Sympathetic Stupid

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

The Golden Mine

In philosophy, the Golden Mean is "the desirable middle between two extremes" - the best place to be in any situation.

In Melbourne music shops, the Golden Mine is similar. (Note: not using its real name so I keep everyone else away from it. But I'm sure you'll all work it out.)

It's a secondhand CD shop which has heaps and heaps of great stuff for low, low prices. Since I discovered it a month or so ago, I've spent quite a deal of cash there. And I've realised that since I don't really like buying local stuff secondhand (where no cash goes to the artist), I've been catching up on lots of the old stuff which I don't really know. As my rateyourmusic.com page seems to suggest.

Don't bother clicking through, I'll summarise it here:

Guided by Voices - Alien Lanes
The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta
The Replacements - Stink
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues
Warren Zevon - Warren Zevon
Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy
Warren Zevon - Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School

Turns out some of the old Zevon stuff is just awesome - Excitable Boy is rapidly approaching top few albums ever in my mind. And Remain in Light is pretty damn good as well. It's all fun. I'm glad I'm listening to this stuff, though there's plenty of good new music around.

Like Of Montreal.

Soon after my last post, mentioning the album, I realised that I loved it more than life itself and so began touting its virtues all around town. Elanor was unlucky enough to have to see me while in full proselytizing mode at Andrew Bird (aside: he was very good both times), and so she got both barrels. Thankfully, she also liked it quite a lot so my veneer of taste stands up to fight another day.

I especially love the single Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse with its refrain "Come on chemicals". Makes me smile just to think about it. I'm just a little over the album now, having burned holes in it in my cheap car CD player, but it's a mark of its greatness that I still put it on after a bad day, to cheer me up.

So today's take home points: The Golden Mine, and Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

Go forth and multiply!