As I have mentioned, the AXE listens to XM radio in the car. Available locally are some bootleg Norteno stuff and something that appears to be a ripoff of Clear Channel only with less originality called "The Highway Stations" and a pathetic HipHop station. Thursdays are Tom Petty's Buried Treasures and I really enjoy it, although some Heartbreakers in the mix would be very cool indeed. However, this evening as I was driving home after a day plunged up to my neck in ethics investigations, corporate bullshit, and silo thinking at its best, I was fairly bored. A little bit of early Kinks, a bit of the Stones, some Rod Stewart from when he was a rock singer as opposed to whatever he became after he went disco, and so on. But, it got fairly interesting when they played the Beach Boys "Heroes and Villains." Crusader AXE never felt that there was all that much to the Beach Boys even before they became a self-tribute band (few things are more mindless or less interesting than Kokimo, for example) and I always thought that the whole "Brian Wilson -- Genius" was utterly absurd. Maybe that was because when everyone else was listening to Be True to Your School, I was listening to Johnny Cash, Webb Pierce, Hank Williams, and Sinatra. So, that whole white, suburban, rich California thing missed me. However, I noticed something -- their harmonies sound a lot like Abba. Entirely too much like Abba Now, I'm not a big conspiracy fiend, but Abba always seemed pretty bland in concert and lifeless -- Scandanavian girls have long legs and the men look wussy. Ok, that's pretty much Europe west of the Oder anyway. But, when Abba was big, the Beach Boys were kind of forgotten. Abba went south and the Beach Boys showed up again as a Self-Tribute band. Even some of the diseases they supposedly had/died of are the same. And, did they ever tour at the same time? On the same night? And, what about lip synching? I've got to say, I can feel for Brian Wilson. There they were, on top of the world and he's tanked on his folks reds and greenies, and along come the Beatles. The Stones. The Dave Clark fucking Five; and, his stuff now sounds less ballsy than Herman's Hermits or Freddie and the Dreamers. Shudder...the fact is, the guys in the Beach Boys were pretty good musicians, although they weren't exactly Dick Dale. Next thing, he's irrelevant, the band is being played as Golden Oldies and he's gotta hang out with Charles Manson and Squeaky Fromm to have someone to listen to him. I can see how BNL can find him sympatico...but, no one will ever confuse them with Abba...
Chickity China, the Chinese chicken Have a drumstick and your brain starts clickin'!
I haven't thought about the Barenaked Ladies since my freshman year of college...and I never want to think about them again.
Posted by: Agi | 29 November 2007 at 09:14 PM
Guy, BNL is the best of your generation, howling in the streets.
Posted by: Crusader AXE of the Lost Causes | 30 November 2007 at 09:02 AM