Andrea Keller is a pro at guest blogging, a phenomenal photographer and plainly my favorite person in the world to spend time with. I’ve learned a lot over the years from everyone I’ve shared this space with this week, but none more than her. She’s top-notch in every way, and I’m not just typing that because I’m sure she’s spent the week I’ve been gone both fixing a toilet and watching more episodes of I Love Lucy than she’d probably care to count. She probably liked the toilet work far more. Hopefully, her fellow Cakers will reward her accordingly and make sure there are a couple icy cold Spotted Cows waiting for her out in the woods in April.

It seems only fair to start this post with a cry of “I don’t belong here!” Not having much music cred (no radio station experience, limited exposure to indie rock until my mid-twenties, and minimal tendencies toward musical obsessions), writing amid the likes of my fellow guest posters this week creates a particular kind of tension in me that I can honestly say only arises when in this particular company, discussing this particular topic. When asked to contribute, it was impossible not to recall the 2 a.m. drunken round-table discussions of “best X album” and “desert island” picks where I would humbly offer up Momentary Lapse of Reason with some mumbled attempt to explain my weird audio-visual connection to a particular video [ahem, after minute 2:53]. Kindly, I was always allowed to keep my seat (probably due to a particular romantic entanglement rather than my answers), but I knew I wasn’t quite measuring up. But thanks to the cool kids keeping me at the table, some of my strongest audio memories linked to particular artists and songs can be credited directly back to these five men: Colin Billy Bragg Walsh, Wayne Shane MacGowan and the Pogues Semmerling, Steve Bow Wow Wow Senski (nothing beats his gleeful – and selectively edited – live rendition), Jon The Woggles Lamb, and last but not least, Dan Hitchcock Seeger

Late night round-table discussions aside, my formative influences have always been Live. From the smoke-ladden, Milwaukee dive bar, garage punk, work-night experience where the energy coming off the stage is so high it overrides every “adult” urge for an early night, to the eerily Picasso-esque feelings invoked when sitting feet away from Robyn Hitchcock as he does his unique mad-lyrical-romp of a show, I’ve always been intrigued by the ability of humans to connect on-and-off stage around live music. There is perhaps only one artist I connect to (and this is, sadly, more of a past-tense statement) on a musical AND lyrical level, but as I’ve discovered over the years…I don’t care much about song titles, full lyrics, band histories, artist dramas (although…reading up on Sisters of Mercy recently was a laugh-out-loud experience – why hasn’t there been a movie made?), etc. – what I love is the awe experienced when hearing a voice so startlingly perfect live for the first time or when stumbling onto a new favorite.
When we first made the leap, moving away from family and friends in 2001 for a much-needed career change, we settled for Orlando, FL. The biggest perk of the move had to be the ability to tap the Best in Basement Radio gig that Dan had landed and to see live shows for a pittance (um, free). We may not have taken advantage of the options as much as we should have…but my “new favorite” mentioned above, I am the World Trade Center, was first experienced on a balmy outdoor evening at the campus, holding the leash to a newfound family member (Parker), and watching the Florida Bugs scurry at our feet. The band had a great sound for that moment, a sound that has melded into a hazy revisionist retrospective and which now invokes a “Best of Florida” vibe whenever they roll round on the shuffle.

I Am the World Trade Center, “Big Star”

(Disclaimer: The I Am the World Trade Center album this song is pulled from seems to be out of print. The song is posted here with that understanding. Should either member of the duo, or anyone else with some level of ownership of the song, contact us to request its removal, compliance will follow.)