The Caps Make Beautiful Music
When I entered the Caps dressing room yesterday morning, 50 Cent's "Just a Little Bit" was on the Magic iPod. Designated team DJ Matt Pettinger immediately took control of the situation, putting "Somebody's Watching Me" on the stereo. And just like that, we were back in a hockey dressing room.
"Leave this, leave this," Steve Eminger said, happily. But Pettinger wasn't satisfied and picked up the iPod again.
"What are you doing, dude?" Eminger said, unhappily.
This time Pettinger settled on "Far Behind" by Candlebox, and other Caps saluted the old-school choice. A few minutes later D.J. Petty went back to the '90s with "Shimmer" by Fuel, as various players attempted to egg Shaone Morrison into making a huge contribution to the team fund in the event of a win over the Bruins, since he was a first-round Boston pick.
I mention all this because of the following dialogue that came out of my Brent Johnson goalie mask investigation, which was apparently already conducted by some astute Caps fans who also have links to pics of the helmet for those who didn't see page 2 of today's sports section. Maybe the astute Caps fans also already have copious threads and audio files concerning what sort of music the Caps like. If so, apologies.
Anyhow, Brent Johnson, you'll recall, pays homage to Led Zeppelin, his favorite band, on his newest mask. Which led to this.
Me: So do you listen to Zeppelin before games?
Johnny: I mean, if it comes on I love it but I don't think it's a huge favorite in here. Guys like the edgier kind of house, trance music in here.
Bryan Muir: We have certain young people that have changed the era of music a bit. There's a constant battle that goes on with that iPod.
Me: Between what?
Muir: Like he said, the dance, techno, trance, hip hop to rock.
Johnny: Metallica, Megadeth, Tool, Anthrax, Danzig.
Me [to Muir]: What's your preference?
Muir: Country.
Me [mind reeling]: Are you serious or joking?
Johnny: No, he's serious.
Me: What do you like?
Muir: Some of my artists, you're talking? Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, Toby Keith a little.
Johnny: Dixie Chicks.
Muir: No, I'm not a big fan of the girls, there's only a couple girls I like. Not a fan of Toby Keith, he's a little too....
Me: Patriotic?
Muir: Yeah. I like being patriotic and everything, but he's a little....
Me [To an approaching John Erskine]: Dude, do you like country music?
Erskine: Yeah.
Me [mind reeling]: You do?
Muir: Yeah, he's more of the Tool, Megadeth....
Erskine: I'm everything.
Muir: He's everything.
Me [bizarrely off-topic, to Muir]: Do you like [Erskine's] tats?
[Lengthy aside: Erskine has some crazy tats wrapping around both upper arms and shoulders. All sorts of tribal symbols and skulls and one large gargoyle in front of a cityscape. I asked for their meaning, but he just said he gets stuff that he thinks looks cool. He hasn't gotten any new tats for about two years.]
Muir: Hey, whatever floats your boat man. I like tats but I don't have the [intestinal fortitude] to get 'em.
Me: Do you think they're common in the NHL? You know, like every guy in the NBA has one....
Muir: I think they're common. I mean, I don't think they're as open as to where they put them [as NBA players]. I mean, I could go through how many guys have tats: one, two, three, four, five....
Johnny: Five or six.
Muir: There's seven guys that have tats on our team, but you'd never know, right? They're little ones that are kind of symbolic. [Motioning toward Erskine.] This guy, he's an artist. He's an artist with his body, so you see them.
Erskine: Greeny's just as bad. [Referring to the since-vanished Mike Green, who was earlier discussing his own tat plans.]
Muir: Yeah, Greeny's got "IRISH" up the side of his body, and he's getting a full sleeve done.
Johnny: I don't know why he got "IRISH" when he's Swedish.
Me: [Confused].
[They were joking about the Swedish thing. Anyhow, I returned to the country music discussion.]
Muir: I mean, I don't like to listen to country music too much before a game, because it's not, it doesn't pick you up that much. I mean, I like this kind of stuff before a game [gesturing toward the Magic iPod, which was now playing Tool].
Me [to Muir]: What do you think of his new helmet?
Muir: I think a helmet's like a tattoo, man, it's indicative of what the goalie's like and his personality. I think it's pretty cool, it symbolizes what he likes.
Me [to Johnny]: So what's your second-favorite band?
Muir: He's a music guru, so he likes everything man.
Erskine: Paris Hilton.
Johnny: No.
Muir: Yeah, his second favorite artist is Paris Hilton.
Johnson: Best band ever? No, it would be The Beatles.
Muir: He's a true connoisseur of music, though [as Matt Bradley enters the room]. We had Oasis's "Wonderwall" on, and the comment came out that they were better than the Beatles. So we've got a guy like Brads who likes Oasis....
Johnny: Oh, and Enrique Iglesias.
Muir: Brads, we're talking about music, come tell him your favorite song. And maybe give him a little lip sync. Put it on and give him a little lip sync.
Brads: Nick Lachey?
Johnny and Muir [in unison]: Enrique!!!
Muir: He likes one of Enrique's song. It's kind of a tradition, because we always win when he plays it, so....
Me: What's the song?
Muir: Brads, what's the name of that song?
Brads [insulted]: "Escape."
Muir [apologetically]: "Escape." Sorry buddy, I didn't know.
[You know, when I post stuff like this, people tend to ask me if these guys really like each other and if the attitude in the dressing room is really fun, etc. I would say that things are pretty cheerful, from what I can tell, but the team's winning. I'm no veteran, but most winning locker rooms seem to be happy places. The players in such happy places will always say, "We're doing well because we have such great chemistry," which might be true, but I think it also might be true that they have such great chemistry because they're doing well. And people on failing teams, or people who work in failing industries with vanishing circulations, instead snipe about each other behind each others' backs.]
By Dan Steinberg |
November 16, 2006; 11:14 AM ET
| Category:
Caps
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Posted by: TLGDC | November 16, 2006 12:10 PM
How many other professional athletes can use the words indicative and connoisseur in a sentence? Bryan Muir is money.
Posted by: cowtowner | November 16, 2006 12:43 PM
So, you're saying the Wizards, and Redskins lockerrooms are nothing like this?
Posted by: Kim | November 16, 2006 01:17 PM
Perhaps one of the players can be the "iPod DJ" during the second intermission at the next game?
Posted by: Goat | November 16, 2006 02:02 PM
For what it's worth, last season the team wsan't doing nearly as well as they are this season, but all the stories from the locker room talked about how close and happy the players were. So maybe they don't have to have a winning record to have the chemistry. You could ask Tarik about this, since he was around last season, if you two can get over being in a failing industry with vanishing circulation long enough to have the conversation.
Posted by: norske | November 16, 2006 02:15 PM
In yesterday's Bog post about Brent Johnson's helmet, I commented that "The Bog needs more Bryan Muir!"
Thank you, Dan, for coming through for me.
Posted by: Netsrak | November 16, 2006 02:35 PM
I wonder how much of the sometimes snarky tone has to do with the age divide in the locker room. It seems like good-natured big brother type banter to me. For the record, I'm the same age as BJ and Bradley and I don't consider myself old but half the team should still be in college.
Posted by: DC Domer | November 16, 2006 02:44 PM
Now, now, norske: you're baiting. Shame on you.
I read my paper dutifully every morning with breakfast. Ain't going nowhere -- that's one thing transistors can't replace. Besides, you'd get the screen all greasy.
I'm very relieved to know that there are no Nickelback fans in the dressing room. If I were Kapellmeister in the locker room, though, I'd be the ambassador of cool.
Posted by: Frank J. Haydn | November 16, 2006 03:00 PM
Thank you Dan for doing all of this with the Caps and the United and the Wiz and everyone. We've never gotten much of a "peek under the hood" with the local teams around here in the past, so it's great to see how the guys are back stage. Especially for the Caps. It aint easy to get this kind of notice in a football town.
Posted by: EricS | November 16, 2006 03:14 PM
norske's on to something.
Instead of the crap canned music that they seem to play at random before the game and during intermission, they should just have a live feed from the Magic iPod.
Posted by: Kim | November 16, 2006 03:37 PM
Goat, IIRC, Yonkman did that one game last season.
Dan - Thanks for the entertaining updates.
Posted by: sk84fun | November 16, 2006 03:53 PM
I'm glad to see that Brent Johnson is having a good season in Washington. I always thought he had a decent amount of talent but things didn't work in out here in St. Louis.
Posted by: Chris DeGroat @ The Checking Line | November 16, 2006 06:06 PM
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I see a Caps iTunes store in the future...