Record Store Day - April 20th 2013

So yesterday was the sixth annual Record Store Day, the 4th time I'd attended in as many years, and it was just a great, if not better, as all the previous!

I arrived bright and early, somewhere around 6am, to Raves From The Grave in Frome, to find that I was the first to arrive, which I was slightly surprised by, but nevertheless I was please to be first as to hopefully get my hands on some super limited records!

 Around 6.30am, the stragglers started to arrive, and by 7am there were around half a dozen people or so, with a number of people who I'd not seen since last years event. 

 Fast forward a couple hours of discussing music with many people in the queue, plus free coffee and bacon rolls supplied by the cafe next door and a queue about 35-40 people strong, 9am arrived and the doors opened for the grabbing of rare and precious records which as per previous years, slight chaos ensued! 

 30 minutes later I came out of crowd and felt somewhat victorious, I had managed to get all that I had on my list, plus a couple of other items that I fell upon by chance and felt were worthy purchases!

 After this I popped to a cafe just up the road with a fellow Record Store Day-er for some much needed coffee and a good old chat, after which we headed back to Raves From The Grave and picked up a couple more bits as the storm had calmed and browsing became more possible.

I'm now listening to all these one by one, and I've thoroughly enjoyed all I've heard so far, below are all that I bought.

CONNAN MOCKASIN

LIVE AT LA CIGALE, PARIS 25TH MARCH 2012

12'' - Black Vinyl

A 1.Unicorn In Uniform/2.It's Choade My Dear/3.Quadropuss Island B 4.Forever Dolphin Love

CHAPEL CLUB

GOOD TOGETHER ALBUM SAMPLER

12'' - Picture Disc

A 1.Sleep Alone/2.Jenny Baby B 3.Scared/4.Good Together

THE XX

JAMIE XX EDITS

12'' - Black Vinyl

A 1. unset B 2.Reconsider 

TOY / THE HORRORS

(RECORD STORE DAY RELEASE)

12'' - Black Vinyl

A TOY - Motoring (Tom Furse Extraploration)
B The Horrors - Moving Further Away (Dom and Ale TOY remix)

DJANGO DJANGO

HI DJINX DJANGO DJANGO REMIXED

Double LP - Black Vinyl

A 1.Hail Bop (Django's Bail Hop Edit)/2.Default (Tom Furse Remix)/3.Firewater (Nick McCarthy Drunk Remix)
B 4.Waveforms (Micky Moonlight Remix)/5.Zumm Zumm (DJ Mujava Pitori Remix)/6.Hand Of Man (Gulp Version)
C 7.Love's Dart (Rude Pravo Version)/8.Wor (Adrian Sherwood's Hey Gringo Remix)/9.Storm (Andy Wake's Lunar Storm Version)
D 10.Life's A Beach (Steve Mason's Priests Of Sound Remix)/11.Skies Over Cairo (Bullion Version)/12.Silver Rays (Chris Carter Remix)

SIGUR ROS
HVARF/HEIM

Double LP - Blue & Green Vinyl

HVARF - A 1.Salka/2.Hljómalind/3.Í Gær B 4.Von/5.Hafsól
HEIM A 1.Samskeyt/2.Starálfur/3.Vaka B 4.Ágætis byrjun/5.Heysátan/6.Von

PEACE
CALIFORNIA DAZE
7'' - Picture Disc

A 1.California Daze

 METRONOMY
PIP PAINE (PAY THE £5000 YOU OWE)
Double LP - Black Vinyl

A 1.You Could Easily Have Me/2.Love Song For Dog/3.Danger Song/4.This Could Be Beautiful (It Is)
B 5.Black Eye/Burnt Thumb/6.Peter's Pan/7.Trick Or Treatz/8.The 3rd
C 9.1 String Strung/10.Bearcan/11.How Say
D 12.Are Mums Mates/13.In The D.O.D/14.Hear To Wear/15.Another Me To Mother You

FOALS
MY NUMBER
7'' - Black Vinyl

A 1.My Number
B 2.Bluebird

That is the last of the items I bought, so plenty of listening to do, and a whole bunch of lovely records for my collection, with hopefully many more in the future.

As much as I enjoyed this day, I just hope all the people who showed up just for Record Store Day return regularly and support their local, and independent record shop, however I have this sad feeling that many people will not.

Time for me to finish off here, I hope all involved with Record Store Day had a blast, and will take part again in the years to come.

Thanks to Raves From The Grave for participating and, of course, being wonderful all year long.

Peace out.

two months plus a bit.

So, I know I said I'd try and be back, and I haven't thus far but I am now.
This is all true.

I have been doing some cycling recently, I've tried to do more because I enjoy it, and it is good for me. I have also realised how unfit I am, very, it would seem. Although even after going out once a week or so, I feel less unfit, however still unfit. 

Music news.

Back in September I saw The xx at The Coal Exchange in Cardiff, which was brilliant, far better  than I was expecting, and also the venue itself was rather surprising with its old 'church-esque' dark wood fittings and dingy nature, this all played into the hands due to the fact the bass rattled through the floor and the lights stood out exceptionally well. I liked it. Loving The xx's new album too. 

Roll up October, there were two notable gigs. Firstly Radiohead at London's O2 Arena, to which I'd never been, and I was slightly let down (I thought it would be bigger). 
I did not have the words to describe this experience on the night and I still lack words good enough to describe it. I'm sorry, but it was just really really good, but better than that! 
At the end (ish) of October I travelled to The Louisiana in Bristol to see a reasonably new band, Peace, they have just released their uber limited 12'' EP on white vinyl, it is called Delicious, and it certainly is delicious, especially 1998, but all of it is fantastic. Check it out.

October also brought news on a intimate Foals tour and album news.

I managed to secure tickets for 3 dates on the intimate Foals tour I mentioned above. The first week of December will see me travel to Gloucester, Southampton, and Bournemouth for, what I hope will be, 3 nights of crazy and enjoyable times!

November (5th, to be specific) saw the release of a brand new Foals track, Inhaler, and IT IS SO GOOD. I have listened to it a good number of times and it just gets better and better, it has the most sexy beginning. I think I'm in love. This day also brought the news that they'd be playing a show at The Royal Albert Hall in London all the way in March of next year. I have managed to get some seats for this, so that'll be something to look forward to in the Spring.

In other news, the new Bond affair, Skyfall, is a pretty swell film, and I'd recommend you splashed out and got your butts to the cinema and had a good couple hours. Do it, or not. 

I'm going to leave you with the new Foals song that I talked about and you can judge it for yourself.

If you have more time, go a listen to

Peace - California Daze

over and out.