Laddio Bolocko

It's the kind of music that makes you feel like masturbating into a hot frying pan, if you know what I mean.

Ahem. Not that I would ever--

Never mind. It was a metaphor, for goodness's sake.

I was taking a walk through Half-Price Books and I spotted a thing of beauty: an albumwith a picture of a guy blowing two saxophones simultaneously (though you couldn't see any higher than the guy's mouth.)

Except it wasn't an album, it was a box with an open side. Inside of the box were three vinyl records, and they looked pristine. And it only cost $15. Which is a good deal, as it goes for at least $30 new online. (Hence Half-Price.) But I had never heard of the band, and I already have so much music that I don't listen to very much. So I didn't buy it. But when I got home I looked them up. And I listened to one of their albums, entitled The Life and Times of Laddio Bolocko, courtesy of Amazon Prime. It was vera strah-nudge. I am pretty sure that most people couldn't listen to it for more than a minute or two before they started screaming. Or mastur-- Oh. Sorry.  

I did some checking around, and other than the Live & Unreleased 1997 - 2000 set that I saw in Half-Price, the group's complete works seem to consist of three eps. And so far as I can tell, these three eps are all collected on The Life and Times of Laddio Bolocko (the titles all match and the running times are pretty close; though oddly enough, the eps seem to be out of chronological order, since the songs for 1999's As If By Remote precede 1998's In Real Time on The Life and Times). 

So of course I started thinking about that Live & Unreleased 1997 - 2000 set again. But then I looked it up online and found that . . . there was supposed to be a dvd with the album. Oh, man. What a dilemma. I really wanted that set of vinyls . . . and it was a good price . . . but it was INCOMPLETE. I can't even begin to tell you what effect that has on my obsessive-compulsive nervous system.

I went back to Half-Price. I had a 50% off coupon. In addition to the Laddio Bolocko set, I was also lusting for a boxed three volume set of Edmund Wilson's books of literary criticism. I said to myself, "There is no way that both of those items will still be in the store. So go in, and if both of them aren't gone, buy the one that remains. If both are gone, then just walk away."

Both items were there.

I thought and thought. INCOMPLETE. Will I listen to it? I am currently loving Memoirs of Hecate County. 

I bought the Edmund Wilsons.

But now I really want to go back and get the Laddio Bolocko. Hmmmm. But wait! Here's another fly in the ointment. Bandcamp has the set on two cds and the dvd for a mere $12. Oh . . . . And what's this? Be still, my beating heart. Bandcamp has the three vinyls plus dvd set for $25. I could have my cake and Edith, too.

I think it's going to happen. And they have more if you want it, too.

And if you want a listen first, the whole of Live & Unreleased 1997 - 2000 1 is available for a listen on Spotify . . . and on Bandcamp, too, for that matter. 


1  Minus the dvd, of course.