NPR: Old Music Tuesdays

All Songs Considered: Fall in Love with New Music Every Week

Old Music Tuesdays

by Bob Boilen

Despite the digital age, real mail still doesn't come on Sundays, and CDs continue to come out on Tuesdays. The Sunday mail thing I get, but the Tuesday CD thing? It's been that way forever, and I'm going to get to the bottom of this, (but not today).

Today starts Old Music Tuesday, and it's a chance for me to go through my LPs and 45s and play something -- sometimes, like today, at random, and sometimes with a sense of purpose. And always with a big smile on my face. It's nice to hold a record again.

We begin with a band I know almost nothing about; though I bought their 45.

What I do know is that the band Come On wrote a song that's somehow managed to creep into my head more than a few times since 1978.

It's called "Don't Walk on the Kitchen Floor." I'm pretty sure Come On was based in NYC.

Now, if you know anything about this band --or you were in this band, please write -- I'd be forever grateful.

12:26 PM ET | 11-13-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

B-

Here's a whole lotta Come On info:

http://www.heliocd.com/comeon.html

Sent by Christopher Porter | 12:48 PM ET | 11-13-2007

Brilliant! The post, the vinyl, the video and the band, all brilliant!

Sent by KyndDave | 1:11 PM ET | 11-13-2007

I think the new release tuesday started a couple years back with major corporations such as best buy doing the whole tune in tuesday deal. I really miss the sparatic releasing of material.

But with Radiohead blazing a new trail with their digital distribution endeavors maybe we will start recieving that again.

Sent by Devin Rodgers | 5:20 PM ET | 11-13-2007

Devin, it's definitely older than that. When I was running a music mag in Chicago in the early 90s, Tuesdays were already the standard. I can even picture going to my local record store in the mid/late 80s and checking out their upcoming releases board. It was easy for them to organize by date, because each week, all the new albums came out on the same day.

Meanwhile, Yahoo! Answers has an interesting thread on the subject. The best guess there is from a person who says it arose from weekly album sales being tabulated on Mondays. By releasing on a Tuesday, you'd get a full week of sales credited when the next sales tabulation took place. Interesting theory.

Sent by andy carvin | 10:10 AM ET | 11-14-2007

Hello from George [COME ON!]
You may have learned plenty/enough from the heliocd.com site CP posted...we maintain some web-presence and have a couple nicely-received CDs available...there's even a youtube trailer for a documentary-that-never-was. -A swell surprise your video and kind words! for the LOVE of music-
PS: Klaus Nomi, an old COME ON pal-collaborator... lives!! a new release coming in time for Christmas.

Sent by George | 6:47 AM ET | 11-16-2007

That's the weirdest-looking mp3 player I've ever seen. Where can I get one?

it's called the Jeroenwijering player
---Bob Boilen

Sent by Avie Schneider | 10:29 AM ET | 11-18-2007

god I love the interweb! I've been a bit swamped to check out the site, but now i know i can solve a long mystery .

Do you play music these days? And Where the heck is Klaus Nomi been all these years? Answer if you wish George. And thank you ...

Maybe you can do a remake and change the words from "This must be my block and i want to live ...." to "this must be my blog and i want to live :) "
by the way how did you find out about this post, it feels like a message in a bottle when you do this stuff

All the best
Bob Boilen

Sent by Bob Boilen | 11:47 AM ET | 11-18-2007

Page from COME ON here- geez, I always thought this was a great band, but who the hell am I? By all means get both CDs for sale, and I need to stress that the upcoming Klaus Nomi release is a major efffort and not like anything you have ever seen! Go to zabakdaz.com for more info.

very cool Page, I'll have to buy the CDS. As for the Klaus Nomi stuff, I'm very curious what could be done to someone who's been gone for 25 years
all the best
---Bob Boilen

Sent by Page Wood | 4:53 PM ET | 11-19-2007

The circle is complete.

I recently saw a friend for the first time in 15 years. When we were early teens, his older brother had the first Klaus Nomi LP; my friend and I listened to it and had no idea what was going on, but we liked it -- I think. Then we played Anti-Nowhere League and The Who and INXS and Boston.

Fast forward two weeks. I was flipping through the on-demand cable TV selections at my mother-in-law's place last night and I came across the "The Nomi Song" documentary, which I was happy to see finally. The Come On fellas are in it.

Jump back a week: Come On and Nomi get referenced in a new NPR blog, mentioning reissue CDs, etc.

The circle is complete.

I love this Chris!
--Bob

Sent by Christopher Porter | 7:35 PM ET | 11-21-2007

Hey Bob-- just to let you know/forgot to mention: wouldja believe there was a KITCHEN FLOOR cover?
It's on vinyl by a defunct boys-girls unit Emergency, circa 2001--played it just the other day and it's so funny to hear my trademark riffs approximated/mangled lovingly-enthusiastically and a garage-ier, sloppier version, with more snotty vocal! The band fell in love with our CD on tour and learned it in the van....
GE

Sent by George | 4:41 PM ET | 11-29-2007

I hate Disneyland
Micky Mouse is a rat!

Sent by Michael Schwenk | 9:00 AM ET | 12-16-2007

Send a Comment

Comments are reviewed and edited by NPR prior to display. All comments will be read, but not all will be posted.

NPR reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its Web site or in any medium now known or unknown the e-mails and letters that we receive. We may edit them for clarity or brevity and identify authors by name and location. For additional information, please consult our Terms of Use.

E-mail this Page

Recipient's e-mail address:	» Up to twelve addresses, separated by commas.
Your e-mail address:
Your name:
Personal message (optional, 600 characters max):
Your NPR member station:	» List of local stations (PDF)
Are you a member of your local NPR station?	Yes No
Would you like to receive information from your local NPR member station? (see NPR's privacy policy)	Yes No
May we contact you with information about NPR programming and services? (see NPR's privacy policy)	Yes No

(Information collected by NPR will be used solely for internal NPR or NPR member station purposes and only if you selected 'yes' above. See NPR's privacy policy for more information.)