New Pickups

I spent a lot of money on sports cards in the spring (mostly on 1956 Topps singles and card supplies) and didn't want to spend another dime until August..but then one of my favorite bands released a new CD. Yes, I still buy CDs :p

Newbury Comics was one of my favorite places to shop back in the day. They had huge stores with tons of CDs, rock t-shirts, posters, pop culture memorabilia..and a good selection of sports cards. I haven't been there in probably 15 years, since they didn't have any stores in CT and I haven't seen any in Jersey.

When I pre-ordered the new Silversun Pickups album Widow's Weeds I chose Newbury because they had a special autographed booklet edition:

Clockwise from top left: Joe Lester (keys), Nikki Monninger (bass), Brian Aubert (vocals/guitar), Christopher Guanlao (drums)

The autographs are very abbreviated - and smudged - but it's probably because they signed thousands of these. Newbury packed this booklet on top of the CD.. which contained another booklet:

 

I've only listened to a few songs so far (yesterday was a crappy day and I wanted to rest a while before Game 5) so I don't have a full album review ready. This is their featured track:

I'm feeling "Freakazoid" too, which was also released in advance of the full album:

I've been a Silversun fan for about ten years, since I picked up Guitar Hero World Tour. When their song "Lazy Eye" came on, my lazy eyes briefly read Silversun Pickups as Smashing Pumpkins and thought I'd stumbled on a new single from Billy Corgan & co.

That song makes me feel young...while this song makes me feel old:

Swoon and Carnavas are killer albums that I still listen to often. I could have seen SSPU live, when an old high school friend reached out on Facebook and offered to go with me. But he was in CT and the logistics weren't in our favor. He died a year later :(


If anyone is interested I'll write a post about the rest of Widow's Weeds in a week or two (I'm not good at album reviews, but I'll be sure to share my opinion on each track.) 

Meanwhile, my thoughts are with "Big Papi" David Ortiz, who is recovering from a point-blank gunshot wound. One of my jackass co-workers actually cheered the attack on Ortiz. 

I planned to post a pic of Papi's speech after the Boston marathon bombing, but when I searched my computer I found this photo of him hanging out with Stephen Curry.

Stay strong, Papi. 

~