xtcian

I can't resist. I love the Monkees!

******
Oh, I could hide 'neath the wings
Of the bluebird as she sings.
The six o'clock alarm would never ring.
But it rings and I rise,
Wipe the sleep out of my eyes.
My shavin' razor's cold and it stings.

Cheer up, Sleepy Jean.
Oh, what can it mean.
To a daydream believer
And a homecoming queen.

First: LOVE the new pic of you and Lucy on the home page.

Re: manufactured bands. I took my teenaged daughter to a Backstreet Boys concert in August and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I even went so far as to allow a "favorite BSB songs" CD to be played in my car occasionally. The Boys are charming and have good to excellent voices, and the tunes are singable/danceable with some nice hooks. Knock me over with a feather.

I was a ferocious Monkees fan back in the day. Peter Tork, he was da man. :-)

In September of 1990, we had our bid day mixer at the Lodge with Dillon Fence playing - JQ was just a couple of blocks away at the PKA house as I recall. The Veldt was also playing nearby. This wasn't the night Dillon Fence did their Step by Step spoof, was it?

Oops, I actually have Step By Step, Please Don't Go Girl, and I'll Be Loving You Forever on my iPod. And I also, have 3 Milli Vanilli songs, but I have no shame in boppin' to Blame in On the Rain and Girl, You Know Its True. None!

On a more positive note, the best time I ever had watching DF (nice Frances line in your title) was when they played a Halloween show at the Lambda Chi house...1993 (maybe 94). Afterwards, I shaved my initials into someone's hair/head. What?!

Now I have the line, "pardon me, Frances, for I have sinned" in my head and it's one of the songs I don't yet have in digital format, so I cannot simply spin my iPod to find the song.

Dammit.

And to top it all off, we painted the room where I used to have my tapes stored and I won't be able to find that Dillon Fence tape (much less a radio in our house with a tape player) and it will drive me batty.

Double dammit.

Great song, though.

As I probably mentioned in this forum before, I got to help Larry Weaver shoot a video/documentary one night when Greg Humphreys and the boys were playing at the Cat's Cradle. Larry did all the work, I just stood near the center camera in the back of the room with a clear shot of the stage. (Reminds me of what the kids are doing for the South by Southwest on this season's, THE REAL WORLD, on MTV.)

Despite having a wicked cold, Humphrey's did not simply dial it in that night. He played with more energy and enthusiasm than I had ever seen in any live performance up until that time. It was my welcome to the Cat's Cradle and made me love that song. I will have to get my fix with Hobex's, "Groove Baby" until I can find my tapes.

On a completely unrelated note, I saw that "Andy" from the posts on Ian's blog is alive and well. About 5 years or so ago I bought Larry's comedy album and I've run into Dave doing work with the GAA. That's 3/4 or 3/5 of the infamous Selected Hilarity gang.

Carolina's own Monty Python-esque comedy troupe.

Oh, God...

Actually, DF got slagged in the british press as "The Monkees meet Nirvana." Yeah, baby! For the record, we were around first ; )

Rent the Monkees' "Head" sometime - their late '60s attempt at a Beatles-style psychedelic film. Totally great... if you love the Monkees. "listen to the band! bah da, dada dada da da..."

Now I have Davy Jones's voice stuck in my head. I like the Monkees, but having them in your head is like having the hiccups...can't get rid of them...

"Stupid Feeling™ at Defcon 3" - may be the funniest thing I think you've ever ever written. I spewed my coffee across my screen. Amazing way to wake up...

I can't even really comment on the New Kids - I detested them so much. I have to admit that in the 80s I was pretty much stuck on Madonna, Huey Lewis, Eurythmics, Robbie Nevil (remember C'est La Vie - that is my absolute favorite 80s tune, the very close runner-up being Dream Academy's "Life In A Northern Town"). I would rarely buy someone's full album. Instead, I would hear a tune on the local top-40 stations (either Z-100 or WPLJ) and if I liked something, I would run 6 blocks south to Tower Records and buy up every 45 I could find that I'd heard, then make those ubiquitous mixed tapes. Still have them.

Thanks to you, now I'll have to go searching for them and play them today...have a good weekend!

a LFMD-free day. like letterman without paul. the horror.

p.s. Thank y'all for sharing your memories of our band. We had alot of fun, didn't we?

DF did a handful of reunion shows in October and had a blast. Also, Itunes has most of the old songlist available as a best-of comp, if you threw away your cassette! There are a few new tunes on there as well.

Re: STV humor - I enjoyed "Selected Hilarity" as well. Does anyone go back to "World of Fun?" Peyton Reed, Dave Burris and Co.?

Maybe LFMD is off for Veterans Day. As I'm supposed to be, but yet I still have to come in!?

Greg H...if it makes you feel even better, I have 21 DF songs (and 14 Hobex ones) on my iPod next to only 9 for The Monkees and 8 Nirvana ones. So mathematically speaking, DF > Monkees + Nirvana. I caught one of the reunion shows back in 02, Xmas time. I was talking about it when a coworker pal said she was in ya'll's crowd back in the day...Virginia Mewborne (she has since moved back to CH after getting hitched and having a baby).

If I can get "Frances" on iTunes, I will be spending .99 cents this afternoon.

Here is another completely random aside:

Back in late 1992 or early 1993, just before hootie and the blowfish became HOOTIE AND THE BLOWFISH, I was at a show in Charlotte with my friend, Jennifer Roberts. I had heard about this band from all of my ECU friends, but never saw them myself.

In my slightly slimmer days, if I were to don a hat and grow a goatee, I could be considered as one who slightly resembles Darius Rucker. I think I'm taller, though.

Anyhoo, at one point in their set, they asked the crowd for any requests. Ostensibly, they probably meant something from their OWN library of songs.

I guess I didn't know the proper protocol for these things. Though I did not yell out the classic homerism, "Play FREE BIRD", I did yell out for them to play some DILLON FENCE.

Rucker kind of shook his head to himself and chuckled and looked elsewhere for a request. I thought it was funny later on when they included a little homage to DF in their song, "Only Want To Be With You."

Ha! I am here! So sweet of you guys to miss me. I was actually doing something work related. Boss Man was asking about one of my "deliverables." The nerve! Now, on to more important things. . .

I read Ian's entry this morning, and I had a flashback to my crush on Donnie Wahlberg. I thought he was cute. I liked NKOTB well beyond the acceptable fan age demographic. I don't care what Ian says, I heart Donnie!

Scruggs! I remember Virginia Mewborne. She would not remember me, but I was friends with her roommate Sara. Virginia always struck me as such a pleasant, all-around lovely person. Always had a smile for everyone. Very nice, very involved with stuff on campus. The kind of girl you would want your son to bring home and marry!

Craighill: You crack me up. I have become an Internet sidekick of sorts! And to think, I did not even know what a blog was until I stumbled onto Ian's blog! And now I blog, I have an IPod Shuffle, and I want a Prius. And I risk getting dooced on a regular basis. And I actually know what "dooced" means! Perhaps this is the beginning of my mid-life crisis. . .

Ian: here is my contribution to today's discussion. The song that would have set me off in the parking garage would have been Nena's 99 Luftballons. God, how I hated that song! It's like nails down a chalkboard!!!

Ahhh, the nostalgia!!! We went to as many Dillon Fence and The Veldt shows as possible (along with traveling to see Follow for Now up and down the mid-Atlantic seaboard).

My roommate knew Daniel and Danny in The Veldt. We gave one of them a ride from CH to Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh -- random memory there. Three of the guys (I think it was Danny, Joe (an early bassist??) and Marvin) came to our apartment for our "Gala Valentine-Making Party" -- the day after we actually had the party. I have photos of them making Valentines somewhere....

After reading this blog entry I just had to Google The Veldt -- it looks like Daniel and Danny are now in a band called Apollo Heights? http://www.apolloheights.com/

Thanks for the blast from the past!

Ahhh. Can't resist a good discussion on music from "back in the day".

Greg from Winston: we need to get together sometime as Dave mentioned that he ran into you. IIRC, you are in Atlanta now?

Greg H: I was just listening to Rosemary on a flight back from Florida earlier this week. My 7 year old daughter even sings along to "Something For You" now. If there are older albums out there for electronic purchase, I am all over that (especially your first EP). I haven't gotten on the iPod bandwagon yet (I know, I know...) but let me know how I can get that compilation CD.

And I swear I was going to post this next comment before you responded - if there is any justice in the music world at all, you should be a mega-star. Not to blow smoke up your skirt, but I hear so many smash pop hits between Hobex and DF it makes my head hurt trying to understand what everyone else is missing.

BTW - was it you or Ian that talked about playing basketball with Darius Rucker and calling him "Airius" because he played "no D"?

Otherwise known on this blog as Annie--I post today to fifth the emotion about the genius of Dillon Fence (which I now pronounce with a French accent, thanks to Danny & Daniel Chavis)...I caught both Triangle DF shows (Chappy and Raleigh) and even got to sing a song! TOTAL blast.

Speaking of blasts (as in, from the past)--VA Mewborne was a schoolmate of mine at Salem Academy--can't believe she's in Chapel Hill! With a baby, no less! We all "partied" together (this was like, making pancakes at midnight, high-school goody-two-shoes kind of partying) after prom one year--my bro and his best friend had dates to our all-girl prom, and we got them to wrangle up some extra dudes and stayed up at Grace McKinnon's house until 6am...ah, innocence...

Anyway, long live DF! And Hobex! Y'all NC'ers try to catch the next set of DF and 'bex shows--there's one coming up on Nov 18th in Raleigh at the Pour House! Get a babysitter!

Annie - Your version of Black Eyed Susan was incredible.

As a blast from the past, I pulled out this old Cat's Cradle calendar from March-April 1991. Get this -
March 20 - Vanilla Trainwreck
21st - Superchunk
23rd - Teasing the Korean
April 4th - Widespread Panic
5th - Sex Police
6th - Popes
11th - firehose
12th - JQ
13th - The Veldt
18th - Follow for Now
19th - Dillon Fence
26th Southern Culture on the Skids
27th - Awareness Art ensemble

Now Those Were the Days

Um. So. Yeah. I was young. I was in 5th Grade! And I loved the New Kids. Except Danny. He looked like a monkey. But for 2 years, all my time, energy, and money went to BOP magazine, Claire's boutique, and trading my Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson posters to the boys in my class for giant fold-outs of NKOTB (I still have a box in the basement.)

Joey and Jordan were too girly. Donnie scared me. Danny, again, a monkey. But, oh, that Jonathan. I've said this before - how devastating it is that my generation - that my particular subgroup of my generation - came of age with the New Kids. Not the Monkees, not NSYNC, not even Menudo or New Edition. But the WORST of any manufactured boy band.

Slowly but surely, though, I am coming to terms with it. I refuse to sit in embarassed silence, pretending like I was the one 5th grader with posters of the Police and U2 on my wall and that my first concert was Morrisey. I wish that's how it was was, but it wasn't. Sigh. I was robbed.

Annie & LFMD, re: Virginia and last I heard...the description above still applied when we worked in the same division up until 1.5yrs ago or so, very friendly and easy going. She had said she and Annie had been high school buds. Before coming to our group, she had been working all over the world in the financial realm, and had just come back to NC to take a pretty high impact position with The Bank. Upon her return, she subsequently met and married Mark (I think), new last name is Spykerman, in case you touch base. She had a girl (I think) early last year, and her husband decided to get his MBA from UNC, thus the move to CH last year.

While I'm as nostalgic as the next bloke about 80s indie rock, I'm here to tell you that "The Miracles Of God" are the greatest band in the world and they definitely are channelling some of that 80s indie sound. And you can hear them at:

tinyurl.com/7ce9v

And no this isn't spam. I'm Ian's brother, and these are my hometown boys. Y'all had Dillon Fence and Polvo (both of which played Iowa City back in the day btw), we have Miracles of God and the Kickass Tarantulas.

I was living in France during the whole NKOTB phenomenon, so I missed most of their heyday. But that didn't stop me from getting up to speed when I got back. Should I be ashamed to admit that not only did I get my baby sister tickets when NKOTB came to Winston-Salem (I was working at an ad agency and it was easy to get stuff from sales reps at radio stations), I also took her to the concert?

LFMD - I was more of a Jordan girl myself. He didn't age well. Joey Mc looks much better these days.

Scruggs - Yeah, I have those two MV songs on my iPod, too. I don't care who sang 'em - they're the perfect cheesy 80s songs to bounce around to when you're on the treadmill or doing housework.

My favorite song to be totally ashamed of liking is...gulp...O-Town's power ballad, "All or Nothing." I play it when I'm alone in the car and really belt it out at the top of my lungs. I'd die of embarassment if anyone heard me!

Gotta go - time to pack for the weekend in Chapel Hill. Woo-hoo! Oh, and that same little sister mentioned above (also a Carolina grad) just called me and said she went out this past weekend and got to hang out with Sean May at his abode here in Charlotte. I was hoping for a lot of juicy details, but I've got nothing. Nice place, nice guy, yada yada yada.

I can honestly say that the first time I ever heard "Step By Step" was hearing The Lemonheads cover of it circa 1990. It's on a great EP called "Favorite Spanish Dishes" which also includes a cover of "Different Drum" and "Skulls" (Danzig). Coincidentally, the NKOTB cover came up on my iPod the other day. Since we sometimes reside in parallel musical universes Ian, may some Let's Active come your way sometime soon.

And for Veldt fans, David Burris is now in a band called the Lamps along with Vicki Peterson (Bangles). They are working on new material. I should be getting some mp3's soon.

OK, Greg H, I found the BEST album on your various websites. Now, tell me which way I can buy it so that the most money gets to your pocket. :)

Sidenote: Google "New Kids on the Block" and get about 23 million items. Google "New Kids on the Block fans" and get 41. Just saying.

Wasn't Virginia Mewborne the student Attorney General one year? I can't remember to put a hat on to go out in the rain, but I remember stuff like that.

Also, Donnie Wahlberg has turned out to be a pretty decent actor. Who knew? As one of eight people worldwide who saw "Tin Men" in the theater, I can attest to this fact. Check it out on Netflix if it's even on DVD...

Oops! I meant "Diamond Men." Although "Tin Men" is also a decent movie...

Remember when we said, girl, please don’t go,
And how I’d be loving you forever,
Taught you ’bout hangin’ tough
As long as you got the right stuff,
Didn’t we, girls, ooh, didn’t we, girls, aah?

Well, I guess it’s a brand new day after all
Every time we hear the curtain call,
See the girls with the curls in the hair,
The buttons and the pins and the loud fanfares.
Tonight, tonight.

Remember when we traveled round the world,
There were a lot of people and girls,
Fan mail from everywhere showed us how you care,
Didn’t it, girls, ooh, didn’t it, girls, aah?

Well, I guess...

(spoken:) sounds good, hey fellas, let’s do it, here we go.
La-la-la-la-la-la tonight, la-la-la-la-la-la tonight.

Eric: I think Virginia was the Attorney General. My mind works the same way . . . I remember strange details from 20 years ago, and yet I sometimes get lost going to work.

And, yes, Donnie is quite a talented actor! I still heart Donnie. His brother is very good, too. Everyone may trash all of his latest movies, but "Boogie Nights" is one of my all-time favorite movies.

Proud to have Greggy Homefries on the blog, as always. He has written some of my favorite tunes in existence, including (and not limited to) "Lisa Marie," ""Black-Eyed Susan," "Safety Net," and "Day After Tomorrow." Hobex is such a great band that we begged them to appear in the Pink House movie, where they performed "Baby's Gone Away."

Va. Mewborne was a very good egg, also friends with Tessa. She was Attorney General at UNC, but I still don't know what that meant.

Emma, I just read that Cradle list aloud to the wife and we both remarked that was the most distilled month of our particular culture possible. Gina, T dated Marvin for years - one of my favorite people in NC - and laughed about the Valentine story, which is so like the Chavis Bros.

We were thinking Plutopia should be added, although I don't think Frank ever allowed them into the Cradle.

I call our dog Poops and the Maytals.

Woohoo Spice Girls! I remember Chris Rock saying at an Mtv awards show once : "Listening to the Spice Girls is like crack. No one wants to admit it, but everybody is doing it." They have some great songs.

As for the worst band with the worst history of songs in music, I think O-town and NKOTB go head to head on that one.

I second the "Stupid Feeling™ at Defcon 3" props- my coffee spurted out of my nose, and I'm totally used to Ian talking that way.

Christ, Ian, you are such a forking amazing writer.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-739710473912337648

You'll all enjoy singing along with these guys I bet.
I'm usually just a reader but couldn't resist adding this gem.
Neva

So my link won't take you directly there for some reason - so type in BSB - I Want it That Way and enjoy the benefits of globalization!