Over the weekend, I stood in line an hour and a half for Record Store Day excitement. I did end up getting the RSD Belly 10″ Feel EP that I was after. Pretty sweet. But, more importantly, I found an original pressing of the Cocteau Twins‘ debut album, Garlands! I have been wanting this for quite some time, so I am totally knocked out that I finally found a copy. *squee!*

I have never been an emotional eater (thank goodness) but I have always been an emotional spender. Thanks to my mood (and my completionist OCD issues), I now have the last two Miles Davis “Complete Sessions” box sets that I needed to have the full series. I was able to find new and sealed copies which was pretty awesome. I really should have bought these back when they first came out as the collector’s market has made the pricing a bit crazy. The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions was originally put of as a metal-bound book in a slipcase and then later released in a standard long box edition, so I suspect that is why the pricing isn’t so bad for this set. The Complete On the Corner Sessions is a whole other issue. It was only released as a metal-bound book in a metal slipcase. So it seems like this release is much harder to find … thus the really high secondary market pricing. And I am now eyeing getting The Cellar Door Sessions 1970. Yeah. I apparently have more money than brains and should probably have my eBay and PayPal accounts taken away from me. Either that or spend the money I just spent on these Miles Davis sets on a therapist.

Diamanda Galás at Big Ears. Can’t. Fucking. Wait.

OMG! A NEW ALBUM FROM THE BREEDERS IN LESS THAN TWO MONTHS!!!

1/10 UPDATE … *DROOLS*

Well … we survived the first snow of the season. It came down all day (and night) on Friday and all morning on Saturday. That was when the clouds broke and the sun came out. When it was all said and done there ended up being 10″. Whoo! Not so “Whoo!” was not getting a snow day on Friday since I work from home. Also not so “Whoo!” was shoveling out the driveway and cleaning off the cars. I will give the town and county kudos for keeping the roads scraped and clear. We were able to get down the road by mid-day (and even tripped to Asheville yesterday). I love snow, but Bowser has been less than thrilled with it.

Some fun snow weekend things:
– We started watching Godless on Netflix.
– Acquired a talking Dug Ornament for the tree. It’s awesome!
– Watched Krampus for the first time. It’s a pretty fun movie.

But the BIG fun thing for the weekend was finding an original pressing of Prince‘s Sign O’ The Times album … and it’s in pristine shape! I might have pranced around the living room with Housequake playing as loudly as possible.

Tomorrow night, Glenn and Stephen and Judy come over for egg nog and gingerbread cookies. Yum!

I really can’t stop listening to the opening track off Grizzly Bear‘s new album. It has this edge that makes me think of a dark autumn or winter day. I love dark days.

Trusted friend
Tell me what you need
Why would you stay here?

Were you even listening?
Were you riding with me?
Were you even listening?
TRX 250

Seriously about to loose my fucking mind with the announcement that Diamanda Galás will be playing the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN next year!

It’s 1993 all over again! YES!!!

A post shared by The Orange Peel (@the_orange_peel) on Oct 1, 2017 at 8:18pm PDT

The Crystal Castles show at The Orange Peel last night was so fucking good.

Those with an eagle eye will be able to spot me in the front row.

The Smiths’ Strangeways, Here We Come turns 30 today.

I was on the verge of turning 16 when this album came out and it was my introduction to The Smiths. I remember buying it on cassette at Traxx near the mall in Asheville. Or had it changed over to being called Record Bar by that point? Regardless, for a while it was the go-to record store for alternative releases. Roger, myself and some co-workers from McDonald’s were there. I was so broke that I didn’t have the $6.99 (plus tax) to buy it. Someone in the group loaned me the change (somewhere around 35¢) so that I had enough to make the purchase. Yeah. I spent every single cent I had and then some. I remember having a lot of buyer’s remorse afterwards because I had spent all my money. But, I didn’t have any remorse when listening to the music. Strangeways, Here We Come became one of the essential albums during my junior year in high school. I still have that cassette and would listen to it in the Bug (which, strangely, had the factory cassette player in it).

Years later, Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me became my go-to song to listen to when I was feeling depressed/upset about the Evil One. I love this song (and thankfully don’t pine over the Evil One while listening to it anymore).

Depeche Mode has provided my anthem for this year.

In case you can’t get enough, here is the Highline Sessions version:

And here comes another weekly update. I am seriously trying to get on some regular schedule here … but, you know … life, work, blah, blah, blah.

David is all moved in. I went down to Charleston the last weekend of July and we loaded his stuff in a U-Haul trailer and got him here. Many thanks to Dad for the loaner of his truck to pull said trailer. The packing and moving went fairly easily but the apartment next door decided to break a pipe and flood not only their apartment but a good part of David’s as well. That is what we woke up to on Saturday morning. So our leisurely morning of finishing up the packing before picking up the trailer became a scramble to rid the apartment of the flood waters. I felt bad for the folks next door. They spent the day moving all their furniture out so a remediation team could get in and get to work. I am not sure where they ended up as the clean up was going to take a few days. David’s place also ended up with big noisy fans and a dehumidifier. It made trying to sleep on Saturday night fun … well, that and Drunk Germans at 3:00 am. I am going to miss Charleston. It’s a pretty sweet place.

Last Monday (July 31), I got to cross an artist off my bucket list. DJ Shadow played The Orange Peel and I was there in the front row.

Shadow put on one hell of a show. We were super appreciative and he thought we were pretty cool too.

David left on Tuesday to go to D.C. for the week, so I spent time organizing some of my shit. Kiki and I went out on Tuesday night and checked out Mad Anthony’s Taproom & Restaurant’s new location. It will be a pretty cool space when they get rid of that harsh fluorescent lighting.

The house has come together pretty quickly considering a lot of extra stuff got moved in a little over a week ago. David has kicked ass in getting things organized and settled since he got back from D.C. Yay!

Still working at getting the theater’s season brochure done. I hate designing this damn thing. It’s a brain drainer for sure.

And in movie news, We saw The Dark Tower this past weekend. Here is my two word review: “Skip it!”

Note: No links because I am lazy.