I Lost It At The Movies

There are three documentaries out this fall that I've just gotta see, all mixing a nihilistic attitude with fascinating portraits of artistic ambition.

One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur inspired an album by Shore Fire clients Jay Farrar And Benjamin Gibbard, who are also in it; it's sure to make me want to get on the road again.

William S. Burroughs: A Man Within should be an intense look at the Naked Lunch author (fun fact: what legendary duo, now featuring our client, bassist "Ready" Freddie Washington, in their touring band, named themselves after an object in that novel?).

Watch the out-there trailer for a glimpse of a manic Iggy Pop:



And last, but certainly not least, is Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and BYO Records, about the legendary SoCal punk label. Lots of great punk energy, premiering in LA September 10 and available on the 22nd in a limited-edition box set with a double-LP compliation of 31 loud-fast-rules songs and a hardcover, full-color book.

Look at this and just try not to slam dance at your desk:



I'm buying the popcorn!

Postcard From Nicaragua

The classic 20-gig iPod I've had since 2004 finally passed away after many hours of service, just before I left for the airport for my flight to Nicaragua 10 days ago. I typically travel with it and a JBL OnTour setup that provides me with a soundtrack wherever I am. Nonetheless, I was neither musically nor aesthetically deprived.

For evidence of the latter, see the photo below of the grand staircase in the 19th-century home of generous and gifted friends in Granada, one of the oldest cities in the Americas, where I slept in an antique, mosquito-netted four-poster bed, soothed by the sound of tropical rains and wakened by the bells of the cathedral next door.



On a side trip to the surf destination San Juan del Sur, a friend was kind enough to lend me a horse. There is a reason that riding through a jungle and cantering along an otherwise inaccessible beach is the stuff of fantasy. My steed was white, and named Pablo Picasso, so I couldn't get the Jonathan Richman song of the same name out of my head. I also sang "Caballito Blanco" to Pablo, which I learned as a child in Chile.

Thus, when it came time to go clubbing, I was prepared for Latino men whose stares I could not resist. My Spanish held up well enough for me to crack jokes, decline invitations, and read mash notes from the smitten. I also had the new-to-me experience of being piloted around a dance floor by a smiling fellow whose eyes were at an awkward level that made staring both impossible and unnecessary. But we were dancing to a 9-piece band playing the Nicaraguan classic "Pobre de Maria," a tragic story of a poor campesina in the big city, so I didn't mind.

I managed to refrain from the Internet most of the time, but of course it found me:


And now, the Apple Store awaits.

Knew What He Was Doing When He Caught My Eye

The most recent chapter of the Phil Spector story is a tragedy that can't be undone. But I'll miss thinking about him as the guy who created this wall of sound for The Crystals:

Toubab Krewe Live in New York

Our clients Toubab Krewe are world travelers who within the past couple of years have played throughout the US, the Caribbean snd West Africa, where they were special guests at Mali's Festival of the Desert, the world's remotest, a trip they document in their "Buncombe to Badala" video.

Last week, they were in New York to play a packed show at S.O.B.'s for an enthusiastically dancing crowd (another client, Jar-e, opened), about which one review said, “Toubab Krewe are what Vampire Weekend would have sounded like if their parents took away their BMWs, dosed their white wine spritzers and locked them in Fela’s basement.”

The next day, Toubab Krewe did a much more intimate performance over a pizza lunch at the SoHo offices of ADA, which is distributing their new Upstream Records release, "Live at the Orange Peel." Of course, we took a photo to commemorate the occasion:


From left: Drew Heller (guitar, soku), Greg Vegas (ADA), Jake Frankel (Upstream), Luke Quaranta (percussion), Justin Perkins (kamel ngoni, kora, guitar), David Pransky (bass), me (Blackberry), Teal Brown (drumset), Andy Silva (iPhone).

Holy Hullabaloo, Batman!

I've previously mentioned my fondness for Hullabaloo!, the mid-Sixties prime-time TV show on NBC that featured all the acts you might expect, from Paul Anka to the Zombies, as well as some you might not, such as Judy Collins. There was a regular infusion of the British Invasion (Chad and Jeremy, the Kinks), undoubtedly helped along by Beatles manager Brian Epstein's appearance as the host of a London segment, and lots of Motown, including Marvin Gaye and The Supremes. A similar show called Shindig on ABC was its antecedent, but I don't remember it being as good.

Hullabaloo!'s dancers were a highlight of every show (they included Michael Bennett and Donna McKechnie, best known as creator and star of the original production of A Chorus Line), and a segment called "Hullabaloo! A Go-Go" featured a dancer in a cage, shaking it while wearing a fringed minidress and short white go-go boots.

Fans of The Dark Knight will undoubtedly object, but here are the Hullabaloo! dancers cavorting to the "Batman" theme:

Nancie & The Rockers

I'm very proud of the years I spent at Mattel in the '90s, producing the first computer games for girls and launching Barbie.com. So I was pleased and very gratified last week to be invited back to their corporate headquarters in El Segundo, CA to speak to an employee conference about "The Future of Music."

My conclusions were fueled by my own personal Magic 8 Ball, but basically the gist of it was:

• Kids have always loved music;
• There are lots of new and traditional ways to discover music;
• We have to be creative about finding new ways to make money from it;
  
• Music is a personal soundtrack, not a CD; and
• "The Macarena" and "Crank That" have more in common than you think.

There were many musical interludes, and much appreciation for our client Baby Loves Hip Hop's efforts to provide parents with music they can enjoy with their children.

But for some reason, the international audience particularly enjoyed this video of a long-forgotten '80s band (the hair alone is worth a view):

Sad All Over

One of my earliest ambitions was to be a dancer on Hullabaloo!The swinging music! The white boots! The fringed dresses!

I think that's where I may have first seen the Dave Clark Five. So learning of the death of lead singer Mike Smith was especially sad for me. Here they are, in happier times:

Song, Dance and Baseball

As you know if you read this blog regularly, we're a bunch of baseball fans in the office. Well, I'm the lone Red Sox fan so i'm enjoying this lates Sox performance. And by performance, I don't mean JD drew's grand slam or Hideki Okajima's unhittable relief outing last night; I mean music and dancing. Ses, these Red Sox have taken it upon themselves to show their extracurricular talents. Here's the bullpen pirate band (!?):



Bullpen percussion ensemble, if you're looking for a publicist, give me a call. I see a bright future for you. Still, that may be topped by the amazing dance pulled off by one Jonathon Papelbon when the sox clinched the division. (Nnote Jerry Remy mention in the broadcast, "He could use some pants"):



The Yankees would never allow this. Yet another reason I love my team.