I've never told you how and where I house my records. Six years ago when I moved into my proper boho loft apartment in proper London, I still had money to commission some purpose-built storage for books, CDs and LPs. Much of that stuff had to stay in place, but the record cabinet made the move with us to East Dulwich. I paid a ridiculously low price for this because I got the "special sister's ex-boyfriend rate" from H — I had to negotiate the fee up to stop him exploiting himself. H was a pleasure to have around the place as well, picking out CDs from my collection to explore (Four Tet got 15-20 minutes, before he switched to Charley Patton. Aside from designing and building storage solutions, he's written a play that was performed at the Royal Court, played keyboards in a Top 5 band, and acted in TV comedies. Anyway, at some point in our ambient discussions my interest in all things Stephin Merritt slipped out. H asked if this was the same guy behind a band called The 6ths, and then volunteered that he had a copy of this limited edition of the Wasps' Nests album — four 7" EPs, each holding four tracks, one more than the CD edition — and offered to sell it to me. Once again we had to negotiate a fair price, so I saved an eBay search to get a benchmark. I can't remember quite what the conclusion of this was, but it was less than I thought it might be.
Of course, I've never listened to it. Not until today. Who would play eight sides of vinyl instead of a single CD? Besides, as I said last time, I don't like the album much. I just got it for bragging rights and for posterity. Some (Hi, Brian) may be righteously indignant at my casual indifference to this collectable object. Puerile though it undoubtedly is, they're just the ones I enjoy being able to brag to.
In fact, I only listened to one of the EPs, the one with the extra track, Yet Another Girl, not on the CD. While Rot in the Sun, the other 6ths rarity from this period, lists the paths to hell available in L.A., Yet Another Girl balances with an account of the decline of a Warholian party animal in New York.
p.s. It's just (!) dawned on me: the cover art is a reference to Number 6 in The Prisoner, no?
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You should give this another spin. It's a very strong piece of work.
Posted by: M.J. Nicholls | 24 February 2010 at 11:24 PM
Shall I answer myself?
"Yes, commenter, I shall give it a spin again. I do enjoy the vocal stylings of Barbera Manning."
There we go.
Posted by: M.J. Nicholls | 25 February 2010 at 08:49 PM
Hey, M.J.! Really sorry to be slow replying, but I wanted to give the album another spin before I did. I've had a stomach bug that has sapped all my energy for the last 48 hours (in bed before 7pm on Tues and Weds), and it's been a bit of a struggle keeping up.
I also offer my fevered state as an excuse (read also: apology) for the silly braggadocio about bragging rights. I don't really care about such oneupmanship. I think I mainly wanted to own this vinyl set because, once you start collecting an artist's work, collecting takes on its own momentum and becomes a hard habit to kick.
Further update to come in the next few days when I've listened to Wasps' Nests once more. In the meantime, M.J., thank you for all your comments: every one of them is welcome and appreciated, even when I don't respond.
Posted by: David | 25 February 2010 at 09:31 PM