Rock Reconsidered

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Hello, I just found out that "The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades" band Timbuk 3 wasn't some "Saved by the Bell" joke as I believed in 1986 but an actual pretty good act (husband & wife and a drum machine). I mean I guess I knew "Shades" was at heart at ironic song about Reaganism but I didn't give it much thought and it came off like a novelty, one-hit effort (which it sorta was) and that's where it stayed with me for 38 years... until this week.

I streamed their first 2 rekkids several times this week and like Hot Chocolate they count as a pleasant discovery. Folky, sometimes bluesy, stripped down rock, quirky lyrics, harmonies, fake drums... reminds me in a way of the Crash Test Dummies.

They lasted 10 years and 6 albums. The couple is split up now





Put your musical rediscoveries here

[Edgy MD]

New Michael McDonald memoir, as told to Paul Reiser, due out May 21. If you're lining up at midnight, I'll see you there.

Coming up with the title — candidate for the shortest conversation ever?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Paul Reiser?

[Frayed Knot]

So a musician and an actor team up to write a book about the musician ...
What, no one could afford, y'know, a writer?

[MFS62]

The factoid that sticks in my mind about Michael was at one time, he was the only singer to have won a Grammy as a solo artist, part of a duet and as part of a larger group. I'm not sure if this has been done since.
(disclaimer), I may have him mixed up with another singer.

Later

[Edgy MD]

Reiser has plenty of writing experience.

The memoir grew out of the two of them hanging out during the pandemic — they're apparently neighbors, and the lockdown left their careers at loose ends — and McDonald telling stories of his sordid past.

I feel like it's a book I've already written a fictionalized version of his story in my head.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I watched McDonald's interview with Rick Beato (older brother of Pedro iirc). Seems like a storytellin kind of guy but wasn't the most interesting man in the world.

[Frayed Knot]

Reiser has plenty of writing experience.

When an actor starts writing books that almost exactly parallel the arc that the character he's playing on TV is going through -- COUPLEHOOD,
followed by BABYHOOD, then PARENTHOOD -- I tend to assume that those books are ghosted ... but maybe not.
Bill Cosby had earlier trod the same ground by coming out with FATHERHOOD during the time he was playing a father on his eponymous TV show.
As far as I know he didn't also write one called RAPIST but I could be wrong.

[Edgy MD]

He wrote for his standup act and then his character on TV was a variation on his stage persona, and so he did a lot of the writing on his show.

[Benjamin Grimm]

That's a common enough path. Jerry Seinfeld and Ray Romano did the same thing. And so did Burns and Allen and Jack Benny.

[Centerfield]

Reiser has plenty of writing experience.

When an actor starts writing books that almost exactly parallel the arc that the character he's playing on TV is going through -- COUPLEHOOD,
followed by BABYHOOD, then PARENTHOOD -- I tend to assume that those books are ghosted ... but maybe not.
Bill Cosby had earlier trod the same ground by coming out with FATHERHOOD during the time he was playing a father on his eponymous TV show.
As far as I know he didn't also write one called RAPIST but I could be wrong.

PRISONER gonna be a big hit.

[Fman99]

I watched McDonald's interview with Rick Beato (older brother of Pedro iirc). Seems like a storytellin kind of guy but wasn't the most interesting man in the world.

Saw him live on the Doobie Brothers' most recent appearance in Syracuse, 2022-ish. My third time seeing the Doobies but the first time in many years that Mike McD had toured with them. It was cool to hear some of the songs live from the more yacht-rocky Doobie albums.

[metirish]

I watched McDonald's interview with Rick Beato (older brother of Pedro iirc). Seems like a storytellin kind of guy but wasn't the most interesting man in the world.

Rick Beato is great, I actually googled to see if he was Pedro's brother 😳