It’s not my fault, but I went on a bonkers buying binge this week. I had a gift certificate to Reckless, so I figured… why not spend it and another forty bucks on top of it? (Answer: cause that’s stupid.) Anyhow, it’s not even entirely my fault.

First to blame: The AV Club, whose most recent Inventory feature resulted in this:

Then, I’d been constantly hassled by Nathan, Grant, and..  basically the rest of the world to get these, and if I’m one thing it’s a sucker for peer pressure.

These last two, unfortnately, are just my fault.  (Though a case could be made that it’s the fault of listening to Sirius and/or XM at the coffee shop I went to last week.  It was definitely on the “college” channel.)

I still have a pretty sizable list of stuff on the “to buy ASAP” list, but I’m pretty sure the next purchase is going to be Lady Gaga, cause she deserves it.  I’m also pretty sure it’s going to be awhile before I go record shopping again, cause it’s going to take a long time to work through all this.

I’ve listened to everything all the way through once, and my initial impressions are after the break.

TMBG- Miscellaneous T.  I cannot believe I just bought this.  I was such a superfan of TMBG for so long.  I think I was some sort of a snob about getting a b-sides comp?  I don’t know.  But the alternate versions of “Kiss Me, Son of God” and “Don’t Let’s Start” are worth it on their own.  “Hey Mr. DJ, I thought you said we had a deal” is great, but I already knew that.  Two god reasons about me getting it now and not 15 years ago is that back then I wouldn’t have appreciated “We’re The Replacements”, which is just making of the band, and I wouldn’t have liked the really cool “The World’s Address” remix, which is cool and Steinski-esque and would have been far too hip-hop for my pre-teen taste.

Nirvana– Incesticide.  Awesome.  Another one I just can’t believe I missed, but I guess I already know most of the songs anyhow.  I didn’t know the Devo cover, which is great.  The worst is that I almost definitely could have gotten this through BMG instead of any of the other 20 forgettable grunge cds that I do still have.

Morrissey- Bona Drag.  Morrissey is cool.  That’s it.  I knew half these songs, and the other half are also Morrissey songs, so it’s kind of a no brainer.

Modest Mouse- Building Nothing Out of Something. Another record whose songs I already knew, pretty much, but I just wanted to have a copy of it, cd or not. “Never Ending Math Equation” is great, as well as “Grey Ice Water”.

Jawbreaker- Etc. Jawbreaker covering REM?  Yes, please.  Jawbreaker doing a U2/Misfits/Vapors cover/medley?  Also, yes please.  (Vapors=”Turning Japanese.”  I had to look it up.)  Plus, “Sea Foam Green”, “Boxcar”, and “Kiss the Bottle” are all good.  (The REM song comes from Surprise Your Pig, an REM tribute album.  I wonder if it’s any good…  I also has Mr. T Experience, Jawbox doing “Low”, one of my favorite songs, Vic Chesnutt, and King Missile.  Maybe?)

The Clash- Super Black Market Clash.  I like the Clash way more than I ever acknowledge.  Seriously, every album of theirs is awesome, and every time I listen to them I get all pumped, but whenever they’re not on, I forget how good they are.  Anyhow, I mostly got this for “Pressure Drop.”

Those ones are all the fault of the AV Club..  I got them all on CD, which is nice because it’s cheap, even cheaper than a download, and it seems kinda silly to try to get a singles comp on vinyl, right?  The rest of these were purchased based on actual conversations with actual people.

Nick Drake- Pink Moon Pretty cool, though not really my cup of tea these days.  Should have bought it sophomore year of college when I was waaay into this kinda thing.

Field Music: Ehh…  Grant suggested it, and it’s pretty good, but, so far, it just seems like glammy indie rock.  Which is fine, and I’m sure Grant will be stoked on it, but it’s not quite my cup of tea.  That said, I’m definitely gonna change my opinion of it after a few listens.

Surfer Blood: Astro Coast.  The review Reckless gave it pretty much summed it up.  Basically if you like contemporary indie pop, you will like this.  I feel the same way, though I almost feel silly for liking it.  Oh well, I think this will also improve with listens.  This actually reminds me that the new James Mercer/Dangermouse collab Broken Bells is releasing its record soon, and I preordered it months ago, so it’s gonna come in and probably be another example of contemporary indie pop, which will probably push Surfer Blood out of my rotation.

Santigold: Pretty cool.  I was way distracted when i listened to it though, and my stupid turntable doesn’t play the right channel, so I can’t really say much.  Terrible album cover though.  TERRIBLE.

Spoon- Transference.  Spoon is always good, never bad.  Eh.   Mostly I’m sick of writing now, I really just wanted to post the images and be done with it.  I got shit to do!