Guest List: Michael Walsh of Ba Babes, Les Dangers, and Boyfriends

Michael Walsh with The Heavies back in 2015

Top Books Read in 2019

By Michael Walsh

[Here at CoolDad Music, I think I can count on one hand the number of book reviews we've ever posted. I've always meant to do more of them, but it's never really happened. Michael Walsh, who's been playing in local bands since before we started here, greatly increases our book review total with his top reads of 2019.

Most of Michael's selections were published before 2019, but that's the beauty of books -- all art, really. Once they're put out into the world, they're always there to be discovered by new readers. Have a look at this list. I'm sure you'll find something to give you a new and wonderful experience.

Thanks, Michael.]

Hi, I'm Michael Walsh. I currently play drums in Ba Babes, Les Dangers, and Boyfriends. I formerly played drums in The Heavies, Prehistoric Forest and Foxes & Lions. I also make instrumental "junk wop" music under the name Swell Patterns and occasionally release tapes and things as a tiny label called Instruments of Ultimate Good. That's about it as far as plugs and projects that I have.

Note: I read a bunch of books so far this year so here's my top eleven presented in alphabetical order because ordering them by favorite was far too difficult. Hard enough to narrow it down to this.

A Sense of Where You Are: Bill Bradley at Princeton by John McPhee (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1965)

This was the first book I read this year. John McPhee wrote this over the course of a year spending time with Bill Bradley while he was a star basketball player and academic scholar at Princeton. If you like basketball and are inspired by people who are so in the moment with what they do, then this is a great read. Honestly, just how good Bill Bradley was at basketball makes this great. My dad liked this one too.

Caca Dolce: Essays from a Lowbrow Life by Chelsea Martin (Soft Skull Press, 2017)

I read this during the summer on my lunch breaks hiding in this little closet turned office at my job. These essays are hilarious and endearing. Feels more like a friend telling you stories. You root for Chelsea Martin while at times also pretending you don't know her, which is the truest quality you want in a friend. On a side note, this is seemingly in chronological order which adds to a flow that feels effortless. 

Cherry by Nico Walker (Knopf, 2018)

I read the bulk of this on Thanksgiving hiding from family. It's sad and haunting, at times even darkly funny. War, drugs, bank robberies, and a lot of cursing. It goes beyond a "war novel" and a "junkie novel" and sits in its own category which might have a lot to do with the reality it's based in. Additionally, this book does something I always love in a first person narrative: when things get dark and times get tougher, there is a shift in the language to express that. I'm excited for whatever Nico Walker does next.

Elizabeth & Mary & Elle: Three New Fictions by Elizabeth Ellen, Mary Miller and Elle Nash (Sad Spell Press, 2019)

Three writers doing what they do best: writing authentic stories. These stories happen to be about love and relationships and everything that comes along with them. I picked this up because I enjoyed Ellen's Fast Machine and Nash's Animals Eat Each Other (both I read this year) and I had heard great things about Miller. This little book instantly made me a reader of theirs for life. All of them. I keep this one in my glove compartment for whenever I'm without a book and need something to read. It's small and short, but packs a punch and a half.

Hymn California by Adam Gnade (Dutchmoney Books, 2008)

This is Gnade's very-out-of-print first book. Although his newest, This is the End of Something But Not the End of You (officially out this February) might be a little better, I never actually thought I'd get to read this (endless thanks to my friend Coletta for one of the best birthday gifts I've ever received!). This book is loose and free-wheeling but written with great care like all of my favorite Springsteen songs. It's On the Road but with your foot resting on the brake pedal in case you need to catch an exit quick. If you can find it, buy it.

Juliet the Maniac by Juliet Escoria (Melville House, 2019)

This was the year where I finally started my deep-dive into autobiographical fiction and Juliet Escoria's debut novel is dead center in that Venn diagram. Part coming-of-age story, part memoir on mental illness that follows a teenage girl as she works her way through youth, drug use, and a long stint in a therapeutic boarding school. All told through short vignettes that are inward but empathetic in hindsight.

Nonbinary: Memoirs of Gender and Identity, edited by Micah Rajunov & Scott Duane (Columbia University Press, 2019)

Not completely done with this one yet, but it's been so good that I wanted to include it. Personal essays on gender, particularly from the nonbinary perspective, from those who have struggled, as well as thrived with their own identity. It's touching, triumphant, heartbreaking, and most of all important. I've cried and smiled a lot while reading this.

Safe as Houses by Marie-Helene Bertino (University of Iowa Press, 2012)

I feel like short stories have become the lost of art of literature, even more so than poetry. Marie-Helene Bertino's first collection is both imaginative and grounded. "Great, Wondrous" and "Carry Me Home, Sisters of Saint Joseph" are two of the best stories I've read in recent memory and they're two of the last three stories of the collection (that's a real "ender ender"). Instant top five favorite for me. I will probably recommend this to everyone all the time forever.

Taking Care by Joy Williams (Vintage Contemporaries, 1985)

My introduction to Joy Williams was through collecting the old Vintage Contemporaries paperbacks from the 80s and early 90s. I knew enough of the authors (Beattie, Carver, Ford) and loved Lorraine Louie's design work so much just to trust whatever ones I could find. These stories are told with little urgency and crafted so well. Each sentence feels like a gift. I let this one spread out over a few months to allow myself to dip in and out of her world. Seemingly mundane but with so many little victories along the way. I also never wanted to visit Florida before, but now I kind of do.

The Utility of Boredom: Baseball Essays by Andrew Forbes (Invisible Publishing, 2016)

For such an old sport that has been written about so many times, Andrew Forbes does a great job of finding fresh ways to explore the timeless, unique magic of the game with a subtle literary lens. I'd like more of this than another book from a sportswriter complaining about how the game has changed. I'm looking at you Bob Costas. File Under: Books I Can Lend To My Dad

Women by Chloe Caldwell (Short Flight / Long Drive, 2014)

I read this novella in one day. More or less one sitting if I didn't have errands to run. It's fast and heartbreaking. I know some people don't like books with a main character that you can't get 100% behind, but I always enjoy a good 50/50. It's more real like that. To me Caldwell's Women feels important. Way better than Bukowski.

Thanks for reading this. Support authors and small presses. Support your local libraries and book shops. Support CoolDad and support your friends who make art of any kind.

Pics from the Jersey Rock Showcase and Band Search Finals at The Stone Pony, 2/12/15

Those Mockingbirds' Adam Bird accepts last night's prize for his band.

Congratulations to Montclair's Those Mockingbirds

Nikki Black, host of WRAT's Jersey Rock and tireless supporter of local music, emceed the finals of the Jersey Rock Showcase and Band Search last night at The Stone Pony. The winners of each of the preliminary rounds -- Those Mockingbirds, Paris Under Fire, and Prehistoric Forest -- gave it everything they had throughout three pretty great sets. At the end of the night, Montclair's Those Mockingbirds took home the prize over the pair of Toms River bands.

As winners, Those Mockingbirds will appear in eight weeks of rotation on 95.9 WRAT. Nikki assured us, though, that we'd be hearing all three bands on the station. In addition to the airplay, Those Mockinbirds received 10 hours of recording time at Lakehouse Recording Studio as well as a super sweet Gibson J45 standard acoustic guitar, donated by Asbury's Russo Music.

Yuengling sponsored all four rounds of the competition, and admission for each show was $5. All of the proceeds went to fund the music program in the Asbury Park school district. Asbury Park music teacher and showcase judge, Tanya Peterson, took the stage at the end of the evening to express her gratitude and to let us all know that she has witnessed, first-hand, the life saving effect that music can have on children. Definitely a moment to warm us all up on a cold night.

Congratulations to Those Mockingbirds, Paris Under Fire, and Prehistoric Forest for riding their sounds into the finals. Congratulations to WRAT and to Nikki Black for a successful event and for supporting such a great cause.

When's the next one?

Here are some photo highlights. Lots more in the Flickr galleries.

Prehistoric Forest, Pulling Teeth, 2014

Album Review

For those of you who thought I did stuff like have a bunch of reviews ready to go for my impromptu "A NJ Release A Day, All Week" thing, this one should disabuse you of that notion. I haven't even decided if "All Week" means Monday through Friday or Monday through Sunday. I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow.

Anyway, I soldiered through an encroaching illness last night to head over to Wonder Bar to catch the third and final preliminary round of WRAT's Jersey Rock band search. The second band on last night's bill (and the winner, moving onto the finals in February) was Prehistoric Forest. That reminded me that the Toms River five-piece had released their second LP back in November, so I decided to review it today. ...Just as I'd planned all along.

Now, this could be a case of not knowing what I'm talking about; but, no matter what you thought about the hype around the big indie rock bands of the early aughts, I feel like there was still some "rock" to be found in "Indie Rock." All of those albums from Spoon, Arcade Fire, Interpol, and The Strokes (with their unprecedented, and infuriating to some, five-album deal with RCA) were guitar-centric rock records. Things in the world of mainstream indie rock appear to have moved in a more easy-listening, less edgy, more bleepity-bloopity direction since then. Even some of the bands I just mentioned have altered their sound as the times have changed. But lots of the sounds of ten or fifteen years ago are what drew me to "mainstream indie rock" and, to an extent, provided the early inspiration for this blog.

Prehistoric Forest's Pulling Teeth is a throwback to the time when what was popular in indie rock was still rock. From the opening keyboard sounds of "All a Dream," Pulling Teeth feels like something familiar. Like a classic album that's been in your collection for over a decade.

Guitarist Nick Gianatiempo has professed his love for the guitar interplay of Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond, Jr. His work with fellow guitarist D.J. Hodgson on tracks like "Into the Night," "Point of No Return," and "Pulling Teeth" makes it clear that he's not shy about revealing his influences. But on tracks like "Sanctuary" and "Midnight," the band trade the staccato guitar hooks for something a little more languid and expansive, showing that they're more than a Strokes tribute band. Album closer "Thunder Loud" is almost proggy in its complexity.

Throughout the record, the kind of sideways vocal delivery of singer Vince Matthews gives things a bit of that rock swagger that's missing from a good deal of current popular indie rock. On stage, Matthews and the rest of the band don't bother with the stiff "stand and play." Instead, bassist Dustin James often plays from his knees as the pair of guitarists and drummer Mike Walsh give it everything they've got, Matthews bouncing around like a pinball.

Make no mistake, the songs on Pulling Teeth are accessible and hook-laden. We're not talking about black metal or hardcore here; but it is refreshing to hear a band making songs that can grab you, that still have an edge, delivered with the sneer and the heart of rock.

Pulling Teeth is out now on Prehistoric Forest's own Byrdhouse Records.

Pics of Prehistoric Forest / Those Mockingbirds at Wonder Bar

Live and Local

I cooked a big dinner on Saturday night for some of our extended family. A couple of Manhattans into the evening; and I thought that, this time, I may be in for the night. Then SIMGE Mike came through with a ride, and I was able to catch most of the Dark City "Live and Local" showcase at The Wonder Bar.

Prehistoric Forest did a great set of their early aughts sounding indie rock, vocalist Vince Matthews jumping, writhing, and rolling around on stage. Montclair alt rockers Those Mockingbirds, who appear to be just on the cusp of a breakout, shook things up inside just as the thunderstorms returned to rattle things on the street. They rolled off songs from their current LP Penny The Dreadful and offered it as a special pay-what-you-want deal to commemorate the evening.

Here are some photo highlights of both bands. Look for more up at Flickr. I'll get photos of a couple of the other bands that played -- Climbing The Walls and KENYA -- up there a little later.

Show Preview: Dentist, Coastgaard, Prehistoric Forest, Hey Anna, Paper Streets, This Friday (8/1) at The Saint

Dentist haven't played locally since their show at Asbury Lanes in June.

Dentist Are Home, And They Brought Friends

It's been a little while since we've seen our friends Dentist play a show on their home turf. They haven't just been sitting around, though. Dentist have been branching out, playing shows in Brooklyn and Philly. In their travels, they've met some other excellent bands; and we get to benefit from these new connections.

On Friday, August 1st, Dentist return to the site of their wild record release party when they play The Saint. Joining them on the bill will be locals Prehistoric Forest and Paper Streets along with NY/NJ indie pop quintet, Hey Anna, and Dentist's Brooklyn-based kindred spirits in neo-surf, Coastgaard.

I reviewed Coastgaard's self-titled LP for Speak Into My Good Eye a while back and have been enjoying it ever since. Along with all of the other bands, they're a great fit for a summer night in a seaside town.

From Prehistoric Forest's early aughts NYC-sounding rock to the Pacific Northwest Indie-influenced sound of Paper Streets... From the pristine pop of Hey Anna to the reverb and surf sounds of Dentist and Coastgaard... Friday promises to be a master class in modern indie rock. Don't worry, though. It's the kind of class for which you don't have to study; and they'll let you dance while you enjoy some adult beverages.

Dentist, Prehistoric Forest, Hey Anna, Coastgaard, and Paper Streets take to The Saint this Friday. Doors open at 7:30, and $10 gets you inside. Arrive early and catch all the bands.

SIMGE Hosted the Prehistoric Forest LP Release Show with Dentist and Paper Streets (PHOTOS)

The Berkeley Bar

Prehistoric Forest celebrated the release of their self-titled debut last night at Asbury's Berkeley Bar. Speak Into My Good Eye presented the event that featured the downtown NYC garage sounds of the Ocean County headliner along with the surf-infused rock of Dentist and the 1990s-inspired indie rock of Paper Streets. The evening ended up being a showcase of some of the interesting, original, and modern rock and roll that's currently flourishing in our area.

I had a lot of great conversations with some passionate and creative people, and I came away with some interesting ideas for CoolDad Music. Watch this space for some of those.

You can check out some pictures of the evening below.