The Great Leap Forward

I'm on the air tonight.

Just to remind you, AOTP is on tonight (Friday) starting at a little after 11 pm EST.

Click here to listen live.

Click here to follow the playlist.

Out until next Thursday, enjoy your week.

Bad news on the teaching front.

It looks like a job that was looking pretty promising in NYC for the fall may not be happening due to insufficient 2006-07 budgets. I may have to scramble to see what I can pick up. Right now, it's either a big NYC school (dangerous) or a private school in NJ (low pay). And I don't know how long it's going to take me to break into the NJ public school system. I still have to wait until I get my NY certificate before I can apply for NJ. And I'm not guaranteed of getting that NJ cert either because of my low undergrad GPA.

Those of you who think teachers have it easy are sadly mistaken.

Swervedriver - Raise - Track 3: "Son of Mustang Ford"

The incredible...

Swervedriver - Son of Mustang Ford

I took the Jeopardy! test tonight.

I was nervous all day dreading this stupid test. My mom and my wife think I belong on the show, but man, that shit can be hard. And I barely know any Shakespeare. If I got on, I don't even know how I'd do.

Anyway, they are offering the test online for the first time in the show's history. (If you're on the East Coast, you missed your chance. Central and Western U.S., go here for more info. Testing ends March 30.) 50 questions, rapid-fire. You have 15 seconds to read the question and type in your answer. Surprisingly, I only got stumped on a few questions and I had pretty good guesses on a few others, but I didn't keep count. I got at least one wrong for sure where I felt confident about my answer. The correct answer occurred to me about one hour later. I've heard that you need at least 35 right to be considered, so who knows? The test is pass/fail - they will never reveal your score to you. If you make the cut, you get a phone call and come in for an interview and another test. I suppose if you pass test number two, they see if you can actually play the game. If I don't make it, I have to wait one year before taking the test again.

All this angst over a fucking game show. Jeez.

This is an archive of the last two seasons' worth of shows. Test your knowledge.

20 years ago today #22 - 7 Feb 1986

TT The Bears Place, Cambridge - One Fish Two Fish, Ped Xing, Ball and Pivot

Local pop night. One Fish Two Fish were pretty lightweight. Chick singer. Ped Xing were pretty energetic. The bass player was wearing an XTC Drums and wires t-shirt. I was wondering where he got it from. Pretty cool.

The only band of note was Ball and Pivot. They put out one EP and had a video that was shown on the local video channel V66. The song was "Down". Judging from what I remember about the lyrics, it was about oral sex, but couched in a vague, cutesy way ("I always get up when I'm going down"). Good song, as I recall. B&P was derived from The Atlantics, who managed to put out one LP on the ABC label.

B&P's Tom Hauck went on to become an artist.

The Atlantics got featured on Little Hits not too long ago.

A quick Trouser Press summary.

A place to buy the Ball and Pivot EP.

So far:
Number of shows/bands seen, January 1986: 7/17
Number of shows/bands seen, February 1986: 2/5
Number of shows/bands seen, 1985: 13/32
Number of shows/bands seen, 1986: 9/22
Total number of shows: 22
Total number of bands seen: 54

20 years ago today #21 - 4 Feb 1986

Paradise, Boston - Soul Asylum, Husker Du (sorry, no umlauts)

A Minneapolis night. Back then it was still possible for a band to make the jump from indie to major. Husker Du was about to, Soul Asylum was still a couple of years away. You really don't see much of that anymore, huh?

Soul Asylum opened. the only thing I remember is the idiot standing next to me, requesting "Religiavision" at the top of his lungs about every five minutes. (That one was from their debut Say what you will Clarence...Karl sold the truck.) Did they play it? I don't recall. SA were touring on the just released Made to be broken. This was the only time I ever saw them. They had some success with Grave Dancers Union (Just 421 copies available for sale on Amazon!) in the alternative era, but when was the last time you gave a shit about Soul Asylum? They're releasing a new album this summer. Coming to a county fair near you, I would imagine.

My experience with the Du was limited to New day rising, especially the single "Celebrated summer". (Flip your wig came out right after I graduated.) I just had to see the band that helped define the summer of '85 for me. (Never been much for Zen arcade, oddly enough.) Candy apple grey, the major label debut, was still a couple of months away. This was another "I don't remember" show, but I know it was a much more powerful one than I saw on the Warehouse tour, which was extremely flat.

All the Soul Asylum releases on Twin/Tone detailed here.

Soul Asylum fan club. The band is still kicking despite the death of Karl Mueller.

Husker Du fan site, including an exhaustive discography.

Bob Mould's blog, which everyone seems to know about.

Web sites for Grant Hart, Bob Mould and Greg Norton.

So far:
Number of shows/bands seen, January 1986: 7/17
Number of shows/bands seen, February 1986: 1/2
Number of shows/bands seen, 1985: 13/32
Number of shows/bands seen, 1986: 8/19
Total number of shows: 21
Total number of bands seen: 51

Black-Eyed Bush.

From Mad TV (by way of C&L), it's "My slump" by the Black Eyed Peas featuring George W. Bush. Pretty damn funny!

Swervedriver - Raise - Track 2: "Pile-up"

Swervedriver - Pile-up

The All Over The Place theme.

I was away most of the weekend, so I didn't get a chance to post the AOTP theme as promised.

98 seconds in length and really upbeat. From their debut EP, Darker days, here's The Connells with "Dial it".

Swervedriver - Raise - Track 1: "Sci-flyer"

By request for Mike! Up next, the 1991 debut from Swervedriver, Raise (A&M). Here's track #1:

Swervedriver -  Sci-Flyer