 | Distortion by Magnetic Fields
Buy new: $15.99 / Used from: $2.72 Stephen Merritt's usual great songwriting. My favorites are the ones the girl sings.
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 | Tragic Ceremony
Buy new: $17.99 / Used from: $6.44 Weird cultish 70s film starring the woman who featured in the camp classic I Spit on Your Grave.
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 | Money Shot (Hard Case Crime) by Christa Faust
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $0.85 Great contemporary pulp novel.
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 | Drive-In Cult Classics - 8 Movie Set
Buy new: $4.99 / Used from: $4.25 The buy of the year. 8 classic 70s drive-in movies for about 10 bucks. Some of the movies are actually quite good, others are just for camp value. See Larry "Frank from Mash" Linville whoop it up at a swinging beach party.
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 | Romantics/National Breakout by The Romantics
Buy new: $14.98 / Used from: $12.96 Forget the grossly overplayed "What I Like About You" and realize that these Detroit boys made some fine, high-energy Power Pop over these first two albums of theirs.
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 | Lust Lust Lust by The Raveonettes
Buy new: $13.98 / Used from: $6.81 My album of the year so far. Some kind of combination of The Cramps and Jesus and Mary Chain. Their debut EP was phenomenal and this album picks up where that left off and takes it to big places.
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 | Two Headed Cow by Flat Duo Jets
Buy new: $15.98 / Used from: $6.98 The Duo Jets in all their fierce glory; psychobilly on speed.
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 | The Case of the Bloody Iris
Buy new: $13.49 / Used from: $7.37 Throwaway film but if you're into Giallos you will want to see it. Sexy people, cool music, a murder mystery . . .
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 | Jesus of Cool by Nick Lowe
Buy new: $13.99 / Used from: $8.26 Labour of Lust is a much better album, but this is still New Wave-era Nick Lowe in his prime. A nice collection of non-album tracks bolsters the set.
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 | Ennismore/Journey by Colin Blunstone
Buy used from: $60.48 Two 70s solo albums by Blunstone. Nowhere near the quality of the Zombies material, and quite far from that of Colin's masterful solo debut, One Year. Still, Blunstone voice is as evocative as ever, and the best songs have that warm 70s AM radio sound - kinda reminds me of Dusty Springfield's 70s album Cameo, an under-appreciated gem.
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 | Devotion by Beach House
Buy new: $13.98 / Used from: $8.94 Great sophomore effort by a Baltimore band with a sprawling, psychedelic sound that is something like Opal/Mazzy Star.
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 | Bowie in Berlin: A New Career in a New Town by Thomas Jerome Seabrook
Buy new: $13.57 / Used from: $12.15 Well-written account of Bowie's late 70s years, hanging with Iggy and making his own Low/"Heroes"/Lodger records and co-writing and producing Iggy's The Idiot and Lust for Life. Makes Bowie look like a fragile genius, rather than a chameleon-like fashion plate.
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 | The Odd Couple by Gnarls Barkley
Buy new: $14.99 / Used from: $1.87 Some of the stuff here feels rushed and incomplete, but average Gnarls Barkley is still excellent. The track "My Neighbors" is an early candidate of mine for song of the year - I'm singing it in the shower, just like I did with "Crazy."
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 | Thank You Friends: The Ardent Records Story by Various Artists
Buy new: $29.99 / Used from: $43.27 There is a lot of filler on Disc 1, but there are some outstanding tracks by Big Star sound-alikes and offshoot bands. Also, some of the alternate versions of Big Star songs are definitely worth hearing for B.S. fans.
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 | Funplex by The B-52s
Buy new: $14.98 / Used from: $5.87 For Hot Corner and Deviant Ingredient. Both songs and sexy, funny, and make you move.
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 | Made in Miami by Charles Willeford
Buy new: $16.95 / Used from: $8.94 Early Noir from Willeford.
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 | Pacific Ocean Blue - Legacy Edition by Dennis Wilson
Buy new: $26.99 / Used from: $6.97 Dennis's lost classic from 1977, plus the previously unreleased Bambu album, and some bonus tracks. A must-have for any fan of the Beach Boys Pet Sounds/Smile/Friends type of material.
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 | Love's Melodies by The Searchers
Buy new: $15.98 / Used from: $54.68 The Searchers were still relevant in the early 80s. This is fantastic power pop, and includes a Big Star cover.
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 | Baby Moll (Hard Case Crime) by John Farris
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $1.09 Excellent noir novel originally written in 1958. A guy who once worked for a mob boss tried to go clean gut his past won't let him.
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 | Love Story
Buy new: $33.99 / Used from: $25.69 Well-done documentary on one of the best bands of the 60s. It's mostly interviews, including a lot with Arthur Lee.
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 | Immediate Records: Labels Unlimited by Simon Spence
Buy used from: $25.00 Fascinating story of madman Andrew Loog Oldham and the record label he ran in the mid-to-late 60s.
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 | Black Sheep by SRC
Buy new: $18.98 / Used from: $8.00 Cool hard rock from early 70s Detroit.
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 | Old Rare New: The Independent Record Shop by Emma Pettit
Buy new: $20.42 / Used from: $22.88 Celebration of the authentic record shop, with interviews and essays with/by musicians, music writers, shop owners, independent label heads, DJs.
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 | Ladies And Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains
Buy new: $14.49 / Used from: $10.90 Great punk rock movie, starring a snarling Diane Lane as a pissed-off teenager leading a grrrl group that also features a youthful Laura Dern. Paul Simonon of the Clash, Steve Jones and Paul Cook of The Sex Pistols are in it, too.
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 | Dusty!: Queen of the Postmods by Annie J. Randall
Buy new: $18.96 / Used from: $13.70 A bio of Dusty Springfield that is not sensationalist -finally. Written by an academic but can be enjoyed by lay people for the most part.
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