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Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Randy Rogers to do Letterman tonight
Is David Letterman turning Wednesdays into Austin Music Night? Following Okkervil River’s great appearance last week, the Randy Rogers Band will make their “Late Show” debut tonight.
The Austin-based country/soft rock group will be performing “Wicked Ways,” the lead track off of their self-titled album.
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‘Gossip Girl’ UPDATE
Giovanni Rufino THE CW
Matthew Settle as Rufus and Kelly Rutherford as Lily
A comment to the blog just informed me that it was a parent on the show, one of whom talking to another parent who used to be a 90s rocker, who made the comment.
This makes a little more sense.
Not that I know a lot of people with Simple Machines 7-inch collections who have 17-year-old kids, but this is TV we’re talking about.
Not that I know a lot of people with Simple Machines 7-inch collections.
But do I own a first pressing of the Kathleen Hanna/Slim Moon Wordcore single, the Circus Lupus “TIghtrope Walker” single and (ahem) “Give Me Back” purchased from the Simple Machines house?
Yes I do.
I remain really, really old.
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‘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.
