Velvet Crush "This Life Is Killing Me"

Here's another Weekend Post:

Since I mentioned Velvet Crush yesterday . . .

Back when "Teenage Symphonies To God" was out, if I was having a bad day, I'd put this one on my show and turn the studio speakers up as loud as they could go.

I think it was great therapy (at least it was in my 20s), to take depression and inject it with adrenaline.  I may not have felt great, but at least I wasn't lying down, moaning.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are wonderful to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

Matthew Sweet "Girlfriend"

I was never a huge autograph hound, but I really wanted to meet Matthew Sweet.

We'd traveled from Virginia down to Winston-Salem's "Ziggy's," where more than a few of our favorite acts would come through.

It had been a hell of a night for Power Pop, as the opening band, Boston's The Gigolo Aunts killed it, and even tossed the crowd a jangle-pop nugget---a cover of "Feel" by Big Star.

And Matthew Sweet was in fine form, referencing the fact that he had recorded the "Girlfriend" album right in the general neighborhood with altern-Pop Producer/Guru/Guitar-star Mitch Easter.

Gilding the lily was the fact that Sweet's band was made up of two key members of another personal favorite at the time, Velvet Crush.

Now at that time, and hell, if you still ask me today, "PJ, What's Your Favorite Song?" I'll probably stammer for a second, to see which answer pops out of my mouth that day.

Some days, it's "Train In Vain" by The Clash.

And other days, it's "Girlfriend" by Matthew Sweet.

I can't quite remember how I scored it, but somehow, via a record company person, I owned a vinyl 45 of "Girlfiend."  I still have it.

Not only is it a happening shade of Red vinyl, but it contains some interesting b-side stuff, including the demo, which was called "Good Friend."  It even came with liner notes.  What 45 has liner notes?  But it was interesting to know that Sweet only changed the name (from "Good Friend" to "Girlfriend") because that's what his friends thought the song was called.  But he couldn't remember why the swinging piano part found in the demo, had not been a part of the final recording.

So, armed with my precious 45, I patiently waited in line after the show, to climb on Sweet's tour bus, to get a few seconds to say, "Thanks" and have him Sharpie-up my vinyl.

He was gracious and efficient, but you could detect that he'd rather be on to the next part of his night.  Goofing around behind him in the belly of the bus, was the hot, sweaty band, drinking and laughing.

But he did get a sweet and bemused smile on his face, when I pulled out my copy of "Teenage Symphonies To God," a Velvet Crush CD.

I didn't even have to ask, Sweet just turned around and called out, "Paul!  Hey, a kiss on the cheek for you . . ."

Paul  (the singer from Velvet Crush who provided much the additional vocal beauty in Sweet's set) looked a little sheepish, but also pleased, as he signed my CD, and the other band members called out to him, "A kiss on the cheek!  A kiss on the cheek . . ."

It's funny, I'd never heard the expression "kiss on the cheek" in that kind of context before.  But I knew what it meant, right away.  And funny, I've never heard that expression again, in that kind of context.  I don't know if it was made up on the spot, or if "kiss on the cheek" really is a thing, when a musician gets some secondary attention.



Hear the song on Youtube.


Hear "Good Friend" on Youtube.


Hear Velvet Crush on Youtube.  Featuring Mitch Easter!

Mike Viola "Soundtrack Of My Summer"

I don't know why more people don't write aspirational tunes.  At a minimum, it seems like it would at least get some starter attention.

I mean, Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show wrote "Cover Of Rolling Stone" and guess where they ended up?

Why not write a song called, "I Hope I Sell A Millions Singles"?

Or, "My Music Video Just Went Viral"?

Of course, if it's a lousy song, it's not going to go anywhere.  But if it's a decent song, hey, people love to make a Cinderella story come true . . .

Maybe he's got a smaller aspiration here, but I like where Mike Viola is going with this one.

Doesn't this seem like the perfect kind of tune to be blasting out of a car with the windows rolled down while the sun is shining?

Doesn't it seem like the soundtrack of this summer could easily be "Soundtrack Of My Summer"?

It would beat the hell out of having to hear "Payphone" ad infinitum.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Rolling Stones "Mother's Little Helper"

My wife doesn't like taking her vitamins.

It's not that she dislikes its effects.  Or disputes its health benefits.

She just doesn't like to take it every day.

Moreover, she doesn't like to have to take it every day.

My wife is an artist.  Her brain doesn't work the same way as mine.

While I crave and thrive with routine, she bucks against it.  She actually finds it annoying that if she sees me brushing my teeth at night, then that means I am going to bed.  She brushes her teeth when they feel dirty, not based on a schedule or clock unrelated to how her teeth feel.

So she didn't like taking her vitamin in the morning, because she didn't like that she had to do it.

How does she feel when she doesn't take it?  Lousy.  She is completely aware of this.  But will she take it on her own?  No.

I tried to intervene.  Or do what I thought was "helping out."  In the morning as I poured myself a glass of water, I put her vitamin box out on the counter.  That way, she had to, at a minimum, move it out of her way to do anything on our small kitchen counter.  And maybe, because she had to pick it up anyway, she'd just take it.

That is not what happened.

Instead, she came to resent the fact that I was trying to force her to take her vitamins.  So she rebelled, and stopped taking them completely.

Such is the weird, silly, daily, endless negotiation of marriage.  You have two people who live together and love each other, but are completely different people with worldviews that invariably conflict.  And something as simple as taking a vitamin becomes a Battleground State.

It's a miracle that anyone can manage to stay married, when we are hard-wired to fight against the things we consider to be "against our nature" no matter how stupid those things are.

My Mom and Dad have been married for over 40 years.  They each have many entrenched habits and worldviews that drives one nuts that the other will never change.

"But I noticed something went we went to visit them last month," my wife said to me one day.

"Every morning, your Mom would come into the kitchen, pour a glass of orange juice and give it to your Dad.  At first, I thought it was just your Mom trying to force your Dad to do something healthy.  Then I thought to myself, 'Why doesn't he get his own damn juice?'  But then I realized, she was doing something for him, that he wouldn't do for himself.  And instead of resenting it, he accepted it."

She said, "In the morning, put my vitamins out for me.  And you can even tell me to take it.  I promise not to get mad at you."

So every morning, I pour myself a glass of water, and I get her vitamins off the shelf and I put one on the counter.  And she takes it, without feeling like I am trying to force something upon her.

But most mornings, as she takes it, perhaps as a nod to her rebellious nature, she hums this tune with just a hint of sarcasm.



Hear the song on Youtube.

Superchunk "Cruel Summer"

When it comes to records and record promotion, for the most part, the people I speak to week in and week out are not in a tourist town.

While some of them are in New York and LA, because Record Promotion can be done from anywhere, I speak to folks who are working major records from suburbs far outside Seattle and Detroit and Atlanta and Portland.

And not that they are without empathy (in fact, a great awareness of each station's unique circumstance makes for a great promo person), I think it's hard for them, sometimes, to fathom what the rhythms are for a station like ours.

While so many people that they talk to live in towns that have quieted down for the summer---people are on vacation, college kids have left town, the pace has eased---our lives on the Cape and Islands have sped up.

And while the personal lives of many programmers have slowed a bit---kids are on break, vacations happen---we're shifting into high gear, working like all the local businesses to have a great 10 weeks, so we can survive another year.

All this to say, I'm drowning in a pile of new music that I haven't properly digested, because I'm running full-tilt, toward next week's "Busiest Week Of The Year, 4th Of July Edition."

Usually on Tuesdays, I post about a new song that I'm considering.  But truthfully, I haven't considered a damn thing.

It's a cruel, cruel summer.

Superchunk to the rescue!  I think it's cool that even in the digital age, bands are releasing B-sides. 

So here's a tune I've barely considered, for your blog-enjoyment!


Hear the song on Youtube.

Sugar "If I Can't Change Your Mind"

"What the hell happened to you?!" the kid behind the counter at Subway had apparently asked, with just a little bit of trepidation.

Looking at my roommate, it's not hard to understand why the kid would have thought a crazy, perhaps dangerous man had just been in the sandwich shop.

It had been a loooonng day, and it started early.

This was when I was living in Southwest Virginia, in the a big farmhouse called 7 Maples. Living out the post-college dream of being on the radio, drinking beer, staying up late, being with friends, watching a lot of sports and listening to a lot of music.

My roommate was both a huge Bob Mould fan, and (because he was an alumnus) a Virginia Tech football fan. And on a hot, hot fall Saturday, there was both a game, and a Sugar show to go to.

So we were up early, with his Dad. I didn't have tickets to the game, but I took the road trip two hours up I-81, to sit in a bar within earshot of the stadium to watch the game on TV, while they went to the game.

I knew it was going to be a long, long journey into the night so I sipped my beer slowly, as the frat kids around me got sloppier and sloppier.

The sight of my roommate after the game, made me laugh.

"You sat on the sunny side of the stadium, huh?"

Lane Stadium could be a cold, unforgiving place in November and December. But on this day, half the crowd was on a concrete cookie sheet baking in the sun.

And my roommate was quick to turn lobster red in those conditions.

We split with his Dad, who returned to Abingdon, and we traveled on to Chapel Hill for Sugar, who were touring behind "File Under Easy Listening."

The Cat's Cradle that night was like a convection oven---mostly airless, but except of gusts of hotter heat that swirled around the raucous activity of the crowd.

Sugar was just a singular kind of band. They had this focused, precise, tight type of anger---a really amazing mix of ferocity and control. And the audience acted accordingly, moving and swaying and sweating en mass, both exhausted and still frenzied.

With our ears still ringing, we started our long drive home.

We were both broke, having spent what we had on gas and beer, but we scraped together a couple of bucks as we pulled into a local Subway. My roommate offered to go in himself, while I kept the car running.

I wish I could have seen the look on the kid's face when this large, tired-looking, wrung-out red man, fully drenched in sweat, walked into Subway and said, "Can I have two Gatorades and a small bag of pretzels?"

But my roommate came out laughing, having been previously unaware at just how horrible and weird he must look to the rest of the normal world, a world that hadn't spent the day watching football, drinking beer, driving a few hundred miles, jumping around at a rock show and steeling himself for another few hundred miles of highway home.

Hear the song on Youtube.

Matthew Sweet "Do Ya"

Here's another Weekend Post:

Continuing yesterday's 90s Pop Nostalgia . . . There was this weird outburst in the 90s, when Saturday Night Live and David Letterman and some other late night shows decided to raid their archives and put out CDs.  For whatever reason, most did not go beyond a Volume 1.

This track is particularly awesome, since it wasn't part of a broadcast episode of Conan O'Brien.  The track was recorded during the afternoon's soundcheck, and was included on the Late Night CD.

Matthew Sweet doing The Move (ELO) . . . awesome.  Knowing this is live (sans any studio trickery) really puts the point on what a great and unique voice he has.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are wonderful to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.
 

Papas Fritas "Hey Hey You Say"

Here's another Weekend Post:

While thinking about the forthcoming Girlyman record, due this month, my mind popped back a dozen or so years, to this awesome Boston-based, male/female trio (though I understand that Girlyman has become a foursome since their last record), with an incredible gift for harmonies.

I always thought it was brilliantly clever that the band name both means Potato Chips, AND is a homonym for "Pop Has Freed Us."


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are wonderful to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

Tony Bennett "Fly Me To The Moon"

The first radio station I worked at was a very small, independent, family owned-and-operated outfit.  We did a lot with a little.

But in my early days with them, we didn't have the resources to be a 24 hour station.  And since I worked the last shift, it was my job to sign off the air, shut off the transmitters and close down the building for the night.

On weeknights, I had an alternative music specialty show, that ran from 10 to 12, but on Fridays and Saturdays, I got to expand it to a full 6 hours---on at 8pm and off at 2am.

It was a joyful and exhilarating task, to build that much live programming, on the fly, playing CDs and keeping the night moving.  By 2am, I was usually a little punch drunk.

I had a ritual to close out the night.

There was a checklist of things I was supposed to do throughout the building before walking out the door.  Shutting down certain computers, turning of certain lights, checking certain locks, and finally, turning off the transmitter.

And I did it to the strains of Tony Bennett.

Tony Bennett isn't particularly alternative, but this was the little window in the mid-90s, when he had gone through an image rehab.  He'd appeared with The Red Hot Chili Peppers and performed with kd lang and recorded an MTV Unplugged CD.

And let's face it, there just weren't that many people listening to an alternative specialty show on a 3,000 watt rural Virginia radio station at 2 in the morning.  So why not do something weird.

"Fly Me To The Moon" the MTV Unplugged version, was about 2:30 minutes long, and when I hit play on the track, I had just enough time to walk out of the studio and weave in and out of the other rooms in the building, flipping switches and securing locks, all while singing along with Tony, at the top of my lungs.

My loop around the building would get me back to my chair just as the song was ending and the roar of the audience surged.

The album left nearly 30 seconds of clapping, where I had time to say something along the lines of:

"That's What's The Alternative? for tonight, I'll be back on Monday at 10pm for more.  We'll be back on the air tomorrow morning at 6am.  For now . . . you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.  WABN concludes another broadcast day."

And I'd fade out the track, walk to the transmitter and shut it down, and then head out the front door and into the night, my throat a little scratchy from the Bennett-belting and my mind a little fuzzy from the fun.



Hear the song on Youtube.



Hear the Sesame Street version on Youtube.

Jessica Pare "Zou Bisou Bisou"

Jess Phaneuf (she of the pHbalanced blog) is a big "Mad Men" fan, and she played the bottom clip for me, just after it originally aired.

The scene is Don Draper's (Jon Hamm) birthday party, where he is unexpectedly, bizarrely serenaded by Megan Draper (Jessica Pare).

Cut to two months later, when unexpectedly, bizarrely, the station is serviced a single of "Zou Bisou Bisou." 

I know this thing occasionally happens in the Pop world, but I can't really remember a time when our format was sent a single performed by a fictional character.

Check out the single version, and then the actual "Mad Men" scene, below.


Hear the single version, on Youtube.


See the video from "Mad Men" on Youtube.