From ANDRAS JONES: No offense to any of our other guests on this trip but the reason I came three thousand miles to Boston was to record a Pop Oracle session with Mary Lou Lord. I knew Mary Lou back in Olympia when she was recording with Bikini Kill; playing open mikes and street corners and living down the street from me. One of the last times I remember talking with her before this taping was the morning Kurt Cobain died. Mary Lou and I were supposed to get together and play some music at her place on Capitol Way behind The Brown Derby. When I called to say I was heading over she said she couldn’t. Her friend had just died. There was a long silence and she said his name. Not long after that Mary Lou left town and got very popular. She and I (and Tim from Rancid) played on the street outside The Capitol Theater at The International Pop Overthrow festival a year or so later. There was a maelstrom of record industry energy around her that weekend. It was a trip to be around. She was a rock star to me the first time I heard her play “Sunspot Stopwatch” at The Corner at Evergreen so I wasn’t surprised. It’s nice when the world recognizes what you saw from the jump.

Mary Lou’s music and her memory take up some serious real estate in my musical landscape and I never see her, since she lives in Salem and I never tour anymore, so I was really looking forward to spending some one-on-one time with her in the studio at The Record Company that Monday afternoon. Imagine my surprise when she walked in with Joey Boston. That’s not his real name. I wish I could tell you who he really is. He was ostensibly there to play guitar for Mary Lou who is recovering from a minor shoulder injury. He walked in and just started playing. I signed a piece of paper saying I wouldn’t divulge his real name or take any pictures. All I can tell you is that if I told you who he was and you are any kind of music fan at all you would be impressed. At least, I was, and a little annoyed.

It’s not like Mary Lou’s rock star friend was actually on my show. Joey Boston was. And, instead of getting some solid intimate synchronicity time with Mary Lou, I had this rock god lurking in the corner, making inside jokes with Mary Lou in between takes, and doing what I have to admit is a pretty impressive Mary Lou Lord impression on guitar. “Joey” was great but he took up all the oxygen just being there. Not exactly what I planned, but I should know that’s how it works with synchronicity and big hopes. As the session fades into the past, I’m pretty glad it turned out just as it did. Mary Lou still sounds great (and looks great with a guitar in her hands, even if she can’t currently play it). Pretty soon she’ll be picking and strumming again. She’ll have no more need of Joey Boston’s services. And from that standpoint, it’s really something to have witnessed this odd display of artistic solidarity. Like watching two great athletes do a sack race together.

Maybe if he likes the show the real Joey Boston will out himself and take credit for his participation in this session but until then, you never know, he could show up at one of Mary Lou’s gigs supporting the re-release of her “Got No Shadow” album which, maybe, Joey even played on.

I’m not saying.

Mary Lou’s guests on this episode include MIRANDA LEE RICHARDS, MATTHEW GIRARD, MARYANNE WINDOW, JJ GONSON, ANNABELLE LORD-PATEY, SAMM NICOLAS.

POP ORACLE Song of The Day (November 22, 2018): JOHN EASDALE “Physical Poetry”

By The Time My Head Gets To Phoenix
– Peter Bruntnell

Will generation’s after you
Hang on to their heads
Or will they take another one instead?
Are we reaching Xanadu
Or is this more like hell?
I’m afraid what time will surely tell

Stories I have told you soon become your own
Tell them to your children when they’re grown
Maybe in a year or two, when they bring me back to life
You can introduce me to your wife

By the time my head gets to Phoenix
You’ll be on your way to school
By the time my earlobe freezes
You’ll be acting like the fool
And if our world explodes
We’ d never know the truth
Floating ’round this empty silver tube

By the time my head gets to Phoenix
You’ll be on your way to school
By the time my earlobe freezes
You’ll be acting like the fool
And if our world explodes
We’ d never know the truth
Floating ’round this empty silver tube

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bqe9eFkAD8K/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet