Thee Oh Sees Spark Skeleton Teeth Art

 

DJ B's third and final purchase on Record Store Day 2009 was (at the time) a brand new album by Thee Oh Sees called "Help." This was actually one of the first things that she spotted after we arrived at Aquarius Records for the 2nd annual Record Store Day in April 2009. It was a featured release near the entrance to the store and Miss B seemed to be drawn to the bright cover art featuring a rainbow and a purple bat.

Before we played the CD for the first time at home, she perused the inside of the CD case and yelled, "Skeleton! Mommy!" She continued with a series of questions, asking, "Why are there skeletons, Mommy? Is it gonna be scary?" She then said, "I'm scary-ed of it. To turn it on. I just want to look at this right now." So she spent some time looking at the cover art with the bat and rainbow as she considered whether or not she wanted to hear the music. Finally she commented, "I don't like bats or Halloween or skeletons. I don't want to try it."

DJ B's Artistic Response to Thee Oh Sees

Miss B then stacked up the pile of CDs that she collected at Record Store Day and repeated that she didn't want to try them, adding that it was "too scary." She added, "Not any of these...just Easy Ride" [an Asian pop CD she had recently reviewed and was obsessed with]. DJ B kept saying how scared she was and implored me "don't turn it on!" Since I was really interested in her reaction to the music, I put it on anyway. She then started to scribble in my notebook and said, "I'm drawing scary skeleton teeth."  As she drew along to the music she asked, "Is this a Halloween CD? It sounds like Halloween." She drew for awhile, then danced, saying, "I'm a scary, silly skeleton" as she swayed her head. Eventually she turned off the music, but continued to draw a skeleton. And that was the last that we heard of Thee Oh Sees.

DJ B's Previous Record Store Day 2009 reviews:

Black Time's Scary Overtones
Bottom's Mean Stepmother Music

Black Time's Scary Overtones

 

This past weekend we celebrated Record Store Day 2010 by hitting up two of our favorite indie music stores in San Francisco. Our first stop was Aquarius, the site of a successful Record Store Day trip for DJ B back in 2009 when she selected three CDs. Before posting about her 2010 selections, we figured we better get caught up on our reviews from last year. Yes, we're slackers...

DJ B has already covered her feelings about Bottom, so next up on the review pile from Record Store Day 2009 is the Black Time release "Midnight World." Also selected by her from the bargain CD bin (easily accessible, since she was able to sit on the floor while looking through the cardboard box full of items), Black Time caught her eye and was in the pile that she wanted to take home with her.

When we pulled it out to review for the first time last fall she looked at the cover and said, "How about night?" and asked me, "Is it scary? Less scarier?" She added, "When I turn it on I think it's gonna be scary." After some reassurances by me, we put it in and pressed play. DJ B bobbed her head and started dancing immediately, patting her hips while she rocked. After a few seconds she stopped it and said, "Now I wanna try the bat one." When I asked if she liked Black Time she said, "uh huh" and we moved on to listen to her next Record Store Day selection.

Bottom's Mean Stepmother Music

DJ B and I are so over-extended these days that we never got around to reviewing her Record Store Day picks. So, by popular demand, here's her belated take on that female stoner rock CD that she picked up in the Aquarius bargain bin for $3.99.

I asked Miss B if she wanted to listen to the Bottom release "You'rNext" and she said, "Is it scary?" As she looked at the CD artwork she had a lot of questions about the imagery, asking, "But what is that guy? Is that guy scary or not?" After checking out the CD booklet she said, "I think it's going to be fancy or something else."

She finally put the CD in the player, but removed it before listening to it. Later on I played the CD while she was preoccupied with her toy playhouse. She focused on her own activities and eventually turned off the music without giving any sort of reaction to it.

We tried it again later and Miss B had a lot more to report, saying, "This one is the mean stepmother music and we have to listen to it." She then brought me some bells to play with, saying, "Follow me. Follow me." She grit her teeth while doing an angry dance, kicking and sneering while waving an egg-shaped shaker. She then yelled, "You have to follow me mean stepmother!" and demanded that I chase her.

Continuing the theme, Miss B said, "I want to go to the party." She grabbed a box of Mac 'n Cheese from the cupboard and put it on the table, saying, "This is the party. Pretend. I really want to go to the party." After accumulating more party food she added, "Cinderella...She was mean when she comed over to the party." As the music reached its crescendo with flutes and ladies screaming, she added, "Mean stepmother...come over to my party and visit...she was still mean."

When I asked DJ B specifically about the music she said, "It's stepmother music...it's mean music."

Record Store Day with DJ B

I feel like it's my duty as a music-loving parent to share with DJ B the importance of record stores. They've certainly been a key part of my own music education, from the chain stores at the mall during my childhood, to Tower Records during my teens, to the indie record stores that I frequented in college to score $2.99 "cut-out" LPs (and cassettes!) of new releases from bands like The Smiths and Chameleons UK.


And, I especially have fond memories of all the great record shops in San Francisco, where I've found amazing gems and have seen intimate in-store performances by a wide range of musicians. One of the oldest Tower Records, on Bay Street in San Francisco (RIP...now it's a green dry cleaner) used to host lunch-time free shows. It was so cool to take a long lunch and trek over there to see the likes of Sonic Youth (in the parking lot!). Back when I was super obsessed with Robyn Hitchcock, I'd track him down at every record shop in-store in the city, including a show on Haight (maybe at the now-closed Reckless Records?) and an awesome acoustic set at a long-gone record shop on Folsom near Brainwash.

I've also seen many of my faves at Amoeba, including Smog, Sleater-Kinney, Will Oldham, and many others. You can actually scan through photos of past in-stores (400+ performances) to get a sense of the cool shows they've had.


So, to celebrate Record Store Day yesterday, the Mr. and I took Miss B over to Aquarius Records in San Francisco. Within minutes of our arrival, her eyes were drawn to a new release by Thee Oh Sees. She pointed to it, excitedly telling me about the bat on the cover. Since I have heard and like their music I offered to pick it up for her. We then moved on to a bargain rack of CDs for $3.99 and I told Miss B to take a look. She grabbed a seat on the floor and happily scanned through a pile, choosing a couple that she liked. In future posts we'll cover her reviews of the actual music, but according to the guys at Amoeba, one of the selections is some all-female stoner rock. Right on!

Did you take your DJ-in-training to a record store this weekend? What did you buy?