Someday I Suppose.

In the mail the other day, I finally got a hold of a cd by THE MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES that is called "MEDIUM RARE". It only cost 12.99. Why would I bore you with the price? Well funny enough, this is a cd made up of all kinds of mysterious rare songs and b-sides over the years. What I thought was funny, is that I'd actually gone out of my way, to try and track a lot of these songs over the years, I'd find them in obscure little record stores all over the world. So chances are, in this 12.99 collection? I'd spent a whole lot more over the years.

 I was e-mailing a great family friend named Steph, and as usual, she had the best advice she said "so what, all the songs are 12 bucks. You have scars and stories from the years from finding these tunes" which is true, so off of the new cd, here's how I found a few of these songs. Like the song:

SO MANY WAYS: This song is actually pretty catchy. Probably some of the best Bosstones' song writing. I discovered this song, by stumbling upon it as a b-side while in some record store in London. I bet I spent too much money for it, but I just dug being in a weird record store in London, and I was glad to find some good music to play on my cd player (this was way before the MP3 players, actually as old as I sound, I still love the idea of buying a whole cd.) Funny story, after I'd played this song while traveling all over, it turns out that somewhere along the lines, JOHN CUSACK was taying just a few rooms down from me. I kept an eye out, because I thought "Hey Cusack may dig that I found some obscure bosstones stuff". Which is funny, because not only was there no guarantee that Cusack would like the Bosstones, there was no guarantee that this was even THE John Cusack. It could have been just some schmuck with the same name.

Bosstones Fan?

IS IT? Now this song I discovered, again at some offbeat record store, and it was actually in some area in north Philly. Right before I signed my first ever agent deal, I managed to get there very early, so I had time to drive around. I didn't spend much for this song, but I bought it just in case I went in, to meet the new agents and they hated me I'd think "well at least I have something to listen to on the way home". Turns out I did get signed to my first deal, but I was still more excited that I tracked down some more obscure bosstones stuff. Though, I didn't think IS IT? was the best song I found that day, I found another sool Bosstones song called STORM HIT which isn't on this cd. Too bad, it's a much better song. Bummer.

A REASON TO TOAST: I know I have this song. I thought the song was just average, so average in fact, I can't remember where it's from or where I got it. I just thought "Okay I know this song..." moving on, I have time for one more Bosstones Story and it's one I like a lot...

Chocolate Pudding: Fun song, even my wife loves this one, and my wife is from Jersey, so all she owns are Bon Jovi records. Actually Dave Perillo got me into the habit, in my radio days, of checking out every b-side on the singles that comes into the station, because sometimes there would be some great stuff on there. Because I went by Dave's philosophy, I discovered some great obscure songs this way, which is just how I stumbled upon "Chocolate Pudding". I've seen the Bosstones about twenty times in concert, and this song is a staple of these live shows. The last show I caught a few years back, I ran into "Johnny Vegas" the horn player who sings this song. And it was funny because he said all anyone wants to ask him over the years is that if he'd sing "Choclolate Pudding".

In a separate story but the same show, I'd run into Dicky Barett, the lead singer of the band, and, unfortunately as usual, he was sort of a dick. The whole band were the nicest guys on earth, but Dicky's name was fitting. He was always a little stand off-ish.Talking to him, even in my early radio days, over the years was just always awkward. There was even a long time Bosstones joke that went "How are the Bosstones the opposite of a Bull?" In the Bosstones, the horns are in the back and the A-hole is in the front. Sort of like this picture:

The long time folklore in Boston, was that Dicky would talk to fans, but would never ever stop for a picture with them. But the rest of the guys in the band would. But among Bosstones fans, the "holy grail" was to manage to get Dicky to pose for a picture. Well I managed to grab a photo...even if Dicky looks like he wants to murder me in this photo.

 Wow that story went on a bit longer than usual. But also in the mail that day? I recived a dvd "LIVE AT OCEAN" the feature film debut from Vince Corkadel. This is great, because Vince is the 2nd filmmaker from my hometown to come out with a great film in the last year. Also from my hometown comes Mike "Rock The" Kazlo and his film "The Vampire Assassin". Know what's ironic? These two are both successful filmmakers and in high school, both were in this thing called "The Challenge Loft". This was a place where all the really, really smart kids could go exclusively, while all the dumb kids couldn't go up there. Since, I was, unfortunately, a member of the dumb kids, I had no idea what really went on in that Challenge Loft. I've been out of high school for almost 14 years now, and I still have no idea what happened up there in the Challenge Loft.  I always figured drinking, gambling, you know, sort of like this rat pack poster I used to have...

The Challenge Loft At Avon Grove High School. I think.

-Did you all hear the Coldplay guy beat up another photographer this week? For a band that's sort of quiet and sensitive, this guy seems to beat up a lot of people. I'd make fun of him right here, but to be honest, he may punch me next.

- So my little film is having it's first ever screening (for the 2nd time, it's really a long story) this Thursday and this screening is what managed to give me the coolest fan story that I have ever had. Everyone, please add the great Bryan Davis to your FRIENDS list. Why? Because he told me that he was so excited to check out this film I did, called "LEAF", that he and his buddy would be willing to drive 375 miles just to see it. It was very humbling. I told him not to, that the movie would show up in his town, but honestly, that kind of loyalty is admirable. Which is why he should be on everyone's FRIEND list.

Alrighty, enough babbling out of me for now, see some of you Thursday and hopefully see the rest of you soon. I have a stack of dvd's to catch up on, I just watched a dvd screener of Sean Penn's INTO THE WILD. Pretty great actually, I have to vote for this Emile Hirsch kid for an award, he gave it his all in that movie...check this movie out at some point...

take care and be good, and, beware of the Coldplay Guy.

TIM