So I just finished driving from northern Louisiana and back over Thanskgiving. Sure, there was turkey, but there was also crawfish etoufee, gumbo, caramel brownies, spinach madeline, squash souflee…..it appeared to be a ceaseless stream of food coming from my in-law’s kitchen. And I forgot to mention that it was also my birthday for which my mother-in-law cooked a stellar cake with raspberry icing and white chocolate cream icing. I promise I won’t eat for the next week, but jesus, a man can’t have any self control around that. Trust me.
So on the 16-hour road trip, we resorted to playing an alphabet game called "My mother went to the record store….." which the folks at 5minutestolive.com taught us. Basically you just go in alphabetical order and list bands that go in alphabetical order. And to make things difficult, you have to go back and recount all of the bands that were already listed. Starting with "A" is easy, and finishing around "Z" wasn’t much more challenging, so we decided to add 2 more rounds to the game. In case you’re wondering, we finished around Six Flags as we were coming in to Atlanta. I am so glad we’re done. I swear it was driving me insane to rattle all of this off, but it did help pass the time on the drive. Let’s see if we can remember this all for the drive to Pennsylvania over Christmas…..
So it began…..ABBA, Built To Spill, Calexico, Dave Matthews Band, Everclear, Frank Black, Gang Green, Helmet, Indigo Girls, The Jesus Lizard, KMFDM, Luscious Jackson, Mighty Lemon Drops, Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Newton John, Pussy Galore, Quintron, Raconteurs, SS Decontrol, Tim Buckley, Unrest, Victoria Williams, Ween, X, Yaz, The Zombies….
Which led to…..
And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, BBQ Killers, Circulatory System, The dB’s, Elton John, The Fleshtones, The Germs, Harry Pussy, Imogen Heap, The Jam, Kylie Minogue, L7, Mission of Burma, The Neats, The Olivia Tremor Control, Pylon, Quarterflash, R.E.M., Silverchair, The Tragically Hip, Unwound, Venom, Wilco, Xymox, Young Jeezy, Zipgun….
Which ended with…..
Animals, Bread, Cracker, DMZ, ELO, Five for Fighting, Goo Goo Dolls, Harvey Milk, India Arie, Justin Timberlake, Kraftwerk, Laughing Hyenas, Moreland Audio, New Pornographers, Oblivians, The Postal Service, Queen, Red Elvises, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Tommy Tutone, Uncle Cracker, Velocity Girl, When People Were Shorter And Lived Near Water, XBXRX, Yes, The Zippers.
I guess the real game is figuring out which bands I mentioned and which can be attributed to my wife. Seems obvious to me.
I should also add that I’ve played this game with my buddy Pete Wilkins when we were driving back from Birmingham one dark night and we ramped it up a bit by including album titles with the band which really challenged us. But then again, we’re record geeks….we yearn for the challenge. Any other games we should try?
Pussy Galore – Penetration of the Centerfold
SS Decontrol – Get It Away
Unrest – Cherry Cream On
BBQ Killers – Her Shit On His Dick
The dB’s – Neverland
Moreland Audio – Stuntcop
Venom – Black Metal