Pop Has Freed Us

Hola. Sorry for the delayed posting. I was experiencing server issues with the hosting of the MP3s and whatnot, so I waited until those were cleared up. This week, we move away from the hahd rawk that I usually listen to and venture into a poppier zone. Papas Fritas was a local pop trio that made some interesting and fun music in the mid- to late '90s. The band--singer-guitarist Tony Goddess, bassist Keith Gendel and drummer Shivika Asthana--met as students at Tufts University in '92. They shared a love of upbeat pop and started recording singles and touring, eventually catching the attention of Minty Fresh Records, which released the band's self-titled debut in 1995. The band had a minor hit locally with "Lame to Be" and toured with the Flaming Lips, among others. They followed up with 1997's Helioself, which found them exploring more of a Brian Wilson sound, as well as other influences such as the Indian vocal stylings that Asthana uses on the standout single Hey Hey You Say. I interviewed Gendel for an article I wrote for Webnoize while I was still doing part-time work for them; I wish I had saved it, but alas, it's disappeared into the InterWeb ether along with Webnoize. But he was pretty cool and I saw them play a few times in Boston area clubs. After an extensive world tour for Helioself, the band (which by this time was living in Gloucester, MA, not far from my world headquarters) laid low before releasing 2000's more guitar-centric Buildings and Grounds. The song Way You Walk became a hit a few years after the album's release when it showed up in a Dentyne Ice commercial, but it appears the band is through, at least for now. The band issued the greatest hits collection Pop Has Freed Us in '03 and the members have all gone their separate ways. Hopefully, they'll reunite someday soon.

In other blog news, just wanted to hype a couple of blogs I've had listed in my blogroll for a while now. Pimps of Gore is an excellent site, featuring songs from any number of cool indie rock artists including an extensive series of Guided by Voices MP3s that I've been enjoying immensely. And Bradley's Almanac is the brainchild of a fellow Boston-area resident who posts a lot of great live stuff, including recent tracks from Unrest and Ida. Visit them both early and often.

Okay, more later.

Let's Get Retarded

Wow, what a rollercoaster of a weekend for hockey fans. Only a few days after the NHL officially cancels the season, rumors abound that a deal is in the works. Gretzky and Lemieux were supposedly leading the effort, etc. On Saturday morning, ESPN, The Hockey News, and other outlets were reporting that the deal was done, with both sides agreeing on a $45 million salary cap. Then by dinnertime, it became apparent that not only was a deal not done, it wasn't even in the ballpark. Season still cancelled, and both sides now accusing the other of deliberately misleading the press and the fans. I didn't think it was possible for the league and its players to look any worse after they cancelled the season, and somehow they were able to sink even further. See you in the fall, or maybe later, you clowns.

Running update: Instead of giving out injury waivers, the Vermont City Marathon hosts a bulletin board for folks to sell their bib numbers if they need to, so I sold mine to a woman hoping to run her first marathon. Cool way to get my money back and help someone else out at the same time. I've been making decent progress, getting up to 24 minutes on the treadmill. I just bought some new shoes over the weekend, so I have to cut my minutes back to break them in. But hopefully I can keep progressing. My goal is now to do a fall marathon, possibly Philly or Hartford. Wish me luck.

Picked up Green Day's American Idiot last weekend and man, does that kick ass. Pretty amazing album from beginning to end. Nice to see those guys turn it around after seemingly hitting the wall a few years back. Also got Trail of Dead's new CD, Worlds Apart, which is growing on me. A Pitchdork reviewer ripped the album a new one, but I like it. Don't like it as much as their last album, but it's good nonetheless.

We Got Soul

Okay, I've calmed down a bit about the NHL season being cancelled. That said, there's been some chatter that the season may actually not be done. Apparently, there's some maneuvering going on behind the scenes between players and owners, and ESPN reported that Gary Bettman said he'd be open to revisiting the decision to cancel. So we shall see.

On to the rock. This week, I'm featuring a song from an early '80s Austin-based punk combo that came and went fairly quickly but had a lasting impact on the scene. The Big Boys mixed in funk with their punk--two great tastes that taste great together--long before it became fashionable. They pretty much did whatever they felt like, rather than abide by a particular sound or look. Singer Randy "Biscuit" Turner would often play wearing a tutu or a clown suit. Here's a good interview with the band's guitarist, Tim Kerr, who continues to play in various bands.

The band was only together about six years ('78-'84), but they all went on to play in some fairly influential punk and rock acts including Scratch Acid, Rapeman, the Skatenigs, the Monkeywrench, Ministry, Poison 13, and Tad. My brother J.P. turned me on to them; he lived in Austin in the mid-'90s while in law school and gave me the Big Boys comp The Fat Elvis one year as a gift. He's 4 1/2 years younger than me, but he's influenced my listening tastes quite a bit over the years. I definitely got him into the classic rock and metal stuff I listened to while he was a little kid, and then he got into punk while at college and turned me on to a lot of cool stuff like Fugazi, Flipper and the Big Boys. Anyway, We Got Your Money is a Big Boys classic off 1983's Lullabies Help the Brain Grow and later The Fat Elvis. Check it out, and then buy a Big Boys album. You shan't regret it.

Mama, Weer All Crazee Now

Just when you think the dolts at the NHL can't get any stupider, they go and throw you a curveball. The season appeared done until suddenly in the last 48 hours, the players dropped their opposition to a salary cap and the owners dropped their insistence on linking salaries to team revenues--the two major stumbling blocks of the whole NHL lockout. They still differed on how much of a cap each team should have: the NHL wanted $40 million and the union wanted $52 million. They got as close as $42.5 mil and $49 mil, and it seemed they would work something out by this morning's deadline, which came and went. Even right up to the 1 p.m. scheduled press conference by commissioner Gary Bettman, it seemed inevitable that the two sides would hammer out a deal and the league would roll out a 28-game season and playoffs. And then, at 1 p.m., Bettman announced they would scrap the season. I, for one, was shocked that they would come so far and then just let the season go over $6.5 million. And yes, Bettman, you weasel, I know that works out to almost $200 million if you factor in all 30 teams, but for Hakan Loob's sake, the owners got what they wanted. The players gave in to a salary cap. You had cost control, and you let the season slip away. The NHL is now the first major pro league to cancel an entire season due to labor strife. Now the question is whether next season will start on time. Both sides have said their offers are off the table, so seemingly, they're back where they started. As an NHL fan, I wanted to see them salvage something from this season. Oh well, screw 'em.

In happier sports news, (for me anyway), Ted Rogers, the owner of the Blue Jays recently announced he was renaming the SkyDome to the Rogers Centre, replacing their crappy old artificial turf, and pumping $210 million into the team's payroll over the next three years. They'll still struggle in the AL East, but at least they're attempting to try. GM JP Ricciardi said he expects the team to finish over .500 next season, which will be a huge improvement over last year's hideous season but still a ways off from being a contender with the Yanks and Red Sox. Oh well, at least they're going to be playing this year.

Retired slugger Jose Canseco's been making the rounds hyping his new book, which purportedly spills the beans on the rampant steroid abuse in baseball. As much of a knucklehead as he is, Canseco's got a lot of people nervous. Baseball was already reeling from the BALCO scandal, and this doesn't help. Nice way to start the season.

I'll be back tomorrow with my MP3 of the week.

Funky But Chic

Hey. I've meant to blogmatize over the last several days, but I've been busy. Anyhoo, here's the second MP3 in my weekly series. This week, I'm featuring a band that predated the latest Detroit rock 'splosion by a full decade: Big Chief. Formed in the late '80s by a group of punk veterans, Big Chief took their music in a different direction, combining the sludge of Sabbath and the MC5 with some seriously funky grooves a la Parliament Funkadelic. But they weren't aping the Red Hot Chili Peppers or Fishbone; these guys had a distinct and awesome sound. They put out several singles on Sub Pop, which were compiled on Drive It Off, before making their debut with 1991's Face. I first became aware of them in '93 when they released Mack Avenue Skullgame, a faux movie soundtrack about big pimpin'; my buddy Johnny Mack's sister worked at Sub Pop and sent him some new tapes, one of which was the new Big Chief. It looked intriguing to me, but I stuck with the Mudhoney and Nirvana stuff I was listening to at the time. Then the following year, I caught a Big Chief video on MTV for Lion's Mouth, the first single off Platinum Jive, their major-label debut on Capitol; the song kicked butt so I ran out and picked it up and it quickly became one of my favorites of the year. Not long after, I purchased Mack Avenue Skullgame, which I also dug immensely. Alas, there were no more Big Chief albums; apparently, they weren't "grungy" enough for Capitol and the band decided to hang it up in '96. They recorded a record backing up Thornetta Davis, who sang backup on their albums, but other than that, they've gone their separate ways--much like Journey, only different. Here's a sweet track from Mack Avenue Skullgame, One Born Every Minute (Doc's Theme). Enjoy, and don't forget, if you like what you hear, buy one of their albums; they're wicked cheap now!

In other news, the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl for the third time in four years. Pretty amazing stuff. It was also their third championship won by a field goal. Earlier that day, I attended another Lowell Lock Monsters game with my bro-in-law Steve; this time against the Hartford Wolf Pack. Gave me an excuse to break out my old Whalers jersey. Lowell shut out the Rangers farm team, 3-0.

Looks like that will be the only pro hockey we'll see around here. The NHL supposedly set Sunday as a drop dead date for cancelling the season, although the players union has already told the league to drop dead several times. At this point, just put us out of our misery so we can move on already, you money-grubbing bastages.

Speaking of money-grubbing bastages, it appears that Major League Baseball is looking to corner the market on fantasy baseball leagues by forcing them to pay exorbitant licensing fees. Now for you normal, law-abiding folks, that's no big deal. But for rotisserie baseball geeks like myself, this is just another case of the Man trying to keep us down. According to this column from RotoTimes.com (thanks to my Jays-lovin' homies at Battersbox.ca for the tip), MLB is trying to horn in on the free (or inexpensive) fantasy baseball leagues offered by ESPN, Yahoo and CBS Sportsline. So far, they've been rebuffed by all but one company, MLB Advanced Media, which paid $50 million for "exclusive rights" to host fantasy games for five years. The other companies have purchased licenses in the past to use logos, photos, etc., but now MLB is essentially claiming that companies should pay to provide the stats, which are universally considered public data. Some of the companies have filed a lawsuit challenging the deal with MLB Advanced Media, but they also have refused to take any signups from leagues yet. With training camp about to start, it should be interesting to see how this shakes out.

Here's some more nerdosity, but from the world of rock. My good friend Dr. Doobs turned me on to this awesomely dorky and fun site, BandtoBand, which does the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" thing with rock bands. It's ridiculously fun. You click on two band names, no matter how disparate, and it instantly details how they're linked. For example, it linked hair metal poofs Slaughter and indie gods Husker Du in 19 steps; according to the site, the longest-known link is 32 steps.

All right, I've been at the computer all day. Enuff z'nuff.

Let There Be Rock

As my 3.5 regular readers are well aware, I enjoy the rock and/or roll. I also enjoy writing about said rock and/or roll, and since I already have a forum, I have upgraded my techomology to now feature some of that music on a weekly basis. Mucho thanks to AJ "'Ello guvna" Aranyosi for donating the server space for me to host one of them there MP3 files from my music collection every week. Don't look for anything remotely popular or overly familiar here. I'll try to dig up some of cool stuff that you just don't hear much, or at all, anymore. To download tracks, please right-click on link and select "Save as." Any MP3s offered here are for reviewing purposes only; if you like what you hear, buy the album, dammit.

For my initial offering, I'd like to bring you a track from the debut album of a fine band from my former home and native land, O Canada. Ten Fingers is the second song off the 1988 release Love Junk from The Pursuit of Happiness, an excellent Toronto-based power pop act that scored an MTV hit off the same disc with "I'm an Adult Now." Led by the uber-nerdy Moe Berg, TPOH packed quite a wallop with the combination of Berg's sardonic tales of romantic d'oh, crunching guitars, and sweet female backing vocals.

Back in my senior year of college (waaaaay back in '89), I saw TPOH opening up for Duran Duran of all groups at the Worcester Centrum. I had accompanied the incomparable Art Lizie, the arts editor at our college paper The New Hampshire (I was a staff reporter and general layabout). TPOH kicked butt live, blowing the aging Durannies off the stage (this was during a serious down period for DD, before one of their several comebacks). We were supposed to go backstage after the show to interview Moe and the band, but there was a mixup and they left early.

Alas, I never got to see them live again, and after two more major-label releases, they got lost in the grunge goldrush of the early '90s and faded from view. TPOH released two fine albums on a Canadian indie before calling it a day in the late '90s; in 2000, Razor and Tie released Sex & Food: The Best of The Pursuit of Happiness, a worthy greatest-hits comp with several unreleased tracks and liner notes from Berg. As the ever-dorky Kurt Loder used to intone before MTV put him in a retirement home, do check them out.

The forecast calls for pain

Actually, the weather has normalized from its Buffalo-like tendencies of the last few weeks. Usually, we coastal communities get much less snow than our counterparts to the north and west, but this year it has been the opposite. Come to think of it, the weather has been cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs all over the world. Tsunamis, mudslides, avalanches, snow in Texas...there's some seriously wack shiznitt going on.

Some disturbing news from the world of beer: Anheuser-Busch, maker of the so-called King of Beers, has unveiled something they call "B to the E." This concoction is targeted at those oh-so-lucrative twentysomethings, who apparently are dying to get their hands on a beer that contains caffeine, fruit flavoring, and ginseng. Of course, the microbrew craze of the early '90s brought us many fine beers that have fruit accents, like Sam Adams' Cherry Wheat and Summer Ale. But this just sounds nasty. And the whole "extreme beer" marketing of it smacks of the stupid crap they were coming out with when I was a twentysomething a decade ago. Remember OK Soda? Coke developed this in 1994 to appeal to the "slackers" they figured were everywhere because they saw that crapulent movie Reality Bites. Unfortunately for Coke, not enough Ethan Hawke wannabes could muster the energy to get off the couch and buy their soda, so they killed it.

I've always found generational demographics interesting, if only for how misguided they can sometimes be. How do you sum up an entire generation in a single phrase? Baby boomers, Generation X, tweeners, whatever. The latest one that Time magazine recently attempted to coin was Twixters (preview: registration required), who are the twentysomethings that don't want to grow up, according to Time writer Lev Grossman. These crazy kids, they like to party. Puh-leeze.

Of course, when you see the results of a recent survey that found that more than a third of high school students think the First Amendment goes too far, you start to worry about the future. Stupidity or ignorance? Probably a dangerous combination of both. Maybe the kids were all hungover after a night of ripping it up with some B to the E.

Caught some AHL action Saturday night when I joined my bro-in-law Steve at the Lowell Lock Monsters-Worcester Ice Cats game in Lowell. It was fun, although it took all my power to keep from throttling the nitwit sitting next to me; the guy insisted on keeping a running commentary going during the game even though he had no clue what was going on. Nonetheless, a good time.

Hazy Shade of Winter

The meteorologists actually got one right: We got downright walloped by the storm that hit last night. Well over 2 feet of snow dropped on our neighborhood, compounded by powerful winds that left some ridiculously large snow drifts. I spent a good chunk of the day shoveling. Deb already has tomorrow off as most school districts cancelled school this morning. I haven't heard whether our office is closed; I guess the governor wants businesses to shut down to give the plow drivers more of a chance to clear the roads. We'll see.

The Patriots stomped the Steelers tonight, 41-27, exacting revenge for their loss to Pittsburgh on Halloween and advancing to the Super Bowl to play the Philadelphia Eagles. The Pats are shooting for their third Super Bowl win in four years and I'd be shocked if they didn't get it.

Sad news today: Late night legend Johnny Carson died at the age of 79 of emphysema. I got into the Tonight Show as a young kid, watching along with my dad on Friday nights. Carson's dry, self-deprecating wit was always just right, it seemed. Although I later became a huge fan of the sarcastic likes of Letterman and Conan O'Brien, Johnny was always a class act in my book.

I don't know how folks in the Christian Right expect themselves to be taken seriously when they keep doing stupid stuff like this.

Hannah and Lily sit on top of a monster snow bank after a blizzard dropped more than 2 feet of snow on us. 

Cold Shot

'Sup. The blizzard of '05 is underway. We're supposed to get about two feet of snow from this thing. Great, can't wait to start shoveling. The storm comes after several days of bone-chilling temps. It was routinely in the single digits and occasionally dropped below zero, and that's not counting the wind chill.

PT update: I've been going to physical therapy for a month now and making good progress on my Achilles' problems in my feet. Lots of stretching, icing, etc. But I still haven't been able to start running, so I came to the sad realization this week that it just wouldn't be a good idea to run the Vermont City Marathon in late May. I had signed up in November figuring I would be running again by now. I think realistically I'll be running again in mid- to late February. I can train for a marathon in three months, but not if I haven't run at all the previous four to five months. I don't want to risk re-injuring myself. So I've decided to shoot for a fall marathon instead. Meanwhile, I found out I can't get an injury waiver and run Vermont next year, so I'll need to sell the bib number. Although there's a good chance a fellow runner who lives in this house might just try to do the marathon, which is very cool.

Went to my first hockey game of the season last night, Northeastern at Boston College. I was supposed to go to the BU-BC game last week, but it fell through. I've also scored tickets to a couple more college games in February and March, including seeing my UNH Wildcats in BU's shiny new rink.

This is even better than the Bill Gates mug shot. Although much, much more disturbing.

Wired takes an interesting look at journalists who blog, and the blogs who blog them. Or something like that. Just read it.

Now you can get NFL broadcasts available for download to your iPod. Great, but who the hell wants to take up a shiteload of space with an old game? I'd rather watch it on TV and TiVo if I really wanted to see it again.

So who knew Bush was a Dio fan? Here's the diminutive dark lord himself.

Trevor Linden's impromptu meetings with NHL reps this week got some faint hopes up that something might be done to save the rapidly vanishing NHL season, with talk of a 30-game season or some variation followed by playoffs. But the talks didn't go so well Friday, and it appears the two sides are as far apart as they've ever been. To which I say: Go Pats!

While I'm definitely down on the NHL, I've got nothing but mad props for the late Archie Bennitz, who gave Messrs. Bettman and Goodenough the finger from the grave.

I Feel Better Than James Brown

Well, not really, because I'm struggling with yet another cold, but I heard that old Was (Not Was) song for the first time in umpteen years today as I was driving home. But not on the radio, where there is literally no chance you could find that song anywhere on any station. Rather, I heard it using some newfangled technology: the cassette deck. Reason being, the power antenna in my car is no longer functioning, so all I can get is fuzzy reception of WBCN, the so-called rock of Boston. I actually don't mind 'BCN these days, but I hate radio static and so I often just pop one of my 8,294 cassettes in the deck. I was a big fan of the mix tape back in tha day, and I've still got all the tapes I made over the years; even the ones I made in 1981 with my combination alarm clock/tape recorder. Most of my mixes were made in the late '80s and early '90s, so it's always fun to go back and hear what I was into back then. Sometimes the selections are out-and-out embarrassing (e.g., the Spin Doctors, Dweezil Zappa, or the absolutely horrendous Live), but for the most part, they're not bad at all. I never bought many prerecorded cassettes, preferring to pick up vinyl and later CDs, which I then taped for use in the car or my Walkman (remember those?). My home tape deck finally crapped out about five years ago and I've never replaced it. I finally got a CD burner a couple years back, so I make the occasional mix CD, but my iPod has definitely revolutionized my listening habits. Still, it's nice to be able to listen to those old tapes, hark back to my single days, and wonder, "Why the hell did I put that piece of crap on this tape?"

Speaking of the iPod, Apple's finally come out with a truly affordable model for the masses: the iPod Shuffle. It's amazing to see how many people got iPods for Christmas this year; just at the gym alone, they're everywhere. Now, with a 512MB version available for $99 and a 1GB version for $149, you're going to see 8-year-olds walking around listening to their iPods while talking on their cell phones. Hell, they're probably doing that already. Damn kids these days.

While the Yankees were signing Randy Johnson and the Mets landed Carlos Beltran, the Jays stayed busy, trading for Shea Hillenbrand and signing the likes of Corey Koskie, Billy Koch and Scott Schoeneweis. I'm not printing the Wild Card banners yet, but what do you expect on a $50 million payroll?

Well, at least one NHL owner says the season is done. I'm tempted to agree at this point. But check out this interesting concept floated by ESPN.com, the ESPNHL. Using flash animation, they envision a reinvented NHL with fewer teams, a shorter season, revamped rules, a tiered luxury-tax system, and other innovations. Sounds good to me. Drop the puck!