Bruce Is 65

Happy Birthday, Boss

iTunes 8 has implemented this "Family Sharing" thing. I don't buy too much stuff from iTunes, and you have to be kind of lazy not to have figured out how to share your non-DRM'd iTunes music with your family at this point; but I was giving it a go last night. The timing of it just made it the more convenient way to go.

I've been trying to expose the cooldaughters (especially CoolDaughter #1) a little more directly to some of the music I like, so I used the excuse of "testing this new Family Sharing thing" to put a bit of the stuff that I have purchased over the years onto CD1's phone. Nothing too threatening. Some Real Estate, Vampire Weekend, Waxahatchee, and Titus Andronicus (She expressed an interest.). It started me thinking about when I started to develop my own musical tastes. I think I was about her age.

It had to have been about 6th grade because I was at Markham Place School and would sometimes walk home for lunch. I'd eat my peanut butter and jelly or tunafish sandwich and then head upstairs for a few minutes before heading back to school. I don't remember where or why, but somewhere along the line I'd obtained a copy of Born to Run. I'd put the album onto my combination turntable, tuner, cassette deck and lie on my bed singing "Backstreets" with all of the emotion of a 25 year old Bruce Springsteen.

That turntable would eventually crank out the rest of the Springsteen catalog to that point. Then The Who, Yes, The Police. I upgraded to one with a dual cassette deck, and I can still remember the day I came home from Jack's, went upstairs, and popped the Lifes Rich Pageant cassette into one side. The rest, as they say...

But it all started with Bruce. As I write this, I think the important thing about it was that my parents, while they liked Springsteen fine, didn't really listen to him. It wasn't something I got from a friend. It just feels like, one day, I said, "I'm gonna give this a try." It was my choice.

So I don't know if my clandestine efforts at musical osmosis will bear any fruit. What the cooldaughters choose for themselves will end up being what's most important to them. Maybe, though, I'll burn Greetings, E Street Shuffle, Born to Run, and Darkness onto a CD for CD1 and just nonchalantly import it to the iTunes on her Mac. She doesn't even have to know it came from me.

Happy 65th, Boss.

The Meadowlands Is 10

Flashback Review

Stereogum has a great feature today on The Wrens' 2003 album, The Meadowlands, which turns 10 years old today. I'm not going to improve on that piece, but I did want to acknowledge what has probably been one of the most meaningful records to me over that time.

I was in my 30's in 2003, and we'd recently had CoolDaughter #1. As I commuted to Manhattan by train each morning, The Meadowlands was one of the albums I had in heavy rotation on my iPod (Or it may have been some other long since extinct brand of MP3 player. I can't really recall.). Something about the story of the band and the record appealed to me on a personal level: A bunch of Jersey guys, nearing middle age, seven years removed from their last record, for whom things hadn't necessarily turned out exactly as planned.

And it's not that I wasn't happy with where I was in life at that time. My wife and daughters are unequivocally the greatest things that have ever happened to me. But, sometimes, at 6 AM, when you're on your almost 2-hour trip to a job from which you won't be returning for over 12 hours and that -- let's face it -- is probably the farthest thing from exciting one could possibly imagine, lyrics like "And I'm nowhere near where I dreamed I'd be / I can't believe what life's done to me" from album opener "The House That Guilt Built" can hold some resonance.

On "Everyone Chooses Sides," we get the line "I'm the best 17 year old ever." I like to think that I've matured a bit since I was 17, but I've spent a good part of the last 10 years, bitching, moaning, and railing against authority like a teenager. Ask CoolMom.

Also on that song: "I've walked away from more than you imagine, and I sleep just fine." It's an allusion to the band's flirtation with a major label and their ultimate decision to stay independent and not compromise their sound. It was the type of decision that comes with significant costs; but it's reassuring to know that -- after deciding to turn down the money and make the music they wanted -- The Wrens' world didn't end.

Also reassuring was that, at a point in life when choices have narrowed, there are still moments -- like whenever The Wrens take the stage on "This Boy Is Exhausted" -- that give everything meaning.

The band's fidelity to lo-fidelity, home recording gives The Meadowlands a unique patina. Songs like "Happy," "Hopeless," "Boys, You Won't" or "Per Second Second" would have been very different animals, I think, with some major studio polish. Without the fuzz or the sometimes muted vocals, things would have felt less personal and, probably, not spoken to me on the same level.

And the record holds up. It doesn't sound as much like a product of its time as, say, Interpol's Turn on the Bright Lights. It's an album that I've come back to over the last 10 years again, again, and again; and it's lost nothing for me. It says something, I think, that The Meadowlands speaks to me in much the same way as it did 10 years ago.

We're all still waiting for the next big move from The Wrens. I'll cut them some slack, though. I understand that, at a certain point in life, big moves don't happen overnight.

CoolDog's Birthday Edition

Furry Friend Friday

According to the family that fostered them, CoolDog and all of his brothers and sisters came into the world on September 6th, 2012. We brought him home on November 14th.

Over the last 10 months,... ...the cooldaughters... ...have really fallen in love with him. As a matter of fact,... ...the cooldaughters... ...can't understand how we ever got by without him. He's really become... ...the cooldaughters'... ...best friend.

Happy birthday, buddy.

Sub Pop "25" Edition

Silver Jubilee Friday

Founded in 1986 (yes, 1986) by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman, Seattle's Sub Pop Records are celebrating their 25th anniversary this weekend. It wasn't until 1988 that the company moved into their first office and began the famous Sub Pop Singles Club.

From Michael Azerrad's fantastic must-read Our Band Could Be Your Life:

For $35 a year, subscribers got a single a month -- but the brilliant part was that Singles Club subscribers paid before they got their records, which gave the label a significant financial boost. "On a limited budget, if you have the desire to sell a lot of records," says Pavitt, "you have to figure out a way to scam and manipulate the public." With typical Sub Pop irony, the teaser line was "We're ripping you off big time."

The first single that those early subscribers got in 1988 was a cover of Shocking Blue's 1969 single "Love Buzz" by a little band out of Aberdeen, WA.

Happy birthday, Losers.

Rock on.

Tween Edition

CoolDaughter #1 Tenth Birthday Friday

The snow hasn't arrived yet, but it is CoolDaughter #1's tenth birthday.  She was born on a day when the iceboats were racing on the Navesink, and it's not uncommon for us to have to cancel her birthday parties because of the weather.  Winter babies.

I looked for an appropriate "birthday" song for her, but I couldn't really come up with anything.  Instead, I'll give her what she really wants.

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

Look for my review when TayTay comes to Newark at the end of March.

Rock on.

Birthday Weekend Edition

Early Start Friday

Orlando Bloom.

Patrick Dempsey.

Julia Louis Dreyfus.

Miley Cyrus fiancé, Katniss Everdeen love interest, and Thor's brother Liam Hemsworth.

They all share their Sunday, January 13th birthday with...

Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips.

Join me in wishing all of them a great weekend, and...

Rock on.

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...

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!

Fill In The Blank...

WoodyFest at City Winery Tomorrow

CoolMom and I are meeting at City Winery tomorrow night to celebrate Woody Guthrie's 100th birthday, which is Saturday, with Steve Earle, Joe Purdy, Amy Helm, and Billy Bragg.

Go over to YouTube and check out just how many of Woody's songs still have relevance today.  And don't forget to give him a little nod the next time you're listening to your Dylan or Springsteen albums.

Here's a Woody Guthrie centennial activity for you.  Guthrie famously labeled his own guitars with "This Machine Kills Fascists."  Fill in the blank with whatever you'd like.  I can't play very well, so I'll get all of those jokes out of the way with "...anyone within a 100 yards."