I didn't have any reason in particular to go today, aside from the fact that I'm home alone all weekend and had a paycheck burning a hole in my pocket. The goods at Used Kids weren't as good as usual, but there were still a few good things to be had.
Burning Star Core – Papercuts Theater (2×LP, $15)
The "new arrivals" section was pretty dry on good stuff, so I went with the new(ish) double album by Burning Star Core. Seems pretty standard fare based on his older stuff—lots of layered, droning noise and hectic drum improvisations. A bit hard to digest, perhaps, but definitely interesting.
Subtitle / John Wiese / Adlib / The Cherry Point – Split (7", $4)
I saw John Wiese and The Cherry Point (two awesome noise artists I already enjoy) listed on the front and couldn't resist—what I didn't know was that Subtitle and Adlib weren't track titles but hip hop artists. An odd combination, though their style is a bit unusual, atonal and noisy in their own right (especially Adlib, who's barely hip hop at all); so I guess it's more fitting than I originally thought. Wiese and The Cherry Point each bring short tracks typical of their own noisy style; good stuff all around.
Kazumoto Endo & Blazen y Sharp – Ask for It by Name (7", $3)
Completely awesome harsh noise, as Kazumoto Endo is known for. I have never heard of Blazen or Sharp before, but the collaboration of all three musicians is just as good on this EP as Endo's other stuff (like While You Were Out). Very satisfying, and a great purchase. For some reason it came with a name patch (according to Discogs, this is standard). Mine says "Paul" on it. A bit weird.
Hair Police – Strict (7", $3)
I don't know if I even liked Hair Police when I heard a couple of their albums a long time ago, but I felt compelled to get this anyway, somehow. On the A side: Extremely noisy noise rock, like Raccoo-oo-oon behind a wall of overdrive pedals and Sunn amps. On the B side: More subdued material, a bit creepy; scraping metal and background groaning. Not too unusual for the group, but much neater than I remember them being.
Arrested Development – 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life of... (cassette, $1)
They never have much of a selection in the way of hip hop at Used Kids, so I take what I can get. I've never heard this group before today, and they're supposed to be good. To me this album feels a bit generic and unexciting but it's not bad. Standard early-'90s southern rap stuff with a touch of stripped-down Digable Planets. Something like that.
Chumbawamba – Tubthumper (cassette, $1)
Before you laugh, know that Tubthumping was the very first album I ever owned, and my girlfriend's as well. So it has a bit of a special quality to it that I just had to grab this copy. Maybe we'll jam to it in the car sometime soon.
And you know, for all the criticism it gets, I think it's actually a pretty decent album. Nothing spectacular, but enjoyable, worth hearing at least once.
Charles Mingus – Epitaph (cassette, $1)
I hate when this happens—Epitaph is a two-CD set (or two-tape, in my case) and the bastards only had the first one. Why would you only sell one and not the other?
Anyway, yeah it's just another Mingus album, so I figured it would be good (I have only really disliked maybe one album by him I've heard, out of at least a half dozen or so).
Mystery tape (cassette, $1)
I think I might be the only person who gets anything from their avant-garde section, a mysterious place full of tapes with confusing and obscure labels (if there is any text on them at all). This tape seems professionally-made, but the only words on it are "Xenophobe" and "001" inside the J-card and two extra pieces of paper, one saying "55/88" (indicating a limited run) and the other with a stamp saying "Adeste Fideles" (perhaps the publisher?) and a cat. All of this came in a zip-top bag with a Lego walkie-talkie and Lego assault rifle (I think that's what it is, anyway). The music itself is very atmospheric noise and drone (figures, right?), and all the tracks are quite different so it's hard to pin down a particular style.
Anyway usually with some deep Google searching I can figure out what these sorts of things are, but this one completely eludes me. It's annoying because it's actually pretty good and I want to know who made it! If anyone has any ideas, please leave a comment. I'll scan and put up the cover art sometime in the next couple weeks and I can upload the music as well if anyone wants.
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