The Eccentric Soul Review killed last night. Shame on you if you weren’t there!

Thanks to The Numero Group for putting it up, for JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound for laying it down, and to Renaldo Domino, The Notations, and Syl Johnson for knocking it out of the park. Er, the music hall.

Tonight, if you’re in NYC and looking for something to get into, you can’t do much better than my mans an nem Chairman Mao and Matthew Africa (from Oakland, CA! Town Biz, yadadadig?) at club APT for Mao’s Grand Groove monthly.

Apropos of Mr. Africa’s visit, everyone interested in good music and writing about it should make a point of visiting and bookmarking Matthew’s great blog I Wish You Would.

In other news, we’re still retooling the website… ugh… new arrivals are hitting the store with frightening speed… and we’ve got some more big things up our sleeve for the spring, so stay tuned.

Be safe and have a wonderful weekend! Go Pacquiao!

Over the weekend, some angry guy in San Diego wrote, on a board I contribute to,

“p.s. seriously, you guys are nerds. I mean the classic “revenge of the nerds” type nerds. the “Gets beat up in highschool” type nerds. the “has fantasies of developing mutant powers to get revenge on the bullies”type nerds. The “go online where no one can beat you up” type nerds. real live actual nerds. virgin type nerds. you guys are nerds. “

I stated, there, that I found this attitude profoundly weak and immature, but I want to make that clear here at well.

Look – what someone was like, 20 years ago, in the place they grew up, is of virtually no concern to me. Whether they were part of the cool crew or the geek squad. And I believe that we all should, as the saying goes, “be nice to nerds – chances are, you’ll end up working for one.”

But more importantly, I’m standing here saying to you all: I am still a Nerd. Capital “N”. You might see me and think, “him? He’s dressed well, his wife is pretty, his store is cool, he’s not socially awkward [well, the better you know me, the more you know this not to be true. heh]. This guy? Not a nerd.” And I may have grown into myself and become a bit more comfortable with who I am over the years; that is true. As many of us lanky, bird chested, squeaky voiced, obsessive compulsive, video game playin’, no game havin’, goofy jumpshot launchin’, bookish type non-bros have.

But what we do here now is not that far off from who we all were then. I still get heated discussing minutiae of vinyl pressings of music that most folks don’t care about and maybe never did. I still take the WFMU Record Fair over college game day every year. I still find it hard to start or follow conversations that don’t revolve around my obsession with records, which, quite honestly, is not that different from the baseball cards I hoarded as a youth (or action figures, D&D, Atari cartridges – whatever your twist was).

Without belaboring the point, Good Records NYC stands in full support of the Nerds, Dorks, Geeks, and Goofballs of the world. We know from whence you came, the battles you fought, and the scars you still carry. And here, friend, you have a home.