Tag Archives: Westmoreland Mall

A Band Called Punchline | Podcast

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It took me forever to get into podcasts. Some I have been enjoying lately are Chris DeMakes a Podcast, One Hit Thunder, & more recently A Band Called Punchline. (The former two break-down & deep-dive into songs in totally different yet incredible ways… I highly recommend them to musicians and fans!)

🎶 Don’t sleep on One By Willie, In Defense of Ska, Gumbands (with the legendary Rick Sebak), Lobby Boys, What Makes This Song Stink (Pat Finnerty!), That One Time on Tour, Peer Pleasure, & Weird Al-gorithm. But, this isn’t about those. 🎶

You can listen to all of these anywhere you find podcasts, but I do mostly all of my listening on Amazon Music.

Collage of images featuring the band A Band Called Punchline performing live, showcasing musicians on stage and off, with the band's name prominently displayed in bold letters.

I have absolutely no idea why I didn’t get big into Punchline in the very late 90’s or early 00’s. We all frequented the same places. I had to have seen them. I was active in AiXeLsyD then Gasoline Dion at the time. Their music is in my wheelhouse. I have heard a lot of Chris Fafalios because he produces on Chris DeMakes a Podcast & co-hosts One Hit Thunder. Chis is a great co-host with Matt Kelly & producer with involvement in 2 quality shows. This came up, and I was like… I have no excuse to not check this out as I love music, music documentaries, stories about songs, stories about playing & touring. It’s a no-brainer, right?

Well, I’m 3½ episodes in and the name-dropping alone is mind-blowing. Laga, Logic, AMC, Berlin Project, Mr. Smalls, Soundscape Studios, Garfield Artworks, Josh Bakaitus, Drusky, Joker Productions, mp3.com, practicing in McKees Rocks, and more I am surely forgetting. It puts me back into the days when I worked on the assembly line at Sony with Alf from Circle of Dead Children, or when me & An-Die ran into the Zao guitarist at Westmoreland Mall. Everyone was in a band. Ha ha. I remember Dirtbag Rob saying he had an AiXeLsyD T-shirt or patch before he was in the band.

I was at so many shows at Laga. That’s where I got to see Doyle play the Misfits intro in their green room one time. I remember Logic from that killer Take Me To Your Leader compilation CD. Man I miss punk comps. AiXeLsyD was practically the house band at AMC for a bit. We played every open stage we could. Berlin Project always worked the crowd well. I remember playing Mr. Small’s at least once with Gasoline Dion, not sure if Ernie and the Berts ever played there or not. I also remember being in the back for some reason. Maybe hanging out with Dethlehem? Me & Jason were hanging out with Next Stop Detox when they recorded at Soundscape in McKeesport. I was in Detox for like 30 seconds and recorded a single at Studiophonix in Mt. Pleasant. I think Gasoline Dion played Garfield Artworks… Maybe EaTB too? I know I saw a bunch of shows there. Ernie and the Berts recorded drums there once, I think? (It’s oddly not on my places I have played map.) We practiced at the shady ABC Storage in McKees Rocks and up in Allentown for a bit.

It makes me think of all the cool bands & all the fun times we had back then!

But, the cool part is hearing Berlin Project’s story, from the guys themselves. They seem like genuine nice people who set out to make some music, make a living doing it, and accomplished that! It’s presented documentary style and sort of gives me NPR vibes.

I am rooting for them every step of the way while I listen, When they talk about literally losing a tire off their van, using calling cards & pay phones, running up cell phone bills in the Nokia brick & flip phone days, purposely putting music on Napster just to get it out there, paying way too much for recording, sleeping on floors & booking tours, meeting other great and not-so-great bands… it all just hits. I am not and never was a pro touring musician, but I get it. I respect the hustle, and I appreciate the insight & shared experiences.

If you were around the southwestern PA scene in the late 90’s or early 00’s, ever picked up a guitar (or bass or drums or keys or horns), or are a fan of punk, indie, & DIY… you gotta check this out.

It’s on a bunch of platforms, so find it how you find yours… or start here:

Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube

I’m starting to dive into their stuff. I really dig the old stuff on their bandcamp that they sort of don’t recognize as much any more. Check out their website. I also want to see their music special on Amazon Prime. Punchline fans, what are your favorites? Can you make me a top 20 playlist in the comments? What are your memories of seeing them play or hearing their songs for the first time? What about if you played your own shows in & around that time?

Go to Best Buy and set all the alarms to go off, right now.

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Did you read the email that I sent to them?

I see this email reply as an (incredibly boring) invitation to go in to your local Best Buy & monkey around with everything.  Especially the alarm clocks.  Does Best Buy even sell alarm clocks any more?  If they do, do set them all to go off at weird intervals after hours… or even 10 or 15 minutes before they close.  If they’re clock radios, put them on the classical station or talk radio.  Do it on the demo cell phones if you can too.

This was their only [yawn] reply:

From: online.communities <online.communities@bestbuy.com>
Date: Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 12:05 PM
Subject: RE: A Formal Apology
To: Waldo Lunar <world.and.lunar.domination@gmail.com>

Hello,

We always encourage you, our customer, to come in and look around or even test out our products, so you know what you like or don’t like about them. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us and I’ll be sure to pass this along to our Leadership Team.

Respectfully,
Justin|Community Connector
Corporate Campus
Online.Communities@BestBuy.com

I guess they didn’t “get” it, or find it amusing.  Of course setting all the alarm clocks is an innocuous thing to do at best, but I was acting like it was a big deal.  That’s why (I thought) it was funny.  Wow.  Best Buy popped my funny balloon.

What a boring dud.

English: Vintage clock radio

English: Vintage clock radio (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

<shameless plug> Oh yeah, while you’re at it… set all the browsers to http://www.ErnieAndTheBerts.com, too. </shameless plug>

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Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Beeps, & Buzzers ⌨

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Well, I sent what I thought were going to be two rather fun emails, but they have both gone unanswered.  Wow.  What a giant dud.  As my wife constantly reminds me, I certainly find myself amusing.  So, in that spirit I thought I’d share these emails anyway.  Perhaps you’ll chuckle too.

The first was to Best Buy via their form online and to the Twelpforce email address:

From: Waldo Lunar <world.and.lunar.domination@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, May 31, 2012
Subject: A Formal Apology
To: twelpforce@bestbuy.com

Greetings Best Buy Associates,

I write to you today to offer a formal apology.  I have lived with guilt for many years, and I would like to be able to clear my conscience.  Sadly, you literally asked for what you got, but you certainly didn’t deserve it my friends.  I beg you in advance to not unleash the wrath of the Twelpforce or Geek Squad upon my humble self.

Do you remember the commercials from about ten or so years ago that begged one to come in & play with all of the electronics in the store?  Well, I said you asked for it.  You did.  I simply complied.

I went into one of your stores, and tried my best to restrain my maniacal laughter as I set all of the alarm clocks & clock radios to go off at different intervals after the store closed.  Some were 5 minutes, some where 10 or even 20.  It was incredibly hard to stifle my giggles and pretend like I was incredibly interested in these timepieces.  I don’t know how no one noticed.  Now I can’t get 10 feet into a Best Buy door without a blue-shirted hawk swooping in to ask if I need help, and I’ll get asked every 3 feet after that if I turn it down.  Perhaps shenanigans like mine are why?

At one time, I wished that I could have been around to see the chaos.  Okay, maybe I still do.  Perhaps a master switch would have cut the power to all of them after the first one went off.  I won’t pretend to know the internal machinations of such a colossal retail empire.  Perhaps I made a memory for that team and brought them together through adversity in the name of silencing alarm clocks.  Perhaps it is a good story to tell trainees, or it may have even been forgotten over time.  I was much younger & more brash then.  I thought I knew everything.  I thought the world was my playground. To be blunt, I was an arrogant young miscreant.  I don’t remember if it was planned, or spur of the moment.

I’m sure that when the internet was still “new”, I set more than a few of your browsers to my old band’s web page & walked away.  I did this in every store though, not just Best Buy.  I won’t apologize for that.  A pimp’s got to pimp, right?

I would like to offer an apology to Best Buy as a corporation, the Best Buy employees startled and/or annoyed that day (and their families), and to all of the Best Buy associates that have joined the team since that day (somewhere between 2000 and 2002).  I believe this was at the Greensburg PA location across from Westmoreland Mall.  Please pass this along to them, if there are any left that may have been working that day.  I have seen the err of my ways, and I can live with the guilt no longer!

Thank you for your time, I hope you find it within you to pass along forgiveness for this egregious behavior.

Regretfully,
-Waldo Lunar

The next one was to Bed Bath & Beyond via their webform:

Do you remember those Best Buy commercials from 10 or so years ago where they asked you to come in & try the stuff out?

I did.  I went in one night & set all of their alarm clocks to go off about 5, 10, 15, or 20 minutes after closing.  I bet it was hilarious.  I only wish I had been there to see it.  I bet that happened often.

I noticed that you have a lot of kitchen timers and egg timers.  What time do you close?

Thanks,
-Waldo

I thought it was funny.  Apparently Best Buy and Bed Bath & Beyond did not.  I did get the standard “we got your message, someone will write back with in 3 days” replies, over a week ago.  I really thought Best Buy would come out with a witty intelligent retort.  You’d think an electronics company would be helmed by geeks who found humor in such ridiculousness.  Bed Bath & Beyond apparently do not go too far into the beyond part.  Oh well.

Best Buy

Best Buy (Photo credit: Ron Dauphin)

English: A Bed Bath and Beyond store in a shop...

Bed Bath and Beyond (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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