Time to punch the waves back into the ocean
It was the beginning of the fall — and the rest of our lives
Greetings from the B-Side Brewery!
Every year, as the temperature drops and schools start up again, my mind always returns to the same thing: "What We Did On Our Summer Vacation," my favorite episode of The Adventures of Pete & Pete. Most people who’ve met me would not be surprised to learn that I have an earnest and genuine fascination with that particular Nickelodeon kids show, and have for a long time1. And “What We Did On Our Summer Vacation” is a perfect distillation of everything the show had to offer: quirky characters, the whimsical magic of suburban boredom, and of course, weird deep-cut celebrity cameos that go way over kids' heads (yes, that is Michael Stipe from REM).
First, there’s that unforgettable episode opener: the moment when Younger Pete and his personal superhero, Artie, the Strongest Man In The World, attempt to punch back the ocean waves to prolong the summer. It’s obviously futile battle for them. But that futility also feels like such a succinct metaphor for growing up. (Perhaps even moreso now that we’re living in a time when we’re all so acutely aware of rising sea levels.)
But it’s the rest of the episode that truly haunts me. Older Pete and Ellen—a girl who’s a friend—try to stalk the local ice cream man, Mr. Tastee. As the days get shorter, the two possibly platonic teens spend their time searching for the answer to one of life's greatest mysteries: who, exactly, is this enigmatic entrepreneur who delivers such delightful treats to children and then promptly disappears until next summer?
There’s a fun, pre-Internet scavenger quality to this little sidequest. But there’s also an immense feeling of melancholy in the character of Mr. Tastee. Without spoiling anything, I’ll just say that the character of Mr. Tastee carries a whole lot of gravitas.
This is all my long way of saying that it’s Fall now—at least emotionally, if not in terms of lunar cycles—and I wanted to offer something else of value in this newsletter before I launched into the inevitable self-promotion—beginning with THIS FRIDAY, September 13 at the Aeronaut Allston Beer Garden!
The Roland High Life will be playing at the brewery’s outdoor summer space. Not only is it the last night they’re open until next summer, but it’s also Walker’s (our keyboard player / co-frontman) birthday—which means there’s a good chance there will be cake and/or some other surprises.
We play from 7pm to 10pm, with lots of fun covers and other stuff planned. The music is free; the beer is not.
Face It, Tiger (You Just Hit The Jackpot)
Also happening this Friday: the release of our band’s new single! Okay well, technically it’s a re-release, but it never really got a fair shake the first time around. “Face It, Tiger” is the first good song we really ever wrote as a band, waaaay back in the day (I can actually remember writing this song in my freshman dorm room nearly 20 years ago now). It’s an energetic power-pop banger about Spider-Man and Mary Jane, because of course it is. You can pre-save the song here, or just look it up Friday on Spotify / Bandcamp / Apple Music / whatever.
(There’s also a super special secret track exclusively available only on Bandcamp.)
Did I mention this is the first song we’ve ever released where we also let someone else do some of the production work? We engineered and recorded it ourselves, but Reade Wolcott (of We Are The Union fame) did the mixing. Mastering was done by Dereck Blackburn of Quiethouse Recording (who helped us with our last song, too).
And then of course, next month we’ll be doing a hometown double-header weekend. On Friday, October 4, we’ll be at The Cellar on Treadwell (formerly the Space) in Hamden, CT. Then on Saturday, October 5 we’re heading up to Rejects Brewing in Middletown, Rhode Island to play their annual Oktoberfest.
Given that Rejects is something like half a mile away from the Newport town line, I assume that Taylor Swift will also be in attendance, though I can’t guarantee anything.
Reading, Writing, n’ other stuff
The month-or-so since my last newsletter has been mostly filled with work trips, vacation, and a COVID infection that had basically no other symptoms other than making it extremely difficult for me to do literally any physical activity. (I’m not exaggerating; at one point, I played guitar for like 7 minutes, then had to take a nap.) So it’s been a little lighter workload. But I always have a few fun things to share:
Over at Wirecutter, I overhauled my guide to the best neck fans. Which no longer has Bevin’s fun photos of my face, but does have plenty of other unhinged prose including a deep-cut kayfabe joke that I’m particularly proud of. I also published another new piece about how It’s Actually Okay to Run the AC All Day (Even If You’re Not Home) which made a lot of people very angry, and made even more people a lot of more comfortable and helped them save money on their bills. So that’s a win.
I got to read an advance copy of Alan Moore’s new prose novel, The Great When. It’s a fun mashup of London history with magical realism and a crime thriller rolled in for good measure. As I wrote in my longer review for BoingBoing, it’s a great book overall (I’m a big Alan Moore fan / apologist), but the gushingly luscious prose can occasionally scintillate your cerebral senses in slightly overwhelming ways that blindingly burrow through a textual labyrinth that spreads across the layers of pulped tree flesh that comprise the every page. Which is to say, sometimes he uses way more words than he has to, for things that really aren’t that important to the story. (But he is really good at writing sentences, oof.)
I also enjoyed The Unmothers, a debut novel that’s sort of like a Lovecraftian folk horror story about horses, abortions, and opioids (“oh my!”). Again, I wrote a longer review at BoingBoing, but The Unmothers does two things incredibly well. There’s the utterly beautiful body horror, specifically when it comes to horses and birthing (both human, and horse), and the way the author weaves the two things together. It’s also one of those books that leaves you guessing for like 250 pages if this is actually some sort of supernatural happening, or it’s actually just, well, a run-down rural town plagued by opioids and teenage pregnancy and a bunch of desperate people searching for any sort of answer to their unheard prayers. It’s really good.
Then there’s We Called Them Giants, a new graphic novel that’s still sort of haunting me. If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if you combined The Iron Giant with an angry orphaned teenage girl lost at the end of the world in a lusciously painted exploration of deities and cross-species communication, well, this one’s for you. If that didn’t convince you, then here’s my full review at BoingBoing.
And last but certainly not least, a playlist of every "Now That's What I Call Music" compilation ever made. Don’t say I never gave you nothin’.
Buy me a beer some time and I’ll tell you about how I almost went on a blind date with the actress who played Ellen Hinkle.