| UPDATE (3/3/02) My wife and I now have two great kids; the second one is still a little too young to be pissed about not having his own web pages. I'm still not 32 anymore Don still isn't 33 anymore but two kids remains the accurate count for him. And, sorry dear spambots, but the email addresses below are long dead. |
Below are posts to the campervan-etc mailing list wherein my friend Don St. John and I described our experiences with Camper Van Beethoven et al.I'd elaborate a little on the genesis of all this: When I read that blurb about the album CVB in The Boston Globe, I said to myself that any band ambitious/strange enough to cover the Pink Floyd classic "Interstellar Overdrive" deserves to have its album bought by me. And that's how this all got started.
I'd also mention that my friend/onetime college roommate Don is really the King of All Music Pigs and has turned me on to many bands over the years -- CVB was the one time I really got to repay the favors.
Finally, Don was correct that I neglected to mention seeing Camper Van Chadbourne at Bunratty's. To go off on a slight tangent: Don recently passed along a photo of Eugene Chadbourne playing some sort of combination of electric household/garden appliances, apparently including a former rake. I don't know the source of this photo so I am going ahead and reprinting it without permission:
Oh, a few more things: I'm not 32 anymore, and my wife and I now have one beautiful child. Don is no longer 33 and he now has two kids but still no Web site to call home. . -- mike
Date: Fri, 5 May 1995 12:01:02 -0400
Message-Id: <199505051601.MAA19455@interport.net>
From: mjm@interport.net (Mike Mokrzycki)
Subject: Re: Remember all those demographic data?
I sort of replied to your original request for data except that I didn't
realize it at the time; for whatever reason I had never actually read your
initial post about it, and I jumped into the thread midstream. And so I left
out a couple of variables, like, um, my age. Now I've caught up to yours of
21 April giving the results, and soliciting followups, so let me try again.
Age: 32.
Year of exposure: Late '86/early '87
Album of exposure: CVB (via 1-graph blurb in The Boston Globe that mentioned
"Interstellar Overdrive")
Other stuff: Saw CVB in '88 i think at the Paradise in Boston, and twice in
NYC in '90 i think, at CBGB's and the Ritz. Saw MOD '89ish at TT the Bear's
in Cambridge, MA, and 2-3 years later at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ. Own zero
CVB t-shirts, two MOD shirts. Haven't seen a Cracker show and haven't driven
seven hours to see half a Cracker show, though I have been to Norway.
Married, no children. Employed. Think Bill Nagel should give it up already.
Favorite album: probably CVB or OBRS, depending on the day. Don't know why
CVB (the album) is said to not sound very "American" or not be "sincere."
KLP never quite grew on me the way the others did.
[snip]
thanks brad for your work on this vital study
mike
From: dstjohn@iftw.com (Don St. John)
Subject: whoops.....
Date: 05 May 1995 13:32:11 GMT
Message-Id: <2813949.19937095@iftw.com>
Organization: Infotainment World
it did say "demographic," didn't it........married, one child (1.5 yrs old).
Philadelphia native, lived 12 yrs in Boston, presently in San Francisco (good
place to be if you're a CVB fan). BS in journalism, and isn't that
appropriate? magazine editor at present and hopefully for the continuing
future--I like it. same class as David Lowery, just didn't move as often.
enough bandwidth waste........
Don
------------------------------
From: dstjohn@iftw.com (Don St. John)
Subject: remember all those demographic data?
Date: 05 May 1995 11:44:35 GMT
Message-Id: <3221553118.19575778@iftw.com>
Organization: Infotainment World
Lord knows I should be working, but I never did post on this so:
Age: 33
Year of exposure: late 1987, thanks to the aforeposting Mike Mokrzycki, who
turned me on to them
Album of exposure: CVB
Favorite album: Depends. Usually CVB. I really like them all, and that very
definitely includes KLP ("Jack Ruby" is an amazing song). Actually, I like
"Cosmodemonologic" best of anything.
Other stuff: I've seen the various permutations a lot.
CVB: Paradise Boston in '88, a great show. Most of my posse (including Mike,
I believe) fled to the side, while my old roommate and I remained at the back
of the mosh pit, kicking beer bottles in and generally misbehaving. Also
again in '90, good "Lincoln Shrine" there.
MoD: 4/89 at TT the Bear's in Cambridge MA, along with the Storytelling band.
Probably my favorite of their shows. Again in 91, I think, at the Rat in
Boston. Loud: I was startled to find myself standing next to Roger Miller of
Mission Of Burma, not because I was unused to seeing him (I wasn't; he's a
nice guy, btw) but because he broke up Burma due to hearing problems caused
loud music. And the power outage show at the DNA in San Francisco in spring
'92. That wasn't quite as loud.:-)
HF: A couple times, once at the Chameleon in SF with the Mommyheads, another
time at Nightbreak. I tried to see them last night (if that's still the
name--I've seen that and Me Russ and Jane both in use) but they went on
earlier than I expected and I missed it. Oh well.
Cracker: Free show at the Golden Gate Park bandshell in summer '92. Great
time. Then at the Greek in Berkeley last Sept on the Spin&Gin tour--they
opened with "Eurotrash Girl" and it just got better from there--and later
that week at the Fillmore (thanks again, guys & Claudia!). I really wish I'd
seen the very early appearance in 12/91 at the Bison Brewery in Berkeley. You
won't hear Cracker-bashing from me; I thought the level of growth from the 92
show to last year was serious.
5th Business: Twice at the Thirsty Swede in SF last year. See next.
A Great Laugh: Three times now, counting last night. Drummer from the New EZ
Devils sat in on this one. I thought a little energy was missing, not so much
from the band as in the room in general. Maybe it was just me, I was pretty
tired by then. I really think these VK songs are his best stuff, though; I've
been hearing them in the laid-back (5th) and energetic (AGL) permutations for
quite a while now, and they've grown on me. It was fun to see him and JES
playing in the old lineup, though. But things move on, and frankly Chris
Xefos is real cool too.
CVC: One amazing show at Bunratty's in Boston, the same week as the Sin Funny
recording. I participated in the Rake Quartet, one of the great moments in my
musical career.:-) Mike forgot to mention this one.
And a Yellow #6 show last year, but I tend not to count it; not really their
project.
Vaporize your crystals, Don