Return to Shelf Life: Z

As many of you already know, launching the good ship record store involved the total looting of my CD collection. And vinyl collection. Total. Every time I look at my shelves, I've been getting that Old Mother Hubbard feeling.

We have a remedy! (we have?)

So I've started giving myself an allowance of one CD per week. And being, well, slightly off in my thinking, I decided I would start from the end of the alphabet and work backwards, picking out one album for each letter. Which brings us to our first account of my slowly restocking shelves:

Odessey and Oracle by the Zombies

A couple weekends ago I was attacked by Zombies on the Commons. It was a wonderful way to end an evening, swarmed by attractive people in hideous makeup, mauled and gently gnawed on. I think Odessey and Oracle is probably an awful way to end an evening. I can't imagine listening to this album and then wanting to go to bed. It does make for a brilliant start to the day, sunny piano and seventy-three part harmonies with your morning coffee.

We are all concerned with the future, for that is where we will spend most of our time.

Partly I wanted to put this list up so people could find it and read it. Partly I wanted to put this list up because I've been carrying it around in my pocket and I'm afraid I'll lose it. But here is what the musical future looks like in Ithaca. Must say, it looks pretty darn good.

Friday September 22: The Old Sweethearts with Jairo van Lunteren and Amanda Lynn Perkins
at No Radio Records, 7pm
Saturday September 23: Steve Gollnick and friends
at the Rongo
Saturday September 23: The Mountain Goats with Christine Fellows
at Becker House on Cornell Campus
Saturday September 23: The Trachtenberg Family Slide Show
at Castaways
Saturday September 23: Missing Marcus
at the Haunt
Thursday September 28: The Gunshy with Idatel and Andrew Bryant
at No Radio Records, 7pm
Thursday September 28: Umphrey's McGee
at the State Theater
Friday September 29: Yellow Swans with Grouper
on Cornell Campus, somewhere
Saturday September 30: Hubcap
at the Chapter House
Saturday September 30: Crow Greenspun and the TalktoMes
at the Haunt
Saturday September 30: Old Crow Medicine Show
at the State Theater
Saturday September 30: Dufus
at the ABC Cafe
Sunday October 1: Hubcap
on the Commons for Apple Harvest Festival
Sunday October 1: Robert Cray Band
at the State Theater
Wednesday October 4: Paul Buccholz with Tim Hazen
at No Radio Records, 7pm
Saturday October 7: Richard Buckner with the Atomic Forces
at Castaways
Thursday October 12: Small Sails
at Cornell Cinema
Friday October 13: Missing Marcus with the Splendors, 6 Fingers, Another Day Late
at the Haunt
Saturday October 14: Tilly and the Wall
on Cornell Campus
Thursday October 19: Barn Burning with Candy Floss
at No Radio Records
Saturday October 21: Art Brut with Tokyo Police Club and the Bloodsugars
on Cornell Campus
Saturday October 21: Jennie Stearns and the Fire Choir
at Felicia's
Saturday October 21: Steve Gollnick CD Release Party
at the Chapter House

And that's just the start! After that, there's still Deer Tick, Jana Hunter, Girl Talk, Casper and the Cookies and !!! More to come, but right now I'm done typing and must do a little boppity-bop dance to the new Hidden Cameras album. It's semiotastic!

A Time of Great Flux/A Return to Normalcy

Hello kids, if any of you remain out there reading. Last time I wrote on here, the record store was "starting to look like a record store". Now it actually IS a record store. I know because I sold some people some records, just a few minutes ago. So I'm restarting this mess here. With announcements, no less. BIg announcements for the moment include our writeup in the Ithaca, which is Ithaca College's campus paper. Sure, they got the address wrong, but only by a block or so.

Second announcement is that you need to get yourself to a record store next Tuesday. New Yo La Tengo, TV on the Radio, the Rapture, the Black Keys, Richard Buckner, Junior Boys, Xiu Xiu and something else I can't remember. Mastodon? Just saying, yeah, get in here and get something.

Third announcement is that the Gunshy will be playing an evening instore performance on Thursday September 28th, along with Idatel (the hardest working band in Ithaca) and Andrew Bryant. Donations towards gas money for the bands would be greatly appreciated.

Lastly, because I'm a bit self-obsessive, here's the playlist from Korova last night. In the near future, these will be posted in some sort of listenable form, but I've got to learn some technology first. This was a so-called 70s night, and you'll notice I mostly stayed within my mandate.

1. Cosmic Dancer- T. Rex
2. You Make Me So Very Happy- Alton Ellis
3. Straight to Hell- The Clash
4. Because You're Frightened- Magazine
5. 10:15 Saturday Night- The Cure
6. Fan Club- The Damned
7. O My Soul- Big Star
8. (I Thought) You Wanted To Know- The dbs
9. Roadrunner- The Modern Lovers
10. X Offender- Blondie
11. Surrender- Cheap Trick
12. Are Friends Electric?- Gary Numan
13. Making Plans for Nigel- XTC
14. King's Lead Hat- Brian Eno
15. Contort Yourself- James Chance and the Contortions
16. Whoo! Allright-Yeah...Uh...-The Rapture
17. Optimo- Liquid Liquid
18. We Can Work It Out- Stevie Wonder
19. Hit It and Quit It- Funkadelic
20. You Said A Bad Word- Joe Tex
21. Sexx Laws- Beck
22. Look Back in Anger- David Bowie
23. Eton Rifles- The Jam
24. The World's a Mess, It's In My Kiss- X
25. Shot Down- The Sonics
26. Philosophy- Them
27. Teenage Kicks- The Undertones
28. Two Little Hitlers- Elvis Costello
29. See No Evil- Television
30. Stand By Me, Yeah- Sloan
31. Not Great Men- Gang of Four
32. Till Victory- Patti Smith Group
33. Digital- Joy Division
34. Do the Strand- Roxy Music
35. Do It Clean- Echo and the Bunnymen
36. No Growing (Exegesis)- Olivia Tremor Control
37. Miss O'Dell- George Harrison
38. Tenth Avenue Freeze Out- Bruce Springsteen
39. Who Is He (And What Is He to You)- Bill Withers
40. The Great Curve- Talking Heads
41. Pretty Girls- Joe Jackson
42. Cindy Tells Me- Brian Eno
43. Laughing- The Guess Who
44. Judy is a Punk- The Ramones
45. So Lonely- The Police
46. The Magnificent Seven- The Clash
47. Strange Brew- Cream
48. Your Time is Gonna Come- Led Zeppelin
49. Long as I Can See the Light- Creedence Clearwater Revival
50. Angel- Jimi Hendrix
51. Ballrooms of Mars- T. Rex
52. After Hours- The Velvet Underground

Try it at home!