Guess what? Cracker is touring this summer with Bare Naked Ladies, Big Head Todd & the Monsters, and Blues Traveler---and they are going to be right here in Palm Beach County!
Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven are my all-time favorite bands, of course, but I also really like Blues Traveler. John Popper is one of the best harmonica players in the whole world. He's a Connecticut boy, too.
Back in 1991 my friend Barbara Shepard (from The Fabulous Who Who's) and I were in a short film with him. It was called Mr. Personality and it was about a talk show host's nightmare. I promised the director Tom E. Brown that I'd never post Mr. Personality online. (However, Tom is very proud of his film Das Clown which also starred Popper and was screened at Sundance.) John Popper played one of the talk show guests on Mr. Personality. Barb and I sang the show's theme song "Simon Says" which was originally recorded by the 1910 Fruitgum Factory. We had some pretty slick dance moves, too.
Barbara Shepard started The Fabulous Who Who's back in 1989, and they are still going strong. Barb is an amazing singer, songwriter, guitar player, and she's also the funniest woman in New Haven. I sang back-up vocals with the Who Who's for a couple of years while I was going to grad school. The wildly talented Kriss Santala was/is also a Who Who. She also performs as a solo artist. In 2007 she released her own album Lost Souls Road which is absolutely beautiful. Visit www.independisc.com/krisssantala.htm and listen to "One Good Thing."
My old friend Scott McDonald from Jellyshirts recently posted this newspaper ad from the beloved old New Haven venue, The Moon. If you look closely, you can see that The Fabulous Who Who's (and Scott's band Jellyshirts) are on the same page as Reverend Horton Heat, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, and Miracle Legion.
Scott and I used to work at Cutler Records with Robin Andreoli, Dean Falcone and Al Lotto. Al now has his own record store called Exile On Main Street. It's the coolest place--he even sells 45's! Celebrate Record Store Day a month early and shop at Al's store online: exileonmain.com. You will really like his website . . . and his store.
ps. Robin was a deejay for the University of New Haven radio station. It was (is?) the coolest station. It's where townie kids like me learned about Madness, The English Beat, and The Specials long before there was any MTV. pps. Kevin Day is another Connecticut musician I knew back in the good old days. (Actually, I knew his brother, but I'm sure we must have bumped into each other at some point.) Kevin Day is in the AWESOME band Gigglejuice. Gigglejuice are so great that they've even opened for Cracker! Check them out:
http://www.gigglejuice.com/buycdhere.htmlppps. It was an old boyfriend and lifelong friend who first introduced me to Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven. We met when I waited on him at the record store.
pppps. As you probably guessed, the title of this post was inspired by
and
Klosterman, Chuck. Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota.
New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.
pppps. As you probably guessed, the title of this post was inspired by
and
Klosterman, Chuck. Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota.New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.
