Logging this before I knock the stack over yet again… I’ve found some good stuff in cheap CD bins over the past few weeks, looking in both the Berkeley and San Francisco Amoebas, Half Price Books in Berkeley, and a few real finds at the Community Thrift Shop on Valencia Street in San Francisco:
- Black Eyed Peas: Elephunk
- The Blue Nile: A Walk Across the Rooftops
- Elliott Carter: Night Fantasies/Piano Sonata (Charles Rosen)
- Elliott Carter: String Quartets 1 & 4 (Arditti Quartet)
- Michael Daugherty: Jackie O (the opera)
- Dr. Dre: The Chronic
- Electroplenaire Sound Diary: The Wind Rises
- Fastball: All the Pain Money Can Buy
- Future Sounds of London: Lifeforms (EP)
- Emily Hay: Like Minds
- Aurora Josephson/Philipp Wachsmann/Jacob Lindsay/Damon Smith/Martin Blume: Zero Plus
- Giya Kancheli: Abii Me Viderum
- October Project: October Project
- Pink Floyd: Works
- rinocerose: installation sonore
- San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus: ExtrABBAganza!
- San Francisco School Orff Ensemble: Jitterbug Waltz
- Dave Smith: First Piano Concert
- Gregg Smith Singers: Madrigals and All That Jazz
- Spooky Actions: Early Music
- John Tchicai and the Archetypes: Love is Touching
- Ten Grands: Vol.3 (Music for ten grand pianos)
- Vienna Teng: Waking Hour
- John Voight: Free Jazz Improvisation Play-A-Long
- Cassandra Wilson: Traveling Miles
- Various Artists: Wig in a Box: Songs from & inspired by Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Almost all were $2.99 or less. The sole exception. The Wind Blows, was $7.99. I already had the October Project and Vienna Teng CDs, but for a buck apiece, it was worth having a spare.
Then there’s the music that I’ve accumulated online, but that’s harder to stack and track.
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Ah, this harkens back to the good old days at Cheap Thrills where we’d walk in, hear something playing and dive for the bins under the direction of the amused shopkeepers.
Whatever happened to Half Thoughts? What a great store that was.
Oh yes, Happy Birthday Mr. Reich! It’s gonna rain!
My fave Cheap Thrills story:
One day early on, I heard something wonderful playing overhead. It turned out to be Ambrosia’s “Dance with Me George” from Somewhere I Never Traveled. Fortunately, they had affordable copies, and I immediately bought one.
The next day, I was again at the store, and again heard something wonderful. When I asked what it was, they laughed. “So I see you haven’t listened to the other side of the record you bought yesterday yet.”
For a few years I had a desk job where I was able to listen to CDs using a portable CD player & headphones. I loaded up on cheap compilation CDs (each a dollar or two) and when I heard a song I liked I would mark it, listen to it again, then rip it to iTunes. I now work with the public (can’t disappear into a headset) and I have this big pile of CDs that I’m not interested in listening to again. But I found a lot of great music which I continue to listen to on my iPod. I wonder if Amoeba would buy the CDs back? I got most of them from their clearance bins. Even if I end up just giving them away they gave good value.
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