John Thill

STORE #2: GREAT DEALS THRIFT (HOLT & VERNON AVES., MONTCLAIR, CA)

There are two great Thrift Store Rows in the Inland Empire, one stretching along one of the smoggiest, dumpiest, most dangerous thoroughfares in California; Baseline St. in San Bernardino. The other is through an ethnic mix bowl that stretches from the eastern edges of LA County on through the decayed neon wastelands of Montclair and Ontario along Holt Blvd. From west to east you roll through Salvadoran, Vietnamese, Korean and Mexican hoods. Hit the Ph , get pupusas, Ritmo Latino, get a lift kit – this is after all the I.E. I spent one Friday afternoon avoiding traffic rolling down the east end of Holt looking for a thrift store where I could obtain four cassettes for a dollar. I nailed it on my second try. After visiting a place named Quality Thrift (Holt & Ramona), which looked pretty sweet, but had an absolute lack of cassette tapes, though it did contain an illustrious set of Glen Campbell LPs and shitloads of moldering electronics, I stopped at the temptingly named Great Deals Thrift Store. Jackpot! There I found a five foot tall completely disordered, packed shelf of cassettes. The great thing about cassette shopping in the SGV or Pomona Valley is that you can find caches of cryptic Asiatic sound. Great Deals did not disappoint. Lots of Chinese and Vietnamese joints, but this place was special because it had the South Asian jams you can usually only find out in darkest depths of Riverside. I snagged a concert tape by Mohammed Rafi called Live Around the World and let me tell you, it is the jam! I mean it is transcendently good from the kickoff, which is an ecstatic “yahoo!” that starts the heart racing at a manic pace. And when the music slows down from the first track’s fever pitch it gets down right sultry and the enthusiasm of the crowd makes it all the better. Listen to Rafi riff like Coltrane on a one note flow for seven or eight bars while people scream their lungs out. I’ve heard very few live albums that approach this level of excellence.

Also obtained at this location was a compilation of the Bengali composer S.D. Burman’s 78rpm records on cassette. The man has composed for the likes of greats like Mohammed Rafi and Asha Bhosle (who happen to duet on this compilation). Seriously how much more can you ask for? These tracks are older so the vibe is far more restrained than the all-out intensity of the Mohammed Rafi live tape. Of the four 78’s compiled here I’d have to say Kaise Kahoon hits upon the deepest, steamiest groove. There is some genuine vocal wailing, some overwrought strings, playfulness, anguish and some straight up beautiful sounds.

But yeah, I definitely bought some pop tripe with the other half of my dollar. I’m now the somewhat bemused owner of Arrested Development’s Three Years, Five Months and Two Days in the Life of… A weird posi-hip hop peace and love romp through looped funk and fake rural textures. Remember that old dude that used to dance in their crew? Strange PC good vibe-isms (not even ageism can taint them) mixed with some really forward thinking production by DJ Headline. Though is clearly a whole different outlook on hip hop, their predecessors (funk legends like Curtis Mayfield and of course Afrika Bambaata) and their offspring (other ATL crews like Outkast) tend to take more risks, have more humor about them, and are definitely less concerned about the whole culture of political correctness. But you get a jam like Tennessee, which by itself is worth the quarter this tape cost.

The last selection was a Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers cassette titled, not surprisingly, Why Do Fools Fall in Love? Yeah, this kicks ass. Grade A cotton-candy doo-wop and it has fly sax solos to fill up any empty territory. It may get more listens than Arrested Development does because it’s so consistently bratty, beautiful and naive…in much more endearing way.

Send $2 to John Thill for a Great Deals Thrift tape compilation. Or email presidenthappiness@yahoo.com

John Thill
851 Scripps Dr.
Claremont, CA 91711