Cafe Bucky

Nice piece on Nellie McKay in the NYT today. Talent talent talent.

Ok, I know what I want for Christmas!

JamPlug is a very small guitar amp. As in pocket-sized small … It would fit nicely in the case next to my Strat (hint hint :-)

My fix of vinyl, put off for so many years, is getting addressed!

I just got a Stanton STR8-80 Direct Drive Digital Turntable. It’s been at least 15 years since I’ve heard my records! Glad they’re still in great shape.

Hearing old albums is like being reunited with old friends. The first batch of albums I played was stuff like Kate Bush, Mike Oldfield (think sonic landscapes are newish? Hergest Ridge goes back 30 years!), UB40, and some early Pete Townshend solo work.

It was a lot of fun showing my daughter how records and turntables go together. “Don’t bump the shelf, or you’ll knock the needle out of the groove” (scrunched face) - “You have to flip the record over to hear the other side” (rolling eyes) - “hear those little pops? that’s specks of dirt!” (barely supressed laughter). We’re so spoiled in our east & west coast pads - we’re always streaming off of an iPod or iTunes, or doing something more manual by using the CD/DVD changer. Using a manual turntable is like meandering back to a much simpler time.

And I love that.

I saw the Ramones at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco in 1980 or 81, during the “End Of The Century” tour. They were unlike any band I knew at that time. And they played with so much energy and passion! Sure, I’d seen the Dead Kennedys and others in the punk scheme of things (at venues such as Mabuhay Gardens, and The Fillmore), but something about the Warfield (which is a grand old theatre) turned it up a notch.

Johnny and Dee Dee managed to play with their guitars at their knees, legs splayed, heads bobbing along at insanely high metronome. The front three were planted up there on stage; posed in a certain defiance, focusing the room on them. They had “it”.

Goodbye Johnny. From the opening chords of Blitzkreig Bop, you gave us a lot of joy. Now my daughter is a second-generation Ramones lover.

Sorry to see you go, go, go, go goodbye.

I admit it. There are certain material objects that I fall in love
with. Some culmination of design, functionality, and sheer beauty
reels me in, captivates me, and elicits various Pavlovian responses.

(more…)

“You have the right to free speech, as long as, you’re not dumb enough to actually try it” - The Clash

Seen On Lisa Rein’s Radar (this entry not for the kids) - Eric Idle presents … The FCC Song

Catchy Ditty. Won’t ever hit the top 40 though :-)

In the early to mid-80’s my friends and I were residents of the “Science Computing Center”. This generally meant lots of hanging out, coding, playing frisbee, drinking massive amounts of coffee (or beer) and nearly getting arrested late one night with my friend Trygve for playing our electric guitars very loudly in an acoustically perfect underground garage at school (not for our noise, but because our electrical use was “stealing a utility”)

Some of the backdrop at that time was the music (Clash, Stones, Pink Floyd, Suicidal Tendencies) In 1985, we latched onto Camper Van Beethoven immediately.
Trying to describe the band is like trying to describe all
of the diverse influences in college. It, and they, were all
over the place. CVB was “alternative” before there was such
a term. They were punk, middle eastern, country, bongos and
violins. I once saw them open for the Dead Kennedys (at the Novato
Theatre, of all places).

But I only have vinyl of CVB, and that’s back in California, unplayed
for a good 15 years. I had partially forgotten about my fave band
from Santa Cruz.

So it was wonderful to discover Cigarettes & Carrot Juice - The Santa Cruz Years [BOX SET]. The 1st three albums are here + 2 more CDs of live and rare bits. It’s a nostalgia trip
for me, and I’m loving every note!

“I’ve got an electric guitar and half a bottle of warm beer / I’ve got some funny ideas about what sounds good …”

I’ve been getting back into a great band, that would be Pixies. You can trace a couple of careers back to them: Frank Black and his heavy surf/punk guitar sci-fi laced work, Kim Deal and the Breeders, and of course Kurt Cobain remarked on the Pixies influence on his own writing.

The Tech Angle is that the iTunes Music Store made it pretty easy to get a couple of old Pixies albums. The City Angle is that you should go into Bleecker Street Records if you are ever near there (West 4th Station, 1/4 of the trains in New York seem to go through there). They have a lot of music you won’t find elsewhere … lots of B-sides, concerts, and so on.

And just to tie this into a bow, I need … no, I would like … I would like to get some new earphones. I left my iPod buds in California. My Sony buds are not cutting it. The Apple ear canal buds just scare me. I don’t want anything that deep in my ears. Any suggestions?

Back to the Pixies: somehow they really remind me of California (turns out they are from Boston). Must be all of the surf guitar! Mixed with a couple of Guinness, mouse reaching for the JetBlue flight reservation web page… dreams of the coast, of sand, sun, the bike path through Santa Monica, waft of surfboard wax and tanning oil, watch out for jellyfish and riptides …