YANP contest winner Walker shops with Tom and Jesse of These United States

On Friday These United States and I met up with the winner of the vinyl shopping spree from You Ain’t No Picasso. Walker and the guys were already friends (which is to be expected since 3/5 of the band lives in Lexington) so they jumped right into shopping. In fact, a few of the guys got there 20 minutes early and already had a stack of records by the time I arrived. Good to know everyone was as into the idea as I was!

After meeting Walker, everyone jumped back into the used LP bins. Justin and Colin dabbled in the new LPs for a minute after finding out that Walker didn’t have a copy of In Rainbows, but gave up on it after realizing their $50 budget didn’t allow for everyone to pick a new LP.

Tom, proving himself to be the nice guy out of the group offered Walker a veto on anything the guys picked. And Walker, proving herself to be extremely trusting, said that she had faith in their choices. Meanwhile Jesse found a copy of the Animals’ greatest hits that included the song “Gonna Send You Back to Walker” on it. No one had heard the song before, but everyone agreed it was pretty awesome.

After a while the guys put all their choices together so they could pare it down to what would fit within the $50 budget. The original lineup was this:

The Motown Story
ELO – New World Record
The Chambers Brothers – Love Peace and Happiness
Keith Richards – Talk is Cheap
Joan Jett – I Love Rock n Roll
Righteous Brothers – Sayin’ Something
Justin Hayward & John Lodge – Blue Jays
Dire Straits – Communique
George Benson – the Other Side of Abbey Road
Richard Pryor – Greatest Hits
Alton Ellis – Arise Black Man [1968-1978] (new, on sale)
Willie Nelson – Stardust
Blacky Ranchette – Still Lookin Good to Me

The guys agreed to pick Joan Jett’s record because it’s the favorite of their drummer Robbie, who wasn’t in attendance. I can only guess he was boycotting because of the Solviet war in Afghanistan. Then they picked George Benson with the idea that they would get one none of them had heard and all listen to it together.

Then Tom said if Blacky Ranchette didn’t get picked, he would be buying it for himself. Unluckily for him, it made it into the final pile. Justin then took a little ribbing for his love of the Moody Blues. Tom pointed out that everyone on the internet was going to know how much he loved that band. So he took the Blue Jays album out of the running, but offered to buy it for Walker with his own money (which he later went back on, after realizing the song he wanted them to listen to wasn’t on that pressing).

In the end, the choices were The Motown Story (Jesse’s choice), the Chambers Brothers (Colin’s), Blacky Ranchette (group choice), George Benson (Justin’s), Joan Jett (Robbie’s) and Alton Ellis (Tom’s).

And I have to say this about the guys of These United States. They’re great musicians, but better accountants. When everything was rung up, they had $0.24 left over from the $50 gift certificate. Fantastic.

Loads more photos after the jump.

Colin and Walker delight in the “Porno Groove” LP

Justin is sad that someone else got to “Honor Among Thieves” before their sophomore album Crimes

Tom holding up REO Speedwagon’s “You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can’t Tuna Fish,” his vote for worst album cover ever

CD Central owner Steve Baron questions TUS guitarist Justin about their new album cover.