Smiley's Tropical Escape

Dumb

nobody@vox.com(Smiley) — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:12:57 +0900

In November of 1993, while Nirvana were in New York recording their Unplugged performance, Groove Neuter and I were working for a college radio station in our hometown. A few months later, when the performance aired, Groove came over to my house and we spent a few hours rigging a VCR and a cassette recorder to the t.v., bootlegging the entirety for our radio show.

A short while after that, I came home to find my dad listening to the radio news. "Hey son. Did you hear that Nirvana kid shot himself?"

"What?" I ran to the phone and called Groove at the station.

He laughed, the way he always does when there's something emotional he doesn't want to deal with. "Yup. It's true." He said, then read me the story straight off the news wire. I hung up the phone and went back to the living room where my dad was waiting.

"Jesus, Dad. You just don't know how this feels."

"Yeah, probably about the same way I felt when Elvis died." That was enough to jolt me out of my shock. That my dad, who was never to really appreciate the grunge and punk that I loved, could never-the-less empathize because of his own musical idol's self inflicted deification penetrated the fog in my head. I got back on the phone with Groove and we started planning our Nirvana hour, a combination tribute and mourning.

The funny thing is, I had not even liked Nirvana when I first heard them. A friend had a copy of a copy of Bleach and I thought it was a mess. Back in 1989, Guns 'N' Roses was still the be all and end all of my musical universe. I had grown up with an aunt, who, at only eight years my senior, built my early musical tastes. I listened to Adam and the Ants, later Clash, the Pretenders, and other early 80s New Wave. By the time I hit junior high school I had abandoned all that for the pop metal tastes that my friends preferred: Poison, Warrant, Bon Jovi, Ratt, Cinderella. And then I heard Guns 'N' Roses and my tastes shifted again. By the time high school started I was into Metallica, Iron Maiden, and other, harder, metal.

My sister gave me Nevermind for Christmas the year it came out. Another gate opened and now I began adding grunge albums into my collection, from there punk, from there...Nirvana changed their sound. They did an Unplugged show, with several covers by bands I had never heard of (Vaselines), or from people my mom liked (David Bowie). And now the gates were hanging off the hinges and I was grabbing any kind of music I could. I got into the Ramones and the Clash and even Bowie.

And perhaps I'm not explaining it well, but Nirvana's acknowledgment of their influences made it ok for me to like things outside my chosen genre; the performance made it acceptable to have diverse and eclectic musical tastes.

And then he shot himself.

Groove and I carried on with our radio show for another year or so before moving on to other things, but for years after, whenever there was something untoward happening, one or the other of us would look at the other and just say, "fucking Kurt" as a way of summing up whatever fucked up situation had just arisen

My last trip to the U.S. I bought a copy of the just-released DVD of Nirvana's Unplugged performance that I hoped Groove and I would have a chance to watch together but, the way things go, we did not have that chance. We chose to spend our limited time hanging out and finding new things to bullshit about, new situations to bitch about, new things to bond over. That's a good thing of course, but I do wish we had had a chance to reminisce over this performance, especially as I sit here now with the DVD playing in the background.

My dad called me up a few years ago for no real reason other than to tell me he had just gotten Elvis' Comeback special on DVD. I get that now.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Mama Cass - Dream a Little Dream of Me | Uke Hunt

nobody@vox.com(Smiley) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:13:33 +0900

Mama Cass - Dream a Little Dream of Me | Uke Hunt

http://ukulelehun...

The most important chord I added in is the E7 just before the ’stars fading…’ part. The verse section of the song is in C but changes to A for this part. The E7 acts as a pivot between the two keys. E7 is the V chord of the key of A and leads you into it. It’s very common to use the V chord to le...

Great post on Uke Hunt today; they have re-written some of the chording for the Ukulele version of Dream a Little Dream of Me. Well worth checking out.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Desperado

nobody@vox.com(Smiley) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:30:43 +0900

Here's a video from YouTube of a very talented guy performing the Eagles' Desperado on a ukulele.

Desperado

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Vox Hunt: Listen to the Lyrics

nobody@vox.com(Smiley) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:43:48 +0900

Audio: Share a song with powerful lyrics.

Ted Leo - La Costa Brava

I've been seeing the same old things,

And I've been hearing you saying some things that you don't mean.

Everyone needs a sunday some days, everyone needs to take some time away.

So come on home from the front lines, baby,

You know you've done more than your time there was supposed to have been.

A little time out could turn your head 'round,

A little time out could lift us our of the mess we're in.

And down by the beach there's a small cafe,

Where we'll hang on for Joan and drink Bonet all day.

So come on over to St. Feliu 'cause it's somewhere I've been and I want to take you there.

You know that waking up to the daily blues from

Waking up to the daily news ain't nothing strange.

Everyone gets to feeling weak,

But if everyone gets to take a week and change their pace...

You travel west 'til you hit Girona, I'll travel east out of Barcelona,

And I'll meet you halfway.

One day and night on La Costa Brava, we'll forget the fright,

And remember why we want to be brave,

(and that there's something to save)

Like down by the beach there's a veg cafe,

Where we'll meet Lolo and Pablo and drink Moritz all day.

So come on over to St. Feliu 'cause it's somewhere I've been and I want to take you there.

We'll meet Berta, and Daniel, and Remy, Celine, and Mike, Adriana, Padi, and Aziz,

And Maurix, Maria, and Laura, Tule,

And Sherry and Pau, Jodie, and Paul,

I hope Neil is OK...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Vox Hunt: My Karaoke Jam

nobody@vox.com(Smiley) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 14:20:14 +0900

Audio: Share your karaoke song.

The Ramones - Rock 'n Roll Radio

Rock'n, rock'n'roll radio Let's go
Rock'n, rock'n'roll radio Let's go
Rock'n, rock'n'roll radio Let's go
Rock'n, rock'n'roll radio Let's go

Do you remember Hullabaloo,
Upbeat, Shinding and Ed Sullivan too?
Do you remember rock'n'roll radio?
Do you remember rock'n'roll radio?

Do you remember Murray the K,
Alan Freed, and high energy?
It's the end, the end of the 70's
It's the end, the end of the century

Do you remember lying in bed
With your covers pulled up over your head?
Radio playin' so no one can see
We need change, we need it fast
Before rock's just part of the past
'Cause lately it all sounds the same to me
Oh oh oh oh, oh oh

Will you remember Jerry Lee,
John Lennon, T. Rex and OI Moulty?
It's the end, the end of the 70's
It's the end, the end of the century

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Vox Hunt: Makes Me Want To Cut A Rug

nobody@vox.com(Smiley) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 13:03:18 +0900

Video: Show us a video that makes you want to dance.

Groove Armada - I See You Baby

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Vox Hunt: I Love This Cover

nobody@vox.com(Smiley) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:21:55 +0900

Show us your favorite album cover.

Nevermind

This album got me through high school; the cover sums up more than I can say about modern life.

Send to a friend

Vox Hunt: It Never Gets Old

nobody@vox.com(Smiley) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:28:52 +0900

Audio: Share a song you could listen to all day on repeat.

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Send to a friend

120% Awesome

nobody@vox.com(Smiley) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 11:09:21 +0900

Dead Milkmen - Punk Rock Girl

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Heavy Rotation

nobody@vox.com(Smiley) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 11:27:13 +0900

Nine days out of ten, I leave my iPod on random and just listen to whatever comes up. Some days, songs that I have completely forgotten crop up, leaving me pleasantly surprised and not a little nostalgic for whatever time in my life it was where I loved that song.

This song came up today, making me think of...well, nevermind. Suffice to say, I've been remembering things, some good, some bad, but all worth remembering just the same.

Everything But the Girl - Missing

Read and post comments | Send to a friend