The story behind Everclear’s Sparkle and Fade
November 18, 2015 9:15 AM Subscribe
Addicted to Noise... Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time... A long time.
posted by entropicamericana at 9:37 AM on November 18, 2015 [9 favorites]
posted by entropicamericana at 9:37 AM on November 18, 2015 [9 favorites]
I'm an unashamed Everclear fan,* but I'm not sure you could pay me to work with Art Alexakis. I also cringed a bit when he asked us if there were any "old school rock and roll, Sparkle and Fade fans" in the audience before playing "Heroin Girl" at a concert a few years back. It's a fine album, but don't oversell it.
*Mostly So Much for the Afterglow which was a really important album when I was a teenager with basically zero problems who needed to listen to music about people with actual problems to explain why I was still so angry at everything
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 9:41 AM on November 18, 2015 [22 favorites]
*Mostly So Much for the Afterglow which was a really important album when I was a teenager with basically zero problems who needed to listen to music about people with actual problems to explain why I was still so angry at everything
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 9:41 AM on November 18, 2015 [22 favorites]
The 90s where a ....long time ago
posted by The Whelk at 9:54 AM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 9:54 AM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
"I went down that Thursday night and stayed at Art's house, crashed on his couch. We hung out, me and Craig. We had a good time, went out to a couple clubs, some titty bars. It was just pretty obvious that we hung out together pretty well"
Pretty happy that I've eliminated all of these kind of dudes I knew in the '90s from my life.
posted by chococat at 9:56 AM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
Pretty happy that I've eliminated all of these kind of dudes I knew in the '90s from my life.
posted by chococat at 9:56 AM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
I probably could still sing along to every song on "Sparkle and Fade." In some ways, it was probably my gateway to indie rock.
posted by drezdn at 9:58 AM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by drezdn at 9:58 AM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
Pretty happy that I've eliminated all of these kind of dudes I knew in the '90s from my life.
Ha ha, me too! *shifts eyes nervously*
posted by josher71 at 9:59 AM on November 18, 2015 [9 favorites]
I got a nice long kiss-and-grope from a fellow teenager nearly twenty years ago after I sang "Santa Monica" with my high school rock band buddies. So, you know, thanks for that, Art.
posted by infinitewindow at 10:00 AM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by infinitewindow at 10:00 AM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
a really important album when I was a teenager with basically zero problems who needed to listen to music about people with actual problems to explain why I was still so angry at everything
This is maybe the best description of my favorite records, from roughly 1991-98 I have ever read. Thank you, Bulgatonos.
posted by thivaia at 10:00 AM on November 18, 2015 [18 favorites]
This is maybe the best description of my favorite records, from roughly 1991-98 I have ever read. Thank you, Bulgatonos.
posted by thivaia at 10:00 AM on November 18, 2015 [18 favorites]
He has never been cool in Portland. Not from the get-go, man. It was some resentment. People were jealous of his talent. And I hate him, too—but he's got something that people love, so what are you gonna say? He's never been on the inside, he's always had to bust his way through a bunch of "cool" people.
I wonder if this is part of the reason I loved his stuff so much? God, did I love it, especially in my early teens, and realizing that, just like me, Art Alexakis was never cool might actually be the answer. Sure, he seemed cool compared to me (not setting the bar that high) but I felt like I was also always fighting against cool people and like I was never, ever going to fit in or be comfortable with them. There are a lot of reasons this music was important to me, but that might be another reason it felt like it spoke to me personally, like there was someone else who had to fight to establish themselves because all of the cool people who had an easier time were making it extra hard for them because no one likes the person who's weird and awkward and demanding.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 10:00 AM on November 18, 2015 [8 favorites]
I wonder if this is part of the reason I loved his stuff so much? God, did I love it, especially in my early teens, and realizing that, just like me, Art Alexakis was never cool might actually be the answer. Sure, he seemed cool compared to me (not setting the bar that high) but I felt like I was also always fighting against cool people and like I was never, ever going to fit in or be comfortable with them. There are a lot of reasons this music was important to me, but that might be another reason it felt like it spoke to me personally, like there was someone else who had to fight to establish themselves because all of the cool people who had an easier time were making it extra hard for them because no one likes the person who's weird and awkward and demanding.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 10:00 AM on November 18, 2015 [8 favorites]
Certain aspects of the mid-nineties sure were....like that, weren't they? These big dumb post-grunge bands with their sort of mall punk hair. And the terrible sweaters, god, there were just these terrible sort of sixties-seventies-mod sweaters in the mid nineties. The contemporary nineties revival hasn't revived the terrible things, that's something to be thankful for. Doctor Martens and floral dresses and long hair and flannels were the good part.
posted by Frowner at 10:01 AM on November 18, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 10:01 AM on November 18, 2015 [5 favorites]
I lived in Portland during this time and I can say, yeah, Everclear was never cool and the domestic violence aspect was definitely part of it. However, I can also say I saw Hazel at the X-Ray Cafe a dozen times and they were always super cool to me, a 19 year old punk dork.
posted by josher71 at 10:05 AM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by josher71 at 10:05 AM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
Eighteen years later, this anecdote from the Village Voice's coverage of a 1997 music conference is the first thing I think of when I hear Everclear:
[O]ne of the highlights of last year's NXNW conference in Portland, Oregon, came during a set by the band Junior High, when singer Sean Croghan stopped one song cold to sing a verse a cappella. "They say Art imitates life/They also say he beats his wife," spat Croghan, and there was an audible gasp [in] the audience. Portland's resident rock star, Art Alexakis, was charged with domestic violence in 1993.posted by Ian A.T. at 10:07 AM on November 18, 2015 [9 favorites]
Very much off-topic, but am I the only one for whom the Willamette Week's favicon looks exactly like part of the ISIS flag?
posted by jessssse at 10:08 AM on November 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by jessssse at 10:08 AM on November 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
Oh, Everclear. The only band that truly understood the scope and size of the working class chip on my teenage shoulder. Still, I was always aware that Art was a bit of a tool, while Craig and Greg were basically nice dudes.
posted by redsparkler at 10:08 AM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by redsparkler at 10:08 AM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
I liked Sparkle & Fade at the time, though I never listen to it now. And I loathed the follow-up records. Hazel was simply amazing, though.
posted by entropicamericana at 10:08 AM on November 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by entropicamericana at 10:08 AM on November 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
I saw them in concert in December 1995. One of those radio station/record label holiday package deals with five semi-famous bands put on "Christmas concerts" in various markets for a few weeks in November/December. To put it in a time frame of reference, No Doubt was the opener, since Just a Girl was getting a fair amount of airplay. I hadn't though much of them at the time, and we came in halfway through their set. Their performance made me a fan, even if I felt sad for the horn section that you only got to see on tour.
I had managed to work my way to the front of the stage to see Everclear, since I had bought and played the crap out of Sparkle and Fade the previous few months. All I remember is that Greg and Craig were clearly having fun on stage, with huge grins on their faces. I don't remember much about Art's performance. For being a straight guy in his early 20's, I did have a moment of eye contact with Craig, and I finally understood why some girls get all squishy for rock stars.
posted by Badgermann at 10:09 AM on November 18, 2015 [5 favorites]
I had managed to work my way to the front of the stage to see Everclear, since I had bought and played the crap out of Sparkle and Fade the previous few months. All I remember is that Greg and Craig were clearly having fun on stage, with huge grins on their faces. I don't remember much about Art's performance. For being a straight guy in his early 20's, I did have a moment of eye contact with Craig, and I finally understood why some girls get all squishy for rock stars.
posted by Badgermann at 10:09 AM on November 18, 2015 [5 favorites]
I saw them in concert in December 1995. One of those radio station/record label holiday package deals with five semi-famous bands put on "Christmas concerts" in various markets for a few weeks in November/December.
I didn't make the Milwaukee one, but IIRC it was the "New Rock 102.1 Christmas Party" here.
I loved Everclear, but only saw them maybe twice, once at Milwaukee's Summerfest and maybe a club show? At one of those shows I bought an Everclear "Punk as Fuck" shirt that I only wore under other shirts because I was never "Punk as Fuck" and my mom would have killed me.
posted by drezdn at 10:15 AM on November 18, 2015 [11 favorites]
At one of those shows I bought an Everclear "Punk as Fuck" shirt that I only wore under other shirts because I was never "Punk as Fuck" and my mom would have killed me.
I bought a shirt at the aforementioned concert that has the Everclear name and a pale green star on the front. On the back it had the heroin girl picture and said White Trash and Proud of it Portland Oregon. Never mind that this concert was in Sacramento, CA. Same scenario in that I always wore it under something else so you only saw the front of it.
posted by Badgermann at 10:22 AM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
I bought a shirt at the aforementioned concert that has the Everclear name and a pale green star on the front. On the back it had the heroin girl picture and said White Trash and Proud of it Portland Oregon. Never mind that this concert was in Sacramento, CA. Same scenario in that I always wore it under something else so you only saw the front of it.
posted by Badgermann at 10:22 AM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
Tittie bars?
Really?
I saw Everclear. The Bloodhound Gang was also on the bill.
The 90's man.
The 90's.
posted by alex_skazat at 10:30 AM on November 18, 2015 [5 favorites]
Really?
I saw Everclear. The Bloodhound Gang was also on the bill.
The 90's man.
The 90's.
posted by alex_skazat at 10:30 AM on November 18, 2015 [5 favorites]
The Bloodhound Gang kind of sums it up:
Hello my name is Jimmy Pop and I'm a dumb white guy,posted by maryr at 10:32 AM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
I'm not old or new but middle school fifth grade like junior high,
I don't know mofo if y'all peeps be buggin' give props to my ho cause she all fly,
But I can take the heat cause I'm the other white meat known as 'Kid Funky Fried'
I saw them in concert in December 1995. One of those radio station/record label holiday package deals with five semi-famous bands put on "Christmas concerts" in various markets for a few weeks in November/December.
KNDD's Deck The Hall Ball? I'm like 90% certain I was at that show... but the most memorable Everclear show I went to was at the King Cat Theater, the Dandy Warhols opened (I ran into Zia McCabe in the ladies room and awkwardly complimented her outfit and she was like, "....yeah thanks bye now"), I also had some lovely eye contact with Craig Montoya, and then if I remember correctly some poor concertgoer got mashed between the mosh pit* and the barrier and ambulances had to be called and the show just... halted.
*the pit at the King Cat was notoriously awful... I got knocked to the floor during a Seven Year Bitch show there and left with underwire bruises under my boobs because a friend freaked out and tried to haul me up to an upright position by my bra strap, bless his heart.
posted by palomar at 10:42 AM on November 18, 2015 [6 favorites]
KNDD's Deck The Hall Ball? I'm like 90% certain I was at that show... but the most memorable Everclear show I went to was at the King Cat Theater, the Dandy Warhols opened (I ran into Zia McCabe in the ladies room and awkwardly complimented her outfit and she was like, "....yeah thanks bye now"), I also had some lovely eye contact with Craig Montoya, and then if I remember correctly some poor concertgoer got mashed between the mosh pit* and the barrier and ambulances had to be called and the show just... halted.
*the pit at the King Cat was notoriously awful... I got knocked to the floor during a Seven Year Bitch show there and left with underwire bruises under my boobs because a friend freaked out and tried to haul me up to an upright position by my bra strap, bless his heart.
posted by palomar at 10:42 AM on November 18, 2015 [6 favorites]
I was so confused by The Bloodhound Gang. Internally I thought, "These are dumb jocks that scoffed at all my friends in highschool. Wait. *They're* cool?!" Turns out they're weren't - they were just like: Proto-Bros or something. The cool people were the ones doing their own thing and not just reinforcing the status-quo and I was happy some of those came out of the weird group of misfits I was hanging out with.
And yeah, then I found Belle and Sebastian and my sails were set right again. Not to say that band was the end-all, be-all, but those first albums were just special to a shy, lonely, awkward, late-bloomer like me. Better than, "The Bad Touch", which again gives out confusing signals.
Anyways, back in the day (last century) I thought Everclear's front-man dude was just a former heroin addict or something and all his songs were about how he was now clean but still cool or something. He seemed so over the hill when I was a teenager. Like he could have been Kurt Cobains *Dad's* age. I'm not OK with the domestic violence past, didn't know about that. Was he an angry drunk? I dunno, I'm not sure if I have enough time/interest to find out.
Songs are catchy though, in that poppy rock and roll sorta way. Catchy, but not so much unique. Like, I know who Eddie Cochran is, now.
posted by alex_skazat at 10:43 AM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
And yeah, then I found Belle and Sebastian and my sails were set right again. Not to say that band was the end-all, be-all, but those first albums were just special to a shy, lonely, awkward, late-bloomer like me. Better than, "The Bad Touch", which again gives out confusing signals.
Anyways, back in the day (last century) I thought Everclear's front-man dude was just a former heroin addict or something and all his songs were about how he was now clean but still cool or something. He seemed so over the hill when I was a teenager. Like he could have been Kurt Cobains *Dad's* age. I'm not OK with the domestic violence past, didn't know about that. Was he an angry drunk? I dunno, I'm not sure if I have enough time/interest to find out.
Songs are catchy though, in that poppy rock and roll sorta way. Catchy, but not so much unique. Like, I know who Eddie Cochran is, now.
posted by alex_skazat at 10:43 AM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
Tittie bars?
Really?
Well, it IS Portland.
posted by josher71 at 11:01 AM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
Really?
Well, it IS Portland.
posted by josher71 at 11:01 AM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
> ... but I felt like I was also always fighting against cool people and like I was never, ever going to fit in or be comfortable with them.
We used to describe that as the difference between people who had to struggle to create their selves, versus those who were comfortable with one they found.
posted by benito.strauss at 11:12 AM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
We used to describe that as the difference between people who had to struggle to create their selves, versus those who were comfortable with one they found.
posted by benito.strauss at 11:12 AM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
I've always gotten Everclear mixed up with Everlast. This has never caused a single problem in my life.
Ahh the 90's classic mixups: Everclear/Everlas, the Verve/Verve Pipe problem.
posted by boubelium at 12:05 PM on November 18, 2015 [4 favorites]
Ahh the 90's classic mixups: Everclear/Everlas, the Verve/Verve Pipe problem.
posted by boubelium at 12:05 PM on November 18, 2015 [4 favorites]
Art Alexakis is like a living breathing ISO standard for "dude you don't regret losing touch with after high school"
posted by jason_steakums at 12:07 PM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 12:07 PM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
Ahh the 90's classic mixups: Everclear/Everlas, the Verve/Verve Pipe problem.Firehose/Firehouse
posted by pxe2000 at 12:13 PM on November 18, 2015 [10 favorites]
Super-anything.
Sparkle-anything.
Something with a number in it.
posted by chococat at 12:15 PM on November 18, 2015 [7 favorites]
Sparkle-anything.
Something with a number in it.
posted by chococat at 12:15 PM on November 18, 2015 [7 favorites]
That articles was extremely difficult to follow! Wow. Hate-reading is hard when I'm trying to follow the pronouns.
posted by lyssabee at 12:17 PM on November 18, 2015
posted by lyssabee at 12:17 PM on November 18, 2015
> Firehose/Firehouse
Did that one actually cause that much confusion? I've got the feeling there wasn't much overlap of audiences. Unlike the legions of people confusing Patti Smith and Patty Smyth.
/Shooting down the walls of heartache .... with heroin and poetry!
posted by benito.strauss at 12:21 PM on November 18, 2015 [4 favorites]
Did that one actually cause that much confusion? I've got the feeling there wasn't much overlap of audiences. Unlike the legions of people confusing Patti Smith and Patty Smyth.
/Shooting down the walls of heartache .... with heroin and poetry!
posted by benito.strauss at 12:21 PM on November 18, 2015 [4 favorites]
At some point in the last couple of years of rereading ASOIAF and being subtly bugged by Alfie Allen's casting for the HBO show, I realized my mental picture of Theon Greyjoy was Art Alexakis. Handsomeish, charismatic, dark featured, pretty fly for a white guy, coastal dwelling douchebag with a complicated and intense relationship to the ocean who you think is complaining too much about his problems and his deadbeat dad until you realize his life has actually been pretty tragic and that Theon's dad abandoned him and his brothers died young and horribly and stupidly and the Iron Islands are an impoverished hellhole doomed to either welfare or piracy/crime. In all seriousness, as an LA native I'll always have a soft spot for Sparkle and Fade; both the name and the chords invoke those beach scenes right down to the quality of sunlight.
posted by moonlight on vermont at 12:28 PM on November 18, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by moonlight on vermont at 12:28 PM on November 18, 2015 [7 favorites]
Everclear is a pretty okay 90s band. They couldn't be cool musically simply because they were well behind everyone else in doing their particular thing, at least on record. They did a solid job at it though. But I'm having a hard time finding anything very interesting about the story they are trying to make sound interesting here.
posted by atoxyl at 12:38 PM on November 18, 2015
posted by atoxyl at 12:38 PM on November 18, 2015
Reading this lead me to a wiki article on songs about Portland, OR and I learned that Jewel has a song about Portland. And it's bad.
I never got into Everclear and had no opinion of Alexakis going into this but by the end he really seems like an asshole. "That was the third formation of the band" and all that stuff, and comparing himself to Trent Reznor and such. Weird.
posted by gucci mane at 12:50 PM on November 18, 2015
I never got into Everclear and had no opinion of Alexakis going into this but by the end he really seems like an asshole. "That was the third formation of the band" and all that stuff, and comparing himself to Trent Reznor and such. Weird.
posted by gucci mane at 12:50 PM on November 18, 2015
I never got into Everclear and had no opinion of Alexakis going into this but by the end he really seems like an asshole. "That was the third formation of the band" and all that stuff, and comparing himself to Trent Reznor and such. Weird.
It's show business, not show friends, sadly.
posted by infinitewindow at 1:16 PM on November 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
It's show business, not show friends, sadly.
posted by infinitewindow at 1:16 PM on November 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
alex_skazat: "Better than, "The Bad Touch", which again gives out confusing signals. "
Still, an amusing song. I even had an AskMe about it!
posted by Chrysostom at 1:26 PM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
Still, an amusing song. I even had an AskMe about it!
posted by Chrysostom at 1:26 PM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
This looks like my only chance to tell my Art Alexakis anecdote ~ he and some roomies used to live a couple doors down from my husband's kids on Kearney and 24thish after Alex lost the big mansion and everything else except a big, shiny car that barely fit into his driveway. My then 17 year old daughter K and I were walking down the street by his place, he was out front. He walked up to K, and handed he a half-eaten little package of vanilla sandwich cookies -- the kind you get from a vending machine -- telling her that she could finish them off or something. Brush with fame, man.
posted by djinn dandy at 1:31 PM on November 18, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by djinn dandy at 1:31 PM on November 18, 2015 [7 favorites]
Jewel has a song about Portland. And it's bad.This is my shocked face.
posted by pxe2000 at 1:55 PM on November 18, 2015
1. My first ever concert was Hazel. Good times
2. Technically, World of Noise is Everclear's best album because it has their only good song on it.
3. Portland and strip clubs and another data point: I am not the only person I know to announce a betrothal in a strip club.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 2:05 PM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
2. Technically, World of Noise is Everclear's best album because it has their only good song on it.
3. Portland and strip clubs and another data point: I am not the only person I know to announce a betrothal in a strip club.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 2:05 PM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
Cuthbert: I follow the Led Zeppelin school. If you watch those guys, they're playing a different show every night. John Bonham wasn't held to play the same taka-taka-taka-taka-baaaaaaaaa every night. So I would make things up as I go, because I'm a musician. And this would freak Art out. We'd get done with gigs and I was fine, he'd be all pissed off and screaming at me that I hadn't played this or that right. If I didn't play a lick the exact same way I did on the album it actually messed him up. That was kind of embarrassing—for him.
LOL, drummers.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 2:13 PM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
LOL, drummers.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 2:13 PM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
I saw Everclear as a minor act at a big hot and sweaty summer festival in Brisbane in the early to mid nineties, just as they were breaking. And they were great. It was clear the three of them were having fun and were overjoyed that people were loving their music and skipping some other great bands on other stages to come and see them. I bought Sparkle and Fade and played it to death.
Two years later they toured Australia again and I got some friends to come and it was going to be huge. And they were awful. Art was arrogant and disdainful of everyone - a total asshole. The rest of the band seemed to just hide at the back. So I ended up with a story of success.
posted by jjderooy at 3:38 PM on November 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
Two years later they toured Australia again and I got some friends to come and it was going to be huge. And they were awful. Art was arrogant and disdainful of everyone - a total asshole. The rest of the band seemed to just hide at the back. So I ended up with a story of success.
posted by jjderooy at 3:38 PM on November 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
Everclear is great too by the way. Holds up in a weird way. Don't think millenials don't love cheesy 90s song as much if not more than the "serious" "cool" indie crap.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 4:17 PM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 4:17 PM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
almostmanda: "Deep, deep cringe at that Spin cover. I know a lot of the mid-90s looked like that, but ughhhhhh."
I dunno, I kinda liked it (mostly because his pose reminded me of Diane Arbus's photo of the boy with the grenade).
posted by barnacles at 6:35 PM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
I dunno, I kinda liked it (mostly because his pose reminded me of Diane Arbus's photo of the boy with the grenade).
posted by barnacles at 6:35 PM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
❤️💥💲
posted by Horace Rumpole at 8:09 PM on November 18, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by Horace Rumpole at 8:09 PM on November 18, 2015 [6 favorites]
The contemporary nineties revival
I... um, really? That's a thing? This may be the first time that I'm actually happy to be old and out of touch.
posted by Slothrup at 8:21 PM on November 18, 2015
I... um, really? That's a thing? This may be the first time that I'm actually happy to be old and out of touch.
posted by Slothrup at 8:21 PM on November 18, 2015
KNDD's Deck The Hall Ball? I'm like 90% certain I was at that show... but the most memorable Everclear show I went to was at the King Cat Theater, the Dandy Warhols opened
Hahaha, I was at both of these shows. I also saw them open for Filter at DV8 two nights in a row.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 8:51 PM on November 18, 2015
Hahaha, I was at both of these shows. I also saw them open for Filter at DV8 two nights in a row.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 8:51 PM on November 18, 2015
I love Sparkle and Fade but I can't defend it against most people's complaints about it. The "cool" kids listened to radiohead and dumped all over Everclear but I didn't care. It just has a great sound to it and Art writes great lyrics when you're a teen because assholes can relate to assholes. Zero surprised he wouldn't contribute to a story like this.
posted by dogwalker at 8:52 PM on November 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by dogwalker at 8:52 PM on November 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
This looks like my only chance to tell my Art Alexakis anecdote ~ he and some roomies used to live a couple doors down
It wasn't Three Doors Down, was it?!
Also Sparklegrass was an awesome band. I mean Supergrass. I mean Superchunk. Yeah.
posted by alex_skazat at 9:06 PM on November 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
Tittie bars?
Really?
Well, it IS Portland.
I would have thought Vegan Tittie Bars, then.
I live in Boulder, and we don't even have vegan ones of those. Although we now have our own Voodoo donuts. Take that, Portland!
posted by alex_skazat at 9:08 PM on November 18, 2015
Really?
Well, it IS Portland.
I would have thought Vegan Tittie Bars, then.
I live in Boulder, and we don't even have vegan ones of those. Although we now have our own Voodoo donuts. Take that, Portland!
posted by alex_skazat at 9:08 PM on November 18, 2015
alex_skazat: "Better than, "The Bad Touch", which again gives out confusing signals. "
Still, an amusing song. I even had an AskMe about it!
Indeed, that is a good - no, GREAT topic for a AskMe.
So the BHG: They were like, funny party dude prankster guys, right? During their set, they asked someone to go on stage, and basically piss their pants. If they did, they'd get like a shirt or something. So up comes a guy to give it the old college try. Throughout one of their songs, this guy is trying desperately to pee on command. Can't do it. Until the very end of the song. The BHG Jimmy Pop guy just can't see that it's actually been done (although I can - some maybe he's feigning not being able to see it). So they invite someone else up on stage to piss their pants. Another dude comes up, pisses like it ain't no thing. So you've got two guys who have pissed their pants on stage. One with a free BHG t-shirt, one with NOTHING.
That's what I remember about the BHG. That and, "The Bad Touch" was my girlfriend's and I "song". And that relationship is now over.
posted by alex_skazat at 9:13 PM on November 18, 2015
OH It's the food that's Vegan, not the strippers. I've been living a confused life. I always thought to myself, "Why would it matter if the strippers refrained from animal products?" And then I thought, "It matters to someone - and you know what? They've got their own place now"
posted by alex_skazat at 9:20 PM on November 18, 2015
posted by alex_skazat at 9:20 PM on November 18, 2015
It is the best album ever recorded by a Portland band
No it's not. The fact that none of the people commenting at the end of the article mention the Wipers leads me to believe they're all from Vancouver or something.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 9:41 PM on November 18, 2015 [4 favorites]
No it's not. The fact that none of the people commenting at the end of the article mention the Wipers leads me to believe they're all from Vancouver or something.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 9:41 PM on November 18, 2015 [4 favorites]
Yeah, I'm going to have to step up and say that The Wipers and Dead Moon and Hazel and Team Dresch and and and all put out better records.
posted by josher71 at 6:17 AM on November 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by josher71 at 6:17 AM on November 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
I... um, really? That's a thing? This may be the first time that I'm actually happy to be old and out of touch.
Indeed. Here you go. All the most fashion-conscious college-age girls around the arts scene I frequent have been looking vaguely 1994 for the past few years - I think I remember it coming in at least three years ago, and that's Minneapolis - dark lipstick, rolled jeans shorts over tights, ankle boots with tights, floral dresses, dyed hair, etc. Also, center parts are coming back. Long hair on guys is already back and is back enough that you see it fairly regularly on fairly fashion-forward guys.
I feel like the precursor was the sort of light blue with grey and black thing I was noticing a few years ago, plus the chunky browline frames, which were a Very Big Deal in the very early nineties if you were running around in artsy circles.
But again, happily so far we haven't gotten to the mid/late nineties cack-handed version of mod, and I'm hoping we won't. I had some super ugly shoes back then; I knew they were ugly but I wore them because they were fashionable.
posted by Frowner at 6:47 AM on November 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
Indeed. Here you go. All the most fashion-conscious college-age girls around the arts scene I frequent have been looking vaguely 1994 for the past few years - I think I remember it coming in at least three years ago, and that's Minneapolis - dark lipstick, rolled jeans shorts over tights, ankle boots with tights, floral dresses, dyed hair, etc. Also, center parts are coming back. Long hair on guys is already back and is back enough that you see it fairly regularly on fairly fashion-forward guys.
I feel like the precursor was the sort of light blue with grey and black thing I was noticing a few years ago, plus the chunky browline frames, which were a Very Big Deal in the very early nineties if you were running around in artsy circles.
But again, happily so far we haven't gotten to the mid/late nineties cack-handed version of mod, and I'm hoping we won't. I had some super ugly shoes back then; I knew they were ugly but I wore them because they were fashionable.
posted by Frowner at 6:47 AM on November 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
Twenty year cycles, people. Oh, don't worry, it's coming back. ALL OF IT
posted by josher71 at 10:04 AM on November 19, 2015
posted by josher71 at 10:04 AM on November 19, 2015
Twenty year cycles, people. Oh, don't worry, it's coming back. ALL OF IT
Is it time for me to hunt down my flight jacket for the fifteenth wave of ska?
posted by drezdn at 10:16 AM on November 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
Is it time for me to hunt down my flight jacket for the fifteenth wave of ska?
posted by drezdn at 10:16 AM on November 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
I live in Boulder, and we don't even have vegan ones of those. Although we now have our own Voodoo donuts.
Too bad you got your own. Portland would be better off if you'd just taken our Voodoo Donutses.
posted by dersins at 10:35 AM on November 19, 2015
Too bad you got your own. Portland would be better off if you'd just taken our Voodoo Donutses.
posted by dersins at 10:35 AM on November 19, 2015
That's Donutodes.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:11 PM on November 19, 2015
posted by Chrysostom at 7:11 PM on November 19, 2015
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Also my favorite part of this article is the drummer explaining the meaning of You Make Me Feel Like A Whore as if it's a mysterious riddle. Maybe Greg Eklund will unravel the enigmatic lyrics of Father of Mine next.
posted by almostmanda at 9:33 AM on November 18, 2015 [5 favorites]