Pickles & Dimes

Looking through my CD collection last weekend I found two CDs from a band named Stone Bogart. Here’s their own bio:

“Stone Bogart was a sexy and talented band from Wisconsin then they moved to Arizona then they moved to Hollywood. We released some CD’s and played more shows than most bands will ever play over an 8 year period. Then some people quit. Now we are done existing as a band. But we live on here…as your friend! :::ALERT::: We are currently available for reunion shows. For the small price of $100,000 we will play a 13 minute set at your house for you…but none of your friends.”

Great band; great sense of humor.

I was looking into what they are doing now and found their bassist, Travis Randall, is busy with a new band. Check out Black Rattle. They are America’s premier heavy metal children’s band. This clip is from the end of Greg Behrendt’s stand-up DVD. Greg fronts the band, and Robbie Rist, who played Cousin Oliver on the Brady Bunch, is the drummer.

Stone Bogart’s lead singer, Sean Anders, wrote, directed and stars in Never Been Thawed. I wouldn’t do it justice if I described it as a movie about collectors of frozen dinners, who also happen to be a vulgar Christian rock band.

If you have time, check them out. If it’s not for you, I didn’t tell you to see it.

I went to college at Moorhead State, back when it was called Moorhead State University, not University of Minnesota - Moorhead or whatever letterhead-clogging name it’s using now.

I put myself through school using a combination of student loans, $1500 in savings, a part-time job at the library working until midnight, and a gig as a Resident Assistant (RA), which involved doing rounds at 2 a.m. Which made getting up at 6 a.m. for my 7 a.m. mass communications law class a real bummer.

Don’t think I was an overachiever, though. Trust me, I wanted to slack off; I just couldn’t afford to.

Being an RA saved me, because it meant I got free room and board. And, being an introverted shy girl from a hick town meant I had instant friends in my fellow RAs. Whoever was on duty that night would stay up for the 2 a.m. rounds by playing endless games of cards (hearts), drinking illegal amounts of beverages (Mt. Dew), and getting our fellow RA Jay Kalk, who worked at Erbert & Gerbert’s, (the better version of Jimmy John’s, if that is even humanly possible) to bring home free sandwiches after his shift.

For various reasons, Jay was awesome. He was sweet, nice and funny. And in a band. A band that I first saw play at The Underground at MSU, playing ska music right around the time another band called No Doubt was getting attention on the West Coast. Jay was one of the lead singers in an 8-piece band called 3 Minute Hero, which featured guys playing trumpets, trombones and saxophone in a high-energy mix of ska, reggae, surf and mariachi.

The band was together for awhile and disbanded in 2000. Then last week, they came to Minneapolis for a 3-show reunion.

Both Jason and I were absolutely giddy. Because out of a combined 900 CDs, 3 Minute Hero is the ONLY band whose CDs we both own.

I hardly ever like going to concerts because I hate standing for long periods of time, and at the 3 Minute Hero show at the Fine Line, I was crammed up against the bar most of the time. Unfortunately for my feet, I was determined to stay until I heard my two favorite songs: Spider Monkey and Rubber Room. Luckily, an old college buddy offered us his table when he left and we were able to make it to the end of the show - 1:45 am, probably the latest I’ve stayed up in 10 years, which made me feel extremely old when we were leaving and hordes of 20-somethings were just arriving downtown to the dance clubs.

You can’t NOT move your feet to 3 Minute Hero songs; they’re so infectious and front man Jeff Nelson does a fantastic job of getting the audience involved. Besides Jay, I also know trumpet player Bryce Blilie, who once told my college friend I had a nice butt.

Anyway, if you like the sound of ska, you should really give 3 Minute Hero a listen.

They’ve made three albums, two of which you can find here:

Bingo - 1997
Everyday Ninjas - 1999
Operation Brown Star: Special CD Release Edition - 2000

Rating: 5 out of 5 pickles

On my lunch break I ran to Best Buy to pick up the new Poison and Tesla albums that came out today. Both discs are cover albums. Crazy, that after all these years neither band has new material to contribute to society, only borrowing from the likes of David Bowie, Sweet, Alice Cooper, Tom Petty, and The Stones.

Both are really good though.

My main complaint is that with the purchase of the Poison disc, you get two complimentary “lawn” tickets to their summer tour with Ratt. The problem? The show at The Myth in Minnesota is not one of the participating shows. Plus, I REALLY WANT TO GO (for free)! I bought the CD, and because I don’t live in a state with a decent outdoor amphitheater, I don’t get the comped tickets. This turn of events may make Shauna happy though, because she was going to get the second of the free tickets.

Did I say I ran out and got new CDs from Poison and Tesla on the day they were released? Must be 1991.

I know it’s pretty un-rock-and-roll to write a concert review at 11:30 right when you get home from a show; but 7 hours later, that’s fine. Last night Shauna and I went to see the Rockstar Supernova concert at the Myth in Maplewood. I don’t even know where to start; 4 bands in 3 1/2 hours, great venue for a show, GREAT vantage point of the stage, and the possible effects of frostbite all make for a fun night.

For those of you that don’t know, Rockstar was a television show on CBS this past summer, with singers competing to front a band featuring Tommy Lee, Gilby Clark and Jason Newsted. It’s kind of like American Idol, but it doesn’t suck like Idol, because you’re not picking the next Clay Aiken.

The opening bands consisted of runner-ups from the show. Toby Rand’s band was on first; Dilana and Magni played an acoustic set; and Rockstar’s host, Dave Navarro, played with his band, The Panic Channel. Each band sounded great. The crowd was really into the show (even the 8-year-old girls whose parents thought it was a good idea to bring them to a rock show. Who am I to judge? My parents brought me to see Alabama and the Oak Ridge Boys at the State Fair when I was that age.) All three of the openers played some of their own songs along with songs they sang on the television show.

Supernova came on and played for about an hour and a half, while all of the members of the opening bands mingled through the crowd, meeting fans and picking up groupies. Shauna and I said that Lukas Rossi was going to win from the first week we watched the show (although Shauna was pulling for Dilana). The band sounded FANTASTIC. Lukas showed that he deserved to front a band on a big stage in front of big crowds. Supernova played most, if not all, of the songs off their debut CD along with covers of “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” “Boys of Summer,” “Suffragette City,” “Personal Jesus” and “Bittersweet Symphony.” They even brought up a 4-piece string section for two songs with 3 violins and a cello. At least I thought it was a cello; my knowledge of stringed instruments is limited to my bass playing (ha, ha, ha!).

All in all it was a great night, and an incredible show. It almost made standing outside waiting for the doors to open for 25 minutes in below-zero weather worth it. Almost.

Rating: 5 out of 5 pickles