I have a friend who is sort of my movie counterpart. While I’m continually exploring the vast map of music and editing/revising my ever growing album collection, he is doing the same, but with his huge DVD collection. The glowing difference between us is that while I prefer digging through used binds, thrift stores, and pawn shops for great deals, he prefers to buy things new. Since he tends to enjoy films that have limited releases, it would make sense that he would make a lot of his purchases online.
That being said, sometime last year he began making a lot of purchases from Amazon.com, and enjoyed much success in doing so. He was so pleased with his Amazon savings that he practically became a spokesperson for the site, and he quickly sacrificed the convenience of buying something from a mega-store like Best Buy or Fry’s, opting instead to just order it off of Amazon. For me, the act of searching for a good deal is just as important as the satisfaction of the purchase itself, so initially, I was fundamentally against Amazon. The more I explored the site, the more I realized that it had little to offer me, due mostly to the fact that (when you factor in the shipping cost) I could find better deals in my day to day thrifting.
When I recently revisited the site, I made a few purchases, 3 albums that cost a total of $6.50, but when you factored in the shipping, came out to about $14.00. I was sure that I could find better deals if I just searched a little harder. I began looking through my collection of Mp3's at all of the stuff that I had downloaded over the last year or two. I looked up a lot of albums based on a track here or there, and cross-referenced it with info that I found on Allmusic.com. I ended up making 3 purchases that added up to a total of $0.95, plus shipping.
The first album I received was Chris Stamey’s "Fireworks" which was actually shipped from Austin, where I live, not from a record store or anything, but from an independent distributor off of 19th Street.
Stamey first came to my attention through the amazing mp3 site, Little Hits, which posted his 1977 single, "The Summer Sun." I’ve included that single in this post because not only is it the inspiration for my purchase, but it’s also a pretty incredible Power-Pop song.
Stamey went to college in North Carolina and formed the Sneakers, and after starting his own Label in New York, Car Records, helped form the Jangle Pop band, the dBs. After leaving the dBs, Stamey released several solo albums including "Fireworks" (originally recorded in 1988, but not released until 1991), which I purchased unopened for $0.84, plus shipping.
The Verdict: At first, I thought certain tracks on the album sounded a bit dated, but it has grown on me considerably in the last week or so. The first blast of vocals on the opening cut, "Company of Light," instantly warmed my ears with it’s familiar dreamy twang, and the intricate lyrics of that song have endeared it to me even more. "Glorious Delusion" is absolutely gorgeous and is reminiscent of so much modern Indie Pop. "Two Places At Once" is characteristic of the whole album, deceivingly simple Pop Rock that’s as "radio-ready" as it comes, right down to the huge chorus. There’s nothing particular groundbreaking about "Fireworks," but in it’s own way, it is very comforting, and it has gone a long way in revealing to me how truly unadventurous something like the Mountain Goats is, which isn’t necessarily bad thing mind you.
From "Fireworks" (Buy It)
Company of Light (mp3)
Glorious Delusion (mp3)
Two Places At Once (mp3)
Bonus:
The Summer Sun (mp3) (1977)
–Popkoff
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