Garbage for Gold

While listening to Big Dipper's "Slam" --- the only big label release by this criminally underappreciated band from Boston, it hit my why the www.lala.com is a genius web site.

Lala is a CD trading service. You post up CDs you own and can do without and a list of CDs that you want. Lala sends you stamped envelopes. And when someone requests one of your albums, you mail it off. In return, someone sends you a CD off your want list. It cost $1 for each trade.

The reason I'm listening to Slam on my Ipod is it's the only album of their that I have on CD (they broke up around 1991 or so). I'd love to have their three other albums, which are much much better. So I put all of Big Dipper albums up on my want list. I put Slam up on my list of albums to trade. Admittedly, Slam is viewed by Big Dipper fans as their worst album (I think it's great --- "Impossible Things" is a wonderful song.) But I'm willing to let it go for something better in return.

Surely there's someone out there who owns Big Dipper's "Heavens" and can't wait to get rid of it. And maybe that person would love to take my copy of The Gin Blossoms "New Miserable Experience" in exchange. Musical taste is so subjective, my trash is bound to be someone else's treasure.