ALBUMS

1. Stick— Jim Bob
Easily my favorite solo album by the former Carter USM frontman since 2007’s A Humpty Dumpty Thing (and his most fun record since In A Big Flash Car on a Saturday Night), Stick harkens back to the turn of the millennium when Jim would release a completely unique but still very him sounding solo record nearly every year. I’ve enjoyed his musical comeback after a seven year hiatus as novelist JB Morrison, but Stick is the first time I’ve had that giddy old “oooh…what’s this?” reaction in quite awhile.¹

2. Thank The Lord… It’s the Pink Stones — The Pink Stones
The latest from my current favorite band (I think) takes the cosmic country aspects to the next level while still being its own unique thing. A record so good it inspired some flash fiction in the spaces between the songs. A lot of real sad groovies here. Bring on LP4!

3. Sea Pipes — Sea Pipes
Best debut record by a teenage band² since I Should Coco, and just as infectiously catchy. Can’t believe this was recorded by high school kids; can believe it was embraced by the legendary DJ Nic Harcourt.

4. Last Missouri Exit — Case Oats
Maybe my most anticipated album of the year, and it didn’t disappoint even though I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect. By the time I saw them play SXSW before the release date I knew this would be a treat. (Funny side story: One song had been stuck in my head since the pandemic era Tweedy Show performance circa 2020. When the album tracklist dropped I was disappointed “Diane, Diane” didn’t make the cut since I didn’t remember/realize it was called “Bitter Root Lake.”)

5. The Little Ones — James Felice
A lightly paraphrased one-sided conversation with my wife. “James Felice has a solo album coming out on Valentines Day.” <a few days later> “And it’s really good.” <a few days later> “And he’s playing Antone’s next week opening for Shovels & Rope.” <after the show> “Should we go see him again tomorrow?” To reappropriate the time Ian Felice paraphrased my wife live on stage: “Hear that James? They’re all hits.”

6. Magnifier — Mason Jennings
My favorite Mason album since Wild Dark Metal, which is oddly the polar opposite of this sparse, short, acoustic beauty of a record. Normally I complain about feeling shortchanged by 8 song / < 30 minute releases, but this became the perfect soundtrack to put on right before bed while still being awake for the whole thing before fading off.

7. Big Stage — Jon Lindsay
Smart, sharp songwriting carries this pop-infused album that feels straight out of the late 70s/early 80s in a love-letter sort of way. Sonically a little all over the place yet still has a solid through line if that makes sense.

8. Love Chant — The Lemonheads
I went into this with very low expectations and came out pleasantly surprised. It splits the difference between the early punky songs and the 90s pop perfection. And of course I dig the fun song titles like “58 Second Song” (clocking in at 3 minutes and change) or “Wild Thing” (not a cover, but winkingly not not not³ a cover)

9. Arther Buck 2 — Arthur Buck
Sounds like what I wanted the first Arthur Buck record to sound like, which is basically Monster era R.E.M. crossed with Lonely Astronaut era Joseph Arthur.

10. Songs For Other People’s Weddings— Jens Lekman
This concept album released as a companion to David Levithan’s novel of the same name⁴ features Jens’s classic formula of heartfelt goofy sincerity amped up to almost orchestral musical proportions. (And of course I was intrigued by the concept of a book based on an album featuring characters with single letter names…)

11. is — My Morning Jacket
My favorite MMJ record since Circuital. (For some reason I keep wanting to call this if vs. is.)

12. Automatic — Jim Bob
Released on the same day as my #1 record of the year Stick, I consider this one the fourth album in the comeback record trilogy⁵ that started with 2020’s 7th ranked Pop Up Jim Bob. Still, I realize these subjective ranking exercises are silly and any new Jim Bob record is something to celebrate. Without the juxtaposition of two choices who knows where this would independently rank⁶. “Our Forever Home” might be my favorite Jim Bob ballad since “This Phoney War.”

SONGS

1. “Basic Being Basic” — Djo

2. “Snugglebunny” — Benji Hughes

3. “Bitter Root Lake” — Case Oats

4. “My Other Car” — Jon Lindsay

5. “Space” — Hunter James

6. “I Wrote A Song Called Take The Skinheads Bowling” — David Lowry

7. “Betrayed” — Jeff Tweedy

8. “Didn’t ask what’s on my mind.” — Telemarket

SHOWS

1. Danny Malone (4 shows: 1/17 + 5/10 at Radio East, 7/26 at Wyldewood, 8/1 at Radio South)
Discovery of the year that kept on giving. He opened for Possessed by Paul James at the January show. We knew nothing about him—but the rest of the room joyfully sang every word and screamed “We love you Danny!” after nearly every song. Started seeking him out after this; by the third show we were practically leading the sing-a-longs.

2. Benji Hughes & Jon Lindsay (3 shows⁷in 3 cities!: 3/14⁸at Merdian in Buda, 3/15 at Zilker Brewing during SXSW, 5/16 at The Pour House in Raleigh, NC⁹)
Last year’s jaunt to NC proved unnecessary¹⁰ when my favorite musician came to me in 2025. Later in the year I managed to parlay a work trip into one last side quest for the final show of the duo tour taking it full circle at Jon Lindsay’s record release gig. Got to hear a few unexpected deep cuts (“Longshot”, “Magic Summertime”, “Spirit Guide”), helped¹¹ inflate and/or deflate beach balls & floats for the stage show, and brought a whole parade of Texas people on tour from all sides of my triple life to the Buda gig to join in on the fun.¹²

3. Shurman at the Saxon Pub — 7/24/25
I used to see this band all the time 20+ years ago in LA. This random reunion showed they still got it.

4. Vapors of Morphine at the Continental Club — 9/19/25
Hat tip to Jon Mack for telling me to check this out. Wasn’t sure how Mophine would be with a different singer/bass player, but hearing these songs live was amazing. (The saxophone is arguably more important to the overall Morphine sound than my younger self realized.) Bonus: Encore opened with “Thursday” — my favorite Morphine jam.

5. Wilco AM Tribute at Radio East — 9/20/25
A fun set of Austin all-stars covering Wilco’s under-appreciated debut.¹³

6. Pink Stones at the White Horse (1.5 times) — 3/13 outside & 3/15 inside
The biggest concert going news of the year is I missed more Pink Stones gigs than I attended!
My epic run of consecutive Austin shows in a 3 year span ended with number 16 before the two Benji sets and Nate Pepper’s out of town birthday generated four separate conflicts¹⁴. Bright side was the 3/15 Benji/Pink Stones conflicts were a 2 minute walk apart (thank the lord for SXSW), so I did squeeze in the back half of the unexpectedly extended Pink Stones set¹⁵.

7. LA Exes at Stubb’s — 11/8/25¹⁶
Have wanted to see this band since their debut album ranked second on my 2021 list, and the opening slot for OK GO was a perfect way to do so. Bonus: We got upgraded to VIP/ADA seats and watched from the balcony above the stage.

8. Regina Spektor at The Moody Theater — 8/5/25
Oh, Regina. Hadn’t seen you live for 16 years before this gem. How we’ve missed you.

9. Hayes Carll Grateful For Christmas at the Paramount Theater — 12/11/25
This annual event is fast becoming a December tradition. Oddly light on actual holiday songs this year, though special guest appearances by Ben Kweller and Lyle Lovett (on a duet of “LA Freeway” by Guy Clark!) made up for it.

10. Supergrass at House of Blues Boston — 9/12/25
In which they played all of I Should Coco, not quite in order on the final night of the tour.

11. Pavement at Levitation Fest — 9/28/25
A Pavement reunion will never get old. I sorta wish the setlist had more “hits,” but can’t complain about rare appearances by “We Dance” & “Debris Slide” & “Texas Never Whispers” here.¹⁷

12. Jens Lekman at Mohawk — 11/25/25
Theme of this show was “dress as a song title.” I went as “Cover Me” by Bruce Springsteen wearing a classic Coverville podcast Coca-Cola parody shirt. My wife and her oxygen machine were “The Air That I Breathe” by Albert Hammond. Jens was Jens, as delightful as always.

13. Fingerpistol at ABGB — 7/20/25
See last year’s 11th ranked show for the full “why I dig this band” recap, but “Two Dollar Words” never gets old.

14. Beat Root Revival at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar — 12/21/25
Hadn’t seen Beat Root in a few years. Had a neat trick where they redid some of their originals with holiday lyrics so they wouldn’t have to completely learn all-new holiday tunes.

XX. Alabama Shakes at the MGM Music Hall at Fenway — 9/14/25
Honorable mention for this the one that got away since I didn’t get to see the show but should have. Went to the Red Sox game and saw Alabama Shakes were playing next door. When the game ended I sprinted out of the ballpark and over to the club. Bought a StubHub ticket for $20 at 9:55pm…and then got an alert my order was cancelled because the event already ended. I WAS STANDING OUTSIDE AND NOBODY WAS LEAVING! A colleague who attended told me they started at 9:15 and played until almost 11pm, so I could’ve been there for a solid 10+ songs.

PICTURES TO PROVE IT¹⁸

FOOTNOTES

1. My rankings for the full Jim Bob solo catalog: 1. A Humpty Dumpty Thing (2007), 2. J.R. (2001), 3. Stick (2025), 4. Goodnight Jim Bob (2003), 5. Pop Up Jim Bob (2020), 6. Big Flash Car on a Saturday Night (2002), 7. School (2006), 8. Thanks For Reaching Out (2023), 9. Angelstrike! (2004), 10. Who Do We Hate Today (2021), 11. Jim’s Super Stereoworld (2001), 12. What I Think About When I Think About You (2013), 13. Automatic (2025), 14. Goffam (2008) ︎
2. Full disclosure: My former boss’s son is the drummer. He sent me their first single and I was surprised it was legit good. Then the algorithm alerted me to the album drop and I had it on repeat with no nepotic nudging. ︎
3. I used a triple negative in an effort to be as charmingly opaque as the song that is and isn’t on this record, plus I liked it was footnote number 3. ︎
4. I haven’t read the book yet, but plan to next year once the paperback is released. (I read in bed, and hardcovers are dangerous if you nod off and drop one on your face.) ︎
5. So long, and thanks for all the fish. ︎
6. “Please enjoy all Jim Bob solo records equally.” — Something my Innie would be told in a Wellness Session. ︎
7. Almost 4 shows this year, but Benji cancelled his appearance at November’s Been There 4 benefit festival due to a conflict. ︎
8. March 14th gets a special SXSW footnote since I managed to see Case Oats at Hotel San Jose, John Doe Folk Trio at C-Boys, Deslondes at Colton House Hotel, Benji at Meridian and almost had a chance to make it back in time to see The Pink Stones close out the night at Continental Club (but Buda proved too far away logistically). Still, what a day! ︎
9. Lily Mars opened the Raleigh show and played a great cover of “Jane Says.” ︎
10. Though of course I’m still glad I went. ︎
11. Poorly, though in my defense you didn’t have to squeeze to inflate when I was a kid! ︎
12. Quote from Nate Pepper: “After seeing Benji live I understand L Extreme a lot more.” ︎
13. I was sort of triple booked this night, deciding between this show / Vapors of Morphine night 2 / Flat Fest 2. I’m happy with my selection. ︎
14. Especially disappointing was I missed shows at Continental Club & Saxon Pub, two of my favorite venues. ︎
15. I thought I’d negotiated my favorite song “Time’s Standing Still” as both the opener and the closer with bass player Adam Wayton so I’d be present for the second instance, but as Hunter Pinkston put it afterwards “Adam’s not in charge of anything” ︎
16. This would have been the day of the 4th Benji gig of the year at Been There 4. Didn’t have to sweat it since he didn’t play, but still went to the fest in the daytime, left for LA Exes, then came back for headliner Ben Kweller. ︎
17. Since this is as good a place as any: I loved Pavements the movie. Best line: “Like being in a hair metal band in 1992, you can’t ruin something that’s already ruined.” ︎
18. I’ve got a whole stack of proof ︎

January 31, 2025 marked the release of three new Benji Hughes jams via the soundtrack to the film Home Free. Since I spent years mapping out how to work nearly all of his other songs into a story, my mind naturally processed these new additions in the same manner. How would “Go Dancin'” & “Snuggle Bunny” & “Home Free” fit into L Extreme? Listen up & read on…

Go Dancin’
“Make a long list” from the chorus¹ naturally aligns with the repeated list motifs found during Benji & Jessica’s courtship. At the end of “I Went With Some Friends To See The Flaming Lips” the narrator hits us with a long list of L words. Jessica ponders finding someone to dance with on the dock upon her Jamaican arrival, and the verses feel like pickup lines Kenny would try. Mentally, I tie it to “Girl, You Can’t Dance” for obvious reasons.

Snuggle Bunny
The best song on the whole soundtrack by a country mile in my humble opinion, it also has the cleanest fit into the novel. “You used to kiss me and tell me I’m funny / now all you want to do is talk about money” slots perfectly into Benji & L’s deep dive into the finances of their relationship in “Love on a Budget.” Later, “I’ve been working on my magical touch” has echoes of Jessica’s penchant for magic tricks and would be a nice one-liner during the “let’s lay here in the dark together” bit that closes out “Where Do Old Lovers Go?“

Home Free
A nice piano demo with lyrics seemingly playing on the homeless message of the film, I hear some echoes of “Country Love” in the intro verses. “Rolling through the thoughts that keep on rolling through my mind” summarizes Heartman’s contemplative journey along the Vagus nerve. The same line also has a touch of “ladies roll by” from “Waiting for an Invitation.” The “up my sleeve” motif once again circles back to magic tricks. “I don’t care what it costs” could slip into the Jamaican timeshare sales presentation. “Setting everything on fire” invokes Jessica quoting a line from “Burn” by Vincent & Mr. Green. There’s also a great giggle in the middle of the song, reminding me of this:

“I don’t think I can cook with someone who likes wrestling.” Jessica kept a straight face for a couple of beats, but couldn’t hold it and resumed giggling. Benji also laughed. And so did the girl who bagged groceries.

For more:

Check out the full movie soundtrack

Learn more about the film

Read the novel to imagine these Benji songs were included (and understand what the heck I’m talking about in the out of context excerpts above…)

FOOTNOTES

1. UPDATE 7/17/25: The good folks from BeenThere.org who made the film / produced the soundtrack reached out on Instagram to let me know I got this lyric wrong. The path from A Love Extreme to L Extreme was paved in mondegreens so this is nothing new—but somehow the real lyric already had a scene that fits! ︎

Feeling a little underwhelmed by the 2024 ACL Fest lineup (no offense — I still went Friday), I accidentally built my own 3-city fester the weekend before when the stars magically aligned.

How’d it come to be? Bought tickets to the epic Friday night Weezer Journey to the Blue Planet gig when they went on sale months ago. Also had tix to James & Johnny Marr at Stubb’s on Sunday, but made the half difficult/half no brainer call to skip it in favor of seeing the Soul Coughing reunion in Boston with my high school friends. Literally hours after I booked my flight, a rare Benji Hughes gig was announced on the day in between. Already headed in an easterly direction, on a whim I looked at adding a stop in Wilmington, NC and was pleasantly shocked to see it dropped the price of the plane ticket by ~$150. Clearly a sign to go for it.

The craziest thing is how all of these artists have a deep connection to both my music fandom and my writing. Let’s take a whirlwind trip down memory lane.

Dinosaur Jr.
“Start Choppin” is the defining song of the 90s for me. I know it’s implausible to just pick one track to represent an entire decade, but forced to do so it’s always been my pick. Melodic and discordant, soft and loud, singable and shreddable. It appears as one of the stolen future songs on Local Boy’s setlist in Timely Persuasion, and resurfaces in Local Boy Done Gone with two live performances as a folky girl/boy duet (something I’ve literally dreamed about hearing on and off for years) plus a chapter title nod. In early Done Gone drafts J. Mascis was a listed member of the 27 Club, but I ended up replacing him with a musician we’ll get to in a bit. Loved hearing Choppin’ live for the first time, and was impressed J. can still hit the high notes!

The Flaming Lips
I first saw The Flaming Lips live on the 1993 Bar-B-Q Mitzvah tour with Stone Temple Pilots and Butthole Surfers. (Epic show at a weird venue; perhaps a story for another day.¹) They also have a song on the soundtrack of my second-favorite movie, 1994’s Love & a .45. The 10 year / 4 album run from Zaireeka to At War With The Mystics was a wonder to behold both on the recordings and live–and also includes a stint as Beck’s opening / backing band I sorely regret not attending. Over in JLC land, the Lips get a whole chapter in L Extreme. Unlike the Benji Hughes song set at a real gig, the book version revolves around a DVD of documentary The Fearless Freaks. In hindsight, it also highlights a specific scene where Wayne Coyne mows his lawn in the fall which is something Local Boy also does in both Timely Persuasion & Local Boy Done Gone. TP was written before I knew this lawn mowing movie scene existed; LBDG was later but I didn’t make the connection until now. This gig was the same spectacle as always, similar to the headlining Yoshimi set I saw a few months back but slimmed down as an opener.

Weezer
Including this show, I’ve now (basically) seen Weezer perform The Blue Album in full three times. Other two were on the Memories tour in 2010, and way back in 1994 with Lush & Live where they basically played Blue in order but moved Undone & Surf Wax to the end.² It’s one of my favorite records of all time, and the official soundtrack for late night driving. (“I can stay awake for another hour if we crank Blue and sing along…”) “Only In Dreams” became a key allusion in the climax of Timely Persuasion. An abandoned attempt to write a short story based on “My Name is Jonas” may have indirectly spurred me to try the same with “The Mummy,” spawning L Extreme. “Keep Fishin'” shows up as a chapter title (and stolen song from the future) in Local Boy Done Gone. And can you take a guess at who took J. Mascis’s slot on the time traveler’s 27 Club List?³ I enjoyed the concert theme of “NASA sends Weezer to find a new blue planet” and the opening best of set, including an especially dope version of “Dope Nose.”

Jon Lindsay
Mainly an artist I was always aware of from his Benji Hughes connection, I recall listening to his Escape from Plaza-Midwood record shortly after I discovered Benji and thinking it had a bit of a Minus 5 vibe. (I also always remembered the album title for some reason.) At the gig he covered “Wolves” by American Aquarium, whose singer BJ Barham was briefly on the redhead’s 27 Club list in an older draft of Done Gone. Jon Lindsay also might be the only Benji Hughes collaborator to not get a cameo in L Extreme⁴ — but the omission was unintentional. Originally he was there, but a beta reader commented it wasn’t realistic to have both a Jon & a Jonathan in a list of friends and I took the advice. (There’s plenty of other stuff requiring suspension of disbelief in LX, so it’s sort of funny this was a compromise I made…). No offense intended, other JL! Officially “Jonathan” is both you & Jonathan Wilson rolled into one composite.

Benji Hughes
What’s left to be said about my favorite musician who pops up frequently on this blog and inspired me to write a song by song novelization of his debut double album? Only that his live show is still as magical as ever. The duo format suits the songs well, and there were a fair number of deep cuts (“Kenny,” “Country Love,” “Don’t Outlaw Plants”) alongside almost half of A Love Extreme. Seeing LX on the merch table amongst t-shirts and albums was surreal, as was hearing someone mention they thought Jon Lindsay wrote the book due to the “JL” initials. This was the eighth time I’ve seen Benji live (not counting pandemic era livestreams), but first since the book was released. Can’t hardly wait for the next one, whenever or wherever it might be.

More Benji Hughes setlists

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Soul Coughing
They said this reunion would never happen, so it was a big surprise when announced. It also seemed unlikely to happen again, so I couldn’t pass up the chance to see one of the favorite bands of my youth. Mike Doughty’s handwriting is famously used for Local Boy’s setlists in Timely Persuasion via the awesome Wichita font from Chank Diesel’s rockstar font project. (It also makes an encore reprise in Local Boy Done Gone.) A Love Extreme dethroned Skittish as my favorite all time album about a decade ago. The other work in progress TP sequel has a scene set on 9/29/98, a red letter date remembered by many as the greatest rap album release day ever. For me it’s the day the final Soul Coughing record El Oso was released. Our crew of friends made a pilgrimage to Newbury Comics in Braintree and collectively bought ten copies, rotating whose we’d listen to on the way home and into the night. Show was fantastic, with the highlight being when they played my favorite song from each of their records (“True Dreams of Wichita” > “Collapse” > “Misinformed”) all in a row mid-show.

More Soul Coughing setlists

Thanks for indulging my trip down this musical memory lane! As long as we’re talking about concerts, enter to win a $50 Ticketmaster gift card and an autographed copy of Local Boy Done Gone from Concert Guy Rob!

FOOTNOTES:

1. Quick summary: Someone threw a shoe (which happened a surprising amount in the 90s), STP violently kicked his butt. Later the Butthole Surfers fired a shotgun at beach balls and balloons over the crowd’s head. The whopping was definitely real; to this day I’m still not sure if the shotgun was or wasn’t. ︎
2. My hazy memory thought this was the only change, but Setlist.fm says they also swapped In The Garage / Say it Ain’t So, played Jamie in between (which I vaguely remember in hindsight) and a yet to be released Getchoo (which I do not remember at all). ︎
3. This was actually a little more convoluted. Rivers was going to replace J, but replaced BJ Barham from American Aquarium instead. Later Guigsy from Oasis was the one who got Mr. Mascis off the hook. ︎
4. Benji specifically told me if I did the collaborator cameos he didn’t want anyone left out. Oops! ︎

They played Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots in its entirety, followed by a full second set with all of the usual delightful hjinx throughout. If memory serves this was my 5th Flaming Lips show but the first in over a decade. The fact that they exist at all (let alone are still doing their thing all these years later) makes me incredibly happy.

Anyways, the show inspired me to dig up a deleted scene from the “I Went With Some Friends to See the Flaming Lips” chapter in L Extreme, but when I re-read the commentary blog post I realized I already posted it then.

So check out some words on what makes the Lips so great up there, and some photos (Flaming GIFs?) to back it up below.

Keeping score at home? Excluding framing devices, re-arranging the chapters into chronological story would be along the lines of:

21, 3, 8, 9, 10, 23/11, 12, 13, 1, 2, 4, 5, 16/6, 7, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26

(You could also argue 1/19/25 happen simultaneously & 8 is contemporaneous with 9-13. Plus it wouldn’t be too hard to convince me the unlisted epilogue actually belongs first…)

Got all that? Numbering schemes aside, it’s a wild trip. Many readers have told me Side B (8-13 chronologically) would make a good standalone novella. Some even say reading Side B before Side A is a better intro to the story. It’s a valid take.

Sticking (mostly) to the album sequence, I viewed the genre-shift of the extended B-Side flashback as a bit of a twisty rug pull that pushes the story in a different direction for the second half. Using it as the hook instead of the twist hadn’t crossed my mind, but the more I thought about it the more intrigued I got.

Better still, why not have it both ways? Asking anyone to read the same book twice to fully appreciate it is too much. But what if the free sample came from Side B instead of Side A? If you dig it, you can take it from the top. When you reach the part you already read you have the option of re-reading or skipping over it without penalty or confusion. Now I really loved this idea.

Re-introducing The Ballad of Heartman & Songstress — a lightly remixed version of L Extreme‘s second act that removes the frame story, mixes in the Jessica flashback chapters, adds more Benji Hughes inspired section titles plus one brand new scene.

Completely standalone & completely free, featuring a killer cover illustration via Stuff By Mark.

Enjoy!

Let’s start at the beginning…

July 2009: I purchased the special music issue of The Believer magazine at Skylight Books in LA. It was a total impulse purchase based on the theme, the cover, knowledge of Dave Eggers’s involvement and the fact that it came with a CD ala the old British music mags I was obsessed with as a teenager. It would be a couple months before I got around to reading it, but I find it fascinating that I can trace this book back to this exact moment.

When I finally dug into the magazine was a red-letter date. On 9/7/09 I purchased A Love Extreme and added it to my iTunes library. Followed under a week later by The Ballad of Hope Nicholls by Benji’s 90s band Muscadine, a clear signal that an obsession was brewing.

My Last.fm profile shows how much airplay that album got at home—quickly topping my personal charts and assuming the “favorite record of all time” title in a post on this blog dated 8/22/10.

Flash-forward some unknown period of time, once again at Skylight Books. I had forgotten this, but my wife vividly remembers watching me browse the spinning metal rack of 33 1/3 music criticism books and saying: “Somebody should write one of these about A Love Extreme. No—I should write one of these about A Love Extreme.”

That explains my archive of 37 articles / interviews with Benji found online spanning 2006-2018. But when did I switch the concept from non-fiction to fiction(ish) magic realism? I honestly don’t remember, but I have some vague flashes of forces pushing me in this direction from both the research and the music:

“Oh definitely. There is a theme there. I don’t want to say anything about it. Maybe it’s love. There is something that the whole thing’s all about.” — Artist Direct Interview, 2008

“There’s not gonna be a 2019 A Love Extreme re-release with bonus tracks we didn’t put on there.” — Seeds Entertainment, 2010

“I want to be in your book—the front page of your life.” — lyric from A Love Extreme track “So Well”

“Don’t forget to write me when you’re famous.” — lyric from unreleased song played during Largo residency, 2010

Something I do remember is sitting on the couch listening to A Love Extreme for the umpteenth time and telling my wife “I bet I could write a novel based on this whole album.” She definitely rolled her eyes, and probably went to bed.

I found a file on my hard drive dated 2/18/13 (President’s Day! And possibly the same day as the above memory) titled “A Love Extreme Notes” that contains very brief bulleted sketches of the first thirteen songs plus “I Went With Some Friends to See the Flaming Lips.” Aside from noting the instrumentals should be dreams it doesn’t really mirror the plot of the novel at all, but shows some spark of inspiration. The text file was never edited after its creation. (I didn’t even open it during the later writing stages since I forgot it existed.) Maybe I got distracted, or didn’t think anyone cared. More likely I didn’t feel capable of pulling off a storyline based on one album’s worth of songs.

Next is another text file, this one dated 9/21/14, 11:20pm Pacific time. A short story based on “The Mummy.” For years I’d written little fiction pieces about songs to amuse myself or my wife or my friends. Usually they go unfinished. A script for a made-for-TV movie based on “Taxi” by Harry Chapin. A short about a car breaking down on the side of the road inspired by “My Name is Jonas” by Weezer. A Twilight Zone style anthology series with the pilot episode adapting the Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch version of “Wildside” (with apologies to Lou Reed).

This Mummy story wasn’t very good, but it still amuses me to no end. Most importantly, it sets up a framework for what followed. As best I can recall, my brainstorm went something like this:

Dracula, Frankenstein and the Mummy are roommates in a band with a Monkees type living situation. They’re watching the Slow Century documentary about Pavement in their small apartment on an okay side of town and arguing about who gets to perform at the prom.

But monsters are too obvious. I’ll call Dracula “Count” and make him speak in numbers, sort of like an adult version of the Sesame Street character. Frankenstein is just a big guy named Frank who may or may not be a monster. Who’s the mummy? A reincarnated Egyptian pharaoh? Somebody’s mom?

That was enough to get me off the couch and over to the computer. During the very short jaunt down the hallway I scrapped the mummy character in favor of a fictionalized version of the actual Benji Hughes for reasons completely lost on me. I wrote:

Benji and Count were watching “Slow Century” for the fiftieth time while they waited for Frank to show up. They knew it was the fiftieth time because that’s what Count did — he counted.

989 words later I had a dumb little ditty that started with those three characters living the lyrics of “The Mummy” and ended with a riff on the lyrics from “Everybody Falls In Love“—a different Benji song recently released on XXOXOXX (later re-issued as Another Extreme)—part of a 4 (!!!) CD set of new albums we got pre-release copies of when my wife mentioned her plan to surprise me with a trip to NC to see a Benji Hughes show to a co-worker who responded: “I didn’t realize you liked him—I kinda know him…” That album was added to our library on 8/26/14, less than a month before I wrote the Mummy short. It was the missing piece of creative connective tissue I needed. Don’t only write about A Love Extreme; write about ALL THE SONGS!

Inspired, I ran with the idea as my 2014 NaNoWriMo project, writing just shy of 17K words about Benji, Count, Frank and Benji’s mysterious ex-girlfriend L that November. And the next November. And the one after that. 2014-2018, every November spent chipping away with another 10-18K words song by song, chapter by chapter. A lot of it got scrapped—there’s 30K words of outtakes in what became an 87K word book—but a lot of it worked far better than it had any business doing under the circumstances.

Of course, there was this looming moral/copyright/intellectual property gray area issue to resolve. I figured I’d toss the hail mary of a pitch to Benji down the road if/when it was ready, and most likely rework the whole thing to scrape off the serial numbers and remove the references when I got either a no or a no response. But I was having so much fun it was the least of my worries at the time…

Stay tuned for Part II of how this zany project got off the ground—probably after a few chapter commentary posts…

Check out L Extreme: A Novel Based on the Songs of Benji Hughes

Announcing the new novel by JL Civi: L Extreme!

Readers of this blog know I’ve been a huge fan of Benji Hughes for years. Somewhere along the line I decided to write a novel based on his album A Love Extreme. For a reason I can’t fully recall or explain I decided to make a fictionalized version of Benji the protagonist. And somewhere much later down the line he gave me permission to release it, did the cover art, and wrote an afterword!

I call the book a cross between Yellow Submarine and Being John Malkovich with a sprinkling of 33 1/3 style fun facts scattered throughout. It’s a zany, cross-genre story grounded in the song by song world of the album but ultimately its own separate thing. If you dig it, the credit goes to Benji as the muse. If you hate it, blame me and I apologize for tainting the album. Personally I think they go well together regardless of whether you view it as a novelization of a record or a soundtrack to a book. But of course I’m biased :).

I’ll kick off a similar chapter by chapter commentary series of blog posts like I did for Timely Persuasion in the near future. For now, check out the ebook at your favorite store.

More soon…

1. I Had a Dream That You Were Mine — Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam
I love when my favorite album of the year comes out of nowhere. I listened to this on NPR first listen because I liked the title and Hamilton’s last name. And I pretty much haven’t stopped listening to it since. Never been a big Walkmen fan, though in hindsight I always liked the music of Vampire Weekend more than the lyrics. Sooo good.

2. Wild Dark Metal — Mason Jennings
Probably Mason’s best record since Blood of Man (if you don’t count The Flood as an excellent collection of older songs) — and somewhat of a companion piece with the electric guitar focus. He didn’t tour for this album, and an interview seemed to suggest he’s contemplating retirement. I hope he doesn’t hang it up for good, but completely understand if he needs a break.

3. Ruminations — Conor Oberst
This is the first time I’ve genuinely loved a Conor Oberst record top to bottom on my own vs. slowly come around to it based on my wife’s interest in it.

4. Give It Back To You — The Record Company
This one feels weird to me in some regards since I’ve been a fan of this band for so long that these aren’t really “new” songs to me. But super proud of the buzz they’ve achieved in the leap from “best local band in LA” to “Grammy nominated artist for best contemporary blues album.”

5. Songs in the Key of Animals — Benji Hughes
Another time travel moment since this tied for my second favorite album of 2014 in its original form, but got a re-issue on Merge with a different track order and some new flare to a few of the intros/outros of the songs. Love that Benji is getting more well-deserved exposure, though I’m still a little baffled by the re-ordering since I’ve always thought the “draft” version was especially well sequenced. Maybe I’ll get to ask him someday.

6. Emotions & Math — Margaret Glaspy
Favorite debut of the year — if “debut” is defined as “first release by someone I hadn’t heard of before.”

7. Life in the Dark — The Felice Brothers

SONGS

1. Couples Skate — Robert Ellis

2. O’Brien is Tryin’ to Learn to Talk Hawaiian — The Mr T Experience

3. Two Dollar Man / Old Daze — Mason Jennings

4. Freaky Feedback Blues — Benji Hughes

5. Plunder — The Felice Brothers

SHOWS

Sweet Spirit @ ABGB 1/31/16
They did a cover from Blackstar shortly after Bowie’s passing — and then went straight into an awesome rendition of “Young Americans” that brought down the house.

Benji Hughes @ The Bootleg Bar 2/4/16
My grandmother passed away this year. The funeral was the weekend before this show. I was scheduled to go to LA for work and could have been off the hook no questions asked, but decided to keep the trip anyways. Whether it was too soon or not is still debatable, but seeing Benji and hearing “I Hate When Pretty Ladies Die” live was exactly what I needed. RIP, Gram.

Smooth Hound Smith @ ON A RIVERBOAT (!!!) at SXSW 3/18/16
I already covered this show in the SXSW recap, but man was that fun.

Supersuckers @ The Continental Club 3/19/16
This one didn’t get too much detail in the SXSW recap, but was a highlight. When the schedule first came out and I saw the Supersuckers were playing the Continental at 1am I was pretty sure I’d be going by myself, but somehow managed to convince my wife to join me (as well as our friend Hunter) and a good time was had by all.

Reverend Horton Heat & Dale Watson @ Strange Brew 7/23/16
Dale Watson became our discovery of the year due to this show. And I fulfilled my musical bucket list item of finally hearing “Liquor, Beer & Wine” live. One of four times I saw the Reverend this year after way too many years off.

Felice Brothers @ the Sidewinder 10/5/16
Super cool venue, super cool setlist by a band that’s really coming into their own. And we kept up our remarkable run of consecutive shows where they play “Marie” — still my favorite song of theirs.

The Record Company @ Antone’s 11/12/16
Coverville introduced me to the Record Company years ago based on their awesome cover of “So What’cha Want?” by the Beastie Boys. My favorite part of this show was turning around to watch the crowd while they played it, watching everyone slowly reach the same revelation about what song it was when the signature guitar riff kicks in. I also got to ask singer Chris Vos about the lyric change on “This Crooked City” from “…and we shared a couple of beers” to “…and we shed a couple of tears.” Both work well, but completely change the interpretation of the song. He laughed when we screamed the older “beers” version during the set, and later told me “to be honest, I still sing beers sometimes too.”

Wait, You’ve Never Heard: Pavement — Brighten The Corners

My favorite quote:

“There’s a magic to the moment you finally love a band, and anyone who says he or she was with every band from the beginning is a lying sack of shit.”

(via Consequence of Sound)

PS: I also love the random “The Mummy” reference for reasons not intended by the author.

I’ve been dying to see Benji Hughes live since discovering him back in October via an article in The Believer magazine that sat unread on our coffee table for several weeks. By the time I got around to reading it and listening to his album I learned we had just missed a show he did in LA days prior. A few months later we learned of another LA show 3 days after it happened. My wife was actually toying with flying to North Carolina for my birthday to see him play, but that surprise got nixed when I insisted on watching the LOST finale in the comfort of our own home. But now the wait is over, with Benji doing a 4 show residency at Largo throughout July!

Week 1 was nothing like I expected and more than I could have hoped for. The dude is just plain hilarious up there on stage with his big red cape, long hair and sunglasses. He randomly wanders off in between songs (to get “water”), one time sneaking back on stage against the rear red curtain while “camouflaging” himself with the cape. Goofy, but in a good way and highly entertaining.

In some regards it felt like we were watching a rehearsal as the band improvised the setlist — sometimes making song choices that Benji disagreed with but still nailed. (I’m not sure if this was part of the schtick or a real event, but later in the show it was revealed that Benji had accidentally ripped off the bottom half of the setlist while searching for a piece of note paper shortly before taking the stage.)

Jackson Browne was the special guest who jammed with him in the second half. They did a couple of Zevon covers, Benji’s “All You’ve Got to Do Is Fall In Love” (where Benji had to correct Jackson’s melody on the chorus), and one song by guitarist and former Muscadine partner in crime Jonathan Wilson.

Rough, out of order and likely incomplete setlist from memory:

Higher Than Balls
Even If
How Many Birds?
Country Love
Broadway (partial scat cover of the George Benson song)
Love Is A Razor
Turkeys with Guitars
Waiting For An Invitation
So Much Better
Don’t Forget to Write Me When You’re Famous
Oysters (Solo Piano)
Mohammed’s Radio (Warren Zevon cover w/ Jackson Browne)
Play It All Night Long (Warren Zevon w/ Jackson Browne)
All You’ve Got To Do Is Fall In Love (w/ Jackson Browne)
Solo Jackson Browne Song
Solo Jonathan Wilson Song
———–
Girl In The Tower

My only minor gripe is this: I tend to go into concerts with a mental checklist of songs I hope an artist plays, and then judge the show on how much of my wishlist was covered.  In this case, only the encore song was on my pre-show list. But it was still awesome regardless. Can’t wait for next week!