Lightly Pre-Owned: My Record Store Finds

I thought that I would start a new section to my blog where I go over some of my finds at my favorite record stores in town. One of my favorite pastimes is to go to our local used media stores here in town and look for anything singles from favorite artists or interesting albums that I want to give a listen. This week I went to McKays here in Nashville. This place is huge, it’s warehouse sized, and contains all types of books, graphic novels, records, CDs, video games, and other collectibles. It’s also an extremely popular place for people to come buy and sell various media. I went early, before the crowd became too unbearable and parking would be non-existant. I had a little bit of in-store credit left over from my last trade in, so I thought I would see how much I could get for under 40 dollars. Normally, I am always on the hunt for any Bjork, Tori Amos, or PJ Harvey single or random bootleg that might find its way here. Unfortunately, I had everything that was there that day.

My first find was in the Sheryl Crow section. I had noticed someone must have sold off several of her singles to the store lately. One of them was the single release to “Sweet Child O’ Mine” from the Big Daddy soundtrack. It wasn’t there when I went yesterday, and being just a one track single I would have only gotten it to add to my collection of her singles. What I did find is the two part U.K. single to “Strong Enough”. This single comes with the part on which includes the following songs:

• “Strong Enough”
• “All by Myself” (Eric Carmen cover)
• “Strong Enough” (Live at Borderline)
• “Reach Around Jerk (Previously Unreleased)

The second part of the single is not included. Instead you get a cardboard disc in place of where the CD would be. It does provide you with the track listing to disc two and notes it is sold seperately. It comes in a lovely digipack fold out case.

I then found a number of interesting albums that I couldn’t pass up for 2 to 3 dollars each. I grabbed the following albums due to peaked interest from the cover of the CD:

• Divino Nino — Foam

• Marie Frank — Pop Your Wheeze

• Mister Heavenly — Boxing the Moonlight

• Givers — In Light

• Underground System — What Are You

• Russel Dickerson — Yours,

The vast majority are indie rock bands that I look forward to diving into. I was not familiar with any of their work, so I plan to listen and review each.

I grabbed Beth Ditto’s Fake Sugar for 2 dollars. I am familiar with her band Gossip from the late 2000s/early 2010s. I wanted to hear what 2017 release would have to offer.

I also grabbed Aaron Lee Tasjan’s most recent release Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! for 5 bucks. I learned about his music while searching out different country/Americana artists. I thought I would purchase the CD to have in my collection. The track “Feminine Walk” definitely sparked my interest on the album.

I also love some good pop music. I usually look through my pop divas to see what singles or odd releases might pop up in their sections. While looking through the Kylie Minogue albums, I would a copy of Kylie’s Remixes from her first album. I had to snatch it up and add it to my collection of Kyile albums/singles.

I found two different Madonna singles to add to my collection. The first is single release to “Human Nature”. I already own the remix single release of the song. The version I found is cardboard sleeve release with the radio edit of the song and “Sanctuary” off of Bedtime Stories.

The other single I found appears to be an independent release from an English label (Receiver Records Limited). The single is “Shine a Light” which contains two additional tracks: “On The Ground” and “Little Boy”. I am not entirely sure where these tracks originate from. From the first quick listen, it sounds like it comes from the early years of her career before her debut.

I lucked out on finding the CD single to Natalie Merchant’s “Wonder”. This one will be a fun listen as it includes a live medley of “Baby I Love You/Son of a Preacher Man” and an unreleased cover of Joni Mitchell’s “All I Want”, which is one of my favorites of hers.

I lucked out on finding the beautiful copy of Mandy Moore’s Amanda Leigh. I had a copy of this CD, but believe I gave it away. It, for some reason, isn’t on Apple Music. I love this record for its mixed instrumentation and pseudo 70s singer/songwriter sound that Moore has been experimenting with in the later end of her career. It came with a download card for two demo tracks, but it unfortunately had been used.

From my listen of Cyndi Lauper’s Sisters of Avalon, I wanted to add to my collection of her music. I was hoping to find some singles from her 90s career. What I did grab was the DualDisc copy of The Body Acoustic. I have this copy, but from about 15 years use, it is scratched to hell. I love the DVD side as it adds several music videos and some behind the scenes.

My final two finds are two Juliana Hatfield albums that I simply wanted to add to my collection of her records and singles. The first is her 2008 release How to Walk Away. I had been looking for this album at McKays for quite some time. Several people had recommended the album to me from her catalog. I am excited to listen to it in its entirety. I have the track “The Facts Remain” on my Apple Music playlist and love the song.

The last of her albums I found is her 2017 release Pussycat. Looking at the album credits I noticed she played all the instruments on the album. I am very interested to hear how these songs sound.

It was quite a successful trip for me. I wanted to share some of my finds. If you have listened to any of these records and have any thoughts or suggestions on the albums I found or other works by these artists (specifically some of the bands/artists I am not familiar with), please leave me some comments and I will dive into them.