Last year, Winnipeg's Into the Music purchased the archives (CD's and vinyl) from both our local CBC radio station and the one from our "neighbouring" city of Regina. Last weekend they blew out the last of the CD's for $.50 each (or 100 for $25.00). Needless to say, I dived in head first, trying the patience of my fellow rock walk'ers.
Nothing highlights trash/treasure dichotomy quite like store-wide blow-out sale. Surely you will disdain some of my purchases; when the prices go down the better angels of my judgement pull out their debit cards.
We've got a lot of styles in this soufle; ska (King Apparatus), protest folk (Phil Ochs, Malvina Reynolds), Alt-country (Cactus Brothers, Mack McKenzie, Jughead, Cheryl Wheeler), Brit-folk (The Levellers), power-pop (Doughboys, Chris Page), celtic (Spirit of the West), world music (3 Mustaphas 3), straight-up country (BR5 49, Blackhawk) and, inevitably, failed super-group (Little Village).
And this is only the fifty-cent bin I also stalked the slightly more expensive two-dollar bin but more on that later...
So, MRML readers, what are some of your favourite finds in the cheapie bin?
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Jeffen
ReplyDeleteYou can congratulate waddling Stevie Boy Harper and his motley crew of criminal fascists for purging the CBC of it's musical archives.These political pigs at the trough make me sick!
Cactus Brothers,Spirit of the West,Phil Ochs,Little Village ... all good.Little Village were great live ... lots of talent on stage.Spirit of the West were a fixture at Expo 86 ... along with the likes of Shari Ulrich etc.
No 'bargain bin' in my present location ... actually besides WalMart no place to even buy a CD.So it is bandcamp,amazon,ebay,band sites etc.
Cheers
Doug
Yeah making digital archives is one thing but selling off the whole thing - which labels and artists gave to you in the first place - seems thoughtless. I'll gladly lay the blame for any and all thoughtlessness at the feet of the Harper Government.
DeleteI've had a few. None too recently.
ReplyDeleteStand-out ones I remember:
The Housemartins - 'Now That's What I Call Quite Good' was a steal for a deleted double album at $3 something.
Green River - 'Dry As a Bone/Rehab Doll' for a buck.
Denzil - 'Pub' on CD was another I remember being ecstatic to find for $1. (Destroyed the cassette while treeplanting...)
I also have a CBS Records label cassette sampler called 'Riot of Our Own' which is from around 1989 that has some Strummer, rare Godfathers, and other groups for 50¢.
Y'know I'd never even heard of Denzil before. It's good reminds me a bit of the Wedding Present meets Prefab Sprout.
DeleteWedding Present, for sure.
DeletePrefab Sprout? Dunno...
(I always thought it kind of had a late Wonderstuff / slightly Ned's Atomic Dustbin kind of feel to it.)
Definitely one of the better albums from the mid-Nineties.
mission accomplished by the rezillos.that cost me 50p for the vinyl in the record and tape exchange in berwick street london.
ReplyDeletebeastie boys cookie puss 12" 50p
Dance Craze vinyl £1
and a whole load more.mostly from this shop the record and tape exchange.they have a few branches here in london that you could spend hours digging in
i frequently do.and now that mrs gobby and gobby junior are off to visit the inlaws for 3 weeks i think its high time i went back.Thanks for reminding me!!
Let me just say that your bargain bin finds are infinitely cooler than mine!
DeleteHope you had good luck during your most recent dig!
The most bizarre bargain bin finds were at the Stillwater, Oklahoma Dollar General Store, where I found cassettes by Controlled Bleeding and Suicide. Not the most essential releases by those two bands, but still, how did they end up in Dollar General?
ReplyDeleteI love finds that make you ask 'how did THAT end up here?
DeleteLove that BR5-49 disc. Their pinch hitting instrumentalist Donny Herron, plays that role in Bob Dylan's band for the last couple of years.
ReplyDeleteFave bargain bin find was years ago finally finding a vinyl copy of the Blues Magoos Psychadelic Lollipop for fifty cents. Had a scratched copy the 45 "we aint got nothing yet" for years but took a while to hunt down the album (before the interweb made google and ebay such easy options to find such things)
I also dug BR5-49's first E.P.
DeleteThose are some cool finds, by the way!
Finding it harder and harder to locate bargain CDs; the last big blast I had was about seven years back- got about 10 or 12 discs for a dollar or two each at Wal-Mart: Roxy Music Avalon and a couple Marty Brown is what I best remember. While in KC MO this spring, found a copy of the Kinks To The Bone for five or seven bucks. Always great to locate something you never knew you needed.
ReplyDelete"Always great to locate something you never knew you needed."
DeleteThat could go on my tombstone.
Green on Red's "Gravity Talks," cut-out for a buck or two. Opened me up to the whole early 80s LA scene. Also found three volumes of "Great White Wonder" stuff (Italian pressing) once--well before the "official bootleg" period. Also very cheap, but dear. "Street Hassle" was another awesome cut-out (I miss those days).
ReplyDeleteI'd would LOVE to have a copy of the GWW - is there an emoticon for 'jealous'?
DeleteNot much lately, ever since the internet came along it's hard to find a great CD or album for $1. Great $1 CDs: Mud Boy And The Neutrons- They Walk Among Us, Dr. John- Gris Gris, Cream- Greatest Hits, Guy Forsythe- Steak, Eric Amble- Loud & Lonesome.
ReplyDelete$1 vinyl: Syd Barrett's first two albums (English imports!), and Free- Fire & Water, all mint condition, bought from an 80-year little old man at a flea market.
Damn those Barrett LP's on vinyl must be a worth a pretty penny nowadays!
DeleteI've probably blown enough money on bargain bin CD's to buy a decent car!
ReplyDeleteI scored The Heartbreakers L.A.M.F. CD in a mall record store bargain bin for $1! I think the bargain purchase I've listened to most, though, is Killbilly's Foggy Mountain Anarchy.
"I've probably blown enough money on bargain bin CD's to buy a decent car!"
DeleteI'd forgotten about Killbilly's Foggy Mountain Anarchy - I shall have to listen to it again. If I remember correctly the covers were better than the originals but it's been decade or more...
My best was a yard sale conducted in the 1980s by a little old Chinese couple. They had one of those huge 1960's high-fi console stuffed with records...but all of them Chinese records. No western records...except for one: a mint condition, still in the shrink wrap copy of James Brown Live at the Apollo. Weirdest thing, maybe a babysitter left it there in 1962.
ReplyDelete" a mint condition, still in the shrink wrap copy of James Brown Live at the Apollo"
DeleteSc-ore!
"Rurality" by Jolly Jumpers, at Epicenter (SF collective affiliated with MRR) decades ago; a Finnish band with a deep affection for Americana, I'd never heard of 'em but paid the one or two bucks for the CD. It's one of my favorites to this day. Too many records to name - "In The Flesh" by Skeletons, "Elaine Mackenzie" by Green (to name two bargain bin finds that ended up on my all-time favorites list), etc etc.
ReplyDeleteC in California