The Digging and The Damage Done Take 3

I went out to some garage sales locally and came up with the following after some HARD haggling, with a pretty mean Eastern European woman, with whom I have had some run ins in the past. I almost had to break out my broken Russian skills.

She had a nice box of records, which of course were not marked, so you know what that means.

"How much for the LPs?"

"$5!"

"No way, they go for $.25 to $1.00 at the sales around here."

So I came up with these:

The Digging

Beastie Boys "Fight For the Right..." Def Jam 45
Curtis Mayfield "Superfly" Curtom 45 Pic sleeve
Electric Prunes "Mass in F Minor LP
Jerry Garcia "S/T" Warners

The 45s were sort of beat, but I think that I can clean them up. The LPs were mint, though they are missing the paper sleeves.

The Damage

$3.00

Like I said, this lady was brutal, but I have never seen the Garcia record in the wild, pretty sure it went out of print immediately. But in the end a few bucks from me was better than nothing.

My garage find Advent loudspeakers

As I was perusing a garage sales in my area, I came across a sale in nice neighborhood, where I have made some decent scores in the past.

I overlooked the boxes of plastic coat hangers and the ugly (but clean) cookie jars and travel bags, when I hit upon the sight of these orphaned Advent mini speakers.

They have real hardwood (not veneer) tops and bottoms, so while they are about 12 inches tall, they have some sort of heft to them. They were made in Schiller Park, IL I am guessing in the late 70s or early 80s by American Jensen.

The man of the house said that they both worked...

I inquired as to the price and they were $1. I asked if that was for the pair and the lady said, "No, for each speaker." I handed over the $2 and hopped in the car.

When I got home, I pulled an old receiver out of the basement, along with an old Technics cd player from the early 90s, and hooked up the "system" for backyard chore enjoyment on the deck.

The Coltrane that was played at dinner, sounded surprisingly clean and Mr. Coltrane's sax seemed to penetrate the neighborhood. The Funky 16 Corners and Fleamarket Funk comps sounded cool as well. The rumble from these old soul comps shook the timbers of my deck.

These Advents would make excellent computer speakers, or non powered studio monitors.

Garage sale diggin'

Spring is here in the air at least in the greater Chicago area, it has been 80 for the past couple of days... all the better to open the screen doors and crank a recent LP find from the local garage sales.


One of the best grabs this past weekend was Push Push by Herbie Mann. I had seen a blurb about this LP somewhere that lead me to purchase this record, as the cover art alone would have scared me off. Dude, any kind of shirt would have been more flattering.

Piano, with both a large bass and some moderate wah wah propel the title, lead off track, providing the bedrock, from which Mr. Mann blows his flute. A minute or two into the song, a well placed tambourine, in the left channel, provides a counterpoint to the flute that is in the middle of the stereo image. A bluesy guitar riff populates the right channel. The guitar then busts into a laid back break that builds into something more. As the break builds it becomes obvious that the guitar is provided by Duane Allman, just a short time before he met his early death at the intersection of a motorsickle and a peach tree. Herbie heads towards the mother ship on his instrument after Duane's break. Pretty monster groove-- all 9 plus minutes of it.

The next track takes the listener to chill out land. Supposedly, it is a cover of What's Going On. I honestly can't say that it sounds like an instro cover to these ears.

Flipping the disc over to Man's Hope, the tempo picks up a bit and even features at least one flute break. The accompaniment, borders on the funky and will drive the point home as everything builds to the (too early) fade out.

The cover of If is more of a recognizable track to these ears at least. Here the build is quite massive from the entire band to the fade out, which is so tight it seems that it is more of a harsh cut.

The final track is an upbeat take on What I Say, that features licks a plenty from Allman, coming at you out of the right channel. The Rhodes appears to be in the left channel with the flute front and center again. The call and response with the flute taking the place of the vocal and back and forth with Allman is pretty cool.

The resident husky (and music critic) seems to dig this LP as she is stretched out in front of the speakers, grooving to the bass that has at times the syrupy consistency of flat root beer. This record sounds good and is in NM condition. I would recommend it. There are cd copies on AMZN.