Man, so just when I think that going out on the road promoting the Overrated Book can’t get any better, it does. The heightened airport security kicked in right as I made the connecting flight in Indianapolis on my way to Chicago. You know what they took? My effin’ prescription eye medication. Unreal. But once I got to Quimby’s, everything was fine. I did a 45 minute talk about the magazine, the book, the DVDs…..everything, really. To rekindle the last time there, I had friends bring milkshakes which went over well. Had thee best BBQ I’ve ever had in Chicago afterwards at Honey’s #1 (aka Magic Land) consisting of rib tips and sausage. Oh my god. The next day was Landlocked in Bloomington. The kids (and I mean that literally) there were awesome as I showed movies and made a futile attempt at selling books to their broke asses. I got a chance to go and check out the warehouses at Secretly Canadian and snag a copy of the John Cale box set I originally designed (but was not credited for) and get a stack of new SC releases that were perfect for my lengthy drive to Cincy. What can I say about Shake it Records that wouldn’t make it seem like I’m a paid endorser? I don’t know, but for a small(ish) town, I was thoroughly blown away. I co-emceed a 2 hour presentation with Billy at Shake It where we inducted people that should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Pretty Things, Stooges, etc) and deducted people that shouldn’t be there (Eagles, Billy Joel, etc). Very fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants, but still a blast. I then spent the next 3 hours looking thru the records in the basement, and eventually spending over $200. Fortunately, Billy was able to apply credit to all the stuff I brought to sell them. Outside of Amoeba, I had never spent so much money at a record store in such little time. The biggest scores were finding great copies of all the old Melvins records on vinyl, but I also found a few old Olivia Tremor Control singles (one that I personally released was awesome to find), and was given the newly reissued Kenny Smith CD that Shake It released which was an astounding collection of early 70’s soul. The drive back to Chicago was slightly miserable as I couldn’t find a hotel, but thankfully the mighty Tom Pisano came to my rescue at 2am. I’ll talk about him more at some later time.
Thanks to Paul H, Pdex, Sara T, Liz @ Quimby’s, Heath & Landlocked, JC, Darius, Mary, Ben, Chris, Jon, Billy and Darren at Shake it and most especially, anybody that had me sign their book. Next stop? Texas!
Kenny Smith – Lord What’s Happened?
Kenny Smith – Deep In My Heart