.february vinyl haul

A great haul! Stoked for these!

Lately I haven't purchased anything from Vinyl Me Please. All of the bands I've seen in concert I've been picking up their albums. When A comes to visit we usually hit up some of my favorite record stores. This time we had a mission to search for some 7" albums. A has never been to Haddonfield Record Exchange. They usually have a decent array of 7" albums. I scored New Kids on the Block and Debbie Gibson last time. What I found this time was amazing. One of the earliest albums my parents bought me was at age 3: Duran Duran - Wild Boys. For that album to be displayed in the front of the bin was just practically calling out to me. I snatched it up. I also found Madonna - True Blue (the vinyl is actually blue!), Wang Chung - Everybody Have Fun Tonight (I owned this at age 5), Blondie - The Tide is High, Run DMC - Walk This Way, and the iconic "Two of Hearts" by Stacey Q. At the register they usually have some neat vintage pins. I picked up Thompson Twins, Janis Joplin, Eurythmics, and Duran Duran. $1.50 each.

Our second stop was Innergroove. Last time my major scores were Hole, Nirvana, and Smashing Pumpkins 7" albums. Ironically I found another Blondie 7" "Rapture" which compliments the one I previously bought. Searching through my favorite section of "Just In!" records I snatched B-52's "Cosmic Thing," Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party" for $20 (cheapest I've seen was $30), and Prince's "1999" for $10. Yaaasss!!!

My new goal is to buy a cork board from Target and arrange my pins in a better fashion. No joke I have at least 150+ pins at this point. I rotate them all as much as I can.   

.vinylmeplease april and may haul

Killing two birds with one stone I present my April and May hauls from Vinyl Me Please. Since so many albums were very festive in color, how could I not capture their awesomeness by taking photos below?!

 Here is my April haul. It consisted of the Album of the Month which was Fugees: The Score. Freshman year of high school? How could I not love it?! Other albums included the new Bleached (looks like a cookie dunked in milk), Parquet Courts, Black Mountain (green vinyl), Explosions in the Sky (clear vinyl with geometric shapes), Yeasayer, and Sufjan Steven's anniversary release of Illinoise (the one album is in the shape of a star - red, white and blue!) Check out all of the radness below....

Here is May's haul. The album of the month being Weezer's "Pinkerton." An album I did not appreciate as much in the past but now I have a strong liking for. The album is marbled blue with black and the inside of the sleeve is a pop-out! Aesop Rock's albums are neon green and magenta. There is a HUGE poster which folds out to a gargantuan size of stellar artwork. White Lung I will see in August and have heard so much buzz about them, I had to pick up their album. Here are pictures of the albums....

 

.vinyl haul

I figured I'd just make one big post from previous vinyl purchases. Lately I've been in "soundtrack" searching mode, so I picked up some of these at Urban Outfitters and Innergroove. The Once Bitten soundtrack was a very rare find. That was pretty exciting...

Finishing out my St. Lucia collection, I found "When the Night" at Urban Outfitters after purchasing "Matter" at Tunes two weeks ago.

These were just fun finds, reasonably priced....

And I scored some more Bowie, two being re-mastered versions.

.weekend haul

I swear this is my last haul until next month. Friday I got out of work early so venturing over to Bordentown in 20 degree weather seemed like the right thing to do? Two record stores are within a few blocks from one another. The first one I hit up was The Record Collector. The building itself looks something out of the 1950s with this do-wop vibe. Prices however run pretty high. All of my purchases to the left were from The Record Collector. He had a lot of Bowie but I'm not insanely collecting every piece he's put out. I opted for Station to Station and Tonight which has the song "Blue Jean" on it. Public Image Ltd's First Edition keeps taunting me as I finally picked it up to pretty much complete my PiL collection. Patti Smith's Wave was cheaper here compared to other stores I've seen copies in. Dork fan-girl moment but when Carrie Brownstein did her Portlandia tour with Fred, her and Annie played along to The Stranglers "Hanging Around." I picked it up since the song was on this album. Plus I heard they're good. The Record Collector also has live bands play which is pretty cool. My total was around $80 for all of these so not too shabby, PiL being the most expensive thing I picked up.

The second store I hit up was The Man Cave. They sell albums, cds, and all kinds of other things like memorabilia, books, soda, food, etc. I looked through and really didn't find anything I needed. I did not understand why two copies of Bowie's Blackstar were priced at $100. He had so many copies of Earthling I could've just bought it from there instead of turning to ebay (my next post). Walking out empty handed I wasn't that disappointed.

Scored: Patti Smith Group - Wave, Public Image Ltd - First Edition, David Bowie - Station to Station, David Bowie - Tonight, The Stranglers - IV

On Second Thought: (albums I put back) Shamir. I just couldn't kick the $23. I had the Talking Heads and Mission to Burma albums in my hands but could not decide. Another time.

Customers: There was an older couple and a younger couple in both stores. It was so cold out barely anyone was buying records. Bordentown apparently has a "chocolate walk" on the main drag but who knows if there was a big turn out. It was so cold!

.vinyl me please february

The album of the month is Big Bill Broonzy Sings Folk Songs. I'm pretty diverse in my tastes so I'm curious to give it a listen. Here's what I bought from the membership store....

Grimes - Geidi Primes
First Grimes album? The songs on here are not as produced as her latest albums but being a completist I picked it up nonetheless.

Lizzo - Big Grrrl Small World
Lizzo opened for Sleater-Kinney. That's how I first heard of her. The band usually has amazing openers when they tour. I did not see Lizzo at any of the shows I attended but was drawn to her first album LizzoBangers when listening on Spotify. I really need to pick this one up too. Her latest single she's been promoting on Instagram "My Skin" which has a powerful message of loving yourself no matter your size, shape, color. Being a Missy Elliot fan I highly recommend Lizzo.

Savages - Adore Life
I was hooked after listening to their previous album on Spotify, I actually went back to the online store and purchased Adore Life a week later. This album has taunted me for the past week displayed in tons of record stores. I kept telling myself, "Any day now! It's coming in the mail! Hold on!" My favorite song is "Surrender." I CANNOT wait to see them in late March. It got to the point where I was actually considering Irving Plaza and taking the late train home to see them perform. Luckily they are playing closer to me so I don't have to go through that ordeal.

.new places, new records

This weekend I hit up two record stores I've never been to. Here were the results....

Record store #1 isn't necessarily a record store, it's more of a collection of sorts. Located in the upstairs of a flooring department store it was a tad overwhelming. All you see is this...

Against the walls were some newer releases but super expensive. Siamese Dream for $44?! Looking through the boxes everything was very organized, alphabetized, categorized. That wasn't an issue. The main issue I had was almost all of these albums looked like they came from dirty basements and were in poor condition. The prices asked were extremely unfair considering the condition of the albums. The large majority of the collections were 60s, 70s, and very little 80s. They also had cds but I no longer collect those.

Scored!: Nothing!

On second thought: (albums I put back) Amy Winehouse's "Back in Black" because I could really find that anywhere and probably for a better price. There was a Live at Carnegie Hall Nina Simone album but priced at $20 when it had tons of scratches wasn't worth it.

Customers: I was the only one! The guy asked me three times if I was looking for something in particular and I said I was browsing. I later inquired if he had any Bowie but he rechecked the same places I already looked in. I returned to my car defeated.

Record store #2 I will give the name of because it was a great experience. It's called the Haddonfield Record Exchange. I always pass it on my way to Collingswood and decided to finally check it out. The inside is a bit trippy with the orange and psychadelic posters but it's very well organized and those albums are taken care of. They mostly sell classic rock and have a modest selection of 7" singles. I'm a pretty fast flipper so it didn't take me too long to peruse the entire store.

Scored!: Bowie, Queen, Yaz, Eurhythmics, Gloria Estefan (you KNOW you blared that when you were 9), Elvis Costello and The Cure 7" singles. 

On second thought: (albums I put back) some of the Bowie albums only because I could afford the one.

Customers: At first I was the only one in the store then a few others came in as I was leaving. I loved that Stevie Nicks was blaring and the woman working was kind enough to hold my records at the counter when I shopped. She was super friendly too and complimented all of my picks. We had a great conversation. She asked when I started collecting albums, how I knew of the bands I picked out, etc. She also complimented my David Bowie album and told me I picked out a good one with some great songs. Then she let me help myself to the candy bowl at the register before I left. :) Definitely returning there next month. They've been open for 6 months now. I wish them the best of luck.

Here's my Saturday haul...