Caught in the Carousel

Letter from the Editor - April 2007

By Alex Green

This new issue of Caught In The Carousel really put me a great mood.

And let me tell you something, last week I wasn’t in a very good one. Here’s why:

I was reading an article about the reunion of The Police and to realize that Sting and Stewart Copeland are in their fifties was one thing, but reading that Andy Summers is now 64(!!) just sent me over the edge. The Police were my favorite band growing up and to think that a guy whose picture was on my wall when I was twelve is now 64 was just way too much. Then R.E.M. got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and that was wonderful and they sounded great, but when I realized that a band has to have been recording for twenty-five years in order to be eligible for the Hall, it occurred to me that because I’ve been listening to R.E.M. since I was twelve, that made me an old fucker.

And then I panicked and took note of these symptoms of my old age:

**Memory loss (Who was the original bass player for the Boomtown Rats?)

**Irrational intolerance (“I hate anyone who says they’re an honest person!”)

**Loss of the ability to dunk a basketball (Though to be fair, I am 5’7”…)

**An unwillingness to listen to Nick Drake because he’s too loud.

**Re-reading The Cultural History Of Israeli Politics 1966-1967 Volume 4 instead of accepting an invitation from a hot girl to see The 300.

Really!

But then I took a look at this month’s Caught In The Carousel and everything changed. Look at what we’ve got and tell me if your mood doesn’t instantly improve:

**Our ace Brandon DiSabatino obtained a list from Dean Wareham enumerating his Top 10 albums of all time.

**Pretty Sure’s David Porter was originally going to write a quick review of the new Todd Snider b-side collection but it morphed into “A Pirate Looks At Forty” a fascinating cultural examination of Snider’s music as well as a history of ‘80s roots rock.

**Our Iceland pop expert Alex Mattraw not only reviewed Ampop’s new album Sail To The Moon, she sat down with the band and had an interesting chat.

**A comprehensive Love Tractor interview with founder Mike Richmond, who is generously letting us post six of my favorite Love Tractor songs for your downloading pleasure.

**Reviews, reviews, reviews!! Our staff tackles new albums by IAMX, Dean and Britta, Golden Bear, William Tell, Ex-Lion Tamer and many more.

**And we’re now making our exclusive theme song “Caught In The Carousel” by The Little Murders available for downloading.

Oh, and my book on The Stone Roses is still selling really well and many thanks are in order for the following reviews for promoting it:
parasitesandsycophants.blogspot.com/2007/03/book-review-stone-roses-by-alex-green.html
fuelfriends.blogspot.com/2007/03/33-13-series-stone-roses.html

Also, a review of the book will be in the next issue of Skyscraper magazine.

And, Robb Benson of Dept. Of Energy sent me this link, which is a review of our collaborative project Green Poems—I wrote the words, he wrote the songs, sang the songs, and made the songs brilliant:
www.yellowmelodies.com/e-zine/numero8/demo/R.html

Since we’re at it, here’s a link to Dept. Of Energy playing “Stereo Embers” live.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=klcx3qIQD_0

Okay, so I don’t care that Andy Summers is 64. Not at all. Caught In The Carousel isn’t even two-years-old yet.

We can only hope to look that good when we’re his age.

Alex Green
Editor, Caught In The Carousel
Alex670@earthlink.net