Another WFMU record fair come and gone..

For all of you non-east coast/non-New York Area people: the WFMU record fair is a biannual event presented by perhaps one of the coolest radio stations in America...WFMU. For any vinyl freak this is a must-go-to-affair, 'specially for us lovers of the Exotica and Space-Age Bachelor Pad genres. The fairs happen during the weekend and are probably one of the biggest , if not the biggest in the USA.

I usually go on the afternoon of the last day (sunday) in hopes of getting the bahgains. All the stuff the vendors are sick of looking at and finally wanna get rid of. This does happen and some people let go of their stuff, sometimes up to 50% off. The down side of going on the last day is that alot of the stuff is already picked over and some of the cool LPs at the good prices are GONE.

Okay...let's cut to the chase already. What did I get?????

Martin Denny "Quiet Village" Mint Cond for a dollar. (this one replaces the seriously crappy copy I bought on Ebay from a lame seller.)

Martin Denny "Romantica" VG condition for two dollars

Jerry Lewis "Jerry Lewis Just Sings" Mint for 3 dollars

"Sounds In Space" (w/Ken Nordine) VG condition for 6 dollars

Perez Prado "Big Hits by Prado" VG condition for one dollar

Arthur Murray "Rock and Roll" VG for a dollar

and last but sorta not least
Carmen Cavallaro "Cocktails With Cavallaro" for a dollar. This one I bought soley for the cover. It has a cool close-up picture of a waiter carrying a tray of cocktails at a party circa late 50s. Not expecting this to kick my ass music wise. But what the heck. for a buck you can't go wrong, unless of course you find it in the trash for free.

Not a bad lot for $15. Nothing earth shattering, but fun nonetheless.

Wish I had a flat-bed scanner, I'd scan all this stuff in for yooz guyz too look at.

I missed the boat on a couple of Denny LPs including "Exotic Percussion". I saw one or two in the 10 to 15 dollar range, so I wanted to shop around. Being that I only spent $15 total, I could afford to splurge on one last one at the end, but the place was shutting down by that point, but I 'll find that out there somewhere.

Also, there was a serious lack of Baxter around there. Thought I would find some. I'm guessing all the people that came earlier in the weekend snapped all of that stuff up, because all I coould find was one copy of "Jungle Jazz" but that was like $40.

Some of the deals at the fair are good, at the same time though some of the prices are incredibly inflated. Ridiculously so. One guy would be selling good copies of Denny stuff for around $7 and another guy a few tables away was selling the same thing, same condition for at least double the price. A few of the vendors were selling stuff that was priced so high it was un-buyable. Their tables were more like vinyl museums than a guy that actually wanted to move product. For example, Esquivel "Other Worlds, Other Sounds" for $40 ???? I bought mine in mint condition at a great used vinyl store here in the city for $18. There was other stuff that was just priced off the radar. Granted some stuff deserves to be so expensive, but c'mon now.

You get the idea....

Gonna go drop the needle!

Cheers! :drink:

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2003-11-09 22:07 ]

drop the needle , indeed my friend,
sounds very cool..i'm in southern ontario, canada , and vinyl is rapidly drying up.
e-bay is basicly about the only place for me to get my vinyl fix..and as we know , there are not too many deals there.
sounds like you scored big , $15.00 is not much , for what you brought home.

hey ecm!

Sorry that vinyl is so hard to come by up there in the great white north. There are some pretty good places around here in ole NYC to get a weekly fix. A particular favorite joint of mine is Academy Used LPs on E. 10th St. If you are ever down here you should check it out. These guys are interested in turnover. In other words, they get some great inventory, but they don't price it outta the ballpark. You can definitely get some pretty good deals in there. There are a handful of other vinyl joints around here, but it's hit or miss on the good prices.

The one thing that I have only been able to find on Ebay more than in the stores at the moment is good Les Baxter stuff. So far been hard to find out there in the retail world. I did just buy 'Tamboo' and 'Wild Guitars' on ebay though, both for decent prices.

This past weekend I went to a flea market in Southwestern Jersey and scored some pretty decent stuff like:

for a dollar-
Beach Boys Xmas album VG- cond.

for two dollars-
Marty Robbins 'Gunfighter Ballads' Vg+ condition. I think this is a later pressing though.

For three dollars-
Sinatra Xmas album VG+

for five dollars-
Nancy Sinatra 'Boots' Mono, mint cond, still in shrink (not sealed)
The Who 'Magic Bus', VG- cond. (jacket is in better shape than vinyl, but still plays good)
Elvis Xmas Album mint cond, still in shrink (not sealed) early 60s pressing.
Julie London 'About the Blues' mono VG- condition.

and splurged a bit on these:
Johnny Cash 'Folsom Prison' mint cond, still in shrink (not sealed) 10 bucks.

Dick Schory 'Music to Break Any Mood' also 10 bucks

and just for fun-Def Leppard 'High & Dry' for a buck-fifty

Yeah...stockin up on the holiday tunes. I already have the Phil Spector Xmas LP, but these other additions should make it real cheery 'round the ole tannenbaum. And yeah, I shelled out alot on the vinyl this trip, but it was my birthday weekend so f**k it. I'll be damned though if I couldn't find any Exotica. I did see some Lyman, but I'm not too blown away by him to spend more than three bucks on one of his LPs. Still on the hunt for some good Denny, Baxter, Esquivel...you know the drill

Anyway, keep me updated on any of your current vinyl finds.

cheers..:drink:

Chicago used to have a great charity record sale, but too few people were buying vinyl anymore, so the charity sold off the rest of the records by the pound & pallet load!

hey , donhonyc,
my current vinyl finds , are t-rex , electric warrior , and the slider , the only relation to tiki , is mark bolan , probably at one time , had a little drink umbrella , in his hair !
ecm

ecm-

Those are two of my fave records, I think I have the same LP copies of both that I bought in the 80s. The Slider is particularly awesome. Hell....they both are. I also have 'Tanx' on cassette and 'Light of Love' on CD. Both have a couple of really ass-kicking selections, but are not as consistent as the aforementioned classic LPs.

My current weekend LP finds are:
Julie London 'Julie's Golden Greats'
totally mint for $5 and that crazy tiki album called 'Fire Goddess' in VG+ condition for $3. I saw a double LP by Allen Ginsberg called 'First Blues' that he did in the early 80s. It was totally mint for $5, but I took a pass. It did look pretty interesting though. I think I would've jumped on a Kerouac LP had it been the same price in the same condition.

:drink: