Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
Bow-wow-yippie-yo-yippie-yeah
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Bow-wow-yippie-yo-yippie-yeah
“Atomic Dog” – George Clinton – “Computer Games” (1982)
- DAVE
This one fits on a couple of levels. First, we bought tickets earlier in the week to see Willie at the Puyallup Fair in a couple of weeks. He’s definitely staying busy as he is in the midst of a pretty extensive tour, especially for a 77 year old man who’s been gigging pretty steadily for about the last half century. I’m excited to see him and can roll it in with all of the other fair stuff that I like to do (look at animals especially the mama pig and her of little oinks that always seem to be on display, the hypnotist, jugglers) and eat (scones, burger, scones, BBQ, and more scones).
And, this song fits because I’m on the road. I’m on a long weekend to Utah with home base being Park City as myself and a little Dawg Pack are gradually ramping up our energy and enthusiasm for the University of Washington’s season opening game on Saturday against BYU.
Life is good!!! Do something fun or relaxing over the long Labor Day weekend.
I pretty much guaranteed the fact that another Dan Mangan post would be coming soon with my comments about this album. I’m kind of obsessed with it. Mangan is playing a show in Portland a week from Friday. That show does not at all mesh with the rest of my plans for that weekend but I’m thinking about taking the 200 mile drive any ways.
Like I said in my previous Mangan post, I love the way he strings words together. There’s a lot between the lines for the listener to attach meaning to, but I like the serpentine, loosely connected paths that his lyrics explore. Also, to reiterate my previous Mangan post, he’s got a lot of Glen Hansard in him. By design or natural causes, it makes no difference. Artists like Hansard and Mangan will always have a fan base because they make make words and music that describes how a lot of people feel. In “Fair Verona” there’s a lot of interesting sonic enhancers to drive the song forward but if it was just stripped down to one man singing with not a single accompanying instrument, it would still be a perfect song.
Here are two versions:
- DAVE
I just bought tickets to a show at this brand new Seattle festival which will take place at venues around town from October 20-23. Some of the headliners include Belle & Sebastian, She & Him, Blues Scholar, and Gogol Bordello.
The show that I bought tickets for is headlined by The Weepies, preceded by The Head and The Heart, which follows opening act Lucy Schwartz. I’m most interested in seeing Schwartz who has built a solid catalog of material despite the fact that she is only 20 years old. She has a new EP out following up on her album from 2007 and has spent time in between, touring as part of Lilith Fair, and writing songs for at least five movies plus TV including Grey’s Anatomy, Parenthood, and Private Practice.
I’ve set kind of a soft budget for myself that is going to exclude me from seeing a bunch of shows that are kind of mid-range ($40-$60) – I’m crying inside a little about not going to Arcade Fire – so price-wise $15 for some really talented and original artists is a no-brainer. Plus, this show is at the venerable Crocodile Cafe which is the perfect venue for the artists in this line up.
“When We Were Young” – Lucy Schwartz (2010)
- DAVE
I’ve stepped away for a few minutes from the album that has been getting the heaviest rotation in my head phones for the last couple of weeks, that being Dan Mangan’s “Nice, Nice, Very Nice.” I love that album start to finish and haven’t been able to put it away. But, it might have to share top billing with the Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes debut full length album.
The album is fresh and full of energy but at the same time feels like it could have been lifted right out of the Summer of Love. There are a handful of songs ready for you to listen to which as good or better than “Home” which you’ve doubtless heard a bunch of times.
- DAVE
Fifteen years prior to JT (no, not James Taylor but can you imagine if it was James Taylor right at the chorus of “Handyman”, Ms. Jackson at his side for the duet, and wham JT causes a malfunction) freeing Janet Jackson’s breast, there she was in all of her chart topping glory. RN1814 came about right before Jackson’s career accelerated into full stride, as it was the top selling album of 1990, but didn’t see the CD’s fly off the shelves to the extent of “Janet” which was released three years later. New Jack Swing was dominating the Top 40 airwaves and the youngest of the Gary, Indiana Jackson family seemed to be right at the center of everything.
So anyways, what if it had been James Taylor that had molested Ms. Jackson’s clothing? Of what if it was James Toney, the big bloke ex-boxing champ, soon to be UFC punching bag? I guess if we had to have a JT disrobe a fading star, Mr. Timberlake was as good or better than any.
- DAVE
I often rely on the easy way out when describing various musical artists, and fall back on the “these guys who you might not be too familiar with, sound like these other guys who you do know, or who I know and like.” Kind of like this:
“If you took the macerated remains of Extreme, hired Chad Kroeger as a voice coach, then held a casting call for a band to co-headline with Hinder in 3,000 seat venues you might get the Sick Puppies.”
That sort of works to give people some bench marks to measure a band by, but it’s still mostly lazy, and I’m sure insulting to a lot of the subjects. So for today’s band, I will refrain from drawing comparisons. Even better, I’ll do the opposite.
Wolf Parade sound nothing like three of my favorite bands from their hometown of Montreal. Those bands are: 80’s rock radio mainstays April Wine (I had true love for those guys when I was a kid, and credit them with inspiring my finest air guitar moments), The Dears, and or course, Arcade Fire. Wolf Parade does sound like some other really good bands, but I’ll let you come up with their likenesses.
- DAVE
Numerous times during our time in the car on our recently completed spontaneous trip to Kauai, I broke out this classic Hawaiian ditty. If you’ve never heard of it, you’re apparently not the only one, as I was positive that my wife knew it but apparently not.
Being part Hawaiian, although not growing up in Hawaii, I’ve heard this song a million times. It’s mainland equivalent would probably be “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” as it is kind of a kid’s song although it gained more widespread fame via the Don Ho rendition that he did most nights at his famous and long standing luau gig at the Waikiki Beachcomber.
I won’t torture you with details of our two person car version, mostly for the sake of my physical well being.
- DAVE
Lost in the all day commitment that was my niece’s wedding, I didn’t have time yesterday to add a post and wish my blog a happy first anniversary.
Within about a week of my inaugural post last August, one of my friends skeptically said to me something along the lines of “you’re going to run out of songs pretty quickly, aren’t you?” Pure poppy cocky, crazy talk, I tell ya’. If I were to pick one small segment of a music genre that I enjoy, let’s say, 80’s Hair bands (no, really I’ve got love for the glam rockers), I could easily post songs for a couple of years. Cinderella, Skid Row, Bon Jovi, Scorpions (yeah, their hair wasn’t as purdy as the rest of their peers), Dokken, White Snake, White Lion, Ratt, Van Halen, Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, etc…. I would only have about one or two regular visitors, a year into this thing, but it would be easy to come up with songs galore. Then, when you try and fathom, the ever expanding musical universe, and all of the genres and styles that I enjoy within that vast space, I could go on posting songs to this blog well into the year 2094 when I’ll be a young and spry, very deaf 129 years old.
My goal was to post one song per day, each and every day. I didn’t quite make it as I only posted 256 times for the year. My longest streak of consecutive days was the first 87 days after I went on the air. 256 posts work out to about one for every week day with a couple of sick days and holidays sprinkled in. My goal for this year is to once again post “one song per day” but if I fail that, which I’ve already done since I missed yesterday, my goal is to beat the 256 posts that I put up last year.
For starters, how about if we go back to the band that got this thing rolling. There are so many Nirvana songs that I love, but the riff that Kurt Cobain plays throughout “Come as You Are” is what makes this song one of my favorites.
Come doused in Mud, soaked in Bleach, as I want you to be.
“Come as You Are” – Nirvana – “Nevermind” (1992)
- DAVE
A bagel, cup of coffee, departed 9:30 and 11:05 flights to Dallas all came and went and we still sat at SeaTac gate A8. We had access to Cousin Buddy Pass’s super secret insider access and would re-group after each plane left the gate to check our status. After the revenue standbys, our positions were locked in at about 10th and 14th n the Non Rev list. Things weren’t very promising for the 12:30 and 2:20 flights as they were both overbooked by a couple passengers not counting the wait listers all positioned ahead of us.
The all business gate agent warmed up as the day progressed and gave us hope saying that she was sure that we would get on the 5:20 flight meaning that we would hang in Big D for a quick sleep, say hi and bye to Cousin Buddy Pass, and be off to SC. We checked the list on line, saw that there were 15 open seats on the 5:20, still saw ourselves occupying spots 10 and 14 on the list and went to grab lunch (pre-packed, run of the mill sushi better than expected… Qdoba, not a hint of pesto in the pesto burrito, nor lime on the lime flavored chips.)
More lounging ensued, beer contemplation; bonding with a 7 AM Non Rev Standby for whom we checked status, exchanged numbers, and promised to call as she went home to be with her grandkids. The 3:20 PM prepared to board and we checked in with the gate agent just to get a refresher. “No problem, you’ll be on the 5:20”, she said. We wrote down the names called to the podium and checked those names against the standby lists on line to see if we moved up the lists. What we found didn’t bode well. Not only had none of the called names been standbys but more names were ahead of us on the list as D1s somehow had bumped Trudy down, and D1-3s had submerged moi. We were now 13 and 17 on the list making the chances of both of us getting on the 5:20 sketchy at best. When we looked at the overall numbers for the 5:20 is when we really started questioning our chances of making it out in time to get to the wedding the next day.
The 5:20 that had 15 empty seats when last checked an hour ago, now was overbooked by two plus there were all of the standbys to wade through. How could that be? We asked the agent who seemed genuinely surprised and guessed that the airline had sold the extra seats to another carrier. At this point, we were just a touch out of sorts, but I’m not exaggerating when I say “just a touch.” I mean what were we going to do about it, except have a little tizzy and turn into a couple of those travelers who everyone else just shakes their head at. Now what?
So, we get to Charleston a day late (at best) and miss the wedding. Not to appealing, We could skip Charleston, make two other standbys happy, de-list ourselves, and buy tickets to Atlanta. Kind of spendy and we would have to un-wind all of our reservations. Both of those options were Plan A Version 2. How about Plan B? What about booking a last minute Alaskan cruise? We’d heard that you can book last minute and get screamin’ deals. We checked, the price was right, and we would have gone, but it wouldn’t get us back in town for our niece’s wedding the following weekend. How about San Diego, San Fran, Chicago, any place that is a major hub and that we could get to – on our dime, and not this standby crap – by the next day. Nothing jumped out. How about Kauai? One of our favorite places, extremely directionally challenged when our original destination was the Deep South, but how ‘bout it? Air fare isn’t too bad. Let’s do it. Hey, but what about our checked bags. The gate attendant said that they were still here… she was wrong, our bags are at cruising altitude heading for the east coast. Screw it, we’re going to Kauai, and we’ll figure out what to wear later.
We jumped on the train, hopped on the bus, got greeted by the pets and house sitter, got on the computer, found a car and condo in Kauai, went for dinner and drinks, checked in on football practice at the alma mater (Go Dawgs!!!) the next morning, a quick stop at REI to get a couple things that were in our luggage, reversed course on previously mentioned bus and train, went to the gate, and approximately 33 hours later were finally on a plane leaving a gate at SeaTac airport.
And now, the smoothing sounds of one of the Seattle area’s hottest bands.
“White Winter Hymnal – Fleet Foxes – “Fleet Foxes” (2008)
- DAVE