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6:35 p.m. - October 14, 2007
New Purchases 2007 Part Two (Of Many!)
Ah, no time for dilly-dallying. It�s time for more of my New Purchases in 2008.

OK, we�ll dilly a bit and link to the first batch. But no dallying. Definitely NO dallying. Not yours. Denied.

Beat Happening - There is a collection out there called Left Of The Dial, and being the good alt-rocker guy I am, I had about 80% of it, so there was no need for me to buy it. So, I took a look at the track listing, and went through and bought whatever else was out there (or at least sampled) on iTunes, and then usually bought one or two other tracks from that same artist. And that�s what I did with Beat Happening.

Ben E. King - I needed to get the original of �Spanish Harlem�. I have that now.

The Beta Band - You remember High Fidelity? John Cusack name-checks this song while in the store. I loved it, so I bought the CD. Didn�t like most of the rest of the tracks, so I sold it back, but didn�t rip this song. Idiot. So I re-bought it. I recommended it to Harri3t. I don�t know what her verdict is.

Big Country - In high school and college, sometimes I bought things on tape instead of vinyl because of the portability and the fact my stereo wasn�t always good at making tapes. So it was with the first Big Country album. Now, I had a couple of songs thanks to anthologies, but I finally got around to getting a few other tracks from it, and then a couple of other tracks by them. Let me here those e-Bows, boys? (Those are the things that make the guitar sound like bagpipes.)

Bikini Kill - Finally, I got off my duff and checked out Bikini Kill. Ok, it�s about 10 to 12 years since Riot Grrrrrrrrls are pass�, but remember how long it takes to get things to BFE. I mean, right now, there are people who have perfected the Flock Of Seagulls do there! (I kid�no one would want to do that!) In reality, it wasn�t anything super-spectacular, except it was girls playing punk rock on their own terms. Sadly, that was a novelty and a movement, when it should have happened when punk started. Ah, well.

Bill Withers - How smooth and sophisticated sounding is Bill Withers? None, none more smoother? I think he could sign the King James version of Leviticus and it would sound soulful and smooth. �Lovely Day� is just a classic tune, and more people should know it and buy it.

Billy Idol - I didn�t have �Hot In The City� and I thought, for some reason, it was important for me to have that song. See, that was the radio hit from his first record, and then when the �White Wedding� video came out, people forgot about this one. Well, kinda.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - They released a new album this year and I grabbed a couple of cuts. Decent stuff, really. Not earth-shattering, but decent. I�ll definitely keep them in mind in the future.

Black Sabbath - I resisted the first Ronnie James Dio Sabbath album, as I was convinced that only the original version would do (except for the song �Mob Rules�). Well, I softened on that, as Dio did revitalize Sabbath for a while, and they were definitely a better vehicle for his wail than Rainbow, and really, probably a better thing than 95% of his solo stuff, too. Just how tangled is the Sabbath / Purple family tree anyway?

Blackfoot - You know, I just woke up one morning and thought I needed �Train, Train�, and I made it so. Come on, you haven�t thought things like that before?

Blind Melon - I don�t know if I�ve told this story here before, but when I was doing PA for some wrestling tournaments back in BFE land, I distinctly remembered the name �Shannon Hoon� because it was such a memorable name. He was a pretty good wrestler � strong yet hyper. I had no idea�

Bloc Party - They released a new album, and I wasn�t totally whelmed by it, but it had some decent tracks. Again, the ability to preview songs before buying was key here. I picked the wheat and not the chaff. Ah, yes, more rock-critic speak. Heh.

Blonde Redhead - Things were conspiring for me to get some tracks by them. They kept showing up in my recommended lists on Amazon, iTunes and Rate Your Music. So, I capitulated to peer pressure, and I�d say that in this case, peer pressure was a good thing.

Blondie - The song �Pretty Baby� was the only track from Parallel Lines missing from their 2-CD compilation, so I broke down and bought it. Well, I didn�t break down � I mean � it was a great song. It just wasn�t a single or a B-side in the US or the UK.

Blue Oyster Cult - I was filling in with some album tracks from Secret Treaties. I may dip further into their catalog, though they have some stuff that doesn�t really wow me.

Bo Diddley - Hey, Bo Diddley! Say man! He IS a gunslinger!

Bob Dylan - There is always plenty of Dylan to buy. This year, I bought Before The Flood (as noted last time with The Band), some of Desire, and selections from his �born again� albums. �Gotta Serve Somebody� is classic.

Bob Marley - I looked at what I had vis-�-vis Marley, and I noticed that his Legend compilation didn�t have ANY tracks from Rastaman Vibration, even though there were classics like �War� and �Roots, Rock, Reggae� on that record. So, I bought that record. Mon! It may be Marley�s best.

Bobbie Gentry - All kidding aside, �Ode To Billie Joe� is a pretty remarkable song by a young singer-songwriter. Of course, the machine wanted to eat her for breakfast, and she rather much resisted. Good for her, but she basically faded away.

Bobby Sherman - I had to get �Easy Come, Easy Go�. I think I pleased my sister-in-law with that purchase!

Booker T. & The MGs - They did an entire album that was a cover of Abbey Road, and I HAD to hear it. It�s pretty nifty. They do skip a couple of songs, but you know, it was released about three months after Abbey Road so I�ll give �em some slack.

Boys Don�t Cry - Who? They did �I Wanna Be A Cowboy� back in the 80�s. I remember things like that.

Bread - There was that one track on that one album that I needed�

Brenton Wood - Finally �Gimme Little Sign� surfaced on iTunes, so I had to nab it. Even though he only sings �Just gimme some kind of sign�. Ah, well, we can�t be perfect.

Brian Setzer - This year �The Knife Feels Like Justice� surfaced on iTunes. Hallelujah!

Brian Wilson - I bought a lot of tracks from his 1987 solo record, even though his discredited doctor had a lot to do with it. It sounds great, yet fragile. I guess that�s the way to describe him, too.

Broken Social Scene - Kevin Drew threw people a curveball by releasing this partially under his name. The new stuff is pretty decent, though you need to spend some time with it. Well, that�s what makes it good, right?

The Brooklyn Bridge - �The Worst That Could Happen� is an all-time karaoke classic!

Bruce Channel - I had to have the song that band geeks everywhere sing. You know it. �Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, Hey, Baby�.�

Bruce Springsteen - I had Springsteen on a lot of different formats, but hardly any on my iPod, so I took care of that toot-sweet. And I sing �Prove It All Night� while I�m doing my dishes. Yes, I�m that weird.

Bubble Puppy - For one, the bands name is Bubble Puppy. For two, they had a hit with �Hot Smoke And Sasafrass�. For three, can you see kids nowadays saying that their favorite band is Bubble Puppy? I can�t either.

The Music Man - Yeah, I bought the soundtrack. I�ll still fight you. I may not win, but I�ll scrap, just to get the team fired up.

Burning Spear - Again with the reggae. I needed some honest-to-God reggae that would challenge me, and not the Marley songs from Legend that every frat boy knows. So I dove in and got Marcus Garvey and Garvey�s Ghost, both prime slabs of reggae from the mid-70�s.

Well, I�m only through B, and the song count is 296 out of 2,327 new ones, so this may take a while. Ah, well. Music week will become MUSIC FORTNIGHT! Woot!

 

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