Downtown - Downtown

I bought this album having never even heard of the band Downtown; in fact, I think I'm now one of the few people who has ever heard of the band Downtown. The story of how I ended up buying this album is sadly far more interesting than the album itself.

Nine years ago I was in Paris just after New Year. The Virgin Megastore on the Champs Elysees had a huge new year sale and pretty much everything in it was €5. I bought nearly 20 cds and a couple of records (it was 2007 and vinyl wasn't so readily available; the selection was thin but I picked up the excellent A Gun Called Tension LP and the less-excellent Make Believe by Weezer). I rummaged around to see if there was anything I else I half-fancied getting but there was little grabbing me. Given everything was so cheap, I decided that I should just chance it and buy something I knew less about. This record looked interesting - the artwork was fancy (a Klimt - my trendy Parisian friend recognised it straight away; I only knew from the signature) and the record label was based in New York - so I threw caution (and £3.35) to the wind and added it to my basket (an actual basket).

I think part of the reason I was so keen to buy something unknown and new was that I really wanted to discover a new band. My friend Vicky had been on holiday a while before and discovered The Postal Service. When she played it to us we all became huge fans. I really hoped that I'd be able to find an unknown band in a record in Paris, love the album and have all my friends love it too. The first part was easy, the second two weren't to be the case with Downtown.

I've not listened to this album in years, but I'm instantly reminded why it did little for me. Twilight starts the album with some weird mix between glitchy electronica and indie, but not in a good way. The singer's voice is a little on the annoying side, but not so much that it itself becomes an interesting part of the music. Lyrically it's pretty appalling too. At nearly an hour long it's also far too long. Alan Moulder and Flood (of Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins fame) helped produce a couple of the songs but that doesn't offer much improvement. After a few songs I find I'm not paying any attention to the album at all; nothing stands out, nothing draws you in. There's a lyric/chorus on the last song which consists of just the words "Stay too long", which pretty much how I feel about this album.

I'm not being negative for the sake of it; this album just isn't very good. I looked the band up on Discogs and it looks like this was their sole release, along with a 12" single of the first song. I hope the two guys in the band have gone on to live fulfilling lives outside of the world of weak indie/electronic piss.

Format: Double 12"
Tracks: 12
Cost: £3.35 new
Bought: Virgin Megastore, Paris
When: 10/01/07
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Weezer - Make Believe

Oh Weezer. Like most people, the first Weezer album I got was the Blue Album. What a way to start. I was pretty late to the Weezer party and they'd already released a couple of dubious albums by this time. I picked up a few more albums although, rather embarrassingly, I never got round to Pinkerton. I like that I still have that as a treat for one day in the future.

Make Believe is firmly from the dubious years and I think I knew that when I bought it. I remember people commenting on how bad Beverly Hills was at the time. However, for €5 (from the epic Virgin Megastore January sale) I figured I should chance it, despite knowing the odds of actually getting much out of it was slim. In truth, Beverly Hills isn't a terrible Weezer song - it has all the makings of a good Weezer song but Rivers' couldn't-give-a-shit lyrics really rub it in your face that this isn't early 90's Weezer anymore. My Best Friend and Freak Me Out are some of the worst Weezer songs I've ever heard; in fact, My Best Friend is just one of the worst songs I've ever heard. Perfect Situation, We Are All on Drugs and The Other Way all sound like crappy pop-punk songs by some mid-2000's band who achieved moderate fame with one album then faded away. If this was, indeed, a record by such a band, I wouldn't be inclined to defend it as much as I want to because it's Weezer. Since this is the vinyl version, it contains the "wrong" version of We Are All on Drugs with a different closing two lines to the intended release version.

There are three very positive quotes from reviews on the front, which feels like it must have been a hard job to select. On the back there is a sticker with the original price Virgin were selling it for - €25 - I'm not too surprised that Make Believe found its way to the bargain bin in that case.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £3.35 new
Bought: Virgin Megastore, Paris
When: 10/01/07
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

A Gun Called Tension - A Gun Called Tension

I picked up the cd of this album in an incredible record shop in Melbourne that I'll almost certainly never visit again, since I have no idea what it's called or where it is, and I live on the other side of the planet. It's a shame because it was a great shop and I felt like I'd barely begun spending money in there before I ran out of cash.

I was studying in Australia for a year and most of that had passed without me visiting Melbourne, so some friends and I skipped the last week of classes and drove down there (no wonder my grades suffered). I had an afternoon to myself so went out in search of record shops and found this very cool one, half underground on a side street somewhere. They had some great records and cds, both ones I was after and ones I'd never heard of. This album fell into the latter group, but the sticker on the front told me it was a collaboration between Dan Gallucci (of Modest Mouse and The Murder City Devils) and a guy called Sean Reveron. I asked to have a listen in the shop (something I don't often do) and was pleased by what I heard. There were elements of every genre I can imagine; mostly hip hop, but hints of punk, indie, electronica, ragga; some tracks were laid back, others aggressive. The songs 5+1 and Treason caught my ear and I decided to buy the cd, along with a small stack of other bits.

Fast-forward seven or eight months and I was in Paris just after New Year, again with an afternoon to spare. I went into the mammoth Virgin Megastore on the Champs Elysees (needing a break from culture) and found their New Year sale had just begun. Their New Year sale was incredible - pretty much everything in it was €5 (about £3.35) and there were countless awesome cds in boxes everywhere for dirt-cheap. I was in a wonderland and ended up buying about 20 or so cds. I also eventually found a few boxes of records for €5 each and picked up a couple of LPs. This record was in there, and £3.35 was certainly cheap enough to justify a vinyl copy, so I bought it too. I thought the basket (yes, a basket of cds!) I had was full, but some people were buying huge numbers of cds and dvds. Clearly January sales are a big thing in France.

Anyway, the record is ace. There are a few songs that don't stand out as much as others, but the good songs are really strong. Treason with Spencer Moody (from MCD) on vocals and Document are the highlights, the latter of which has made it onto many mixtapes I've made. 5+1 has this great piano part that kicks in after the intro and really makes the song. There's not a huge amount of hip-hop in my collection, but I have a lot of time for dirty, alternative hip-hop like this.


Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £3.35 new
Bought: Virgin Megastore, Paris
When: 10/01/07
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Billy Talent - Devil in the Midnight Mass

Billy Talent aren't the coolest band (unless you're German, they love 'em) but they had some catchy tunes and this record is quite fun. I found this in the massive Virgin Megastore in Paris whilst killing time and buying way more cds than I expected (their January sale was really quite incredible). It ended up being about £2, which is pretty good for a shaped vinyl. The main bit of this record is about 7"s across, hence why I'm including it today. Shaped records always seem like a throw-back from the 80's, which I guess is why no one does them anymore. I suppose they're expensive to make, but I reckon for the right bands kids will go mad for them (maybe they are still about, but I just don't see many of them these days).

The a-side is alright, their usual high-pitched shouty style. They had a handful of tunes and I bought their first album back in the day, but remember being disappointed by the non-singles. The b-side however, is much more enjoyable; they cover Ever Fallen in Love  by The Buzzcocks, and it works well. A straight-up cover, but his vocal goes quite well with it.

The hole in the center of the record is ever-so-slightly too small, making it a real hard effort to turn over. The moral might be to leave it on the second side and not bother, but then you might as well just listen to The Buzzcocks. A fun record, but rarely listened to and far from essential.


Format: 7" devil's-head-shaped vinyl
Tracks: 2
Cost: £2 new
Bought: Virgin, Paris
When: 10/01/07
Colour: Picture disc
Etching: no
mp3s: no