PSoTD

He's playing near Philly in late February, I'm thinking about going. I've seen him twice, in San Francisco in the late 1980s, and both shows were great.

So... what's your favorite Graham Parker song?

(And a sneak listen from Parker's "Don't Tell Columbus", scheduled to be released March 13, 2007: Stick to the Plan)

But I can't explain why. Must have been the timing. Albert Hammond - the elder:

Web sites for businesses that hold contests that kill participants can look so cheesy.

Prince is the Super Bowl Half Time Entertainment...

In entertainment news, Prince will perform at halftime of the Super Bowl. This breaks the string of aging Brit acts, though sustaining the string of Super Bowl halftime performers whose best work was done before many current spectators were born. During the period he used a glyph as a name, the singer in question was called The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. Now that he once again goes by Prince, this makes him The Artist Formerly Known as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.

Yeah, I'm not a Prince fan.

It's pretty clear that if you accept the gig for playing at halftime at the Super Bowl, you're admitting that your creative career is over and you're really a replay artist at this point. Take a look at this roster of performers during the SB Halftime show. Prince is the Carol Channing of 2007, or the Up With People (THEY PERFORMED THREE DIFFERENT TIMES!?!?!?), or the New Kids on the Block, or the Blues Brothers with James Belushi, or whatever.

I lived in Sacramento for 10 years, so it is with a bit of sadness to note the closing of Tower Records. I spent quite a bit of time there during those days.

But much of my music - at least the music that shaped later years' purchases - came from Galaxy Records, a little shop on First Street in Livermore, California. For some reason I also remember it as Oddysey Records, but that may just be the effects of hazy memories or subversive advertising or both. When I first started going there, albums were the big seller, although they had a section for casettes and perhaps still one for 8-track (I never owned an 8-Track player so I didn't spend any time looking at such a section if one existed). They had a pretty good selection of music, particularly punk, which in the late 1970s I was diving into. My first purchases of Elvis Costello, The Dictators, The Clash, Television, Blondie, etc., came from this store.

I remember there being a curtain and another room off to the side of the record store for selling bongs, pipes, etc. - the old "head" shop. Eventually it was shut down, either to a change in state law or Livermore zoning code, I don't remember, and the store expanded their tape selection into that area.

The store is gone now. I think there's a paint store where it used to be. Only memories now, fuzzy ones at that.

So what about you? Where did you buy most of your tunes?