What I would give for Internet access in my room…I just came into the computer room, checked my email, and hey! Arrival alerts for 4 albums I’ve been hoping for from Django. Eagerly, I went to the site. Was I finally going to be able to get my hands on Bricolage, Permutation, One Foot In The Grave and Fake Can Be Just As Good for prices that wouldn’t involve selling bodily parts?
Nope.
Someone else got there first.
Bugger.
AMAZING. I originally ordered Altered Beast only because they didn’t have a used CD of 100% Fun available – I was intending to get that on CD first, because I like it more than Altered Beast. But when testing out my new purchase, I put it into the player, pressed play, and hey! The opening strains of Sick Of Myself! At first I thought I’d just been away from the music too long, and had mixed the two songs up. But the next was Not When I Need You, followed by the rest of the 100% fun that is 100% Fun, all the way up to the magnificence of Smog Moon. So I take that back about Django not screwing up, but ironically, I’m more of a satisfied customer now than I was before I discovered their mistake.
It’s something to keep in mind for the future though – it’s pure luck that I still got something that I wanted and didn’t already have, and at least it was an album by the right artist. If they’d sent me Matchbox 20 labelled as Matthew Sweet I’d be:
a)not satisfied
b)no longer a customer, and
c)violently and noisily ill
[Edit: I emailed them telling them about the mistake, but said that I was happy to own that other album anyway. They apologised, thanked me for the feedback and sent me a voucher for $5 – a good response.]
It’s a music avalanche. First Marten showers me with albums on Monday, and today my order from Django arrived. Matthew Sweet’s Altered Beast (have it on tape, want it on CD), and Indigo Swing’s All Aboard, to feed my swing obsession. I only ordered two CDs from them because I haven’t used them before, but I’m definitely going to buy more from them – buying their used CDs and paying for shipment from the US is still significantly cheaper than forking out for the UK’s overblown prices, and I’ve had no problems with their service.
This is dedicated to the generous greatness that is Marten. I ended up sleeping at 6 am this morning, gleefully listening to albums I’ve been longing to get my hands on for years, all of which he brought today to lend me in an unassuming green plastic bag that gave no hint of the joy that waited within. Some of them were albums I’d specifically asked about borrowing, and he threw in others he thought I’d like. So far his judgment’s been spot on.
Study of English law will now have to compete with:
DJ Shadow: Entroducing
The God Machine: One Last Laugh In A Place Of Dying
Neutral Milk Hotel: On Avery Island
Yo La Tengo: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
Guided By Voices: Under The Bushes Under The Stars
Ninja Cuts: Flexistentialism
Jurassic 5: Quality Control
Quasi: Featuring Birds
Fugazi: End Hits
Flaming Lips: Clouds Taste Metallic
Puressence: Only Forever
They Might Be Giants: Apollo 18
The Velvet Underground & Nico
60 Ft Dolls: The Big 3
Soul Coughing: El Oso
My Vitriol: Losing Touch
It’s so trippy reading Crime and Punishment and listening to 69 Love Songs at the same time. I was reading “And he prepared to brave boldly the terrible catastrophe he anticipated. Occasionally the desire came upon him to rush on Porphyrius, and to strangle him there and then. From the first moment of having entered the magistrate’s office, what he had dreaded most was, lest he might lose his temper. He felt his heart beating violently, his lips become parched, his spittle becoming congealed…” while singing “Let’s pretend we’re bunny rabbits, let’s do it all day long, rapidly becoming rabid, singing little bunny songs…”
Today could have been better. I didn’t go for any of the four hours of lessons I was supposed to go for, which is quite worrying. I *am* doing something productive now though, or at least I was before I decided to take a short break. :)
I should really pop down to Stefan’s room and return him his Radiohead book, which I’ve had for the past two weeks. It was quite a good read for someone like me who’s been buying their albums but doesn’t really know anything about them. Assuming the writer was giving an accurate portrayal (which is, I admit a huge assumption as rock journalism goes), I was drawn to the picture that emerged of the band as people and musicians – the overall impression I got was that of people who have found the happy compromise between pursuit of intellect and artistry, and keeping their heads on straight with regards to everything else that’s important about living life.
Kid A has been growing on me. I don’t foresee liking it more than OK Computer but a number of its more subtle touches are beginning to sink in – a dissonance here, a resonance there, every now and then there’s something that catches my attention and makes me check the track display so I can remember it for future listening. I don’t think this album has the coherence and flow of OK Computer, but I definitely wouldn’t say Radiohead have lost their way or anything quite so drastic. [Random edit upon re-reading this in 2008: Haha, I totally prefer Kid A now and have for years!]
Anyway, most of the best albums I’ve ever listened to, or at least the ones I’ve ended up liking the most, have always taken a while for me to like – OK Computer took me three months to get into, and my first Sonic Youth album (Daydream Nation) took a year to go from something that sounded very interesting but very strange to something that sounded better than anything I’d ever heard. I was only convinced I hadn’t wasted money on Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea after four months. I liked both Odelay and Midnite Vultures by Beck the first time I heard them, but since then Mutations, which I was disappointed with at first, has emerged as my favourite Beck album.
Damn. This hasn’t been a short break. I blame the music, maaaaan.