Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, Jack’s Mannequin, Something Corporate, and Three Pianos

 Somehow Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness came onto the radio many years ago and his song, “Cecilia and the Satellite,” made an impression on me. The melody and harmony was pleasing, relaxing, and the song had a triumphant, joyful feeling. It deservedly went on to become a Gold single. I initially bought the video, which is quite beautiful, and later on bought the album, as well as his band’s “Zombies on Broadway.” For another album, “The Glass Passenger,” I used iTunes. There are more albums and songs to buy and I look forward to that.

I found out about the band, “Something Corporate,” for which he was the frontman and started listening to them. His video for “If You C Jordan” is wild. I wanted to buy it because the jumping on the piano is really entertaining, but it wasn’t available. The song is certainly what many people can relate to - being bullied by an obnoxious person. I bought it through iTunes and it’s great. Be forewarned, there are some F-bombs in the song. The inclusion of them makes sense, but if you don’t like profanity or don’t want your kids to hear it - I’ve let you know.

His solo projects (Jack’s Mannequin and the aforementioned Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness have so many songs I’ve listened to over and over again because I love them. “Miss Delaney,” (which includes profanity) from his “Everything in Transit” album is one of my favorites. I’m also a big fan of, “The Resolution” from “The Glass Passenger,” album.

“Cecilia..” was a song I listened to many times. To me, lyrics are about a person going through tough times who makes it to the other side. What Andrew had faced was acute lymphoblastic leukemia, diagnosed after a summer tour was announced to support the release of, “Everything in Transit,” which me and my cousin have listened to many times. The tour was cancelled and he received a stem cell transplant from his sister. (According to Wikipedia). On October 11th, 2024, the band Something Corporate will be playing at the Hollywood Palladium with McMahon at the helm. He had also toured for his project (…in the Wilderness) before that. 

Even though we both went to public high schools in Orange County (I’m guesstimating they are 30 to 60 minutes apart from each other), when I bought and read his book Three Pianos, I could immediately tell he had a larger English lexicon than me. Like him, I’m an American, but we’re different types (cultural diversity, right?) These days the term for me may be, “BIPOC,” way back when it was, “minority,” and a University classmate jokingly said the two of us were, “mutts.”

He’s not wrong - in the ethnicity buckets we’ve been dumped into, it’s quite obvious we are not full blooded. We’re good. We are who we are. I sometimes read, speak or write words in another language. It’s cool, and there’s time to learn new words, maybe even in Spanish.

Well, this isn’t all about me - Something Corporate is touring. Three Pianos , while not was I was expecting, was a worthwhile read. While I’ve been putting off finishing a Kafka book I purchased in Seattle’s Pike Place Market in 2017, I finished McMahon’s book in two days. I gave a copy of it to my cousin and I think he’s also going to read it quickly.

* There is a Dear Jack foundation he created to raise funds for cancer victims. For more info, go to:  https://www.dearjackfoundation.org/