Stephen Mejias

To congratulate myself for getting our 2010 Buyer’s Guide out the door on time (pretty much), I zoomed out of here this past Tuesday night and headed straight to Other Music for some new records. I think the people who work there are starting to recognize me.

Prior to my visit, I made a little list of LPs that I need. Immediately. As usual, however, I forgot to bring the list with me, and my mind is a sieve, punctured with issue-sizes and deadlines, so I couldn’t remember a single title.

Anyway, wanna know what I got? I got:

Girls: “Hellhole Ratrace” 10” single
This band can pretty much do no wrong for me right now. I’m loving them. And I especially dig this album cover. I mean, is it ecstasy or agony? One can’t be sure. But, no matter. Just take a look at those lips, would you?

Blk Jks: After Robots
If you’re African and playing guitars, you’ve pretty much got me at “hello,” despite the fact, as it turns out, that this is more emo than Afro, and the sound is surprisingly poor&#151thin and disjointed (WTF?).

Cave: Psychic Psummer
A Michael Lavorgna recommendation! This is some triumphant electroprogalicious psychedelic victory metal&#151sorta like when the Fucking Champs get together with Trans Am and just let it flow&#151and you need to have it.

Wolf Eyes: Always Wrong
This album is mad, yo. Vicious. Rrr! This album is always right.

Silk Flowers: Silk Flowers
I’m not sure about this one, dudes. I think I like it, but, then again, it might just be crap. There’s a sort of industrial gothiness to this, with these really almost humorous lethargic vox, and an overall gooey sloppiness. Hmm, maybe Silk Flowers is awesome.

Kan Mikami: Nishiogi No Tsuki
Another Michael Lavorgna recommendation! Okay, Kan Mikami is a Japanese Surrealist blues singer. How rad is that? The package is delicious, too, with intoxicatingly yummy-smelling, heavy stock, screen-printed sleeves and lyrics in both Japanese and English. But you don’t need to understand the words to understand Mikami’s passion. Dude’s got the blues! And the sound is exquisite. My copy is number 32 of 333!

After Other Music, I hopped back on the 6 train and headed to Union Square to hear Nick Hornby read from his new book, Juliet, Naked, which seems to return to Hornby’s theme of the music-obsessed sadsack who struggles with matters of the heart, only this time, much of the action takes place over the internet, rather than in a record shop. Or so I hear. But I spent too much time at Other Music (I knew that would happen) and missed the reading. Is there irony in that? Maybe. Probably.

I did get to hear Hornby answer some questions, though. The place was packed. A line of people waiting to have their books signed stretched all the way around the perimeter of the fourth-floor space, from the tall windows up front all the way to the end of the poetry section in the adjoining room. I stood near the back of the crowd, near the music section, maybe about twenty rows back and another twenty back from the seated audience. And even from that far deep into the crowd, and even though I could only just barely see the top of the back of her pretty head, I clearly recognized Kelli. I guess that’s intimacy for you.

I caught up with her afterward and we waited on line together to have our books signed. When our turn in line finally came&#151over two hours later&#151we were given permission to pose for pictures with Hornby. It was incredibly silly.

A good night all around, and far better than I had even hoped.