TV Theme Song Mix

1. The Who - "Who Are You" (C.S.I.)
2. The Blind Boys Of Alabama - "Way Down In The Hole" (The Wire, season 1)
3. The Dandy Warhols - "We Used To Be Friends" (Veronica Mars)
4. The Rembrandts - "I'll Be There For You" (Friends)
5. They Might Be Giants - "Boss Of Me" (Malcolm In The Middle)
6. Massive Attack - "Teardrop" (House, M.D.)
7. Mark Snow - "Materia Primoris" (X-Files)
8. Polaris - "Hey Sandy" (The Adventures Of Pete & Pete)
9. The Minutemen - "Corona" (Jackass)
10. The Who - "Baba O'Riley" (C.S.I.: NY)
11. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - "Bad Reputation" (Freaks And Geeks)
12. Phantom Planet - "California" (The O.C.)
13. DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - "The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air" (The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air)
14. The Vogues - "Five O'Clock World" (The Drew Carey Show)
15. Frank Sinatra - "Love & Marriage" (Married... With Children)
16. Jane's Addiction - "Superhero" (Entourage)
17. A3 - "Woke Up This Morning" (The Sopranos)
18. Tom Waits - "Way Down In The Hole" (The Wire, season 2)
19. The Who - "Won't Get Fooled Again" (C.S.I.: Miami)

A while back, J.G. was saying something ot me about about all of the TV show themes she likes, and ended up commissioning me to track down some of her favorites, and the idea kind of blossomed from there, until I ended up with a whole CD of songs, some of which aren't even shows she watches (for the most part, I like every track's theme and/or the show itself, except I'm a Sopranos hater and don't care for the song either, but got carried away with the block of HBO shows). I pretty much stuck to the theme of songs that pre-existing bands had written before being appropriated for the show, although the X-Files one and maybe a couple others don't quite count. This is the final version, the Jackass and Drew Carey themes were added after the version I burned for J.G. I think the Fresh Prince theme is, along with "Baby Got Back," the rap song that every white kid of my generation can recite word for word, but I'm still working on memorizing that verse from the full version where he's on the plane.

Labels: hip hop, mixtapes, mp3, television, The Minutemen, The Who, They Might Be Giants

The Minutemen doc We Jam Econo, which I saw a screening of last year, still isn't due out on DVD until June (2 discs with a bunch of extra interviews!), but in the meantime, some dedicated fans have digitized an Nth generation bootleg of Corndogs, the legendary-but-never-officially-released SST home video from 1985, which is full of all sorts of videos, performance footage, interviews, general bizareness and evidence of George Hurley's amazing hairstyles, much of which was re-used in Econo.

Labels: Mike Watt, movies, The Minutemen

1) We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen
Last night I drove down to D.C. as soon as I could leave school and met up with my friend Mike, and then walked down to the Black Cat from his house. We were a few minutes late, and the movie had already started and the little downstairs bar where they were screening it was packed. It was kind of crappy conditions, we had to cram ourselves in the back, and there's a big column in the middle of the room, right in our line of vision, so most of the time I could only see about 1/3rd of the screen. I'm still glad I went, though, and I look forward to seeing it again under more ideal conditions. There are many bands I love more than the Minutemen but maybe none that inspire me more and make me more excited about the act of making music. The live footage was amazing, and since the individual songs are so short, they could be incorporated into the movie without threatening to interrupt the narrative. Lots of good interview moments, too, although I sometimes felt like I was waiting through the hyperbolic praise just to get to the personal anecdotes and really interesting stuff. At the end of the screening, a guy, I believe one of the filmmakers, said he want a picture of everyone at the screening to send to Watt, which we all smiled and waved for.

2) The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
I have to admit I was kinda geeked out about seeing this. Growing up I had access to my father's huge personal library of sci-fi books, but of course, the satire stuck with me more than most of the real stuff. I mean, it's probably been at least 10 years since I read any of those books, but the prospect of a movie being made of it and being done well was still pretty exciting to me. J.G.'s also a fan of the books and wants to see it, but it'll be a couple weeks until she graduates and comes home from school for good. So I'll probably see it again with her, but I was impatient and had to see it opening weekend. And it was good. I'd read the name of the director a few times in articles but it wasn't til the opening credits rolled that I realized that it was the same guy who did all those music videos as Hammer & Tongs. I was skeptical of Mos Def's casting from the beginning, mostly because I think he's pretty overrated as a rapper and haven't seen any real evidence of his acting talent either, but ultimately I was rooting for him to be good in it. He was really the weak link of the cast, though, had tons of funny/memorable lines from the book to work with and didn't manage to make the most of any of them. Everyone else was solid, though. Sam Rockwell was good, although I was kind of put off by the fact that he kept doing a slight G. W. Bush impression (because his character is an idiot who became president, GET IT? wink wink). Just kind of a cheap joke, if you ask me. Lots of other things I could say, but mostly I was satisfied as a semi-fanboy and it even did pretty well at the box office, which is nice.

3) Sin City
I heard plenty about how good and cool-looking this was, but not nearly enough about how funny it was. For the first hour or so, I wasn't sure if I was laughing at it or with it, but by about an hour in, it was pretty obviously the latter. Like, the reaction of that guy with the swastika on his forehead to getting impaled? Hilarious. Supposedly that winking comedic element isn't in the comics (excuse me, graphic novels) at all, which is interesting considering the creator was so involved in the movie he got a co-director credit. Did he set out for the adaptation to poke fun at the source material, or did Rodriguez talk him into it, is what I'm wondering, I guess.

4) Dreamcatcher
Saw this on HBO a while back while dogsitting at my dad's house watching sattelite TV all day. I can't remember the last time so little about a movie was given away by the trailers. So much so that it feels like saying really anything about it is a spoiler. But I will say that it was completely ridiculous and shockingly bad. After a certain point, you don't care at all what happens but you just have to keep watching to see what else they have the balls to throw in there. OK, i'll tell you this much: there's an alien that nests inside of people and makes them fart until it escapes out of their butts. And the alien, whose name is Mr. Gray, is repeatedly addressed by a mentally retarded character (played by DONNY WAHLBERG) as "Mr. Gay". I swear I'm not making any of this up.

Labels: comedy, Mike Watt, Movie Diary, movies, The Minutemen

in my stereo:

Amerie - Touch
The Minutemen - Post-Mersh, Vol. 1
Rod Lee - Operation: Not Done Yet
George Jones - The Essential George Jones: The Spirit of Country
Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle
112 - Pleasure & Pain
Ogun - Real On Purpose
Apollo Sunshine - The Paradiso, Boston MA 1/29/05
Stone Temple Pilots - Tiny Music... Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop
Two Dollar Guitar - Train Songs

Labels: Apollo Sunshine, Baltimore music, Bruce Springsteen, country music, In My Stereo, R and B, The Minutemen, Two Dollar Guitar

Here's something to read while you're waiting for a chance to see We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen: some great D. Boon anecdotes from Tom Troccoli. And check here to see if there's going to be any screenings of the movie near you. May 2 at the Black Cat! I'm so there.

Labels: Mike Watt, movies, The Minutemen

About 2-3 years ago I was hanging out a lot with a friend of mine named Chris in York, PA and playing drums in his band (I live a half hour from the MD/PA border so it's not a long drive). Chris strummed really slowly on an acoustic guitar and ran it through a bunch of effects and delay and I just played along and sometimes we had a keyboardist and/or a bassist and/or a violinist. Chris was a cool guy, I liked hanging out with him, although I wasn't really on the same wavelength with him musically at all. I don't think he was at all aware of how indifferent I was about some of his favorite bands (Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, etc.). But in a way I'm more cool with people like him who are kind of naively enthusiastic about their generic indie taste than cynical or really trying to be cool. Anyway, I kind of regarded it as a fun challenge to play slow, pretty shoegazey music, even if that's not really the kind of thing I actually listen to. Actually, come to think of it, all 3 of the bands that I've played in for a significant amount of time and accomplished something with (i.e. play in front of an audience and/or record original material) have all been rock subgenres that I don't really listen to (my last band was a metal band and in high school I played in I guess you could call it a 'screamo' band, although again I know nothing about that stuff). That's kind of the gift and the curse of being a drummer, though; you can have a completely different background than everyone else in the band and it doesn't matter if you can keep a beat. But it also means you rarely get to play what you really want to play. This is pretty much the reason why I'm taking a break from playing drums in other people's bands to make a solo record so I can actually figure out what kind of band I really want to play in by making one up.

Anyway, where was I? The band in York...Nice folks, although everyone I knew up there seemed to be a morbid alcoholic, and to this day my general impression of York is that it's this really depressing little college town where everyone drinks too much, although for all I know that's just the people I hung out with there. But Chris was a nice dude, I haven't seen him in a while and keep meaning to hang out again. At one point while we were doing the band thing he asked me to make him a mixtape, and I kinda tried to go for some of that slow pretty guitar music he likes, but from some indie-ish bands that I like (plus the Built To Spill stuff because he was really into them). I think it came out pretty well.

side 1:
1. The Posies - "Coming Right Along"
2. Ted Leo - "Parallel Or Together?"
3. Shudder To Think - "Red House"
4. The Geraldine Fibbers - "Outside Of Town"
5. Ben Folds Five - "Twin Falls"
6. Built To Spill - "By The Way"
7. Cat Power - "Rockets"
8. Jeff Buckley - "Mojo Pin"
9. Death Cab For Cutie - "Styrofoam Plates"
10. Sonic Youth - "Rain On Tin"

side 2:
1. Lake Trout - "Holding"
2. The Dismemberment Plan - "The Face Of The Earth"
3. The Minutemen - "No Exchange"
4. The Minutemen - "History Lesson - Part II"
5. Ted Leo - "Biomusicology"
6. Ken Stringfellow - "Your Love Won't Be Denied"
7. The Geraldine Fibbers - "Butch"
8. The Posies - "Every Bitter Drop"
9. The Posies - "Fall Song"
10. Chris Lee - "Dixie's Door"
11. Two Dollar Guitar - "Stones Vs. Zep"

Labels: Baltimore music, Mike Watt, mixtapes, Sonic Youth, Ted Leo, The Geraldine Fibbers, The Minutemen, The Posies, Two Dollar Guitar