Seattle Wrap-Up

So last weekend I took a dreadfully long bus from Vancouver down to Seattle. Typically I think the drive should be 2.5 to 3 hours, but due to extraneous stops, a hold-up at the border, and arriving in Seattle in rush hour it was a long, stuffy 5 hours. I stayed at the lovely Green Tortoise Hostel (cheap, clean, convenient, free breakfast!), right across the street from the famed Pike Place Market. Even better was that the two Harvey Danger shows I was going to were at the Triple Door, just around the corner less than 2 blocks away. A quick recap: Harvey Danger was performing over the course of two nights all three of their albums in their entirety and a set of b-sides/rarities. Their sophomore release King James Version, which I bought for 99 cents several years ago in a HMV bargain bin, is one of my favourite albums of all-time.

It truly was a celebration of all things Harvey Danger, in honour of the 10th anniversary of their first album which spawned the hit Flagpole Sitta. The band came decked out in semi-formal attire with flowers on their lapels. They had a bevy of special guests singing back-up, a horn section at one point, and someone playing the funkiest electric cello. In total, I counted up to 15 individual guests just on the first night. A very cool moment: the dad of their former drummer Evan Sult (who's in another band in Chicago) played banjo on their cover of This Busy Monster's Underground, just as he did on the original album. The sound was excellent, though the venue had a surreal dinner theatre-like vibe. It's not often you sit at a candle-lit table at a rock show... They made a commemorative booklet "Harvey Danger's 10th Anniversary Public Spectacle" with liner notes from all the band members (and former drummer) reminiscing and telling stories about basically every song on every album and then some.

Cover-wise, my favourite moment was when the organ-intro from HD's cover of Bowie's Oh! You Pretty Things kicked in.... SWWWEEEEEeeeetness. They also played their cover of Save It For Later, which I found out that night they had never played live because they were tricked into recording it for the awful movie 200 Cigarettes. Basically they were asked to cover a 1981-82 era song, so the band submitted suggestions for Devo, Bowie, XTC, and Duran Duran, but the label demanded an English Beat cover. After the fact, they found out that the label was re-releasing the English Beat catalogue and their cover version, featured on the soundtrack and end credits, was intended to bring the English Beat to a new generation...? Something like that.

Harvey Danger - Save It For Later [originally by The English Beat]

After the 2nd show, I asked Sean Nelson about the status/whereabouts of his Harry Nilsson tribute album Nelson Sings Nilsson, which for a couple years has been limited to some myspace tracks and demos. "Oh, that's a long and painful story," he told me, but he assured me the project was not dead despite all signs to the contrary. Even if he has to put it up on his website, he said it will be released someday, somehow. Victory! GREAT things come to those who wait.

The opening group for both shows was a group who called themselves Alaska/Nebraska featuring Eric Howk and Jacob Hoffman from fellow Seattle-ites The Lashes. One's from Nebraska and one's from Alaska, hence the name which was informally chosen to grace the poster. Even though they ended up playing pretty much the exact same set both nights, we were simply treated to their beautiful folk ballads twice, captivating the crowd even though many of us were at both shows. As you can see in the photo, guitarist/vocalist Eric Howk was wheelchair-bound, a fact that I normally wouldn't think twice about, except that in summer 2006 I saw the Lashes open for The Living End in Toronto, a set particularly memorable to me because the Lashes' frontman Ben Clark jumped off the stage to dance, crushing my toes. When I got back to Vancouver, I was shocked to read that last May while at a party at a friend's house, Eric fell into a 12-feet deep hole left unsecured by the neighbouring lot which was under construction, an accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Eric, who was named for guitarist Eric Clapton, has stayed in good spirits since the accident, happy to be alive and still able to play the guitar. He has said, "It's a life change, but not an attitude change." Remarkable. Most of the songs played at The Triple Door can be downloaded from his myspace site Palmer, AK. I've posted a couple of my fav's here, thus sparing you the mind-numbing process of downloading from myspace. "You must be logged in to download" + no login button + crazy filenames once downloaded = annoying.
Palmer, AK - Noelly
Palmer, AK - Goodtime

A couple days ago I stumbled on a treasure trove of cover songs celebrating Seattle. Last August was the centennial anniversary of the Pike Place Market and to celebrate, they organized a 4-hour concert featuring Seattle-based artists performing covers of Seattle-famous songs! Streamed and archived on Seattle Channel, I got all the songs here though I apologize for the somewhat low volume levels.

The "house band" called The Iconics was made up of Dave Dederer and Andrew McKeag, guitarists from the Presidents of the United States of America; Mike Musberger, drummer for The Posies and The Fastbacks; Jeff Fielder, bassist from Sera Cahoone; and Ty Bailie, keyboard player from Department of Energy. Throughout the night they were joined by other featured guests.

Download a zip of all the songs here. Um, except Angel of the Morning will have to be downloaded separately because it was hiding when I made the zip file...

The Iconics - Seattle [popularized by Perry Como]
(feat. Paul Jensen of the Dudley Manlove Quartet)

The Iconics - Tall Cool One [originally by The Wailers]

The Iconics - Angel of the Morning [originally by Merrilee Rush]
(feat. Sean Nelson of Harvey Danger)
As you might have guessed, my stumbling upon this concert was purely because of looking up something Harvey Danger-related.

The Iconics - Spoonman [originally by Soundgarden]
(feat. Artis the Spoonman and Rachel Flotard of Visqueen)

The Iconics - I Don't Like Your Face [originally by The Heats]
(feat. Paul Jensen of the Dudley Manlove Quartet)

The Iconics - The Witch [originally by The Sonics]
(feat. Evan Foster of the Boss Martians)

The Iconics - What'd I Say [originally by Ray Charles]
(feat. Patrinella Wright of the Total Experience Gospel Choir)

The Iconics - The Old Settler [traditional; written by written by Francis D. Henry]
(feat. John Roderick of The Long Winters)

The Iconics - The Day Brings [originally by Brad]
(feat. Shawn Smith of Brad and Mike McCready and Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam)

The Iconics - Little Wing [originally by Jimi Hendrix]
(feat. Shawn Smith, Stone Gossard and Mike McCready)
It never occurred to me that Jimi Hendrix was from Seattle, having always associated him with... well, not Seattle in any case. But I found out from a Seattlelite that yes, Jimi was born here and buried in a Seattle suburb. During my visit I got to mess around with an electric guitar at the Frank Gehry-designed Experience Music Project and stop by this Hendrix statue near Broadway & Pine streets.

The Iconics - Spanish Castle Magic [originally by Jimi Hendrix]
(feat. John Roderick & Mike McCready)

The Iconics - Rock & Roll Pest Control [originally by The Young Fresh Fellows]
(feat. Chris Ballew of The Presidents of the United States of America)

The Iconics - Louie Louie [originally by Richard Berry]
(feat. Chris Ballew)

The Iconics - Barracuda [originally by Heart]
(feat. Choklate)

Mike McCready & Chris Friel - Star Spangled Banner [originally by Francis Scott Key]
I didn't know this until now but the American national anthem is set to the tune of an old drinking song. Very curious! Here, Mike McCready channels Jimi Hendrix's Woodstock incarnation of the anthem.

Chris Ballew - Peaches
An impromptu solo a cappella version of the hit for The Presidents of the United States of America.

Speaking of POTUSA, they just released a new album last week called These are Good Times People (with an aggressive internet marketing campaign). It's also got a nifty flip book music video for the lead single Mixed Up S.O.B. directed by Weird Al Yankovic, though it clearly wasn't meant to be watch on youtube or myspaceTV.

The Presidents of the United States of America - Froggie
My all-time fav POTUSA song.

Highlights of the weekend:

• I found out that a couple days ago Sean Nelson joined none other than Jonathan Coulton at the super-hyped SXSW festival on the Heather Gold show, playing a Billy Joel cover! They promise audio and video soon, but for now check out Heather Gold and JoCo covering Harvey Danger's Flagpole Sitta reading lyrics off an iPhone, heh heh. It's been over a year, but we're still waiting on Harvey Danger's cover of JoCo's Code Monkey...
  
• the session on a cruise that Sean Nelson performed with the Barenaked Ladies' Steven Page celebrating the solo music of Paul McCartney is on DIME as a DVD torrent!!! Brilliant. There were some special guests too like Sarah Harmer dropping by to perform Mull of Kintyre. If you have one of those elusive DIME accounts (like me, bwa ha!), then I definitely recommend that.

Cover of Your Choice

If you're a rich cover lover, you have about an hour left to bid on The Presidents of the United States of America covering a song of your choice. It's part of The Stranger's Holiday Gift auction. Other artists offering charity covers are The Posies, Dina Martina, Visqueen, Erin Jorgensen, and Say Hi.

Last year Harvey Danger did the same thing and the winner chose Jonathan Coulton's Code Monkey... though as of yet they still haven't recorded it yet.

Squirrel Nut Zippers Comeback Special

Here we go again with yet another Squirrel Nut Zippers post:


Even though I'm nowhere near where these shows are happening, I'm really excited about the upcoming Squirrel Nut Zippers mini-tour. It's only 4 shows, possibly just a one-off thing, and it starts next week!

February 6 -- The Birchmere, Alexandria VA
February 7 -- Ram's Head Tavern, Annapolis MD
February 8 -- Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill NC
February 9 -- Smith's Olde Bar, Atlanta GA

Go, go now if you can!

Last month, Zipper drummer Chris Phillips dropped by my blog with a comment ("where were you when we needed you?") on a year-old post I made about the band. At least, I'm inclined to believe it was Chris Phillips and not an impostor commenting on one of my first blog posts ever from mid-2005 pretending to be Chris Phillips. . . um, not likely I think. While not as exciting as, say, meeting Terry Gilliam last year, the virtual presence of the drummer of my 2nd favourite Chapel Hill band (hint: #1 band has the initials BFF) had me beaming momentarily. The current line-up of Zippers is Jimbo Mathus, Katharine Whalen, Chris Phillips, Stu Cole, Je Widenhouse and Will Dawson, who I'm led to believe was the last recording/touring line-up from 2000. From their press release: "Life is mysterious. You never know when something might appear or disappear. Take it while you can get it, because for now, it's the Squirrel Nut Zippers."

The ol' "good things come to those who wait" seems appropriate here. My favourite bands that have reunited over the past couple years: Harvey Danger, The Presidents of the United States of America, The Philosopher Kings... and now tack on the Zippers to that list. I've said it before and I'll say it again, still waiting for Moxy Fruvous to rise out of the ashes of their "hiatus" which is 7 years and counting.

On a not-so-happy note, key ex-band member Tom Maxwell will not be among the newly reunited Zippers. Maxwell is responsible for writing their big hit Hell, among a flurry of other great Zipper songs. From a recent blog post on his mySpace: "Most of you are probably aware that my relationship with most of my former bandmates is sour, and continues to be litigous. I don't wish any of them ill will, but sure as f*ck wouldn't step back on stage with them." Please continue to read his full post to see why (understandably) SNZ is the least important thing imaginable and why the band is dead to him. Ken Mosher is another familiar band member who will have nothing to do with the latest incarnation of the band. Actually, Maxwell and Mosher both quit the band in 1999, an album and tour before the rest of the band broke up. The SNZ saga is outlined in quite tragic detail in this article.

Related links:
A recent SNZ article on their upcoming gigs can be found here.
The Official website is now back online here
The Official Zipper mySpace is also up here.

Squirrel Nut Zippers - Do It This Way
Squirrel Nut Zippers - Evening at Lafitte's
Squirrel Nut Zippers - Got My Own Thing Now
Squirrel Nut Zippers - Bedlam Ballroom
Squirrel Nut Zippers - The Ghost of Stephen Foster (live from Sessions at West 54th)

Jeff Warren - Galang-al (Trou Macacq) [SNZ vs. M.I.A.]
Quite possibly the only Zippers mash-up.



And for your cover fix, in the spirit of band reunions:

Mel Tormé - Happy Together [originally by The Turtles]
Konishi Yasuharu - I Want You Back (readymade 524 mix) [remix of the Jackson 5]
Steel Train - I Want You Back [originally by the Jackson 5]

Katharine Whalen - Want You Back
Not a cover, but apropos nonetheless. This solo effort is from the only female Squirrel Nut Zipper's 2006 album Dirty Little Secret.

...and in the spirit of bitter band break-ups:

The Jeff Healey Band - Communication Breakdown [originally by Led Zeppelin]
Matchbox 20 - Never Going Back Again [originally by Fleetwood Mac]
The Canadian Brass - You Never Give Me Your Money [originally by The Beatles]

2007 will also see David Lee Roth return to Van Halen and The Police back together too. Lesson: never say never!

Stop the Presses! The Squirrel Nut Zippers are back!

About 3 months ago I was prepping a post on the ex-Squirrel Nut Zippers chanteuse Katherine Whalen who put out a solo album earlier this year. I got sidetracked and never finished the post, but now there's a damn good reason to revive the post. I just randomly checked out her website and found out that the Zippers will be back and performing a select few dates next year in the southeast US! That is, without key members Ken Mosher & Tom Maxwell, who aplit from the band and tour separately as the aptly named Maxwell/Mosher Band... more on that later. The Squirrel Nut Zippers are one of my favourite bands ever and criminally underrated. They were often lumped in the same group of 90's swing craze bands that included Cherry Poppin' Daddies and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, though I think the Squirrel Nut Zippers were vastly superior and whose music was much more multi-dimensional, covering a wide range of musical styles that defied easy categorization. Yet it all went belly up about 5 years ago. Once I was wearing a SNZ shirt at work and a patron was like "Squirrel Nut Zippers, eh? Whatever happened to them?". I didn't know then, and now I kinda know.

Up until recently, I was oblivious to the traumatic series of events that eventually tore the Zippers apart, but I came across this article from this past May that absolutely broke my heart. Go take a read and come back, I'll be waiting... Yikes, one sad part was Whalen was forced to sell her banjo and return to waiting tables (!). No, not the banjo! From the article: "Yeah, I ran out of money, so I sold it," she says. "But that's OK. It's just a banjo. Getting divorced was much more stressful. Much sadder." Whalen was married to fellow member Jimbo Mathus and the band, in fact, grew out of impromptu jam sessions at their home. The Zippers went from playing at Clinton's inauguration and a platinum-selling album to vicious in-fighting and legal action that befits a particularly jam-packed episode of Behind the Music, a fact alluded to by ex-member Tom Maxwell in the article. Another article I just read here, describes the acrimonious period recording the record label contract-induced Christmas album (phoned it in) and "band-not-talking" recording process of the album Perennial Favourites. During that album, the band couldn't even stand being in the same room together so they recorded in little groups or at one point cobbled a guitar solo together out of some half-hearted takes...Yikes! Man, even at their worst, the Squirrel Nut Zippers were unbelievable. It's a testament to the immense talent of the Zippers that amidst the behind-the-scenes hell, they put out a fantastic album chock-full of some of my favourite tracks including the wicked Ghost of Stephen Foster, which features honourary band member Andrew Bird who went on to become a great artist in his own right. It's a shame that all sorts of crap happened to bring down such a great band.


Here's a mish-mash selection of Zippers-related paraphenalia including covers, semi-rare live performances, and tracks from the SNZ family of artists.

Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hell (Springfield remix)
Back in the Napster days, I stumbled on the Squirrel Nut Zippers quite by accident with this remix while searching for Simpsons mp3s. From the "Sauter Sonic Labs", someone cleverly took the Zippers one hit song Hell and mixed in Simpsons quotes about hell and the Devil. After a few listens I started wondering about the underlying song, which was actually quite catchy. As was the case with a lot of crap from Napster, the MP3 was mis-labelled and required some lyric searching to finally find out it was the Zippers. Luckily the ol' Edmonton Public Library was well-equipped to fuel my new-found Zippers obsession, carrying almost all their albums plus spin-offs like Katherine Whalen's Jazz Squad, the Jim Mathus Knockdown Society, and Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire. The SNZ continue a strange tendency I have to latch onto a band after they break-up or go on indefinite hiatus, only to resurrect years later (see: Harvey Danger, Presidents of the United States of America, or The Philosopher Kings). I'm still waiting, Moxy Früvous...

Squirrel Nut Zippers - Lover's Lane (Live on Conan O'Brien)
Squirrel Nut Zippers - I've Found a New Baby (live in Munich, Germany)
I really wish I could have seen them live... The long defunct site Passed Out on the Landing (from a SNZ lyric) serves as a handy guide to their side projects, compilation tracks, old/new bands and so on.

Katherine Whalen - Dirty Little Secret
When I was working on the original post, I was going to focus on Katherine Whalen's new-ish solo album Dirty Little Secret. It's a far departure from her days in the Squirrel Nut Zippers, but her voice is as hypnotic as ever. Whalen also put out a great album of jazz standards under the title Katherine Whalen's Jazz Squad. Seriously, it's great.
Katherine Whalen's Jazz Squad - After You've Gone
Katherine Whalen's Jazz Squad - Yesterdays

Jim Mathus Knockdown Society - Blues Jumped a Rabbit
Zippers co-founder, Jimbo Mathus branched off into the blues with his solo act The Knockdown Society.

Ben Folds Five - Army
Tom Maxwell and Ken Mosher of the Zippers joined the horn section on fellow Chapel Hill artists Ben Folds Five. I've read that the distinctive cackle heard just after Ben sings "My redneck past is nipping at my heels" is none other than Mr. Maxwell himself. After leaving the Zippers, Maxwell would later tour with ex-Ben Folds Five bassist Robert Sledge as The Minor Drag. Ben also did a cameo in the Zipper's music video for Suits are Picking Up the Bill. When I was travelling this summer, I was dumbfounded to find out my room-mate at a hostel in a Salzburg, Austria was from North Carolina. This was the day after my Edmonton Oilers beat the Carolina Hurricanes in game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals (Carolina would ultimately win... grrrrr), and here I was halfway across the globe in a room with this guy. So random! But amazement at the coincidence turned to disbelief as I found out he barely knew they had a hockey team and had only vaguely heard of Ben Folds and the Squirrel Nut Zippers, who are two of the most prominent acts to come out of his homestate. So much for local pride. Bah to him!

Squirrel Nut Zippers - Under the Sea [originally from Disney's The Little Mermaid]
I posted this last year, but here it is again. I say more bands should do Disney covers. Future post mayhaps?

Asleep at the Wheel featuring Squirrel Nut Zippers - Maiden's Prayer [originally by Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys]
Sorta a old-school country swing song with the always lovely Katherine Whalen on lead vocals.
EDIT (12/13/2006): I was just checking out the liner notes and this is actually Asleep at the Wheel with the Squirrel Nut Zippers as guests.

Maxwell/Mosher - Little Boxes [originally by Malvina Reynolds]
They were announced as one of the artists performing this song for season 2 of Weeds. I'm not sure what happened, but it looks like it was never used. Well, I found it so take a listen.




Andrew Bird & Nora O'Connor - Oh Sister
[originally by Bob Dylan]
Andrew Bird - Case in Point
Semi-regular Zipper, Andrew Bird has the distinction of making my Top 10 most played iTunes tracks twice. I'm eagerly looking forward to his new album next year, tentatively named Armchair Apocrypha. Should be a keeper for sure.





Covers of the SNZ are hard to come by, but here are a couple:
Streetlight Manifesto - Hell (live 2005-04-22 at The Forum, Tunbridge Wells UK)
My-Tea Kind - Blue Angel (live)

Other unexpected SNZ appearances:
Their hit Hell strangely used In a Turkish Rinso(?) commercial on where else? YouTube.

Anyone have a MP3 or video of the Squirrel Nut Zippers on Sesame Street? Apparently they performed a parody of their own Put a Lid on It. You can read about it here, but that's about it...

If you ever wanted to hear Put a Lid on It re-imagined as a political rally for change, go get the MP3 from here. Rickie Lee Jones performs with Maxwell/Mosher.



Some seasonal tunes:
Squirrel Nut Zippers - Santa Claus is Smoking Reefer [originally by Johnny Guarnieri with Slam Stewart]
This hidden track from their EP is actually a cover of a song called Santa's Secret originally recorded in 1944 (!).

Squirrel Nut Zippers - Carolina Christmas
From their holiday album Christmas Caravan, which was forced upon them by the record label and they reluctantly churned out. That doesn't mean it's not good though.

(Pssst... their entire 1998 Christmas album can be snagged here)

If you're not a fan already, I'd seriously consider checking them out. If you're stumped for X-mas gifts, share the Squirrel Nut Zippers with a loved one.

TV Tunage

Here are a bunch of full-length songs used as TV Themes:

The Rembrants - I'll Be There For You [Friends]
I never really watched Friends, but I remember when this was a radio hit in the mid-90s. Instantly catchy with some ridiculous lyrics: " When it hasn't been your day, your week, your month, or even your year . . ." Heh.

Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Having an Average Weekend
[Kids in the Hall]
Classic theme. Who knew this song had a title?

Lazlo Bane - Superman [Scrubs]
No, not the theme from Smallville, but Scrubs. One of my favourite shows (and a pretty good song too).

The Refreshments - Yahoos and Triangles [King of the Hill]
Never liked this show, but liked its theme.

Christopher Tyng - Futurama [Futurama]

Gary Burton & Friends - Tossed Salads & Scrambled Eggs
[originally from Frasier]
Had to include at least one cover here. A jazzy instrumental version.

The Presidents of the United States of America - Cleveland Rocks
[Drew Carey Show; originally by Ian Hunter]
Bonus! A cover used as a TV theme.

And just for fun:
Ira Newborn - Naked Gun Theme [AKA theme from Police Squad!]
Iggy Pop - Space Goofs Theme
The idea of Iggy Pop doing the theme to an animated monster kids show is brilliant warped. The little kids' monotonous chanting is a nice touch. A video of the opening sequence is here.