Spent the evening hours today shopping, kicking around, having a beer at Federal, meeting Sarah at XDU, getting dinner from Cosmic Cantina, watching Survivor. Included in the shopping stops was Offbeat Music, the new CD store in Brightleaf. I was enjoying browsing around but hadn't seen anything that really grabbed me by the throat, altho I had picked up Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi (1st CD from Thievery Corporation) for Sarah. Then I noticed a rack near the door. The outward side, facing the entrance, was sale CDs but the inner side was treasure trove of stuff from Stern's (who never answer my emails about servicing for XDU), Soul Jazz (who answered but told me they can't afford to do any radio servicing) and others. First I picked up Laughter Through Tears by Oi Va Voi. Sophie Solomon (of the kickass Solomon & Socalled CD) is in Oi Va Voi, who can be very inadequately described as the answer to the question "what if Massive Attack was a klezmer band?" They're on Outcaste, which is why I've never been able to get a copy of their CD for XDU. But then I put that down and picked up Chant to Jah by Sandoz which is one of Richard H. Kirk's many side projects. On Chant to Jah he's bringin' the dub. Had the Sandoz in my hands for a while but ended up putting it back and grabbing Rogue Satellite, the first new CD in three years from Omni Trio. Which I'm listening to as I write. Perhaps a bit more downtempo than early classics like "Renegade Snares" but still just awesome killah drum & bass. Oddly, Amazon UK lists Rogue Satellite as not being released until 9/27. Not that I'm complaining. It's definitely up in the running for my fave of the year. So, yeah, I'll definitely be going back to Offbeat.
...good times
Soul Jazz can't afford to do radio servicing? But they used to service us and we always played the hell out of their cds. Seems like they get a good bang for their buck by servicing WXDU ... I can see them cutting out stations that don't playlist/chart them, but we LOVE Sould Jazz stuff!
Isn't there a budget to buy their stuff so we can playlist it anyway?
At a certain point, every Soul Jazz CD at the station had been purchased. I think that at some point after my exchange with SJ, some of their stuff started coming in thru Forced Exposure. But anyway, yes, XDU does have a budget for music buys. I think all our funds are still frozen waiting for the new union staff to get up to speed and such. But first chance I get I wanna get a pile o' money and clean out a couple of racks over at Offbeat.
also in that front bin by the door is a buncha cheap-o divaville-type stuff. good "cocktail hour" compliations.