This is the beginning of the end of our preview of Forecastle Fest bands. Reality began to sway, and M Dodds and I struggled to stay on task. Tangents began to rule. Life changed. Tears were shed. Beer was spilled. Mudslides were shared. Hearts were broken. This is part one. This is part two. This is part three.
Reignwolf
MD: “We gotta see
some Reignwolf, baby. Maybe this will rule”
[We play a track]
MD: “Huh, he’s yelling stuff in the background. Maybe this
is a blues song?”
[Some bluesy vocals begin]
MD: “Oh. No…but...you’ve got [this picture of] this guy
leaping in the air…he’s just leaping… what note do you think he played?”
BM: “That’s a good jump.”
Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks
MD: “Did you ever see that band Attic Ted?”
BM: “Uh-uh.”
[We read the description]
BM: “I’m kind of into this. Do they have music?”
MD: “They have a video.”
[We play the video]
BM: “I do like his [Avey Tare’s] list of influences here.. .Arthur
Lee’s Love, Misfits, The Cramps…”
MD: “Oh, you like the Misfits? You know who else liked The
Misfits? Metallica. You see how they turned out.”
[A lengthy discussion ensues about the intense
disappointment we both felt at seeing the video premiere of “Enter Sandman,”
and the dark period that followed when we tried to convince ourselves for a
couple of days that Metallica’s black album wasn’t awful. The phrase “a textbook example of
convincing yourself to live a lie” is used to describe this time. We eventually
return our attention to the Slasher Flicks video.]
MD: “This is kind of giving me some hope for this band, I
hope this is what it sounds like. I feel like maybe someone made a booking
mistake booking them. “
The Soul Rebels
MD: “You ever listen to Dexy’s Midnight Runners? They’re
first record- Calling All The….I can’t remember the name of the record. It’s
something... Soul Rebels. [Note: It’s
called Searching For The Young Soul Rebels] So what I’m getting at here is that
I’m hoping this is a Dexy’s Midnight Runners cover band.”
[We pull up the band photo and description]
MD: “Nope. Alright, these guys have horns, they’re a brass
band. I liked Mucca Pazza a lot? These guys look kind of serious.”
BM: “They have a song called ‘Sweet Dreams Are Made Of
This.”
MD: “Oh, so they’re gonna play covers in the style of ‘Brass
Band’. Let’s hear some of this.”
[We listen to some of that]
MD: “I don’t mind people doing covers in the style of ‘Brass
Band’, but I don’t know that I wanna listen to it for like 40 minutes. Although,
maybe they’ll get weird somewhere in the middle.”
BM: “Well hopefully they’ll do this and then they’ll also
play something else.”
MD: “Yeah, I don’t know, if they just play cover songs in
the style of a brass band, I’d you’ll probably think its novel, if you don’t
have any novelty in your life.”
Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors
BM: “Now don’t forget, you have your lifeline.”
MD: “Oh yeah that’s right, I haven’t called…”
BM: “Be sure to remember, you need to do that at some time.
I don’t know, is Trampled By Turtles gonna be the time for that?”
MD: “I feel like I’m gonna need somebody’s hand to hold to
get through that… Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors…. Man anytime it’s somebody
and the somebodies… any time I see that…”
BM: “Wait, before you get started, you’ve got to read this.
It beats wildly literate.”
MD: “’ Drew Holcomb, a Tennessee-born, duck-hunting,
French-speaking, bourbon-drinking, 1st-edition-book-collecting, golf-playing
Eagle Scout with a Masters degree in Divinity from Scotland's University of St.
Andrews’ Jesus [expletive(s) deleted] Christ.”
[Brian laughs at my incredulousness.]
MD: “I’m just so…”
BM: “Sick of humans?”
MD: “Alright, let’s hear some of this….”
BM: “A song called ‘The Wine We Drink’”
MD: “‘The Wine We Drink.’ Of course. He’s super literate. So
Literate.”
BM: “He’s like the Buckaroo Bonsai of music. He does
everything.”
MD: “Man, Buckaroo Bonsai was an all right movie, right?!”
Tourist
MD: “You’ve watched Twin Peaks, right? You know the
character James?”
BM: “Alright, look, it’s on my list of things to watch”
MD: “It’s okay. He looks a little like James leaving town.
Let’s hear a little of this guy”
[We hear a little of that guy, but before it starts…]
MD: “You know what I heard for the first time the other day?
Snoop Dogg’s ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’. Have you ever heard this? It’s pretty
good.”
[The track continues to play while we talk about Drop It
Like It’s Hot]
MD: “I don’t dislike this.”
BM: “Pelvis thrusting?”
MD: “Yeah, sure.”
BM: “That’s almost like a rating at this point”
[It would appear that Tourist is no longer scheduled to
appear?]
Spanish Gold
MD: “Looks like there’s a heavyset guy in this band maybe.
I’m into that.”
BM: “Does that change things for you?”
MD: “Shit yeah. Their band photo is kind of alright. I
assume they’re not seriously into looking like this... This is a ridiculous
photo…”
BM: “It’s got one of the My Morning Jacket guys in it, I
knew we couldn’t go a festival without a My Morning Jacket guy somewhere”
MD: “Alright, let’s listen to a track”
[We listen to a track and end up comparing and contrasting
My Morning Jacket and Pearl Jam for a while, then talking about Pearl Jam for a
while, things get pretty confusing, as evidenced by the following]
MD: “…you know, Red Lobster also has Lobster Fest- it’s already a thing.”
BM: “Yeah, but, I just like lobsters”
MD: “You like lobsters as… an animal? They’re not arachnids
are they? What are they, what’s the name for… they’re not a…”
BM: “A fish?”
MD: “No, they’re definitely not a fish.”
BM: “They come from the sea…”
MD: “Charli Ex-see-ex. Or are those Roman numerals? She
probably hates it when people say it like that, but you shouldn’t call yourself
that if you don’t want people to pronounce it like that.”
[We play a track, and render a first impression moments into
it]
BM: “I’m into it”
MD: “I’m kind of already into it also.”
BM: “Let’s hear a verse and see what…”
[The verse starts]
Together: “Nope.”
MD: “I’m going to let you watch the rest of this while I get
into some peeing.”
[BM listens in silence while I’m in the bathroom]
MD: “I’m not gonna say you should avoid this, I’m just gonna
say you should maybe make sure someone call you like a third of the way through
the first song so you can go do that and then come back to it and see what you
think. Like especially if it’s kind of an upsetting phone call, like, if
someone calls to say ‘I’m leaving you!’ or ‘You’re going to have to pay for
your trash pickup from now on!’. And then come back to it.”
Nightmares On Wax
BM: “Are there any more mudslides left?”
MD: “Oh yeah.”
[I go to retrieve mudslides from the kitchen]
BM: “Nightmares on Wax”
MD: “You’ve heard their groundbreaking singles?”
BM: “Are you kidding?”
MD: “We’re gonna have to share this one [the “mudslide”]
[I tell BM the tale of why I know who Nightmares on Wax are,
what little I know about them, and play him something I already have rather
than anything on the website. The subject of music that’s appropriate for
listening to during sexual intercourse comes up. I insist that the tape
recorder be turned off while the rest of this discussion takes place. The
recorder is paused. Eventually un-paused]
MD: “Alright, a little bit of off the record talk there.
Look I’m gonna say go see Nightmares on Wax.”
BM: “What was the name of the one song? I’m gonna write it
down..”
Lucius
MD: “You ever heard of Lucius Tate? Prank calls?”
[I begin looking for them]
BM : “Come on, we’ve gotta get through…”
[I make a sound of pure scoffing]
MD: “Let’s just not even look at that band”
[I look some more for the Lucius Tate recordings and do not
succeed]
MD: “Do you have any idea how to spell Lucius?”
[BM spells it out, I find it, and we spend a while listening
to some prank phone calls, discussing prank calls, and finally (try to) return
to the Lucius who’s playing Forecastle.]
BM: “So what do you think about Lucius?”
MD: “Oh Lucius? Lucius Tate?”
BM: “All right. Let’s move on…”
Claude Vonstroke
MD: “Is it Claude Von Stroke? Is that seriously what’s
next?”
BM: “Yes.”
MD: “Awww, you’re kidding me. This guy’s gonna be a
comedian. [Reading the description] ‘Claude Vonstroke does not scowl while he
DJ’s….’ that’s good to know. Let’s just hear some”
[We hear some]
MD: “I don’t hate this immediately.”
BM: “He’s remixing a lot of things”
MD: “It’s fine, a lot of things need remixing. They need to
have cowbell put in on them. He’s got quite a watch”
Brett Dennen
BM: “This is your man, Brett Dennen.”
MD: “He looks like John Denver.”
BM: “He’s got five records out, one of them is called ‘Smoke
and Mirrors’”
MD: “One of them’s called ‘Rocky Mountain High’”
BM: “’His music career began humbly around the camps of the
Sierra Mountain range...”
MD: “Oh did it? That’s shocking to me”
[We listen to a track]
BM: “You know, I can kind of get into it a little bit”
MD: “It’s all right. Is this gonna be a guy with a laptop,
or is he gonna come with a group of people to perform this live?”
BM: “Do you think it sounds electronic?”
MD: “You know, it sounds fine, and… ‘fun’”
BM: [Laughter]
St. Lucia
[There’s 8-10 minutes of BM talking about the things he
knows about South Africa, we get bummed out a bit, and then we listen to some
St. Lucia and don’t really have anything to say about them. We seem to
determine that they’re fiercely contemporary]
The Black Lips
MD: “Alright, look, I’ll go ahead and say I’ll arm wrestle
any of these people”
[We listen to parts of a few tracks]
MD: “You know, this isn’t totally awful.”
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