hot out here

As 2009 slowly sets into 2010, it seems like everyone’s looking forward to a better year/decade/life.  Me too, although when I compare 2009 to the hell that was 2008 – climaxed by a plea for a job, any job, on this very blog – I can’t help but think that I’ve at least turned a corner.  At least I’ve worked this year, which is more than many can say.

Let’s back up for a second, though.  Before I got the lawyer job, before I got the evening/weekend call-center job, I was temping.  After months of no assignments, I finally got offered a job.  I would be working at another call center processing W2 requests.  I was in no position to say no.  Anyway, I’d done call center work before; how bad could it be?

The answer came within 15 minutes of orientation, which began the first Monday after New Year’s Day.  Almost immediately, the trainers started yelling at us not to fall asleep during training, or that would be immediate grounds for termination.  Thus began three days of vague instructions, aimless Q&A sessions, and many, many reasons that we could be fired from this stupid job.  It was the closest thing to military basic training I ever hope to experience.

I had to pass a written exam and provide a urine sample in order to get this stupid job, but you’d never know from some of my coworkers.  Like the lady who spent an entire lunch hour telling me how the Bush administration deliberately set up 9/11.  She didn’t even offer the standard theory of a Mideast oil pipeline or corporate interests.  No, apparently Bush, Cheney and Rove crashed four planes for the hell of it.  Say what you like about the Bush administration, but that makes no sense.

Anyway, I managed not to fall asleep (which was not easy), so that Thursday I was off to work the phones.  The call center was tucked amongst the maze of office parks off Page Avenue near Westport.  My shift was 11:30 am to 8 pm, which was about as inconvenient as it could be.  Amazingly, the job was actually much worse than it seemed during orientation.  There was no separation between phone agents, which meant that callers could hear everyone else’s conversations.  There was no tech support whatsoever.  And the callers were unbelievably rude.  You wouldn’t think that people calling for W2 forms could get abusive, but I was cussed out far less when I did phone surveys in college.  The whole thing literally feels like a bad dream now, like it didn’t really happen.

Fortunately, that job only lasted four days.  One of the local legal temp agencies bailed me out with a document review job at a downtown firm.  I announced my resignation from the call center at 8:00 pm, and the supervisor didn’t seem all that surprised about it.  Neither did the temp agent for whom I left a message that night.

The document review job was better, insofar as the people were nicer and my contribution more appreciated…but anyone who’s done document review can tell you how deadly boring it is.  Easy money, but dull.  At least I was back to normal hours, and I could take MetroLink.

That job lasted about a week.  I’d managed to find time, during that stupid call center job, to interview at a small law firm in St. Charles.  I’d left the interview feeling OK about my chances, and when the managing partner had me come in on a Saturday to help file a Chapter 13 petition, things looked even more promising.   I couldn’t have been happier when the offer came through.  Had to give one day’s notice again, and the legal temp agent was not happy about it…but I really had no choice in the matter.

That brings us to late January.  Although the lawyer job was an incredible break, the fact was that it wasn’t going to pay our mortgage and bills.  So I thought back to the other call center job I applied for back in December, the one at the car rental company.  They had actually approved me for full time employment, so I called and asked if they’d consider hiring me part time.  Fortunately, they said they could – as long as I provided a bunch of paperwork within 24 hours.  It wasn’t easy, but I got it done.

And that’s pretty much where my life has been ever since.  Three days each week, I start working at 8:00 am and do not stop until 10:00 pm.  Most Saturdays I work at least a few hours at the law firm, and Sundays I work a full shift at the call center.  Fortunately, it’s all worked out.  My managing partner has been accommodating about my quirky schedule, and the conditions at the call center are much, much better than at the temp job – so much that I was promoted to second-tier help desk over the summer.

This means that I haven’t gone out much this year.  Vacations are out of the question.  I’ve bought precious few records and attended only a few shows.  I’ve had to cut back on my RFT writing, which I loved.  I do see my kids every day – we have breakfast together – but I miss them on work evenings.

At the same time, I’ve often reflected on just how lucky I was in 2009.  I actually get to practice law, which is not true for every recent graduate.  And I’m fortunate to have one job, let alone two.  Many people had none in 2009 – and being a bankruptcy lawyer, I see it every day.  People who lost secure factory jobs when the factory moved south.  People who were just barely scraping by until the layoffs hit.  People, mostly honest and hard-working, who were mortified to step into my office, let alone hire me for their Chapter 7 or Chapter 13.  So many of them expressing embarrassment or disbelief that they were even considering this step.  So although I averted unemployment this year, I definitely had a front-row seat for the so-called jobless recovery.  Some of my clients have stories that would make you cry.

There are other things to remember.  We still have our house.  Our kids are both healthy and happy.  The music I did hear meant more to me than it has in years, literally helping keep me sane during this busy time.  Although things could have been better, they have also been much worse.

I’m 43 years old now.  I knew, when I started law school, that I would be starting over for hopefully the last time.  It’s a hard thing to do at any age, in any economy, but I hope that I continue to learn and grow in 2010, and I definitely hope my family and I see a little more financial stability.

That’s it.  Bring on the ’10s.

*  source: here.  Embrace is my least favorite of the Ian MacKaye bands, but it seems to fit here as a title.

Last night I got a lesson about St. Louis’ punk past.  Let me state that I love St. Louis; I’ve lived here for more than six years and have come to think of it as my adopted home.  But I know little to nothing about the music that’s come from here.  Obviously I know about the blues, Chuck Berry and Ike Turner; but ask me about the “legendary” bands of a more recent vintage, and I’ll tell you about Drunks With Guns, Uncle Tupelo, Bunnygrunt. and maybe a few others.  In other words, the same bands I knew before I moved here.  It’s been my understanding that St. Louis never produced many post-punk regional classics.  I’m happy to report that my understanding was profoundly incorrect.

It’s not really my fault, though.  No one thought to document a lot of this stuff until BDR Records made its recent debut.  The product of Bunnygrunt’s Matt Harnish and local DJ Jason Rerun (who was kind enough to send me some MP3s of old New Brunswick bands recently), its purpose is to excavate the forgotten St. Louis punk/pop scenes of the 1970s and ’80s.  BDR has just released Raymilland’s Recordings ‘79-’81.  In its honor, Raymilland reformed to play a one-off set at Off Broadway, and brought fellow STL new-wavers The Welders along for good measure.

Appropriately, the opening bands each included BDR members.  The Medical Tourists was a three-piece of guitar, bass and swooshy synth overtones – Bis meets Big Black meets Lene Lovich, if you will.  Bunnygrunt were their usual selves; it’s amazing to think that I first saw them 15 years ago.

Then came History Lesson Part 1.  The Welders existed between 1976 and 1981-ish and apparently recorded a 7″ worth of tracks with Steve Scariano (Finn’s Motel).  That’s My Daughter covered one of their songs with a raspy energy befitting Scrawl.  Playing their first show in almost three decades, they were impressively tight and nonstop fun.  I heard echoes of the B-52s, Blondie and (especially) Nikki & The Corvettes – that so very ’80s mix of girl-group kitsch, punk sass, power pop smarts, and lyrics about debased debutantes and so forth.  Their short set included what must have been all of their originals, and a well-placed cover of the Dolls’ “Looking For A Kiss.”  The place was packed and it was clearly reunion time, but I – who could barely find Missouri on a map in 1976 – was singularly impressed.

Then Raymilland came on and kicked off the art-punk section of the evening.  They were present at a number of important events – opening for Magazine and Ultravox in STL, contributing tracks to the first Sub Pop cassette, almost opening for Joy Division in Chicago before fate (and a rope) intervened – but somehow fell between the cracks.  Like the Aerovons – a late ’60s STL band that recorded at Abbey Road and hung out with the Beatles – they were musical Zeligs, falling between the cracks even as history was being made around them.  Apparently Raymilland performed live less than a dozen times during their whole career, but three of the band members have continued to live locally and jam privately.  This may be why there were no cobwebs whatsoever to their sound or appearance.  To put it bluntly, they rocked the place.

Guitarist David Sundberg and bassist Greg Black maintained a Peter Hook/Bernard Sumner approach; often the bass would carry the melody while the guitar chopped out a staccato rhythm.  Bob Trammel was a rock-solid post-punk drummer, holding down the regulation Krautrock and mutant-disco beats with expertise and effortlessness.  Lead singer Rick Buscher looks like a New Romantic in the cover art of Recordings ‘79-’81, but he’s since matured into a crazy college professor.  He plays the Brian Eno/Allan Ravenstine role well, coaxing white noise from his primitive synths and occasionally ranting into the mic.  You could suggest Eno’s early solo albums, The Fall, Closer-era Joy Division (of course) and 154-era Wire as influences, and you’d probably be right.  However, Raymilland reminded me most of Mission of Burma; their approach sounds every bit as contemporary in 2009 as it must have in 1980, and lends itself to the present as well as the past.

The packed crowd was evenly mixed between old-time STL scenesters, current music nerds, and curiosity-seekers like myself.  Funniest audience heckle of the night: “Fuck Joy Division!”  I know I’d be scarred for life if I’d been booked to open for Joy Division in May 1980.  I’d have even felt that way as a ticketholder.

A very special night, one of my favorites since moving to town.  I can hardly wait to hear what BDR unearths next.  (Coming for sure: a Welders EP and Test Patterns, a 1981 compilation album.)

1)  Liechtenstein, Survival Strategies in A Modern World 10″ (Slumberland)
2)  Dum Dum Girls, “Brite Futures” (HoZac single) and self-titled 12″ EP (Captured Tracks)
3)  Titus Andronicus live at the Gargoyle, 2/5/09
4)  Grass Widow, self-titled CD (Make A Mess) and four-song EP (Captured Tracks)
5)  The xx, “Crystalised” (Rough Trade)
6)  Frankie Rose & The Outs, “Thee Only One” (Slumberland)
7)  Mayfair Set, 7″ EP (Captured Tracks)
8)  Big Star, Keep An Eye On The Sky box set (Rhino)
9)  Yo La Tengo, Popular Songs CD (Matador)
10) Jeff Mangum, “Sign The Dotted Line” from Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox compilation (Merge)
11)  The Fall Colors, self-titled CD (self-released)
12)  Camera Obscura live at Vintage Vinyl, 12/1/09
13)  Brilliant Colors, Introducing (Slumberland)

Favorite non-2009 discoveries:
1)  Sybille Baier, Colour Green (Orange Twin CD reissue, 2006)
2)  Bridget St. John, Ask Me No Questions (Dandelion, 1969)

Record that would have made my top list if I’d heard it:
1)  The Mountain Goats, The Life of The World to Come (4AD)

In no particular order, and purely my opinion rather than any attempt to capture a moment:

1)  Radiohead, Kid A
2)  Belle & Sebastian, Dear Catastrophe Waitress
3)  Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
4)  Fugazi, The Argument
5)  Langley Schools Music Project, Innocence & Despair
6) The Aislers Set, How I Learned To Write Backwards
7)  New Pornographers, The Electric Version
8)  Tibi Lubin, I Don’t See You As A Dead Girl
9) Slumber Party, Psychedelicate
10)  Radiohead, Amnesiac

I will probably think of a bunch more as soon as I hit “publish,” but I think these are pretty solid contenders, especially 1 through 5 and 10.

The fact that so many of these records came out in the early part of the decade tells you something about how my priorities have shifted.  In 2000, I was still the record collecting indie kid I’d been since my college years.  Around 2004, things changed: a move to the Midwest, law school, kids, bar exam, a scary spell of joblessness/unemployment followed by a period of nonstop work (welcome to my current life).  Even if none of that had happened, I think I’d still find it hard to categorize the last few years in terms of “albums;” in fact, I wonder if that’s becoming an antiquated notion.  Over the past couple of years, for instance, there have been individual songs that could easily compete for all-time favorites: Vivian Girls’ “Where Do You Run To,” The XX’s “Crystalised,” Grass Widow’s “Celebrate the Mundane” and “To Where,” a whole slew of songs by Dum Dum Girls.  But none of them have struck me as album artists, at least not yet.  I’ll hopefully have more to say on 2009 in the next couple of weeks.

Labelscar finally got around to covering Brunswick Square Mall, my local growing up.  They’ve basically pegged the place: a second-rate mall in the heart of mall country, hopelessly dwarfed by its neighbors to the north (Woodbridge Center and Menlo Park Mall) and south (Quakerbridge, itself not terribly huge).  The other malls’ video arcades were better.  Their food courts were better; heck, we didn’t even have a food court, let alone a second floor.  But so I have so many childhood memories tied up in Brunswick Square that I continue to root for the underdog.

And it isn’t even the ugliest mall in East Brunswick.  That would have to be Mid-State Mall – or, more likely, Miracle Mall, home to a DMV office, a military recruiting station and an ever-changing array of grade-C anchor stores.  The only “miracle” is that it’s stayed open for decades.

After being tipped off by Ed Wong, I tracked down three videos by Malcontent, a band from my Rutgers undergrad days.  It’s tempting to think of them as the spiritual godmothers to Vivian Girls and Screaming Females (both from Rutgers!), mixed with the Slits and Shaggs.  They lasted less than a year and never really progressed past the “joke band” stage…but heck, I liked ‘em a lot and so did many others.  I even had them do a “Win A Date” contest on my WRSU show once during pledge week.  I think they took the winner bowling at Edison Lanes; they were supposed to report back on my show, but I don’t think they ever did.

Scenes from the Court Tavern, 1985:

A Reggae Song
Ena Get Your Hair Done
Leaving On A Jet Plane

Sadly missing from the YouTube archives: “Life Really Sucks” and “Ed Wong.”  You can still hear the latter on WRSU sometimes when Ed’s doing his show.

All from ivysilence’s channel, whom I believe to be Cliff Livingston, guitarist about town and member of Dolphin Room and Lesser Koodoo.  You have to check out his videos if you lived in 1980s New Brunswick – he’s also got live clips by Pleased Youth, Bedlam and Matt Pinfield’s band Opium Vala.

When I say I’m on a Facebook fast, I mean it.  As in, I’ve told my wife to change the password and only let me log in upon request.  So I’m only on Facebook once a week if that.  Therefore, if there are memorial arrangements or anything else for Lisa, please leave a comment in the blog itself so I can pass it along.  So far I haven’t seen an obit in any of the usual places, so any info much appreciated.

In the spring of 2008, my friend Don Buchanan committed suicide.  I wrote a heartfelt post about it.  True to my prediction, so did others.  Death often brings clarity: and in the wake of Don’s death, it became evident that he’d affected almost everyone he met.  Everyone had a story about a cool record, a fun live show, or a hilarious joke that he’d shared.  I wonder if he’d be here today if only he knew how irreplaceable he was.

I heard from several of Don’s friends and relatives, all of whom appreciated the spirit in which I wrote it.  (I didn’t gloss over Don’s dark side, and at the time, I worried that it would offend those closest to him.)  Among the people who wrote me: Lisa Tombyll, Don’s wife and mother of his stepdaughter.  Lisa and I went to school together but didn’t really know each other.  She was devastated, as you’d expect, but seemed to appreciate the outpouring of love and goodwill that followed.  I was happy I could provide some small comfort.

Now I have just learned that Lisa is gone, too.

Details are sketchy: apparently she woke up not feeling well this morning, went to the hospital and passed away there.  All I really know is what I read on Facebook tonight.  If there’s an obit or funeral news, I’ll share it here.

I don’t really know what else to say.  I didn’t know Lisa that well.  But I do know that her family and friends have experienced two heartbreaking losses in 18 months – not least of whom their daughter, who has lost both of her parents.  My heart is with them all.

This enigmatic compilation EP has just shown up on discogs.net.  Apparently recorded live in Rahway, NJ in 1985, it includes xex’s “Baby It’s You.”  This is one of two songs I remember from the late-period xex shows I saw – the other was “Vietnam Vet.”  I’ve almost convinced myself that I imagined this song, and I must hear it.  Look, I know there are record collectors and WFMU types that read this blog.  Who’s got it?  Who can make me a copy, mp3 or otherwise?  I’ll reward you with some rare pixilated tracks of my own.

And while we’re on the subject: xex performing “St. Vitus Dance” live at Hurrah!, 1981.  Filmed/produced by the same folks who did YMG’s Live At The Hurrah! DVD.  Someday I’ll get around to updating the xex site to include this clip.

In my continued quest to be just behind the popular trends, I’ve been obsessing on the xx this week.  “Crystalised” has not left my mind for days.  I admit I sought the band out due to its alleged Young Marble Giants similarities…but other than a hint in the guitar/bass interplay, I don’t really hear the resemblance.  If anything, the xx sound more like they’ve been obsessing on Broadcast and the early Too Pure family – one can easily imagine them opening for Pram or Laika.

I think it says something about YMG’s singularity that no one really sounds like them.  Not even Confetti, whom I once spent a lot of ink and pixels comparing to Cardiff’s finest.  Certainly Confetti’s arrangements were YMG-inspired – which was intentional, according to bandmember Mark – but the lyrical content was different, the production much less stark, the whole approach much less…weird.

All of which is good for the xx, who are thus forced to rely on their own devices and create something quiet and unique.  I recommend them highly.  (Dare we wish for an xx/X/X/Ex/xex bill?  Probably not very compatible, names nonwithstanding.)