I was washing my bedroom windows in (well, as much as I could reach) in the late afternoon, listening to The Lucksmiths' Why that doesn't surprise me turned up loud enough to hear through the open windows, when it suddenly strikes me that I really ought to buy this for a particular friend, because this CD is so Melbourne...

A phone call later and I discover that Polyester is open, even though it's a public holiday - given that Candle Records apparently owns the shop, it seemed to make sense that I go there, even if it's across town. 2 trams later, I'm at the door. 9 CDs later, I'm far too full of post-shopping guilt to want to eat dinner here, so I just head straight back home.

• The Lucksmiths - Why that doesn't surprise me : as mentioned above.

• If I were a Carpenter : I saw this hovering about for a fairly cheap price, and while I was in a gift-buying mood I figured I should buy this for somebody (Mavis being my first choice), because it's good. It's fun. It's not the perfect tribute album, but it's one of my favourites.

• Refused - The shape of punk to come : as mentioned the other day, I'd seen it here but foolishly didn't buy it. This time, it's mine, but I'm waiting a while before I listen to it, in order to savour it that little bit more when I do.

• Black Box Recorder - The Worst Of : I ended up chatting to Second Spin Guy for a while the other day, and after having him go on about how wonderful this was as well (ie. after acb and others, a while back), I figured I should get off my proverbial and get it. It is good, on first listen, but I'm a bit mystified/disappointed that a couple of friends reckon BBR are so much better than The Auteurs...

• oh, merge : that 10th anniversary Merge records thing. I haven't listened to it yet.

• Supersnazz - Diode City : I remember listening to this a few years ago and it didn't grab me, although I subsequently found one of their older albums in a second-hand shop going cheap, and bought it out of random interest. And ok, it's been a good year or so since I listened to it, so I don't remember much apart from Japanese girls with guitars. But it wasn't displeasurable, and this time this one was going cheap. I don't remember them being so traditional rock 'n' roll (cf. their cover of I Wonder), but hey, I'm not complaining. It's nice and fast, and it certainly helped me type faster while I've been writing all this.

• The Lucksmiths - Boondoggle : I took advantage of Polyester's Candle Records rack to pick up some old Lucksmiths. I put this one on while I trammed home. The Ska-like track at the end (The Fridge Magnet Song)'s great.

• The Lucksmiths - The Green Bicycle Case : I listened to this while I worked. More listening required.

• Darren Hanlon - Early Days : It's taken me far too long to pick this up, given that I saw him open for The Magnetic Fields last May, and, like most people, was highly amused and thought to myself "I must go and buy his album", but having spent all the cash in my pocket on the dinner + show that evening, I wasn't able to buy either his CD or a Magnetic Fields t-shirt. Upon first listen, I'm a bit undecided about whether all the added instrumentation adds much, compared to his fabulous one-man-playing-guitar-and-singing performance.