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. Fishbone - Party at Ground Zero b/w Skankin’ to the Beat - 1985 - 12”

   

   Deep funk, hard punk, and frantic ska aren’t really a recipe for wild financial success, but the fellas in Fishbone always made it work for them. My dad threw Skankin’ to the Beat on the tail end of a mix tape he made for more years ago, and I was gone. They made the music they wanted to hear. They were deliberately goofy, self-consciously diverse, and loved to provide acid-tongued social commentary. It’s no surprise Joe Strummer loved these lads. Speaking of St. Joseph…

2. Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - Johnny Appleseed b/w At the Border, Guy, - 2001, 7”

   

   HBO ran an absolutely batshit season of television called John from Cincinnati in 2007 about a seemingly cursed surfing family set in Imperial Beach, California, just south of San Diego. Out of nowhere, a complete stranger arrives in town who may or may not be an alien, Jesus himself, or something else. He was decidedly NOT from Cincinnati. The opening theme song was Johnny Appleseed, and it might have been the best part of the show. Joe’s run with the Clash is legendary, of course, but his work with the Mescaleros was really the fulfillment of his musical dream.

3. Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - Coma Girl b/w Blitzkreig Bop (Live), 2003, 7” picture disc

   

   I’m not typically keen on picture discs, but I am a Joe Strummer disciple, and this is just cool. Typically, picture discs don’t play as well, but I don’t care this time. I want to play in loud and often, and uh… if I’m being honest, I will. Also, a live cut of this superb band doing a punk standard in the form of Blitzkrieg Bop? Send me to punk Valhalla on a RAIL!

4. Cornershop - Brimful of Asha b/w It’s Indian Tobacco My Friend, 1997, 7”, red vinyl, promotional copy

   

   Because of Mohammed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, solid state radio,
   Ferguson mono, bon public, Jacques Dutronc and the Bolan Boogie,
   the heavy hitters and the chi chi music, All India radio, two in ones, Argo Records, Trojan Records, and because everyone needs a bosom for a pillow. And of course, on the 45.

5. My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - Any Way Ya Wanna b/w Sex on Wheelz (Rough Rider Mix), 2022, 7”, yellow vinyl

   

   From Chicago, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult sound like a group assembled specifically to score and soundtrack trashy B-movies filled with tales of big-breasted biker gangs, Satan-worshipping hooligans, and zombie rock stars all lovingly crafted by less-talented Tarantino wannabes with heavy doses of Robert Rodriguez. If you can ride with that, you might find yourself in the Thrill Kill Kult.

6. Funkadelic - One Nation Under A Groove, Part I & II, 1978, 7”

   

   I covered my thoughts on this track back in March, and it’s one of my favorite things I’ve written. This is an anthem for those who want or need to leave behind their boundaries - personal, political, sexual - and just get down for the funk of it. This is the finest distillation of Funkadelic’s ultimate message and purpose. A holy document.

7. Tank Girl, OST, 2023, Neon yellow vinyl, limited to 750 copies

   

   From IMDB: After a comet disrupts the rain cycle of Earth, the planet has become a desolate, barren desert by the year 2033. With resources scarce, Kesslee (Malcolm McDowell) - head of the powerful and evil Water & Power Corporation, the de facto government - has taken control of the water supply. Unwilling to cower under Kesslee's tyrannical rule, a pair of outlaws known as Tank Girl (Lori Petty) and Jet Girl (Naomi Watts) rise up, joining the mysterious rebel Rippers to destroy the corrupt system. In other words, take my money. Based on the hilariously demented comic book by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett which also features a mutant kangaroo. Anarchic, absurdist, surrealist stream-of-consciousness metafiction. Good luck!

8. Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News - 2024, 20th Anniversary edition, opaque baby pink and spring green vinyl

   

   As beautiful a sonic document of American life in 2003/4 as you’re likely to find. As three-song runs go, The World at Large, Float On, and Ocean Breathes Salty are pretty unassailable, but I find a great deal of meditative reflection in the closer - The Good Times Are Killing Me. Issac Brock still sounds young here, but his self-awareness is growing strong and he’s ready to end all the nonsense keeping him away from realizing his greatest aspirations.

   Get sucked in and stuck in late nights
   with more folks that I don't know
   The good times are killing me

   Adulthood doesn’t sound so bad.