Crystal Antlers, Tentacles (2009)

Where bought? I think about 2 months elapsed between picking up the EP and the debut album dropping. I was living in Manchester, so I am going to guess that I went back to Piccadilly Records to get it on or around the day it dropped.

One year after that raucous and joyous debut show, Crystal Antlers returned with a new album and played the larger Sound Control venue near Oxford Rd. station (now not a venue, and not particularly missed by me). The crowd was about the same size but in a much larger room. Some of the faces were definitely at the previous show. But the hype hadn't translated into growing success: the psych-punk train had stopped.

Crystal Antlers, EP (2008)

Where bought? I feel I can say with near certainty that this was picked up in Piccadilly Records not long after it came out. I'd been on the hunt for it and copies that existed were getting snapped up pretty sharp. In fact my copy is the re-release on Touch & Go rather than their self-pressed 12". This is weird to think about for reasons this blog (and the next) will go into. My copy has the image below much smaller, and basically looks like a blank cardboard sleeve with a backprint.

There was, very briefly, Crystal Antlers fever. This EP got great reviews, a totally authentic word-of-mouth (and probably blog) phenomenon and the first CA show in Manchester was absolutely raucous and rammed in a tiny piss-smelling bar I've played at before (the soundman went AWOL for our set and we did it ourself).

Creedence Clearwater Revival, Willy and Poor Boys (1969)

Where bought? Rise in Worcester. £10. I now realise this low price for a new record is all part and parcel of John Fogerty's lack of control over his own back catalogue, and Fantasy Records' ongoing exploitation of it. So I am a bit sorry about owning this, on some level.

'America's Beatles' claimed Tom Scharpling of Creedence Clearwater Revival and if that comparison is made because both groups established a solid back catalogue of clear-eyed transcendent pop songs that sounded as if they had always existed then I agree wholeheartedly. In truth, I simply think John Fogerty is the best songwriter of the 60s, and I am not exactly unsold on the music he has produced since.

Helios Creed, Boxing the Clown (1990)

Where bought? I can't really tell you on that count. Maybe from the Alans Records pop-up for a very low price. I can tell you why I bought it, but that might eat up some of the word count downpage.

Helios Creed was the guitarist - and essentially one half of the creative unit - of Chrome, who I reviewed earlier in this project. When Damon (the other half) took off for France, he took the name with him. Creed soldiered on under his own name (and also a version of Chrome called Helios Creed's Chrome, after a lawsuit) and never quite made the same impact. Separating out Damon's nihilism and Creed's psychedelic exploration seemed to kill the dialectic, maybe?

The Cramps, Smell of Female (1983)

Where bought? Not sure. Really not sure. This feels like a record I have never not owned. It seems to have followed me around for over 20 years. Geographically that would put me in my home town, but I can't think of anywhere that might have stocked this. Also, I think I bought it because a pal had it and I liked it a lot, so I might even have got my ownership of it confused with his having it while we'd get stoned at his house.

Cougar Discipline, Âme soeur (2016)

Where bought? I'm fairly sure I bought this off David, one of the band's label owners, at his flat in Rennes. He tried to give it to me (he is a very generous man) but I insisted on paying the man for once. Like I scrunched fifteen euro into his hands and made him keep it and not secrete it back into my belongings or buy something in kind.

Cougar Discipline are (were?) a trio from Lyon comprised of a drummer, a singer/speaker, and a guitarist. I sort of know the guitarist, Alex, and he's probably one of the best musicians I've ever met.

Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Armed Forces (1979)

Where bought? I think my pal Jude was having a clear-out and he gave me this and a few others.

A perennial of British music magazines Best Albums of All Time mayhem that seemed to arise every year from the late 90s to the late 00s (the internet sort of killed it, though Rolling Stone just resurrected it and remembered that black people have made music in the past). It's probably this hype and the general wild positivity toward one Declan McManus that has gotten me off on the wrong foot.

The Chameleons, Strange Times (1986)

Where bought? I think this was X Records in Bolton. It's in such a shabby state that I can't think why I picked it up. It's also an American copy (credited to The Chameleons UK).

The Chameleons are generally considered one of those UK 80s guitar indie bands that didn't get their due; three solid records with no major mis-steps, clearly an influence on later artists like Interpol, and generally took some of the poses of post-punk into interesting places.

Berline 0.33, Planned Obsolescence (2011)

Where bought? Got this from one of the band, presumably in Lille.

A disclaimer inasmuch as two of the band members are good friends and there's absolutely no way on earth I would be 'fair' about this record. Did you come here for fair? 

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Odditties Sodomies Vol. 2 (2019)

Where bought? The most recent purchase and I bought it from some guy in Glasgow off Discogs. I think it was from his record shop, but I dunno what it is called.

A quick jump backward to catch A-C releases I missed out on. I'd imagine this represents the end of my Ariel Pink purchasing frenzy of the last year or so: the other two Odditties Sodomies volumes don't quite tickle me as much, and while I could find room for Underground, Scared Famous, Loverboy, and pom-pom, they'd probably have to be knockdown prices.

momentary interlude

I usually start out quite "hot" with a project and tail off. I don't think this is happening here, but I am moving flat and as such lugging my records around and having to re-arrange them, set up my stereo equipment, etc. etc.

I also found a couple of records in the B and C letters that I missed out owing to them being either filed incorrectly or so thinly-spined that they escaped notice. 

Also decided that I will do the 7" records in round-ups after every 4th letter, so expect A-D fairly soon.