Miss me?

Finally, I’ve been able to drop down my overtime to two extra days a week (with a few extra hours on another), so I’ll be able to get back to some writing some reviews for this blog next week, starting with the promised reviews of Elvis Can’t Swim’s self-released album and two albums by Electrik Sunset.

I’ve decided to hold off on the autobiographical pieces for now, partly because I’m working on rewriting my masters thesis, having finally managed a trip down to Oklahoma for some much needed research, and partly because I want to incorporate some of what I ended up writing into one of my fictional characters.

Update

Okay, I’m getting used to my new computer and its capabilities–built-in web cam, for one, so you can look forward to seeing my ugly mug in the future, or perhaps a return of Karl Barx–and while I haven’t been able to recover my hard drive files yet, I’m going to have to push on. I’ll be working extra hours to pay for this computer for the next couple of weeks, but I should be able to resume the schedule of release by the first full week of March.

In one of my previous blogs, I briefly mentioned the existence of a band called Elvis Can’t Surf. Well, although they don’t exist anymore, they were quite good for an unsigned surf band. I ordered their self-published album (Nice Trunks!) from the drummer, Joe Gusich, who had formed a new band called Electrik Sunset, with himself as frontman (kind of a Dave Grohl-ish coup, I suppose). Well, for ordering that obscure album, which I received today in the mail, Joe was kind enough to send me a copy of their as-yet-unreleased album, “Fish Dinner Party.” Fresh off the presses, so to speak. Well, rather than be an ass and leak the album, I’m going to review both albums in the coming weeks, as well as the first Eletrik Sunset album, which can be found downloaded from Amazon and probably Itunes. You can check out four tracks from Elvis Can’t Surf on http://www.myspace.com/elviscantsurfpedro (“Crawl” and “Psycho Chick” are great, and the audio sample from “Jaws” on the instrumental “Sharks Feed at Night” makes me laugh), and you can check out Joe’s current band at http://elektriksunset.com/Records.html.

Testing 1.2.3.

New computer, new quirks.

The Beach Boys at the Grammys

     I don’t normally buy U.S. Today or watch the Grammys, but I did this weekend because, in case you didn’t hear, Brian Wilson and Al Jardine have rejoined the Beach Boys and were to kick off their reunion tour with a performance at the Grammys. For those keeping score, this is the most complete reunion of the band possible, short of bringing Glenn Campbell—who for a couple of years filled in for Brian Wilson on tour as well as played guitar on Pet Sounds—up on stage, who was ironically in the audience awaiting his own performance—a missed opportunity, if you ask me, though it was cool to see him on his feet during “Good Vibrations.” I’m not a big fan of Campbell, but I have to admit it was a pretty classy move.
     That said, to see their performance of “Good Vibrations,” I had to give up the first half of the Walking Dead mid-season premiere (totally worth it) and sit through terrible performances of “Surfer Girl “by Maroon 5 (proving once again that the only reason Adam Levine is on The Voice is to find a donor for a vocal chord transplant) and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” by Foster the People (who sounded like one of those manufactured for Disney Channel bands). Honestly, though, is it really that hard to find a recent band that knows who The Beach Boys are, or, god-forbid, grew up listening to them? For that matter, there are plenty of legendary surf musicians left that the Grammys could have invited instead. Dean Torrence (of Jan and Dean) and Dick Dale (of his own bad self) are still alive and kicking. How awesome would that have been to have seen them on stage, playing Beach Boys songs? Just a thought.

Death of Speedy

My desktop died last night at 11:45 pm while writing my latest blog entry. Funeral services will be held at the watermelon catapult in three days.

Seriously, though, it’s dead, and I’m relegated to my six-year-old laptop. Until I recover all my old files (including my entire music collection), this blog will be on indefinite hiatus. The vast majority should be on my external drive, but I haven’t checked yet to see if it’s corrupted, as I have to go to work now. RIP.

Delays, delays, nothing but delays….

I didn’t like how the first “Confessions” came out, so I’ve been completely revising it. I’m almost done with that, but I didn’t want to post it by itself, so I’m waiting until I write the next section or two to unleash it upon the world. Mwah hah hah. I’ve revised the website–look how pretty it looks now that I’ve removed the barren field header–added a poll, removed certain pages and added a new one (B&W Comics, in which I will showcase some of my favorite b&w independent comics and Japanese manga).

So, be back next week. Same fucking time, same fucking channel.

ITAF #4

I got on a writing kick this week, working on my novel, so I didn’t get around to writing the next installment of Confessions of a Beach Boys Fanatic. As a stop-gap, here’s the first three of my 15 favorite Beach Boys songs (alphabetically), which I was planning on including at the end.

“4th of July” (originally unreleased): This is a song I only started listening to in the last few weeks, so it may fall off the list eventually. An early Dennis Wilson song that was intended for the Surf’s Up album, it wasn’t released until the Beach Boys box set; supposedly it has something to do with governmental censorship of the New York Times regarding, one would assume, the Vietnam War, but I haven’t been able to find anything more specific than that online. Regardless of the vague lyrics—which are interesting but go nowhere—the song is simply beautiful and haunting; much like Pearl Jam’s “Yellow Ledbetter”, the song is better if you don’t know all the lyrics.

“Do You Wanna Dance?” From Today!: As a kid, this was probably my favorite dance song. Originally a song by Bobby Freeman (and the world says “Duh!”), it was later recorded, the Beach Boys way, by The Ramones for their album Rocket to Russia. Somehow, though, the way The Beach Boys hold back a little during the first verse makes the chorus feel wilder in their version, and the instrumental breaks are better. Although I was disappointed to learn that the line “skiss me baby” came about through “bad” editing (the original line being “kiss me kiss me baby”), it’s still one of my favorite lines in any song ever.

“Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)” from Pet Sounds: This is arguably the most intimately romantic song in The Beach Boys oeuvre, as well as the most self-assured, adult songs on the Pet Sounds album—an album dominated by songs about innocence and the aching insecurities of youth (even if the majority of them are about overcoming those insecurities in some form or another). The persona in this song, instead of seeking comfort (as in “You Still Believe in Me” from this album, or the earlier “Don’t Worry, Baby”), is instead giving comfort to his girlfriend, either during a slow dance or something more intimate (sorry for the euphemism, but I’ve been watching too much Beavis and Butt-head lately, and I keep hearing their laugh every time I write anything about sex).

(The rest: Don’t Worry Baby, Girl Don’t Tell Me, God Only Knows, Heroes and Villains (Alternate version), I Get Around, I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times, Let Him Run Wild, Please Let Me Wonder, That’s Not Me, The Little Girl I Once Knew, Wonderful, You’re So Good to Me).