various artists - Steal This Disc 3

In fact, I did not steal this disc. I paid a dollar ninety-nine for it mere weeks ago.

A quick one, as I prepare for a full-day training session on my Sunday. It's fascinating how the music you're introduced to at an early age shapes your entire listening existence. While I didn't own an exact copy of this in the early 90s, my early CD collection was littered with Ryko releases. The Bowie and Zappa reissue series, Hendrix's Radio One sessions and "Live at Winterland" set, "Hardcore Devo" Vols. 1 & 2, and Mission of Burma's Ace of Hearts output all populated my shelves before I graduated high school. They were mostly appointed in the distinctive green Rykodisc jewel cases, making them stand out that much more amongst the other pieces of my slowly-growing collection.

This one broadens my decidedly-narrow view from junior year. There are a trio of Beatles-adjacent tracks from Ringo, Badfinger, and Paul McCartney's brother. Rykodisc really leaned into world music with the likes of 3 Mustaphas 3 and the Oyster Band. I had no clue Jerry Jeff Walker and Evan Johns had put out records on Ryko until I snagged this; Nils Lofgren was less surprising, as was a Henry Kaiser project.

I don't know if it says more about the priorities of the music industry or the tastes of listeners that you just don't get this sort of awesome shotgunning any more. I suspect it's the former; I know that amongst my own aging group of freaks that we're even more likely to acknowledge that we want to listen to Ornette Coleman, Lack Of Interest, Wendy Carlos, and Barbara Dane, often times one right after the other.

The fold-out cover, exhibited below, is just the cherry on top of a collection that still fucking slaps.

Discogs

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various artists - Reggae Chartbusters Volume Two (Expanded Edition)

I busted my ass to find a copy of this.

See, getting Volumes 1, 3, and 4 were pretty easy. All three came from a seller in the UK with very reasonable shipping costs. I think I paid around $20, shipping included, for all three. But Volume Two was, for most of spring and into summer, a white whale. Sellers were asking $25.00 to ship a copy from overseas. The few US shops who had a copy were similarly asking WAY to much for a 15-year-old reissue of a budget comp from 1971. But, luckily, a Japanese store that I've bought records before had a cheap copy, the yen is weak against the dollar, Bob's your uncle, a copy way mine for $10.

And it was worth it, goddammit. Worth it for the seventeenth record I own with these Desmond Dekker songs on them. Worth it for a pair of my all-time favorite Maytals tracks. Worth it for Bob & Marcia's "Young, Gifted, And Black", which got me a native nod in traffic last week. And worth it for the eight bonus tracks appended to the original release. This is a perfect record for the hot season here in the PNW, chock full of slower jams from the first years of JA music transitioning from the rocksteady beat into reggae and creating one of the finest bodies of pop music ever created.

Discogs

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various artists - This Is Bad Taste Vol. 3

When I bought this a few months ago, I swore I was picking up a Burning Heart-related sampler of early 90s Ümea hardcore. This, instead, is what some of those X'ed up yoots moved on to when they graduated university. Lest you get it twisted, I'm not unhappy with this. There's a fair amount of snotty-nosed punk rock (Satanic Surfers, Chixdiggit, Trigger Happy), more serious political rock (Weakerthans), and, yes, a smattering of mid-90's hardcore (Within Reach, Misconduct).

But what really matters is there's a Hard Ons track. Who doesn't love a little Ray Ahn? Amirite, or amirite?

Postscript: Bad Taste eventually grew up, quit putting out records, and became a management company, splitting time between Santa Monica and Stockholm. It's a classic story, really.

Discogs

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various artists - California Ain't Fun No More

This one is a bit of a perfect storm. Let me explain.

It's put together by Jason Duncan from the Parasites, who runs Just Add Water, which is the place I learned about Jesse Hector. JAW put out the CD; Berlin's Alien Snatch Records handled the vinyl. Chuck Loose from the Crumbs did the cover, which reminded me of a lot of Baltimore-local artwork from the same period. This one popped up on eBay as a penny CD; a bona-fide bargain at that price. The artwork took me back, even at 300x300 dpi, so I didn't give a shit what was actually on the record.

This is twelve tracks worth of delicious West Coast garage rock circa 2002. Pre-Burger Records, contemporaneous with Gearhead, Estrus, and Man's Ruin and all kinds of other great Mordam-distributed labels. They're the sort of bands championed by the likes of Hit List, the knuckle dragger's MRR and a zine whose demise I've long lamented. I'm a bit sad it took me 22 years after the release to cop this one.

It's just a good-ass, "drive around with the windows down and a cold drink in your crotch"-type record, even missing the two vinyl-only songs.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Southern Soul (15 Righteous Tracks)

The heat bubble has landed in the Pacific Northwest, and I'm currently sweating at 9:40pm-ish on a Sunday night, which seems quite unjust. After all, did we not move here to spend nine months out of the year in darkness and gloom, in damp and dank? I spent my childhood in the South, in 120% humidity, far away from any water. Just. Sweatin'. And hearing sweet, sweet soul music playing on a lot of radios.

Which leads me here, to this April 2005 giveaway from Mojo. Almost 20 years on, so many of these greats who then here are now gone: Tina Turner, Etta James, Little Milton, and Don Varner amongst them. Death comes for us all; I know this. But it really seems hard to believe that these giants no longer walk the Earth, that all I have left are increasingly soft-focus memories of backseat rides with the windows down, Sam & Dave playing on a tape deck, the smell of my granddad's Viceroy cigarettes and off-brand vodka and freshly tarred pavement.

The heat will break in a few days, the 90 degree noons disappearing for another year. And I'll file this one away in a box for storage for another decade or so. And all that will remain sharp are a few bars of the Mar-Keys, an Eddie Floyd chorus. And that's ok.

Discogs

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various artists - 1999 Teen-Beat Sampler (A Compilation Album)

It seems strange to me that I haven't written more about being a big dork for Arlington, VA's Teen-Beat Records. After all, it's not like I just got into them last week. The Mark Robinson-led label has been a part of my life ever since I moved to Baltimore in '94, having copped Unrest's "Perfect Teeth" shortly after landing there. Here was a sonically different fellow traveler to my beloved Dischord, a place that melded pop influences with DIY ethics and a postmodern visual aesthetic. Along with what was coming out of K Records in the PNW, it was a place where Madonna and Enya could meld with Crispy Ambulance and Cath Carroll into something that was distinct and familiar to this 17-year-old boy.

This is the fourth in the Teen-Beat Annual Sampler Series, and it's a pretty good one, a proper sampling of both the current label roster as well as a smattering of some super deep cuts from the catalog. The Rondells' record was one that I listened to nearly to death in 1999, and their cover of "Like A Prayer" got played a lot on my radio show. There was something familiar about True Love Always' "Faust"; it would be years later that I'd connect that it originated from de Palma's "Phantom Of The Paradise". Versus, Flin Flon, Tel Aviv: their songs from their then-current records laid out a indie pop present very different from what was playing on the radio at the end of the millenium, but just as danceable and worthy of singing along.

Discogs / Teen-Beat

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various artists - Select Cuts From Blood & Fire

I feel bad that I missed my last posting slot. Outside of my professional life, I tend towards not being disciplined. So it's important to me that I follow through when I commit to doing something; whether that's posting twice a week, or following my Reminders app religiously, or just being on time. And when I fall short, it stings, no matter how banal or unimportant in the greater scheme that task might be.

But I don't feel that bad.

Now that that's out of the way: on to the music. In this case, it's a cheapy pickup from eBay. Whenever I see "Blood & Fire" on a record, my brain perks up. I'm a huge fan of what the now-defunct Mancunian reissue label put together during it's 15-some-odd year history. And when I can snag one of their out-of-print releases for a buck or two, all the better. So a late night scroll turned this guy up without an awful lot of information. I didn't consider cross referencing what this was on Discogs; it was going for $1 plus shipping, fer Crissake! Just pull the trigger.

So I did, and it arrived, and I was pleasantly surprised. Select Cuts was a sub-label of noted remixers Echo Beach, It paired contemporary artists with older catalogs and let them go off with remixes. The results, as I've come to discover, are pretty solid. There are names I know (the Orb, Stereo MC's, Transglobal Underground) remixing artists I love (Horace Andy, King Tubby, the Congos). Simple as.

This isn't something I would have ever sought out, but it's something I'm happy I stumbled across. Rabbit Rabbit, everyone.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Trash! The Roots Of Punk!

From the ridiculous(ly bad) to the tragic to the sublime: here's yet another killer Mojo comp. This one's chock full of proto-punk, pub rock, glam, and even a smooch of space rock and motorik. The Iggster is on the cover. The Dolls lead things off. There's not a dud in the entire bunch.

But who am I telling? You know what you're getting when you visit Primitive Offerings, my previous post notwithstanding.

Discogs

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various artists - Infinite Zero Promotional CD #1

I initially had another release planned for today; you'll get that one next Monday.

But then James Chance passed away Tuesday, June 18th, and I felt like it was a good time to share this label sampler from 30 years ago. I remember finding this in the promo bin at the first record store I worked in, just a year after it came out. But it was a revelation for me, led off by the Contortions' "Design To Kill", and followed by the likes of Devo, Gang of Four, Alan Vega, and Tom Verlaine. Hell, there's a LL Cool J track here. I'm guessing it's a result of Infinite Zero being a Rick Rubin/Henry Rollins joint venture.

RIP to a real one. There ain't many of his like left.

Discogs

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various artists - MLB: Music - Games - Baseball

Let me make this clear: this is probably one of the worst things I'll ever post here. But I stopped by one of my local favorite on Friday after work, ostensibly to pick up some massively discounted CDs during their moving sale. Mission accomplished: I grabbed this, a copy of Górecki's Symphony No. 3, and a few other things I didn't feel at all shy about paying 10 cents or so for. Total bill: $0.83 for four CDs, a cassette copy of Tori Amos's "Under The Pink", and something by Portland's the U-Krew. It's possible I thought I was buying a U-Men tape; who can say?

But this is a fucking tragedy. A sampling of songs that appeared in 2005's baseball video games, this is the worst of the worst walk-up music I've ever heard. Camden Yards was good for using old school hip-hop and contemporary garage rock for the likes of Larry Bigbie and Luke Scott. Why couldn't that taste translate to MLB Baseball 2005, or 2K5, or even Slugfest? Instead, there's a Nickleback signing, a couple of Christian rockers, and a Finnish symphonic metal band. None of this screams, "coming to the plate: Melvin Mora" to me.

I washed the taste of this one by ordering Scat's last in-stock copy of "Bee Thousand", and watching the Orioles take 2 of 3 from the Phils. Onward and upward.

Discogs

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various artists - Uncut Presents: White Riot Vol. One (A Tribute To The Clash)

They can't all be winners, people, but as far as tribute records to the Clash go, I respect this one, because it leans into "Sandinista"-era Clash moreso than other Clash tributes, and there are some rather-unknown artists here (for me, at least), plus an unreleased Mescaleros track and a contemporary Stiff Little Fingers songs about Mssr. Strummer, and, anyway, this run on sentence has run on. Shit, it came free with a copy of Uncut...what more do you want out of life?

There's a Volume Two, as well, with some more familiar artists on it, and maybe I'll buy a copy one day and write a hundred words about that one also.

Discogs

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