he got a bum hip-hop.
another work week finished. i'm definitely getting more into the swing of things, and several times in the past week, i opened and/or closed totally by myself. not that it's quantum computing or anything, but it's kinda cool to be trusted with that so soon after starting.
there are only three employees at the downtown location currently: myself, tony and justin. tony is a heavily bearded 50 year old. he's also the store manager. he's worked in record stores for the past 20 years. he talks a lot. he's the kind of dude who likes to constantly mess with people and give them shit, but not in a dick way. it takes some getting used to because he's so deadpan about it, but you learn to play along. you can tell he likes messing with the new guy. he's already pegged me as being the 80s/90s college rock guy (apparently playing the new meat pups album sealed it). he also hates hipsters, though he is slightly pretentious in his own weird way. any mention of the pixies enrages him. he's essentially the resident jack-black-from-high fidelity guy. he's a good dude though; i like him. we bonded over our love of huey lewis yesterday while listening to the back to the future soundtrack.
justin is much more of an introvert and is way less pretentious in his views. he's only a couple years older than me. he likes metal, obscure soul and 70s prog, but he also loves radiohead, modest mouse and new indie rock (and yes, i have already admitted to not being a MM fan to him). he's essentially dick from high fidelity. we seem to have more in common than tony and i, probably just because we're more similar personalities. he's worked in record stores for years as well, so having insanely eclectic (yes, i hate that word too) tastes must come with the territory. i guess there's only so much 80s/90s college rock one can listen to there right? so it's a pretty good crew at that store i think. we hang together well.
cool things i heard this week! whatever's on your mind by gomez is super solid fairly slick beatle pop. they have a lot of albums going back to the 90s, but that's their most recent. II by the budos band is a great new instrumental soul album. it sounds like it's from the 60s, but it's from 2007. i blindly put in an album by ima robot that was actually pretty good (their most recent one i think).
but the most consistent seller at jackpot since i started has been within and without by washed out. it's literally the hippest shit at this moment. i wanted to not like it, but that didn't work. it's electronic poppy slow jams basically. people are calling this style chillwave. but given my love of ambient/new age music, i can't help but like it. it's kind of chick music. mayhaw would hate it. bill would probably like it.
also, colin meloy and a small crew came in for an NPR interview yesterday. apparently he loves jackpot and comes in fairly regularly. he wanted to show it off as part of some NPR thing. it was cool to meet him and ring him up for a morrissey tape and the new boston spaceships album (i said, "this is a great record," and he replied, "i thought i'd support my bandmate!"). he's also a lot shorter than i thought he was. i find that is true with many favorite musicians i come eye to eye with (like john flansburgh and tegan). i guess you just don't have any sense of scale when they're on some far away stage or on TV. or maybe i'm just tall.
in the last week, spookies finished the two songs that will be on the cassingle with westin from the thermals. they sound awesome. they're really great scuzzy lo-fi pop songs. i can't wait to do a whole album like that. they were really fun to record too. colin and i tracked the drums and guitar together and then we all overdubbed everything else. i like that process, because we at least tracked as a semi band!
what's a cranston?
there are only three employees at the downtown location currently: myself, tony and justin. tony is a heavily bearded 50 year old. he's also the store manager. he's worked in record stores for the past 20 years. he talks a lot. he's the kind of dude who likes to constantly mess with people and give them shit, but not in a dick way. it takes some getting used to because he's so deadpan about it, but you learn to play along. you can tell he likes messing with the new guy. he's already pegged me as being the 80s/90s college rock guy (apparently playing the new meat pups album sealed it). he also hates hipsters, though he is slightly pretentious in his own weird way. any mention of the pixies enrages him. he's essentially the resident jack-black-from-high fidelity guy. he's a good dude though; i like him. we bonded over our love of huey lewis yesterday while listening to the back to the future soundtrack.
justin is much more of an introvert and is way less pretentious in his views. he's only a couple years older than me. he likes metal, obscure soul and 70s prog, but he also loves radiohead, modest mouse and new indie rock (and yes, i have already admitted to not being a MM fan to him). he's essentially dick from high fidelity. we seem to have more in common than tony and i, probably just because we're more similar personalities. he's worked in record stores for years as well, so having insanely eclectic (yes, i hate that word too) tastes must come with the territory. i guess there's only so much 80s/90s college rock one can listen to there right? so it's a pretty good crew at that store i think. we hang together well.
cool things i heard this week! whatever's on your mind by gomez is super solid fairly slick beatle pop. they have a lot of albums going back to the 90s, but that's their most recent. II by the budos band is a great new instrumental soul album. it sounds like it's from the 60s, but it's from 2007. i blindly put in an album by ima robot that was actually pretty good (their most recent one i think).
but the most consistent seller at jackpot since i started has been within and without by washed out. it's literally the hippest shit at this moment. i wanted to not like it, but that didn't work. it's electronic poppy slow jams basically. people are calling this style chillwave. but given my love of ambient/new age music, i can't help but like it. it's kind of chick music. mayhaw would hate it. bill would probably like it.
also, colin meloy and a small crew came in for an NPR interview yesterday. apparently he loves jackpot and comes in fairly regularly. he wanted to show it off as part of some NPR thing. it was cool to meet him and ring him up for a morrissey tape and the new boston spaceships album (i said, "this is a great record," and he replied, "i thought i'd support my bandmate!"). he's also a lot shorter than i thought he was. i find that is true with many favorite musicians i come eye to eye with (like john flansburgh and tegan). i guess you just don't have any sense of scale when they're on some far away stage or on TV. or maybe i'm just tall.
in the last week, spookies finished the two songs that will be on the cassingle with westin from the thermals. they sound awesome. they're really great scuzzy lo-fi pop songs. i can't wait to do a whole album like that. they were really fun to record too. colin and i tracked the drums and guitar together and then we all overdubbed everything else. i like that process, because we at least tracked as a semi band!
what's a cranston?