Episode 76: Mic Check

Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, July 16 2008 (9:00 PM – 10:30 PM) at Joe’s Prime Time Pub. Brownstown MI
    “Wherein our heroes talk about … umm … ehhh … stuff … kinda. And at least Mickey proves he can record and make phone calls at the same time. (Voices: Scott, Greg, Mickey, Mike, Schmoe and special guest Ashley.)

    01:45Kenny Chesney seeks inspiration from Mike’s instrument, via Buffett News
    02:36Martin Guitar
    02:53Buffett underscores Shark Week, via Buffett News
    04:13the highly recommended Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article on the Coral Reefers
    05:53 – as discussed in Episode 71
    06:50Government Honey
    07:03 – Mike adds that former Government Honey guitarist “Brian Engelhart played a record 44 hours in 2005. This was on the GH website, but Jim let his URL expire and someone squatted it. So, no URL. I did some searching to find another, but all I got were hits on some kid that apparently broke the record this June.”
    08:28 – I am knowingly being highly optimistic
    08:44 – ** SPOILER WARNING: he makes it **
    09:50Trenton’s website and on Wikipedia
    10:55 – as mentioned in Episode 63
    11:18 – a Mystery Science Theater 3000 reference

      >  Download Episode 76

Episode 75: The Missing Episode

Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, July 9 2008 (9:30 PM – 11:00 PM) at Joe’s Prime Time Pub. Brownstown MI
    “Also know as the “Bzz, bzz-bzz-bzz, bzz, bzz” Episode. Schmoe, Greg, Scott, Mickey, DJ, and Mike engage in another fourcast, with disastrous results.

    Mike is back in Houston, and our return to using a speakerphone was our worst attempt ever. Maybe it’s because it’s the first time we’ve tried this at Joe’s Prime Time, maybe it’s because I don’t know what I’m doing, maybe I should set everything up before I start drinking; but, not only did we get GSM noise again, we got continual and constant GSM noise!
    I tried playing around with the recording but there’s no way to salvage it. I tried turning it mono (using the side with slightly less buzz), I tried re-equalizing it, I tried various filters, but nothing worked well enough. The more I try to phase out the GSM noise the more I lose in overall audio quality; and the less tweaking I do the more annoyingly unlistenable it stays.
    So here’s a compromise.
    Instead of the usual MP3 in our podcast feed, I’ve typed up a transcript of the recording. Download the PDF here or read it below, and this way we can share what we recorded without your having to suffer through listening to it. Pretend it’s just like one of our other shows. Or get some friends together and act out all the parts. (Make sure to use some kind of effect for Mike, such as talking into a coffee can.)

Episode 75 Transcript by WAOTNC on Scribd

    For the heck of it, we turned the transcript into an ebook for Kindle, too. You can buy it from Amazon’s Kindle Store (for a 99¢ fee, mind you) or you add it manually by downloading it here (for free). We have a free ePub version as well, for iPads and Nooks.
    Update: added August 29, here’s an outtake, videotaped after the show, where Greg gives his review of the Margaritaville Frozen Concoction Maker:

      >  Download Episode 75 as a PDF

Episode 74: Coverville

Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, June 25 2008 (9:00 PM – 10:30 PM) at Joe’s Prime Time Pub. Brownstown MI
    “We’ve complained in the past about the prevalence of cover songs in Jimmy’s albums and on tour, but now, in a new North Coast fourcast, we choose what covers we do like. A big crowd tonight with Schmoe, Greg, Mike, Mickey, Scott, Patti, and Larry on the panel, with guest appearances by DJ, Nathan, and Rachel.

    We had a huge turnout for this one. Scott returned, Greg was back, and even past participants Patti and Larry showed up. All making for a lively and loud conversation. In fact, we had such a big crowd Scott and DJ sat at a different table, which explains why Scott sounds a bit off-mic.
    The episode title obviously refers to the far superior Coverville podcast, at Coverville.com. (There was talk of maybe using “Coveritaville” instead.)
    00:11 – it sounds like Schmoe says “Jew”. This isn’t an edit, so don’t blame me. That’s the way it sounds on the recording.
    00:17 – Patti hasn’t been on a panel since Episode 55, and, before that, way back in Episode 2. Her homecoming might have been a bigger deal if she hadn’t just appeared in our tailgate recording two episodes ago.
    00:51 – Greg was really hoping to get a picture of Rachel when she came back to our room, so it was particularly funny when it was Larry who brought us our round of beers instead (at 03:55).
    01:21Margaritaville Rum, via Buffett News. Out in September.
    02:24Nadirah Shakoor’s YouTube page. …Or is that iTube? …uTunes? (Don’t forget to click “More info” for the full write-up on this video and her album.)
    03:22Join the Band info at Little Feat.net | Link to Amazon’s page | Link to iTunes’s soon-to-be-live page
    04:24This is the chef, at the bar’s entrance, of which Schmoe speaks. And, as you can probably guess, Greg’s instruction to go left is deliberately incorrect (hence my comment).
    05:22 – note to self: the pig’s name is Rumpy and the boy’s name is Barley. The book even states this on every chapter, but I still get them confused.
    05:53Famous Dave’s
    07:40Amazon link for Sonny Landreth’s From the Reach album
    08:15Amazon link for Jake Shimabukuro’s Gently Weeps album
    08:36 – the band is Pearl Jam, with their “2008 Bootleg Program“. The concerts actually are available on CD, if desired, but are also available in MP3 or FLAC.
    Little Feat sells their concerts too! Come on, Jimmy, start serving concerts at the Radio Margaritaville site!
    08:52I think this is what Larry is talking about
    09:34Commonwealth Displays
    10:51 – Link to Zodiac Racquet Club … as soon as they join the 21st century and get a website
    11:40 – Scott is of the opinion we’re repeating ourselves with this episode’s fourcast. He is part right. In Episode 23, Covers Charge, one question in our fourcast dealt with our favorite cover song. And now, all four parts of tonight’s fourcast deal with our favorite covers.
    19:58 – actually, it’s written by Big Al Anderson, Stephen Bruton, and Sharon Vaughn; and has in fact been covered at least twice. Big Al Anderson’s version of “Trip Around the Sun” is on After Hours, available at Big Al Anderson.com; while Stephen Bruton‘s version is on Nothing But the Truth.
    20:04 – a Goldmine writer’s opinion on Covers vs Remakes
    23:08 – feel free to add your own cricket sound effect here
    24:09 – a.k.a. Southgate Fireworks.com. (And if those commercial breaks aren’t enough, why not another one?)
    26:03 – it irks me I studied the discography so carefully but I still forgot about the Margaritaville Café compilations.
    28:42Will Kimbrough – and, hey, he’s got a podcast!
    29:50Jesse Winchester
    30:55 – “California Promises” is off the Steve Goodman album Affordable Art, available at Steve Goodman.net
    31:04 – “Boats to Build”, written by Guy Clark, is the title track of his album and is also on Jerry Jeff Walker’s Cowboy Boots and Bathin’ Suits
    31:13 – “She’s Going Out of My Mind” is off Mac McAnally’s 1989 album Simple Life; and, by the way, “It’s My Job” is off his 1980 album Cuttin’ Corners
    33:46 – that’s Larry’s ringtone, which I guess, being written by Irving Szathmary, could be considered its own cover
    34:23 – I know, we’re all thinking it, but she was referring to her fists
    34:49 – the “U.P.” refers of course to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Did Rachel tell us she’s from St Ignace? I don’t remember.
    35:57 – oops, I was supposed to edit that part out. Cue the evil, Dr Horrible-like laugh!
    And finally, here’s another behind-the-scenes video from our recording session, with outtakes and deleted scenes.

      >  Download Episode 74

Episode 73: The Chicken Wrap Concert Wrap-Up Rap

Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, June 18 2008 (10:00 PM – 11:00 PM) at Joe’s Prime Time Pub. Brownstown MI
    “Another look at Jimmy’s Pine Knob show, along with the final dates of the tour’s second leg, Mickey monologues about Saturday Night Live, and Rachel helps out with three — count ’em, three — jokes.

    00:02 – for the record, Greg’s was the first hiccup, with Mike’s reenactment following.
    00:29 – no, it won’t
    00:46 – Thursday, July 17, at Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati OH
    00:57 – either Audacity or Vista. I blame Vista.
    01:32 – courtesy of gingerbreadman at the Buffett News discussion board, here’s a WMV file of Jimmy and Mac doing “Coast of Carolina”
    01:53gingerbreadman comes through again with the complete pre-show interview from Pine Knob
    02:48chippewa, of the Buffett News board, offers a couple nice photos of Jimmy in the Red Wings jersey. And this is Schmoe’s idea of a “Tin Cup Chalice”.
    09:25 – Greg insists he is mocking me with that pronunciation
    12:00 – I completely failed to mention the return of “We’re Still Here” during the MSG show for the only time this leg
    12:02 – once again I have misremembered. Jimmy ragged on our follow-spot operator while introducing “One Particular Harbour” but mentioned him in New York during the introduction to “Cowboy in the Jungle”.
    12:12 – that errant voice is actually someone barging into the back room to see the new LED palm trees (shown in the preceding blog entry)
    18:30 – as always, this clip is edited for time
    19:22WDIV Channel 4 were also the geniuses who delayed Late Night with David Letterman an entire day for Our Gang and Barney Miller reruns. WKBD Channel 50 was an independent UHF channel, but more recently was a UPN and now CW affiliate.
    20:50Buffett News’s story on the Little Feat album
    21:09Amazon link for Sonny Landreth’s new From the Reach album
    21:16 – the song is “Hell at Home”, but it’s only new if you’ve never heard Sonny’s album The Road We’re On from 2003. Which I haven’t.
    21:43 – remember, Scenes You Know By Heart is only available at Walmart, Sam’s Club, and, of course, Mailboat Records
    22:35 – an old quote of Schmoe’s
    22:49 – as heard at the tail end of Episode 70
    23:03 – I know, it’s not. This is.
    23:18Journey’s new lead singer

      >  Download Episode 73

Patio Palms

    Check out the cool new decorations on the patio of our summer home, Joe’s Prime Time Pub.

Cocodeck

Cocodeck

Episode 72: Two for One

Show Notes:
Recorded Tuesday, June 10 2008 (11:00 PM – 12:30 AM) at Pine Knob, Clarkston MI
Recorded Wednesday, June 11 2008 (9:00 PM – 10:00 PM) at Joe’s Prime Time Pub in Brownstown MI
    “A special double feature in the wake of Jimmy’s 2008 concert performance. (Appearances by Scott, Greg, Jacob, Patti, her cousin Debbie, Schmoe’s daughter Kate, and others.)

    Hey kids, it’s our second “Tales from the Parking Lot” show! By the way, it might not make the best podcast for driving since there are a lot of car horns in it. And now onto the show notes…
    00:39 – wrong again. It’s Lynyrd Skynyrd.
    01:49 – thanks to gingerbreadman, of the Buffett News discussion board, we got to hear Jimmy’s Radio Margaritaville pre-show interview after the concert
    02:08according to Wikipedia, Pine Knob Music Theatre became DTE Energy Music Theatre in 2001. That’s longer that I thought but still not long enough for Schmoe’s talk radio callers to be ignorant of.
    03:12 – the DTE Energy FAQ lists capacity at “15,274 Total *7,202 pavilion, *8,072 lawn seats”.
    04:11the Freep‘s Garden Fresh Gourmet article
    04:40 – at the tailgate the night before, Mike and Schmoe joked how they only needed to add milk to turn the Margaritaville “Island Lime” chips into a kid’s breakfast cereal
    04:57 – Scott related how he had witnessed a woman win the opportunity to board the Margaritaville party bus. She presented a laminated certificate from WYCD 99.5 “Detroit’s Country” (née “Young Country”) — whose only claim to Buffett is the License to Chill album! — which had a booth near the front gates.
    05:42 – and here’s where we get invaded by the Prime Time Pub softball team. They had been enjoying a celebratory meal on the patio, but it had been a muggy day and I guess the mosquitos were too bad and drove them inside.
    06:14 – because of Episode 67, of course
    06:26 – yes, it was only around eleven:o’clock when we started recording
    06:42 – recognize the little audio cue? Can you guess where it originated?
    08:00 – my guess is Schmoe is referring to their July 17 2006 concert
    09:48 – yep, that’s right, back on July 20 1994!
    10:13 – incredibly, Palacenet did not put out a single port-a-john, even though the lot opened at 2 PM
    11:12 – that’s somebody driving over some glass
    11:40 – another Roger Clyne reference, this time to Mike & Schmoe’s fabled Circus Mexicus show where Roger urged to crowd to “pace yourself” … until changing his mind near the end of the show. Probably mentioned in Episode 69A but I don’t feel like listening to it to find out.
    13:36 – for those paying attention back in Episode 64, I bought one of Mike’s tickets and I sold my tickets to Patti and her cousin.
    13:47 – you can see our angle in my cellphone pictures, in the preceding blog entry
    18:42I Twitter’d on the road and during the concert
    20:29 – visit Sonny Landreth at Sonny Landreth.com
    21:25 – said because Jimmy had messed around with the song order at the June 5 Atlanta show
    21:33but, no one noticed we missed out on hearing the new “Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season” arrangement
    22:12 – said because Jake had announced the appearance on his website
    23:08some nice shots of Jimmy wearing the jersey, courtesy of chippewa on the Buffett News discussion board
    23:57 – just to set the stage: you can’t hear it, but the Tommy Bahama lady (and her beau) pull up in a second vehicle, as the Palacenet worker drives off
    24:40 – aw heck, why not: here’s a link to Tommy Bahama
    24:43 – a reference to Sharkjaws Adam’s appearance in Episode 71
    24:49 – evidently she though I said “Prove it” because she leaned forward and it really looked to me like she was going to undo her bikini top — and I wonder if that’s why her beau suddenly cut the conversation short and drove off
    26:47the True Colors tour
    28:24 – did you guess yet? Did you? It’s from the opening to “Dreamsicle”!
    28:30 – another Roger Clyne shout-out. The song playing is “Ashes of San Miguel”.
    29:44 – maybe “daily” is too strong, I have no way of knowing. But weekly? Every other day? Venues don’t clean their port-a-johns, do they? Don’t they just have some company swap-in fresh ones?

      >  Download Episode 72

A Pleasure and a Hell of an Evening

Just got back from the June 10 show at Pine Knob. Here are some photos off my cellphone…

Heading toward the Pine Knob pavilion

The Lawn

Prime Time Joe

Wow! This makes gasoline look cheap!

The Pavilion, from our seats in Row Z

Jimmy “trades” his flip-flops for a “Buffett 08” Red Wings jersey

Fingers Taylor!!!   Playing “Son of a Son of a Sailor”

The crowd

Fingers Taylor!!!   Playing “In the City”

Jimmy dons his jersey for the encores

Sneaking closer for “Tin Cup Chalice”

Late night tailgate

    Update: I did a photo-dump of all tonight’s pictures over at my dot-Mac gallery –– over at my Flickr page.

Episode 71: Listerween

Show Notes:
Recorded Saturday, June 7 2008 (10:00 PM – 11:00 PM) at Casa de Schmoe, Dearborn MI
    “The boys make their deadline just under the wire, reviewing the last three of their ultimate setlists in time to hear Jimmy’s own carefully chosen setlist on Tuesday. (Background vocals: Schmoe’s & Mike’s kids and a few oscillating fans.)

    Phew. I’m too old for these ten-hour, all-nighter editing sessions. I was determined to publish this episode before the June 10 concert — secretly in hopes our selections might somehow influence Jimmy’s own setlist — so I edited between midnight and seven AM Monday night, crashed till nine, and then finished up the episode at noon. And, then caught a nice cold for the concert.
    But enough about me. Here are the notes:
    5:15Rock Band DLC “Cheeseburger” on YouTube. As always, the clips has been edited for time.
    6:02Rock Band DLC “Volcano” on YouTube
    6:28Rock Band DLC “Margaritaville” on YouTube
    6:35 – oh yeah, that was Episode …hgshajmmsn
    6:53 – and who appeared in Episode 24
    7:35the June 8 New York Times bestsellers [via Buffett News]
    7:45the Billboard interview [via Buffett News]
    7:50UPI’s “Not Retiring Any Time Soon” article [via Buffett News]
    8:28iTunes link for Jackson Browne’s “Lives in the Balance” song (just imagine the chorus sung slower and less emphatic)
    9:05Walmart’s sale page and Mailboat Records’ sale page. It doesn’t look like Sam’s Club sells the DVD online.
    9:27 – another incident with Greg which has become folklore.

This is Scott’s setlist
for you to read along (as a PDF)
,
just like the Word DOC he sent us back on April 29.

    But, as mentioned in Episode 68, this, for some reason, is what Greg saw…

The perils of tabs and Lucida Grande

    10:30Club Trini’s Late Night Live
    13:26 – and…

this is Schmoe’s long, involved, and highly detailed setlist
(also as a PDF)

    14:24 – at Pine Knob they’ll let you get by with drinking if you at least conceal your beverage, which led me to the ingenious idea of pouring my beers into a Vernor’s ginger ale bottle.
    14:43 – Orson Welles by way of Edgar Alan Poe by way of Alan Parsons’ Tales of Mystery and Imagination (the 1987 remaster)
    16:43 – a lame impression of Homer in “Flaming Moes”
    22:06Jay and the Americans
    25:15 – Mike drafted his setlist on the spot and there was no need to e-mail it to anyone, thus there is no PDF to share. Instead, we’ll just note the titles as he reads them:

Mike’s Setlist

One Particular Harbour
Coconut Telegraph
Livingston Saturday Night
Boat Drinks
Leaky Little Boat
Cowboy in the Jungle
We are the People Our Parents Warned Us About
Come Monday
Creola
Distantly in Love
Dreamsicle
Son of a Son of a Sailor
Fins
Margaritaville

Brahma Fear (w/ Fingers)
Tin Cup Chalice (w/ Fingers)
Growing Older But Not Up (w /Fingers)
CILCIA
Mañana
Volcano
He Went to Paris
Lovely Cruise
A Pirate Looks at Forty / Redemption Song
Banana Republics
Cheeseburger in Paradise
Weather is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful
It’s Five o’Clock Somewhere
Treat Her Like a Lady

First Encore
Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season
Twelve Volt Man

Second Encore
Wonder Why We Ever Go Home

    Here’s an outtake from tonight, captured after our recording was done. Being a follow-up to Mike’s traumatic cactus attack, you might even consider it a sequel to the movie from Episode 69A.

      >  Download Episode 71