Meet me at the Record Convergence

By Jason Hunter

In high school I spent a lot of time (and most of my money) at the Record Convergence in Fairfax City, VA. There I bought a number of great CDs and cassettes (hey, it was the mid-90s). I remember, and sometimes long for, the hunt and thrill of discovering another recording by a favorites artist, or taking a chance on something new that blows your mind. I already had My Blood Valentine's Loveless, which would be the start of broadening my musical spectrum beyond hair metal and grunge. Loveless was all I knew of them,so I was shocked to find in the Record Covergence stacks two CD EPs by them, in black and white slipcases, staring up at me. I still remember looking around in disbelief at this amazing, monumental find before adding them to my stack of CDs. For someone desperate to have something beyond Loveless the expectations where high. I had no idea Isn't Anything existed. To me, it was a huge find and to this day one of my favorite purchases at the store.

A close second to finding new music by an old favorite is taking the chance on something random and being blown away. That was the case with Mogwai's singles compilation Ten Rapid. I was drawn to the minimalistic arial photo on the promo copy and the crazy song titles like "I Am Not Batman", "Ithica 27 0 9", and "Helicon 1" and "Helicon 2". The whole CD was like a crazy movie soundtrack about the life of Sonic Youth (SY being the center of my indie-rock nerd-verse at the time). I really didn't know what to make of it other than it was chilling at times, noisy at others, always had the most jaw-dropping percussion riffs. When I hear "Helicon 2" my brain stops working. All I can do is follow that winding, twisting guitar line. Mogwai have since made a number of amazing albums, but this was my first introduction to them and will always hold a special place in my heart.