So many people on this planet and so little time.
How about all of the wonderful people we have had a chance to get to know?
RECENT GUESTS ON "THE TIME MACHINE" WITH MICHAEL McCARTNEY
DEBRA WINGER
CHRIS ISAAK
NATALIE MERCHANT
JEFF BRIDGES
AISHA TYLER
JEFF DANIELS
ALEX BACH
JONATHAN RUNDMAN
JANE SEYMOUR
DAVE STEPHENS
COURTNEY JAYE
BRIAN RAY
RACHAEL YAMAGATA
PAT BENATAR
ALICE PEACOCK
MARK BACINO
TAMIA
MAPLE MARS
HOLLY ROBINSON PEETE
VONDA SHEPARD
FASTBALL
NANCY WILSON
ANDREW GOLD
SAMANTHA MATHIS
RUPERT HOLMES
BEA
THE CALLING
DEBORAH GIBSON
LIONEL RICHIE
THE GO-GOs
BUTCH WALKER
ANYA MARINA
THE FIXX
KATIE MORRIS
OSCAR THE GROUCH
THE BACON BROTHERS
DJ POLYWOG
CARNIE WILSON
LFO
LEIGH NASH
EVERCLEAR
RALPH NADER
GAIL SWANSON
BROTHER NOLAND
TOM CLANCY
GABRIELLE UNION
Everyone on The Time Machine Crew argued about which photograph (actually the girls could have cared less) of Gabrielle we should put up on the website. When in doubt - put both photos.
ARLISS HOWARD
BEBE BUELL
RICHARD X. HEYMAN
FREDDY "BOOM BOOM" CANNON
JOHN LEGUIZAMO
LAURA LINNEY
ROB MORROW
MICHELLE BEHENNA
SHAWN MULLINS
ALI LANDRY
RICK SPRINGFIELD
ASTROGIN
BRIDGETTA TOMARCHIO
CURTIS MURPHY SYNDICATE
BIG BIRD
MICHAEL BACON
DEAN FRIEDMAN
DEBORAH VIAL
STEPHEN BISHOP
SIXPENCE NONE THE RICHER
NA LEO PILIMEHANA
JEFF SHELTON from THE SPINNING JENNIES and THE WELL WISHERS
EYTAN MIRSKY
JENNIFER WARNES
JACKIE DeSHANNON
THE COWSILLS
HOOTIE AND THE BLOWFISH
CHRISTY LYNN LEONARD - MISS HAWAII
EVAN AND JARON
INDIGO GIRLS
TODD McFARLANE
SERENA ALTSCHUL
DEXTER FREEBISH
FRAN DRESCHER
OUTERSTAR
LAURA BRANIGAN
SISTER HAZEL
ANN WILSON
RAY MANZAREK
KEVIN BACON
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
KANDACE KRUEGER - MISS USA
LUTHER VANDROSS
ALLISON MACK
BRUCE CAMPBELL
TERRI NUNN
GIN BLOSSOMS
TIFFANY
LIFEHOUSE
RAVEN-SYMONE
PINAY
SPIN DOCTORS
LUCY WOODWARD
KENNY LOGGINS
SHEILA E
BROOKE SHIELDS
PETER CETERA
BRIAN VANDER ARK
BRIAN McKNIGHT
ALANNA UBACH
HENRY ROLLINS
SARINA PARIS
PAUL GIAMATTI
POPPY MONTGOMERY
KEN SHARP
TODD RUNDGREN
MC HAMMER
STEREOPHONICS
ONE VO1CE
DAVE CARROLL
JOHN OATES
PATTI LaBELLE
JAMES PANKOW
ALICE COOPER
COURTNEY THORNE-SMITH
PAT BOONE
NEIL GERALDO
BILL MUMY
CARROLL SPINNEY
DONNY BROWN
JOE TURKEL
WALTER PARAZAIDER
And now a word from our sponsors:
Listeners keep asking us how can they purchase the wide variety of songs and albums that we play on the radio to download for their enjoyment. If you find yourself looking for a great way to do this - check us out:
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE TIME MACHINE MUSIC STORE
This website is dedicated to THE SOUND PATROL. The finest group of people you could ever work with. Everyone has moved on with their lives but the memories will forever be there. This radio show near the turn of the century was pure magic.
In addition to music we have some of our guest interviews plus a few extras to share with you .. 24/7. The link is below. Enjoy.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN to "The Best And The Worst Of The Time Machine"
Still hanging around the playlist on THE TIME MACHINE is "Worn Me Down" by Rachael Yamagata. Not bad for a song we've been playing since August of 2003! Over four years! Topping the playlist is "She May Call You Up Tonight" from Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet. Aimee Mann, Curtis Murphy Syndicate, Lisa Loeb, Alex Bach, Marla Sokoloff, Jack Johnson, Rick Springfield, Kate Earl, Butch Walker, The Bangles, Norah Jones, KT Tunstall, Heart, Debbie Loeb, Fiona Apple, Anna Nalick, The Holograms, Toby Lightman, Courtney Jaye, Tift Merritt, Kathleen Edwards, Dian Diaz, The Dave Matthews Band, Sheryl Crow, Morningwood, Cori Yarckin, Butterfly Boucher and Fountains Of Wayne are waiting to slip into the number one slot.
If you have any requests, questions or comments feel free to contact us.
We can be reached at:
[email protected]
Until we can actually play a real bonafied song from the talented Dhani Harrison on the radio, there's only one place for you to hear a few of his songs. We can't describe to you just how great this artist is...find out for yourself at this site:
Dhani Harrison
OPEN LETTER TO BRIAN WILSON
Posted by Andrew Gold on October 11, 2004 at 22:57:18:
I know this is a bit off topic...but i thought you may be interested to read what i wrote to Brian Wilson re: the recent release of SMILE, the long lost masterpiece of the 60's.
10/11/04
Dear Brian (and Van Dyke)-
You and I have met a few times, briefly, but I doubt you'd remember as both times it was very brief. Van Dyke will know me. I am a singer songwriter etc etc..and has some success in the 70's and 80's as an artist (lonely boy, thank you for being a friend, etc) and am still working as an artist, and as a producer, and am a pretty creative guy. I am also a very good friend of Jeff, Nelson and Probyn, Brad Gilderman and Mark Linnet, and in fact, when Jeff and the lads are not playing in your band, they often play in my band when I do 60's homages, especially for Byrds songs. I also did most of the background vocals and scratch vocals for you with Don Was on your "Just Wasn't Made For These Times" special, and you and I even sang together, though not at the same time, on a Ringo album Don and Peter Asher produced. I was also Linda Ronstadt's bandleader/arranger for much of the 70's (along with others in the band...to give them proper credit. I also had a band, WAX, with Graham Gouldman in the 80's (he of "bus stop", "for your love" and 10cc fame.) I even was the voice of Alvin in the chipmunks on a few albums. (For more about me, go to www.andrewgold.com)
From the sixties on, my favorite groups were The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Byrds. I also have a strong affinity for high harmony singers such as yourself, Paul M, David Crosby, Art Garfunkel...etc...I come from a very musical background. Mother is Marni Nixon, who did many famous movie voices way back when (Natalie Wood's voice- West Side Story; Audrey Hepburn, My Fair Lady etc...and my Dad, Ernest Gold, won an academy award for his score to Exodus. I am self taught, cannot read music, but could write a symphony...not that it would be as good as any serious composer I love, like Debussy, Chopin, Gershwin or Bach,,,,but just to brag about my musical talent to give the following compliments as much weight as possible.
I just bought and listened to SMILE and I felt a need to send you a message of some sort. It's not just that I loved this new recording and completed at last SMILE (I adore it, more than you may ever know). It's something more, and I will try, as briefly as possible, to impart my intense experience and thoughts about it's place in pop music or any music, really), and why it means so much to the world of music, and I shall partial guess what it probably means to you personally.).
I have been enough of a fan of the Beach Boys, and, of course, you in particular for so many years, I'm quite aware of your life, and actually suffer some of the same type anguish and pain your depressions have made you endure over the years. I am often very happy, and I do not have auditory hallucinations or hear voices (except sometimes my ex-wife and accountant yelling at me, but, alas, those are real... usually, ha), but I do have SOME idea of what you must go through, if may be so ridiculously bold as to say such an audacious thing.
What makes this new recording all the more astounding is that it must have been something that has been a seriously crushing pressure on you for years, both too negative AND too intensely positive, and must have unpleasant memories attached no doubt, as well that period being an astonishing creative period for you, what with Pet Sounds and all preceding it. The Beach Boys not being that supportive of you and poor Van Dyke; The record companies; The myth itself of this long lost album; whatever your marital state was, your fears and worries. Your father. Life must've seemed like a huge mountain before you when you woke up each morning, I imagine. I know the feeling. But it's bad enough feeling weak and scared, alone, yet afraid of people, feelings AND having all the expectations heaped on you everyday...My God.
Judging from the showtime special, the first few days of rehearsing must've been particularly tough. What if it isn't as good as everyone expects? All that stuff and more. Drug memories, confusion and the downside of being creative and bright. All of these things can be tough if you are gifted. Comes with the territory I believe.
Anyway, the album is simply remarkable. Just nothing short of being, I believe, one of the best, like, 3 albums in pop history. And the attention to musical and sonic detail, with your remarkable band is simply the most wonderful surprise in recent memory for me. I bought the album 2 days ago and have heard it now 8 times all the way through. (I must admit, I felt highly jealous and left out, thinking about Jeff and Probyn et all being in your band- I would give up so much to be in your band and play THAT music..( Ask Jeff....he knows how i feel, and what I can do...if you ever need a replacement.
I hope to God you find that doing this album puts to rest some old demons and that you can have more days when you feel carefree and relaxed..that "safe at home feeling" because of summoning the strength and resolve to make this happen. I know exactly what Paul means. The music makes me cry. Even the happy music...For Joy, For Pain, For Life.
Hopefully without sounding too stupid or cloying or anything, I have to say I basically just love you. You have made my and SO many others in the world happy, all the while being tortured by aspects of your life. It's just.....love....in it's purest form to do such a thing...and you may feel, at times, weak...not strong enough, but in fact, all this over achievement, lol....you deserve peace of mind, and if I could wave a magic wand, I would give it to you. Your music is so beautiful. So warm, so interesting, and so...well...musical. You TRULY are like a modern day pop Bach.
That's all I want to say. Simply to thank you from the bottom of heart for the magic you've given us. I've even heard much of this stuff. from various Beach Boy/ Brian fans and all the collector people, sweet though they are...but STILL....the sequencing and recording...the beautiful complexity...the eloquent simplicity...yet, the classical brilliance to it....is beyond compare to anything in the current music scene. I can't even begin to impart the grandeur of how impressed I am, ESPECIALLY in this age, at our ages, and with so many personal and intimate obstacles you must have come across.
You really did it, and I thank you, thank you thank you.
PLEASE, if you ever need an extra guy in your band, or a replacement, think of me. I can sing like you, Mike, Carl...even Al....lol....I can sing high or very low, pretty damn in tune too...and play pretty much any instrument you can throw at me, keys, bass, drums, and guitar. And, I am generally an affable and funny man. So....
THANK you for SMILE. You may now rest on your laurels if you'd like, lol. My sincere congratulations. Please enjoy the rest of your life now! Give your wife a hello. We met at an auction thing in Benedict canyon that Jeff Foskett presided over a few months ago. She was very nice.
Andrew Gold
PS. Wait, did I tell you I liked the CD? lol
Here's another view of the musical experience that we call "Smile" posted by musician and guitar builder Mike Conklin on November 16th, 2004:
Guess what? I'm obsessing! It's wonderful!
I have, over the years, been casually aquanited with
the legend of Brian
Wilson's "Smile". The lamentation and wailing about
the masterpiece that
never was. The "American Sgt. Pepper". Etc.
I just really didn't get it.
First off, to me the Beach Boys were no Beatles.
There was no comparison.
Sure, they both had this foundation of infectious pop
that propelled them
into the heart and minds of anybody with a sense of
music, but the Beatles
progressed and took pop music to a new art form that
few have managed to
even come close to.
They (the Van Pattens?) said "Well, look to 'Pet
Sounds' as proof that the
Beach Boys (Wilson) were every bit the equal artists".
Frankly, I did and I
still didn't get it. I listened to Pet Sounds a dozen
times or so and it
just didn't sink in.
Then I read about Wilson resurrecting the myth and
sure enough he did.
Well, I HAD to buy it because that's what geeks like
me do. I had to see
what the hub bub was about. I didn't expect much
because of my inability to
catch on to Pet Sounds. And, to be frank, the first
few listens of SMiLE
left me nearly in the same state, but there was enough
hook there to keep me
listening. And then it all sunk in and NOW I can't
get the damn thing out
of my head.
I think SMiLE is a real gift from Wilson to the world.
Knowledgables seem
to agree, for the most part, not that that matters,
but they've been
thinking about it much longer than I have. For me,
I'm not sure if it's the
music alone or the accompanying knowledge of the whole
40 year SMiLE saga.
I mean, if it had been released as just another record
from Brian Wilson,
without the fanfare and myth and lore, would I feel
the same? I truly don't
know, but I do know that it is one of the most
beautiful pieces I've ever
encountered.
NOW I am obsessed as I find that there have been many
attempts over the past
40 years where fans and/or industry insiders tried to
finish Wilson's work
for him. There is "Smiley Smile", which I have
purchased, the 30 year box
set which has many pieces of the puzzle (which I
likely will purchase) and
now I find that there are volumes of bootlegs.
Complete with the original
artwork designed for the album that never was, etc.
Now, besides wanting to know how this whole thing has
impacted you (if at
all, but I find that hard to imagine) I wanted to know
if you have a good
source for bootlegs and rarities. A good website that
specializes in the
rare and hard to find? I'm particularly interested in
the Vigotone and Luna
Records bootlegs as they seem to be the most
painstakingly compiled. I just
find it fascinating to hear the original versions.
The weird thing is I'm
doing it completely backwards! The true BB fans knew
all of the modular
pieces that were destined for SMiLE, and then they
were able to compare what
SMiLE was to them with Wilson's completed project. I,
on the other hand,
heard SMiLE in the complete, "authorized" version
first and now am digging
in the attic for the pieces that floated around for
nearly 40 years. God, I
love music when it takes hold of you like this!
Mike Conklin
***Feel free to drop us a line if you know where we can send Mike to find the bootlegs that will piece his musical puzzle together.
The address:
[email protected]
Check out The Rock and Roll Report put together with passion by Mark Boudreau.
Here's the link and feel free to contribute comments:
The Rock and Roll Report
Check out Amber Brooke's "Slacker" that got a lot of airplay on both KEAO FM MANA'O RADIO and KPMW WILD 105.5 FM. Her whole album is pure pop joy. She also tackles "Paper Doll" from Maui's own international recording artist Gail Swanson. Listeners are always wondering what some of our artists look like - your wish is our command.
Just press play.
Speaking of Gail Swanson...she performed this last year with Lisa Loeb at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center. Patrick Simmons from The Doobie Brothers hit the stage to join her for a few songs. The show was fantastic. She also opened for Jonny Lang in April. Don't miss a chance to see Gail perform at Cheeseburgers In Paradise in Lahaina. Another Maui talent loved all over the world, Grammy nominated Keali'i Reichel, continues to enjoy musical success with his latest release "Ke'alaokamaile". Both are pictured below.
Check out their sites:
Keali'i Reichel
Gail Swanson
The Voodoo Suns are done in the recording studio and have finally released their album this past December. Many Mauians and fans around the globe will appreciate Nils guitar playing and Anastasia's amazing vocals. They rocked the house this past month at Paradize Blues in Lahaina.
Anastasia Gilliam sings lead with Nils Rosenblad on guitar and Bob Jones being replaced by Patrick Majors on drums and percussion. The bass playing duties are handled with precision by Jerry Byers.
Check out their site:
The Voodoo Suns
ROCK LIKE A HISTORIAN
Most musicians understand the road. At least one understands the road less traveled.
By Amanda H. Podany
Amanda H. Podany is a history professor at Cal Poly Pomona and coauthor, with Marni McGee, of "The Ancient Near Eastern World."
First I should explain that I'm a professor of ancient history. I spend my days grading blue books, leading discussions about Hammurabi, and chasing down references in obscure journals. It's been over two decades since I considered myself to be a rock musician. The last time I was on stage was in 1981, playing with my band - then called the Colours - in a crowded smoky LA club. After the show that night I tucked my Gibson bass guitar into its case (with incongruously fluffy yellow padding), rolled up my guitar cords, packed up my big black amp with its tuck-and-roll leather upholstery (apparently designed for cruising Sunset Blvd as much as for amplifying my guitar), bid goodnight to the other bandmembers, my friends Vicki and Debbi Peterson, with whom I had played for years, and Susanna Hoffs, who had joined Vicki and Debbi a few months before, and walked out across a misty parking lot to my car. Just four weeks later I was attending graduate school in London.
So what was I doing, here in 2004, agreeing to play with this band again? Well, the first step in this crazy venture was that they asked me. My former bandmates and I had remained close friends over the years and now the band's bass player was on an extended trip and I was needed. But I wasn't just doing them a favor. I know a lot of former rock musicians like me who, although they are thriving in all kinds of straight jobs-art directors, teachers, academics, lawyers, salesmen-would jump at a chance like this. To feel the drums pound through your feet, see the checkerboard pattern of faceless heads in the audience, stand in a spot light, hear the applause. These are not everyday occurrences for most of us; of course I wanted to do it. Besides, I had often wondered if I still could play. Here was an opportunity to find out. I tried to sound nonchalant as I said yes to Vicki on the phone, but I felt light-headed and decidedly un-professorial as I did so.
A day or two later, after my name was listed on the website announcing the show, after I had dug out my bass from its fluffy yellow hibernation and played some rather uncertain scales, I began to wonder about my sanity. My band had not remained obscure. Two years after I left, the band, with their new bass player Michael Steele, changed their name to the Bangles and produced a whole slew of top ten hits in the 80's. They broke up in 1989 and reunited in 2000. I was going to stand in as a Bangle, at least for one night, and I hadn't played onstage in 23 years.
Worse yet, the show I had signed on to was a benefit concert for 'Rock the Classroom' to support music education in L.A. schools, with tickets ranging from $50 to $150. Well, these high prices were good for the cause, of course, but I had images of incensed patrons demanding their money back when it became obvious that the guest bass player had ten thumbs and kept hitting sour notes. I had only four weeks to learn at least an hour of songs.
Our first rehearsals, I was surprised to find, were familiar and comfortable. The faces were the same, of course. I've never played with any other band, so it seemed perfectly normal and right to see Debbi beaming at me over her cymbals and Vicki helping me out with the weird chords that come up in the bridges of songs. We practiced in Vicki's cramped basement music room, which bears an uncanny resemblance to her parents' old storage room behind their garage, where we rehearsed in the 70's. Vicki's room has the same damp concrete smell, the same lack of places to put down guitars, the same spaghetti-tangle of guitar cords. Vicki had set up small amps for the guitars, but there were no microphones, and when Debbi sat down to drum it was impossible to hear anyone sing. Susanna arrived wearing a sundress and had to borrow a rainbow-striped sweater from Vicki to withstand the catacomb-like chill of the music room.
The girls gamely played through their hits with me so that I could learn some of the chords, but these songs clearly bored them. They have played them a million times. For fun, we tried an old song, He's Got a Secret,' from their first album, which Vicki had written before Susanna and Michael joined the group and for which I invented the bass line. "Don't try to remember it" Vicki said to me, "just play." She was right. My hands remembered, though my brain didn't. I watched my left hand crawling around the frets with a mind of its own. Had I stopped to think, I would have been unable to continue. Right up to the performance I feared that this song would undo me. Suddenly my hands would forget. But I didn't dare write down the notes because then my brain would take over and I wouldn't be able to play. This isn't particularly logical, I know, but it was true.
What about playing more old Bangles songs, someone said - songs that haven't even been released on CD? To begin to learn them we had to move up to Vicki's sunny (and warmer) living room where she dusted off her turntable to play the vinyl records. Susanna broke into a grin as she sang along with her twenty-two year old self on the record: "We were so cool! Listen to those harmonies! We sound like the Byrds!" It's true. The earliest Bangles recordings are nothing if not cool. After a few times through on one song, with the girls trying harmonies, Vicki picking out fragments of her lead guitar part, and Debbi singing the bass parts to me (drummers, Vicki observed, always know the bass lines), Debbi proclaimed "Pee break." She was six months pregnant and her baby had needs too.
I had prepared for this rehearsal in my kitchen, so that I wouldn't seem completely incompetent, trying to teach myself all the Bangles hits-Eternal Flame, Manic Monday, Walk Like an Egyptian, Hazy Shade of Winter, and so on. But, one by one, these songs were thrown out of the set list until only Manic Monday remained. Perhaps Eternal Flame might be an encore. But perhaps not. The songs chosen for the concert were mostly obscure, personal, brilliant. The Bangles were really two bands at their height-the band that produced the hits - the girls with combed-up 80's hair, singing songs by professional songwriters - and the band on the LPs, the one that performed thoughtful, self-penned songs, each one a kind of short story set to music. Vicki, Debbi, and Susanna seemed to get a thrill from rediscovering and relearning them. Susanna exclaimed "This is so much fun! We can do all kinds of stuff at the benefit. We can tell them how we wrote these songs, how we stole the chords from the Beatles. We can even make mistakes...!" I made a mental note to myself that I definitely didn't want to contribute in the mistakes department.
The good news: playing bass- at least rudimentary bass - seems to be in the same category as swimming or riding a bicycle. You can't forget how to do it. The bad news: I have a job. I was also in the midst of preparing a book manuscript for publication. My editor wasn't about to change my deadline just because I'd agreed to perform in a benefit concert. And, like Vicki, Debbi, and Susanna, I have a family, with all the piano-lesson-baseball-practice-school-play obligations that go along with it. Rehearsals had to be set up around my work schedule (and the band members were kind enough to do so) but we each periodically had to leave early to drive a carpool, prepare for a school fundraiser, or get a kid to a dental appointment. In a matter of seconds a conversation could turn from which distortion pedal was needed in a song to which childhood disease manifests as spots, fever, and achiness. It was like being at a PTA meeting of rock stars.
Although I knew I should be rehearsing a lot on my own as well, some days there just wasn't time. Grading, teaching, and revising my book consumed every hour, often until midnight. My solution was to play Bangles CDs in my car on the way to work (this was perhaps the first time I had found a really good use for my long, slow, boring commute) imagining my bass parts to each song in my head. I think this is much more distracting than talking on a cell phone and probably should be illegal, if only it could be detected.
This upcoming show was billed as "the Bangles and friends" and I was not to be the only "friend." (In fact Vicki proclaimed me an "auxiliary Bangle" which brought to mind a little-used fashion accessory.) Vicki's husband John Cowsill would drum on some of the Bangles songs - Debbi tired easily, with the baby kicking up a storm inside her - and singer-songwriters Jules Shear and Matthew Sweet were also slated to perform. This sounded good to me. If they each did a set then I was responsible for only maybe an hour of Bangles songs, and those were coming along fine. I assumed that Jules and Matthew would simply play their guitars, and perhaps a Bangle (or three) would sing harmony with them. Wrong.
At a grand sing-along/rehearsal/pizza party (and, for the rest of them, nostalgia-fest) at Susanna's house, it materialized that we would all play on Jules' and Matthew's songs. I covered sheets of college-ruled notepaper with scribbled chords. I was afraid my brain might burst with memorizing all this. This must be how my students feel in the days before final exams. But Jules and Matthew were charming. Jules, who is a tall man with no pretensions, broke into "All Through the Night" (a big hit for Cyndi Lauper). After he finished, John Cowsill sat down on the couch next to him and exclaimed, in a compelling, heart-on-my-sleeve way that he has, "I hate to admit it, but I didn't know that was yours. That gave me chills!" Jules looked pleased. Later, he patiently sang chords to me - interspersed among the lyrics - for "If She Knew What She Wants" (a Bangles hit that he wrote and planned to perform at this concert): "If she D' what she wants, I&..39;d be G'-ing it A' her..." then commented earnestly "It's really nice of you to learn my songs." To me!
Matthew Sweet meanwhile initially couldn't seem to think of any of his own songs that he might perform. Looking around at the rest of us over his guitar, he asked for suggestions. When pushed hard, he chose two songs, "Sick of Myself" and "I've Been Waiting." And then everyone started suggesting songs by other bands that would be fun to do and breaking into verses to show the rest-Badfinger's "No Matter What" (internal cheers from me on that one; it was one we used to perform, and I almost remembered it), the Byrds' "Feel a Whole Lot Better," the Dave Clark Five's "Got to Have a Reason," and P.F. Sloan's "Here's Where You Belong." It was worth agreeing to do this concert just to hear these six musicians sing spontaneous harmonies on the songs right there in Susanna's living room. I'm not a singer, so I was the lone audience member to some amazing music that day.
I had told a few people at work, and a few friends, about the coming show. But I told them that the tickets cost $150, which was only sort of true. "Have you told your students?" Debbi asked at one rehearsal. Heaven forbid. They knew nothing of my musical past or of this event. So, mercifully, no one I knew (other than my family members, who were on the guest list) was planning on coming to the concert.
In the last week, rehearsals moved from living rooms to a professional studio. The band planned one Bangles-only rehearsal (well, Bangles-and-John-and-me) on Wednesday night, then one Bangles-and-Jules-and-Matthew rehearsal on Friday. And that was all. The show was on Saturday.
"Backstage" at McCabe's
The studio was in a seedy-looking part of Hollywood, with no sign on the building to reveal what was inside, just a small piece of paper taped to the intercom at the gate noting that you should state which band you are with. "Amanda. I'm with the Bangles," I said, and the gate opened. I squeezed my car into an unimaginably cramped parking space and carried my bass into the building. Our room was set up like a stage, with microphones and lights and a soundboard and huge speakers. Technicians and other people who wandered in and out glanced at me with surprise, perhaps wondering where Michael was and who I might be (or was that just paranoia on my part?). The band's manager Maria and road manager John Calacci (I probably have their titles wrong) showed up with CDs for the Bangles to sign and questions about which equipment would be used in the show. In the 70's we didn't even have roadies, let alone managers. (Not even they-don't-pay-me-but-it's-enough-that-I'm-with-the-band roadies - other bands seemed to have those, but we never figured out how.) John Calacci looked bemused to discover that I have only one bass guitar and that I don't even need picks because I've always played with my fingers. I was very low maintenance.
Through rehearsal, I had to listen all the time to the kick drum. Bass is really a percussion instrument that happens to play notes and you can't lose the beat even for a split second. John asked for my bass to be piped into his monitor-the speaker to his left. This made me extremely nervous. He was listening to my every note. I immediately started messing up. Gradually the rehearsal degenerated into laughter and improvisation. We never made it through all the songs. As John carried his sleeping son out to his car after rehearsal he frowned and said "Vicki's pretty worried." She was. She had said at the end of rehearsal, with gallows humor, "With another two weeks of rehearsal, we'll be ready." But of course, we had no more rehearsal.
I spent much of Saturday back in my kitchen with a stack of CD's, playing along to each song in the set. I finally figured out what the chords were behind the instrumental in Matthew's I've Been Waiting.' My family members wandered through from time to time, making encouraging noises. But would I remember all this? I had memorized 25 songs, and some of the bass lines were scarily similar to one another. I decided to make myself an elaborate set of cheat sheets, listing the notes that I played on every song. That way if I went blank and found myself paralyzed in front of the audience I could at least look down and follow what I had written.
The concert was at McCabe's in Santa Monica. The stage is about the size of the conference table that my department uses for meetings. The seven of us performing that night would be pushing the limit of the number of musicians they'd ever had appear on it. 150 seats were being set up in what is, by day, a showroom, every inch of the walls lined with guitars. To the left of the stage, stairs lead up to rooms-offices and storerooms, I think, one of which was passing as a dressing room.
We had a blissfully long sound check, long enough to play just about every song. I only got completely lost on one song, one of Matthew's. I think I was playing the chorus when they were playing the verse. It sounded horrible. Matthew signaled that I should bring my bass upstairs after the sound check to go through it again. He was nice about it, but I felt like a student getting a nice fat D on a test. Really, I do know this stuff, I do...But the atmosphere was much lighter after the sound check. The show would, after all, be fine.
My family met me in the alleyway behind McCabe's right after sound check. My husband and brother didn't stop smiling all night. For them, as for me, this was time travel. They had both been at many, many shows back when I was a member of the band. They didn't see tonight as a Bangles show with a guest bass player, but as a reunion of the Colours, a band that almost no one else remembered at all.
The kids - my two and John's two, who are all good friends - were allowed during the concert to sit on the stairs that lead down to the stage, so they had free reign of the backstage before the show. They took much more advantage of the complimentary sodas and fruit than we did. Vicki helped me with my makeup. Milt and Jeanne Peterson looked as comfortable around the chaos of the dressing room as if they were in their own living room. And then there it was "...the Bangles!" and we were walking down the stairs to the stage. Vicki and Sue went first, then me, then Debbi. Someone, I suspect it was my brother, shouted "Amanda!" in the waves of shouts and applause as we walked into the lights and picked up our instruments.
Vicki set the tone of the night by starting with a conversation with the audience. And right away, she introduced me, explaining that she and I had formed a band together in high school. She said with a smile "Unlike the rest of us, Amanda has a real job." Susanna added "She's a professor." The audience applauded and I could feel my hands start to shake. No. I couldn't get nervous. I had to be able to play. I willed my hands to stop, and Debbi counted us in to Manic Monday.
One song after another went by in a blur. The girls were obviously having a ball. Susanna launched into humorous explanations of the origins of various songs. Debbi's pregnancy was delightfully obvious through her sheer black blouse and warranted comments from the others, especially when she had to squeeze back behind her drums after playing guitar on several songs. John came onstage to take over drumming duties from her for some songs and was ribbed by his wife for missing his cue. Vicki then called my daughter, Emily, down to the stage to explain how a comment Emily had made when they were cooking together had inspired Vicki to write "Stealing Rosemary," one of the songs on their latest CD. It was all very informal. I finally got brave enough to look away from my hands and away from my friends on stage and to look at the audience. They seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. No signs of anyone heading for the box office for a refund. I could see my husband's broad grin a few rows back, and it made me smile. This was going fine.
And then, after an hour, we were done with the first half - the Bangles half - and were heading up the stairs, the kids having ducked out of the way. Emily was at the top, arms outstretched "You did it, Mom!!!" she cried. And then Vicki and Debbi hugged me too. I think they were as amazed as I was that I had made no major mistakes.
The second half was the "and friends" part of the show. Even though these were the songs I knew less well, I was more comfortable. I stood at the back of the stage, next to the drumset, while Matthew, Susanna, Vicki, Jules, and Debbi lined up at the front. I could watch John's drumming, which helped me stay on beat (and come in at the right moment) and I knew that no one in the audience but my family was watching me. The rest of the performers were too good to miss. I just enjoyed the experience. I loved the songs that started with a simple guitar and voices. There's that jolt of energy that you get when the bass and drums join in. That was me. I was playing that bass. I found myself smiling stupidly.
We had planned to end the show on the reflective ballad Grateful' but it was just not in the spirit of the night, which had been one long celebratory party. So we closed with the Byrds' Feel a Whole Lot Better.' It was appropriate. We all felt better.
Now from upstairs we could hear the audience cheering and calling for an encore. The planned encore had been "Eternal Flame" but, again, it was too calm of a song for this night, this crowd, this adrenalin rush. Vicki, Susanna, and Debbi decided to do "Walk Like an Egyptian." I had never rehearsed it with them. They just trusted me when I said I knew it. And Vicki dragged John into the song too. As we walked down the stairs I saw that everyone in the sold-out audience was standing. What a thrill. Professors don't often get standing ovations. Even though this one certainly wasn't for me, I had been here onstage for this magical night.
"We've never played this song with John and Amanda before..." Vicki confessed to the audience. It didn't matter. Debbi sang Michael's verse and at the end the audience went quite mad. Then Matthew and Jules joined us onstage and we played "No Matter What" with Debbi drumming and Matthew and John singing lead. John didn't know all the lyrics, so he just watched Matthew on the other side of the stage, trying to read his mind. I stood next to Debbi as the bass and drums came in together after the first chords, and she smiled at me and shook her head, sharing my sense of deja vu. And I never did need those cheat sheets.
Then it was over. The houselights came up. The audience noisily made their way out. Backstage everyone was hugging each other. Matthew stopped me in a hallway "I had no idea this was your first show in 23 years. I just thought you were a musician. You did great. Are you going to keep playing?" What a question. History professor? Rock musician? Both? Not possible. Vicki grabbed me by the shoulders "I knew you could do it!" she exclaimed. My husband appeared with a huge bunch of flowers that he had retrieved from the car. He said he had trouble convincing the security people that he really was with the band.
Vicki and Debbi persuaded me to join in a meet-and-greet with the fans who had paid $150 for tickets in the front. They were friendly but some were a little nervous. Some had presents for Debbi's forthcoming baby. One man asked me if I was going to be performing with the band again. "No" I said - we had no plans for any more shows, and I certainly didn't want anyone to think I had designs on Michael's job. Perhaps the fans would have preferred it if I hadn't been in their pictures with the Bangles, but they didn't let on. And one little girl even asked me for an autograph, my first, I think since I was in a production of Alice in Wonderland in ninth grade and performed at an elementary school (but perhaps that doesn't count because I had to sign my name "March Hare").
The next day, Vicki sent us all a sweet, congratulatory email with the subject heading "The morning after..." listing all her favorite memories from the evening. Susanna wrote back "When can we do it again?" Fans started posting their reviews on the Bangles' message board. They were so thrilled with the unusual songs chosen, the onstage banter, Debbi's highly-visible pregnancy, the meet-and-greet after the show, and everything else, that they seem not to have minded my presence. Except that one fan had stolen a couple of my cheat sheets from the stage and scanned them onto the website. I felt like writing in to say "Hey, I didn't actually use those. I really did know the songs."
Monday morning found me back in the car on the way to work, thinking about the senior thesis drafts that I needed to grade and the meetings that were scheduled for that afternoon. I'm happy in my career-I love teaching and research. I'm in the right place. But if the Bangles ask me again, how could I say no? And next time I might even tell my friends the real ticket prices.
THE ROOM were recently back in town. Listeners of The Time Machine know that we've been playing "Olivia" and "Standing Alone". Killer songs from a killer band that rocked at THE HARD ROCK CAFE in Lahaina. Don't miss these guys the next time around.
Here's the band's website:
THE ROOM
LAURA BRANIGAN
No. Say it isn't so. Everyone here at The Time Machine was stunned by a brain anyeurism that took the life of 47 year old Laura Branigan on August 26th two years ago at night during her sleep. Laura was the coolest person that I ever spoke with. She was so giving...on and off the air. I know that it was hard for her since losing her husband Lawrence Kruteck back in 1996 but eventually she continued on with her acting in 2001 and was currently working on a new album. She was a talented force that could not be denied.
Known for her powerful five-octave voice, Laura Branigan's career began as a background vocalist for singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen, with whom she toured the world in the 1970's. It was her hit "Gloria" from her 1982 debut album "Branigan" that made her a global star. Throughout the 1980's and early 90's, she had a string of hits; "Solitaire", "Self-Control", "Moonlight On Water", "The Lucky One", "Ti Amo", "Spanish Eddie" and "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You". "Over You" from her 1993 album "Over My Heart" was a poignant song cowritten with her brother Billy. Branigan's career also included some acting roles, including a guest appearance on TV's C.H.I.P.S. and in the films "Backstage" and "Mugsy's Girls". In 2002, Laura Branigan earned excellent reviews when she portrayed the late rocker Janis Joplin in the New York City musical, "Love, Janis".
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Laura's family and friends.
Here is Laura's site with details from her family:
Laura Branigan
DAN FOGELBERG
The man who gave us such musical gems as "Longer", "Same Old Lang Syne", "Run For The Roses" and "Leader Of The Band" had undergone experimental treatment for advanced prostate cancer.
According the Associated Press, Dan Fogelberg, 53, was diagnosed with the cancer two years ago during a checkup to prepare for a tour of the East Coast and Florida. The Peoria native had cancelled a 16-city solo acoustic tour while he fought the illness.
His mother, Margaret Fogelberg, said the cancer had spread to his bones and that he wass being treated at Harvard Medical School . "We're all very hopeful," she said in Thursday's editions of the (Peoria) Journal Star. "But we're also a bit leery."
"Dan is confident he will be able to fight this illness," says a statement on Fogelberg's Web site. "He apologizes for any inconvenience the cancellation of the concerts may cause his fans."
The singer lives in Colorado with his wife, Jean.
Everyone at The Time Machine wishes the best for Dan and his family. In addition to our favorite "Longer", Dan teamed up with Tim Weisberg for "Lahaina Luna" back in 1978 for their album "Twin Sons Of Different Mothers".
Here is Dan's site:
Dan Fogelberg
At The Time Machine, we don't think of terms of girls vs. guys when it comes to music. However, female musicians often dominate our playlists which doesn't appear to be the norm on other rock oriented or singer/songwriter radio stations. It's all about the music.
With that being said, here's an interesting article by Evelyn McDonnell that appeared in The Miami Herald:
Source:
www.miami.com/mld/miamihe...735.htm?1c
Where has all the Girl Power gone?
BY EVELYN McDONNELL
[email protected]
summary: Throughout pop history, girl groups have pushed feminist frontiers. But where are they now, just when we need them the most?
The young women arrayed on the sand at South Beach's Lummus Park have that thirsty/cool look, like they want desperately to be noticed, but not be noticed looking desperate. They're wearing the sort of coochie mall wear and humming the typical overplayed ballads that tip curious passers-by to the fact that yet another talent-show audition is taking place. The video cameras -- hovering, leering birds -- seal the case.
But this isn't just an idol search. The several dozen women here for callbacks are strutting and singing for P. Diddy's henchmen. And he's not looking for the next Fantasia; he's looking for the new Destiny's Child. When he and MTV ''make a band'' next season, it'll be females only. Savvy Sean Combs has identified a hole in the marketplace and is working feverishly to fill it.
Since at least the Andrews Sisters in the '40s, girl groups have been one of pop music's most formidable forces, talent- and sales-wise. From the Crystals to Labelle to the Bangles to Salt-n-Pepa to Babes in Toyland, they've also been a petri dish for feminism. In between odes to the rush of crushes, they've crafted anthems for Cherry Bombs and Independent Women, and provided working demonstrations of female bonding -- aka, ....girl power.''
And in 2004, they're an endangered species. A survey of the MTV hopefuls in October revealed that these women in their teens and 20s could think of only one girl-group role model: Destiny's Child. That mega-selling group released its fifth album last month. But Destiny Fulfilled's insipid tunes indicate singer Beyonc Knowles probably has better things on her mind. Instead of empowering anthems for Survivors, the three Children now vow to Cater 2 U.
Most embarrassingly, on a recent broadcast of the BET show 106 and Park, newest member Michelle Williams tripped and fell as Destiny's Child took the stage. The other two singers barely glanced at her sprawled form as they proceeded to strike poses. They certainly didn't offer a helping hand.
To fuse sayings from '60s divas the Supremes and '90s Riot Grrrl rockers, where has the girl love gone?
HIDDEN TREASURES
It's out there. The Dixie Chicks rule, aesthetically, commercially and politically. The Donnas, four Bay Area Ramones fans, released their fifth album this fall. On their third album, Kiss and Tell, Sahara Hotnights, two sisters and their friends from Sweden, pound out delirious, driven garage-pop. Le Tigre, the unapologetically feminist electro-punk trio, released its first major-label album in October. Nickelodeon has created a whole children's show around the bubblegum pop of real-life Powerpuff Girls Puffy AmiYumi. The surviving members of TLC, perhaps the greatest girl group of the '90s, have announced they're looking for someone to fill the shoes of deceased rapper Lisa ''Left-Eye'' Lopes.
And then there's the bad examples: The group Bond's performance at Lincoln Theatre Monday was a demonstration of how the history of girl groups is also a story of exploitation and objectification, of narrow beauty standards ber alles. Bond takes dated teen-pop marketing ideas and pounding rhythm tracks and implants them on a string quartet of grown women, to disastrous results. The musicians' smiles were pained and painted, their dance moves forced and unsexy. The mini-skirted Barbies looked like they'd been styled by a pedophile, then handed violin bows.
Still, the fact someone thought a classical Spice Girls was a good idea -- apparently, suckers are buying it overseas -- indicates P. Diddy may be right: Girl groups' time has come again.
Certainly, Western culture could use some powerful female role models. A tidal wave of vapidity has overflowed the music charts since the devil gave us Britney Spears. Hand in fist with the conservatism that has gripped the country, the anti-feminist backlash of the '80s has returned in full pendulum swing, with mounting attacks on freedom of choice, gay rights and affirmative action. Botox and breast implants are big business as medicine feeds off of, and feeds, women's body image issues. We girls could use Salt-n-Pepa's cheerleader cries to Push It, or L7's body-slamming Shove, right about now.
Or, as Le Tigre puts it, Don't Drink Poison. Major labels have been stalking singer Kathleen Hanna since she was the mouthpiece of Bikini Kill's Revolution Girl Style Now in the early '90s. But with songs that sample protest marches and turn girl-group sing-song choruses into catcall retorts, Le Tigre have hardly sold out. Hanna says that after years of struggling on indies, the paycheck has been liberating.
''I want to be financially independent,'' she says. ....I feel like that's a part of being a feminist, being able to do the things I want to do, make the art the way that I want to make it, not have all these economic restraints on me all the time.''
She also says Le Tigre is needed outside punk-rock insider circles. ....That's a big reason why we want to do it: Where's the feminist presence in the mainstream right now?''
The pro-woman stance of Sahara Hotnights is less X-Ray Spex in your face than Le Tigre, more Pretenders walking-not-talking-it cool. But when they ask Who Do You Dance For? on the get-on-your-feet opener to Kiss and Tell, well, Britney et al better have a good answer (hint: Don't say men). With short, infectious guitar-pop songs that trace their lineage from the Shangri-Las to the Runaways to the Go-Go's, these Swedes remind that the strip club isn't the only role model for shaking your tail feather.
The Hotnights are a classic example of the best kind of girl band: fast friends who found music another way to play together. The Shirelles, TLC, Destiny's Child all started like that, organic outgrowths of girl love, not girl-power gimmickry.
''We were just two sisters and friends wanting to do something together,'' says guitarist Jennie Asplund. ....We did everything else together. Then we formed a band. We thought it was the funnest way to hang out.''
Sahara Hotnights were tweenagers at that time, rocked by American grunge -- but unaware of sister Nirvana acts such as L7 or Bikini Kill.
''We never really focused on us being females,'' Asplund says. 'Then we started doing interviews and people always responded to that fact. ..Isn't it unusual for four girls to be in a band?' 'Is it?' We started to look around, and of course it is.''
STILL NOVELTIES
Four decades after Genya Ravan put together Goldie and the Gingerbreads, the first all-girl rock band, girl bands are still treated as novelties. In her fascinating '04 autobiography, Lollipop Lounge: Memoirs of a Rock and Roll Refugee, Ravan describes the sense of liberation she had while finding sister musicians: 'I had this feeling I could do anything and succeed. Now that I was no longer under my parents' thumb ... , the sky was the limit. I could do anything and go anywhere.''
Of course, many female bands have not been forged at the heart, but are the brainchild of, usually, male producers -- the old Svengali syndrome: the Runaways, Spice Girls, En Vogue, even, initially, the Donnas. Often times, chemistry is still chemistry.
''I think the combination was really great,'' says En Vogue's Maxine Jones. ....Immediately in the audition I felt magic. There was something about the four of us.''
En Vogue's first two albums were hugely successful. But the funky divas fell apart after Dawn Robinson left to pursue a solo career, a common fate for girl groups. (The fact Knowles recorded another Destiny's Child album after her solo success is notable.) En Vogue released its first album in years in early '04; Jones is one of two of the original members who will perform as En Vogue at the Broward Performing Arts Center Sunday night.
BIG PRESSURE
All-male and mixed-gender bands splinter, too. But the pressures on girl groups are like those on women everywhere: often overwhelming. What at first seems like a hook, a selling point, quickly becomes a ghetto, a straitjacket.
'In the beginning, of course it was easier to get gigs: ..Oh wow, a female band -- let's book them,' '' says Asplund. ....But after a while you have to struggle a bit more to be respected. You come to a certain level and then get pushed back.''
Rock radio is historically closed to female bands; just try to find one on WZTA 94.9 FM's playlist. ''It's really hard to get in if you have a female singer,'' says Asplund. ....It's hard for them to accept that. That's a shame.''
Sometimes, Svengalis destroy their discoveries. The lead singer of the Ronettes married producer Phil Spector; in her autobiography, Ronnie Spector describes the frightening ways he controlled her personal and professional lives. Jones says En Vogue's relationship with its producers was part of the act's undoing.
''The disadvantage for us was the fact we were so tight with our producers,'' says Jones. ....Emotions were involved as opposed to business.''
En Vogue's initial magic is just what P. Diddy hopes he can conjure by sticking 19 young women (five from the Miami auditions) in a house together and having them compete in front of cameras. Surprisingly, Making the Band judge Johnny Wright says the show's mostly male makers are not trying to pull a Bond -- i.e., make the musicians over in some awkward way.
''We're not looking to create an act of puppets,'' says Wright, manager of the Backstreet Boys. ....They have to be a real group who has the ability to write music. We're giving them challenges where we give them no direction in styling, choreography and wardrobe. We want to see if there's a natural thing.''
But even test-tube babies have to be nurtured. Jones says that the partnership's artificiality was ultimately En Vogue's downfall: ....We showed up for an audition; that made it extra harder. We didn't know each other. There was no bond between us. We were forced together every single day. That was difficult.''
Making even a forced splice hold is the key to success, Jones says; that's her advice to other women musicians. ....Stick together no matter what, especially during difficult times. Hold your guns, be one, act as one. You may not agree but stick together no matter what.''
Asplund also advocates strength in numbers: ....It's hard for just one band to stand out alone. For female bands to get noticed there has to be a group of bands coming out at the same time. It's hard to fight it alone in a male-dominated industry.''
That's good feminist advice all around: Stick together, ladies, no matter how the man tries to stick you. Free your mind, as En Vogue sing.
''That's what it feels like when you've got your girls behind you and in front of you: You definitely feel more powerful,'' says Jones. ....You feel stronger. If you can get a group to stay together, they could probably make some changes in the world as far as energy. I felt like we had that opportunity if we had stayed together; we'd be a strong force to be reckoned with.''
Which motion picture character portrayed by John Cusak is THE TIME MACHINE?
Another fave of The Time Machine Crew is "Sunday Morning Shootout" an AMC series that puts you in the crossfire of two Hollywood icons. Watch hosts Peter Bart and Peter Guber as they take their best shots at the industry, the movies AND each other. If Hollywood is talking about it, they're fighting about it!
LOST
ALIAS
THE MUSIC ROOM
Still in shock that CNNfn cancelled this show in the first week of August 2004. This was one of the smartest music news shows on television. It still stings. At least they got to do a farewell show with highlights including Prince and The Cure. Aside from hosts Angelique Van Der Byl (above) and Amanda Palmer (below), many great musicians got to host the show.
JOAN OF ARCADIA
CBS gave it a second season as a second chance but Friday's time slot made it difficult to find an audience for JOAN OF ARCADIA. The season finale was more of a cliff hanger that was set to explain things much in the way that the first season finale of FOX's JOHN DOE left us hanging with major unanswered questions. At least ABC has a hit with LOST and will explain things more in the second season.
Perhaps a future blog to lament over television shows that THE TIME MACHINE CREW misses...that could be an entire website by itself. Here are two that are completely different. A half hour sitcom that moved from NBC to WB called "For Your Love" that was laugh out loud funny with cast chemistry and an hour of angst and laughter in the form of "Freaks And Geeks". Another show that NBC didn't hang on to long enough.
FREAKS AND GEEKS
FOR YOUR LOVE
LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN
..