# Mascara and Monsters and...Mariachi? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 25, 2003, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mascara-and-monsters-and-mariachi/163909 "2003-03-25T00:06:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mascara-and-monsters-and-mariachi/163909/1 "2003-03-25T00:06:49Z")
The strangest thing happened to me today. I was driving home after a long day of getting a program up and running through trial and (boneheaded) error. It had been a long day, and I was looking to unwind. I was in luck, I though. My parents gave me a copy of _Mascara & Monsters: The Best of Alice Cooper_ for my birthday. It’s a great collection–22 tracks covering pretty much every song of his that I’ve ever heard, and then some. It would have been the perfect way to destress after a long day. The CD was in the changer, so I switched to it and waited for the opening to “I’m Eighteen”. The astute listener will observe that this song features no trumpets, has lyrics in English rather than Spanish, and would sound somewhat out of place at fucking Chi-Chi’s. What I heard from my speakers had all of these features. I flip through the rest of the tracks, wondering what the fuck is going on. No dice–it’s all Mariachi. That would’ve been great if a) I liked Mariachi; b) I was expecting Mariachi and not Alice Cooper; and c) this wasn’t so fucking surreal that I was having a hard time paying attention to the road. I got home, and pulled out the disc. Sure enough, it’s indistinguishable from the album I was expecting. It’s got the close-up of Alice Cooper’s scary made-up face. So I stuck it in the computer. This disc has 19 tracks of Mariachi music with a total running time of 35 minutes. No fucking way is this anything even close to the album I had planned on listening to. Right now I’m really hoping that my mom didn’t throw out the receipt, and that the store will be willing to make an exchange. I’d also like to know how the fuck this happened. Fuck! ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mascara-and-monsters-and-mariachi/163909/2 "2003-03-25T00:22:42Z")
Wow! That really sux. I hope you can exchange it for a cd you like. Good luck. Let us know the store manager’s ideas on how the hell it happened. ---
**Author:** ![Profane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47774/32.png) [@Profane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Profane)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mascara-and-monsters-and-mariachi/163909/3 "2003-03-25T00:35:36Z")
The store manager wouldn’t have anything to do with it, it’s a manufacturing error. If you don’t have the reciept, many stores will exchange it for the same disc anyway. We always did it when I worked at a music store. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mascara-and-monsters-and-mariachi/163909/4 "2003-03-25T00:39:01Z")
Yeah, I’m not expecting too much trouble. Honestly, I just want an actual copy of the CD this was supposed to be. Shouldn’t be a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mascara-and-monsters-and-mariachi/163909/5 "2003-03-25T00:39:36Z")
I have a Best of Frank Zappa CD like that. First six tracks are blank. Then, for tracks seven through twenty-five, it’s bad Korean pop music. I’d never heard any Frank Zappa songs before, but I’d heard lots of stories about the guy, so I wasn’t sure if what I was hearing was a mistake or a joke. I kept the CD for novelty purposes. I can always buy another Frank Zappa CD, but where’ll I find another CD of pop love ballads sung entirely in Korean? ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mascara-and-monsters-and-mariachi/163909/6 "2003-03-25T01:30:34Z")
> [@](#): > > I kept the CD for novelty purposes. I can always buy another Frank Zappa CD, but where’ll I find another CD of pop love ballads sung entirely in Korean? \ I’ve got several, but then I have a whole load of Korean pop, too–mostly Kim Gun Mo, H.O.T, and Seo Tae Ji (a Korean rapper who is strongly derivative of Cypress Hill). ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mascara-and-monsters-and-mariachi/163909/7 "2003-03-25T12:56:17Z")
I had something similar happen to me. I had ordered a 3CD Bob Wills boxed set from my music club, but the box they sent me had two copies of CD2 and to CD3. I e-mailed them and explained what had happened, expecting them to ask me to send in the duplicate CD2 for replacement; instead they just sent me a whole new boxed set (which I promptly checked to verify that it had the right CDs in it) with a note apologizing for the inconvenience. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mascara-and-monsters-and-mariachi/163909/8 "2003-03-25T14:21:36Z")
Most places will exchange it - I had a long road trip for my last job and picked up a recorded book on CD. While on the trip, I found that I had four copies of CD1, and none of #2, 3 or 4 (if I chose, I could have memorized that first part over the course of the trip though). I took it back to the store when I got home and it was no problem at all for them to swap it out (with the receipt). ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mascara-and-monsters-and-mariachi/163909/9 "2003-03-25T14:24:09Z")
I’ve got the receipt, and it says they’ll exchange it, so it looks like I’ll get the real CD after all.