Starship Records [Waukesha WI]

This trip was marked by a few interesting things:

1) I didn't sleep well the night before, I slept at my parents house and my dad likes to get up at about 4:45am and take a VERY LONG shower and rustle around the house for an hour or more before he goes to work.  So I laid in bed but woke up at about 5am.

2) I had to drive to Sussex to meet with a customer and meetings sometimes wear me out more than just working, the talking talking talking....I mean I do love the sound of my own voice but even I have limits.

3) I drank a bunch of coffee before I left and then some iced tea with lunch and I had to pee so bad when I was in this record store I wanted to hook up a catheter. 

4) I finally stopped to pee afterwards and when I left the gas station I backed into a huge barrier like an idiot and busted up the back bumper on the company vehicle.  I drove that truck all the way home from Mobile Alabama not to mention the 1000s of miles I log in bad weather, etc...I haven't hit ANYTHING since I was about 18.

5) Half of this store was closed off for remodeling and that included their jazz and country sections.  So I didn't spend much time in here for that reason, not to mention the others above.

Purple Dog Records, Naperville

                   

Found myself out in Naperville for a long and grueling day.  I only wanted to head straight home after 12 hours on and off in the plant (and getting up at 4:30am) but only a fool such as I would then go to a record store.  And I found a great one.

Purple Dog is a tiny place, nestled in the back of another store front that does....I don't know.  I can only assume it was the owner hanging out behind the counter.  You could walk a circle around the place in about 5 seconds but there is no shortage of vinyl.

The 7" records were especially alluring, insanely organized and individually bagged.  In the tiny 'punk' bin I immediately found something I've been looking for for years.  I saw it once probably close to 20 years ago at a head shop of sorts in my hood and I have regretted not buying it since then.  I wrote DFL a letter (email) back in the mid 90s when I was in high school telling them they could stay with me (I lived with my parents, not sure how happy they would be with this arrangement) when they visited Chicago on tour and that would could 'party'.  The guitarist Monty printed my email and signed it with a sharpie along with a note saying that 'DFL broke up'.  He gave me a mountain of stickers and a T-shirt I wore so many times it shrunk beyond usefulness.  But I still have that piece of paper under the glass top of my dresser.  So you can imagine my delight in finding this gem.

I had a quick chat with the clerk about the record on the deck while I was in there, it was some nice fusion and I was confident it was some solo member of Return To Forever for a reason I couldn't put my finger on it.  He told me it was Stomu Yamashta who I have never heard of and I felt stupid for my guess.  I asked who the sidemen were and alas the only one I heard of - Al DiMeola, I was redeemed! I wouldn't mind picking up a copy of this if I ever come across it, nice stuff.

the quote on the dry erase board is attributed to Wim Wenders