rock stars who went back work.

Fact is, almost all of them. If you're in a band and you're not the songwriter, and you decide you're not going to tour endlessly as a hasbeen, you're going back to work. Songwriters get royalties, and may be able to live off them if they had a big enough hit. The other musicians only get paid as long as they're playing - when they stop, that's it. That TV show Hit Me Baby One More Time was great - showing the likes of Loverboy at their day jobs. Some musicians transition to sidemen/session musician/teaching or music industry careers, but the rest are on the payroll.

Rob Van Winkle (AKA Vanilla Ice) - mananger of a convenience store
Tim Cronin (Monster Magnet) - longtime fixture at Jack's Music Shop in Red Bank NJ
Tod A (Cop Shoot Cop, Firewater) - graphic designer at Rolling Stone
Lyle Preslar (Minor Threat) - A&R rep
Kira (Black Flag) - computer programmer

the singer from the band failure pumps my gas.
Self-fulfilling prophecy?

Ron Sexsmith used to be a messenger in Toronto, on foot. (He doesn't drive). He told me he was delivering a package to a business there that had a return address in Lebanon, TN, which gave him the idea for that song on his first record.

He left Beatnik a few years ago to start some cellphone ringtone company.

Nope. Hugo Burnham teaches at the Brookline Art Institute here in Boston.

Until very recently, Marty Crandall from the Shins worked at Bow Wow Records in Albuquerque. I bought many an album from him over the years.

Which is probably every band member's dream.

kinda hot, actually.

they used to say that if you drive a jaguar, you need a mechanic riding in the boot.

british computers must have been similar, that's a lot of operators.

This sounds almost too Aki Kaurismaki!

It's true, though I'm not sure whether he took the rollercoaster job for financial reasons or for something else. I guess you're right about the Kaurismäki thing, except that Kaurismäki would never make a film with mobile phones in it. Valtonen recently did a comeback tour with his first band, Sleepy Sleepers, but that was just one-shot, I'm not sure what he's doing now.

I should add that working at the record store was nothing to be 'shamed of; I just figured that because of Atlantic, the guy wouldn't have to work retail any mo'.

Why not? Aesthetic or ideological reasons?

I love that he didn't come to the last NY Film Festival out of solidarity with Abbas Kiarostami, who, being Iranian, didn't get a visa.

John Curley of the Afghan Whigs owns a recording studio in Cincinnati (Ultrasuede), and also does web design, with his wife.

-- mikef (mflemin...), September 23rd, 2005.

totally confirmed. a friend of mine here in SF works for a ringtone company called Moderati, and they deal with Thomas all the time.

in Pittsburgh, they were the shit - but i don't know just how big they really got elsewhere.

but i bought a couple of CD's off of him. nice enough guy.

Nope. Hugo Burnham teaches at the Brookline Art Institute here in Boston.

But before that he did A&R for Imago Records. In fact, he was my friend's band's A&R guy. When he got fired, they got dropped.

I've heard that too, only it's not the drummer, it's their bass player circa Golden Showe of Hits (whose name escapes me).

If your co-worker got her taxes done by Roger Rogerson, she's got serious problems because a) he's been dead for 10 years and, b) before that, he was a raving drunk. Keith Clark, the drummer from the Circle Jerks is the accountant. The Circle Jerks' original drummer, Lucky Lehrer, took over his family's optical supply business and is now a gazillionaire. His brother Chett, of Wasted Youth fame, is company VP.

John Kezdy of The Effigies is a prosecutor in Illinois.

This is true, but it`s actually a commercial music production house; I used to work for the same company. `A musician`s dream` it was not.

Also...
David William Sims (Scratch Acid/Rapeman/Jesus Lizard) is an accountant.
From Lungfish, Daniel Higgs works as a tattoo artist and the drummer is an administrator at a hospital.
During his self-imposed isolation, Kevin Shields made ends meet by selling backstock vinyl of My Bloody Valentine`s pre-Creation albums directly to stores.
Greg Dulli owns a bar in Hollywood.
Tim Harrington (Les Savy Fav) makes handmade housewares with his wife.
Yes, Jim Martin (Faith No More) grows giant mutant pumpkins.

all of a sudden, several things make sense

Scott Miller is a computer programmer.

Alison Faith Levy manages a Barnes & Noble.

Gil Ray works for a record distributor.

Not sure what Kenny Kessel is up to; maybe programming as well.

Well, this is about the least-surprising news that I've heard all day.

David Lee Roth is taking over Howard Stern's slot on K-Rock in NYC when Howard moves to Sirius.

I've stayed at Kate Pierson's motel. Fun and Kitschy. It's in the Catskills.

I heard one of the guys from Flowered Up was selling records in a stall in the Camden Lock.

Larry Graham (Graham Central Station) goes door to door with Prince as an evangelizing Jehovah's Witness.

Adam Sultan of Poi Dog Pondering works as help desk operator at Apple Computer.

From the Reivers, John Croslin works at the University of Texas, Kim Longacre teaches at a Montessori school, and Cindy Toth works at a used bookstore.

Michael Hall of the Wild Seeds (and his own solo career) is a staff writer at Texas Monthly magazine. His longtime guitarist Randy Franklin (Standing Waves, F-Systems, Loose Diamonds) runs a folk-art gallery called Yard Dog.

FYI (those who care): Biscuit of the Big Boys died a couple of weeks ago.

Roy Montgomery is a English professor in NZ.

yeah, i have his business card, even.

Ed Sanders of The Fugs taught for awhile at B@rd College in the early 80s. His flagship course was "Cultural Reportage."

oh wow, didn't know that. i took that course, but in the mid-90s, long after sanders was gone.

http://www.thedevoeteam.com/engine/home/standard/500/en/6631/