Poverty Pays Off

Another night of records.
Playing Hulaboy. Typing Bullshit.

First Steps & False Alarms (1995)

This being a collection of home demos compiled by David Kilgour of the Clean fame.

Some songs ended up being on other releases. Some didn't. Some are just kind of proof of concept drafts of things put to tape. It's all part of the process for an artist as prolific as Mr. Kilgour seems to be.

I personally lack the stamina.

But I did kind of luck out by being poor. As with some of the late 90s Fall lps, I ended up buying some things on vinyl because they were usually a few bucks cheaper than the compact disc releases.

Now thanks to the resurgent vinyl fetishists some of those records have become nice little expensive collector's items.

But for this one Ajax records took the time and expense to get a decent pressing together.
So that's nice.

It's all nice.

Free From All Charges or Deductions

Last of my Sandra Bell plus a bonus

Net (1995)



I will admit that I didn't really listen to this very much when I first got it. By the middle of the 90s my brain was drifting away from this sound. Which isn't so much a knock on this compact disc. It's a fine effort. I just don't have much of a memory or sense of it from the time.
 
Which in itself is nice since I can listen to it now for itself and as it exists now rather than as a contemplation of who or what I was a quarter century ago.

 It's definitely of its time which again isn't bad.
 It's a time capsule of a place and a process.
Which is also not to say that it hasn't aged well.
It sounds as good now as then but sounds are emanating from a sonic past that no longer exists.
It's a ghost record
Let it flow through your mind and haunt your late nights.



Bonus time!

Instress Vol 1 (1995)

I'm just going to throw this split 7" with John Davis (the Folk Implosion) in here so it doesn't end up sitting in the pile for the next decade. You get one more nugget of Sandra Bell and a full side of John Davis plying his lo-fi 90s folk trade.

Leap Year and Other Really Annoying Bullshit

So this is the year we get an extra day of February.
Hoo-fucking-ray.

But there is more. With this post I will have (if this thing hasn't been shut down by the Man at some point in between) queued up a new post over a full year ahead of time.
It's 3:49am on the 26th of February, 2019 as of this particular sentence.

So like some weary musical ghost ship on autopilot this meandering hulk of half assed bullshit can continue on without any fresh input from me for one entire journey around the sun. Four full seasons (more or less) will have come and gone before I need to add to the pile.

Hopefully I used that year constructively. (My hope is to use it to make my own terrible music and digitize and preserve the umpteen volumes of cassettes dating back to 1988 I've made which I'm not going to put up here. You're welcome.)

This day is also a year and a day (though for me currently still a couple of days off) since I had the opportunity to see the Chills for a second time since a truly memorable and top ten experience seeing them in 1990 in the 7th St Entry after "Submarine Bells" was released and the last show they were sharing on the tour with Blake Babies (who I vaguely knew back in Boston since I'd worked with their first bass player, Seth.)

Which leads me to this post.
I feel like I want to do something kind of special with it

Secret Box (2001)

So today in honor of my upcoming (as of this typing) chance to see the Chills after a number of decades I'm posting the limited, had to buy it directly from Martin himself in 2001, three disc set of Chills rarities and live tracks with umpteen tracks that were never recorded in studio.

My physical copy is in the other room, but it's one of the initial signed numbered ones. I sent Martin a check for something like fifty US dollars and a while later it arrived in all its glory. 

People are also asking absolutely ridiculous prices for it on Discogs right now. 

If I were asked by Numero Group to spearhead some reissues this would likely be my second pick right after the Dolly Mixture "Everything and More" triple disc set that came and went in a heartbeat. (and I missed). That'd be huge.

But nobody asks me.

At that time in 1990 they also did a short in-store performance at Oarfolkjokeopus. It was a lovely low key affair. At one point Martin was at a loss as to what to play next. I offered "Green Eyed Owl", but that version of the band didn't know it. It's still my favorite Chills song....