What Once Was New at this site...
From 9 April 2001
Well, it's the home stretch. April is here, and the countdown to the last show has begun. The opening act bandlist is spiralling now--we had wanted to restrict it to just Squeaky, our Brothers-In-Rock and with whom we've shared the stage (and drummers) some *20 times* since we both started rocking, but then Elsinore (a great band with both Producer Boy Mike Rotolante and Squeaky Steve) told us their 'secret' plan to bum rush Squeaky's gear and play a mini-set, and now Ithica have asked to open before Squeaky because they are Common Grounds faves and our Final Show IS during the CG's Anniversary Weekend, after all...but now Ithaca is probably NOT going to play anyway, for 'personal reasons'. Gainesville bands are funny, no?
So I don't think any of this is going to dissuade us from playing some ridiculous amount of time (two 90minute sets, perhaps?), but we DID hope to finish sometime before sunrise...anyroad, it looks like all the openers will have to play mini-sets, since this is Our Big Show. Plus WE had a post-Squeaky opener planned, too--erstwhile Semantics drummer Blue Lang claims he's coming to town to play 3 or 4 songs from our first-ever cassette-only release Some Antics by The Semantics in original trio format. Plus there's the multimedia presentation, Charlie McWhorter's pinata full of death and other surprises guaranteed to drag the night out.
It's going to be a great, great night, of that I am sure: just get your disco nap in early that evening, and we can all go have breakfast after the show.
Finally, for larfs, check out the quite swell review of our Penultimate Show at the Common Grounds last month written by J. Maggio and featured in the current issue of Moon Magazine. 'After you have heard one of their songs, even the noisy 'bleeps', 'boops' and 'swquas' stick in your head...'
From 16 February 2001
Hey, everyone, thanks so much for those above-mentioned condolences--it's really very sweet and touching that people have written in to share our pain. It sometimes felt like we were All Alone in our Rocking, but these notes remind us that we were part of something bigger. So thanks again.
Plans are still a-brewing for the historic Final Show at Common Grounds on 21 April. A MiniDV film crew--who have worked with Anson Williams and Jack Wagner, among others--is flying in from LA to shoot the final show and make a documentary we've working-titled 'The Lost Wallets' (ask Robbie Robertson what that means). And PC Artist-In-Residence Charlie McWhorter (who created the lovely oil painting of the burning circus for our first album The Kingdom of Idiot Rock) is preparing an effigy of the band to be filled with rotten meats and cheeses and then destroyed, pinata-style, on that fateful night...
And one other piece of good news: our song 'Ballyhoo' won Honorable Mention in the Secular Humanist Song Contest sponsored by the New Jersey Humanist Network. (You may recall that Ballyhoo is a song written on commission for the University of Montevallo (AL) Philosophy Club's Annual Faith v. Reason debate back in April 1999.) First prize in the Humanist Song Contest--$500!--went to Gerry Dantone's song 'Love Is The Only Priest'...now, I don't want to be a sore loser, and I'm sure Mr. Dantone is a fine person and musician, but I am certain that his song was not a rollicking mock-gospel/tent revival song with lines like 'Please don't have a sacred cow/Because I'm holier than thou'. Nor does his song have a D7b5b9/F# chord in it, I'd wager. Still, I guess it's an honor just to be nominated.
With love for all humanity,
Ned
From 02 February 2001
There's not much more to say about these last three shows ever for PopCanon--or as I prefer to think of them: one big farewell show spread out over three months. So I 'm just going to reprint the Rant & Rave from today.
This is the PopCanon Rant & Rave v4 #1 for 2 February 2001: No fooling.
OK, it's time to 'fess up. The curtain is dropping and we're leaving the stage. After April 2001, PopCanon will officially cease to be. What d'ya know? The rumors turned out to be true...
PopCanon has played more than 200 shows since Founder's Day, 17 June 1995, when Ned & Blue backed a startling and talented 12-string acoustic guitarist with the unlikely name of M. David Hornbuckle exactly one hour after seeing him play a solo set opening for the band Planet Ten. In those six years, we've played in clubs, bars, pubs, hellholes, pizza palaces, art museums, coffee shops, university debates, bookstores and festivals; we were the pit rock band for a production of Jesus X Supercar; we lived through an East Coast tour. We bought a van, fixed it up and drove it into the ground.
PopCanon won the Hogtown Music Award for Favorite Pop Band twice and won Favorite CD of the Year for d'art. We put out nearly 60 songs over four independent CDs; we made a video using Playmobil dolls. Our music and stage show delighted some, irritated others and confused the rest. We were NOT a ska band. We read a lot of books and wrote more songs than necessary about that fact; that some of them were actually good was funny.
We handmade and sold PopCanon tshirts, tights and underwear...but also sheet music, nightlights, spatulas and an illustrated calendar; we never sold very much of this stuff. We were once fed an amazing barbeque dinner in Montgomery AL; on a different trip, we got into a drunken screaming brawl--ah, the rock life. We were once paid $0 at a club in Washington DC.
We played with lots of amazing bands and made some real friends. We realized that playing rock music is both one of the silliest things you can do, and at the same time one of the purest and greatest ways you can change your own life and the lives of others; and that the one hour spent on stage in a night can be some of the best fun you will EVER have.
And we could hardly have done *any* of that without YOU--so thanks for listening all these years. It really means something to us. It helped us go on this long. Hell, six years is longer than lots of people stay married--imagine being married to 5 or 6 other self-centered egomaniacs who are *just like you* for that long! It gives me the fantods, as Tom Sawyer once said.
Anyroad, we're not dead yet: there are still three more shows to play before we have a Viking funeral and burn down the drum kit and backflip through a plateglass window wearing a cow teddy. We're playing a show a month for the next three months, all of them at our favorite venue, the Common Grounds Coffeehouse. And each of them will feature musicians with whom we've shared some of our favorite memories. All you people who have been meaning to see the band, this would be the time. First off:
SHOW TOMORROW!
Saturday 3 February -- Common Grounds Coffeehouse, Midtown Gainesville FL.
The full 6piece PopCanon. Opening act is Red Label Revolver, a great band fronted
by our pal Stuart McNair, formerly of our dearly-beloved sister band from Tuscaloosa,
Pain. (We played 14 shows with Pain since our first one together in July 1997.)
THE PENULTIMATE SHOW:
Friday 16 March -- Common Grounds Coffeehouse, Midtown Gainesville FL.
Ned's 35th birthday--how poignant. Opening act is Andy Wagner, formerly of Idiot
Savant Garde, the mathrockers from State College PA with whom we Toured
the East Coast last year. Andy has a track on Blinder's comp of Police covers
which will be out next month, just like us: our track is Synchronicity II. We
played with Blinder on the East Coast Tour, too. That's what Mr. Sting would
call 'synchronicity', no?
THE ULTIMATE SHOW:
Saturday 21 April (date subject to change) -- Common Grounds Coffeehouse, Midtown
Gainesville FL.
During the CG Anniversary Weekend. Opening act will be Squeaky, our favorite
band. We've played *20* shows with Squeaky since our first one together in May
1996, more than with any other band. We love them. Some of them have been IN
PopCanon from time to time. Pretty freaky, eh? Wheels within wheels, people.
More on this show as it develops. And it surely will.
So, there it is. We all knew this day would come. And it has. Excuse me, we've got something in our eye...
Love,
PopCanon
From 19 January 2001
Yeehaw! It's a gnu year, a gnu millennium, a gnu zoo review (coming right at you)...
PopCanon is not dead! We're just resting our eyes or something. We do have two shows lined up so far this year, both at the Common Grounds Coffeehouse in lovely midtown Gainesville. The first is 3 February, and opening for us will be out Painpal Stuart McNair's band Red Label Revolver. Then, six weeks later, we play again with our pal Mr. Andy 'ISG' Wagner. Both shows are expected to be full band events and they are not to be missed.
Our kickass cover of Synchronicity II is in the capable hands of Blinder right now and awaits its March release. They have taken the comp's title--Many Miles Away--from our song. How cool is that?
Occasional updates to the Reviews section are still happening, but it is true that things have slowed down quite a bit at PC Central. Hornbuckle's rocking frequently with Eurotoaster, Robby is busting out his futuristic Roland octipad with One Drop, Alyson is Avant-Bitching, Don's still in South Florida and Michael's still in California. And here I am, writing yet another What's New! column for our 4.5 hardcore fans...But these things happen, don't they?
Hey, um, have you been watching Ken Burns' JAZZ on PBS this month? It's pretty cool, if you've got 19 hours to kill. It's cool even if you don't.
Also, if you want to see part of PC (Me & Dave) playing some more fucked up covers, Project Dingo (our side project with Hairy & Steve of Squeaky) will be playing a special Valentine's Day show of all love songs at the Common Grounds on 14 February. Do drop in, if'n you can.
Yrs,
Ned
From 14 December 2000
Well. GW Boosh will be President. That's kind of disturbing, but what are you gonna do? Vote Nader, I say, and read Lynda Barry on Salon.
In band news, things continue to look up. Last month's Hammies and our victory for the Things About Which video at NOW.com are pretty great, and I've just cobbled together a version of the PopCanon pages from the NOW website in anticipation of getting our own copies of the Things video on our site sometime in the future. But, you know, it's the holidays and such, and everyone is just taking it easy for a few weeks.
We DID just finish a mix of Synchronicity II for Blinder's Police comp which will be coming out in March [btb, Mason, gorgeous job with those pages!], and also just finished a mix of the epic new PC song Do You? All hail Mike Rotolante! We'll need to sit on these mixes for the next couple of weeks and see if they stick, but our gut impression is they rock like nothing has ever rocked before. Really, they're awesomely good, and both used the studio as an instrument in a way that we never have quite done before, and let me say it was FUN! Soon enough we'll slap them up on our site, or maybe post Do You? to mp3.com before if comes out on our pal Andy Wagner's comp next year.
Finally, if you're in Gainesville, do drop by the Common Grounds on New Years Eve to experience The Human Jukebox with PopCanon, Eurotoaster (Hornbuckle's glAmericana band) and Project Dingo (the Ned&Dave/Hairy&StevefromSqueaky band) playing some of your favorite hits of the 60's, 70's and 80's! And we'll usher in the REAL millennium.
2001--is it also about The Love?
Ned
From 29 November 2000
Woo-hoo, so much good news! PopCanon won TWO Hammy Awards this year, for Favorite Pop Band and Favorite Local CD! In your face, Pawn Rook Four--All Hail PopCanon!
Also, our video for Things About Which has just premiered today at Now.com, a British TV show/website.
And we just did some more recording last night (with more planned for December) on Do You? and Synchronicity II for the Blinder Police comp.
Things are going pretty well, for a band that hardly plays anymore and has members scattered throughout the country...
Ned
From 03 November 2000
Election is just around the corner .... feeling woozy about 'choices' ... love Nader as a truly great American, hate Gore but fear helping Bush ... ah, what to do, what to do? Oh, I know--how about ROCKING?! PopCanon (with Michael but probably without Don) will be playing at Borders this Saturday from 4-6pm. We're doing some recording that day so we squeezed in a late-afternoon show in the convenient pre-dinnertime slot. Come on out, buy a book, hear some music. And it's free.
Recording, you ask? Yes, our buddies in Blinder have asked us to join their comp of Police covers, and we'll be recording a version of Synchronicity II this weekend, and probably some other favorite covers like the Zorn medley, XTC's Respectable Street and Handshake Squad's There's Something Wrong with Nancy just for laughs. Then we'll put out another limited-edition CD EP, like PopCanon Covers It Up, except with a bunch of copyright control issues!
Speaking of the Squad, we've just posted some pix of our show at BONK-Aid last month. There are some cool shots of us, the Squad and Orange Stoole Chariot. And that gorgeous videographer in a paper suit...
Finally, the wacky playmobil-filled video of Things About Which is finished, but we haven't been able to post it on our site yet. Soon we will, and soon you'll see it. And probably sooner than all that happening you can find snippets of it at MP3TV.com/30second pitches at the Network of the World, from England. Yes, that England.
One more show at the end of this month, at the BlowHole with Squeaky! But mostly, laying low, and twirling, endlessly twirling...
Yrs in rock,
Neither Kang nor Kodos
From 2 October 2000
OK, PopCanon (minus Michael & Don) will be playing MoeFest II this Friday at the Common Grounds: good clean fun for the whole family. Why not come?
Great thanks are in order for our fill-in musicians of the last few
weeks: first, to Christopher Weingarten of the Christopher
Weingarten Basement Funk All-Stars, who filled in on drums for us last Saturday
at a surprise show at the Kit Kat Club in Orlando. Chris did an amazing job
with the songs after only a single practice, and we all plan to start hearing
again real soon...
And mad props also go out to our boys in Squeaky,
all of whom helped us out a few weeks back at the Common Grounds when neither
Robby nor Michael could play. Steven and Karl both played bass, and Danny,
Steven, Karl AND Hairy all played drums, too! It really was too fantastic
for words--and even though it's probably not mathematically possible for us
to love Squeaky MORE than we already do, I think after this show we love Squeaky
more than it is even possible to... Thanks to you all.
It's surprising how we are still able to keep playing shows even without key members of the band--who would have thought that PopCanon was a band that anyone could just jump onstage and fill-in with? I guess our songs are much simpler and enjoyable than has been previously reported...
In website news we've added the lyrics to our two newest songs--Do You? and Train's In Trouble, which we've recorded but not yet released. We expect to get those out in some form soon, maybe on a compilation CD and certainly on our website and at mp3.com. Also, Dave & I have been working on a video for Things About Which that uses gorgeous live footage from a 3-year-old PopCanon/Squeaky show at the Handlebar in Pensacola, and also wacky animations of some more Playmobil figures like we used in the d'art booklet. At some point I'm sure we'll have a small version of it on the website too. Hard to believe it's taken us five years to get around to making a wacky video, but you know we're cautious people...
In local band news we're all still agog about this ordinance requiring all musicians to buy an occupational license, but Alyson is fighting the battle for us and on behalf of our rock siblings and we think she'll be victorious. And there's also a very worthwhile Memory Project involving the Hardback Cafe' that you should be involved with--check out the Rant & Rave from 22 September 2000 for details.
Rock!
Ned
From 9 August 2000
Well, then...I guess the news about Michael wasn't very surprising to very many people. So far NO ONE has written in offering to replace him, though we did get a few nice messages concerning his Californification: One legendary Gville rocker e'd us with 'Jesus, what the HELL is PopCanon gonna do? I hate to say it, but he seems so irreplaceable - what with that math rock and all. Wow. Geez' while a local music producer weighed in with the flattering 'I cant tell you guys what PC has meant to me... Amazing.. on a great night you made me believe in music again... I've seen more PC shows than any other band, and loved all of them on some level... PC fandom is like a cult- ring.. (in a good way)... when you find a fellow fan, you bond... and then you argue with all the fucking idiots who dont get PC.. (fuck em') so, though I knew about Murphy, this email made it real... A sad day indeed....!!! Thanks.. You were the first G'ville band I liked and will always be my favorite...'
So all that's very very nice and gratifying, and sort of makes things even a little sad. Ehh, what are you gonna do? Life's like that, innit? (Tip o' the hat to the fabulous Vivian Stanshall of the Bonzo Dog Band for that one.) We are playing a couple shows this month, one sans and one nonsans Michael: next Wednesday the Ernie Ball portable touring 'Local Heroes' stage is driving through Gville, and as a consolation to us since we couldn't accept their offer to play the Warped Tour when it went through Jacksonville last month, they're having us play with some local bands and also The Pathetics, a band with Ernie Ball's son (what a coinkydink!)....I'll be playing Michael's MusicMan StingRay fretted 5string bass to commemorate the occasion. And then at the end of the month we've got a show at the infamous local dive Eddie C's Pub, for which Michael will return trailing clouds of glory--to play to our hardcore 8 fans: woohoo!
In recording news, we nailed down the backing tracks to Trains In Trouble and Do You? and then followed up with...nothing. But what's the hurry, anyway? These may become our first and last mp3-only releases...
And we finally dug up some swell pix from last year's Common Grounds show with (then future, now past, touring buddies--that's the pluperfect tense, kids) Idiot Savant Garde taken by Jay Maggio and Naomi Nelson. There are a few good ones of Scott 'Dirty Poodle' Beckey dancing and singing. Check 'em out.
Awaiting the 7hour Powerpuff Girls marathon on the Cartoon Network this Saturday,
Ned
From 18 July 2000
Hey. How are you today? We've got a few things still kicking here at PCHQ before we slow things down after July. This week we're heading back into the studio with our pal Michael W. Rotolante, a person we like, love and respect, to record a few new songs--the zippy Trains In Trouble, the well-liked and startling John Zorn medley and Do You?, Alyson's powerful and disturbing epic with the delightful refrain 'Jesus fucking christ! Put out the fire'...
We did play an amazingly good show last week with Handshake Squad from Tampa--they came, they saw, they freaked out the BlowHole. They were fantastic, and showed us how to really deliver the artrock goods. We love them, and will probably play more and crazier shows with them in the future.
...About that: we're playing a secret private show this weekend for some smart highschool kids who want to learn about rock, but then next week, when we play the MoeFest, it'll be without Michael Murphy on the bass. Michael, who first played bass in the Semantics and then PopCanon, is leaving Gainesville next week to take a posh computer job in California. It's a very smart move for him, but understandably, it significantly alters the PopCanon Train of Rock. But get this: he'll be commuting back and forth frequently, as he owns a home in town (which houses our magnificent, amazing RockRoom), so PopCanon WILL continue to play shows locally on occasion, and also record--but the days of jumping in the Bordello and heading off to, say, Montevallo AL are probably done. It's one thing when everyone in the band is under the same candy shell of mass hypnosis, where you all are united and excited about driving 350 miles to play to 30 people for $100, but after five years of that, and no substantial increase in audience appreciation (btb, we've still got about 700 d'arts if you'd like one), it's kind of hard to sustain the illusion that you're going to, you know, make it big as a rock band...
Please understand that I'm not complaining, though this is all rather sad--but if you're reading this message, then you certainly were one of the great people who supported us and was interested in all the strange, goofy, puzzling and sometimes brilliant antics of PopCanon. Frankly, I don't know that *I* could sustain interest in us for five years, either...were we an artrock band? a wacky novelty band? a punky smartass band? the JCS orchestra? a ska band? seasoned professionals or grizzled, bitter, just-don't-give-a-fuck-anymore wankers? the strange truth is that we are ALL of these and more. And I can understand that's hard to deal with after awhile.
But we made some really fine CDs that I'm proud of, and we are still recording new stuff even now, and PopCanon has played some really amazing shows with some great bands and in very interesting surroundings. Let's think of it as a new chapter, eh? That's fitting, for a bunch of book-obsessed dorks. Stay on the lookout for the occasional local show, and by all means, keep emailing us. You've all made this worthwhile, and I hope we've given you some music and memories that you know you'd never get anywhere else.
Yours in rock,
Ned
From 5 July 2000
Hi. Sorry I haven't updated this page in a while--I was busy, or something...Anyroad, here we are again.
We've played some cool shows in the last month; most recently, a show in Ft. Walton Beach FL with our old pals Squeaky, who not only rocked our lame asses but who filled in for an absent Robby on the drums--yes, all of them. Every one of them played drums with us at some point--it was delightful. We also played a few coolass shows with Ceiling Fan from Athens and Handshake Squad from Tampa: man, they're fantastic! We'll be playing with Handshake Squad here in Gville in just a couple of weeks. But first, this week's news: we're playing with Squeaky again, in Merritt Island FL on Friday; then we're heading back to Gville to make some green and annoy some pretentious goateed coffeehouse-types in the cafe' at Gville's Borders Books & Music. We like Dale, I'll tell you what...
We've got a few more shows in town this month, strangely: one public show downtown in the Plaza, and a private show on campus for some smart highschool kids who have never seen a real rock band up close before...
There's more stuff going on, but I'm tired...so tired. Check out the back issues of the Rant & Rave if you're that interested. It's shaping up into quite a summer.
Ned, the Wizard of Odd.
From 24 May 2000
HEY!! Sorry about the problems with our website. Our server moved to a new state and we've been having some problems with it. If you've sent us email or tried to access the pages, just keep trying. Everything's still there, it's just that the there is elsewhere...
Anyroad, we've got some great shows coming up soon that you can read about on the PopFormance page, among them:
A 2day rockathon with fantastic chykrawkers the Stimulants
and Sosumi in Orlando, Gainesvillle and Atlanta (8-9 June);
A 3day rockathon with likeminded maniac trio Ceiling
Fan in Gainesville, Miami and Tampa (15-17 June);
several gigs in July with our brothers Squeaky
in the Panhandle and Merritt Island FL;
and shows with our boy Stuart McNair
(from Pain), Andy Wagner (from Idiot Savant
Garde), the Pawn Rook 4 and our new
pals Handshake Squad
from Tampa, an artrock mindfuck band... it's quite a summer, i'll tell you what.
Must dash now, but check out our humongous finally-updated PopArazzi page, and we'll talk again soon.
Ned
From 7 April 2000
All right, if you hadn't already heard, we lost the semifinals of the Rock104 Battle o' the Bands last week by 8/10ths of a point! 8/10ths--can you believe it? We lost to BigHorn 4, who trounced us by playing both Roxanne by the Police and Runnin' with the Devil by Van Halen...what a world, what a world.
But lots of you turned out early to see us, and we surely appreciate that. Congrats to Fred Buhl, erstwhile violinist and Screaming Viking Mead maker, who won the coveted Six Days, Seven Nights DVD by correctly identifying Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures In Wonderland as the source of some lyrics in our song Impossible. 8/10ths of a point! Oy! Now we can't win the free studio time at Mirror Image to make our next album... oh, well--we still love d'art. Don't you?
Anyway, not much is going on at PC central lately--we've got these three shows in the state this weekend, which is a bit unusual, but it's probably a good idea to work ol' Florida for a while. I'm told the Sunday show is for an apartment complex that isn't even open yet, so we'll be playing essentially at a construction site surrounding a pool...freaky!
Here's some fun: want to see what your WuTang Clan nickname would be? How about if you were a CYBORG?
N.E.D. -- the Networked Electronic Device, aka Lesbian Pimp.
From 16 March 2000
Whew! Well, maybe I'm just lazy--or still worn out from The Tour, more likely--but I just can't think of much more to say in this What's New! column besides what I just put in the Rant & Rave. We survived The Little Big Tour (more or less), I haven't finished the Tour Diary, and we've still got some more shows this month, including one This Saturday at Borders. (Yes, Chris Weingarten, we are Corporate Zombies because we play at a chain bookstore--that's how we can afford to hit The Road and lose hundreds of dollars playing to 'hardcore' punkrawkers like yourself who think buying a touring band's CD is a sign of weakness...and anyway, Dale the Pale One at Borders is a helluva nice guy.)
Anyroad, here's a reprint of today's R&R, and I swear I'll try and do something new soon (though I think working on the Tour Diary will take me a while). Anyway, it's free!
**Man, that was some hard work! We survived our very first Little Big Tour (The I95N Tour, aka The C-PIGS Tour [C-PIGS--an anagram for the initials for the band names PopCanon and Idiot Savant Garde: it was that kind of tour, and we're those kind of people, you know: anagramists...])--whew! Even I got lost in all that punctuation. Let me start again.
Hey, we're back from our Tour of the East Coast, and we only lost $300 in expenses! And we only had to drive an average of 300 miles a day! And we only got one $100 ticket and only lost one wallet on the PA turnpike! And we only had one show cancelled because of a gas leak! And we only fled one crime scene--and then returned--AND we videotaped it, like those Really Dumb Criminals On TV! And we only had one show pay us $0 to play (average pay per gig: $17)! And we didn't kill each other! Though we may have seriously injured the van...
Soon, soon, it will all be in our Online Tour Diary, but we haven't finished that yet. In the meantime, however, you can look at some snazzy tour Polaroids that our boy Jason Fagone of the amazing Idiot Savant Garde (our partners in rock) took on the trip at http://reify.org/tour/
Much love, thanks and respect to Idiot Savant Garde & the Crochet Twins Rachel and Stef, Prelapse, Blinder and Ceiling Fan; plus DC's Greg Ceton & the Patsies; the Lazy I's Michael Wood; the swank abode of the family Cichan; the tri-state area's Koven, Janice and Pszyk; the Great Quail, Xian, Dave Russell and the Brothers Murphy; Ivan O., Eric Idiot & Dave Detweiler; Jess & Dave's floors in Athens; Bob; and Ed Sherrouse, who wisely avoided the gas leak. Thank you ALL for playing at, coming to, or letting us sleep at your house after The Shows. We couldn't have done it without you all.
UPCOMING SHOWS
*This Saturday 18 March*
Borders Books & Music Gainesville FL 352.331.2722
6837 Newberry Rd, next to Gateway Country by I-75
We rock the night away (quietly, in the Children's Section) from 8-10pm. As
before, a reading list will be provided.
Friday 24 March
Florida Theatre Front Room, University Ave. Gainesville FL
with Squeaky and Cracked Actor!
Thursday 30 March
Blowhole/Purple Porpoise, University Ave. Gainesville FL
Rock 104 Semifinals, Battle o' the Bands -- PC v. Big Horn 4 and Longwood.
One final note: we've picked up a couple of new reviews for d'art while we were gone--check them out here and feel free to write some yourself and send them to us.
Don't forget at 8.30pm (EST) on Cartoon Network: Brak Presents the Brak Special Starring Brak!
Bringing The Rock,
PopCanon
From 02 March 2000
All right, the calls have been made and made and made, the posters sent out, the media faxed, the van fixed and the bikini lines waxed--and even though we were picking up new shows as recently as YESTERDAY, the Tour is Ready! Though since, unsurprisingly, I'm still a little behind on my preparations for being On The Road, I'm just going to reprint today's Rant & Rave, but I promise a full Tour Diary when we return!
Friday 3 March (late addition!)
The Lazy I, 700 G Seaboard St Myrtle Beach SC 843.626.3740
with ExWife
Saturday 4
The Galaxy Hut, 2711 Wilson Blvd. Arlington VA 703.525.8646
with Idiot Savant Garde
Sunday 5
The Pontiac Grille, 304 S. Street Philadelphia PA 215.925.4053
with Prelapse
Tuesday 7
The Spiral Lounge, 244 East Houston NYC 212.353.1740
with ISG and Blinder -- we play first at 8pm SHARP!
Wednesday 8
The Velvet Lounge, 915 U St Washington DC 202.462.3213
with ISG and Quagmire
Thursday 9
The Rawbar, 13 E. Salisbury St Wrightsville Beach (Wilmington) NC 910.256.2974
with ISG
Friday 10
The Caledonia, 256 W. Clayton Street Athens GA 706.549.5577
with ISG and Ceiling Fan
Saturday 11
The Club, 4475 Shackleford Rd Duluth GA 770.972.2066
with ISG and others
Well, now, that turned out quite nicely, didn't it? As always, call before you haul -- any of these places might have been joking when they said 'Come on down and play!' but I guess that's a lesson we can only learn firsthand. Thanks again to all the people who helped us set these shows up (Greg Ceton and Mason & Megan Blinder) and to all the people on whose floors we'll be sleeping (you'll get thanked when we return, depending on the quality of floorspace!).
Man alive this was a lot of work to set up what's really a quite modest little tour--no wonder we only usually play Alabama one weekend a month...
RAVES:
Also, thanks to Squeaky Steven Bottom for filling in on the drums last week--hey,
the new Squeaky CD is phenomenal! Also, love to all our Montevallo AL brethren
& sisteren who came out to Barnstormers and bought our new stuff, and love
to Clay and the rest o' Couch for turning the fratty Blue Room into a Rock Pit
last weekend. We actually made enough money to fix The Van up a little bit for
The Little Big Tour, and for that we're grateful. We were actually able to get
a seat for the driver, instead of those unsightly milkcrates...thanks!
And thanks for supporting us all along--we hope to meet some of you for real (not just *virtually*) this week (Quail, Derek & Yazbek, we're looking in your direction...)
Whew! Are we there yet?
Ned
From 24 January 2000
All righty, we're back in the swing of things...this week we've got two shows in Orlando, after so many many weeks with no shows in Orlando. I tell ya, I don't know why that is--how we can be 'popular' and get bookings in the many states to the north but can barely get a booking down south: why is Florida so funny that way? Anyway, come on out if you get a chance--the show on the 29th is with our old pal Bing Futch and his new dulcimer-rock band Mohave, and next week's show is with the all-girl trio Sosumi, which we think should be pretty swell, too.
Last Monday we had our pals Blinder here from NY/NJ, and we played a big, weird game of John Zorn's Bezique at the Dish for about an hour...it was probably kind of odd and confusing to the 12 people in attendance, but it was a lot of fun for us on stage, and I suspect we'll keep doing it periodically.
We've just uploaded two more songs to our mp3.com page: ArtHole (parental advisory for the chorus 'I'm an Artist and You're an Asshole'!) and Don's 'funk' song Ironica, which is about what it's like to 'be' Don...gee, if you play yer cards right, you'll probably be able to download ALL our songs over time.
And we've finally reorganzed our massive Music page with complete song lyrics and lots of soundfiles. They're quite something.
Here's some excerpts from the latest review of d'art from InSite
Magazine:
If you like accessible pop songs, buy d'art. If you like extremely
proficient technical playing, buy d'art. If you like faux-swing songs
about faith versus reason, buy d'art. If you have even heard of Richard
Rorty, buy d'art. Hell, if you like cool music at all, go out and buy
PopCanon's new album d'art.
Ok, then, drive safe and we'll be back with you in a little while.
Ned 'What's a diorama?' Davis
From 3 January 2000
Wellity, wellity, wellity...how disappointed are we that we're not eating people's skin and eyeballs...guess that Y2K apocalypse thingy wasn't that big a deal, eh? Oh, well, there's always next year, when the REAL millennium hits us...
Anyroad, things are swell at PopCanon HQ. We're all well-rested after the pre-CD-release madness of last month, last year, last century! The groundswell of support for D'art is pouring in--here's Jerry Gerard's review (the first one!) from last month's Moon Magazine:
PopCanon
D'art
Tritone Music
The Idiot Kings (and Queen) are back with their patented boogie disease: call it Romper Roomerism. They got it bad and that's good. This time around, the TMBG/XTC-tics are fleshed out with Fab4 whimsy and more time changes than Zappa at his surliest. From The Artist/'SexyMF'-era swagger of Ironica, the Preservation Hall hullaballoo of Ballyhoo, the pocket-protector workout of See You, Don Undeen's four-second Dolphy-morph on HeyHeyHey, the melancholic Lights Out to the nutty instrumental Brainstroll, PC's never sounded better. They still piss you off: any band that couples 'peachy' with Nietzsche needs to be spanked. The rest of D'art needs to be applauded: it's an embarrassment of riches.
(Understandably, this is Don's favorite PC review ever, as it compares him to The Artist AND Eric Dolphy!)
By the by, here's our new D'art page at CDBaby--it's marvy. And we've already sold out our first shipment--order yours today!
Let's see--we'll be back to rocking very soon with renewed vim, vigor, piss & vinegar. We're down south in Sarasota in a couple of weeks, and we've got a special show at the Covered Dish at the end of this month that I'll tell you more about soon...
And perhaps, finally, an actual Spring Tour! Everything's still hush-hush and being planned right now, but it's possible we'll hit the road for a full 10 days in March and head up the eastern seaboard. More details to come, but if you live up that way, by all means help us out.
Y2K = Yes 2 the Kanon!
Ned
From 06 December 1999
I have but one word to say and that one word is YES!!
Yes, we got d'art delivered on time. Yes, we put together copies of Pricksongs & Descants too. Yes, the Tribute to the PopCanon Back Catalog at the Common Grounds went off brilliantly. Yes, we played at the new Borders the next day without Robby and it was still good. Yes, we made a little money and sold a few CDs. Yes, we are all still exhausted. And yes, we still have the official CD Release Party at the Covered Dish this week for which to prepare. But we're happy.
Man, was the Common Grounds Tribute fantastic!! Much love, props and thanks to all the participants: Chad King of Cowboys & Indians, whose unexpected Xmassy version of Hey Jude was very startling; Charlie McWhorter, who kicked the Tribute proper off with a version of Little Green Men that combined Kraftwerk with the Charleston; Jen Doody and her unannounced a cappella version of Valentine's Day, with the character of the Brother changed to a Mother for an even more deliciously transgressive lyric; the Chris Weingarten Basement Funk All Stars, who combined Metallica and Sabbath riffs with a montage of Valentine's Day and Merimble, plus a stunningly accurate transcription of the drum solo at the end of Fishbee Island; Hialeah Jorge Navarro, for a lovely all-Spanish version of Labyrinths; Ron & Mick from Spike the Cat for the vocal/sitar version of Punk Rock Loser; Frog for a truly terrifying gloss on War Machine, using a Ronald Reagan mask, a vocoder and a Tom Waits-brand megaphone; and finally Squeaky, who metallized I've Got A Theory (and it's about damn time!). And Deb of AllStar 69, thanks for trying--i'm sorry your band couldn't be there. But everyone, our hearts are full of love and wonder at your collective effort--thank you all so, so much. And a big up to Hairy Monkhorst and Ron Richter for working sound that night--it's so fucking hard to see through all the smoke in that place, but at least you could hear everything, and it was great. Tom Miller, fantastic MCing on your part as well, and the album is now officially pronounced Daaaaaaaaaart!
(Side note to Jared Flamm of Noah's Red Tattoo, John Youngman of Slack Season, Scott & Dan of Dirty Poodle, and my boy Paul Miller of Nice Guy Eddie: you are all a bunch of babies and you suck! What, you say you're going to participate and then you can't even make it down to the coffeehouse? How does it feel to have your collective asses kicked by a band named the Chris Weingarten Basement Funk All Stars?)
But forget all that: 2000 is all about the love. And it's also all about d'art, which you need to buy from us for the special price of only $8 this Friday at the Covered Dish. (After that it's $10 everywhere, but it's worth it. It's The Album of the New Millennium.) Opening acts this Friday are Gainesville's Brittle Stars and Athens' Elf Power, who are both great. And then we'll bust out all of d'art, right down to the banjo-ukelele and the electric sitar solo in The Composition: BrainStroll. Then next Friday we're opening for Big Sky down in Clearwater: how strange is that? Maybe WE can get on the Memorex karaoke machine box next!
Once again, thanks to everyone, especially sponsors Steve & Tina Ware and Jay & Naomi, who were right there with us this weekend--your support is invaluable. I'll write more after I've had another nap--I'm still exhausted from this weekend.
Finally happy, even if only for a moment,
Ned
From 02 December 1999
(Well, not exactly TODAY, but tomorrow around 10pm, the CDs will be released. 'CDs plural?' you ask...yes, because we weren't sure that we would have d'art completely finished by tomorrow night, we've also prepared Pricksongs & Descants, a 'fans only' companion CD that will also be available tomorrow and for as long as we keep lovingly cranking them out by hand. More on that next week. But for now let say that I can only Carlos or Butch or whoever it is that's driving the rickety cargo plane with our CDs in it crash lands on the roof of the Common Grounds and NOT the Islamic Student Center like last time...)
And we've got a couple of wild parties planned to celebrate. Tomorrow night (Friday 3 December) at the Common Grounds Coffeehouse on University Avenue we're going to have the first of two release parties and also host A Tribute To The PopCanon Back Catalog. Several of Gainesville's finest Rockerati will be covering some of our older songs in an egomaniacal--or is it megalomaniacal?--tribute to us. Confirmed as of 2pm today will be members of Squeaky, AllStar 69, Charlie McWhorter, Spike the Cat, Frog, The Chris Weingarten Basement Funk AllStars, and a few other surprises. It promises to be fantastic and quite fun, really. The marquee at the Common Grounds reads thusly: 'PopCanon CD Release with Cowboys & Indians (featuring Chad King) hosted by Tom Miller and special guest 24 total musicians come see the madness!'--if nothing else you should drop by and marvel at the world's largest marquee...
Then Saturday we're playing a couple of sets at the Borders Books & Music Grand Opening up on Newberry Road and I-75. It's right next to the new Gateway Country store. We'll be doing two sets of our most literate numbers and explicating some of them--a reading list will be provided. Plus, it's free!
Next Friday the 10th we're having our 'proper' CD Release Party at the Covered Dish, with Brittle Stars and Athens' Elf Power opening. That show will also be fantastic and you'll have much less chance of dying from secondhand smoke inhalation there, unlike the Common Grounds, which--although we love it--actually brings me to tears inside sometimes.
There's a lot more to say, but right now i'm just so exhausted from all the prep work of getting the CDs together and planning the releases. But thank you all for listening, and I hope to see all of you soon.
Ned 'I Need A Nap' Davis
From 19 November 1999
We're entering final countdown to the CD launch here at PopCanon HQ...things are looking good...though as usual with us it looks as if everything's going to come down once again to getting a Day-Of-CD-Release-Party shipment of our CDs delivered to the airport on a rickety cargo plane piloted by some guy named 'Butch'...it's so spy-like, you know? But boy, will it be worth it. Or will it? Who can say? Sometimes the workings of this band are a mystery even to me.
And apparently to some of the voting public: PopCanon was, not insensibly, nominated for Favorite Pop Band again this year by Moon Magazine's readers (we won this award last year)--however, we lost to Slack Season (who won nothing last year), and my boy John Youngman did have the grace to give me a shoutout from the Winner's Circle (perhaps because I was standing off to the side shouting 'Fix! Fix!')... But quite oddly, another local magazine, InSite, has awarded us several of their prizes, too: 5th Best Overall Band, 2nd Best Cover Band (folks, just because we played in the Clash tribute doesn't make us a cover band), 2nd Best Ska/Punk Band (goddammit, we're not a ska band!), 5th Best Live Performance, and--deliciously--2nd Worst Dressed Band! I think we received more awards than any other band, but none of them were for 1st Place. Ah, well, as I've said before, quoting my man Charles Ives: Prizes are for children.
But strangely, we weren't even mentioned in InSite's Best Pop Band Category, though our sister band the Chairs took 2nd place, and they also took Best Acoustic Act--congrats! Also, Hornbuckle took 5th Best Solo Perfomer (behind Kort McCumber, a guy none of us have heard of--ballot stuffing, anyone?). This fits in so nicely with us being voted Best Funk Band by the Alligator a few months ago--i mean, really! Are we that damn mysterious, or is it just that no one ever comes to our shows and the rumors are just a-flyin' that we're a funk or ska band? The guy from Ink19 pegged it pretty well: 'Quirk-rock auteurs with a skewed sense of humor that can only come from grizzled grad students.'
Sorry we had to cancel our shows this weekend--family illness and all that. But ever so soon: the CD Release Parties in December! Stay tuned.
Scratching my head,
Ned
From 1 November 1999
Dammit! Not only did we NOT win the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands last Saturday, we lost so totally we lost TWICE! The young-white-male funk-hop of Telefonic and 28 Gates both tied for First Place (and a chance to go on and win $25,000). Nice Guy Eddie took Second Place for their crisp set of modern pop, and we took Third AND Last Place. Now I know we can't win everything ALL the time, but DAMN I don't ever expect to take LAST PLACE! We were vanquished; we were smited; and I promise we will NOT learn any lesson from this...
On the good foot, however, we will be playing again in a couple of weeks. This coming Friday (5 November) Michael Murphy and I will be playing in the Minutemen/Mike Watt Tribute at the Covered Dish--we have a nuclear power trio with Rusty Valentine (famed cowbell shredder on our new album) called Three Way Tie, and it WILL be a fantastic show. All I'm going to say is: flannel-wearing handpuppets will be involved.
* [Post-show update from 8 November: oh man was this show good! Hayride and The Mercury Program were both fantastic, and I must say we kicked some serious ass our own selves. Much was made of our ability to discern the 'real' chords on the Minutemen record and reproduce them. As Dish owner Bill Bryson remarked to someone on the phone after our soundcheck: 'You've got to get down here--between them Murphy and Davis are playing 11 bass strings!' And great was the rejoicing about Rusty's puppetmastery. Finally, thanks to Tom and the other Mercury Program guys for letting us all use their gear, and thanks to the inestimable Christopher Weingarten who wrote a swell article about the show in the Alligator.] [Later post-show update from 2 December: Mike Watt's Tour Diaries give props about the show here.]
But the weekend after, PopCanon is back in your life again, and where else? Alabama! On the 12th we'll be playing at the new & improved Bernie's Corner in Montgomery with delightful instrumental rockers FEZ from Mobile, and on the 13th we're back to our old haunt Barnstormer Pizza in Montevallo with Stuart and Like A CreamDream opening. How can you beat that? Simply put, you cannot.
Bloody but unbowed,
Ned
From 18 October 1999
If you rock it, they won't come... that was our mantra this past weekend. Oh, well--thanks to the few people who did make it out to any of the three shows last week: it was nice to see each and every one of you.
And I guess we're good fighters or something, because we tend to do well at these Battle O' The Bands dealies -- a few months ago we won the MusicworX BotB that enabled us to record the lion's share of our new album for FREE at Mirror Image studios, and last week our show at the Blowhole with the Pawn Rook Four and Szechwan Pork turned out to be a Rock104-sponsored BotB too. I think we won that one, too, though there was no award other than the promise that we could come back another time. But as my man Charles Ives said: Prizes are for children.
However, we are involved in another good and useful BotB this month: from 2-5pm on Saturday 30 October PopCanon will be participating in the Sims Music/Ernie Ball-sponsored Live & Loud'r BotB, to be held in a big tent in the Sims' parking lot (4908 NW 34th Street, 377.8986). The Ernie Ball Gear Bus will be there (in case you've always wanted to play Michael's StingRay basses but were afraid--rightly--to ask), and so will free refreshments. The other bands battling are Nice Guy Eddie, Telefonic and 28 Gates, and I'll tell them what I told the PR4 and Szechwan Pork: YOU ARE GOING DOWN!! We could surely use everyone's support at this event--we'll be playing early and the judges like to see you appearing to wow the crowd. Speaking of which, the judges will be Stan Lynch (former Heartbreaker), Jim Sein (from UF's ElectroAcoustic Music Program) and Jackson Heart (you know, the nice DJ dude), so I guess we have a chance in hell to win something--the winner here goes into some kind of online-voting category which culminates in a showcase in LA and a Grand Prize of $25,000, which would do nicely to pay off our d'art d'ebt...
And speaking of d'art: it's finished! It's finally finished, mixed, sequenced and premastered. We need now only send it out for final mastering and duplication and we should be able to have our CD release parties in December as planned. The companion record Pricksongs & Descants (a compendium from the PC Feathered Vault, along with some nutty bonus tracks) will be complete as soon as we record the a capella ditty Parking Garage, which should happen any day now if Mike Rotolante will just call me back--Roto, pick up the phone!! More on these developments later.
Seriously, go check out Three Kings and get back to me, OK?
Ned
From 4 October 1999
'I want you...to want...ME!' That's right, Cheap Trick is back in the house, and we saw 'em! Saw 'em at BayFest in Mobile AL where we played this weekend. Seeing them play Surrender live almost made up for the fact that almost everyone who should have seen our set was instead watching Pain on the next stage...funny, that--with 150 different acts over 3 days (hey, did you know that Christopher 'Sailing' Cross is still playing music?), you'd think that we might get ONE of the other 148 slots that wasn't directly opposite Pain, but there it is. All I can say is: Circus music is for circus people!
But in spite of that we still had kind of a good time--Alabama is always good to us. We stayed at the palacial attic estate of Dan & Tony Lord and had a swell time, and even achieved our desired BBQ Hat Trick: we have now eaten delicious barbeque ribs at all three Dreamlands in Alabama--huzzah!
In recording news, we have set some dates for our CD release parties, in spite of the fact that we still have one more song to record, the a capella ditty Parking Garage, for Pricksongs & Descants, which is the companion record to d'art, our new 14-song opus. And no, it won't be like Use Your Illusion I & II...we'll keep you informed about the details of the CD release as the date draws nigh. If you'd like to check out a few advance tracks, go to our mp3.com page and check some out.
And now a note to the person or persons who stole all our display merchandise at the Sidebar last week: hey, what the hell's wrong with you?! If you love the band so much, and you simply MUST have our stuff, at least come TALK to us and don't just STEAL!! Thank you.
Finally, by all means, see us at ONE of our THREE shows this week: Thursday we're playing a show at the Blowhole (inside the Purple Porpoise) with the very cool Szechwan Pork, Friday night we're the Featured Attraction at the Common Grounds for the Tom Miller show, and then Monday we return to Durty Nelly's Irish Pub for two sets worth of non-Irish rock and several great Pogues covers.
Ned Davis as Chris Gaines
From 20 September 1999
Hot damn! The world just makes no sense to me sometimes. A hurricane fails to knock Florida over, we play three magnificent shows last week with Pain (and another is coming up this week!), and out of nowhere the Goo Goo Dolls (whose drummer Mike Malinin used to rock with me back in my highschool band the id...) put out feelers to have PopCanon open up for them on some SE dates next month. Who can explain such inexplicabalitiness? Not I, says I--I just take what comes.
First, bidness: don't fail to miss PopCanon playing three impressive sets this Thursday night at the SideBar downtown. It's free beer night, so you know what that means: 200 hotties drinking, smoking and dancing right on top of the band, frequently requesting 'Brown Eyed Girl'...then on Saturday we load up and hit the road, avoiding hurricanes all the while, and wend our way up to Columbia, South Carolina to play our special John Zorn/Naked City medley with clubowner/Zorn stalker Trey. Also we'll rock once again with our favorite band PAIN from Tuscaloosa AL!
Speaking of which, our three shows with Pain last week were fantastic! They've just finished their new album Full Speed Ahead, a copy of which I purloined and have been playing nonstop: it's amazingly good, and I'd like to think that someday soon when our swell new records (d'art and Pricksongs & Descants--both in their FINAL MIXING SESSIONS this week!) are out that we can barnstorm the country promoting them together. Our Friday night show here at the Dish with the Causey Way was the highlight: a huge and responsive crowd showed up, and although we were all exhausted from driving back from South Carolina the night before, we rose to the challenge and smoked it! Pain live was, of course, Pain live, and it was nice of Dan to mention his special PopCanon cock ring onstage. Thanks to Adam for trying to kill me by throwing me his guitar during Grudge so I could electrocute myself playing the solo. The Causey Way closed the night in typical deranged fashion, and a wonderful time was had by all, really. Expect more hijinkery in South Carolina.
Next week: an update on our finally-finished mixing sessions for BOTH our new records, previews of the material on MP3.com, and a reminder about our show at BayFest in Mobile on 2 October!
Ned 'Hi, I'm here to welcome you on behalf of the president of the Globex Corporation... me! Try the papayas. They're juicy and full of papayian! Makes you strong like Popeye! Popeye, papayian! Popeye, papayian! See? Same thing, same.. ah.. forget it! Hi, how are you? I'm Hank Scorpio' Davis
From 6 September 1999
Three shows in a row with Pain--how can such a thing happen? Well, who understands the mysteries of the universe? No matter what the reason, the fact remains: we're playing thrice this week, and every show is with our Pals from Tuscaloosa Pain--hot damn! We always play better with them, 'cause they're so freakin' good we're afraid of sucking in front of them (and i think they feel the same way about us, oddly enough---you know it's all about the love). Also, they tend to draw a fine crowd, and we like playing to lots of people instead of our usual compliment of empty chairs and surly barpeople.
At every show we'll be playing directly before Pain, so don't be late to any of them! In Gainesville the headlining band will be the erstwhile Causey Way, a cool/freaky/Devo-esque/lab experiment gone awry--when you come out, set your faces to stunned'. Later in the month we'll play with Pain again in South Carolina, and we'll bust out a couple of new covers by downtown saxophonist/composer John Zorn's brilliant band Naked City that totally rock ass.
And then this good news: we've finally broken (it seems) the Festival Curse. PopCanon finally got into a festival, after many notable failures--on Saturday 2 October we'll be playing at Mobile's BayFest, comically enough right before Pain! Be there, and stick around to see Cheap Trick later that night.
In recording news, we've done a lot of mixing lately and we've still got a bit to go, but DAMN it sounds good! This album is going to kick all sorts of magic monkey ass, mark my words...all hail Mike Rotolante! We're looking into neato digipaks and of course still desperately need about $2000 to print it: if you'd like to become our Executive Producer or Sugar Teat by all means contact us immediately. All donations will be accepted (from $25 to $2500)--see the Rant & Rave v2 #16 for 17 June 1999 for specifics. As before, this is not a joke. Thanks so far to Mutant Bob Forsman, John from Michigan, Sue & Leo.
Finally, i'm very very pleased to report that my amp is not destroyed. As mentioned below, last month in Alabama somebody spilled my ginger ale all over the back of my amp, but our own gearboy Michael Murphy cleaned and fixed it for me--solid!
Before seeing our shows this week, might i suggest checking out The Sixth Sense? It could have turned out horrible, what with Bruce Willis and all (sure, he was fine in Die Hard and Pulp Fiction--12 Monkeys, even--), but instead it was really quite good and creepy. That kid was outstanding--put him and Edward Norton together in a movie: they're like brothers!
Ned 'Have you voted for us in the Hammies yet?' Davis
From 23 August 1999
Well, then! Here we are, back in your life again. What have we done for the last three weeks, when we haven't been out rocking your asses? Ehh, this and that: we finally FINISHED recording our planned tracks for d'art (14 and holding!) and we plan to mix them this week. Then if we can just find about $2000 we can put it out in a coolass digipak with striking artwork by October...by all means, if you'd like to contribute to the PopCanon d'art fund, contact us! A mere $1000 will give you Executive Producer credit, but we have several levels below that--see Rant & Rave v2 #16 for 17 June 1999 for specifics. This is not a joke: everyone in a band knows what it's like to spend ALL your bandfund--and lots of your own money--on making the recording, only to be faced with the daunting task and cost of duplication...oy!
We also hammered out a plan for a simultaneous release of a companion album to d'art to be filled with the odds & ends of three years of intermittant recording. We're calling this one Nothing et. al. and it will in some ways hearken back to the old Semantics days, with some older gems and favorites from live shows, plus more of those illegal secret bonus tracks!
But before all that comes The Rock: join us tonight at Durty Nellys in downtown Gville for a Rockstravaganza with superfine glam punk band AllStar 69! We'll be playing a set heavy with Pogues and Clash songs, and you won't want to miss that. And I don't want to see anybody not dancing when AS69 starts the disco ball aswirlin'...
Last week we played in Alabama, and it was a trip of extraordinary highs and lows. Friday night we played in Auburn for the second time, and though my roadie Mr. Chorus Pedal wasn't there, we did see new convert Derek again--thanks for coming. But really, the night was not about us: it was about having our asses blown out by Couch! Oh man were they good--for the first 40 minutes of their marathon 2hours+ set we were just frozen in our seats in stunned admiration of their riveting combination of Mr. Bungle, dropD deathmetal, Steve Howe, Les Paul & Mary Ford. A Big Up to our boy Clay Couch, who brought us there and let us stay at his place--thanks again, Clay, though you might want to think about cleaning up the molded-over dogshit in the spare room, if only for your own sake...
And then there was Saturday: we got to Montgomery early because we had been invited to a little cookout/party by Brian Kelly (bartender at the 1048) and his wife Cheryl. We were expecting chicken wings and RC Cola, which is still better than we usually eat on the road, but Good Gravy! we were not prepared for what we found: there must have *50 pounds* of fresh prime Alabama barbeque in the kitchen, along with huge platters of vegetables, bowls of beans and potato salad, bread, pies and a fantastic molasses-y Bostonian bbq sauce! We were stunned, and soon, we were stuffed. The food was amazing, the house was beautiful and full of original art (Alyson bought one of Cheryl's paintings), and everyone else at the bash was just so nice to us--it was very, very terrific. We tried to make some small contribution to the evening by offering witty and contrary opinions on all subjects under discussion (hey, did everybody know that Bill Clinton is apparently the Fuhrer of AmeriKKKa? Alabama's political scientists are pretty ahead-of-the-curve...), and even introduced a favorite expression of ours to the party: for fuckssake! We even got to take home a cooler full of food, which we're eating tonight before the Nelly's show--so one more time, a giant, amazed, turbocharged THANK YOU to Brian & Cheryl! This was one of the nicest things anyone has done for us on the road.
Sadly, Saturday night's show was not quite as great as we were hoping for: someone spilled a drink on my amp, shorting it out, which sucks more than you can probably imagine. And later on in the evening, Don, in one of his reknowned drunken-dancing on-the-bar routines, accidentally knocked a drink on a guy. We tried to make it up to him with a free tshirt, but eventually words were exchanged, followed by shouting and then some shoving. The guy was thrown out after a while, but it kind of took the shine off the evening, as you can imagine. Anyway, we've played in Alabama probably 20 times but we've never actually had to deal with a FIGHT before...but did i mention how extraordinary the barbeque was?
Finally, this late-breaking news item: i'm told that PopCanon charted in the Alligator's Local Music Poll last week: we've been voted Gainesville's best FUNK BAND! No kidding. I guess Don's little 'funk' number Ironica is pretty potent stuff, eh? Really now, are we that inexplicable a band? Why don't you take a second to set the record straight by participating in Moon Magazine's 2nd Annual Hammy awards? Vote for PopCanon in all categories, including Best CD Release of 1999 for d'art--trust us, you're going to love it.
Do come to the show, won't you? And do become Executive Producer of the album critics are already hailing as 'late!' and 'behind schedule!'
Ned
From 26 July 1999
Yeehaw! We rode the Rampage! It's the bigass wooden rollercoaster at Visionland in Birmingham AL--and man, it's scary good fun. And Visionland turns out to be an Xian Theme Park: there's a giant bas-relief sculpture of the mayor out front with a big quote from Proverbs or something ('Thou shalt eat of thine own hat' or something like that)! And as if THAT wasn't perfect enough for us, the day we went there was a 'Christian Explosion', which in spite of its name doesn't mean Xians come there to explode, but rather that bunches of denominations all wearing their special Tshirts ('Life is short: Pray hard', 'FORD = First On Resurrection Day' etc.) come there en masse to hear gospel groups sing and prey on people...
Oh, and we also played a little. The Chukker show was just about OK, as we expected. Bing did not make that show, but Those Damn NoGoodNiks and Like A CreamDream were damn good, and PC benefitted from slightly better soundgear than we usually get: thanks, Mike! Saturday night we ALL had a great show: Bing's new stuff is really cool and he worked the crowd like the pro he is; Brian of TDNGN was Devo-incarnate, and Stuart of LACD was...well, he was Stuart, which is plenty. And PC always puts on a great show for the Barnstormers--in many ways drunken southern philosophy students are our natural audience...
Thanks again to Bing for setting up the whole Visionland dealie, and to Mr & Mrs Hornbuckle for letting us sleep in their mountain home, and to Dr. Mike of Montevallo for buying TWO copies of Kingdom v.2--good man!
This weekend we hit Monkeytown AL again at our old haunt Bernie's Corner, and then we finally play Tasty World in the Grail City of Athens on Saturday. Both shows will be with our great friends Squeaky, and so great is our mutual love that guiterrorist Squeaky Steve will sit in as our drummer, since Robby is unavailable (i think he's washing his long, luxurious hair). How awesome! They, like us, have been recording of late with the indefatiguable Mike Rotolante, so someday soon we'll ALL have new music to share.
We'll be taking a few weeks off after this weekend, then come roaring back to--where else?--Alabama with a show in Auburn with Couch and another at the 1048 in Montgomery. Then that Monday 23 August (the first day of UF classes) we're playing with old pals All Star 69, Gainesville's finest glam-punk band at Durty Nelly's. More news of this sort to follow soon. You get the Rant & Rave, don't you?
4.5 g forces,
Ned
From 19 July 1999
I never felt so much alike, alike, alike... Our London Calling show last week, in case you missed it, was fantastic! We did a pretty bang-up job, i must admit (even though we started our *20 minute set* at 10.30pm!), and Squeaky, Grain and FiveEight were all amazingly good. And of course now that it's over i want to take it on the road--which is the same way i felt after doing the Pogues show and Jesus X Supercar: so much work for just one show! Oh well, that's why they're special, i guess. Love and thanks to Kristen for her outstanding sound engineering.
Coming up this week: more recording for our new album, which inches ever closer to completion, and a return to proper live PC gigs. This weekend we're taking a crazy show on the road with us: PopCanon will close a wild night Friday and Saturday in Alabama that begins with our Orlando pal Bing Futch doing his oneman psychotic 21st-century lounge act; that will be followed by Those Damn NoGoodNiks, an artpunk band featuring Brian Lindley and the indubitable Ball-Zac, the guy from Alabama who sometimes lights his ballsac on fire; then Robby & I will back Stuart of Pain in his singing/dancing/guitarplaying revue Like A CreamDream.
And the best part is: before we play old favorite Barnstormer Pizza in Montevallo on Saturday, we're going to Visionland, the amusement park near Birmingham, to ride the giant wooden roller. Bing does this periodically--storms the country with a small crew and digital video cameras and rides the country's best coasters for free, so we're damn proud to be part of the Coast2Coast Coaster Tour.
Re: the Ass Ends of Florida Tour two weeks ago--well, although it was nice to see my ancestral home in Miami, our show at Rose's in South Miami Beach was pretty sucky, what with nobody in the club except the dick soundguy and us spending about $80 just getting there (including $10 for parking!); and the next night we played a fun though incredibly short set in West Palm Beach with Noah's Red Tattoo. So who knows when we'll grace South Florida with our presence again...perhaps the north is where we belong.
Two other bits o' news: we are on a new Japanese compilation album with several other American bands put out by Big Fish Music called 'Heavy Cast'. They picked 'Treasure of the Temple', our rocking love song to Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. You can only buy it online from them, but isn't that fun? And speaking of online, finally we have a presence at mp3.com--our song 'Valentine's Day' is up there, and very soon we'll have many more on our page to compete with the 368 songs Rob McGregor's got up there right now...
Anyroad, we'll keep you informed on our travels and travails--thanks always
for rocking out with us.
Ned
From 28 June 1999
Well, who knew summer was here? Apparently 'the kids' leave their towns when summer comes, and if you're a band that's travelling to, say, Pensacola FL or Auburn AL, you might find the crowds sparse...really sparse. Anyway, live and learn.
This week we're heading down south finally to finish out the Tail Ends of Florida Tour. This Friday we play at Rose's on Miami Beach (my town, that created all the bass sound) and Saturday we hit the perfectly-named Respectable Street Café in West Palm Beach. These shows may or may not be with Noah's Red Tattoo, depending on the condition of one of their band's members...
Last weekend we kicked off the Tail Ends Tour with shows at one of our favorite clubs (Sluggo's in Pensacola--thanks for the book, RyMoDee!) and a brand new place that may well become a favorite (the JavaPit in Ft. Walton Beach--thanks to Rob & Dylan). Ah, Gainesville--you are 6 hours from everything! Love and props go to our sister band The Chairs, revitalized after a hiatus and better than ever. And a special shoutout goes to our pal and future Tour Manager/Gourmet Chef: the adorable Angela Majko! Thanks for setting up the show and hanging with us, Angela--we can't wait till you move to Gainesville and start cooking for us!
Two weeks back it was also summer, so we had a good time practicing at Bernie's Corner, and we can honestly say that we sold a CD to EVERY MEMBER of the audience that night (though that was only 4 CDs)--thanks for meeting our guarantee, Bernie! And the show in Auburn was actually OK: the opening band (from West Palm Beach--Florida in da house!) was NOT a glam band like we were hoping, but a cool emo band named Recess Theory, and the closing band was Hematavore, Auburn's answer to early King Crimson, which you reading this should know is completely up our alley. Needless to say, The Composition: BrainStroll received a vigorous and well-received workout that night. Plus my guitar tech, That Guy That Every College Town Has Who Is A Little 'Tetched' And Gets In Free To Shows And Stands Right Next To The Band And Asks To Hear You Use Your Chorus Effect, made our show extra special. We actually hope to return to Auburn soon enough, though we didn't sell ONE GODDAMNED PIECE OF MERCH AT ALL!--anyone who can book us there should contact us. Clay, I'm looking in your direction...
Practices for the London Calling show are going damn well--we're working on integrating bits of Jesus X Superstar into our drumNbass/jungle version of 'Brand New Cadillac': it's going to be fun!
And hello to our new fan Catrin Siedenbiedel of Kassel, Germany! Thanks for buying The Kingdom of Idiot Rock from CDBaby! Can we stay at your house when we tour Germany?
One more personal note: to whom in hell did I lend my brilliant Songs In The Key of Springfield CD to? I MUST have it back--contact me immediately!!
We're off for a week after this weekend's shows, but you'll hear from us soon...
if you dare!!
Ned
From 14 June 1999
Woo-hoo! We used our free recording time this weekend at Mirror Image, and it was great! Well, we hope it's great--we used every free second we had recording and didn't spend any time listening back to stuff. Seems kinda crazy to do that now that i'm typing this, but as always, setup took forever and we idiotically planned to try recording NINE songs!! And we DID IT! We got 1-3 versions of everything we wanted to play: older songs (Hey Hey Hey, Make Reference); a ballad (Lights Out); newer songs (Ballyhoo, Ironica, ArtHole aka I'm An Artist and You're An Asshole); an older song with new lyrics (Impossible); and two older, mostly instrumental numbers that we rarely play (CaliMariAchi and The Composition: BrainStroll). Who knows if we'll actually use all these tracks for the new album, and there's still plenty of vocals and other dubbing to be done, but we're feeling positive about the prospect of having d'art out by September/October, and it kicking all ass!
Props, love & thanks to Mike Rotolante and Harrem Friedrich von Monkhorst for twiddling the knobs (huh-huh ... i said knobs). We are such asspains to work with, but the session went remarkably smoothly once we got up and rocking.
Anyway, we're also hitting the road again this week, with two shows in our
favorite state, Alabama: this Friday we return in glory to our Montgomery home
Bernie's Corner for three rocking sets and possible lesbian lip-lockdowns,
and Saturday we play a new venue in Auburn called Java.com with the bands
Couch and Recess Theory. Expect some swellity all around...
And in keeping with the java theme, week after next we play the JavaPit
in lovely Ft. Walton Beach on Friday 25 June, on our way to
Sluggo's
in Pensacola for a Saturday engagement. Both shows are with our old friends
the Chairs, newly revitalized after
some time off.
London Calling -- the four bands, by album side: 1) PopCanon, 2) Squeaky, 3) Grain and 4) Five Eight. Friday 16 July at the Covered Dish, Gainesville FL. Be there and relive the glory of the onetime Only Band That Matters. (Did you know that one of our many slogans is PopCanon : The Only Band That's Matter? Did you also know I stole that slogan--and also the TriTone Mgt. slogan The Music of Tomorrow , One Day Early -- from my first Miami band the id...? Could you care less?)
And no one has taken us up on our PunkRockLopedia Brown idea yet...what's with you people? Where's the love? Do you know how many nights I sit by the computer, just waiting for the little Mail flag to come up? Oh, the shame...
Finally, Michael Murphy and Ron Richter have finished remastering the
new version of The Kingdom of Idiot Rock -- expect the new version to
begin circulating soon, with those funky funky bonus tracks*...
(*warning: bonus tracks may not contain actual 'funk')
GET...IN...MAH...BELLY!!!
Why aren't you at the new Austin Powers movie RIGHT NOW?
Ned
From 31 May 1999
Well, we didn't get to record this weekend--illness reared its nonrocking head, but we've rescheduled for two weeks from now, and if we're smart, we'll practice or something. As always, we're wildly ambitiously planning on recording NINE songs--nine!! Like we didn't already have some great songs already in the can! We're just nutty, I tells ya. But if it all works out, this next album will be amazingly good. This whole Almost LiveTM recording process turns out pretty well for us when it works, because, you know, we're all about the feeeeeeel of a song...
And hey, we're playing this Saturday night at the Common Grounds Coffeehouse in Gainesville with Orlando lounge-rock sensation Bing's Not Dead. This show was supposed to be part of a Coast2Coast RollerCoaster Tour, but, you know, things change... Still, we reckon it'll be a swell show even without the coasters, because Bing is some kind of wacky dude and a hell of a writer. Also joining us that night opening up will be a new Gainesville band featuring Chad King, formerly the bassplayer/occasional guitarist/singer with Dirty Poodle. We always love playing at the Common Grounds--those are good people. Jay, Nomi, Eli, NigeyNigeyNigel and the rest--it's nice to have a small, cool place to play and try out some wacky ideas. Speaking of which, look out for nour quite-odd cover of 'Eddie's Teddy' from The Rocky Horror Picture Show with Bing on guest vocals...
One more coolass show on the horizon--on Friday 16 July, PopCanon, Squeaky and two other-as-yet-undetermined bands will perform the entire album London Calling by the Clash at the Covered Dish! We'd been talking to Bill Bryson about this idea for quite some time, and now we've finally gotten around to it. We're playing Side I and Squeaky's got Side II, and all I can say is: Jesus Christ, where'd you get that Cadillac?
PunkRockLopedia Browns?
And another new thing: we play a lot of shows in smaller places and we could
sure use some help promoting them. If any of you reading this are THAT
fond of PopCanon and you'd like to help us spread the word, we'd love to have
you. We need people who wouldn't mind hanging a few flyers in the cooler
record stores, making sure those stores are in fact stocking our CDs,
and who also might not mind guarding our merch (or even selling it) during
those times when we're actually onstage rocking...all in all, a pretty cush
job. For helping us in these tiny but essential ways, we would of course pay
you: with love! And also--oh, I don't know--with a free Tshirt,
and naturally, free admission to shows. And some other cool stuff that we
dream up, like free food or something, or maybe we'll write a song about you:
who knows?. As you can see, this is all in the planning stages, but we
ARE serious about this: we really could use the help. Also, help us
come up with a name for this band of merry men and women: the Blue Blaze
Irregulars, or the PunkRockLopedia Browns...you know, something like that,
only better.
These things happen, or do they?
Ned
From 24 May 1999
Damn those fruit flies! As some of you know from being there, the Rockathon was a rousing success, in spite of the fact that I missed half of it because I was chasing fruit flies down in Tampa again! But the shows were all swell in their own ways: Kenny Howes & the Yeah and the Stimulants kicked some peach-flavored Converse-wearing ASS in Atlanta, the 1048 in Montgomery AL was surprisingly tasty on french fries, the 5 Points Show in Birmingham was all sorts of great-sounding rock, and you know we love Sluggo's in Pensacola...
But we'd said that this Rockthon would feature 'nothing but barbeque to eat', and, well, we LIED! We didn't have a LICK of barbeque -- not one bite the entire trip! How lame! But we did get FREE food for most of the trip, and that's even BETTER! The first full day, in Atlanta, we were treated to jerk chicken at Eats by our new Atlanta Sugar Daddy, Bobby Krupczak! [ Actually, i guess jerk chicken IS barbecued, so technically that's another lie... ] Later that night we got great gourmet pizza courtesy of the 1048 club in Montgomery. The following day we had awesome homemade enchiladas and 5-layer dip with the Pain gang, courtesy of Elicia and Brian. (And as we ate we watched bad Chinese kung fu movies with Balzac!) Finally, on the third day our free food had come to an end: before heading out on the road to Sluggo's, we stopped off at our favorite Birmingham Indian restaurant and loaded up at the buffet. We had to pay for that ourselves, but it was very reasonable for all-you-can-eat, so that's *LIKE* free food!
Much love and good thoughts to our boy Dan Lord, lead singer of Pain, who was hit by a drunk driver before the Pensacola show. He is totally unharmed, and we are all very glad. He and I are going to do a Point-Counterpoint review of the new Star Wars movie on both our websites soon, and there will be much rejoicing.
Extra Special Thanks to our pal John Holmes of Spike The Cat for bailing me out with the loan of his bass amp. The heart of the Box Of LightsTM had been out for repair for over two weeks and didn't look like it would be quite ready in time for the tour, so John came to the rescue at the last minute and ensured that we would still have BIG BASS! (By the way, if anyone from the Ampeg company is reading this and would like to give us a sponsorship: the amp that let us down was NOT an Ampeg, but the amp that rescued the tour WAS! Now if we could just afford one...)
This Wednesday night we've got a little show at JPs in Valdosta GA, just across the state lines. Perhaps, if it goes well, you'll see more of us there soon.
And then we're RECORDING this weekend at Mirror Image using our free studio time, with our pals Mike Rotolante and Hairy Monkhorst (of Squeaky)! Woo-hoo! More on that later, too.
Must run, the flies are buzzing.
Thanks to all of you who got out to those shows--it really helps seeing some
familiar faces when we play.
Ned & Michael, tag-team style
From 17 May 1999
Awwright!! This next song...is the first song...on our new album...it just came out this week, and the song is called... SURRENDER!! (cheers, screams)
Sorry, I was in Cheap Trick mode for a second because I was excited about the May Rockathon beginning this week! I know REAL bands go out for weeks and months at a time, but since PopCanon has always been about challenging the status quo of the Rock Business, shifting paradigms and speaking truth to power and all that--and also working real day jobs that subsidize our idiotic fantasies about being Rock Stars--we've not yet spent more than three days straight out on the road before. So we've decided that, from now on, any three shows in a row is a TOUR! And any tour deserves a catchy name, so this one is the Rockathon: 5 gigs in 4 days in 3 states 2 rock every 1!! Plus nothing but barbeque to eat!!
Wednesday night we kick off in high style @
the Star Bar in Atlanta GA (renamed The Star Wars Episode I-The Phantom
Menace Bar for that night), with our pals
Kenny Howes & the
Yeah! and the
Stimulants! Expect a reprise of our Buzzcocks cover with the Stimulants
and a reprise of our XTC cover with KH...
Thursday night we're back in Montgomery
AL, but this time not at Bernie's Corner. We'll be at the 1048 Club, but
don't worry--Bernie owns that one, too.
Friday we hit Birmingham AL to play the
giant 5ive Points Music Hall with our sibling band
PAIN! This show should be
fantastic, and expect a short sharp opening set from the Tenacious 3,
featuring Robby & me backing the redoubtable Stuart McNair from Pain, who
will sing and play his own fun songs, including one called 'Beware of the
Chukker' which fans of the Rant & Rave will no doubt find hilarious...
Then Saturday we wind down the Rockathon
with two shows at Sluggos, the best club in the panhandle of Florida. Pain
and PC will both be playing an early evening matinee, followed by a regular
nighttime show as well. It WILL be great.
Anyone willing to come to all 5 shows will be
awarded the coveted title of Tour Manager, and will get to eat barbeque with
us three times a day... email
In spite of this being the height of Medfly Discovery Season, we're still booking shows all over. Following our tiny triumph of getting a booking SOUTH of Gainesville (in Orlando) next month, we've also gotten some bookings down in my old hometown (that created all the bass sound) of Miami--expect to see us playing Rose's on South Miami Beach next month. Woohoo! Soon we will rule the entire eastern seaboard, if the seaboard includes parts of Alabama...
Speaking of ruling the eastern seaboard, we're hoping to plan a seaboard excursion soon with our newest pals Idiot Savant Garde and Holy Mary, Mother of Bert. We played a fantastic show with them at the Common Grounds last Saturday night (thanks to all our diehard fans who turned out for that show), and it was truly SPOOKY how much like us they were...really, it's as if there was a laboratory in Pennsylvania that took hunks of PopCanon DNA and crafted younger, thinner versions of each of us. It was actually quite awesome--they were really, really good, and such very nice people. After the show we went to the Waffle House for some authentic Florida grease, and then to Lake Alice to see the alligators, who quite sensibly were asleep. [*Ed note: not for long...] But we had such a great time together that we're now planning on putting out some kind of joint recording (perhaps a revolutionary 3-sided single) and touring together in the future. Since they are from PA, we figured we'd meet in the middle, somewhere around Washington DC, and go from there. Anyone interested in helping us set this up, please email us.
Well, enough of my yakkin'...we hope to share some of the Rockathon with you. Thanks for being there.
Ned
From 10 May 1999
Well, here we go again... after taking merely two weeks off we ended up taking a surprise show a week before the famed May Rockathon which begins next Wednesday 19 May in Atlanta: we're playing a show this Friday at the Common Grounds Coffeehouse in Gainesville FL with our new pals Idiot Savant Garde and Holy Mary, Mother of Bert, both from State College, Pennsylvania. They're touring right now, and both bands share some members, and some of PC's more country-type songs are a bit like HM,MOB and our more proggy, math-rocky songs sound like ISG...all in all, it should be a cool show at the good ol' Common Grounds. We'll be playing last, around midnight.
Next week I'll have full details about our May Rockathon, with shows in Atlanta GA, Montgomery and Birmingham AL, and Pensacola FL--with our pals Kenny Howes & the Yeah!, the Stimulants, and Pain! It's going to be an amazing week.
Talk to you then,
Ned
From 26 April 1999
Hey!! We won! We won the 1st Annual Unplugged Fest--and all we
had to do was cheat and plug in!! Bully for us!!
Seriously, I hope nobody is mad at me for playing my electric guitar, but
you know, that's what i do. Frankly, if that's what put us over the top
then i'm glad i did it--we're still bruised from last week's Third Place
showing at the SFCC Battle of the Bands, and MAN, are we looking forward to
using our Grand Prize: free studio time at Mirror Image! Honestly, what
i think put us over the top wasn't my Les Paul but our wacky handouts (the
Fishbee Island comic book) and those little whistles we all blew during Ode To
A Weasel...
Thanks to the judges, taylor at musicwoRx, Mirror Image and Rock 99.5...
Right now we're looking to get into the studio at the end of May with our
pal Mike Rotolante, who did some fantastic work with us last year during the
first phase of this massive recording project that will become our next CD. As
always, we'll keep you informed of every minor and petty detail as it unfolds.
Love to those of you who came to the Covered Dish Saturday night to see us,
Big Fish Ensemble and Amanda G.
It was a really good show for us--Amanda was swell as always, and Big Fish
Ensemble were beautiful and inspiring. Thanks again to Michael &
Sheila of BFE for singing and playing with us: Sheila's violin brought back
the heyday of the old PopCanon, though actually we were even more odd and
delightful that night because we were also joined by the amazing Kyle, King
of the Singing Saw, Jaw Harp and Bottlecaps...It's all on videotape,
Kyle--thanks! Excellent Peter Frampton imitation, dude!
And thanks to Matt Thompson for that excellent story in Friday's
Scene Magazine, and to the Scene for having the balls to run our wacky
pressphoto. See http://www.sunone.com/
for the story, and pc-presspage.html for the
photo...
Finally, great thanks to Jim Fahy, Dr. Mike Patton and the Montevallo
Philosophy Club.
We had a GREAT time there last Thursday--the debate was entertainingish,
but really, could we ask for a better demographic than a bunch of philosophy
students who like to drink? The new song ('Ballyhoo') went very well,
thanks to the active participation of the crowd. We'll be back to
Barnstormer's soon.
So, really, it's all good news this week. We'll be hunkering down and
relaxing a bit for the next few weeks, but we'll be back again in mid-May for
our Rockathon, and with any luck, we'll have a new CD out by fall.
Reviews.
Gainesville Band Family
Tree.
You know what to do.
Thanks to all of you for being there,
Ned
From 19 April 1999
Well, last week's news first: we DID NOT win the Grand Prize of 8 hours
free recording time from the SFCC Battle of the Bands--disappointingly,
we came in third. But we DID win a lovely
Sabine
rackmount tuner-- thanks, Sabine!
Why don't you sponsor US?! Anyhow, let us never speak of this BotB
again...
Also, the Unplugged Fest on Saturday was rained out--it has been rescheduled
for THIS Saturday 24 April (with a raindate of Sunday). Please come
out and watch us lose those 8 hours of recording time as well...
And of course, come to our BIG hometown show this Saturday night at
the Covered Dish. We'll be joined by some special guests for this
special show--our friend Kyle will be sitting in with us on singing saw,
jaw harp and bottlecaps, and Michael & Sheila from Atlanta's Big Fish
Ensemble will also be joining us for a special rendition of 'Herod's Song'
from Jesus X Superstar. It promises to be quite the show.
Earlier in the week we will be playing another Very Special Show in our adopted hometown of Montevallo AL: PopCanon has been commissioned to participate in--and write the theme song for--the 1st Annual University of Montevallo Philosophy Club Debate & Concert. The topic is Faith v. Reason, and that could hardly be a more apropos topic for US.
Speaking of which, last week someone placed a small sticker inside my
door at work which read Say Yes to Jesus--377.5076. So of
course i called the number to find out who vandalized my office.
{ring, ring}
*Northwest Baptist Church, may i help you?
Yes, is Jesus there?
*[pause] He's always here.
Well, may I speak to him?
*[pause] You don't need to call us...just go ahead and speak.
OK, I just wanted to say NO, thank you.
{click}
Anyroad, we'll see some of you this week I trust. Check last week's message below for more fun stuff--our new Reviews section is still delightful, and we really could use EVERYBODY'S help on the Gainesville Band Family Tree.
Ned
From 12 April 1999
So much happens all the time at the ol' PopCanon HQ. If you've come here then obviously you've seen our new frontpage. I intend to update this What's New! section every week on Monday, but for this first installment there's not much to say that isn't already touted on our frontpage. Yes, we still have CDs for sale--on our site and shows, at CDBaby.com, from RedEye Distribution; Yes, our friends at Free Radio B92 in Serbia are still under siege by NATO (read: US) forces; Yes, we've got a new crazy pressphoto that's coolass; but the biggest news is that we finally got our humongous REVIEWS pages online. Good, bad, indifferent: they're all pretty fun reading.
Take a gander and share your thoughts to
One more thing that we'll be harping about for a while: all of you either IN or OF the Gainesville Music Scene, PLEASE help us with the gigantic Gainesville Band Family Tree! This is a huge project that our own Don Undeen and Michael Murphy have undertaken to catalog the labyrinthine and incestuous Gainesville scene. Check it out and please help us with corrections, additions and omissions.
Thanks for listening,
Ned
![[ PopNews! ]](buttons/news.jpg) |
![[ PopAganda ]](buttons/aganda.jpg) |
![[ PopFormance ]](buttons/formance.jpg) |
![[ PopArazzi ]](buttons/arazzi.jpg) |
 |
![[ PopStuff ]](buttons/stuff.jpg) |
![[ PopLinks ]](buttons/links.jpg) |
