Records are getting expensive. (Thanks a lot, hipsters).
I kind of wanted the Chet Baker Record Store Day release but it was fifty bucks. So I passed it up. But I did get a couple of cool Surf Rock albums. Surfin' the Great Lakes is not an official RSD release but was reasonably priced. It's a 2023 compilation featuring some good early sixties midwest garage bands, mostly from Minnesota, cashing in on the surf music craze starting to sweep the nation. It was a right up the alley for someone who digs surf rock, garage rock and early midwestern rock n roll bands...like me. I hang out in that alley quite often. All songs were recorded at Kay Banks Studio in Minneapolis, which has an interesting history of its own. Look it up if you're interested.
Keeping with the current theme, I found this Joe Houston album in the bargain bin for three bucks -
It features Houston's tenor sax in place of a lead guitar, which you wouldn't think lends itself to surf music, but it's okay. And it's an original 1963 mono press so that's cool.
I also found a 1967 gatefold U.S. press of Volunteers by Jefferson Airplane on dynaflex vinyl with an orange label. I already have an early non-gatefold version with the classic black RCA label, but it's without the original Paz Progress "newspaper" poster. Today's find had the poster!
My other score was a special RSD release of the Doors - Live In Bakersfield, 1970. But it didn't make it home with me. I gave it away. Actually, that was my intention all along. I got there after the first wave of customers who had been waiting in line for the store to open but early enough to have a good chance of it still remaining on the shelf. It was still there. And, although I am a huge Doors fan, it's now in a good home with people who will appreciate it more than me. Plus, I've been invited to a listening party at a future date featuring the record. So, in the immortal words of greenskeeper Carl Spackler, "I got that going for me."
Oh ... the record store where this went down is Black Hills Vinyl. They deserve a shout out for always coming through for me when I'm looking for something specific or an oddity of some sort. Here is one of my favorite pictures of the store and some of their cool customers from a special live music event one summer night. They do that occasionally. Not many places do these days.
Roger O'Dea 11/24/2023
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