Funk Babblings

Ya know, it used to be that going through old clutter might find you stuff that you'd lost a decade ago. But thanks to the digital age, going through old clutter can find you stuff that someone else did a decade ago, and that you'd never seen before. Yet it can still feel like finding stuff you'd lost a decade ago....

OK, let me explain. One of my favorite bands ever is (was) Too Much Joy, who I discovered in fall 1992 (upon the release of their third major-label album) and who for all practical purposes disbanded around 1998. In between I interviewed one of them and got to see quite a few of their shows. Since they've disbanded, I've gotten a periodic fix of rare or unreleased (or side-project) recordings from the web site. However, I haven't been very good about putting those downloads into my music collection (I have a system for naming and tagging those MP3 files, you see....), so I've ended up with a folder full of random TMJ music separate from my "real" TMJ music folder.

This weekend I decided it was time to organize that music. Partly because I really need a TMJ MP3-CD in my car. But (due to my obsession with musical organization) I ran into a minor snag - I had half a dozen tracks that had been cut from a 1997 live show recording before that recording was released as the CD Live At Least. And I didn't know where all of them fit into the playlist; it's important to get the song order right, you see. Now I know I have that information somewhere, since the playlist was posted to the TMJ fan mailing list the day after the show back in 1997, and I keep all my email (sensing a theme here?), but given my organizational habits of late, I figured it might be easier to find by searching the net.

I didn't find the playlist. (Haven't even checked my email archives yet.) But I did find, at GoodbyeOhio.com, a 33-page story that made me laugh out loud while bringing back a few memories. A TMJ fan named Jeff Holland was a Republican (!) consultant and had achieved some minor notoriety due to his role in introducing Newt Gingrich to Too Much Joy's Theme Song in the year that the Republicans took control of Congress (and Gingrich's subsequent denial of it). You can read that 7-page story too, but when I came across it today I was already familiar with it; what got my attention was his tale of spending a weekend away from Washington by following the band on the South Carolina leg of a tour. The culture-clash aspects made me laugh, but the parts where he talks about TMJ shows and fandom made me smile in recognition. (Though unlike most TMJ fans, I've never been much of a drinker.)

Now I really need to put that CD together for my car.