Oh Post It note. How I need thee. I keep you close to me at all times. On the table, by the bed, in the kitchen, at work. When a thought pops in my head, you're there for me. You've rarely let me down. There was that one time that I thought of something, grabbed you to jot it down, then thought of a few other things that I scrawled on your yellow surface first, only to realize I forgot the original thing I needed you for in the first place. But besides that, you've been beautiful. My favorite is the canary yellow 3x3, but occasionally I'll reach for the 2x1 1/2. I don't understand why you offer yourself in an accordion stack since I'll never use it, but I appreciate the effort. I write down that song idea, my favorite stores to shop at, grocery lists, quick reminders of what I need to do that day, a girl's phone number, and the occasional doodle. You tickle me yellow, Post It note!
You were invented by Art Fry at 3M in 1977 and have always been made in Cynthiana, Kentucky, although you were first tested in Boise, Idaho. You're the perfect size to fit in my pocket and the quality of your adhesive is just right! Sometimes when you get down to the last few notes on the pad, I get a little sad. You look much better when you're fat and fresh! I can't wait till the next time I think of an idea and scratch it onto your soft smooth surface.
Stick with me Post It note. With you by my side I have confidence to take on the day's challenges. I won't forget because you won't let me. Thank you, friend.
I listen to so much music and have a passion for a wide variety of styles. There are so many great bands out there, from so many eras, that it would be impossible to think of a favorite. But if somebody asked me what my favorite song of all time was, my instant reaction would be “Louie Louie”, by the Kingsmen.
Louie Louie was written in 1955 by Richard Berry, which he recorded for the Flip Label in a somewhat calypso-meets-doowop style with his band, The Pharaohs. It’s a great little tune, with a wonderful baritone singer holding down the rhythm, but thank the lucky stars that he needed some money for his wedding and sold the publishing rights. For whatever reason the track really took hold in the pacific northwest, and countless bands from Washington and Portland covered it throughout the ‘50’s and ‘60’s. But no version out there can top the 1963 single by The Kingsmen. It rocks with such wild abandon, with its compressed, punchy delivery, and it’s drunken-style vocals hiding within the chaotic mix of drums, guitar, bass and keyboards. This short-lived band created to me the song that helped define what rock n roll was.
Richard Berry, the songwriter The Kingsmen formed in 1959 while in high school and consisted of Jack Ely (vocals/guitar), Lynn Easton (drums), Mike Mitchell (guitar), Don Gallucci (keyboards) and Bob Nordby (bass). After playing a few years at local dances and talent shows, they recorded Louie Louie at Northwestern Recording for $36 as a demo to get better gigs. The gigs didn’t come and the band split because of a rift between singer Jack Ely and drummer Lynn Easton. This caused a bit of confusion after the song became a nation-wide hit, as both Jack Ely and Lynn Easton formed their own versions of the Kingsmen to go on the road to take advantage of the single's success.
Jack Ely's version of the Kingsmen They keyboardist starts it off with 1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2 and the rest of the band joins in, strong and loud. You can hear the singer at the very beginning give an off-mic rebel yell. My favorite instruments are the drums and the bass. The drummer is out of control; playing hard with fills all over the place, (in a good way!) with lots of echo bouncing off the walls around him. The bassist is playing with a pick, and is one of the loudest instruments in the mix. The lyrics are raucous and unintelligible which later got the band into trouble with the FBI. My favorite part is right after the guitar solo, when the singer comes in with the verse, then immediately stops because he thinks he’s come in at the wrong spot. The drummer then covers the error with a delightful fill and the singer starts again. The whole band seems to follow this flub except for the keyboardist, who starts playing the chorus a stanza before the rest of the band. The guitar solo is blistering too, dry with no reverb but cutting through with mid-range twang (much lower in the mix behind him, the drummer is playing a non-stop solo….give it a listen!).
Lynn Easton's Kingsmen In 1964 an outraged parent wrote to Robert Kennedy, then attorney general, alleging the lyrics were obscene. The FBI investigated the complaint, and studied the song in their labs for 2 years before coming to the conclusion that you can’t understand what the hell he’s saying.
It's one of the most covered songs ever (about 1,600 recorded versions now). Simple, 3 chord rock n roll. A song that just can’t be beat in my opinion.
When I was in college I discovered the bizarro psychedelic comedy film that is The Monkees Head. Written by Bob Rafelson & Jack Nicholson, Head came out in 1968, just as the pseudo-mop-tops were waning in their popularity. Sure they're a "fake" band, but that doesn't really matter. The movie is great and full of so many twists and turns with flashbacks galore, you don't know where you are and enjoy getting lost in its tom-foolery.
I have turned on many a friend to this film, and it even has a few good songs in it (courtesy of Carole King, Nilsson and a few of the monkee-boys themselves). When I lived in Philly, this was the sort of go-to movie we'd watch when we didn't feel like going out. I still have it on good ol' VHS.
My first music video for Francis Friday happened quite by accident. It was directed by my good friend Chris Bagnall in the sunny streets of Greenpoint, shot in October of 2006 and edited and completed in March of 2007.
It started out as a photo shoot for the myspace page I was setting up. My beard was particularly thick and I wanted an old-timey look with bowler hat and dark-pressed suit. Chris, ever-prepared, brought along his high definition video camera to get shots of me playing some of my songs live on the streets of waterfront brooklyn. I played about 4 songs, one of them being Architects Unite, from the Streets Are For Keeps album. A few months later I asked him to burn me a dvd of some of the songs we recorded and he invited me over to pick it up. As we were going through the raw footage, Chris came upon the idea to make a music video out of one of the songs and post it on youtube. We picked Architects Unite for its catchy choruses and proceeded to paste the best shots together to form an entertaining 3 minute collage. However something was missing, and I decided it would be great to put in some actual footage of architects, buildings and vintage skyscraper construction footage from old New York. I went down to the local video store, Photoplay, and picked up a few movies and documentaries I thought would work.
We had so much fun putting this together and I hope you like it (the silly dog just happened to be walking by with his owner as we were shooting). Incidentally we both spelled 'Architects' wrong on the opening titles (and the youtube posting itself). I know perfectly well how to spell architect and I'm not sure how the mistake wasn't caught earlier. Oh well. The video compression is a little pixelated, but Chris' old computer died on him and the original file has unfortunately been lost.
So who wants chicken??? Yay!!! But the delicious chicken breasts are in the freezer and I just got home from work and am hungry NOW! In an ideal world you're supposed to take out the chicken and let thaw in cold water, which would take hours. I don't recommend microwaving because it thaws unevenely, leaving parts over-cooked and tough.
Well, I discovered a great way to do it and it came out perfect. Take the frozen chicken out of the freezer and wrap it in tin foil. Preheat the oven to 200 deg. When it reaches 200, turn off the heat and throw the foil-wrapped chicken in the oven for 20 minutes. This will thaw the chicken without cooking it. You'll find it well thawed out, ready to cook!
I heard the news while in Singapore. Lux Interior, born Erick Purkhiser, lead singer of The Cramps, inventor of psycho-billy, shocking garage-punk rocker godhead...was dead at age 62. The reasoning was an existing heart condition, which is quite a vague description. This is really sad news....I especially feel bad for Poison Ivy (Kristy Wallace) who's been married to Lux for almost 40 years, the 2 of them forming the heart of the Cramps. I first discovered The Cramps in 1992 while on a shopping spree in little-five points, Atlanta, searching for bootleg vhs footage of The Velvet Underground. After a blurry-bleached out copy-of-a-copy of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable movie by Paul Morrissey, the video suddenly skipped to a primitive music video of The Cramps' Garbage Man. I was captivated by their gothy, reverb-drenched sound and Lux's horror-film visage (as well as Poison Ivy's gold-lame leggings!). Fortunately, I saw in the paper that they were rolling through town in a few days! My sister and I went to the show and were pummuled by their morbidly sexy sound. He stood tall in a black leather body suit with high heels, sliding around the stage screaming into the microphone, while Poison Ivy stood stoic, looking hotter than ever, playing her hollow-body electric to the primitive beat. He was a great frontman, a great record-collector and a lover of vintage kitch that will be impossible to duplicate. I'll miss you Lux. See you around.
