June 26, 2009

Code Blue



I dismiss the "celebrity death's come in three" concept; since these daze, EVERYONE is a celebrity.

However, I find it interesting on the parallels and paradoxes on the madness of Farrah, Sky and Jacko.

Each responded to their early celebrity in such iconic ways:

Farrah Fawcett- Could have been completely chewed up ala Marilyn Monroe in the Hollywood bimbo machine. Yet she became a serious, award winning actress. Sure, she got a little loopy in her later years, but no one can say she didn't redeem herself. Cancer fucking sucks, and the way she courageously (and publicly) fought it should not be forgotten or underappreciated.

Sky Saxon - Teen 60's dream Tiger Beat hit-dom. And then a descent into obscurity and most definitely counter culture alt-dom. Ironically, he was about to tour again.



Michael Jackson - Is it even possible to seperate the man from the circus freak? Has anyone besides Elvis ever been as completely twisted by early fame as him? Think of the 10 year old lighting up the stage, not the twisted man-boy of the last 20 years.



Rest In Peace

Toonage:




----------------
Now playing: Elvis Costello - Pretty in Pink (live)
via FoxyTunes

June 24, 2009

The Whole World Is Watching





We are all hoping for peace to come to Iran.

If you are on Twitter,
set your location to Tehran and time zone to GMT +3.30. It screws up the Iranian security forces tracking of protesters.

You can follow the latest atrocities on Twitter via
#iranelection
#tehran
#mousavi
#neda


The whole world is watching and we are powerless to stop this madness.

Regardless of religion, nationality or political philosophy, our prayers and best wishes are directed to the citizens of Iran.


Toonage:
John Lennon, Stevie Wonder & Friends - Give Peace A Chance (live One To One concert)


June 23, 2009

Posterity

Weapons of Mass Destruction

We busted our cherry last nite and left a musical legacy. Caterwaul Of Sound hit the recording studio. We laid down the tracks for our soon to be hit single The Love Theme to Kids Go To The Woods, Kids Get Dead.

Most of the band, being noobs to the studio scene, were fascinated with the process. Scratch tracks? Overdubs? Multiple takes???? Crazy man, crazy.

And the biggest debate took place over what the "secret backwards message" would be. One hint... we actually didn't make it (too) satanic!

Next step is to shoot the video.

One more page for the scrapbook of madness!



Here are some more unlikely themes...

Toonage:

June 19, 2009

Bartleby Was Right!


I am currently writing in agony due to the stupid hubris that entailed me playing in a company softball game that has re-injured my back. I should have known better, as I have herniated disks and I was sore during warm-ups. But instead of course, I figured it would loosen up and proceeded to play extremely hard for the full game, diving and sliding on several occasions.

So, the past three days have been a steady procession of severe agony followed by pain pills which have left me somewhere orbiting the planet "head-nod".

I hate taking pharmaceutical drugs for medicinal purposes. Vicodins are supposed to be for recreation, not curative reasons!
The lesson of course is, when asked to play, I should have said "I prefer not to".

Meanwhile, Nazz Junior finished up his Little League season kicking ass and taking names.

On the rock n roll front, Nazz Junior decided that he would do a Bartleby The Scrivener trip on his teacher. He's graduating grade school next week and has decided that he would prefer not to sing the graduation theme song with his class because "It's lame and it sucks". The teacher is not thrilled about this; as he is the only kid in the graduation class exercising his rights. We have reached a compromise in which he has promised to lip-sync and fake it.

That's cool. I'm so proud.

Even cooler is that he is not going to the graduation dance party; since he decided that his graduation present should be to go see Aerosmith and ZZ Top that nite.

5th grade, and he's already the coolest kid in school!

Toonage:

June 12, 2009

THAT'S Rock N Roll!


(My idea of a party)

Dang, I think I am actually finally sober. From Tuesday nite. Yep, Caterwaul Of Sound came, saw and kicked ass. We played the premier party of the new film "Kids Go To The Woods, Kids Get Dead", and by all accounts, we were extremely entertaining.
What a thrill it was to play a packed club (our lead singer relates "I couldn't even see where the people ended") and rock it.
This was the famous "we're not gonna get wasted before we go on" show. OK, so that didn't quite come to pass, my excuse being that Mrs. Nomad accompanied me and well, what can a poor boy do, except get hammered with his rock n roll chick?
By the time we went on, I was obsessing how I couldn't get the G string on my bass tuned... until I remembered that I don't even use the G string!
The cool thing was, that despite our lack of, ahem, technical prowess, they all loved us. Our drummer beat the crap out of his cymbals so hard that they actually flew off the stands. As a result, I started to throw them all about in the air and play fungo, hitting my bass into them.

The show ended with me doing a Pete Townshend and smashing my bass on the floor and jumping all over it. Real smart, Nazz.

And then we played Surfin' Bird. Because, every show should end with Surfin' Bird.
Or something.

The review of the night... courtesy of Mrs. Nomad: "Y'know, I will come see you guys again".

And then things got weird...

On another floor, there was some kind of weird party starting up. It turned out it was a lesbians only party for some magazine. I tried to make friends and even offered to have the band come up and play for them for awhile. Hey, some of my best friends are lesbians!
Unfortunately for us, these weren't exactly "lipstick lesbians", they were more of the, ahem, manly type. Now I ask you, what's the point of two butch lesbians going at it? Wouldn't that be sort of like they both wanted to be gay men? Ah, the wonders of true love. And why did they hate us guys so much?
Nonetheless, it wasn't exactly our cup of tea; watching gals who were dressed as dudes and looked manlier than us making out. Plus they told us they were gonna kick our asses if we didn't leave!

So we left.

Oh well, rock n roll!

Here's some stuff that came on my shuffle this morn... it seems to make sense.

Toonage:
Grandmaster Flash - The Message
The Who - Drowned (Quadrophenia demo)
Stiff Little Fingers - Strummerville
The Dickies - Sound Of Silence (Simon & Garfunkel cover)

June 10, 2009

Even The Losers Get Lucky Sometime

Our show last nite:

Loud ROCK AND FUCKING ROLL played with maximum volume and distortion

+

Mass quantities of booze and other sundries

+

Slasher Movie premier

+

Actual crowded club

+

Lesbian Bull Dyke Prom

=
Caterwaul Of Sound


details to come.

June 8, 2009

(More than) A Touch Of Grey


So, the other day, on a lovely evening over beers, the missus informs me "y'know, if you're going to ever start coloring your hair, it's time to do it, it's really turning grey".

And a WTF moment arrives.

All right, so I am the proud father of a 15 and 11 year old. And I have been married 21 years. But when did I get old? When did people start calling me sir?
Aren't I usually wearing torn jeans and a rock or beer t-shirt? Aren't I usually wearing a bandana or baseball cap? Aren't I the most immature, juvenile adult on the planet?

Wait a minute... I'm an adult?????

When did this aging crap occur?

So, my back constantly hurts. So, my knees give out after running a mile or so. So, I need a couple of extra hours sleep after my usual binge. I'm still King Of The Night-time World, aren't I? I can still out-party anyone I know. In the end, it'll be me and Keith Richards left. Or something.
I used to get so pissed off when I had to show proof of age. Now, the rare occasions I get proofed, I'm actually thankful.

Yeah, I know it beats the alternative. It is NOT better to burn out... despite what this guy says. And each day brings another entry into my scrapbook of madness.

I think I'll pass on the hair tinting; honey. I'm gonna ride on what brought me to this point.

PS- Hey you darn kids, get off my lawn!

Toonage:
Agent Orange - Everything Turns Grey
Pennywise - Touch Of Grey (Grateful Dead cover live)
Anarchy Six (Redd Kross) - Old Punks

June 4, 2009

Four Chord Wonders


The big news all over New York is that my band, Caterwaul Of Sound, will be playing an actual movie premier party next Tuesday (June 9) at The Delancey, in glorious Manhattan. The movie is a slasher flick called "Kids Go To The Woods, Kids Get Dead". Yeah, it's a tasteful little film about, well, you can figure it out.

Of course, with our usual lack of attention to details, we neglected to get our name on the show poster. And with our usual lack of motivation, we haven't yet recorded our soon to be hit "Love Theme to Kids Go To The Woods, Kids Get Dead". But never fear, show up and you'll hear it.

There's got a be a few of you mofo's that are in NYC, so come on out. In fact, the rest of you should be flying in for the show!

We are hard at work, practicing non-stop for the gig.

OK, thats sort of a lie. But we will be ready to rock the shit out of everyone.

Promise. We're taking this one seriously. We have made a pact NOT to get really hammered until after we finish playing. Like I said, we're serious about this one.

What might make this show even weirder is that there is potential for alot of wayward members of the Nomad social circle to appear at this. Some of whom I have not seen in twenty years. As well as people I know from business. So, things might get curiouser and curioser.

It might be a good night to drop some acid before we start playing. No, no... must...remain...strong!

Toonage: