Shake the Sheets

One of the appendices in Don't Stop Believin' is a wishlist of 30 songs I've always wanted to sing at karaoke, and yet could never find. Coming in at No. 12 is Ted Leo + the Pharamacist's "Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone?", one of my favorite tracks from the past five years. So imagine my surprise when I saw this announcement regarding New York magazine's upcoming indie-rock karaoke night:



Considering Leo's well-established cover-song credentials—and Andrew WK's ability to yell "party" over and over again—it's probably worth camping out at Studio B the night before, so you don't miss the sign-up sheet.

Karaoke 2.0

Time magazine's Josh Quittner endorses online karaoke as a mid-meltdown cost-saver.

McCain Staffers Knock On Heaven's Door

Deep within Newsweek's engrossing, 2,972-page (approx.) chronicle of this year's presidential campaigns is an account of McCain advisers Mark Salter and Steve Schmidt blowing off steam after the second presidential debate, in which their candidate wandered around the stage and made references to overhead projectors:

After the town-hall debate, Salter and Schmidt reunited with a dozen or so members of the traveling press corps at a karaoke bar in Nashville. It had been months since the duo had had a night out with reporters. Salter, who had sung in a band in college, was cajoled into singing a few tunes. Before long, and after a drink or two, he was into it. Under pressure from the reporters, Schmidt joined him for a chorus of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues." Schmidt even sang "Rocky Mountain High," to squeals from the increasingly inebriated reporters. But then he went off and sat quietly. Schmidt looked worn out, his burly body weighed by stress and the woes of the campaign, his relentless stare dimmed by exhaustion. He ignored political questions and talked quietly about his family. Salter, on the other hand, had found his groove. Standing in the middle of the bar, dressed in his ubiquitous corduroy jacket, he bellowed "More Dylan!" until he had belted out every Bob Dylan song the bar had. Reporters sang loud, drunken backup and tried to get Salter to join them in boy-band dance moves. It was the first time anyone had seen Salter look as if he was having fun in a long time.

McCain, alas, wasn't in attendance, meaning the Nashville crowd missed out on his hilarious Beach Boys parody.

How He Did It [Newsweek]

T-Pain's "Karaoke" Video

One part Duets, one part "Yankee Rose."

First chapter now online

Thanks to the overzealous digital scanners at Google, the first chapter of Don't Stop Believin' is now online. This chapter is more memoir-focused than the rest of the book, but it does include references to public-access puppetry, skeevy central-Pennsylvania sports bars, and Temple of the Dog's "Hunger Strike."

Facebook group

It's up here.

When You Believe

Holy crap, remember when I used to update this site once a week or so? Ooof. I have a few good excuses for my absence, as I've spent the past few months: 1) hanging out with "Weird Al" Yankovic and a local subway-poster vandal; 2) developing a new website, which should be up in a few weeks or so; and 3) finishing the book, which will be in stores by mid-December or so. It's now called Don't Stop Believin': How Karaoke Conquered the World and Changed My Life, and it features your truly on the cover (not my idea, I swear!)

More information TK, including a link to the new site.