I.
We once again climb into our Way Back Machine for this week's Confessions of a Fanboy. I did not have any dreams to compel my selection for this week's column so I had to work a little harder to come up with a topic. There was actually very little work involved. I put my iPod on shuffle mode and decided to wait until one of the more than 12,000 struck a chord with me.
Enter Luscious Jackson.
I discovered Luscious Jackson while living in Colorado during the mid-'90s. This, as it turns out, was not the best time of my life. It was actually a difficult period, or rather it became a difficult period.
Readers of the Harry Potter series are familiar with a magical object known as a portkey. A portkey is an object capable of transporting a person or a group of people from one point to another at high speeds and across a great distance. The kicker is that a person can stumble on to one of these without knowing it. For example, Harry touches an object at the end of Goblet of Fire not knowing it was a portkey and winds up in a duel with his nemesis.
Music can be a real-life portkey. Hearing a certain song has caused me to travel miles and years to different times and different places in my life- sometimes against my will. This is what usually happens when I listen to Fever In Fever Out. I remember things I wished I had forgotten or think of people I would like to forget. I don't know if that will ever change. This album is probably forever cemented in a certain time and a certain place for me.
I was staying with my aunt and had not brought all of my things with me. Well… I brought all of my CDs. I just didn't bring my big-ass stereo (big-ass by my standards and at that time) with me. When I wanted to listen to music, I was generally restricted to listening in the car. And it is a good thing because that is where I spent a not inconsiderable amount of time. I was listening to mostly alternative and grunge music at that point but still was prone to the occasional hair metal dalliance.
Fever In Fever Out reminds me of my light blue '85 Subaru GL wagon and the Rocky Mountains. I used to spin this CD a lot making sojourns between Westminster and Colorado Springs. That drive. I used to hate that drive. It was usually happened late at night after having worked a full shift. Pitch black skies and an ass-biting chill in the air. I hated that fucking drive. Years of neglecting those memories have dulled how long that commute was but it was not short. I think I hated it less at night than during the day. At night on the highway, no one can see you when you're singing at the top of your lungs along with whatever is playing on the stereo. Countless hours spent daydreaming, playing "air" instruments, trying to process reality and trying harder to find ways of escaping it. Can you believe I didn't have a wreck on one of those nights?
Article comments
1 - Matthew T. Sussman
Here I was under the impression that Luscious Jackson was a type of apple.
2 - DJRadiohead
I could take this conversation straight to the gutter if I was of a mind but I think I will resist the temptation.
3 - DJRadiohead
If only my powers of summoning were always this potent: this weekend, after having searched on multiple occasions, I saw LJ's first two CDs in a used bin. I hadn't seen them new in I don't know how long. So I got both In Search of Manny and Natural Ingredients for under $10.
It's the Circle of Life, Simba.
4 - Matthew T. Sussman
How'd wifey end up liking the column?
5 - Mark Saleski
very nice. love this record. Lucious Jackson was one of the performers at the Lilith Fair show i went to. they totally rocked the joint. between them and Emylou Harris, the show could not have been better.
6 - DJRadiohead
Thanks, Saleski, for finding, reading, and commenting this.
We didn't have the greatest Lilith Fair set. I can't believe Emmylou Harris wasn't booked for Nashville. I guess they thought that was too obvious. I wanted Luscious Jackson, Sheryl Crow, or Shawn Colvin. Got none of them. Sarah Mc was fabulous, though. Never got to see LJ live. Would have liked that.
7 - DJRadiohead
In fairness, I told her I had finished it. When I said she is too busy to read/listen to my stuff I was not kidding. She just doesn't have the time. That's how I get away with things like this. Although, she did tell me she went trolling around Blogcritics last week. I may yet find out what she thinks.
I'm still married, anyway.
8 - Scott Butki
I heard Luscious Jackson open for REM. They rocked the house. They had a great frunk groove thing going.
Quick question: is it offensive to call someone a "fanboy"?I've heard mixed reports on that.
9 - Matthew T. Sussman
"When I said she is too busy to read/listen to my stuff I was not kidding"
Yeah, she's too busy reading MY stuff. Oh snap!
But in all honesty, I know that situation all too well. Chelsea is in fact a busy girl and has too many more important things to do than read my goofy little posts.
10 - Mat Brewster
I don't think my wife has ever read anything of mine. Same reason, just way too busy. When she has a free moment I'd rather her pay attention to me anyway instead of what I wrote.
My long distance commute story turned into a good one. Premarriage I traveled some 350 miles from Tennessee to Indiana every few weekends to see the girl who is now my wife.
11 - Mark Saleski
not only did we have Emmylou doing a set with her band, Spyboy....but when we first walked in, on one of the small stages, we heard Syd Straw doing a set with Emmylou and Buddy Miller. they did a version of the Stones' "Some Girls". incredible.
12 - DJRadiohead
Scott, like with a lot of things the term "fanboy" can be used in a derogatory manner. I know what I mean when I use it in referring to myself so I just go with it. Other people wouldn't like it. I guess caution is the word when flinging it.
I never got to see LJ live. I do remember them opening for R.E.M. It would have been very cool to see both bands.
13 - DJRadiohead
Suss, I'll give you that. That was good, man. That was good.
The Wife to Whom I Am Married loves that I write and when she reads what I write she usually likes it, too. When I test material designed for my podcasts she usually laughs. She just doesn't have the time and she really doesn't like sitting in front of the computer very much. Plus, my fanboy tendencies go well beyond her musical interests.
That said, Suss, the sports area might be the area she is least likely to travel.
14 - DJRadiohead
Brewster, The Wife to Whom I Am Married and I commuted from a distance a good deal less than that but still at a bit of a distance. I think it was probably an hour-ish. It worked out ridiculously well for me, too.
15 - Scott Butki
I just pulled out my copy of their cd.
I was trying to remember which song of theirs I most like and it is... "City song."
It has that great comination of fun, sultry voice and is damn catchy.
16 - DJRadiohead
Scott, "Citysong" is on Natural Ingredient which is the album that preceeded this one. It is damn catchy. I love that one.
17 - Scott Butki
Ah heard Naked Eye that one is good too.
18 - Joanie
I think we covered this before, but I used to live in Westminster (and made that same drive, for different reasons).
I have many songs/artists that remind me of that time in my life, as I do every period. I call them memory songs, and regardless of the emotions evoked, they're all there...waiting to be activated.
19 - Scott Butki
For some reason their songs make me think of New York City.
20 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
this may be my favourite of these beautiful pieces thus far. I'm with you a hundred percent, with regards the portkey. Sometimes it's a swell ol' place we end up in, like when i fling on "Basket Case" for example. Other times it's a horrible horrible place, and that's why i cannot listen to "24 Hour Party People" by Happy Mondays, which sucks, since it was one of my favourite songs.
this series of dreams, recollections, melodies, you'd do well to look on this, Sir DJ, and say aye, somethin mighty beautiful i've created. and am creating...
21 - DJRadiohead
Thanks, Duke, you are much too generous with your praise but I sure as fuck appreciate it. I thought about you and some of your magnificent sagas when I was writing this one. Fortunately, I am still able to love the music aside from the occasional horrible regurgitation of the wretched past. Maybe I'm lucky enough not to have experienced anything too awful or I am just a glutton for punishment. I guess, too, I like the process of being transported even if I don't always like where I end up in the end.
In fact, you and Sir Saleski have both had a profound impact on this series and I give a tip of the cap to you both.