defend the indefensible: new jersey

Grease Trucks! Easton Ave. had/has a Mexican place that made great deep fried tacos. Though I wouldn't consider eating one of those nowadays.

Planet X still there? Spike, the owner, was a good guy.

PLUS I know that Rwood residents start claiming curb space for the 4th of July parade a WHOLE DAY before the event, and the sight of well fed, well kept, perfectly capable people jockeying to set up their folding chairs a little closer than their neighbors...the poverty of spirit just brings me down.

I grew up in Red Bank/Long Branch, and there's not enough Monmouth County love on this thread - Jack's Music Shop, Brighton Bar, Monster Magnet, Kevin Smith, etc.

I also lived for years in the Pine Barrens area - scary fucking place. One town I lived in had no garbage pickup and no mail delivery.

A funny thing about NJ is that the border of South Jersey is relative to where you live. If you live in Jersey City, anything below Perth Amboy is South Jersey. If you live in Monmouth County, South Jersey is anything below Toms River. If you live in Cape May, anything below the Mullica River is South Jersey.

Damnit, a grease truck gyro and a Snapple sounds AWESOME. No grease trucks in LA.

http://www.roadsidepeek.com/rpeekeast/moteleast/wildwoodmotel/edenrocwildnj.jpg

chrisquartztelecom and i stayed at the starlux a few new yearses ago:

http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/cns/2002-06-10/images/wildwoodweb.jpg

it was the only wildwood hotel that was actually operating in the winter season. eerie, but in a really cool way. the boardwalk was DEAD.

this is the second summer running that i haven't made it out to the boardwalk (a term which usually signifies seaside heights, for me - trashcan that it is, i still have a lot of affection for it)

http://www.landingnewjersey.com/bertrand.htm

These guys remind me of fairly typical Jersey white kids: argumentative, profanity-loving, race-conscious, with an almost hyperactive respect for psychotic violence.

This wednesday, Glenn Mercer, co-lead guitarist/singer/songwriter of the Feelies will be performing a solo set with Wild Carnation opening up. Wild Carnation features Brenda Sauter, who was the bass player for the Feelies in the 80s as well as Speed the Plough and the beautiful and amazing Trypes. Meanwhile, Glenn is backed by a few of the Feelies original percussionists, Vinny DeNunzio and Dave Weckerman, the later we love for his early 80s DIY single Shore Leave and his Feelies spin-off Yung Wu.

It's hard to sum up their history...the Feelies began in the early/mid 70s in New Jersey with a more angsty, more aggressive Modern Lovers sound. They played CBGB's with all the NYC punk greats and over the years refined and re-defined their sound, so by the time their first record, Crazy Rhythms, was released in 1980, they were able to present something unique. The closest comparison might be the Talking Heads, but the Feelies focused more on rhythm and a Velvet Underground meets Krautrock experimentation. Through the 80s, the Feelies would release 3 more albums, sometimes veering towards a more subtle, folksy, yet no less angsty sound that was even more beautiful. In the meantime, there were countless line-up changes, spin-off bands, pseudonym bands, all quite wonderful.

Here's a clip of the Feelies performing Crazy Rhythms at CBs in the 70s:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ammeQSyUF00

Here they are 10 or so years later on David Letterman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vddceSol5k

Here's a great Feelies website:
http://www.geocities.com/thefeeliesweb/

Glenn's myspace page for his new solo project:
http://www.myspace.com/glennmercer

and the Wild Carnation page:
http://www.myspace.com/wildcarnation

You can hear Glenn's great new songs at his myspace page, and hear what has always been true, that through the years, Glenn's songwriting and playing has consistently been wonderful and consistently been his. You can not mistake these songs for anything other then yet more wonderful stuff from one of the guys behind the Feelies.

The line-up that's playing at Maxwell's wedneday played an outdoor festival in Hoboken a few months ago that's all over youtube and along with the new material they played some Feelies classics and some classics the Feelies have been known to cover, so maybe we'll get some oldies wednesday.

Maxwells is the famous club in Hoboken NJ best known for being where The Boss's "Glory Days" video was shot. It's also been the home to many legendary Feelies and Yo La Tengo shows.

http://www.maxwellsnj.com/
1039 Washington Street
Hoboken NJ
201-653-1703

Wed. 9/6
Glenn Mercer
Wild Carnation

8:30 pm
8$

see you there,

Dan

i have never been to ridgewood, sorry. and i've lived in north jersey for almost 8 years now.

-- Jay Vee's Return (milkis...), August 29th, 2006.

Hmm, I wonder if you're talking about the (now defunct) Hungry Eye, which was in fact run by a Greek couple, although you could certainly think they were Middle Eastern. I never had baklava or mint tea there, but they generally tended to make special things not on the regular grease truck menu. They also put up literary quotes all over their truck - I think they had been English teachers. Really nice folks - I was sorry to see them go.

Livingston Mall is 1/1000th a mall as Short Hills, but Livingston Mall is like, where I grew up. I stole all my comic books from Heroes World when my friend Mike worked there, I bought my first CDs at Alwick, when they used to sell boomboxes in the front, and spent many hours in the arcade there playing Star Wars. Their arcade wasn't only closer, but many degrees safer then the one in the Willowbrook Mall. Other fond memories include Bambergers (later Macy's) electronics dept, trying out the Apple Lisa there, and later the Macintosh (drawing a brick wall then spraypainting my name on MacPaint 1.0. And of course, using my red-box to make thousands of illegal telephone calls from a payphone while sitting at a bench there. Those were the days.

i'm not from NJ, but i had a red box. ah, the days of Phrack and 2600.

drilled a hole in a quarter in shop class w/ string for use at my local arcade. the weight must have been off because out of 150 machines it only worked on Root Beer Tapper. damn!

The Ramones
NRBQ
Bon Jovi
Chubby Checker
Cyndi Lauper
Eddie Money
Blue Öyster Cult
David Johansen (also known as Buster Poindexter)
The Misfits
The Smithereens
Jan & Dean
Agnostic Front
Dramarama
Squeeze
Aztec Two-Step
Thor (the singer/bodybuilder)
TV Toy
WKGB
Humans From Earth
The John Earl Walker Band
Blotto
Gary U.S. Bonds
Rachel Sweet
The Rattlers
The Feelies
Shrapnel
The Bongos
U.S.Ape
Fats Deacon & the Dumbwaiters
R. Stevie Moore
The Buttermilk Mountain Revue,
The Plastics (also known as Plastics)
Zoogz Rift
Crash Course In Science
The Stickmen
Z'ev
Rebecca Williams
The Phones (also known as The Responsible Teenagers)
The Brains
Rupert Holmes
Dave Edmunds
Rick Derringer
The Marshall Tucker Band
Peter Tork and Davy Jones of The Monkees (separately)
Steel Pulse
The Lords of the New Church
Johnny Science
The Dead Boys
Pussy Galore
The Payolas
Joan Armatrading
Tiny Tim
The Fiendz
Noble Gas