My Best Day In Vinyl So Far

Oh man, new Crocodiles 7" Sleep Forever is SUPREME. Summer of Hate has been an addiction for me over the last year and this release delivers more promise to one of my favorite bands going right now. Got the pre-order in the for the new record at amazon, so this fall is going to be great. And by great, I mean Brandon Flowers great.

Next record up is the Brandon Flowers Crossfire 10". Love This Song. And I cannot wait for the full length. Most anticipated release for me this year. Also got the Dustland Fairytale picture disc 7" to round out some Sam's Town Collecting.

In additional mail order news, Manual's Drowned In Light came in.  Although it does not reach the heights of his early to mid 2000 output, it is solid selection of tracks that return to the minimalist approach that made me love Jonas Munk's ambiance in the first place.  It is also quite an abrupt u-turn from the maximal force of Azure Vista.  This record sounds more like his Limp days or the earlier Morr catalog that I fell in love with right after college.  And although it feels like his creative upswing has stalled, I will always enjoy his take on MBV/Cocteau Twins ambient electronica.

Fast forward a month or so to a splurge at Smash! Some absolutely solid grabs from here including the white vinyl Downpour/Serial Killer 5" (!!!!) from Converge, Banes Free To Think, Free To Be 7", a Brazilian pressing of Sepultura's Chaos A.D., a blank vinyl copy of Bane's It All Comes Down To This (psyched) and finally a 180 gram reissue of Public Image Ltd.'s Album. John Richards from KEXP turned me on to that one a month or so ago after playing Rise and I have been playing it ever since. I don't know what is more strangely alluring about that album, Lydon's completely gripping singular delivery or Steve Vai's out-of-place, but absolutely right on guitar playing. Either way, glad to have it in my collection.

But the most happy I have ever been about records/best day in vinyl so far gets revealed now... Japandroids' Younger Us 7" featuring cover photography by yours truly! Check it out here. Hopefully this will be the first of many more to come for me, but for right now, I am in heaven knowing I will always have that. Thanks for listening!

So to recap:

5"
Converge - Downpour / Serial Killer (white)

7"
Japandroids - Younger Us
Bane - Free To Think, Free To Be
The Killers - Dustland Fairytale / Forget About What I Said (picture disc)

10"
Brandon Flowers - Crossfire

LPs
Manual - Drowned In Light
Pubic Image Ltd - Album (180 gram)
Sepultura - Arise (Brazilian pressing)
Bane - It All Comes Down To This

Sad Robot Pancake Arm

A robot learning to flip pancakes from Sylvain Calinon on Vimeo.

Pre-Williamsburg Smash! Run

Prior to my yearly trip to Williamsburg to run sound for Tidewater area high school graduations, I always pick up my friend Derek from the Chinatown bus.  Then we both head down there for 4-5 days and then watch like 3,000 kids graduate.  It's a... blast.  But I have a really good time with Derek and we pretty much just hang out and talk about zombie movies and this year, Lost.  Man did we talk a lot about Lost!  But prior to the pickup, I had a couple of free hours on my hands and I decided to use it at my favorite DC record store, Smash!  Got lots of great stuff and left a bunch of incredible 7"s up on the wall that I didn't see until after I was already checking out.  Seriously need to go back for the Bane and Converge 7"s.  Really hope no one snags them in the meantime... One of the best things about Smash is that they really have a lot of what you're looking for, if you're looking for specific stuff.  Like, if you want to pick up a bunch of really great 70's and 80's soundtrack albums in really great condition, you are in luck! Or perhaps some obscure metalcore from the 90's... or the next Judas Priest LP to continue to round out your collection.  That's what that store is, a great collection rounder outer.  So when I go, it is with that purpose... and to get a few ridiculous things that I probably won't get anywhere else... so here goes...

FULL LENGTHS:

The Lost Boys OST
The Goonies OST
The Elms Street Group - Freddy's Greatest Hits (this is pretty out of control awesome)
Judas Priest - Point of Entry
Grade - Headfirst Straight to Hell (picture disc)
New Order - Brotherhood
Majority Rule - Interviews with David Frost (new)

12"

New Order - Confusion
U2 - even better than the REAL THING
U2 - Lemon Remixes (gold/lemon vinyl)

7"

Overcast/Arise - Split
Drowningman - Weighted and Weighed Down
Crispus Attucks - Yo Peho!
Outspoken - The Current
Prince - When Doves Cry
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - War
J.A.M. '86 Jersey Artists For Mankind - We've Got The Love (got this on LP and 7" now! Psyched!)
George Harrison - Got My Mind Set On You
The Knack - Good Girls Don't

Cause It's Been Too Long!

Been like 6 months! Can't believe this list actually includes some Christmas gets and wintertime purchases. Since then, I haven't been out to that many record stores locally, but I managed to do Long In The Tooth in Philadelphia, Just Play Music in Santa Barbara, and got to walk into one of the Amoeba's in San Francisco, but didn't have time to shop. Super upset that I didn't get back to the LA Amoeba. I want to move there just for that. Also to note, the best pancakes I've had this year so far would go to Ella's in San Francisco - blueberry mascarpone. Deal with THAT! My only complaint was that they weren't packed with nearly enough bluuuubs, but the mascarpone made me forget with each bite. And I got them with some rocking blood orange juice. Coffee was average. Cakes at Izzy's in Santa Monica weren't half bad too. I continue to search for that illusive perfect pancake with perfect coffee/espresso restaurant. When I find that, I move to that. Done Deal/Deal Done. Especially if there is a record store next door... that is run by a man named Adam M. And I run the breakfast place. And we both run the used flip flop stand in the basement. I bought some records...

Full Lengths/EPs/etc:
Telekinesis! - S/T
Nada Surf - If I Had a Hi-Fi
Prince - LA Sports Arena 1989 (but really '88)
Prince - The Beautiful Experience (Sealed)
Majority Rule - Emergency Numbers
Fripp & Eno - Evening Star
The Philadelphia Sound - Various
Prince - Rave un2 the Joy Fantastic
Brian Eno - Test Press of Apollo: Atmosphers and Soundtracks
Corrosion of Conformity - Technocracy
Anthrax - Among The Living
Volcano Choir - Unmap
We Were Promised Jetpacks - These Four Walls
Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue
M83 - Digital Shades [vol. I]
Coldplay - Prospekts March
Miles Davis - Nefertiti
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - S/T


12"
Pet Shop Boys - Left To My Own Devices
U2 - When Love Comes To Town
New Order - True Faith
Prince Mix #1 w/ Batdance, Good vs. Evil on Side 1 and "The Ultimate Prince Mega-mix on side 2 - Not sure if this is legit or what...
The Killers - When You Were Young (my second copy)

10"
Killing Joke - Follow the Leaders

7"
U2 - Angel of Harlem
Telekinesis - Dirty Thing
Japandroids - Art Czars
Season To Risk/Starkweather - Split
H2O - SEVENINCH (I know Why/Temperature)
Pet Shop Boys - Left To My Own Devices
Men At Work - Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive

End Of The Year Accounting

Got a few records for Christmas.

Elmo Williams & Hezekiah Early - Takes One To Know One
Jelly Roll Kings - Off Yonder Wall
Asie Payton - Worried

Fat Possum for Christmas is awesome. The one I was really looking forward to was Elmo & Hezekiah, but the best one turned out to be Asie Payton. I'm not sure exactly how I went this long without getting into him, but I'm happy I could get it corrected. Plus, free sticker and a button. And my mom decided she wasn't going to keep them for herself. Yeah!

New Year's Eve I decided to do a thrift store run-through. It had been probably over a month since I'd gone to any thrift store, which is pretty much an eternity for me. And I was rewarded pretty well. Got a few Queen records in very good condition, a few Elton John records, the second Terry Reid, and a few others that are inessential but good to have, like a couple Wings albums and Lou Reed's Transformer, things like that. At one place I found a copy of Them's second album. It's not in great shape, but it's a pretty unusual find for a thrift store. It would be a good find in a record store, so there was no way I was leaving it there. And I also found Yessongs. I was excited about that, however, I wouldn't call my search for Yessongs over. The cover on this one is terribly water-damaged, though the vinyl looks to be in okay playable shape. It'll be better once I dust it off. I'll still be keeping my eyes open for it, but this copy will tide me over until I can find one in better shape and including the booklet.

Then, fun news to go along with this, with the additions of the thrift store run to my spreadsheet I have exceeded 1000 albums. In actuality I did that a while ago because, almost two years since I started the spreadsheet, I still haven't entered my classical albums into it. So, that only took 13 or 14 years. Let's make it 2000 by 33.