This afternoon while my roommates were studying up on their incredibly interesting and entertaining law books in the new hip hangout Filter, I graced the warm interiors or Reckless Records and Myopic Books.
This was actually the first time I had been into Reckless since it’s basically the best place to buy vinyls/LPs in the city and I do not have a record player (although I want one). They do have an interesting selection of CDs though and an equally interesting method of stocking CDs. They only put out the CD liner note booklet (or the maxi-case) in a plastic sleeve and then you go request the CD (usually used, but a fair amount of new CDs) to listen to on one of their discmans or to purchase if you’re really confident and determined in your selection. I was looking for a Bar-Tays album, specifically one that had their song “Holy Ghost” but couldn’t find it. Instead, I picked up a used copy of R.L. Burnside’s Come On In. I became aware of this album from hearing It’s Bad You Know and Shuck Dub on The Sopranos.
If you know anything about R.L., then you know this album is quite different from his other stuff. The majority of the tracks on Come On In are blues over house beats…a sort of Acid Blues if there is such a thing. The other traditional tracks are, in my opinion, really good blues songs in that they are up-tempo and have diversity…which in my experience, is where a lot of Blues music falls short. I guess I enjoy the bastardizations of Blues much more than the actual stuff…maybe I’m missing out. Maybe not.
On to Myopic books, which is quite frankly, the shit of all used book stores. Staff is friendly, the selection is incredible and they sponsor the Wicker Park chess club (meetings are in the Myopic basement every Wednesday night). Today I was in luck because they had a copy of The Botany of Desire, a book I’ve been wanting to read for a while. The guy who helped me said they this copy in two days ago and they usually don’t stay around too long because it’s pretty popular. I expect that Botany will make it to my recommendations column on the right side of this page soon.
I also picked up a few Mark Twain books including The Celebrated Jumping Frog and Other Stories. I read somewhere that this book inspired Claypool to dub his band “The Fearless Flying Frog Brigade” since their first performance was at the Mountain Aire festival in Calaveras County, CA - which is where the book takes place.
Actually, the reason I bought these Mark Twain books is that my interest in the man his increased a lot over the past few months. I’ve been reading a lot about him and I recently watched Ken Burns’ documentary. He’s a facinating fellow and I think there is a lot to learn from Twain concerning writing, storytelling and satire. More on him later…