New Year's Eve

Have a Peaceful and Productive 2013

I'm actually looking forward to the new year.  There should be plenty of new adventures with CoolMom, CoolDaughters 1 & 2, and CoolDog.  I'm sure I'll see some great shows.  I've already got On the Beach, Morrissey, and Taylor Swift on the docket.  And I'm looking forward to finding more new music and making more new friends through this blog.

All that said, though, it wouldn't be New Year's Eve if I didn't listen to this song fifty times today.

Have fun.  Be Safe.  And rock on...

On the Beach -- A Sandy Relief Concert

Amazingly, Tickets Are Still Available

On the Beach -- A Sandy Relief Concert, put together by Jersey guys Tim Donnelly, Danny Clinch, and Tony Pallagrosi and underwritten by New York Ranger greats Sean Avery and Henrik Lundqvist along with Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, happens on January 2nd at Asbury Park's Paramount Theatre.  Tickets are still available at The Stone Pony box office and via Ticketmaster.  Proceeds will benefit several Jersey Shore non-profits:  Waves For Water, RebuildRecover, Coastal Habitat for Humanity, The Food Bank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, and Food For Thought By The Sea.  See you there?

Just a Few More Days Edition

Last Friday of 2012

I hope the holidays have been treating you well so far.  Don't make any resolutions you can't keep.

And rock on...

Sixth Annual Home for the Holidays, Night One

The Bouncing Souls at The Stone Pony, Asbury Park, NJ, December 26th, 2012

It was a dark and stormy night -- seriously stormy, and I think we've had enough.  CoolMom and I ventured out in it, though, along with CoolAunt and CoolUncle.  I'd forced everyone to leave early for The Stone Pony so that we could get a parking spot near the venue.  That paid off at the end of the night when everyone scurried from bar to car as the storm tossed them every which way.  It also allowed us to see all of the bands on the bill for Night One of The Bouncing Souls' four night Home for the Holidays residency at The Stone Pony.

Night One celebrated Chunksaah Records' (The Bouncing Souls own record label) The Philadelphia Sound and featured each of the bands from that release.  Last night was the first time since the release show for that record, ten years ago, that the four bands played together.  Go! For The Throat, The Curse, Knives Out, and Paint It Black each did their own roughly thirty minute set of hardcore punk.  The crowd got larger and more animated as the evening progressed.  Go! For The Throat's frontman had to egg people on to dance, while Paint It Black saw a constant barrage of crowd surfers breaching the barricades.  Our group had settled into the spot next to the press / photo area to stage right where we could see everything and remain safely removed from the fray.

After The Curse's set, I had the opportunity to meet and talk with one of the readers of this blog.  He's a dad like me; and like me, he loves going out to see live music.  We had a great chat over a beverage and traded anecdotes about sharing some concert experiences with our kids and about the strange looks we get from some of our fellow parents when we mention that we're going out to see yet another band.  It was really nice to put a face to the Twitter handle.

At 10:30, The Bouncing Souls took the stage.  Al Barr of The Dropkick Murphys had put together the setlist for them, and he was honored with a photo, surrounded by a wreath, right next to the drummer.  I've always been aware of The Bouncing Souls, but I've never really followed them.  I'd never been to any of their Home for the Holidays shows before, and I felt like it would make a great night out for our visitors.  We weren't disappointed.  Barr's hour-long setlist covered everything anyone would want to hear like "True Believers," "Lean on Sheena," "Hopeless Romantic," "Sing A Long Forever," "I Like Your Mom," and "East Coast F*ck You."

I will say that, even though I enjoyed all of the other bands, The Bouncing Souls' fast-paced, melodic punk came as somewhat of a relief after two hours of relentless hardcore.  You wouldn't have known by just looking at the crowd that things had mellowed out ever so slightly.  The Souls' fans are a devoted bunch.  They knew every word, and The Stone Pony shook as they all sang along and attempted to storm the stage.

Last night was a great way to unwind after some of the stress of the holidays.  "Lots of bands get famous playing music, but almost none of them remember where they came from.  Not many bands would organize a four-day party for all of their friends like The Bouncing Souls," said Paint It Black lead singer Dan Yemin as his band closed their set.  The Bouncing Souls' Home for the Holidays continues at The Stone Pony through December 29th, and I can heartily recommend that you get some of your own family and friends (old and new) together and join the party.

Merry Christmas!

Hope You Get Everything On Your List

I've been in love with this Wye Oak cover of Brenda Lee since last year.  It's from A.V. Club's 2011 Holiday Undercover series.

Merry Christmas to you and yours from all of us here at CoolDad Music HQ.


Wye Oak covers "Christmas Will Be Just Another Lonely Day" by Brenda Lee

Swearin', Swearin', 2012

Sunday Run Album Review

I saw a Facebook post the other day, by a music journalist I really respect, pointing out and kind of lamenting the fact that if one were to remove all of the twenty-something artists from Pitchfork's "Top 50 Albums of 2012" list, there'd only be five or six records left.  I wasn't particularly surprised or upset by this, but it started me wondering why most of the best pop / mindie music is produced by people whom I'd basically consider kids.  More to the point, why are these kids able to produce music that can connect with someone, like me, twenty years older than they are?

I think it's a combination of two things.  First, nobody ever really changes.  You go through your whole life with the same brain and all of its thought processes, insecurities, worries, etc.  Second, twenty-something kids haven't learned all the ways to rationalize those feelings and keep them bottled up inside.  Instead, they pour it all out on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, or into their songs.  So, what you end up with is a bunch of kids creating music from their twenty-something year-old brains that is able to touch people of all ages.  That's important.  With most of us adults walking around and being socially acceptable, someone needs to speak up for the way none of us have ever really stopped feeling.

I thought about this while I jogged around my neighborhood for the first time in a while listening to the self-titled, debut full-length by Swearin'.  Kyle Gilbride and Allison Crutchfield (twin sister and former P.S. Eliot bandmate of Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield) share songwriting duties on Swearin'.  What they've produced is a combination of pop punk and 1990's indie rock that contains traces of Built to Spill, The Breeders, and early Liz Phair.  On many of the songs, Gilbride and Crutchfield touch on some thoughts that never quite leave you just because you get older.

On "Here to Hear," Gilbride (sounding quite a bit like Doug Martsch) sings, "Moving back here / Feeling too self-aware / I keep thinking, / "Is this as good as it gets?"  The pointedly titled "Fat Chance" sees Crutchfield promising, "I'll move out of this house. / I will get my own place. / Get noticed, get in pictures. / I will paint my face."  Gilbride sounds older than his years again on "Empty Head" as he says, "I collect the blurry past into my empty head, / And it’s sad to want it back…"

Swearin' is a solid debut from a band moving beyond its pop punk DNA.  The songwriting is wrapped up in the sounds of early indie rock, but it manages not to sound dated or nostalgic.

"No one likes you when you're as old as we are," sings Crutchfield on album closer "Movie Star."  She hits on something there.  People my age can be dismissive of these kids and all their whining.  If you think about it for a second, though, that may be because they're reminding us of things that we taught ourselves to forget about years ago.

You can stream or purchase Swearin' over at the band's Bandcamp page.

Ten Strummerless Years

Miss You, Joe

Earlier this week, NPR published a piece on Joe Strummer to mark the tenth anniversary of his unexpected death.  It's the only such article I've personally seen so far.  I feel like there ought to be more.

CoolMom's Birthday Edition

Happy Birthday Friday

So, I've already got the "Songs That Mention Christmas But Aren't Christmas Songs" playlist.  This one, I guess, could go on a "Songs That Mention Birthdays But Aren't Birthday Songs" playlist.

Doesn't matter.  I've always loved this song, so I'll post it here for the best, most understanding woman in the world.

Happy Birhday, CoolMom.

Rock on...

Beach Fossils' Latest Single

"Careless"

I've detected a bit of a backlash in the mindiesphere against bands with "Beach" in their name.  If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, though, then you know I love some shoegazey, surfy sounding music.  Earlier this month, Beach Fossils released "Careless" from their upcoming Clash the Truth (February 19th on modern bastion of shoegaze and dream pop, Captured Tracks).

I really enjoyed Beach Fossils' 2010 self-titled debut, especially single "Youth."  Back then, Beach Fossils was the solo recording project of Dustin Payseur.  Payseur put together a band for the tour that included Zachary Cole Smith of DIIV.

For Clash the Truth, he's added a full-time drummer and enlisted Ben Greenberg of The Men to produce.  Greenberg had a hand in two of my favorite records of 2012 (The Men's Open Your Heart and as producer on Sleepies' Weird Wild World), and I'd guess that his presence on Clash the Truth would bring more of an edge to Payseur's sound.  I think it's there on "Careless."

Happy Birthday, CD2!

CoolDaughter #2 Is 6!

Being 6 years old and having an older sister means that Yo Gabba Gabba qualifies as a "baby show."

Still...

Happy birthday, girl!

Asbury Lanes Under New Management

photo by: Wikijazz (Own work)

The Clock Is Ticking

I saw this Asbury Park Sun story earlier today.  It says that Chris and Bob Fahey, owners of Edgar's Pub in Manasquan, have taken over management of Asbury Lanes; and it sounds like, while they will honor the venue's current commitments, they want to make some changes.  From The Asbury Park Sun:

“There are shows that are booked, and we are going to honor those shows of course,” said Fahey, 36. “But we are going to bring in other types of music as well. We want to bring in other types of music so it’s not just the punk genre.”

That troubled me a bit, and further reporting done by Speak Into My Good Eye hasn't done anything to allay my fears that Asbury could be on the brink of losing one of its signature music venues.

Let's hope it doesn't come to that and that Asbury Lanes doesn't get transformed into just another Jersey Shore cover band bar.

I had a great time at The Lanes back in July when another cooldad and I went to the absolutely insane King Khan and the Shrines show.

The Babies, Our House on the Hill, 2012

Gonna Run Today Album Review.  Honest.

This was a busy weekend with CoolDaughters 1&2.  We had to drive CoolDaughter #1 to Rutgers and back for her one race (which lasted all of 42 seconds) of The Holiday Classic swim meet.  CoolDaughter #2 turns six this week, so we spent Sunday at Chuck E. Cheese with a bunch of her friends.  Those (welcome and cherished) distractions coupled with being at a general loss for what to write about had me nervous that I wasn't going to have anything to post for a while.  But then I glanced through the list of year-end releases and remembered that The Babies put out their sophomore effort, Our House on the Hill, on Woodsist in November.

The Babies started out as a side project between Cassie Ramone of Vivian Girls and Kevin Morby of Woods.  Our House on the Hill is a successful melding of the sounds and songwriting styles of the band's two founders and sounds a lot more like a full-fledged band effort than a side project.  The girl-group garage rock of Ramone combines with the jangly folk rock of Morby to produce thirty-five minutes worth of sometimes shimmering, always head-bobbing pop.

The album's second track, "Slow Walkin," is maybe the best example of what the collaboration can produce as it features Morby and Ramone trading lines about a love that "ain't right" over some jangly rock guitar.  The chorus sees Morby repeating "Slow walkin'" while Ramone backs him with a series "Whoa oh Whoa oh".  Ramone takes lead vocals on "Baby," which is probably the most Vivian Girls-sounding track.  Morby channels early Lou Reed on the acoustic "That Boy."  "Get Lost" and "Moonlight Mile" are garage rock embellished by a glassy guitar riff in the first case and Ramone's distant "ooh ooh" in the second.

Our House on the Hill combines the talents of two excellent pop songwriters and allows them both to shine.  The album sounds like a true collaboration, and its combination of fuzz and reverb with Americana produces something that hits a real sweet spot for me.

I'll have Our House on the Hill cued up for my next run, which I'm really planning to do today.  This will be a good one to have in my arsenal for those days when I just can't decide what to pick.  I can see Our House on the Hill, which is full of sounds that I love, being one of those records I'll be in the mood for almost any time.

The 20th Annual Asbury Music Awards

The 20th Annual Asbury Music Awards at The Stone Pony, Asbury Park, NJ, December 13th, 2012

This is one of those times when my usual approach of not taking any notes and just sitting and taking it all in really isn't going to work.  So much happened at the Asbury Music Awards last night that I couldn't possibly discuss it all in a single review.  The night did have a unifying theme, though:  Asbury Park has a thriving music scene, and everyone that's a part of it -- bands, venues, journalists, websites, fans -- needs to stick together and to support one another if they want to nurture good music in Asbury Park.

Originally scheduled for November 8th, the awards were moved to last night as a result of Sandy.  WBJB's Jeff Raspe was the evening's host, and awards were given throughout the evening in between performances by some of the area's most popular acts.  Colton Kayser, nominated for "Top Male Acoustic Act," led off the performances with an excellent solo, acoustic set and set the tone for the evening.  Other performances that stood out for me were those by The Sandy Mack Blues Band (who won "Top Blues Band"), The Amboys, and Toms River indie rockers Elevator Art, whose "Tent City" won for "Song of the Year."

Elevator Art were one of the bands I had gone to check out, and I wasn't disappointed.  They did an energetic set during which they employed a washboard, a saucepan, and a plastic water jug for percussion.  They played conga drums set up off the stage on the floor and incorporated some prog rocky flute.  If I can, I'll try catching them again when they headline the "Revolution in Just Listening Habitat for Humanity Benefit" in Keyport on January 5th.

Awards-wise, it was a big night for bands Brick+Mortar ("Top Bassist," "Top Drummer," "Top Indie Rock Act") and River City Extension ("Top Americana," "Top Live Performance," "Top Local Release"), Quincy Mumford ("Top Male Vocalist," "Top Pop Band"), and website Speak Into My Good Eye ("Top Music Website," "Top Journalist" for Chris Rotolo).  I had a brief fanboy moment as I was leaving when I approached a somewhat startled Joe Michelini of River City Extension to tell him how much I loved his record this year.  He'd just accepted the award for "Top Americana," but he was extremely humble and gracious.

There were over 30 awards in total ranging from those already mentioned to "Top Multi-Instrumentalist, Other Instruments" and "Top Local Club DJ"; but, while the list of nominees was long and diverse, I was struck by the absence of any real electronica or hip-hop on the current Asbury scene.  Asbury Park is still very much a rock and roll town.  Based on last night, though, I'm convinced that the city would welcome acts in all genres.

"How many of you haven't been to an Asbury Music Awards before?" asked Jeff Raspe at one point in the evening.  Several hands went up.  "We've been doing this for 20 years!  Where have you been?"  Last night was my first time, and I couldn't believe I'd missed it all of these years.  It won't be my last.

121212 Edition

MSG Sandy Benefit Wednesday

I heard yesterday that the Robin Hood Relief Fund will be making a donation to local charity, Sea Bright Rising, which is great news.  That town's meant a lot to me.

And Krist Novoselic may be joining Dave Grohl and Paul McCartney on stage tonight.

And Bruuuuuce...

Enjoy the show.

Rock on...

Julian Fulton and the Zombie Gospel, Heart & Arms, 2012

Wednesday EP Review

On the most recent season of The Walking Dead, one of the characters conducted an experiment to determine whether "walkers" retain any memories of their past lives once they re-animate.  I won't spoil that for you, but you can probably guess the answer.  Julian Fulton and the Zombie Gospel, a Jersey Shore collective of musicians led by singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Julian Fulton, definitely draw from memories of pop music's past lives on their debut EP.

Heart & Arms is a six-song EP that sees the band bringing together influences ranging from jangle pop to garage rock to Beatle-esque psychedelia.  The cacophony of distant voices and altered instrumentation of "Prelude" concludes with "a-one, a-two, a-one, two, three, gooooo..." and leads immediately into the jangly, opening guitar riff of "Lie."  The voices of Fulton and the rest of The Zombie Gospel, the guitar, the drums, and the handclaps give the song a (very organized) communal sing-a-long feel.  "Kiss the Sun" goes for an unmistakably Strokes-ian sound, though the instrumentation and additional vocals result in a much more complex arrangement than the usual Strokes song.  Closer "Wishing Well (A Fool's Waltz)" is a psychedelic waltz through the sounds of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and Wilco's Summerteeth.

Heart & Arms makes it difficult to pin Julian Fulton and the Zombie Gospel to a particular style or genre.  The EP is a pastiche of sounds from indie pop's past, but young Julian Fulton is a unifying force.  He succeeds in connecting each of these very different songs through his subtly meticulous production and arrangement.  It's the controlled chaos of The Zombie Gospel that's Heart & Arms's unifying theme.

Julian Fulton and the Zombie Gospel are nominated in the "Top Indie Rock Band" category of tomorrow's Asbury Music Awards.  You can catch them at The Stone Pony's "Nightmare Before Christmas -- An End of the World Party" on December 21st, and you can stream or purchase Heart & Arms over at Bandcamp.

We Have a Winner

Congratulations to Scott

Scott is the winner in the first-ever CoolDad Music Comment Contest.  Randomly chosen from among the many, many (4) commenters on the first-ever CoolDad Music Year-End Post, Scott will receive my extra copy of Bob Mould's Silver Age just as soon as I acquire an appropriate box in which to ship it.  I'll be receiving the clear vinyl pressing of Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Your Anger any minute now, so it shouldn't be too long.

Thanks to to Scott and to everyone who commented.  It was refreshing to see that there are people reading out there besides my close friends and family.  Also, as always, thanks to anyone who takes the time to stop by whether or not you leave a comment.

I've got a couple of other things I could give away; so if you commented and didn't win, or if you just missed out on this one, keep watching this space.

Waxahatchee, American Weekend, 2012

Golden Sunday Album Review

First things first.  CoolDaughter #1 had a two-day swim meet this weekend.  CoolMom took her on the first day, so CoolDaughter #2 and I spent a great day together.  On day 2, I had the duty of driving CD #1 to her meet.  In the last heat of the last race of the day, she took her event, the 50-yard breaststroke, achieving a "gold" NJ Junior Olympic-qualifying time.  I don't regret missing my run on either day.

CD #1's session yesterday was a little later than usual, so I did spend the morning listening to an album released way back at the beginning of 2012 on New Jersey's Don Giovanni Records.  American Weekend is a solo, lo-fi masterpiece by Waxahatchee, a.k.a. singer/songwriter Katie Crutchfield.  The record features Crutchfield accompanied mostly by her acoustic guitar, and its sound is reminiscent of the solo, home-recorded work of Lou Barlow and Paul Westerberg.

So many of the songs on American Weekend reference a relationship that never fully happens because of fear or caution that you get the feeling that the record is about a very specific event or person.  "Grass Stain" closes with the line "And I'll avoid you like the plague / because I can't give you what you want / I won't give you what you want."  On "Be Good," Crutchfield says, "You don't wanna be my boyfriend / and that's probably for the best / because that, that gets messy / and you will hurt me / or I'll disappear."  "Bathtub" finds Crutchfield sitting in the water with her guilt over the way she's treated someone -- "And I tell you not to love me / But I still kiss you when I want to."

American Weekend makes for a powerful, without being too heavy, thirty or so minutes.  The songwriting and the emotion in Crutchfield's voice combine to capture that feeling of being in your early twenties and hoping that you haven't just done something that's doomed you to being alone or unhappy.

Albums that come out early in the year often get forgotten in year-end tallies.  American Weekend deserves a spot on every year-end list this year, and it deserves to stay in your rotation for years to come.  I was in my early twenties during the heyday of American lo-fi in the 1990's.  American Weekend is a throwback to that time for me not only because of its sound, but also because of the overall feeling that Crutchfield has managed to harness with her songwriting.

CoolMom Coming Home Edition

FRIDAY!!!

CoolMom is winging her way back from a weeklong business trip as we speak.  Let's just say it's been a long week.

Rock on...

Tanlines Did Fallon

"All of Me"

Tanlines had one of my favorite albums of the year, and I forgot to mention them in my year-end post.  Mixed Emotions also produced one my favorite singles of the year in "All of Me."

I love the record, but I've often wondered how the duo's electronically embellished pop would translate live.  Well, last night they brought "All of Me" to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon for their television debut and sounded great.  You can check out the performance over at The (sadly, soon-to-be-gone) Audioperv.

Reminder:  Leave a comment over at that unjustifiably Tanlines-less year-end post and maybe win my extra copy of Bob Mould's Siver Age.

J Mascis / Dinosaur Jr. Stuff

Tally for the Year

I realized yesterday that I've bought quite a bit of J Mascis / Dinosaur Jr.-related stuff over the course of the last twelve months.

I Bet on Sky (Deluxe Bundle)
Bug Live (Purple Vinyl)
Chocomel Daze
Heavy Blanket (Purple Vinyl)
Circle Single (Edie Brickell cover on green, marbled vinyl)
The Electronic Anthology Project:  Dinosaur Jr.
Squier J Mascis Signature Jazzmaster guitar
Tickets to Dinosaur Jr. performing  You're Living All Over Me at Terminal 5 in New York City (Ended up selling those.)

And, of course

J Mascis Throbblehead

One could probably expand this to include tickets to see Sebadoh (Dinosaur Jr. bassist Lou Barlow's band), Sebadoh's Secret EP, and Sentridoh's Weed Forestin' reissue.

That's some serious fanboy action, right there.

Video of the Year?

"Bad Girls," Right?

I mean, right?

New Ducktails Single

"Letter of Intent"

Ducktails is the solo project of Real Estate guitarist and Ridgewood, NJ native, Matt Mondanile.  The project has always been more of a studio creation than the jangly dream pop of Real Estate.  Excellent 2010 single, "Killin' the Vibe," retained some of the laid-back, guitar-oriented, beachy feel of Mondanile's other band.  "Letter of Intent," which will appear on the next Ducktails album, The Flower Lane, goes in a more slow grooving, synth pop direction and features guest vocals from Jessa Farkas and Ian Drennan.

The Flower Lane comes out on January 29th via Domino.  This is one of the many releases that has January shaping up to be an exciting month.

Not a Year-End List

Thoughts After the First Nine Months

It's still early December.  Maybe it's a little early to do this, but things will get crazier and crazier around here as we near the end of the year.  As a family, we've got two gift-laden December holidays to celebrate along with the birthdays of CoolDaughter #2 and CoolMom -- all before the 25th.  New album releases have slowed down to almost nothing, so this seems like a good time to look back at 2012.

I've decided that for the year-end post, I'll stay away from ranking things.  That would end up being pretty arbitrary anyway.  When I attempted a ranking for my mid-year list, I thought of a whole bunch of stuff that I forgot to consider within just minutes of publishing the post.  And there are already enough lists.  One could probably do a pretty cool, Nate Silver-type meta list by feeding all of the "Best of 2012's" through some complex model.  I'm pretty sure that model would spit out Frank Ocean's Channel Orange as the top record in about 99.9% of the simulations.

If you really must have some sort of list, you can always check out my Favorite Songs of 2012 (so far) playlist on Spotify.

Anyway, for better or for worse, here's the CoolDad Music Year-End Post for 2012.

Albums I Really Wanted to Review But Never Did

Chromatics, Kill For Love -- The soundtrack to an imaginary film, Kill For Love contains two of my favorite tracks of the year:  Neil Young cover "Into the Black" and "Kill for Love."  Producer Johnny Jewel takes you to one of those late nights spent alone in front of the TV watching a late 80s thriller on cable.  Ruth Radelet's beautifully deadpan vocals complete the mood.

Exitmusic, Passage -- Husband and wife duo Aleksa Palladino and Devon Church make epic, chilling music that swims around your brain.  I spent a few evenings this year with the lights off, listening to Passage with a glass of whiskey in my hand.

Sleepies, Weird Wild World -- I did a quick take on this record when the band started streaming it over at Noisey, but I never gave it a proper review.  It's one of my favorite records of the year -- smart, quirky punk rock.  "Cool Boy," "Seriously," "Waste Water," the whole thing... These guys know what they're doing.

Albums I Was Waiting for That Didn't Disappoint

I Bet on Sky, Local Business, Wrecking Ball.  Dinosaur Jr, Titus Andronicus, Bruce Springsteen.  Each of these acts released records in 2012 that, from the moment I heard about them, I couldn't wait to hear. Maybe this is my inner fanboy talking, but each of these albums more than delivered on the promise of each band's previous work.

The final record I'd place in this category is Bob Mould's Silver Age.  Its title isn't a reference to the fact that Mould likely has his AARP card by now.  Instead, it's meant to connect Mould's latest to the power-pop Sugar classic, Copper Blue.  Silver Age is a successful return for Mould to the sound of that earlier record.  I was so excited for this album that I pre-ordered it from Merge -- twice.  More on that for those who stick with this post until the end.

Albums That Took Me Back To High School

Endless Flowers by Crocodiles, Nocturne by Wild Nothing, and Oshin by DIIV all contained moments that had me remembering, in the words of MomVee, "an eighties that never happened."  I wasn't a big fan of The Cure, The Jesus and Mary Chain, or The Cocteau Twins in my early teens.  2012 provided plenty of sounds, though, that allowed me to reminisce as if I were.

And if we wanted to go further back, we could throw in Long Slow Dance by The Fresh And Onlys to cover off some of my early seventies childhood and Hair by Ty Segall and White Fence (along with the other two records that Ty Segall released this year) to touch on a time before I was born.

Live!

I saw a lot of shows this year.  I'll be seeing a few more before the year is out, but I like to think of my first blog year as having been bookended by seeing New Jersey punks Titus Andronicus at two iconic New Jersey venues, The Stone Pony and Maxwell's.

In between, there were fantastic performances by Nicole Atkins, King Khan and the Shrines, Los Campesinos!, Sebadoh, Built to Spill, and River City Extension that I won't soon forget.

Really, though, it's hard for me to imagine that anything could top the experience I shared with the beautiful CoolDaughter #1 seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band from the pit at the Izod Center in East Rutherford.

New Jersey Strong

New Jersey gave the world some great music this year.  Bruce Springsteen, The Gaslight Anthem, Titus Andronicus, Sharon Van Etten, River City Extension, Screaming Females, La Sera, The Everymen, Honeydrum, Spook Houses, No Wine for Kittens, and Little Silver all have connections to The Garden State.

New Jersey really took it on the chin late in 2012.  With hard work and the help of people from across the country and around the world, and with the good work being done by organizations like The American Red Cross, The Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund, RebuildRecover.org, Sea Bright Rising, and so many others, I'm confident that we'll work our way back to something that CoolDaughters 1&2 will cherish just as much as I have.

Lessons Learned

It looks like I really can stick with something.  Over the course of the year, I didn't always post with the frequency I would have liked; but I never had thoughts of simply stopping.  What started out as just a way for me to organize my thoughts about stuff that I found interesting has turned into something that I feel like I need to do.  That feels good.

And all that corny stuff that you always hear about "do something you love, and good things will happen?"  It's true.  It's not true in the sense that you'll be able to get rich or even to earn a living from doing what you love, but doing something that you find meaningful makes everything else that much better.

Thanks for the Feedback

My readership is still minute, but it's nice to hear from people when they've enjoyed a post.  The folks in the forum over at backstreets.com have been really gracious.  Real life friends and bloggers, MomVee and J. Scott Grand, paid attention all year.  I received some great comments about helping someone relive a great show or turning someone on to some new music.  Thomas from Sleepies has been great, and I even received a nice note from Bob Stickles, Patrick's dad.

Chris and the team over at Speak Into My Good Eye are doing great work documenting the current Asbury music scene, and their site has provided me with plenty of new, local bands to explore.

More than all of that, though, thanks to everyone who's been reading and following even if you've never commented, at-replied, or anything else.  I hope I've provided something you find useful and entertaining.

As I mentioned above, in my excitement over the album, I accidentally pre-ordered two copies of Bob Mould's fantastic Silver Age earlier this year.  As a way of saying thanks to everyone, I'll send my extra, unopened copy to a randomly-selected individual who leaves a comment on this post between now and, say, Sunday, December 9th.

Such a ramble, and I didn't even mention Hospitality, The Men, Grizzly Bear, or Japandroids.  All great records.

Thanks again, and have a great holiday.

A Very Everymen XXXMas

The Everymen Release Two-Song Christmas EP

After already releasing an excellent LP on Killing Horse Records and putting together an unbelievable compilation album to benefit victims of Superstorm Sandy this year, Tuckerton's The Everymen have put out a two-song EP for the season.  The EP features Catherine Herrick and Mike V trading lines over Scott Zillitto's saxophone on borderline-creepy holiday classic "Baby It's Cold Outside" along with "Oh That's Christmas To Me," penned by Mike V's dad.

The Everymen have been one of my favorite discoveries of 2012.  They seem like a fun bunch, and their hearts are obviously in the right place.

You can get A Very Everymen XXXMas over at the band's Bandcamp page as a name your price download.

Titus Andronicus Returned to the Elysian Fields

Titus Andronicus / Ceremony at Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ, December 1st, 2012

I've always liked Lou Barlow's honesty.  Over the years, he's been very candid about his feelings following his ouster from Dinosaur Jr. by J Mascis.  He hasn't been afraid to opine on the post-Barlow 1990's output of Dinosaur Jr., and he's been honest about the difficulty and awkwardness that's accompanied the band's very successful reunion.

During the Sentridoh portion of Sebadoh's show a few months ago, Barlow commented on his early years growing up in Massachusetts.  A cheer rose up from the crowd, and Barlow took the opportunity to let the crowd know of his disdain for regional pride.  He said he thought it was ridiculous.  To an extent, I agreed.  I've always been suspicious of anything that feeds human beings' natural tendency toward clannishness and tribalism.  And what's the point, really, of a reflexive fist pump at the mention of Boston, Brooklyn, or New Jersey?  In another sense, though, I think regional pride can unify people from different places -- as in, "This is how we do it where I'm from in New Jersey / the East Coast / the United States of America."

I had a choice last night.  I could see a galaxy of my heroes -- J Mascis, Frank Black, Johnny Marr, Kim Gordon, and yes, Lou Barlow -- perform, in its entirety, one of the albums that has been most important to me over the last two decades; or I could see a bunch of guys from New Jersey who have been at it for around five or six years.  I mean no disrespect to Lou Barlow and Dinosaur Jr., both of whom I basically worship; but it was really no contest.  Going into Manhattan versus going to Hoboken, the intimate Maxwell's versus the cavernous Terminal 5 -- those were factors.  I have to confess, though, that I think there was a bit of regional pride at work as well.  CoolMom even sucked it up and joined me for what was going to be a very late show.

We walked into Maxwell's just as openers, Ceremony, were getting ready for their set.  Maxwell's holds an important place not only in New Jersey music history, but also in American history.  Its front door sits adjacent to where third base used to be on Elysian Fields, the site of the first-ever organized baseball game.  I hadn't been in the place since CoolMom and I lived in Hoboken almost twenty years ago, and I'd forgotten just how small the performance space really is.  The tight space and its low ceiling gave the feeling that we were sharing the room with Ceremony rather than simply watching the show.  The band did a great, crushingly loud, virtually non-stop set that opened with current single "Hysteria" and closed with "Sick" from 2010's Rohnert Park.  Surprisingly, the Maxwell's crowd remained pretty calm throughout, even when lead singer Ross Farrar climbed down from the stage into the crowd.

A nice thing about Maxwell's:  at the bar between sets, I was able to compliment Ceremony drummer Jake Cassarotti on an excellent performance and exchange a quick pre-performance hello with Patrick Stickles of Titus Andronicus.

Titus Andronicus took the stage at about 11:30 and opened, as they did at The Stone Pony earlier in the year, with a cover of "The Boys Are Back in Town."  The effects of playing and touring together as a band for nine months were evident as the quintet sounded even better than they did back at that show in March.  They played selections from each of the three Titus Andronicus LP's, the now energetic crowd wildly singing along with lines like, "You will always be a loser!" "Your life is over!" "Built to last!" and "The enemy is everywhere!"  Drummer Eric Harm's father, Steven, joined the band to play harmonica on Local Business cut "Tried to Quit Smoking," and Patrick Stickles pointed out that Titus Andronicus are a "family affair."  As the band closed out the set with "Four Score and Seven" from The Monitor, the tight quarters and the hometown crowd made last night feel like Titus Andronicus had a family of a few hundred.

Titus Andronicus have said of this tour, "PUNK IS BACK."  Their music, however, is as influenced by traditional rock and roll, especially on Local Business, as by punk.  Stickles dedicated the Rolling Stones-ish "(I Am The) Electric Man" to his father, noting that his dad enjoys old-time rock and roll.  The band also did a cover of The Contours' "Do You Love Me?"  And I love that the rock guitar solo is a standard part of the Titus Andronicus arsenal.

The Dinosaur Jr. You're Living All Over Me anniversary celebration at Terminal 5 sounds like it was a fantastic night as well.  I'm sticking by my choice, though.  As much as I love J, Lou, Murph, Frank, Johnny, and Kim, I had to show up for my home state and support a couple of great local businesses.

Non-Christmas Songs That Mention Christmas

Spotify Playlist

My blog three-fourths of a year comes full circle tonight as CoolMom and I head out to see Titus Andronicus at another iconic New Jersey venue, Maxwell's in Hoboken.  That reminded me of a playlist I started putting together last December, "Songs That Mention Christmas But Aren't Christmas Songs," which contains Titus Andronicus sing-a-long masterpiece "No Future Part Three:  Escape From No Future."

You will always be a loser.  And that's ok.

Happy December.