All posts by Mickey

Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, August 23 2006, (9:30 PM – 11:30 PM) at Big Al’s in Browstown MI
    “Mike, Schmoe, Greg, and Mickey discuss the new single, the Hoot bonus DVD, yet more from Caseville, and reviews of Coconut Telegraph. With Dan and Laury as the noisy and mutinous studio audience.”

    I freely admit it: we talk too damn much.
    I fully expected this to be one of our shorter shows. We had little to talk about — not much in the news and just an album review to discuss — yet we ended up with one of our longer shows. Heaven help you if we ever decide to review Boats Beaches Bars & Ballads.
    Dan, mentioned in last week’s episode, showed up in a cameo; and Laury, who first appeared on Episode 11, also stuck around. Together, they threatened to conduct their own simultaneous podcast, as can be heard in the audio file’s left channel. And who can forget the horseshoe game in the right channel.
    Latest news on “Bama Breeze” is that the promo CD single is being sent out to radio stations and that the album whence it comes is changing titles every day. (By the way, I knew there had to be a reason I had trouble saying “Bama Breeze” last week, and I think it stems from getting it confused with the Bahama Breeze restaurant in Livonia.) According to Buffett News, the song was written by Chris Tompkins, Josh Kear, and Mark Irwin. And in a Buffett World message board thread, you can download Josh Kear’s demo of the song as well as view the cover for Jimmy’s CD single.
    Link for Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (not to be confused with the Songwriters Hall of Fame).
    It’s great to get more live Buffett on DVD, but I found watching the From the Big Apple to the Big Easy video very frustrating. Not only does the director keep returning to the same six audience members, he has a knack for singling out the performer next to whomever is soloing. (I was also disappointed the video is not 16×9.)
    Walmart hardly needs us to advertise for them, but here’s the link to their Hoot exclusive. Mike’s quote about forgetting batteries was a direct shot at me, in reference to our recording of Episode 12 (though technically, I had batteries. I simply wanted to go home for fresh batteries). Another inside joke refers to when Mike and Joe were in deep discussion at some very noisy bar. (I was not there so hopefully they can fill in the details.) Mike brought up the subject of Pistons tickets and Joe, obviously mishearing him, looked suddenly shocked and offended if not a little hurt, and asked “Did you just call me a dick?” Mike has since made sure this will be a long-running running gag.
    Re: Caseville. Greg gave me a CDR of his photos, so I should be uploading them soon — barring all the ones where I look too fat.
    Sing along to our newly minted Album of the Week theme song.
    Want to see the album package we’re talking about?
    I swear Deborah McColl had a website, back when her first solo album came out in 2000; but at least here’s a link to the album. [Could I have confused it with Claudia Cummings’s website?] Update: Deborah McColl’s website is located at — where else? — Deborah McColl.com.
    “Stars Fell on Alabama”, music by Frank Perkins and lyrics by Marshall Parish, was written in 1934.  The title has been on the Alabama license plate since 2002.  Perkins also wrote the music for the 1964 Don Knotts movie The Incredible Mr Limpet.
    We thought it funny that the big dance club in Caseville was named Herschel’s…but it turns out all our jokes were based on a misreading of the sign! Then again, even they get their name wrong (take a close look at the URL).
    The selection again did not make the final cut, but our next album review will be for Somewhere Over China.

      >  Download Episode 14

Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, August 16 2006, (9:30 PM – 11:00 PM) at Big Al’s in Browstown MI; and location recording from Caseville MI on Saturday, August 12.
    “Mike, Mickey, Schmoe, and Greg discuss their pilgrimage to the Cheeseburger Festival, and Scott joins in to opine on Banana Wind. Special guest stars: Meredith and Laura.”

    Note: I’m still trying to find time to edit the Caseville video. The first interview was recorded Saturday afternoon outside the Official Cheeseburger Store (6912 Main Street, Caseville MI 4872). The second interview was conducted Saturday night near the park amphitheater, with Air Margaritaville performing in the background. The “thirty to forty, between sets” refers to a cheeseburger eating contest held during the Air Margaritaville intermission.
    In regards to the release date for Banana Wind: it was released on June 4 1996. As with Barometer Soup, I got a chance to listen to it the night before it came out, at the now defunct Blockbuster Music on Michigan Ave in Dearborn. I consulted my journal to back this up, and I am reminded that we’d seen these same songs performed in concert at Pine Knob the previous Thursday (May 30).

…I took Middlebelt to Michigan and headed to Blockbuster Music. I needed to pre-order the Buffett disc today if I wanted to get in on that sticker deal. So I sat at their “bar” and listened to the CD. The copy they had was still in its plastic holder, so I asked if they had one open. The guy took that one and unlocked it for me. I listened to bits of each song. I got more than halfway through before I lost track and had to skip around, losing my place. Some of the songs were familiar from the concert. These seemed to be the ones I like best. I couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed though. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was rushed — because I wasn’t really in the mood, seeing as Mike wasn’t here to make an event out of it [like last year] — but a lot of the album did not grab me as Barometer Soup had done. And I did not care for the overall acoustic sound. The constant strumming got rather monotonous and the some of the songs sounded the same. I noted how the sign behind the “bar” advertised a “collection of stickers” if I pre-ordered. I also liked how the CD was only $12.99 and I would only have to put down five dollars. I was willing to pay for it now, and I was also planning on buying Mike’s copy too. That way I could either pick up both copies Tuesday or he could just swing in and pick his up without having to bother much. I figured I owed it to him; not only was he going through hell [with his dad in the hospital], but he had also provided both the food and booze last Thursday.

    The following day, after giving blood at the Red Cross in Southgate, I returned to Blockbuster Music in Dearborn.

I went over to Blockbuster and picked up my two CDs. The kid recognized me and went off to get my CDs from the back. He rang me up but didn’t mention any stickers, so I brought the subject up. He didn’t seem to know anything about it, but the second kid went to the back and came out with a long thin strip in clear plastic. I thought the collection of stickers must be on some wide ribbon, but what he handed over was a simple, single bumper sticker. It was white with “PARROTHEAD” in pink. It was terribly lame, but it was apparently legit since it had MCA and Blockbuster logos on it. The guy remembered to give me two. [After work I swung by Mike’s house to leave the CD with his wife.]

    The “Oh? oh? oh? — ooooh!” reaction is from 1987, when Mike sneaked down to the stagefront for the encores. I’ve got the audio but it really isn’t clear enough to include here.
    The “Aeolian chords” line is from a famous quote by William Mann, music critic of the London Times, where he described the “Aeolian cadence at the end of “Not a Second Time” (the chord progression which ends Mahler’s ‘Song of the Earth’)” when reviewing With the Beatles. Is that Don’t Stop the Carnival song “Just an Old Truth Teller”?
    I coudn’t resist monkeying with Scott’s reviews, turning them into a kind of Poetry Corner-type segment. The music in the background is Mozart’s Piano Concerto In D minor, K. 466: 1st Movement.
    Meredith and Laura manage to make a special appearance just before the end. Laura used to be the cook at Big Al’s and, by remarkable coincidence, also had a porch crashed into. The “Dan” mentioned, now in Nicaragua, is the same Dan heard at the very beginning of our Show 0.
    The selection did not make the final cut, again, but our next album review will be for Coconut Telegraph.
    My favorite show quote is a tie this week: “OK. Jimmy flies. We get it.” and “You’re Chicken Taco Guy!”

      >  Download Episode 13

Show Notes:
Recorded Wednesday, August 2 2006, (9:30 PM – 11:30 PM) behind Big Al’s in Browstown MI.
    “Our biggest turnout yet: Don, Laury, Greg, Greg 2.0, Mike, Mickey, Schmoe, and even Scott, discussing the new DVD and a classic album.”

    Can you guys make out what Greg 2.0 is saying? The bar was noisy and he was sitting far from the mic, but if you listen closely you can make out “You know, during my travels, I, I, you know, listening to Sirius radio, looking–looking for something to listen to, I could find the Jimmy Buffett channel.
    “…What the fuck?
    “[To Nate] Sorry little Joe. I’ll watch my language.
    “But uh…I never listened to it, but I saw it. And I immediately thought about you goofy bastards. And I’m driving down the middle of Missouri, laughing my ass off. ‘I bet these goofy bastards are sitting there listening to this crap right now.’”
    Is it true there were more people on mic than subscribe to the show? We even had an audience, as Don and Nate (Schmoe’s son) listened off-mic. Well, actually, Nate slept through the whoe recording — which makes him pretty much your typical North Coast Cast subscriber. And apparently we’re going for the record on most gay jokes per minute (gjpm); but how else could we celebrate the return of the prodigal Scott?! He came back in time to discuss the new live DVD. And the “PC” Schmoe refers to (which really was our only light source outside) is actually Scott’s brand new 15″ MacBook. So much for Apple’s “Mac vs PC” marketing campaign. By the way, speaking of gjpm, I think I should’ve said “minced” instead of “flounced” during the show.
    Thanks to listener Ed (who’s also present on our our Frappr map) I got word that Best Buy was selling Live at Wrigley Field ahead of its release date. The Best Buy near where I work did not have it, but this was hardly a surprise since they never seem to have anything — despite always having fully stocked shelves. I managed to snag the disc Friday morning at the Southgate Best Buy, and was able to revel in it all weekend long. I even got to watch it on a 50″ plasma screen, pleasantly surprised to find out the concert is 16×9 anamorphic. (Why do I have the feeling Jimmy must have bought a widescreen TV or two recently?) The daylight video reveals some compression problems, but the nighttime stuff looks great. And I have to admit, at the risk of sounding Scott-ish, that watching women thrust their upper frontals at the camera is actually kind of scary on a 50″ screen.
    The benefit of being in charge of the show notes is even if I don’t speak up dring the show, I get to have the last word here. Despite liking the DVD, especially the unobtrusive and non-flashy editing, I have a problem with the concert itself. I really wish Jimmy would let go of Heather Perry and the on-stage choreography. I’m not denying Ms Perry looks great, but she is more of a distraction from the music and doesn’t add to the show. (Actually whenever she appears I keep thinking someone from the crowd got up on stage.) I really hate all this theatrical staging, with the props and skits and fire eaters and limbo contests. It reeks too much of those lame Carnival Cruise Line shows. When I go to a Buffett show (those rare years he deigns to visit us) I go fo the great songs, story telling, and banter — not lion tamers, costume changes, and trapeze artistes.
    </rant>
    Those were my DVD notes. Here are my Son of a Son of a Sailor notes. 1) When I was younger I cynically figured Jimmy made this the single just so it would sound like he was going to say “son of a bitch” on the radio. It was a long while later before I got to read the lyrics and see what a great song this really is.
    2) I got my Eskatrol definition from the COB,O.org FAQ.
    3) as with the title track, I cynically figured “The Last Line” was a veiled reference to cocaine. Reading the lyrics it looks like Keith Sykes might have been extremely depressed. Were there fearful outcries of retirement when Jimmy sang “Time has come to not make a sound” the way some people are now bewailing his writing a song called “Party at the End of the World”?
    4) I like to think that I single-handedly got Jimmy to perform “Livingston Saturday Night” live. I couldn’t understand why year after year this song never made the setlist; it seemed like this would be such an exciting, energizing addition to a show. Whenever I wrote to the Margaritaville Store in Key West I would include this demand. And after four years of letters, Jimmy finally played it! I got to hear it three times at his three night stand at Pine Knob, and I would smile proudly knowing this was all because of me. Sadly, this was way back in 1993 and he’s hardly played it since.
    5) it’s easy to enjoy a song about cheeseburgers…but then they had to ruin it by having a dancing cow on stage in 2001. Was that Heather Perry in there? 6) like I said in the show, I love the orchestration but the song is too slow for me. 7) I thought it was “cull the world’s rum”, Scott thought it was “crawl the world’s run”, Mike thought is was “Calderwood’s Rum”, Margaritaville.com says “Caldwood’s Rum”; but Google seems to suggest it’s “Callwood’s Rum” (cf. here and here — no matter how many e-mails Schmoe sends me!). And the other lyric debate obviously refers to the sleeves of Dwight Schrute. (Long ago I thought it might have something to do with “cheroot”.)
    8) Wikipedia has some juicy quotes from Florida Citrus Commission spokeswoman Anita Bryant and her stand against Dade County’s 1977 anti-descrimination ordinance. I was going to include some here, but I almost feel we’ve done more than enough gay-bashing this week. After all, this show was supposed to be our submission reel for the 17^th Annual GLAAD Media Awards. And I was wrong in saying Son of a Son of a Sailor came out that same year; it was released a year later.
    And, 9) like I said, Jimmy needs to write more story-songs like this one, and he really needs to perform this one.
    Want to read along with Schmoe? Download a PDF of the ABC Records memo.
    P.S.: it didn’t make the final cut, but next week’s assignment is our top ten Buffett songs and our thoughts on Off to the See the Lizard. Feel free to share your own with us at podcast@northcoastcast.com.

      >  Download Episode 11