Howl + Bangkok: Haunted + Halloween
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Likelihood notwithstanding, if you ever find yourself wanting to go CD shopping whilst malling in Bangkok, I have a couple of things to say as a tourist.The ubiquitous CD Warehouses have unsurprisingly the biggest inventory and fastest turnover. By which I mean that, when you decide at any point to buy a CD, it takes as little effort to walk back to the last store as to go forward to the next store. Having been deprived of CD shopping in record-storeless Cambodia for close to a year, I was thankful as hell. But I was not impressed.
Except with the cashier who, very late on my last night in Bangkok, counted my last remaining Baht with me, down to the twenties, while price-scanning my CDs one by one, so we could see if I could actually still pay for what I was buying. Now that was impressive if not altogether saintly.Moreso that it took place in an inconspicuous little music shop on the fourth floor of a single mall, a place called Gram by Gramophone inside the high-endish Siam Paragon. I found the shop by accident - killing time past store hours until a last full screening on the upper floor - and learned after the fact that it was kind of an audiophile's hangout, at least as far as malls were concerned. (Gere and Kris would know better if I am misinformed.)
After my holy shopping heaven of an experience in a self-imposed uncompromising mall pilgrimage, mostly on foot, I can safely say that Gram was the only music shop I found where there were: anything by Yellow Magic Orchestra, Roland S. Howard, Captain Beefheart; non-reissues I did not think still existed in malls, like The Kick Inside (Kate Bush) or The Head on the Door (The Cure) or Shed Seven; convincing jazz, world, and reggae catalogues, including Alpha Blondy albums I could previously only find via picayune bootleggers.Between Gram and the CD Warehouses, I picked up nine CDs. Would've bought more but I got some bangs and hair color that, to my horror, cost the same as the nine CDs. Yikes.Arcade Fire - Neon BibleBlack Rebel Motorcycle Club - HowlCaptain Beefheart - A Carrot Is As Close As a Rabbit Gets to a DiamondMaps - We Can CreateP J Harvey - White ChalkTurin Brakes - Dark on FireVHS or Beta - Le FunkVoxtrot - VoxtrotYellow Magic Orchestra - BGMApologies to my Trusteds: I miss mogging but am still drowning in my reality. Meanwhile, I am sort of counting six days six posts six artists down to Halloween (Get it? Wink wink.), beginning with some aptly titled BRMC tunes. (No Baby 81 anywhere!)"You try so hard to be cold. You try so hard to not show."
Except with the cashier who, very late on my last night in Bangkok, counted my last remaining Baht with me, down to the twenties, while price-scanning my CDs one by one, so we could see if I could actually still pay for what I was buying. Now that was impressive if not altogether saintly.Moreso that it took place in an inconspicuous little music shop on the fourth floor of a single mall, a place called Gram by Gramophone inside the high-endish Siam Paragon. I found the shop by accident - killing time past store hours until a last full screening on the upper floor - and learned after the fact that it was kind of an audiophile's hangout, at least as far as malls were concerned. (Gere and Kris would know better if I am misinformed.)After my holy shopping heaven of an experience in a self-imposed uncompromising mall pilgrimage, mostly on foot, I can safely say that Gram was the only music shop I found where there were: anything by Yellow Magic Orchestra, Roland S. Howard, Captain Beefheart; non-reissues I did not think still existed in malls, like The Kick Inside (Kate Bush) or The Head on the Door (The Cure) or Shed Seven; convincing jazz, world, and reggae catalogues, including Alpha Blondy albums I could previously only find via picayune bootleggers.Between Gram and the CD Warehouses, I picked up nine CDs. Would've bought more but I got some bangs and hair color that, to my horror, cost the same as the nine CDs. Yikes.Arcade Fire - Neon BibleBlack Rebel Motorcycle Club - HowlCaptain Beefheart - A Carrot Is As Close As a Rabbit Gets to a DiamondMaps - We Can CreateP J Harvey - White ChalkTurin Brakes - Dark on FireVHS or Beta - Le FunkVoxtrot - VoxtrotYellow Magic Orchestra - BGMApologies to my Trusteds: I miss mogging but am still drowning in my reality. Meanwhile, I am sort of counting six days six posts six artists down to Halloween (Get it? Wink wink.), beginning with some aptly titled BRMC tunes. (No Baby 81 anywhere!)"You try so hard to be cold. You try so hard to not show."
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