dimland radio 10-1-11 show notes

Cold Open: It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Such a cool segment especially for a kid's show.

I started out by talking about how great The Peanuts' second holiday special was and is and about how it influenced me. If you've never seen it... What?! You've never seen it? Have you been living in a cave?

Here's a clip of the show that contains elements of what I talked about.

MN Skeptics Meet-up

Next I talked about my attending the MN Skeptics' Newbie Night. It was very good to meet other skeptics and discuss some of what we are skeptical about. I hope to be able to attend more meetings in the future. We'll see what I can do.

The blog for MN Skeptics can be found here.

No Redheaded Sperm Wanted

"What's that? People aren't down with redheads?"

Apparently, the demand for redheaded babies is pretty low. Sperm banks are turning away donors with red hair. Well, I pointed out the neither my wife and I nor my mother and father have red hair, but Amy and I have produced one redhead and my parents have two. Curious.

You can read more about the unwanted sperm here.

REM

REM: Back when I had seen them.

The recent official break-up of the very influential band REM prompted me to talk a bit about the two times I saw them in concert. Talking about their second show reminded me of the angry reaction I had when a fellow art school student asked if I caught the Bruce Springsteen concert that past summer. What does that have to do with REM? You'll have to listen, the show is available for download in the archive.

Here's a clip from REM back in the day.

Movie Recommendation: Shaun Of The Dead (2004)


British humor and kicking zombie ass. What else do I need to say?

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus
First ad break bumpers: 'Wolves, Lower' & 'Radio Free Europe' by REM
Second ad break bumpers: 'Can't Get There From Here' & 'The One I Love' by REM
Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

concert memoirs pt. 17 - guadalcanal diary, naked raygun & rem

Guadalcanal Diary w/Timbuk 3

9/17/86 First Avenue w/John Ticket Price: Unknown

The opening act is, mainly, remembered for their one hit, ‘The Future So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades’. However, they were still an interesting band to watch play live. Just a guy and a gal and a boombox. Their hit song might not have gotten too big by then, because most of the crowd seemed to be indifferent to what Timbuk 3 was playing.

But the real stand out moment of the night involved Guadalcanal Diary and my friend, John...

And this is an excellent example of the quickness of John’s mind.

So, Guadalcanal Diary had taken the stage and John and I were right down front. It was a somewhat light crowd for the show that night. The band was in good form and rockin’ right along.

They were about to play their version of the campfire sing-a-long ‘Kum-Ba-Yah’. The band was quietly playing as the lead singer was introducing the song. He was talking in a calm and reserved manner. He said we should all hold hands. We all stood there.

He shouted, “I SAID HOLD HANDS!”

Without missing a beat, John fired back, “F@#K YOU!”

The singer was taken aback momentarily then he laughed and the band played the song.

No one held hands.

Naked Raygun
9/21/86 First Avenue w/John Ticket Price: Unknown

Seeing as how I’m virtually certain that the time John and I saw Naked Raygun open for Husker Du was the only time we’d seen them in the main room, this show was most likely in the 7th Street Entry. Which is the best place to see Naked Raygun. Small, intimate, dank, sweaty, loud. John and our friend, David, took to referring to it as the “particle accelerator’. An apt name if I’ve ever heard one.

I have to say that Naked Raygun always put on a great show. I’ve seen them a few times and have never been disappointed.

As sometimes happened in those days, you’d get someone in the crowd that didn’t understand the whole slam dancing thing. They’d either think it was a free pass to knock some people’s heads together (that was usually some knuckle-headed frat boy) or they’d get pissed off and start a fight. I think the latter was the reason for a little scuffle that broke out on the dance floor that night.

Pat Woods, the lead singer for the local band Man Sized Action, was in the audience. The fight broke out and Pat, who was a pretty big fella, muscled the two knot heads to the floor. He held them there while the bouncers made their way over to boot the morons out.

Once the scene had settled, one of the Naked Raygun members stated, “There’s no extra charge for the floor show.” And the band played on...

REM
10/14/86 Roy Wilkins Auditorium w/John Ticket Price: $13.50

This was an increasingly rare larger venue show, but REM was special.

REM was promoting their ‘Life’s Rich Pageant’ album on this tour. The band still hadn’t hit it mega-big, but they were well on their way. I seem to recall that they had an additional guitarist along and I think he was Peter Holsapple of The dB’s. However, I’m not entirely certain.

The show was good, if not the most memorable. It was the encore that I remember most. The band came back out and started playing a Bruce Springsteen cover.

Let me tell you, John and I had just about had it with the “Boss”. Never big fans of his in the first place, we had endured about two or three years of the Springsteen adoration. People all drooling over him and that overrated “Born in the USA’ album. Jesus Christ! We’d had enough of that shit!

So what does REM do? They play ‘Born to Run’. John said, “The hell with this! Let’s go.”

Incidentally, I believe it was for this concert that John and I lined up at the ticket counter at Dayton’s in downtown St. Paul to get the tickets. I’m not sure how long we waited, but once we’d purchased our tickets John commented on how stupid it was to queue up so long for tickets. He vowed never to do it again.

We never did it again.

concert memoirs pt. 11 - rem, husker du & the cure

REM

8/5/85 Roy Wilkins Auditorium w/John Ticket Price: $13.25

Hey! Here’s another legendary band! REM was just beginning to get some wider notice at the time. ‘Losing My Religion’ was still a few years away, but these guys were already one of the most influential bands of the 80’s. They were that with their first two releases.

So, at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium, the way they had the stage set up we could see part of the backstage area. This was a great setup, because we could see the young punks who would hop onstage to attempt to do a stage dive get grabbed by the security and get bounced. We could see them being escorted backstage and out of the auditorium. Those fascist bouncers! Who cares about insurance issues? This is alternative, indie rock!

I gotta admit that I can’t remember much about the music. I know I enjoyed it, but I don’t have much else.

I do have this...

I think it was during the encore when Michael Stipe started to introduce a guest to their stage. These were the days when Stipe wasn’t giving us the clearest vocals while singing. He also wasn't speaking very clearly. So, we weren’t quite certain who he was talking about until Bob Mould of Husker Du stepped out.

This was pretty cool. One of our local heroes was making the scene with REM. I believe he joined them in a cover of The Rolling Stones’ ‘Paint It Black’.

What was even cooler was what Bob did while playing. The young punks were still jumping onstage and making stage dives. Those that got away from the bouncers, that is. One kid jumped up and began skanking around. A bouncer was attempting to get to the kid, but Bob Mould kept moving in between the kid and the bouncer. Bob kept it up for a few seconds until the kid made his dive into the crowd.

Cheers, Bob!

Husker Du w/Naked Raygun & Bad Trip
8/28/85 First Avenue w/John Ticket Price: Unknown

Speaking of Husker Du, well of Bob Mould anyway...

This was the third time seeing Husker Du. We were getting into these guys pretty big and into the punk rock thing. John and I had come a long way from our running away from the slam dancing at The Clash show. We were in the pit by then, skanking away. We were getting pretty good at it. What a blast!

I had developed a routine for the slam dancing concerts. For the first couple songs I’d stay at the perimeter of the pit and watch the band, then I’d take my glasses off, put them in my pocket and jump into the action. As a result, I wouldn’t see much of the show (I’m terribly nearsighted), but I’d listen and slam myself into sweaty exhaustion.

Speaking of sweaty exhaustion (two uses of the “speaking of” in one blog entry, wow), this was the first time we saw the great Naked Raygun. I only knew a song or two by them, but they quickly became a favorite of mine. When they broke into “Home of the Brave” that night, John and I jumped in for some warm-up slam dancing.

We’d would be seeing Naked Raygun a few more times.

Bad Trip? I don’t remember them.

The Cure
10/17/85 Orpheum Theatre w/John Ticket Price: $13.50

I wish I remember who opened for The Cure. Was it Echo & the Bunnymen, maybe?

What I recall of The Cure was that they sounded good, but they seemed pretty disinterested. It could have been some gothic (or early emo?) attitude or something that kept the band rooted in their spots. However, during the encore Robert Smith did break into some silly little dance.