THE $5 VINYL CHALLENGE

Surfing the net the other day, I came across a couple of videos from these YouTubers (Liz Rogers and SafetyTess) who challenged each other to go to a record store and pick up the weirdest, funniest, craziest vinyl they could find for $5 or less.

For a second I thought “oh, that’s fun. It’s definitely a challenge I’d like to take on”. Then I realized it’s something I do almost on a regular basis whenever I’m browsing through records. One big difference though: when I’m buying cheap albums, most of the times it’s stuff I’m somehow familiar with. Be it old cheesy pop/disco records (Exposé, Martika, Right Said Fred, Lipps Inc) or unexpectedly underpriced stuff at a thrift shop (Angel Witch, Rose Tattoo, Yazoo, Tom Waits), I usually know what I’m getting.

While with CDs I often bought a pig in a poke (you can read some of it here), only a handful of times this happened while shopping for vinyl. And if those YouTube videos didn’t make me run (yet) to my favorite record store (the one pictured on top) brandishing a 5 euros bill, they surely triggered this post. So, if you’re wondering whether I was lucky or not in my picks only based on low prices and embarrassing cover artworks, well…

Now, be honest: would you ever give up buying a still sealed copy of this? I had no idea what it was, but can you think a better selling point than a title like ‘Bat Girl Super Dance Compilation’? Right, but the record kinda sucks, unfortunately. It’s a collection of late 80’s house/dance/disco songs which haven’t really aged well. The only one I come back to is called ‘Bad City (Bat House Mix)’ and googling I found out that its mysterious performer, JD Curl, was an alias for Italian dance music producer Maurizio Pavesi, whose work I was accustomed to. Actually, I also remembered the girls behind the not-so-outstanding title-track ‘Bat Girl’, a duo called Lorimeri who scored a minor hit when I was a little kid (beware: this video might seriously damage your eyes).

Curiosity killed the crate digger. I never knew what’s in the bright pink box, but I soon found out that in the not so bright black grooves of the only album by The Flips (from San Francisco) there was a collection of unremarkable acappella pop songs. I assume they disappeared after getting sucked into the bright pink upside down. But a cover like that would be hard to beat in any vinyl challenge.

I picked this one up from a crate at a flea market in 1997. It was priced just 1000 lire (one buck of our old currency before euros) and they looked freaky enough to be actually good. For once I was lucky: Zoo was a good french band from the early 70’s who mixed horns, psych-hard rock, and funk overtones. I especially loved the instrumental b-side on this 7″ single, a track called ‘Tupamaros’.

I could add a few more to the list, but I think this is enough for you to get the picture. Betting a few dollars on something unknown can be fun sometimes, even when the records turn out to be crappy. It’s just another of those things that make you love this crazy hobby.