JAIMIE VERNON – THE RETURN OF THE REVENGE OF VERNON

Did you miss me?

Long, long  ago in a social media black hole that time forgot I wrote spiffing weekly diatribes for his Bobness. Then life got in the way and drove a spike through my frontal lobe preventing me from rational thought and interesting story arcs. It was 2016 and Donald Trump had yet to destroy the United States of America.  Maybe I should have stuck around and fought the good fight on the political frontier. But that’s not really what “Don’t Believe A Word I Say” is all about. What it’s actually about is filtering pop culture through the collective experiences of its writers. By 2016 my pop culture experience was all pooped out. I was burnt out and wallowing in my old-man-ness. No one was more tired of the “get off my lawn” screeds than I was.  One needs to know when to stop wandering into to traffic with no pants on.  I decided to focus on my newly minted granddaughter and getting a real day job.

Frank Gutch Jr: Bullseye Canada— Let the Salvage Operations Begin: Conversations with Jaimie Vernon… Plus Notes (and One Really Cool Picture of Bow Thayer Guesting With No Small Children)

That would be Bullseye Records, Canada for those unaware, a label pieced together by DBAWIS‘s own Jaimie Vernon and friends— a record company caught in the digital tsunami which wiped out more than one music concern.  In fact, if you define being wiped out as being wiped out, you could probably number them in triple digits, many being “absorbed” by major labels if they could find anything worth adding to their already bloated catalogues.  I will tell you upfront that it is a tale of both success and crushing defeat, of both business and personal failure— not that it could have been avoided.  When the music business started crumbling, it took with it most everything in its path.  If you subscribe to the business as it was.  If your yardstick was measured by the same standards the major labels had set up and followed for decades.  Jaimie and his company took a beating, no doubt, but he is not down and out by a long shot.  He has just, shall we say, been regrouping.

Frank Gutch Jr: BC’s Laurie Biagini In Song and Words; Bullseye Canada Reactivated; Vinnie Zummo and The Beatles Reunion; and Notes…..

The first time I ever heard The Beach Boys was at a birthday party for a friend of mine.  She received the album and a new stereo.  She put the album on and I was listening to it and by the time it got to “Catch a Wave”, the third track on the first side, I was freaking out.  I didn’t want to have anything to do with the birthday party anymore.  I just wanted to sit with my ears glued to the speakers, listening to this great music.  I saved up my allowance and that was the first album I ever bought.

— Laurie Biagini