Griffin it! Dollar, Dollar Bin, Yo!
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” or so the saying goes.
Over the years, I’ve certainly found my fair share of musical gems hidden away at the bottom of a dusty dollar bin, often having been discarded, the unloved waste of a faceless person I’ll never know.
Of course, music these days is attainable by many means, and instantly consumable in its numerous formats, often for free. That being said, for me, there is still nothing more satisfying than scoring that bargain piece of wax.
I’ve had some great finds in my time. Unfortunately, I don’t get the chance to go record shopping as much as I’d like; South Korea is many things, but certainly not a Mecca for the vinyl-inclined. My last dollar bin haul, then, was some three summers ago.
Having visited a friend in Chicago, I spent a few days in New York City. The majority of my time in the Big one was spent pounding the pavements (sorry, sidewalks), guided by Google Maps to some of the city’s finest peddlers of polyvinyl chloride; Bleecker Street Records, Academy Records, and Princeton Record Exchange, to name a few. But it was (the imaginatively-titled) Good Records on East 5th Street in the East Village neighbourhood that proved to be the real treasure trove.
Here, I found box upon box of $1 vinyl. Diggin’, though (as with anything worthwhile), requires having to endure a degree of pain in order to get your rewards. Since dollar bins are almost always on the floor tucked under the shelves, sore knees and an aching back are part of the game. However, with perseverance and the attitude that a rare cut might just be hiding behind the next record, sooner or later you’ll strike musical gold.
And so it was that after a good few hours I emerged (hernia free) with a cache of some twenty-odd $1 dollar records…and the next stage of their life began.
Some of my haul:
YouTube links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BlkmxSO6-I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF7E3MvqdAw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv3pT2JV66g
The Guest Room 
Loving the music Griff!! Backlash to start my morning right !
Cheers, Mr. J…$1 dollar goodness!
I guess just the dollar sign would’ve sufficed!