The crowd at the Wild Moccasins CD Release Show. Photo by Ramon Medina

We had a pretty good weekend, all told.  Kicked things off Friday at the Wild Moccasins CD release show.  We have to hand it to the Mocccasins, they put on quite an event.  We’re sure it didn’t hurt that they offered so many freebies on the side (pizza, cupcakes, on-site t-shirt screening, a copy of their EP with your cover charge), and we love the fact that they decorated not just the stage, but the merch area too in moon-river promonade fantasia.  But really what they (along with bill-mates the Teenage Kicks and Buxton) should get the biggest of Kudo bars for is the fact that they not only played their hearts our, but managed to get Walter’s over capactiy.  There was a crowd both inside the doors and a big bunch turned away and just hanging in the parking lot.  They were smart enough to schedule a show so that kids with midnight curfews in the suburbs could see the whole thing and then make it home without being grounded (and so us old folks could go have a night-cap at our favorite suds spot if we so desired).  Though it’s not practical to do this everywhere (especially considering most clubs are 21+ now anyways), we give them a gold ribbon for their achievement, and hope more folks follow their example (you can see the rest of Ramon’s pics of the event here).

Your live outlook this week looks equally solid, with a great free show at Boondocks opening things up:  Flowers to Hide and Dizzy Pilot.  Walter’s is really kicking things into overdrive this week, with Los Campesinos! on Thursday, Fucked Up, Iron Age, the Jonbenet and Black Congress on Friday and Ume, Bring Back the Guns and Woozyhelmet on Saturday.  Both Black Congress and Ume are debuting releases at these shows (Black Congress on cassette tape, previewing a sudden release trend – more on that later this week).  And yes, you read that right, Bring Back the Guns have been Broughten Back.  It’s been the better half of a year since their last show, so be sure to get in on this one cause you never know when their next will be. Elsewhere, Gold Sounds, Linus Pauling Quartet and a Saturday Secret Show Event Saturday with The Mathletes, Guitars, Time Machine Veterens and others complicate your weekly choices.

Final thought: We went to one of those record dealer conventions Sunday morning.  If we had to throw an estimate out, we’d say that better than 80% of the records there were of the classic rock variety:  lots of dull boomer crap that you occasionally score at Half Priced Books, plus lots of stuff that is almost assuredly always there.  We were expecting to find a greater treasure trove of punk, indie and alternative stuff from the 80s and 90s, certainly when we think of collectable or desirable records, we think of that and not what we ended up finding.  So we ask:  where are all those admitedly limited in number records hanging around?  Is it possible that sow few of them were made, and they are so beloved by their owners that they are unlikely to find themselves into the inventory of dealers?  Would these dealers even know what they had if they came across them?  What are your fantasy record finds?  Kick it off in the comments.