The Oxford Collapse are going vinyl crazy, it seems. The dudes are releasing two slabs of the stuff: a 7″ on Flameshovel Records on April 29th, “to coincide with the 16th anniversary of the LA Riots” (uhh…?), and a four-song 12″ on Jon Solomon’s Comedy Minus One label this June.

And on a local front, the Collapse are playing Human BBQ on April 5th, alongside A Place to Bury Strangers, Japanther, Brown Recluse Sings, Pants Yell!, and others. This is definitely the best BBQ lineup since the year Wesley Willis played, so don’t miss out. Tix are 12$, and it’s all-ages.

Looking even further into the future, it seems their second full-length for Sub Pop, BITS, will be released on August 5th, 2008. That’s, like, 2-ish weeks after my birthday. So nice of them to celebrate my big 3-0 with a new record.

Those that know, know. Ahem.

Anyway. I’m Texas-bound quite soon and I have only one important, pressing thing on my mind: how many day parties and showcases will it take for me to go from loving No Age to totally hating them? ‘Cause they’re playing, like, all of them.

While I’m officially at SXSW on behalf of WPRB, please stay tuned to here for all your much needed insider info, photos, sound bites and whatnot.

Not my bike, but a bike. And a new camera to take it all in. I was reluctant to buy into a new system because I am a — gasp — devotee of the K-mount. (I tried jumping ship in the past, with Nikon & Canon systems, returning to my battered, trusty Chinon CE-45s every time.) I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to step into the world of DSLR’s, but I’m happy I finally did. My old lenses work nicely, and the in-camera editing features are phenomenal.

Someone, please dissuade me from buying the $900 Zeiss lens on B&H’s site. That’s almost twice as much as my rent! Oh photography, I thought I quit you.