Byrne-ing Down the House

i am certainly not the first to make that terrible pun. when i was in high school i saw the Talking Heads on their tour for Speaking in Toungues -- 1983 at Carmichael Audtitorium on the UNC campus (where Sam Perkins, James Worthy, and Michael Jordan had played b-ball for the Heels the year before). the show was amazing and would be captured for Jonathan Demme's film (the tour, probably not that specific show). i remember getting to the box office early in the morning the day tickets went on sale and everyone was wearing their Talking Heads t-shirts and buttons with the intersecting "TH" logo on them...it seemed much more like a secret club than the crowds at other similarly-sized New Wave shows i saw around that time (Go-Go's, Billy Idol, REM, Psychedelic Furs). i may not have been cool, but i felt like i was at least in the place where you might have some cool rub off on you. i hope i still have my Robert Rauschenberg version of that album.

recently i (somewhat nervously) talked on the phone with David Byrne for a piece he wrote for WIRED magazine, and the article, in addition to some clips from our conversation are up over on the WIRED site.

did i mention i've always hated the sound of my speaking voice recorded? i have. cringe.

Xmas Rocking

the Trekky Records Christmas party last night at the Cats Cradle was a festive and motley event, quite crowded (raising some money for MS research) and rocking. i may have been the only solo act as some bands were swollen to twice their normal size. Ivan from the Rosebuds had a band with him and they nailed a version of Wham's "Last Christmas" that had me thinking i actually liked that terrible song. I played three songs on electric guitar by myself and nearly remembered all the words:

River by Joni Mitchell
Child's Christmas in Wales by John Cale
11:59 by Scrawl

i had "Don't Hog the Nog, Zog" from the old Bricks christmas tape on the setlist, but deemed it a momentum-killer and yanked it last minute. nobody missed it!

good times...