Well, readers, it was my annual visit to a record shop yesterday; gosh, it seems to come around quicker every year. Just like last year I worked in the morning and ambled over to, the mighty Probe Records in Liverpool afterwards. I know this isn’t the way to get hold of the absolute hot cake items like Bowie live releases and shit like that, but to be honest I really don’t care. I gambled on the few items I really wanted not selling out because of their fairly obscuritan nature and I am happy to wait for the few others I want to come down in price in the next 6 months, as they always do*.
At Probe, I politely elbowed several other folks out-of-the-way and grabbed the two LPs I wanted most anyway:
The Heads Everybody Knows We Got Nowhere. Limited to 500 copies on blue vinyl and packed full of ironic nude cover chicks**. I have wanted this beastie to compliment RSD 2017’s Relaxin’ With the Heads. Again it is packed full of menacing garage psych rockers with titles like ‘Pill Jam’, ‘Stab Railroad’ and ‘Chrome Plated’, as girls, cars and heinous drugs combine with a genuinely maniacal edge to give us the full Head experience. Far more people should know this band’s music. I was happy to pay RSD prices for this rerelease as the price for vinyl originals was exorbitant.
White Hills / GNOD Aquarian Downer. Limited edition on ‘deep space swirl’ vinyl. This was a first time on vinyl rerelease of an obscure CDr only collaboration between my favourite space rockers and Manchester oddballs GNOD, with some great psych artwork. This one consists of 5 pretty in-your-face cuts of psych oddness, churning keyboards and harsh sounds proliferate, along with some great rhythms. This demands some further, careful listening.
A chum of mine also picked up a copy of the Led Zeppelin 7″ Rock and Roll/Friends in another town. I quite fancied the Hawkwind Dark Matters LP, which I did have in my hand but put back on a whim^ and the Tom Waits LPs which I haven’t seen yet. I would have bought Saxon Thunderbolt on picture disc, particularly as I read that it was released with a sticker on it saying it was a Morbid Angel release, which is such a Saxon thing to happen to them. I will bide my time though, like the fungus I am.
I can cheerfully report that just like RSD 2017, Probe had commissioned their own special brew to give away to choice customers – Boogaloo Guru this year, which is gratefully received along with a bag of free CD goodies. So thank you Probe.
849 Down (still).
*trust me, I’m a doctor. Just pop your clothes off behind the screen and I’ll be with you just as soon as I’ve warmed my hands up. Amazon, oddly enough, is always a good reasonably cheap source a few months after RSD.
**ironic boobs = good. Non-ironic boobs = sexist. I fear both types sell LPs in large numbers, even to this very day; well they certainly sold one on Saturday.
^for ‘whim’ read ‘strange moment of financial clarity’.
I’m into more Heads. You hooked me first time around. Digging the cut. Is that a little play with a Neil title? You might have mentioned White Hills but it hasn’t stuck. I’ll give them a search and listen. I feel your satisfaction on your buys.
Great post about music and stuff.
Do you happen to know if they sell that The Head album cover as a wallpaper or a blanket?
Nope, but my Heads beach towel and swim trunks set will make me the belle of the pool on my holidays this year.
I picked up the S U R V I V E live album, the Eno/Shields 12 inch, and The Cure’s ‘Torn Down’ remix album. The White Hills/Gnod and the Cure’s ‘Mixed Up’ are waiting for me to pick up. Sounds like Probe Records took care of you again this year. Glad you were able to snag what you wanted.
Is the Eno/Shields one good? I fancy that one myself.
The White Hills one is very good, I can’t imagine listening to it too many times though. Lemme know what you think.
I’ll let you know once I get that WH in my grubby hands.
As for the Eno/Shields, it’s not bad. Quality of the pressing seems questionable, unless that’s how it’s supposed to sound. Very much in the Eno wheelhouse, with Shields making noise in the background.
I hear you, I’m sort of getting to the point where I’m starting to think Cost vs. How many times I’ll ever want to play it, in my own purchases. I’m worried it might be maturity setting in.
I held back quite a bit this year for just that reason. Paring back to essentials are in the plans. I’ve got 3 kids to help put thru college.
And when I say essential I mean just 3 or 4 a month.
Wheres the Can Con?
RE: The Heads. Great album cover ifnotnecessarilymytypeofmusic.
James Kalyn got me a Zeppelin too!
What’s your take on it? Mine is that I think ‘Friends’ is much improved by the percussion bits but R’n’R was pretty perfect anyway, the new production makes the guitars a little more up front but it doesn’t add much for me.
I just enjoyed a fresh sound on them both. R&R was my favourite. It was really huge in my speakers.
Nice finds, sir. I wouldn’t mind that Heads one myself… some great stuff there.
I didn’t so much as look at what was being released this year.
Maybe next year I’ll get involved some. Maybe.
Stay away as long as you can J, is my advice. Maybe RSD 2049.
Poor Saxon. Wonder if the Morbid Angel pic disc had a Saxon label on it?
No, a Roman Keating one. You can see the record label thinking ‘no-one will notice, it’s only Saxon’.
1537 vs. RSD 2018.
Rumble in the urban jungle.
1537 bomaye
I’m more Foreman than Ali, sadly. Still at least I got my grill going on.
Nice score. The Heads cover is quite nice.
Last year’s Heads LP was limited to 1000, this year’s 500 – by RSD 2024 we’ll be fighting over a single copy.
Yeah, I will skip going at that point!
And is that a Rocket Records whoopee cushion?
I wish! I’d give my left arm for a psychedelic whoopee cushion!
We also headed out on RSD…pickup video to come. I did see the Led Zeppelin 7 inch too, but passed on it.
Sounds cool.
Or was I glancing in the mirror at the time?
Sounds most restrained and mature. Not at all like you.
I know, I think I’ve really grown up in the last year. Not!!