More Cowbell!

I mentioned in my last post that I had been listening to the radio in my car. To those of you who have caught a ride with me somewhere in the last couple of years, you’re likely thinking What the fawk??!!?? This guy never listens to the radio, what’s up with that? Long story short, the crappy factory issue CD player in my car is jammed, so I’ve been kicking it old school and listening to the radio (as opposed to the kids who consider CD’s old fashioned, and are listening to their mp3’s or Ipods or whatever those thingamabobs they like to plug into their ears are called). For the most part radio in this town positively blows, so I’m just thankful that I don’t have a long commute. There are currently 6 compact discs stranded in my car, I’ll be ticked if I don’t get that Sloan disc back soon…

The CD player died right before we went on our vacation, on a drive back from Boulder. Strangely, as the player had been acting up, I threw a couple of old cassettes in the car before the drive up. Sure enough, when it was time to drive home the CD player wouldn’t cooperate – wow, maybe I’m a psychic, or have a telekinetic connection to crappy CD players with ridiculous trunk loaders. Without pondering those possibilities too long, I threw an old Naked Raygun tape in the player and drove home. The CD player has been dead ever since.

The next question would be What in the heck was ol’ Nelvis doing in Boulder on a weeknight? I made the drive up to my old college town to catch Jonathan Richman at the Fox Theater. Despite the fact the Visqueen were playing that night in Denver, I made the trek up to granolaville as I haven’t seen Jo-Jo since leaving Seattle and was feeling the call. I was glad I showed up early – music was scheduled to start at 8:30, and the venue was insistent that there would be an opening act. At 8:40 Jonathan and his percussionist Tommy Larkins strolled onstage and started playing to a nearly empty house. I’ve seen Jonathan many times, and he’s ranged from great to just okay. That said he’s always a lot of fun and worth the time and money invested. This evening, his performance was closer to the “just okay” end of things, but still a lot of fun and he treated the audience to two sets (probably due to his early start and the fact that it took a while for people to start showing up). Jonathan sang a few too many songs in Italian and Spanish this time in my opinion, but that coming from a guy who can’t speak either of those languages. Tommy actually played on a small sit down drum kit this time, the first time I’ve seen him do this. Even funnier, Jonathan now has a fascination with playing the cowbell. Yes, you read that right, the cowbell. Tommy would go off on a drum break, and Jonathan would put down his guitar and join in on cowbell. This didn’t just happen once, but repeatedly. Oh, did I mention that Jonathan likes to play the sleigh bells now as well? Well, he does - almost as much as he likes playing the cowbell.

In the WTF Department: I did the vault closedown at work today, and had the “classic rock” station on the radio. For the most part, this particular station has really gone downhill since I originally left Cowtown. That’s Clear Channel for you, folks. Anyway, they were playing CD sides, and I was unlucky enough to experience some live Bad Company that was recorded a few years ago (yes, I realize I should have changed the station, but I was really busy and didn’t realize until it was too late that they were playing a full CD of this crap). After suffering through several of the old Bad Company “classics,” I was assaulted by them doing a Beatles medley. I can’t relate to you how painful this was – at first it was easy to ignore, but as they massacred one Beatles tune after another it became downright painful. It’s awful hearing a band known for its mediocrity reaching so far beyond what it’s capable of. If any of you ever run into Bad Company vocalist Paul Rogers, please kick him in the nuts on my behalf.