Sunday, August 26, 2007

Richard Hawley - 'Lady's Bridge'


Richard Hawley - Lady's Bridge
Released Oct 9, 2007
Mute Records

If I had grown up back in say, the 1950s, this guy would be my favorite modern day singer in the wholeee wide world. A Richard Hawley record is a total walk down nostalgia avenue and from time to time, that's kinda neat.

Anyway, I like this new cd a lot, but I thought I'd try something different and get an outsider's opinion on it. SOOO I asked famous scientist Micah Shondstrum if I could come down to the labs and play it for him; naturally, he said 'sure brandon, I'm always game for an experiment of musical proportions!'. Micah does some very important work, he studies things and mixes chemicals for the CDC or Nabisco or something, so he's very busy. Actually he was also an extra in the Disney film 'Angles In The Endzone' playing Fan # 6, a feat he is very proud of. So yeah, I was quite glad he was willing to take some time out of his terribly busy day to listen to the new Hawley record. As soon as I popped in the disc, he seemed intrigued. Micah is a young guy, but he was blown away by how much this guy's work sounds like it came straight from the fifties; 'a simpler time' as Micah likes to call all eras other than the one he currently lives in. The first couple songs on here are straight up lovey ballads, and it made me chortle when Micah reached under his desk and pulled out a bottle of bubbles and started blowing them around the labs. The other scientists gave him glares, but he told them he was just paying homage to the Lawrence Welk show and we all shared some good lols! Micah is a barrel of laughs! The disc played on and Micah seemed to really enjoy that it had some uptempo tracks too, including a few with a country twang. He was born out on the range in Oklahoma, so he has a soft spot in his heart for all things that have a twang. His daddy was a country singer and very widely known in the midwest back in the 60s, Ol Roy Shondstrum. He had a few hits, including a duet with Kenny Rogers' brother-in-law Max called 'The Tumbleweed Trot', a song that spawn a dance craze that swept juke joint dance floors in Tulsa like the plague in 1968. I could see he was pretty busy, so I decided to let him get back to his stuff, but before I left, I asked if I could get his final impressions on this cd. He didn't say a word, he just handed me a camera and posed for a picture right there in the middle of the labratory, all decked out in his science garb. Micah was usually a fan of some pretty rad music (he's one of those 80s guys who feel like the works of Devo and Oingo Boingo go vastly underappreciated..he even organized a Wang Chung Friday at the labs a few years back, but was really disappointed when nobody but him dressed as their favorite WC member), but I wasn't sure how he'd take to the classic sound of Richard Hawley. As it turns out though, I think he enjoyed it. The picture I took pretty much says it all...Thanks Micah!

2 comments:

jessica heather said...

hahahahahaa

linderlinder said...

um.

i would like to hear this music a whole bunches. i'm glad you have scientist friends in a laboratory...somewhere. i hope the people at the CDC or nabisco treat you well. and maybe theyll give you free treats....or disease treatments.