VACATION
Vacationed in a very cold london this past week...but despite the cold (and the VAT) we had tons of fun, visited many of London's major sites and of course...Hit up lots of London's great record shops including: Intoxica, Music + Video Exchange, Rough Trade, Rhythm Records, Virgin Records, Minus Zero Records, Stand Out Collections and probably some others we dug through but left empty handed (I swear, so many record shops...so little time!) So expect lots of new music updates in the coming weeks including the new Erlend Øye album, Unrest, with a U.S. release date of Feb 11th! (Remember you heard it hear first!)...and now for the most amazing thing that happened in London...

Yes the coolest thing to happen to me in London...happened as I was purchasing a couple of cd's + records at Stand Out Collections. One of the cd's was Primal Scream's classic, Screamadelica and here's how it happened (play by play):

I handed over my purchases to the guy behind the counter and was waiting for him to get everything together, all the while still leafing through the records in front of me, 'in the zone' so to speak...When the record shop guy asks me,

"Would you like to have it signed?"

Then with a somewhat confused, rather dazed expression I looked up, and who is standing no less than two feet away from me???

Bobby Gillespie is holding the Screamadelica cover up and asking me, "What's your name?"

I say, "Benny!" and the rest...Well, i don't exactly remember.

Some small talk...he asked me where i was from...the shop owner, who was also talking to him, started making fun of his signature. Mostly i just kinda just stood there with a blank expression of awe.

Well that was it...What can i say, other than...Thank You Mr. Gillespie for all the great music and for being such a cool person!