The Universal Soldier.

Everyone has a guilty pleasure when it comes to music... and I am no different than anyone else... I'm kind of obsessed with Donovan... it started when I was a kid... and back then one of the highlights of the week was going to the gas station with my Dad... not to pump the gas or go through the car wash... but to get a Solid Gold cassette tape from the Shell gas station on the corner... when you filled up your car you would get a tape... and before you knew it I had a whole case of Solid Gold tapes... as a kid this had a huge influence on me... and no doubt made my music obsession what it is today... one of those songs was Spinning Wheel by Blood Sweat & Tears and the other turned out to be Universal Soldier by Donovan... I probably wore those two tapes thin the amount of times I played those two songs on repeat in my room on my little ghetto blaster... and I still listen to Donovan today... he actually introduced me to Bob Dylan when I was about 11 years old... and listening to Dylan songs made me pickup the guitar... not that I'm an accomplished guitarist or anything... but it made me obsess over music even more... and when I was at Sister Ray recently in London, England.... a seven inch jumped out at me... to my surprise there was an original copy of Universal Soldier from 1967... 24 years later and I'm still listening to that same song on repeat... my taste in music has changed considerably over the years... but one thing always remains the same... and that's my obsession with DONOVAN!!!

Tomboy 7" Series.

Next week Panda Bear comes out with his new full length album Tomboy... he released his first 7" with the title track Tomboy which I bought at Optimal Records when I was in Munich last September... I picked up You Can Count On Me and Last Night At The Jetty in Toronto at Rotate This... and the final record of the series Surfer's Hymn... I bought while I was in London at Rough Trade... my record problem is obviously an international thing.