October 12th, 2006

Rocking the Scud, Again: VDB’s Battle of the (Really Really Small) Bands

by Philip Baruth

Hunter Thompson once said that every campaign feels hot — from the inside. You move in a bubble of supporters, everyone is waving a sign bearing your name, and there’s always a staffer there with a hot cup of coffee, ready to tell you that the internals are on the upswing.

So around this time every cycle — mid-October — nearly every candidate everywhere feels the Big Mo.

the scudOf course, three weeks later, half of those candidates will be feeling the Big No, but you can’t tell them that in the heady days leading in to Halloween.

So how is a candidate or a die-hard supporter supposed to know the Truth? That’s where VDB comes in. And we’re here to tell you this, without reservation: Scudder Parker’s momentum is building, baby.

How do we know? Savvy independently-funded polling, run by dispassionate out-of-state actuaries? An in-depth analysis of the whimsical voting patterns of so-called Douglas Democrats?

Better: we just received a second Scudder anthem.

You’ll remember that back in August we brought you an audio exclusive — Nate Freeman’s folk-indy anthem “Scudder, Scudder!” Powered by the voice of Amy LaPaglia, Freeman’s tribute to the Scud went on to become VDB’s top audio download of the week — and then of all time.

Partially because we only had the one. But now, VDB-reader Andrew Perchlik sends us another Parker tribute, this one written and produced by Perchlik’s multi-talented wife, Marianne Donahue. Marianne hooked up Colin McCaffrey to provide some sweet mandolin, and the result is genuinely charming.

Which allows VDB to stage what we’ve always wanted to stage (but were prevented by not knowing anything about music or knowing any musicians, or even any roadies, except that one guy that sacked out on our couch that time after the Highgate show and then stole a loaf of bread and a jar of Skippy and hit the road before we woke up the next morning): A Battle of the Bands.

You’ll find Freeman’s now-classic anthem here.

And Donahue’s hot new property over here. [Technical assist from Le Vermonter, who has now been added to our official site credits — a move long overdue.]

Give both of them a listen, maybe two. And then you tell us that this guy Scudder Parker isn’t a football-playing folk-rock god. You tell us this guy isn’t setting up to catch the Hail Mary, and then drill it in the end zone.

scudder, at the helm

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  1. on October 18th, 2006 at 8:46 pm

    […] And they sent them to VDB, because they knew that we care too. (You’ll find the songs here.) […]