Molly Hatchet.
MUCH to my dissapointment.

I still remember the guy at Backstreet Records in Indiana, PA, saying, about the DKs Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, "If you like the cover, you'll love the music." He was right.

Gang of 4, Entertainment

Pince-nez comment from the mathematician in the group. Mr. Mod, you are looking for the highest ratio of sales to spins, not the lowest or, conversely, the lowest ratio of spins to sales.

Thank you for correcting my math, Townsman Al. I knew I was in trouble as I typed that part of the post. So to get this straight, is 1:2 (sales:spins) higher or lower than 1:4? I'm looking for a record that is closest to a 1:1 ratio.

A 1:2 ratio is the same as .5 (i.e., 1 divided by 2) and a 1:4 ratio is he same as .25 (1 divided by 4). Best to look at the ratio of spins to sales; you want the fewest spins per sale.

Right, I know how it translates to fractions. So if we flip it around, in terms of ratio of spins to sales, the 2:1 ratio of Zwol is lower than the 4:1 ratio of, I don't know, that Molly Hatchet album Kilroy bought. Right?

In the 7th grade I bought this based purely on the album cover
No Second Chance

The album was awful. I only listened to it once. But that didn't stop me from buying (and not listening to) this one a year later
Lines

I have a recent low spins to no sale actually, so maybe this doesn't count - but if anyone wants it - IT'S YOURS! I'll send it to you! Speak up townsmen. I have Yoko Ohno's new one "Open Your Box" and it's like a remix disaster from the late 80s early 90s complete with the Pet Shop Boys and Felix Da Housecat remixes. It's amusing at best. I picked it up at a show - it was one of the free radio station sponsor giveaways, and I could have chosen many others, but something about Yoko Ohno dressed up like a tart in a short ripped jean skirt and black gloves on the cover and the title Open Your Box had me overwhelmingly intrigued...

Moddie, your ratio of 1 sale : 2 spins was 100% higher than mine when I, too, fell for that laugh-tarded cover in a thrift store. Only one spin for me, brother!

BTW, I'm experiencing serious Thrifty Music constipation over here. Today I scored -- in full Plurbie fashion -- a box of killer 45s off somebody who was downsizing their life in the suburbs. I now have more than enough for three, four or maybe even *five* comps. Any luck fixing that postage problem?

Hrrundi,

The one postage problem still needs some work. The Back Office is swamped for the rest of this week. Maybe we can get things running to your satisfaction in the coming week. Meanwhile, you've got much power. USE IT! Send me your sound files to the place you have been sending them. You've got Thrifty Constipation; I've got Thrifty Withdrawal! Thanks.

My first one was that 801 Live album. I was 14 when it came out in 76. I went to a record store downtown and they had all sorts of things I had never seen, and I figured I should buy something I couldn't get riding my bicycle to the local store. I still think that's a cool cover and I like the album a lot.

Another one I bought way back when was The Fall - Hip Priests and Kamerads. It's still the only Fall album I own, but I really like it and one day I'll get more, but I just couldn't bear it if it turns out I don't like their other stuff.

More recently in the cd era I bought Exploding Hearts - Guitar Romantic. I knew nothing about them, except that if you're gonna have a pink, yellow and black color scheme, you'd better either really bring The Rock or just crack me the fuck up. I must have picked it up every trip to the store for a year, then I finally grabbed it. I wish I'd have known about them sooner, because that was really all they ever did (big tragic van crash ended the band before I got on their wagon). I love this album, it's one of my favorites ever.

I've blown it, too. I bought ABC's How to Be A Zillionaire (I thought it was a cool cover, but when I look at it now I think I musta been really high). It's icky new wave dance music. I keep it as a penance.

Nekkid wimmin' get my attention, too. I bought Thee Shams - Please Yourself and The Mono Men - Ten Cool Ones because I liked the nekkid wimmin' on the covers. The music is boffo, too.

A cover I like very much but I won't buy is Goldfrapp - Black Cherry. It's really cool looking, but I've heard her music and we just don't agree, so I'll just look at the cover. Album art is cool, I hate when bands put zero effort into it.

I bought the Ian Dury and the Blockheads' album that has ugly wallpaper for a cover based almost entirely on cover alone. I did like the one song I'd heard by him at that point, "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick", but man, that album really sucked. It's one of those albums that never sounded good to me no matter what drug or drink I loaded myself up with. Just a few days ago I found myself watching a few minutes of a VH1-Classics "making of" show on some icky late-period Steely Dan album. Ian Dury popped up on screen to talk about how much he loved this album (ie, the one with "Peg" - the part with Michael McDonald going over the backing vocals is actually kind of amazing). Anyhow, seeing Dury rave about this Steely Dan album said a lot about that wallpaper album I could never get into.

I love that record! Waiting for Your Taxi, Uneasy Sunny Day Hotsy Totsy, Lullaby For Frances/is? All great. Quiet? I can see why you wouldn't dive right in. I think that band was like the Dennis Bovell Dub Band with LKJ. They do what they do, and he does his stuff over it. They're like a slick late seventies club band, just doing their thing, with Ian Dury on top. But I think the results were fantastic. But if you didn't get into it back in the day, it seems that would just be harder to do with the passage of time.

Yeah I love that Ian Dury album Do It Yourself too, and Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick is one of my favorite singles of all time. In a strange bit of synchronicity I recently came across that same Steely Dan VH-1 special on the Aja album as a series of videos on youtube, and I watched the whole thing.

I too was initially suprised to see Dury as a talking head analyst. We're used to seeing him as a kind of goofy music hall character, but actually he was an art school guy. He was a student of the famous Peter Blake in the 60s, and he did some time teaching too. His commentary was very sober and insightful, and it reminded me that there was a whole other side to him.

Another one I bought way back when was The Fall - Hip Priests and Kamerads. It's still the only Fall album I own, but I really like it and one day I'll get more, but I just couldn't bear it if it turns out I don't like their other stuff.

Hey 2000Man, I'd be happy to offer you more recommendations since The Fall are basically my favorite band ever and I own just about their entire discography. Hip Priests and Kamerads doesn't seem to be too bad of a place to start since it contains a lot of stuff from Hex Enduction Hour, the one full-length studio record they made for Kamera and one of their best albums.

More recently in the cd era I bought Exploding Hearts - Guitar Romantic. I knew nothing about them, except that if you're gonna have a pink, yellow and black color scheme, you'd better either really bring The Rock or just crack me the fuck up. I must have picked it up every trip to the store for a year, then I finally grabbed it. I wish I'd have known about them sooner, because that was really all they ever did (big tragic van crash ended the band before I got on their wagon). I love this album, it's one of my favorites ever.

I think I've mentioned this recently in another thread, but I'm right there with you as well. I just discovered this album earlier this year and in that time it's become one of my favorite albums of all-time. It's just killer from start to finish and bring the rock they did. Man oh man. There's a compilation (CD only, unfortunately) called Shattered that you should check out. It contains all of their singles and demo versions of many songs on Guitar Romantic that really make it worth the $ as they're even rawer than what made it to the album. You can buy it directly from Dirtnap. They also included a short live set from their last show ever as a bonus. Awesome stuff!

Both of you should check the self-titled album by the Nice Boys, the new band by the sole surviving Exploding Heart.

berlyant, feel free to offer up any Fall advice you've got. Hip Priest is great, and I think what I like about it is that it just sounds so sincere.

I haven't found anyone that had the demo cd from Exploding Hearts (it's at one of the stores I frequent). Guitar Romantic is just so perfect and I saw that so many of the same songs were on it - I guess it's just like that Fall album, I just don't want to let myself wreck the experience of Guitar Romantic by deciding I don't like the demos. But now I'll grab it. I had no idea it had some of their last live show ever. Their website is still there - it's kinda creepy, but I loved the band's attitude.

G48, I've been picking up The Nice Boys, too (I carry them all over the store and then put away the ones I don't have money for, cuz I want them ALL). I like the cover on that one, too. The record store owner says I'll like it, but I've only got so much money!

For me it was Powerage by AC/DC. Before I ever heard them, I knew that record would sound as mean and raw as the front and back covers looked. Still one of my favorite all-time AC/DC gems.

Hey, Dis -- FYI, "Powerage" is also Angus' fave AC/DC album.

Welcome aboard, BTW!

HVB

Now that I think about it, the night an old high school friend of one of my college friends let the two of us steal as many records as we could from the suburban Illinois mall record store in which old high school friend worked (we had 15 minutes in which to take as much as we could carry out of the store!) I picked up a number of albums based on, in large part, the record cover. I had read a bit about Trout Mask Replica and had heard some of PiL's Second Edition by that night, but I knew nothing about Throbbing Gristle and their Entertainment Through Pain collection. The album cover was a massive winner, and I dug the music as well. What was this mall store doing with all those cool albums? I took Bitches Brew as well.