Tower Records -- the continuing collapse

I wish I had more money.

and yeah, that tower has tons of six degrees stuff too. i'm waiting to get bebel gilberto for xtra cheap.

It is rather depressing.

I still instinctively think of the Virgin Megastore at Piccadilly Circus as Tower Records.

Even though I seldom purchase items from there.

if the rap is 70% off right now will dance be 70% off next week? they are going to take a beating on the dance imports!

Must be! (I say this based on other specials they've been running.) But there's an easy way to check -- I'll swing by tonight and see.

Tower.com was sold separately in the bankruptcy auction and is still running (mostly) normally, so there won't be any liquidation clearances there. You'll get normal holiday sales, though.

(Full disclosure: I still work for Tower.com)

They had some ComSat Angels import re-issues that were similarly priced but for single disks, so I didn't succumb. How is their BBC sessions disk?

70 bucks or so; pretty happy.

x-post: Ya damn right!

That's for sure.

http://iranzoo.tripod.com/Golden-Jackal/jackal-3.jpg

http://www.patria.org/pdp/ORDER/RA/JACKAL.JPG

and I came away with nothing, it was too distracting. I'm going back over the weekend I think.

I made away with:

Comus - Song to Comus (import with everything the band ever recorded on two CDs - only worked out to be $13, which is a steal)
Flux of Pink Indians - Strive to Survive/Neu Smell
Daughters - Hell Songs
Agent Orange - Living in Darkness
Trae - Restless
JFA - We Know You Suck
Black Halos - Alive Without Control
Black Lips - Let it Bloom
Hellacopters - Payin' the Dues
Dwarves - The Dwarves are Young and Good Looking
The Frogs - Bananimals

Best stack I've come away with in months.

Anyone know what the chances of the sale going to 50 or 60% are?

I've noticed a bit of that too, my guess is things were just coming out of storage or something...

Sounds like it's happened at individual stores already, based on the comment about the Pasadena Tower -- probably they're just judging how quickly stuff moves.

I also noticed restocking, included large quantities of certain disks (The Real Tuesday Weld being one such band). And I'm sure those ComSat Angels weren't there when I went over a week ago.

got lots of great stuff at the blockbuster closing sale on south street too. they just kept backing up trucks to the door and unloading old videos. last day was like 99.9 percent off or something. but by then you only had tai bo and benny hill comps left.

as far as the tower on south street, ugh, they should have nuked it years ago. it was a black hole for years. so gross and bad. not at all what it was like when it opened. it just deteriorated more and more as time went on. the one that opened on broad was was a little better. just cuz it was new and all. still pretty lame though. magazine section was halfway decent.

I went last Saturday and got some good stuff .... couldn't find any rap albums I wanted for the 70% discount though. picked up some dance imports and two older Oneida CDs.

the imports aren't that great of a deal yet, the 40% off knocks them down to the price of a regular CD at Best Buy ($12 or so).

For $30 I picked up:
Schoolly D-A Gangster's Story
Oneida-A Place Called El Shaddai's
Ice Cube-Greatest Hits
No Limit Greatest Hits

-- Dr M (wjwe...), November 30th, 2006. (Dr Morbius)

its part of a stripmall type thing near the Georgetown/Foggy Bottom metro stop

yes.

What I ended up getting: Various Artists, The House That TRANE Built: The Story of Impulse Records; Leonard Cohen, Songs of Leonard Cohen; Teena Marie, Love Songs; Terry Allen, Lubbock (On Everything); The Avalanches, When I Met You (a.k.a. the Gimix set. WTF?). In total, about $58,

What I ended up not getting: The Music of Islam, Vol. 13; Amadou & Mariam, Dimanche à Bamako ; Charles Mingus, Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus; The Go! Team, Thunder, Lightning Strike; Lee Morgan, The Sidewinder; Patty Waters, College Tour; The Rapture, Pieces of the People We Love; Gavin Bryars et al., On Photography; Richie Valens, In Concert at Pacoima Jr. High; a DVD documentary on William Eggleston; a four-hour Colt Studio porno based on Brokeback Mountain (nb: I have never bought/rented/borrowed/stolen a porn video in my life, seriously); and some few others by the artists listed in the first para above.

Waah.

Kind of weird how that few dollars makes that much of a difference. But then again I'm a poor college student.

I wonder if the flood of available product is going to depress Amazon Marketplace prices even more.

went to tower in emeryville today, 50% off. there was a surprising
amount of good stuff.

i bought:

juana molina: son (last copy)
new mojave three
nouvelle vague: new one
liars: drums not dead
the knife: silent shout
mccartney: s/t and ram
gravenhurst: some ep
thee more shallows: more deep cuts

$77.

there are a number of electronic things I'll go back and buy if they're still there and the prices drop as well

the big takeover issue 58 (59 cents!)
kogan's book
lansing-dreiden the dividing island
trembling blue stars her handwriting reissue
primitives buzz buzz buzz: the complete lazy recordings
the fall middle class revolt and perverted by language expanded editions
starz coliseum rock
jamc automatic reissue
kate & anna mcgarrigle heartbeats accelerating
skeeter davis all american country
space needle recordings 1994-1997
babyshambles down in albion (yeah yeah, i know)
free design one by one and there is a song
ethiopiques 12 and 21

Studio One Lovers
Sound Dimension Jamaica Soul Shake Vol 1
King Jammy in Roots
Bunny Wailer Black Hearted Man
Sizzla Da Real Thing
Lee Perry Presents African Roots

! Maybe they *are* planning on nuking everything before Xmas. V. glad I was going to swing by again today.

Damn! I went to the Tustin store yesterday. Ethiopiques, Al Green, Fairport Convention, Thomas Mapfumo, Leo Kottke, Solomon Burke, etc. etc.

WELL THIS CRAP AIN'T GONNA BUY ITSELF

What poor Tower? We are taking advantage of an evil liquidation company! Who could possibly argue against that?

Based on all the 10/20% off purchasers alone I think they're doing just fine.

The amount of Six Degrees label stuff still on sale is mindboggling. I have a feeling if I'm even vaguely interested I can get it all for 90% off.

The amount of Six Degrees label stuff still on sale is mindboggling. I have a feeling if I'm even vaguely interested I can get it all for 90% off.

I almost think that the fact that there's so much of it will make people think, "This must not be very good." I do want those Zuco 103 CDs.

The Beatles - The Capitol Albums Vol.2
Pete Rodriguez - I Like It Like That
Willie Colon/Hector Lavoe - El Juicio
Hector "El Bambino" & Naldo Presentan: Sangre Nueva
LunyTunes - Reggaeton Hits
Adassa - Kamasutra

Ha, while I was in the store tonight I was thinking, "Does Tower own Six Degrees or something?" I want to go back for some of that later. Hopefully not everyone else will do the same thing before I get to it.

for the parents:
al green - i'm still in love with you
(the lower queen anne tower in seattle has an inexplicable amount of al green left still, which m. matos pointed out yesterday with great confusion and anger)
chris isaak - heart shaped world
paul simon - surprise

hey ahgf, i picked up el juicio recently, too. sounds good after one spin. i saw that you pimped it regulary on olde ilm, so i've got high hopes for it. have you heard that cruz/colon album at all?

It's the same down here and on the one hand I *don't get it* -- and on the other hand, this is going to make my eventual purchases of it all all the sweeter.

(I don't know why but this temporary board makes me want to change names.)

This Pete Rodriguez is pretty good so far, very boogaloo and Latin soul oriented. Two of these songs had hit remakes in the last decade or so (Tito Nieves's version of "I Like It Like That" and Sonora Carruseles's "Micaela," the latter of which I hated for a few years, especially since it was so ubiquitous, at least in certain circles, but was ultimately won over by).

Boris, Pink
The Knife, Silent Shout
Aretha Franklin, I Never Loved a Man...
Mogwai, Mr. Beast
This one random Acid Mothers Temple album (that, happily, I don't have yet).

AHGF, remind me again the name of the one fellow you were broken up about who died earlier this year, Cuban percussionist I think? I think I saw copies of that one solo album of his around, might snag it next time I'm there.

there were about 10 copies of this at my tower, plus some more under the racks. not the breakout hit they had anticipated.

ned, which days are you in seattle? was there a fap planned?

re the six degrees stuff, what's good on that label beside bebel gilberto? the tower by me mostly has latin travels comps, which my natural instinct is to avoid, but maybe they're awesome. what about celso fonseca or that suba tribute comp? others? etc?

Evening of the 14th thru morning of the 17th. Keep an eye on ILE for any FAP talk but actually myspace might be handier for talk on that -- send me an invite if you're on (along with a message saying who you are if that isn't clear). 16th is probably when something bigger might happen depending.

i have an exam the morning of sat the 16, and then my dad is going to be in town after that. i'll see what happens.

and Greil Marcus's Dead Elvis for $7.

i grabbed

get physical - "comp vol 2" - $5
booka shade - "in white rooms" - $6
chelonis r jones - "dislocated genius" - $4
dj t - "boogie playground" - $5
osunlade - "five years on" - $6
dj food - "jazz brakes v 4" - $4
ammoncontact - "with voices" - $4
sun ra - "other planes of there" - $4
gong - "magick brother" - $4
"big apple rappin" - $2
"soul gospel" - $8
"soul gospel 2" - $10

all told the damage came out to about $75. not bad!

still waiting for bigger markdowns on reggae, which is the only section left with anything respectable in it. jazz is pretty shot, and new age is completely picked over! not a single tangerine dream or schulze disc anywhere. int'l and latin sections are also pretty dead. rock has BEEN dead for a while now, but inexplicably there are like 5 copies of this suburban base comp in the rock comps section.

Haha, we have about ten of those! I'm waiting for the price to collapse further. Still at a general 60% for everything except rap at my store but I made some good finds tonight -- rock is definitely starting to hit the skids but all sorts of oddities are turning up with inspection.

this is the mountain view store! there are still several copies of most of the soul jazz discs and get physical discs. if you are into mersh house there are a ton of discs from labels like azuli and ministry. there is also quite a bit of rephlex stuff floating around ... multiple copies of amen andrews, kerrier district, dj shitmat, grime, etc etc

it's the ipoddening of music and culture. also too much disposable income = willingness to pay $15 for nothing but some electrons.

x-post

Well, Amazon and other online retailers will still be selling cds for awhile. But I guess some folks will never have the experience of being in a large bricks and mortar establishment with all kinds of diverse cds to flip through (yea some mom and pop operations are holding on). Borders Books and Barnes and Nobles prices for cds aren't much better than Tower. I wonder how their music-selling practices will change in the immediate future. I do not see Best Buy and Circuit City and Target and Walmart deciding to expand the range of their cd offerings.

Hip hop is practically a wasteland now. Everything else varies by store, but at 60% MOST of the good and non-expensive stuff is gone (some very interesting imports remain, but Tower's insane import prices will keep 'em around for a while.)

Comps:
Before There was Crunk (Splack Pack, Clay D)
Dirty South - Tha Beginning (Three 6, Trick Daddy, Magic Mike)
Spread Yo' Hustle (Mac Dre, RBL Posse)

for $18

"Notes to the Luniz's debut CD posit the duo as crown-princes of the 'crazy, comical, wild-side of gangsta hip-hop,' but it's fair to say they're not loony in the Bugs Bunny sense of the word. The group's logo is a scowling cartoon figure draped in a used condom and wielding a handgun."

Latin music - 70% off

Voltio: s/t - $3.90
Larry Harlow: Hommy - $4.20*
Azuquita: Pura Salsa - $4.50*
Xiomara: s/t - $5.70
Enrique Chia: La Musica de Ernesto Lecuona - $7.80 (2 CD)

*Both of which I had the bad luck to buy a few years before these new reissues.

Also, I like the two Bossacucanova albums, which, along with the rest of the Six Degrees catalog, should be priced down to a buck as well.

Incidentally, it certainly looks like some new stock is still being put out, in Philadelphia anyway.

i know they might get seriously desperate and it could wind up being $10 or something, but i don't have the guts to play that kind of chicken, you know?

http://jj.am/gallery/d/10543-1/Eagle911.gif

Also got a Krautrock DVD (w/AD II, Guru Guru, Jane, and more, but it's some kind of re-union thing - they look decidedly middle-aged in the pics on the back. AD II do Archangels Thunderbird, All the Years 'Round, Kanaan, a 3 others, so I've gotta see it. And a litle more jazz collection filling out, came to $70.

And hip-hop in Pasadena is now $1.50 each, but that may be temporary.

Miri Ben-Ari: The Hip-Hop Violinist
Goldie Lookin' Chain: S/T and Straight Outta Newport
Wiley : Treddin' On Thin Ice
V/A: Run The Road
Mindy Smith: Long Island Shores
Mutual Admiration Society: S/T
Terror Squad: True Story
Mike Marshall & Chris Thiele: Live
The Duhks: Your Daughters & Your Sons
Dengue Fever: Escape from Dragon House
Slum Village: Fan-Tas-Tic Vol. 1
K-Os: Joyful Rebelion
Field Mob: Light Pole sand Pine Trees
Bossacucanova & Roberto Menescal: Brasilidade
The Coup: Pick a Bigger Weapon
Guru: Jazzmatazz: Streetsoul
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth: Best of
Soul Position: Everything Is Better with RJ and AL

I'm honestly not all that interested in all the grime and backpacker hip hop I got, but I am interested in it enough to listen to it once, then sell to finance all the other stuff I bought.

All the Sugar Hill titles were two bucks or less, so I was able to load up on stuff like The Duhks and all the Nickel Creek side projects on the cheap. If you want to see what other labels Bayside distributed and might have titles available for ridiculously low prices, you can check here.

Who is this person (and what sex is it)? First saw that name on Don Omar credits.

They keep playing the worst music in Tower, not that that's exctly a change, but last night they played the same CD over, some depressing rock shit. I think it might have been something famous, actually, some roots of punk or roots of indie type album. Are the employees trying to make the customers suffer for their bargains? Or maybe the management is only letting them have that one CD?

If they don't budge for you and I can't find one myself, expect an e-mail! And a PayPal payment. ;-)

Hey Alex, so I picked up this Mad Professor Method to the Madness comp that looked good.

can i just say that if you see a copy of that dj spooky trojan mix set for under, like, seven dollars you should get it? it's nothing you haven't heard before but he actually does a very good job of putting a set together.

Yes, I saw one last night. Hmm maybe I should go back and grab it. I couldn't remember how much I got mine for but I guess $40 is a pretty damn good price come to think of it.

BTW, this is the Woodland Hills location Chaki mentioned upthread.

Six Degrees still only 60% off.

Choppa - Comin Back Home
Chrome Children - s/t
Dubee aka Sugawolf - s/t
Dubee aka Sugawolf - For That Scrilla
Dubee aka Sugawolf - Turf Matic
Mac Mall - Immaculate
Pharcyde - Labcabincalifornia
RBL Posse - Hostile Takeover
RBL Posse - Ruthless By Law
Rodney O & Joe Cooley - Fuck New York
Rodney O & Joe Cooley - Get Ready to Roll
Shock G - Fear of a Mixed Planet
Soul Position - Things Go Better with RJ and Al
Trae - Restless
The Whoridas - High Times

BG and Flame Present Play It How It Go
DJ Ideal and Bun B - Da Bottom, Vol. 4
Kane & Abel Present Kings of da South Volume 2
Mista B Low Presents Down-South Compilation - Down in tha Dirty
OG Ron C Presents Paid In Full
OG Ron C Presents Fuck Action 39
Rapid Ric & Chamillionaire - Whut It Dew Vol. 1
Thizz Nation Vol. 5
Thizz Nation Vol. 6

I picked up some teen girl punk comps, Bad English, Fapardokly, Mick Ronson, Three 6 Mafia, a few Benjamin Biolays, Jimmy Webbs, Barbara Manning, Jill Scott, I forget what else. Too much is not cheap enough yet.

brightblack morning light "s/t"
burmese "men"
gate "the dew line"
excepter "sunbomber"
rephlex records "grime" comp. (lol)
jesu "silver" ($5!)

the only soul jazz comp left was arthur russell so i picked one up, no idea what it's like. score of the night: black devil "disco club" for 74 cents!!

black devil "disco club" for 74 cents!!

YAAARGH! is it the cd-single on rephlex or a full reissue?

booka shade - 'movements' and 'memento'
the knife - 'silent shout'
tim hecker - 'mirage'
saint etienne - 'songs for mario's cafe'
fiery furnaces - 'bitter tea'
wayne shorter - 'speak no evil'
andrew hill - 'pax'
nina nastasia - 'the blackened air'
burial - s/t
uusitalo - 'tulenkantaja'
colder - 'heat'
the dresden dolls - 'yes, virginia'
the handsome family - 'milk and scissors'

plus a dvd of the awesome japanese horror film 'the booth.

$96 bucks!

The Beatles - The Capitol Albums Vol.2

The longbox packaging is even worse than I'd been lead to believe. I bought this mostly for Rubber Soul, but I don't think I'm ever going to feel it again the way I once did.

Pete Rodriguez - I Like It Like That

Good, solid boogaloo.

Willie Colon/Hector Lavoe - El Juicio
Larry Harlow: Hommy
Azuquita: Pura Salsa

Replacements for the previous CD reissues I owned. Sound better all around. I don't love Hommy as much as some people though.

Hector "El Bambino" & Naldo Presentan: Sangre Nueva

Good reggaeton collection, though the best tracks are mostly on the first disc. Anyway, worth it to me.

LunyTunes - Reggaeton Hits

Not worth what I paid for it, and this was never on even my most expansive list of things to buy eventually.

Adassa - Kamasutra

Iffy, but I really do like a couple tracks on here ("De Tra" especially) and I think I would have been tempted to buy it eventually. Also, I think she's going to be doing better things down the road, so I like having this, for some reason.

Hector Bambino "El Father": Los Rompe Discotekas

Not very good, as expected, but cheap.

Voltio: s/t

Really not too good, though I haven't quite made my way through the whole thing. Aside from a couple tracks I like a lot, there's a lot of mediocrity here.

Xiomara: s/t

Very good romantic dinner music.

Enrique Chia: La Musica de Ernesto Lecuona

Unlistenable because too rooted in the romantic era of classical music for my taste. Lush violins. Yuk.

Not really a triumphant set of purchases. (Then again, when I buy things at full price I often end up with similar results.)

Boris - Pink
Clinic - 4 EPs
Futureheads - News And Tributes
Ghostface - The Pretty Toney Album
Knife - Silent Shout
Seke Molenga & Kalo Kawongolo - Lee Perry Presents...African Roots (there's about a half dozen of these left)
Montrose
Slowdive - Souvlaki
Suburbs - In Combo

I saw some other goodies, like Associates reissues, so it's worth skimming through.

The Longcut - "A Call & Response" (Anthony H. Wilson likes them, new Manchester band, mentioned on Factory mailing list, yowza, better than Marion, that's for sure - I love it)

Negativland - Escape From Noise (I'm going to come out of the closet and admit I never actually owned this one, though why is anyone's guess. That was the first time I ever knew Negativland existed was when this was played on college radio in my town over and over - Time Zones and the little girl singing about the over the rainbow thing, and also Christianity Is Stupid.)

I also got a live video of Chic that has Nile Rodgers (obviously no one can bring Bernard Edwards or Tony the drummer out of their graves) and a couple of really good looking black women are in that. Still I wish it were Sister Sledge, though.

I also bought a DVD of Nik Kershaw videos. I don't know why. I guess I got carried away. It was somewhat interesting, I guess. But man, what was I thinking?

Also, if anyone on earth wants a copy of the Towers of London's album, Tower on Sunset is yr hookup. I mean good GOD.

My guess is we're reaching collective tipping point on a lot of this -- elsewhere donut in Seattle suggested that everything will be hoovered up by people looking for Amazon resales more than anything else. Kinda doubt it will be all that complete but we'll see.

soul jazz "new york noise 2"
isolee - "western store"
losoul - "getting even"
dj food - "refried food" 2cd
booka shade - "memento"
greg wilson - "credit to the edit"
v/a - "soma compilation, vol 3"

a little less cost-effective, this altogether cost me around $40.

at this point nothing left in my local store except soul jazz comps and uber-ridiculously priced imports (single disc comps for $36) which aren't really cost-effective at 60% off. there are signs everywhere which say "10 days left" which makes me think i'll drop back in around the 18th and see what's left.

lemme know if it hits $1 or $2 status for dance or reggae ...

I would love to get this. IF THE PRICE WASN'T SO STUPIDLY HIGH STILL.

haha, yeah I picked up a pile of those fall cds but ended up putting them all back. The double CDs seem like a good value on the surface but it seems like the 2nd disc is never essential.

Is the Lizzie Borden movie Born In Flames any good?

I got

This Heat box (the store has a second one!)
Les Savy Fav 3/5 (long gone in Portland)
Judee Sill Heart Food (ditto)
Jesu s/t (ditto)
Arthur Russell Another Thought
The Incredible String Band The Chelsea Sessions
Matt Bianco Whose Side Are You On? (I don't think I've seen a copy of this since the eighties)

From this, I deduce that South San Jose is nowhere near as infested with hipsters as Portland, and also that Tower Records centralized ordering process may have contributed somewhat to its downfall.

josh wink profound sounds vol 3 $2
kelley polar love songs of the hanging gardens $2
hardleaders suspect package $5

i am tutoring down off silver creek valley road tomorrow ... maybe i will swing by the blossom hill store and check it out - do they have a good dance section?

still can't believe The Shortwave Set has survived...get with it, folks!

i was there over the weekend and there was still quite a bit of stock on the shelves but most of the good stuff had already been snapped up.

I hear you. (I've already made a pretty good catch on those myself.)

I sit here debating whether or not I want to drive 10 minutes to check it out each day.

Curious (George) - isn't there some amazing market in Memphis as well? If pickins are slim at Tower, there's always mojo criollo, ginger beer, etc.

I must be getting too picky. I did not see alot of good stuff left there on Sunday.

Oh, but fuck Knocturnal...i want my dollar back.

Most of those terrible West Coast rap CDs that you'll find in abundance at the liquidation sales were distributed by Tower-owned Bayside, who made a lot of poor decisions when it came to urban music. Most of this stuff had been collecting dust in the warehouse and probably would have forever (or at least until it got dumpstered).

Regardless, if Bayside bought/distributed it, it more than likely made it into Tower stores. Since both those entities will cease to exist soon, you probably won't find artists like this with widespread mainstream availability anymore.

To be fair, Tower was pretty decent about getting Southern stuff (certainly better than most chainstores.) They had a lot of pre-Major Without A Major Deal Swishahouse stuff and various other Screwed Up Click stuff at the SF ones.

isolee - 'western store' and 'wearemonster'
luciano - 'sci fi hi fi'
erase errata - 'night life'
meat purveyors - 'someday soon things will be much worse!'
a pair of studio one comps
a certain ratio - 'i'd like to see you again'
wolf parade - 'apologies to the queen mary'

Zuco 103: Whaa!
Zuco 103: Tales of High Fever
Suba [various artist]: Tributo

That's it for me.

Rock/pop now 70%. There is still stuff someone would want.

http://static.flickr.com/141/323431501_4f5e31d9d6.jpg

Al, I don't know when the DC store is gonna close. It used to have 2 levels and only one is open now. Oh yeah, I bought that Dengue Fever Cambodian garage pop cd that's in that picture, at the Alexandria store awhile back for 50% off, and last week I saw about 30 copies of it on sale in the DC store for $1.50 each. Rap is down to 75 cents each in DC I think.

Also: This person's Amazon Marketplace storefront seems to consist entirely of items purchased at Tower's liquidation sale

Yeah, a depressing number of the leases were purchased by FYE and fucking Walgreen's of all places. At least a few of the California stores' leases were picked up by Rasputin, which is definitely an upgrade.

Passing by the original locations and seeing them turned into video-focused FYE stores is going to be hard to stomach.

Michael Mayer Touch
Lukie D Deliver Me
Various World is Gone
Saian Supa Crew Hold-Up
And Ciara's "Oh" single and Brook Valentine's "Girlfight" single cuz they were both 50 cents and there is a Kardinal remix on the former and I don't really want Brook's album but that track is aces.

$22 total.

i will miss you, tower cherry hill.

-- Baron Von Jigglesworth (...), December 16th, 2006

woah ... when i was at the palo alto location the other day the manager was talking a lot of shit about the owner of rasputin, i guess he had dropped by. that conversation makes more sense now! i hope we get a rasputin in palo alto ...

dance got cut to $1 at some point a few days ago and BAM, everything *gone*.

i picked up

black devil disco club - $1
black dice "smiling off" - $1
miss kittin bugged out mix - $3
studio one lovers - $7
norman jay presents philadelphia - $7
sounds of monsterism island - $9

i guess that's it for that ... pretty much NOTHING left at this point that i don't already own a copy of.

also dropped by the blossom hill tower, sure enough, pretty fucking depressing. grabbed annie's dj kicks for $3 and broadcast's "tender buttons" for $3. might drop by on sunday and see if i can get big youth's "screaming target" for $1. they had a copy of this too ... is it worth it for $15???

Suba: Sao Paulo Confessions
Cibelle: s/t
Cibelle: Shine of the Dried Electric Leaves

(Shit I'm checking samples of something I was thinking of buying and it was definitely worth the $2.70, to the point where I'm tempted to go buy right now and get it. It's almost a miracle that it's left, but it's somewhat obscure. Philly Tower closing FAP in 20 minutes anyone? No, that's okay.)

(Tower closing sale addiction.)

I didn't think to look for pr0n videos. :(

larry levan -- journey into paradise
chelonis r. jones -- dislocated genius
planningtorock-- have it all
optimo -- how to kill the dj pt. II
talk talk -- natural history

a bit over $20.

Los Nemus del Pacifico: Montuneando con Los Nemus

(And someone was asking me about an album that was left that I own.)

In order: got it earlier, don't know much about, dang I should have scored that!, hmm I missed out, got other greatest hits comp with better mastering/B-sides.

London Is The Place For Me 3
Sean Paul Stage One
Henske & Yester Farewell Aldebaran
Kray Twins "What We Do" single w/ Low Deep's "Straight Flush (Remix)" as the B-side.

Dance is still pretty strong at the Market store actually. There are a zillion copies of this which really depresses me actually.

I sorta feel like a schmuck for not getting the Maximum Joy 'Unlimited 1979-1983' cd I had in my hand right until I got up to the checkout.

highlights include:

new Liars
new Grizzly Bear
Arthur Russell, world of
Destroyer's Rubies
Herbert - Scale
Sung Tongs
Freeform 5 - Misch Mash v. 2
Optimo Presents Psyche Out

Alex, buy that for me and I'll either paypal you or will pay you directly when I'm in SF next weekend.

-- GAWD PVNCH (elle.zabo...), December 16th, 2006.

are you sending confederates to get it.

anybody bogarts my OHM set and i'll punch yer nose through the internets.

Done. I bought a second copy just in case anyone else is interested in one the half dozen greatest labels evah. They were $6 including tax which is 1/3 of what I paid new :(

Deej, I do. And now I want to go buy Rappin 4-tay's "Don't Fight The Feeling" haha.

If you're going to apply Deej's pickup technique, might I recommend you use the latest Jolie Holland album? Every Tower I've been to seems to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 copies of it, which is depressing, frankly. It's one of my favorite albums of the year and is probably more lady-friendly than some mid-'90s Bay Area rap.

The two of these I left when I snagged my $12 one were still there, and this time I didn't even bother putting another disk in front of them. Extremely picked over now, but I found a Parliament best of, a jazz disk that looked interesting (Kidd Jordan with Hamid Drake and William Parker, I think Jordan's been mentioned on an ILM jazz thread), and the Daevid Allen/Gong disk with the horrible cover. There's still a couple I'm waiting for %80 off before I splurge.

larry young - into somethin'
the knife - silent shout
kylie minogue - impossible pricess (2 disc import)
luomo - the present lover
esg - a south bronx story
wolf eyes - human animal
comets on fire - avatar
carla bozulich - evangelista
gwen mccrae (a 2 albums on one CD import)
american amp and alternator - s/t
nao wave: brazil post punk 1982-1988
the free design - kites are fun & one by one

I wonder how many of us picked up Nao Wave. I know I did.

Love as Laughter Laughter's Fifth

Built to Spill You In Reverse

The Delgados The Complete BBC Peel Sessions

Make up Sound Verite

Be Your Own Pet s/t

Brainiac Hissing Prigs in Static Couture

Judy Henske & Jerry Yester Farewell Aldebaran

Total cost: $35.70 (this is at 70% off)

There was still a copy of Superlongevity 4, and quite a bit of M.A.N.D.Y./Get Physical stuff there.

I saw a lot of reggaeton compilations that should never have been bought in such quantities. (Cuban reggaeton, yeah, there's a big demand for that in Philadelphia.)

They're at 80% and there wasn't much left but I still made some good finds, as did donut.

Shortwave Set - The Debt Collection
Joy Zipper - American Whip
Kelley Polar - Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens
Wildhearts - Must Be Destroyed
Duran Duran (never heard the first album in its entirety, heh)
Some other gag gifts like Cinderella.

They still have a bunch of Associates albums too.

I noticed a couple of copies of Sulk at the U District one. Someone needs to get those.

=(

but i did find a this heat box set there!!!

=)

also grabbed

gary numan - pleasure principle reissue
popul vuh - nosferatu ost
os mutantes - mutantes
big youth - screaming target
v/a - i:robots italo classics
slam - nightdrive dj mix
an absolutely ancient jungle compilation mixed by grooverider

for five bucks each

=(

Ha. I have one cheap courtesy of donut.

but i did find a this heat box set there!!!

=)

GRR.

Felt - Ignite the Seven Cannons
Nathan Fake - Drowning in a Sea Love
DJ Rogers (3xCD import)- It's Good to Be Alive/On the Road Again/Love, Music, & Life
Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice - The Flood
Ellen Allien - Thrills
Chelonis Jones - Dislocated Genius
Donald Fagen - Morph the Cat
Candi Staton - His Hands

$48.00, which is something considering the bs import prices on most of them.

All hip-hop is $1.00. I'll probably go back for the outlawz cd.I was gonna buy a rap cd from "Law and Orda" for the hell of it, but come on now, a dollar's a dollar. Couldn't find the Tom Moulton mix they had plenty of last week, oh well. Coachwhips got nothing on "HellRaza", there must be 100 copies of his album scattered throughout the store. LAST DAY IS WEDNESDAY, and everything will be 90% off that day according to cashier dude.

The Portland store was a complete madhouse yesterday, with a whole lot of people filling up shopping baskets at a furious rate. I'm really curious what it's gonna look like on Tuesday.

fess up, thief!!

I shoulda bought Nao Wave at 40% off I guess, plus some Fania reissues and that Anita O'Day double cd I was gonna get my Dad.

yesterday I went to sell about 200 cds at amoeba and there were probably 40 they wouldn't even take, most of them not dogs either. I told the manager I'd suddenly realized that if I were going to ever get rid of my cds I'd better do it now before the value of them vanishes and he said it's already happened; it peaked in april, and since then the onslaught of sold-back cds is overwhelming them. they have warehouses full that they will never see the floor in. Ack! Knowing all this, why do I still wish I'd picked up some MORE stuff at tower? ludicrous!

This is fascinating. There's a massive glut of the objects on the market (plus the Tower liquidation had to hurt all other music retailers) and still prices don't fall. How can music continue to cost money when it can be endlessly replicated for free? The future has to point to music being free.

So why are Amoeba used prices so high then? And why aren't there more things I want when I go in there. :(

islands - return to the sea
neko case - the tigers have spoken
black heart procession - the spell
moodymann - black mahogani
detroit cobras - baby
annie - anniemal
black strobe - the other side: paris
mountain goats - we shall all be healed
architecture in helsinki - in case we die
excepter - sunbomber
echo and the bunnymen - songs to learn and sing
nao wave
jolie holland - springtime can kill you
the hold steady - boys and girls in america (i don't like these dudes, but it'll make a good stocking stuffer for someone)

Not my tastes anyway.

"but i've found amoeba's used prices to be fairly reasonable."

Too much stuff for $11, $12, $13 at the SF one. The Berkeley one is more reasonable, I agree.

haha all my relatives are getting california g-rap in their stockings

You didn't hear it from me, but there's a very good rumor that the Virgin Megastores are going to be the next to go in mid-2007. It won't be a full-on bankruptcy like Tower, but lots of store closures/stock liquidation.

When I was a kid, the Tower Records near the sports arena in San Diego was, for me, the ultimate record store, the coolest place in the universe. It feels a little weird to realize that it won't exist anymore, and it won't even make a good story for my grandkids. I mean, I even worked at a Tower when I was a teenager.

-- Elvis Telecom (quartzcit...), December 19th, 2006. (later)

that's not surprising at all, they're down to something like 13 stores. newbury comics is a larger chain at this point!

-- Mark (mark-...), December 18th, 2006.

So musicians will only make money by performing live? I don't think so. Will all Pitchfork employees work for free?

Will all Pitchfork employees work for free?

-- cornyrocker

I worry about it all the time, believe me.

I went back today and picked up:

Nao Wave (which I had forgotten to look for previously, and was very surprised to find)
Legendary Sound, Vol. 1 (which Alex in SF recommends, I thought on this thread, not that I expect much overlap in our taste but I hardly have any drum & bass and was just thinking I might want to pick up a little tiny bit more)

Dubstep Allstars Vol 2 (3 or 4 copies left, none of Vol 3)
Get Physical comps 1 & 2 (or Anniversary 2 & 4, I can't quite figure it out.) (one copy of each left)
Optimo Presents Psyche Out (nearly 10 copies of this, I suppose I could wait for it to get cheaper, but $5 seems fair enough.)
Science Faction: Grime (last copy)
Dabrye Two/Three (last copy)

I found a second copy of the Yester/Henske album. Let me know if you still need it. The email address is good.

Which reminds me a bit -- you free Friday/Saturday? FAP plans are imminent.

Judy Henske & Jerry Yester Farewell Aldebaran
V/A Fast Product: Rigour Discipline and Disgust (score! I've been looking for this for years.)
Chris Knox Yes!!
The Methadones 21st Century Power Pop Riot
The Minus 5 The Trials Postumous of...
The Duke Spirit Cuts Across the Land
The Dambuilders Geek Lust
Chris Cutler & Fred Frith Live in Moscow, Prague & Washington
Godandtexas Criminal Element
fluf the classic years
Alan Vega New Raceion
Batman: OST
The Knife Silent Shout
Arthur Russell The World of...
Pretty Girls Make Graves The New Romance
These Arms Are Snakes This Is Meant to Hurt You
V/A Wake Up and Listen! A Brand New Generation of Hits (britpop 1995: shitloads of hits)
Young Fresh Fellows Low Beat Time
The Kelly Deal 6000 Go to the Sugar Altar
The Coachwhips Double Death
The Coachwhips Peanut Butter and Jelly: Live at the Ginger Winge
The Coachwhips Bangers vs Fuckers
The Coachwhips Put Yer Body Next to Mine
Trapdoor Fucking Exit Crooked Life/Straight World
The Zodiac Killers Have a Blast
Portastatic Who Loves the Sun
Radio 4 Enemies Like These
Ecstacy Passion & Pain s/t
V/A Optimo Present Psyche Out
Slowdive Souvlaki
The Modern Machines "Take It, Somebody!"
Alternative TV Apollo
Edgar Broughton Band LIVE Hits Harder!
Ditch Croaker Chimpfactor
The Futureheads News and Tributes
Sweep the Leg Johnny Going Down Swingin'
Rahbras Whohm

Total: $60.90

I might have time on Friday

Rock. Will call M. White tomorrow night to plot a bit, I think.

Mr. Crump mentioned it was down to 50 cents a disc towards the end when he hit the Memphis one. Yesterday was 80% plus 'buy four get one for a buck' and by the time I get there I suspect it'll be 90% plus that. I'm honestly not expecting much but there'll be some dusty remnants still! (And there were still a huge amount of copies of the new Dengue Fever album, which is quite good, so I'll get some as gifts.)

That, and I really have heard good things about them.

thanks!

Hmm, no, twernt me.

Hey PFS,

Ha! I had that copy of the Alan Vega album in my basket on two seperate trips but put it back both times. Glad to see you got it...

Are there any other copies left of the stuff you bought (not that it won't be gone by 6 which is the earliest I can get there...)

I wonder if they have restocked because there are multiple things on your list that I would have taken note of (or purchased) if I had seen.

(1) They were indeed restocking. I actually saw them do it (and snagged my copies of Silent Shout and Batman from the restock pile). There were

(2) I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to copies remaining (it wasn't like I'd have any chance to go back later), but I'm fairly certain I saw copies of the Rahbras, Fast Product, Minus 5, Radio 4, Trapdoor Fucking Exit, the Coachwhips (ahem), and maybe a couple others.

but

(3) I heard them say last week that they were planning on closing early today. Call before you go.

FESS UP

Swung by mine an hour back and it had already closed, full stop. I took it as an omen, got some tea and a muffin and caught the next bus home a few minutes later. It was a good run, though -- thank you, Costa Mesa, for having thoroughly terrible taste in music for the most part.

and RIP tower cherry hill, NJ forever. you won't be missed much except the past couple of months of spectacular bargains. and amusing stashes of black metal CDs in the hip-hop and dance sections.

The coldness. I adore it.

FESS UP

-- vahid (vfoz...), December 20th, 2006. (vahid)

why did you ?uestion buying it in the first place? u got snaked fair and square!!!11

Okay, here is the full accounting (aside from a slew of gift discs I picked up which I obviously would rather not list here!) of everything I got over the past few weeks, sorted by markdown. (I really don't want to total the full price, though I'm still kinda amazed that through writing pay and regular salary, plus a healthy sell back of stuff to Amoeba that I wasn't listening to any more, that I much covered most of this pretty readily -- and whatever I ended up charging will be covered soon enough thanks to Xmas.)

40/50%:

Prodigy, Experience: Expanded
Go-Betweens, Spring Hill Fair, Liberty Belle, Send Me a Lullaby, Before Hollywood (double disc versions)
Idol Tryouts Two (Ghostly double-disc comp from this year)
SIANspheric, RGB (CD/DVD overview), The Sound of the Colour of the Sun
Love and Rockets, Sorted! DVD comp
We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen DVD
Mixed With Love: The Walter Gibbons Salsoul Anthology
Vic Godard and Subway Sect, Singles Anthology
Gwen McRae, The Best Of
Bill Withers, Live at Carnegie Hall -- had been meaning to get this for a long while and I ended up getting it for $5!
Cee-Lo Green, ...Is the Soul Machine
Ghostface, Fishscale
The Nomi Song DVD
Neurosis, A Sun That Never Sets DVD
Caribou, Start Breaking My Heart (some two disc early stuff comp for hypercheap, so why not?)
Sonic Youth, the 2006 reissue of the first EP with bonus hoohah
Sweet, Sweet Fanny Adams -- reissue from two years back
June Carter Cash, Keep On the Sunny Side (two disc career spanner; looks like a good sampler all around)
Devotchka, Curse Your Little Heart (interesting looking EP -- has a cover of Siouxsie's "Last Beat of My Heart" on it, which is what sold me)
Mahler's 6th, the Bernstein/NY Philharmonic Columbia recording from the late sixties
Ornette Coleman, At the Golden Circle, Volume 2 -- got volume 1 a couple of years back so this was nice.
The Wild Swans, Incandescent -- two CD comp of all their early eighties stuff
Eluvium, Talk Amongst the Trees
Felt, Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty, The Splendour of Fear, Let the Snakes Crinkle Their Heads to Death
Explosions in the Sky, s/t debut reissue
Jesu, s/t
The Gathering, Accessories
Ethiopiques: 1-3, 5-7, 9-11

Beethoven symphonies:
3rd -- Giulini/LA Philharmonic from 1979 on Deutsche Grammaphon
4th/6th -- Masur/Gewandhausorchester Leipzig on Universal (budget rerelease but hey, it was cheap and there)
9th -- Furtwangler/Bayreuther Festspiele (Schwarzkopf on soprano) from 1951 on EMI

Mahler symphonies:
2nd -- Rattle/Birmingham Orchestra from 1987 on EMI
4th/Das Lied von Der Erde -- Kletzki/Philharmonia Orchestra from 1959 on EMI
5th -- Barbirolli/New Philharmonia Orchestra from 1970 on EMI
7th -- Barenboim/Staatskapelle Berlin from 2005 on Warner
8th -- Kubelik/Symphone-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks from 1970 on Audite
9th -- Walter/Wiener Philharmoniker from 1938 on EMI
10th -- Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra from 1965 on Sony

John Coltrane on Impulse!:
Crescent
Impressions
Meditations
Sun Ship
Interstellar Space

Also on Impulse!:
Alice Coltrane, Journey in Satchidananda
Freddie Hubbard, The Body and the Soul
Pharoah Sanders, Karma
Charles Mingus, Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus
Sun Ra, Space is the Place
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers

On Blue Note (Rudy Van Gelder remasters):
John Coltrane, Blue Train
Cannonball Adderley, Somethin' Else
Dexter Gordon, Go!
Wayne Shorter, Adam's Apple, Speak No Evil
Jimmy Smith, House Party, The Sermon
Don Cherry, Symphony for Improvisers
Art Blakey, A Night at Birdland, Vol. 1, At the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 1
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Moanin'
Bud Powell, The Amazing Bud Powell, Volume One
Eric Dolphy, Out to Lunch

Django Reinhardt, Memorial (1947 era recordings, double disc)
Jimmy Smith, Root Down
Dennis Brown, Money in My Pocket
Hawkwind, Doremi Fasol Latido
The Chambers Brothers, The Time Has Come
Prince, 3121
Journey Into Paradise...The Larry Levan Story
Yello, the remasters of Solid Pleasure and Claro Que Si
Aretha Franklin, Lady Soul
Jessica Bailiff, Feels Like Home
The Very Best of Brand Nubian
Super Furry Animals, Love Kraft
Negative Trend, Negative Trend EP
The Jesus and Mary Chain, Psychocandy reissue
Converge, Caring and Killing
Low, Transmission EP (that took me long enough)
Dollar, The Platinum Collection (just for the Trevor Horn productions)
Arthur Russell, World of Echo reissue
The Slits, Cut
Kirsty MacColl, From Croydon to Cuba (I can't believe they had this!)
The Perrey and Kingsley box set

On EMI Classics:
Holst, The Planets and Elgar's Enigma Variations both conducted by Boult with the London Philharmonic
Mozart -- Symphony No. 40, Gran Partita, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Piano Concerto No. 20, all conducted by Furtwangler with the Vienna Philharmonic.
Dvorak, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra Op. 53 and Romance in F Minor Op. 11/Bartok, Rhapsodies for violin and orchestra nos. 1 and 2 -- featured violinist Kyung-Wha Chung with the Philadelphia Orchestra (Dvorak) and the City of Birmingham Symphony conducted by Rattle (Bartok)
Rachmaninov, Symphony No. 2, Previn/London Philharmonic
Ravel, Daphnis et Chloe/Debussy, Jeux - Poeme Danse, Cluytens
Windy and Carl, The Dream House/Dedications to Flea
Emperor, Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
Darkthrone, Transilvanian Hunger, Plaguewielder, Ravishing Grimness
Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno
Cult of Luna, Somewhere Along the Highway
The Gun Club, Death Party
Nine Horses (aka David Sylvian and friends), Snow Borne Sorrow
Pet Shop Boys, Fundamental (two disc version with the remixes)
Six Organs of Admittance, The Sun Awakens
Matmos, The Civil War
Triad (Red Sparowes, Made Out of Babies, Battle of Mice)
Electro Sessions (handy two disc comp -- some fairly random choices but hey, Eric B and Rakim, Lovebug Starski, Def Jef, Just Ice, The 45 King...)
Schubert, Musik zum Schauspiel "Rosamunde," Ouverture "Die Zauberharfe", Standchen (Zogernd Leise), Lehmann/Berlin Philharmonic
Orff, Carmina Burana, Mehta/London Philharmonic
Nardwaur's DVD Doot Doola Doot Doo...Doot Doo!

60%:

Ethiopiques 14
Zanzibara 2
Acid Mothers Temple -- Starless and Bible Black Sabbath
The Trip -- curated by Jarvis Cocker/Steve Mackay
Melvins -- King Buzzo
Denim -- Back in Denim
The Walker Brothers -- If You Could Hear Me Now (recent CD covering the three reunion albums, thankfully including all the Scott tracks from Nite Flights, which was nice as I'd only had mp3s -- scarily this only cost $4, and was an *import*)
The Chris Connelly 'box set,' which is this slightly odd but welcome packaging of a slew of his late nineties/early this decade efforts that I'd been slack on getting around to, plus a couple of discs of rarities and outtakes back to the Fini Tribe days. $14 for seven CDs.
Celtic Frost, Monotheist
Ivor Cutler, An Elpee and Two Epees (his earliest stuff from 1959-61)
Delta 5, Singles and Sessions
5ive (not the boy band), Versus (some inexplicable thing with Justin Broadrick remixes)
P J Harvey, B Sides (just an EP for Uh Huh Her stuff)
Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places (score!)
Mission of Burma, The Obliterati
Gruff Rhys, Yr Atal Genhedlaeth
Sparks, "Perfume" CD single (for an alternate track plus a Clor remix)
The Flaming Stars, London After Midnight -- two discs of singles, Peel Sessions, etc.
Terry Edwards, Terry Edwards Presents...Birth of the Scapegoats -- one disc of singles, Peel Sessions, etc.
Kate Bush, Hounds of Love -- which might not sound too remarkable in and of itself except 1) it was the import remaster with bonus tracks and 2) the original list price was only $14.99. Even the cashier was jealous.
The Gathering, Mandylion & Bonus
Mad Professor, Method to the Madness
Stina Nordenstam, The World Is Saved
Scott Walker's Climate of Hunter at long last, happily being the reissue/remaster from this year at that. Only $5!
Mogwai, Mr. Beast (the bonus DVD edition -- ooh, fancy package)
Roland Kirk, Kirk in Copenhagen
That Suburban Base comp Base For Your Face
Tweaker, The Attraction to All Things Uncertain -- I had no idea what this was aside from the fact it was one of the Six Degrees overstocks but turns out it's Chris Vrenna, Trent Reznor's former (?) main collaborator, and that David Sylvian, King Buzzo and Craig Wedren were all on it, which was all I needed to know
Brahms, Piano Concerto No. 1/Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel (Gelber on piano with the Munich Philharmonic)
John Fahey, The Yellow Princess (reissue with rare bonus cuts etc.)
Amorphis, Eclipse
Lalezar -- Music of the Sultans, Sufis and Seraglio Volume 2 (as you might guess, traditional Turkish music -- there were at least two hundred copies of this thing there and they had it marked down to $1.50 so I thought 'what the hell')
The double disc Sister Sledge comp in that Definitive Groove Series that Rhino put out.

70%, plus clearance knockdowns in some cases:
The Nightingales, Pigs on Purpose (remaster with bonus tracks etc. -- only really discovered these guys recently and I think they're wonderful, v. underrated)
Arthur Russell, First Thought, Best Thought
Produced by Trevor Horn -- great double disc set of some of his finest moments, from the Buggles to Tatu
Scenic/Lanterna -- split live disc from their 1996 tour
Dream Babes Vol. 3 -- Backcomb'n'Beat (Bob Stanley-curated series, sixties UK female singers -- pure Moz bait, essentially)
The Delays, Faded Seaside Glamour ($4 or something, why not?)
Alter Ego, Rocker EP (50 cents! Eight mixes, etc. etc.)
Smoosh, Free to Stay
Six by Seven, 04
Vitalic, OK Cowboy

Three Six Degrees discs at $2 each:
Zuco 103, Whaa!
Cibelle, The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves
Genghis Blues soundtrack

And the one book I got: Comrade Rockstar, a biography of Dean Reed, who really should be more famous (new documentary film soon!)

75% (50 bucks for all this):

From the EMI Classical vaults:

Beethoven, Missa Solemnis, conducted by Otto Klemperer
Britten, Sinfonia da Requiem and Shostakovich, Symphony No. 10, conducted by Simon Rattle
Handel, Piano Suites 9-16 and Beethoven, Piano Sonata Op. 31 No. 2, played by Andrei Gavrilov and Sviatoslav Richter
Mozart, Le Nozze di Figaro, conducted by von Karajan with Elizabeth Schwarzkopf singing
Satie, a variety of piano pieces, including Trois Gymnopedies, played by Aldo Ciccolini

From the Six Degrees clearout:

Bebel Gilberto, s/t
Zuco 103, Tales of High Fever

The Go-Betweens, 16 Lovers Lane double-disc reissue
The Goslings, Spaceheater/Perfect Interior
Lakeside, Ultimate Collection -- recent comp, a number of the tracks are the single edits but I'd yet to have anything by 'em so I'll take this!
Matmos, The Rose Has Teeth...
Satyricon, The Shadowthrone
Africa Vision, Volume 1: 1975-2005 : Le cinéma africain francophone

80%:

Coachwhips, Double Death
Christian Kiefer/Sharron Kraus, The Black Dove
Bunny Brains, Sin Gulls (Goring St. Eddy)
The Tears, Here Come the Tears
Isolee, Wearemonster
Lucid, Idylls and the Secret Remain
Mouthus, The Long Salt
Double Exposure, My Love is Free -- The Best of
Crib, Remnant
Liaisons Dangereuses, Liaisons Dangereuses
Acid Casuals, Omni
The Icarus Line, Mono
Loleatta Holloway, The Anthology (double disc Salsoul)
Bobak, Jons, Malone, Motherlight
Get Physical 2nd Anniversary Label Compilation
Get Physical 4th Anniversary Label Compilation

And a Kranky trifecta:
Bird Show, Lightning Ghost
Chihei Hatakeyama, Minima Moralia
Christmas Decorations, Model 91

Plus cheap copies of the Ohm CD/DVD box and The World of Arthur Russell via donut.

And approaching 90% for the last batch ($85 spent, $700 saved):

v/a, Well-Suited for General-purpose Audio Work (Schematic comp)
Converge, Unloved and Weeded Out
Space Needle, Recordings 1994-1997
John Frusciante, Shadows Collide With People
Al Green, The Belle Album
Nils Petter Molvaer, An American Compilation
Sonic Youth, SYR 5
Blank and Jones, The Singles
Black Dice, Smiling Off EP
50 Foot Wave, Golden Ocean and the Free Music EP
v/a, Legendary Sound Vol. 1
Clogs, Stick Music, Thom's Night Out and Lantern
The Knife, Silent Shout
Free Design, Sing For Very Important People, Kites Are Fun and There Is a Song
v/a, Wattstax: Highlights From the Soundtrack
Ladytron, Extended Play
Puccini, Messa di Gloria/Preludio Sinfonico/Crisantemi (Antonio Pappano w/London Symphony)
The Whispers, Greatest Hits (specifically the Solar late seventies/early eighties era)
Steve Kilbey, Remindlessness remaster
v/a, The DFA Remixes, Volume One
Vas, In The Garden of Souls
Lift to Experience, The Texas/Jerusalem Crossroads
Tigran Mansurian, Ars Poetica
Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 5 (Chicago Symphony conducted by Abbado)
Zuco 103, Outro Lado
Midnight Star, No Parking on the Dance Floor
v/a, Body Language Vol. 1
Nathan Fake, Drowning In a Sea of Love
Khanate, Capture and Release
Gregg Kowalsky, Through the Cordial Window
Lee Morgan, The Sidewinder (RVG remaster)
Electrelane, Axes
The Mars Volta, Amputechture
Super Furry Animals, Phantom Phorce (odd but potentially interesting remix collection with an extra EP to boot; it's designed to turn into a stand alone mock up hand-held video game, early eighties style)
v/a, The Rough Guide to Fado (Portuguese folk music style, been wanting to give this an ear for a while)
v/a, Techno Classics Volume 2 (Rising High comp from '92)
Boris, Pink
Clifford Brown, Memorial Album (RVG remaster)
v/a, Check the Water (Leaf label two disc 10th anniversary comp)
Evie Sands, Any Way That You Want Me
Vidna Obmana, Memories Compiled

plus on DVD:

The Best of the Beta Band -- Film (didn't even know this existed!)
Gallon Drunk, One for the Ladies (which I got more for the bonus 'Dora Suarez' film but hey)
Boudu Saved From Drowning (Jean Renoir's early sound classic, on Criterion)

Well. Now to listen to it all. And watch it in some cases.

holy shit ned

The slight addendum was picking up these ten albums for ten bucks at Easy Street's clearance section up in Seattle:

Northern State, All City
Magnapop, Rubbing Doesn't Help
Death in Vegas, Dead Elvis
Prince, Musicology
Mensen, Delusions of Grandeur
The Spinanes, Manos
Six Finger Satellite, Paranormalized
Dean Roberts, Be Mine Tonight
No Wait Wait, No Wait Wait (some weird Low side project thing)
The Icarus Line, Penance Soiree

So that was cool too.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=K99HKwEGz5I

:-D Thanks! That was truly strange. I already had the box set o' course so when I saw the singles comp I was deeply pleased.

i wonder how much you could make if you sold all that via amazon or whatever.

Oh, god knows. But as AKM sez above the market's likely pretty depressed now.

Anyway, in the true spirit of dorkiness, I've decided to note the discs on your list that I got at the clearance as well.

Mixed With Love: The Walter Gibbons Salsoul Anthology
Bill Withers Live at Carnegie Hall (I probably jumped too soon from a financial standpoint, but it was cheap to start with, and I've been wanting it for quite a while.)
Jesu s/t
Celtic Frost Monotheist
Mission of Burma The Obliterati (I'm glad I didn't get it when it came out:  it's a real improvement on OnOffOn)
Arthur Russell First Thought, Best Thought
Coachwhips Double Death
...and The World of Arthur Russell...
The Knife Silent Shout

I gotta be honest, I was keeping this running list elsewhere in part just to remind myself what the hell I got so I can listen to it all!

Not at all, even! I'm going to be especially interested because that's Geeta Dayal's entry for the upcoming Marooned anthology so it'll be a pleasure to hear it before I read her essay.

i will not particularly miss tower - amazon's zshops + half.com sort of made it irrelevant for me - but i will miss their clearance bin.

A sentiment said elsewhere! But by the same token what people read/watch/hear in general is never going to conform to an exact model, after all -- expectations never match reality. That's a good thing, though, it means a wider range of individual perspectives.

Hot Chip - The Warning
Beta Band - Heroes to Zeroes
Knife - Silent Shout (they must have like a zillion copies of this)
Durutti Column - Return of (the reissue with the bonus tracks)

I couldn't believe that even at 70% off, the Booka Shade and Isolee albums were still like $10. I probably should've picked them up, but when you compare to $5 a piece, seems high.

Z-Ro Let The Truth Be Told
Juvenile Reality Check

Things which I wanted, but which didn't get cheap enough to get and someone else snatched:

VP's Channel One Compilation
Studio One Funk
TI The King (which I should have bought at 50% off, but there seemed to be so many copies that I got lazy)
Sizzla Waterhouse Redemption
Sugar Minnott At Studio One (this I'm sort of eh about actually)
New Busta Rhymes
New Orleans Funk Soul Jazz thing (people bought this at $15!)

Things I never saw, but wanted and I am mad about:

This Heat Boxed Set

This Heat Boxed Set

Amen.

An Albatross - Blessphemy
All 4 Coachwhips (sorry, but they aren't worth much more)
Frog Eyes - The Bloody Hand
Mark Hollis - Mark Hollis
Plastikman - Musik
Rye Coalition - Curses
Sam Roberts - Chemical City
Serena Maneesh - Serena Maneesh
To Live and Shave in L.A. - Vedder Vedder Bedwetter
Whitehouse - Buchenwald
Zoroaster - Zoroaster

uh, wow.

Jazz very picked over but I got Vijay Iyer - Raw Materials and the Subjazz Proxy disk (there were still at least 20 copies of this one).