Friday, March 16, 2007

Now's A Good Time To Let'R Rip...

I suppose this would qualify as a 'blind item". It's not terribly juicy, shave head shocking, or hard to figure out, but it is what it is... I'm telling it because it's music related and provides insight into the nature of one particular beast who has become a target of bloggers of late. For many justifiable reasons, not least of all his hatred of blogs and bloggers. You should have figured it out already. Anyway, said "rocker" has hung around quite a bit in "My" town (who am I, Frank Sinatra?) and was a frequent visitor to my place of employment/enjoyment...I actually quite liked where I worked, it was only jerk customers like him that made any actual stress. Working in a music instrument store can be a crazy cacophony of "sights, sounds, and smells" (and constant annoying Spinal Tap references, obviously) but it was, in it's way, Music 101. An education "Mr. Poseur" could definitely benefit from. Perhaps if this "DB" (his nickname, but another massive hint) actually saw the merit in how hard people work in this area of the music industry to make sure that poseur pricks like him are supplied with a steady flow of high end instruments (none of which he shows any talent in playing), he'd be more courteous.
Anyway, this one time...(no, not at Band Camp), I was hanging out in our acoustic room, an enclosed space used solely for acoustics with even a humidifier to keep them in good shape. Nice little set up. In he comes. He reached for a very high end instrument. Usually the salespeople do the grabbing down of the expensive ones, but fine. Whatever. We always, very respectfully asked customers who wish to demo to remove jackets with scratchy accents (prominent zippers, etc.) in order to preserve the integrity of the guitars' finish. He was wearing such a jacket. Well...mutha, it was like if I had asked some diva to remove her feather boa. You know, the sort of huff Richard Simmons gets when Letterman insults him or refuses his advances. Thinking back, I'll bet he just thought I just wanted to get a look at him in the tacky wifebeater he was wearing underneath. Quite the contrary. EWWW. My request was purely on reflex having asked it numerous times, with customers always complying nicely and cooperatively. Not him. He just walked out all annoyed and inconvenienced. Leaving me to think "damn, and I won't get to hear him fumble out some Dinosaur Jr./Lemonheads cover he's been working on for weeks." This was just before he went all wacky. The kind of wacky that was done before him and done better thousand fold to boot. Just because you wrote out your band manifesto in eyeliner doesn't mean you're breaking any new musical ground, DB.
Anyway, he came in a bunch of other times and was rude to our security person, he kept trying to pick up our cashier by sending his minions over with messages and just giving her letchy stares, and he hijacked temporarily one of our staff to work on whatever music project he had going on...and completely wasted our collegue's time as apparently the sessions were more "hang out with skanks parties".

One day I was working in the keyboard department and saw he and friend?/brother? walk through towards guitars. I gave him a smile as I do all customers, even the jerky ones and jerky as he was, he was giving us repeat business. Clients basically paid our bills, like it or not, like them or not. Anyway, he gave me a disturbingly dirty look and he and his companion just laughed. Nice.

So I haven't cared for him since. There was one flick he was in where he got his face completely smashed in and I was happy. Okay, I'm sure you have the answer now.

Anyway, saw him a couple of times more in and around the location of the store. Basically the street is like a mall without a roof due to the high volume of trendoids and Hot Topic Loiterers(well, our country's version of Hot Topic). No doubt he was researching his targeted audience.

My first attempt (and probably last) at a Blind Item. Not particularly exciting compared to most blinds, but people who love and value music and have toiled hard in the rock trenches can certainly be amused by this little anecdote. Hope it did just that. Comments/Guesses would be appreciated. In this case polite comments would be okay. Nasty comments? Even better.

UPDATE: okay, okay... the DB stands for Douche Bag, a dis that seems to stick to this guy like glue.


currently listening to: Genesis, Abacab

12 comments:

Allan said...

For a DJ, I'n really out of touch...DB? D.Boon from the Minutemen was cool and he's dead...David Bowie fit the eyeliner thing, but that's a long time ago...my ex-roommate is Canadian , has the initials DB and sings for GWAR,but he can't play guitar worth fuck and he's a nice guy anyway...so who is this?

Ha, I tried telling another DJ that 'abacab'is basic song structure- and then I explained where 'Tones on Tail' got their name. He didn't understand that, but I bet he can tell me who DB is...

edp said...

Yeah, I have to admit, I have a pretty good hunch who this clown might be, but the DB is proving to be a bit of a curveball.

Thanks so much for the links! You rock!

edp said...

Okay, the update makes it a little less of a mystery. I googled my guess with "Douche Bag" and it was a rather popular pairing.

Miss N said...

Billy Idol?? Ok - I'll go - I really have no idea...

Faerie said...

please dont say lukas rossi?!?!


jared leto?

where the hell is he from anyway??

Faerie said...

erik would you care to share with the rest of the class???



linkd

bonjourtristesse said...

No, not Lukas Rossi, although he was known around the store, I had heard stories about him way before his star gig...I used to always ask a friend who had played in a band with him, "How's Lukas Rossi?" cuz the name just caught my fancy. So it was pretty funny when I kept hearing "Lukas Rossi" all over the media. Pretty sure I was introduced to him, can't remember, it was that eventful!
But it's cool, can't begrudge a fellow Canadian his success!

Faerie said...

people missed a clue ie MOVIE
leto was a movie star before rockstar...

not to mention he was in texas last week touring with taste of chaos (took my kids, im too old)

anyway ... got his nose broke in lil mexico (read: el paso)

NOW
about this rossi business... something about that man screams sex ... and yes i know he is a 24 y/o punk bitch ... LOL .. just goes to show what a lil eye liner and atitude does to chicks.

bonjourtristesse said...

Too bad about Leto's nose, it was such a perfect dainty little SNOUT! I hope his nose will now resemble Owen Wilson's...yeah, Rossi seems to have impressed the ladies, eh? I believe he is from a burg east of Toronto...I can't remember what I heard...I'm old too, my memory is shot! Let's hear it for the Gen-Xer with premature alzheimer's!

Best to the kids, Invisible, you rock!

bonjourtristesse said...

...and yet the memory of DoucheBag stays strong, cause it made me so mad...LOL!!

Faerie said...

LOL thanks bon!!

If you read the post Rockstars and OMGs it was about that show. and the sweat of leto was upon their person... they just giggled like crazy...

personally i have seen him back in 00 or 01 and he was an asshole...

rossi is a PIMP though. i mean come on.. tongue snaking with tommy lee?? so yeah NO i dont want him.. no matter how his aura is spilled... =)) wish i could see the supernova tour

Amber said...

Yep, I think it's definitely Jared Leto. He's a major blog hater. But I thought he was a jackass wayyy before reading this!