.rsd 2017

Picked up a "few" of the female artists they had in stock

A normal person after seeing two nights in a row of PJ Harvey would sleep in on their day off from concerts. No, not me. As much as I said, "Yeah I'm not doing RSD this year" I lied and had major FOMO waking up at 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Exhausted, I drove over to Tunes thinking I only had a few minutes before the store opened and would just get out of my car. Counting the people in line I was about 20th. When I finally walked over to stand in line I discovered the store doesn't open until 9:00. Another hour to kill. I texted friends most of the time or read my book. As the doors opened I was ready to find the albums I was looking for. I was also thankful I didn't have to listen to any of the obnoxious older guys in line and their colorful language to emphasize said stories.

Tunes displays all of their RSD titles on the walls of the store. I like this because it's easy to see everything and you don't have to "wait" for people to flip through crates of albums. My tops on my wishlist were The Sundays, Distillers, The Cure, Filthy Friends, Big Thief, and Priests. The Cure was the first album I snagged. The albums themselves are just beautiful with Robert Smith adorned in starry backgrounds. Frantic I kept searching for The Distillers but to no avail! Thankfully I looked carefully and noticed the cover was different from the one posted on the RSD site. I nabbed the LAST COPY of Coral Fang. How lucky! Then making my way to the 7"s I only saw Patti Smith and Against Me! Waiting in line I texted my friend who was at the record stores in Philly. She managed to pick me up Filthy Friends and Priests. Neither of us could find the Big Thief 7" and NO ONE had The Sundays. Mad because some of the guys in front of me had copies in their hands. All of a sudden near the door I noticed on the display table of books was Laura J Grace's "Tranny" which I picked up immediately. As the line wrapped around the other side of the store I kept eyeing up this boxed set of Sex Pistols singles from the UK and US. Finally caving in I decided to buy it since the set would make an awesome collector's item someday. My grand total came to a little under $200 along with a free cd sampler, poster, and tote bag. A bit more than I wanted to spend but at least left happy after 40 minutes of standing in line. This is bad since I already ordered a ton of albums off "Vinyl Me Please" but these are rare releases so it's all good. Just wish there were more FEMALE bands represented during RSD. A whopping 12% which is ridiculous. We need to do better!

.philly and the arts

Teri! Le Butcherettes @ Underground Arts 2016

Despite a concert-less weekend (which is fine, I like to recharge!) I went to Ox Coffee off South Street. Here I popped in to check out "Sound Into Sight" my friend Chris's opening night of concert photography (to be displayed up until May). Many people may know Chris as "countfeed" on Instagram. He goes to numerous concerts and captures so many interesting moments (especially hair flying in the air as a cascading waterfall). Some of his photography includes Le Butcherettes, Sleater-Kinney, Radiohead, Bruce Springsteen, Screaming Females, Patti Smith, Adia Victoria, and more. As I perused his gallery I found myself saying, "Yes! I remember that show!" I chose this image (above) to upload on Instagram because it was the first concert where I met Chris, M.J., and other Philly concert friends. If you are in the area definitely stop by and check out his portraits or give him a follow on Instagram for live performance goodness...

.weekend haul

I swear this is my last haul until next month. Friday I got out of work early so venturing over to Bordentown in 20 degree weather seemed like the right thing to do? Two record stores are within a few blocks from one another. The first one I hit up was The Record Collector. The building itself looks something out of the 1950s with this do-wop vibe. Prices however run pretty high. All of my purchases to the left were from The Record Collector. He had a lot of Bowie but I'm not insanely collecting every piece he's put out. I opted for Station to Station and Tonight which has the song "Blue Jean" on it. Public Image Ltd's First Edition keeps taunting me as I finally picked it up to pretty much complete my PiL collection. Patti Smith's Wave was cheaper here compared to other stores I've seen copies in. Dork fan-girl moment but when Carrie Brownstein did her Portlandia tour with Fred, her and Annie played along to The Stranglers "Hanging Around." I picked it up since the song was on this album. Plus I heard they're good. The Record Collector also has live bands play which is pretty cool. My total was around $80 for all of these so not too shabby, PiL being the most expensive thing I picked up.

The second store I hit up was The Man Cave. They sell albums, cds, and all kinds of other things like memorabilia, books, soda, food, etc. I looked through and really didn't find anything I needed. I did not understand why two copies of Bowie's Blackstar were priced at $100. He had so many copies of Earthling I could've just bought it from there instead of turning to ebay (my next post). Walking out empty handed I wasn't that disappointed.

Scored: Patti Smith Group - Wave, Public Image Ltd - First Edition, David Bowie - Station to Station, David Bowie - Tonight, The Stranglers - IV

On Second Thought: (albums I put back) Shamir. I just couldn't kick the $23. I had the Talking Heads and Mission to Burma albums in my hands but could not decide. Another time.

Customers: There was an older couple and a younger couple in both stores. It was so cold out barely anyone was buying records. Bordentown apparently has a "chocolate walk" on the main drag but who knows if there was a big turn out. It was so cold!