Hey, guess what? I actually went to a record shop on RSD for the first time ever!* Mrs 1537 hadn’t spitefully planned a holiday, or engineered some gargantuan DIY project to distract me for once. I had completely forgotten about it and only remembered after I’d been to work to do some overtime yesterday morning, to feed my bread head tendencies; I was just about to get the train home and a little vinyl lightbulb popped up in my head.
So I trucked right across Liverpool and made it to the font of all that is good and righteous in the world, Probe Records. By 12:30 all the queues and jostling had subsided and all I had to do was lever my burly frame across the path of several lighter built folk to take possession of the RSD shelves. Okay so I knew the hottest tickets in town would have gone by then, but experience shows that unless you’re madly into Bowie you can usually pick up what you want 6 months later, after all the initial profiteering has been and gone, for a little over cost price anyway, so that’s what I intend to do to snag the Manic Street Preachers 12″ I want.
But I digress, I grabbed The Heads Relaxing With …** an LP that had been on my radar, very casually for years and not just because it features a nearly nude voluptuous lady toking on a hookah on the cover. Nope, it was the reissue on blue vinyl that swung that one for me, honest.
My other purchase was World Destruction by Time Zone, a white vinyl 12″ which compiled all of Bill Laswell’s mixes of this great track. I’ve really loved this collaboration between Afrika Bambaataa and John Lydon for decades but never had a, non-illegally downloaded, copy of it.
I picked up and put down the Johnny Cash Children’s Album twice and if it is still there on Tuesday I may buy it but there was nothing else that tickled my fancy as much. But that wasn’t the best bit of the experience.
When I got to the counter I was handed a sealed bag of promo CDs that they were giving out to customers and I was asked if I wanted a beer. I ask you, does Ted Nugent shit in the woods? thank you Probe Records!!
Now I actually went against protocol and spun both of my purchases yesterday afternoon. The Heads album is absolutely terrific, it is bare bones almost-too-cool-to-sneer rock from 1996, almost in the same vein as Mudhoney, there’s a brilliant track on it called ‘Coogan’s Bluff’ that I can’t get enough of. This is wonderfully unhealthy music. World Destruction is still a brilliant, raucous collision of sounds and Lydon was in absolute top form vocally on it, it still sounds very prescient today; the remixes are all very good and very different too.
I might even do it all again in 2027.
751 Down (still).
*for the first time ever on RSD, I have been in record shops before, maybe as much as three times.
**I’m not keen on conversational LP titles like that because as we all know the true title is Relaxing With The Heads, but I can’t print it like that, because that’s just messing with my format. These things keep me awake at nights.
Cincinnati Babyhead had never heard the heads. Now he has. He really likes them. Thank you (again). (Am I going to get some kind of bill?)
Nope, turning folk on to great bands is one of my very favourite things in the world.
You should have asked for $10. CB isn’t that bright. You are a saint.
Congratulations on making it to the famed RSD festivities. I have to say I’m jealous of that beer bottle. They have their beer labeled for the occasion? That’s amazing! That first album cover isn’t too shabby either.
Yup it was a specially brewed small batch. Cool, eh?
Very cool.
Ha. You got into yours about the same time as I got into mine. I’ve never really gone for the exclusive releases or queuing up at dawn thing but if they have a live band on or beers or cakes I like that part of it. My first experience of RSD was in Anrwerp on holiday about six years ago. Loads of record shops and loads going on. It got me into it.
That sounds like a good introduction to it. You don’t need to do the whole 7am queuing thing to enjoy it, I thoroughly agree with that.
Basically I see any type of queue as something to avoid like the plague rather than join.
But we’re so good at queueing in Britain!
I always see it as a challenge and a test of my ingenuity to find what I want at somewhere without a queue. I have a varied died at festivals as I just go to food stall with shortest queue and it’s usually different each time
The Lydon/Bambaataa video is effing brilliant.
I’d never seen that before yesterday, but it is. Gotta love that track and all the mixes are really good too, which is a complete novelty!
World Destruction -now there’s timely little ditty. Nice to see (read) you again.
Lord Carnage
Who’s that John Carnell geez? I’ve never heard of him!
It’s my pen name – Johnny ‘Totaliser’ Carnage seems to give people the wrong impression.
Those are both awesome scores, though. Love the cover art on the Heads record.
Dude you phrased it incorrectly. It’s not ” Mrs 1537 hadn’t spitefully planned a holiday, or engineered some gargantuan DIY project to distract me for once. ”
It should have read: “The lovely, gorgeous and amazing Mrs. 1537 had, knowing how much it meant to me, thoughtfully avoided gently asking me to assist her with projects that day so that I could go and look at records to my heart’s content. She’s so thoughtful and amazing!”
See? Much better!*
* I am not in cahoots with Mrs. 1537 on this one, nope, no way.
Well done for translating my reply perfectly Aaron!!
What a rhetorical question about desiring a beer on RSD!
I’m afraid this 4th trip to a record store will bring your purchases per visit stat down a bit (considering you’d accumulated 1500+ on your previous 3 occassions!)
Haha, sadly it has wrecked my average purchase quotient hugely. I think it would be pleasing just to go and buy records by the weight, ‘Gimme 60lbs of stoner rock, please Mal’ – that type of thing.
That’s pretty much how it’s down here, except by shelf centimetres.
“Gimme 3 cm of jazz plus a decimetre of prog, Alphonse!”
I think that’s even better, although measurements of length can be a fairly subjective thing amongst us menfolk.
They call me Long John Vinyl (though not to my, er, face).
Maybe I should be concerned about being known as Tiny Lemon Jefferson?
Not if they squeeze your lemon ’til the juice… etc etc
My goodness, what a great system that would be, listed price per 100g of a given genre, discounts for buying in bulk!
Totally, much more practical. I do like Bruce’s suggestion about buying by length, although that’s a very subjective thing amongst menfolk!
The world is on its head kindness from Probe and free stuff, you are lying I don’t believe you….
I know it’s clearly a changed emporium since it moved. A bag of free promo CDs, some stuff I there that I’d heard of too. No bull.
Does Ted Nugent shit in the woods! hahahaha…..what a great line!
Dig that you posted the cover 3 times in one blog! That has got to be a wreckord somewhere!
Cool finds fella ……
I chuckled to myself at that one too. I may be slightly obsessed by that cover …
ummmm me 2!!
That Heads album sounds great (looks great too!). I’d sooner buy that than spend the £55 on the Iggy Pop set!
They are my new favourite band from 1996! What was the Iggy Pop one?
It was Live At The Royal Albert Hall 3LP set. It’s over £50, which seems a bit steep (especially given I paid a good £10 – £15 less for the 3LP Causa Sui set and Afghan Whigs Black Love reissue).
I also forgot about the Flaming Lips (Onboard The International Space Station Concert For Peace); I might look for that one.
None of that sounds particularly worth it to me; although that may simply be because Flaming Lips get on my tits.
I didn’t think that would tickle your LP receptors.
… also, I like that they gave you a free beer. That’s ace.
So Mudhoney, John Lydon, Johnny Cash and beer in the same post.
You have finally blown up the internet.
Now I have to build a fire and send smoke signals.
Haha, all it needed was a picture of my derriere and … Boom!
I went out as always but I think this is the first year I couldn’t find an exclusive RSD release to pique my interest. Still, I showed my support and made a few purchases.
Which is the main thing, I think people forget its not about buying that exclusive Bowie 7″ they limited to 10,000 copies its about patronising these shops so they don’t go under.
No beer or cupcakes on offer?
Um. Think there were some cookies and espresso. The free beer would’ve been great. However, I partook in post-RSD beers anyway, while spinning my purchases.
Beer! That’s a first. Cupcakes though….
Imagine a combination of both … what a shopping experience that would be.
I’ve heard of beer-infused cupcakes but haven’t come across any. Come to think of it, ‘Desserts by Guinness’ has a nice ring.
Well done! The burly frame does come in useful for some things… I can definitely attest to that.
Excellent scores. I though there was a pretty varied range this year and this confirms it… I didn’t know about any of these. And you got a bloody beer! I just got a coffee and a (admittedly tasty) cupcake! Beh!
Cheers – my first time ever for RSD in person. I’d have quite liked the Def Leppard, but by midday I had no chance.
I read about those cupcakes, they contain an, admittedly tasty, slow acting poison that kills you unless you’re at the shop the next year to have another one. And so on.
Aargh… do you mean I’m going to have to buy shaped Toto singles every year in order to stay alive?!
I’d have loved to have got that one. They didn’t have any, but you’ve just reminded me exactly how much I want it now!
You sure need it. As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti…
I take heart from the ‘Hurry boy, she’s waiting there for you’ line …
Lovely blue vinyl sir!
Thank you (I take full responsibility for its’ creation). Great LP too!