy laugh at you for buying that copy of “Billion Dollar Babies” (or it’s equivalent). Once around early-’86 these kids in the Peterborough Town Library made fun of me for taking out the soundtrack to the movie “Popeye”. I felt pretty lame at the time, but guess what? The music was by Harry Nilsson and the movie was directed by Robert Altman. Those kids were listening to the shit radio music that only southern NH could offer them (from Boston, actually) while I was delving in dual genius. “He Needs Me”? FUCK THOSE GUYS. A motto for all.

I love you, Ashley.

Halfway to a oneway

Jason Cooley — Tue, 29 Apr 2003 17:36:45 +0000

So…as of this afternoon, the next School Bus CD, “Blue Button” is more than halfway finished.

Got some new AC/DC reissues today…“Let There Be Rock” and “Powerage”, both probably the heaviest of their catalog. You can’t play them loud enough.

I’m off to wait tables. That’s all.

Ironing out contradictions

Eric Olsen — Wed, 26 Mar 2003 01:26:19 +0000

Ok, as you can probably guess, Jason’s story of the shooting wasn’t exactly accurate. First of all, there was no dealing like a table Gretzky or anything like it the card simply hit Cooley’s towers of chips and fell face up for a nano-second. Now, since Cooley knew he was almost surely going to win (4 of a kind), instead of lamenting “Misdeal,” thereby risking getting redealt a shitty hand and losing said “HUGE pot,” he should have picked it up and played it out and won the WHOLE pot … but no, he was jonesing to make another 75 cents off of an inebriated Dan. Whatever. That’s really not even the point, really. I threw a 20 spot in after a while of resisting matching the pot, snarling, “I’d rather throw this in than count those chips and matching them” … the ripping didn’t happen til these those pansies starting bitching about how they were going to split up the 20 bucks. That’s when I took it back, tore it in half, and handed half to each of them … when they bitched about that, I pulled out another 20 and did it again. Yeah, dramatic, sure, but whatever … fuck it. It was late, drunken, heated, and I was on the spot … reactions, whatever the fuck.

Still not the point, though. I’d talk about my mother quicker than any of em, so that’s not why the gun came out. I just wanted to erase that fucking Cooley-grin off his fucking face, you know? That you’re so ridiculous, I can’t even laugh about it because I don’t feel a thing about you look he had on his face, the narrowed eyes and thin downturned lips … OH! I’d shoot him again if I hadn’t already done it!

But he’s right– I’m real sorry about it now. I feel like a real shitheel about it. I was drunk, you know … I was just describing what it felt like when I shot him the other night. So, hey, today I bought him the new “Dark Side of the Moon” 30th anniversary re-issue … something he can maybe zone out to while he’s still on the meds. Supposed to be real crazy on the panning and what have you.

Despite it all, I love that guy, you know. I will never ever shoot him again.

Floyd

Jason Cooley — Wed, 26 Mar 2003 01:24:54 +0000

okay
I’m sitting here listening to the 30th anniversary reissue remastered “Dark Side of the Moon” CD really loud. I don’t have a SACD player so I can’t access the new 5.1 surround sound remix thing…oh, well. Say what you will about Pink Floyd and everything, this is a good fucking album. Really well recorded, mixed, etc. Lyrics are good and cynical. “Us and Them” is playing right now and it sounds nice and pretty, analogue delay…they stupidly redid the cover artwork for some reason, probably to attract the Floyd freaks that already own ten copies of this record. I only have the vinyl. Ooh, “Brain Damage”…good song.

Black Friday

Jason Cooley — Thu, 13 Mar 2003 14:10:32 +0000

Our first official customer, Tim Beckhardt of Pennsylvania, sent in this great little cartoon.

Thanks, Tim!

In other news, I’m lonely. That’s about it.

the power of positive thinking

Jason Cooley — Tue, 11 Mar 2003 14:55:04 +0000

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.

Wonderful Rainbow by Lightning Bolt

Jason Cooley — Wed, 05 Mar 2003 18:38:27 +0000

“Assassins”, from the new album “Wonderful Rainbow” by Lightning Bolt:

oummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm SCRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
BUM BUM BUM BUM
deh neh neh neh
BUM BUM
deh deh BUM deh BUM deh BUM BUM
deh
DUH DUH DUH DUH
DUH DUH DUH DUH
DUH DUH DUH DUH
DUH DUH DUH DUH

BUM BUM BUM BUM
deh deh deh
BUM BUM deh BUM deh
DUH DUH DUH DUH
DUH DUH DUH DUH
DUH DUH DUH DUH
DUH DUH DUH DUH

BUM BUM BUM BUM
deh deh deh
BUM deh
DUH DUH DUH DUH
DUH DUH DUH DUH
DUH DUH DUH DUH
DUH DUH DUH DUH

BUM BUM BUM BUM
deh deh deh
BUM BUM
deh
BROOOMMM
DUH DUH DUH DUH
DUH DUH DUH DUH
DUH DUH DUH DUH
DUH DUH DUH DUH

WHE DEH DEH DEH deh
DOO DOO
WHE DEH
DOO DOO DOOOOOOOOMMMM
WHE DEH DEH DEH
WHE DEH DEH DEH
WHE DEH DEH DEH
WHE DEH DEH DEH

I love this record so much. Like any good album I find myself trying not to listen to it so often for fear of getting sick of it, but I can’t resist and it hasn’t happened yet. Everyone should get their Paypal shit in check and head on over to www.loadrecords.com and buy the new Lightning Bolt record. Really.

waiting for the bolt

Jason Cooley — Thu, 20 Feb 2003 11:45:30 +0000

So this morning I woke up to hear Eric mumbling to himself in the bathroom…something about newspapers and chocolates? I dunno…guess he’s entered his tortured genius phase…

I’m going fucking crazy waiting for the new Lightning Bolt record to appear on my doorstep. Waiting for shit to come in the mail is fucking hell, mate. You find yourself hating the mailman…I predict ”Wonderful Rainbow” will be the record I listen to most this year…hopefully my chiropractor will repair my back and neck so I can go see them again…