Category: News

Two years and two days ago, Georgia and I had taken advantage of a lull in our recording schedule and were contemplating our navels somewhere, readying ourselves for a temporary return home to play with M. Ward at Prospect Park.  Plans were upended when we got word that James had been hospitalized with appendicitis and would be otherwise occupied on this day in 2012.  Everyone concerned agreed that outright cancellation should be our last resort, so the two remaining band members with appendixes started trying to figure out what to do.  Neither of us thought that a duo performance was ideal, and luckily both Dave Schramm and David Mansfield were available on short notice to take part.  Georgia and I returned to New York, visited James at the second hospital we looked for him at, and made our way to Prospect Park.  We rehearsed with Dave and David pretty much until the moment we went on stage and opened with Dump’s “Slow Down.”  We premiered Fade’s “Is That Enough” and “The Point of It,” played “Coming Home” by David’s Alpha Band-mate T-Bone Burnett, and Dave sang “Stockholm Syndrome.”

Here’s hoping things were going more according to plan in 2010 in Atlanta, from where Brandon writes: My wife Katy walks down the aisle to your version of “My Little Corner of the World”.  Later, “Emulsified” and “Autumn Sweater” could be heard at the reception alongside hits by The Bonzo Dog Band, Magnetic Fields, The Coctails and Chumbawamba.  We will send BMI a check soon, promise.

Here’s to thirty more . . .

 

 

Looking over where we’ve been on August 6, I think instead that today I’ll just keep talking about August 5.  In 2007, we played at Lollapalooza.  We could see the Stooges from our stage while we were setting up, but summertime in Chicago got the best of me, and I went where it was air-conditioned.  As soon as our set ended, I poured a bucket of water over my head in an attempt to cool off, and headed for Wrigley Field.  The Mets were in town, brand-spanking-new Hall of Fame inductee Tom Glavine was going for his 300th career victory against the Cubs, and noted sports blogger Gerard Cosloy and I had tickets.  (This might be a little off topic, but I was shocked to see the Mets’ left fielder that evening, Moises Alou, got only six votes for the Hall of Fame–were I submitting a ballot either of these accomplishments would make him worthy.)  I had some trouble negotiating the stands with a cardboard tray holding two beers and two hot dogs, but other than that, a great night on the town.

 

I’m trying to recall how Tony Maimone ended up on upright bass for three of our acoustic shows in 1988.  My best guess is we got to talking at a The Scene Is Now gig, and he offered his services.  Twenty-six years ago today was the middle one, a matinee at CBGB, on a dream bill with Peter Stampfel, Jad Fair, and a rare duo performance by Will & Amy Rigby.  Though numbers by all of the other acts were in our repertoire, it was only “Griselda” that we played that day (after we got the go-ahead, naturally).  Our set also included the Angry Samoans’ “Get Off the Air,” which went over well with my parents, and hopefully others.  Speaking of the airwaves, 16 years later we made our way to CNBC’s Fort Lee studio to take part in the short-lived McEnroe talk show.  In addition to our star turn of “Today Is the Day,” we were the house band, playing on the other guests, as well as in and out of commercial breaks.  Looking over the 10 songs used as bumpers, at least nine of which doubled as either tennis puns or guest-appropriate (we escorted Kevin Kline to the couch with Will Rigby’s “Dave“), I’m going to have to show a little tough love and suggest that if the host had worked as hard on his part of the show as we did, somebody might have watched.  No complaints whatsoever with his guitar work on our quartet version of “Beat on the Brat,” except that we have no recording of it.

 

Asked as we often are about our remaining show business aspirations, we usually answer that someday we hope to play live on August 4.   Without such a show to look back on today, we recall instead that precisely 14 years ago our “Sugarcube” cd and 7-inch were released.  Researching one of the b-sides, we were shocked to discover that the Looney Tunes theme was co-written by Eddie Cantor.

 

Seven years ago today, we already had 30th anniversaries on our mind, playing one such celebration for KUSF at Bimbo’s in San Francisco.  We pulled out every stop we could find, dotting our set with covers from their inaugural year of 1977.  What’s more, we invited Jonathan Segel, our old touring pal in Camper Van Beethoven, to sit in for most of the show on violin.  In a transparent move to ingratiate ourselves with local celebrities, we took a request for “Blue Line Swinger” from Quince’s Michael Tusk.  None of which kept the University of San Francisco from selling the station in 2011, exiling them to their current on-line home.

 

When Dave Rick became our original bassist, we knew that sooner or later he’d quit to form his own band with his buddy Jerry Smith.  What we didn’t know (and in fact, still don’t know, but are putting 2 and 2 together) was that he always dreamed of performing in New Brunswick.  Well, 25 years ago today, we did just that, playing a show at the Court Tavern with Spiral Jetty, and Dave promptly relinquished the bass chair.  A little over a year later, after Dave Schramm’s departure, from time to time Dave would return on lead guitar.

Peter from Long Beach, CA sent us four different anecdotes from four different days and we selected this one: I assembled a 4 piece ensemble to play Danelectro 3 and 2 (I think, can’t remember the numbers for sure), complete with timpani and the whole deal for my wedding.  Everyone was blown away by how awesome our wedding was, obviously.