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[Kali Nichta]

Look what just popped up on YouTube.



I feel almost like I'm not supposed to, but I dig a lot of the Verbena stuff. I'm a little giddy now.

[paleotrees]

It's really funny how mad he gets about that band ... the annoyance and uncomfortability bordering on anger and then fading into semi-desperate embarrassment, like ''Please do not mention these things or I will get really impatient. And start fidgeting, ignoring you, acting uneasy, and mumbling any response I actually deem worthy of supplying. I'd appreciate if ... um ... can y'all just pretend that was some other guy?''

I shouldn't think it's funny but I do.

However, that's why Verbena makes me laugh. They are like Nirvana plus A.A. Bondy, which are among my favorite musical things, and logically should go together quite well. But I can't get through a whole song without giggling.

I laughed aloud at this one. That probably means it's good. Thanks for digging it up!

[Kali Nichta]

It's really funny how mad he gets about that band ... the annoyance and uncomfortability bordering on anger and then fading into semi-desperate embarrassment, like ''Please do not mention these things or I will get really impatient. And start fidgeting, ignoring you, acting uneasy, and mumbling any response I actually deem worthy of supplying. I'd appreciate if ... um ... can y'all just pretend that was some other guy?''

To his credit, it seems like it's some other guy. I sometimes have trouble reconciling the two in my head.

And there have been many times when I've certainly wished people thought my younger self was another person entirely.

But I can't get through a whole song without giggling.

With superior lyrics like "We should kick this place right in the crotch, dear", I can't imagine why.

[paleotrees]

I also laughed really, really hard at your phrase ''superior lyrics'', which must mean it's good too.

And I agree with your other sentiment, and can even add -- It would be like if someone dredged up footage of me and my two best ... well, two only ... friends from childhood when we had a riot grrl band called Fuck Huck Finn. Luckily this footage does not exist.

I played foot percussion and tambourine. We weren't bad, for three misfit, hyper-informed thirteen-year-old punk-rock country girls who only ever played music in the woods and had no actual training whatsoever, but it's still not a ... personality and creative endeavor of which I wish to be reminded. Or which is much if anything like the person I am now.

We never wrote such superior lyrics, though, so ol' Bondy, he's still got one on me.
However, I cannot guarantee that we would have not ''covered'' that song had it existed at the time of our band ''practices.'' I don't think it did, or my friend Helen, aka ''Man,'' would have handmade and proudly worn a Scott Bondy tee-shirt.

[paleotrees]

Afterthought -- sometimes, ''A.A.'' Bondy still acts like ''Scott'' Bondy, if we want to distinguish his stage personas thus.

For example, when he sits down with his knees ten feet apart, makes snarky witty conversation about nothing and/or drugs, and subtly laughs at other people for not being very clever. The ''I think this is funny, even if you don't, and if you don't then I'm not going to share'' kind of laugh. He manages to be amusing instead of terribly obnoxious, but ten years ago it was probably obnoxious.
This is at odds with the fellow who really likes to listen to people tell him stories, acts open and accommodating, and is gentle and easygoing. These are, most likely, all aspects of his personality that he plays up, plays down, or tries to hide for various understandable reasons depending on the situation and circumstance.

Also, I like the early demo tapes where ''A.A. Bondy'' and Verbena kind of blend. Better and more poetic writing close to the level with which we are now accustomed, combined with the ridiculous amount of well-crafted distortion rock we'd come to expect from the previous band.

However, how DOES one love someone else ''like a dirty look''? I like the line, but for the first time in a Bondy song am unclear trying to imagine what it would entail.

[Kali Nichta]

However, how DOES one love someone else ''like a dirty look''? I like the line, but for the first time in a Bondy song am unclear trying to imagine what it would entail.

Now that made me laugh because I've had the exact same thought. It's a great line, but... dude, is that good or bad?

[paleotrees]

Undoubtedly both. It sounds extremely intense, that's for sure.

[Kali Nichta]

More! This time, the Alabama Boys Choir does Letterman.



Get the hair out of your eyes, Scott.

[paleotrees]

If you let curly hair get long enough, it goes straight. Right after the mop and following the 'fro. Find all the moments where he wishes he had a bobby pin.

Also, I think he still has that shirt, though not the ... bell bottoms?

Next unnecessary segue -- that man never changes his shirts. At least not to go onstage. But he clearly washes them often enough that they, and he, remain reasonably presentable.
Purposeful image maintenance, punk-rock ethics, or pure and simple laziness? We may never know.

But this is a badass tune, thanks for sorting through the wilds of the Internet to find it!

[Kali Nichta]

If you let curly hair get long enough, it goes straight. Right after the mop and following the 'fro.

Heh, does it? My hair is at a foot and a half if pulled straight, and it's still sitting atop my head like an electrified poodle right now.

Find all the moments where he wishes he had a bobby pin.

Hey, we could take this into the schools and use it as a teaching aid. Much more fun than a picture search.

(I suspect an overzealous hair-and-makeup department is to blame.)

Also, I think he still has that shirt, though not the ... bell bottoms?

Ha, I had the same thought about the shirt.

Next unnecessary segue -- that man never changes his shirts. At least not to go onstage. But he clearly washes them often enough that they, and he, remain reasonably presentable.

After a while I figured out that he had two shirts on the tour-leg-before-last, both light grey. By the end of that tour, I thought of them as The Shirt with the Stain and The Shirt with the Tear. I think the most recent leg was a one-shirt affair.

Yet I have never experienced him smelling funky. Unlike some other beloved boys I can think of.

Purposeful image maintenance, punk-rock ethics, or pure and simple laziness? We may never know.

I vote for a combination of B and C. Less crap to keep track of, more room in the van.

But this is a badass tune, thanks for sorting through the wilds of the Internet to find it!

My pleasure.

Did we really just have a whole conversation about his hair and clothes? Time to break out the back issues of Tiger Beat.

[paleotrees]

This was a Very Important Conversation, Kali. It does not mean we are paying too much attention. No.

I'd been thinking about the shirt thing on and off for some time, actually used it as a positive to characterize him to someone unfamiliar with the person and music of A.A. Bondy, and feel that it is indicative of a larger trend.
I had two shirts, a hoodie, and three pairs of pants when I was on the road, myself, but you don't see a ton of people going that same route -- especially not after they've been on late-night TV a bunch of times and don't claim a camper van as their permanent address. It kinda ... sets my little D.I.Y./punk-rock heart to pitter-pattering.
The hair talk is just funny. Blame it on ''too many whiskey peaches and too much free time.'' I guess I should correct myself too, some people's curly hair goes straight after long enough. Some people never stop the 'fro and some people get dreads.
(Not that it matters, but I'm the opposite, my hair's straight and it goes curly after a certain length. Human beings are weird.)

Also, yeah, the Felice Brothers always kind of smell like they slept in a barn. Mind you, a barn with no animals, but a barn no less. It's kinda pleasant, or at least it can be. Cut wood, hay, sweat-salt, hair-grease, and ... well, okay, there's no poetic way to say ''armpits''. Plus cigarettes and sometimes alcohol. Sounds like a camping trip, except all the time.
Sleeping in a bus will have that effect, but it seems to be an aesthetic, because Simone still kind of smells like that even though he ostensibly lives in a house now. Less the armpits and plus some seemingly antique cologne.

[Kali Nichta]

This was a Very Important Conversation, Kali. It does not mean we are paying too much attention. No.

Heehee!

The hair talk is just funny. Blame it on ''too many whiskey peaches and too much free time.''

When life hands you a mystery can of peaches...

Human beings are weird.

To put it mildly.

Also, yeah, the Felice Brothers always kind of smell like they slept in a barn. Mind you, a barn with no animals, but a barn no less. It's kinda pleasant, or at least it can be. Cut wood, hay, sweat-salt, hair-grease, and ... well, okay, there's no poetic way to say ''armpits''.

I'd wager there was a good week's distance from a shower when I saw them play Oberlin because, whoo-eee, there was a wave of... er... ambience surging forward as soon as they took the stage. God love 'em.

[paleotrees]

You just came out with a poetic way to say ''armpits.'' My presence here is no longer necessary.

Also, I've never been around them in the summer, just early spring, late fall, and winter. So I have this to look forward to. And look forward to it I ... shall.

[Kali Nichta]

Ha!

I'd curtsy but, yeah, I really don't know how to do that, either.