Secondspin.com<\/a> rocks. The US-based site sells second-hand CDs, with very low shipping costs. They send CDs sans jewel cases, and the postage comes to a flat 5$ plus 35 cents per CD. But that’s not why I say it rocks. I had ordered a small shipment of anime DVDs once, and a Danny Elfman TV\/Movie theme collection called Music For a Darkened Theatre Volume One<\/i> a couple of months ago, which were delivered pretty early. Two months later, I get an email, which said – We have not received any orders from you in quite sometime, and so here’s this coupon that gives you free International Shipping<\/u> on your next order.<\/p>\nAnd who could resist this offer? I went berserk ( what’s new, pussycat?), and ended up ordering thirteen CDs off them, a lot of Original Soundtracks I had been lusting after, some assorted artistes I wanted, and two Sonny Chiba DVDs that I included because they were two dollars each. The prices of the CDs ranged between 7.99 for some ( which, let me add, sell for 525 rupees here, if you manage to find them), and 99 cents for others ( doobie-doobie-do! ), so the average price came to about 175 rupees per cd, which is about 3.5 dollars per CD. And of course, free shipping, so no additional charges.<\/p>\n
Two weeks passed. And then two days. After which the package glided its way into my office cubicle. A little more money went into buying jewel cases – brand new ones, that is – and a lot of evenings after that were spent in taking in the new music. <\/p>\n
This followed a particular sale I stumbled upon, in dear li’l Hyderabad a week ago, where a shop was getting rid of its unsold CDs, and were selling them off for 150 rupees . Picked up ten, and for a change, paid cash.<\/p>\n
\nThe Stuff from Hyderabad<\/i>
\n1. U2 – Zooropa<\/i><\/b> highly underrated album, most un-U2ish. I guess Lemon<\/i> would be the first U2 song I ever heard in my life, and also the first video I saw on TV. I was in my rock-hating phase then, and obviously I detested<\/strike> loathed the song then. How times change!<\/p>\n
2. Sheila Chandra – Nada Brahma<\/i><\/b> The first Sheila Chandra album for me, and the first album I listened to, after coming home with these cds. The first track is 27 minutes long, and gets very kitschy sometimes, but as far as fusion\/experimental tracks go, pretty outstanding. No percussion throughout the track, for instance. None of the airy, Enigmaesque chord progressions you generally find on fusion albums. <\/p>\n
3. Vivaldi – The Four Seasons<\/i><\/b> Already had a copy I had burned from Sasi, but who can turn down this album?<\/p>\n
4. Pulp – Different Class<\/i><\/b> Surprise, Surprise! I never knew Pulp was this<\/i> good. This album took quite a lot of my time, mostly because I needed to listen to the songs twice, the first time for the music, and the second time for the amazing lyrics the next time. The only complaint I have with the songs is the overorchestration, similar to the later-day Oasis albums, that kind of swamps the singer. I could get the lyrics only because the Cd-inlay had them.<\/p>\n
5. Shubha Mudgal – Original Soundtrack: Dances of the Wind<\/i><\/b> Beautiful Hindustani classical album, featuring some amazing tracks by Shwetha Jhaveri, and a young girl whose name I forget. Sultan Khan and Ronu Majumdar show up in this album, as everywhere else.<\/p>\n
6. Various Artistes – Reggatta Mondatta: A Reggae Tribute to The Police<\/i><\/b> Some tracks border dangerously on hip-hop land. Some tracks are to die for.<\/p>\n
7. Bryan Ferry – Bete Noire<\/i><\/b> Eighties synth-rock. Kind of didn’t like this at all the first time, yet to give it a second listen. I had high hopes.<\/p>\n
8. Henry Mancini – The Blues and The Beat<\/i><\/b> I bought this one for Chandru.<\/p>\n
9. Various Artists – OST: Tere Mere Sapnay\/Shastra<\/i><\/b> This one was just for the nostalgia value of Aankh Maarein<\/i>, the Kumar Sanu- Kavitha Krishnamurthy gem. No, really. Listen to Kumar Sanu yodelling in ENGLISH – “Oh Di-di-diyar, come ni-ni-niyar, no phi-phi-phi-phi-phi-phiyar” and you’ll roll. I always do.<\/p>\n
The stuff from secondspin.com<\/i>
\n1. Soundtrack – Josie & The Pussycats<\/b><\/i> Josie and the Pussycats is this amazing movie, a brilliant satire on MTV and pop music and songs with subliminal messages advertising products. The soundtrack is brilliant, very punk-rockish. There is a fictional boy-band in the movie, kind of an alternate Backstreet Boys<\/i> – called Du Jour, and they happen to land their plane in the middle of a Metallica concert, and…umm…things happen. Heh.<\/p>\n
2. Sixpence None The Richer – Sixpence None The Richer<\/i><\/b> The best thing about getting this album was the bonus song. There were supposed to be twelve tracks, but there turned out to be thirteen, the thirteenth track was There She Goes<\/i>, the song which tuned me into this band in the first place.<\/p>\n
3. Soundtrack – X Files – The Truth And The Light (Mark Snow)<\/i><\/b>
\n4. Soundtrack – Songs In The Key Of X (X-Files Soundtrack)<\/i><\/b>
\nGot two copies of the second album, gave one of them to Rishi. Pretty good songs, and instrumental pieces, most of them by Mark Snow.<\/p>\n
5. Apocalyptica – Apocalypitca Plays Metallica By Four Cellos<\/i><\/b> Sometimes, when I listen to this album, it sounds hypercool. Metallica on cello – wow! And sometimes it sounds like somebody playing some MIDI files. Depends on the mood, really.<\/p>\n
6. Soundtrack – Crow, The (Graeme Revelle Score)<\/i><\/b>
\n7. Soundtrack – Crow, The<\/i><\/b>
\n8. Soundtrack – Crow: City Of Angels<\/i><\/b>
\nI am a little obsessed with the music of the Crow<\/i> movies, I will admit. (Even though the second movie was a turkey, which I will admit too) They are all good. The OST cds have songs from The Cure, Rage Against The Machine, Jesus and Mary Chain, Nine Inch Nails ( first cd) and Hole, White Zombie, Filter, PJ Harvey (second cd), among others. The score cd by Graeme Revell, I have mentioned before, gives me a lump in my throat everytime I hear it.<\/p>\n
9. Legrand, Michel – Paris Was Made For Lovers (Laserlight)<\/i><\/b> This one was for Chandru, too.<\/p>\n
10. Soundtrack – Blair Witch Project-Josh’s Blair Witch Mix<\/i><\/b> The one currently playing on a regular basis. Very atmospheric, gloom-and-doom sounding music, featuring bands like Laibach, Bauhaus and Skinny Puppy and singers like Lydia Lunch. Comes with the occasional dialogue from the movie, of course sliced and looped and properly worked on.<\/p>\n
11. Chumbawamba – Tubthumper<\/i><\/b> A nine-man band, Chumbawamba is supposed to have very vitriolic lyrics in their albums. Tubthumping<\/i>, the famous song was the only one I had heard. I bought this because it was selling for 99 cents, truth be told. But it’s good all the same.<\/p>\n
12. Carlton, Vanessa – Be Not Nobody<\/i><\/b> This was part of my amazon wishlist, mostly because the music on some of the songs sounded like AR Rahman. Well-made love songs, and I am a sucker for well-made lovesongs anyday. Especially ones with proper piano. <\/p>\n
Bodyguard, The (Sonny Chiba) (DVD)
\nStreet Fighter (Sonny Chiba – Mmii Productions) (DVD)
\nTwo dollars each. Two good visual quiz questions too, if you look at it another way. Extremely poor print in The Bodyguard<\/i> ( not to be confused with the Kevin Costner starrer), but who cares? <\/p>\n
And today, I find that Sony Music cds are being sold for 199 rupees each in Music World, Lifestyle. Damn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Happiness Quotient : High New Music Quotient: Extremely High. Anime Quotient: Low Graphic Novel Quotient: Extremely High Ebay Spend Rate: Red Alert. Work Rate: High. There you have it. I have come to the conclusion that there’s absolutely nothing personal\/thought-provoking\/interesting I can write in my Livejournal, so I shall skip the Happiness part, and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[84,86,78,87,85],"class_list":["post-501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-acquisitions","tag-dvds","tag-happiness","tag-music-2","tag-secondspin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beatzo.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}