Ah, RSD 2016. I know lots of you fine folks were out there on the front lines, queueing for goodies, DJ-ing, actually speaking to other vinyl men and women and suchlike, but I was MIA again for the fourth year running. Mrs 1537, evil tactical genius that she is, knew the ‘lets-go-away-for-the-weekend-before-you-blow-all-our-food-money-on-Doris-Day-picture-discs’ argument was running a bit thin after three years and so nothing was booked. Hopeful fool that I was, I thought I might get to queue outside a small shop for 3 hours with a bunch of other malodorous perverts and obsessives last Saturday. Fool.
Nope, instead for reasons I choose not to go into here, I was press-ganged into building a shed in our garden – you know, man stuff – building a framework for it to sit on, replacing some of the inner frame and planks; hammers, saws, grazed knuckles and frayed ends of sanity included. It looks great, but it isn’t a hugely rock and roll thang and it certainly isn’t a Doris Day picture disc.
Traditionally I head to Probe Records in Liverpool on a Monday to check out their latest releases but especially after RSD, because they usually have interesting stuff left there. Being the committed vinylholic I am, I completely forgot to go until today and I really wasn’t holding out much hope anyway, I mean freaks like you tend to snap up all the highly limited 10″ purple vinyl copies of Sammy & The Squirrel Penis It’s The Nuts, Stupid! EPs, way before bloody Wednesday!
So I popped along there after work today and couldn’t believe my luck as lightning struck for the third time in four years, there just awaiting my touch were two of the records I absolutely wanted most this year. No, really!
First up, released on the wonderful, wonderful Numero Group label I snagged a copy of their garage rock compilation Los Alamos Grind! complete with groovy rude sleeve and comic strip inside. Even if the music is absolutely garbage* I will worship this LP for all eternity, for having a cartoon, three-breasted exotic dancer on the front cover. 1000 copies only.
Secondly, there was a beautiful chunky copy of Sunday Nights: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough tribute LP to the great man on Fat Possum Records. To say I was hyped is an understatement. This is a great double LP**, on blue vinyl limited to 1500 copies, featuring such reprobates as Iggy & The Stooges, Blues Explosion, Black Keys, Mark Lanegan, Jim White and Spiritualized all banging out some great covers of the man’s songs. There are some real gems here.
So I’m a happy dude again. I hope you like the photos they are an attempt to reclaim the shed as a rock and roll venue and by association to assuage my own doubts about my virility. Job = done. Now who’ll back me in a movement for a new shed-based record day next year, we could call it RSheD 2017?
648 Down (in the shed).
PS: If you’re at all interested in blues, watch this documentary some time. I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s a brilliant journey through the work of Fat Possum and all those artists like Kimbrough and Burnside:
*which it won’t be, Numero are totally reliable. From their site: ‘Join the time-traveling A&R men of Numero as they simultaneously visit past and future, compiling a superior collection of sleaze than anything brought to the post-apocalyptic-bachelor-pad scene thus far’.
**which I may once have accidentally downloaded illegally by mistake.
This documentary is fantastic.
Isn’t it just? I found it by accident and I pretty much sat up ’til 2am on a work night to watch it. Iggy Pop was very amusing in it.
Great idea! I’m sure RSheD 2017 will be a massive hut!
Yellow card.
Nice work. That shed is surely a shed of rock n’ roll. Is there any other kind?
Tip my hat to the record nabs, also. I commented over at Mike’s earlier that I’d paid the ol’ RSD participating store a visit at lunch in the hope of spotting goods (Sunday Nights being one of them). No such luck. I did spot that Los Alamos Grind! LP, though.
If there’s another one here do you want me to grab it?
Oh! Now that’s a question!
RSheD 2017 it is! I’m for this, as long as you’ll be over next year to help me build my RSheD. We can listen to some Motorshed while we work.
Glad to see you were able to grab a couple RSD items you were excited to get, and a few days after RSD to boot. Woo hoo! I saw that Junior Kimbrough, but only for about three seconds before someone grabbed it.
Three boobs. Really, do you need any other reason to buy it?
Both records are really good too – apparently they’re not just for looking at/caressing! Who knew?
Why I caress my records at least three times a day. Is that normal? Could I be causing damage?
OMG that Junior set was on my list! GORGEOUS! Very well done, sir!
And again I ask, does this mean we can now call you Arthur ‘Two Sheds’ Jackson?
I demand that you call me Arthur ‘Two Sheds’ Jackson henceforth.
The Junior LP is great – you’d love that documentary I’ve linked to too. The Fat Possum guys are really nice and Iggy and Jon Spencer have some very funny tales to tell as well.
I’m listening to the Las Alamos Grind! Album right now and it is truly fabulous.
3 boob Joe would love that album cover
That is actually my mafia name – Joey Three Boobs. True story.
Sung to the Ramones…
Rock Rock Rock N Roll Shed!
Nice score on the vinyl albums! It’s always a sweet feeling when U stumble upon something that you were looking for or had no idea ….
Cool story …
Cheers Deke, double thanks for serenading me too!
Motorshed?
Fuggedaboutit.
The Grateful Shed.
Buildin’ that shed
High on Sudafed
1537
Better watch your speed.
Shedheads from around the world will follow you wherever you go.
In fact, the other day I saw a Shedhead sticker on a Cadillac.
Los Alamos does look, er, twisted. Is there a ‘south of the border’ connection?
I’ll support RSheD2017 if I can bring my hoe.
Britches and hoes will be compulsory!
It’s really darned good stuff and to be honest I’ll take cartoon nudity where I can find it.
As long as you wear a pimp outfit.
The platform shoes can help with nailing the top boards, the feathery hat can be used to create a nice breeze, and the cane can double as a level.
I have a Doris Day picture disc for you. It’s $100 plus shipping. Plus, your choice of crayon colour.
Hmm, don’t think I’m doubting you here but are you sure that’s a real official RSD release?
Close. It was for LSD 2016.
It was during Doris Day’s short lived psychedelic period.
Doris in the sky with diamonds. Nice.
Lucy in the sky with Doris.
I can’t build a shed. Just sayin’ If the women don’t find you handsome, at least they’ll find you handy! (That’s an actual Canadianism.)
Very nice finds, the Junior record particularly. So is that its only vinyl release? Would you have to have bought a silver disc otherwise?
I’m off to get that tattooed across my back tomorrow, I love that saying!
This is the first time it’s ever been on vinyl, it was a CD only release back in 2005. It’s a great album too, not too bitty like most tribute LPs.
That blues documentary is just plain awesome sauce too.
Red Green!!!!
Que?
That’s ace – I really like that.
I had the pleasure of seeing Red Green live (real name – Steve Smith) at the University of Waterloo. Just him cracking jokes about life and making stuff out of duct tape. Great show. Sold out too.
I’m big on duct tape – there’s very little it can’t fix. There was some good funny stuff in the book of ‘the Martian’ about it too.