Let me see if I can summarize a recent experience and then open the Halls for some thoughtful discussion on that great lost avenue to record buyers on a budget: cut-out bins.
The band I’m in, which includes a few other Townspeople, was recently contacted by a local booking agent – a good egg, I will stress – about our availability to open a show for some guy who used to front a third-rate SoCal skate-punk band in the ’90s. It would be a Friday night show, and we’d be on first, which at our age has great benefits. When we were young and more or less happening enough to have an ego, we would have tried to talk our way into the second slot, if not chafe at the fact that we had to open for any artist we didn’t like and respect. However, at our age, this slot was seen merely for its ability to increase the likelihood that our highly selective, middle-aged audience would be able to get babysitters and come out. We told the booking guy that we were free.
Long story short, the booking agent said, “Cool,” then explained that the headliner’s management would have to approve us from a “short list” of local bands. Sounded good, although this scenario increased the likelihood that our friends and some of the bandmembers would not have to hire babysitters that night. We’re realistic, and that’s all cool.
The next day the booking agent, who was a gent throughout the process, broke the bad news in a probably unintentionally hilarious start to his message*:
“
HEADLINERisn’t interested in you.”
Brilliant! Truth be told, we weren’t interested in HEADLINER, and we took delight in the Spinal Tap-worthy message that was passed along from his management. A flurry of intra-band e-mails flew about, and we had a good laugh over it while recording, just last night.
Our most placid, happy-go-lucky band member (by far!) was especially annoyed and inspired toward humorous rants. He sent us a long e-mail detailing this guy’s forgettable career, characterizing his old band as a third-rate Social Distortion and describing his solo material as follows:
“He skillfully skimmed all of the dross from the ’90s SoCal skate-punk movement and created a record for which the label ‘derivative’ would actually be a complement. It is bound for immediate prominence on the cut-out shelf on iTunes.”
It was that last part that really struck me and that inspired me to bring this experience to the Halls of Rock: the cut-out shelf on iTunes… Does iTunes have a cut-out section? My friend and I discussed this a bit more. He explained,
It struck me when I thought of it that I bought 90% of my music from the cut-out shelf when I was a teen and I wondered where kids go for low-cost forays into new musical territory these days? I miss the cut-out shelf!
So do I! An integral chunk of my record collection and, more importantly, aesthetic vision, was developed through purchases in the cut-out bin at Temple University’s bookstore alone: all of the great Kinks albums (and even the very good ones), Eno‘s ambient albums and collaborations like the Fripp-Eno albums and the two he did with Jon Hassell… (For some reason, Temple’s bookstore circa early-80s had a line on Spanish versions of Kinks albums and releases by EG Records; General Slocum, who combed the racks with me, can attest!) For $1.99-$2.99 I could take a chance on something I may never have the balls (or money) to buy at what was then full price. Today, I occasionally see CDs listed at $9.99, like I’m supposed to take a plunge. Would I have ever spent the equivalent of $9.99 in 1983 dollars on an Anthony Braxton album when I was in college? No way – unless I’m more clueless about inflation than I think and $9.99 in 1983 dollars equates to $2.99. Nevertheless, some albums should be priced about a third of a brand new album, the way cut-out albums used to be, so that The Kids can take a chance on something he or she has never heard before. Who knows, the kid might be interested.
*NOTE: The booking agent was interested in finding another date for us, so like I say, this guy is all right in our humble book.
Those Spanish Kinks records — which sounded like crap — were ubiquitous in the cutout bins back in the early ’80s. That was where I grew my own collection of the Pye-era stuff.
Funny story! There’s a couple of rather dire latter-day Kinks albums on iTunes for something like $6.99 each. They’ve certainly become budget-bin mainstays. You’d hardly know they made some dud-free albums in their time (*ducking*)!
I think I have a Spanish version of Live at Kelvin Hall that I got for a buck from a flea market a few years back. That one sounded like crap anyway!
Someone really creative (you KNOW I’m talking about YOU, don’t you?) needs to write up a Main Stage piece that details the deal that went down in the early ’80s regarding those Spanish Kinks albums.
Cut the shit. Who was the band?
I’ve got too much class to name names! The guy was from one of those bands that you and your SoCal ilk drain swimming pools to listen to.
Was it ummmm, more of a 70s band or 80s?
Read the post more carefully! The decade is specified. Tell you what: maybe it’s time you take it down. The ghost site too.
90s! OK…Let’s see. Rancid?
I bet it’s Rancid and you know what that Tim Armstrong album is surprisingly not bad. Flame-On, but the back-up band he got is The Aggrolites who do a pretty traditional ska thing and are quite good.
There are two drags about the album and they’re both Tim. 1. I don’t like his voice. 2. Although the album is called “A Poet’s Life” the lyrics are mostly all pathetic let’s go party in L.A. which is even more pathetic given that he’s like 57 or something.
But his pop sense is just what The Aggrolites needed to sound sharp.
If it had been Tim Armstrong or even any other member of Rancid we would have treated the matter with a little more respect and disappointment. Solid guess, but pitched way too high in terms of rock achievements.
Hmmmm. You a Rancid fan? I can’t stand the Rancid or Agent Orange (that was him too, yeah?) But his solo ska thing is pretty good.
OK. I’ve lost interest in guessing 3rd rate 90s skater bands.
Rancid is a band that I know was really popular but I somehow managed to only knowingly hear one or two of their songs no more than 2 times each. I remember wondering why everyone said they sounded so much like The Clash. In short, I have no opinion on them or their related bands. They’re a type of band that should have ended up in a cut-out bin for me to hear for $1.99!
“Placcid” wins for Neologism of the Day.
Nice segue to the “cut out” thread.
There’s a digital cut-out bin. It’s called rapidshare.
Damn you, Massimo! [Shakes fist] That was a typo. I actually looked the word up in the Dictionary to make sure of the spelling, got distracted by something, and then spelled it wrong. It’s since been corrected, but the mockery may continue. It comes with the turf.
I bought all my AC/DC albums in college from the Spanish-pressing cut-out bin. They must have used a solid one-half ounce of vinyl when they pressed those things. If you set them in a shaft of sunlight coming through a screen door in the wintertime, they would warp. But I couldn’t bring myself to pay more than three bucks for those records back then. Talk about a guilty pleasure!
Remember when they first tried putting the little cut-out in plastic CD cases? It was a joke! Only a paper sleeve should be cut-out.
Mr Mod may have too much class but I don’t. I’ll give you a hint. Think bad solo Pete Townsend? (is that redundant)
Mod, thanks for the memory of the Temple University Bookstore vinyl selection! wowee.
My one enduring memory is of the Was (Not Was) vinyl (the orange cover with the rows of houses moving diagonally across the bottom).
It stayed on the shelf from my freshman year all the way through my senior year, even as the vinyl display moved from spot to spot in the store.
btw,
the cutout bin lives at aka records.
i’ve gotten almost all of stereolab’s catalog, with nary a cd costing me more than 3.99.
not bad.
and their vinyl bargains are pretty good, too.
There’s still the cheapo used CD bin at the stores I go to around here. I love finding the album that just came out last week in the used bin for six bucks with the big hole punched in the bar code (at least they quit wrecking the cases with that saw). I like the bargain bin, too. It’s full of used and cutouts and it’s usually two bucks or less.
I think my kids have no idea what a cutout is, and they just steal the things they want to check out from bit torrent sites. So long as they keep buying stuff they like, I don’t care. It’s not like there’s any other way for them to hear new music in their car.
Sat, I actually bought a copy of that Was (Not Was) album at the Temple bookstore! I can’t stand it, or at least I couldn’t stand it when I last spun it, probably 20+ years ago.
Ha! That album was ubiquitous on those shelves!
Did you buy the album by Trio that was almost equally ubiquitous? They seemed to have a surplus of those, too.
I never sprung for that one. Where’s Slocum to pick up this Temple bookstore subthread? Any other mid-80s Temple students checking in? Here’s your chance to step forward and shine.
Yeah, me neither.
I’d love to hear Slocum’s take on all this.
I just realized that my copy of “More Songs About Buildings and Food” comes from the Temple bookstore. It was pressed at some south American plant, and the spin is so eccentric on “Lato B”, that the songs sound dizzy, practically changing key by a half step with each revolution.
viva la revolution!