Haight Street in San Francisco has to go down as one of my favorite places to be. It is an incredible place for thrift store shopping, restaurants and local record stores. Taking the 22 line down Fillmore and then walking West is the route I prefer to take because it allows me to see everything. It is a very colorful street (some of the old San Franciscan homes have gotten new paint jobs, you have to see it for yourself) with a lot going on. X out the hipster kids and you have one of San Francisco's finest areas.
On this day however it was raining so I went en-route by bus. The 71 line took me right in front of Amoeba with plenty of time to browse around before San Francisco's Mermen took the stage for their in-store performance (see below). I had a fairly good idea what to look for and it took no time at all to find a repressing of an early Pink Floyd album, A Saucer Full of Secrets. Their first two albums pioneered what would begin the psych era in music in the 60's early 70's with Syd Barret the creative force behind it.
Pink Floyd - A Saucer Full of Secrets
The next item was to find some Grateful Dead, specifically Anthem of the Sun, but no luck on this front. A huge disappointment but nonetheless not the end of the world. I next went to find It's A Beautiful Day, another home grown psych band. I picked this record out of the bunch but I did have an eye on their debut self-titles record.
It's A Beautiful Day - Marrying Maiden
I then went over to the Quicksilver Messenger Service and found a couple records but had a hunch I could get them a bit cheaper back at home. I then went on to search for a more modern local SF band, Thee Oh Sees. Didn't find them under the T section but O and picked up their first album; thought about their second but I decided to save that one for later.
Thee Oh Sees - The Master's Bedroom is Worth Spending a Night In
I decided to head back Sunday morning before I headed home. I got lucky with the bus lines and didn't have to wait more than a few minutes. Back at Amoeba I decided to pick up It's A Beautiful Day's first record and the solo album from Bradford Cox (from Deerhunter) Atlas Sound.
It's A Beautiful Day - It's A Beautiful Day
Atlas Sound - Logos
Once back at home Sunday afternoon some deliveries had come in over the weekend that I was excited to see arrive. Real Estate's Mexican Summer release which was pre-ordered from Insound and thus I had a very low number of the pressing, 85/1000.
Real Estate - Reality
Also in the pile was the re-pressing of a Junior Kimbrough record bought straight from Fat Possum Records. Got it for $15 through them and much much cheaper than the idiots trying to sell it on eBay or Amazon for $40-60. Junior and R.L. Burnside, along with Muddy Waters have been my only exposure to Delta Blues so far; hopefully I can find some time to explore this sub-genre because deserves some listening to. Those old time southern guitar players really know how to express themselves through their music; such a joy to listen to.
Junior Kimbrough - God Knows I Tried
And last was a Steppenwolf album which I won through auction on eBay for about $5. All in all a very successful weekend.
Steppenwolf - The Second
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