Things I bought at Amoeba (total cost about $70. Most of it was cut out/discounted except the Dan Hicks.):

House of Freaks s/t - I saw them live when this came out. Danced like a maniac and their manager gave me a House of Freaks nite lite. Anyway, great catchy roots rocks songs by a rock and roll duo.

The Indie Scene '86 - Spiff series of British independent singles, 1986 being a high note year. Tons of bands that only Jon and Jim would know, including: The Weather Prophets, Easterhouse, Blue Aeroplanes,Half Man Half Biscuit, The Flatmates, Close Lobsters, The Psylons plus some bands most folks might recognize like Pulp, The Go Betweens, Billy Bragg, The Mekons.

Electric Pocket Radio by The Incredible Moses Leroy. We feature this in the book, so I'm keen to hear it.

It Happened One Bite by Dan Hicks. Legendary lost album (soundtrack for an animated film which was never finished) put out on Rhino Handmade. Dan's the fellow who gave us the useful song title "How Can I Miss You If You Don't Go Away."

Best Of Badfinger II - yeah, I'm a hopeless power pop fan. Speaking of which, recent video scores off The Alternative include The Hoodoo Gurus' "I Want You Back" and Teenage Fanclub's "What You Do To Me."

What else...the Mojo mag freebie The Roots of Led Zeppelin with some choice delta blues cuts plus choice british folk rock. Also, the legendary Numbers band from Cleveland.

Also got a video collection of Elvis Costello ('77-83) to send to Teppy. 22 vids and such.

Did everybody see Rhino's new box set Left of the Dial? Four disks of all that stuff Jon and I listened to in college. R.E.M., Replacements, Husker Du, Mission of Burma, Smiths, Go Betweens, Mekons.

Kind of wonderning who the audience for this is. Wouldn't fans of that era already have that stuff?

Kind of wonderning who the audience for this is. Wouldn't fans of that era already have that stuff?

Would they have it on vinyl or CD?

Would they have it on vinyl or CD?

That could be it. We're talking the 80s for this stuff. That was definitely the virtue of receiving the punk box set for me.

Yeah, I recently bought a compilation for songs I only have on mix tapes from high school. Fun to have on CD!

Yeah, I recently bought a compilation for songs I only have on mix tapes from high school. Fun to have on CD!

Seems like that would be the point of iTunes.

Obscure Musical Shout Out On The Venture Brothers: The villain the Monarch is bitching about a tell-all bio that comes out with photographs: "Oh, look there I am at Danceteria making out with Stiv Bators and Lydia Lunch."

signed,
Actually Went Dancing At Danceteria

This is my favorite music in-show reference since The Dead Boys got a mention on Square Pegs. Stiv Bators - two for two.

Random Stiv Stories: (1) Cynthia Heimel cited him as being exceptionally gentlemanly in her book Sex Tips For Girls in his generous sharing of drugs with her. (2) He almost got strangled at CBGBs when he threw a mic-cord over the low beam there, wrapped it around his neck and pulled himself off the floor. The fans started batting him around like a volleyball.

Obscure Musical Shout Out On The Venture Brothers

t added to TiVo to-do list!

added to TiVo to-do list!

Music by Jim Thirwell, incidentally.

Seems like that would be the point of iTunes.

I don't have the tech for iTunes -- dialup, no burner. But it's possible I'm the last person stuck in the 90s.

Jesse, that's me at home. Dialup, no burner, Windows ME ("where the ME means Maximum Excrement!"). My G4 at work (with T1 line) is where I get all my CD burning done.

Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure I no longer work at work. It's all about illicit media.

I caught the Venture Brothers last night and cracked up at the Stiv & Lydia mention.

This was, of course, once I got home from seeing BRIAN WILSON! Holy shit, was that absolutely incredible. I'm not sure I ever want to hear a Beach Boys song again that doesn't feature nine-part harmony vocals. And every member of the band is better than me at, like, six different instruments. Brian Wilson himself even seemed to be having a great time, waving his arms, (fake-)conducting the string quintet, favoring the audience with huge grins, especially when he pulled a power drill out from behind his keyboard for "Workshop." I was on the 4th row, just off of stage center, and had an excellent view of all the different instruments and silly props (e.g. the strings and horn players throwing cale, corn, carrots, and cabbage at each other during "Vega-Tables," one of the guitarists pulling out a hook and pirate flag during "Holiday," the fireman helmets, the power tools, the surfboards, the glockenspiels (and how many of the Wondermints actually play glockenspiel? I counted four. And how many songs have a vibraphone breakdown, anyway?)), and this band played "Good Vibrations," which, as we all know, is impossible to play live. Featuring one of those not-quite-a-theramin things from the original recording (what are they called, Jon?) custom-made by an Austin luthier/electronic instrument dabbler. The guy who played the theramin-ish thing also played guitar, trumpet, French horn, banjo, keyboard, penny-whistle, clarinet, and, at one point, a sheet of steel for an odd, booming background sound. I'm completely flabbergasted.