One of the best music stores in the Kansas City area, never mind Lawrence, is the Love Garden, a great place to find unusual stuff.  Also they have cats roaming the store which increases its greatness by tenfold.  They’ve been having a big sale apparently to get rid of some of their stock as they move to a new location.  Everything in the store was a dollar and I ended up getting the following:

- Prince, 3121

- Original Soundtrack, Thank God It’s Friday

I had this back when I was a kid and I absolutely loved the movie although it’s one of those things where I should just enjoy the memory and never watch it again.  From what I remember the title song and the Donna Summer stuff are the highlights, including a fifteen minute version of “Je T’Aime (Moi Non Plus)”.

- Tony Bennett - Sings Ellington Hot & Cool

- Jerry Cantrell, Degradation Trip

- Ashlee Simpson, Autobiography

- Ashlee Simpson, I Am Me

I fully expect these two to eventually be filed under guilty pleasures.

- Mick Jagger, Goddess in the Doorway

From what I’ve heard this isn’t that great an album but Rolling Stone did give it five stars when it came out so I wanted to see who was right.  At least it completes my Mick Jagger solo collection.

- Scorpions, Live Bites

There’s a good chance this will blow because it’s made up mostly of their stuff from Crazy World and beyond.

- Atreyu, A Death-Grip on Yesterday

I don’t recall where I heard that Atreyu were good but I thought I would pick it up anyway.

- Marianne Faithfull, Kissin’ Time

My memory on this is a bit fuzzy but I think someone on NPR gave this a great review.  We’ll see because Marianne Faithfull’s voice is something fierce to have to listen to.

- Elastica, The Menace

Did anyone know that Elastica came out with another studio album in 2000?  I sure didn’t.

- Stereophonic Space Sound Unlimited, The Spacesound Effect

This band was recommended to me somewhere along the line, plus it was filed under ‘Lounge”.

- Elvis Presley, 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong

Cool cover at the very least.

- Tony Bennett, Perfectly Frank

- ABC, How to Be a Zillionaire

I used to own this on cassette and remember that I really liked it.  I’ve already listened to it today and if you ever wanted an example of 1980s production, this would be the one.

- Al Hirt, Honey in the Horn and That Honey Horn Sound

This was bought solely on the fact that he played the theme from the Green Hornet.

- Fergie, The Dutchess

- Winter & Winter, Las Vegas Rhapsody

Filed under ‘Lounge’ so I thought I would pick it up.

- King’s X, Best of

Yes I needed their best of because I only have four or five of their studio albums.

- Ty Tabor, Moonflower Lane

Good guitarist, should be interesting.

- Warrant, Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich

My collection of Warrant CDs is now complete.

- Jerry Cantrell, Boggy Depot

- Molly Hatchet, Greatest Hits

- DJ Logic, Planet Logic

I liked the cover.

- Lounge Brigade, Put Some Style in It

- Stereophonic Space Sound Unlimited, Jet Sound Inc

- Tony Bennett, The Playground

- Foreigner, Agent Provocateur

I don’t like Foreigner but yet I like both the singles that came off this album, “That Was Yesterday” and “I Want to Know What Love Is”.  We’ll see about the rest of it.

Joey Belladonna:  Are they any [KU] students in the crowd tonight?

<silence>

Joey:  Yeah, that’s what I thought.

- from the January 15, 2006 Anthrax show at the Granada

My wife is a big fan of exotica, so when we found out that Waitiki was playing in Lawrence as part of the Retro Cocktail Hour’s 500th episode she really wanted to go.  I admit that I was hesitant - while I like listening to it, I wasn’t sure that an exotica band would really translate into a live experience.  A lot of that music is pretty low key so my main concern was getting bored during the show.

Turns out I didn’t have anything to worry about.  I don’t know if this comes across on their albums, but Waitiki puts a lot of energy into their show and their music has more of a jazz influence than what I’m used to hearing.  Their setlist was a combination of covers and originals, with the highlight of the show being “L’ours  Chinois” which blended exotic sounds with classical music.

A lot of their songs had a definate Frank Zappa vibe happening with them.  The big similarity was the use of a vibraphone but also that the songs tended to go off in unexpected directions.  This is probably due to similar influences, but it’s something that I don’t pick up from other exotica recordings.

A nice touch to the show was the use of tiki decor in Liberty Hall and also the expanded drink menu.  For this occasion the bar had five different tiki drinks available.  My wife noticed that the drinks were made with high quality booze which is interesting because I would think most people wouldn’t notice of even care.

Overall a great night.  We picked up their latest CD so I’ll be spending some time with that and posting my thoughts.

Waitiki’s website has some good videos of the show.