Cheap CD Round-Up: The WMSE Music Rummage Edition

As they do every year, hundreds of music lovers packed the Todd Wehr Conference Center for WMSE’s annual Music Rummage. This year the sale was so packed during that during peak hours buyers had to form make shift lines to access the LPs as some tables. I didn’t have time for hours of crate digging, so I stuck mostly to CDs. Here’s what I picked up:

Redman – Doc’s Da Name 2000
$1

Redman’s classic 1998 album for a buck? There must be a catch, right? Right. It’s a radio edit. While profanity alone doesn’t make the album, the album is a hell of a lot less fun with out it. “My first name must be ‘He Ain’t Shhhhhh,’ because every time _______ see me they be like ‘He Ain’t Shhhhhh’” just doesn’t have the same punch as the original lyrics.

Galaxy 500 – Copenhagen
$4

The seminal dream-pop band lost some of their dreamy charm on this posthumous live album. The sound is raw and thin compared to their reverb-caked studio albums.

Rites of Spring – End on End
$4

Score! I’d been looking for a new copy of this for a while. The entire discography of Guy Picciotto’s impassioned pre-Fugazi hardcore band is captured on this one essential disc.

Rancid - …And Out Come the Wolves
$2

“Roots Radicals” was in my head.

Helium – The Dirt of Luck
$2

Between Liz Phair and this Mary Timony-fronted band, Matador Records was all over the big guitar/little girl sound of mid-’90s alternative. This 1995 effort is filled with bombastic, sonically rich songs that aren’t nearly as memorable as others from the era, but certainly have a charm.

Muggs Presents the Soul Assassins, Chapter 1
$2

Cyprus Hill producer Muggs assembled a who’s who of late/mid-’90s rap stars to rap over his stark beats for this 1997 side project. The production can be a little cluttered—there are as many bang bangs and blaw blaws as you’d expect from the era—but RZA and GZA, Dr. Dre, Doogie Mob and Wyclef Jean all turn out great tracks.

Matt and Kim – Matt & Kim
$2

This smiley dance-punk duo’s 2006 debut has found continued life on the dance circuit as electronic acts line up to remix it. In their un-remixed form, these songs can sound a little bit skeletal, almost as if Matt and Kim intended them to be beefed up later.

Nirvana - Nevermind
$2

I wonder if this album is any good.