PopWars

One of my mother’s hobbies was arranging the furniture in our house. She has a great eye and good taste and the rearrangements were often startling in their inventiveness. Sometimes they only lasted a few days. Noel, the cafe manager at the Little Theater, sent us an email last night Informing us that Margaret Explosion would be playing at the other end of the room. Apparently they’ve moved the grand piano and the whole space has been reoriented. Tonight I plan to set my drums up close enough to the dishwasher’s room to be able to incorporate the the pots and pans in my kit.

In my parents’ day the circus use to pull into town on the train and stop right bend the Armory on East Main. Two nights ago, when we passed the place on the way to the Little they were padding old metal heads down on the front steps. Judas Priest was in the house. Last night it was the rapper, Nas and tonight my nephews will be there for Bassnectar.

Duane posted a 1978 photo today on fb that he took of my old drum set, a long exposure penlight portrait. I wish I still had that Slingerland set. I sold it to buy a louder set while I was in New Math. David Accorso, who was touring with Julio Iglesias at the time, came down to my basement and he picked up the rack mount tom and tapped it with his fingers. He smiled and said, “Ooo, these are some nice tubs,” and he handed me the cash. The small set was many ply and heavy. I bought a bigger, black Pearl set. The bass drum delaminated in no time. Maybe that was because I would stand on it during our set.

Someone named Mike booked Margaret Explosion for this years Naples Grape Fest. We were a litle worried about the lengendairy traffic jams that happen in that vineyard laden valley but he said he would give us a secret route and a prime parking space. We were to play a one hour and fifteen set but we had to be there an hour ahead of time. We’re used to waltzing in at the last minute with just enough time to set up and get started.

Four of us drove down in the same car, our car. We let Bob drive and Ken sat in the front seat. Margaret and I sat in the back with all the equipment. Of course Ken didn’t bring his double bass and I had to take my bass drum apart to put both my snare and my seat inside the drum to save space. We stayed out of the wine tasting tents and strolled the grounds before our set. Peggi bought some fresh squeezed lemonade and I found a coffee stand. One vendor was selling giant dog bones and another had flooring samples. We played between Amanda Lee Peers, fresh from her debut on “The Voice,” and a Zydeco band. We left as they were being introduced. We listened to a recording of the gig on the way home. Both it and the scenery were out-a-sight.

Was Matthew Shipp’s performance at the Bop Shop part of the Fringe Fest or did it just blow away any of the other performances that we didn’t see Friday night? Shipp is amazing. His duo, with Michael Bisio on bass, played for an hour and a half straight. That is, no breaks at all. Melodic pieces overlapped one another and morphed into something else before your eyes. I had mine closed for maximum effect.

We stopped in Record Archive over the weekend where they were celebrating their “Almost Fortieth Year Anniversary” with live performances by bands, food trucks of every stripe and 20 percent off everything in the store. We caught Anonymous Willpower and we came home with a few used singles. We were talking to Dick Storms in the far corner of their huge space and he pointed to some boxes of Archive Records 45s up on the top shelf. Hi-Techs‘ “Screamin’ You Head” was among them.

We were laughing about the old times and co-owner Alayna joined the conversation. They cooked up an idea to get the bands from those days back together in some form or another to celebrate the long defunct, in-house label. That would be a hoot. I found this old photo I took of Dick as we signed the contract for the second and last Hi-Techs single, “Screamin’ You Head.” Bob Martin is in the picture because we had already formed a new band, Personal Effects. Dwight Glodell produced this single.

When Peggi was teaching Spanish at Pittsford Sutherland High School she would use our Abba “Gracias Por La Musica” album in her class. Their enunciation was very clear. The Swedish group did many different vocal versions of their songs and had incredible diction in each language. Think of any of their English songs and you can hear their spot-on, percussive pronunciation. Mamma Mia. Funny that Anni-Frid Lyngstad’s daughter was a foreign exchange student, living here in Rochester and going to Sutherland High School at that time.

We are still big Abba fans and we just finished back to back Abba movies. The first, made as they toured Australia in the seventies is a bad movie with sensational concert footage. 1999’s “The Winner Takes It All” has many of the videos for the original songs, some footage from the “Mamma Mia” musical (which only makes you die for the original versions), and some great interviews with the band.

Benny got his first accordion at six. Their songs are rich with cabaret, classical and folk roots and they were influenced by Brian Wilson and Phil Spector. I can’t decide what my favorite song is. “Chiquitta,” “Fernando,” “Knowing Me, Knowing You?” All triumphs. Long live Abba!

The Barcus Berry pick-up that Peggi uses on her sax started acting up last night. It made a horrendous noise at the most inopportune time and pretty much forced Peggi to take care of it first thing today. She made an appointment to see Chuck in the back room (Rob Storms old nest) of Sound Source and he spent about an hour with her and only charged fifteen bucks. Peggi reports the space has been completely straightened up since he retired. No more Fudgsicles or non-sequitors. No more 3D viewings of Rob’s high school band.

When she got home I took off for House of Guitars to return the cymbal that Bruce let me take home to try. I had stopped in there on my bike and rode home with it under my arm. It almost fit with my kit but I felt like I could find a better match if I brought my existing cymbals up there. I tried every one in the place and finally settled on an old Zildjian that someone had traded in. Bruce had gone home to dinner by that time and the kid that was upstairs didn’t know how much to charge me so I said I’d stop back tomorrow.