Buy buy buy

As I sit here planning (at least in my head) to do a best of 2005 listing I thought I’d first wet everyone’s appetite with a little look at my last half a dozen musical purchases. If nothing else it will let people know where my head is right now (other than up my arse).
KC & The Sunshine Band – Best Of. I was going through my old 45s – dusting them off and playing them and then my nine year old daughter and I started dancing around the shed to KC and Joe Tex and I realised all I had of KC was one single. In the late 70’s before disco became so popular it threatened to kill off live music, KC & The Sunshine Band were the kings. Motherfunking grooves that hooked you and had you swaying your honky white arse while hummin’ "…I’m your Boogie man, I’m your Boogie Man… turn me on…" He wasn’t disco per se he was dance. He still is. (and yes, my daughter dances better than I do – hell, everybody dances better than I do.)
Exodus – Fabulous Disaster. My fave late eighties thrash metal band. I’ve worn the tape out a couple of times, the records scratched to shit – now I got it on cd and it still brutalises. Fast enough to thrash to but still rock enough to bang yer head to and you can even understand the odd word! Plus a kick arse version of AC/DC’s Overdose and a very twisted Low Rider. This is my kind of metal.
Stuart Busby – Drift. Actually Jon Dale gave me this. Stuart’s last disc "Breathe" was top of my list for 2004 and had I received this a little earlier it would probably top 2005. More ghost world taps from the only trumpeter worth a pinch. Mournful, low and eerie, Stuart creates his own haunted palace of broken dreams.
Various Artists – Motown Classics Gold. The Gold series is a best of series of everyone from Rod Stewart to Kiss to Hank Williams. Some of it’s good, some of it just treads water in a brackish cesspool of regurgitated turds. The Motown classics collection though kicks arse! 40 tracks from the best of Motown, sure there aren’t any rarities or alternate takes (get the box set arsehole) but this has damn near everything you could want to get the party started. I’ve been playing this so much the last three weeks that my daughter already hates it! (Revenge is mine!)
Hellacopters – Payin’ The Dues. I’ve had a dubbed cassette copy of this for years but I never quite got around to buying it. It was my last purchase at Big Star and I’m damn glad I pulled my finger out. The ‘Copters have never bettered this slab o’ garage/blues/drawl. This is what Guns’n’Roses were supposed to be but never had the balls to be. Owing as much to the ‘Stones as to the New York Dolls, the boys never sounded better and probably never will.
Various Artists – American Primitive Vol II. We’ve been waiting since 1997 for the second volume and boy was it worth it. A double disc of obscure and dark poor boy blues, faith healings and prayers to unseeing gods, this has the power to make you doubt everything else you’ve ever heard. There’s the blues and then there’s this. Next time some dumb-arse parasite tries to tell you that bb king or albert collins or (god help us) jeff healey is a blues man, play them this, then when they finish weeping, tell them to get the fuck out of your house!