Jon has recently picked up a habit of going thrifting on his lunch breaks. There are apparently quite a few stores in the vicinity of his office in a fairly well-to-do suburb north of town, so he’s developed something of a circuit he’ll follow every few weeks. Today, along with a half-dozen questionable neckties, he brought home a near-mint condition record, released in 1983 (a very good year), that he scored for $.77. If you’re close to my age, you might remember this guy:
Come on, who doesn’t love Raffi? (As we gave it a listen this evening, I heard tinges of Sufjan Stevens in the timbre of Raffi’s voice… perhaps Raffi’s an influence?) As awesome as the album cover and the holiday tunes were, my favorite part of the package was on the interior record sleeve. Check this out:
Dancing Cat Records! That looks more like a conducting cat to me, but either way, I like it. Through the wonders of the internet, I learned that Dancing Cat Records still exists today, although the cat in the logo now sports a grass skirt and flower leis: Since 1985, the label’s focus has been Hawaiian slack key guitar music (and, of course, whatever George Winston feels like releasing). Apparently many of the tracks on the delightful soundtrack to The Descendants can be found on Dancing Cat recordings. Who knew?
And now, I have to ask: If you were to start a record label, what would you call it?
