Sunday 3 April 2011

Day Off Work = Records

Took a trip to Kingston (the town about ten miles from me, not the one in Jamaica) this week on a day off from work. I had a number of boring items to pick up, but decided that the trip would be a little more enjoyable if I also took the opportunity to pick up a record from the local record store, Banquet Records. For some reason, I fancied picking up the new Rival Schools LP, even though I had the opportunity to see them play live a few months ago but could not for the life of me summon any interest or motivation.

So yeah, Rival Schools got back together last year and played some shows, and then it was announced that their second album would be coming out. I expected that it would be the unreleased album that was being passed around on the nerd about 6 years ago. But no, it's actually a set of completely new songs. The album is called 'Pedals' and features some highly dubious artwork:

There was some dodgy pre-order packages for this thing. There were (I think) two different limited picture discs available, but since I (and pretty much every other collector I know or have ever know) hate picture discs, I decided that the regular black vinyl would suit me fine. But still, as you can see, it's not pretty.

After one play I was ready to assign this album to the 'bland & boring' corner of my collection. But then I remembered that I struggled to get into all of my favourite albums at first, so I gave it another go, and actually I have to say that this is a really good record. I've not had this a week yet and I've already listened to it 15 times. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is in a very similar vein to the last album. There are slow songs and fast songs and somewhere in the middle songs. There's even one that strongly reminds me of a Quicksand song. I once went as far as describing Walter as a musical genius, and this album is further reminder of that. Whatever he does, I always end up playing the shit out of it. This is no exception.

I also picked up the new album by J Mascis. I didn't even know this existed. I guess that's the beauty of record stores though. You find out about stuff that hours of time spent on the nerd may somehow bypass. This is actually Mr Mascis's first solo album, and is released by everyone's favourite Seattle label, Sub Pop Records. I gotta say, I seriously love the artwork on this thing. So damn cute.

Given that J Mascis is the vocalist & guitarist for Dinosaur Jr, it will come as no surprise that this solo album sounds very much like the mellower Dinosaur Jr moments. I've been a big Dinosaur Jr fan ever since Mike Vallely's part in the Santa Cruz Speed Wheels video 'Speed Freaks', which came out in about 1989 (Jesus Christ!). He skated to 'Freak Scene' which was one of the most important pieces of footage I ever saw, in terms of having an impact on my life (watch the part HERE if you are interested!) . Anyhow, I've loved pretty much everything J Mascis has ever done, and I've been enjoying this album a lot this week.

The final record I picked up was a different colour version of a record I already own - the clear vinyl pressing of The Descendents album 'Everything Sucks'. Not much to say about this one really.

After doing my shopping I then went to Byron for lunch. I ended up dining along with another record in a mailer for company. But that's another story for another time...

5 comments:

Hop said...

Was the 'Quicksand' type song on Pedals 'Eyes Wide Open? that was a WFC song

mcs said...

Yes, good guess sir. I never knew it was a WFC song. Looks like i'm wrong about this album being all new songs then. Seems he's pretty good at 'recycling' songs eh?

-cja said...

50% of the new Rival Schools is really good while the other half imo, are throw away tracks. i kinda like the unreleased album more but the songs from it that were revised for 'pedals' are better (if that makes sense).

packaging wise, yeah, it's way bland and those pic discs were awful. i don't care how limited they were, they looked like shit and grabbed the same version you did.

Jazz said...

let me know if you are ever in NYC, I'll take you to some cool record stores in brooklyn.

-cja said...

the only record store i ever visited in Brooklyn, was Academy at their Williamsburg location. some stuff was priced a tad bit high while stuff that should have been priced high was super cheap. excellent store, yet i'm too lazy to make the hours drive there more often.