From the Vaults!

I'm not sure why, but I wrote this a year ago and never published it. I'd guess that I wasn't happy with the way it rolled along and off of the tongue. I have an issue with constantly rewriting and shuffling things around when composing something. This is why I don't do deadlines (side note: will someone make me a shirt of Arlene pointing at Garfield that says, "He don't do Mondays, I don't do deadlines."?). Oh well. It's kinda funny to look back on my first months here and realize how little has changed. This place is a hit factory! Anyhow, here it is, covered in digital dust and completely untouched.

December 30th, 2008

This is one from the titular-geographical file. It's been a bit nightmarish here in "Hollywood" so far. If you don't mind, I'm going to make a list here of the things that have broken on me in the past two months before giving a brief intro to an amazing record put out by a fake band.

1. Spent the first few days in the new apartment without power in any room except for the bedroom due to an ancient fuse box having had its breakers covered in white paint one too many times. On top of this, I read online that this particular brand of fuse boxes from the 1950's have been known to catch fire due to the breakers not tripping when overloaded. Mental note: do not run microwave, space heater, hair dryer and guitar amp at the same time as this could result in death.

2. Spent a good part of two weeks looking for an affordable used fridge. While I knew the place didn't come with a fridge, I didn't realize how hard it would be to find one for under $150. I'll make sure my next place is fully equipped.

3. After two days of rain in a city that I was told it never rained in, sewage began to rise and fall from my kitchen sink. Happy Thanksgiving, buddy. Now, how are you gonna wash all of those damn dishes?! The bathtub, of course! Plumber was on vacation resulting in a serious delay in getting a pretty disgusting matter taken care of.

4. The day following the repair of the sink issue, water begins falling from my ceiling as result of a pipe that had corroded right above the hot water heater. Again, major delay in getting this taken care of because it was the holiday known as Cheap Landlord Day. Two days later, the same plumber arrives to fix the pipe. Problem solved. Next!

5. Finally get some work. Car breaks down on the second day causing me to miss an opportunity to get in a couple more days before the holiday break. I decided instead of spending $100 having the car towed, I'd drive it 10 miles to my house in order have a few days to figure out how to raise money to have it fixed. Car begins to overheat as I near my exit on the 101- one false move and I'm done! This is where I decided to turn the wrong way off the expressway. Car overheats as I try and turn around.

6. Hot water heater decided to quit working just before Christmas. The plumber, of course, is out of town. I, of course, spend four days without hot water.

7. Without a car and money to have it repaired at the moment, I began biking up and down the hills of L.A. As I was biking up the street that leads to my house, my derailer snaps in half. Awesome. At this point, I'm surprised it didn't break as I was gaining speed down a hill. Oh, wait, that's right; they don't want me dead, they want to torture me. I'm looking forward of the soles of my shoes falling off. At this rate, it's bound to happen.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's get onto the record.

Thunderclap Newman was sort of like The Monkees. Pete Townshend put the group together in order to help The Who's roadie, Speedy Keene (a drummer and talented songwriter in his own right), get the songs he had been writing onto tape. You probably know the first single, Something in the Air, as it has been used a thousand times on TV shows and in movies. What's remarkable, though, is the quality of the songs on the rest of the record and the fact that not a whole lot was expected from the project. The band didn't really like each other personally & only played live a handful of times. Track Records had no plans on doing a full-length prior to the success of Something in the Air, but obviously changed their mind upon that success. I'm glad they did, though, because Thunderclap Newman is the perfect mix of Neil Young and, of course, The Who. Pete even plays bass on quite a bit of the record. Speedy Keene went on to do a solo record and tried his hand at engineering (Johnny Thunder & The Heartbreakers L.A.M.F, in fact) before calling it quits. Enjoy!