One of the episodes of Letterman that was mythed while I was gone was one with Darlene Love, one of Phil Spector’s singers. She sings Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) a song she was the original singer of. And she just tears it up. It’s pretty impressive that she can still belt it out at her age.
Check it out on youtube: Darlene Love on Letterman
(You can also check out the U2 cover of the same song from back in the Bono-has-long-hair-and-wears-dumb-hats phase.)
I had to wait till after Christmas to post this (it was present-related), but the Phil Sector Back to Mono 4 CD box set is only $16.99 at amazon, brand new.
I have it (and paid a lot more it than that, used) and it’s fantastic. 3 great CDs with songs like “Be My Baby”, “He’s a Rebel”, “Da Doo Ron Ron”, “Then He Kissed Me”, “Spanish Harlem” and “Unchained Melody.” The fourth CD is the Spector Christmas CD, which is enjoyable during that season.
In any case, this is a great price for a great and worthwhile box set.
After some considering, I am now signed up Escape from the Rock Alcatraz Triathlon.
1.5 mile swim, 2.5 mile run, 13 mile bike, 10K (6.2 mile) run. I’d better start working on my running.
I managed to see the three Pittsburgh sports teams a total of five times this year.
Due to some fortuitous scheduling, I saw all of them in the Bay Area (in three different cities):
I saw two of the three in Pittsburgh:
Today when I was sorting through my desk drawers, I found this receipt from Beluga Records:
[they said to save the receipt and I did]
Colin had told me that this band, the Coctails, had musical saw because he knew I was interested in it, so I decided to order The Coctails’ Peel. I’d also heard him talking about bands like Superchunk and Sebadoh, many of whom appeared on the Lounge Ax Relocation and Defense Fund CD.
I ordered those CDs and I believe they were my first indie rock CDs. I possibly bought Sebadoh’s Free Weed before that, but I’m not completely sure. July 1997 would place me at the end of my sophomore year of high school, about to enter my junior year.
Andy said that yesterday: “I had embarrassing teen years.” He was going through some boxes of stuff that his parents wanted to get rid of to make space. I laughed at him. I’m not embarrassed by my teen years, I thought. I did alright with them.
Here’s one gem Andy found yesterday:
[yeah, I should crop this and make it a smaller file.]
It’s the original lyric sheet to the Where’s Luke theme song. This was when we were preparing for the coffee house that they hosted at Westminster Presbyterian. I think we might have just been asking Colin if he’d be our drummer.
Tonight I went through my drawers in my desk tonight. I was laughing again, this time at myself. Despite myself I did have an embarrassing adolescence. I found all sorts of ridiculous things that I saved. The pot of gold at the end of the embarrassment rainbow was the half-drawer full of love notes, poems and drawings from a high school girlfriend. I was smiling so much at the ridicilousness of it that I almost cried.
If you choose to celebrate, Merry Christmas.
I hope you have a wonderful and relaxing day with family or friends.
Our Christmas crackers had some pretty funny jokes in them!
Q: What happens when a frog’s car breaks down?
A: It gets toad away
And the piece de resistance:
Q: Why is a leaking parking lot like Frankenstein’s Monster?
A: Because “it’s a porous car loft”
Indie rock (in the broadest of senses) lives and dies on credibility, so much so that ‘indie cred’ is a common phrase. Sure image helps and gimmicks help and music/ songwriting ability may also help, but cred is important. I won’t go as far as saying that cred is king, but it’s certainly important.
And yet, indie rockers often take on genres they are not intimately familiar with. That is, they lack imediate credibility. Beirut takes on Balkan brass music. Iron & Wine take on southern folk.
Even when indie rockers are not taking on other genres, they are often tackling music that isn’t familiar to the listener. Sufjan’s epic folk, Joanna Newsome’s weird harp screeching, Andrew Bird’s experimental, looped violin pop and Neutral Milk Hotel’s emotive fuzz pop are all examples.
What do these people have in common? Unique voices. And they don’t lack credibility.
The unique voices lead to the listener to view these artists with more authenticity than otherwise. If they not going to sing normal then they must mean it.
I’m not sure this is a conscious thought on the artists part, but it’s more likely some bred by the culture.
calm down and don’t strangle people this instant.
yeah, I’m stuck in O’Hare.
a corrollary to this is, I believe, a new phrase I’m coining: comfort music which, like comfort food, may not be great in and of itself and probably isn’t good for you, but helps on those tough days.
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