Unlikely Musical Numbers

Slow day at home -- studying my lines for tomorrow, checking emails, stopping fights between the kitties.

And in the midst of it, discovering a band I'd only heard vaguely of, but didn't know they had some actual recorded output.

The band is The Del-Byzanteens, and they recorded a single, an EP, and an LP in the early 80s. I acquired the EP and LP today (which include the single), and they turned out to be really good. Also, I'd forgotten that the band included a not-yet-known filmmaker that I'm a big fan of.

The members of the band were Phil Kline (guitar, vocals), Philippe Hagen (bass), Dan Braun (percussion, drums), Josh Braun (drums, percussion), and . . . Jim Jarmusch (keyboards, vocals)!

And some of their song lyrics were written by Luc Sante.

Here's a video of them doing "My World Is Empty Without You," which also features John Lurie on saxophone:

Years later, Jim Jarmusch would appear on Lurie's wonderful nature program, Fishing With John. Here's an excerpt from that episode:

And if you haven't seen this next video someplace else yet (which seems unlikely) - here's Sarah Silverman's tribute to her boyfriend, Jimmy Kimmel, on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of his show. I've never seen his show, and from what I've seen of him, not much a fan of his, but he seems to be a good sport. Which is good.

And I didn't know that there's a running gag on his show where he often ends it by saying, "Apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time."

Enjoy.