Putting together a forty minute mix of songs by The Fall is the easiest one I've ever done.
Go into the folder marked The Fall and start selecting songs.
Sequence them into an order that is pleasing.
Note that this process could be repeated three, four , five more times over and the quality would not dip.
Mark E. Smith famously said that 'if it's me and your nan on bongos, it's The Fall' but there's no doubting the musicians who came and went through the ranks over the years added a significant amount to the songs the group wrote and played. The songs here would sound different if Brix Smith, Steve Hanley, Craig Scanlon, Simon Wolstencroft, Karl Burns, Marc Riley, Martin Bramah, Spencer Birtwistle and all the rest hadn't been members of The Fall. Mark E. Smith may have been an intolerant and difficult person to be in a band with as time went on but he was also a singular and endlessly electrifying presence, as the songs below demonstrate. The lyrics and vocal delivery are of course central and the ones here find room for the Kennedy assassination, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Frank Zappa, Australians, Oprah Winfrey, Nelson, Tolstoy, Jeanette Fletcher, forty year olds in coloured shirts, the Flintstones, Star Wars, Nietzsche and the hip priest.
Cruiser's Creek is a single released in November 1985, one of the first songs written and recorded for This Nation's Saving Grace, when Brix joined the band and upped the ante a little in terms of sound and melody. John Leckie produced. The intro, MES shouting through a megaphone or over a tannoy, 'What really went on there? We only have this excerpt', is a brilliant way to open any song/ mix/ compilation tape.
Australians In Europe was a B-side to Hit The North, released in October 1987. Hit The North is a great single, 80s indie/ alternative night dancefloor gold.
Free Range came out in 1992, on the album Code: Selfish and a single in the same year. There are dance/ techno influences finding their way in to The Fall's sound, partly brought by new recruit on keys Dave Bush. At some point in the mid- 90s Andrew Weatherall was lined up to produce a Fall album but it became clear to him that his way of working ('You will give complete control of songs and production over to me and I will turn the vision in my head into a wildly expansive album') and Mark's ('I am The Fall and I say what it sounds like') would not be conducive and he backed out. A Weatherall produced Fall album is one of life's great What If's....
Oswald Defense Lawyer is from 1988's The Frenz Experiment, my first Fall album and hence one of my favourites (I think it ranks fairly low among The Fall's cognoscenti). There are Fall fans who say the cover of The Kinks song Victoria (also from this album) and There's A Ghost In My House are the worst songs The Fall did. Similarly there are Clash fans who hate Should I Stay Or Should I Go and Rock The Casbah because they sold in large quantities and were hits. Generally, I distrust these views. A good song is a good song regardless of how many or few people bought it.
Touch Sensitive came out in 1999. I'd drifted from The Fall by this point and this single bought me back, a dancefloor friendly, catchy as you like, thundering rumble of Mancabilly, filled with MES one liners. It opened the album The Marshall Suite, the 20th Fall album and last one in the 20th century.
Two Librans came out on 2000's The Unutterable, the first Fall album of the 21st century, and proof that the band and Smith were as vital as they'd ever been.
Big New Prinz is a contender for my favourite Fall song, the first song on October 1988's I Am Kurious Oranj (either my second or third Fall album purchased I think). The album was conceived as the soundtrack to a ballet performed by Michael Clark and Company, a performance based on William of Orange's ascension to the English throne in 1588, the so- called Glorious Revolution. Big New Prinz is based on 1982's Hip Priest. The album also contains their cover of Jerusalem which is priceless.
Blood Outta Stone was on 1990's The Dredger EP, a four track 12" led by the cover of White Lightning. It was later on added to CD re- issues of Shift- Work.
High Tension Line is another favourite of mine, also from 1990, a period when they seemed to release 12" singles almost weekly. It was produced by Grant Showbiz who did a lot of good work with them around this time.
Dead Beat Descendant is prime late 80s Fall, the B-side to Cab It Up. The title apparently comes from an episode of The Flintstones, Fred, Barney, Wilma and Betty sent into the 21st century by The Great Gazoo. The four of them are chased out of Fred's company by George Slate the 8000th, Fred's $4 loan from prehistory now ballooned into a $23 million debt, Slate shouting 'come back here you dead beat's descendants!'
By the turn of the millennium The Fall were becoming a less well loved affair. Mark's reign seemed to have flipped into something less lovable, line ups disintegrating, being fired or walking out, tales of drunkenness, violence and arrests (on stage and off stage) becoming wearying and worrying. There were of course still disciples who would buy every album and go to every tour but by the time their 2000 album The Unutterable hit the shelves, some had silently drifted away. But even a below par Fall album contains moments of Smith genius and on The Unutterable one song stands as a 21st century Fall highlight.
The band are in their finest North Manchester garage band form, guitar lines ringing and drums clattering and when they smash into the chorus the sheer force of the distorted guitars is a shot of pure adrenaline. The bass sounds brilliantly filthy, as if it's been dredged up from the bottom of the ship canal, covered in all manner of shite and detritus, shaken down and forced through an overdriven amplifier.
There are websites that try to pinpoint and explain all Mark E Smith's lyrical references, a small band of users making contributions and identifying the obscure, the possible and the probable. There are similar websites for Half Man Half Biscuit and I can't be the first to see parallels between these two long running north west cultural commentators. Two Librans is littered with classic Smith lines and references, from the titular zodiac pair to Oprah Winfrey and her study of bees, Nelson in Timor, Tolstoy in Chechnya and the miracles of blonde September.
In 2003 The Fall released an album that was as good as anything they'd done for a decade, titled The Real New Fall LP (Formerly Country On The Click). Mark E Smith was unhappy with the mix on what was intended to be released as Country On The Click and pulled it to re- mix it. Some copies leaked out. Mark described the Country On the Click mix as resembling 'Dr Who meets Posh Spice'. One of the Real New Fall LP's stand out songs was this...
Ben Pritchard's descending guitar riff intro and clattering drums and then the crunchy guitar riff running through it are exciting enough, handclaps and chants add to the joy. Mark's lyrics are brilliant, his narrator a Greek football fan of a fictional Greek football club (Turkish club Galatasaray feature too- when Manchester United played there in the 90s, trying to navigate their way through the group stages of the then new fangled Champions League, a banner at the home end read 'Welcome To Hell'. The United's player's faces, some well travelled and seasoned footballers among them, suggested that playing there was indeed like an away game in Hades). 'Come and have a bet/ We live on blood', the Greek fan/ Mark chunters, 'We are Sparta F.C.' The English fans of Chelsea get their marching orders too- 'English Chelsea fan/ This is your last game', he threatens and adds, 'Take your fleecy jumper/ You won't need it any more... No more ground boutique at match in Chelsea'. It's funny and unnerving.
Theme From Sparta F.C. was recorded at Lisa Stansfield's studio in Rochdale. A year earlier a version had been recorded for John Peel and a year later a re- recorded version became a single- but as the early 21st century line up of The Fall batter their way through this new garage classic and Mark slurs and sing speaks as only he can, there's no doubt that this is the one, electrifying, compelling and uniquely The Fall.
After Mark E. and Brix Smith divorced MES threw himself (or shuffled himself maybe) into a new line up and a new album, what would become The Fall's twelfth studio album, 1990's Extricate. Martin Bramah rejoined on guitar and at the height of Madchester (something Mark was fairly scathing about not least on the song Idiot Joy Showland from 1991's Shift- Work). However in a nod tot he changing musical times The Fall had worked with Coldcut on Telephone Thing, the song which leads Extricate, a chunky drums, dance music influenced song which fitted in very well with the then current sound. Extricate also had possibly the most sincere and personal song The Fall recorded, the beautiful Bill Is Dead. It also had Black Monk Theme Part 1.
Keyboards and guitars plus a loping drumbeat Black Monk Theme Part 1 is a cover of I Hate You by 60s garage band The Monks. I Hate You is one of the great songs of the 60s, an organ led, minimalist piece of nihilistic thuggery, the flipside of the 60s dream of peace and love pre- dating both The Stooges and The Velvet Underground (I Hate You came out in 1966 on the album Black Monk Time). The Monks were five GIs stationed in Gelnhausen, West Germany. The brutal rhythms, chanted vocals, lyrics about the war in Vietnam, whiny organ, banjo and feedback gave them a pretty unique and far out sound. If that wasn't enough, they dressed as monks in black robes and shaved their heads into tonsures.
Mark E. Smith retitled another of their songs, Oh, How To Do Now for Black Monk Theme 2 which came out as a B-side on the Popcorn Double Feature 12". The highspeed backing track and chipmunk like backing vocals make it all sound a bit ridiculous until Mark wades in to bring the song under control.
The original can also be found on Black Monk Time, a blast of proto- punk rock from five men playing U.S. airbases and in West German beat bars at a time when being sent to die in the jungle of South East Asia was a daily possibility.
When their time in the army came to end they stayed on in West Germany honing their abrasive, high energy, non- conformist and distorted sound. Their record company, Polydor, decided against releasing the album in the States, it was they reasoned 'too radical and too non- commercial' and Black Monk Time didn't get a full U.S. release until 1994.
Extricate got rave reviews in 1990 and remains one of The Fall's finest albums. In typical Fall style Martin Bramah and keyboard player Marcia Schofield were sacked by Mark while the group were touring the album in Australia.
Three songs for Drew today who is in the midst of some tough times. His blog Across The Kitchen Table was around way back in the late 00s and was one of the reasons I started this. Since striking up an online friendship (beginning with posts about Weatherall records if I remember right) we've met in real life on several occasions in Glasgow and Manchester, even venturing out to watch lower tier Scottish football at Airdrie back in 2017. All the best Drew, take care of yourself and each other.
First song is by The Fall, der gruppe he loves as much as any. I could pick almost any Fall song at random. On looking in my Fall folder I went for this one, prime late 80s Fall with Mark and Brix chanting something about Baghdad space cog analysts before the scabrous Mancabilly fires in on all cylinders and MES goes off about guest informants, cheap hotels and miserable Scottish hotels that resemble Genesis and Marillion album covers in 1973. I guess touring in the 80s really didn't agree with him.
Secondly round about this time of year when Drew's blog Across The Kitchen Table was active he would post this Jonathan Richman song, a slightly calmer and less unhinged way to start your Tuesday.
Sifter's Records on Fog Lane in Burnage is a second hand record shop immortalised in the Oasis single Shakermaker ('Mr Sifter sold me songs/ When I was just sixteen/ Now he stops at traffic lights/ But only when they're green'). It is about half a mile from where I grew up in Withington and a regular haunt for me until recent years. Sometime back when Isaac and Eliza were both pretty young, around 2008, I hit upon the brilliant plan that if I took them into Sifter's and gave them a fiver each, they could choose a record each while I browsed the racks. The plan only had two flaws: 1) it was high risk. I could easily end up walking out with a copy of Tango In The Night and a 12" of Whitney's I Wanna Dance With Somebody and 2) my attempt to get them crate digging didn't occupy them for very long at all, they both committed to records quickly and then got bored and wanted to leave.
On the other hand, they both randomly came up with the goods. Eliza, round about five years old, chose a copy of Into The Groove on 12", Madonna's 1985 Desperately Seeking Susan smash hit. Nothing wrong with a bit of Madge, classic 80s dance pop (and covered by Ciccone Youth but that's for another day). I suspect the mid- 80s Madonna and Rosanna Arquette on the sleeve, all hair and bangles, may have influenced her choice.
The Vinyl Villain recently wrote about this 12" as part of his weekly ramble through The Fall's singles and you can find his post and the singles B- sides here. What drew Isaac to it I don't know- the sleeve isn't exactly child friendly but it's another piece of 80s dance music, The Fall approaching accessibility with Brix in the group and a cover of one of my wife Lou's favourite Northern Soul hits (R. Dean Taylor's original came out on Motown in 1967). As for the song's title taking on new meaning now, well, I don't know about ghosts but Isaac's presence is all over our house from his coat and bobble hat still hanging up in the hall as you come in through the front door to the hundreds of cards we've received since he died last Tuesday. Thanks again to all of you who have left comments here or elsewhere. It means a lot.
Back in 2010 Andrew Weatherall remixed Danish producer Trentemoller's track Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, Go!!! At that point Timothy J. Fairplay was Andrew's studio right hand man, a partnership which would result in their album as The Asphodells (the superb Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust, named after a shlocky gladiator porn movie). One of the key influences at the time, all over the Trentemoller remix, was the glam rock stomp, a wonderfully retro sound derived from twin sources- Big New Prinz by The Fall and Let's Get Together Again by The Glitter Band, 'the men in satin trousers it's ok to like' Andrew quipped after playing the song on one of his radio shows at the time (that's The Glitter Band not The Fall obviously).
Big New Prinz is a remarkable piece of Brix- era Fall, built around Glitter Band drumming, some really grimy bass and vicious guitar lead lines, a song that developed from a 1982 song (Hip Priest) and was reworked for their 1988 I Am Kurious Oranj album, a record that combined some kind of tribute to William of Orange's ascension to the English throne in 1688 and the soundtrack to a Michael Clark ballet along with a version of Jerusalem. Meanwhile Mark riffs about rock records, drinking the long draft, big priests and the self referential refrain, 'He/ Is/ Not/... Appreciated'.
Let's Get Together Again is 70s social club manna, a football chant and double drumkit stomp, sax and Les Paul. No mp3 I'm afraid but I've found it on Youtube- there's another clip on Youtube where they perform the song on Top Of The Pops and are introduced by a well known sex offender/ DJ but we don't need to see his face here.
Andrew and Tim channelled these sounds into the Trentemoller remix, one of those tracks you wish could loop endlessly whilst you go about you daily business.
There is a second Weatherall/ Fairplay remix, the Sky 81 remix, which is less Glitter stomp and more echo- laden, submerged, Wobble era- PiL take on the original. Both remixes, the original and two other mixes can be bought here. And for completion's sake here are the twin heroes of the Trentmoller song, from the golden age of Marvel and the pens of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
If you head over to The Vinyl Villain today (and every Sunday for the foreseeable future) you'll find JC and Drew going through the singles of The Fall. That may well sound like a Herculean labour but Drew has been known to undertake- voluntarily- the task of listening to every Fall album released in chronological order in one weekend before.
In 1988 I bought the tenth Fall studio album, The Frenz Experiment. It contained their cover of Victoria, an actual top forty hit for Prestwich's finest. The album has been seen as a bit of a mis- step by many purist fans, a bit Fall on autopilot, Brix pushing the group in a more commercial direction, and there's no denying it has a more accessible sound compared to some of their records but there's plenty to enjoy- The Steak Place, Carry Bag Man, Oswald Defence Lawyer, Get A Hotel and Bremen Nacht all do it for me. Mark E Smith is in minimalist lyrical form in part, a less is more approach, in contrast to the torrent of words he often used to spill into the mic. On the album's opening song, the first I heard when I snapped the cassette deck shut in March 1988 and pressed play, is Frenz- a groove as much as a song built around a two note Steve Hanley bassline and Mark ruminating on the number of friends he had (not enough for one hand) with the unsaid insinuation that he was surrounded by hangers on.
Another Bagging Area mix for you, an hour of old and new and fairly ambient/ drone/ instrumental based but with Mark E. Smith turning at the end to add his inimitable voice to proceedings. In fact the only other voice is Andrew Weatherall's, heard briefly at the end of Prana Crafter's Starlight, Sing Us A Lullaby, a moment that got to me the first time I heard it. You can find Tiers In December on Mixcloud.
Kams: Hopfen (Richard Norris Remix)
Stray Harmonix: Mountain Of One
Harold Budd: The Pearl
A Winged Victory For The Sullen: Keep It Dark, Deutschland
On his recent radio appearance with Heidi, posted here if you missed it, Andrew Weatherall dropped the news that back in 1993 when questioned for the NME's end of year poll Mark E Smith's nomination for Wanker Of The Year was Andrew Weatherall. He didn't go on to say what had gone down between them other than that he (Weatherall) had been lined up to produce an album for The Fall and then for reasons unspecified it didn't happen. If you want to dip in, it's at around forty five minutes into the show.
Then Weatherall played this from 2005's Fall Heads Roll, the centrepiece of that album led by a filthy, churning, propulsive bass guitar riff and chugging drums. Mark speaks into the microphone of walking bass, Aristotle Onassis, Jane Seymour, Calvary and cavalry, Prestwich, Deansgate and Moscow Road, eight minutes that once again proves Mark E Smith and whoever was playing with him at that time were indeed The Fall and that they were capable of coming up with moments of genius.
Longley Lane runs from Northenden to Wythenshawe. Before you get to Sharston tip (sorry, Household Waste Recycling Centre) there is a sprawling industrial estate with some magnificent 1930s buildings, all still in use today. The one above is a gigantic concrete hanger, containing I don't knows what. I couldn't get the whole thing into one shot on my phone's camera but you can see the curve of the roof on the front well enough and the enormous windows down the side. If you like industrial architecture- and I'm sure some of you do- then this place is paradise. Those of a certain disposition will see or hear the words industrial estate and instantly hear this running in their head...
Some music from The Fall for Friday. Gut Of The Quantifier is from 1985's magnificent This Nation's Saving Grace, an album Mark E Smith reckoned was one of their best (or at least he said that in an interview once). The Fall line up in 1985 was Mark, Brix and Craig Scanlon on guitar, Steve Hanley on bass, Karl Burns on drums and Simon Rogers on keys. This incarnation of the band were tight as you like. Gut Of The Quantifier shows this group could cook up killer riffs (Hanley's bass riff on the song below is immense and the guitars are wired and exhilarating), could get a proper groove on and wrote music that borrowed and stole but sounded unique. You can trace the outlines of various older songs in Gut Of The Quantifier- Junior Walker, The Doors and Lipps Inc for three, all pulped together with a semblance of James Brown. Over this amped up garage band rock MES delivers one of his finest sermons. Some excerpts follow which I won't attempt to annotate or comment on-
'I'm not saying they're really thick But all the groups who've hit it big Make the Kane Gang look like an Einstein chip' 'Here are your wedding pictures They are black' 'They take from the medium poor to give to the needy poor Via the government poor Give it to the poor poor They're knocking on my door' 'Who are the riff-makers. Who are they really? How old are the stars really? Half-wit philanthropist, cosy charity gig'
I was thinking while driving home last night about The Fall and how they've been part of my musical life for over thirty years. When I first started properly getting into music- buying the records, going to the gigs, reading the music press, looking for the clothes, all that kind of stuff- The Fall were there (along with The Smiths, New Order, Talking Heads, and various other indie/alternative bands). And while I've never been a buy-all-the-records Fall fan, their music is undoubtedly part of musical DNA. In the 8 years I've been doing this blog I've posted about them 17 times. The songs- Theme From Sparta FC, Bill Is Dead (thrice), Popcorn Double Feature, Funnel Of Love, How I Wrote ''Elastic Man'', Bingo Master's Breakout, Two Librans, White Lighting, There's A Ghost In My House, Rowche Rumble, Big New Prinz, Wrong Place Right Time and Squid Lord (plus I Want You by Mark E Smith and Inspiral Carpets, Mark with Edwyn Collins on Seventies Night and Rhinohead by MES with Von Sudenfed). That looks like a pretty decent compilation album right there.
On top of those I could easily have posted these without much effort- Free Range, Hey! Luciani, Repetition, Industrial Estate, Edinburgh Man, Mr Pharmacist, Hit The North, Eat Y'self Fitter, Touch Sensitive, Victoria, Cruiser's Creek, Totally Wired, Who Makes the Nazis?, Telephone Thing, High Tension Line, Twister, Blood Outta Stone, Kimble, Trust In Me, Spoilt Victorian Child, Bremen Nacht, Dead Beat Descendent, Jerusalem and Get A Hotel. That's just the obvious ones off the top of my head. And this one, off 1988's The Frenz Experiment (a somewhat unloved album I think among the devotees but I treasure it. I think Brix really brought something to the gruppe).
For a long time I thought there must be a subtext to The Steak Place but couldn't put my finger on it, something in the lyrics I couldn't work out. But on reflection I think it is just a song about a steak house.
'Cheap carpet lines the way Aluminium tack door handles Candelabra lions head Via butchers display too
The steak place
Via a carcass row Things are brought forward and eaten, I see the corners filled with hitmen, Two young lawyers they are whispering, in
The steak place
I want to stay here, I don't want to go anywhere, I could remain here'
I've just seen a post by Dave Haslam on social media saying that Mark E Smith has died at the age of 60. He doesn't seem to have been in the best of health recently but it is still sad and shocking news. He was a true one-off, a maverick, a wordsmith and a visionary. He will be missed.
Since Thursday night this Fall song from a 1988 Peel Session has been referenced a lot on Twitter and elsewhere. Not sure why. I'm sure any similarity between it and other new songs are purely coincidental. Blistering stuff from my favourite line up of The Fall. I don't have an mp3 of it right now so it's a Youtube clip only.
There are two good reasons to post Wrong Place Right Time by The Fall today. Firstly, I bought I Am Kurious Oranj in King Bee on Saturday. I used to own it on cassette, in fact it was the second Fall album I bought back in 1988 (the first was The Frenz Experiment). The cassette version had more songs on it I think but seeing a pristine vinyl copy for a fiver was too tempting, mainly because Big New Prinz is one of my favourite Fall songs, maybe my number one. The whole of Side A is really good- Prinz, the seven minute Dog Is Life/Jerusalem. I love the dirty bassline of Jerusalem. And the first side closes with Wrong Place Right Time.
This performance of Wrong Place Right Time is from the ballet so you've got The Fall playing live with Brix on tambourine and Michael Clark's dancers flitting about. Somehow, The Fall soundtracking a ballet to commemorate the three hundredth anniversary of William of Orange's ascension to the throne made perfect sense. I like the Brix era Fall- there were tunes to go with the MES vocal delivery.
The second reason is I'm meeting Drew, Fall fan and Across The Kitchen Table blogger, for a few pints tonight while he's in town with work. Right place right time.
I fucked my back up getting out of the car at work on Friday (I know, I know) and then made it worse playing football after school the same day. It's just beginning to feel Ok again after a weekend of hobbling about. A few pints in The Old Cock will probably aid my recovery.
Anthony H Wilson presenting The Fall live in '88, on The Other Side Of Midnight. A fairly youthful Mark E and the classic Fall line up then play Big New Prinz, my favourite Fall song. Mancabilly. The wobbly nature of the VHS does not detract from the performance- if anything it adds to it. Brix Smith, in frilly green shirt, has gone on to mix in very different circles, as you'll know if you watch daytime fashion makeover TV.
This version, with Michael Clark's dancers is also making the grade. Mancabillyballet.
We are off to see Primal Scream tonight, a friend's birthday night out. Who, on a three date tour, decided that the best date for Manchester would be a Sunday night? Eh? Support is provided by someone called Andrew Weatherall, playing records apparently. Supposed to be quite good. Chances are primal Scream won't play this piece of C86ery..
October 25th is Keeping It Peel Day across the internet. I've taken part previously- the sound of John Peel's voice followed by something familiar and brilliant, or unfamiliar and brilliant, or just plain puzzling, was one of the joys of the man's radio show. In previous years I've posted Keeping It Peel songs by Half Man Half Biscuit, The Redskins and Sabres Of Paradise. I dallied briefly with posting a song from The Cramps only Peel Session but we've had a surfeit of Crampiness in recent weeks- not that you can have too much but I thought some of you might be getting bored- and when searching my d/ls folder found this, Sonic Youth covering The Fall's Rowche Rumble...
Harbour's can indeed be dangerous. The seagulls at Bridlington are pretty aggressive for a start.
Mrs Swiss and myself are off out in town today- late afternoon drinking- for my brother J's 40th birthday. Family occasion + alcohol = potential trouble, arguments at the least. Best behaviour. J is a big fan of The Fall, to put it mildly. This is Mogwai's cover of the Fall's mid-life classic Bill Is Dead (which I posted for my own 40th birthday post).
This is Sifters record shop, in Burnage, south Manchester, known far and wide due to Noel Gallagher immortalising Mr Sifter in Oasis's early single Shakermaker. I grew up not far from here and have been visiting Sifters on and off since early 80s. It's the kind of place you can rummage for an hour and come out with seven records having spent less than twenty quid. A fair few years ago, six or seven maybe, I took the kids to Fog Lane Park (another of my childhood/teenage haunts). I then took them over the road to Sifters and to pacify them while I had at least ten minutes sifting I put them in front of the 12" rack and told them to choose one each. Whether through luck or judgement both chose acceptably- I.T. settled on The Fall's cover of R Dean Taylor's There's A Ghost In My House- must have been the sleeve- and daughter E.T., only two-ish, wanted Madonna's Into The Groove. Neither cost more than £1.95. Amongst other things, I bought this damn fine piece of twenty-first century pop...
I haven't been to Sifters for years, choosing King Bee in Chorlton for my out of town second hand record shopping these days. It's closer (and, whisper it, better). But I miss my trips to Sifters. Is it still there, anyone know? May have to take a drive that way soon.
