[But first, a quick reminder, as if we were still a band with a future: Check out the lovely website run by our pals in Blinder whatfor details Many Miles Away, the coolass comp of disrespectful Police covers on which PopCanon turns in one of its last, and finest, performances -- of the ditty Synchronicity II. Available locally at Hyde & Zeke Records.]

[Also, here's a nice show review of our Last Show Ever from Ink19.]

I think the nails in the coffin are going to hold for a while ... we'll see ... goodbye, zombie Shakespeare! Why is it so hard to let go?!

Last Saturday (16 June, Bloomsday don't you know?), PopCanon reconvened as a group for the first time since the Last Show Ever on 21 April. Alex Fernandez, filmmaker/auteur/documentarian/bon vivant, was in town and we gathered at the old decrepit Florida Theatre--the unairconditioned, open-trapdoor-in-the-ceiling Florida Theatre--to shoot some extra video footage for Alex's PopCanon documentary. Our Man in Havana Michael W. Rotolante was at his trusty 16-track digital recording desk (people in 'the biz' call those things 'desks', btb) and we did multiple takes at multiple angles of three PC songs: The Fight Song (with new, bittersweet lyrics: 'Bye now, we were PopCanon ... we like to play first, and then we all break up'), Lights Out (an elegy before we even realized it) and then finally, FINALLY, several good takes of the PC classic (you know, for kids?) Fishbee Island with Master Robert Copeland at the drums.

You know, all hail Blue's version on The Kingdom of Idiot Rock and everything, but as anyone knows who has followed PC for the last 6 years (Steve Ware, I'm pretty much looking only in your direction), the way we play Fishbee NOW and for the last three years since Robby joined is pretty different from that rollicking but restrained version on the album. If I might take a pretentious moment and make a Bob Dylan comparison (happy birthday, Bob!), he once described his happiness at the production, the sound of the Blonde on Blonde album -- 'that weird, high, thin, silvery sound' (someone please get me the exact quote). He said it was the sound he heard in his head, finally captured on tape. And that's how I feel about Fishbee Island now: at its best when we've played it in the past few years it achieved the sound I always heard in my head for it, that never-quite-falling-apart-but-always-threatening-to-on-the-verge-of-collapse sound. Dangerously loose but also totally together -- the time stretching, expanding and collapsing, the band breathing and moving together as one giant entity.... It's kind of hard to describe right, but if you've ever seen us play it, I think you know exactly what I'm talking about. And it's really a beautiful thing, in its way.

So, what I'm saying is: I'm really happy about it. And it goes a long way towards salving my dissatisfaction at NOT getting to close with Fishbee at the Last Show Ever, due to the infamous Cream Pie Incident. So, for myself, let me thank the band for indulging my narcissistic obsession with finally getting a great recording of this song (ah, Zorn Medley, you elude us still!); thank Alex for his dedication and love; thank camera operators Kristin, Rachel and Jeff, who did some DAMN fine work on their digicams that hot, endless Saturday; thank Roto (always) for being there and being able to catch it all (plus he climbed the catwalk and could have died--crazy, man, crazy!) and truly, all thanks to Moe Rodriguez, who facilitated the entire thing simply as a favor to me, and without whom nothing at all would have happened. People can be so awesome sometimes.

With (uncharacteristic and unexpected) love,
Ned

From 18 May 2001

Well, then -- there it is. The band is over. Whew. Grief + Relief. And so on.

Someday, someday, someday I'll write a Diary about the Last Show Ever, because we've got some nice snapshots that people took at the show with our little FunSaver cameras, and I'd like to put that together. But for now, here's today's Rant & Rave:

This is the PopCanon Rant & Rave v4 #4 for 7 May 2001: Thank You, We Were PopCanon!

What--we're still sending out emails? Didn't we break up last month!?

Well, yes and yes. Saturday 21 April WAS our last official show as PopCanon. And it was spectacular in many, many ways. We've been recuperating for the last couple weeks, but this is just a love note to all of you who made it out (and there were a lot!), and especially to those who made it all the way to the end, at around 3.35am...

It was a pretty wild show. If you missed it--and people DID come in from locales as far-flung as Alabama, North Carolina, Tampa and Germany!--you missed something pretty special and fun. Some highlights: Squeaky's nutty set, capping off with a song (re)written to and for us; driving everyone out of the club in between sets to lay down four layers of bubblewrap for jumping upon; original drummer Blue Lang sitting in for some Semantics numbers, and being replaced mid-song by Robbie smashing a chair across his face, WWF-style; several other staged fights, guitar smashings, and one spooky real fight; BallZac from Alabama lighting his ball sac on fire during ArtHole; conspicuous public nudity, on and off stage; several nice and heartfelt testimonials to the band given onstage by audience members; and a wild and very unexpected runny whipped cream pie fight that ended the set rather abruptly and very messily at--no lie--3.35am Sunday morning. 'Twas a very, VERY long and bizarre night, and it was all captured for posterity by a documentary video crew--when that footage hits the film festival circuit sometime next year, we'll let you know. Seriously.

As a band we'd like to apologize for a few things: we had a number of technical glitches and horrific tuning problems throughout the first set, and that caused some irritating delays, but we want to thank you all for sticking with us and keeping everyone's spirits up. We've determined that part of the problem with staying in tune that night was due to the fact that the place was PACKED, and the heat and humidity was working against us. Having never played to such a large and vibrantly enthusiastic crowd in the Common Grounds before, we were unprepared. But things sorted themselves out by the second marathon set, which began at around 2am and rolled on for another 90 minutes or so... those of you who stuck around were very brave.

Now, some major-league thanks are due:
First off, thanks to our Brothers In Rock, the finest band in Gainesville: SQUEAKY. Man, they put on a great show, and knocked us out with a special Awards Ceremony during their set, in which we were all given special trophies celebrating our years of rocking. PopCanon and Squeaky started around the same time in 1995 and this was our 21st show together. Every member of Squeaky has filled in and played with PC at some point in the last six years--especially Steven, our official backup drummer, he who lovingly bleached 'I (heart) PopCanon' into his scalp that night (it's still there--pictures will be posted on the website soon). As Hairy put it, 'When PopCanon plays, it's almost like seeing ourselves on stage.' Squeaky, we love you.

And of course, happy anniversary to the Common Grounds Coffeehouse. We played our first show there as the trio Satanbuckle in that very room when it was called Cafe' Insomnia in June of 1995, and we've played there more than a dozen times, each more delightful than the last. Nigel, Naomi, Jay and the rest of the people there have always been supportive and indulgent of us, and we thank them deeply for that. Thanks to John, Eric, Danarchy and the whole CG crew for working overtime on this show. Thanks to our special musical guests that night: Fred Buhl on violin; Neil Bliss (Alexei Sayle/TubaBoy) from California; Paul Miller on bass; Kenny Howes helping us pay tribute to the late, great Joey Ramone; Frog on trombone; and as always the boys from Squeaky, helping us sing their songs and smash our gear. Ned especially thanks Mr. Hairy Monkhorst (whose mom kicks ass) for undertaking the crucial role of his guitar tech that night.

Thanks are due to documentarian filmmaker and bon vivant Alex Fernandez, plus Manny and Jeff who worked the cameras for an astonishing five hours that night. And kudos to Michael Rotolante, our friend and producer, for recording audio for the obligatory three-record live set. Working title: Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends... Thanks also to Charlie McWhorter for creating a brilliant and freakish 4ft version of the Art sculpture from d'art, with tiny heads from all PC members past & present attached; and a shoutout to Z Systems for getting us the bubblewrap, and Spin Cycle for getting those beautiful tshirts done in time.

Finally, the biggest thanks to YOU, the fans, too numerous to mention or even count. We saw a lot of faces we haven't seen for months or years that night, and it was heartwarming. Thank you all so, so much for coming that night and for all those other nights (nearly 200 in the last six years)... we're really going to miss playing those songs for you. We love you all.

Other news:
We gave out 10 FunSaver cameras that night to the crowd to shoot wild things they saw, and we've so far received eight of them back --if you've still got one, by all means, contact us here at PC Headquarters so we can get it developed. And if anyone took some digipix of their own at the show, we'd love to see those as well. A show report with pictures will be posted soon on our website, which will remain up and active for the forseeable future. So expect a few more emails in the future, too.

Also, in merch news: we had a few special PC Is Dead tshirts made up for the show, and we seem to have lost most of them in the chaos at the end of the night. If you know where any of them are, please tell us--people in the band didn't even get any. Copies of the Many Miles Away: disrespectful Police covers CD on which we appear will be available soon at Hyde & Zeke Records in town, and we have a few copies left ourselves. And we still have several copies of our special 2CD reissue of Some Antiques by the Semantics/PC Covers It Up and Pricksongs & Descants, our B-sides collection available here for $9.99 + $2 s&h. And if you order now, we'll throw in a spare copy of d'art or a tshirt or something--everything must go, etc. Send checks to PopCanon, POB 14872, Gainesville FL 32604.

We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when...
PopCanon

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