Neutral Milk Hotel

On Friday, we tried to score tickets to one of the two NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL shows that are going to happen in October later this year, here in Athens at the world-famous 40 WATT club. The shows are going to be the first couple of shows that the band has performed in over 10 years. Because of the popularity of the band and the location of the concerts (Athens being the spiritual hometown of the band), the show sold out within a matter of minutes. Because the tickets were sold on-line, most of the tickets went to lucky people outside of Athens and many local fans and friends were left with nothing but disappointment...including me and Missy!

Then, a little bit before noon yesterday, word came through the grapevine (a.k.a. Facebook) that a third LOCALS-ONLY ATHENS SHOW was going on sale at 2pm, and that the tickets would only be available at the 40 Watt. As soon as I saw that piece of news come up on my Facebook feed, I yelled out, "MISSY, WE GOTTA GO! NOW!" She thought it was some sort of emergency before I explained that a third show was going on sale and we needed to get down to the 40 Watt as soon as possible. We got dressed, grabbed our umbrellas, and headed out in the pouring rain for downtown Athens...

By the time we got in line a little after noon, there was already 50 people waiting ahead of us. We were soaked and cold, but we were happy that we would finally be getting tickets to see Neutral Milk Hotel...





We saw a lot of people we knew standing in line for tickets in the rain...despite the weather, it turned out to be a fun event in itself. Practically everyone knew each other - everyone shared their disappointment at not being able to get tickets the day before and now we were all savoring an Athens locals-only show. We went from feeling pretty low to feeling pretty special.

Around 1:30, they let the first 50 or so people into the club to buy tickets. Missy and I were that last two people in that first group. The savvy staff at the 40 Watt opened their bar and served drinks to the folks standing in line inside the club, running orders and bottles and cans between the bar and the line. Now THAT'S service!

They started selling tickets closer to 2pm. Everyone was allowed to buy up to 4 tickets, but everyone was encouraged to buy just as many tickets as they truly needed, so that the most number of people waiting in line would get a chance for tickets. After you purchased your tickets, the staff wrote your name on an envelope and then sealed your tickets inside. In order to discourage TICKET SCALPING, the 40 Watt is holding these envelopes until the day of the show in October. That night, ticket buyers will have to show I.D. at will call (and have all their party with them at the time) in order to retrieve their tickets. I handed over $31 and waved goodbye to my ticket..."See you in October!" I thought.

















Afterwards, we spent a fair amount of time reminiscing about Neutral Milk Hotel's heydays in the late 90s. I had never seen all the members of the band perform live together, though I've seen all of them perform in all their own individual bands and projects. Thus, my wish to see the entire band together playing live. Missy on the other hand had the good fortune to see them "back in the day", opening for the band SUPERCHUNK. That was in the late 90s, at a club in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, called GRAFFITI. Missy told me she had photos from that show and I told her that I would like to see them again. So we busted out one of her many amazing photo albums and took a nostalgic trip back to the 90s. Because photos and videos won't be allowed at any future Neutral Milk Hotel shows, we decided to share some fond memories from Missy's 90s indie band archive...starting with a photo of her posing with a fresh-faced Neutral Milk Hotel...











A totally meta "photo of photos" - the photo album chock full of wonderful photos, with Neutral Milk Hotel on the left, and photos of MELT BANANA on the right:



Just to give the album more context, here's a few more photos of Missy and other indie luminaries from that time (who are all still going strong today), starting with Missy and KEVIN BARNES of OF MONTREAL. She *thinks* this was after a show he did with THE MUSIC TAPES at the Millvale Industrial Center in Pittsburgh, in 1999:



ARCHER PREWITT of THE COCTAILS and THE SEA AND CAKE with Missy after a Coctails show at Luciano's in Pittsburgh, in 1995:



Missy with ROSE MELBERG and JEN SBRAGIA of THE SOFTIES, after their show at Luciano's in Pittsburgh, sometime in the mid-nineties:



And finally (one of my favorite photos), Missy with LOU BARLOW of SEBADOH and THE FOLK IMPLOSION, at the Echo Lounge in Cleveland, Ohio:



I'm glad that Missy and I grew up listening to and loving the same sort of music we did in the 1990s, because it's a shared experience that we can really share with each other NOW, even though we weren't together THEN. Standing in line for Neutral Milk Hotel tickets in the rain for two hours - we not only felt nostalgia and fondness for our misspent youth during the the 90s, but we were happy to share NEW experiences with the music and bands that we love, new experiences that we wouldn't have to share second-hand with each other...

Believe In Us - We're MUSIC+PLUS!

My first job out of high school was at this MUSIC+PLUS record store in Riverside, California. It was summer, 1989, and I was beyond stoked to get to work there. To a young dude fresh out of high school who had a deep love of music and movies, it was a DREAM JOB. Music+Plus was a chain of commercial record and video stores located mostly throughout California. In addition to selling music on vinyl, cassette, and compact disc, we also rented and sold videos on VHS and sold tickets to concerts and events. That was the "plus" part in the Music+Plus equation...

I loved this job, but left after a couple of years when the chain got bought out by a bigger, national chain (I think Blockbuster bought us out, but I can't remember exactly). Music+Plus had always been a freewheeling, partying kind of company (and how!) and I remember the new company having all these new rules and regulations that I was not down with. The party was over and it was time to move on. Several years later, I would use my formative experience at Music+Plus to get a job with the cool indie record store in town - MAD PLATTER - which was literally around the corner from where Music+Plus was...



I had many great memories here. I remember squirt gun and water balloon fights between the employees, in the store, during business hours; I remember how much it sucked to be in the display window during the summer when it was hot, sweaty, and stuffy - the sweat would roll into your eyes as you tried come up with new and interesting ways to staple 12" flats (2-sided, 12" x 12" square promotional posters) to the display boards; I remember ETTA JAMES pulling up to the front of the store in her tour bus and then basically buying out our entire jazz, soul, and R&B sections - on cassette; I remember having to close the store early the day the L.A. Riots happened - I remember pulling the gates across the windows before rushing home and then hoping that the store wouldn't get looted or smashed that evening; I remember when the company rented out Disneyland for their Employee Appreciation Day; I remember going to see Andy Bell and Vince Clarke of Erasure at an in-store meet-and-greet at a different Music+Plus - I remember really wanting to meet Vince Clarke, but only ended up meeting Andy because Vince was sick that day; I remember being able to score great seats to great concerts for myself because I knew how to work Ticketmaster like the back of my hand; and of course, I remember the countless parties after we clocked out, and all the wonderful people I had a chance to work with...the photos above look like they were taken at sunset, and that's exactly the way I want to remember the store. Since then, I've seen that store become a Container Store and then a store that sold blinds and curtains. I haven't been back to Riverside in a while to see what has become of the old space now...

Below is a photo of the back of the store where we stored all our video rentals. Customers would bring up empty movie boxes encased in plastic sleeves off the display shelves and then we would retrieve the actual VHS tapes from our library and put them in the boxes for checkout. One of my old managers, Jennifer, is standing behind the counter (she's the one wearing the Music+Plus vest, which was part of our "uniform"). All these photos were taken from the Music+Plus Alumni page on Facebook, and they were originally posted by Darrell Dooley. I don't know why, but I never took photos in the store or took photos of the store, so I don't have any of my own to show. I was excited to see these photos surface on the internet, and I just wanted to be able to share a bit of my history with you all...



Some old commercials that ran during the time that I worked at Music+Plus:

Happy Birthday, Mamas!

Just wanted to wish both MY MOM and MISSY'S MOM a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Both our mothers share a birthday on November 15th...how cool is that? Above is a photo of my Mom with my two younger sisters, Cynthia and Belinda, and me. This was taken at Niagara Falls sometime in the '70s...I vaguely remember going to some wax museum there and being very scared and crying...

Weekend Wind-Down #154

Been looking at old pre-blog photos from October 2007 for some HALLOWEEN inspiration. That year was the first Halloween we celebrated in our new house. It's funny seeing how our old kitchen and dining room used to look like. Also, that was the year we dressed as a BUTCHER and PIG...



















FAVORITE MOMENT OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - Your birthday!
RAOUL - Seeing the Brian Dettmer exhibit and.. my big birthday weekend!

WORST MOMENT OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - Trying to trim the bunnies' nails. It's been hard lately!
RAOUL - IKEA still being sold out of that patio table we've been wanting to get.

FUNNIEST MOMENT OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - Running into Brittany in Poncey-Highland, at that cafe!
RAOUL - Ditto. Running into Brittany.

WORD OR PHRASE OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - Flower drink.
RAOUL - Happy Birthday.

FAVORITE MEAL OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - I liked your birthday meal at The Grit.
RAOUL - Dinner at The Grit!

WORST MEAL OF THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - I'm sick of soup because I had so much of it when I was sick.
RAOUL - Microwave burrito.

FAVORITE "COUPLES COSTUME" WE'VE DONE IN THE PAST?
MISSY - It's a tie between "Wheat Bread & White Bread" and "Garden Gnomes".
RAOUL - I thought "The Skipper & Gilligan" was pretty funny.

PERSONAL RESOLUTION FOR THIS WEEK?
MISSY - Keep up with my planner.
RAOUL - Try to be in bed by 11:30pm every night this week.

PERSONAL SOUNDTRACK FOR THE PAST WEEK?
MISSY - Katzenjammer, First Aid Kit.
RAOUL - Finally Punk, Grape Soda, Oingo Boingo, Belly, Lush, Tune-Yards, Citrus, The Yiffs.