Quiet Color

by marisa brown

I’m focusing on vinyl this week in A Fistful of Dollars, which is, let’s be honest, one of the main reasons to seek out buying music these days.

► Nite Jewel – “I Was Born” b/w “Suburbia” ($4.99)

First up is the Nite Jewel, whose 7″ is now available on the Stones Throw site but put out through the very mysterious 1984 Records. Nite Jewel sounds like she was from the early 1980s (I’d even say pre-84) but she’s actually a very youthful Los Angeles-based artist whose first 12″ came out on Italians Do It Better. “Weak For Me” is weird and spacey and not particularly quick, but somehow still makes you want to get up and start dancing around in big shoulder pads and a floral-print blouse. Add this to the fact that the songs on this 7″ are from her full-length Good Evening, which is pretty damn near impossible to find, and are probably the best of the bunch, anyway, and five bucks seems like a pretty good steal.

Artist: Nite Jewel Song: Weak For Me

…

► Bear in Heaven – “Wholehearted Mess” 12″ ($12.00)

Admittedly, I came in late to the Bear in Heaven game, a band who just released their second full-length, Beast Rest Forth Mouth, on Hometapes last month. It was the single off that album, “Lovesick Teenagers,” a combination of early Genesis and the Flaming Lips, that initially won me over, but “Wholehearted Mess” is equally good. Even better is that the 12″ is pressed in multicolor (aka reddish) vinyl and comes with three exclusive remixes and an mp3 download.

► The Supremes – “Stoned Love” b/w “Shine On Me” ($2.00)

I recently picked up a very scratched, very warped copy of this 45 without knowing much about and it (almost) literally blew my mind. “Stoned Love” was one of the very first singles put out in the post-Diana Ross lineup, in October 1970, and newcomer Jean Terrell does a great job on lead, but it’s the b-side, recorded in 1969, before Ross officially left to pursue her solo career, that’s most exciting. This isn’t the Motown of “You Can’t Hurry Love” and “Stop! In the Name of Love.” It starts with sustained, almost droney guitar and ends, over three minutes later, with echoes on the lead vox. That’s already a bit of a trip in its own right, but add that to the fact that it’s being played on an old warped piece of plastic and you have an utter psychedelic mindfuck. These are selling on eBay, the cheapest for $2, and in this case, I think quality (or lack thereof) is a big selling point.

► Grand Total: $18.99

This puts your grand total at $18.99, which, happily, allows you just enough for a guilty-pleasure mp3 download from your favorite DSP. May I suggest Kid Sister’s “Get Fresh,” or anything from the early Ace of Base catalogue that-you-may-have-once-owned-on-tape-and-have-never-gotten-around-to-buying-again, which would actually not qualify as guilty, but as smart.