Fantastic music at a rock-bottom price

Amazon is currently offering 100 digital albums for $5 each, and there’s great stuff to be had, either stuff you may have always wanted or things you wanted to check out but didn't want to pay full price.

A sampling of 100 albums on sale at Amazon this monthThe offerings cover all wide range of genres, and there are dozens on this list that I’d like to buy, but here are just a few that caught my eye in particular:

• Mazzy Star, “So Tonight That I Might See”
• Blind Boys of Alabama, “I Brought Him With Me”
• Small Faces, “Ogdens Nut Gone Flake” -- I did buy this one. I’ve, of course, heard of the Small Faces -- their lineup was loaded with stars -- but never really gave them the time of day. This is a fantastic journey (5 stars from All Music Guide) through bluesy pop, soul, psychedelia and spoken word. 26 songs for $5 -- hard to beat that, even these days.
• The Hold Steady, “Separation Sunday” (4 stars from AMG). I also bought this one, and am looking forward to diving into it.
• Joe Henry, “Blood From Stars,” (4.5 stars from AMG). Bought this one too. After one listen it didn’t hit me like Henry’s 2007 “Civilians” did, but I suspect it’ll grow quickly.
• Beach Boys, “Pet Sounds 40th Anniversary Stereo Digital”.
• ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, “The Century of Self.”

Prices are good through December. Lemme know if you find anything worth exploring.

Sweet find among lost gems on cool site

YouTube gets its share of criticism that it's a cesspool of junk, but it's also a historian's dream. So are sites such as Wiped News and Missing Episodes, sites that highlight long-lost radio or TV broadcasts and films.

Case in point in this video of glam rockers Sweet -- long a favorite of mine -- performing "Action" on the "Top of the Pops" music show.

What's interesting is this 1975 video -- missing from the BBC archives -- was recorded by Sweet singer Brian Connolly on a home video recorder. This is 1975, when consumer VCRs were in their infancy. In a story behind the video, Wiped News estimates Connolly's VCR would have cost him the equivalent of $10,000 dollars at the time.

Even at that price, there's some choppiness to the recording. But for you oldsters out there, can you recall the first time you saw a VCR in action? It was pretty powerful stuff.

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"

It’s not often I stumble across a novel that’s all consuming. But the $6 Kindle pricing and rave reviews enticed me to jump on the Steig Larsson bandwagon this past week and I have to admit that “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” was a blast. 

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" was Steig Larsson's first novelThings start slow as Larsson introduces us to the main characters – an embattled journalist, a disturbed computer hacker and an aging industrialist committed to solving a decades-old family mystery -- but the story quickly picks up steam and doesn’t let up, with twists and turns every few pages. The characters are so offbeat and richly detailed that it’s easy to see why Larsson’s books have become best sellers. There’s nothing cookie cutter in this mystery, which makes it stand out in a genre full of hackneyed storylines and sappy endings.

Larsson died a few years ago, shortly after “Dragon Tattoo” was released in his native Sweden (where most of the book is set). But before he died, Larsson completed a trilogy of mysteries based around the “Dragon Tattoo” characters. “The Girl Who Played With Fire” is a current best-seller and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” is set for its U.S. release next spring. The reviews are consistently good, so I’m looking forward to tackling the second book over Christmas vacation when there’ll be time to immerse myself once again into the adventurous world of Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander.