I'd had a couple of Best Buy gift cards sitting in my "goody box" (the place where gift certificates, etc. wait to be used), thinking that I'd pool them and get a new printer or drive or something at some point in some unspecified future. Well, today Daughter #1 was going to a birthday party a few blocks from Best Buy, and I tucked a $75 gift card into my pocket "just in case". Well, when we got there at 2pm, I was told to come get her at 4, meaning that I suddenly had two hours to kill (note to "kidless" readers ... frequently these kids parties have a lot of parent involvement, so I usually go with the assumption that I'm going to be there for the whole duration).
I had been aching to play The Girls the Buzzcock's tune, Ever Fallen In Love ever since it had been in the Shrek2 soundtrack, but my old copy of Singles Going Steady was on vinyl and we currently don't have a functional turntable-to-stereo connection available. So, that was my first priority for a new CD ... here's all of what I got today:
Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady
Rammstein - Mutter
My Life With Thrill Kill Kult - I See Good Spirits and I See Bad Spirits
Dimmu Borgir - Death Cult Armageddon
Drowning Pool - Desensitized
Yeah Yeah Yeas - Fever To Tell
What was great about this particular shopping trip was discovering that Best Buy had "sampling stations" like Borders has ... scan the barcode from a CD and get to listen to a few tracks ... brilliant! I conceptually really like all sorts of Goth and Death Metal and that sort of stuff, but I absolutely HATE the "vocal conventions" that a lot of these bands adhere to. I am not going to listen to a "squeal like a piggy" vocal (bye-bye Cradle Of Filth) or "Beelzabub with a throat infection" vocals (so much for most "Black Metal" bands). With this machine I was able to filter out the crap from the stuff I could actually decipher the lyrics to! Actually, one of the above, Dimmu Borgir, ended up in my purchases because each of the sample cuts rocked, AND had some variation to them (it was amazing how many CDs I listened to where you couldn't tell one cut from another!).
Happy - happy - joy - joy! I was also pleased with my "shopping skills" as these 6 CDs came to 6¢ less than my $75 gift card, so I just had to make up the taxes ... go me!