PenPal Pete: Little Anchor

Last Thursday (October 13th) Lindsey and I were able to catch the Little Anchor performance at The Fire in Philly and we recorded it for you. You’ll want to listen to some tracks from that below, but stay with us for a little bit.

We talked to the band after their set and they were kind enough to invite us to lunch the next day at the New Delhi Restaurant in University City before they departed for Virginia. The Indian buffet was incredible, as was the conversation. We were able to learn that Kendrick (guitar, vocals) had purchased this song from the old electronics store The Wiz back in the day. You may remember that The Wiz was involved in an episode of Seinfeld in which this commercial was featured.

The sitcom-talk inevitably led to a nostalgic discussion about the old TGIF lineup on ABC and it sparked a heated debate. Kendrick and I had grown up knowing that Stephanie was the cuter of the older two Tanner sisters, whereas Alexa (lead singer) and Lindsey disagreed and claimed that DJ was better. Drummer Ian and bassist Thomas did not get involved in the debate as much the rest of us which I’m going to assume is because they are mature. As for the rest of us, we remain deadlocked.

The debate started by us judging the two only based on their years spent on the show, but eventually expanded to include their post show lives. DJ seems to have led a perfectly normal life after the show, but Stephanie had spiraled out of control at one point. She had become addicted to meth but has since become clean and had a baby. Luckily for us, there is a whole book about it! Kendrick and I made the argument that Stephanie’s autobiography would be way more interesting than anything DJ would write about. After we talked about it more we decided that I should gift the autobiography, titled “Unsweetined“, to Kenny and he would read it on stage while playing guitar. The wheels were in motion for this, but then disaster struck.

I ordered the book for him last Thursday on Amazon and paid for next day shipping because we wanted to make sure he received it in time for the CMJ show on Saturday at The Rock Shop. We were worried when he received a weird “We kinda messed up but we’ll try to deliver it tomorrow” slip on Friday but we were still hopeful. We kept in touch all day Saturday about the status of the book but when Lindsey and I arrived in Brooklyn we encountered a dejected Kendrick. The book had not made it to his apartment.

CMJ was ruined.

Sure, Little Anchor had great stage presence and the crowd got really rowdy an into it, but all of our Stephanie Tanner plans had come crashing down.

After some mourning, I realized that despite failing us this time, the postal service deserved a chance to redeem themselves. I decided that Little Anchor would be perfect to participate in the PenPal Pete Project. Pete recently told me that there is a turntable at the farm that he stays at but he does not have any vinyl records. It just so happened that Little Anchor was selling their new EP “Yellow Lights” on vinyl that night. I got Pete a copy and had all of the band members to sign it for him. I will be mailing that to him today, along with a CD copy of Little Anchor’s performance at The Fire, and a copy of the Fall Sounds Mixtape I posted here two weeks ago. He’s also getting a handwritten letter since we are penpals and all.

Now that the postal service is getting a second chance, I am hoping that debacle will be resolved. What has not been resolved, however, is the DJ vs Stephanie debate.

Kendrick should eventually receive the autobiography and should be able to review it and if Alexa and Lindsey are committed, they’ll get whatever book DJ has written and use that to strengthen their arguments.

Despite disagreeing on which Tanner daughter was better there is something we can all agree on: If Al Lambert ever writes a book we would buy it in a second. Yes, after all of our deliberation we realized that the Tanners were fighting for 2nd place as Al Lambert from Step by Step was the real queen of TGIF. We all follow her on Twitter now. You can, too. She’s at @yolakin. Tell her we sent you.

 

Now check out the lovely live sounds of Little Anchor:

Little Anchor – Circles and Circles (Live at the Fire)

Little Anchor – When You’re Looking (Live at the Fire)

Also, please participate in our poll:

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PS: Special shout out to Arien from Feeling Anxious PR for hooking us up with these guys in the first place and inviting us to the CMJ showcase.

Bonus: This song was also brought up during lunch.