I wandered down to Cumbersome Records around lunchtime (the benefits of being able to work from home now and then :) and did the $50 sponsorship thing (which also gave me a 10% discount on the pile of CDs I picked up along with it). Why? Well, they've got interesting stock and they're trying to Do The Right Thing - I'd probably have to rate them an equal first (along with Synaesthesia) in my top five favourite music shops in Melbourne right now. Metropolis comes next, then Missing Link and finally Greville Records. Off The Hip oughta rate a mention too, though their hours (thursday nights and Saturdays) mean it's hard for me to get up there as often as I'd like to.

So I've got a handful of new purchases from Cumbersome (from today and also from Sunday) to work through:

• an EP and the new album from Laura (very nice - I'm still gathering my thoughts on the EP vs the album, Ash). 10 out of 10 to the band for having an RSS feed for upcoming gigs (and other news) - I hope this trend starts to catch on.

• This Is Your Captain Speaking's new album Storyboard.

• a really nice album called The Orson Fader by Paik (I wonder if the name's a reference to the Fluxus artist Nam June Paik? I saw this exhibition of his work when I was in NYC in 2000) which oughta appeal to Kinski / Laura / etc. fans.

• A Bird Blobs album (figured it was way past time I looked into them).

• Andrew McCubbin and the Hope Addicts' second(?) album Steer (first listen was good).

• A few totally random purchases by Spider Goat Canyon, Limited Express (has gone?) and The Night Terrors. Oh, and some compilation of 60's Japanese "Group Sounds" bands called Banzai Freakbeat, which was pretty good fun (great cover of Mustang Sally, f'rinstance).

One last thing I noticed at the counter was an ad for Stay Human, "the misery-free merchandise makers" who do badges, stickers, keyrings, etc. - this oughta be fun...