Dance To The Eurobeat

The 2008 European Cup (aka Euro2008 - the third most popular sporting event in the world after the World Cup and the Olympic games according to ESPN) kicked off today in Austria and Switzerland.

The Euro cup is every four years, but I've only been following soccer since 2005, so this is the first one since I've been paying attention. International matches tends to be a lot more "defensive" (i.e. boring) than league matches, because the players don't play together that often, so there's not a lot of chemistry. And teams that represent nations come with a lot of nationalism and jingoism that is contrary to the spirit of athletic competition. That's the main reason that despite my raging Anglophilia, I'm not really "down" with England's national side. It seems to bring out the ugly National Front side of British culture (us against "the foreigners").

Luckily England didn't qualify for Euro2008, but even though it's nice to have the opportunity to watch guys kicking a ball around, I'm still not sure which country to support. I used to cheer for Holland during their World Cup runs in the 70s, so I still have a soft spot for those orange uniforms, but they don't have much of a shot. I also like Spain, since I recently visited there, and cheer against the favorites like Germany and Italy. Always cheer against Axis teams.

Here's the breakdown of the four Euro groups, with who I think will go through and who I'm pulling for in each group.   Off the top of my head since I don't know about most of these teams.

Group A: Switzerland, Czech Republic, Portugal, Turkey
Since Austria and Switzerland are co-hosting the cup, they both got seeded to the finals, which is unfortunate since they're both "pants" as the Brits say. I like Portugal and the Czech Republic to advance, and am pulling for Portugal because I like watching Cristiano Ronaldo, even though I can't stand his team (ManU).

Group B: Austria, Croatia, Germany, Poland
This is Austria's group. Germany and Croatia will advance. I think the Croatians were the "good guys" in the Bosnian conflict (Milošević was a Serb), so I'm pulling for them, even though the Germans will dominate just like they did 70 years ago.

Group C: Holland, Italy, Romania, France
I'm pulling for the Clockwork Orange, but Italy and France will advance. I'm a poet and I know it.

Group D: Greece, Sweden, Spain, Russia
I like Spain in this group, since I was just there. They look like a favorite but I don't know which other team will advance. Greece are the defending champs, but the Swedes and Russians have more international stars, so they're probably stronger.

After group play, the top eight teams (two from each group) advance to a single elimination tournament, like the World Cup. The final four will be something like Germany, Italy, France, and Spain (or Portugal) and the final will be Germany and someone else. Germany will be the winner, because the finals are in Austria (a suburb of Germany) but they lost the World Cup in their own coutry so you never know.

Go Bo Diddley

I have just one Bo Diddley album, a mid-80s budget best of called His Greatest Sides. I have the LP hanging on my wall, and when I look at the cover photo (above), I notice how cool and excited Bo looks versus how uncomfortable his pompadoured drummer and bassist look in the same photo. They seem to be thinking how those plaid suits and bow ties are going to affect their R&B cred, while Bo just exudes perpetual coolness, no matter what he's wearing. For he is Bo Diddley!

Bo Diddley shuffled off to his final great gig in the sky last weekend (a tremendous loss to both rock AND roll), but that beat will live as long as people are Ready to Rock. With a h/t to 2fs, here are a dozen examples of the Diddley beat in the form of a Friday muxtape. The songs are in vaguely chronological order.

Go Bo Diddley

1. "Bo Diddley" - The Shadows
The best way to start a Bo Diddley mix is with the song "Bo Diddley" by Bo Diddley himself, but I only have it on vinyl that isn't playable. Here's a 1961 version by Cliff Richard and the Shadows, shakin' it in their own WASPy way.

2. "Who Do You Love" - The Yardbirds
This is from the 1963 live set when the Yardbirds were touring with Sonny Boy Williamson. Asked for his opinion of the Yardbirds, Mr. Williamson reportedly said "these young British boys want o play the blues so BAD.. and they do!"

3. "Not Fade Away" - The Rolling Stones
These British boys could play the blues fairly good early on. This is a Buddy Holly song, but it sounds more Diddleyish than Holly's original version. Sometime in the last month, the Stones early catalog dropped off emusic, which kind of sucks.

4. "Magic Bus" - The Who
Unfortunately the eight minute Live At Leeds version doesn't fit in a 10mb muxtape window, so here's the shorter single version. That Keith Moon fellow was quite a talented drummer.

5. "Pills" - The New York Dolls
R.E.M. used to cover this song back in the day, and I had no idea it was a Bo Diddley song until I checked the writing credits on the NY Dolls album.

6. "Crackin' Up" - The Rolling Stones
Another Stones song. This is from their 1977 double-live LP Love You Live, which had three sides of forgettable performances from their 1975 World Tour, and one side of smokin' hot R&B covers from the El Mocambo in Toronto, including this reggaefied Bo Diddley number.

7. "She's The One" - Bruce Springsteen
A smoking live version of this Springsteen from the Born To Run tour (London's Hammersmith Odeon in November 1975 -- which means it comes before the Stones in chronological order).

8. "Bo Diddley's A Gunslinger" - Warren Zevon
Another live one, from Stand In The Fire. After I heard this song (which ended the original album), I started using "Bo Diddley's a gunslinger" as a catch phrase whenever I had seven spare syllables. It's still one of my favorite things to say!

9. "Wey Wey Hep Uh Hole" - The Soft Boys
One of the first songs Robyn Hitchcock ever wrote, at least the first that he managed to release. When he played the song solo in the early 90s, he apologized for the "sexism" , but the Beefheartian blues cliches are so silly that they're almost endearing (eg. rhyming "love" and "stove").

10. "Cuban Slide" - The Pretenders
This was a b-side to an early single. I'd never heard it until I downloaded it from here a few days ago, but the Bo Diddley beat is quite pronounced.

11. "I Want Candy" - Bow Wow Wow
Not as pronounced as this Bo Diddley beat. I'm still not sure how one would go about setting the summer sun on fire, but whenever I hear this song, I still want Candy!

12. "How Soon Is Now" - The Smiths
In the comments to 2fs posts, they mentioned Johnny Marr organizing arrangements around the Diddley beat. This is the most pronounced example of that. Under all the wailing and tremolo, the foundation of the song is still the Bo Diddley beat. When I saw Modest Mouse opening for R.E.M. last weekend, I had no idea that the bored-looking guitarist who looked like Johnny Marr actually was Johnny Marr. It's nice that JM has a steady job, but how the mighty have fallen!

Why Bevmo Rules

I was picking up some essentials at the local Beverages & More yesterday, when another customer asked if they carried any "lighter" beers. The employee asked what he meant by "lighter" beer.

Customer: "You know, Bud Light, Coors Light, Miller Lite,.. Lighter beer!".
Employee: "Sorry Sir, we don't carry those brands. You might try Walgreens across the street!".

After that exchanged, I noticed that it wasn't just the "light" varieties of these beers that they didn't have. This Bevmo store with thousands of microbrews and craft beers from around the globe carried absolutely nothing by Anheuser-Busch, Coors, or Miller.

I'd never noticed it before, probably because mass-produced "lighter" beer is like making love in a canoe. "Making love in a canoe, Bruce?" You know the rest!

Comedic Conchordance

Today is Wednesday, and you know what that means! Wednesday is my day to catch up with all things Flight Of The Conchords.


FotC's profile seems to be at an all-time high these days with a hit album (that debuted at #3 on the Billboard charts), a sold out US concert tour, and a hit TV show still in regular rotation on HBO with a second season scheduled for early 2009.

Virgin Atlantic airways is like Conchords central. The in-flight entertainment for my flights from SF to London featured two video episodes of the TV series as well as all six episodes of the BBC2 radio series that spawned it. There are a few differences between the radio and TV series (Rhys Darby's manager character is called "Brian" instead of "Murray", their one fan is a dude named "Kipper" instead of a woman named "Mal"), but many of their TV plots were taken from the radio shows. The Conchords radio show also has Neil Finn in a recurring role as Brian's "musical advisor". Hopefully Neil will get a role in the second season of the TV series. The radio series is described in the V-A blurb as "lovely in-flight entertainment", which probably just a play on the band's name, but the series does make a nice companion on a long plane trip.

Right after I got home last week, Flight of the Conchords played a couple of high profile Bay Area shows, and I didn't attend either of them (mostly because they both sold out in ten minutes), so I tried to imagine what they were like by reading the reviews.

Aidin Vaziri's review in the SF Chronicle said that "their songs weren't particularly adventurous or anything you would want to listen to more than once outside the hall -- Beck did their entire back catalog better when he did 'Debra'". But Aidin Vaziri likes Coldplay so let's ignore his review and move on.

Jim Harrington of the San Jose Mercury News was "skeptical that the band's mock-rock shtick would work on the live stage", but Jim probably doesn't realize that FotC were doing the shtick live long before they were TV stars.

The most useful local review I read was Jennifer Maerz of the SF Weekly who ignored FOTC's performance and reviewed the fans, from "theatrical laughers" to "sedentary farters". Reading Jennifer's review was the next best thing to actually being there.

Banyak bagus Barack!

Four years ago, after Barack Obama made his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic convention, I thought that the Democrats had chosen the wrong candidate.  Four years later, I think they've chosen the right candidate.

It seems like I've spent my entire life voting against people in presidential elections (mostly against George Bushes), and it's really exciting to finally be able to vote for someone!  Like his lovely wife, I'm proud of my country for the first time in my adult life, but I'm trying to hold my excitement for the next five months. I'm hoping to really be proud of my country come November!

And since it won't be timely for much longer, here's one last chance to watch "Hillary 4 U And Me".

It's a catchy tune with a good beat, and numbers and letters substituting for words, just like the young kids do in their teletext messages! How did she lose this nomination with a campaign song like that?   

Frozen ropes and dying quails

Apparently R.E.M. sideman (and erstwhile Young Fresh Fellow) Scott McCaughey wore a Barry Zito Athletics jersey for yesterday's R.E.M. gig at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley.   Perfect East Bay concert attire.

Wearing a Zito A's jersey is the height of crossbay smack-talk, and reminds SF Giants fans of two things:
(1) Barry was good when he played for our team.
(2) He's not so good anymore, but he's making a big bucket of money, so you guys are stuck with him now. Ha ha!

McCaughey grew up in Saratoga, so he knows his Bay Area baseball rivalries, even if he has lived in Seattle long enough to be a Mariners fan. And he's a big ballfan, who's collaborated with Steve Wynn for a new album of baseball-themed songs called The Baseball Project, which is coming out this Summer on Yep Roc.

Steve Wynn is also a big baseball fan, but apparently Peter Buck isn't, even though he appears on The Baseball Project, along with drummer Linda Pitmon.

Me and Scott McCoy(sic) and Steve Wynn made a baseball-themed record. I don't knoiw anything about baseball so I just played on it. They're into baseball. I don't watch baseball or read about it or anything. But y'know, music is music. The songs were good songs - I just didn't know the people they were singing about.

The "people they sing about" on the first volume of The Baseball Project include Curt Flood, Satchel Paige, Ted Williams, and Jack McDowell. Maybe the second volume can have songs about Barry Zito or Matt Herges (but I guess he's been done already!).

The animals how strange

Went to see R.E.M. last night at Berkeley's Greek Theatre. The Greek is a natural amphitheatre in the East Bay hills next to Memorial Stadium on the UC campus, easily accessible by BART, and a great place to see a show. It's fairly small by R.E.M. standards (with just over 8000 seats) so last night's show was completely sold out, with ticket buyers outnumbering sellers by a five to one margin.

The ticket said that the show started at 6pm, which I thought was when the doors opened, but when I arrived at 6:15, the first opening band (the National) had already started playing. Luckily I got to my seat in enough time to catch most of their set, including all my favorites ("Mistaken For Strangers","Slow Show","Abel","Start a War", there are very few National songs I don't like). I always feel for club bands who have to play outside in the daylight in front of a half-filled amphitheatre, but the National went over pretty well. They'll probably be headlining Greek-sized venues fairly soon.

After the National was Modest Mouse. Opinions seem to be divided on these guys, but I didn't know a whole lot about them, so I went in with an open mind and thought they were dreadful. They weren't really my thing, and just weren't very good. They seemed to go over really well with the younger kids who got dragged by Dad and/or Mom to see R.E.M., so maybe I just wasn't receiving what MM were transmitting.

After a long set by Modest Mouse and a half-hour break, R.E.M. took the stage at 9:00 sharp. In a two-hour set, they played 27 songs from all the albums in their back catalog (except Around The Sun, strangely enough), including most of the new album Accelerate.

Setlist:
Horse to Water
Little America
What's the Frequency, Kenneth?
Ignoreland
Accelerate
Man Sized Wreath
Imitation of Life
West of the Fields
Hollow Man
Wolves, Lower
Walk Unafraid
Houston
Electrolite
The One I Love
Final Straw
Find the River
Let Me In
Losing My Religion
Living Well is the Best Revenge
Bad Day
Orange Crush
I'm Gonna DJ
Encore:
Supernatural Superserious
Mr. Richards
Driver 8
Life and How to Live It
Man on the Moon

I usually get excited at R.E.M. shows when I hear something from Murmur or Reckoning. Last night, the second song was "Little America", and just after that they played "West of the Fields" and "Wolves, Lower".   They also played "Driver 8" and "Life And How To Live It" (both from Fables) back to back during the encore, and a couple of AFTP songs ("Ignoreland" and "Find The River") that I'd never seen played live before.    Another highlight was the stripped-down campfire singalong version of "Let Me In" with Peter Buck on keyboards, and three acoustic guitars by Bill Reiflin, Mike Mills, and Scott McCaughey.   

There was a funny story where Michael Stipe cracked up during the chorus of "West of the Fields".  He said when R.E.M. were rehearsing the song last summer in Dublin, he had to check the lyrics on the internet, and was amused to find out that the chorus listed as "The animals how strange. Try to stick it in".  Then he said "I wrote some dodgy lyrics in my early twenties, but I'm pretty sure I never wrote the words 'the animals, how strange'!".  And then Mike Mills asked him "Okay, what did you write then?" and Stipe replied "I don't have a fucking clue!".  That makes all of us!

Michael  dropped another f-word later when he said he was "so fucking proud!" of California for passing the same sex marriage initiative (it wasn't the voters, it was the legislature) and said "since we're playing in Berkeley, I can probably keep the political discourse to a minimum, but for anyone is curious, we're all voting for Barack Obama for President".    Good to know, I guess.