Baron Dave Romm
The Dregs
By Baron Dave Romm
Watch short and idiosyncratic videos on Baron Dave's You Tube Channel
Festies
Tim Wick is a very serious comedian. He didn't even drink during his performance on St. Patty's Day.
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Tim Wick of The Dregs during the St. Patrick's Day concert 3/17/11
I know Tim primarily through his work at local science fiction convention Convergence. For many years, he mc's Opening and Closing Ceremonies; a position I'm very familiar with and for which he does a terrific job. Meanwhile, Tim and various friends have been floating around the MN Renaissance Festival. There, he leads a group of insult comics in a series of competitions for most humorous insults in Vilification Tennis. Not my cup of tea, but a cleaned-up version of Vilification Tennis was done at the 2007 Fringe Festival, and was pretty funny.
A lot of RenFest entertainment flies under my radar, it seems. I don't see the acts at Marscon, and they didn't appear on Shockwave and send me CDs. Sometimes they show up at cons... and sometimes they show up at various local venues. I walked to two of the five Dregs performances I've been to, and considered walking to two others.
I have a lot of talented friends who give fun concerts. But live performance is a different art form than recorded performance. It's always with a bit of trepidation that I pick up a CD at a performance I enjoyed. Quite simply, you never know.
Too often, CDs sound very much like the live performance. Especially in the Demented Music world with easy access to decent recording equipment and decent CD-making capability,. The costumes, mugging, banter and intros are what makes the live experience different. Fun to watch, to be sure. It's pretty rare, in my experience, for a group to have completely different musical sensibilities in the different forms. The Dregs are one such group, and I'll be talking about a few others in the weeks to come.
In concert, The Dregs are raw, funny, interactive and extremely talented. The years of singing together (in various combinations) have honed their interplay and their harmonies. They know how to sing, and they know how to work an audience. For $5, anyone can request a song... even if they don't know it. Thanks to the power of Smart Phones, one member can look up the lyrics and chords to a song, and they can try anything. With greater and lesser degrees of success. After years at the RenFest, they have a loyal audience who knows their which songs they do, which songs they can do, and when to request a variant on a number.
The Dregs are loads of fun. I might even get out to the Renaissance Festival to see them sometime. But stage presence doesn't always translate to a good recording. It helps if you've been performing live for many years.
Rachel, Susanne and Chad on St. Patrick's Day 3/17/11
Thank You Sire, May I Have Another?
Thank You Sir, May I Have Another? is the first of The Dregs CDs I picked up. They have five CDs, and this was a fortunate choice, as it rapidly became one of my favorite CDs.
Instrumentation is minimum, and most of their songs are a cappella. At most, a guitar, bodhran, accordion and hand-held percussion. Celtic or celtic-inspired songs of whaling, drinking and loving with the occasional song about zombies. What really separates The Dregs from other RenFest-tempered vocal groups such as 3 Pints Gone is the extraordinary blending of vocal talent. Their six-voice cover of "Take A Chance On Me" is richer and more energetic than the four-voice ABBA original. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
They fall into my loose definition of "filk": Songs by science fiction fans for science fiction fans. But they don't do parodies; well, not many. They do straightforward versions of old songs, and stamp the unique Dregs logo on them. Their selection is eclectic and the original songs stand with the traditional.
Simple repetitive sea chanties turn into entertaining sagas. "Six Days On Land" combines two of their favorite themes: Seafaring and drinking. With only a bodhran to keep the beat:
(male lead) Well grab your line boys haul away
(male chorus) The wind is up we need every hand
(male lead) The mate says we sail home today
(male chorus) Six months at sea six days on land
(male chorus) We're bound for to port their to spend our pay
(female chorus) The wind is up we need every hand
(male chorus) We'll drink until every penny away
(female chorus) Six months at sea six days on land
Expressing emotions like coyness (or even outright suggestiveness) is hard for more than one voice, but The Dregs are so experienced they pull it off. For example, the a cappella "Do You Love An Apple":
(one female) Do you love an apple?
(two females) Do you love a pear?
(three females, coyly) Do you love a laddie with curly brown hair?
(all) Yes, I love him. Can't deny him. I will be with him wherever he goes
"The Old Maid In The Garret" is an old song covered by many. Steeleye Span's version is a dramatic plea followed by a bouncy reel. The Dregs do an a cappella version (just a shaker for percussion) that's more suggestive. One of the few cuts on this CD that slips intra-band badinage into the recording. A great version, and loads of fun, even if you haven't seen them do this in concert.
The Dregs performing "Doo Wop Mountain Thyme"
as part of "A
Brief History of Irish Music" 5/13/11
The Dregs put versions of Wild Mountain Thyme on several of their CDs. Here, "Doo Wop Mountain Thyme" is the 1950's version of the old Irish (not Scottish) tune, which has been covered by many but not in quite the same way. In the latest concert (see below) they do all three versions, all of which work.
I've heard several versions of Old Crow Medicine Show's Bob Dylan-inspired Wagon Wheel and, frankly, I like The Dregs version the best. Harmonies substitute for the southern twang, and the emotion of the song carries.
The CD begins and ends with "Bonnie Ship The Diamond"; first, a rousing whaling song done excellently in a traditional manner. Last, a longer techno version, a sort of dance remix that is both humorous when compared with the original and yet works on its own.
Thank You Sir, May I Have Another? has terrific song selection, Steeleye Span-level arrangements and vocals, all tempered with audience-honed humor. Highly recommended.
Are You Gonna Drink That?
Are You Gonna Drink That? The Dregs their first album, and is the album I expected. Good song choices, fun to listen to especially if you've seen them in concert, but unsteady voices in spots, sort of like East Coast Ren Festies Boogie Knights.
The original version of "Wild Mountain Thyme", other traditional songs like "All For Me Grog" and "Step It Out Mary" are done sprightly and well. The humor of the live concerts slips in, with songs like "Follow The Band":
(female lead) Ohhhh, my husband he's a mason, he's a mason he's a mason
and a very fine mason is he, is he ("what's he do")
All day long he lays bricks he lays brick he lays bricks
and at night he comes home and... ("and?:)
... drinks tea
(all) Ohhhh, dance a little jig, cook a little pig
follow the band, follow the band all the way-a-ay
Ohhhh, dance a little jig, cook a little pig
follow the band, follow the band all the way
(different female lead) Ohhh, my husband he's a taxidermist...
... all day long he stuff tail...
... and at night he comes home and drinks tea
Well, you probably get the idea. Are You Gonna Drink That? is a good album, but not the first one you should listen to.
Susanne, playing an apple-shaped shaker. 6/11/10
Our Drunk Goes To Eleven
The Dregs second CD, Our Drunk Goes To Eleven, shows them a bit more confident in their humor and their singing. The CD title itself is a bit o' geek humor, referencing Spinal Tap. And the title firmly establishes their target audience, which is odd because the CD has fewer than usual drinking songs.
Mostly, the songs are beautiful renditions of traditional tunes. "Sleeping In The Deep" is a hauntingly sad song about a doomed girl who sneaks aboard ship to be with her lover:
(female lead) In the spring the sea beckoned my love
to the color of his queen he did go
he listed himself in her majesty's fleet
with the Spanish Armada his foes
(chorus) And they say pretty maids bring ill winds
so this day my young life they will smother
and tonight I will sleep
in the briny black deep
while my love finds the arms of another
"Fields of Athenry" highlights the female ensemble, and "General Taylor"'s call and response is quite emotional.
The playfulness of The Dregs comes out in the Tom Lehrer song, "Rickety Tickety Tin" and "Wild Jazz", a sort of Ella Fitzgerald-with-backup version of "Wild Mountain Thyme".
I don't know if it's the arrangements and production of Chad Dutton (who plays the accordion) or simple experience, but Our Drunk Goes To Eleven is more worthy then their first CD.
Molly, Rachel, Susanne, 4/1/11
Uncorked
Uncorked is another of the type of CD I generally expect from my talented friends: Live recordings(in this case, two concerts) that are probably more fun if you were there... or have been to several of their live shows. Most of the songs are on other CDs, though not necessarily in these versions. Indeed, this CD has "Wild Mountain Rama Lama Ding Dong". Crowd noise and laughter add or subtract from the recording, depending on your taste.
Still, Uncorked has their only (so far) recorded versions of "Take A Chance On Me", "Rainbow Connection" and "Million Chickens":
(chorus) If I had a million chickens
(solo) If I had a million chickens
(chorus) I'd a buy you a hut
(solo) I'd buy you a hut ("like Jabba" "no!")
(chorus) If I had a million chickens
(solo) If I had a million chickens
(chorus) I'd buy you furniture for your hut
(solo) There'd be a nice wicker chair or hay bale ("or sand barge")
(chorus) If I had a million chickens
(all) I'd buy your love
Frost, 3/20/10
Uncorked is a better-than-average live album. I leave it up to you to decide if they are to your taste, but when (not if) you decide you like The Dregs, it's a worth addition to your collection.
Dreggnog
And where would an Irish comedy band be without a Christmas CD? Well, The Dregs have eliminated that vexation for us with Dreggnog.
Rachel, 6/11/10
The strongest song on the CD is a very traditional a cappella version of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", one of a number of standards. But don't let them lull you in to a false sense of complacency.
"I don't Celebrate Pagan Holidays" "Hanukkah for Gentles", "I Want A Hysterectomy for Christmas". And, of course, "Zombie Apocalypse At Christmas". One of their three zombie songs.
The Dregs as zombies 3/20/10
A Brief History of Irish Music
Band members have changed over the years, and the current incarnation, has violinist Molly as the sixth member, replacing vocalist Angelina. In concert, the harmonies aren't quite the same but the instrumentation is more lush.
After so many years of live shows and increasing interaction with fans, The Dregs are trying something new: A Brief History of Irish Music, "a guided tour of Irish music's 300-year influence on contemporary society, based entirely on hearsay, drunken rumors, and other blarney!"
The show premiered a few days ago, and I don't want to talk about a work in progress too much. The songs were familiar, as was much of the banter. The more formal staging let them a) set up some visual jokes, b) rehearse ad libs even more than usual and c) get through their entire set list.
As a history, it doesn't work very well; to be fair, it doesn't try very hard to be a history. As a Dregs concert, it works splendidly. The advantage of any random Dregs concert is anticipating a mix of old and new material. The disadvantage of a "comedy theater experience" is that, having seen it, the impetus to see another is diminished. Oh well. I'll probably go anyway.
Live, The Dregs are completely different than on CD. Recognizably the same band, of course, but they give very different performances with an audience than into a recorded. This is a good thing in both directions.
Let me leave you with a video I made at the first of their concerts I attended, the last concert featuring Angelina (in red on the left), in an original composition by Frost (even farther to the left, behind the speaker):
The Dregs, "An Irish Girl"
3/20/10
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog maintains a Facebook Page, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. A nascent collection of videos are on Baron Dave's YouTube channel. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: We Did a Drive-By on Osama (Creators Syndicate)
I love, and I mean love, homegrown, American-style violence - violence that comes with some sharp clothes and accessories, from the long-point collar of the made man to the bullet-studded gunslinger belt and back around the way to Navy SEALs uniforms, from the creep of a tinted-window car down the block to the meaty "chop-chop-chop" of those Blackhawk helicopter blades.
Tom Meltzer: "Still lives: why it's not much fun being a living statue" (Guardian)
It might seem a doddle being a living statue, but it's not as easy as it looks.
"Portrait of the artist: Peter Weir, director": Interview by Laura Barnett (Guardian)
'Twice I've had to tell major actors that I was letting them go after only two days of shooting. It was hideous.'
Marshall Fine: Review of "How to Live Forever" (Huffington Post)
So -- is it nature or nurture? Do people live to be 100 because they took exceptional care of themselves or because they are lucky enough to have good genes?
Roger Ebert: Review of "Louder Than a Bomb"
Poetry slams began in Chicago in 1984 and have become an international phenomenon without most people probably having heard of them. They're poetry readings as a spectator sport.
'A Clockwork Orange': The droog rides again (Guardian)
'A Clockwork Orange' was released 40 years ago - but has Kubrick's film lost its power to shock? As it screens at Cannes, Steve Rose looks at how it went from infamy to pop-culture respectability.
Richard Verrier: Fortitude and 'The First Grader' (Los Angeles Times)
The back story behind the film about a real-life 84-year-old Kenyan intent on getting an education is its own lesson in determination.
Roger Ebert: "Thor" is not a Meet Cute for the gods.
"Thor" is [a] failure as a movie, but a success as marketing, an illustration of the ancient carnival tactic of telling the rubes anything to get them into the tent.
Cezary Jan Strusiewicz: "The Lighter Side of the Dark Side: 5 Villains Who Were Good" (Cracked)
Mr. Rooney was the mean old Dean of Students who spent the entire movie trying to prove that Ferris was skipping school while pretending to be sick. What a mistrustful tight-ass. Why the hell does he care so much if one student takes a day off? Let's get the obvious out of the way: this is his goddamned job. He is the Dean of Students, not the Dean of Not Giving A Damn. People are always all up the public schools system's digestive tract for not taking a more active interest in their students and that's exactly what Mr. Rooney was doing.
Roger Ebert: Review of "Everything Must Go" (3 stars; rated R)
I found myself thinking during "Everything Must Go" that Will Ferrell is a gifted dramatic actor.
George Varga: Rock Pioneer Chuck Berry Rolls on at 84 (Creators Syndicate)
Chuck Berry has made some of the greatest records in the history of rock 'n' roll, although he did not - for the record - create rock 'n' roll alone.
David Bruce: "Don't Fear the Reaper: 250 Anecdotes" (A $1 Kindle E-Book)
This book contains 250 anecdotes, including this one: When Sam Kinison died, lots of comedians showed up at his funeral and talked about him. Richard Belzer emceed, and Pauly Shore talked about how Sam used to be his babysitter. Comedian (and Sam's best friend) Carl Labove had been with Sam when he died, and he spoke-but briefly, as he started to cry. Mr. Belzer helped him from the podium and led him to a chair, but suddenly Mr. Labove broke away from Mr. Belzer, ran back to the podium, and announced, "By the way, I'll be at Iggy's all week! Two shows Friday, three Saturday!" I'm sure that Sam would have loved it.
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Rainy morning, sunny afternoon.
On Saturday, we went to the play, but because it's a small theater, and there were more prople than seats, we ended up not seeing the show, but figured there was always tomorrow.
Best laid plans, and all that crap-time...
Last weekend we used the Blue Line, but this weekend there's construction, and it was recommended adding an hour or two to the journey.
The line is so torn up they're using buses to cart the passengers a "few" stops up the line. Yeah, a couple of extra hours, easy.
So, we opted to drive.
Oddly, we were running a bit early when the freaking car freaking broke down on the freaking freeway. Coasted across 4 lanes of traffic, to the broken call box.
Ended up being towed back home, arriving about the time the curtain was rising in Hollywood.
So, the kid & I ended up in the 24-year old car with the tempermental oil pump, that isn't really freeway-worthy.
While we made it to Hollywood, the kid missed his own play on closing day. He just made the final curtain call, but I missed it since I had to park the car.
Jeez, am I bummed.
22nd Annual
GLAAD Awards
Kim Cattrall and "The Kids Are All Right" were among the winners Saturday night at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation's 22nd annual Media Awards.
The "Sex and the City" star was honored with the Golden Gate Award, which is presented to a media professional who has increased the visibility and understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.
The Oscar-nominated family drama "The Kids Are All Right," starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore as lesbian mothers, was awarded the outstanding film trophy at the GLAAD ceremony at the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco.
Other winners included "8: The Mormon Proposition" for documentary, Christian Chavez as Spanish-language music artist, Kara Swisher as local hero and AT&T as corporate leader.
GLAAD Awards
Red, Autographed Guitar
Shakira
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is thanking Colombian singer Shakira for an autographed red guitar that he says the artist sent him as a gift.
Chavez says he stayed up late strumming on the electric guitar and singing songs.
Chavez said the musician asked to see him when she performed in Caracas in March, but that her flight was late and they were unable to meet.
Chavez says he was surprised by the gift, and has been practicing on the instrument while recovering from a knee injury.
Shakira
Picks Up 12 New Series
NBC
NBC is betting on the Playboy club, Chelsea Handler and a raft of romantic comedies among the dozen new series it has ordered in its latest attempt to come back from a long slump that has made it television's fourth-place broadcast network.
The network outlined its fall plans on Sunday, opening a hectic week in which broadcasters unveil their fall schedules to advertisers in hopes they will make multimillion dollar commitments to buy commercials. It was the first new schedule formulated by NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt, appointed when Comcast took over NBC Universal.
NBC ordered six new dramas and six new comedies, with half of them on the fall schedule and the rest planned for later debuts.
NBC's midseason schedule includes a two-hour edition of "Celebrity Apprentice" on Sunday nights. Asked if that meant NBC had a commitment from host Donald Trump that he wouldn't run for president, Greenblatt said, "We're putting a pin in that for the next 24 hours or so. Things will become clearer soon."
NBC
Scales Mount Everest For Record 21st Time
"Super Sherpa"
A 51-year-old Nepali mountaineer, nicknamed "Super Sherpa", climbed Mount Everest for a record 21st time on Wednesday, breaking his own record for the most summits of the world's highest mountain, hiking officials said.
Apa Sherpa, who lives in the United States, reached the 8,850-metre (29,035-foot) peak of the mountain along the Southeast Ridge route, pioneered by New Zealand's Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, who were the first to reach the top of the world in 1953.
Apa, whose 21st ascent was dedicated to the impact of climate change, was accompanied by American Chris Shumate, Bruno Gremior of Switzerland and four other Sherpa climbers, Ang Tshering Sherpa, chief of the Asian Trekking Agency, said.
Apa first climbed the summit of Everest in 1990. He was born in Solukhumbhu district, home to Everest, but now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.
"Super Sherpa"
End Of An Era
Sahara
Las Vegas marks the end of an era this week as one of the US gambling mecca's last original "Rat Pack" casino-hotels, the Sahara, finally closes its doors.
Opened in 1952, the Sahara hosted everyone from Elvis Presley and Jerry Lewis to Frank Sinatra and the Beatles in the 1950s and 60s, and their photos still decorate the walls above the reception.
But in recent decades Vegas saw an explosion of mega-sized casino resorts which left the "small" Sahara struggling to fill its 1,700 rooms at the end of the famous Strip.
The death knell was sounded in March, when its owners since 2007, SBE Entertainment, announced that the casino-hotel complex with its more than 1,050 staff was no longer a viable business.
Sahara
Voters Keep 'Suicide Tourism' Alive
Zurich
Voters in Zurich have overwhelmingly rejected calls to ban assisted suicide or to outlaw the practice for nonresidents.
Zurich's cantonal voters by about a 4-to-1 margin Sunday defeated both measures that had been pushed by political and religious conservatives.
Out of more than 278,000 ballots cast, the initiative to ban assisted suicide was opposed by 85 percent of voters and the initiative to outlaw it for foreigners was turned down by 78 percent, according to Zurich authorities.
Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, and has been since 1941, provided the helper isn't a medical doctor and doesn't personally benefit from a patient's death. About 200 people a year commit suicide in Zurich.
Zurich
Investigates Family's Nazi Links
Swedish Queen
Sweden's German-born Queen Silvia has begun an investigation into the nature of controversial ties between her father and the Nazi regime, the palace said Sunday.
Revelations and accusations regarding the past of Walter Sommerlath, who died in 1990, have regularly made the headlines in Sweden recent years.
The queen, 67, has said until now that, although her father was a member of the Nazi party, he was not politically active and was forced to comply as others were to save his career.
Sunday's announcement follows an investigation by the commercial TV station TV4 last year which said that he took over a German factory belonging to a Jew in 1939 as part of an "Aryanisation" programme.
Swedish Queen
Power Surplus May Halt Wind Energy
Pacific Northwest
The manager of most of the electricity in the Pacific Northwest is running such a surplus of power from hydroelectric dams that it put wind farms on notice Friday that they may be shut down as early as this weekend.
The Bonneville Power Administration has more than enough electricity during a cold, wet spring that has created a big surge in river flows where hydroelectric dams are located. The agency responded by announcing its intentions to curtail wind power until the grid has more capacity, in a move likely to cost the industry millions of dollars.
The decision reflects an overlooked issue amid the push to add wind farms around the country: The capacity of power grids has not kept pace.
How soon and low long wind farms might be shut down depends on how quickly the region warms up and the water shoots downriver to the Pacific Ocean, said Steven Wright, administrator of the BPA. The farms that would be shut down are mostly in Washington and Oregon.
Pacific Northwest
New Fashion Trend
Mexico
The customer known only as "Cesar of Huizache" had an odd request for shoemaker Dario Calderon: He showed him a cell-phone photo of a sequined cowboy boot with pointy toes so long, they curled up toward the knees. He wanted a pair, but with longer toes.
"I thought 'What's up with this dude?'" Calderon said at his shop in Matehuala, a northeastern Mexican city of farmers and cattle ranchers accustomed to a more stoic cowboy look. The boot in the photo measured 60 centimeters (23 inches) "but we made him a pair that were 90 centimeters (35 inches) long."
The mystery man from Huizache, a nearby village, wore his new boots to Mesquit Rodeo nightclub, where he danced bandido style with a handkerchief hiding his mouth and nose
The next thing Calderon knew, it seemed like everyone wanted the bizarre, half-Aladdin, all-Vegas pointy boots, from little boys attending church ceremonies to teenagers at the discos.
Mexico
Floating Path Gets £60 Million Nod
River Thames
Plans to erect a floating walkway on the River Thames, affording spectacular views of forgotten parts of the city, got a major boost on Friday by securing up to 60 million pounds in funding.
London Mayor Boris Johnson said the kilometre-long pontoon design, known as "the London River Park," won financing from Singapore-based asset managers, Venus Group.
The structure, that will rise and fall with the tidal river, will link Blackfriars Bridge, on the western edge of the old city, and run almost to the Tower of London in the east.
The design, by architects Gensler, is subject to planning permission and approval by the City of London Corporation and other agencies.
River Thames
Weekend Box Office
'Thor'
"Thor" nailed down the No. 1 spot at the box office again. Paramount's 3-D superhero film starring Chris Hemsworth as Marvel's hammer-toting god of thunder earned $34.5 million in its second weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.
That brings the total haul of "Thor" to $119.2 million, though not quite as impressive as fellow comic book hero "Iron Man 2," which earned $211.2 million by its second weekend the same time last year.
Universal's "Bridesmaids," the raunchy comedy starring Kristen Wiig as a down-on-her-luck maid of honor, debuted above expectations in second place with $24.4 million. Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal, attributed the movie's good reviews and word of mouth to wide audience appeal: 67 percent of the audience was female; 33 percent male.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Thor," $34.5 million.
2. "Bridesmaids," $24.4 million.
3. "Fast Five," $19.5 million.
4. "Priest," $14.5 million.
5. "Rio," $8 million.
6. "Jumping the Broom," $7.3 million.
7. "Something Borrowed," $7 million.
8. "Water for Elephants," $4.1 million.
9. "Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family," $2.2 million.
10. "Soul Surfer," $1.8 million.
'Thor'
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