9. Cute Is What We Aim For - Risqué
All hail Poundland, the best record shop in town... well, to be fair, it's about the only place in the town where I work that sells CDs these days, apart from the charity shops (my regular haunts). £land sell a lot of used "reconditioned" CDs from days gone by, and amid the same Hearsay, Starsailor and Robbie Williams albums you'll find in every charity shop, you'll also find some more obscure indie stuff from the last 20+ years. Often it's stuff I've never heard of or the name might ring a faint bell, but for a pound I'm willing to take a punt. (I'd always spend that pound in the charity shops first, but on days when they come up dry, Poundland is my safety net.)
Anyway, New York's Cute Is What We Aim For. To be honest, the band's ridiculous name didn't even jingle the faintest bell, but I could tell by the album cover and song titles what sort of music it'd be and I've been pleasantly surprised by the tracks I've burnt onto my in-car compilations CDs so far. Risqué was the first of these and it certainly shows that the band are on the poppier side of alt-rock. The internet can't decide whether they're emo or power-pop: I'd say they definitely veer more towards the latter.
Risqué is from their debut album, 2006's The Same Old Blood Rush with a New Touch and they've released one more since. They are still in the go (well, the lead singer, Shaant Hacikyan, is still using the band name: all the other original members buggered off). If I see that second album in Poundland, it's a definite...
My local Poundland seems to stock Robbie Williams, Alisha's Attic and All Saints alone, but I'll have to keep an eye out. My go-to store is That's Entertainment (formerly Music Zone) that sells everything as three for a fiver or two for ten. I get to restock a lot of long lost Britpop and indie albums thanks to them
ReplyDeleteYeah, they have one of those in my hometown of Huddersfield... but as I don't work there, I rarely get to visit. Which is probably for the best!
DeleteA random punt that turns out to be good is always a result
ReplyDeleteIt's a pity the internet has forced many record shops to close down. In a sale at my local library I got One From the Heart by Tom Waits and I'm Your Man cover soundtrack from the Leonard Cohen documentary. Only a pound each. That's a third option besides charity shops and Poundland, if your library offers that service. Only thing is you may have to queue up.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great deal. I have been lucky enough to come across a couple of library sales in my time, though I'm worried because both my local libraries appear to have stopped getting new CDs at all. Last year they got loads of new releases every couple of weeks. They haven't had one new CD in since January... so I doubt there'll be many more old CD sales if they're not getting any new ones in.
DeleteAs the Manics famously sang "Libraries gave us power!"
It looks like that power is being taken away from us... along with everything else!