Sometimes there’s actually a good, sound reason for the call. This particular night we were leaving Cleveland heading for Columbus and we couldn’t come up with who recorded the cheesy 70’s songs Green Eyed Lady and Brandy. Ed asks if Kyle would know and I say he probably would. It’s 3:30 am, we fire up the cellphone, wake Kyle from a sound sleep and he instantly comes up with Sugarloaf and Looking Glass.

Ed and I are both impressed, not only that Kyle can come up with one-hit wonders we can’t recall, but that he did it without thinking immediately upon being woken up. We drive on through the dark and Ed says, “How does Kyle know all this stuff, he wasn’t even born yet.” I tell him that Kyle is a true soldier and scholar of the rock & roll.

Ed further wonders if Kyle would know songs as far back as the doo-wop era, things like Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. I tell him I don’t know if his musical knowledge goes back that far, but that I don’t even know the artists on that song. The next night Kyle comes with us to Dayton to help with merch. During the drive Ed hits Kyle with In The Still Of The Night and Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. Kyle nails both, the Five Satins and the Flamingoes.

That night when we get home Ed tells me, “That Kyle, he knows a fuckload of shit.” “A fuckload of shit,” I repeat, rolling the phrase around admiringly, “That’s pretty much your highest accolade isn’t it?” “Fuck, yeah,” Ed replies.

And so it is.

(author’s note – Kyle would like it noted that in his opinion Choochtown is the best Hamell On Trial record. He’s wrong, of course, but he still knows a fuckload of shit.)