I walked into the local record place last night after work, figuring I’d reward a good day at a new job with an impulse buy. Wandering around, something amazing was playing, a folksy blues. I found myself whistling along, snapping my fingers. I picked up a DVD that I’ve wanted to own for a while, went up to the counter, and asked who was playing, and bought Rodriguez’s Cold Fact along with my DVD. As I was told by the girl at the counter, Rodriguez was from Detroit, and in the 70’s he put out an album which hadn’t gotten much play until 10 years later. His story gets weirder, but I want to leave that for Wikipedia to tell so I can get on to the music. The whole album is available to stream at last.fm. This is an album that is best taken as a whole. Sugar Man, the lead track, was also the biggest song from the album, so I leave it here in MP3 form for those two lazy to bother going to last.fm to stream it. Do check it out, especially if you like modern Detroit rock (The White Stripes, Brenden Benson) or 70’s folk rock (Dylan, Cohen, Donovan). Rodriguez mixes the best of both of these.

• Sugar Man – Rodriguez

This is something a record shop still does so much better than the internet when it comes to music, the song overheard, the impulse buy. The atmosphere created inside can make purchasing that album that you’re hearing on over the speakers that much more compelling, and can make the music more compelling as well. I know this isn’t a thought original to me (hell, High Fidelity touches on it when Cusack’s character decides he’s going to sell 5 copies of The Beta Band’s Three EP’s simply by putting on the album at the right time), but it feels great to be reminded of it in so visceral a way. The point? It’s good to stop reading us music blogs, get out, and discover some music in the real world sometimes.