Neverending String Dream 2008 Part 3

Look out Music City! 'Cause I'm here and I ain't never leavin'!

I don't have much to write about today, so I decided to open with a quote from one of the greatest movies of all time, The Thing Called Love, starring Rivery Phoenix, Samantha Mathis, Sandra Bullock and either Dylan McDermott or Dermot Mulroney. They all move to Nashville or Memphis (which one is the Music City?) to make it big in the country music business and to stalk Trisha Yearwood. River is a little reckless, as it turns out, and he may or may not die or end up in a wheelchair for a portion of the movie. I remember wanting to sing with Samantha Mathis. At one point, the two blond haired singers go up on top of a building top and scream that line that I typed up at the top there. If you were here, I'd mock scream it for you in their funny southern draw. They had goofy fun doing it, so when I want some goofy fun, I'm gonna do it for sure.

So, I love this movie but I haven't seen it since the mid-nineties, so maybe I don't like it. I loved it even before I loved country music. So, now, I'll either deem it inauthentic or I'll think its even better. It was worthy enough to receive "Director's Cut" treatment, which I own, but its gone un-open for the last 2 years.

So, yeah...I had this dream last night that didn't include string or rope or bubble gum, but did include tiny miniature toothpicks that were stuck all up in my teeth, gums and tongue. I kept pulling them out, but there was no end in sight. In the previous dreams, I'd tried to hide the string or gum, but this time, I complained a lot about these miniature toothpicks and people seemed pretty sympathetic, but no one offered up any good advice as to how to get rid of them. They hurt! I can't recall any of the details because I was too busy getting my stuff in order to go vote for my coworker Elliot (his platform: "First thing I'd do is close a lot of stuff.")

Speaking of which...I got to work at 8:45AM this morning. Earlier than anyone else. So, I'm trying to decide which excuse I'd rather leave at 4PM because of...

• a) I'll lie and say that I got to work at 8AM
• b) I'll lie and say that I haven't voted yet
• c) I'll just leave.

Thoughts? Can anyone else think of a third name that would complete the Golden Trilogy of Boring but Similar Long Names alongside Dermot and Dylan?

Neverending String Dream Tally 2008: 3

Songtown - Vol. 13 (He'd Be A Diamond)

Artist: The Bevis Frond
Song: He'd Be A Diamond
Album: New River Head
Year: 1990
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So, there's something sad that I've realized recently. I've written about twelve of my favorite songs so far, but as I look back over them, I feel like I never want to hear any of them ever again. The same goes for all of the songs that the Egg Babies have ever covered. Whenever these songs pop up on the iPod, I immediately skip to the next track. This is sad, right? Look what I've done to myself.

Anyhow, here's to another one down the drain...

As is a recurring theme, I first heard "He'd Be A Diamond" because Teenage Fanclub recorded it as a b-side for their "I Don't Want Control Of You" single. With your assumption deemed correct that I think this song is the bomb and intercourse, I obviously had to track down the original.

Thus, I found the Bevis Frond. I can't say that I like the Bevis Frond very much. I've had their album New River Head (their "masterwork") for seven or eight years now, yet this is still the only song that has found its way onto my iPod. I've read that Mr. Bevis Frond, Nick Saloman, is considered Britain's answer to Robert Pollard. A prolific songwriter with a ton of output, albeit with most of it teetering on the wrong side of the self-indulgent line. With a lot more psychedlic guitar solos.

But it doesn't matter what else he's written, because "He'd Be A Diamond" is a song that he can hang his hat on for the rest of eternity. Its a song filled with an endless stream of metaphors that describe the idea of being in a relationship that's run its course. No matter how hard you try to let bygones be bygones, there are some things that you just can't keep in the past. ("When you turn your back, you still see what's behind you/When you start up fresh, you still think of days gone by"). At the focus of the song, here's this dude who's had too many chances. He treats his girl like crap, and uses her for beer, dope and her ironing prowess. Every time she cuts him loose, he wins her back by promising to be a diamond next time. Speaking of promises, I promise you that this will be the first and last time that you'll hear words like "when you blow your nose, it still gets blocked up and runs" and be totally moved by them.

This is really great, isn't it??!? And I still love it!

Neverending String Dream 2008 Part 2

So, I'm really sorry that I've been out of touch recently. I hope to start telling more stories really soon. For now, I have to concentrate on coughing and feeling hot.

That said, I couldn't sleep very well last night. Or at least, I slept exceptionally well from 8:30PM to 1:30AM, only to wake up and become all tossy and turny. After a few hours of that, I made it back to sleep, only to experience the second instance of the NEVERENDING STRING DREAM saga in 2008.

A group of friends and I decided to take The Bomb and Intercourse Bus Trip to somewhere in Pennsylvania. And against popular belief, this wasn't some sex romp trip. Just an unfortunately named wholesome trip to some rest stop/mall. It seemed like a food court at a mall, except the prices and tastes were a bit more of the rest stop quality.

Lo and behold, it turned out that I had some gum stuck in between my teeth and I spent much of the second half of the dream pulling it out. What was significant about this dream was that for once, someone else realized what was going on. I don't know who she was, but she picked up on it and pointed out this gum problem to me. I wasn't as embarassed as I had previously thought that I would be.

Alright, I just had to tell you.

Neverending String Dream Tally 2008: 2

Songtown - Vol. 12 (The Glutton Of Sympathy)

Artist: Jellyfish
Song: The Glutton of Sympathy
Album: Spilt Milk
Year: 1993
Download



I remember getting really excited in 1993 when Taco Bell announced that they were sponsoring the first annual Battle of the Bands to be broadcast on some network station. When the night came around, I settled in front of the TV, with my Fruit By The Foot or mayonnaise sandwiches or whatever I was into at the time, and was thoroughly wowed that I was finally witnessing one of these battles. I had heard about these battles and I longed to be involved in one on day, but for now, I was happy to just be a tertiary part of the process.

To me, it seemed like this was a week long event or at least a few hours, but after my research, it appears that it was all kept with a 60 minute (live?) telecast. I think there were four bands total, with current Recher Theatre faves Too Skinnee J's going heads up against the Noise Boys. I remember liking the Noise Boys more, but I remember very little about them. I can guarantee that they weren't these guys. Well, Too Skinnee J's pulled it out in the end and I wasn't all that disappointed because I thought they were a lot of fun.

The show must have been a royally unpopular one, as this ended up being the first and last annual Battle. No one ever told me, so I continued to tune in year after year until the invent of the internet in hopes that it'd pop back on any second now. I might have even gone as far as to probe a Taco Bell employee as to the future of this world changing event. The irony of the whole thing is that Fox is now presenting their search for the Next Great American Band, and I could care less.

Well, back to the point. As a treat, they had established pop/rock group Jellyfish perform at the half-way point. I had heard of them, but had never explored them because I stereotyped them as being music for clowns, based on their clothing. Well, anyhow, they played. Their lead singer was their drummer. And he was standing up and playing the drums too! Unheard of. I was hooked. I told myself that they were going to be my favorite band from that point on. But instead, I resisted picking up either of their albums and it was only when I got the record store job did I finally invest in them.

I'm not sure how my 13 year old self would have felt about these albums. I would like to say that he would have loved them even more than I do currently, but that might be wishful thinking. Either way, I can't really imagine a way how Jellyfish would have vastly improved my life between the years of 1993 and 2005.

The two Jellyfish albums represent absolute perfect pop music production. The vocals are all pitch perfect. There's no flubs to be heard in any of the instrument takes. No signs that these guys aren't Jesus himself playing some powerpop tunes.

Of course (and oddly), the perfection can be a bit of a turn-off. There's a certain charm to the occasional screw-up, so the sheen could possibly drive you nuts. Matthew Sweet does this same thing, but he winds up pissing me off much more than Jellyfish. Sometimes I just want to scream when I listen to a lot of his stuff.

Striving for recording perfection isn't for everyone. First and foremost, you have to be capable of creating perfection. Matthew Sweet and a lot of other mid-nineties powerpoppers aren't actually capable of perfection, but they try and it turns out more frustrating then anything. To me, "Powerpop" is defined as "a failed attempt at perfection" so that's why I typically avoid that term like that plague. Jellyfish, however, totally rocked it. I don't know how they're holding up these days, but Brian Wilson probably went nuts because he was chasing perfection. So my second point is just that...be careful, guys!

Anyhow, here's my favorite track of theirs, "The Glutton of Sympathy." Perhaps the lead vocal might be a little too dramatic for you, but maybe not? That said, I challenge you to pin point even one note or beat that sounds like its out of place or out of time.

Random Temperature Generator

Welcome Back Everyone!

I'm convinced that my Mac's weather widget is playing mind games with me. Now that I'm adult, I've decided to start dressing responsibly in the morning dependent on what the forecast is. The easiest way to check said forecast is via this widget. All I need to do is drag my cursor to the top right corner of the screen and bam, there's my temperature.

Except, yesterday it told me it was 48 degrees out, so I left the gloves, scarf and hat home. It felt more like 28 degrees when I got outside.

And this morning, I was bracing for the promises 22 degrees, so I bundled up pretty well, only to look like a chump when I got outside to a temperature well above freezing.

What good is this thing? I should probably check to see if it still thinks I live in Baltimore.

Songtown - Vol. 11 (Perfume)

Artist: Spin The Spin
Song: Perfume (demo)
Album: Mike's Demos
Year: 2000
Download


Spin The Spin was perhaps the most well-planned band that's ever existed in history. I had been recording my little tapes as Twentieth Century Styles. Mark and Mike's work in The Spontaneous Gyrations in high school was by far the largest musical influence in my life and I'm not sure that the 20thCS would have ever happened without them.

So, it made sense that the three of us would get together to work on a project that Mark had deemed "The Cream of the Pop." We called it Spin The Spin, inspired by the name of an arcade game that Mark, our friend Steve and maybe Mike had played at Towson Town Center. The object of the game was to simply spin the spin.

And so we started writing. The three of us occasionally got together and just jammed on three acoustics, recording every last second of it. Add that to the feverish song writing pace that we were all working at on our own, we ended up having a pool of over a hundred songs or song snippets to work from. We eventually got our buddy Gary to play drums, who ironically would usurp all three of us in songwriting prowess and pace.

We played five or six shows and partially recorded our debut album before Mark moved off to Brooklyn. And now I have stacks and stacks of these song bits saved on my hard drive. Our debut album would have been comprised of three or four songs from each of us. We had recorded the basic tracks for Mark's and my songs, but we never had a chance to start Mike's songs. He wound up recording and releasing "Wanderlust" and "Sing Me A Mountain" on his one and only solo album, but one track, "Perfume," never made its way out to the public. Unfortunately for all of you, this track was the cream of the Spin The Spin cannon. [I've decided to stop italicizing Spin The Spin.]

Fortunately for you, this demo of "Perfume" does exist. Its a short rendition of it. We wound up doing the chorus a few times, and maybe there was a solo or a third verse too.

It was around this time that I remember Mike complaining a lot about how the Goo Goo Dolls had began one of their hit songs with the word "And." He thought that was totally improper and stupid. And what? Who cares about the second part, when you never even told us the first part? I eventually explained it to him that the song was probably a continuation of their last song, as they sounded exactly alike.

Anyhow, the second line in this song ends with an "and," and I think its unbelievably creative. I don't know if he did to set it up as a juxtaposition to the Goo Goo way. As a "Fuck you, Goo Goo Dolls. This is how you do 'and.'" But it would make for amazing lore if he had.

I would rank this song up at the top of the Gittings-penned tunes with "Teacher's Pet," one that will show up on the next Water School album. The melody is really well-defined and clever. And the hooks! Its littered with them. "Fine fine fine....Mine mine mine." "Doo do-do-do doo, doo doo doo..."

This is the one aspect that always suffered in our Water School songs, but we lacked an iconic Sweet Child O' Mine guitar riff, or a Hey Jude "na na na" sing along. "Perfume" would have taken care of the latter, at least.

And try to tell me that you don't smile and snicker a bit at the end of the first verse when he sings "I got high just from standing next to you, sniffing the fumes," and then immediately clarifies them as being "the perfume fumes." I love it!

I have no clue what he's singing about in the second verse but I bet's it sexual. Something about a dentist, embroidery and a tiger.

I should now tell you that this song brings real joy to my heart because its the closest thing that I have to Gooseberry Soda. If I didn't know better, I would think that Mike might have produced the Gooseberry song. Really, its creepy how similar the two songs are. If only Mike would have sung about that black snake in the quarry.

Life After People follow-up

In conclusion, if Life After People was a question, the answer would be "Yes."

In ten thousand years, after corrosion brought down the bridges and buildings and whatever concrete-disease tore apart the concrete stuff, all of your favorite metropolitan areas would be grassed over and you couldn't even tell that other stuff used to be there. The oceans would be plentifully stocked with marine life. The Hoover Dam and the Great Pyramid would last for eons and Mt. Rushmore might just last forever.

During the final 45 minutes, the special finally divulged the fate of your household cats. Well, as with the dogs, if they were able to make it out of their homes, they'd be thriving eating tiny birds and field mice. And in 150 years, while dogs have resorted back to their primitive wolf ways and formed bear-killing gangs...your kitties would take up in skyscrapers, "and if you want to get really imaginative, I guess cats could follow the path of the flying squirrel and start gliding through the sky." !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I began with the conclusion, so now I don't know where to go.