Guilty pleasures redux

I cannot remember why as a silly junior high student who was trying like hell to be cool I ever bought the record Talk Talk Talk by The Psychedelic Furs. Most kids were still into what would later be known as Classic Rock and lord knows it was not cool to step out of the favoring crowd's tastes as you would be quickly labeled a social pariah, a fag or whatever stupid insult your peers could lob at you. I had already begun to embrace The Ramones, The B-52's and DeVo at this point, but as I have mentioned, those bands while quirky were not considered threatening to most. I really do not consider the Furs to be threatening, but rather haunting and moody. I feel like their sound always had a long standing influence on my tastes and no matter how hard, nasty and heavy any of the bands I came to like I always retained a soft spot for softer moody dark musical pieces.

Singer Richard Butler's gritty baritone and John Ashton's noisy guitar howl are the two elements that define the sound on Talk Talk Talk that I really feel that the Furs tried hard to capture again and again only with varying success after this record. Their later efforts become much smoother and pop-laden; losing the tension that this album is filled with. I put Richard Butler in my top five list of all-time favorite singers. I have tried to mimic his sound without adding a fake English accent as I am in the same register if not deeper. He has that scratchy sound first heard on blues records that scores of people have imitated over the years. Yet, his is laced with punk anger and his accent gives it a whole different level of claustrophobia.

John Ashton's guitar wailing is splattered all over this record. He created tons of texture with jagged soft/loud juxtaposition and clever use of effects without sounding over-done. I can draw a pretty direct line from his playing here and the cacophony of bands like Sonic Youth who mined similar territory albeit with far more brutality.

Talk Talk Talk is one of my go to albums for its melancholy feel. I do not think it is depressing; rather it becomes a foil for me when I am feeling down, insecure or confused. At the same time it has a very sexual feel too with the tension that abounds. It overall yells about issues, but more to a mirror than to everyone else. It is an inward-looking anger as opposed to the outward screaming that characterized the first punk efforts by bands like the The Sex Pistols and The Clash. Many Joy Division fans also seem to like the Furs, but the Furs were always more "poppy" and more accessible. So get mad, but keep it to yourself and give this a listen.

Oh Deer

Today I rode at Freedom Park after a long day. As usual the traffic to and from sucked ass, but I was somewhere else so it did not seem to annoy as much as usual. I reflected on times past, good and bad, old friends and the path that lead me to driving in the sunny 80 degree weather to go sweat like a pig after a busy if not harrowing work week. I could have just as easily gone home or put my head down anywhere and fallen asleep. However, I needed to clear the cobwebs and reshuffle some of the resident demons in my head. I had not rode my trusty Nomad since doing shuttle runs with some of the nutty Richmond DH/Chainsmoke crew outside of H'burg a few weeks back. That did not really seem like my bike though as I had kitted it out for the trip with DH wheels and tires giving it a completely different and much "heavier" feel. I returned to its normal set-up with the addition of a ti-spring from DSP. I am not really sure why I did this, but I had made a little spare kale selling some bike stuff on eBay so I figured I would treat myself. The Nomadizer rode fantastic today. I stuck everything I tried save one large barrel roll I bailed on and the bike floated like never before. It did seem to feel different then when I had a steel spring; overall much smoother without feeling "gooey".

The ride while intense allowed for some much needed solitude. I rocked my usual soundtrack and everything just flowed. Lots of "Sweet Air" to rip off Napoleon Dynamite. I saw not another soul. I suppose they all were headed out of town, or to BBQ's or whatever the choads around here do. I did see at least a half a dozen deer over the almost two hours that I rode. Maybe they were "stimulated" by the nice spring day. Fortunately none of them attempted to bust any of the moves exhibited below on me nor was any French spoken.



I know that I have been working hard as my forearms are very sore. Kinda like "Tennis Elbow" except for dentists. Maybe "Dentists Elbow". Often I daydream of less complicated times with the intensity and demands of my days now. I see pictures that get posted of me from years ago on social network sites and it seems like it was yesterday. It is likely that I thought everything was "too" complicated back then too, but who knows? Pour yrself a strong cocktail and listen to one of my favorite hate-filled numbers.

In or On?

I often ask myself this question. I am "in it or on it"? I cannot stand bicycles that you feel like you are riding "on" them. I want to feel like the bike is moving with me in concert responding to my input in a predictable way as if I am a part of it, in it. This is especially true for full suspension bicycles. A bike that you are "on" just bounces along willy nilly with little regard for the terrain or yr commands. I do not wanna be a passenger.

I apply this logic to most of my endeavors. I was recently a panel member for a salad taste testing for the culinary section in our local newspaper. Three salads from local eateries that received highest number of reader votes were chosen for our group to try and pick the "best of". My "in vs. on" theory worked here too. I found that the salad with dressing that sat atop the ingredients instead of integrating well was the least pleasant of the three. Although the other panel members may not share my same tastes, we all agreed on this issue with the particular salad. The article will be in Virginian Pilot on May 31st.

The only place that I can think of that might counter this approach would be with musical instruments. Sometimes I believe that an instrument's limitations in design and feel forces one to play in a way that the might not have been considered if it was too easy or comfortable. My favorite quote in regards to this comes from Southern Culture on the Skids guitar guru Rick Miller: "You can fake a lot of things, but you cannot fake sounding cheap." I have my work horse guitars; reliable, predictable, and easy to play. I try not to forget to bust out the freak show axes now and then for something weird.

Speaking of weird cheap music, I am going to Memphis to see the Gories/Oblivians reunion in June. This should be unreal. I saw the Oblivians back in the day and they were great. Neither band has played in over 10 years and my pal Bobasaki and I scored tickets to the Saturday night sold out show. No bass all night; treble melt-down.






What Rock and Roll is all about.

Life in the way...

It has been quite awhile since I posted anything here, but I swear I have had a pretty busy schedule and have not just been a slack motherfucker.



Everyone is aware of the economic shithole America is in, however oddly my work has been busy or busier than ever. Dentistry was one of only two professions in 2008 that remained profitable. Our staff decreased in size, but our work load really has not. No complaints, but it means many long hours.

When I am not at work 5.5 days a week 9-10+hours a day, I try to spend some QT with my lil' guy who is now over 7 mos old. No, neither my wife or I have gotten much sleep since his arrival; yes, we are nutz about him and yes, we like being parents, but don't always like doing it. The PC-minions out there would likely feel such a statement means that we are bad parents b/c we aren't overjoyed by every aspect of having a new child. My wife and I have careers and want to work as well as many pastimes we are passionate about. I have never given a rat's ass about being PC, so a big fuck U to anyone who wants to point fingers. Usually, by the time we have gotten Sam off to sleep, fed ourselves, walked and fed the dogs and tried to clean up the place its getting into the 10-11 PM range. Sam wakes up b/t 5-6 AM and we have to get up to get ready for work around then too. Unfortunately Sam still occasionally wakes in the middle of the night and is not always easily coaxed back to sleep. I am not bitching here; just stating facts.

The above conditions have put our spare time at a minimum. I still try to at least get in one solid multi-hour trail ride each weekend and I ride to work 2-4 days a week, but the days of several weekend rides and after work rides seem a distant memory. My music endeavors went on hiatus as Sam's arrival loomed last year. I am looking into new possibilities now, but it is slow going. I did purchase a nice gizmo for cataloging the noises in my head, but I have yet to hunker down to really use it yet. I am trying to be optimistic, but that is a challenge being a generally cynical character.

There are somethings I have been pleased with regarding my avocations. As you can see I updated title photo and for the observant ones out you'll notice that all of the bikes are sporting Rock Shox forks. This is quite a change for me as less than 6 years ago I would not have run any Rock Shox fork if you paid me. However, I now believe that they make the best forks out there with the most reliable and efficient tuning system available. Rock Shox put out some real crap prior to bike mega-corp SRAM purchasing them, but the have turned around 180 degrees becoming industry leaders with top racers/riders the world over rocking their products. SRAM has something besides money that is huge...great customer service and this has allowed even a few miss steps to be overlooked.

Speaking of service, I used do my own fork repair and rebuild work, however the aforementioned time constraints have made me seek out a 3rd party to do this as I would rather ride than tinker. I came across Suspension EXperts out of Asheville, NC a few months back and cannot recommend them more highly. They know their stuff, they work on every brand of fork or shock out there and their customer service is fantastic. I had them do rebuilds and some minor tweaks on my Rock Shox Lyrik and Recon (on my Nomad and Spot respectively) and the ride is terrific. Check 'em out. Keep the rubber down and try not to let life get in the way.

The Bloody Gears of a Boppin' Machine

The 1st couple of months of 2009 have been rough as 2 of the greats have checked out. 1st Ron Asheton passed away in January followed by the passing of Lux Interior this month. The music that these two individuals created has had a huge influence on my musical tastes, music creation and outlook on music in general. I will not waste any cyberspace on singing their praises; go look them up buy their music and get educated yourselves. Instead I just wanted to share a brief tale of my first encounter with the music of The Cramps.

I was somewhere around a whopping 14 years old and had recently been exposed to "different" music from what the local rock stations were cramming down everyone's throats. My friends and I had already found DeVo, The B-52's and The Ramones. While each of these bands are great in their own right none of them possessed the danger; the shock or the kind of sound that would really make adults around us cringe from the music we were soon to hear.
I was over at a friend's house one afternoon goofing around looking for trouble to get into. I remember it was raining so going out was not in the cards. My friend's older sister and her boyfriend came over and brought some records that for some reason the let us hang out and listen too. The boyfriend was already considered by most to be a neighborhood weirdo; he had a spiky haircut, wore torn up clothes and hand drawn t-shirts with lotsa safety pins. Keep in mind that this was nearly 30 years ago and you could not find this look pre-packaged at the mall; no Hot-Topics, no internet, nothing. The records he brought over were as follows: Black Flag: "Nervous Breakdown", The Dead Kennedys: "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables", Angry Samoans: "Queer Pills" and The Cramps: "Gravest Hits". I could write several treatises on each of these records, however of the four I have continued to listen to The Cramps year after year. All at once The Cramps were loud, dangerous and in contrast to the other bands, sexy. While I loved the aggression of the other records The Cramps were darker more seething and made you wanna dance and not necessarily beat someone up doing so. I saw them play a half a dozen or more times over the years and they were always great. They turned me on to tons of music I would have never found through their endless covers of long lost garage, rock-a-billy, psychedelic and generally strange nuggets. Years later in college I would become a huge fan of The Stooges
which the late Mr Asheton provided the bludgeoning guitar work for, however I still owe it all to hearing that first Cramps record. RIP guys. I know you're now teaching Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimi Hendrix how to properly write a rock song.

I want to thank you for being a nice elf

Well if you were able to read this yesterday lucky you. However, somehow it disappeared during some minor editing. It was about something I am thankful for. Right now I am thankful that I have the composure not to throw this POS computer at my ofc through the effin' window.

Happy "Nu?" year

I know I am little late to the party as I believe this hit last summer, but a damn great tune and a great video. Kinda sweet and sick don'tcha think?


WARNING: SOME ANTI-CHRISTMAS SENTIMENT AHEAD

I did not observe, celebrate or really give a damn about Christmas this year. In the past it was always the day everyone was home from school or off work which made it a nice convenient day to exchange gifts and have brunch, but with no religious significance. Once again, it was a nice day off work but that was all. My mom-in-law who was staying with us since before Sam's arrival and whom is sorely missed flew back home and other than that nothing really remarkable occurred. Otherwise, we stopped at the one local Starbucks that was open and took a nice stroll around the neighborhood. This year we lit Chanukah candles almost every night, said the blessing, and gave lil' gifts. You know what? It was pretty nice, warm and relaxing. We had a small shindig here on X-mas eve, but it was all traditional Jew food such as brisket (would make you cry), fruit jello mold and potato latkes that ruled. I don't feel like we missed out on anything and we took some sweet photos of Sam watching us lighting the Chanukah candles. I guess it was nice not to feel like I had to be apart of any of the Christmas hoo-haa and instead stick with my roots.

I went on two cool rides this week. First I did a solo night ride over at Ipswich park that was similar to what I discussed here. The only real differences were the temperature (it was notably colder) and the mud (there was a lot). Night riding there is just too much fun and I hope to drag someone else out there with me soon. Today for New Years I did a group ride up at Freedom park and met up with a couple guys from Richmond. We hung back from the bulk of the group and played on the obstacles. I was pleased to hear my Richmond cohorts raving over and over about how awesome the trail is throughout the ride. The building of the larger and more challenging lines has finally brought out riders on bigger bikes including 2 other Nomad riders. A great way to begin 2009; happy nu year.