Tag Archives: import albums

RecordStoreFinder.com

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A quote from RecordStoreReview says it all:”There’s nothing better than finding a new store to search through.” Those are the words of RSR webmaster Gunnar Van Vliet, and I couldn’t have put it better. RecordStoreReview.com has listings for more than 1600 record stores in 53 countries including Iceland, Canada, and Greece. Since 2002, RecordStoreReview has user reviews to complement this listings–always a good thing. Funniest listing was from the dude who wrote “I would bang all three owners of Hyde Park Records.”

Just to see if RecordStoreReview was full of it or not, I looked up my all-time, hands-down favorite record shop in the USA (since 33 Degrees in Austin closed, that is…). Lo and behold, the reviews for Dusty Groove America say what I’ve known for a long time. Dusty Groove is the best! Check them out online, but I beg of you do not buy up all the Easy Tempo albums before I’ve had a chance to fill the gaps in my collection. Leave a FEW left over, eh?

Back to RSR, this is a GREAT idea and I am shocked that I’m just now discovering it. Great site. The best use for this site I can think of? Prepping for overseas travel. The next time you think about hopping a plane for Germany, France, Iceland, Japan, do yourself a favor and check this site out—many stores have maps or you can use Google Maps to find your way to the treasure trove.

Bippp: Obscure French New Wave

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Born Bad Records released BIPPP in 2006. This is an enjoyable collection of French “synth wave” recorded between 1979 and 1985. The quality of these tracks is fairly consistent across the board both in the songwriting and recordings themselves. For a longtime fan of obscure new wave, this is a real treasure trove. You can practically taste the quaaludes.

“Ping Pong” by Act and “Touche pas mon Sexe” by Comix are standout tracks. Both are described in other circles as “Devo-esque”, which seems to be the favorite term used by reviewers who lack the imagination to describe these bouncy synth masterpieces any other way. Personally, I’d just say that they make you want to snort cocaine and bounce your cranium around like you had a bobble-head. The short version–if you like music that goes “boingy-boingy-dingy-dingy-blip-blop-bleep,” this is for you.

It certainly works for ME. Especially when they aren’t singing in English. I think that’s the best part of all…I prefer NOT to know what they are on about. It’s just more fun that way. Visit the BIPPP Myspace page to hear some tracks from this one. It’s distributed in the USA by Everloving Records, for which I thank them profusely.