What's In My Bag

Records I've Scored Recently

I go digging. I don’t spend hours and hours in the stacks because I’m not producing music, but I AM an enormous fan. As such, I keep my weather eye open and my Spidey Sense on full. I’m drawn to places through intuition, happenstance, and sheer coincidence. This also happens to describe my mother’s sense of religion. Shit! I guess crate digging is my religion. This is about records I’ve found recently that I needed for my personal stacks.

1. Pixies - Surfer Rosa - 1988, promotional copy

   

   They say the Pixies formed when a college dropout going by the name Black Francis put out an ad for a female bass player who liked both the punk band Hüsker Dü and the folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary. This album was weirder than anything R.E.M. conjured up, nastier than the Replacements (which is saying something), and more melodic than anything Sonic Youth could dish out. Our boy, the gone-too-soon Steve Albini was at the boards for this one, and it might (I said MIGHT) be his finest hour (do NOT come at me Nirvana devotees.) RIP, Stevie. You were authentic.

2. Basil Poledouris - Conan the Barbarian OST - 1982, promotional copy

   

   Oh, it’s kitschy as fuck, I know, but this OST is a certified GEM. You hear me? A goddamned gem. Basil Konstantine Poledouris from (*checks notes* Kansas fucking City? *Checks again* confirmed) Kansas City, gave us this A1 gorgeous fantasy score with high drama and magnificent tension, Conan the Destroyer, Iron Eagle, RoboCop, and the Hunt for Red October. He’s a master. Hands down, kids. This is one of the last remaining pieces of my childhood not destroyed by my mother, steroids in baseball, or Michael Bay. This promo only copy is STUPID hard to find. Not as hard to find as that Pixies up above, but incredibly difficult nevertheless.

3. Metallica - Kill ‘Em All - 1983, Megaforce Records

   

   I shit you negative. I’ve encountered this nasty animal several times in the wild but didn’t have my weapon loaded, thus I could not pull the trigger. Not this time. This is the OG of Metallica’s catalog. Before the self-indulgent documentary, before the overly-documented haircuts, before Cliff’s death, this was the thing that inspired such rabid devotion that it was able to get thousands of kids out in the sunlight, then back into the garage to start a band.

4. Almost Famous - Music from the Motion Picture, 2021, Super Deluxe Editon, 180 gram vinyl

   

   

   

   I am not a box set proponent, nor am I an archivist, or completist. I do not require 17 hours of outtakes or interviews. This, however, is the SHIT. Six LPs, a 20" x 24" Stillwater poster, William's high school notebook/binder, hardbound with cloth cover and his band doodles all over it, two reproduction Ticketron concert tickets (Cleveland Music Hall, Stillwater plus special guests and San Diego Sports Arena, Black Sabbath with Stillwater), 12-Page Rolling Stone newsprint, and a 40 Page booklet bound within binder with unreleased photos and stories, memories and dedications from Cameron Crowe, cast members, Nancy Wilson and the crew. And you know what the killer is? This has the band singing along to Elton John’s Tiny Dancer in what is one of the most iconic scenes in film history. It’s listed as Elton John/Stillwater - Tiny Dancer (Almost Famous Version). What could be more perfect for a lunatic?