One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. I find it impossible to stay away from a $1 CD bin and thankfully have discovered that there are a few prime locations to come away with huge scores if you’re willing to put the time in to digging through piles and piles of junk. This feature will focus on CDs that I’ve plucked out of dollar bins.
Sponge – Rotting Pinata (Sony Records)
Original release date: August 2, 1994
Purchased at: Half Price Books, Columbus, Ohio location
My friend Andy was a college rep for Sony in the mid-90s, which meant every time a Sony-affiliated artist came to his region (Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, Cleveland) he was encouraged to go out and support the artist, put up posters in clubs, make sure all the local media had copies of the artist’s most recent CD, sometimes take the artists out to dinner, etc. He called me one afternoon and asked if I’d tag along on a trip to Cincinnati to see this new band called Sponge that he would be working with once their debut CD came out. I think he said they were an “alternative grunge” band or something like that and with nothing better to do that evening, I went.
The band played a club called Sudsy Malone’s, which was a bar/live music venue/laundromat near the University of Cincinnati campus. I saw a few other shows there over the years but am not really sure if the club still exists (the whole area is a LOT different than it was when I used to frequent it 15 years ago). Even though we were smack dab in the middle of the Alternative Revolution, a band without a CD to pimp, no MTV video (yet), and no radio support drew just as many people on a weekday night as you might expect. That night is a little foggy in my head but I don’t remember there being more than 15 people in attendance.
I have two distinct memories from that show. Because there was literally nobody there, Sponge’s singer Vinnie asked us, between songs, if there was anybody we could call to see if they’d come out to the show. One girl said she’d call her roommate and the band said they’d sing a song for her if she showed up. Unfortunately, the girl just got an answering machine and the friend never showed. Afterwards, Andy introduced himself to the band and the band to me and Vinnie asked for my address. A week later I received a cassingle in the mail with a handwritten note from Vinnie thanking me for coming to the show.
Two hits came from this CD, “Plowed” and “Molly”, and every once in a while you can still catch one (or both) of them on those “all the hits from the ’80s, ’90s, and today” type stations. I probably would have paid $.99 to download “Plowed” from iTunes so $1 for the entire CD seems like a great deal even though I did own a copy of the CD at some point many years ago.
“Plowed”
“Molly”
I may be in the minority, but I much preferred the band’s followup CD, Wax Estatic.
I still love this cd. Every song is good and has stood the test of time.