Thursday, November 2, 2017

Cold feet


Well, my feet are cold anyway. And by that I mean physically chilled. I should probably go and put on some socks or something. It would only make sense.
Sometimes, when everything else is going to shit around you the only thing you can do is make a grab for what makes sense and put on some damn socks.

He's After Me (1993)

Get my first real line cooking job in a terrible little Italian bistro type place with a short tempered owner and a kitchen where I could touch the wall behind my stove and the other side without stretching. The dishwasher was a super sweet guy with Downs who would wait at the bus stop across the street and sing along loudly with Jerry Lee Lewis or Elvis on his walkman. I made friends with the pantry guy who turns out lived a block or so away from me.

Turns out also that he was friendly with the members of the Hang Ups.
Got to see a very early performance of theirs in his living room for a party. Got to know some of the various romantic intrigues that would find their way into some of the songs second hand. (the title track for instance)
It was a fun time to be alive, for the most part considering. I don't know. I was going through my own shit too.

The Hang-Ups were kind of doomed to localness though. Their auxiliary guitarist, John Crozier, who had played in the 60's style rave up beat legends the Funseekers wasn't really interested in touring. It's a shame. He stuck around with them live for a bit after this before parting ways. At least that's how I remember it. It was so very long ago..

They would have a brief second shot at things in 1997 when Dave Pirner curated the soundtrack of Kevin Smith's movie Chasing Amy and put "Jump Start" on it. I've never seen the movie, myself. The trailer certainly isn't recommending it either.

But the song is fucking great.
So is "Waiting" and "Runway" and...and...

It's as fine a debut full length as you never heard.

Fix that.

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