robots

When my wife and I were in Melbourne last year as part of our honeymoon, we made a point of looking for a good independent CD shop that might recommend some great local fare. As luck would have it, we found what we were looking for in the Fitzroy neighbourhood where many of Australia’s bands live.

Polyester Records (map, in case you’re ever in the neighbourhood) has a fantastic selection of local and national, independent and commercial acts. I explained that I like good indie pop and rock, but I fall in love with albums that require a lot of listens before appreciating, and the kindly gentleman behind the counter offered up quite a few recommendations. And all for acts I wouldn’t otherwise have known about in Los Angeles. I bought 3 of the recommended CDs: New Buffalo‘s The Last Beautiful Day, Mountains in the Sky‘s Celestial Son, and, my favorite of the three, Machine Translations‘s 2002 album Happy.