Too Much Joy- Parachute

Failed.

Too Much Joy always made me mildly uncomfortable, largely because I can't recall the specifics of my passing association with the band. Was I their friend? A drinking buddy? Maybe their cover of "Starry Eyes" came at my prompting. I just can't remember the deal. Until the the mental block is removed, I'll assume the line about Kansas in "Parachute" is a reference to me. The songs are on their out-of-print Mutiny. I thought of Too Much Joy as I wrote a very positive review of Bowling For Soup's Friday night concert. BFS would handily beat TMJ in a battle of "joke" bands. Still, I always liked Too Much Joy's big "hit."

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Sometimes I wonder if the Hold Steady are just a figment of my imagination. How else could a band repeatedly speak to my favorite things? Their latest miracle is a sincere Twinkies-friendly reading of "Take Me Out To the Ballgame." Snare it at their MySpace page.

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It seems like Mark E. Smith of the Fall has been around forever. I don't know which is more remarkable- the fact that Von Sudenfed is so vital, or that he looks so good in drag. Amazing-ah...

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Kansas City Click: No matter how hard Tom Russell tries, he'll never be Johnny Cash. Still, Russell's immense catalog includes at least a dozen songs that belong in the same ballpark as Cash's definitive work. Russell will sing them tonight at Knucklehead's.