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To Whom It May Interest,

Yet another exciting account of records bought. Enjoy.

Amazon Purchases:

Entrance
Prayer Of Death
Tee Pee Records
Released 11.14.06


There is something amazing about the song, “Silence On A Crowded Train.” When I first caught this song, I was more or less transfixed and unable to concentrate on anything else. High intensity bass line blues and wah guitar are driven into the heavens with Paz Lenchantin’s (A Perfect Circle, Zwan, Queens Of The Stone Age) violin and Guy Blakeslee’s vocals. From start to finish, Prayer Of Death, is a sonic acid soaked dream, dripping with psychedelic strings and pensive meditations about our mortality. Amazing record. Please run out and find a copy.

Various Artists
Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968
4 CD Boxed Set
Rhino
Re-mastered, reassembled & re-released 9.15.98

You find that certain people painstakingly do what they can to preserve history. One such individual is Lenny Kaye who made his name as Patti Smith’s guitarist in the classic, Horses. But, before that, he was responsible for compiling a double-LP’s worth of mid-60s psychedelic hits referred to as, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968.

Eventually, the LP fell out of print but Rhino and Lenny sought to reassemble the collection and added about three CDs worth of music to it. It’s a great collection. Featured here you’ll find Count Five, Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Amboy Dukes, The Seeds, The Blues Magoos, The 13th Floor Elevators and so much more. I haven’t even finished listening to this set yet, there’s so much music.

There’s a second Nuggets set devoted to the British Invasion and also Children of Nuggets, a set covering modern bands that span the late 70s to the mid-90s.

Gemm.com Purchase:

Beauty Pill
The Cigarette Girl From The Future
EP (Out of Print)
Dischord/DeSoto
Released 3.01

For those that don’t know, GEMM.com is where you go to find rare music when all other music avenues have turned up zilch. It’s essentially a worldwide network on the web, frequented by dorks like us and record storeowners that may have something you’re looking for. Unfortunately, Cigarette Girl From The Future is out of print so such avenues had to be taken in order to find a copy. Even on GEMM, it was a bitch securing one. If I remember correctly, my copy was sent from some record store in Vienna, Austria, so it may not be easy to find, but you should try anyway because…well, it’s really good.

The Cigarette Girl From The Future has been sort of an obsession of mine since it arrived at work a couple months ago, mostly for the title track which is something I’ve had to listen to at least once a day. Beauty Pill is brilliant in their subtlety, sneaking in a rather heavy barrage of instruments without the listener noticing. All I hear is this wonderful clapped beat, really catchy bass line and the softly spoken vocals, echoed by a lovely female voice. In the meantime, there are also trumpets and some remarkably dissonant guitar work that kind of capitalizes on U2’s The Edge, but creates more atmosphere than he’s been able to generate since maybe War. I was also drawn to a particular lyric: ”How much strychnine was in the ecstasy you gave me an hour ago?”

The EP’s other four tracks are also worthy of mass consumption, most notably “Rideshare” and “Here Lies Rachel Wallace.” Seriously, if you can find a copy, grab it immediately. Also check out their other EP, You Are Right To Be Afraid. I still haven’t picked up the LP yet, but I’m sure I’ll acquire it soon.

Sincerely,
Letters From A Tapehead

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