»

[Lucky Rathen]

Have you ever gone into a record shop and bought an album by a band you've never heard of purely because it has a cool cover? And then found to your surprise that it's actually brilliant?

When the old Fopp was closing down and selling everything off for a pound, I bought a handful of CDs of acts that I had never heard of, figuring that if I only paid a pound for them, I wouldn't really give a shit if it was crap. However I was pleasantly surprised by these two:

Fabulous Disaster - Panty Raid!

I bought this because it had four tattooed butch looking lesbians in a car on the cover, and featuring tartan trousers, not really knowing what to expect. It turned out to be fairly melodic poppy punk that was catchy as hell and became a mainstay in my listening schedule.


Burning Love Jumpsuit - Please Pull Apart

I bought this purely because it has a ceramic monkey on the cover, the opening track "Cheerleader" is probably the catchiest and most irritating but brilliant song ever (with a Feeder sample), the rest of it is a weird mix of laid-back dance, and brutal metal riffs, sometimes all in the same song. Great album.

Anyone else found any gems in their local record shop hidden in between the Beatles and Beck?

[Shaki]

I bought this for a quid cos I liked the name and cover and sling it on now and then. It's pretty good alt-country-rock and has a cover of Willie Nelson's "Can I Sleep in Your Arms?". Nothing much written about them anywhere. Anyone heard of them?

I bought Metallica by Metallica because of the cover and I was disappointed.

But only because I thought it was Smell the Glove by Spinal Tap.

[Old Gold]

My mate bought the Idiot Pilot album randomly. I thought the cover looked suspiciously like pap, but it ended up being a damn fine record.

Another time, I chose the 'This is our punk-rock...' album by Silver Mt. Zion because I liked the name best out of all their cds. Immense.

[Afro Droid]

I bought 'Grace' by Jeff Buckley because I liked the cover and read that he was a dead rock star, to this day it's one of my favourite albums.

[Shub]

Where did you find 'This is our punk rock'? It's the only silver mt zion i don't own and i desperatly want it.

One of my most listened to bands this last year... <3 the zion!

[Old Gold]

Originally Posted by Shub

Where did you find 'This is our punk rock'? It's the only silver mt zion i don't own and i desperatly want it.

One of my most listened to bands this last year... <3 the zion!

I'm 99% sure it was from FOPP, but that was about a year ago now. You can definately get it from Amazon though.

[lepeep]

Too many to mention. I've had that ethos of "buy it cos it looks good" for ages.
I've picked up:

Bottleskup Flenkenkenmike (turned out to be an alias of 1-speed bike (aka Aidan Girt of GYBE!))
Ty Cobb -
Tortoise - (when it came out...luckily!)

heaps of odd compilations that turned out to be gold...
sales are fantastic for this, If it's a pound, what you got to lose?! I picked up heaps in the Fopp closedown too...

[daveofficer]

Originally Posted by Shub

Where did you find 'This is our punk rock'? It's the only silver mt zion i don't own and i desperatly want it.

One of my most listened to bands this last year... <3 the zion!

i'm sure one up would order it in for you if they don't have it as well. great album.

[Stichman]

One of the best I've bought solely on its cover -



Budapest - Too Blind To Hear

Nice cover, pretentious title, fantastic album.