Mr. Moderator

When not blogging Mr. Moderator enjoys baseball, cooking, and falconry.

Columbia House

Jun 102015

UPDATED: I’m bringing this post back to The Main Stage to celebrate the following blockbuster piece from The A.V. Club. Do the math!

http://www.avclub.com/article/four-columbia-house-insiders-explain-shady-math-be-219964

Filmmaker Chris Wilcha captured what it was like working at Columbia House during this boom time in a low-key, first-person documentary called The Target Shoots First. Wilcha—who started off in the marketing department as an assistant product manager and was soon promoted to product manager—took a camcorder to work and captured the absurdity and mundanity of the company at that moment in time. He filmed scenes not just in the company’s New York offices, but also at the massive Terre Haute, Indiana, manufacturing, customer service, and distribution center (which employed 3,300 people in 1996) as well as an amusing Aerosmith in-store appearance and a trade-show rendezvous with David Hasselhoff.

Previously…

Can remember the first 12 records (or cassettes or 8-tracks) you received from Columbia House for just 1¢? If you’re from a younger generation, can you recall your introductory BMG order? If you’re from a younger generation yet and have no idea what I’m talking about, think of those first free downloads you received from eMusic, but without your parents getting mad at you for forgetting to send back the following month’s default “featured” lp and now owing money for the latest Barbara Streisand album, which you don’t want to be caught dead with owning.

Speaking of those default selections that would get sent to your house each month, what’s the biggest turd you ever got stuck owning?

Breaking Up Is Oh So Easy to Do: Paul Westerberg Can Bite Me

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jun 092015

What nerve of Paul Westerberg to announce that The Replacements are breaking up again! Really? That money grab of a “reunion” tour with 2 actual members of the band’s once-active recording career was fine for what it was. I hope they made some money. They added something to ’80s rock culture that ’80s rock consumers didn’t give back to them. I hope fans of the band enjoyed hearing those songs performed live again. I hope a bit of their youth was rekindled as they watched Paul and Tommy Stinson shamble about like they were a little too cool to care. However, ceasing to carry on as a greatest hits act is not the same as breaking up. Is it?

Vinyl Victory: The Benefits of Distraction

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jun 082015

Digital music. Streaming services. All that newfangled jazz. I keep a toe in the digital waters. There are benefits to the medium, but I don’t think I’ll ever be swayed by the new technologies, like my man Andyr. I still like to touch my music, or at least the packaging of it. Until we come up with a better delivery device than the 12-inch vinyl album (and it’s kid brother, the 7-inch single, as well as its distant cousin from England, the 10-inch EP), I’m keeping the faith.

The other day my close, personal friend E. Pluribus Gergely and I were talking about records by favorite artists that lost us. “Did you buy Combat Rock when it came out?” he asked me.

What’s Right and What’s Wrong About the Casting of Paul Dano as Young Brian Wilson?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jun 022015

What's right and wrong about the casting of Paul Dano as Brian Wilson?

What’s right and wrong about the casting of Paul Dano as Young Brian Wilson?

A new biopic on Brian Wilson is coming out, Love & Mercy. I will likely dread seeing this, as is the case with almost any artist biopic, but I am a glutton for punishment when it comes to rock biopics and I do like John Cusack, who I read was set to star as the troubled genius behind the Beach Boys and the puppet for a succession of hangers-on, charlatans, and certainly well-intentioned healthcare professionals and adoring musicians. Then I saw this still from the movie. “That’s not John Cusack,” I exclaimed in my head, “it’s that creepy guy I don’t like!” I had to look him up to be sure: Paul Dano, a talented actor with a knack for playing troubled, annoying guys, but an actor worthy of the shotgun nevertheless.

It turns out Dano plays Young Brian Wilson, which I’m sure he’ll be good at, subtly projecting even Young Brian’s obvious anxieties. The more I studied this still from the movie, however, the more I started thinking about the Pros and Cons of this casting decision. I’ll leave it to you to get inside my head—and to share your thoughts on the casting of Dano and Cusack as one of the greatest songwriters of the 1960s.

Check out the whole cast here. I don’t know who the guy is who’s playing Mike Love, but I’m counting on him to deliver!

All-Star Jam

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jun 022015

This is the way we play. Take turns and share in this All-Star Jam!

Townspeople at Large: Dan Buskirk’s Fun2Know Podcast Hits on Timely Episode

Posted by Mr. Moderator

May 292015

Founding (if rarely participating) Townsman dbuskirk has long been one of my favorite DJs. He does a jazz show for Princeton’s WPRB, playing mostly out-there stuff. Dan has also done other sorts of shows over the years, as well as host obscure film events and more. He’s one of those DJs like Nick Spitzer of NPR’s American Roots, someone who can introduce me to just about anything by the power of his intro talk and/or segues and somehow ease my numerous hang ups. Like Spitzer, however, I bet Dan’s one limitation would be turning me onto that accordion-driven music from Louisiana. I’m blanking on the name of that stuff, but…yuck, what hammy party music that stuff is to my ears! (Come to think of it, even Dan and Nick would likely have difficulty turning me onto Love’s Forever Changes. Not even Townsman geo can get me to accept that turd.)

About a year ago Dan launched a podcast, Fun2Know. It’s really good, really relaxed. If you enjoy being witness to the gift of gab, you may find his long chats with artists of various stripes to be as engaging and insightful as I do. His guests typically are based in the 2 areas where he’s primarily lived—Philadelphia and San Francisco. The easy hook for me was hearing interviews with cool Philadelphia-area arts-world contributors I’ve known for years, like local musical legend Kenn Kweder and Fresh Air producer Amy Salit, interesting characters I’ve typically only had the chance to chat with in noisy clubs, while my ears are ringing and I’m trying to lean into the person speaking, but not too far, so that I’m invading their personal space. Eventually I branched out and started listening to his chats with his old San Francisco pals. A 2-parter, for instance, with comedian Greg Proops, one of those guys from “that ’90s improv show,” as I call Who’s Line Is It Anyway, was a dream come true for me, involving tangents on Brian Jones-era Stones and baseball. Through all these interviews, the laid-back Dan chuckles and prods discussion forward.

This week’s episode features Antibalas trumpeter/bandleader Jordan McLean. It was recorded shortly before McLean found himself in a legal mess with Ornette Coleman, over a recently released album, New Vocabulary, that Coleman claims was released without his consent. I’m about to check out this week’s episode, and I invite you to join me. My guess is that, as good an interviewer as Dan is, he wasn’t able to look into the future and bring this suit up with McLean, but my guess is also that an investment of your time in Dan’s show will provide you with some unusual stories, some chuckles, and some moments of “Oh yeah!” connection. Enjoy.

Get Well Chris Squire (and the Life Expectancy of Rock Musicians by Subgenre)

Posted by Mr. Moderator

May 202015

Greatest bass ever?

I’m sure you heard the news today that Yes bassist Chris Squire had been diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia that will knock him off the band’s touring circuit for the first time since 1968. This is sad news simply because Squire is a human, and it’s also sad because this oddly, fantastically talented prog legend seems like a good egg – at least as good an egg as any other prog musician with a low profile that seems characteristic of the genre.

With absolutely no research or empirical data, you know what else seems to be characteristic of the prog genre? Band members’ life expectancy and overall health seem to be better than that of other rock subgenres. How many prog musicians died in their prime, or even as early as their mid-50s? How many prog musicians were junkies? Let’s leave Pink Floyd out of this, because they didn’t play enough triplets to really qualify as prog rockers.

Has anyone died in Yes? Did one early member of Genesis die? Did any of King Crimson’s 43 members OD? E, L, or P? A long time ago Soft Machine’s Robert Wyatt got wasted, fell out of a window, and got paralyzed, but he lived for a long time – perhaps, in fact, to this day. Kevin Ayers – was he in Soft Machine? He died not too long ago, right? He was old enough to have died of natural causes or some expected hazard of old age. Daevid Allen of Gong just died, but he was old.

Do you think the rigors of playing progressive rock keep these musicians in better physical condition than other forms of rock? Do rock musicians of any other style live as long and healthy lives?

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