I am in the office at 6:52 after an all-nighter, the kind where you're playing catch-up and scrambling to meet a deadline. Embarrassing. And I'm listening to UB-40, so doubly embarrassing. But that's not why I decided to write. I decided to write because I just remembered my first and only visit to Parrotfish Records in St. Thomas, USVI. My mom took me because she knew I was a music geek. The color scheme, the decor, the stuff on display, all Jamaican. Not the proprietor, clearly a mainlander, middle-aged and sour-looking. I didn't know much about reggae or dancehall, so I asked for some dub. For my trouble I got a five minute lecture about how nobody in Jamaica listens to that "drug music" any more. And after lecturing me on "drug music" he tries to sell me some dancehall! The record sleeve was probably covered with five-pointed leaves! The fucking nerve!

That's "Bodysnatchers". Or maybe the whole album is just compressed to shit.

I knew about Amoeba and Record Surplus. Apparently I need to check out Freakbeat and Atomic, and Fingerprints if I ever make it down to Long Beach.

Sounds like they accept about 75% of what they get sent, so that makes it ~200 CDs per 60 GB video iPod ... hmmm, how much does Amoeba pay per used CD I wonder?

• Air France
• Metro Area Fabric mix
• crammed global soundclash
• Sans Soleil s/t
• LUOMO - CONVIVIAL
• Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom
• 500 greatest non-album b-sides
• school of seven bells - face to face on high places
• melchior lp 2007?
• minimal house anthems
• artist name "sense", and releases on the label "sending orbs"
• best of just blaze
• reign in blood
• alva noto
• jazz composers orchestra?
• rainforest techno recommendations from vahid here
• best dub albums ever
• hip-hop: chris rock, wu-tang
• UR comps vahid recommends here
• vinyl: the sounds of sebring
• disco version of star wars theme
• best dj mix of 2006, favorite remixes of 2006
• grooverider presents hardstep selection ii
• scott walker - the drift
• spoon - girls can tell
• more electrohouse singles
• the professionals - i didn't see it coming
• all the CDs Tim Finney recommends here
• kitsune love
• alexander kowalski - response
• toktok - tora bora
• eskimo iii?
• chemical brothers mixes
• dj rectangle - vinyl kombat
• the fall cover of a day in the life
• top 100 dance singles of the 1990s
• chains and black exhaust
• outside the circle of fire
• caetano veloso
• renegade soundwave - in dub
• mbm - storm the studio
• download some of this shit - best remixes of 2005
• bill frisell
• jali roll and other african musik