Lynnfield Pioneers >> Look directly into the sun

Lynnfield Pioneers - "Add It Up"

(Matador Records, 1997)

Since that guy in the Beastie Boys died, I decided the only thing to do is to post the most Beastie Boys-esque song I can think of.  Unfortunately for the Beasties, these 140 seconds eclipse pretty much anything they ever did... Awkward.  I really hope their moms are not reading this...

Note: It should go without saying that the tagline on this site's header ("Providing roughly the same amount of hits as Sadaharu Oh since 2011") is an appropriation of a line in the Beastie Boys' "Hey Ladies."

I got this album, Emerge, on LP in Dec. 1998, after reading about the band in Alternative Press and/or Magnet (both of which I subscribed to) in the previous year.  They were essentially always described as some variation of "Pavement meets the Beastie Boys," or "Archers Of Loaf meets the Beastie Boys," etc. The hilarious cover art, a soft-focus shot of a group of flowers, is a classic.  It'd be ideal for an album by Starland Vocal Band or some hirsute new age flautist from a Balkan nation.  As for the curious band name, it's simply the name of their high school football team; for what it's worth, mine was the Country Day Cajuns and our mascot was a crawfish.  I was a starter at wide receiver and cornerback, and wanted to play WR in the NFL.  AllMusic Guide gives this LP an accurate 3-star review and accurately says "Emerge seeks out the common ground between the Beastie Boys and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, slicing and dicing meaty hip-hop beats, crazed garage-rock riffs and vintage keyboard squawking; what could have amounted to little more than primordial pomo sludge is actually quite impressive when it catches fire (see "Go for a Ride," "Add It Up" and "Get Off Your Feet"), although the band's willful lack of focus is a weakness as often as it's a strength."

The drumming is incredible... Like, it should be in the hall of fame of drumming.  Listen to how the drummer leads the way in speeding up and slowing down the tempo within each bar.  Polvo would be proud at the sheer math-rockness of it.  The distorted organ (Hammond B3, I'm guessing) sound is just too cool.  The song has an overall badass quality that is infectious.  I planned to recommend this song to Apple for use in an iPod commercial about 10 years ago, but for some reason I never did.  The "Do the math / Multiply, divide, subtract" line would be perfect to play next to a graphic showing how many songs could fit into a certain size (GB) iPod.

"Add It Up" is a huge leap forward from their early self-released novelty single "Yos To Go," which begat what was apparently their only music video:

Pic taken by my sister, at my behest, in December on the edge of the French Qtr. while we were going to various Prospect.2 art exhibits around town:

She also took this one of me with some sort of robot vending machine outside the Contemporary Arts Center:

Pretty uneventful week... Went in for Mother's Day barbecue with the fam, and drove around with my dad frantically looking for flowers at 7PM on a Sunday night.  Luckily Rouse's saved the day.  Planted a Juniperus chinensis 'Blue Point' (Blue Point juniper), a Chamaerops humilis (Mediterranean Fan Palm) (normal green version), and a Leucophyllum frutescens 'Compactum' (Compact Texas Sage).  Had to buy a new $300 tire due to a tiny nail in the sidewall.  Found out holes in this location cannot be patched, so the whole tire has to be replaced.  Was sort of creeped out by how enthusiastically the mechanic told me "If someone gets mad at you, all they have to do is stick nails in your sidewalls!"  Vaguely considering seeing a band called As Cities Burn on Friday.

Appreciation of BOOTED NEWS WOMEN Blog - I just found this, the worst site in the history of America, narrowly edging out Facebook.  It brews up anywhere from 1 to 30 boot-tastic posts per day.  Reading the user comments is by far the best part.

CSI Miami: Endless Caruso one-liners - Because this show just got cancelled

Your rage comic sucks

Planets with similar climates: Bailter Space - "Pass It Up" (1997), Six Finger Satellite - "Parlour Games" (1995), James Chance & The Contortions - "Contort Yourself" (1979), Bleach - "Shotgun" (1991), The Delta 72 - "...Ever Since You Told Me" (1997).