Episode 18: Jayson Verdibello
Greetings and happy onslaught of heat, humidity and misery (if you’re on the east coast, that is). I’m reminded of the Shel Silverstein poem “It’s Hot” in which he closes the poem with the line “I think I’ll take my skin off/And sit around in my bones./It’s still hot!”
Am I really going to complain about the weather? No. And I do enjoy any opportunity to drop a little Shel into your day. On the program this week is rock n’ roll animal Jayson Verdibello, frontman of the band Venice Sunlight. Jay was on Episode 6, where we all talked about our favorite records of 2014. He holds the honor of being the only guest who’s been on the show twice. He also holds the honor of being the first guest to sit down in the new house. The more permanent lair of 25 O’Clock has not been finished yet (gotta pick the right flooring that really compliments the essence of the show, right?), but I was grateful to get back into the swing of having guests again. Buying a house can really shrink your prospective down to a myopic tunnel of only house-related crap.
Speaking of which, the house made both me and my wife forget our anniversary. It’s nine years, which seems like the breath before the grand number of TEN YEARS. But then you remember that 9 is the last of the single digits, and that’s important, too. My mother called me to wish us a happy anniversary, and I almost corrected her that it wasn’t time yet. Silliness. Nine years is good. It’s solid. It’s the bedrock of something stable, something that you built from the ground up, and something you can build on top of. We got married pretty dang young for our demographic, and I wouldn’t do it any different. We didn’t know much nine years ago, but we knew the part that included each other. And it’s made a lot of things easier.
Anyways, back to Jayson. He’s been part of the Philly music scene that I moved in for years, and he always delivers maximum rock n’ roll shenanigans. I’m talking leather jacket, white t-shirt, blasting power chords, bratty, sweaty, powerful rock n’ roll. Venice Sunlight has a new record coming soon, produced by Joe Reinhart of Hop Along and Dogs On Acid. Both those bands have been recent band-crushes of mine, I highly recommend them. I’m saddened that it may be the last VS record ever, but I’m glad they really swung for the fences on this one. If you’re going out, leave it all out there for the rest of us to sort out.
I’m traveling a bit this weekend, gonna get back on track once I get home. Traveling by yourself is both incredibly helpful to having some long thinks, but also a bit lonely. There’s a slight melancholy to driving by myself for hours, just listening to records in the car, not talking to anyone. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a bit of romance to it, too. But in the end, it’s just me in the car, listening to a Dead show from the 70s, caffeinating myself into some sort of jittery mess.
Be well this week. Check out the website and the mailing list and the Friends And Neighbors page, go give some love and support to the many awesome and talented folk who’ve been on the show. Wouldn’t be much of a show without them.
Cheers,
DD