I’ve just received word that The Ballad of Christian Wolfcock, the most recent release by my one-day-a-year band, the Monkey Power Trio, is currently the second most played record on WCBN.
I know that I should be happy about this incredible achievement, but I’m finding it difficult to look beyond the fact that I don’t know even one other band on the list. In the distant past, when I’d see these college radio playlists, I’d always take pleasure in seeing where we stood in relation to other bands whose work I knew. Now, though, it’s just a jumble of meaningless words that makes me feel incredibly old.
At any rate, I wanted to thank the good men and women on WCBN for their support.
With that said, though, I also have a complaint that I’d like to register with WCBN management.
Right now on their site, they’re running the following story, and it’s just not true.
Half Japanese are not Ann Arbor natives. Jad and David, who I’m fortunate to know, have never called Ann Arbor home. They grew up in Coldwater, Michigan, started the band while at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, and put out their first EP, “Calling All Girls,” in August 1977, after moving to Uniontown, Maryland with their parents.
I just reached to out them, and they confirmed this to be the case. While they said they’d come to see shows in Ann Arbor, and visit friends here, they never lived here. As for why people might think they came from here, I suspect it has to do with the fact that one of their first songs was titled, “Ann Arbor, Mi.” As David just told me, “I think that might have mixed people up, because we never wrote songs called ‘Coldwater, Michigan’ or ‘Grand Rapids, Michigan.'”
For what it’s worth, it’s not just WCBN that gets this wrong. Wikipedia says they’re from Ann Arbor as well.
[above: “Calling all Girls,” the first release on their 50 Skidillion Watts label, was released from their parents’ home in Uniontown, Maryland.]
I should add that it doesn’t make me happy to have to tell you this. I’d love it if Jad and David were from Ann Arbor. Sadly, though, it’s just not the case.
16 Comments
What do Half Japanese and Iggy Pop have in common?
None of them are from Ann Arbor.
People from the coasts sometimes seem to think of the entire state of Michigan as the greater Ann Arbor area.
Coldwater is a terrible place.
Pilot: Will you be able to pull out at that speed?
Luke: It will be just like Beggars Canyon back home.
WCBN should issue an apology for both things.
Mr. Flakes’ skill at using Star Wars memes is obvious.
No principles or ideals flakey flakes even has to comment on a post on radio.
lol
Looking at Flakey Flakes posts, I am becoming more and more convinced of the needs to ideals in the US. Perhaps the Christians are right, the problem with politics now is that it is devoid of any moral guide, people just operate in a self-interested fashion, hoping that whatever happens doesn’t impact their 401k or keeps black people from coming near them at night.
Though I hated the Sanders campaign, now, after deeper reflection and noting the moral bankruptcy of Donald Trump and the greater Republican Party and the paper thin ideals of the Clinton campaign (and by extension the Democratic Party), if I had to do things over, i would have gotten behind him.
Yes, his ideas were poorly conceived and politically naive, but at least there were principles and ideals.
I do not care about Flakey Flakes. I goad him to learn more about suburban America. What I have found is that, like Flakey Flakes, suburban America lacks a soul. Their self interest, indifference and inability to speak to a high moral calling has profound impacts on society.
A purely rational, checks and balances approach to the world will result in failure. Human behavior can only partially be summarized in numbers, financials and quantifiable outcomes. Relying on data and numbers and “facts” to drive society will inevitably fuel self interest and game the results in favor of the people who design the models and define the terms of the surveys and will fail to bring us to a greater good.
The greatest problem with Donald Trump is that he simultaneously ignores data (“facts”) and lacks a moral base. In this way, he is really a symptom of what suburban America has become, empty and dumb while believing itself smart.
Iron Lung used to bullseye womp rats back home.
That might be the soundtrack of the Progressive Militia.
Iron Lung, a boy, two droids and no questions.
Coldwater is a very interesting place and the nearest town to the Progressive Militia training camp. I addition to a State prison, and all the stereotypical rural characters you’d expect to find, there is a vibrant Yemini Arab community. No shit!
http://ncph.org/history-at-work/sharing-yemeni-history-in-coldwater-michigan-photo-credit-tammy-barnes/
I felt a great disturbance in THE FACTS as if 10,945 voices cries out in terror.
No. Wait. I may have been wrong….I am searching my feelings….. I do feel a great disturbance in The Facts but I am not sure if it was 62,984,825 people crying out in terror or just 1 person terribly confused.
Fuck it.
“Human behavior can only partially be summarized in numbers”, am I right?
“Maybe the Christians were right and the problem with politics is that we lack a moral guide”, am I right?
I take full credit for the Monkey Power thing. I try to play a song every show (forgot this week, sorry). I also read from your liner notes the first time I brought the LP to the station! I may have also mentioned this website. So both people who were listening might be reading right now!
Keep on rocking Teacher Patti.
So, can we conclude from your statements, Iron Lung, that you spend no time whatsoever in the suburbs?