All Roads Lead Back to Neil

I've been on a bit of a walkabout for the past week, what with the guest posting - first at ScaryMommy and then at WorkingMomsBreak. One of the most exciting rewards of a guest post stint is having new readers stop on by Normalarkey, and finding out from their comments what they're all about. Humor? Parenting? Dogs? Mexican beer stands?

Turns out, the topic category most remarked upon by my new readers this week: Neil Finn.

I am convinced that if you take any sentient human female between the ages of 25 and 50 and shake her upside down by the ankles, a little Neil Finn love will tinkle out. I think it might also be the same case if the sentient human is male, too.

As my little tag cloud will show you, this blog, in particular before it got all gussied up and Normalarkey-ed, gave quite a bit of press time to the Antipodean crooner who used to sing with Crowded House and before that, Split Enz. Not so much lately, for no real reason than that other songs and bands captured the gestalt of what I was writing about on Fridays a bit more accurately.

But friends, if you love some Neil, far be it from me to deny you. Apropos of my virtual wandering this past week, here he is singing the Split Enz song "Take a Walk" with Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam at the 2001 "7 Worlds Collide" show in Auckland. I could have cared less about Pearl Jam before I saw this performance, but once I heard Vedder laying down the Finn gospel too I started cutting him some slack, and now I quite like his music. 

See? Neil is all about bringing people together, and so is blogging. Here's to you, readers - have a great weekend.

I'm a bona fide Scary Mommy

One of my most vivid childhood memories was being awoken in the early hours one morning by my dad, who was rummaging around under my pillow for the tooth I'd placed there the night before and leaving two shiny quarters in its place. When I arrived at the breakfast table, indignant, I said, "DAD! I know you are the Tooth Fairy! You woke me up!"

To which he answered, "Me? I was just making change."

Lies, lies, lies, yeah - it's not just a song by the Thompson Twins but a bona fide parenting technique (used judiciously, of course) for keeping a kid happy. So imagine how thrilled I was when Jill at ScaryMommy.com - motto: "An honest take on motherhood" -  invited me to guest post on her site today, about the four lies I tell my kids to keep the peace. 

Just to give you some context: ScaryMommy.com is the site where I go when I want to dream big about being a blogger with a capital B. She has serious cred, in part because she's a great writer, in part because she bends over backwards to build community with her readers, and in part because she may have the best blog name out there. It's an honor and thrill to be part of the ScaryMommySociety today so I hope you'll click through here and take a look! (Except for you, my two darling daughters. If you figure out what the four lies are, I'm sunk.)  

Friday's Music Moment - Saturday Sun by Crowded House

Over the years I may have blogged a time or two about Neil Finn and Crowded House. But I was AWOL here on the blog during 2010's biggest Crowded House news - the release of their new album Intriguer, and a spate of Northern California concerts (which I missed because of Family Camp, but I'm sure they managed without me.)

So playing a bit of catch up here with a post of "Saturday Sun" for today's music moment.  Love the song, and the video's definitely different.  The bad news about the video is that it actually makes the already awful porn 'stache sported by Neil throughout this recent tour look like a Hitler mustache. The good news is that he's now clean shaven, so future videos from this album should be more palatable for Finn fans like me.

As for the album itself, it won't punch you between the eyes with the over-the-top pop genius of, say, Together Alone or Woodface. But no one can contest the sheer musical talent of this band, and Intriguer has its own quiet appeal. I find myself playing it more and more frequently as the lyrics to songs like  "Either Side of the World" and "Archer's Arrow" sink in. If  you're looking for the old "jump up on the stage and sing" style beloved by Frenz everywhere love, "Twice if You're Lucky" fits the bill.

And I hope you have a sunny Saturday!

Friday's Music Moment - Pineapple Head

It's been awhile since I've posted some Neil Finn...here's a live clip from a Crowded House show on the 2007 tour. The Kinks riff is just a bonus - typical live improv from these guys. The song comes from my all time favorite CH album, Together Alone - makes a great Xmas gift for your favorite music fan.

It's my favorite album for now anyway...CH has a new album coming out next spring, and this week I dutifully mailed off my payment for the special fan club version, signed and with a bonus DVR. Slight disillusionment aside, this music always resonates.

Happy holidaze...

Friday's Music Moment - Give Me Something I Can Write About

Leaving today for three days in the dripping wet redwoods for a writing conference at St. Dorothy's Rest, the oldest continuously operating summer camp in - California? The U.S.? I can't remember, but it's been around a long time. The conference is fairly free-form from what I can tell, lots of time to write and hike and read. I am packing up the laptop, hiking boots, and some books for inspiration: Last of the Mohicans, Loving Frank, and The Women by T.C. Doyle. As Elizabeth Gilbert suggested in her TED conference, I will then wait for Dobby to spring out of the cabin walls and rub some of his genius juice on the Helen Pitts project.

Or as Neil says:
"I wait with a blank piece of paper
On the top of my head
And all I want is something I can write about
All I want is something I can cry about."

That about sums it up. BTW for you purists - the 5th (and temporary) Crowdie in this video is Davey Lane, an Australian musician who lead guitarist of You Am I (since 1999), and frontman of The Pictures.

Friday's Music Moment - A 90s Flashback

Don McGlashan is a Kiwi singer/songwriter (turns out there's another one) who opened for Crowded House on their recent US tour. He's big news in New Zealand and had some bigger hits with his band, The Mutton Birds, back in the 90s, but goes relatively unknown in the States.

At both Fillmore shows I attended, McGlashan kicked out a great opener despite the "rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb" chatter of the crowd. But both nights the crowd fell totally transfixed when he played an as-yet-unrecorded song that McGlashan said he was going name either "I Hope Your Boyfriend" or "Just How Lucky." The song rocked the bells and managed to combine humor, romantic longing, and an anti-global warming message. On top of that the chorus wormed its way into our collective brains like a virus, and I'm still humming it three months later.

However the tune, whatever it's finally going to be called, has yet to make YouTube or any other platform I can find. In the meantime, then, I'm posting this old Mutton Birds clip of their 1994 song "Anchor Me," which McGlashan also performed. I'll call it new music, because it's new to me. Good stuff. Happy Friday.

Lest ye think I'm Finnless

Since the spate of Crowded House shows last month I have not even posted once re Neil Finn, Crowded House, or any offshoot bands...but that doesn't mean I'm not thinking of them. For today's Friday Music Moment, I present Neil's son Liam Finn. His debut album, "I'll Be Lightning," includes this great single, "Second Chance." Ignore the Grizzly Adams beard and applaud the music.

I remember being at a Finn Bros show in DC in 1993 or so, watching a little Liam Finn (along with brother Elroy) throw paper airplanes from the balcony at his father...funny how he got older, and I haven't.

Friday's Music Moment - The Show Must Go On

Have been meaning to post this forever...a favorite clip from the great Crowded House show at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA last August. The Winery has a 10:30 pm music curfew and performances have to end before that witching hour. Take a look at how Neil Finn and Co. cope with the sudden blackout of the power, mid-song. It was a really magical moment-

Happy Weekend!

She should probably hang up her concert-going shoes now

Took my ten year old daughter to the Fillmore to hear Crowded House last night - her very first concert. After the experience she had, I am counseling her never to go to another again, because nothing could compare to her luck last night.

We got there early enough to get into the second row of the standing-room-only venue, and when the show started a couple in front of us insisted my daughter stand with them in the front row, with me right behind. After a few minutes the security guard in the three-foot-wide safety zone between crowd and stage beckoned her forward, and my kid got to see the entire show sitting comfortably on a bench in the pit, about arm's reach from Mark Hart and Neil Finn. (Of course that meant I had to stand right behind her, so I didn't fare too poorly either.)

The security guard went on to give her a bottle of water, and when I mentioned to him that we would be leaving before the second encore started, went and got my daughter a poster to take home.

The show was rockin', livelier than the first night and heavy on songs from Together Alone, my favorite CH album, so I couldn't have been happier. My daughter loved it and was really amazed at how the musicians switched easily between guitar, bass, slide guitar, keyboards, etc. "How did they learn to play so many instruments?"

That would have been an amazing story for her to tell, but wait there's more...as we walked towards the door, strains of "Something So Strong" accompanying us, another guard came over to give her A BACKSTAGE PASS.

So my life dream has come true. For my daughter.

Lots of new Crowded House material at the Fillmore

Great Crowded House show last night at the Fillmore, which was a balmy 80 degrees or so inside. I can't remember ever in ten years driving into the city at night in any season without a fleece, so it felt like being on vacation in some one else's city. Maybe Tokyo - my wingwomen and I ate at the Kinokuniya Center and ordered bowls of udon. They came in bathtub-sized vats that we could have had a quick swim in afterwards.

The band was in great form, as far as I could see from my second row perch. :) Compared to last year which was heavy on the Time on Earth material for obvious reasons, this show dug a lot deeper into the archives. The new stuff sounded good - hope they get back in the studio and get that on the proverbial wax soon.

Always some great impromptu moments at CH shows, like when Mark Hart played a rockin' American Woman and Neil jumped into the audience to sing Happy Birthday. Neil was also begging Nick Seymour to finish the haircut he started during a Toronto show... here's a sneaky video someone took of the process. The drummer, Matt Sherrod, has played with Beck so that's Devil's Haircut you hear in the background.



Going back tonight for their second show with my oldest daughter -- her very first concert. The Fillmore's not a bad place to start a concert-going career! Just bought her some little purple earplugs, in case the excellence of this music over the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus proves overpowering for her.

Eight days and counting til the SF shows

I'm just not sure that anyone could watch this video, from Crowded House's gig at the Fillmore in NYC a few days ago where they invited the chorus of PS 22 to join them onstage, and still NOT consider Neil Finn some sort of diety. And yes, the shaggy hair is ok by me.