Pye in the Face

Appetizer: What was your favorite cartoon when you were a child?
I used to love Saturday mornings and remember that Dungeons and Dragons, The Smurfs, G.I. Joe and a bunch of others were always on my dance card. But the 70’s version of Spider-Man was my very favorite. I still remember every word of the fantastic theme song - lemme see if I can find it somewhere. Got it - wow that takes me back. I love the furious horns and the Buddy Love style to it. Must have been made in the late 60’s. I half expected a cartoon version of Sammy Davis Jr. to shoot lazers at Spidey out of his gold-rimmed glasses by the end of it.

Soup: Pretend you are about to get a new pet. Which animal would you pick, and what would you name it?
I just went through all of this, actually. I picked a dog, a Boston Terrier and I named him Shepherd. I also considered “Huck” (Huckleberry Pye) and Indy (we named the dog Indiana!) but Shepherd fit the Pye naming convention perfectly, and is actually a respectable dog’s name historically. “Old Shep” is a well known Walter Brennan song about a beloved dog and was eventually even covered by Elvis himself. I love Brennan - you’ll remember him as John Wayne’s old-coot of a side kick in several Westerns, particularly Rio Bravo. “I picked up my gun, and aimed it at Shep’s faithful head“. Jesus, I hope it never comes to that.

Salad: On a scale of 1-10, how much do you enjoy getting dressed up for special occasions?
I haven’t had cause to wear a tuxedo in a good 10 years but I am a groomsman at my friend’s wedding in September and was just sent a tux rental form for the occasion. I’ll enjoy it. I’ll make lots of Dean Martin jokes. Probably drink scotch all night. 2 fingers, 3 ice cubes - just the way Francis Albert liked it. Then I’ll fall asleep alone in a hotel room and wake up hating life. I get to go to 4 weddings in September. In 4 different States. And yes - I want to kill myself.

Main Course: What kind of music do you listen to while you drive?
Excellent question, quizzlet. Your excellent questions are few and far between. I’d like to take this opportunity to list my favorite driving songs of all time. I’ll number them, but there’s not really any particular order.

1. RoadRunner by The Modern Lovers - Jonathan Richman’s tribut to Massachusetts and driving down Route 128. “The highway is your girlfriend as you go by quick. Suburban trees, suburban speed and it smells like thunder.”
2. Threshold Apprehension by Frank Black - Read my review. I get pulled over nearly everytime my iPod shuffles to this track.
3. There Goes the Fear by The Doves - All time favorite sinalong, and the nutty Brazilian rhythms will make the hours fly past, providing that you play the song 27 times in a row. Maybe that’s just me.

Dessert: When was the last time you bought a clock? And in which room did you put it?
I bought a Kids in the Hall clock off of eBay a couple of years back, and it hung proudly in my North End kitchen until I moved back to the Great White North a year ago this very month. It’s currently in a box out in the Winchester and I look forward to restoring it to a place of honor when I get around to going through all my stored stuff this summer. Now that is a DVD set I really need to break down and purchase, Santa. The series left me scarred. Scarred for LIFE! Bu-gock!

Appetizer: On a scale of 1-10 how much do you like your own handwriting?
The only time I write in script / cursive is when I’m signing my name. The rest of the time I write in this all caps printing style and I really don’t know where it came from or when it started. It’s almost graffiti-esque and I can’t say I’m too proud of it. I’ve always held pens in a funny way which cramps up and eventually begins to hurt my hand after too long. As a result, in grade school they gave me a triangular rubber pad to pull over my pencil. Why did that just turn me on a little bit?

Soup: Do you prefer baths or showers?
I don’t think I’ve had a bath in about 20 years. Unless we’re talking about a more naughty sort of bath for naughty bath purposes. For daily maintenance I’m a shower person all the way. This came up just last night, actually. The lake house has 3 bathrooms, 2 showers and no bathtubs. Janet is beside herself and I think one of the summer projects for 2008 will be putting one in if she has anything to say about it. Or wants to pay for it. I still have a lot of work left to do on the Winchester, and the only bath-type-thingy I’m interested in installing is a hot tub on the back deck. Oh yes… Jim and I are already talking about the schematics. That came out wrong.

Salad: What was the last bad movie you watched?
You know me - “bad movie” is a very relative term. Do you mean a guilty pleasure that is admittedly bad yet I still enjoy it immensely? Or a flick I simply can’t get behind no matter how hard I might try? Jason, Amy and Marj are coming up this weekend, so I’ve been waiting till then to watch my newly acquired copy of Semi-Pro. It’s no Citizen Kane but I’m sure I’ll lap it up. For the other side of the coin I’ll mention Altered States. I love William Hurt and I picked this DVD up in the bargain bin at a local supermarket recently for $4.99. It wasn’t half as good as I remember it but I think that’s more accurately categorized as a bad movie that I actually concede is a bad movie.

Main Course: Name something you are addicted to. How does it affect your life?
I think this is probably a fairly popular answer, especially among people like me who are obviously in deep denial, but the only thing I think I’m truly addicted to is music. And it affects my life in a very positive way. It will change a mood, evoke a memory, make a long drive more bearable… I had a long haul to Ottawa and back earlier this week, for example. When I hit Roger Stevens and realized I still had at least another hour before I made it home I sighed like a sissy, having already spent close to 3 hours in the car. Then the best driving song in human history shuffled onto my iPod and there was no where I’d have rather been than behind the wheel of the HMS Pye.

Dessert: Which instrument is your favorite to listen to?
Bagpipes, and there’s nee a wee debate needed there, laddie. My maternal Grandfather, Jimmy Smith, was from Wishaw and I first heard the lovely sound growing up when I’d go to visit him. The pipes are very, very difficult to learn to play and are almost primative in form and function - but there are fewer more beautiful sonic events on planet Earth. I will miss being in Boston this Monday, where I would have undoubtedly been standing in The Field when the Police Pipers come in as I have been on St. Paddy’s past. By the end of their set there’s narry a dry eye in the house.

I think that’s why I’ve always loved Big Country so much. Long before he hung himself in a Hawaii hotel room, Stuart Adamson could make his guitar sound like a set of bagpipes wailing away on a moor somewhere. Like a banshee predicting his sad end, perhaps. The clip I’ve included above is a great example of his extremely unique Scottish style. Listen to just the first 33 seconds to see what I mean, if you so desire. Actually, forget the banshee. The red bandana tied around his neck is probably better foreshadowing.

The only thing better than having a puppy is videotaping said creature and then editing music over the various snippets to create a truly mirthful combination of vignettes. I’ve had a lot of silly movie ideas over the past 10 days of puppy parenthood so I decided to edit the best bits together into one piece of celluloid history.

You’ll see that obviously Boss is none to pleased with his new housemates. Octopi feature quite heavily into the production, as do The Carpenters and Jojo. I fully love these little guys and am having a great, albeit smelly, time with them. I’ll probably put together a proper piece on what life is like here at the lake now that these little monsters have taken over my kitchen. Enjoy.

“…this excellent little 7″ is just about the best thing Frank Black has released in the last decade.” www.boomkat.com

All the Threshold Apprehension reviews I read this morning, while mulling what I myself would throw down, said that the song is a “return to form” and very reminiscent of Frank’s work with the Pixies. Yes, he recorded his latest album under the moniker Black Francis as opposed to Frank Black. And yes, he utilizes his amazing screaming capabilities at a level not seen since Bailey’s Walk. Is this Charles Thompson’s version of a mid-life crisis, perhaps? He is 41 this year. Is dusting off the old nom de plume and wailing like a banshee akin to pulling into the driveway in a 2007 Mustang when the wife thinks you’ve been saving for a mini-van?

Threshold Apprehension, although released as a single, doesn’t have a traditional video to accompany it. I’ve posted a crazy live version below, and you should also check out this fan-made accompaniment if you want to hear what the studio version sounds like. I’d recommend that so you can share my sheer joy 57 seconds into the song when the single strum becomes a double and the tune all of a sudden makes me want to punch my accelerator. The part where he describes drinking Grand Marnier, snortin’ speed and then “doing 185 on the new Ring Road” doesn’t help either.

If you combine 80’s-era Pixies, 2004-era Pixies and Frank’s solo touring between 1993 and the present I have seen the man in concert 14 times - and I’ve never seen him put down his guitar except to pick up another one. I’m not sure what got into him at the performance above earlier this year in Toulouse, but I likey. Recently I decided to make a Frank Black “best of” playlist for my iTunes and as it sprawled to over 30 songs (he has released no less than 13 solo albums since the Pixies’ demise in 1992 - two of them doubles) I realized how much joy this unique and prolific songwriter has brought to my stereos over the course of my life so far. Actually, take a prolific songwriter and feed them bathtub meth through an IV for half a day, hook them up to a solar power generator and then maybe you’ve got something better resembling Frank.

Bluefinger, not to be confused with a Daniel Craig-era James Bond villain (hat tip to FrankBlack.net) was inspired as a whole by an obscure Dutch artist with whom Charles apparently feels quite an affinity. It’s his latest thematic focus in a long line of space aliens, cowboys, science fiction writers and fellow musicians and I just have to say - whatever works. Well done yet again, Mr. Thompson. Now get back on the treadmill so you can continue trying to impress the babysitter next time you drive her home in the ‘Stang.