Author: Ira

April Fools’ Day 1992 in Charlottesville, we open with James–in his first show in his home town–singing and playing guitar on the Happy Flowers’ “I’m the Stupid One.”  Is that a holiday selection?  Two years later in St. Louis, we’re definitely playing to the calendar by opening with “Antmusic” and probably by encoring with “Turning Japanese.”   We’re not in a joking mood in Lawrence in 2000.  Should we blame Mark?

While waiting in line at the Bottleneck in Lawrence, Kansas, I shouted, “Hey, the line’s back there!” at some asshole trying to squeeze through the front door out of turn.  Only when the asshole turned her head in response did I realize it was Georgia.  Thankfully Ira didn’t send James out to rough me up—or if he did the basketball game at the bar seemed more compelling to him.

Good thing for you, Mark, that it was the Final Four.  Elite Eight and you’re a dead man!

 

When we were writing “If It’s True” for Popular Songs, we tried to cobble together some string parts and realized quickly we were out of our depth.  We made a fantasy list of arrangers, and Richard Evans was number one.  Not long after, James reported that he had located him, and he was up for writing a chart.  Making the most of the opportunity, we added “Here to Fall” to his workload, and waited for the results.  The session was held five years ago today in Nashville.  The parts themselves only arrived the day before.  We asked Lambchop’s Tony Crow to come by and play them on piano, so we could get a feel for what they sounded like, which didn’t work at all–hearing one part out of the context of the entire arrangement was the opposite of helpful.  In fact, the session itself got off to a slow start.  As the Nashville players sightread, they were surprised by the intricacies, and their tentative performance made it sound like something was wrong.  (At one point, the engineer, hearing what appeared to be a mistake, asked who invited Jimi Hendrix.)  But once everyone learned and trusted what was on the page, it sounded incredible.  And yet there was still a problem: Producer Roger Moutenot was getting sicker by the minute.  He ended up being forced to bail before the end of our session, and our mix, due to begin the following day, was delayed while he battled the flu.

 

if I am correct (and F. Clarke Martty is wrong), we are facing other health issues 20 years earlier.  In 1989, we performed at the Blue Note in Columbia, MO (oddly, we have played the Blue Note three times over the years on March 31).   Feeling peckish after the show, Clarke took us to an all-night diner that dared patrons to eat four of their giant omelets.  Do so, and there’s no charge.  Our Swiss German bassist, Stephan, pronounced himself “wery hungry” and accepted the challenge.  At about the 3 1/2 omelet mark, things were looking bright, but soon after Stephan put down the fork, food still on his plate.  Luckily he was a man of few words, so he was never that graphic about how sick it made him or for how long.  Out of respect for vanquished competitive eaters the world over, I will say no more.

 

 

 

 

Twenty-nine years ago today, we played our first show in New York, at the legendary t-shirt emporium, CBGB.  We were last on a bill with Boston’s Scruffy the Cat and Dogmatics, and the Droogs from Los Angeles.   All indications to the contrary, this was not the headlining position, but rather the mop-up spot, most of the audience having gone home by then.   Savvy show business veterans despite our scant four months as a band, we knew that would happen, and front-loaded our set to the best of our four-month-old ability.   Two years later, but not necessarily two years wiser, we accept an engagement at the old Tramps off Union Square with our pals, Last Roundup, before checking to see if the Academy Awards are being held that night.  Just our luck, they are, and much like Children of a Lesser God and Hannah and Her Sisters, we are defeated by Platoon.

 

The now-departed venue, Tonic, was fighting for its survival in 2005, and held a series of benefits.  On this date, we did two shows, with Dredd Foole & MV opening.    Our sets were site-specific: We had Garo Yellin with us on cello and I mostly played the Tonic piano–including imagined Floyd Cramer-style instrumental arrangements of “I Can Hear the Grass Grow” and “Don’t Give It Up Now,” as well as our first airing of Snapper‘s “Gentle Hour.”  Last year, we traversed the mighty East River and made our way to the district of Williamsburg to to take part in another Delocated event, the highlight of our performance being the Soft Boys’ “I Wanna Destroy You” rewritten as “I Wanna Destroy Jon” and sung by Eugene Mirman and Steve Cirbus, in Mirminsky crime family character.

 

On the eve of 2007, the A-Bones were booked to play at Magnetic Field in Brooklyn, and I offered my services on piano, and schedule permitting I’ve played with them ever since.  In 2008, owners Lee and William decided to padlock the door, and the A-Bones were engaged for one of the last shows, six years ago today.  Yo La Tengo, having had our share of good times there, particularly while mixing I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass at Brooklyn Recording, offered to be the opening act.  We put together a repertoire of appropriate cover songs (the Beach Boys’ “Shut Down,” Slade’s “Gudbuy t’Jane,” the Beach Boys’ “Shut Down, part 2”) and sought a nom d’occasion, settling on the Condo Fucks.   And the rest is alter ego history.

 

 

Having bid goodbye to the Happy Flowers in Atlanta, we arrive in Nashville to play at the Belcourt Theatre with Lambchop, fourteen years ago today. And as happy a memory at that show is, and as much as we cherish our each and every get-together with Lambchop, that’s how bittersweet it is to look at the set list, and remember our friend, Marc “Buddie T.” Trovillion, who died last year, alive and well and dancing along with our goofy “You Can Have It All” routine (with his bandmates C. Scott Chase, Allen Lowrey and Paul Niehaus).  Lambchop members shuttled on and off stage the whole night, and we even convinced Roger Moutenot to play bongos on three songs. Hope opposition research doesn’t find out that current State Senate candidate Mary Mancini (along with husband Kurt Wagner) occupied the Ace Tone chair on “I Heard You Looking.”