Trip to the Music Store...

Currently listening to: "The Portrait" by King Diamond

So I was at a used record shop this weekend and purchased four items...and not a single damn one of them is anything alike whatsoever. I like a lot of different shite, mainly metal (and nobody in this or any other dimension does it better than King Diamond), and if it sounds good or interesting to me, I'll listen to it. Here's what sounded good to me whilst killing time on a Saturday afternoon:

Find #1: "Clerks II" - Soundtrack to the Motion Picture
Kevin Smith is one of those directors who always puts together amazing soundtracks. Even if you don't like his movies, you'll probably like the soundtrack albums to his movies...there are also great audio clips from the movie on this one. I'll start by saying that there is not only one, but there are TWO King Diamond tracks on this collection...as well as an audio clip ("The First of the Fallen") that has Randal and Jay singing lines from the KD songs in the flick. There's also Q Lazzarus's "Goodbye, Horses"...which many of you many know as "The Silence of the Lambs song...it's an incredibly well-written song with a great meaning. Not only amazing for its genre, but just damn good period...I used to only have this as an mp3 that somebody gave me on a mixed CD and now that I hear it in its entirety with CD quality sound, I'm even more blown away by this track. To finish up, I'll say that another notable track known from another movie is "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" (from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid")...you also get keen stuff from Samantha Fox, Soul Asylum...hell, even the Alanis Morrisette song is good!

Find #2: "Family Tree" - Bjork
A greatest hits/rarities/b-sides collection brought to you by Bjork...damn, she's hot...but I digress... I resisted buying this when it came out a couple years ago because the collection is five mini discs (four/five songs per disc) and one regular size CD...and it was expensive for what is really three CDs worth of material...and the regular size CD is just a 'greatest hits as chosen by Bjork' disc (which I basically already have because I own all her albums)...I even have quite a few of the rarities...so I didn't see any point in getting it when it was first released, also because this 'box set' is not any larger than a standard double CD case and carries a price tag of around $50 to $60 for a new copy...you can go to Amazon.com right now and buy it for $59.98! But at the used price of $12.99 for the whole set? Absofuckinglutely!

Find #3: "Stand Up and Shout: The Anthology" - Dio
I've seen Ronnie James Dio live in concert once and, though creepily elfin he may be, he can fucking rock harder than any new young band today. I dig everything about this collection, and upon seeing it I realized that I don't own any Dio albums!...so I kind of HAD to buy this... I think Dio's great, but with living in L.A. and listening to KLOS, you get to hear him a lot for free on the FM...so it's not like I'm lacking in his greatness...but the album artwork on this collection is killer and it has all the Elf/Rainbow/Black Sabbath/Dio essentials. I think this would probably be a good buy if you are lacking in the Dio department as well...

Find #4: "Anthology" - Franki Valli & The Four Seasons
This may surprise most people, but I DIG pop music from the 50's and 60's. It could be because this is what my parents listened to, so while I was growing up that was all I heard...well, that and opera... Back then people were, for the most part, doing music for the sake of the music...and there were no crazy digital effects or Pro Tools or the ability to fix complete fuck-ups in post...musicians ACTUALLY HAD TO BE TALENTED AND SOUND GOOD!...it's all so organic and soulful and brilliant...and ahhh, the wall of sound... Hearing this music always makes me happy...yet sad at the same time because I miss my childhood...

So, there ya go...a soundtrack with metal, new wave, Alanis Morissette, and audio clips about dark forces and donkey shows...the experimental/industrial/techno vox and beats of a sexy Icelandic chick...the man on the silver mountain...and 60's pop music ("Sherr-eeeeeeeeee...Sherry, baby..."...come on, you know you love it, too)...