I can't stop in Wales without visiting my two favorite musical haunts, Spillers' in Morgan Arcade and Kellys in Cardiff Market. If you wanna know more about why I love them, feel free to read "A Tale of Two Welsh Record Stores" from after the first trip, but in short, Kellys has the weird selections (because his stock is just random people's collections that they've sold to him) and the prices, and Spillers has the history and the chatty staff. (I did intend to hit up the Cardiff Record Exchange this year just to vary it up, but Caby had a minor health emergency that redirected those plans. Always next year!)
Here's what I've got, why, and thoughts if I've listened to it yet. There's also at least one very silly story in there.
Kellys' pickups
Kellys was one of the first spots we checked out getting back into Wales. It's tradition at this point. We actually went twice, and the one later in the trip, Kelly wasn't there! It was a different guy, and we chatted briefly about me being from Pennsylvania visiting my girlfriend. Funnily enough, Welsh people are always mildly amused or even delighted to hear about Pennsylvanians. We do have the largest Eisteddfod outside of Wales, so I guess it makes sense.
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Before we get to mine, here's what Caby picked up. The first OK Go album, on my recommendation (it's great and weirder than you'd think), a best-of of Elvis Costello and the Attractions, and the self-titled Specials debut. The Specials were a 70s ska band before ska meant Totino's Pizza Rolls rock, sorta like how our lemonade is still and theirs is carbonated. Like their lemonade, I think I prefer it. No, I don't say that because I'm dating a Welsh girl.
Not mine to commentate on, but I figure for completion, good to mention 'em. Plus I'm just really proud of her for buying some CDs! She used to be, and still kinda is, really shy about her music taste, but she likes a lot of really cool and pretty varied stuff.
Moby - 18 (2002)
We had a little thing of calling this one Happy Moby/Sad Moby because of the front and back covers. Play was one of my favorite pickups of Winter 2024. Definitely a great example of an artist doing their best work because no one's paying attention, so anything goes. Figured its follow-up would be a safe bet for an impulse buy.
Maxïmo Park - A Certain Trigger (2006)
You know, I think I bought too many albums this trip. I'd actually made this page and then forgotten two! This was one of them. I know exactly one Maxïmo Park song (which I really like, in fairness to me), and it ain't on here! Cammy, with no self-control, sure will buy that for £3.
Counting Crows - Across a Wire: Live in New York City (1997)
I do love me some Counting Crows—I've said before that This Desert Life was one of the albums as a kid that got me into alt-rock as a whole. This live record (which actually contains two sets on two CDs) focuses on the album before it, Recovering the Satellites, plus a little bit of August and Everything After, naturally.
Wilco - Being There (1997)
The release that put Wilco on the map! I really love Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (you might be able to tell from this site), and Summerteeth was pretty hot too, as hot as a sickeningly close to home sad pop rock record could be. I admittedly still need to give this one a listen. I bet it'll be good though.
Ben Folds Five - Ben Folds Five (1995)
Everything's heavy underground! Maybe a bit of an ostentatious pickup, given I still have Whatever and Ever Amen lying around sorta listened to, but if they don't grow on me, I'll just hand them off to dcb.
Warpaint - Exquisite Corpse (2009)
One of three Warpaint records I picked up this trip, I was really digging on their self-titled while I was over there and snapped up the other two Kellys had. This is their debut EP, and it's interesting to hear how much of their sound was there from the beginning and what wrinkles didn't carry forward, like that one screamy track, "Beetles".
Warpaint - Heads Up (2016)
And the other one that isn't self-titled. I've made the mistake of liking an album and not just snapping up everything I saw from them at Kellys in the past, so I've got enough Warpaint to dig into for a while, I'd say.
My Vitriol - Finelines (2001)
I actually already owned this one, sorta! I had Between the Lines, which was one half a Finelines remix and one half an outtakes and covers disc. I saw the original mix of the album marked down due to being written on (literally just a small number in red permanent marker, like I care) and immediately snapped it up. I think the original mix sounds a little more natural and has some differences in intros and outros and vocals, but anyone who's not deeply passionate about this album like I am is probably not going to care that much. Happy to have it finally myself.
Cracker - Kerosene Hat (1994)
I think I had a night or two of watching music videos in the lounge with Caby and Trys—I might've even played the video for "Low" for their mom (who shares my love of 90s alt and electronica) while I was talking about picking this CD up. Do you know how many times I heard "Euro Trash Girl" and "Teen Angst" on various Lithium stations at my last job? A lot.
Cold War Kids - Loyalty to Loyalty (2008)
The second album I initially forgot making this page. That said, I dug (and still dig) Robbers & Cowards when I was in high school, and given how cheap stuff goes at Kellys (though this one was a bit more expensive, I must admit), I figured it was a safe gamble.
Miike Snow - Miike Snow (2009)
And one more I forgot. Anyone remember "Animal"? I swear that song was all over the place once upon a time, or maybe it was just because I knew a kid who liked Miike Snow.
Feeder - The Singles (2006)
I guess this counts as part of my per-trip Welsh music pickup, even though it's in English. Like the Cardigans, I know Feeder from being featured on the old Gran Turismo game soundtracks (namely the first one). Normally, I go for whole albums and not compilations, but they didn't have any Feeder albums and I felt like trying out music a different way this time. "High" is such a killer tune.
Warpaint - Warpaint (2014)
Finally, we get to the self-titled! I have long loved "Love is to Die" since I was a moody, dream pop-loving teenager, but I found the rest of the album a little boring and diffuse until I bought it and really got into it this trip. Turns out, those girls put all the good songs towards the end. Cheeky!
Spillers' pickups
Spillers' prices are always a little higher than I'd like to pay, but I always like to visit and pick stuff up at least once a trip. It's also my preferred place (well, the only place in person I know) to get actual Welsh-language music, Kellys is more focused on the international pop/rock/electronica stuff, at least on CD. Indeed, when we hit up Cardiff Museum, Spillers' featured in a talking display for local Cardiff businesses, and the woman they had representing it (either an employee or the owner, I wasn't too clear on it) said they felt duty-bound to support especially the local Cardiff scene, folks who aren't even on labels. That's something I'm always keen on patroning.
XTC - English Settlement (1982)
I took a risk with this one. I'm usually really hesitant to buy new reissues of older music because of the brickwalling and unnatural remaster jobs they get, but I got lucky with this one! It sounds fucking ace, and the dynamic range is kino. Apparently, this was the first CD issue taken direct from the master tape. A lot of early CD issues were actually taken from several generation dub masters down the line (In the Court of the Crimson King being a notorious example), thus meaning a weaker sound and more hiss. This sounds excellent and it's mastered great. Love it, happy to have it.
Slowdive - Pygmalion (1995)
I don't know if I've ever written this story down on one of my sites, but I didn't start liking this album until I passed out to it, sick as a dog, one night back in college. Caby and I were a few months into being friends, I was delirious, and "Crazy for You" finally made sense with my wonky conception of time at that moment. This is one of those louder remasters, unfortunately, but this isn't a hugely dynamic album anyway and used original issues of Pygmalion cost, not some crazy amount, but more than you might think. This album wasn't in print very long because Creation Records was pivoting pretty quick from shoegaze to britpop (and remember which Creation band was blowing up the UK in 1995), so the remasters are actually more common now than the originals.
Datblygu - Terfysgiaith: 1982-2022 (2022)
Dat-bluh-gee. That's your Welsh lesson for the day. I told the story of getting recommended this set in "A Tale of Two Welsh Record Stores" by a Spillers' employee back in 2023, and if you think semi-obscure 90s British ambient rock is hard to find in its original form, try thoroughly obscure Welsh-language 80s post-punk. As a result, even though this chops up the band's discography into two discs, plus a rarities disc, I figured it was my best shot for right now. This counts as my Welsh music pickup for the trip, yes. Mostly.
THE ALBUM I CAN'T SORT WITH THE REST
We all do silly things when alcohol is involved, yeah? Some of us fuck a pig's head, and then become prime minister. I bought this.
You might be wondering who the fuck dressed Spoony up in the shittiest, shiniest, fake gold hoodie you've ever seen, and the answer is S4C! S4C is the biggest Welsh-language TV channel, and naturally, they got a little something for everyone, including little kids. One incredibly rum-filled night, in between sneaking more drinks while Caby was out of the room and trading Pokémon between our 3DSes (for my full Blue dex run), on a group call, we got to talking about the strange shit we saw on kids shows growing up, and the name of Rrrrrrrrapsgaliwn came up. ("Rapscallion" is a close enough English analog. One thing you'll learn talking about the Welsh language is how many English loanwords they've got, just with Welsh vowels.)
Rapsgaliwn is a rapper. The best there is! Children ask him questions about everything—and by everything, I do mean paper, milk, spaghetti, and recycling—and he comes back with a rap about it. This is scientifically proven to be the best way to reach the youth. Naturally, these songs are available to stream on YouTube, and an incredibly intoxicated Cammy began to wonder if he too could go home with a bit of Rapsgaliwn tucked away in his suitcase. While Discogs had no copies for sale, we quickly found a Cardiff-based bookstore offering CDs through their website.
I own this now. I still find it very funny, yes.