Mr. Moderator

When not blogging Mr. Moderator enjoys baseball, cooking, and falconry.

Recurring “Nightmare” Couplets

Mar 012012

The recent One-liners thread launched by Townsman hrrundivbakshi coupled with an ongoing super-busy streak at work seem to have brought what I consider an unwelcome yet wholly appropriate rock lyric couplet into my brain:

Get up and do it again. Amen.

It’s from some Jackson Browne song I deeply dislike. Is it “The Pretender?” I’m not going to risk listening to any Jackson Browne songs right now to verify the source, but it’s a recurring nightmare couplet that enters my brain as a form of gallows humor during tough stretches at work, then gets stuck there for as long as a week. For the first day or two it makes me chuckle, then it grates on me. Big time.

Do you have a recurring nightmare couplet that creeps into your brain in certain circumstances?

(As an aside, does Jackson Browne’s have more songs about how hard it is to work, how hard it is to get through the day, than he does days working an “honest” job? Didn’t he start out as a 16-year-old boy-toy and songwriter for Nico? Has he ever worked an “honest” job in his life? Is watching his roadies haul equipment across the country the closest he’s come to any form of non-artistic labor?)

Davy Jones Dead of Heart Attack

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 292012

Looks like this is just breaking: Monkees singer Davy Jones has died of a heart attack.

Oh boy, who would have thought Davy would be the first Monkee to go?

The New York Times checks in.

RTH Confessional: “I paid money to see The Allnighter in the theater.”

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 292012

Need a refresher? After the jump…! Continue reading »

BREAKING NEWS: Mr. Moderator Wholly Embraces a Smiths Song; RTH Labs to Investigate “Strange” Phenomenon

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 292012

Strange Days Indeed!

“I couldn’t believe it,” recounted popular Rock Town Hall moderator Mr. Moderator to an anonymous RTH Labs Hotline operator, “I was painting our upstairs bathroom while playing the ‘Elvis Costello’ channel on Pandora when a jangly song came on that sounded like something The Smiths might do…but it wasn’t the slightest bit annoying!” Mr. Moderator quickly placed the paint roller back in the tray, washed his hands, and ran to his bedroom stereo to see what was playing. Sure enough it was The Smiths’ “Is It Really So Strange?”, a song he couldn’t place ever having heard before, not even in women’s dorm rooms from his college days.

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/The-Smiths_01_Is-it-Really-So-Strange-John-Peel-session-12-2-86.mp3|titles=The Smiths, “Is it Really So Strange”]

Mr. Moderator stood before the speakers and used all of his immense powers of concentration and critical thinking to see if he could determine that the song, like all previous Smiths songs he’d heard before, did in deed suck thanks to Morrissey’s whiny vocals and ill-defined melodies. But the song in no way sucked. He couldn’t even demean the song as “wimpy.” That’s when he called the RTH Labs Hotline.

“I’d tried liking The Smiths—even the slightest bit—over the years,” Mr. Mod explained, “but I was always put off by Morrissey’s aimless vocals and resentful of the mystifying ‘guitar god’ status granted to Johnny Marr.” He continues, “One week I even immersed myself in solo Morrissey records and found I liked them better than the stuff he did with The Smiths.” He then tried listening to The Smiths again but still couldn’t understand what people heard in those records. “The solo Morrissey stuff wasn’t too bad, though. Maybe it was the influence of Mick Ronson that gave him some focus,” he muses. “This Smith song, however, is as solid as the best of those solo records. Morrissey within the song’s rhythm, and I even like Marr’s guitar playing!”

RTH Labs is currently investigating why this particular Smiths song is so much better than anything else the Moderator has ever heard by the band. Your input will be added to the investigation.

Rock Town Hall Thanks The Wailers for Playing

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 292012

Honestly, as much of an Attractions fan as I am, I’m a bit disappointed that Elvis Costello’s backing band ran away with their Rebel Conference semifinals match against The Wailers in our ongoing tournament to determine—once and for all—rock’s greatest backing band. The outcome of this match opens the Hall up to a number of easy rockist charges that have been made against us over the years. Thank god The Wailers weren’t a female-fronted outfit to boot!

Worries about how we’re perceived in the rock world aside, I’m mostly disappointed, disappointed in those of you who didn’t do your part to at least make the final score close. The Wailers deserved better. I could have done more. I could have logged onto some friends’ computers and voted for them. In lieu of a prime Burnin’-era live performance of any of my favorite song from that, my favorite Bob Marley and The Wailers album, I leave you this parting tribute…after the jump!

Rock Town Hall’s Saturday Night Shut-In: The Moderator’s Big Brother, Gary, Drops in to Spin Records

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 252012

Sounds of the Hall in roughly 33 1/3 minutes!

In this week’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In your host, Mr. Moderator, is joined by an unexpected guest, his big brother, Gary. Four years your Moderator’s senior, Gary spins records his kid brother rejected when they were boys. With the passing of time nothing short of healing is expected.

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-68.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 68]

[Note: You can add Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your iTunes by clicking here. The Rock Town Hall feed will enable you to easily download Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your digital music player.]

Who’s the Second-Coolest Offspring Among Members of The Beatles?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 252012

Did you catch George Harrison‘s son, Dhani, on Conan the other night? I did. Dhani was promoting a new app he helped develop that presents his father’s “stunning stash of vintage axes.” The app, like most apps, didn’t turn me on—not to mention the fact that I’m typically not into gear porn—but Harrison the Younger was delightful: loaded with poise, charm, humor, and all the qualities we could hope for in George’s kid.

It took awhile for Dhani to catch on, didn’t it? While John’s boys, Julian and Sean, long ago burst on the scene and then settled into the occasional feature trumpeting a new, understated release…while Stella McCartney has spent years as a celebrated fashion designer (not that I would understand that scene, but I do see photos of her arm-in-arm with celebrities and fellow fashion designers)…while Zak Starkey follows in the footsteps of Keith Moon to prove to the world that he’s a bigger son of a drummer than Jason Bonham…Dhani seemed to be kept under wraps until he appeared on stage as part of a star-studded tribute to his father, playing acoustic guitar on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

Let’s face it: Dhani has claimed the title of Coolest Offspring of a Beatle. It’s looking like he’ll have to mess up royally to lose that title, unless Paul’s 8-year-old kid from his failed marriage to Hamish Stuart Heather Mills develops into a childhood sensation or one of his other kids with Linda springs forward and does something special.

So who is the second-coolest offspring among members of The Beatles?

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