Video Killed the Moviegoer: 2006 in TV Land

In 1997 I went to 57 films. Not surprisingly, that was the same year I quit drinking, so I had a lot more time on Saturday and Sunday mornings than I used to have. I never hit that peak again, but it’s not because of my ability to stay out until 6 a.m.—it’s due to the quality of films and the quality of the film-going experience that have decreased over the last decade. The amount of times that I say to myself, “I’ve gotta see that movie” only happens four times a year now, maybe even less. (This year that list was Inside Man, Neil Young: Heart of Gold, Snakes on a Plane and Casino Royale.) And with ticket prices nudging 11 bucks here in New York (along with a minimum of 7 bucks for popcorn and soda) sitting at home and watching one of the 250 channels I have on my digital cable seems a whole heck of a lot more appealing. So this year I decided to take a closer look at the 10 best things to come out of my 22” TV this year.

10) Psych (USA)
USA’s slogan the past two seasons has been “Characters Welcome,” and they’ve certainly proved that when they’re not showing 2900 hours of Law & Order: SVU. Psych takes an interesting premise (a man with an eye for details pretends to be psychic to work on police cases) and surprisingly delivers a funny show. James Roday’s “psychic” detective Shawn Spencer is a total wise-ass, but not so much that you get annoyed and want to change the channel.

9) The West Wing (NBC)
Is it wrong that I started liking this show long after most people said it started sucking? Or that the TV genius Aaron Sorkin (don’t get me started on how that man has botched the potential of Studio 60, arrgh) wasn’t even involved in its last season? As much as I enjoyed Sorkin’s brilliant SportsNight, The West Wing never really appealed to me. Too much high and mighty bantering about political maneuverings seemed like the perfect prescription to end my bi-annual battles with insomnia. This last season of The West Wing I stumbled upon looking for something else to watch when The Simpsons was over. The election battles between Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits characters’ to become the next president were crisply written and grounded in reality. The show got so interesting over its last few episodes that I started taping The Simpsons and watching The West Wing in real time. D’oh!

8) Lost (ABC)
Hmm, this was a difficult show to place. I debated on making it higher because of the great end to the second season or dropping it from the list because of the rather annoying and highly uninteresting third season that went for seven episodes this fall. Could this show have jumped the shark already? I did find myself fast-forwarding through chunks of flashbacks during three episodes this fall. Perhaps that’s because the flashbacks don’t seem to be required this year. There are enough loose plot threads to be explored (or better yet, wrapped up) that it seems a waste of the 44 minutes in each episode to be doing more flashbacks at this point. I discovered a website that listed the Top 50 Lost unresolved plot lines. Top 50! Come on Lost producers, let’s get some other stuff wrapped up before we introduce 18 new characters.

7) Directed by John Ford (TCM)
Turner Classic Movies is one of the best channels around, and that’s not because they always seem to show Operation Petticoat in widescreen once a month. The channel also puts on some of the best documentaries about movies and filmmakers anywhere. The latest documentary, Directed by John Ford, is a fascinating overview of the legendary director’s career. Peter Bogdanovich—a damn fine director is his own right—made the film in 1971 but it didn’t get shown beyond a few PBS fund raisers. So Bogdanovich recut the film over the past year, adding in new interviews with Clint Eastwood, Steve Spielberg and Martin Scorsese to compliment ones done 35 years ago with Ford, John Wayne, Henry Fonda and James Stewart. Bogdanovich even kept the original narration from mister frozen peas himself Orson Welles. The result is a highly entertaining and intelligent look at the man who directed some of best westerns to hit the big screen.

6) Family Guy (FOX/TBS/CN)
I hated this show when it first debuted on Fox one year after the Super Bowl. So when it was canceled in 2002 I didn’t care at all. Then Cartoon Network paired it up with Futurama on Adult Swin and I slowly became hooked on this show’s bizarre humor and always spot on parodies of TV classics from the past four decades. Add in working with a couple of guys who know how to manipulate YouTube to find every great clip that aired on the show during its first four seasons and now I have to catch every new episode on Fox Sunday nights. Then I anxiously await highlights to show up on YouTube the next day. No wonder why productivity seems to be down on that first day back in the office.

5) The Tube Music Network
Hey, do you remember when VH1 Classic played all types of great videos 24 hours a day? Yes, those were great days, but they’re long gone. Those idiots at MTV Networks have taken a perfectly good channel and made it look like the VH1 of the late ’90s. Now all I see is Behind the Music: Guns n’ Roses and Classic Albums: Phil Motherfucking Collins Face Motherfucking Value. What a fucking joke. Where are my weird clips from Echo and the Bunnymen and Love and Rockets? Well, some of them seemed to have moved to The Tube. It’s not a copy of VH1 Classic, it’s something a bit odder. When a video block goes The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues,” Death Cab For Cutie’s “I Will Follow You Into the Dark,” Dido’s “White Flag” and then Led Zeppelin “Communication Breakdown,” you know that this is not a cookie cutter music video channel. I like the fact that never ever know exactly what I’m going to get when I put the Tube on.

4) Entourage (HBO)
This show about a superstar actor and his leaching pals keeps getting better and better. Emmy winner Jeremy Piven keeps perfecting the role of a lifetime as crazed agent Ari Gold, and the loads of guest stars (Martin Landau, Beverly D’Angelo, Ed Burns, Seth Green) playing themselves or charactures of other Hollywood types can sometime make your head spin with all the inside Hollywood chatter. And it didn’t hurt that a major plot point hinged on the making of a Ramones movie. Next summer can’t get here fast enough.

3) Sportsnet New York
Let’s see, a channel that does the Mets games that look better than they ever did before, has great announcers (Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling), includes extensive pre-and-post game coverage and shows great Mets games from the past? Sign me up. Seriously, how could I not spend 20 hours a week watching this channel? Sportsnet New York also allowed Keith Hernandez to morph into the most talked about analyst in baseball. Where else could I hear such crazy tidbits like he can’t drink Kaluha anymore because of one spring training with Ron Hunt; Hernandez stating he liked Eddie Vedder better as a solo artist; or repeatedly hear that the Mets had a reliever named Jose Feliciano. In 2007 I’m looking forward to Hernandez starting to booze it up in the first extra inning game he has to sit through.

2) 24 (FOX)
How does a show in its fifth season come up with its best work yet? It’s unheard of. Yet season 5 of 24 was one of the best 24 episodes of television I’ve ever watched. Every hour I kept getting more and more tense, sitting on the edge of my futon and wondering what crazy evil scheme was going to burst onto my screen. How the producers will get Jack Bauer get out of China and back to the U.S. to once again save us from terrorists should be interesting.

1) When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (HBO)
Years from now, when we look back on how the American government completely let down the folks of New Orleans, I believe this stunning four hour document will be used in classrooms around the country as a tool to explain how a great city was abandoned by it’s elected officials. Spike Lee might not ever make as important a film as this one. If you’ve seen it and it didn’t make you upset at all, then you must be and even colder son of a bitch than I am. Or you must be George W. Bush.

99 Degrees And Loving It: Steve Goes to the ACL Festival

Prologue
In the 11 years I’ve had my current job (yes, 11, I know, I know, I must be insane) I’ve covered all types of music festivals throughout the country—The HFStival in Washington, Farm Aid outside Chicago, Ozzfest in lovely (cough, cough) West Palm Beach, Florida, The Furthur Festival in Atlanta, the H.O.R.D.E. Festival in Somerset, Wisconsin and the Fleadh Festival on Randall’s Island here in New York. Overall, I’ve reported on over 20 festivals—and they all pretty much sucked. There was no easier path to crankiness than a couple of days wandering around in the summer heat with a heavy DAT machine trying to get backstage to interview someone who would turn out to be an insufferable prick. Ugh. Even when I went to festivals as just a fan (starting with the 1992 edition of Lollapalooza) I would be really excited at the beginning of the day. By the time the last act rolled around, I usually wanted to lie down and go to sleep. I would wear myself out too quickly by rocking out and jumping around, and even when I was a kid I never had the stamina to do that for hours at a time. So when we cut back a bit on festival coverage, no one was happier than me.

Over the past five years a new type of festival has sprung up across the country—a multi day event in one central location, with an eye on having spaces where fans can rest or cool off in between bands. I started to hear so many good things about festivals like Coachella in California and Bonnaroo in Tennessee with great diverse lineups. I started thinking that I might even be able to make it through a few days as long as I was able to get some downtime between bands—and I didn’t have to lug around recording equipment and spend most of my time trying to track down publicists.

Enter my friend Stacy who lives in Austin, Texas. For the past couple of years she kept saying I should come down and cover the Austin City Limits Festival in Zilker Park. “You have a place to stay for free,” she kept telling me. I kept brushing it off until one day in May when I got an email announcing this year’s lineup. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers? Willie Nelson? Nada Surf? The Raconteurs? Gnarls Barkley? Son Volt? Guster—and 95 other bands? That sounds pretty damn good to me. I’m not sure what overcame me (I don’t even think I was hungover, so I can’t use that readily available excuse), but armed with a bank account that had a tiny bit of extra money in it I did my most impulsive deed in years and bought a pair of three day passes to ACL and emailed Stacy that I hoped her offer of a place to crash was still good, because I was coming to Austin.

Since I’m that kind of guy who likes to ramble on about his adventures, I figured keeping copious notes about my reentry to the world of rock festivals would be a good move. So join me as I attempt to transcribe my sweaty notes about rocking out in Texas from September 14th through the 18th, where I quickly found out the summer heat doesn’t end until late October.

September 14th: The Best Type of Ribs? The Free Ones.

When I walked out of the gate into the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, I could smell them. Ribs. LOTS of juicy, succulent ribs. My previous time in Austin in 2001 I was told I had to go to one place to get ribs—The Salt Lick. The 25 minute drive outside town was totally worth it, as the ribs just melted down my gullet. It was food perfection. Before this trip I decided not to have ribs or barbeque for three months, so I was literally drooling when I got off the plane and smelled the ribs available at the airport Salt Lick outpost. It took a lot of willpower to not just head to their stand and skip getting my suitcase altogether. But I knew I had a great reward awaiting me—Stacy’s boyfriend Donnie was one of the managers of the new Salt Lick branch in Austin proper, called The Salt Lick 360. I was pretty sure that would give me the inside track on the best ribs they had to offer. So after making pit stops to pick up our three day pass wrist bands (more on this later) and a tasty margarita at the Hula Hut overlooking Lake Austin, we went to the Salt Lick 360.

As we stepped in, the food smell almost brought me to tears. I had thought—no, I had obsessed about eating these ribs for three months, and now I was going to finally sink my teeth into them. Stacy and I sat down at the bar just across from where Donnie (who is one fluid jazz guitarist) and his friend/keyboardist Papi were playing some of the best dinner music I’d heard in ages. A couple of Stacy’s friends were supposed to be joining us for dinner, so I kept my rib hunger in check by ordering some beef brisket queso and a cheap draft beer.

Oh my.

It was so good. I’d never sampled such a divine mix of cheese and beef ever. (And yes, it tasted better than any hamburger I’ve ever had, trust me.) I’m pretty sure the very cool guy behind the bar must have been a bit scared when let out a low growl of “mmmmmm” when I took my first bite of a queso covered chip. Yet that didn’t deter him from suggesting that in addition to the regular ribs I wanted to order, I get some babyback ribs as well. And he totally got a kick out of me taking a picture of the ribs when they showed up. He said, “We need to get a shot of you eating those.” (I particularly love the animalistic way I’m ripping the meat off the bone—and my obviously sweat-styled hair.) And our friendly bartender was so right about adding the babyback ribs to my order. It was a sticky slice of meat heaven. Everything that I had remembered about their ribs was spot on—they were very moist, the meat came off the bones very easily and the barbeque taste was second to none.

(I’m sorry; I need to go get a napkin because I’m drooling on the keyboard right now. That’s better.)

After the meal was done I got the best news of the day—my meal was free. It indeed pays to know a manager’s girlfriend. So Stacy and I said goodbye to the incredibly friendly staff (I predict I will say friendly a whole lot in the next couple of pages), picked up some beer at local gas station and went back to the very quaint home she shares with Donnie. As I sipped a Rolling Rock I thought, “This trip has been a success already, and we haven’t even heard a note.”

September 15th: So Where Are You Two Going?

My other food goal of my trip was to chow down on some top-notch Tex-Mex. Stacy asked me if I was in the mood for breakfast tacos, which is kind of like asking a junkie if they’re in the mood for another fix. Papi the keyboardist also ran a little taco stand about a 10 minute walk from where Donnie and Stacy lived and she said that these tacos were (I’m paraphrasing here) “amazing.” And damned if she wasn’t right. The mix of eggs, chorizo, cheese and pico were all in the exact right balance. And it could be eaten in the way breakfast is meant to be had—with your hands. No forks necessary.

We hopped in Stacy’s car for the drive downtown to catch the shuttle bus to Zilker Park. Now this is where I thought the whole festival layout would hit a snag. How many people out of the 65-thousand attending everyday would be parking downtown? Half that? More? I expected to be riding around all day looking for a spot. Yet we drove around for just five minutes, found a parking garage that was free, walked six blocks to the bus pick up point and immediately got on board. 15 minutes later we got off the bus, walked through the back gate and were immediately immersed in music. The ease of it all left me dumbfounded. Everything up to this point was almost too simple. Something bad had to happen, right? Right?

Since the first band I really wanted to see—Guster—wasn’t on for an hour, we walked over the grounds to get the lay of the land. From the get go I could tell that these folks knew what worked on this site. The stages were set apart far enough so there wasn’t that much competition sound-wise. The screens were big enough that if you were really far back you could at least catch some of the action. There were places to buy water (which was only 2 bucks, much cheaper than any concert I had been to lately) everywhere, and finding the free water fountains took very little time as well. The merch area was well designed and was big enough to accommodate a huge amount of people, as was the food court. And what food it was. (Yes, I did eat a lot on this trip.) The Salt Lick had a booth with beef and pork sandwiches (both of which were great), while this fancy restaurant called Hudson’s on the Bend served up these chicken wraps that they made only for the festival. They were so good I wanted to start a franchise here in New York just to sell those wraps. And there was the Sweet Tea booth, which sold the best iced tea I’ve ever had that I didn’t make myself.

Let me speak for a moment about something else all the food and beverage booths had in common—all of these folks were exceedingly nice. It’s almost 100 degrees, there’s tens of thousands of people wanting water or beer or food, these lines are moving quick to serve all these folks, and I never once heard someone have an attitude or be condescending to a dumbass that deserved a beatdown. This friendly attitude was evident in every single person I saw working at ACL. People working at rock festivals are supposed to have a general disdain for the fans in attendance. Honestly, this great vibe kind of freaked me out for a while. I kept waiting for someone to peg somebody else with a beer bottle or yell about the food not coming fast enough or call a security guard a moron. Nope. Nothing. I couldn’t help but get swept up in the friendly vibe the entire weekend.

After all of the great non-music parts of ACL, I’ve almost forgotten to mention the music we saw on that first day. We scoped out some space next to the soundboard to watch Guster’s set that leaned heavy on their two recent great albums, Ganging Up on the Sun and Keep It Together. From our vantage point we were doing okay in the heat until the last two songs when the sun decide to burrow directly through my hat and into my spinal column. Stacy beat me to the punch by saying, “I think I need to get out of the sun.” So we walked a short way down the hill to the Rock Island Hideaway, a huge tented area sponsored by a local wine company. I grabbed up a bunch of waters and iced teas (the very nice cashier called me “darlin’” twice) and miraculously a couple of seats opened up. After some rest, we decided to give Gnarls Barkley a shot, and wow, were we glad we did. They hit the stage all dressed in medical uniforms, frontman Cee-Lo announced that they were called John Nash and the Beautiful Minds and the broke into a verse of “She Blinded Me With Science.” Right then I had a good feeling that our streak of luck was going to continue. Cee-Lo has such a powerful stage presence that you couldn’t help but watch him the entire show, even with the extremely attractive string section dressed in glasses and short skirts. It was such a good time I even started doing a bit of moving and bobbing my head, completely forgetting the oppressive heat.

After Gnarls we went and watched the second half of Okervill River, who were also surprisingly good. After a look at the schedule, we realized we did not want to sit through Ray LaMontagne or John Mayer to get to Van Morrison, so we beat a retreat to the exit. And once again, it took no time at all to get on a nice A/C filled bus and get back to downtown, Then Stacy helped to fulfill my dream of a Tex-Mex doubleheader with a great meal at a well-known joint called Maudie’s Café. With it being a Friday and all, we somehow mustered up the energy to hit a couple of my favorite types of places—dive bars with cheap beer. Our first stop was the Horseshoe Lounge. I wanted to take a picture inside of this joint, because the bar itself was horseshoe shaped. But they had a sign up as you walked in stating, “ABSOLUTELY NO PHOTOGRAPHS ALLOWED.” I wondered why there was such a stern warning about cameras. I slowly figured it out as our bartender kept complaining about going out back to smoke—they had recently gotten busted for allowing patrons to smoke in the bar by a local undercover TV reporter. The bartender’s bitterness about the whole incident stopped me from asking where he had gotten such a great shirt—it read, “I F’in Heart Texas.” (We later spent a good deal of time on the internet looking for that exact shirt, to no avail.) And after Stacy played Tina Turner’s “Private Dancer” on the jukebox, we figured we might not be welcome in there for too much longer.

After the Horseshoe we hit Deep Eddie, which had their own little run in with the smoking ban. They were raising funds for “the Deep Eddie Six”—six bartenders and patrons who got fined for flaunting the smoking ban. I enjoyed our time there, until this weird dude decided he wanted to buy beers for both of us. I wasn’t sure if he was a) trying to pick me up; b) pick Stacy up; c) pick us both up; d) hit us up for a ride home or e) tell us about the amazing products Amway has to offer. We were pretty sure it was choice d), but fortunately he stumbled out first and left us to drink the beer he bought for us in peace.

September 16th: Turn It Up Willie!

Once again the efficiency gods were with us, as we left Stacy’s house at 11:10 and got to the grounds just in time to hear Marah hit the stage at 11:45. Now rock music before noon can’t be anyone’s idea of fun, yet the guys in Marah played as if their careers depended upon it. Guitarist Serge Bielanko made a great crack about the abundant sunshine (which then went behind clouds for most of the day, cooling us all) by looking up at the rock show lights above them spinning around like it was pitch black out. “I took 8000 dollars of my savings and spent it on this light show—hope ya enjoy it.” By the time both Serge and his brother had climbed into the crowd during their last song we were totally won over.

The next band we heard, Ghostland Observatory, drew the complete opposite reaction. We were sitting in the food court area, but we could hear their horrible dance-inflected rock and see the big screen—and both sight and sound scarred me. I don’t think I’ve ever said the phrase, “They even dance pretentiously,” and I hope to never again. (Postscript to this set—I later discovered that the lead singer was actually a man. I was convinced—CONVINCED—that we were watching a female cavort on stage. Damn. Look at that pic to the left!)

Ben Kweller was scheduled after Ghostland Observatory on the stage directly opposite them. Up until that point that stages ran like a smoothly oiled machine—one band ended, the stage opposite them started music started immediately. Yet we had to wait 10 minutes until Kweller came on stage. He explained that he had a doctor looking at his nose, since the dry weather had given him a “double nostril nose bleed.” It took only one song for nose to open up again. Blood went everywhere—on his guitar, on his hand, his shirt. It was disgusting. Finally at one point he yelled, “Does anyone have a tampon.” And it was as if dozens of women knew exactly what he was going to ask, as the air in front of the stage suddenly became blur of flying tampons. He shoved a couple in his nose, declared “We’ve gotta rock out now,” and then led his band into a raucous version of “This Is War.” And I tell you, it looked like he’d been in a war when he pulled out one tampon during the song and blood went flying. He attempted one more song at the piano, but you could hear portions of the audience go “eeeeeew” when the camera focused in his face and you could see blooding running down his lip onto the microphone. Kweller had to quit after that, but not before leaving the most lasting impression of the festival.

Kweller’s quick set gave us enough time to get back for all of Nada Surf, who once again were great. The Texas two-step they got the crowd to do during “Inside of Love” must have looked great from above. And the having the two trumpet players from Calexico blast out the riff to “Blankest Year” was a stroke of genius. Nada Surf’s set started a run where we went from stage to stage to stage with no break. When they were done, we went up the hill to watch most of Los Lobos, and then skipped their last two songs to catch the unusually funny Aimee Mann. (She introduced “Save Me” by declaring, “You may remember this song lost out on the Oscar to Phil Collins’ ‘Young Man Monkey Love’ tune.”) When she was done, we turned around and bam—The Raconteurs were playing. As good as their debut album is their set proved that this band has only gotten better the longer they’ve played together. As they finished, I thought of how good their next album would be—and how good a sandwich from the Salt Lick would taste.

After waiting through the sandwich line that moved surprisingly fast, we attempted to get a place on the hill to see Willie Nelson. I say attempted because this was easily the most crowded spot of the entire festival. We had seen a lot of folks who brought sets of chairs and would set them up and mark their spot with a flag so their friends could find them. Well, I think every folding chair in the greater Austin area was on the grass in front of the stage waiting for Willie to come on. When Stacy said to me on Friday, “Texans are used to tailgating, and can sit around for hours,” she wasn’t kidding. We finally found a place to stand and a huge roar came up when Willie walked on stage. Then another roar of people yelling “Turn it up” started coming from behind us. And these folks were right. The sound at every other stage was perfect, but Willie and the family sounded like they were playing in Fort Worth. I was afraid to say a single word for fear of drowning out “Crazy.” We finally gave up after an hour and headed for the bus. This time the bus line was as long as I expected—when 30-thousand folks are leaving via one mode of transport, it’s going to take a while to get there. But I must say it was the quickest 30 minutes I’ve ever spent in a line for transportation. They line never stopped moving forward because they obviously had brought more than enough buses to keep the shuttle going non-stop. And once again, every single person working on the line was so nice, apologizing for the lengthy delay. And I might have been a bit tired by then, but I believed every word they said.

September 17th: Mary Jane’s First Rain

The last day of festival we knew we were going to stay to the end of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers set, so we decided to skip a good chunk of the afternoon rock and plan our entrance to right before Son Volt’s set. Stacy and I are both huge fans of the band, so we kind of wanted to get close. But damn, we had no idea we would get so close. When we walked up to the stage, most people had just cleared out after country singer Jack Ingram’s set. So we walked right up to the barrier and set up shop. I knew that the sound was going to be loud, but I had no idea how powerful the low end would be when Jay Farrar and company started playing. At one point I thought the rumbling had stopped my heart, and then restarted it again on a totally different beat. At one gap between songs Stacy leaned over to me and said, “My uterus is contracting.” Thank goodness nothing horrible medical-wise happened to us (and I was able to get some nice up close shots).

We slowly made our way towards The Flaming Lips when they started, and I have to say they were the most disappointing set I saw out of the 20 bands I watched over the three days. It seemed like they were trying too hard to make their set seem like the biggest thing ever with the dozens of dancing girls and people in Santa Claus costumes jumping around at the back of the stage. It had the air of a forced celebration about it, as if everyone was required to party when the Lips came to town. I found myself wishing they would end soon some of the crowd would clear out.

Finally the Lips did end, allowing us to stake out some space for Petty. Alas, some thunderstorms also staked out some space over Zilker Park. During Petty’s set the clouds put on a free light show to accompany “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” and “Saving Grace.” During the latter song the clouds opened up and started drenching us, sending thousands of folks scrambling for the nearest exit. Petty then came on mic and said they had to stop until the storm passed. We weren’t that confident they were going to be able to come back, so we took our seven song mini set and hiked for the bus line, which yet again didn’t seem that long even though we were wet. When we got back to Stacy’s house, we had a ceremonial cutting of the three day wristbands, which felt great. I never wear any jewelry, so every time I rolled over in my sleep during those two nights I would feel the piece of plastic on my arm and try to rip it off. Fortunately I would wake up in time before I threw 130 bucks down the drain.

September 18th: A Windfall Breakfast

Before I left town, I had to have a little bit more Tex-Mex, so on the suggestion of my friend Paula we ate at Los Manitas in downtown Austin. While we were chowing down yet another amazing breakfast we saw two members of Son Volt sit down to eat. I wanted to go up to them and say, “I’ll be sending you my dentist’s bill for the teeth I have to have replaced,” but I didn’t want to ruin their meal.

When I finally boarded the plane back to Newark, I was sure of four things:
1) I would gain a ton of weight if I lived in Austin full time;
2) The Austin City Limits Festival was the best run rock event I’ve ever been to;
3) I had just finished what might have been my best vacation ever;
4) And I was definitely going to come back again.

I’ve already marked off September 14th through the 16th on my 2007 calendar—and I plan on not eating any ribs until then.

The Section to Thank People Without Whom...

Thanks again to April for the camera that captured the great scenes of Austin. And special thanks to Stacy and Donnie for making my trip down to the heart of Texas this fall a great one, for indulging my weird obsession with ribs and the great Salt Lick shirt. I wear it every week. See you next September.

Things that made this year better: every Geico Caveman commercial, shots made with Strawberry Quick, roulette, the Wheel of Fortune slots, 220 bucks in credit at Amoeba, Gary Cohen on TV—and not Fran Healy, “Surrender” for Paul’s birthday, “Rock n’ Roll” with Michelle, Derby Day, Tony Paige on WFAN, Lobo after really annoying actresses, Indian River Light, Nada Surf’s “I Like What You Say,” The Tide doing Definitely Maybe, batting practice at Shea, the Salt Lick 360, The Horseshoe Tavern, Batman Begins, “Highway to Hell” with Joe on guitar, Bryan Adams duets at Shenanigans, Casino Royale, slow dancing and more to “Thirteen,” Logan’s Run in Reverse, The O.C.’s funny comeback

This year’s list took took one pitcher of iced tea, two Starbucks Iced Venti Chai, 15 20oz bottles of Diet Coke, two steak fajita burritos; one bag of chips and salsa, four pieces of sugarless peppermint Bubble Yum; 12 trips on the F Train, one meatball sub, one steak and cheese sub, one bag of M&M almonds, four cups of Swiss Miss hot chocolate, one Starbucks Venti Hot Chocolate, two coffee rolls, one Pepperidge Farm Saulsolito cookie, one pint of chicken fried rice, three 7/8 of a ounce bags of Bugles, one Ziploc container of leftover chicken and broccoli, one Werthers butterscotch candy and one bottle of Robitussin.

Song of the Week 12/8/06

Bruce Springsteen - "Born to Run"

Read this. That will explain the choice fully. More details to come in this year's list. But enjoy this photo until then:

Song of the Week 12/1/06

Beyonce - "Irreplaceable"

Dear music gods and overseers,



Please get the line "to the left to the left" from "Irreplaceable" out of my head at some point. When I woke up at 5:40 a.m. this morning and the first thing I heard besides the radio was that line, I knew I was in trouble.

Much thanks,

Steve

PS: How could an album have two such crappy lead singles and then a brilliant third one? Someone at Columbia certainly messed up the start of B'Day.

Song of the Week 11/24/06

Big Star - "Thirteen"

One of my favorite songs from one of my favorite albums of all time, I discovered this week that "Thirteen" can be quite, well, how do I put it...intoxicating on many levels. Yeah, that's all I'll say about that.

I did a quick search today, and discovered there are at least 10 covers of this song, including this cover by Jon and Ken from the Posies, who are in the current edition of Big Star:



But nothing tops the original, which has such simple and effective lyrics:

"Won't you let me walk you home from school
Won't you let me meet you at the pool
Maybe Friday I can
Get tickets for the dance
And I'll take you, ooo ooo ooo

Won't you tell your dad, 'Get off my back'
Tell him what we said 'bout 'Paint It Black'
Rock 'n Roll is here to stay
Come inside where it's okay
And I'll shake you, ooo ooo ooo.

Won't you tell me what you're thinking of
Would you be an outlaw for my love
If it's so, well, let me know
If it's 'no,' well, I can go
I won't make you ooo ooo ooo."

Perfect. Just perfect. It made my favorite holiday of the year even better.

Song of the Week 11/17/06

Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - "Madonna of the Wasps"

I spent a good deal of this week listening to Robyn Hitchcock in anticipation of his show with the Venus 3 (a.k.a. 3/4 of the Minus 5 -- Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey and Bill Reiflin) at the Hiro Ballroom. The show did not disappoint. Hitchcock was his usual talkative self in between songs, spinning tales about Mick Jagger, elephants, God, Jesus and what seemed to be hundreds of other topics. This show also featured a guest appearance by Soft Boys/Egyptians drummer Morris Windsor, who added some fine backing vocals to the last third of Hitchcock's set. Included in that portion was "Madonna of the Wasps," which I have loved from the first moment I heard it on WICB back in college.

I was looking for Hitchcock clips on YouTube this week, and stumbled across the original video:

Somehow the song has a completely different (and longer) intro than the album version. I have no idea why, and can't seem to find any explanation about it on this here world wide web. And then I happened upon this performance from Letterman in 1989:

Now THAT's a weird intro. I can only imagine the look on Dave's face.

And just for kicks, here's the title track to Hitchcock's new album, Ole! Tarantula:

Song of the Week 11/10/06

Journey - "Don't Stop Believin'"

Sometimes corporate rock is fun. Especially after a few drinks. After seeing someone sing this song with the band, then a bunch of people sing along to the original at a great party, and then a couple of folks duetting on it at a bar in my neighborhood, how could I pick anything else?

Wow, check out how short those shorts are on the drummer:

Song of the Week 11/3/06

Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes - "I Don't Want to Go Home"

As I've written many times in the past, thank you WFUV. I randomly decided to listen to their stream at the office yesterday, and this track came up in the mid-afternoon. And my, it sounded so good. Myself and my co-worker Dave both started bobbing our heads along. I quickly downloaded it, and then listened to it once again just before we left for the day. And today the song inspired me to make a mix of songs with "home" in the title. And I do believe I will have to listen to that mix on the way home before I drop it off at one of my favorite haunts, Sample.

This evening I was trying to recall when I first heard this song, and I think I never heard it until I moved to New York. That seems kind of odd, since Albany definitely was open to Springsteen's fellow Jersey-ities. But I'm positive I heard it first on WNEW. (Ah, I remember those old call letters.) I also had no idea until Dennis Elsas back sold the song that Steve Van Zandt wrote it.

(Please don't tell the Springsteen fraternity I didn't know that--they'll throw me out in a heartbeat.)

Song of the Week 10/27/06

AC/DC - "Highway to Hell"

We did this song last night, with my old roommate and best friend Joe playing lead guitar.

Best.

Birthday.

Moment.

Ever.

Wow. Hope the footage came out.

Song of the Week 10/20/06

The Hold Steady - "Party Pit"



The first time I heard the Hold Steady I thought, "What the fuck is up with this guy's voice?" Craig Finn's vocals sounded somewhere between throaty spoken word performance and a strangled cat. I had read on, well, every blog I visit regularly that this album was "amazing," "earth shattering," and "a drunken fest." Even the Times got into the act with a huge one page spread in the Arts & Leisure section a few weeks ago. And they were a Brooklyn band, but from that horrible indie area of Williamsburg. All of these factors made me dismiss them quickly.

Then on Monday night I was listening to the World Cafe, and they had picked the band as their Next Artist for the week. So I sat there and listened to "Chips Ahoy!" And I realized that Craig Finn's voice had nothing to do with murdering cats. It was more like a raspier John Easdale (the frontman of the great Jersey band Dramarama). And the song sounded like a pre-Born to Run Springsteen outtake.

I was sold.

Tuesday I downloaded the album.

Wednesday I was convinced it was a good album.

Last night it moved into my Top 10 for the year as I listened to it on my way to Shea...and my way home from the heartbreaking loss. "Party Pit" particularly (ooh, alliteration!) caught my ear. It's snapsnot of that reckless party time at the end of high school and begining of college with a great refrain that carries the last third of the song: "Gonna walk around and drink some more/Gonna walk around and drink." That was what I wished I could do after the game last night, but the rain and the fact I had to work and that I was drop-dead exhausted from going to the previous night's game made that impossible.

Today I come into work, head to my friend John's blog, and what is title of the top entry? "Gonna walk around and drink some more..." Freaky. John had just seen them in L.A., and decribed it as "one of the greatest rock shows I've ever seen, and I've seen a couple. Just a joyous uncynical rock show, put on by hard working pros in their 30s. Nice to not be quite so much older than every single soul."

Now I have to see them.

And most likely, drink myself silly when I do.

Song of the Week 10/13/06

Skee-Lo - "I Wish"

I saw a mention of this song on some other blog, and I immediately knew I had to download it. It sounds just as good as it did in the summer of 1995 when I was staying in Hoboken and it was cranking from cars on Washington--and my friend Chris's Toyota Forerunner.

Ah, nostalgia.

Oh, and the video is damn funny too:

Song of the Week 10/6/06

The Pretenders - "Mystery Achievement"

I'm pretty sure I have written before about my theory that every best of album by any artist has to be missing one great song from their catalog. In the framework of that theory, it's no surprise that The Pretenders' The Singles had to leave off "Mystery Achievement." I've never had that song on CD before, and now with the reissue of Chrissie Hynde and company's debut album, I finally do.

I don't think I have much else to add about the song. Hmm...I do recall liking to read the entire seven day forecast over the intro to that song back in my college radio days, but that's about it. It's a kick ass song, and sounds great in my iPod.

Trouser Press 101 9/30/06

Thanks to all who came out for Trouser Press 101 at Magnetic Field. This may be my favorite ever playlist of the TP nights we've done so far.

Thin Lizzy - "Don’t Believe a Word"
Big Country - "In a Big Country"
Velvet Underground - "Run Run Run"
Undertones - "Let’s Talk About Girls"
Specials - "Free Nelson Mandela"
Human League - "Things That Dreams Are Made of"
Cure - "In Between Days"
20/20 - "Yellow Pills"
Holly & the Italians - "Do You Say Love"
Rubber City Rebels - "Paper Dolls"
U2 - "Bad"
Bigger Lovers - "1/2 Richard’s"
Sundays - "My First Hour"
Ivy - "The Best Thing"
The Smiths - "Girlfriend in a Coma"
Thane Russal - "Drop Everything and Run"
Elvis Costello - "Days"
Jesus and Mary Chain - "April Skies"
Denim - "Middle of the Road"
Vibrators - "Into the Future"
Run DMC - "It’s Tricky"
Killer Pussy - "Teenage Enema Nurses in Bondage"
Shoes - "Too Late"
Smugglers - "She’s Another Thing (That I've Done Wrong)"
Time Zone - "World Destruction"
Plimsouls - "Everywhere at Once"
The Who - "The Ox"
Damned - "Love Song"
TV Personalities - "3 Wishes"
Stone Roses - "I Wanna Be Adored"
Status Quo - "Rockin’ All Over the World"
Marshall Crenshaw - "Fantastic Planet of Love"
T. Rex - "Hot Love"
Pretenders - "Brass in Pocket"
Eurythmics - "Love Is a Stranger"
New Order - "Bizarre Love Triangle"
Siouxsie and the Banshees - "Cities in Dust"
David Bowie - "Heroes"
Richard Hell - "Blank Generation"
Pere Ubu - "Final Solution"
Skids - "Into the Valley"
Rezillos - "Top of the Pops"
Blondie - "Attack of the Giant Ants"
B-52’s - "There’s a Moon In the Sky (Called the Moon)"
Magazine - "About the Weather"
INXS - "I Send a Message"
Ian Dury - "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick"
Gang of Four - "I Love a Man in Uniform"
Devo - "Uncontrollable Urge"
The Nails - "88 Lines About 44 Women"
Meat Puppets - "Up on the Sun"
Graham Parker - "Soul Shoes"
dB’s - "Love Is For Lovers"
Julian Cope - "Beautiful Love"
Scruffy the Cat - "You Dirty Rat"
The Jam - "That’s Entertainment"
Damned - "New Rose"
Husker Du - "I Apologize"
Ramones - "Pinhead"
New York Dolls - "Looking For a Kiss"
The Cars - "Bye Bye Love"
Cheap Trick - "Baby Loves to Rock"
Hoodoo Gurus - "Bittersweet"
Los Lobos - "Will the Wolf Survive"
Mott the Hoople - "Sucker"
The Smithereens - "Blood & Roses"
Violent Femmes - "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
Sonic Youth - "Teenage Riot"
Patti Smith - "Frederick"
R.E.M. - "Seven Chinese Brothers"
Nick Lowe - "I Knew The Bride (When She Used to Rock and Roll)"
Madness - "It Must be Love"
Haircut One Hundred - "Love Plus One"
The Joboxers - "Just Got Lucky"
The Replacements - "Swinging Party"
World Party - "Sweet Soul Dream"
Jazz Butcher - "D.R.I.N.K."
Echo & the Bunnymen - "The Killing Moon"
The Kinks - "Celluloid Heroes"

Song of the Week 9/30/06

The Long Winters - “It’s a Departure”

The past couple of weeks have been all about Seattle’s The Long Winters. In between prepping for the Trouser Press entry I was polishing off or getting myself psyched to see them on Friday night, I listened to a lot of the band’s music in September. Frontman John Roderick writes such interesting lyrics and delivers them in such a unique and passionate voice that I’m amazed it took me this long to discover them (or that someone, anyone I knew would have turned me onto them). I missed their show in Austin, but didn’t stress about it since I knew I would go see them at Bowery Ballroom. Before the show I met up with my friend Michelle (a HUGE fan of the band—she has their album covers on one of her walls for goodness sake) and her brother Steve at a Lower East Side bar. As we talked about various topics, Michele told me she thought the new Long Winters album Putting the Days to Bed was “incredible” (I'm paraphrasing, I do believe). I mentioned “(It’s a) Departure” as a favorite because of the great line, “I like the old days/But not all the old days/Only the Good Old Days!” Roderick’s delivery of that line slays me ever time. When the band hit the stage, Roderick made some cracks about how big their rock show would be, and then chuckled and said that “the song is a departure.” I belted out a very loud “YEAH!” and started singing along. I’m not sure that Michelle and her crew heard me scream all the way up front, but I bet they were rocking out just as much as I was.

Song of the Week 9/22/06

Bastards of Melody - "Fuck Waking Up"

Full disclosure: I work with the three guys in Bastards of Melody in the live karaoke group Bunnie England and the New Originals. But in the year or so I have been the MC for Paul, Paul and Troy, I have never seen them perform their originals as BoM. So all week I was looking forward to seeing them play a set at the Parkside Lounge in what used to be called Manhattan's Alphabet City. (The area of Ave's A through D.) And the guys did not disappoint me, delivering a strong vibrant set of songs that made me want to air guitar. Think Replacements meets Cheap Trick and you'll have an idea of what they sound like--and why I like them. Their set went great until they asked me to come up and sing "Surrender" as their last song...and I promptly forgot the words to the second verse. It must have been the lack of beer that caused it, as I've done the song at least 25 times with them and only messed it up once. Simply put, I was mortified afterwards.

The song the Bastards did before I ruined their set was "Fuck Waking Up" from their 2003 album Break Up. It's a damn good song, and one of my favorites from an album that's filled with strong tracks (and I found myself humming it when I woke up Sunday morning.). My visiting friend Nancy even got a free copy of it , just because Paul needs to clear out his basement. However, I still suggest you download it from iTunes so the guys can make some cash.

Song of the Week 9/16/06

Nada Surf - "Blankest Year"

This song has become my favorite tune on Nada Surf's The Weight Is a Gift. And as I got myself mentally ready for ACL, I knew they would play it during their set. What I didn't know was that they'd be joined by two horn players from Calexico--who blasted the riff at top volume--causing me to jump around and dance with pure joy. But I did stop to get a pic:



Aw fuck it, it WAS a party. I'll have more about the party that was my trip to Austin in the Top 20 this year.

I Suppose This Should Have Been A Song of the Week

I'm not sure why Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" never made it. I mean, I have a collection of over 20 different versions of the song in the ol' iPod. This article in Slate gives a great overview of all of the covers and why artists feel compelled to cover a song that's been everywhere this summer.

And here's my favorite cover version, as of right now. However, that could change at any moment:

Song of the Week 9/8/06

World Party - "Sweet Soul Dream"

Whew, that's one bitter entry below. Sorry about that. Thankfully this week features something that can be in short supply in these parts -- hope and positivity.

My co-worker Dave raved about the World Party show he saw in early August out in Los Angeles. So I took the initiative to get myself on the guest list for the band's show at Irving Plaza Saturday night. I've been a big fan of the band--basically frontman Karl Wallinger and whomever he chooses to play with--ever since I heard "Ship of Fools" on PYX 106 20 years ago. I saw them once before, way back in 1993 opening for 10,000 Maniacs. And all I can remember from that show is that most fans at SPAC seemed to not know who World Party was and they wondered why I was standing up and cheering when they broke into "Way Down Now."

My interest in the band waned a bit with their 1997 album Egyptology--and that's because I was a moron and didn't realize that "She's the One" is quite possibly one of the best love songs of the past decade. "She's the One" is one the library cuts that WFUV plays regularly (and with them that means once every two to three weeks) and it drive me nuts not being able to get it because the album was out of print. Thankfully my co-worker Dave had a copy and in January was able to send me the song for my Ipod.

Last year Wallinger got the rights back to all of his albums, including 2000's Dumbing Up which was available stateside only as an import. In the spring he reissued all of them and came to the U-S to do some acoustic shows to promote them. This in itself was miraculous, considering the man had a brain aneurysm five years ago! I don't know all the facts about his recovery, but from all accounts Wallinger is very lucky man to be on the planet right now, and even luckier to be able to speak and sing again.

I can't even imagine what it must feel like to get a second chance after staring down death, but I can now say I can see how it can impact a person's take on their own songs. During Saturday night's performance at Irving Plaza, Wallinger had a grin etched on his face for 90 minutes straight. The pure joy the man got from playing with what is a kick ass band (drummer Chris Whitten is great secret weapon) came through in every song he sang. Wallinger's vocals on the studio versions of songs such as set opener "Put the Message in the Box" and "Is It Like Today" always seemed to me a little bit detached, as if he needed to put some distance between himself and his words. Not on this Saturday night. Wallinger's passion for these songs rang through loud and clear.

Saturday's set went deep on Goodbye Jumbo songs, with seven cuts played. And with many lyrics in those songs about not letting life pass you by ("See the world in just one grain of sand/You better take a closer look/Don't let it slip right through your hand") it was obvious that the meanings to many of his own word had changed for Wallinger. Even "Way Down Now," which is not the most uplifting song, came across now as anthem of carrying on. And damn, this audience was glad Wallinger carried on. Irving Plaza wasn't sold out, but the rapturous ovation Wallinger and company got throughout the evening was so loud I thought I was at the Garden. And it was obvious that Wallinger was touched by all of it. Someone left him a bouquet of flowers at his feet, and I could have sworn that he looked a little choked up when he went to the mic to thank the anonymous fan who had left them.

(Here's a sample of Karl in action today. The audio is pretty poor, but the feeling is still there.)


As for our Song of the Week, "Sweet Soul Dream" has always been my "buried on side 2" gem of Goodbye Jumbo. I didn't think Wallinger would play it, especially after one guy yelled out for it three times during one gap between songs. (And no, it wasn't me.) But that dude and I got our wish, and Wallinger sang it with, well, pardon the pun, a whole lot of soul. I think he especially dug into these lines that open the second verse:

"I don't need a body
A body's nobody to me
I'm just a cell
I'm leaving well
When I get you to give me the key."

Welcome back Karl, to your body and soul.

Song of the Week 9/1/06

The Gentlemen - "Through With You"

This song sounds really good when you're really fucking pissed at someone when they blow off meeting you without leaving a message saying they weren't going to meet you and that you can just go into the ballpark and you don't have to fucking stand there for 50 minutes wondering what the fuck the delay is and then when you finally go in and it starts raining and then the people behind you have small children who yell in your ear for an inning and kick your seat repeatedly until you get so fucking fed up you have to get the fuck outta there.

Whew, I feel much better after that run on sentence. At least the Yankees lost.

And man, does this song fucking bring the rock.