Karen Booth
Honored to have Alex Dezen from The Damnwells contribute to the RNRHS archives this time around. His band is one of my absolute favorites, a designation that’s easy to throw around, but I’ve been around the old musical block a few times. Steve and I own a kajillion records. We don’t hire a babysitter and drag our butts to Raleigh on a Tuesday to see anybody unless it’s majorly cushy backstage with an open bar and behind-stage parking. What can I say? We’re jaded. But, alas, we did exactly that a few months ago for The Damnwells. Even one man down (due to an unanticipated medical emergency), the show was incredible. It’s hard not to enjoy yourself when you’re thinking “Yay! I love this one!” every time they start a new song. One highlight of the show was “Soundtrack”, which Alex performed acoustically. There was a highly annoying woman standing near the stage, yammering above the music, and the icy stares of her fellow audience members weren’t enough to get her to shut her trap. Alex stood back from the mic and sang the second half of the song, loud and clear, which ends with one of my fave Damnwells lines: “But can you shut up long enough to fall in love?” It didn’t actually get her to stop talking, but an awesome f-you moment I won’t soon forget. If you’re interested in more info about the band (or “collective”), please visit their website at thedamnwells.com or check out the documentary “Golden Days”, which cleaned up in the film festival circuit and is a heartbreaking lesson in exactly how scuzzy the music industry can be. I can’t say enough good things about the new record, “No One Listens to the Band Anymore”, so check that out, too.
Alex Dezen
Birch Wathen Lenox, NYC, Class of ’96, Currently: I rock and roll and write
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: I hated high school. I listened to The Jesus Lizard.
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: A De La Soul t-shirt
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: Creed.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: 13 Stitches at Acme Underground.
Optional bonus question: Best high school make-out song: “Barely Real” by Codeine or “Road to Madrid” by Seam. It’s a tie.
Hey all (not y’all)…”Just Like Honey” by the Jesus and Mary Chain popped into my head the other day, so I went in search of the video and watching it instantly reminded me of the Icicle Works video for “Whisper to a Scream”. They bear a striking resemblance to each other and not just because of the pasty skinned musicians. Icicle Works was 1983 and J&MC was 1985. Apparently, music video technology did not advance much during those two years. Just goes to show–you don’t need more than a backdrop, a wind machine, and a bag of leaves to make a video. The J&MC video has embedding disabled, or I would have included that too, but you’re smart–go to you tube and search for it.
Icicle Works “Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly)”
RNRHS has been on a roll lately with Chapel Hill music royalty (if I do say so myself)–John Plymale, founding member of Chapel Hill bands The Pressure Boys and The Sex Police, now in the mix. The Pressure Boys were before my time, but I saw the Sex Police many times–I was even their booking agent for a while. John’s stage presence is almost superhuman and difficult to fathom if you only know him as laid back and unassuming John. He’s quite the opposite behind the mic, sort of like there’s a magical performer switch inside him. Most of us do not have that switch. I was able to see The Pressure Boys when they did their reunion shows in 2008 at the Cat’s Cradle. Talk about being overwhelmed, and not just by the vast number of my husband’s former classmates–the genuine adoration oozing out of the crowd seemed limitless. I can only imagine what it was like to see the band “in the day”. I’m hoping some of you will share some good stories in the comments.
John Plymale
Chapel Hill High School, Chapel Hill, NC, Class of ’82, Currently: Music Producer/Engineer/Mixer
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: Boy, that could be hard to narrow down…I liked a lot of disparate things in 1980….from Earth Wind & Fire and Pink Floyd, to KISS and Molly Hatchet. I still like all those bands, so scuff off. But as High School wore on, I kind of fell in love with all of these English bands, like XTC, Madness, The Specials, and most especially Echo And The Bunnymen.
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: My Oingo Boingo “Only A Lad” poster that was on my living room wall that Danny Elfman actually signed (while actually IN my living room in Carrboro!!).
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: When MTV first started in 1981, we used to watch it pretty much all the damn time. There was such a dearth of videos out there for broadcast that lots of really wacky, low budget videos were on all the time. Those were the bands I tended to like. But I’d occasionally see these videos though for these bands that I’d honestly never even heard of, like REO Speedwagon, Journey, Triumph, and they were almost always live concert videos with a million people at the concert, and I was like “What the hell! Who are these bands, and who are all those people at their shows, and why haven’t I even heard of these bands before!??” I must have been living under a rock, wearing my Sony Walkman, and listening to nothing but my Bow Wow Wow cassette or something. But lordy I hated Journey et al.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: Either Oingo Boingo or The Lords Of The New Church at The Pier in Raleigh, or Black Flag at the Old Cat’s Cradle (in the current NightLight location in Chapel Hill).
Optional bonus question: Best high school make-out song: Oh, if only I’d gotten to make out some in high school…… (I guess that’s what happens when you spend all your time listening to Bow Wow Wow on your Sony Walkman for crying out loud….)
I used to live for Friday Night Videos when I was a teenager. I looked forward to it all week long. This will be my lame tribute to it, on Friday afternoons because most of you are at work and looking for an excuse to mess around on the internet for a few minutes. There wasn’t much of a thought process that went into picking this first one–I heard the song this morning while shuffling our entire music library (which creates some interesting segues, let me tell you). Post a comment or send me an email at karen [at] karenbalcom [dot] com if you want to nominate a video for a future Friday afternoon–my only rule is that it can’t be anything depressing. That means no Guns ‘n’ Roses “November Rain”.
Teenage Fanclub “What You Do To Me”
Hard to believe that installment 25 of RNRHS has arrived. Funny how some things seem to take on a life of their own. This has been an exercise in self-indulgence, allowing me to spend time re-connecting with old friends, making new ones, and unearthing my musical memories. I suppose that’s the advantage of having a blog, especially one with your name on it–you get to do whatever you want. Tom Maxwell is the guinea pig for the Silver Edition, rounding out a trifecta of Chapel Hill music fabulousness over the last two weeks that also included Greg Humphreys and Jim Wilbur. When I asked Tom to take part, his biggest concern was that there was no way to live up to Scott Carle. I agree it’s quite an undertaking, Scott should probably just hijack my blog for himself. Still, I defied Tom to be lame and he failed, and I have a sense that much like Scott Carle, Tom could have written about music (rock ‘n’ roll or not) and his youth for days. Last week I mentioned the urban legend of the long-gone R.E.M. t-shirt, but what I really want to see is the shirt Tom’s brother made for him.
Tom Maxwell
Mountain Heritage High School, Burnsville, NC, Class of ’83, Currently: Musician, Dad, Producer, Writer, Wine Sales Rep
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: I haven’t really given it much thought, but the first two songs that come to mind are both by Queen: “We Will Rock You” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”. They were, both for the band and the time, remarkably pared down productions. I had suffered through the excess of the 70s, hearing Boston (the dude harmonized with his own screams!) and other inscrutables like “Tonight’s The Night” and “Blinded By The Light” being overplayed on the big Charlotte FM station. Those Queen songs are great pop, accessible, and came as something of a relief. Also, each have only about 20 vocal tracks; a kind of triumph of restraint for that band.
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: My brother Steve made me a Small Faces t-shirt, which I basically wore until it fell off.
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: By high school I was completely in my own musical world. I was scouring the record store in Asheville to find a battered copy of “The Velvet Underground” or Parlaphone releases of Beatles records. I had no time for Def Leppard or whatever the fuck people were listening to. High school, for me, might as well have been a monastery. I was in band, and therefore permanently uncool. I didn’t smoke, drink or do drugs. I had only kissed one girl, once. My real musical crisis had occurred some years before, with Kiss. Never liked ’em, which put me decidedly out of step with the middle school crowd. I guess everyone in middle school feels that way anyway.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: Didn’t see show one until I got to Chapel Hill. See above. I redeemed myself by seeing the Flat Duo Jets open for The Woods a week or so after coming to college.
Optional bonus question: Best high school make-out song: See above. My first choice for make-out music now would be anything by Hariprasad Chaurasia.
