Knoxville has a plethora of thrift stores. Every week or so I visit one or more of these stores in search of treasure amongst the flotsam and jetsam. I spend most of my time sifting through racks and boxes of dusty vinyl LPs. When I find something obscure or interesting or just plain weird from the LP era, I will tell you about here in an occasional column.

• Cheap Trick: 'Heaven Tonight' (1978) Published 1/16/2013 at 11:02 a.m. 0 comments

  Cheap Trick is one of America’s greatest bands. They are criminally underappreciated. As proof, consider that Cheap Trick can’t sniff the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame, even though it has inducted the likes of Donovan, Jackson Browne, and the ...

• The Zombies: 'Odessey and Oracle' (1968) Published 11/20/2012 at 10:07 a.m. 0 comments

  Odessey and Oracle (the lads couldn’t spell) is one of my best ever thrift-store finds. In summary, it is a blockbuster.

• Ambrosia: 'Life Beyond L.A.' (1978) Published 9/19/2012 at 10:56 a.m. 1 comment

  I’ve written previously about my affection for soft rock. To date, I have exactly zero converts to my basic view of soft rock, which is nothing more complicated than that it sometimes is enjoyable to listen to.

• American Flyer: 'Spirit of a Woman' (1977) Published 8/1/2012 at 12:14 p.m. 0 comments

  Music trivia is like a great Pacific Ocean garbage island in my brain—it takes up a lot of space, has a half-life of 5,000 years, and will never allow anything else to sprout up in its place. Yet sometimes the ...

• The Bee Gees: 'Saturday Night Fever' (1977) Published 6/13/2012 at 12:16 p.m. 3 comments

  Has any group in history as undeniably talented band as the Bee Gees been subject to as much derision as they have?

• Neil Young's 'Time Fades Away' (1973) Published 5/16/2012 at 12:39 p.m. 4 comments

  Every time one is tempted to dismiss Neil Young as irrelevant, he roars back with a Harvest Moon or a Prairie Wind.

• MC5: 'High Time' (1971) Published 4/11/2012 at 12:01 p.m. 1 comment

  When I found the album I thought to myself, “What kind of jackass would stuff this classic album in the Goodwill bin?” Upon reflection, however, I realized that I was the one engaging in jackassery.

• Ram Jam: 'Ram Jam' (1977) Published 2/29/2012 at 2:22 p.m. 0 comments

  One way to avoid the pitfalls of enduring rock stardom is to not endure. The ephemeral Ram Jam—comprising a group of guys who were thrown together by record executives and thus hardly merit the moniker “band”—preserved its place in rock ...

• Spirit: '12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus' (1970) Published 1/18/2012 at 11:16 a.m. 1 comment

  So why do I keep buying records? Because I listen to them and I enjoy having them around. Sometimes the latter is more important than the former.

• Marcus Joseph: 'Things I Meant to Say' Published 12/14/2011 at 3:15 p.m. 1 comment

  “Soft rock” is much maligned, viewed by the intelligentsia as fluff cynically foisted on the listening public while America burned. I have a much more positive view; as an unpretentious reaction to a nihilistic politics, a brutal and confounding war, ...

• Hilly Michaels: 'Calling All Girls' (1980) Published 11/16/2011 at 1:45 p.m. 1 comment

  Rock ’n’ roll has never been particularly silly, and grunge made things worse. Hilly Michaels, whose 1980 album Calling All Girls I found at the Broadway Salvation Army, is the anti-Cobain. The album cover shows Michaels relaxing in a lounge ...

• Elliot Easton: 'Change No Change' (1985) Published 10/12/2011 at 10:59 a.m. 0 comments

  Can sidemen make good records when they strike out on their own? The question returned to the front of my mind when I found Elliot Easton’s sole solo album, 1985’s Change No Change, earlier this summer.

• The Kings: 'The Kings are Here' (1980) Published 9/7/2011 at 11:31 a.m. 2 comments

  Canada’s the Kings wrote one transcendent power-pop song. It’s called “This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ to Glide,” (the “/” is there because it’s actually two songs on the LP), and it’s on the album The Kings are Here.

• Focus: 'Moving Waves' Published 8/3/2011 at 5:00 p.m. 1 comment

  What is Focus? The album is called Moving Waves. On the cover beneath some (still?) water are four long-haired hippie dudes in a cloud, named Cyriel, Jan, Thijs, and Pierre. Side 2 consists of one 23-minute song. It becomes clear—Focus ...

• Henry Gross: 'Plug Me Into Something' (1975) Published 7/6/2011 at 1:36 p.m. 1 comment

  While you’re listening to Jimi Hendrix or the Beatles or the Beach Boys, it’s easy to forget that the 1960s and 1970s also urped up some truly execrable performers. So when I find an album by someone I’ve never heard ...

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