Bob Marley Relaxation Drinks

The other day as I was looking through the cooler at the local Mac's store I stumbled across these Bob Marley Mellow Mood all natural relaxation drinks, the exact opposite of the energy drinks. The can reads "reduces stress & relieves tension", these actually might come in handy in the following weeks (damn work). I was hoping they might be laced with some good stuff, but nope,lol. They actually taste alright and don't smell of vomit like the energy drinks out there.

They had two different flavours, "Citrus and Berry". I am surprised with all the Bob Marley marketing you see these days. You would think this would be something you would see from KISS. I am sure you will see a KISS energy or relaxation drink before summer is over.

To read more about these drinks checkout the link here Marleys Mellow Mood.

More Record Store Buys

More purchases from Record Store Day last weekend. Luckily for me my brother Citrus was able to pick up a couple of things for me in Vancouver that I wasn't able to find here in Edmonton. Thanks Bro!!!! The first one I was really wanting was the Mariachi El Bronx / The Bronx split 12 inch EP (8 songs in total) a Record Store Day exclusive. Same band different kind of tunes one side is Mariachi music which is fucking awesome, and the other side is The Bronx which is punk fucking rock that is crazy fucking good, wow, caught myself headbanging and rocking the hell out to this shit. Man these guys are so talented and diverse. How I would love to hear a full length live album from The Bronx. The vinyl is super cool as well, checkout the pics. It's cool that on right on the cover of the album itself it says Record Store Day, so at least you know it will be an exclusive.

Next is the Chris Robinson Brotherhood seven inch single by Chris's new band. Chris of course writes and sings in the Black Crowes. This single is two old blues tune covers. Side one is "Blue Suede Shoes" by Carl Perkins, side two is the song "Girl I Love You" by Eddie Floyd and Alvertis Isbell. Both great songs, Chis has such an awesome voice, very good stuff. Looking forward to the Chris Robinson Brotherhood full length due On June 5th called "Big Moon Ritual" and a follow up album in September called "The Magic Door".

KISS Tour Program 1997

Today's tour program is from the KISS Reunion Tour of 1997. The program is 40 pages oaded with glossy pictures and a write up on the tour of 1996. In the middle of the program is a giant two sided poster,one side is a full shot of there stage set up and on the flipside is a 1998 calendar. A well done program. My Brother and I did the back to back shows in Edmonton and Calgary for this leg of the tour. The opening band for these shows were Econoline Crush. Front Cover.

Back Cover.

Edmonton Music Collectors Show Buys

On Sunday April 22nd my buddy Hurl and I made our way to the second annual Edmonton Music Collectors Show here in Edmonton. The show was held at the Sherbrooke Community Hall, the same place it was held last year. Again it was a huge success. We got there around noon and the place was quite busy with not a lot of room to get about and checkout all the vendors. If you really wanted to have a good look, you best have the whole day to take your time and have patience. We were there for just over an hour, looking through the thousands of records,CD's, some old posters and t-shirts and other music collectibles.

I didn't have a lot of money to spend as I had spent more then enough the day before at the local record shops for Record Store Day. I did manage to find a few 7 inch singles that I thought were interesting.

I picked up a Flaming Lips seven inch single of them covering the White Stripes song "Seven Nation Army". The cover is titled "Seven Nation Army (Harry Potter and George Bush's Severed Head Army Mix)". This was released in 2005 on the Late Night Tales an independent record label out of the UK. The B-side is song called "The Jist" by David Shrigley.

Flaming Lips Seven Inch.





The other 7 inch single I picked up is the "Dangerous Highway a Tribute To The Songs of Eddie Hinton Volume 2", Drive-By Truckers single where the band covers two songs by Eddie Hinton. It came out in 2009 on Shake It Records as a limited pressing of 2000. Both songs are previously unreleased songs Side A is "Where's Eddie" and Side B is a song called "Everybody Need's Love" both songs written by Eddie Hinton of course.

The Drive-By Truckers have always been a big fan of Eddie Hinton and actually did a song called "Sandwiches For The Road" based on the life of Eddie Hinton, the song was released on their debut album "Gangstabilly" that came out in 1988.

Eddie Hinton passed away at the age of fifty-one of a heart attack. he was best known for being a songwriter and session musician playing with such artists as Wilson Pickett, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding and many more.

The Drive-By Truckers seven inch single.



The crowd at the Edmonton Music Collectors Show.



Rumour is that there will be an autumn record show in a larger venue. let's hope this happens.

Joel Plaskett In Edmonton Apr.19th

Thursday night Joel Plaskett Emergency made there return to Edmonton to play the soft seat theatre The Winspear Centre. I went to this show with my friends Buzzard,Hurl,A-Bomb,Jay and my Sweetie Janis.

I wasn't crazy about seeing Joel Plaskett play this venue, as I would much rather see him play a club, but oh well, I wasn't going to miss this show, regardless of where he was going to play. Opening the show was Frank Turner from England.

This was my second time to see both acts, although the last time I saw Joel Plaskett, he wasn't touring with his back up band The Emergency, it was him and his father and friends. Joel with his band is a more rock n' roll show as last time it was more an acoustic show.

Unfortunately we missed Frank Turner which was a huge bummer. We were supposed to hook up with the drummer (Dave Marsh) of Joel's band to go backstage and meet the band before the show, but because of a communication mishap, that never happened, so we missed out on Frank. That sucked. Just before Joel Plaskett Emergency started, we got a text from Dave Marsh, saying to meet him in front of the stage after the show. So maybe things were going to work out.

When we finally did get to our seats, which were row four centre,sweet!!! We were ready for a rock n' roll show, at that is exactly what we got. Joel Plaskett Emergency are on tour for their latest album called "Scrappy Happiness" that came out in March and was recorded over a ten week period releasing a new song each week. A unique way to record and release an album. Joel and the band hit the stage opening with "Down At The Khyber" which worked real well considering the chorus in the song.

"Am I still alive where did I collapse?
In Edmonton Alberta or home in Halifax
Float me down the river to the Musquedobit harbor
Because I’m getting nowhere"

Joel Plaskett was sounding awesome, with his shuffle happening and his most excellent guitar playing, we were in for a great evening of music. For a three piece band they rocked the hell out of the Winspear. Joel and the band leaned heavy on the latest album playing the rocking "Lightning Bolt" probably my fave on the new album, also played was "Tough Love","North Star" and"You're Mine". He mixed it up pretty good playing some oldies as well, including an old Thrush Hermit song, which was Joel's band in the 90's. Joel did a short acoustic set where it was just him on stage, that too was cool. When they played the song "Love This Town" he had the whole crowd singing along with him. The show closed out with the song "Come On, Teacher" there wasn't a bad song through out the two hour set. Joel is quite the entertainer, very animated with facial expressions, his shuffle, and in between song
banter, he had the crowd howling at times, not to mention himself laughing his ass off as we telling a story about a show in Kamloops years ago. Chris and Dave sounded great too, keeping the beat and rhythm and awesome background vocals. You also had to love the rocking monkeys that he had wired through his pedal board. I know this show will be in my top ten for the year without a doubt and one of the best I have ever seen. Such an awesome concert.

The evening ended with us getting to go backstage after the show and meet Joel Plaskett and the band which included drummer Dave Marsh, whom is the one that invited us and bass player Chris Pennell. All the guys were super super
nice offering us drinks and spending time with us talking and hanging out. We were backstage with them for over an hour. The guys were great about signing autographs and having there pictures taken with us. A very amazing night was had by all. I want to give a "BIG" shout out to our friend Jean in Halifax whom is the one that lined up this meet and greet with the band through Dave Marsh. Thanks so much Jean you made a great night even better. Good times!!!

Some pictures from the show.











Bass player Chris Pennell of The Emergency.





Drummer Dave Marsh and bass player Chris Pennell.





More pics of Joel Plaskett.







Setlist for the Edmonton show.



Janis with Joel Plaskett backstage.



My friends Buzzard, Hurl and I backstage with Joel Plaskett.



At the merch booth at the show I picked up the Dave Marsh solo album called "The True Love Rules" that came out in 2008 on Joel Plaskett's label New Scotland Records. The album was also co-produced by Joel Plaskett, Joel also plays on some of the album.

Autographed CD.





Put that in your Joel and Plaskett!!!

Edmonton Record Convention

Today Sunday April 22nd Edmonton is holding the second annual Edmonton Music Collectors Show at Sherbrooke Community Hall (13008-122 ave). Last years was a great success as I am sure this one will be too. Get out and checkout what they have. Lets keep a good thing going. My only complaint about having it the day after Record Store Day is that I am fucking broke. Still gonna go though, maybe I can find a few good deals. I did last year.

Record Store Day 2012

Well another Record Store Day has come and gone. It appeared to be very successful again with the record shops here in Edmonton specifically the ones on Whyte Avenue being busy. I walked by Blackbyrd Myoozik before 10am and there must have been at least a hundred people lined up waiting to get in. I don't have the patience for that so I made my way down to Permanent Records for my first stop. They had been open for almost a half hour by the time I got there, it was good to see a decent crowd in there snatching up all the Record Store Day special releases. I missed out on the one record I really wanted, but I did manage to find a few things.

Permanent Records purchases.



* Mclusky - Mclusky Do Dallas on vinyl
* Gary Clark Jr. - Presents HWUL Raw Cuts Vol.1 (a Record Store Day Exclusive release) on vinyl.
* Flaming Lips/Mastodon - split seven inch single in pink vinyl Flaming Lips song "A Spoonful Weighs A Ton" then on the flip side Mastodon covering the Lips song (a Record Store Day exclusive).

At Permanent Records with my purchase I got a nice record bag to carry my albums in.



After getting home and going through the bag, I discovered in the bag a couple of CD compilations and some pins.

The CD's are.
* Metal Blade - 1982-2012 (haven't listened to this yet)
* New West Records - On Air at World Cafe (some good stuff on this)

Next stop was Sound Connection just down the street. This record store is one of the oldest in the city, this is the store where I pretty much started my music collection with. They have been in a few different locations over the years. They for the most part deal in used records and CD's, so I wasn't expecting to find too much here. I did again manage to walk away with a few buys. Still again, couldn't find the one record I was really looking for.

Sound Connection purchases.



* Grateful Dead - Dark Star from the legendary Europe '72 Tour limited edition of 4200 a Record Store Day exclusive.
* White Stripes - Walking With A Ghost (a five song EP with White Stripes covering Tegan and Sara and 4 live tracks, 2 of them recorded in Brazil from 2005 and the other 2 recorded in session on August 15th 2005 at the Village Recorder and broadcast live in Los Angeles on 89.9 KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic
* Metallica - Beyond Magnetic (a 4 song limited edition silver vinyl release)



After Sound Connection I picked up a dozen beers and was making my way home to have an afternoon of listening to new music and a few beers. But, have to stop at Blackbyrd Myoozik first to see if I could get in the store for starters and see if they had the one album I was looking for. Lo and behold they did have a few copies of the Flaming Lips album I really wanted. So now I am stuck in the store that is way over packed and stupidly fucking hot. I stood in line in the store for a good 45 minutes waiting to pay for my record, the whole time I have a dozen beers that are begging to be drunk, some tempting to crack a few while in this damn line up. But no, I was a good boy and toughed it out without having a frosty cold one. While in the line up you had no choice but to look through the record bins, so I walked out of there with a bunch more records then I needed.

Blackbyrd Myoozik purchases.



* Flaming Lips And Heady Fwends (a double marble coloured vinyl a Record Store Day exclusive and the one record that I really wanted)
* Band Of Skulls - Sweet Sour on vinyl
* Hank Williams III - Long Gone Daddy on vinyl, I didn't realize until after that this release was on Curb Records which is the label that Hank just left and has nothing good to say about. I should never have bought this album. It not all that good.
* Neil Young - Dreamin' Man Live '92 on vinyl
* Joel Plaskett Emergency - Truthfully Truthfully on vinyl

As I was paying for my purchases the clerk asked me if I would like a free t-shirt, well of course I would, I love free stuff. Maybe it was to make up for the stupid line up.

T-shirt.



All and all a fun day of buying new music and supporting the local independent record stores. My brother Citrus in Vancouver picked up a few singles I wasn't able to find here, so I am looking forward to getting them in the mail here soon.

Alice Cooper Tour Program

Today's tour program is from the Alice Cooper "The Nightmare Returns Tour" of 1986-87. Alice was touring for his comeback album "Constrictor". The opening band for this leg of the tour was the Canadian band Sword, whom I thought were pretty decent at the time. Myself a few buddies went to the Edmonton and Calgary shows.

The program itself is 24 pages in length with an article wrote by Alice himself and lots of cool pictures from his hey days and new ones from this tour. A cool program I must say.

Front Cover.

















Back Cover.