It's October, bitches. what have you bought?

Kevin Ayers ? Didn?t Feel Lonely ?Til I Thought Of You
Belle & Sebastian ? Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Czars ? Before? But Longer; The Ugly People Vs. The Beautiful People; Goodbye (I think I may be falling in love)
Damned ? Machine Gun Etiquette 25th Anniversary Edition; Smash It Up (single) 25th Anniversary Edition (this just makes me feel SO OLD!); BBC1 Radio 1 Sessions; Sessions Of
Giant Sand - Is All Over? The Map
Mekons ? Heaven & Hell
Residents: WB: Remix; Commercial Album DVD
Elliott Smith ? From A Basement On The Hill
Kevin Tihista?s Red Terror ? Wake Up Captain
Verve ? This Is Music
Jah Wobble ? I Could Have Been A Contender

I am not your bitch.

All bought with store credit. Thank you, ignored promo CDs. Thank you, old albums I'll never listen to again.

Wallace House - Sam Small, Albert Remsbottom & Others: English Dialect Stories (Folkways)
Steely Dan - Gaucho
Monty Python - The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail

and some US Army fitness workout album featuring a drill sergeant barking out instructions over such tunes as "Eye of the Tiger" and "I Ran" by Flock of Seagulls

Pharoah Sanders, Thembi
Interpol, Antics
Converge, Jane Doe
Wire, Wire On The Box: 1979 CD/DVD combo

What do you reckon?

I'm not Phil but I thought it was pretty cool - very bizarre, the sort of thing that would never be recorded for TV today (the performance in Germany this is).

Oh and how could I forget my £1 Megastore sale purchase - Fabian Road Warrior by Wesley Willis

Any new york ILM-ers - look out for Greta Gertler when she gets back to her NY home from Sydney in Oct.

I really like not buying so many records.

Chuck Berry--The Great 28
v/a--Studio One Funk
v/a--The Sound of Philadelphia 2
v/a--Nicky Siano's The Gallery
Burning Spear--Sounds From...
Underworld--1992-2002
Brian Wilson--Smile
Dizzee--Showtime
Bo Diddley--Tales From The Funk Dimension
The Staple Singers--Ultimate
v/a--Party Keller Vol 1

Come on, hands up....

Couldn't be less interested in Smile. Possibly if I could d/l I would've, but only after a hell of a lot else.

What I've bought this month...
Estelle, The 18th Day
Ghostface, The Pretty Toney Album
Twista, Kamikaze
Annie, Anniemal
Dizzee Rascal, Showtime
Interpol, Antics

This is only the second recording of Afro-Cuban rumba that I've bought. It's not pure rumba since it includes tres and bass on some tracks, but they are played by none other than Arsenio Rodriguez and Cachao Lopez. I especially like Rodriguez's tres playing. The singing in rumba can still be a bumpy ride for me. This is a well-remastered CD, except that I have to agree with a criticism I've seen elsewhere: the bass is too far in the background a lot of the time (and I'm not really into heavy bass, but I'd like to be able to hear it).

This is okay. Belly dance music, and very stripped down.

Shadi Jamil: Oudud Halabiyya

This may take a while to really get into, but it's kind of promising, stately 19th century Syrian classical music.

I also got Oum Kalthoum's Hazihi Leylati, but it is the studio version again, although the live was advertised. I have run into this problem before with other dealers, in regard to this particular song. It's very baffling that this happens. I'll have to return it.

(I think someone may have just been shot at Broad & Callowhill.)

Yes, that was a gun-shot I heard earlier, very very nearby.

I agree entirely.

Next CD trade, I can send you a fairly good sequence of the original tapes, but that new recording gives me the creeps.

Is there actually anyone on ILM who still hasn't bought / borrowed / downloaded or otherwise listened to a copy of SMiLE?

Another hand. Was planning on avoiding until I could see it live in December, but then tickets turned out to be $175 (!).

So a little less than a hundred quid?

Trust me, GO.

Six months ago I'd never have believed I'd end up saying this because I've never been a huge Beach Boys fan and I only went to see him because a load of people whose views I really respect talked me into it, but: it really is absolutely worth it.

Quite breathtaking - right, right up there rubbing shoulders with the (rather unlikely) likes of Bauhaus, Black Uhuru, The Damned, Miles Davis, Flaming Lips, Gary Glitter, Joy Division, Sex Pistols, The Slits and Talking Heads as one of the most memorable gigs I've ever been to.

This is pretty good on first listen. It's essentially the same repertoire that Sabah Fakhry sings, but Jamil's voice is a little less overbearing. (These guys are into powerful singing: they are both known for doing things like singing ten hours straight while standing up the entire time. Sabah Fakhry made it into the Guiness Book of World Records for such a feat of endurance at one point.) The ensemble backing Jamil up seems really incredible in its own right. I like the fact that the percussion is not in the foreground as much as it is on the Sabah Fakhry recordings I've heard. Not my favorite Arabic music genre, but a good area to explore a little. Plus this is a better quality recording than most if not all of the examples I have on tape.

So even less - about 70 quid in fact - almost 50% more than I paid, 'tis true (although I paid for 'er indoors too, so it ended up costing me more like AU$250) but still worth every penny (1 penny = 2.5 Australian cents)

"Exchange rates aside, it's a lot of money, and the equivalent of about 22 normal gigs. Admittedly, I don't go to many shows at the Sydney Opera House."

Never mind Sydney Opera House - the average normal gig only costs about 3 quid?!?

Basement Jaxx
Daft Punk
Herbert
Superpitcher
New Order
Prince
Holger Czukay
Giorgio Moroder
Vikter Duplaix
Rapture
Mu
B-52s
Robag Wruhme
Phoenix
Villeneuve
Zongamin
Ada
Remute
Smash TV
Luomo
!!! singles/Maurice Fulton instrumentals
Matthew Dear
Bloc Party
Metro Area
Erlend Oye
Spektrum
MIA
swayzak
contriva
Pixeltan
Afrika Bambaata
Annie
Mouse on Mars
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Frivolous
Mocky – Are & Be
Quarks
Ariel pink’s haunted graffi

I was worried that these vocals might be a bit harsh, but I don't find them that way after all. The rhythmic clapping is fantastic, even if it's not there continuously. (In pop music, these clapped rhythms are programmed electronically and it still sounds fantastic to me.)

Various: Si Soy Llanero: Joropo Music from the Orinoco Plains of Colombia

Apparently some sort of "cowboy" music, with lots of guitar and vocals that sound Flamenco-related, judging from the brief audio samples I heard.

T Rex - The Slider - Import Bonus Extra two disk thingee
Nick Cave - Abbatoir Blues / Lyre of Orpheus
Muddy Waters - Live at Newport '65

But what do I know? I'm old and boring and only buy comps:
Guy, The Best of/20th Century Masters: The Millenium Collection
Depeche Mode, Remixes 81-04
John Mellencamp, Words & Music: JM's Greatest Hits
George Strait, 50 Number Ones

Herbert, 'Bodily Functions'
Matthew Herbert Big Band, 'Goodbye Swingtime' (fantastic in parts)
The Great Jazz Trio (Hank Jones/Elvin Jones/Richard Davis, 'Someday My Prince Will Come' (been waiting for this to come out for years)

The Velvet Monkeys - Rake LP
Momus - Tender Pervert LP
DAF - Gold und Leibe LP
Mireille Mathieu - um, can't actually remember what it's called 7"
Some bizarre 'comedy' LP called The Jewish American Princess

umpty x-posts -
Alright, if it turns out the rumours about the Wondermints not playing with him turn out to be ignorance from the promoter, I'll think again about the Smile show. Still have a big problem with paying that much more for a gig than for rent though.

And yeah, most gigs I go to cost about A$8 - generally in a range from $5 - $12. Something like the Flaming Lips at $69.90 obviously throws off the average, but I've only paid over $30 for one other show this year, and a whole bunch of free gigs bring the odds down again.

LPs
Joan Jett - Bad Reputation
Vapors - New Clear Days
AC/DC - Back In Black
Depeche Mode - Violator

CDs
Sunn o))) - White 1
Black Mountain - s/t
Isis - Oceanic
Stooges - s/t

DVD
Low In Europe