Rock Gods #330: Adventures in Our Little Music Scene

The dart stunt—in which a self-destructive punk artiste insisted on playing a Happy Hour set during a darts tournament at the Bullfinch—ended badly.

We won’t mention the musician because we don’t want to encourage. One can, it has been wisely noted, put an eye out doing this sort of thing. No eyes were put out on this particular occasion, but there was a flesh wound.

“I can think of some hypodermics we can throw at him,” suggested a pre-Med student from the college on the hill. “That might actually help him.”

Tonight: Blotch (not their real name) at the Bullfinch… Whistler & The Thames at Hamilton’s, a rare indoor show for the Sand Shack houseband. Too cold for the pier… D’ollaire’s is closed. Repairs to the bar…

Riverdale Book Review

So the newsmongers have named today’s historic blizzard Colbie, after Colbie Caillat. She appeared in an Archie comic, of course. But that was strictly a warmhearted summertime thing. She’s from California. Her winter holiday song was “Christmas in the Sand.” She co-wrote “Chasing the Sun” for Hilary Duff. She won Teen Choice Awards for her songs “Bubbly” and “Lucky.”
Can we name a blizzard Veronica soon? Makes more sense.070809_archie

Scribblers Music Review

Mount Eerie, “Dragon.” Peaceful lyre-like opening and angelic vocals with a weird murmuring in the background. Then it gets more obstreperous, but also more casual and familiar. If Belle and Sebastian had gone in a more inward direction back in the ‘00s, they might have ended up here.

Songs About Roofs

Had some workers on the roof the other day—no leaks, but a need for patches of reshingling. Here’s the soundtrack:

“Up on the Roof,” The Drifters.
“Rooftops,” Lost Prophets.
“The Roof is Leaking,” Phil Collins.
“Rain on the Roof,” Lovin’ Spoonful.
“The Roof is On Fire,” Bloodhound Gang.
“The Roof is On Fire,” Rock Master Scott and the Dynamic Three
Fiddler on the Roof.
“Rooftop Singing,” New World
“We’re Really Gonna Raise the Roof,” Slade
“Mansard Roof,” Vampire Weekend
“Tear the Roof Up,” Alesso
“Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker),” Parliament
“The Roof is Leaking,” Rolling Stones
“There’s a Creeper on the Roof,” Minecraft parody of Boney M’s “Brown Girl in the Ring”
“All Under One Roof,” Jamie xx
“Happy,” Pharrell Williams. “Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof.”
“Your Song,” Elton John. “I sat on the roof and kicked off the moss.”
“Step in Time,” Mary Poppins soundtrack
“On the Roof—Chori Chori Chora Chori,” Masti (Indian pop star)
“Don’t Jump Off the Roof, Dad,” Homer & Jethro

Fans of James Taylor (“Up on the Roof”) and the Grateful Dead (“Tin Roof Shack”) are not allowed on my roof.

Rock Gods #329: Adventures in Our Little Music Scene

Percy S. cooled down. Dusa gave up, broke up her band, went home, got stoned. Kim Era (nee Kimmy Cameron from the Fable Farms complex), however, is still a problem. She’s been turning up at the Bullfinch for his kiss-and-make-up duties still breathing fire (girl’s got a 5-cent hotball habit) and scratching growling hissing at anyone who comes near her. Defensive posture or performance art, her days are numbered. Whatever the case, she’s down to do a set at the Bullfinch tonight. The ever-eager Billy Phonics has been told (but mysterious Bullfinch “assistant manager” Joe Bates) to do an opening set. At first it seemed Billy had no idea what he was in for. Then he turned up with a horse bridle, a dog leash, a skateboard and a new song, “Harry Beaver”:

Squishy thighs

Gallons of harm

Underground mercury rising

Vaults on Easy Street

As if an angel dropped down from the clouds

Turn in the wind, horse’s ass

Which world which world witch world

…or something like that. Somehow, a spell was cast. Billy, whom we never knew had this in him, blew off the stage, left the bar, went home and crashed. Kim seemed stunned. She sang a bunch of folk covers, sobbing a little while she did it.

Tonight: Polly Idus solo acoustic at the Bullfinch… Fancied Monsters at Hamilton’s… Pie and Reenie oldies revue at D’Ollaire’s…

Riverdale Book Review

When you talk about the great regular Archie artists, it’s a pantheon: Bob Montana! Harry Lucey!  Dan DeCarlo! Stan Goldberg! Even though each of those artists got to toil on the flagship Archie title for decades, they made their mark.

But Jughead, who had his own comic title from the 1940s into the first decade of the 21st century? Only two main artists shaped him as a leading hero in all that time.

Samm Schwartz and Rex Lindsey.

I place Schwartz right up there with DeCarlo and Lucey. His amazing fluid pages, where a character might set a foot outside the line of the enclosing panel, were masterful. His use of silhouettes was unparalleled, his background gags inspired. In league with the lead Archie writers Frank Doyle and George Gladir, Schwartz gave Jughead the style and stature to star convincingly in his own comic. Schwartz also gave Jughead a look that set him apart from all the other Archie titles.

Rex Lindsey inherited the Jughead book from Schwartz and turned the title into longform, even multi-issue stories. The art was more Archie-conventional, and the supporting cast broadened in a way that made the stories seem shallower and Jughead more of an all-purpose weirdo. But the Lindsey made some lasting contributions to Jughead’s character: making the young drummer a blues enthusiast, for instance, or giving him a baby sister (Jellybean), or having one of his greatest female foils be an amateur psychologist, Trula Twist, driven to uncover the deeper motives for Jughead’s distrust of women.

The Jughead book closed down a few years ago now. Still waiting for phase three for happen.

Scribblers Music Review

Allah-Las, “Worship the Sun.” Languorous summer tune, replete with fun-in-the-sun home-movie-style video. There’s an early Velvet Underground quality to this that’s so hard to pull off—intense but casual, singing about the sun with drowsy bass lines and jangling guitars.