Last week NC Democrats got a chance to vote in a presidential primary and have it possibly make a difference. For the first time since I’ve been of age to vote I voted early. Up until this election I had never entertained the idea of voting early. But last Tuesday I had shit to do so voting on Thursday May 1st was a better option for me. It felt weird though. On the actual day of the primary I had an evil impulse - I wanted to shake things up a bit and see if all the polling site volunteers’ training had paid off. I wanted to go in and have this conversation with one of them . . .
Me: Um . . . yeah . . . so I’m here to vote. [Give name, address, etc.]
Volunteer: Says here you voted on Thursday May 1st.
Me: Yeah I know. That was “early” voting. I’m here for “day of” voting.
[and yes I would make quotes with my fingers in both instances]
Vol: You can’t vote more than once.
Me: Why not?
V-teer: You’re only allowed to vote one time in an election.
Me: But why?
Veer: That’s just the law.
Me: But on like American Idol and Dancing with the Stars and crap shows like that I can vote for some rhinestone spangle-fringe wannabe star wanting to ballroom dance and resuscitate their career. I can take cues from a panel of idiots that tell me which singer was the best and had the best pitch and vote for the next pop star to move a few units of their crap debut album taking a record deal away from the thousands of other artists out there that are much more deserving. And I can vote for those types of idiots like a gajillion times. I know they charge like a texting fee – whatever that is – but damn I’ve got five bucks. How many votes will that get me?
V: I’m going to have to ask you to leave . . .
Me: Can I at least get one of those stickers that say “I Voted”? I only have this “I Voted Early” one . . . it just doesn’t look right.
That would have been an enjoyable conversation. Oh well. I’ll also go ahead and say that I voted for Obama. For me he seems like the best choice. While I realize that Reverend Wright and his remarks are creating a constant stir, how quickly we all forget that not too long ago Bill Clinton was creating his own hysteria with his own ill chosen words. And James Carville, one of the Clinton’s most valued friends; someone they have turned to over the years for advice throughout many stages of their lives – not unlike a pastor – has said some crazy shit throughout the years. I never thought that I’d NOT vote for a Clinton or someone in the Clinton family when given the opportunity, but to me they’ve just put out such a strong message that Hillary is entitled to the presidency. So the bottom line is Bill, Reverend Wright, James Carville, etc. all need to drink “a big ol’ cup of shut the hell up” and move on. Maybe the three of them could star in their own sitcom – The Sound of White Friends Clapping. I’ll work on the title.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
Pressure Boys Reunion
There are rare opportunities to go back in time and revisit the past. This past Friday night I got one of those opportunities. The Pressure Boys reunited for a pair of gigs at the Cradle to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis foundation and it was truly a great show.
The evening started with Greg Humphreys doing a solo acoustic set. I used to go see Dillon Fence while I was in high school and maybe a time or two while in college. I always enjoyed those shows, and my wish would have been for Greg to bring Dillon Fence back together for the opener. Even though that particular band had a reunion tour not long ago it would have continued the reunion theme for the cause. He started out doing a few songs strictly by himself and it was unfortunate that the crowd showed that they were there for the other bands. Plenty of loud conversation all through his first 3 or 4 songs, but people did applaud and show their appreciation. Greg was later joined by his sister Ann on guitar / vocals, Elizabeth Melvin on bass (Sweet By and By), and John Garris on fiddle (Big Fat Gap). Despite a few tuning delays the four came together with a great sound that eventually won the crowd over. Greg even got the crowd to break that imaginary force field that tends to form when as a collective the audience resists moving closer to the opening act. Almost as if they have a fear of contracting some opening band disease that will adversely impact their ears. But they moved forward and it was a perfect lead into for the Sneakers.
As someone who missed out on the dB’s / Let’s Active era in the triangle (I’m not sure how it happened – it just passed me by) it was a treat to see these local legends perform together on stage as the Sneakers. I kept relating it to the degree of separation these musicians had from some of my own favorite musicians that I have followed. There is Mitch Easter who along with Don Dixon produced one of my favorite R.E.M. albums Reckoning. There is Chris Stamey who has produced and played with tons of cool people, including as a touring guitarist for Bob Mould during one of his first solo tours. And finally drummer Will Rigby has toured and recorded with one of my heroes Steve Earle. The Sneakers were so solid on stage, Mitch’s guitar playing and solos just blew me away. I’ll have to go back in time through their recordings and see if I can make up for lost time.
Now technically I didn’t miss out on the Pressure Boys way back when. I started high school toward the end of the Pressure Boys career and I can’t quite remember if I had seen them live before Friday night. It was over twenty years ago and the details are usually a bit blurry. BUT I’ve always been very familiar with their music. Friends taped Jump! Jump! Jump!, and Rangledoon for me and we would listen to those recordings as much as possible. Much later I would doggedly pursue and eventually buy a copy of the 2-disc complete recordings CD. Those discs are usually in constant rotation at home and in the car.
The band I was in in high school (Rat Nuts) used to cover Fakin’ Dub, complete with band members switching to trombone and having a special guest trumpet player join us on stage. As a bass player the bass lines on the P-Boy recordings were always an interesting challenge to try and learn. We also followed the post P-Boy bands like Sex Police, and Johnny Quest both of which would put on live shows that were more like wild parties than club shows.
The show on Friday was simply great. The band seemed to be having so much fun being back at it again and all of that came through in the performance. As the rhythm section, Rob Ladd and Jack Campbell provided such a strong foundation. I have to admit I spent most of the time coveting Jack’s “flame decorated” bass. But I digress. Guitarist Bryon Settle played and soloed with such natural ease, while frontman / trombone player John Plymale covered every inch of the stage seamlessly going from vocalist to horn player and back again.
The reunited group attacked every song with energy and with a fervor that seems to be lacking in a lot of today’s music and live performances. They entertained the crowd with a full sound, and the intermittent off-the-cuff humor that people have grown to expect from this cast of characters. In a show of support for their “follically challenged” brethren in the band Jay Widenhouse and Greg Stafford revealed that they had shaved the tops of their heads to provide the appearance that they had also lost their hair. And the P-Boys had a great crowd to feed off of too. For me it was great to see an audience dance again. No one stood around looking cool or gazing at their feet - the whole place was pogo-ing, sweating, stage diving, and slam dancing. Well, as much slam dancing and stage diving allowable for folks in their late 30s to late 40s. As Plymale pointed out the band didn’t want anyone breaking a hip.
The best thing about the whole night was the fact that 100% of the proceeds go to a great cause and with the venue sold out - CDs and T-shirts selling rather fast – my hope is that they surpassed last year’s total of $30,000 raised. If you missed the shows you can still support the cause. The Pressure Boys the Incomplete Recordings is a newly re-mastered greatest hits compilation that is now available via iTunes. All of the proceeds go to Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. If you don’t currently own any of their music or you don’t have all of these songs, do yourself a favor - buy it now.
http://www.songsforsixtyfiveroses.com/
http://www.cff.org/
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Band Names
Disclaimer – Any band from the past I happen to mention in this blog entry I have not researched to verify whether or not the bands are still performing on a regular basis. This is all just mere speculation on my part as to how far they may have fallen into obscurity.
Band Names
I think for most of my life I've been obsessed with band names. I enjoy thinking of band names or extracting them from simple everyday conversations. The process that bands go through to name themselves can be very easy or an extremely arduous task. Sometimes the process can be so stressful that it could put an inordinate amount of stress on the band and even create a rift among members of the band. To come up with that word or phrase that is permanently linked to the sound they collectively make and the collective personalities within the band. It's important, but why?
The importance of naming the band comes with the story or explanation behind the name. "Well our drummer was getting high watching The Family Guy – so now the band name is Stewie's Shitty Diaper." "We wanted to represent the plight of dessert makers everywhere in the world and give light to their cause in our name. We're called The Pudding Bandits." "We put a bunch of names in a hat and we picked one – we're called Hat Name." Whatever the significance of the name may be, the band feels an obligation to justify why they chose their name. It is the same for any naming exercise in life you have reasons, or a certain significance associated with naming your children, or the family pets.
Bands have been named after states, authors, books, literary characters, friends, family members, other band's songs, and named for personal anecdotes and stories. Some band names involve numbers, letters, and words in some combination, other band names are in a foreign language. Some band names incorporate the name of a key member of the band (main songwriter, lead vocalist, or lead guitarist). Some band names are simple and to the point and others can be long and complicated.
I've been in bands with stupid names and I've been in bands with great names. I've been in bands where I had input into the band name and I've been in bands where I had no input. I've been interested in bands based solely on their name and sometimes their music kept me interested, and in some instances their music turned me away. I think these days there are a lot of bands that are coming up with some really weird and in many cases really shitty names – the type of name where I have no interest in discovering anything more about the band. This got me to thinking why can't new bands take their names from old bands?
If the band is not currently using the name why not give someone else a shot at it? Think about the bands of the past they had such simple straightforward names like Boston, Kansas, Foreigner, and Foghat. Quick, easy, and to the point. And if Foghat is no longer using their name, why can't a new band use it? If the new band has a lot of people showing up to their shows expecting to hear Slow Ride, is that the new Foghat's fault? In this day and age of the Innanetz if you can't look up the band online and discover that it is not the original Slow Ride Foghat – then you share some of the responsibility in this Foghat faux pas. Same goes for Molly Hatchet, Foreigner, or say the Thompson Twins. If you don't do your research and realize that it is not the same Thompson Twins – the Thompson Twins where no band members were even related let alone twins – then that is your fault. Don't cry in your parachute pants when you don't hear Hold Me Now. Suck it up!
And what about those artists that felt they were too cool for their real names. Since Elton John is no longer using Reginald Kenneth Dwight, can't a band/artist use it for their name? Same goes for Bowie. He can no longer claim ownership of David Robert Jones so why not let a band/artist use it for their name? And don't get me started on John Mellencamp. Holy shit first he has to change it to John Cougar then he wants to be called John Cougar Mellencamp, and now he is back to John Mellencamp – somebody better be able to go back and claim John Cougar. What would Jack and Diane think? Same with artists that have a band name as their name even though in reality it is not really a band at all it is essentially the one person. Since Chan Marshall uses Cat Power can a band/artist claim Chan Marshall for their stage name?
I know there are laws, agreements, and contracts that dictate what is legal and illegal with regard to band names who can use what and claim ownership to this, that, and the other, but it seems like it would help the whole band naming process if bands could go back and claim some currently unused band names. Anyway here's a list of some of my favorite band names– in no particular order.
I Was Totally Destroying It
. . . And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead (they were not quite what I imagined they'd sound like – they're good, just not what I expected)
Roosevelt Franklin (hip hop duo named for the muppet recognized as the token black Sesame Street character)
Whiskeytown
Company Flow
The Psychedelic Furs
Soul Coughing
The New Pornographers
Nikki Meets the Hibachi
Uncle Tupelo
Band Names
I think for most of my life I've been obsessed with band names. I enjoy thinking of band names or extracting them from simple everyday conversations. The process that bands go through to name themselves can be very easy or an extremely arduous task. Sometimes the process can be so stressful that it could put an inordinate amount of stress on the band and even create a rift among members of the band. To come up with that word or phrase that is permanently linked to the sound they collectively make and the collective personalities within the band. It's important, but why?
The importance of naming the band comes with the story or explanation behind the name. "Well our drummer was getting high watching The Family Guy – so now the band name is Stewie's Shitty Diaper." "We wanted to represent the plight of dessert makers everywhere in the world and give light to their cause in our name. We're called The Pudding Bandits." "We put a bunch of names in a hat and we picked one – we're called Hat Name." Whatever the significance of the name may be, the band feels an obligation to justify why they chose their name. It is the same for any naming exercise in life you have reasons, or a certain significance associated with naming your children, or the family pets.
Bands have been named after states, authors, books, literary characters, friends, family members, other band's songs, and named for personal anecdotes and stories. Some band names involve numbers, letters, and words in some combination, other band names are in a foreign language. Some band names incorporate the name of a key member of the band (main songwriter, lead vocalist, or lead guitarist). Some band names are simple and to the point and others can be long and complicated.
I've been in bands with stupid names and I've been in bands with great names. I've been in bands where I had input into the band name and I've been in bands where I had no input. I've been interested in bands based solely on their name and sometimes their music kept me interested, and in some instances their music turned me away. I think these days there are a lot of bands that are coming up with some really weird and in many cases really shitty names – the type of name where I have no interest in discovering anything more about the band. This got me to thinking why can't new bands take their names from old bands?
If the band is not currently using the name why not give someone else a shot at it? Think about the bands of the past they had such simple straightforward names like Boston, Kansas, Foreigner, and Foghat. Quick, easy, and to the point. And if Foghat is no longer using their name, why can't a new band use it? If the new band has a lot of people showing up to their shows expecting to hear Slow Ride, is that the new Foghat's fault? In this day and age of the Innanetz if you can't look up the band online and discover that it is not the original Slow Ride Foghat – then you share some of the responsibility in this Foghat faux pas. Same goes for Molly Hatchet, Foreigner, or say the Thompson Twins. If you don't do your research and realize that it is not the same Thompson Twins – the Thompson Twins where no band members were even related let alone twins – then that is your fault. Don't cry in your parachute pants when you don't hear Hold Me Now. Suck it up!
And what about those artists that felt they were too cool for their real names. Since Elton John is no longer using Reginald Kenneth Dwight, can't a band/artist use it for their name? Same goes for Bowie. He can no longer claim ownership of David Robert Jones so why not let a band/artist use it for their name? And don't get me started on John Mellencamp. Holy shit first he has to change it to John Cougar then he wants to be called John Cougar Mellencamp, and now he is back to John Mellencamp – somebody better be able to go back and claim John Cougar. What would Jack and Diane think? Same with artists that have a band name as their name even though in reality it is not really a band at all it is essentially the one person. Since Chan Marshall uses Cat Power can a band/artist claim Chan Marshall for their stage name?
I know there are laws, agreements, and contracts that dictate what is legal and illegal with regard to band names who can use what and claim ownership to this, that, and the other, but it seems like it would help the whole band naming process if bands could go back and claim some currently unused band names. Anyway here's a list of some of my favorite band names– in no particular order.
I Was Totally Destroying It
. . . And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead (they were not quite what I imagined they'd sound like – they're good, just not what I expected)
Roosevelt Franklin (hip hop duo named for the muppet recognized as the token black Sesame Street character)
Whiskeytown
Company Flow
The Psychedelic Furs
Soul Coughing
The New Pornographers
Nikki Meets the Hibachi
Uncle Tupelo
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