A couple of weeks ago I was listening to The Replacements album ‘Let It Be’.  There’s a song on it called Black Diamond that has a nice heavy metal kind of feel to it, just a bit dark and ominous – call it ‘mostly cloudy’ – and thought it would tie to a song by another band, etc, etc, a playlist forms in my head.  I kick off my show (the 27th) with the song, talked about it a little, and when it was over Leeman, who was hanging out after his show (Headshop), says, “That’s one of my favourite Kiss songs.”

“It’s by Kiss?”  I say with complete innocence until I realize the level of dufus-osity I’d stumbled upon.  The look on his face was a shocked, “You don’t know that was a Kiss song?! Dude, aren’t you a DJ?” The look on my face was not unlike Charleton Heston finding out what soylent green is.  And just to confirm what Leeman said – scratch that – to confirm my own idiocy I popped open the CD liner notes, something I normally study with biblical attention, and see the familiar names from Kiss gracing the songwriting credits.  Damn Shaniqua.

Everyday I learn something new, even now, sometimes at my own expense.

My only defense was that I’m truthfully more familiar with Kiss as an icon rather than a band, with the exception of some 80′s stuff.  Those were crazy, crazy nights after all.  Henry Rollins has a spoken word bit where he talks about everyone knowing the chorus to Detroit Rock City, but few know the verses.  Me in a nutshell.  I could lie to myself, but it’s true.

It brought back a memory of a letter I wrote to Dave G in Spring 1994 that included a bit about a cool debut album I’d just discovered by a new Irish singer named Sarah McLachlan.  I found out in very short order that I was a dumbass because the album in question was her 3rd and she’s from Nova Scotia.

In finding this I was reminded that on the day of the very first It’s Late I woke up at Trish’s after maybe an hour of sleep, Alex and I rocked out the show, scored some breakfast together, I went to work, caffeinated all day, dinner somewhere, back to the radio station in South City by 7 to tape Psychtalk (a show I engineered 1996 until it’s demise), then to the Circuit City way out at Clarkson & Manchester to pick up the newfangled DVD player I ordered, and finished the day by driving back home to Mom & Dad’s in Florissant.  If I’d gone to St. Charles for anything I’d have been in all 4 corners of STL in a single day, fueled by multiple liters of Mountain Dew.

Anyway, this cracks me up.

________________________________ 
From: Nick Cowan
Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 1999 3:40 PM
To: ‘The Dude’
Subject: I’m leaving

Gravel lamppost landmine landfall fluroescent candy farm boy lid sewer bench storm of photon thumbtack popcorn Jim Crow underwear wheat wacker Jedi thousand butter if staple the pothole danky square dance hall days love me tender chicken breast and wings over america the beautiful beast of burden my back is broke and lonely so lonely so say say say whatcha watcha watcha watcha want to hurt me do you really wanna jump might as well jump jump daddy mac’ll make ya jump jump around jump around the way girl like you might think it’s foolish games are tearing us apart at the seams falling a party all the time party all the time party all the time in a bottle the first thing I’d like to do the humpty hump do the humpty come on do the wild thing you make my heart sing and rejoice sing and rejoice

So I planned a little mystery date for us this past weekend (the 31st) we trekked down to KDHX to see our friend Paul Stark who hosts the awesomeness that is The Musical Merry Go Round Show.  I’ve known Paul for about 9 or 10 years (he hosted Ska’s The Limit for 15 or so years) and he gave me the o-tay to bring Porter down for his first time at the station.

Porter loved the place and spent a lot of time taking it in, studying, and analyzing everything the way he does.  His little brain is a wonderful place.  So we’re sitting opposite Paul listening to the music and I’m still watching Porter when Paul asks him if he can do something for him, that something being reading the call letters!  Porter was very happy to do it and got to talk on the mic a little bit.  He did a great job and kept it nice a simple – kid’s got great radio instincts.

Now it’s cool if you just want to hear the best little man in the whole wide world (it’s about 90 seconds edited down) but do have a listen to the whole show at the above link because it’s really good.   Paul has a broad range of music and really captures the essence what kids music is while making it fun for grown ups too (remember my sensitive cheese-o-meter).

Even better, it’s becoming a tradition to listen to the latest Show on Sunday afternoons.

January 13, 1999

1. Stevie Wonder – Superstition (Talking Book)
2. James Brown – Cold Sweat (JB40: 40th Anniversary Collection)
3. P-Funk – Theme From The Black Hole (Tear The Roof Off 1974-1980)
4. Run DMC – It’s Tricky (Raising Hell)
5. LL Cool J – Goin’ Back To Cali (Def Jam’s Greatest Hits)
6. Prince – Power Fantastic (The Hits, The B-Sides)
7. Miles Davis – It Never Entered My Mind (Workin’ With The Miles Davis Quartet)
8. Fred Hersch – In Walked Bud (Fred Hersch Plays Monk)
9. Diana Krall – Peel Me A Grape (Love Scenes)
10. Dr John – Stranded In St Louis (Broadcast Vol. 6)
11. Harry Connick, Jr. – Just Kiss Me (Blue Light, Red Light)
12. Aretha Franklin – The House That Jack Built (30 Greatest Hits)
13. Save Ferris – Superspy (It Means Everything)
14. 8 1/2 Souvenirs – Mozerella Rag (Happy Feet 1.0)
15. Johnny Socko – If I Didn’t Have A Goiter (Oh!  I Do Hope It’s Roast Beef)
16. Slapdash – Monkey (News At Five)
17. Dweezil Zappa – Stayin’ Alive (Confessions)
18. Phish – Mound (Rift)
19. Ben Folds Five – Kate (Whatever & Ever Amen)
20. Abra Moore – Don’t Feel Like Cryin’ (promo single)
21. Elton John – Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters (…To Be Continued)
22. Tori Amos – Flying Dutchman  (import single for ‘China’)
23. Fleetwood Mac – Landslide (single for ‘Landslide’)
24. Indigo Girls – Mystery (acoustic duo mix) (single for ‘Power Of Two’)

January 20, 1999

1. Rage Against The Machine – Bombtrack (Import ‘Bombtrack’ EP)
2. Rollins Band – Miles Jam (import single for ‘Disconnect’)
3. Victor – Victor (Victor)
4. Henry Rollins – I Know You (The Boxed Life)
5. Reg E. Gaines – Please Don’t Take My Air Jordans (Please Don’t Take My…)
6. Lisa Buscani – Prayer (Grand Slam!  Best of National Poetry Slam Vol 1)
7. Tom Waits – I Hope That I Don’t Fall In Love With You (The Early Years Vol. 2)
8. Joni Mitchell – All I Want (Blue)
9. Tori Amos – Black Swan (import single for ‘Pretty Good Year’)
10. Rufus Wainwright – Beauty Mark (Rufus Wainwright)
11. Black Crowes – Thorn In My Pride (Southern Harmony And Musical Companion)
12. Boxing Ghandi’s – Cuzacan (Howard)
13. Ani Difranco – Jukebox (Up Up Up Up Up Up)
14. Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds – #41 (Live At Luther College)
15. Agents Of Good Roots – Smiling Up The Frown (One By One)
16. The Hatters – Breakfast In Bed (Live Thunderchicken)
17. Blues Traveler – Optimistic Thought (Travelers & Thieves)
18. Eric Clapton – Bad Love (Journeyman)
19. Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds – Granny (Live At Luther College)
20. Elton John – Take Me To The Pilot (live) (11/17/1970)
21. Billy Joel – Scenes From An Italian Restaurant (live) (Greatest Hits)
22. Peter Gabriel – In Your Eyes (So)
23. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Taste The Pain (Mother’s Milk)

* Space Parlour – The Space Parlour:  Live In St. Louis 2008 @ KDHX
* David Byrne & Brian Eno – Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
* Elvis Costello – This Years Model (re-issue)
* Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Pershing
* R.E.M. – Accelerate
* Bob Mould – District Line
* Dresden Dolls – No, Virginia
* Amanda Palmer – Who Killed Amanda Palmer
* Replacements – Pleased To Meet Me, Let It Be
* Paul Westerberg (just about anything)
* John Mayer – Live In Los Angeles (the DVD anyway)

Now for singles, which is most of what caught my attention this year.  Not all of these songs were released this year, but if I heard or discovered it’s amazing quality this year then it’s the same darn difference.  No specific hierarchical order for this list either.  It’s not complete, I just stopped when I thought it was already too long.

* R.E.M. – Supernatural Superserious, Living Well Is The Best Revenge
* Bob Mould – Silence Between Us, Again & Again (From AOL Interface podcast)
* John Mayer – Good Love Is On The Way (live in LA)
* The Coup – Me & Jesus The Pimp In A 79 Granada Last Night
* Replacements – Can’t Hardly Wait (pick any version)
* Be Your Own Pet – Becky
* David Byrne & Brian Eno – One Fine Day
* Sondre Lerche & Regina Spektor – Hell No
* Two Ton Boa – HERarchy
* Ok Go & Bonerama – A Million Ways
* Lori McKenna – Paper Wings And Halo (live)
* say Anythin – Got Your Money (ODB cover)
* Someone Still Loves You Yeltsin – You Could Write A Book
* Al Green – Just For Me
* Dresden Dolls – A Night At The Roses
* Amanda Palmer – Guitar Hero, Ampersand
* Jesus H Christ & The Four Hornsmen Of The Apocalypse – Do Me, Liz The Hot Receptionist
* Les Claypool – Call Me The Breeze (Skynrd cover)
* Elysian Fields – Bend Your Mind
* Bitter:Sweet – Waking Up
* Maroon 5 w/ Rhianna – If I Never See Your Face Again
* Garaj Mahal – Bass Solo
* The Ting Tings – Shut Up & Let Me Go
* Spin Doctors – My Problem Now
* Petra Haden & Bill Frisell – I Don’t Want To Grow Up
* Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings – How Long
* Psychedelic Furs – The Ghost In You (live)
* John The Revelator (many versions of the song)

Part of the reason most of my favourite stuff was singles is due in equal parts to my music club, Emusic credits that didn’t add up to a full album, and the fact I went through roughly 8 gigs of mp3′s I downloaded at some point and weeded out what was worthy and what was not.  I’m still working on that, but it’s down to a less than a gig.

Some specifics

Old Gospel songs and spirituals etc.  The guy who taught that music history class I took spent a whole week talking about Gospel music and music from Appalachia, both of which are the foundations of rock and roll.  Long story short, I got some freebies of that stuff and it crossed paths with some other stuff I’ve been reading and walla – I’m using download credits.  The songs are interesting at the least and the historical context is no less than fascinating.  I think that I’ve always like gospel music.  My agnostic self is not immune to a kickin’ band and rockin’ choir singing about how happy they are.

Bob Mould.  I’ve been a casual, u fan ever since seeing him on MTV 120 Minutes in 1995.  This year though, I really got into his songwriting.  He put out the album ‘District Line’ a year and was on AOL Interface to promote it.  He did 5 songs, all of them just him and a Stratocaster.  The first listen was a bit overwhelming, but the second listen on is enlightening.  Do yourself a flavor (as Trish would say) and download the audio or the video.  His website has a couple of freebies, a little radio doohickey, and I’m hooked.  Husker Du, his first band, is on the list to check out more.  And, he’s got a new album coming out in April.

Paul Westerberg.  Again, casual fan but this year he really piqued my interest.  He released half a dozen great mp3′s digitally and a couple of them were crazy.  In particular was called ’49:00′ and was a 42:55 medley that he charged a mere $.49 for.  He seemed to be doing that from his living room or somewhere.  I also got a bunch of his stuff from Emusic and there are some freebies on his website.  Also, this year saw formal re-issues of the entire Replacements catalog (he was the lead in that band if you didn’t know).  The song that got me into them, ‘Can’t Hardly Wait’ was on a music club mix (thanks Chris O.!) and discovered quickly that dude writes some monster songs.  Great stuff.  Maybe a more detailed post sometime.  I’ve fetishized ‘Can’t Hardly Wait’ and have gather 9 or 10 versions of the song.

I read a couple of really great music books this year too.  One called ‘Our Band Could Be Your Life’ profiled a dozen mostly hardcore or punk bands influential bands from the 80′s that more or less set the foundation for the indie DIY asthetic that came to prominence in the early 90′s.  Some of the bands I knew of a little (Butthole Surfers, Fugazi) while some I was really familiar with (Black Flag, Minor Threat) and got into some I’d never heard (Beat Happening, Mission Of Burma).  Also topping the reading list was ‘Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop:  A History Of The Hip-Hop Generation’.  The book had a focused theme on the socioeconomic conditions that created and now sustain hip hop; discussed it’s loose origins in Jamaica and the effect the civil right movement had on the people making hip hop music.  Much information.  The text is 450 pages and the words ‘Run DMC’ and ‘Def Jam’ doesn’t appear until after page 200.  I learned a lot and have a couple of documentary’s and some further reading to check out.

*I’ll admit that I used to bitch about cd’s that didn’t use most of the 80 minutes (that pesky Mix Tape Gland) but in the past few years have decided that 35 minutes of good music (like both Raconteurs albums) is better than a cd with 10 awesome minutes and 70 minutes of mediocrity.

I’ll post some more of this stuff in the next couple of weeks.

1. Queen – It’s Late (News Of The World)
2. Vallejo – House (Vallejo)
3. Ani Difranco – Gravel (Little Plastic Castles)
4. Sister 7 (as Little Sister) – Drift Away (Live:  Free Love & Nickel Beer)
5. Moxy Fruvous – The Drinking Song (Live Noise)
6. Barenaked Ladies – Intermittently (Maybe You Should Drive)
7. God Street Wine – Mile By Mile ($1.99 Romances)
8. Adam Sandler – You will listen to every… (The Wedding Singer)
9. G. Love & Special Sauce – Cold Beverages (G. Love & Special Sauce)
10. Spin Doctors – Yo Mama’s A Pajama (Homebelly Groove…Live)
11. Urban Dance Squad – Deeper Shade Of Soul (promo single)
12. Dag – Our Love Would be Much Better (If I Gave a Damn About You) (Apartment  #635)
13. Liquid Soul – Worlds On A Leash (Liquid Soul)
14. Morphine – Honey White (W/ Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas intro) (Yes)
15. Rippopotamus – Fanfare of Funk (Swim)
16. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Subterranean Homesick Blues (Essential Collection)
17. Naked City – James Bond Theme (Naked City)
18. Kermit & Fozzie – Moving Right Along (soundtrack to ‘The Muppet Movie’)
19. Ben Folds Five – Philosophy (Ben Folds Five)
20. Sting – Bring On The Night/When The World Is Running Down You Make The Best Of What’s Still Around (Live) (single for ‘Fields Of Gold’)
21. Shawn Colvin – Wichita Skyline (live) (EP of ‘Get Out Of This House’)
22. One Fell Swoop – $500 Funeral (One Fell Swoop EP)
23. Lyle Lovett – Church (Joshua Judges Ruth)
24. My Brother’s Keeper – Vehicle (My Brother’s Keeper)
25. Charles de Mar – That is all speech (Better Off Dead)
26. Bellawolf – Helpless (promo cassette)
27. Huey Lewis & The News – Staggerly (Four Chords & Several Years Ago)
28. New World Spirits – Bed (Creeperweed) 

I realize I’m writing this pretty half cocked* but, what that seems pretty jacked up to me.

The banks (including BOA, who announced that they’re laying off the equivalent population of Ballwin next year) didn’t get any restrictions about executive pay and they got a ton more money, most of which is gone now.

The way I look at the lunacy is this.  It’s easier for me to grasp by taking away all those zeros:

Let’s say I call my Mom & Dad and ask for $750.  I allude to some sort of crisis that sure does seem imminent, they think about for a day or two, call me back, send a check, don’t tell me how to spend it, only knowing that I need it.  Then, let’s say Trish calls them a month later asking for $15.  Now they expect a full powerpoint presentation about why she needs the $15, how she is going to spend that $15, and how she is going to change her habits so that she never needs to ask for $15 again only to say, “Nope.” That’s stupid stupid stupid.

I’m not saying the industry didn’t screw itself.  It serves ‘em right in a way for shipping all those jobs away from America but come on!

Even though Republicans traditionally don’t support labor unions (labor cost $$, lowering corporate profits (earn a decent living? not on my watch)) but it took both Democrats and Republicans working in dedicated collusion to whore out that much money.

I was against the bank bailout.  Partly I have a “f*ck you” about spending tax dollars to bail out a business.  A complete overhaul is needed.  What makes no sense is the banks have no mandate to be responsible for the money.  No safeguards for you and I footing the bill and no oversight to make sure the money is used for ‘Main Street’ instead of padding company bottom lines. England’s bailout involved seats on company boards and all kinds of stuff to make sure the problem didn’t occur.  I’ll try to find a link later.

The other part, the bigger part, is that if the system crashes, things get rough, but the market will correct itself.

Money will always find a place to go.

*The guy who taught an Irish history class I took said:  You’re Irish.  If you can’t go off half cocked why go.

John Lennon died on this day in 1980.  I remember when it happened:  Mom cried and hugged me and it was an overcast day, cold, I don’t remember being school for some reason.

If driven to a choice I probably prefer Paul McCartney’s solo stuff.  I think it’s because Lennon’s solo stuff was preachy at times.  I don’t know. 

Moving forward, here are a couple of mp3′s from Lennon’s ‘Lost Weekend’ in California (@1974).  These are from a bootleg called ‘A Toot & A Snore’.  Can guess what fueled this particular jam session?

It features the only time Lennon and McCartney played together after the Beatles dissolved.  Macca played drums.  Stevie Wonder is there as is Harry Nilsson (whose album at the time was being produced by Lennon).   Other folks were there too but I don’t have who they are handy.

Stand By Me (Lennon being a whiny coked up little schoolgirl) 
Short Medley 

(note to self:  start posting Christmas songs) 

Porter asked me this afternoon, out of the blue, “Is the Easter Bunny a real bunny?”  I asked him, “Do you really want to know?”  “Yes,” he answered.  I made sure: “Are you sure you really want to know?”  He did.  I thought for a second — reflecting on how much I’ve always hated lying to him about Santa Claus — and finally told him (thinking of the Polar Express), “The Easter Bunny is real if you believe in it.  And if you don’t believe it’s real, then it’s not.”

I remember at Carl and Spencer’s funeral, and one of his teachers was telling a story about 4-year-old Spencer*.  It was Easter, and one this teacher’s fellow instructor was dressed up like the Easter Bunny.  Spencer asked the teacher where the other teacher was.  She was speechless, and then Spencer glanced at the Easter Bunny and just kind of exchanged a knowing smile with the teacher.  I picture that happening with Porter one day — that we’ll be talking about Santa, and we’ll just exchange sweet, knowing glances… and that’ll be that.

When she told me the story I was reminded of the first day of Physics in 11th grade.  The first thing the teacher asked was , “What is real?”  After going through our senses and other stuff he said, “Whatever you believe is real, is real.”  Then we did word problems for 8 months.  Jerk.

*Spencer was a student at the Ethical Society Sunday School.

Easy like a Sunday mornin’.

I think a great horror flick would be something where 5 or 6 middle aged folks (teenagers in a scary movies suck) go camping on a clear night late in the season and realize they forgot bug spray and they’re really far from the bath room.  Someone forgot to chill the chardonnay and their fashionable fleece hoodie isn’t quite warm enough. Then one gets so mad about something that she (let’s make it a woman just for giggles) whips out a chainsaw and starts hacking everyone to pieces while they mill about trying to run away. The only light is from the campfire and a full moon (of course) and all you hear is screams and see little flashes of what’s being hacked in the nighttime WASP panic.  The action has to be fast, reasonably bloodless (it’s hard for an artery fountain to impress me unless it’s spraying directly onto the fire), and great sound effects are paramount.  Think Sam Raimi doing The Evil Dead series.  No Foley editing later, well recorded sound effects at the time of filming makes the sounds believable to an audience.  No music (keeps it unpredictable, the sounds of the action should be plenty).  I want to see limbs falling to the ground, flying through the air, hitting other people, and severed heads with open eyes that appear to be watching whoever is kicking them in their own effort to get away. 

Only 2 people (let’s make them husband and wife) get away and the killer chases the 2 people who of course foolishly run together.  The chase is through some woods, not too dense, past only one other campsite (the people are too scared to react) where the stunned campers witness the husband making a futile attempt to protect his wife from their fate while they sit still hoping the chainsaw doesn’t have a camper homing signal.  Maybe the husband takes a swing or hits Chainsaw Mom with a huge flaming log or something while his wife runs away.  I haven’t thought that far ahead.  Regardless, whatever it is doesn’t work, he get’s whacked with a diagonal cut from left shoulder to right hip and it slides off right into the campfire (shower of sparks and so on).  Would it be scarier if he was vaguely aware what happened before he bites it?  The wife gets noodled with some ordinary stroke from the landscaping tool of death.  Then the chainsaw fiend goes back to the campsite for snacky cakes. 

That’s a bit too short. Let’s make it 10 people and throw in a car chase to the Walgreens that’s probably a block away from the campsite anyway and the last victim can bite it in the parking lot while trying to run inside for help. We can see the final slaughter happen through the vantage point of a security camera that she’s trying to signal for help. 

Killer goes back to the campsite (maybe after buying some Sudafed).  The chilly air has brought what is no doubt a delectable vintage of chardonnay down to an acceptable temperature.  Chainsaw Mom picks up a fleshy male thigh (still wearing shoes and pants), strips the clothing off of it and throws it into a huge pan that she took out of the back of whatever SUV or minivan she drove down.  Maybe work in something to make us think she planned it.

Camera zeros in and fades on the leg hairs crackling away.

Now that would make me afraid of the dark.

Before Lollapalooza’s stop here in 1992 I was a tiny little bit more of a Temple Of The Dog fan than a Pearl Jam fan.  I loved Soundgarden, loved Pearl Jam, to ‘Temple’ was the bee girl’s knees.  But I was already regretting missing a pair of mythical gigs at the American Theater when Pearl Jam opened for the Smashing Pumpkins and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who themselves were on the verge of mainstream success.  With Soundgarden on the bill I was anticipating ‘Hunger Strike’ more than Evenflow or Alive (which got daily air guitar treatment).

But at the end of PJ’s set, they leapfrogged over not only Temple Of The Dog, but just about every other band I’d previously worshipped.  They defined the energy and ferocity a band is supposed to play with.  The performance had a conviction that not even Ozzy had when we saw him just a month before.  A whole new style of showmanship was introduced when Eddie Vedder scaled the stage supports and walked the rafters from the stage to the roof supports at the back (the back edge of the roof, over the seats for gosh sakes) before leaping into the crowd.  The fact that Shag and I realized the guy who just leapt 15 feet into a crowd of people as the same guy hanging out on the lawn helped too.  A rock star hanging out in the cheap seats?

Fast-forward a year and I’ve got 3 copies of their first album (each from a different continent), import ep’s, singles, and bootlegs.  It was a full on obsession.  At one point Eric at Now Hear This was doing an even exchange for $30 and $60 bootlegs.  I’ll tell you a story about him another time.

Way back in late 1993 Tuesday was still new release day for cd’s and tapes and when a band you liked put something out it was something to be anticipated.  A phenomenon lost now.  Stores stayed opened until 12:30am Tuesday so fans could by it the minute it was available.  I worked that night and Stereo Steve (who I was still hanging out with pretty frequently) met me at home so we could dig on KSHE before heading out.  Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament were on Rockline.   For your memory, Rockline was a syndicated show that started in the early 80’s and ran Mondays for 90 minutes (10:30-midnite) so metalheads like me could compulsively tape it.  Rockline ended at the poetic stroke of midnite so you could go to the record store get the new cd by the band you’d just been listening to.  Genius, eh?

Steve and I left at 11:10pm, right after I flipped my TDK SA100.

When we got to the Music Vision on the Rock Road what greeted us resembled the end scene in Pump Up The Volume.  The parking lot was freaking packed with cars and people and the cool autumn air flowed through open car windows that were cranking KSHE, listening for the closing music that signified it was now 12:00am Tuesday and time to buy the new Pearl Jam cd!

Our people queued up and the line flowed smoothly.  It wrapped from the register, around the store, and out the door.  As it damn well should have!  Well, by my standards at the time anyway.  The crowd seemed pretty focused and no one even broke from the line to browse other cd’s.  However, one of my more wise impulse purchases (in a wide history of unwise impulse purchases) was Counterparts by Rush.  Their label made the poor decision to release a really great album the same day as highly anticipated release that broke first day sales records by a leap.  Vedder and the guys could have done an 40 minute Foghat medley a capella in Mandarin Chinese and the album still would have sold.

Moving on…We cracked open the cd in the car (with the pocket knife I used for such things) and listened to it in reverent silence (piling on the drama) on the car stereo that earned my friend the name Stereo Steve.  Early standouts for me were the mellow track ‘Elderly Woman’ and ‘Blood’, a more furious tune.  Animal was good also, and they’d debuted that at the 1993 MTV Video Awards when they did that song and Rockin In The Free World with Neil Young.

Still today it ranks as one of the most satisfying albums I’ve got, and certainly more fun buying experiences.  I probably couldn’t name 10 albums in the past 5 years that have made me giddy or had me worried that I wouldn’t get a copy day of release.  It’s a superficial nervous stomach kind of twitch that only settles down when the disc is in hand.

The only damper to the shebang was the tape that I was using crapped into a single muddy channel in the last few minutes of the broadcast and missed (the only) song Ament & Vedder performed.  The little ditty was about the bee girl from the Blind Melon video that was all over at the time.  KSHE rebroadcast that interview a few years later after an earthquake at Rockline’s office or something cancelled the show at the last minute.  Happy to finally get a complete copy, I listened and baby sat the tape only to hear that Bee Girl song cut off about 2 chords in.  The announcer gal comes on and says (way too casually for me I would add), “Whoops!  I guess the signal got dropped?”  Dropped?!  I’ll show you ‘dropped’ when I show up at your studio with a bazooka.

Bee Girl ended up on the Lost Dogs comp and luckily the band released Vs. the same way throughout the world.  I only had to buy it once.  Well, I did pick up the vinyl, oh, and a bunch of singles…and the cassette but that’s only because I found one printed as a self titled album instead of ‘Vs’ so you see…ah…forget it.

If I totaled up how much money I spent on Pearl Jam alone I probably could probably resolve our current financial crisis.

Now for some media.  I may post more later but for now…

A few b-sides from the era:  a live version of Blood, acoustic version of Elderly Woman, and an official recording of Alone (a Ten era demo).

Also, Hard To Imagine, a song from the Vs. sessions redone and released in a couple of configurations.

Lastly, Bee Girl.

Later y’all.

(note to self:  remaster Eric’s interview with Eddie Vedder, and the St Louis show at the Fox in March 1994)

Porter is enjoying school (contrary to what he’ll tell you if you ask) and has become the class clown (frequently to his 2 teachers’ amusement, a couple times seriously to his detriment), he’s reading really really well, and still full on into Star Wars.  Jessie is starting to talk quite a bit and she’ll use the noun and verb in a sentence while we fill in the rest.  She can count to 2 (or she’ll say “both”), likes to read, is fearless, and full on into the “mine mine mine” stage that her big brother skipped.  Both really like music, Jessie prefers to air guitar while Porter likes air drums.  More detail on those things another time.

Onward!

No Reader’s Digest for Jessie, she likes Rolling Stone.

While Trish cat napped Jessie undertook a candy tasting.

Jessie sleeping with her favourite book (more on that at a later time)

This pose was right after her birthday.

I spied on the kids reading a couple weeks ago while I was off doing some chores.  Isn’t there a juvenile delinquent take on the Jane’s Addiction ‘Been Caught Stealing?’ (been caught readin’ once/when I was five/i enjoy reading/it’s simple as that/when I want some books man/I don’t want to pay for them/their mine/mine all mine/guitar solo).  I’ll work on it and get have Kidz Bop get back to you.

A really cool picture of them on their respective wheels.

Porter took Tae Kwon Do lessons and liked it pretty well.  Then, the trial cost ran out and became ouchie inducing costs.  After investigating a few more places they seem a bit like credit cards.  You get the low introductory rate and after that runs out you get hosed.  He’s too young for the YMCA’s program but he’s back in swimming lessons (thanks Mom & Dad!) and doing really well.

My favourite picture of Porter may be this one.  It really shows what a happy kid we’ve got. He is the best little man in the whole wide world after all.

Word y’all.

1. I-Pod hookup.  You can now, theoretically, play an entire show from your I-Pod.  Some folks probably do but I would feel dishonest doing that, but it certainly came in handy in that I hadn’t burned a couple of the songs to CD and was able to spare a blank.  I did learn that you have to watch for the song to end because unlike the CD players, an I-Pod won’t automatically stop when the song is over.

2. New CD players.  There was one of these new ones last fill in D-Bad asked me to do but the disc I burned for that show didn’t work (shoulda had an I-Pod then huh?).  Now, all 3 of them are new and swank.  The new players load like a car cd player, not like the tray on a home player or the cd drive on a computer.  Old habits die hard in that instead of just slipping a disc into the cd player (like a car) I still hit ‘eject’ every single dang time I wanted to put a disc in.  Evan after figuring out that I didn’t need to eject squat.

3. The air signal is now digital.  That means that the LED lights can’t go into the red at all or it distorts (just like your old cassette deck mix tape factory).  Also, I quickly found, that there’s something like a 30 second delay.  Before I came into the air room I heard Ashley (or ‘Trashley’, her on-air name) signing off but when I got into the air room not only was she not near the microphone and but wasn’t talking at all.

The playlist is here though it’s not streaming what I did.

This endeavour may very well be short term depending on how my body responds to being on the air from 3:30am-5:00am one morning a week.

Yep, back on the graveyard, which is my turf.  The graveyard affords me (and when It’s Late was on Alex and I) the luxury of FCC safe zone (though I’m not dumb enough to play Mr Bungle’s ‘Girls Of Porn’, as much as I’d like to) but less pressure.  If I’m having an off day or don’t say anything interesting I don’t feel too bad about it like I would if I knew hundreds of people were listening.

I’m expecting it to be much fun, even if I don’t go for the whole thing.  When my show ended in 2005 I was able to walk away from it a little sad – not burned out and bitter – and was hoping to do some other volunteer work there but, turns out, 2am was the only time I had to be there.  Since then I filled in for my friend D-Bad a few times and did Christmas (with) and pledge drive (for) my homey Nick Acquisto.  But that trailed off too.

Assuming I don’t have a psychotic break, or am too tired to function around dinner time on Friday, I’m back.

Hey…I might be able to get on the list at the Pageant again…