This ESPN Analyst Hearts the Decemberists
Waaaay back on Wednesday, I was watching Sportscenter to see what they had to say about that night’s Blazers victory over the Sonics (yeah, I know), when I heard the strangest quote: “What Chris Funk is to the Decemberists, Evgeni Malkin is to the Penguins.” What? My ears were playing tricks on me, so I jumped on over to the Decemberists’ message board to ask if anyone else had the same audio hallucination. They had.
Turns out, Sportscenter analyst John Buccigross fancies himself an indie rock fan, and has dropped references to the Shins, Wilco, and according to “catcherjf” of the Decemberists board, Guster. Buccigross’ fans have provided him with a Wikipedia entry, where, I found this under “catch prhases”: “Music to sports analogies set up in the format ‘As (an essential musician) is to (a popular band), (an essential player) is to (a sports team).’ (Example: ‘What guitarist John Nolan is to Taking Back Sunday, Kerry Wood is to the Cubs.’).”
While I can’t condone a Taking Back Sunday reference (this may have been an overzealous TBS fan adding his or her personal twist to the analyst’s phrase), it’s pretty sweet (and totally absurd) that Buccigross references his favorite bands just to drop some knowledge on Sportscenter’s drooling, potato-chip gnoshing couch-dwellers.
The real question here is, why did Buccigross pick Funk over Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy? Does the Hockey analyst think Funk is about to Spearhead a power play and oust Meloy from the group? Is he entranced by Funk’s hot licks? Does he just like the name Chris Funk? Or maybe the relationship between Funk and his band really does resemble, in some small way, Malkin’s relationship to the Penguins. I don’t know enough about Hockey to say whether this is true, but I look forward to a robust dialogue on the subject here at Localcut.
Here’s a youtube video of Buccigross dropping a baffling reference to They Might Be Giants’ excellent song, “Ana Ng.” He’s really stretching here, and it was the only video evidence I could find of his music nerdsmanship.
See also: An extended Q & A with Colin Meloy and live reviews of the Decemberists’ secret show in a small Portland club as well as their recent show in Chicago.
Links:
A New York Times review of this weekend’s NYC Decemberists show.
An archive of Buccigross’ columns for espn, wherein fans often ask for and provide music reccomendations.
Photo: John Buccigross at some sort of golf-related event. Note the necklace.
Related posts:
- The Decemberists, The Hazards of Love (Capitol) [ROCK OPER
- Design a Poster for the Decemberists, or a Shirt for OPB We like to
- Live Review: The Decemberists, Sunday, July 19 @ McMenamins Edgefield “It
- Y La Bamba Prep New Album With The Decemberists’ Chris Funk Oh man, am
- Black Prairie (Featuring Three Decemberists) Signs to Sugar Hill If the fol
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jragel
says:‘What guitarist John Nolan is to Taking Back Sunday, Kerry Wood is to the Cubs.’
say what? does that mean he’s prone to injuries of his shoulder cuff and misses half his shows? whatevs.
more importantly—how can you NOT surf ESPN and look for blazer highlights? I mean, for the first time in several years there ARE highlights. of actual blazers. on a court. no, not that court. a BASKETBALL court. love it. I repeat: roy = rookie of the year. hope you get your fill of jumbo shrimp at the press buffets.
Posted @ November 6th, 2006 at 7:12 pm (November 6th, 2006) | Flag this Comment | permalink/jonny
CASEY JARMAN
says:nowadays, they charge 5 bucks for the press buffet. and the day they have jumbo shrimp is the day i miss the game with a tummy ache. no blazer highlights tonight, as we’re getting waxed. look for my blazer blog, coming soon at wweek.com. it’s gonna be sweet.
Posted @ November 6th, 2006 at 10:28 pm (November 6th, 2006) | Flag this Comment | permalinkMARK BAUMGARTEN
says:I would guess that Buccigross is referencing Funk because he believes that Evgeni Malkin is a utility player, meaning basically that his toolbox is bigger, in much the same way that Funk’s is. Have you seen Funk’s toolbox. Big. Meloy’s toolbox is quite small—filled with tendrils, coal and parchment— although he does a lot with what he has. Meloy is more of a John LeClair type performer.
P.S. I know nothing about the Penguins. Or hockey. Or sports in general.
Posted @ November 7th, 2006 at 2:53 pm (November 6th, 2006) | Flag this Comment | permalinkRoland
says:This is pretty cool, especially in light of the whole Colbert madness. Incidentally, John Nolan isn’t in Taking Back Sunday anymore, which I suppose is the same as missing baseball games. But my, indie rock and hockey, what a combo!
Posted @ November 30th, 2006 at 9:47 pm (November 6th, 2006) | Flag this Comment | permalinkgrapejoos
says:i don’t know who taking back sunday is, but i can tell from your tone, and with that in mind buccigross probably did mention them. he mentions some dubious bands, but at least he’s trying to incorporate more wisdom than a scarface quote. but, obviously, he hits some good ones. i seem to recall he has a huge pearl jam jones too (take that for what you will).
as for the analogy, he either thinks a lot of funk’s skills, or he just likes the name. malkin is a big impact player.
Posted @ November 30th, 2006 at 10:19 pm (November 6th, 2006) | Flag this Comment | permalinkjoe d
says:“Sportscenter’s drooling, potato-chip gnoshing couch-dwellers.”
Posted @ December 1st, 2006 at 11:59 am (November 6th, 2006) | Flag this Comment | permalinkOh sigh. I am a sports fan. Though I don’t drool or slam large bags of lays I actually watch Sportscenter (when I can, don’t have cable, used to). Ya know what? Sometimes they make references to stuff like Tenacious D or the Replacements or whatever. Jim Rome is a radio guy, he sometimes has a virtually unwatchable show on ESPN called ROME IS BURNING. Whatever. His radio show is good, sometimes really, really good. He is a smart guy and his favorite band is the Replacements. Paul Westerberg blew off his interview with Jim Rome. Too bad. Don’t know why. Did he think that Mr Sports Radio guy a was a drooling chip-huffing fool not worth his time? Sadly, we’ll NEVER know. But I digress. I for one am pretty sure that piling on sports fans as being illiterate and engorged with trans fat is easy. Hella easy. (ha ha ha ha ha) C’mon! To quote Tom Petty, ack, um, “Don’t do me like that?” Oh sigh. I like chips too.
The Fritz
says:Perfect analogy — both Chris Funk and Evgeni Malkin are themselves very talented, but each play second-fiddle (to Colin Meloy and Sidney Crosby respectively).
If Colin Meloy were out due to a sore groin, I’m certain Chris Funk could step up and center that number one line for a couple of games. They’d still miss Colin though.
And while we’re on it, Buccigross is a smart guy who’s been my favorite sportscenter analyst from back in his days with NHL 2Night. Quality programming (and always a high likelihood of mullets).
Posted @ December 1st, 2006 at 12:06 pm (November 6th, 2006) | Flag this Comment | permalinkIn Which Molly Continues To Take Swings At Some White Men And Champions Others « This Recording
says:[...] so we already know there’s a lot of brain-damage at work. Apparently he’s also a big Decemberists fan. I’m not trying to imply that all Decemberists fans have brain-damage, or that brain-damaged [...]
Posted @ September 15th, 2007 at 6:32 am (November 6th, 2006) | Flag this Comment | permalink