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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2009 > January > 13 > Entry
‘Gossip Girl’ apparently being written by 38-year-old former college radio music directors
While many of my friends have suggested I should start watching “Gossip Girl,” I have thus far resisted.
So I was a little surprised when I got a flurry of texts and e-mails letting me know that one character on the show (a one Dan Humphrey?) said to another, “swear on your Simple Machines 7-inches.”
In the immortal words of Seth Meyers and Amy Pohler: “REALLY?!?!?”
For those who have no idea what I am (or Dan is) talking about, Simple Machines was an Arlington, Va.-based record label that existed from late 1989/early 1990 to 1998, which makes it perhaps the quintessential indie pop/rock record label, at least in terms of lifespan. Seven-inch singles were the coin of the realm, college radio actually mattered and Simple Machines was the little label that could.
Simple Machines, owned and operated by Jenny Toomey and Kristin Thompson, released records by Tsunami, Lungfish, Ida, Scrawl and more. Their first few releases were a series of 7-inch EPs based on the six simple machines (level, wheel, pulley, etc.).
They also released this, which is a story in itself. Really should have picked it up when I had the chance. In fact, the whole series was good.
The “Wedge” EP (1990, smr 01) was a hugely important record for me. I lived in Falls Church, Va., a D.C. suburb. The Dischord scene seemed distant, D.C.-based and I was a wussy suburban kid. Simple Machines, based in north Arlington, was a six-minute drive from my house.
Great record, too. OK song by Edsel, excellent song by Geek (essentially Toomey’s college band), a cover of “I Am A Rock” by the Hated, which might very well be the most emo three minutes ever put to tape and “Nothing is Easy,” an absolute heart-stopper by Lungfish, who soon became and remain one of my all-time favorite bands.
Simple Machines did good work and got out of the game at at excellent moment. Their context seemed to be falling apart, it was time to move on, so they did. Classy, frankly. A lot of the music in the Machines Series and especially the Working Holiday series totally holds up. (Word to Crain, Lungfish, Scrawl, NPB, and Grifters for standout songs that would work on any contemporary mixtape.)
All of this being said, it makes ZERO sense that any 17-year-old New Yorker has a stack of Simple Machines 7-inches. You want to park a Secretly Canadian/Jagjaguwar/Dead Oceans reference in there? Sure.
TV on the Radio joke? Yes.
Simple Machines joke? Um, no.
Kind of cool to hear, but also more than a little bizarre.
Man, I’m old.
Comments
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By Cecily Johnson
January 13, 2009 2:39 PM | Link to this
It wasn’t a teenage character who said that, it was the PARENT of a teenager, Lily Bass. She was talking to Rufus Humphrey, father of Dan, who used to be an alterna-rocker in the 90s.
By Rob
January 13, 2009 5:15 PM | Link to this
it was Dan Humphrey, who is 17, saying it to Vanessa, who is also 17.
(Dan is the guy who put on Elliott Smith vinyl when losing his virginity to Serena, but Vanessa has never displayed any musical interests whatsoever.)
the parents of the teenagers did have a conversation about 90s music in last night’s episode, but it involved Lily having been once groped by a member of Buffalo Tom. We don’t want to know, frankly.
By AMendez
January 13, 2009 8:37 PM | Link to this
it was a teenager . Dan said id it to Vanessa