While takin' a short break from puttin' the final touches on the reshapin' of HQ, I figured it 'd be a good time to give you some kinda update on what's up around here and hip you to some recent news. OK, discs first: Norton's latest releases have been a mainstay on the ol' hi-fi lately. The Roky Erickson set 'Don't Knock The Rock' is great collection of rehearsal recordings (from '78 with the definitive Aliens line-up), that sees our man messin' about w/ a bunch o' 50s covers to great effect, plus a number o' Roky originals that are new to me like the great 'Things That Go Bump In The Night'. Excellent liner-notes by long time Roky fan and former Angry Samoan Gregg Turner are the icin' on the proverbial whatsis. Also be on the look-out for the Norton distributed 'A Starlight Date With Richard Marsh', a solid set that rounds up Sky Saxon's earliest (pre-Seeds) sides from the time was modelin' himself as a teen idol. The voice is already easily recognizable, and tho' some of you hard-liners might think some of the ballads are "too soft", there's no mistakin' the upliftin' power of tune like 'Do The Swim'. Still on heavy rotation are Norton's re-issues of the first four Gene Vincent LPs and according to their latest mailorder catalogue there's two more on the way. Speakin' of which; Other discs promised for the new year by our fave Brooklyn label are; Real Kids's early demos 10", three part 'Forth Worth Teen Scene' series (remember those two Big Beat releases from way back when?), Nervous Norvus demos LP (!), Arch Hall JR full-length, Johnny Burnette demos, Dictators live set (!!!), Ron Haydock's up-till-now-CD-only '99 Chicks' will finally make it to vinyl using the label's new "Reverse Technology", a Cha Cha label comp (home of Haydock ao), 2nd vols of both 'Wolf Call' and 'Aliens, Psychos And Wild Things', and finally a Triumphs (of 'Surfside Date' fame) EP. Dunno if all you web crawlers still do some authentic old school reading (books that is), but if so may I recommend Brett Milano's 'Vinyl Junkies' (St Martin's Press), a hilarious look at the more extreme forms of the disease know as "record collecting". Most of the better known wax-hounds get their say, includin' Thurston Moore, Miriam Linna, Robert Crumb, the Peters Buck, Wolf and Holsapple and everybody's favorite lunatic/madman Jeff "Monoman" Conolly. Anybody who has ever looked in bewilderment at those tiny CD racks they're sellin' all over the place (you know, the ones that hold about 10 or 20 discs), and figured you'd need at least several hundred of those to store your collection, will recognize something in here. Earlier today I picked up John Collis' new Ike Turner bio 'King Of Rhythm' (Do Not Press), When I handed the book to the girl behind the counter she said "are you aware this man is a wife beater?", "of course" I replied, "I'm looking forward to read the full details in here", after which the rest of the transaction was made in complete silence. Hardly made any inroads into the main text yet, but scannin' the massive discography I was amazed on how many great discs Ike was involved. Christ, he's even there on Otis Rush's Cobra recording of 'Double Trouble', one of my all-time fave blues tunes, and I had never noticed before !. Back to vinyl: To promote the recent Nomads tribute disc, the Wild Kingdom label has released a very limited split 45 of the Nomads and Hellacopters both tacklin' the former's 'Pack Of Lies', grab while it's out there, 'cause it's limited as heck. And with the festive season upon us why not skip the latest offerin' from the Darkness and head for the 5.6.7.8's 'Rock and Roll Santa' 45 on Norton or the Buff Medway's 'Merry Christmas Fritz' on Damaged Goods. OK, that's it for now, I'll be sure to post my "best of 2003" list in the next couple o' days as requested by a number of you (and hopefully Lindsay 'n Steve 'll do likewise). A merry Christmas to you all, and take it easy on the turkey....