Various Artists - Dope-Guns-'N-Fucking in the Streets Volumes 8-11 (1997)

  Amphetamine Reptile Records ■ 9 25194-1

Released April 22, 1997

Technical Credits Unknown, Likely Varied

Side One (Vol. 8 & 9):	Side Two (Vol 10 & 11):
Superchunk - "Basement Life" Guzzard - "Bites" Jawbox - "Low Strung" godheadSilo - "Lotion Pocket" Bordeoms - "Pukuri" Supernova - "Sugar Coated Stucco" Chokebore - "Brittle & Depressing" Love 666 - "You Sold Me Out #2"	Bailter Space - "Glimmer Dot" Steelpolebathtub - "A Washed Out Monkey Star Halo" Chrome Cranks - "Dead Man's Suit" Brainiac - "Cookie Doesn't Sing" Today Is the Day - "Execution Style" Rocket from the Crypt - "Tiger Mask" Calvin Krime - "Fight Song" Gaunt - "Kiss Destroyer" Servotron - "Matrix of Perfection"

I'm often wary, wandering into any record store for the first time. There's no real guarantee of what anyone has or will carry, and in a used store it becomes even more complicated, as they can only carry what records they've acquired to sell. And that, then, depends on the locals. The first time I walked into Dead Wax Records, I wasn't sure what to think. Between the place I now live and the places I work, there's not a lot of music to be found. Even the oft-ignored (for financially justifiable reasons) FYE and similar "TWEC" (TransWorld Entertainment Company, who owns FYE, Coconuts, etc) stores make no appearances. There's a Best Buy, a Wal-Mart, a Target--certainly nowhere you'd find vinyl (beyond the semi-kitschy '7" with a t-shirt' thing Target is doing--but I owned most of the ones that looked interesting to me, or saw no reason to get the 7"), and nowhere you'd find a good chunk of my music collection, vinyl or otherwise.

I found a small used record and used/new CD store about fifteen miles away and had a very strange experience there, locating both upstate New York's Immolation's third album and some Split Enz albums I was looking for on CD. I found some Throbbing Gristle material, too, which is only appropriate for this particular entry--well, parts of it. I couldn't really make heads or tails of the place, though I've intended to go back a few times (never managing). When I started my current job just a bit further out, though, someone there mentioned a local record store, which piqued my interest immediately. I swung by after work that day, only to find it was closed on Mondays, deciding to come back the next. That next day, I wandered in and found it comfortably cozy and close, as you'd expect from a fledgling (only a few months old!) record store. However, its walls were papered with posters and fliers for bands I knew well--but knew well from my forays into music in the last few odd years more than anything else. Snapcase. Gluecifer. The Murder City Devils. The Supersuckers. Turbonegro. Mudhoney. All the sorts of things I'd tried (sometimes successfully) to push on a very picky person I know.

Day Thirty-Seven: The Chemical Brothers - Brotherhood

Virgin Records ■ 5099923481817

Freestyle Dust ■ XDUST9LP

Released September 2, 2008

Produced by The Chemical Brothers

Side One:	Side Two:
Galvanize Hey Boy Hey Girl Block Rockin' Beats Do It Again	Believe Star Guitar Let Forever Be Leave Home

Side Three:	Side Four:
Keep My Composure Saturate Out of Control	Midnight Madness The Golden Path Setting Sun Chemical Beats

I believe I have managed, at this point, to cover my reluctance regarding compilations, so I'll let that pass. Part of that is because, more importantly, I'd never listened to the Chemical Brothers (Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons) before this. In fact, I slit the shrinkwrap just today to listen to this. I respected groups and artists like the Chemical Brothers or the Crystal Method or Daft Punk from afar, but was generally reluctant to touch on the intentionally repetitive segment of electronic music (also touched on briefly, this time with the Caustic Window compilation). I didn't understand it, really, and associated it strongly with actually going and seeing electronic artists perform, which I'd never done. Having actually done it now (to see French synthpop artist David Grellier, aka College), I don't know if the whole process makes sense to me personally. I enjoyed it, but man was that a confused audience. No one was sure how to clap or respond in general.

Day Thirty-Six: Caustic Window - Compilation

Rephlex Records ■ CAT009LP

Released June 1, 1998
(EP release dates below)

Produced by Richard D. James

Let's just get this out of the way up front: I'm cheating. While the credited artist for this release is "Caustic Window", that is, in fact, one of the (many) pseudonyms of one Richard D. James, whose most famous monikers are AFX and, of course, The Aphex Twin. If you've been reading here a while, or if you just click that link, you'll see that this is not the first of his releases for me to cover here. However, because I feel it's legitimate to treat this as a "C" release (alphabetically speaking), it avoids the issue of clustering multiple days around a single artist and allows me to cover more of my collection while not (strictly) violating the alphabet. It's not the only time this will occur, but this is the time they'll come closest together (the other I can think of off the top of my head is Leon Russell, who will obviously appear much later, but who released two albums with Marc Benno, at least the first of which was credited originally to The Asylum Choir).

Day Thirty-Three (and a Third): Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady

I.R.S. Records¹ ■ SP 001

Released September, 1979

Produced by Martin Rushent

Engineered by Alan Winstanley (S1 - 1,8; S2-1,8), Doug Bennett (S1 - 2,3,5,6; S2 - 2,3,5,6), and Martin Rushent (S1 - 4,7;S2 - 4,7)

¹International Record Syndicate. Abbreviation not used on this record, but used on most releases from this label.

Side One (A-Sides):	Side Two (B-Sides):
Orgasm Addict What Do I Get? I Don't Mind Love You More Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)? Promises Everybody's Happy Nowadays Harmony in My Head	Whatever Happened To...? Oh Shit! Autonomy Noise Annoys Just Lust Lipstick Why Can't I Touch It? Something's Gone Wrong Again

As we go, if you were to check, you'd find there are very few compilations in my record collection, and an even smaller percentage amongst my CDs. I don't normally go in for compilations, as, sometime around Rubber Soul, the album became the preferred format and was eventually considered as the construction in which people bought, enjoyed, experienced, and were provided music. Of course, not everyone (including some artists) had any interest in the idea, but it's less harm to have an album that isn't definitively an assembled, crafted set than it is to have parts excised from one that is and doled out by popularity. As it stands, a single compilation has appeared here. Another was mentioned in polling, and a small number will appear later. Largely, though, I leave them be, for fear of missing interesting interesting deep cuts, or getting things out of context that have very real contexts like Kate Bush's The Ninth Wave. Still, Singles Going Steady was my introduction to Buzzcocks, at the hands of--to the surprise of no one--my friend John.

Day Nineteen: The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

Brother Records/Reprise Records ■  2MS 2083

Released May 16, 1966

[This release: 1972]
Produced by Brian Wilson

"This recording is pressed in monophonic sound, the way Brian cut it."

Side One:	Side Two:
Wouldn't It Be Nice You Still Believe in Me That's Not Me Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder) I'm Waiting for the Day Let's Go Away for a While Sloop John B	God Only Knows I Know There's an Answer Here Today I Guess I Just Wasn't Made for These Times Pet Sounds Caroline, No

When I initially put the selection of Beach Boys records I own up to a vote(on vinyl, though the CD set is actually not much different), I debated listing this one as it physically presents itself. Those familiar with the album may notice (probably immediately) that the cover looks a bit strange. Truth is, this is actually a compiled double album, paired with Carl & the Passions - So Tough. It's a weird looking thing, and one I own as yet another of the doubled (in the case of Pet Sounds, I think tripled or more, really) records my dad let me take. I'd call it the "crown jewel" of that set, but there are albums I like more personally (including my other Beach Boys record, Surf's Up), but as something to blurt out at others it sounds more like it validates my taste and knowledge.

Day Nine: The Association - Greatest Hits!

Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Records ■  WS 1767

Released December, 1968

Produced by Bones Howe [1,2,3,4,5,9,10,12], The Association [7,13], Curt Boetticher [6,11], and Jerry Yester [8]

Side One:	Side Two:
The Time It Is Today Everything That Touches You Like Always Never My Love Requiem for the Masses Along Comes Mary	Enter the Young No Fair at All Time for Livin' We Love [Us] Cherish Windy Six Man Band

I've never understood this about a lot of compilations, particularly in the 1960s: if you're going to list every single song on the record on the front, why would you list them in an order different from the order they are actually pressed in? I'd almost suspect it's a matter of graphic design, but "Like Always" kind of goofs up the formatting at the bottom (and "Windy" being placed above "Cherish" would've completed the sort of "arrow" shape better). It's not really even a quibble, just something I find bizarre.

Day Six: Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies | SAP

	Columbia Records ■ C2 57804
	Released January 24, 1994
	Jar of Flies	Sap
	Produced by Alice in Chains Engineered by Toby Wright	Produced by Alice in Chains and Rick Parash[a]r

Jar of Flies

Originally released January 25, 1994

Side One:	Side Two:
Rotten Apple Nutshell I Stay Away No Excuses Whale and Wasp	Don't Follow Swing on This

Sap

Originally released February 4, 1992

Side One:	Side Two:
Brother Got Me Wrong Right Turn Am I Inside [Love Song Take 1]	[Etching of Alice in Chains Logo]

No two ways about it: this is a weird release. If you expand the image above by clicking on it, you can see the etching I refer to on side four (no, I didn't "play" it, I just flipped the second record over for the picture). Even outside the fact that it's a 3-sided release on a format that can only be manufactured with even numbers of sides, this is a combination of two EPs that, in total runtime, would necessitate two records even if they weren't split one on a record or were re-configured to maximize the space on each side of a record.