Beer and football V — week three

The game: Raiders at Patriots
The beer: Belhaven Scottish Stout
The result: Win, 16–9; Saints win, 20–9
The commentary: Our first home game of the season is also the first primetime game of the season. What's that you say? It did not begin after How I Big Banged Your Theory? Well, it did at our house, after G. went to bed (and from bed) several times over. The challenge remains throughout the day to not skim or overhear the outcome but I've managed for three weeks now. Besides, it's nice to maintain a pleasant Sunday afternoon blowing bubbles, riding bikes and flying a kite in Nahant while the Patriots go three and out after a series of incomplete/ineffective passes against the league's worst run defense.

Also on delay: listening to all four of April's "The Jesus Lizard Week" interviews on the Kreative Kontrol podcast. That's Kreative with a K, Kontrol with a K. I mentioned the podcast on my playlist write-up earlier this year (see track thirty-three) (!) and referred to host Vish Khanna as a muckraker—he did not let me down this time either. My favorite part (and my own validation) came during the Duane Denison segment when, after being asked several questions about the band's sour relationship with Steve Albini, Denison made a great point about Albini's criticism of the band for signing with Capitol Records: "Why is it that he gets to take major-label money [as an 'engineer'] and we don't? Why does he get the moral high-ground?" He goes on to explain that the topic still makes him angry twenty years later and so is sick of talking about it, to which Vish replies "I appreciate that you're tired of addressing it, but…" and wonders if Down instigated the aforementioned tension. Denison admits no one was particularly happy with how that album turned out (in particular, the poor vocal mix… as if lyrics had been distinct up through Liar?). It certainly provides context to David Wm. Sims pretending to rip my Rapeman CD sleeve in half when I offered it during the band's autograph session at Tower Records on a 1994 promotional junket. (The goddamn full-sized Down poster signed by all four members has joined the realms of the nonexistent.)

And then? And then! "Yeah, I have to– Man, I do have things I gotta do. Um… how– I'm sorry, how much longer do we need to talk?" "How much longer do we need to talk?" Reading it back makes Denison sound like an asshole. I'm impressed he held his cool for so long. Vish fits in one more question about what David Yow referred to as 1996's "reenactment tour" and Denison, after a few seconds of processing what he'd just heard, interrupts with "Did you say 'reenactment'?" Without a doubt the highlight of all three MP3 hours. As a result, the new-ish Book is on my Christmas wish list, as is the Live document. It was filmed at the old Venus de Milo across from Fenway Park in 1994. I was at that fucking show.

Up next: An assassin's quick stopover in Memphis ensures that Bernard Pollard will be nowhere near Kansas City on Monday night. Also, Gamblor instructs me to take the Chargers over the Jaguars. Cheers!