IT’S SUMMERTIME
Lolita: Besides our country winning its independence from the Kingdom of Great Britan in 1776, a lot has happened in July that is part of modern music history. BRIAN JONES (The Rolling Stones) drowned in his swimming pool on July 3, 1969, and exactly two years later JIM MORRISON (The Doors) died of a heart attack. But the month isn’t just filled with death (even if John Lennon’s mom died on July 15 and AMELIA EARHART disappeared over the Pacific on July 2)—look at the birthdays: RINGO STARR 7/7, MITCH MITCHELL (Jimi Hendrix Experience) 7/9, ARLO GUTHRIE 7/10, WOODY GUTHRIE 7/14, SPENCER DAVIS (Spencer Davis Group) 7/17, MARTHA REEVES (…& the Vandellas) 7/18, BRIAN MAY (Queen) 7/19, CARLOS SANTANA (Santana) 7/20, GEORGE CLINTON (Parliament/Funkadelic) 7/22, and MICK JAGGER (The Rolling Stones) 7/26. But birthdays, schmirthdays—it’s time to hit the water. I’m going in for a dip.
SWIMMING/ BOATING/ SURFING/ WATERSKIING/ SANDCASTLE BUILDING
Rita: I don’t know why Lolita included Amelia Earhart in music history, but while she, Lolita not Amelia, is skinny dipping, I’d like the readers to hear my friends’ stories, good or bad, about swimming, boating, surfing, waterskiing, or sandcastle building. I’m drawing a line in the sand—a bunch of half-naked beautiful musicians stand behind it and are ready with their stories. Nice bathing suit, Linda, how much did you pay for that two square inches of material? Nevermind—just tell me your story. LINDA VIENS (Kingdom of Love): I loved bodysurfing as a kid and grew up swimming in the waves off the shores of East Hampton, NY. One time I was too far out and the waves were especially big. I got hit hard trying to get back in to the shore, and was pummeled to the bottom of the ocean in swirling sand and water. In those moments, my life flashed before my eyes and I experienced the sensation of dying, my 12-year-old mind grasping the enormity of what that meant. Somehow I struggled out of the water toward the shore, gasping for breath and spitting out sand. It was my first moment of realizing what a gift Life is. *** JON BUTCHER (The Jon Butcher Axis): On a recent vacation/ honeymoon to San Juan, Puerto Rico I had the occasion to snorkel for the first time. I walked away from the experience with several important observations; DO wear fins, it makes getting from point A to point B a whole lot easier. DO breathe in when your snorkel air hose is above the water line. This last is key. *** KIER BYRNES (Three Day Threshold/ Whiskey Bonfire): Just off of Narragansett Beach in Rhode Island, I sat on my surfboard with my legs dangling in the water, numbed by the cold ocean, waiting for the next wave. As the wave came and I hopped up on my board, I noticed blood dripping down my legs and some dark shapes moving under the water. I finished my ride and went to shore. It turns out that I suffered a few nips from a passing school of stripers and my legs were so numb, the pain didn’t register. I’m just glad there were no sharks! *** RUBY BIRD (Bird Mancini): Once while boogie boarding in Punta Cana, I suddenly found myself pulled way out by strong currents—too far to swim back (since I’m not the greatest of swimmers.) Billy saw this from shore and got a lifeguard (or maybe it was a tour guide) to go after me. Strangely, I remained calm through the whole experience until safely reaching land, at which point I became seriously frightened and haunted for days by what could have happened. I wrote a song about it, which appears on the Funny Day CD. It’s called “The Other Side.” *** MICHAEL J. EPSTEIN (…Memorial Library/ Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling/ Darling Pet Munkee/ Space Balloons): One of the first times Sophia Cacciola and I went to the beach, it was late at night, and we left our stuff on a towel on the beach as we headed to the water. When we returned, we struggled to find our stuff in the dark. We finally found our belongings, but the towel they were on was nowhere to be seen. Then, in the distance, we realized there was a dog running down the beach with our towel in its mouth. We ceded ownership to the dog. *** BRIAN YOUNG (WMFO/ The Thigh Scrapers): One of the best times I ever had was in a small boat. We took off from Minot Beach in Scituate. There were four of us and two cases of beer in a small rowboat. We were headed for Cohasset Harbor to pick up another ratty boat and tow it home. We were quite drunk when we ended up rowing to Minot’s Lighthouse. The lighthouse jets out of the ocean alone with no land above water around it. While one friend held onto a ladder, the rest of us climbed up the side of the lighthouse and partied on a platform that had a door with chains on it, keeping us from climbing to the top. To make a long story short we sank on the way back and swam to shore. Good times. *** SARAH BLACKER (Sarah Blacker): When I was a kid, my family and I had a summer house in Northwood, NH. One day I was kneeboarding on the lake, and as my dad was docking the boat by the shore, I unstrapped my knees from the board, and it popped up out of the water and hit me in the back of the head. I felt myself go limp and almost as immediately as it had happened, my big brother who generally preferred to drag me face down on the carpet proved his love to me. He dove off the boat, wrapped his arms around my waist and hoisted me up onto the dock. He then asked if I was alright, and resumed being too cool for me. *** CHUCK U. ROSINA (WMBR/ WMFO): I’ve got a friend in Hull. He has a sailboat and loves being on the water year-round. His name is Norman. On one of our adventures a few years back, we were sailing across Cape Cod Bay, when we spotted whales kind of lounging about on the surface about 100 yards portside. My crazy friend says “Pissah!,” and turns toward them. Mind you, I’ve been on whale-watching tours, but when your vessel is smaller then the animal, it’s a bit more precarious. As we approached the whales, they submerge and disappear. “See Norm, you scared them away.” The boat has a depth meter. We were in 75 feet of water. All of a sudden, it’s reading 13 and 14 feet of water. Huh? We looked down over the side, and there was a whale looking right up at us. “Hi there nice fella. Sorry to bother you. We’ll just go away now.” Lolita: Wow—what an exciting encounter! That could have ended with the whales playfully knocking your sailboat into the air with upswinging breeches! Just like they knocked Amelia Earhart’s airplane out of the sky while she was singing “Stairway to Heaven.”
NEWS OF THE MUSICAL TYPE
Rita: Don’t believe everything that Lolita says… I happen to know for a fact that Amelia was singing BLEU’s “That’s When I Crash.” Here now the news: After playing 20 years in Boston with THE SHODS, THE PILLS, MUCK & THE MIRES, and his own band DAVE AARONOFF & THE PROTAGONISTS, DAVE AARONOFF is moving to Austin, TX. There aren’t many Boston musicians who have racked up such an impressive Boston musical history. We’ll miss you Dave. *** THE PIXIES, including BLACK FRANCIS (vocals/ guitar), JOEY SANTIAGO (guitars), DAVID LOVERING (drums) and touring bassist PAZ LENCHANTIN start their North American tour on the West Coast on September 27, roll into Canada, and then slip back down to cross the States. *** Hard to believe that a band named themselves MICKEY BLISS when they have nothing to do with the promoter and keyboardist who runs Club Bohemia at the Cantab. *** “Boston Driving Song” has gone viral with MIKEY COLECUTS’ Boston accent telling tales of driving within Rt. 128. *** JON BUTCHER tied the knot with LAURINDA on May 9 in San Juan, Puerto Rico! *** Did you know that SKINNY MIKE (Coffin Lids) took over the space that was Sandy’s Music (896 Mass Ave., Cambridge, MA) and has created Mike’s Monster Guitar? *** Fender Guitars celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Stratocaster in 2014—play your Strat in its honor. *** The Citywide Blackout radio show has moved from Unregular Radio to WEMF and is now on Thursday nights at 8pm. *** Music Go Round has reopened at 810 Worcester Street (Rt. 9 inbound) in Natick—basically across the street from where they were. *** Right Turn has the number one addiction radio show on the AM airwaves—Sunday nights at 7pm on WRKO 680. *** Walnut Street Cafe in Lynn, MA, celebrated 18 years of service to its community. *** Last month’s story on KATHEI LOGUE’s experience with The Beatles was written by A.J. WACHTEL—his name mysteriously never appeared on the document. *** Right after we ran PATRICK NELSON’s photo for the first time in The Noise, he was playing a gig in Boston and in one blink he was being revived on an emergency room table with a life-altering diagnosis of type one diabetes. He wrote on Facebook later… “Be kind y’all, live light, we are but ephemeral ripples on the surface of a deep transient ocean, here for but a whisper of a moment, swallowed by the sea the next.” *** KIER BYRNES will sing the national anthem at Indian Ranch when THREE DAY THRESHOLD opens for BARENAKED LADIES on Sunday, July 20. *** ADAM SHERMAN (ex-The Souls) now plays guitar and sings for SUBPAR CO-STAR. *** ANDY MILK (The Vital Might) has a new electronic project just getting off the ground called PUT TOGETHER. *** ANDY SANTOSPAGO is conducting the Boston Singers Project, where each month he will feature one his songs being sung by a different vocalist with Boston ties. *** D TENSION from Lowell has done something similar to Andy, incorporating the voices of AARON PERRINO (Dear Leader), AD FRANK, KERRI-ANNE RICHARDS (Apple Betty), JASON DUNN (the Luxury), LIZ ENTHUSIASM (Freezepop), KEVIN STEVENSON (The Shods), and more local vocals on his latest release Secret Project. Lolita: Sorry D, we just couldn’t keep your project a secret.
MORE STORIES FROM THE SHORES
Rita: Lolita has never been good at keeping a secret. Even when she got pregnant and was secretly rushed out of town for nine months because of a “mental disorder,” she told everyone her stomach had swollen because she swallowed a Loco bean. No one knew what she was taking about, but everyone knew she was pregnant. Let’s return to our friends who are starting to get cold as the day turns into night and they’re still in their wet swimsuits. RICK BERLIN (Nickel & Dime Band): On college vacation skimming along on a slalom water ski in Nassau when up behind me rose an enormous silky black fin—a great white known to hang in those waters. The boat sped up, I angled in to the beach, skidded up onto the sand as the fin turned, sank and headed back out. The reflected sun off the ocean burned my chest so badly I bled. A great day altogether. *** RACHEL BARRINGER (The Wrong Shapes/ The Grownup Noise): When I was about nine years old I used to visit a friend’s house almost every Saturday and we would always end up swimming in her family’s pool (it was fancy—they even had a nifty little pool house with pillars on the outside, a changing room, and a bathroom so you could easily jump out of the pool and pee in the toilet without pretending like you didn’t just pee in the pool). Anyway, I LOVED the pool, but there was a catch—almost every time we went swimming she would try to drown me. Like, for real. I have no idea why I put up with this, but I did. And I went almost every weekend for about a year. Fast forward a few years and one of my friends in high school (who is still my good friend) also had the same experience with this crazy chick. Oh, and I am pretty sure that crazy girl grew up to be a nurse. *** JAY ALLEN (… & the Archcriminals): Once had a gal named Sally, she couldn’t surf but she sure could bowl. *** KRISTEN MILLER (Kristen Miller): There was that one time that Brian King and I went for a helicopter ride with Prince. Something was wrong with the helicopter and we had to jump. Fortunately, we landed on waterskis and had a great time after Annie Lennox picked us up in her boat. *** EVAN GAVRY (Three Day Threshold): I played a pontoon party in this small lake town. Once a month the locals anchor in the middle of the lake and drink the night away. They fed me and kept me stocked with cold beers all night and sang along when I did one they knew. Unbeknownst to me, there was a tip jar making the rounds of the flotilla and at the end of the night they handed me $150 on top of their already generous hospitality! If I could play that gig every night of the summer, I would. *** JIMMY BIRMINGHAM (Real Kids/ Mach 5): Living at the beach gives me the opportunity to surf when the conditions are great. Getting caught in a riptide or a bad undercurrent is never fun. There were a couple times when underwater you have no idea where you are or where the water surface is… scary, but the key is never panic. *** DEB HARDY (Deb Hardy): My inner ear is so dysfunctional, I once jumped out of a rowboat that was in the middle of a lake in New Hampshire because I was so seasick from the wake waves. I swam back to shore and felt much better. *** MICKEY BLISS (Cantab): At Boyscout camp I wanted to please my mom by earning the mile swim merit badge. It was a windy and choppy-wave day but I forced myself to please my mom. When I arrived on shore my mom stood there screaming at me for taking such a risk by swimming a mile on a stormy day. *** MASON VINCENT (New Lions/ Happy Campers/ Cannibal Kings): This goes back to when I was six or seven years old, when my mother sent me and my older sister to the YMCA to go swimming. She went to the girls changing room and I went to the boys. When I walked out into the pool room I didn’t see her so I waited around a while. I saw other kids jumping in the pool so I did too, only to find it was over my head and I could not swim. I remember being on the bottom and jumping up to get air. It was only about five feet of water but over my head. When I jumped up to gulp air and try to yell my mouth filled with water and I sank again. A lifeguard jumped in and picked me up in one arm and walked to the edge and put me down. Later when I saw my sister she told me she didn’t feel like swimming and just hung around the YMCA doing other things. Shortly thereafter I learned to swim. *** RAY MASON (Ray Mason Band/ Lonesome Brothers): I remember one extremely hairy ferry boat ride from Nantucket many years ago. Straight into bad weather, lots of rocking, water over the sides… kinda like a bad TV disaster movie waiting to happen. The reward was an amazing breakfast once we reached shore. Scary at the time but now just another tale to tell! *** WILLIE “LOCO” ALEXANDER (… & the Raztones): When I was a kid in Gloucester I once jumped off of that big rock to the right of Half Moon Beach and surfaced in the midst of a large woman in the water. It prefigured my career in music. Like when I fell off stage at the Unicorn Coffee House performing with The Lost and landed in a woman’s lap in the first row. Lolita: Well, now it’s really no secret how I got pregnant!
HAVE A GREAT SUMMER
Rita: Oh—Lolita just stormed out of the office crying. I’ll catch up with her. Have a great summer! Enjoy all the outdoor music that you can—and write to us to let us know where it’s happening. We’ll be back in print in September—but look online in August for new content!