Where to find out of print/never officially released recordings?

October 30, 2006 7:51 PM

Does anyone have suggestions on where to find these obscure Cat Empire albums?

I'm trying to locate some hard-to-find recordings by a Melbourne, Australia act called The Cat Empire. Specifically, these are:
--Live @Adelphia
--The Sun
--Hello (single)
--One-Four-Five (single)

I've checked all the usual online haunts (eBay, GEMM, Amazon, &c.) and local music retailers and resellers, to no avail--the first two are notoriously rare.
Tips? Suggestions? Anyone in possession who's willing to trade/negotiate for them? Have a fabulous used-music guru to recommend? Know a guy who went to every single show and has 50 copies stashed under the bed?

posted by the luke parker fiasco to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

Dixons have Hello on a one-track promo.
posted by pompomtom at 8:05 PM on October 30, 2006

I'm pretty sure I saw the last two at the JB Hi-Fi store in Elizabeth street, Melbourne. Given that you're in Chicago, this doesn't help much. If I remember (which isn't that likely) I will go and buy them, and then see about how to arrange gettign them to you.
posted by wilful at 8:38 PM on October 30, 2006

Wilful - they're closed today for stocktake.
posted by pompomtom at 9:06 PM on October 30, 2006

Livejournal sharealbums is where i go to find rarer stuff. YMMV however. It might be worth putting a post up there, or some of the many other shere spaces on livejournal.
posted by gergtreble at 9:07 PM on October 30, 2006

Rare Records has the 'Hello' and "One-Four-Five" singles.
posted by AnnaRat at 9:14 PM on October 30, 2006

Cat Empire are playing in canberra on Nov 19th, so if nothing else, I can probably help you pick up the recordings there as I'm thinking of attending.

Oh yeah, I'm also in Aus, so if wilful can't help I may be able to. Email me (kaydo777 at gmail).

Cheers
posted by kaydo at 10:37 PM on October 30, 2006

I think we've got the "Hello" single in our "to give away or sell" pile at home. I'll check tonight when I finish work. If we do, I can post it to you. Email in profile.
posted by bunglin jones at 1:12 AM on October 31, 2006

You could try The Cat Alley forums. Looks like you'll be fighting an uphill battle, though.
posted by cholly at 2:52 AM on October 31, 2006

I gave up and used Soulseek to get The Sun and Live at Adelphia. I'd absolutely love to get real copies one day, but at least being able to listen to them helps. The Sun is quite a different feel (still very Cat Empire of course) to the others, and is a great addition to the catalogue.
posted by opsin at 4:57 AM on October 31, 2006

Response by poster: thanks for all the feedback, everyone ... i would have responded sooner, but got flattened by a case of food poisoning a few days ago, and have been pretty useless since. checked out the links that were given, and haven't had much luck with those yet (soulseek seems to be windows/mac only, and all rare records has at the moment is one-track promos--perhaps i was too late), but will keep looking.

kaydo--i appreciate the offer of checking at the show, but these recordings were never officially released, and as the apocrypha goes even some of the band members can't even get their hands on them. hope you go in canberra, though--they're one of the best live shows i've seen, and i'd love to be able to see them play in australia.

bunglin jones & wilful--if you have the discs or would be willing to pick them up, i'd be happy to discuss trade/reimbursement for purchase and/or shipping.
posted by the luke parker fiasco at 11:06 AM on November 4, 2006