Momentous Records Releases Bean Hoy 25th Anniversary Collection
MOMENTOUSRECORDS.COM
Momentous Records has teamed up with Nine Volt Media for a fond look back at one of the most fun and adventurous original music bands to emerge from the Driftless Region in the last two decades. Bean Hoy was the brainchild of La Crosse music journalist Mike Starling, and served as an outlet for his wry, topical tunes about subjects like road construction, cruddy jobs and the joys of beater cars and Wisconsin winters. "Like Dave Barry backed by the Violent Femmes," Ted Johnson once wrote in LAX Magazine. Bean Hoy took the stage in everything from acoustic duo to 8-piece rock band with a brass section called the Horns of Vengeance. Twelve of the band's most popular tunes have been remastered for the new Momentous release It's a Big Dumb World: A 25th Anniversary Collection. Casey Virock, Hans Mayer, Mark Lakmann, Jim Vogt, Jason Knox and Bob Mueller are just a few of the top-notch Wisconsin musicians backing Starling on the recordings. The album is available exclusively at beanhoy.bandcamp.com.
Momentous Records has teamed up with Nine Volt Media for a fond look back at one of the most fun and adventurous original music bands to emerge from the Driftless Region in the last two decades. Bean Hoy was the brainchild of La Crosse music journalist Mike Starling, and served as an outlet for his wry, topical tunes about subjects like road construction, cruddy jobs and the joys of beater cars and Wisconsin winters. "Like Dave Barry backed by the Violent Femmes," Ted Johnson once wrote in LAX Magazine. Bean Hoy took the stage in everything from acoustic duo to 8-piece rock band with a brass section called the Horns of Vengeance. Twelve of the band's most popular tunes have been remastered for the new Momentous release It's a Big Dumb World: A 25th Anniversary Collection. Casey Virock, Hans Mayer, Mark Lakmann, Jim Vogt, Jason Knox and Bob Mueller are just a few of the top-notch Wisconsin musicians backing Starling on the recordings. The album is available exclusively at beanhoy.bandcamp.com.
Why Road Construction Should Be the Official State Tourism Song
BY SUSAN LAMPERT SMITH
Mike Starling felt kind of bad for state tourism officials this week. After all, they’d paid $22,000 for a song, “Wisconsin – Life’s So Good,” as part of the new $2.2 million campaign promoting the state, only to learn that it sounds suspiciously like a 1995 song song by a British group, Supergrass.
The faux pas got lots of publicity for Wisconsin – it made the international news wires, and tourism officials were teased by people from as far away as China. Yes, the phones were ringing off the hook at Tourism last week, but unfortunately, the callers were nasty reporters, not nice tourists hoping to book a feel-good week in Wisconsin Dells. Even worse, the state had paid for a tune that probably can’t be used.
So Milwaukee songwriter Starling, a giving kind of guy, sent Tourism Secretary Jim Holperin an offer. The state can have his ready-to-go original Wisconsin song for the bargain price of just $10,000. It’s called "Road Construction" and contains such catchy lyrics as:
Mike Starling felt kind of bad for state tourism officials this week. After all, they’d paid $22,000 for a song, “Wisconsin – Life’s So Good,” as part of the new $2.2 million campaign promoting the state, only to learn that it sounds suspiciously like a 1995 song song by a British group, Supergrass.
The faux pas got lots of publicity for Wisconsin – it made the international news wires, and tourism officials were teased by people from as far away as China. Yes, the phones were ringing off the hook at Tourism last week, but unfortunately, the callers were nasty reporters, not nice tourists hoping to book a feel-good week in Wisconsin Dells. Even worse, the state had paid for a tune that probably can’t be used.
So Milwaukee songwriter Starling, a giving kind of guy, sent Tourism Secretary Jim Holperin an offer. The state can have his ready-to-go original Wisconsin song for the bargain price of just $10,000. It’s called "Road Construction" and contains such catchy lyrics as:
We got four seasons
Here in the Midwest
There’s winter, there’s spring
There’s fall and there is
Road construction
“It’s definitely a topic everyone in the state can relate to,” said Starling. “I wrote it back when I lived on West Avenue in La Crosse, and got woke up one morning by jackhammers.”
Starling says Holperin sent back a nice, thanks-but-no-thanks e-mail.
I think he should reconsider. Coming up with the world’s most totally honest tourism song would be a great way to recover from the stolen-song mess.
They could tailor the “Road Construction” campaign to Wisconsin’s different regions and tourism events.
If you were stuck in traffic trying to get to Oktoberfest in La Crosse, you could turn to tourism radio and get “The Orange Barrel Polka.” (“Roll out the barrels, getting to the beer will be a barrel of fun.”) If you were in Milwaukee and could see Summerfest, but couldn’t get there due to construction in the massive Marquette Interchange, your tourism radio would soothe you with that childhood favorite, “On top of Spaghetti Bowl, I’m turning to cheese. I must find a rest room, I hope I don’t sneeze. . .”
And for all those tourists stuck in Interstate 90-94-39 traffic while trying to get up north on a Friday night or back home on Sunday, there’s a song from Creedence Clearwater Revival that’s so perfect you don’t even need to change the lyrics. It begins:
Just about a year ago, I set out on the road
Seekin’ my fame and fortune lookin’ for a pot of gold
Things got bad, and things got worse
I guess you know the tune
Oh, Lord, stuck in Lodi again
I can hear you humming along from here.
This article was originally published in the Wisconsin State Journal in 2005 under the headline "Rx for State Tourism PR: Embrace the Orange Barrel."
Demo Drama: Bean Hoy, 'Livin' in the Milky Way'
BY PARKER FORSELL
Bean Hoy is definitely La Crosse's best folk/rock/blues act. My favorite part of the tape is Mike Starling's songwriting, all locally-flavored mementos, slices of past and present La Crosse. This tape really grows on you, each song a story in itself. My faves are "Just Another Day" and "Crazy Little Fingers." This is a fully produced release with great liner notes and an original pic from Jim Peterson. The current live lineup of Starling, Jeff Sherin, Casey Virock and Enrique More is indeed impressive.
This review was originally published in the Dandelion Whine newspaper. Editor Parker Forsell now runs Ocooch Mountain Music, an independent music promotion company based in Winona, Minnesota.
Bean Hoy is definitely La Crosse's best folk/rock/blues act. My favorite part of the tape is Mike Starling's songwriting, all locally-flavored mementos, slices of past and present La Crosse. This tape really grows on you, each song a story in itself. My faves are "Just Another Day" and "Crazy Little Fingers." This is a fully produced release with great liner notes and an original pic from Jim Peterson. The current live lineup of Starling, Jeff Sherin, Casey Virock and Enrique More is indeed impressive.
This review was originally published in the Dandelion Whine newspaper. Editor Parker Forsell now runs Ocooch Mountain Music, an independent music promotion company based in Winona, Minnesota.
Livin' in the Milky Way: A Topical and Playful Pop Culture Sendup
BY TED JOHNSON
On Bean Hoy's first release, 1992's Thunderbird, Mike Starling (the singer, songwriter and focus of the group) explored rustic little acoustic instrumentals on what was essentially a solo project. This time out, Bean Hoy is a real red-blooded band that helps flesh out Starling's lyrical and topical songs.
And the emphasis is on topical. The songs are a laundry list of local and national maladies, often depicted with a dark twist of humor. And, as often as not, the music is as playful as the words. Bean Hoy here sounds like some jug band with a yen for old punk-folk (think Violent Femmes or Texas' Brave Combo), and with the help of the likes of guitarist Casey Virock of Dream 13 and percussionist Jim Vogt, the band has energy to spare.
It's the eclectic nature of Livin' in the Milky Way I like the most. It keeps the music colorful enough to save the most tongue-in-cheek material from being pure novelty and can at times transform the more downbeat stuff into something memorable and sublime. Reeds, vibes and horns (Gretchen Starling plays tuba on several cuts) are abundantly mixed throughout.
Starling himself talks-sings clever lyrics about everything from fake lives to Heileman's to road construction ("We've got four seasons here in the Midwest/There's spring, there's winter, there's fall and there is road construction...")
All in all, MiIky Way is a reflection of inane pop culture, where one no longer condemns the plastic world around us but instead videotapes it for later when there's nothing else on.
Ted Johnson is a La Crosse-based musician and writer. He was the local music critic for the LAX Magazine.and has written for a number of other publications.
On Bean Hoy's first release, 1992's Thunderbird, Mike Starling (the singer, songwriter and focus of the group) explored rustic little acoustic instrumentals on what was essentially a solo project. This time out, Bean Hoy is a real red-blooded band that helps flesh out Starling's lyrical and topical songs.
And the emphasis is on topical. The songs are a laundry list of local and national maladies, often depicted with a dark twist of humor. And, as often as not, the music is as playful as the words. Bean Hoy here sounds like some jug band with a yen for old punk-folk (think Violent Femmes or Texas' Brave Combo), and with the help of the likes of guitarist Casey Virock of Dream 13 and percussionist Jim Vogt, the band has energy to spare.
It's the eclectic nature of Livin' in the Milky Way I like the most. It keeps the music colorful enough to save the most tongue-in-cheek material from being pure novelty and can at times transform the more downbeat stuff into something memorable and sublime. Reeds, vibes and horns (Gretchen Starling plays tuba on several cuts) are abundantly mixed throughout.
Starling himself talks-sings clever lyrics about everything from fake lives to Heileman's to road construction ("We've got four seasons here in the Midwest/There's spring, there's winter, there's fall and there is road construction...")
All in all, MiIky Way is a reflection of inane pop culture, where one no longer condemns the plastic world around us but instead videotapes it for later when there's nothing else on.
Ted Johnson is a La Crosse-based musician and writer. He was the local music critic for the LAX Magazine.and has written for a number of other publications.
The Year on Tape
BY TED JOHNSON
Here's the obligatory resolution list of '93's local albums that stuck out in some way. This isn't some anal retentive ordering of the year's best, it's just stuff you should know about.
BEAN HOY, Livin' in the Milky Way. Bean Hoy is the musical counterpoint to Mike Starling's journalistic alter ego Guido Encephalitis. Livin' in the Milky Way is topical, folky, extremely tasty and, just so you don't forget, topical. With flourishes of jazz, new wave and blues, Starling reels off songs about road construction, Heileman's and a zillion other targets. Kinda like Dave Barry backed by the Violent Femmes.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Re-mastered versions of several of the best tracks from Livin' in the Milky Way were released on the 2019 retrospective album, It's a Big Dumb World: A 25th Anniversary Collection.
Here's the obligatory resolution list of '93's local albums that stuck out in some way. This isn't some anal retentive ordering of the year's best, it's just stuff you should know about.
BEAN HOY, Livin' in the Milky Way. Bean Hoy is the musical counterpoint to Mike Starling's journalistic alter ego Guido Encephalitis. Livin' in the Milky Way is topical, folky, extremely tasty and, just so you don't forget, topical. With flourishes of jazz, new wave and blues, Starling reels off songs about road construction, Heileman's and a zillion other targets. Kinda like Dave Barry backed by the Violent Femmes.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Re-mastered versions of several of the best tracks from Livin' in the Milky Way were released on the 2019 retrospective album, It's a Big Dumb World: A 25th Anniversary Collection.
STREAM THE BEAN!
This is the official website of the Bean Hoy band project led by songwriter Mike Starling.
Susan Lampert Smith story originally published in the February 13, 2005 edition of the Wisconsin State Journal .
Parker Forsell review originally published in the August 1993 issue of Dandelion Whine,.
Ted Johnson reviews originally published in LAX Magazine in 1993.
Bean Hoy logo, banner and album cover art ©Mike Starling. All rights reserved.
Website developed and maintained by Nine Volt Media. ©MMXX-MMXXII. All rights reserved.
Susan Lampert Smith story originally published in the February 13, 2005 edition of the Wisconsin State Journal .
Parker Forsell review originally published in the August 1993 issue of Dandelion Whine,.
Ted Johnson reviews originally published in LAX Magazine in 1993.
Bean Hoy logo, banner and album cover art ©Mike Starling. All rights reserved.
Website developed and maintained by Nine Volt Media. ©MMXX-MMXXII. All rights reserved.