Good Music For Good People: New Music Saturday

Went record shopping on Saturday at my favorite record store: Amoeba on Sunset in Hollywood. Picked up the new Sinead O’Connor release Throw Down Your Arms, the Propeller vinyl reissue from GBV, Superchunk’s No Pocky For Kitty, The Cramps’ Bad Music For Bad People and Songs The Lord Taught Us, Black Flag’s Everything Went Black, and the documentary Paradise Lost, about the horrible tragedy of the "West Memphis Three."

(If you aren’t familiar with the case of three falsely accused young men, imprisoned for life for a crime they didn’t commit, visit wm3.org.)

But, I was really surprised by how good the new Sinead album is. I’m not a huge reggae fan and most of her output has been spotty. I like her first two albums and Faith & Courage. Otherwise, I find her boring. But this album is sincere and is a perfect showcase for one of the greatest voices in modern music.

The other purchases were splurges.

I have Propeller on vinyl and CD already, but wanted the new reissue.

I haven’t listened to the Cramps in years, but suddenly had a craving and didn’t have anything on the shelf. And, dammit, if they don’t sound as good as ever.

The Superchunk purchase was just a case of filling in the blanks on CD. I love Superchunk when they are good, which is about half the time. With this purchase, I think I have all of their albums worth owning.

And the Black Flag CD was something I used to listen to on vinyl, but my stepdaughter got an Everything Went Black t-shirt for her birthday (I bought it for her), and I wanted to here the album again. Didn’t have the lp, so had to buy the disc.

I’ve listened to the two Cramps discs about four times already, the Sinead twice, the Superchunk and Black Flag once each, filed away the Propeller vinyl, and watched the Paradise Lost DVD with my wife on Saturday night. So, all in all, a great day at the record store.

And here are the last ten songs my iPod played:

1. "This Place Is a Prison" by Postal Service
2. "So Sad About Us" by the Breeders
3. "Merchandise" by Fugazi
4. "Hair" by PJ Harvey
5. "A Stroke of Luck" by Garbage
6. "You Trip Me Up" by the Jesus & Mary Chain
7. "Thirteen" by Big Star
8. "Nothing Was Delivered" by The Byrds
9. "Thumb" by Dinosaur Jr.
10. "Welfare Mothers" by Neil Young