Television is a Time Machine

But if you go back in time and meet yourself, what happens?!?

The 97’s recent appearance on CBS Saturday Morning got me thinking about my first experiences inside the airwaves. Oh my god.

First of all, if you missed it, the Old 97’s did a kickass job of rock and roll on Saturday Sessions during CBS Saturday Morning this weekend. CBS aired “American Primitive” and “Where The Road Goes.” The third song we recorded, “Falling Down Around You,” went unaired. Too much rock for network television, I guess.

Made me think back to the first time the 97’s ever filmed anything for national television. Janeane Garofalo was hosting a show for MTV in 1997 called Indie Outing and asked us to appear on it and we were so excited! I don’t remember much about it except that she had me laughing my ass off the whole day we spent filming around NYC. Below is a photo of the Young 97’s with Janeane, our original manager the great Mike Schwedler, the fifth 97 Tom DeSavia, and reps from our team at Elektra Records (NOT VERY INDIE!). This picture was taken in a western store (MTV producer idea, clearly), which is why Janeane is hiding behind a giant saddle.

That got me wondering about my first ever appearance on TV of any sort. I had a vague memory of appearing on a Cable Access program (remember those?) called Hi-Res Diner with Paul Quigg and Liza Richardson when I was 16 years old. I remembered that there was some footage of my performance on the show, but I had no idea that the entire interview portion exists out there (thanks to David Dennard for uploading it, I guess), and, again, oh my god. The cringe factor is through the roof. I grabbed a couple of snippets from it that will give you an idea of the weird combination of heightened nerves and teenage grandiosity that defined my adolescent personality.

Here’s one where I talk about Folk Music as my chosen Artistic Medium, and my mentor Murry Hammond.