Every Memorial Day weekend we travel upstate to a remote section of the Catskills to be with family, eat lots of barbecue (and pasta, you can’t escape Italian tradition when you’re outnumbered 20 to 1 up there) and celebrate my son’s birthday. The one other thing I do is make my annual trip to my favorite local record shops, Spike’s Record Rack and John Doe Records. Despite a wishlist on Discogs a mile long, I never go in with any set plan; I just browse around until things catch my eye. So this is the pickup, but be warned: two of the albums are actually “2 for 1” compilations that sound fantastic which means what looks like five is actually seven albums. If I did my math right. Which is debatable. Regardless, let’s get into it.

My first real exposure to The Pretty Things was in Mike Barnes’s A New Day Yesterday, which traces the genesis (ha!) and growth of the UK progressive rock scene in the 70s. Additionally Spike, the owner of Spike’s Record Rack, raved that they were the “best Rolling Stones band no one heard of”. Both the book and Spike noted that S.F. Sorrow, the band’s 1968 album may lay claim to being the first rock opera, a narrative concept that almost feels like a rite of passage for prog bands. Pretty Things contains both S.F. Sorrow as well as the band’s 1970 album Parachute. We listened to S.F. Sorrow in the car on the way home and it’s really good, though Mick Jagger and co. don’t come to mind when I listen. There is a distinct blend of Beatles, The Who, and The Kinks swirling around in the band ‘s sound, capable of a simple pretty melodies and jarring, more experimental fare. Right up my alley, in other words, so I’m looking forward to digging deeper into both with full reviews.

I call myself a lover of all things Pink Floyd, but truth be told I never actually listened to any of the solo Syd Barrett stuff. So how do I rectify that? I saw a new copy of his second album Barrett in the New Arrivals section, but once again Spike came to the rescue noting that this near-mint condition double album from Harvest was available for just a few bucks more. The title is exactly what it is: The Madcap Laughs and Barrett is the first two albums, produced by David Gilmour and featuring almost all of Pink Floyd (Nick Mason is absent). I have a few of these double album compilations and they’re always a great deal. This is one set I’m going to spend some time with before getting anything down.

Man oh man…I did not know Sweet could rock this hard. The other purchase we listened to on our way home, Desolation Boulevard has balls the size of mountains, and a swagger to match. Opener “Ballroom Blitz” is a killer classic, and I know I heard it first from Kooks, but they couldn’t hold a candle to what the band churn out here. Brian Connolly’s voice is solid rock gold, and between this and “Fox On The Run” their place in glam history would be secured. But the whole album is filled with incredible songs: I don’t know if I ever heard “Sweet F.A.” before but you can bet your bottom dollar it will be on this week’s playlist. Not a bad track to be found here, though I should note this is the US version from Capitol Records, and features some songs from their previous UK album Sweet Fanny Adams which I guess I should be grateful for considering how hard I fell for that song.

This was not the Spooky Tooth I was looking. But if there’s one thing I learned crate digging in record stores is to take a chance on something when you find it. This is the band’s debut album, known as It’s All About when it was released in the UK in 1968. The US release, simply titled Spooky Tooth was released on Bell Records and is almost exactly the same, with two exceptions: there’s a slightly different album cover, using another photo from the same sessions, and the sides have been swapped, meaning the US version opens with “It’s All About A Roundabout” instead of “Society’s Child” which reminds me of the Beatles in the chorus despite it actually being covered by a number of other folks who are NOT the Beatles, including Janice Ian and Lou Gramm, of all people.

If you can’t get down with “These Boots Are Made For Walkin'” by the incomparable Nancy Sinatra I just don’t know if we can hang. I had gotten Light In the Attic’s great reissue of 1966’s Boots and it started my love affair with Sinatra’s voice and style, particularly in her collaborations with Lee Hazlewood. Start Walkin’ is another fantastic release from Light in the Attic (seriously, they are a fantastic label) and is the first comprehensive overview of Sinatra’s career. And because it’s Light in the Attic, it’s filled to the brim with great stuff: a 24-page book with essays, an interview with Sinatra, a discussion with the compilation’s producer, and copious photos, not to mention the stunning colored vinyl. If all you know is “These Boots…” and “Bang Bang” (another classic that opens the compilation) you’re in for a treat with this one.

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It’s going to be a crazy few weeks with work and my own birthday coming up, but I think we’ll be back in the reviewing business pretty quickly.

So many albums.

So little time.