Posts Tagged ‘Rock & Roll’
Let Me Sleep
I’m sitting in the front lounge of Meat Loaf’s tour bus. We are idling in a parking lot on the edge of the Cedar River in Cedar Falls, Iowa. It’s well after noon on a weekday. Still, my brain is not even close to functional. Meat Loaf’s former tour bus — a forty-two foot, slate…
Read MoreOne Thing Right
“Americas Next Top Model” was the talk of the MTV News morning meeting. Sadly, there was no mention of the sonic pyrotechnics coming from The Rodeo Bar last night. It was pretty overwhelming bringing The Smith Family and The Nadas together. If these two worlds collided at Monday’s Rockwood Music Hall show, they absolutely super…
Read MoreDo It Again (And Again)
As far as my mother is concerned, I am finally a bona fide success. The Nadas are midway through the second set of their third night at the Iowa State Fair. The Anderson Erickson Amphitheater is jam-packed. Josh Davis and I are pacing backstage, sharing a water to sober up. He’s fiddling with his hair.…
Read MoreDo It Again
“When’s the last time we sucked that hard?” Jason asks. “Um,” I offer, “yesterday?” Jon chimes in, “Dude, I haven’t been to the point of playing whole notes in a long time.” In fact, last night’s Lenexa, Kansas show was right on: loud, loose, and a helluva’ lotta’ fun. Considering the way the band set…
Read MoreAct Naturally
My grandfather had families all over the state of Iowa. Of course, none of us knew this until his funeral. I was sixteen-years-old. It was one of those scorching, midwestern summer days. The wind was steady and hot like a convection oven. I was standing over his casket at Mt. Holyoake Cemetery in Waterloo thinking,…
Read MoreCarry Me Home
I know, you’re like, “What kind of ass-hat wears sunglasses alone in his apartment?” That’s last night in a nutshell. It rocked. Ivan Sandomire rocked, Dough rocked, and hell yeah, I’ll say it, I rocked. And I’ll be honest with ya’, I’m as surprised as anyone. Rockwood Music Hall is a cozy venue. My apartment’s…
Read MoreHere Comes The Sun
February 25, 2005, was nothing short of miracuous. I woke well before my alarm at 6:35 from a series of dreams into which all of my life’s major players, excepting my parents, made prominent cameos. I saved them all: Erin from an ill-fated relationship, Sibby from an ill-fated lifestyle, and my brother from the clutches…
Read MoreIf It Makes You Happy
In college we believed that if we made a good record, people would find it. The music industry would come knockin’. Smokey Junglefrog met its first producer at a campus coffeehouse. As we broke down our equipment from another raucous set of Pixies, REM, and Alarm covers, a short, black-haired guy in red flannel approached.…
Read MoreMay The Circle Be Unbroken
There were four girls in my homeroom named Jenny: Jenny Clarke, Jenny Rexroat, Jenny D’Lucia, and Jenny Ebert. My first public performance was in fifth grade at the Oliver Wendell Holmes Elementary talent show. I sang the theme from ‘The Greatest American Hero’ (“Believe it or not I’m walking on air / I never thought…
Read MoreHands Down
My optometrist, a sage old character named Dr. Ultrecht, tells me that my contact lenses are starving my eyes of oxygen, and crowding my capillaries. This is little surprise, really, as I have a tendency to wear them for weeks at a time. And so I’m wearing my six-year-old wire-framed glasses. In the rare instance…
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