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Archive for October, 2004

1962′s biggest selling artist RIP

Saturday, October 30th, 2004

First Family.jpg

[Download]
Excerpts from The First Family.mp3

Just in time for the election and Halloween, a reason to talk about imitations of politicians. Vaughn Meader is dead.

Who?

In 1962, 27-year old comic Vaughn Meader was hired by a couple of veteran comedy writers to imitate President Kennedy for a record called “The First Family.” This was the ‘golden age’ of comedy records (basically starting with Shelley Berman and ending with Bill Cosby) and they still sold like crazy. After its release in late 1962, The First Family became the then fastest selling album of all time (1.2m copies in two weeks, 7.5m copies overall) and won the Grammy for Album Of The Year. Meader quickly became a megastar, appearing on every talk show, playing to sold out rooms and being profiled for Life Magazine. The record company readied Volume 2 for a November 1963 release.

I think you can see where this is going. After JFK’s assassination, Meader was dropped from public life like that. (“It was character assassination,” he said. “My character was assassinated. I got a bum rap.”) With no more prospects in show business because of his close association with JFK, his life descended into drinking and drugs, and he never again received any kind of national attention. You can read Meaders’ reflections on this bizarre life turn here.

I remember this record well from summer vacations out at my grandparents’ house in Roslyn Heights, NY. They had basically no pop records, but a smattering of the comedy records from the early 60s like the weirdly racist Jose Jimenez and The Button Down Mind Of Bob Newhart. The First Family was my favorite. It’s a classic and a gentle reminder that not all political humor need be mean-spirited.

Scariest Song Ever

Friday, October 29th, 2004

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[Soundtrack]
Tuxedomoon – James Whale.mp3

I’m sure I’ll be posting again before Halloween, but I wanted to give all you Monday-Friday folks a chance to hear the scariest song in my whole collection. This is from San Francisco art-punks Tuxedomoon’s debut album in 1979 and is long out of print in the United States.

Turn the lights down for this one. Even better, blast it from your house when the trick or treaters turn up.

Let’s stay home from Sweden

Wednesday, October 27th, 2004

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[Download]
Nick Lowe – Let’s Stay In and Make Love.mp3
More tracks from this excellent record available from Nick Lowe’s site.

After posting yesterday’s sad, sad M. Ward track, I started humming it to myself and found myself naturally “medleying” into this warm inviting track from Nick Lowe. It’s got virtually the same chord progression and arrangement yet the sentiments couldn’t be further away from “Undertaker”. Isn’t that funny how just a few slight changes in inflection can change the whole feel of a song?

When the chorus comes in here at about 2:20 in, it’s about as simple as a song can get and yet there’s just something so reassuring, romantic and positive about it. It makes me feel good.

Swedish gloom

Tuesday, October 26th, 2004

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[Soundtrack]
M. Ward – Undertaker.mp3

More Swedish significance today. Last Saturday I attended a wedding at San Francisco’s Swedish American Hall, a bizarre little auditorium over Café Du Nord constructed after the 1906 earthquake with many Scandinavian touches. I’d only been there one other time, to see M. Ward touring behind “Transfiguration Of Vincent,” a loose song cycle about the wasting death of a close friend dieing young. So here were these young people joyously celebrating their past & future life together with close friends and family, but the whole reception I had reminders of songs about life’s fragility running through my head. The only thing linking it together was the room itself.

The Swedish American Hall web site offers a brief history of the building. The original 1875 bylaws for the club behind its construction, The San Francisco Swedish Society, intriguingly ranks illness death above celebrations and entertainment: "It shall be the purpose and object of this society to assist the sick and bury its deceased members, to work for the maintenance of a choir, and to give literary and social entertainments.” Why was this? Was there a plague at the time? Or was there just something preternaturally gloomy about the founders of the SF Swedish Society?

I love it when halls provide histories of themselves – who played there, whose life was celebrated there, how was this space used for before it became what it is, why did the architects think it was a good idea to build what they did. I have no idea, for example, who lived in my 104-year old house. Shouldn’t it be a societal requirement for every building to keep a log?

The wedding — originally planned as an outside affair but moved inside to avoid the rain — was great fun. For another day, life triumphed over gloom despite gloom’s best efforts.

Equal Time is Dandy

Monday, October 25th, 2004

[Soundtrack]
Dandy Warhols – Every Day Should Be A Holiday.mp3

Apologies for the slow posting over the weekend. DSL is down at home until tomorrow night.

Last week’s most popular download (by far!) was Brian Jonestown Massacre. In the interests of equal time for the Dig! candidates, here’s a track from their more-successful, less-interesting brethren who still have their moments. Plus, today being Monday, I’m all for the sentiment of this particular track. Class, I expect a Compare & Contrast essay in 5-paragraph form due Wednesday.

Last Thursday’s auction for the Bridge School tickets went splendidly. I received 50 bids and a whole lot of “Are you for real?” The tickets (face value $120) went for $350, so Bridge School wins $230.

I had lots of E-mail conversations with folks (“I’m a teacher. Pick me!”) and I got to hear quite a few horror stories. The worst was a woman who was trying to bring her wheelchair-bound mother to see Paul McCartney. Some creep offered her handicap seating at 2x face… and the tickets turned out to be on the lawn. At a benefit for disabled folks, that’s a particularly tacky thing to do. I also had one fun IM conversation with a rockin’ 15-year old, which you can check out by hitting the “Continue Reading” link below.

I love that next gen folks are so open about IMing. We’re headed for a society where everybody is completely open with each other so long as they can stay anonymous.
(more…)

Charitable Social Experiment

Thursday, October 21st, 2004

[Download]
Neil Young – Lotta Love.mp3

How will people reply to my irresistible Craig’s List offer?

BRIDGE SHOW Sunday – Section 101, Row P – profits to charity

I bought this pair for $60/ea and I’m perfectly willing to sell them for face value. If, however, you feel compelled to offer more for them, I will donate the difference over my cost to The Bridge School. I will get you a receipt from Bridge School so that you can take the tax benefit and have proof of the donation.

Yes, I’m for real. I did this last year on ebay and it worked out great. (Sorry, but I no longer have the item number.) Only the close time proximity of the show makes me unable to do it on ebay this year.

Best offer by 730pm today takes them. (E-mail is anonymous to protect against spam.) I will contact the “winner” tonight to make arrangements.

I’ll post the best replies tomorrow.

“Anything near Skyline seems to be doomed.” – PG&E spokesperson

Tuesday, October 19th, 2004

[Soundtrack]
Dntel – Umbrella.mp3

The best part of a good rainstorm is the build-up: the sense of foreboding as it gets darker, the birds & animals busily get themselves ready, the people rushing around and sneaking looks up to see When? Will it be now? Will I make it home before it happens? By the time it really starts to come down, it’s more of a relief than a tightening of the suspense. It feels like the sky is relaxing, not giving way.

The first rain is always extra-entertaining and -harrowing because folks don’t quite have it together yet for the season. They forgot their coats at home, they forgot that old drugstore umbrella doesn’t work anymore, the wipers don’t actually wipe. How one responds to inconvenient weather is one of the great personality rohrsach tests.

Suspenseful, sure. Watchable…?

Monday, October 18th, 2004

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The ALCS is absolutely punishing. Terrible baseball that just won’t end. Blown saves, un-clutch hitting, pitchers that the managers don’t trust.

First a four-hour game. The next night, a five-hour game. Well, it can’t get any weirder, right?

Tonight: six hours of baseball, 471 pitches, 30 men left on base.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals and Astros are throwing elegant one-hitters at each other and nobody in the country gets to see it.

Gang, this ain’t right. This needs to stop.

Swedes vs. Torpor

Monday, October 18th, 2004

[Soundtrack]
Bo Kaspers Orkester – Allt ljus på mig.mp3

Yesterday was a day of complete torpor. We got out of the house just long enough for Mexican food and ran back home as fast as the traffic-besmirched Bay Bridge would allow us. I then made the mistake of starting to watch the Red Sox-Yankees game, which has to win some kind of award for the longest boringest game ever that was actually suspenseful enough to watch. It becomes a matter of principle to finish it, like a TV series gone horribly wrong. All in all, it was a day spent more horizontal than vertical.

So much for being an early adopter. ABC News is reporting that music blogs are the coming thing in music promotion. "Labels want to harness the influence of the music bloggers." Ha! I ain’t wearing no dang harness!

Labelfriends and labelcountrymen, if you’re really listening, here’s my suggestion for today. Swedish guys. Especially more Swedish guys imitating Curtis Mayfield. I’m telling you, this is the coming thing!

Massacring credibility

Sunday, October 17th, 2004

[Soundtrack]
The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Spun.mp3
(If you like this track, BJM has posted all of its albums for free at their home page.)

Hey, rock n rollers, run don’t walk to your local indie movie palace to check out Dig!, the new documentary comparing and contrasting the incredible, amazingly self-destructive Brian Jonestown Massacre and the lousier-but-better-behaved Dandy Warhols. Dig! traces the fall, rise and kinda sick "rivalry" between these two brother bands. If you go to gigs at all, you must see this if only for the scene when BJM plays the Viper Room, absolutely the most disastrous concert I’ve ever seen (except of course for this one). And (embarassing to admit) it is completely hilarious.

Dig! won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival last year, so it’s not just me liking it, OK?

Separate but related: my Dad greeted me yesterday with a hearty “That William Shatner album sucks!” which was then followed by hearty “Yeahs!” and “Sucks!” from my teenage brothers. “You’re losing credibility with me already!” I guess taking 37 years to start losing credibility is a good thing, right?

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