Day three of my road trip to Denver was spent in Chicago, where I saw a lot of cool things, ate a lot of good food, and look who’s tour poster is out front of Reckless Records. Silkworm, like motorcycles, are everywhere!

Detroit, in parts, is still the city version of Centralia, PA. A ghost. A smile missing a lot of teeth.

NOW THAT’S A PARKING SPOT: Saying hi to Third Man Detroit on our road trip out to Denver.

Just saw Silkworm on two out of three nights (Meat Loaf says it ain’t bad), and today starts a two week road trip to Denver and back. First stop is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and look what’s there—the Silkworm Christmas single!

I never thought I’d see this band play these songs again. Silkworm in Philadelphia. They opened with Couldn’t You Wait and it was overwhelming. It’s like when Gandalf comes back in Lord of the Rings, to get incredibly nerdy.

THE VIBE I’M CATCHING FROM THE NYTIMES WHITE HOUSE REPORTERS LATELY:

GIVE THIS THE PULITZER: Almost a poem. A portrait of bad vibes to rival Dante. If there are history books in the future trying to convey this low moment,This is it. Faye Dunaway leaving with John Huston levels of despair. Forget it Jake, this was America.

These motherfuckers better not end all human civilization before I get to see the Silkworm reunion next month

ON EASTER SUNDAY: Jesus arose to slide in my DMs and try and get me involved in an Instagram marketing scam. Oh brave new world etc

Spotted in Washington DC

Today’s best NY Times headline: “No One at Waffle House Remembers FEMA Official Who Says He Teleported In” Life is the goofy episodes of the X-Files and we’re all Dana Scully.

THE NEXT CLASSIC ROCK APPRECIATION SOCIETY PROJECT: It’s the 30th anniversary of Silkworm’s Firewater LP, and I’m going to play the whole thing with the help of my dad and his old buddy Randy on the drums. Self indulgence? Sure. First practice was tonight, and here’s some of the first song, Nerves.

These stickers are now free at my store, and will be available until there’s some justice for Alex Pretti and everyone else.

This is the least of the things as our reign of terror era dawns, but that the heads of Apple and Amazon spent the evening after Trump’s fascists murdered American hero Alex Pretti chomping popcorn at the white house fills me with white hot anger. I will never give either company another dime.

Government work, when it works at all, is by nature collaborative and never the work of one person. But I think I can safely say this new school zone around Memorial Elementary wouldn’t have happened without me. It’s no playground from Ikiru, but I’m proud of it. As my term ends, it’s one last win.

MOUNTAIN GOATS LISTENERS LISTEN UP: This new John Darnielle book is like the platonic ideal object for my record/book store. Makes a great gift for fans! Already outsold the Olivia Nuzzi scandal memoir. Find it on our Recently Published display table.

THE OBLIGATORY HOLIDAY POST(ER): Hung a few movie posters above the soundtracks section in our Royal Tenenbaums inspired pink room. That seasonally appropriate Home Alone one made its way to us from the Cinema Center, our local nineties movie mecca in the pre-AMC days. Ah, Bloomsburg lore!

IS THIS THE BIGGEST HOUSEPLANT IN A RECORD/BOOKSTORE TODAY? If there were a prize, I’d like to think our fiddle leaf fig would be prizewinning. Big enough to cover whatever shame you got. Not for sale, but I can promise that, like the fig, your brain and spirit will thrive in these fertile environs.

Personally, I kinda like that Tarantino is willing to express his weird unjustifiable strong movie opinions publicly. It’s just an opinion. We all know Paul Dano was good in TWBB. But not as good as he was in Prisoners. If you wanna criticize Dano, The Girl Next Door is RIGHT THERE.

YOUR GEESE IS COOKED: I feel like the woman in the Twilight Zone episode “Eye of the Beholder” every time I see Geese top best album of the year lists. Working up my own list now and I can assure you of what will be conspicuous in its absence. Not a great music year, but surely better than THAT.

RSD BLACK FRIDAY STUFF READY TO GO FOR TOMORROW: May the odds be ever in your favor. Gentleman, at dawn we ride. (Well really just 10 AM like usual, but it ain’t afternoon…)

GOOD ALBUMS OF 2025: Nation of Language have been the reigning best 80s band that’s actually from the 2020s for the whole post-pandemic world, and they’re not giving up the crown with their Sub Pop debut “Dance Called Memory.” I just think it’s a crime that “In Your Head” is buried at Track 9.

Roses are red, dough’s gotta rest RFK Jr. has a weird personal definition of “harvest” “On the Beach” is still Neil’s best But now the phrase “Harvest Moon” has got me distressed

Last week I was in Wilkes-Barre and caught them with their caulk out. To be clear, it’s stuck like a barnacle to the curb. NEPA life.

Just finished reading Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland and oof, what an OK boomer novel. Everything funny and dare I say Pynchonesque in One Battle After Another comes from P.T Anderson, not the source book. Give him the best adapted screenplay oscar for that turd polish.

The Politico headline today is “Epstein, in newly released email, says Trump ‘knew about the girls’”. No shit, Sherlock. Coincidentally, a Sherlock Holmes story is the source of the phrase “the dog who hasn’t barked” that Epstein also described Trump with. The Complete Holmes available now in store

Lemme get this straight—this year’s Booker prize winning novel is titled “Flesh”? Was “Moist” already taken?

THE THIN LIZZY ERA IS COMING TO AN END: Friday I’m playing and singing the whole Jailbreak LP at Brewskis in downtown Bloomsburg (7 PM! No cover!), which is rad but will mean the end of my Thin Lizzy era. I’ve drunk deep, and here’s what I’ve learned. #1: The Chinatown LP is underrated (cont. below)

It’s a victory for sandwiches everywhere.

If the wrapper ain’t split, you must acquit!

I hear there’s a new sheriff in NYC, and Endless Records got this Marty Robbins classic back in stock. That’s about as much as you can expect from a Wednesday.

NEXT FRIDAY: Guess who just got back from rocking Milton? The Classic Rock Appreciation Society bring Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak to Brewskis on Friday 11/14. That night there's gonna be a jailbreak, and I'm telling you where in this town. 7PM, don't miss it! Hey you, good lookin' people, come here!

A president who can tear down 1/3 of the White House can tear down the entire White House. A president who can steal $230M from the treasury can steal $1T from the Treasury. We have both legalized and tolerated Trump’s crimes, so they will only get bigger.

MADE THE DAILY ITEM: The other local paper around here, the one that covers points east, has a little blurb about Saturday’s show. You should come! It’s going to be a Halloween costume party as well. So much Thin Lizzy it’s fat.

LOST DISCO JAM OF THE DAY: From 1980, the year everything from Alice Cooper to Zapp made the Billboard Disco Heat charts, here’s The JB’s with an abdolutely killer chant “Rock Groove Machine.” THIS is what should be playing in Mad Max when the guitar spits flames, or when King Kong is released.

I got a great new cover image if anyone feels like reissuing There’s a Riot Goin’ On anytime soon. When it comes to our biggest American threats, the call is coming from inside the house.

EVERYTHING’S HAPPENING IN MILTON: Just a week after our Thin Lizzy covers show / Halloween costume party (this Saturday!) a good friend is putting on this super rad theater piece at the Art Academy of Milton. Let’s make it a full house. It’s the biggest thing to hit Milton since Chef Boyardee!

Early hours for the NO KINGS demonstration in little Bloomsburg, PA. It’s a big crowd on a beautiful day. The headcount here looks like enough to get anyone elected on the local level. County, State and National levels next.

Came across this TG Sheppard LP today and remembered that Motown ran a country label in the mid 70s. Every release was horrendous. The talent included a pre-metal Pat Boone. Closest thing to a hit was a joke song that thinks parakeet is a euphemism. Laugh tracks throughout. Why Berry Gordy, why?

GOT A NEW SECTION AT THE STORE FOR THESE HARD TIMES: Good records under ten bucks. You got your yacht rock and your Carpenters, your Motown and your 60s am pop. Saturday Night Fever and always Catch Bull at Four. LPs you should want that are still cheap. Get ‘em before they go the way of Rumours.

THE SOUNDTRACK THEY SHOULD’VE USED #2: Sure I get why the Saltburn lady went with Charli XCX for the oh-so-sexy new Margot Robbie Wuthering Heights. The yutes must be courted. But for real, there exists a 1979 disco opera of WH by Ferrara. If nobody dances naked to this by film’s end, I quit.

THE SOUNDTRACK THEY SHOULD’VE USED #1: Edgar Wright usually has impeccable needle drop taste, but the trailer for The Running Man is a missed opportunity. Why choose a poochied-up Sly Stone remix when Al Stewart was right there?!?

Unhinged literary opinion: I’m more than half convinced Freida McFadden is AI, not a real person.

NONA ABIDES: This cat is nearly 20 years old. If she were a human she’d be around 95. She’s had a rough year, but is still purring away.

Thinking about something like this for stickers, pins, etc. It’s time to use the man’s butt rock tools against him.

COME TO OUR HALLOWEEN PARTY: I’m going as Thin Lizzy this Halloween. The whole Jailbreak LP live at a costume party in Milton. I hope to see you there!

There may be better songs than Idris Muhammad’s “Could Heaven Ever Be Like This,” but recently I can’t think of many. This song is so long that I can get there and back from my local movie theater on one play. Really, heaven. Underrated disco. Still a lot of good stuff to mine in that vein.

At the Campus Theatre for one of my favorite spooky flicks, the Shirley Jackson adaptation The Haunting. Julie Harris! Claire Bloom!

You know the reason why the US just bailed out Argentina, right? A lot of these guys currently in charge know they’re gonna need a place to flee when the dust settles, and their just looking at the historical precedent. That’s why they’re so mad Brazil won’t play ball.