Rough day at work yesterday until I finally made it to the cafeteria just before 2pm. "Bizarre Love Triangle" was playing real loud on the radio and all the kitchen workers were getting down. I got the mashed potatoes and bok choy and a yogurt. Things were right in the world.
Dear Record Stores: I don't want you to go out of business so please stock the records I want to buy and then I can happily buy them from you. Everybody wins.
I bring this up because the new Hold Steady and the new Josh Ritter albums were both issued on the same day a couple weeks ago. I walked down to Turn It Up that morning but they had neither on vinyl. So I drove to Amherst the next day and tried the Newbury Comics, who were out of both CDs and had no Ritter vinyl and wanted $20 for the Hold Steady vinyl. So I went home and ordered both from Amazon and they showed up at my door two days later, $23 including shipping.
Also: you should get together with Ritter and maybe have a heart-to-heart regarding songs about mummies and murder ballads and songs in which girls repeat "black hole black hole" over and over and over again. Might be a difficult conversation but it seems like a great way to sell more records. As I say, win-win.
Listened to the baseball game on the radio the other day and they like to play a song when coming out of commercials. Somebody put "Silence Kit" into the space between the local Subaru dealership's ad and the bottom of the 5th. And here I thought the only way to hear that song was to put it on when I take a shower. If there were a hit parade for when I'm in the shower the first few songs on "Crooked Rain" would be at the top of the charts.
