Slacker Tuesday

Apparently I have a bad case of Jimmy Carter-style malaise, or else I'm just a little burned out from the holidays.

Taking a 24-hour break, in other words; posting resumes tomorrow.

Everybody's a Critic

Troubling news from Friday's edition of The Indiana Star:

INDIANAPOLIS — Oh, say can you . . . sing?

And, more importantly, can you sing it the "right" way -- the way one Indiana lawmaker thinks the national anthem should be sung?

Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, has introduced a bill that would set specific "performance standards" for singing and playing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at any event sponsored by public schools and state universities.

The law also would cover private schools receiving state or local scholarship funds, including vouchers.

Performers would have to sign a contract agreeing to follow the guidelines. Musicians -- whether amateur or professional -- would be fined $25 if it were deemed they failed to meet the appropriate standards.

Fortunately for Jose Feliciano and Roseanne, this can't be enforced retroactively.

Nonetheless, I think somewhere in Hell, this guy...



...is getting really pissed off.

Post-Mortem & Playlist

Well, that was fun.

A three-hour playlist ended up running 5 hours and change, partly because we worked in some requests and questions from listeners, partly because we got talking about weird corners of things, partly because, well, that list was pretty long to begin with, and it was never going to have fit in three hours even if I had been silent as the tomb. I had included some "maybe" songs: we were having so much fun, we ended up playing them all. And people really seemed to like it!

But because we were between semesters (the only reason there was that kind of empty time to fill), the wireless was dodgy and I wasn't able to record what we were doing, which was a shame.

Anyway, here's the playlist.

Hour 1 (1964-73)
Opening: Fountains of Wayne, “Red Dragon Tattoo”

British Invasion & American Effects

1. The Kinks (Aug 1964): “You Really Got Me”
2. The Who: (Dec 64) “I Can’t Explain”
3. The Beatles: (1966) “And Your Bird Can Sing”

4. Byrds: (1965) “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better”
5. The Cyrkle: (1966): “Red Rubber Ball”
6. Paul Revere & the Raiders: (1967) “Him or Me”
7. The Beach Boys: (1967) “Heroes & Villains”

68-73

8. The Move: (1968): “Fire Brigade”
9. Emitt Rhodes: (1970): “Fresh as a Daisy”
10. Badfinger: (1970): “No Matter What”

11. Big Star: (1972): “When My Baby’s Beside Me” &
12. “September Gurls”
13. Blue Ash: (1973) “Abracadabra (Have You Seen Her?)”
14. Raspberries: (1972): “Go All the Way”


Hour 2: Keeping the thread alive/ High Power Pop (1973-1980)

The magazines: Ira Robbins (Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press)/ Greg Shaw (Bomp!)

15. Dwight Twilley: (1976) “I’m on Fire” (but I played the single version!)
16. The Nerves: (1976) “Hangin’ On the Telephone”
17. Flashcubes: (1978) “Christi Girl”
18. Cheap Trick: (1978) “Surrender”
19. The Jam (1978): “Down in the Tube Station at Midnight”
20. The Undertones: (1978) “Teenage Kicks”

The Class of 79-80
21. Blondie: (1978-9) “One Way or Another”
22. The Knack: (1979) “My Sharona” &
23. “Good Girls Don’t”
24. 20/20: (1979) “Backyard Guys”
25. Shoes: (1979) “Tomorrow Night” &
26. “Too Late"
27. Paul Collins Beat: (1979) “Rock and Roll Girl” &
28. “I Don’t Fit In”
29. The Records: (1979) “Starry Eyes”

30. The Kings: (1980): “This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ to Glide”
31. The Vapors: (1980) “News at Ten”
32. Martha and the Muffins: (1980) “Echo Beach”
33. XTC: (1980) “Respectable Street”
34. Split Enz (1980): “I Got You”

Hour 3
The Critics: Jordan Oakes (Yellow Pills), John Borack (Goldmine), Steve Simels (Stereo Review)

35. Ail Symudiad: (1981) “Garej Paradwys”
36. The dBs: (1981) “Bad Reputation”
37. The Plimsouls: (1983) “A Million Miles Away”
38. Replacements: (1984) “Unsatisfied”
39. Redd Kross: (1987) “McKenzie”
40. Replacements: (1987) “Alex Chilton"
41. The Bangles: (1984) “Hero Takes a Fall”

Alternative Pop
42. Material Issue: (1991) “Diane” &
43. “International Pop Overthrow”
44. Teenage Fanclub: “Star Sign”
45. Matthew Sweet (1991) “Girlfriend”
46. Red Kross: (1993): “Jimmy’s Fantasy”
47. Pixies: (1991) “Head On”

48. Sugar: (1994) “Your Favorite Thing”
49. Matthew Sweet: (1995) "Sick of Myself"
50. Smashing Pumpkins: (1993) “Today”
51. Weezer: (1994) “In the Garage”
52. Guided by Voices: (1995) “Game of Pricks” &
53. “My Valuable Hunting Knife

54. Old 97s: (1999) “Murder (or a Heart Attack)”
55. Rooney: (2007) “I Should’ve Been After You”
56. Rifles: (2008) “Darling Girl”
57. Tinted Windows: (2009) “Kind of a Girl”
58. Fountains of Wayne (2011): “Richie & Ruben”

Some of you were listening: thanks so much! I hope you enjoyed it!

A Happy New Year's Theater of the Mind!!!

Well, I'm off to Gomorrah-on-the-Hudson, where later this evening I'll be quaffing elitist chardonnay with several satanic socialist Kenyan Muslim pals from Eschaton.

So here's hoping -- and I think I can speak for Kid Charlemagne and NY Mary (who kicked major ass on the radio earlier today, BTW) -- that the New Year brings you nothing but the best. And here's hoping as well that no matter where you end up tonight, you have as much fun as the folks at the New Year's party heard below, adapted for radio (hmm, I'm sensing a theme) from the wonderful 1936 comedy/mystery film After the Thin Man.



Of course, it omits the my favorite line from the movie.

Nora (Myrna Loy) to Nick (William Powell): "Oh Nick, I love you because you know such interesting people."

Power Pop: On the Radio

So I've become buddies with this terrific guy, Chris Kocher: he writes for the local paper, knows everything about the Kinks, has a radio show on the college station where he plays whatever the heck he feels like.

Over Thanksgiving, a remarkable confluence of bad luck (on his side) and good luck (on mine) threw us together in a car for an extended period, and we had a long talk about the neverending manuscript (I'm promised two solid weeks to finish, starting Monday!), the genre of power pop, and other important matters.

Long story short: this morning, Saturday, Dec 31, I'm going to appear on his radio show doing a three-hour history of power pop. UPDATE: The show is supposed to run 10am-1pm, but we might run a little over.

Stream it here.

He asked me, if I was going to introduce the genre with one song, what I would begin with, so we'll start here:



(Fun fact: I spent the last week not a stone's throw from Utopia Parkway, a real street in real Queens.)

Then it's onto the history: the precursors(Kinks! Beatles! Who! Paul Revere & the Raiders! More!), the lonely souls who kept the thread alive in the early 70's (Emitt Rhodes! Big Star! Blue Ash! Dwight Twilley! More!), the brief flash of commercial success (Nerves! Knack! Jam! 20/20! More!), and the inevitable shift into Alternative (Replacements! Matthew Sweet! Weezer! More!). And finally, by a commodious vicus of recirculation, back to the current scene and environs (Fountains of Wayne!)

As my blogmate is given to say, should be a hot one!

Listen streaming here.

Word is still out on possible podcast/download-ibility. Will let you know.

From the Crypt!

The great, lost Shoes video, from 1990's Stolen Wishes. It's intended ironically.

Days of Future Passed

This has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the mission statement of the blog you're currently reading, but if you haven't seen it before, it's just so fricking amazing I have to share.

From yesterday, December 29, in 1964: Craftsmen Richard Datin, Vern Sion, Mel Keys, and Volmer Jensen pose outside of Jensen's Los Angeles model shop with the just-completed original 11-foot version of the starship Enterprise.



It's obviously been a long and exhausting project for these guys, but I think -- if you look closely (by which I mean double click on the photo to enlarge it) -- you can sort of tell that they knew EXACTLY what they had wrought.

Great Lost Christmas Records of the '80s (An Occasional Series)

From 1988, please enjoy the aptly monikered Rudolf's Nightmare and their fast and furious (and furiouser) take on the venerable holiday standard "Silent Night."




This was an indie single and (IMHO) a should-have-been seasonal novelty smash. I seem to recall that Dr. Demento has played it on occasion, but in any case it certainly deserves to be more widely known.

I should add that it was produced by my old chum Lars Hanson, who plays the fabulous Jeff-Beck-on-illegal-stimulants guitar stuff; my bandmate of several thousand years Glen "Bob" Allen can be heard pounding those pagan skins.

Wednesday "I Hate the Holidays" Total Self-Indulgence

Experiencing massive holiday fatigue at the moment, so please excuse a certain shocking laziness on my part until next week.

And in that spirit, enjoy some band called The Hi-Beams live on the radio in Woodstock in 1995. Featuring some guy whose name rhymes with Sleeve Nimels on bass and vocals.




Those are my chums Gerry Devine (guitar and vocals), Doug Goldberg (way cool James Burton-ish lead guitar and vocals) and Glen "Bob" Allen (drums); the song is by Gerry. It was the opening track from our indie CD of the same year, but this version just kicks its ass. I also think it's my finest moment as a bass player.

Instrumental Backing Tracks of the Gods: Yet Another Beatles Song Edition

From the (as it's called) White Album -- of which Cameron Crowe, who makes movies or something, famously said "you still can't buy a better record" -- please enjoy the once and future Fab Four and the instrumental track to George Harrison's astounding "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."




Let's be honest -- there's no way Bernard "Pretty" Purdie played on this one.

[h/t ROTP(Plumber)]