In the Randomised Record series, I take us both on an adventure to (re)discover my record collection. Fate decides: whether it be that obscure grunge album I bought recently or that emo rap record from 2017. Nothing is safe from the hands of the randomiser! I will listen to the entire album and highlight my favourite song off of it here on the blog. Do I still enjoy my records as much as when I bought ‘em? Let’s find out. Today, episode 29: ‘Stardust Galaxies’ (2009) by The Parlotones.

Perhaps one of my most overlooked CDs however still very much a part of my music collection is this 2009 release by South-African band The Parlotones. ‘Stardust Galaxies’ is the rockers’ fourth and might indeed be one of the most remarkable additions to my ever so exciting potpourri of music. How did this release by some seemingly random South-African rock band enter my collection? For that story, we have to go back in time a solid 12 years or so.

It’s a bit like The Hoosiers. Maxïmo Park, perhaps. And I’d absolutely never heard of ‘em. No surprise, ‘cos what are the chances this teenager from The Netherlands had any interest or knowledge of the South-African music industry? Well, I did actually had a slight interest in this exact thing. Artists like Jack Parow, Bittereinder, and later on Francois van Coke’s Fokofpolisiekar and Van Coke Kartel became familiar faces in my (then mostly digital) music collection. Not The Parlotones, though. The Kahn Morbee-fronted group had been active since the late 90s but never appeared upon my radar until my friend came back from holiday with a little surprise for me.

I’ve always been an absolutely terrible gift giver and that really messes with me as soon as I receive a nice gift from someone else. See, I just don’t have that thing where I walk into a shop, stumble upon a random item and think “I’m sure person X would LOVE this!”. It just never happens. For me, it’s already quite the struggle having a partner celebrating her birthday pretty close to Christmas. Genuinely, it can cause me a lot of stress! I’m just poor with this kind of stuff. As soon as my good friend from back in the day returned from her holiday and surprised me with not 1, not 2, but 3(!) CDs, I was over the moon. What a nice thing to do! Truth is, I’d never heard of 2 out of 3 bands, but that’s not the point. Just the fact that she thought of me on her holiday and even went through efforts to get me a souvenir that’s not just a cheesy fridge magnet (which would’ve been totally fine if it was!) made me very happy. The first CD turned out to be one by a Swedish indie band called The Carnivales, the second was Green Day’s classic ‘Nimrod’, topping it off with today’s ‘Stardust Galaxies’ by The Parlotones.

Which she probably didn’t know at this point, was that these 3 CDs were some of the first ones I’d own and therefore kind of laid the foundation for what is a solid collection now. I mean, other than ‘Nimrod’, I don’t ever play them and I certainly haven’t touched this one in many years, but does that really matter? Once something enters my collection, it stays there. Unless it’s something I really don’t want anymore. But this, this is just great. Thinking back of this gift, I’m sad I’ve never returned the favour. Funny enough me and this friend recently reconnected again and even went for a drink together. Perhaps, to celebrate our friendship, I should try and get my hands on a bottle of ‘Push Me to the Floor’, a white wine The Parlotones released in celebration of this CD and named after the album’s opening track. I’m sure she would appreciate it.