stoblog

Some may say that this is self-indulgent, braggy and at points downright misleading.  To this I would say…you’re just jealous of how lucky and cool I am.

5. OMG Tornadoes with Daniel Smith

This story begins as so many other did in this list…I was working a show at Calvin.  This show happened to be Danielson during their ships tour…(aka post tree, post documentary).  This also happened to be just when they were at the peak of their indie popularity (how does Ken Heffner do it).  Midway through lugging gear in for the show…there was a tornado warning.  This meant the whole lot of us had to pop on down to the Fine Arts Center basement.  The whole lot in this case means everyone…rock stars included.  About 20 are crammed down there, and being the opportunist that I am, I started a conversation with the newly accessible lead singer of Danielson.  We had time to chat about music, share a laugh, contemplate worst case tornado scenarios, and revel in the beauty and sadness that surrounds Daniel Johnston (who also had a documentary out at the time).  Turns out he’s not as bat shit insane as I thought he was!  He in this case being…

Funness - 7 (meeting was marred slightly by the fact that we feared for our lives)

Cred - 5 (ships had incredible critical acclaim…but I don’t see Danielson taking over the important finger-stache demographic any time soon)

4.  Dubbed and Cross Fade(d) with John Vanderslice

    Having been given intelligence on the approachability and niceness of JV from my spies in the field (Bryan Wuest), I hung around a bit by his green room after loading in equipment at the Ladies Lit.  Don’t remember exactly how our conversation started but it was something much like…”Hey…i mean Hi uh…Ji…John…i mean mr. Vanderslice…I…i mean do you…have you..,hehe…I hear you make music without using new fangled technoputers…is it cuz ur old?”  Jvslice (as us friends call him) patiently explained his recording philosophy and talked about the internets and keeping in touch with his fans.  He taught me mic placement for 1940s era mandolins, which mic to use if you’re micing a 3 year old shitzu with a torn vocal cord,  and what a chamber orchestra sounds on tape after leaving the tape exposed in the hot desert sun for a day and a half.  Basically he is a super cool genuine guy who absolutely is amazing at and loves his passion of analog recording.  He even recognized me after the show, thanked me for setting up and we hi fived…poorly.

Funometer - 8 (if you’re going to talk to one person in the world about analog recording…he’s a good choice)

Cred - 6 (even though his solo career has cooled a bit, he has been around forever and has produced for some of the greats…and will continue to do so.)

3. - It’s gotten late and now I want to be alone with Benjamin Gibbard

One of the most exhausting load outs of my Calvin Career was the Fieldhouse Death Cab/Ben Kweller/Aveo show.  The show itself suffered from what’s known as thefieldhousehadshittysounditis for the most part.  However, I was near the front of the concert so I got a great view of all the action (including a number of missed snare hits on Title and Registration, Benjamin…tsk tsk).  In any case it came to that point where Ben was kind of milling around and i was talking to my sister on the phone…and my sister loves herself some Gibbard so I thought…huh this would totally be completely unawkward if Ben Gibbard talked to my sister on the phone.  So I’m like “Hey Ben Gibbard my sister is a huge fan [thereby implying that I could care less…smooth Joel]…will you talk to her on the phone?”  He was all like “uh…what?” and I was all like “yeah…phone, you, my sister, she likey the Cab…whadyasay?”  He was all like “Hell yeah bro.”  So he did, and my sister was petrified, but whatever.  After a little chit chat with the big guy, I decided that I was going to lay my tired overworked bones down for a nap.  I pop on over to the dorms, and flop in bed, only to be awakened 11 times from 4:30 to 5:30 in the morning, sometimes answering the phone, sometimes allowing it to go to voicemail…usually the conversation approximated this line of Dialogue “Joel….you’re probably making/hanging out with Ben…jamin Gi…bbard right now, why are you doing that?”  I don’t think my sister and her friends ever believed that I wasn’t at an all night exclusive VIP party with Ben Gibbard…but such is life.  

Funsanity 9/1 - (the 9 is for meeting the future ex-husband of the future Zooey Stob)

Cred  5 - (In certain circles Death Cab for Cutie is still a hallowed name)

2.  How much Torquil does this Van have anyway with Stars

After much haranguing and gnashing of teach from Dave Lyzenga and I, we finally got Kenny boy to bring Stars to Calvin.  Am I glad we did.  From the beginning I knew it was going to be a good day, a smiling Amy Millan introduced herself to me out back by the trailer to their Tour Bus.  I responded with a cool calm and collected “MARRY ME AMY aiEEEEEEEEE…no seriously you wanna?  No?  You’re sure?”  After flooring her with my wit and charm I met the rest of the band, all of whom have their own unique kind of cool  (Evan Cranley’s hats are soooo Boss).  After helping get everything moved in and set up Torquil asked…does anyone have a phone card?  With nothing but completely altruistic self-sacrifice in mind, I offered to give Torquil a ride to look for one.  So we head out on a wild phone card hunting adventure.  

Let me just stop and say how odd an experience it is to make a turn out of Calvin College’s parking lot on to East beltline…a turn I’ve made a thousand times…look to the right, and instead of seeing no one, or one of the schlubs I normally hang out with…I see Torquil effing Campbell.  

For the first time on this list the Rock Star was actually the initiator of conversation, asking about Calvin and my association with it and all that.  During the ride we talked over the meaning of a song I really liked, and after striking out a number of times for phone cards, we decided to get back, so he could…you know…rock the socks off a thousand people.  Theeennnnn during the show (for which I had front row seats) I get a shout out and a “thanks for driving me around and stuff” from him on stage.  After the show Amy Sto…sorry, a little premature…ahem, Millan wrote me a super secret message on the single that I picked up at the Merch counter, and the rest of the band all signed it, aaaaand I couldn’t have scripted it much better.

Funazingness - 9.5  (What I’m Trying to Say is if I could have One More Night like that, it would warm my Heart)

Cred - 7 (Incredibly underrated, still respected)

1.  I could have like 8 more of these with Scott Hutchison

Frightened Rabbit is my favorite band ever.  So just seeing them the other night sent my musicnerdfreakoutometer dangerously near “emotional breakdown.”  We had a great spot and the show was everything I could have wanted in a show, and I was happy…blissful…content.  We piled into the local watering hole next to the venue and exchanged notes on what had already been a great evening.  Then, it started with the guitar player.  He walks in, and my heart stops beating…”I have to say something”, I said to myself, “I have a list of self-indulgent indie moments in my life to write.”  So I swung by and said “Hey man great set.”  Then he blasted me in the face with appreciation for my appreciation “oh did you like it, that’s great…we had a great time…thanks sooo much”  It was the left, right uppercut of niceness and appreciation.  I was slightly taken aback when out of the corner of my eye I see the man…nay…the legend Scott Hutchison walks in.  The cartoon version of this story has my body following my jaw to a heap in the floor.  In  the real version of this story I Somehow work up the nerve to tell him how much I loved the show.  Fortunately I was just tipsy enough to ignore the nerves of being in close proximity to one of my absolute idols.  We cover fandom and albums gone past, and pitchfork, and super obscure Scottish bands (see an earlier post).  He even fills us in on his ex and current girlfriends…those who have listened to Midnight Organ Fight might know why this is exciting information.  During the course of this conversation we had bought him a shot…which he enjoyed apparently because he expressed the desire to drink large quantities of them.  He nuzzled my bosom, rubbed my tummy, bought our group a few rounds of shots and stumbled onto the buss…as close to a cowboy and his sunset as I will ever experience.

Fun Stuff - 10  (there are no words)

Cred - 8 (as he put it…we don’t even need Pitchfork anymore)