I’m spending my Christmas vacation up in South Lake Tahoe this year. There’s not a whole lot of snow on the mountains so the skiing is pretty limited, leaving me with time for another of my favorite pastimes – record shopping.

There’s a used books and record store here in S. Lake called Keynote which inhabits a special place in my record buying history. A few years ago I found a fairly rare, UK Vertigo first pressing of May Blitz’s self titled album at Keynote. It’s an album that despite some scratches and damage to the jacket has nonetheless become a favorite in my collection. I also paid a ridiculously low price for it.

So yesterday afternoon I managed to duck out of our condo for an hour to go dig through the bins at Keynote. I found a few records that I’m eager to spin when I get home from vacation, but more on those in a moment.

First, while I’m furiously making may way through the “Rock” section at Keynote I notice that the shop keeper has a radio program on the stereo hosted by a woman that might be described as the extreme left female version of Rush Limbaugh.

I didn’t catch her name or the name of the program, but this radio host was basically ranting about Trump and his tweeting and his obsession with Fox news and saying that he spends upwards of 8 hours a day watching television and isn’t it outrageous that the president of the United Sates is spending his days watching TV before she went off for at least 10 minutes about the accusations of Trump’s sexual misconduct and his ridiculous attempts at denial of ever having met these women despite clear video evidence to the contrary. In short, this woman was extremely pissed about out current president she didn’t mind saying so.

If you ever spend time in record stores you may have noticed that there is often a person who spends time there who’s not really a customer but is what I call a “mouth looking for an ear”. This person, usually a guy, usually on the older side, corners the store clerk and makes him his private captive audience and talks his ear off for what is at worst an entire afternoon and at best the exact amount of time it takes me to get through the bins. I rarely spend less than 45 minutes to an hour at record store and when a “mouth” is there he is invariably there from when I walk into the store until I walk out.

I wish I could say this added a certain charm to the whole experience of digging through seemingly endless rows of vinyl, awkwardly crouching down to see if any of the less accessible, lower bins are hiding any gems and trying to assess vinyl condition in invariably poor light all the while trying not to touch any parts of my face to avoid catching some bug from one of the countless other customers who have held the same, smelly old piece of cardboard in their hands, but sadly, it only further detracts from the thankless, labor of love that is shopping for used records.

Well Keynote apparently has it’s own “mouth” and this one has his own strong views on Donald Trump and the great job he is doing as president and he went off on his own rant about how Hillary Clinton is a Scorpio and a Scorpio will never let go of a defeat and will not rest until she can exact revenge on those who have done her wrong and that the democrats are all a bunch of sore losers who should just keep their mouths shut and stop whining. I won’t subject you to his views on Obama which involved comparisons to one of our primate cousins, but needless to say he was not a fan and felt that he’d let to many Mexicans and Muslims into our country who were now driving our crime rate up and attacking and killing us to the point where the country isn’t safe anymore.

And even though he said he knows some “hard working Mexicans” and they are of course “not all bad people” he felt that the country was ultimately worse off for having them and that Trump had the right idea about closing our borders and he clearly was going a great job as president because of it and because, “well, look how great the stock market is doing” and because we no longer had to “worry about the government taking our guns away”.

“What do you think, huh? Come on man tell me what do you think?” He demanded of the store clerk who I believe is the owner of Keynote and who seems like a nice, soft spoken guy and who clearly doesn’t agree with this guy based on his odd choice of in store entertainment and who then meekly says to the guy “well, I’m against Trump” and who at that moment I was really rooting for to get out of the pickle he was in with this “mouth” breathing down his neck.

When at last the “mouth” walked out the door a refreshing draft of cool Tahoe air blew in as it closed behind him and I could finally give my full attention to the task at hand and see what gems might be hiding in what were clearly some well picked over record bins.

As for what I found, here goes.

First off is Josh White’s Josh At Midnight, a record I read about on Bill Hart’s The Vinyl Press, my favorite collecting blog and a great source for recommendations on music and vinyl pressings. Josh At Midnight was originally released in 1956. This copy is a 4th pressing, and while I realize the “4th pressing” of any album sounds terribly unimpressive, you never know. This copy was released all the way back in 1961 and it’s in pretty nice condition. Here’s an excerpt from the liner notes:

“And when he sings it’s midnight. Stars throb in a black sky overcast with spirals of smoke. And hypnotized, we enter and become part of the firmament. This is what Josh gives us.”

Follow up after listening: Pretty good sonics on this record. There’s nice depth to the soundstage and Josh’s guitar has great presence. The backing vocals sometimes don’t resolve well on this copy, resulting in some static when the singers are really belting it out. Overall I’d say this is a record worth seeking out. There’s some terrific songs and the sonics have merit!

Next up is Donovan’s Donovan in Concert. This is an early pressing of this 1968 recording of a performance Donovan gave at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA. I have heard this record has the potential for terrific sonics with a startling “live” sound. Here’s an excerpt from the liner notes, shown written in Donovan’s own hand:

“And so we flew over the ocean and landed in America for concerts. I was pleased that others were pleased to see me again. With fingers sticky with new songs we began the tour. “Eye” (drawing of an eye) love California the sun (drawing of a sun) shines mostly.”

Before making many of the stereo upgrades I’ve made over the past few years I wasn’t generally partial to live albums. But hearing a well done live recording that really presents “live” reproduced on a great system has resulted in a complete about face and I now seek out well done live records. I’m eager to hear this one!

 

Also on Epic, I picked up this 1979 reissue of Spirit’s The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus. Originally released by this L.A band in 1970, The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus is Spirit’s 4th album and my favorite by them. I have an original pressing of this record but I’m always interested in hearing other copies of records that I particularly like and sometimes reissues such as this one sound better than the originals. An 80’s reissue of Jeff Beck’s Truth (also on Epic) I own is a perfect example of this. I’ve heard several early pressings of Truth and this reissue sounds WAY better than any of them! I’m looking forward to seeing how this copy of Sardonicus stands up to the original!

I also picked up this original pressing of Jimmy Smith’s Who’s Afraid of Virginal Woolf. Of all of the records in this recent haul, this one is by far in the best condition. Better Records regular stocks a copy of this record on their site, which is usually a good indication that an album, especially a jazz album, has been recorded well. To be honest I’ve never heard this record so I’m really excited to give it a listen. This one’s a mono original, not usually my first choice as my current preamp doesn’t have a mono setting, but for 5 bucks in this condition it seemed like a no brainer. Fingers crossed on this one!

Last but not least, Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66’s Look Around. This is their 4th album and like the three before it was produced by Herb Albert. I have an original pressing of their first album Herb Albert Presents… and the recording is phenomenal. The music literally pops right out of the speakers! For 4 bucks if this one is half as good I’ll consider it a success.

Follow up after listening: This copy is a dud! And do we really need two Beatles covers on one album? Unfortunately I can’t recommend Look Around.

I’m heading home tomorrow and will have a couple more days off work to play a few of these records. When I have more details on the sonics of each of them I will post a follow up. In the meantime, have a happy new year!