and bonus

In the digital-music age, I was a still-buying-CDs holdout for a long time. In the olden days, I’d meet my friend at the Union Square Virgin Megastore and spend hours browsing the rows letter by letter. Music recommendations were exchanged, purchases were debated, concert memories were remembered, new discoveries were made, and in the end, we’d wind up spending too much money on CDs. It was okay, though, because we’d always insist on each buying the same number of CDs.

Of course, those days are gone. The store closed in 2009, and I can’t remember the last CD I bought. Amazon Mp3 is cheap, instant gratification, even though it doesn’t give me liner notes or artwork or… anything physical at all, of course. (We can discuss my dislike and complete avoidance of the iTunes store another time.)

Luckily, last Saturday before the Sondre Lerche show, we stumbled upon Norman’s and wandered its $1 CD basement for a while. Turns out that used CDs are a perfectly economical way to revive those days of “real” CD shopping.

$6.38 total for these:

[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”280" caption=”Princeton — Bloomsbury”]

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I remembered snagging a free promotional mp3 from this band years ago. I couldn’t remember if I liked it, but I still liked the band name and album title. Had to get it for that reason alone.

[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”300" caption=”Garbage — Garbage”]

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Long live the 90s! This is a classic. Essential.

[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”300" caption=”The Asteroids Galaxy Tour — Fruit”]

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More than just that song “Around The Bend” that was in that iPod commercial years ago. Actually, that was the only song I knew going into this. But the rest of the album is great. Also, this album was still in its original sealed packaging.

[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”300" caption=”Steel Train — For You My Dear”]

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I saw Steel Train open for fun. last year and have been meaning to get their music for a while.

[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”300" caption=”Electric Light Orchestra — Discovery”]

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Love ELO. Love them. “Hold On Tight” is my “I hate work but am driving there and need to get my happy face on” jam. “Strange Magic” is gorgeously dreamy and addictive and very singable. I’m sure there will be new favorites on this album.

[NO PIC]
Wellesley Widows — Along Came A Spider

Maybe it was because I was frolicking in New York last weekend in lieu of going to my college reunion, but I felt the need to rescue this album, which was made by an a cappella group at the alma mater — during my time there, no less. It was fun to flip through the booklet and recognize all the names.