Thursday, February 26, 2009
Creamtastic Put Another Dime In The Jukebox, Baby: An Informal Poll
Posted by Tracy Moore on Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 12:11 PM
Last week, I was visiting some peeps in Los Angeles and stumbled on a pretty killer jukebox selection at this really awesome bar on Los Feliz Blvd. in Glendale called The Griffin. The bar has a big neon green griffin on the outside, and inside is everything you'd want a bar to be: dungeon-like, really dark and uh, really really dark. I've got this thing about bars where I like to imagine we've all rolled up to some basement-like speakeasy to drink in shame and not make eye contact for longer than half a second. (Mostly, it's just that vice should feel seedy, and something about drinking in clean, sanitized, well-lit bars takes all the piss out of the whole shebang. Or, the bar should be the swankiest, most over-the-top sophistication you've ever seen. I just can't take anything in the middle.)
But you know what shits me to tears?* When the jukebox sucks. The Griffin made me think about a few things. Firstly, in Nashville, when people talk about a great jukebox they usually mean it has great old bands on it, like The Stooges or Motorhead (see the Springwater). That's cool, but I noticed on a bar tour of Los Angeles that great jukeboxes seem to also have a ton of new, cool bands on them. The Griffin was rocking things I never see on jukeboxes, meaning stuff that just came out relatively recently and that I happen to like. Los Campesinsos!, Crystal Castles, and that one hilariously stupid Teenagers song, which is funnier than a hat full of assholes.* It had your Good Old Stuff too, like Television and The Cars, but mainly I was just a little giddy at having so many new choices. It's not that no bars in Nashville have new stuff, like, I seem to have heard that one song by MGMT about four thousand times at 3 Crow.
But what's your favorite local bar jukebox? And please feel free to define what makes a great jukebox in your opinion. I'll take this moment to give a shout-out to the Villager for being the only jukebox in town I've found that has Nina Simone on it.
*Both of these asterisked Australian expressions are courtesy of Dean Shortland, who happily lent them to me last night at Melrose Billiards for use in my next blog post.
Comments (26)
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Beer Sellar..hands down has the best juke box in Nahville! You can download anything you want. It's rockin!
In high school we used to always go to Elliston Pl. Soda Shop and play "Blueberry Hill" over and over. Loved that jukebox - do they still have one?
The only one I ever really interact nowadays with is at H.Cues (upstairs from Pizza Perfect) in Hillsboro Village. Favorite tune on that one: "Ring of Fire"
I love Waffle House jukeboxes, you can pretty much always count on them for "Islands in the stream" duet with Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton - some Al Green, Otis Redding and Hall and Oates. 6 songs for $1.00!
Did you go to L.A. because you're knocked up and pathetic? Or just pathetically knocked up?
Favorite thus far is the new Melrose (the well-lit, basketball pop-a-shot game-havin' one across the street from Billiards). Old Spoon and Talking Heads are but some of the goodies.
Beer Sellar used to have a good jukebox. Remember when they used to advertise "99 beers and 1 bitchin jukebox"? Those days are long gone there.
I don't like the computerized jukeboxes. They never have all of the songs from an album and charge you more to get the ones you want. What ever happened to having the full album and living without the ones it did not have?
As far as I can tell the Elliston Place Soda Shop's has not worked in years.
H. Cues and the Villager have the best though they took Styx out of the Villager jukebox making it difficult to get a Mr. Roboto fix.
The Boardroom (RIP) had a good jukebox -- they had Old 97's Too Far To Care along with a bunch of other great stuff.
the non swanky old melrose place (billiards) across from the new swanky ink jet printed retro 80s 70s junk on the wall place has a good box now. mostly great oldies soul/country but you can spend a little extra to do that download thing you just gotta have.
Did you go to L.A. because you're knocked up and pathetic? Or just pathetically knocked up?
Pathetically knocked up with the spirit of rock!
The Villager and H. Cue's for sure...The Villager always has local music. I believe it is Brian Ritchey, Panhandlers of Love and Johnny Butcher at the moment. Good stuff.
I have to say that the Melrose Pub has a pretty good jukebox. It's a healthy mix of the more 'classic' rock stuff and the newer indie goods. It may not be the ideal dungeon like environment but it's far superior to the one trick ponies I've encountered in most other bars.
Is this good jukebox stuff at Melrose Billiards a new occurrence? Every time I've been there I've heard 3 Doors Down.
I'll echo the sentiment on the Villager. It's got Kill 'Em All, y'all.
regardless of selection, the digital download touchscreen jukeboxes are soul-sucking demon machines (i'm looking at you, 5 Points). i want more than 2 songs from my $1 and i don't wanna have to search some ugly i-tunes interface to find the good stuff.
the juke at the new melrose pub is impressive. the old slow bar box was the best.
unfortunately in a few years time this topic will be obsolete 'cause their all going to the electronic on-line things
RIMBoy said:Beer Sellar used to have a good jukebox. Remember when they used to advertise "99 beers and 1 bitchin jukebox"? Those days are long gone there.
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Actually its "100 bottles, 50 taps, and 1 bitchin jukebox. And it's still there! :-) Come on down and check it out. Tell them Debbi sent ya.
It's the Villager. They got Robert Johnson & shit on there. You can't fuck with that.
Out of what's left, the Villager, definitely. The Slow Bar was mighty good, and I remember in the early 90s one of the nasty old-timey beer bars on the east side (all of which seem to have closed) having some amazing soul 45s on their old jukebox. Considering the cracked-out clientele, someone probably broke in, smashed the thing open, and sold the singles to get enough money for reddyrock.
I agree Villager is up there with H.Cues. Just hadn't been to Villager in so long, I forgot about it. Ahh...those were the days, a pitcher of Shiner, some darts, and tunes on the jukebox.
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