Top 13 Things Associated With Friday

13. Lyric from "Two-Handed Handshake" (The Hold Steady) that mention Fridays

Yeh, so... it mentions the show Fridays and there's a verse that sounds like it's about drinks after work (on a Friday)... eh? Honestly, this song is what inspired me to write this list, even though it has precious little to do with actual Friday.

12. Joe Friday

To be honest, I watched Mathnet way more often than I watched Dragnet, but I hear this guy was pretty cool. "Just the facts, ma'am," and all that. Well, way to go, Joe. I suppose.

11. Good Friday

Good 'cause everyone knew He was gonna rise from the dead, not 'cause he died. Also, PS: I was an altar server once, and one of my favorite duties was holding the cross for the Veneration of the Cross on Good Friday. Although, in retrospect... people kneeling down, kissing the wood... that kinda effed me up. 

10. Fridays

The thing everyone remembers Fridays for was the episode in which Andy Kaufman (playing a dude high on pot) acted like a dude high on pot and stopped saying his lines. Michael Richards (you know, from Seinfeld, but also that time he started spouting the N-word...) stalked off to grab the cue cards, and then threw them at Kaufman. A brawl ensued. Hmm... your TV show's most memorable moment is a total cock-up, eh? Not a good sign.

9. Friday the 13th

Like, the day, not the movies. When I was a kid, I used to do this thing where every Friday the 13th, I would make my grade-school lunchmates throw out a tiny piece of their lunch as a sacrifice to some god--otherwise, the world would end. (It was something I'd decided.) Like I've said many times, I was a weird kid.

8. Friday

Yeah, Ice Cube! You were awesome in Boyz in the Hood, you'll totally keep being an awesome actor! Yeah, Chris Tucker! You were totally at your high point in this film! You guys, the sequels might not be great... but whenever this flick is on BET, I watch it...

7. T.G.I.Fridays, the restaurant

It ain't no Applebee's, but I gotta give some 'spect to TGIF. Their Buffalo Chicken Salad is remarkably decent.

6. "Friday, I'm In Love", The Cure

It's kind of a silly song. But silly in a beautiful, insouciant way, ya know? I used to listen to it while I would mow the lawn at my dad's college, the summer after freshman year of Columbia. I wasn't in love (or, more appropriately, I was falling out of it), but I was always wishing it was Friday. Hey Robert Smith... gimme a call. We should do a thing.

5. Casual Friday

As a guy who works in a lab with absolutely no dresscode, I've never really appreciated Caz Fri in all its dressed down glory, but I see the appeal. I mean, I went to Catholic school, where we were buttoned-down-and-tie every day, so... sure, I could go for some cargo pants.

4. T.G.I.F, the TV lineup

I'm talking classic TGIF here... Boy Meets World, Step by Step, Family Matters. Man, I was spoiled as a kid. We had TGIF and SNICK. Now we don't even have any defenses in football with decent names! Where are the next Purple People Eaters and WHERE is the next TGIF!? (And Cory Matthews, if you can hear me, you're a good kid. And I miss you.)

3. "Friday Night, Saturday Morning", The Specials

One of the more honest perspectives on a night out on the town. Frankly, though I enjoy the original, if you can track down the Nouvelle Vague cover, you won't be disappointed. Aw crap, remember Nouvelle Vague? They were the coolest. Oh well. This song is tight. Except for the part about having piss stains on your boots. Whoops!

2. Friday Night Lights

Best hour long show on TV today. Best ensemble cast. Best cinematography. Best pilot sinceThe West Wing. Most affecting depiction of the mundanity of small time life since ever. Coach Dad, Timmy Riggs, Matty Saracen, J. Street, Smash... oh man, I wish you were all real. Is that not the most authentic endorsement of a piece of art? You wish it transcended art-status and took on life-status. Anyways. The one show Laksh and I routinely watch, week-in-week-out.

1. Actual Friday

Named after the Norse god Frigg! As in, "What the Frigg!?!" Also, that selfsame Norse god became the Germanic deity Fricka, as in my first cat Fricka! Also, FRIDAY IS THE BEST EVER! I HAVE NO WORK TOMORROW! ENJOYMENT PROTOCOL IN PROGRESS!

Top 8 Things That Were Awesome About the Drive-By-Truckers and Hold Steady Concert

So, a couple nights ago, Peter and I both went to the Drive-By Truckers and Hold Steady concert, because we are both pretty big fans of both bands.  Here is why it was awesome.

8. The tour is called Rock and Roll Means Well

And that is an sweet as hell name, as well as a Drive-By-Truckers lyric.  Okay, this one was just kind of a warmup.

7. They are double-headlining on this tour.

That means that they're playing two shows at most venues, and switching off who the headlining band is.  On the night we saw, the Truckers played opened, then the Hold Steady headlined.  The night before, it was the reverse.  This is supa-cool for several reasons--the evenhandedness of it all is really fun, I think--but the best part is that it means that the "opening" band either night is really good and plays for a long time.  The Drive-By-Truckers played for about an hour and fifteen minutes!  Rock!

6. The show was long

Oh, and speaking of that, after DBT played for 75 minutes, the Hold Steady played for almost two friggin' hours!  That was including an encore at the end, where three guys from the Truckers joined the Hold Steady on stage and played with them.  But a 75-min opening band and a 120-min headliner?  Shit son, we got our money's worth.

5. They played some goofy cover songs

So, during that encore, the bands together played two covers, the Minutemen's "History Lesson, Part II" and the Blue Oyster Cult's "Burnin' for You."  Aside from being the goofiest chiocest imaginable (and ergo sweet), the Blue Oyster Cult cover displayed how much DBT lead singer Patterson Hood sounds almost exactly like the dude from the Blue Oyster Cult.

4. They played some obscure songs from their own catalogue

In fact, the Hold Steady played two of the three "bonus tracks" from Separation Sunday, those being "Ask Her For some Adderall" and "Cheyenne Sunrise."  IF ONLY they had played the third one, "Two-Handed Handshake," which might be my favorite Hold Steady song.  I will not begrudge them not playing it, however.

3. The Drive-By-Truckers played "Wallace"

...which Peter and I were talking about before the show.  Actually, we were more talking about the end of the song before on Southern Rock Opera, where George Wallace goes to hell, and how awesome that part is.  But that segues into this song, which is one of my favorite DBT songs, and which they said they don't play that frequently, but once George Wallace's grandson got drunk at one of their shows and told them he loved the song.  If that's not rock, I don't know what is.

2. They were all really good musicians

I know this is kinda stupid, but since I play bass every once in a while, I always like to pay attention to the bassist at live shows to see if he or she is actually a good bassist or just somebody with charisma along for the ride who is kinda shitty at bass.  Because, really, you can get away with having a bassist that's kinda shitty at bass.  It doesn't really matter all that much.  And I'm not trying to be sexist here, but a lot of bands add a girl bassist because it catches the attention of guys and it's the instrument with the least requirement of skill to be passable at.  Well, the Drive-By-Truckers have a girl bassist, but she's a good bassist!  And the Hold Steady bassist is good as well.  And both lead guitarists were great.  May I add, as well, that the Hold Steady bassist and guitarist are probably the two most Minnesotan-looking people I have ever seen in my life, which is probably why I just sometimes shouted Minnesota things in the lulls between songs.  Like, "LORING PARK!!!!!!!!!" and "NICOLETT MALL!!!!!"

1. Craig Finn, frontman of the Hold Steady, is ludicrous onstage

My description of him, to Peter, after the show: "He seems like out of a thousand normal dudes he just happened to win the frontman sweepstakes right before the show.  And he hasn't taken any frontman classes yet, but he's really into it."

Peter's description of him, to me: "He acts like the audience is comprised of the most indignant people in the world."

Peter's comment was in reference to the fact that Finn would often say a line, then in the guitar-riffin' space before his next line, move away from the mic, repeat the line and make hand gestures to the audience so they really know that he MEANT it when he said that "She slept with so many skaters."

Basically, he ruled.  And so did the concert.  Peter, feel free to berate me for missing other generally awesome things.

The 15 Minnesota-est Songs, on a Minnesota Music Mix I Made

OKAY I spent a bunch of time on this the other day when I didn't really feel like doing work.  In general, I'm a really big fan of music from and about Minnesota, being from there myself and having the personal belief that it's just the right size for a "music scene": there are coherent movements and ideas that you can follow, but not so many of them that it's almost impossible to have a finger on the scene's current pulse (as it is in New York, say).

Download this mix here!!!  This is the most important part!  Listen to it while you read this!  You may have to retitle some of the songs or something because I don't really know that well how to megaupload mixes!  But that's okay!  Because free music is worth it!  This album is also really well-sequenced.  And I worked a LONG TIME on that.

(Apologies to the following musicians, whom I like but CUT: Run Westy Run, P.O.S., Soul Asylum, Kid Dakota, Trip Shakespeare, Haley Bonar, Tapes n' Tapes, and Mark Mallman...also had I room I might have had a third Replacements song which would've been "Run It" and probably a second Jayhawks song too.)

1. The Hold Steady - "Stevie Nix"

The Hold Steady probably name-drop Minnesota locations more frequently than any other musician in history.  This opens the mix because of the line, "When we hit the Twin Cities, I didn't know that much about it / I knew Mary Tyler Moore and I knew Profane Existence."  Well, unless you are a hipster in the 80s, you don't even know Profane Existence, but this song starts out the mix because right now you DON'T KNOW MUCH about the Twin Cities, but you will by the end!

(I am being up on pop culture right now and it feels good.)

2. Prince - "Uptown"

Maybe the musician most associated in the typical public mind with Minnesota, Prince pioneered the Minnneapolis sound of funk/R&B, and he's catchy as hell and great.  This song is about the Uptown area of Minneapolis, which in the world of the song is some sort of happy-land where prejudices and hatred disappear.  This is a fact.  They do.  Uptown is made of magic.

3. Atmosphere - "Say Shhhh"

Atmosphere is the biggest name in the new-ish Minneapolis hip-hop scene, and this song is his sort of love-letter to Minnesota and the midwest.  It's maybe a little bad that he seems to think that a natural reaction to telling people that you're from Minnesota is laughter, but fuck 'em man, he tells 'em "Shhh!" so it's all good.

4. The Jayhawks - "Blue"

As I mentioned above, I really wanted to fit two Jayhawks songs on this, but I didn't.  Though they never got huge, The Jayhawks kind of typify a lot of what I love about Minnesota music.  This is incredibly catchy, with straight-ahead lyrics, rootsy, emotional and evocative but without pretension to be more than just a great, great pop song.  Unfortunately, they basically never sing about Minnesota, which kept them to one track.

5. Lucinda Williams - "Minneapolis"

Here's the first song on here that's by a non-Minnesotan artist (she's from Louisiana), but she's one of my all-time favorite songwriters and she captures Minneapolis really well here.  Seriously:

I've been waiting for you to come back
Since you left Minneapolis
Snow covers the streetlamps and the windowsills
The buildings and the brittle crooked trees
Dead leaves of December
Thin skinned and splintered
Never gotten used to this bitter winter

If you told me she was a native, I'd believe it.

6. Bob Dylan - "Girl from the North Country"

DUH-UH!  Everyone who knows good old BobDy well enough knows that he's from Minnesota, but it really doesn't figure into his music much.  This is about the closest he gets, and it's more of a folky, mythical depiction of Minnesota than a really resonant one, at least for me.  Still, he's fucking Bob Dylan, he's awesome, and this is a great song.

7. The Replacements - "Here Comes A Regular"

Not only probably my favorite Minnesota band, but also in contention for my all-time favorite band, The 'Mats get everything right about growing up in Minnesota.  This song is apparently about a certain bar called the CC Club, to which I've never been, but I plan to solely becuase I love this song.  Peter does as well, naming it the seventh best closing track.

8. Tom Waits - "9th and Hennepin"

A strange choice, maybe, because it's in the kinda out-there category of Tom Waits' spoken word ("Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" is a li'l more accessible as far as Waits on Minneapolis), but I like this one a lot because I know the specific location, and nowadays it's nothing like how it's described here. (I've heard a live version where he mentions this fact as well.) Waits, however, is so good with words that you can go there and imagine how it used to be that way perfectly.

Waits, incidentally, is also not from Minnesota, but spent some time there, I believe.

9. Low - "Dragonfly"

These guys are fantastic, and some of the most underappreciated people making music right now.  Somebody declared their genre to be "slowcore," which makes it sound horrible (because it's a horrible name for a genre), but it's not.  They don't really make music about Minnesota, but they're from Duluth and I fucking love them.  Saw them live once in Minneapolis, and for extremely downbeat music, they put on a hell of a show.  Anyway, check these guys out if you like this song, you won't be sorry.

10. Semisonic - "Sculpture Garden"

One of the bigger bands to come out of Minnesota in the last ten or twenty years, you know these guys for "Closing Time."  They're a solid, smart pop-rock band (formed from the ashes of the aforementioned Trip Shakespeare), and this is a great song about this place.

11. The Hold Steady - "Your Little Hoodrat Friend"

One of only two bands I deemed SO Minnesota as to put on here twice, this song is a character study of a type of person whom I think is a pretty uniquely midwestern phenomenon.  The key is, I think, amid all the weird punk aesthetic, etc., of the girl described, the intense and unironic Christianity.  I don't get it either.  I'm kind of convinced that Craig Finn made up the slang term "hoodrat," 'cause I've never heard it, and I've never heard Loring Park called "Penetration Park" either, but I'll give him that it was probably some local/friend slang of his.  Also in this song: Osseo, Stillwater, and Claddagh rings (which I think I've only ever seen in Minnesota).  Also: I just spent a bunch of time trying to figure out which railroad bridge I thought he meant, but I'm not sure.  One of the candidates is right by where I live now, but one of the others actually seems more likely.

13. Brother Ali - "Truth Is"

Probably the best rapper to emerge out of the current Minneapolis hip-hop scene, this song isn't connected to Minnesota, but similar to Low, this dude deserves more exposure than he's gotten.

13. Husker Du - "Never Talking to You Again"

One of the most important bands to come out of Minneapolis in terms of rock history, but I don't know shit about rock history, I just love this song.

14. The Replacements - "Skyway"

If I were to pick the all-time Minnesota-est song, it would be this, about this, the largest skyway system in the world.  It's specific in scope but manages to say so much about Minneapolis and Minnesota:

You take the skyway, high above the busy little one-way
In my stupid hat and gloves, at night I lie awake
Wonderin' if I'll sleep
Wonderin' if we'll meet out in the street

But you take the skyway
It don't move at all like a subway
It's got bums when it's cold like any other place
It's warm up inside
Sittin' down and waitin' for a ride
Beneath the skyway

Oh, then one day, I saw you walkin' down that little one-way
Where, the place I'd catch my ride most everyday
There wasn't a damn thing I could do or say
Up in the skyway

That's it.  That's all the lyrics.  The invention that keeps us warm but separates us from each other.  If you don't get it, you've never been to Minnesota.  But maybe now you get Minnesota a little.

15. The Time - "Jungle Love"

Aw shit, I bet you thought this mix was gonna end all mellow and acoustic after that last track, didn't you?  No, mothafucka, get up and dance!