Pilgrimage
The one question every San Francisco native has been asking me all week is "Have you been to Amoeba yet?" I got it so much I joked about making a shirt that said "Not Yet. (But thanks for asking)" or something like that. I also kept telling everyone that while I was sure Amoeba was great and all, I was pretty sure I was past the point of ever being excited about going to a CD store ever again. I don't think I've bought a physical CD in at least 6 months, if not longer.
Well..that whole not getting excited thing? I was wrong.
The selection at Amoeba is mind blowing. They have three copies of every CD you could ever want (except for this one, which I couldn't find anywhere, although maybe I should have checked the DVD section). I was definitely a kid in the candy store. I didn't have much space in my camera bag for a lot of stuff, so I went with quality over quantity for my purchases. Here's what I got:
Spiritualized - Royal Albert Hall October 10 1997 Live
Out of print. Price paid: $7.99
Elbow - Cast of Thousands
With special CD ROM featuring 11 live songs. Price paid: $7.99
The Jam - Live at the BBC
Double disc set. Price paid: $9.99
Hard to beat that. All three I've been trying to track down for a while and they had multiple copies of each. Name any recently released album and the had at least two used copies ready for you to purchase for under $10. Needless to say D.C.'s glaring lack of decent places to buy CD's really hit home yesterday.
I'm going to try to get my Pela photos up later today, but at this point, I'm totally frustrated by the slow as molasses wireless connections I have here. It took me like 30 minutes to upload these three photos to Flickr.
Tonight I'm hoping to take BART to Oakland and catch the A's v. The Twins. If I was back in D.C., I would definitely be going to see Nethers play the Black Cat. I haven't even seen my beloved Nethers play a single time this year! I am seriously in withdrawl. But you should go and tell me how it was. They're going to play some new stuff!
I have two other shows to see over the weekend, however. The Pipettes and Smoosh on Saturday and Bloc Party on Sunday. Expect lots of photos next week.
I saw Nethers at Johnny Brenda's last week and it was my first time seeing them since I moved to Philly (last August). They played all new songs (except for one) and it sounded really great. I don't have photos up yet but um...maybe sometime. I'm pretty busy lately. They have a brand new 7" with 2 new songs but I don't have a record player so I didn't buy it.
I had a similar revelation last year when I made my first Amoeba pilgrimage. You made some great finds. I think that the Albert Hall album is the best thing that Spiritualized has ever put out. Keep up the hunt for that James album; it'll be worth it when you find it.