The Acorn
I never would have heard of this band except for my friend Jonah Eller-Isaacs playing them on a podcast I recorded with him last year. The two songs he played—“Hold Your Breath” and “Glory”—came from the album Glory Hope Mountain. Instead of trying to explain how much the band meant to Jonah and how that drew me into be a fan, I asked Jonah to explain it in his own words:
"It was an opening set by the Canadian band The Acorn that first caught my attention, a set strong enough that the headliner is lost to me now. I discovered later that it was the band's first set in the United States, and they left the Union Hall audience with a collectively dropped jaw. It wasn't just the music that drew us all in; it was their energy, a spiritual Tesla coil of energy that electrified the enraptured crowd. I took home Glory Hope Mountain and listened, and listened, and listened. It was like being a teenager again, that obsessive love, the poring over lyrics and album art, the search for connection and meaning in another's artistic vision. Of course, I had just been handed a potentially terminal cancer diagnosis, which heightened the emotional stakes of, well, everything, and certainly made it easier to fall madly in love with a tender album like this one.
When The Acorn returned to Union Hall for their first American headlining set, I made sure to bring a crew of friends, knowing that they would all be hooked, as they were. I approached the band after the show and said, “Look, I know this is kind of intense, but I'm dealing with a cancer diagnosis right now, and your album has been a balm for me. It’s lovely and beautiful and thank you.” And then the touring female vocalist and I had a good long cry.
I've seen The Acorn numerous times since then, and when they played Mercury Lounge earlier this year, Steve had just finished an interview with the band. He had explained my love of the band and their music, and as the band began their song “Glory,” the lead singer Rolf Klausener dedicated the song to me. Sweet, to be sure, but I don't think Rolf knew how deeply that particular song spoke to me. At “Glory’s” emotional peak, Rolf sings “Oh, the morning sun has come, and you’re not there.” It’s a terrible necessity of living with chronic illness that one must confront the question of mortality; I've always imagined that line anticipating a Jonah-less morning. And yet The Acorn's music fills me with hope—hope as in esperanza, the middle name of Rolf's mother, to whom Glory Hope Mountain is dedicated. As long as bands like The Acorn keep producing music of depth, resonance and meaning, I will continue to find hope."
Friday, December 10, 2010
ReDiscovery of the Year
Nine Inch Nails
It took two bucks to reignite my love and respect for Nine Inch Nails. That's how much I spent on a copy of their 1999 double album The Fragile at a moving sale on Union Street in Park Slope at the end of this summer. It was a total impulse purchase—I hadn’t listened to any NIN in at least three years, and even then it was a one-time only spin of Year Zero before I filed it away in my library. I ripped The Fragile into my iTunes and listened to it all the way through on a lengthier-than-expected trip from my house out to the U.S. Open on the Friday of Labor Day weekend. And it blew my mind. It was perfect for an overcast, kind of steamy day filled with slow moving F and 7 trains. The following day I ordered three used Nine Inch Nails discs through Amazon and downloaded The Slip, which Trent Reznor gave away for free in 2008.
I’ve always been amazed I ended up liking Nine Inch Nails. When Pretty Hate Machine was released in 1989 I lumped the band in with all the other goth/industrial dance acts that the guys and gals that wore black played with a righteous fervor at WICB. It was the 1992 Broken EP that won me over because a) it rocked and b) I finally could get the angst and rage that Reznor was spitting out in his lyrics. With a much more discerning ear 18 years later, it's not Reznor’s words that hook me in songs like “Wish” or “Happiness in Slavery,” but the pure wall of noise that he's painstakingly constructed that gets down into my very core. Sometimes all that racket sounds almost joyful to me, like Trent was having fun making these crazy layered noises. I started jogging again this year and the NIN playlist I assembled on my iPod might be the best thing on there to get the blood flowing.
Of course, getting into a band again a year after their frontman decides he doesn’t want to tour any more and is going to devote himself to other projects? Why yes, that is excellent timing, thanks.
It took two bucks to reignite my love and respect for Nine Inch Nails. That's how much I spent on a copy of their 1999 double album The Fragile at a moving sale on Union Street in Park Slope at the end of this summer. It was a total impulse purchase—I hadn’t listened to any NIN in at least three years, and even then it was a one-time only spin of Year Zero before I filed it away in my library. I ripped The Fragile into my iTunes and listened to it all the way through on a lengthier-than-expected trip from my house out to the U.S. Open on the Friday of Labor Day weekend. And it blew my mind. It was perfect for an overcast, kind of steamy day filled with slow moving F and 7 trains. The following day I ordered three used Nine Inch Nails discs through Amazon and downloaded The Slip, which Trent Reznor gave away for free in 2008.
I’ve always been amazed I ended up liking Nine Inch Nails. When Pretty Hate Machine was released in 1989 I lumped the band in with all the other goth/industrial dance acts that the guys and gals that wore black played with a righteous fervor at WICB. It was the 1992 Broken EP that won me over because a) it rocked and b) I finally could get the angst and rage that Reznor was spitting out in his lyrics. With a much more discerning ear 18 years later, it's not Reznor’s words that hook me in songs like “Wish” or “Happiness in Slavery,” but the pure wall of noise that he's painstakingly constructed that gets down into my very core. Sometimes all that racket sounds almost joyful to me, like Trent was having fun making these crazy layered noises. I started jogging again this year and the NIN playlist I assembled on my iPod might be the best thing on there to get the blood flowing.
Of course, getting into a band again a year after their frontman decides he doesn’t want to tour any more and is going to devote himself to other projects? Why yes, that is excellent timing, thanks.
2010's Top 10 Visual Aids
10) Human Target (FOX)
This series (which surprised me by getting renewed for a second season) is loosely based upon a DC Comic where the main character, Christopher Chance, takes the place of the people he's protecting using complex disguises. Since having a bunch of guest stars as the main character each week doesn’t bode well for a TV show, Chase became a guy who protects people by being good at everything: shooting, foreign languages, piloting planes, etc. Mark Valley is a charismatic lead as Chance and because the guy was actually in the Army, he looks totally natural holding a gun and other weapons. But the show’s main appeal is the amusing, frustrated comic chemistry between Chi McBride (Winston, Chase’s partner) and Jackie Earle Haley (Guerrero, a sort of reformed bad guy hacker). These two actors bring their characters bickering to a level that is a pure joy to watch. However, I’m not sold on the second season so far as the new show-runner a) completely dismissed last season’s cliff-hanger in like five minutes; b) changed the opening theme music and credits, which were a cool throwback to the shows I loved in the 70s and 80s and c) added two other regular characters that will likely take away from the screen time that McBride and Haley get together. The show will air after American Idol in January and February, so it might get a third season. And I might not care if it does after seeing the first few episodes of the second.
9) Lost (ABC)
Let’s get the finale out of the way: I disliked…no, no. Let me rephrase that:
I HATED THAT FUCKING FINALE WITH A SCALDING HOT PASSION THAT I USUALLY RESERVE FOR THE YANKEES OR A CERTAIN PERSON WHOSE NAME I CANNOT UTTER WHO I KNEW FIVE YEARS AGO.
(Whew, I feel better now. I better grab a bottle of water and take a couple of sips.)
(Okay, now I’m really better.)
Yet with my, um, distaste for the finale and the reveal that the sideways world was some sort of purgatory, I did enjoy much of Lost’s final season. I thought Terry O’Quinn did some rather fine work playing the evil incarnate on the island that had taken on the form of John Locke. The episode where we found out the backstory about Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell) was easily one of my top five favorite of the entire series, even if it didn’t follow the usual Lost template. (The same can’t be said for the backstory about Jacob and his brother, oy.) And seeing Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Miles (Ken Leung) in what could have been a buddy cop movie in the sideways world (cough, cough, pardon me, puuuuuuuuuuurgatory) made me pine for an actual spinoff with those two actors in a buddy cop series. I’m pretty sure it would have been more Fraiser, less AfterMASH. I will honestly miss Lost when January rolls around. There’s rarely been a show that’s made me so enthralled, puzzled, scared and hungry (those Dharma Initiative food drops were like subliminal advertising for food for me) all at the same time. I’m doubtful that there will be show that I follow as fervently ever again.
8) Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Universal)
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is yet another movie based on a comic book/graphic novel. The title character is a typical slacker in his early 20s, playing bass in a band (Sex Bob-Omb) and living in a tiny apartment because he’s broke. (He sleeps in the same bed as his gay roommate.) He falls for a messenger named Ramona Flowers, pursues her and quickly finds out that he has to beat her all seven members of her League of Evil Exes in combat if he wants to make things work. That summation probably makes you think, “That’ll never work as a movie.” Yet Pilgrim is perhaps the closest anyone has captured the actual feel of reading a comic book on the big screen. (Sorry Ang Lee—cool panel graphics didn’t save your craptacular attempt at The Hulk.) The way Pilgrim (played by Michael Cera) dives into the fights against the execs as if he’s playing a video game seems completely natural in the world director Edgar Wright has drawn from the original source material. I can honestly say that I haven’t had such an enjoyable, fun and rollicking experience in a movie theater in many years.
7) Bruce Springsteen - The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story (Columbia)
Yes, I had this at the top of the Reissues, etc. section just a couple pages back. But it’s my list, so if I want to give this box a spot on another list I totally can do it. The wealth of visual material in this set is overwhelming. The documentary about the making of Darkness is top notch, yet it’s still the weakest part of the box. Watching Springsteen and the E Street Band perform the album in its entirety in 2009 is a thrill, even with the lack of an audience at the Paramount Theater in Asbury Park. That decision pays off big time as director Thom Zimny was able to put cameras on stage and film the band from different angles that wouldn’t be used in a typical concert DVD. (I especially liked the camera that swoops around Springsteen and Steve Van Zandt as they share the microphone during one song.) Combine that with a treasure trove of in studio performances from the Darkness sessions and an entire concert from Houston in 1978 and you have a collection that will be hard for any artist to top. I guess the box set ball is in your corner, Neil Young.
6) The Good Guys (FOX)
I only know one other person that’s watched this show from the creator of Burn Notice. My former co-worker Erich lives in Dallas, where the show is filmed, and he told me once that “If you want to know about Dallas, watch The Good Guys. It really embraces the city.” Alas, by the time you read this it will have aired its last episode. And that’s a shame, because it’s the first show since The X-Files that’s been on a network on Friday nights that I would consider staying in for. On the surface, The Good Guys is a standard mismatched buddy cop show. Colin Hanks plays the tightly wound, by-the-book younger partner, while Bradley Whitford plays the “I don’t go by the book, I go by my gut” older partner. Yet it’s much richer than that description. Every bad guy on this show has some sort of issue that is always hysterical—explaining at every turn why he’s vegan, worrying because he’s the second best assassin in the world, trying to keep his bed and breakfast clean, or worrying how he’ll keep their falafel restaurant open. And Whitford (and his amazing, straight-from-the-early-80s moustache) just chews through the scenery with an over the top performance as Foghat-loving, Trans Am-driving, beer-swilling Dan Stark. He delivers some of the funniest lines on TV week after week while laying out his creed about police work. Some examples include:
—“Evidence is like a bowl of soup. It goes cold you gotta heat it up again and scrape off the film that grows on top and dig in.”
—“I am proud of my willingness to lubricate myself for the cause of justice.”
—“Crime is like a woman, when she needs your attention you gotta pull your gun out.”
I am really going to miss Dan Stark. And his moustache.
5) Chuck (NBC)
In last year’s list I made a plea for folks to watch the third season of Chuck debuting in January 2010. That was a mistake. I should have said, watch season 3.1 that’s debuting in late April. Those six episodes, ordered after the initial 13 of the season had been mapped out, showed off everything that’s great about this action/comedy/sometime-drama-when-the-mood-requires-it. I’ve finally come to the acceptance that this show will never be a mid-sized hit. It always comes in fourth in its time slot. Of course, that’s like every other show on NBC, and since Chuck doesn’t get as pulverized as other programs the last place network puts on there’s a good chance it might make it to a fifth season. And that would be amazing after the Subway campaign to save it in 2009.
4) Terriers (FX)
Full disclosure: one of the regulars on this highly underwatched series, Jamie Denbo, is married to one of my good friends from college, John Ross Bowie. And honestly, I wouldn’t have thought about watching or DVR-ing the show if she wasn’t on it. Wow, am I happy that I did. It’s the best new American-made series of the year. (That distinction will make sense in three entries below.) I’ve always enjoyed the work of the star Donal Logue, yet the FX campaign that showed a couple of barking dogs made me think the show was about dog catchers or something. (And this is coming from a guy that reads a great deal about the TV business each and every week.) Whoever came up with that campaign at FX ought to have their genitals attacked by a dog. Terriers was not picked up for a second season, and that is a crime. Not as big as the crimes that Logue and his co-star Michael Raymond-James’ characters investigate as unlicensed private detectives, yet still very bad. Terriers is a loose and funny buddy show, starring two incredibly likable actors that you can buy instantly as friends. The season-long arc about rich and powerful men doing wicked things in Ocean Beach, California is compelling. Yet many of the episodes can be watched just as a stand alone story. It’s a show that’s perfect mix of the two, featuring heart on the sleeve acting by the entire cast. Their joy in acting on such a quality show comes through in each and every performance. Do yourself a favor and download it from iTunes or watch it online now. I promise you’ll get hooked.
3) Community (NBC)
I never imagined how much funnier this show would get when I placed it upon last year’s Top 10. Then came a note-perfect homage to Goodfellas, in which the study group became an organized crime syndicate controlling the supply of the school cafeteria's beloved chicken fingers. Two weeks later came “Modern Warfare,” which had a storyline about a campus paintball tournament that ended up spoofing every major action movie cliché of past 30 years. I don’t think I’m a good enough TV critic (actually, if you’ve read this list over the years, you know I’m as much of a TV critic as Sarah Palin is an author) to describe the awesomeness of those two episodes. Community’s second season hasn’t hit those heights yet, but it’s still the best network comedy to come along in many, many years.
2) Inception (Warner Bros.)
Okay, did the top continue to spin? Someone tell me. Please!!!!!!!!!!
Ahem.
Movies often seem to come from the recycling bin these days: how about a sequel? This TV show would be great to remakes? When’s Michael Bay creating another stupid franchise? Writer-director Christopher Nolan does a difficult thing with Inception. It is completely original, cut from a new cloth, and yet structured like a standard action movie so it feels like it makes more sense than it probably does. It’s popular art at its best, and I’m so glad I didn’t wait for it to come to cable like I did with Batman Begins, The Prestige and The Dark Knight.
1) Sherlock (PBS)
I have exactly one book that I’ve saved from my days as a child—The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This tome (which is 1,122 pages long!!! Holy shit! I’m glad I looked at the book, I never would have thought it was that long!) has been packed and unpacked and moved through every single apartment I’ve had as an adult. The Holmes canon struck a chord that has seen me watch almost every film and TV adaptation. (I even went on a first date to see the Robert Downey Jr.-Jude Law take. Thankfully that stinker didn’t ruin what was otherwise a pleasant evening.) I can honestly say that this PBS version, brought into the 21st century by one of the producers behind the recent Dr. Who, is one of best I’ve ever seen. In this update Holmes—played by an outstanding Benedict Cumberbatch—exists in a world much like our own, where characters watch TV and listen to music and a killer can taunt Holmes by asking if he wants to phone a friend. Doctor John Watson (Martin Freeman from the British version of The Office) keeps a blog instead of a journal and Holmes doesn’t smoke (he uses multiple nicotine patches to help himself think). Perhaps the most interesting change is that by today’s standards, Holmes comes off as extremely weird, bordering on creepy. His intellect, highly sensitive powers of observation and fixation on bizarre crimes makes him someone the cops don’t entirely trust. One of my favorite lines comes from one of Scotland’s Yard’s finest, saying Holmes “gets off on it. One day, we’ll be standing around a body and Sherlock Holmes will be the one that put it there... He’s a psychopath. Psychopaths get bored.” Later in that same scene Holmes explains, “I’m not a psychopath. I’m a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research.” The cliffhanger in the final episode makes me confident that this version of Sherlock will return. Don’t miss it when it does.
This series (which surprised me by getting renewed for a second season) is loosely based upon a DC Comic where the main character, Christopher Chance, takes the place of the people he's protecting using complex disguises. Since having a bunch of guest stars as the main character each week doesn’t bode well for a TV show, Chase became a guy who protects people by being good at everything: shooting, foreign languages, piloting planes, etc. Mark Valley is a charismatic lead as Chance and because the guy was actually in the Army, he looks totally natural holding a gun and other weapons. But the show’s main appeal is the amusing, frustrated comic chemistry between Chi McBride (Winston, Chase’s partner) and Jackie Earle Haley (Guerrero, a sort of reformed bad guy hacker). These two actors bring their characters bickering to a level that is a pure joy to watch. However, I’m not sold on the second season so far as the new show-runner a) completely dismissed last season’s cliff-hanger in like five minutes; b) changed the opening theme music and credits, which were a cool throwback to the shows I loved in the 70s and 80s and c) added two other regular characters that will likely take away from the screen time that McBride and Haley get together. The show will air after American Idol in January and February, so it might get a third season. And I might not care if it does after seeing the first few episodes of the second.
9) Lost (ABC)
Let’s get the finale out of the way: I disliked…no, no. Let me rephrase that:
I HATED THAT FUCKING FINALE WITH A SCALDING HOT PASSION THAT I USUALLY RESERVE FOR THE YANKEES OR A CERTAIN PERSON WHOSE NAME I CANNOT UTTER WHO I KNEW FIVE YEARS AGO.
(Whew, I feel better now. I better grab a bottle of water and take a couple of sips.)
(Okay, now I’m really better.)
Yet with my, um, distaste for the finale and the reveal that the sideways world was some sort of purgatory, I did enjoy much of Lost’s final season. I thought Terry O’Quinn did some rather fine work playing the evil incarnate on the island that had taken on the form of John Locke. The episode where we found out the backstory about Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell) was easily one of my top five favorite of the entire series, even if it didn’t follow the usual Lost template. (The same can’t be said for the backstory about Jacob and his brother, oy.) And seeing Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Miles (Ken Leung) in what could have been a buddy cop movie in the sideways world (cough, cough, pardon me, puuuuuuuuuuurgatory) made me pine for an actual spinoff with those two actors in a buddy cop series. I’m pretty sure it would have been more Fraiser, less AfterMASH. I will honestly miss Lost when January rolls around. There’s rarely been a show that’s made me so enthralled, puzzled, scared and hungry (those Dharma Initiative food drops were like subliminal advertising for food for me) all at the same time. I’m doubtful that there will be show that I follow as fervently ever again.
8) Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Universal)
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is yet another movie based on a comic book/graphic novel. The title character is a typical slacker in his early 20s, playing bass in a band (Sex Bob-Omb) and living in a tiny apartment because he’s broke. (He sleeps in the same bed as his gay roommate.) He falls for a messenger named Ramona Flowers, pursues her and quickly finds out that he has to beat her all seven members of her League of Evil Exes in combat if he wants to make things work. That summation probably makes you think, “That’ll never work as a movie.” Yet Pilgrim is perhaps the closest anyone has captured the actual feel of reading a comic book on the big screen. (Sorry Ang Lee—cool panel graphics didn’t save your craptacular attempt at The Hulk.) The way Pilgrim (played by Michael Cera) dives into the fights against the execs as if he’s playing a video game seems completely natural in the world director Edgar Wright has drawn from the original source material. I can honestly say that I haven’t had such an enjoyable, fun and rollicking experience in a movie theater in many years.
7) Bruce Springsteen - The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story (Columbia)
Yes, I had this at the top of the Reissues, etc. section just a couple pages back. But it’s my list, so if I want to give this box a spot on another list I totally can do it. The wealth of visual material in this set is overwhelming. The documentary about the making of Darkness is top notch, yet it’s still the weakest part of the box. Watching Springsteen and the E Street Band perform the album in its entirety in 2009 is a thrill, even with the lack of an audience at the Paramount Theater in Asbury Park. That decision pays off big time as director Thom Zimny was able to put cameras on stage and film the band from different angles that wouldn’t be used in a typical concert DVD. (I especially liked the camera that swoops around Springsteen and Steve Van Zandt as they share the microphone during one song.) Combine that with a treasure trove of in studio performances from the Darkness sessions and an entire concert from Houston in 1978 and you have a collection that will be hard for any artist to top. I guess the box set ball is in your corner, Neil Young.
6) The Good Guys (FOX)
I only know one other person that’s watched this show from the creator of Burn Notice. My former co-worker Erich lives in Dallas, where the show is filmed, and he told me once that “If you want to know about Dallas, watch The Good Guys. It really embraces the city.” Alas, by the time you read this it will have aired its last episode. And that’s a shame, because it’s the first show since The X-Files that’s been on a network on Friday nights that I would consider staying in for. On the surface, The Good Guys is a standard mismatched buddy cop show. Colin Hanks plays the tightly wound, by-the-book younger partner, while Bradley Whitford plays the “I don’t go by the book, I go by my gut” older partner. Yet it’s much richer than that description. Every bad guy on this show has some sort of issue that is always hysterical—explaining at every turn why he’s vegan, worrying because he’s the second best assassin in the world, trying to keep his bed and breakfast clean, or worrying how he’ll keep their falafel restaurant open. And Whitford (and his amazing, straight-from-the-early-80s moustache) just chews through the scenery with an over the top performance as Foghat-loving, Trans Am-driving, beer-swilling Dan Stark. He delivers some of the funniest lines on TV week after week while laying out his creed about police work. Some examples include:
—“Evidence is like a bowl of soup. It goes cold you gotta heat it up again and scrape off the film that grows on top and dig in.”
—“I am proud of my willingness to lubricate myself for the cause of justice.”
—“Crime is like a woman, when she needs your attention you gotta pull your gun out.”
I am really going to miss Dan Stark. And his moustache.
5) Chuck (NBC)
In last year’s list I made a plea for folks to watch the third season of Chuck debuting in January 2010. That was a mistake. I should have said, watch season 3.1 that’s debuting in late April. Those six episodes, ordered after the initial 13 of the season had been mapped out, showed off everything that’s great about this action/comedy/sometime-drama-when-the-mood-requires-it. I’ve finally come to the acceptance that this show will never be a mid-sized hit. It always comes in fourth in its time slot. Of course, that’s like every other show on NBC, and since Chuck doesn’t get as pulverized as other programs the last place network puts on there’s a good chance it might make it to a fifth season. And that would be amazing after the Subway campaign to save it in 2009.
4) Terriers (FX)
Full disclosure: one of the regulars on this highly underwatched series, Jamie Denbo, is married to one of my good friends from college, John Ross Bowie. And honestly, I wouldn’t have thought about watching or DVR-ing the show if she wasn’t on it. Wow, am I happy that I did. It’s the best new American-made series of the year. (That distinction will make sense in three entries below.) I’ve always enjoyed the work of the star Donal Logue, yet the FX campaign that showed a couple of barking dogs made me think the show was about dog catchers or something. (And this is coming from a guy that reads a great deal about the TV business each and every week.) Whoever came up with that campaign at FX ought to have their genitals attacked by a dog. Terriers was not picked up for a second season, and that is a crime. Not as big as the crimes that Logue and his co-star Michael Raymond-James’ characters investigate as unlicensed private detectives, yet still very bad. Terriers is a loose and funny buddy show, starring two incredibly likable actors that you can buy instantly as friends. The season-long arc about rich and powerful men doing wicked things in Ocean Beach, California is compelling. Yet many of the episodes can be watched just as a stand alone story. It’s a show that’s perfect mix of the two, featuring heart on the sleeve acting by the entire cast. Their joy in acting on such a quality show comes through in each and every performance. Do yourself a favor and download it from iTunes or watch it online now. I promise you’ll get hooked.
3) Community (NBC)
I never imagined how much funnier this show would get when I placed it upon last year’s Top 10. Then came a note-perfect homage to Goodfellas, in which the study group became an organized crime syndicate controlling the supply of the school cafeteria's beloved chicken fingers. Two weeks later came “Modern Warfare,” which had a storyline about a campus paintball tournament that ended up spoofing every major action movie cliché of past 30 years. I don’t think I’m a good enough TV critic (actually, if you’ve read this list over the years, you know I’m as much of a TV critic as Sarah Palin is an author) to describe the awesomeness of those two episodes. Community’s second season hasn’t hit those heights yet, but it’s still the best network comedy to come along in many, many years.
2) Inception (Warner Bros.)
Okay, did the top continue to spin? Someone tell me. Please!!!!!!!!!!
Ahem.
Movies often seem to come from the recycling bin these days: how about a sequel? This TV show would be great to remakes? When’s Michael Bay creating another stupid franchise? Writer-director Christopher Nolan does a difficult thing with Inception. It is completely original, cut from a new cloth, and yet structured like a standard action movie so it feels like it makes more sense than it probably does. It’s popular art at its best, and I’m so glad I didn’t wait for it to come to cable like I did with Batman Begins, The Prestige and The Dark Knight.
1) Sherlock (PBS)
I have exactly one book that I’ve saved from my days as a child—The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This tome (which is 1,122 pages long!!! Holy shit! I’m glad I looked at the book, I never would have thought it was that long!) has been packed and unpacked and moved through every single apartment I’ve had as an adult. The Holmes canon struck a chord that has seen me watch almost every film and TV adaptation. (I even went on a first date to see the Robert Downey Jr.-Jude Law take. Thankfully that stinker didn’t ruin what was otherwise a pleasant evening.) I can honestly say that this PBS version, brought into the 21st century by one of the producers behind the recent Dr. Who, is one of best I’ve ever seen. In this update Holmes—played by an outstanding Benedict Cumberbatch—exists in a world much like our own, where characters watch TV and listen to music and a killer can taunt Holmes by asking if he wants to phone a friend. Doctor John Watson (Martin Freeman from the British version of The Office) keeps a blog instead of a journal and Holmes doesn’t smoke (he uses multiple nicotine patches to help himself think). Perhaps the most interesting change is that by today’s standards, Holmes comes off as extremely weird, bordering on creepy. His intellect, highly sensitive powers of observation and fixation on bizarre crimes makes him someone the cops don’t entirely trust. One of my favorite lines comes from one of Scotland’s Yard’s finest, saying Holmes “gets off on it. One day, we’ll be standing around a body and Sherlock Holmes will be the one that put it there... He’s a psychopath. Psychopaths get bored.” Later in that same scene Holmes explains, “I’m not a psychopath. I’m a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research.” The cliffhanger in the final episode makes me confident that this version of Sherlock will return. Don’t miss it when it does.
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Song of the Week 12/3/10
The Figgs - "Racing Around"
The Figgs celebrated 10 years since the release of Sucking in Stereo by playing the entire album at two shows here over the weekend. Hearing all those songs in a row was like revisiting an old friend. No, actually, it was like revisiting myself at age 30, when I watched all these songs take shape over a year of shows and I had the energy to pogo for almost an entire set. Now, I can pogo for about 30 seconds before I start worrying about my knees.
I don't have a clip of the guys doing that song, but on Saturday at Bruar Falls in Williamsburg I did get a chance to shoot them busting into the Couldn't Get High gem "Said Enough" with its writer Guy Lyons stepping up to do vocals. It was a great moment on a night filled with them.
The Figgs celebrated 10 years since the release of Sucking in Stereo by playing the entire album at two shows here over the weekend. Hearing all those songs in a row was like revisiting an old friend. No, actually, it was like revisiting myself at age 30, when I watched all these songs take shape over a year of shows and I had the energy to pogo for almost an entire set. Now, I can pogo for about 30 seconds before I start worrying about my knees.
I don't have a clip of the guys doing that song, but on Saturday at Bruar Falls in Williamsburg I did get a chance to shoot them busting into the Couldn't Get High gem "Said Enough" with its writer Guy Lyons stepping up to do vocals. It was a great moment on a night filled with them.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Song of the Week 11/26/10
Tired Pony - "Dead American Writers"
There are certain years where I sit down to write this list and it just pours out of me. I’ve found myself up at 1:00 a.m., pouring another glass of Diet Coke just because I know I’ve struck a rich vein of creativity and I don’t want to lose it by going to sleep. Other years, errrrr, not so much. This year, for example. It’s been like, well, I can’t even come up with a good cliché to describe how hard it’s been to extract the words from my brain and get them to come out my fingers into this here ancient keyboard. When you’re checking your Twitter feed once every six minutes or so because you’ve written only a sentence in a half hour and you’re desperate for anything to take your brain away from writing…well, it’s not good. In the midst of my mind needing some Metamucil, I started looking over the lyrics to Tired Pony’s “Dead American Writers.” And I’ll be damned if Gary Lightbody didn’t nail the pains of writers block in a song, um, about dead writers. Check out the first and second verses:
“Here's to every time that you rock a boat
Here's to every word that you ever wrote
There were clues but it was never clear
You've got to choose your own way out of here
I've been waiting for the spark myself,
I've been scrambling in the dark for health
I have read your words a thousand times
All this spark but smashed up love and crime.”
Waiting for the spark myself. Fucking a, Gary, I feel your pain.
There are certain years where I sit down to write this list and it just pours out of me. I’ve found myself up at 1:00 a.m., pouring another glass of Diet Coke just because I know I’ve struck a rich vein of creativity and I don’t want to lose it by going to sleep. Other years, errrrr, not so much. This year, for example. It’s been like, well, I can’t even come up with a good cliché to describe how hard it’s been to extract the words from my brain and get them to come out my fingers into this here ancient keyboard. When you’re checking your Twitter feed once every six minutes or so because you’ve written only a sentence in a half hour and you’re desperate for anything to take your brain away from writing…well, it’s not good. In the midst of my mind needing some Metamucil, I started looking over the lyrics to Tired Pony’s “Dead American Writers.” And I’ll be damned if Gary Lightbody didn’t nail the pains of writers block in a song, um, about dead writers. Check out the first and second verses:
“Here's to every time that you rock a boat
Here's to every word that you ever wrote
There were clues but it was never clear
You've got to choose your own way out of here
I've been waiting for the spark myself,
I've been scrambling in the dark for health
I have read your words a thousand times
All this spark but smashed up love and crime.”
Waiting for the spark myself. Fucking a, Gary, I feel your pain.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Song of the Week 11/19/10
Bruce Springsteen - "The Promise"
The epic day I went through on Tuesday to get this new Springsteen box is a tale that I don't feel like repeating. But after 9 hours of travels, frustration and unexpected purchases, it was worth it. And this song (and video) are just stunning.
You can check out more about the box set in my last two podcasts. Oh, and I might have more to say on December 10th.
The epic day I went through on Tuesday to get this new Springsteen box is a tale that I don't feel like repeating. But after 9 hours of travels, frustration and unexpected purchases, it was worth it. And this song (and video) are just stunning.
You can check out more about the box set in my last two podcasts. Oh, and I might have more to say on December 10th.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Song of the Week 11/12/10
Warren G and Nate Dogg - "Regulate"
My pals Allison and Melanie (along with their respective roommates and significant others) out together a master list of songs to choose from for our initial foray into doing a 90s themed party. You can see the playlist for the Class of 2000 (Re)Union below. Out of the 100 songs I downloaded to flesh out my library, this jam based on Michael McDonald's "I Keep Forgetting" brought me the most joy.
My pals Allison and Melanie (along with their respective roommates and significant others) out together a master list of songs to choose from for our initial foray into doing a 90s themed party. You can see the playlist for the Class of 2000 (Re)Union below. Out of the 100 songs I downloaded to flesh out my library, this jam based on Michael McDonald's "I Keep Forgetting" brought me the most joy.
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
Song of the Week 11/5/10
Extreme - "More Than Words"
You know what? This is a perfect song to play at a wedding/enagagement celebration. (Even if your guitar player ends it a bit too early.)
You know what? This is a perfect song to play at a wedding/enagagement celebration. (Even if your guitar player ends it a bit too early.)
Saturday, November 06, 2010
Class of 2000 (Re)Union (a.k.a. Party Like It's 1999) 11/4/10
As this has been a year of going out of my comfort zone, why not expand that to DJ-ing a night devoted to a lot of 90s pop, hip-hop & R and B? It was a lot more fun than I expected it to be--and hopefully we'll do it again. Thanks to Allison and Melanie (and assorted others) for getting the ball rolling and coming up with a wide ranging list of tunes.
Garbage - "Only Happy When It Rains"
Nada Surf - "Popular"
Meat Puppets - "Backwater"
Foo Fighters - "Everlong"
The Breeders - "Cannonball"
"Beverly Hills 90210 Theme"
The Flaming Lips - "She Don't use Jelly"
Spacehog - "In the Meantime"
Letters to Cleo - "Here and Now"
The Cardigans - "Lovefool"
Oasis - "Don't Look Back in Anger"
Gin Blossoms - "Found Out About You"
Live - "All Over You"
Everclear - "Santa Monica"
Fastball - "The Way"
Marcy Playground - "Sex and Candy"
The Offspring - "Come Out and Play"
Rancid - "Ruby Soho"
Blink 182 - "What's My Age Again"
Lit - "My Own Worst Enemy"
Toadies - "Possum Kingdom"
Candlebox - "Far Behind"
Cracker - "Low"
Spin Doctors - "Two Princes"
Better Than Ezra - "Good"
Weezer - "Buddy Holly"
The Presidents of the United States of America - "Lump"
Divnyls - "I Touch Myself"
James - "Laid"
Ace of Base - "The Sign"
Hanson - "MMMBop"
Backstreet Boys - "I Want It That Way"
Wilson Phillips - "Hold On"
Amy Grant - "Baby Baby"
Britney Spears - "Baby Hit Me One More Time"
No Doubt - "Spiderwebs"
The Breeders - "Divine Hammer"
Chumbawamba - "Tubthumping"
Cornershop - "Brimful of Asha (Norman Cook Remix)"
Skee-Lo - "I Wish"
Coolio - "Gangsta's Paradise"
2Pac & Dr. Dre - "California Love"
Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg - "Nothing But a G Thing"
House of Pain - "Jump Around"
Six Mix-A-Lot - "Baby Got Back"
Heavy D - "Now That We Found Love"
Montell Jordan - "This Is How We Do It"
Boyz II Men - "Motownphilly"
Mary J. Blige - "Real Love"
Mariah Carey - "Fantasy"
Notorious B.I.G. feat. Puff Daddy & Mase - "Mo Money, More Problems"
Paula Abdul - "Opposites Attract"
Spice Girls - "Wannabe"
TLC - "No Scrubs"
En Vogue - "Don't Let Go"
Janet Jackson - "That's the Way Love Goes"
Aaliyah - "Are You That Somebody"
Salt-N-Pepa - "Shoop"
Freak Nasty - "Da Dip"
Dee-Lite - "Groove Is in the Heart"
Pras, Mya & ODB - "Ghetto Superstar"
Lauryn Hill - "Doo Wop (That Thing)"
ODB - "Got Your Money"
Positive K - "I Got a Man"
Tag Team - "Whoomp! There It Is"
Biz Markie - "Just a Friend"
Warren G & Nate Dogg - "Regulate"
Jodeci - "Lately"
Seal - "Kiss From a Rose"
Lisa Loeb - "Stay"
Semisonic - "Closing Time"
Garbage - "Only Happy When It Rains"
Nada Surf - "Popular"
Meat Puppets - "Backwater"
Foo Fighters - "Everlong"
The Breeders - "Cannonball"
"Beverly Hills 90210 Theme"
The Flaming Lips - "She Don't use Jelly"
Spacehog - "In the Meantime"
Letters to Cleo - "Here and Now"
The Cardigans - "Lovefool"
Oasis - "Don't Look Back in Anger"
Gin Blossoms - "Found Out About You"
Live - "All Over You"
Everclear - "Santa Monica"
Fastball - "The Way"
Marcy Playground - "Sex and Candy"
The Offspring - "Come Out and Play"
Rancid - "Ruby Soho"
Blink 182 - "What's My Age Again"
Lit - "My Own Worst Enemy"
Toadies - "Possum Kingdom"
Candlebox - "Far Behind"
Cracker - "Low"
Spin Doctors - "Two Princes"
Better Than Ezra - "Good"
Weezer - "Buddy Holly"
The Presidents of the United States of America - "Lump"
Divnyls - "I Touch Myself"
James - "Laid"
Ace of Base - "The Sign"
Hanson - "MMMBop"
Backstreet Boys - "I Want It That Way"
Wilson Phillips - "Hold On"
Amy Grant - "Baby Baby"
Britney Spears - "Baby Hit Me One More Time"
No Doubt - "Spiderwebs"
The Breeders - "Divine Hammer"
Chumbawamba - "Tubthumping"
Cornershop - "Brimful of Asha (Norman Cook Remix)"
Skee-Lo - "I Wish"
Coolio - "Gangsta's Paradise"
2Pac & Dr. Dre - "California Love"
Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg - "Nothing But a G Thing"
House of Pain - "Jump Around"
Six Mix-A-Lot - "Baby Got Back"
Heavy D - "Now That We Found Love"
Montell Jordan - "This Is How We Do It"
Boyz II Men - "Motownphilly"
Mary J. Blige - "Real Love"
Mariah Carey - "Fantasy"
Notorious B.I.G. feat. Puff Daddy & Mase - "Mo Money, More Problems"
Paula Abdul - "Opposites Attract"
Spice Girls - "Wannabe"
TLC - "No Scrubs"
En Vogue - "Don't Let Go"
Janet Jackson - "That's the Way Love Goes"
Aaliyah - "Are You That Somebody"
Salt-N-Pepa - "Shoop"
Freak Nasty - "Da Dip"
Dee-Lite - "Groove Is in the Heart"
Pras, Mya & ODB - "Ghetto Superstar"
Lauryn Hill - "Doo Wop (That Thing)"
ODB - "Got Your Money"
Positive K - "I Got a Man"
Tag Team - "Whoomp! There It Is"
Biz Markie - "Just a Friend"
Warren G & Nate Dogg - "Regulate"
Jodeci - "Lately"
Seal - "Kiss From a Rose"
Lisa Loeb - "Stay"
Semisonic - "Closing Time"
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Song of the Week 10/29/10
Guster - "Bad Bad World"
This was a highlight of their show at the Beacon Theater last night. And this video is so awesome:
This was a highlight of their show at the Beacon Theater last night. And this video is so awesome:
Friday, October 29, 2010
Song of the Week 10/22/10
Night Ranger - "Sister Christian"
It's not often that I repeat a Song of the Week, but I figured after shredding my voice to this song on my birthday it was probably worth it. (Click here for the previous entry.)
It's not often that I repeat a Song of the Week, but I figured after shredding my voice to this song on my birthday it was probably worth it. (Click here for the previous entry.)
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Song of the Week 10/15/10
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Song of the Week 10/8/10
LCD Soundsystem - "Dance Yrself Clean"
I'm not sure if the following clip shows just how awesome an opening song this was for James Murphy and company's ACL set. The people around me were so into it I couldn't help but get swept up into the dancing and jumping around. It was such an improvement on when I saw them at Webster Hall in the spring. It's definitely one of my favorite shows of the year and it made me think everyone should see this band play as the sun sets.
I'm not sure if the following clip shows just how awesome an opening song this was for James Murphy and company's ACL set. The people around me were so into it I couldn't help but get swept up into the dancing and jumping around. It was such an improvement on when I saw them at Webster Hall in the spring. It's definitely one of my favorite shows of the year and it made me think everyone should see this band play as the sun sets.
Monday, October 04, 2010
Song of the Week 10/1/10
The Young Veins - "Take a Vacation"
Why yes, I think I will. See you when I get back from ACL.
Oh, and this is one of the best albums of the year. You'll think it's 1966 all over again.
Why yes, I think I will. See you when I get back from ACL.
Oh, and this is one of the best albums of the year. You'll think it's 1966 all over again.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Song of the Week 9/24/2010
Pavement - "Conduit for Sale!"
I'm still digesting (mentally, that is) how great Pavement were last Wednesday. I'm sure it'll end up being one of my Top 10 shows of this year, so I'll have an apt description of the joy it brought put into words by December. "Conduit for Sale" was the final song of lightning and rain-soaked set, and my goodness, Bob Nastanovich just makes everything better.
(This clip is from the night before at Central Park, but I think you'll understand my point.)
I'm still digesting (mentally, that is) how great Pavement were last Wednesday. I'm sure it'll end up being one of my Top 10 shows of this year, so I'll have an apt description of the joy it brought put into words by December. "Conduit for Sale" was the final song of lightning and rain-soaked set, and my goodness, Bob Nastanovich just makes everything better.
(This clip is from the night before at Central Park, but I think you'll understand my point.)
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Song of the Week 9/17/10
Superchunk - "Digging for Something"
Holy shit. Holy SHIT. This song is so damn good. After my first listen, I wanted to hear it again. And again. And then, yup, again. The whole damn album is just as good, which is kind of stunning for a band that hasn't released a full album in nine years.
As my my friend John commented to me, "Phenomenal. Might be their best since Here's Where The Strings Come In."
Oh, and this video is pretty good too:
Holy shit. Holy SHIT. This song is so damn good. After my first listen, I wanted to hear it again. And again. And then, yup, again. The whole damn album is just as good, which is kind of stunning for a band that hasn't released a full album in nine years.
As my my friend John commented to me, "Phenomenal. Might be their best since Here's Where The Strings Come In."
Oh, and this video is pretty good too:
Monday, September 13, 2010
Song of the Week 9/10/10
Nine Inch Nails - "Hurt"
It took two bucks to reignite my love and respect for Nine Inch Nails. That's how much I spent on a copy of their 1999 double album The Fragile at a moving sale on Union Street in Park Slope a few weeks ago. It was a total impulse purchase--I haven't listened to any NIN in at least three years, and even then it was a one-time only spin of Year Zero before I filed it away in my library. I ripped The Fragile into my iTunes and listened to it all the way through on a lengthier-than-expected trip from my house out to the U.S. Open on the Friday of Labor Day weekend. And it blew my mind. It was perfect for an overcast, kind of steamy day filled with slow moving F and 7 trains. The following day I ordered three used Nine Inch Nails discs through Amazon and downloaded The Slip, which Trent Reznor gave away for free in 2008.
I was always amazed I ended up liking Nine Inch Nails. When Pretty Hate Machine was released in 1989 I just lumped the band in with all the other gothy/industrial dance acts that the guys and gals that wore black at WICB played with a righteous fervor. The Broken EP in 1992 won me over because a) it rocked and b) I finally could get the angst and rage that Reznor was spitting out in his lyrics. With a much more discerning ear 18 years later it's not Reznor's words that hook me in songs like "Wish" or "Happiness in Slavery," it's the pure wall of (sometimes almost joyful, if that makes any sense) noise that he's painstakingly constructed that gets down into my very core. I've started jogging again this year and that NIN playlist I assembled might be the best thing on my iPod to get my blood flowing.
"Hurt" from 1994's The Downward Spiral took a life of its own after Johnny Cash covered it. In the hands and voice of a man near the end of his time on this planet, it become probably more powerful than Trent Reznor ever imagined. The original is the song that won me over completely 16 years ago. The only time I've seen Nine Inch Nails was the week after their mud-soaked appearance at Woodstock '94. When they performed "Hurt" -- the exact same way it is in the video above that was released in 1995 -- it overwhelmed me. The combination of the visuals and Reznor's passionate delivery is still one of my favorite concert moments ever, and that entire show is definitely on my short list of Top 10 concerts. I've played this live version multiple times in the past week, and it hasn't lost it's power to move me yet.
It took two bucks to reignite my love and respect for Nine Inch Nails. That's how much I spent on a copy of their 1999 double album The Fragile at a moving sale on Union Street in Park Slope a few weeks ago. It was a total impulse purchase--I haven't listened to any NIN in at least three years, and even then it was a one-time only spin of Year Zero before I filed it away in my library. I ripped The Fragile into my iTunes and listened to it all the way through on a lengthier-than-expected trip from my house out to the U.S. Open on the Friday of Labor Day weekend. And it blew my mind. It was perfect for an overcast, kind of steamy day filled with slow moving F and 7 trains. The following day I ordered three used Nine Inch Nails discs through Amazon and downloaded The Slip, which Trent Reznor gave away for free in 2008.
I was always amazed I ended up liking Nine Inch Nails. When Pretty Hate Machine was released in 1989 I just lumped the band in with all the other gothy/industrial dance acts that the guys and gals that wore black at WICB played with a righteous fervor. The Broken EP in 1992 won me over because a) it rocked and b) I finally could get the angst and rage that Reznor was spitting out in his lyrics. With a much more discerning ear 18 years later it's not Reznor's words that hook me in songs like "Wish" or "Happiness in Slavery," it's the pure wall of (sometimes almost joyful, if that makes any sense) noise that he's painstakingly constructed that gets down into my very core. I've started jogging again this year and that NIN playlist I assembled might be the best thing on my iPod to get my blood flowing.
"Hurt" from 1994's The Downward Spiral took a life of its own after Johnny Cash covered it. In the hands and voice of a man near the end of his time on this planet, it become probably more powerful than Trent Reznor ever imagined. The original is the song that won me over completely 16 years ago. The only time I've seen Nine Inch Nails was the week after their mud-soaked appearance at Woodstock '94. When they performed "Hurt" -- the exact same way it is in the video above that was released in 1995 -- it overwhelmed me. The combination of the visuals and Reznor's passionate delivery is still one of my favorite concert moments ever, and that entire show is definitely on my short list of Top 10 concerts. I've played this live version multiple times in the past week, and it hasn't lost it's power to move me yet.
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Song of the Week 9/3/10
Mighty Mike - "Imagine a Jump"
Wow. Five days after first hearing it and words still fail me. One of my Top 3 favorite mashups ever.
Wow. Five days after first hearing it and words still fail me. One of my Top 3 favorite mashups ever.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Song of the Week 8/27/10
Cee-Lo Green - "Fuck You"
So I started this post on Monday morning, but new stuff kept being written about this marvelous Cee-Lo track that I felt like I had to keep adding to it. I happen to think the song is genius because it's damn catchy and yet there's no way the original song could be the out-and-out hit it deserves to be. (Who knows what will happen with the edited version titled "Forget You.") In other words, I won't get sick of this song as I did with the radio overplay that ruined "Crazy" or "Hey Ya," and for that I am thankful.
Let's break down the rest of the Internets, bullet-point style:
- Cee-Lo explains how the song came about. (And how about Bruno Mars this year?)
- Videogum covers the best uses of the song with video footage.
- KCRW has an insightful piece that draws from my friend Jay Frank's book FutureHitDNA. (Jay and I will discuss this further on an upcoming podcast.)
- The always great Fuel and Friends calls it the song of the summer.
- Maura says it's already being covered. And people knew almost all the words.
- Allison still prefers Skee-Lo. (I liked it long ago.)
- And Gawker just needs to fucking relax. (And shut up.)
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Song of the Week 8/20/10
Huey Lewis and the News - "If This is It"
This past weekend I took a trip back in time. Well, not literally, but it certainly felt like it at many moments. I went to Misquamicut State Beach in Rhode Island for the first time in 20 years. As a kid I spent many, many days at this beautiful beach with my aunt. We visited that area of New England virtually every summer of the 1980s. (Save 1983, where I lived outside San Diego and was able to let my Duran Duran and new wave fandom grow by leaps and bounds listening to 91X.) We went one last time in 1990 when I lived at home while I was interning at PYX 106 in Albany, but at that point I was more interested in spending my time indoors and soaking up as much about the industry I had (foolishly, some would say) decided would be my career. And what 20 year-old wants to spend time with their relatives?
As the past 20 years have gone by, I became more of a guy that avoided the outside. There's a great Lemonheads song from 1996 called "Outdoor Type" that sums up my state of mind perfectly. But this year that facade got cracked. I was very fortunate to date a lovely woman named Allison who embraced much of what I had pushed out of my life since I became a city dweller -- she loved the outdoors, loved traveling to new places and especially loved the beach. We were in New Hampshire in May and made a pit stop at her favorite beach. Standing there, with my feet in the chilly sand, I thought to myself, "Why have I avoided this for so long? This is pretty awesome, even if its not the best temperature to have bare feet." At that moment I knew I needed to get back to the beach. A month later I booked a hotel just over the Rhode Island border in Connecticut (which happened to be near Foxwoods casino, cough cough) and asked my aunt to go with me.
As the time for the trip approached, I pulled together a playlist of songs from 1984 to 1986. Those are the years that come to mind to the most when I think of Misquamicut. And of course that's the era when Huey Lewis and the News were at their peak. Their music is intertwined with those memories. We saw Back to the Future in nearby Westerly in 1985 and I, of course, chuckled at Lewis's cameo. I went camping in the area in the late summer of 1986 with my older friend David and on the way back we stopped at a Strawberries so I could by a cassette of Fore!, which had just been released that week. And "If This Is It" was released as a single in July of 1984, and I remember hearing it on radios up and down the beach when we went for a second visit of the summer in late August. It was my favorite song on Sports before it became their fourth Top 10 hit in a row, so being able to hear it more often made me very happy. And when I sat on the beach this past weekend, many of those teenage memories came flowing back, with a soundtrack supplied by a song with a video about going to the beach. How meta. (And what a bummer I can't embed it.)
This past weekend I took a trip back in time. Well, not literally, but it certainly felt like it at many moments. I went to Misquamicut State Beach in Rhode Island for the first time in 20 years. As a kid I spent many, many days at this beautiful beach with my aunt. We visited that area of New England virtually every summer of the 1980s. (Save 1983, where I lived outside San Diego and was able to let my Duran Duran and new wave fandom grow by leaps and bounds listening to 91X.) We went one last time in 1990 when I lived at home while I was interning at PYX 106 in Albany, but at that point I was more interested in spending my time indoors and soaking up as much about the industry I had (foolishly, some would say) decided would be my career. And what 20 year-old wants to spend time with their relatives?
As the past 20 years have gone by, I became more of a guy that avoided the outside. There's a great Lemonheads song from 1996 called "Outdoor Type" that sums up my state of mind perfectly. But this year that facade got cracked. I was very fortunate to date a lovely woman named Allison who embraced much of what I had pushed out of my life since I became a city dweller -- she loved the outdoors, loved traveling to new places and especially loved the beach. We were in New Hampshire in May and made a pit stop at her favorite beach. Standing there, with my feet in the chilly sand, I thought to myself, "Why have I avoided this for so long? This is pretty awesome, even if its not the best temperature to have bare feet." At that moment I knew I needed to get back to the beach. A month later I booked a hotel just over the Rhode Island border in Connecticut (which happened to be near Foxwoods casino, cough cough) and asked my aunt to go with me.
As the time for the trip approached, I pulled together a playlist of songs from 1984 to 1986. Those are the years that come to mind to the most when I think of Misquamicut. And of course that's the era when Huey Lewis and the News were at their peak. Their music is intertwined with those memories. We saw Back to the Future in nearby Westerly in 1985 and I, of course, chuckled at Lewis's cameo. I went camping in the area in the late summer of 1986 with my older friend David and on the way back we stopped at a Strawberries so I could by a cassette of Fore!, which had just been released that week. And "If This Is It" was released as a single in July of 1984, and I remember hearing it on radios up and down the beach when we went for a second visit of the summer in late August. It was my favorite song on Sports before it became their fourth Top 10 hit in a row, so being able to hear it more often made me very happy. And when I sat on the beach this past weekend, many of those teenage memories came flowing back, with a soundtrack supplied by a song with a video about going to the beach. How meta. (And what a bummer I can't embed it.)
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