I needed to feel the pavement under my feet for a while.

It didn't matter about the weather, I took the walk in the drizzle, all the way up to Greville St, poked my head into Greville Records, although that well seems to have run dry for the past few weeks, and nothing's changed yet. Down Chapel St, then. I feel like stopping for a coffee but nowhere seems right. In the end I settle for some newish place right near Dandenong Rd, simply because I've run out of options. Lounge chairs and turntables, but I'm in no mood - the outside table to watch the peak hour crowd does me better. Everybody stares.

I was trying not to make frivolous purchases, but on the other hand I wanted to get something, so rather than head home just yet I hopped on the tram down to Balaclava, where I figured Second Spin would have something I'd want. I had a twirl of some old Supersuckers CD, but...I dunno...maybe it was the weather, but it just wasn't as good as I'd been expecting. Quelle disappointment ! I did get, though :

• Cousteau's self-titled album. Interesting. I put this on while I travelled home, and it reminded me a little of this year's Karma County release, with that vague lounge/croony feel. The last good day of the year's a nice track, with all the drowsy horns and subdued guitar and stuff. I found myself thinking maybe they could do with a bit of double bass or cello action, but maybe I've just been listening to Sodastream and related bands a bit too much lately. But it suited, in a way, the walk through the increasing downpour as I missed my connecting tram from Caulfield Park down to home and figured my mood was now bouyant enough to survive walking in the rain rather than standing around waiting for the next tram.

• Waco Brothers - Electric Waco Chair, which I haven't listened to yet, 'cause I'm still on...

• not so dusty - a tribute to Slim Dusty. Now, I could've just bought that Ed Kuepper compilation to get his Slim Dusty cover, but I had every other song on that one, and I didn't have any of these, and it was cheap, and I was vaguely curious, so...here it is. Now, the only two Slim Dusty songs I remember, shamefully, are The Pub with No Beer (like, duh) and I love to have a beer with Duncan, which I remember being a hit during the early 80's, or something. But anyway, it seems nice enough so far - plenty of people throwing their weight behind a faithful cover of this and that (admittedly, I would've preferred to hear Midnight Oil cover something else, perhaps, their version of The pub with no beer isn't all that inspiring). Paul Kelly and the wonderful Uncle Bill (who I'm yet to see live, and I hope I won't be disappointed when I do) do a great train track. The Screaming Jets' track isn't bad (no, really), because it's the guitariest track on the album, turning a country track into something more loud, rude and rockabillyish. Ah. Now I'm up to the Ed track. It's loud, too, done with his Oxley Creek Playboys. Musically, it sounds a fair bit like the single (or at least, the song that got radio play), I still call this failure, from his most recent album Smile .... Pacific.