Rites of spring.

I've been in hardcore CONSUMER mode for a week now--can't explain it other than I'm better at thinking about buying stuff than just about anything else. There's good music out, stores are taking spring deliveries (clotheswise), it's light for nearly 12 hours a day. I grilled goddamn chicken yesterday.  So, some stuff to buy.

1. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists--The Brutalist Bricks

I've been a Ted Leo fan since a friend brought back from student government camp Chisel's "8 a.m. All Day" copied onto a tape. Sorry Tej, you've always appealed to nerds, and people who like government like you. That must hurt. I didn't give TLRx's last album too much of a chance, but the new one had me at "Where Was My Brain," which is a punk rock face melter live. Maybe I'll get a full review down here at some point, but for now, I like the album and whatever Matador has done for production, because it sounds better than any Ted album before.

2. Our Legacy - 1940s Sundried Japan Checks at Très Bien Shop


Full disclosure: I'm helping out Tres Bien Shop with some Web copy. That's encouraged me to browse their webshop a lot, though, and dang if there aren't some enviable pieces for sale. Tres Bien is an excellent source for Our Legacy (who I talked to at capsule), especially for Americans, as we don't have a lot of stockists and they speak English and cheerily ship to the United States via Fedex. They also subtract EU VAT, so it's like you get 20% off everything. That's a sales pitch, but that doesn't make it untrue. This shirt, in a 'Murican-toned plaid, is pretty much perfect. Button down collar, double layer fabric (note the blue gingham on the inside)--makes me yearn for the weather to wear it.

3. Gibson Sonex 180

I literally dusted off my acoustic guitar a couple weeks ago and got it fixed. I'd been procrastinating because i expected it to be expensive, which it wasn't. Hey, free money. So now I have big big plans--I'm going to steal back the amp I myself stole in the 1990s (from that same friend who gave me the Chisel tape) and buy an electric guitar. I should be annoying my neighbors in a matter of months. You can read up on the Sonex, but essentially it was budget Gibson back in the early 80s, but now has a rep that's better than many new Gibson models. I have it on good authority that it's a poor man's Gibson SG. And they can apparently be had for $500 or less. Pshaw, I have that in change behind my dresser. That is not hyperbole.

Coming up, I consider buying a new manbag.