Free vinyl on my Bandcamp page this weekend only!

Plus : some things I have enjoyed.

Hello!

This weekend only, all of the vinyl releases on the Lava Thief¹ Bandcamp page are FREE / pay what you want. (Edit - actually I’ve had to list the prices at 50pence because you can’t enter zero on a physical product, but - close enough to free!)

Doing this because I know that times are weird for everyone right now and I also know that there are a few people overseas who have said they’d love to own the record but LP + postage combined = too much.

It’s the same for me, I haven’t bought any records from the US artists I used to directly support for quite some time because the postage is often more than the vinyl itself. Anyway, if this is you - now’s your chance.

Silver Stairs Of Ketchikan, Repo Man and Thought Forms vinyl available

There are copies of my solo (Silver Stairs Of Ketchikan) album “EDEIDA” on translucent aquamarine vinyl, “Clean” is the collection of acoustically reimagined Thought Forms songs and “Minesweeping” is the second album by Bristol based post-punk band Repo Man.

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Last time I wrote, I talked about wanting to make play and fun more of a priority in my life :

Why is that such a rarity? Why do we forget that we need to play?! I want to play more and have fun and express myself honestly and make time to do the things that make me “me”.

So here are some important things that I’d like to share with you :

I made a restaurant for my cat.

We’d been feeding Roxy (cat) on a countertop for a while because Coco (dog) is so bloody greedy that we can’t put Roxy’s food bowl on the floor or she’d starve. This was not ideal for many reasons, so I finally got around to making Roxy her very own “cattoria”. Too high for tiny dogs to reach, low enough for ageing cats to enjoy and with much more ambience than her previous dining environment.

I enjoyed this immensely and it makes me smile every time I feed her.

The band that cries laughing together stays together.

Instead of band practice last week, Thought Forms had a meal together and ended up watching old episodes of 999 Lifesaver on YouTube. (Any other UK folks remember this? The one about the hair in the swimming pool has stayed with me all my life!) Anyway, not sure how this came about but I highly recommend it - never realised how “Accidental Partridge” it was before. Literally cried laughing.

I would not want to create music (or anything) with people who I don’t enjoy spending time with. I feel very lucky to have this particular set of people to make a noise with.

DIY with the husband is fun

The music kind, not the house kind - though I do like that too. Jim’s band Get The Blessing are releasing a new album in October and it’s the first time they’ve released anything themselves, so I’ve been helping out a bit with some of the logistics along the way (since I’ve done it a few times and have survived). I think the album is really good, I especially like side two and I’m excited for people to hear it in full! Right now you can hear two tracks and pre-order it here.

It feels really nice to be able to work on stuff together and help each other out.

(It’s our wedding anniversary today!)

I made a hanging basket

This is it :

Saw a pretty snail

I liked the paths snail was making on the window.

Oh and I’ve been reading a really good book called “Stolen Focus” by Johann Hari which I’d recommend to anybody who has a social media account of any kind.

Until next time - feel free to get in touch before then!

Love

Charlie

1. If you didn’t already know, Lava Thief is a “label” (feels like an overstatement but technically that’s what it is) that I started putting stuff out on in 2009. Elaborately handmade CD-Rs, a few vinyl releases, riso-print books etc. Very sporadic, started just for fun but it’s been a great way to learn about what goes into releasing music.