Austin Music Scores--Guadalcanal Diary

 I was in Austin, Texas in late October and visited the great Waterloo Records, which is one of the best record stores I have ever visited. While I was there, I barely made it past the used CD section. I bought Meat Puppets' Monsters, The Lemonheads' Lovey, Guadalcanal Diary's 2x4, Bob Mould's Workbook, 10,000 Maniacs' The Wishing Chair, and Sloan's Pretty Together. When I was able to venture beyond the used CDs, I found The Rolling Stones new album Hackney Diamonds (which I had not been able to find in Lansing), and Alejandro Escovedo's A Man Under the Influence.

All of these albums have been on heavy rotation in my car the last few weeks since we returned. 

I suppose my favorite of the eight--so far--is the Guadalcanal Diary album. I've written about GD in here before and I love that band. Superficially, they are R.E.M.-like, but lead singer/songwriter Murray Attaway comes off as way more agitated than Michael Stipe (and Attaway's voice is closer to Mike Mills, if we are to continue with the R.E.M. comparison).

2×4 was released in 1987, which in retrospect was a great year for music. The album was also the pinnacle of Guadalcanal Diary's career. They'd release one more album (1989's Flip-Flop) before disbanding, only reuniting sporadically since. (Guitarist and songwriter Jeff Walls died in 2019). 2×4 has the toughest and most aggressive sound they achieved. John Poe's drumming--always powerful--is especially thunderous on this record, particularly on the opener, "Litany (Life Goes On)."  The second track, "Under the Yoke," has Southern rock swagger and comes off as sort of a "college rock" cousin of early '70s ZZ Top. And then there are the final two tracks: "3 AM," a quiet but intense song about a desperate alcoholic, and the psychedelic-tinged "Lips of Steel" that indicates the band may have listened to the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" just a few times. (The band also covers "And Your Bird Can Sing," so it stands to reason Revolver was in heavy rotation--or at least on their minds).

So there you have it: Guadalcanal Diary's 2×4. Even though I already have it on vinyl, there was no way I was passing up a CD copy of it.

SuburbsFest Revisited (Day One)

On September 28, I flew to Washington, DC for SuburbsFest, my first "fest" since 2021, when I attended the very first one, which was also in "the DMV."

I'd been experiencing some serious "FOMO" looking at all the social media posts about subsequent SuburbsFests and was particularly despondent about not being able to attend the Louisville fest in the summer. (We flew to Europe the next weekend, so there really is no way I could have made it to Louisville).

The first day's festivities were in the Brookland section of Washington at The Runaway. Wingtip Sloat, Dear Daria, and Airport 77s performed. "The Sloat" features RTS co-host Patrick Foster and at this point only perform live a few times a year. I'm not sure how to describe them. Noisy and fun? 

Dear Daria harkens back to '90s indie rock, with a band name that is a nod to the MTV animated show Daria.

Airport 77s is a high energy band with three guys who all dress like airline pilots. Their sound is reminiscent of Cheap Trick and/or the Knack, that classic late '70s power pop. 

It was fun to once again see all these crazy middle-aged music nerds I have come to know via a podcast and social media.

[This post is a work in progress--stay tuned for more details].

I am back, finally

I have been sadly, pathetically negligent of this blog for the last (almost) three months. I fully intended to get to this during the day either yesterday or today, but now am only getting to this late Sunday night on my phone.

I have had a busy few months, starting with SuburbsFest (Washington, DC/Silver Spring, MD) in late September/early October, a trip to Austin, Texas and again to DC in late October/early November. I also went to three concerts (Brandi Carlile in September, Mudhoney in October, and Depeche Mode in November). All of this is icing on the cake for what has been a busy 2023 full of travel and concerts. I am ready to pack it in for the rest of the year and have a calm December.

I want to go back and recount these adventures in more detail.