Dear Friends,
Off to LA. I’m lucky, I suppose, and grateful to be able to say that I don’t know how many times I’ve played music in LA proper. It’s been a good handful, though, and I’m thankful for another chance.
If all goes well, I’ll have some things to share in the blog tomorrow that will be fun to write about. Fingers crossed and all that good shit. Even if one of the things doesn’t come to pass, I’m sure it will be a fun evening.
Earlier last week, I had reached out to an acquaintance who plays in a pretty famous punk band and just ended the run of another great LA punk band, too. He asked to be on the list for tonight, but when I reached out to him yesterday with our new, earlier set time, he let me know he's not feeling well and won't be able to make it. I get it because he deals with a pretty serious diabetic situation, but it is still a bummer.
As I have mentioned in the past, I like the drive to LA. When Michael and I went in September, it was good to see the familiar sights again. It’s strange to think that 25 years ago, Hillbilly was making the trip often enough to start getting mentions in the LA rock periodicals. It was also often enough for the trip to start seeming like it was fairly quick.
Hopefully today feels the same. I’m kind of craving another sandwich from the TKB deli in Indio. The rest of the dudes will probably be like, “no…too expensive.”
We shall see what we shall see. I’m very happy to have a day off work. Four-day weekend, here we come. The only thing that would make it better was if Rhondi was with me. In fact, we had planned to make this a family weekend.
*****
The show tonight is at The Moroccan Lounge. It looks like a pretty decent place.
I think this is probably the last of the cassette tapes I stole from Tower Records that I will write about this year. It feels, now, like I do indeed owe someone from there a lot of money or credit for shaping my musical tastes so well. Thanks again for turning those magnetic things off.
I picked up Channel Three’s Fear of Life record early on in my punk record collection days and loved it. It’s one of my all-time favorite punk rock records and I wrote about it back in August 16, 2024. So, when I saw there was a Channel Three cassette right there for me to pluck, it was in my pocket faster than you can say, “Mike Magrann’s a good songwriter.”
When I popped Last Time I Drank (I Thought of You) in the cassette player, I wasn’t sure what to think, at first. It didn’t sound hardly anything like Fear of Life. I figured, though, that I owed it to the guys to really listen to it and lo and behold, it grew on me.
In 1985, it became one of my favorite records and when the subject of Channel Three (CH3) would come up, people would look at me as if I was some sort of clown for proffering the opinion that Last Time I Drank was a really good record. I always thought that was so lame.
What I didn’t know at the time was that there were these bands called The Replacements and New York Dolls. When I listen to Last Time I Drank now, I really hear the influence of those bands. In 1985, I thought CH3 had just found there way to this cool new sound that I liked a lot.x
I still think it is a really good record. I don’t know what happened to my cassette. Somehow, I lost it or loaned it out over the years. I picked up a vinyl copy earlier this year after finding one in good shape and for a decent price on Discogs.
My favorite tracks on the record are still pretty much the same. I like “Indian Summer” a lot. “Mary” is a pretty cool track, too. I’m not sure there is one true standout for me. A lot of the songs sound so much like The Replacements to me now or like some track that was almost on a Peter Case record.
Again, these are not bad things.
“Airborne” is a very good song, too. It has a real Joe Strummer vibe. Good, southern California rawkin’ punk.
I’m also fond of a couple of the last songs. “Cars Drive By” and “Outside” are pretty great. Heck, even the last song, “Unoriginal Sin” is damn good. I don’t know how often I will really listen to the whole thing as the years come passing by, but I’m glad to have it in the collection again and I think my wife will like it.
I hope she does. Last Time I Drank is good rock and roll fun and shows a band that was really trying to take things to a different level. I’m glad CH3 went back to their punk rock roots, but this is a very worthy effort at breaking out.
By the way, the cover of Aerosmith’s “Lord of the Thighs” is utterly forgettable.
*****
See you tomorrow.
Weird. Ai? What is this?
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