As you may remember, last Friday we were treated to a new cut by Rufus’s band, the noble Savages. It was pretty fishing space awesome.
Today, I bring you two songs (and an actual MTV-aired music video!) by our own Tim Kowal. Or to be more precise, here are two songs by Tim’s old band, Stairwell: Breathless and Boxcar. If you’re looking for Tim in the music video, he’s the guy on drums – though after having a beer with him last night I can tell you that in real life he is more in focus and in color these days.
Someday, it is now becoming clear, the League of Ordinary Gentlemen’s masthead will evolve into a Phish-like jam band.
Well, that’d make him the first focused drummer I’ve ever met! Good songs! We’re gonna be booked up for Leaguestock 2014!Report
Tim’s a drummer?
I did *not* see that coming. I would have pegged him as a bass man.Report
You just misread his vanity plate, there’s no “B” on it.Report
Maybe I am being paranoid; but just in case this wasn’t clear, it’s a “Seinfeld” thing. No offense/disrespect intended.
http://youtu.be/o2X_XNdmWwsReport
Didn’t I warn you? Do you see what horror this new policy is leading to?
People having to explain their jokes!Report
It’s a stereotype that all League conservatives are bass players.Report
Actually, the stereotype I was thinking of was that the bass player is always the smart guy in the band.Report
rofl. I knew a guy who did a band once. He was the “smart guy”… and the singer.
To my knowledge, he only plays two instruments well, and one is the ArmonicaReport
Lennon, Townshend, Jagger, Ray Davies …
Not a bass player in the bunch. The bass player is the cute, quiet, invisible, or replaceable one. (In That Thing You Do, he’s the totally anonymous one, in fact the character is just called TBP.)Report
McCartney was the replaceable one?Report
Wings got rid of him.Report
Cute, quiet, invisible, or replaceable one *respectively*. (Paul was cute, Entwistle quiet, etc.)Report
There are smart guitarists and smart front men, but… well, let’s say there’s a fair share of dolts who can sing or play the guitar.
The bass player is almost always the quieter and/or invisible one, which does lead for them to often be the replaceable one, that’s true. Well, replaceable for selling records to the general masses sense.
Not always for the band.Report
Certainly the Kinks were never the same after Pete Quaife left. (Admit it, Cahalan, you had to look that name up to see it was a real person or not.)Report
I know who The Kinks are, Mike.
Sheesh.Report
OK, who replaced Quaife? And who replaced him? (I know the first one. I’ve have to look up the second.)Report
Got me.
Although one could credibly answer… “Nobody replaced Quaife.”Report
John Dalton (not the atom guy) filled in when Quaife was laid up with a broken leg, and then joined the band full-time starting with the sessions for Arthur. I like him fine. He left quite a bit later, not sure when OT who took over.Report
A man decides to go on a vacation on a Pacific island. When he steps off the plane, it is amazing: Cool, light ocean breeze, palms gently swaying in the wind, white sandy beaches, drums off in the distance. He goes to his hotel, checks in, starts having the time of his life.
When he turns in on the first night, he can still hear drums off in the distance. They were charming at first, but now it’s little annoying, and he has a hard time going to sleep. The next morning, he goes to concierge and asks about the drums. The concierge replies: “The drums, they never stop. Very, very bad if they stop.”
So the man goes about his day in paradise, having a great time, but the drums never stop. He tries to ignore them, but they interfere with his sleep the second night. The next morning, fuzzy-headed from too many island drinks and too little sleep, again asks the concierge if something can be done about the drums. He gets the same reply: “Drums not stop. Very bad if they do.”
The rest of the day is not fun. The drums are driving this man crazy, and he isn’t getting any sleep. The next day he is ready leave. He packs his bags and goes up to the front desk to check out. But first the man finds the concierge to give the concierge a piece of his mind. Suddenly, the drums stop.
He says to the concierge: “They finally stopped! Thank god, I can get some sleep. I was about the leave.”
The concierge says: “This is bad. Very, very bad. Flee from this island while you still can.”
“Why?”
“Drums stop. Bass solo next.”Report
Heh.Report
Not a bass joke, but…
One of the stories that got passed around Bell Labs back in the day, when they were encouraging people to use their vacation days… Brilliant geek hadn’t taken a vacation day in years, department head finally forced him to go, recommended one of the little off-the-beaten-path places in the Caribbean. Near the end of the first week, department head receives a telegram (which says something about how far back the story goes) saying, “Having a great time, am staying for a second week.” Near the end of the second week, the DH receives a telegram reading, “Learning wind surfing, will stay for a third week.” The next week, the DH gets a telegram that says, “Opening wind surfing school. Please pack any personal things from my office and ship to <obscure Caribbean island>.”Report
Like the ALU guy from The Soul of a New Machine.[1] He spends 16-hour days fixing problems that occur because this signal arrived a fraction of a nanosecond before that signal, instead of the other way around. One day he disappears. About a week later they get a postcard: “I have joined a commune in Vermont, and from now on will deal with no unit of time shorter than a season.”
1. Which is a much easier book to enjoy if you’ve never had to work with one of those pieces of crap.Report
Bass solo next
Those always sound terrible. Everyone knows you can’t tuna fish.Report
Hanley, that pun was Schilling-level terrible. Congratulations, you’ve made it!Report
I threw up a little bit in my mouth as I was typing it.Report
That’s when you know you’ve got it right.Report
That’s the other famous bass joke (besides Ward’s.)
The bass player is in his dressing room, smashing stuff up. The lead guitarist goes in to try to calm him down.
“Are you fighting with the drummer again?”
“That fishing fishhole!”
“What did he do now?”
“He mistuned one of my strings/ And he won’t tell me which one!”Report
It sounds like good stuff.
I’m impressed.Report
Damn, that’s good stuff.Report