Dear Friends,
Christmas was really nice. We had a lovely Christmas Eve and our Christmas Day was great, too. I’m hoping the same for you.
Rhondi made a fantastic meal each day, so I ate like a king and nibbled all night and day. The kids seemed to have a blast and it was great to hang out with our family. We missed seeing Ryan, Bree, and Mia, and Hayden, of course.
Doug’s beautiful sunset on Tuesday was a highlight. We are pretty sure he sent it. I’m glad so many people got to enjoy it. Christmas Eve was definitely strange without him, but it was good for us to be together.
We visited Granny yesterday and I will go again today. She’s fading and it’s hard to watch but I’m doing my best to be strong and happy for her. She’s losing her hearing rapidly and it seems like her body is starting to rapidly shut down. I think she rallied a bit for us yesterday.
*****
So many people I know are missing important people this year. My heart is heavy for everyone. I have not had a year like this before. I’m guessing it will kind of be this way moving forward. Life is about change.
*****
It seems like Dayglo Abortions have always been a part of my life, but that is not the case. At some point, someone had to turn us on to them. I can’t quite remember who. I think it could have been my friend, Craig, who was playing it for us on a visit to his apartment in my senior year of high school. Either way, when we lived in the Polka Dot Pad in 1988, we listened to Feed Us A Fetus all the time.
To say this record was a transformative record for me is an understatement. Like many of the records I have written about this year, Feed Us A Fetus changed my life. I have learned songs from it. I have performed “Bedtime Story” in multiple projects. I have listened to it in just about every mood.
I’ve turned it up to 11, as they say, as well.
Feed Us A Fetus is my favorite Canadian record. It’s one of my top five punk rock records of all-time, and the vinyl copy I have now had for about 37 years is a prized possession. Even better, though, was that it is Christmas and the teenagers and I listened to it on the way to visit my grandmother this morning. They approved.
The record is a time machine. When I think about it, I think about the Polka Dot Pad. I think about all the times we cranked this up and rocked out. Dayglo Abortions are a total punk/metal crossover and we appreciated this aspect of the band greatly.
I took the record to Dave, the guitar player in Religious Skid, and loaned it to him. I wanted to cover “Bedtime Story” as early as ‘88. They jammed it at practice, but it never happened for a performance.
This record was the soundtrack of many parties, lots of Nerf Basketball brutality, and massive amounts of beer drinking. It was played in cars, trucks, and anywhere we were all at at any given time.
When we moved to 27th Street and Clarendon we listened daily. When I moved to my first studio apartment, I listened regularly, too. Feed Us A Fetus is that good. I’ve been enjoying it for the majority of my life.
The songs are totally rockin’ but also hilarious. The lyrics are decidedly anti-American, at least from a political avenue, and I loved the bands’ sense of both irony and the absurd. There are no dull moments but there about 21 songs.
They move along nicely, though.
In addition to “Bedtime Story,” I particularly love “Wake Up America” and “Ronald McRaygun” as well as “Dog Farts” and “Argh Fuck Kill.” Side one is all the really early stuff and is superior, but side two is great, too.
Admittedly, I think Dayglo Abortions’ best work is on this record. I’ve tried their later stuff and while I don’t hate it, there is a marked drop off in quality.
I can’t imagine life without Feed Us A Fetus. It would have been a lot less fun, I think. The band was great all three times I saw them, too. I even got to interview Murray aka “The Cretin” when they came to town one year. It was lots of fun and we hung out together at the show for quite a while.
Jeff and I were buying him beers so I think he would have hung out with us for as long as he could.
Sometimes it is great to hangout with your heroes.
*****
See you tomorrow.
No capybaras today.
Yes, AI wants the world’s largest rodent.
Commentaires