2000

The year 2000 does not seem like such a long time ago... and yet it was! Nine years have passed since the Y2k scare, since we exited the 1990s, since Bush, Jr., first entered the White House. A lot really has happened between now and then. I had to make a lot of personal adjustments as well since this was also the year I graduated from high school and entered college. Music was also turning a corner as certain scenes died (ska, industrial) and others (rap-core, metalcore, revitalized hardcore, and something we mislabeled as "emo") took off. Of these I tended to favor the sad stuff because, obviously, nobody on Earth could possibly understand how I felt.

We're not going to look at the outright emo-y stuff because, in retrospect, quite a bit of it was actually quite annoying. Instead we'll focus on these five performers who were (and some continue to) express loss and doubt and shame in an authentic and ear-pleasing manner.

Lock the door so nobody will see you cry. We're going to revisit some of the music that made gray clouds weep cold rain... IN THE YEAR 2000!



Bear Quartet - Helpless
The Bear Quartet are, at last count, a quintet from Sweden who, despite having been around for twenty years, remain fairly obscure. They cover a myriad of noisy genres, from straight up rock to electro-pop to post-punk, but excel when they tone it down for the weepy ballads. In "Helpless" the lyrics are vague (and Swedishly accented), but the stumbling acoustic guitar and pitter-pat percussion and the wispily sung chorus convey soft forlorn emotions that are bittersweetly familiar, even if there's not really anything identifiable to put your finger on.

Kind of Like Spitting - Birds of a Feather
In 2000 Ben Barnett, who pretty much IS Kind of Like Spitting, released (at least) three full-length albums and a split, and there were probably some other EPs recorded that year as well. He is a prolific beast, yet his songwriting remains uncompromised. Two things stand out in this song... well, way more than two, but these are the things that grab me hardest: 1) the violin that winds its way through the music like a thin stream of water, and 2) the closing lines of the song. It's all a little bit angsty, but in a resigned sort of way rather than the more irritating overwrought sort of way.

Damien Jurado - Tonight I Will Retire
This was the very first Damien Jurado song I ever heard, and it is still one of my favorites. I couldn't understand how such joyful things like embracing your lover and going to heaven could end up being so dang sad. Listen to the lyrics and hear it all unfold. The instrumentation doesn't add much in the way of happiness as it's only Jurado's soft voice over top sparse piano playing and even sparser percussion. It's a bleak recipe for complete and utter sadness. Enjoy! By the way that's David Bazan on keys and drums, and sources tell me that even the album's name, Ghost of David, refers to Mr. Bazan. Why don't they just get a room?

Pedro the Lion - Bad Things to Such Good People
So... David Bazan. He can and will devastate you. The story told in this song makes a little bit of sense on its own, but to be fully appreciated it should be taken within the context Winners Never Quit which tells the story of two brothers, one a successful politician, the other a screw-up. There's a lot of drama and "Bad Things", located near the end of the album, describes some of the aftermath. It's amazing how many emotions this one song can elicit, all of them negative. What's completely positive, though, is Bazan's acoustic guitar-playing. It churns and gallops as he wails about familial disappointment and spiritual crises. This album changed the way I thought about music while depressing the heck out of me.

The Gloria Record - A Lull in Traffic
This title track from The Gloria Record's A Lull in Traffic EP. It's a musical departure (or advancement) from the band's previous work in that there is a lot more going on here sonically. While the band's first recordings seemed to pick up where Mineral left off, the initial pop of the very first note from this, the very first song from the EP, indicates that the music is going to hover in a more etheral direction. And it certainly does. "A Lull in Traffic" (both the song and the entire album) sound like Christmas songs for the wary. Lyrically every line of this song is a keeper even though nothing is really being described. It's like hearing a vague outline to the story of a failed life, and you can interpret the middle as you like.

2005

It's far easier to pick five great songs from the 1950's when there were only, like, ten albums released every year (half of which belonged to Frank Sinatra) than it is to choose five great songs from within the past couple years as there are literally hundreds of thousands of LPs and EPs and singles and samplers and CD-Rs currently being produced. So, after a painstaking narrowing-down process, here are five completely awesome songs from 2005.


Sleater-Kinney - Jumpers
This is a rockin' catchy little ditty, but if you pay attention to the lyrics you'll find something terribly sad going on. I'd explain it all to you but listening and experiencing the story yourself is half the fun. I will point out that all the verses save the last are told in first person present tense. The last verse is told in first person past tense, effectively (and tragically) concluding the song and story. Adding another layer of finality to the song is the fact that it appears on Sleater-Kinney's final studio album, The Woods.


El Perro Del Mar - Party
Instead of sad lyrics sung to an upbeat tune, here we have happy lyrics set to a sad tune. "Come on over, baby, there's a party going on." Yeah! "Be-bop, Be-bop-a-lula." That's right, rock it like Gene Vincent! But before you include this onto the rockin' portion of your party mix you should first consider the moderately slow tempo, the moderately lo-fi recording, and the moderately wispy vocals of Sarah Assbring. Moderate, yes, but catchy as all get-out. I don't know about you, but this song gets stuck in my head for days at a time.

Discover America - Green Eyes
Chris Staples... with beats and loops! But his lyrical wit and his unique take on love songs remain. Also unique, at least compared to Staples previous efforts, is the feel of this song. There are several layers of electro-thumpety-thump underlying everything and it creates an interesting, almost-but-not-really foggy atmosphere. Lyrically this is a song about that unapproachable ultra-hip scene goddess who (the twist!) is not as snobbish as you might think. She's not impressed, but she's so polite.


Christian Kjellvander - Drunken Hands
Kjellvander is Sweden's answer to Richard Buckner, but in my world I can accept them both. Also acceptable are songs that begin quietly and conclude loudly -- "build-up" songs. "Drunken Hands" begin with Kjellvander's deep and warbled voice setting a mid-western scene. He goes on to describe something I can't put my finger on (but still very obviously bleak) as the music builds behind him. The final minute is head-nodding bliss, a surprising guitar-chug that could go on forever.


Animal Collective - Grass
Some Animal Collective songs go on for dozens of minutes. I can't handle that. There's only so much ambient pseudo-earthy rhythmic indie whateverness I can take in one sitting. But this... clocking in at just under three minutes, "Grass" is absolutely perfect and is a great song to fire you up if you ever need to run a race or wrestle a gorilla or sprint through a brick wall. I have absolutely no idea what this song is about, but like good poetry there's a sensation and/or indescribable imagery painted by the words. Couple that with the unique sound of the song itself and you've got yourself a tune that is experienced rather than just heard.

The Goods of '08

For better or worse another calendar year has come to an end and now we turn our thoughts backward. There was some good music, there was lots of bad music, and there was much more I completely missed. I'm usually a year behind the trends anyway.

Here're my '08 faves, albums that resonated especially well with me. Go talk to Pitchfork if you want a "Best Of" list ('cause they will tell you what you like, and you will just have to deal with it). (Pitchfork motto: "We're easy to hate on!)


The Baseball Project
Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails
It's tough for me to deny an album completely dedicated to baseball. These songs hearken back to the good ol' days of the game with songs about its stars (Ted Williams, Satchel Paige) and its tragic figures (Ed Delahanty). Each toe-tapping tune tells a poignant story and each one is surprisingly informational. By the end of "Harvey Haddix" you'll have memorized a handful of players who have thrown perfect no-hit games.
"Jackie's Lament"

Crystal Castles
Crystal Castles
The opening track has a surprising groove to it and puts to question what the remainder of the album may sound like. The remainder of the album, of course, is full of the 2-bit hemorrhage-inducing electro-core that we've all come to love, but this time with a disco bent. Completely awesome.
"Untrust Us"



Forest Fire
Survival
Do you know what makes a good album better? When it's FREE. Check out Survival in its entirety by going HERE. If you like them (and you should) then donate some cash moneys. The tunes themselves are a bit swarthy, a bit folksy, very woodsy, inexplicably sad... if you like Blitzen Trapper then you'll appreciate what these guys do to your ears.
"I Make Windows"


Fulton Lights
The Way We Ride
Do you know what makes another good album better? When it's ALSO FREE. Click HERE to scoop up the goodies (and be sure to thank Catbird Records for all the freebies). Anyway, Fulton Lights: The Way We Ride... hazey and dark but with enough groove to keep your attention. This was my surprise find of the year and I highly recommend giving this one a listen.
"This Is The Way We Ride"


Jenny Lewis
Acid Tongue
I was disappointed by 2006's Rabbit Fur Coat (though it did have a couple very excellent moments), but I was (and continue to be) blown away by Acid Tongue. The ballads are quiet but sincere, and the entire album plays out like a wacky confessional. It's the upbeat songs that will really get you going, though. Can you scoot your boots to a song called "Jack Killed Mom"? Oh, yes you can. On the whole Acid Tongue is a lot of fun. In addition to being so dang good it also features guest performers M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel and Elvis Costello.
"Acid Tongue"

Jesper Norda
Little Ones EP
Another freebie. Thank goodness for the Internet. Go HERE for these five songs plus a handful of bonus ones. These tunes are sparse, all ballads, and often just feature a piano and Norda's no-frills voice.
"Tomorrow You Will Be Forgiven But Tonight You Will Have Your Teeth Knocked Out"




Kathleen Edwards
Asking For Flowers
Despite containing the one (and only one) K.E. song I don't care for, Asking For Flowers is her best album. Sure, I'll pass on "Cheapest Key", but I can't pass anything else. A few of these songs fall into the social commentary category ("Alicia Ross", "Oh Canada") while the rest are about strained relationships and, uh, shooting cats. As you can see by this Last.fm chart I listened to this album last year way more than I listened to any other full-length release.
"Scared At Night"

Ladytron
Velocifero
Velocifero picks up where Witching Hour left off three years ago (and it's about time) but with way more Bulgarian. There's more of the cloudy/muddy electronic instrumentation that made Witching Hour great, but the delivery here is, like in their earlier releases, more deliberate. The songs here are murky but clear, dense but obvious. I don't know if that makes any sense to you. Whatever, it doesn't matter. Just listen and enjoy.



The Out_Circuit
Pierce the Empire With a Sound
It's been five years since Nathan Burke released an Out_Circuit full-lengther, and thankfully it was worth the wait. There's lots of mellow-but-uneasy music-to-fill-the-lull-just-before-the-bloody-apocalypse stuff, but there's also a fair bit of tortured screaming. Fun for everybody! That's drummer extraordinaire Matt Johnson bangin' out some of those beats, and Sean Ingram from Coelesce making your ears bleed on "The Fall of Las Vegas". Stream 6/10ths of the album on Virb.com HERE.
"Come Out Shooting"

1955

The most frustrating part about listening to music decades older than myself is knowing I'm missing out on the song's original context. Even though the guitars and voices I hear through my computer speakers are the same ones that crackled through AM radio fifty years ago, my interpretation and reaction is, by default, going to be different than that of those who hear the same thing when the song was originally released. Our environments are different and our perceptions of music are different. Quite simply, I can't unhear the years of rock and roll fuzz and unexperience the years of modern technological advancement that now filter the way I hear music, and Joe Nineteen-Fifty-Five couldn't even begin to imagine what a Led Zeppelin was, or that his children would eventually have access to a universe of music at the touch/click of a button.

But despite this, I try. I try to go back to simpler times. Before sampled beats. Before heavy distortion. Before FM. Before the Beatles. When it was all quite innocent, when even the rebellion was all in good fun.

Hop into your Delorean, we're going back to 1955.


Chuck Berry - Maybellene
This track flies -- dig, man, dig-- and was quite ahead of its time. Music back then just didn't rock like this. There's no country twang, no big band orchestration, no crooning, and though this song has a blues foundation Chuck Berry, instead of wallowing in it, sets everything on fire. That guitar solo must've driven the fogeys crazy. And OF COURSE this song is about cars and girls. "Maybellene" turned out to be Berry's first big hit and more or less ushered in the rock 'n' roll era. The kids, both black and white, loved it. Berry followed up with more hits. Music got aggressive. Rockabilly grew from a fetus to a musical movement, perpetuated by Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly, among many others. Somewhere along this chain of events that extends to this very day your favorite band exists on a rung that links way back to that duck-walkin' man and his ditty about drag-racing hotties.

Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison Blues
Cash is so many things to so many people -- country singer, gospel singer, hero to the common man-- but the line about shooting a man just to watch him die? That's straight up GANGSTA. Lyrically this song goes all over the place. He dwells on what's outside the prison walls, recalls his mama's unheeded words of wisdom, dwells on an after-prison life, wonders extensively about what the people inside a passing train are doing, and, of course, laments his evil deed. Musically "Folsom Prison Blues" is easy on the ears. The rhythm shuffles along and the bass is cool and plucky. Cash's guitar kicks back, steps up when it needs to, then hangs back again. There's no urgency to the sound, no focus to the lyrics, and really if you're doing time in prison you've got time (nothing but time) to amble and ramble.

Eddy Arnold - Cattle Call
Every time I listen to this song I try to recall what John Ford film I heard it in. None of them, of course, but this could very well have appeared on the soundtrack to "My Darling Clementine". In the Dvorak-ish introduction to the song I can see the low sun spill across the western plains, casting shadows across the face of the upright cattle man, equal parts good-ol'-boy and frontier cowboy. And screw the Swiss Miss, old school country singers are by far the best yodelers, and Eddy Arnold's golden voice could quell even the most aggressive Indian raids. Despite the abundant countryness of this song, Arnold's use of "pop" orchestration led many in the country music community to cry "sell out". Music snobs existed even back then. And though I am usually a fan of stripped down music, the strings and brass and xylophone add a nostalgic and cinematic element to the tune that makes it inseparable from the classic and wholly appealing old west imagery.

Wanda Jackson - Tears At the Grand Ole Opry
Before Wanda Jackson became a rockabilly hellcat she was a straight up twangy country singer. While with Decca Records in the min-50s she released a series of country ballads that were certainly charming but definitely not edgy. Later, after hanging out with Elvis for a while, her music evolved into something very aggressive and she became one of music's first female rock stars. But back in 1955 she was playing the role of country music chanteuse, crooning traditional-esque waltzes about heartbreak and such. Though Jackson was only 17 when this song was released she already sounds quite accomplished and seems to understand (and thus able to effectively channel) the heart and soul of the genre.

Porter Wagoner - Satisfied Mind
"Satisfied Mind" sounds like a cautionary tale as told by your grandpa... that is, if your grandpa spoke in sweet gentle harmonies and carried a pompadour atop his head. Money can't buy happiness, the song goes, though I don't know if Wagoner continued to perform this song after becoming rich and successful. He probably did as this was one of his most popular songs, reaching #1 on the country charts in 1955. The tempo and melody and Wagoner's own mournful voice makes this song sound a lot sadder than it is, but maybe there's nothing more sad than seeking shallow happiness through earthly wealth rather than, y'know, finding fulfilling happiness through good deeds and being nice and stuff. There's also a Bible lesson in here somewhere. Camels and needle eyes, etc. Anyway, Wagoner passed away exactly one year ago today, hopefully with a satisfied mind.

1999

Are we partying like it's 1999? Well, no, mostly because 1999's party music was pretty awful. Despite this, many of my favorite songs came out in 1999. I believe this is because I started college in 2000 and instead of being sociable with the other people who lived in my dorm building I locked the door and listened to music all day. I'm perpetually a year behind the trends, and in 2000 I filled up on music from 1999.

You'll notice that these artists and bands are all popular within Christian coolkid circles. This really was the best time for Christian indie and hardcore and folk and all that, and nothing delighted me more than discovering there was life beyond Michael W. Smith (though I'm not saying that I was ever the cool kid, 'cause I never was).


Sleeping By the Riverside - "Something To Say"
This song was re-recorded for 2003's A Breath Between Battles, but I'll always favor the original that appeared on the 1999 split with a band called Carry The Dead. "Something to Say" is the standout track from that album, and it is absolutely glorious, more or less changing the way I perceive hardcore music. The lyrics are honest, full of passion, and understandable. The instrumentation is aggressive but surprisingly melodic. I would later learn that this song came at the tail-end of the spirit-filled hardcore movement of the '90s, and influences from Strongarm and Unashamed (among others) can be heard. From the first "Oh how the fire BURNS" to the final "MOVE ON" this song grabs and twists your guts, double-bass pedals your skull a couple times, and may even provoke you to turn some windmills or something.

Unwed Sailor - "Once in a Blue Moon"
On the other end of the musical spectrum we have Unwed Sailor, an instrumental band featuring bassist Johnathon Ford and a never-constant cast of instrumentalists. The band is into the whole multimedia thing, releasing picture books with their albums (The Marionette and the Music Box, 2003) and providing soundtracks for short conceptual films (Stateless, 2002). The Firecracker EP was their first release (re-issued in 2003), and this is its fourth and final track, a very fitting closer. The first three songs bounce and flutter, but this one swoops and melts, ticking like a grandfather clock lost at sea. Melissa Pallandino's violin absolutely kills me. That's David Bazan on drums, by the way.

Brandtson - "Potential Getaway Driver"
I don't know if this song is about girls or God or what, but that's some catchysweet riff. Bap bap badee bap bap bap BAP. Though Brandtson would later lean too far into boo-hoo territory, it was here in the 1990's where they retained a good amount of rock & roll edge. I don't really have much else to say. It's just a dang good song. Fallen Star Collection is out of print, so if you're looking to pick up the album it'll have to be used or digital only.



Starflyer 59 - "Play the "C" Chord"
This was the first Starflyer song I'd ever heard (back in 1999, and for once I was listening to something current) and it totally blew my mind. Jason Martin sings like he's sleeping, there's a slide guitar going up and down, a dense musical foundation carrying everything downstream... and do my ears spy an acoustic guitar? I couldn't understand how something so heavy sounded so light. This was long before I discovered My Bloody Valentine and Mazzy Star, and this shoegazey goodness was so far left of what I was used to musically that I couldn't help but like it. Lyrically it's a call to rock, for bands to stop writing automatic songs and to "play the "C" chord like it's something new." If you want to take it further you could somehow apply it to how we live our lives, but I'll leave that up to individual discernment.

Damien Jurado - "Tornado"
Jurado is great at crafting a story in only three-to-five minutes' worth of song. Sometimes he'll give us a nice story, but most of the time the lyrics revolve around the foul side of human nature. Sometimes he'll trick us by putting a sad story into an upbeat song. He does this a couple times on Rehearsal for Departures. See "Letters and Drawings." See also this song. "Tornado" is a relatively "full" song for Jurado who usually strips things down to one guitar and one voice. But this song builds and builds, crescendoing with saxophones, Jurado singing as high as he possibly can, some sort of organ (mellotron?) and -- I don't get to say this very often -- some wicked flute work. It all comes back to the lyrics, though, and after the first line we know that the main characters are in trouble. The deep resent and bitterness that develops between couples doesn't usually make for pleasant song fodder, but that kind of stuff is Jurado's bread and butter. As an irrelevant aside, the ever-present David Bazan makes another appearance, but this time he's credited with the "drawing" on the album.

2003

It's hard to believe that 2003 occurred five years ago. I was ending my third/beginning my fourth year of college, thankful to be nearly done with school yet hesitant to face what lay beyond. Twenty-aught-three was a good year for music and it provided a great soundtrack for this soon-to-be transitional phase of my life. The music was so great that it killed me to only choose five tracks. Killed me. I'm dead now.

Suffering & the Hideous Thieves - "St. Elizabeth"
In the 1990's Jeff Suffering was best known for heading the spazzpunk outfit 90lb Wuss. As the 90's progressed so too did Suffering's freedom to experiment, and Wuss's sound evolved from (and I use these terms loosely and probably inappropriately) skate-punk to grind-punk to some sort of hard-to-define pseudo-space-core punk-ish. All through these incarnations the band's sound remained gritty and aggressive. So it came as a surprise when Suffering organized his Hideous Thieves and released Real Panic Formed in 2002. Clean vocals! Slow tempos! Strings! And the moodiest music ever recorded. It was brilliant. It still is brilliant. The following year, the year we're actually focusing on, S&tHT did a split with an ether-ish pixie-voiced band called The Hush Hush. The Hush Hush songs are good, but the Hideous Thieves songs are absolutely glorious. Listen here as St. Elizabeth starts in a romantic-but-melancholy way, beautiful strings bending around lyrics about writing desperate notes in blood. But from these depressing depths the song moves backwards, reminiscing about happier times, adding layers, eventually exploding like a moment of passion, then tailing off again (as those moments of passion inevitably do) until we're right back to where we started. This is a song that resonates long after its over, and even though I can't personally relate to the lyrics they (hand-in-hand with the music) still somehow strike a familiar chord within.


...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - "Intelligence"
The concept behind the EP The Secret of Elena's Tomb is as interesting as the songs themselves. Read about it HERE and be thoroughly grossed out. The songs on the EP seem to be loosely inspired by the story (as opposed to being directly about it), and as far as I can tell "Intelligence," the final song on the disc, doesn't have much to do with necrophilia. It DOES have much to do with freakin' awesomeness, and listening to this song makes me want to run through a brick wall. It starts of mellowly, even casually, but then the drum machine kicks in, and the rhythm follows, and suddenly you're listening to a metronome made of rock 'n' roll. Three-and-a-half minutes in things suddenly fall apart for no reason, but as if nothing happened at all it quickly reassembles before eventually squealing to a halt. The song is a sub-electronic departure for the band but no less an awesome one. The kids are hopped up now, indeed.


Cat Power - "He War"
According to ye olde Wikipedia Chan Marshall is dissatisfied with the recording of this song. Whatever. It does sound hastily mixed, but it's totally to the song's benefit as it adds a brittle edge to the manic lyrics. There are actually a lot of little things that make this song great. The tinkly intro keys, the "hey hey hey," the double vox, the processed vocals in verse #2, and when the song picks up near the beginning it doesn't let up until the end. Lulls are for suckers. That's Dave Grohl boom-tappin' the drums, by the way.


Beloved - "Defect From Decay"
For a few short years Beloved (the North Carolinian Beloved) was the greatest thing to happen to music. The music was all at once beautiful and aggressive, much like early Hopesfall. What differentiated Beloved from Hopesfall (as well as most other "melodic-core" bands) were Josh Moore's clean vocals. Not only was he on-key (which already gave him the advantage over other singers in the genre), but he was also a very good singer. Naturally there had to be screaming too, and anybody can scream into a microphone. But Beloved's screamer, drummer Joe Musten, had a voice that could wipe out armies. Somehow he found the strength to beat the crap out of his set while bellowing mightily at the same time. And as if the vocal tandem wasn't enough the band also had a fantastic sense of melody. The pretty parts were indeed very pretty, but even while they were throwing down and being all XcoreX the THREE guitars continued to paint rich sweeping musical pictures. I chose this song from Failure On because listening to it is like getting punched in the face over and over. We could all use a punch in the face.


Viva Voce - "Brightest Part of Everyone"
Viva Voce's 1998 debut full-length release, Hooray For Now, was good, full of straight-ahead pretty-voiced rock, but it only hinted at things to come. For a long time, actually, it seemed there would be no follow up. Their record company folded soon after the album's release and though they released an independent EP in 2000 they weren't heard from again (by me anyway) until a 2002 split with Soul Junk. At this point their sound had wildly diverged from that initial release and 2003's Lovers Lead the Way, full of creative and crafty sounds, shows it. A husband and wife duo, Anita Robinson usually takes the vocal lead, but here she does the angelic background thing while Kevin Robinson croons away. The music is murky but rhythmic (clap along!) until the chorus where everything, save for an acoustic guitar and the vocals, drops out. Then the bouncy fuzz comes right back and takes us to the next chorus which happens to be at the very end of the song. It's all at once positive and moody. It's also completely enjoyable.

1984

It's funny how you can just tell whether or not a song came from the mid-80s just by listening to it. Sometimes "the 80's sound" makes that particular tune more endearing. Sometimes it just makes it sound dated. And then there are those other songs that don't seem to age at all, that if they were released today would garner just as much attention as they did twenty-four years ago. Listen and decided for yourself which tunes sound classically quaint, good as new, or anything otherwise.

The Smiths - "How Soon is Now"
I recently read where a critic declared that this was THE song of the 80s, and I can't really argue. It's epic, searing, mournful, groovy, the soundtrack to virtually any given situation. There are a hundred little "favorite parts" in this song. Here are a few:
- the introductory "wugga-wugga"
- son, heir/sun, air... get it?
- the spookadelic guitar that wangs in every so often like an oscillating fan made of razors
- the vitriol spewed when Morrissey says "in particular"
- the fact that the song is long enough to appreciate while you're still listening to it
- whistling at 4:30
- everything dropping out at 5:00
- the last chorus, even though it's sung no differently than the others
It's interesting how this is the tune most people associate with the Smiths even though the rest of their songs sound nothing like this. Regardless, listen to it a thousand more times while continuing to not get sick of it.

The Cars - "Drive"
I know this song reeks of 80s, like, in a bad way. Blatant synth abuse, drums that plug into an outlet, wispy background vocals, etc. You've probably also heard this one a thousand times at your JC Penneys and on your local Lite-FM. I don't even want to look at the music video. But for all its zillions of faults, I STILL REALLY LIKE THIS SONG AND THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. I can't honestly tell you why. It's not a so-bad-it's-good thing because it really is good. It's not a guilty pleasure thing because it's by the Cars, and the Cars are awesome. Maybe it's because the lyrics are so dang down. Maybe it's because Benjamin Orr (or, as I like to call him, NotRicOcasek) does such a convincing job singing those downed lyrics. Anyway, I felt like I was the only one in the theater who appreciated the fact that the dumb car in "Transformers" used this song to try to hook up Shia LaBeouf with the girl.

Bruce Spingsteen - "I'm On Fire"
This wasn't released as a single until 1985, but it's found in the middle of Born in the U.S.A. which came out in '84, and that's good enough for me.
When you think about the songs of Springsteen (including the ones found on BitUSA) you think of the swarthy Jersey boy crankin' out tunes about glory days or dancing in the dark or something hand-clappingly rockin'. Maybe you don't. Maybe you already know he's a folky at heart and often hangs his hat on darker themes. This song qualifies as one with "a darker theme." In fact it bothers me when I pry apart the lyrics to find out what "I'm On Fire" is really about. Instead I nod along to Max Weinberg's boom-taps and listen to that marvelously subtle guitar-pickin'. Everything about this song is subtle, actually. The lyrics, the guitar work, the (for once in its existance) UNobtrusive synthesizers. Before you know it Bruce is howling for reasons I don't want to contemplate and the song is over.

Cocteau Twins - "Beatrix"
The Cocteau Twins are the only UK band I can think of whose accent permeates their singing voices enough to make it more difficult to understand what they're saying (as opposed to trying to decipher what they're saying when they merely speak). When I say "they" I guess I'm just really talking about vocalist Elizabeth Fraser. I can understand everything that comes out of KT Tunstall's mouth, but why can't I discern a stinkin' thing Fraser sings? Her vowels are too warped or something. But you know what? I like it better this way. Her words sound more magical and fanciful (instead of, y'know, just being rugged English). Couple her unique approach to singing with the glassy musicianship of the othe two guys and you end up with something that sounds like a lake of frozen pink lemonade. Drums don't kick in until the song is 2/3 over. That last 1/3 will twist your head right off.

Die Kreuzen - "All White"
Are you ready for some Milwaukee hardcore? This is actually one of their slower songs (at least until the last few seconds) from their '84 self-titled cassette, all the songs of which can now be found on October File, which was released a couple years later. In addition to being a relatively slow song, this one is also three times longer than most of the other tracks on that aforementioned self-titled, clocking in at a whopping three-and-a-half minutes. I chose this one because while those other minute-long speed demons are sweet-tastic, "All White" is at least more accessible. Enjoy this, get a frame of reference, then check out the rest of their early songs. Their later material (including the first half of October File, which is really album #2) chugs rather than skates, but it's still pretty good. Gotta love those Cobra Commander vocals.
Anyway, I thought "All White" was going to be a commentary on race a la Minor Threat's "Guilty of Being White." Instead it's about isolation and dispair and blah blah blah whine whine whine.

1974

The year 1974 was a peculiar post-hippy pre-disco time in music when funk was just gettin' its groove on, arena rock was big and loud, prog rock found an audience, glam rock was making people uncomfortable, and punk rock was still only protopunk (as if they could know). I'm not going to discuss any of these genres. Instead we're going to check out some folkish and soft-rocky gems. Why? Because in an era when music and music's image was so brash and obtuse, the introspective and low-key tunes get kind of overlooked. But don't worry; none of the following songs are too schmaltzy.


Al Stewart - Nostradamus
Past, Present, and Future was released in the UK in '73, but was released in the US the following year, SO IT COUNTS. Though this song is a bit proggish, Stewart had yet to shed his folk influences as the song (nearly ten minutes long... you better set aside a block of listening time) is carried by acoustic guitars and some manner of bongo. Lyrically we have a odd history lesson about the things Nostradamus saw years before they happened. In pseudo-poetic language he sings verses like this:

From Castile does Franco come and the Government driven out shall be
An English king seeks divorce, and from his throne cast down is he
One named Hister shall become a captain of Greater Germanie
No law does this man observe and bloody his rise and fall shall be

If this sort of wordaging drives you crazy I understand, but the tune is a catchy one, and those guitars sound really good, and if you're patient you'll get to enjoy the fun claptrack three-and-a-half minutes in.
I will admit that the chorus makes me really paranoid:

Man, man, your time is sand, your ways are leaves upon the sea
I am the eyes of Nostradamus, all your ways are known to me

Nostradamus, just sitting there knowing all your stuff. Creepy.
Anyway, that's a pretty cool album cover, isn't it? Doctor Strange, travelling through time or something. The previous year's UK cover is a much more drab one of an urbane Stewart hanging out next to a mantle.


Harry Chapin - W*O*L*D
Most songs about radio are pretty lame. This one is the opposite of lame. Rather than just encouraging the listener to crank up the volume, Chapin tells the story of a radio DJ who's been a part of the ups and downs of the biz, who's loved and lossed and still pines, who's aged yet still yearns for the good ol' days. It's actually a pretty sad story and makes me want to reconsider this Broadcasting degree I've got hanging on the wall.
What intrigues me as much as the story are all the subtle odes to golden age and early jock radio. Harmonious background singers, when they sing "W-O-L-D", sound like they're crooning the call letters to some long-forgotten station. Chapin calls himself a daddy-o, and later a doo-wop bass nudges in a great 1950's "yeeeah". And he's "feeling all of forty-five", y'know, like his age or like the vinyl singles they would spin.
This is a bittersweet song, to say the least. But DJs are like the truck drivers of the music industry, so it fits very well.


Leonard Cohen - Who By Fire
I suppose this could be considered a duo as Janis Ian backs Cohen up word-for-word. Anyway, I like how initially this appears to be a very simple song (sparse instrumentation, each line begins with "who...") and yet there are deep spiritual implications found within the lyrics. Inspired by a Jewish prayer (where the first line is taken) the song explores various ways a person might pass from this earth, and yet all the same nobody is beyond God's scope, and each person will be righteously judged. It's like a moodier "Gotta Serve Somebody" (which was released five years later).


Tom Waits - (Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night
Before he got all weird and his voice went to gravel, Waits wrote sweet little lounge ditties about women named Martha or, like this one, havin' yourself a good ol' Saturday night. Waits sings this like he's singing about YOU, and goes so far as to kick the song off with car sounds before singing about you driving your car. As you listen you become Joe Everyman, blowin' your fresh paycheck on beer and pool. You're a working man, of course, so you're living for the weekend and moments like these. But maybe this is a paltry existance for you to live, and you consider it as there's a "melancholy tear in your eye."

Makes it kind of quiver down in the core
'Cause you're dreamin' of them Saturdays that came before
And now you're stumblin'
You're stumblin' onto the heart of Saturday night

And maybe the heart of Saturday night can't be found cruisin' the strip with your "sweet one" or flirting with the waitress. But you'll take it because this is all you've got to look forward to.
Now I'm all bummed out, but I'll meet you next week.


Chicago - Wishing You Were Here
While beginning a song with car noises might be innovative, beginning a song with crashing waves is not. However this song is completely and wholly redemed by the melting harmonies done by (and never done better) three members of the Beach Boys. Lead vocalist Terry Kath, in a very subdued manner, does a call-and-response thing with the BBs until unexpectedly Peter Cetera blasts in with the bridge. The bridge is short and ends before you realize what an odd thing it is considering the rest of the song's context.
Thematically this song is about life on the road. Peter Cetera's got a job to do, and doggone it, he does it well. But that doesn't prevent Chicagoans and Beach Boys alike from pining for their far away loves.
I suppose bittersweetness is today's theme.

1987

In 1987 the hip 80's were still awesome as the awkward transition to the cool 90's hadn't yet begun. By this point most rock 'n' roll sub-genres had reached their aesthetic peaks and the procreators of such were either just now easing into bland obscurity or, for better or worse, they were taking their art to the next level.

Although at the time I favored the music of Raffi over that of The Smiths, I've since come around, aged twenty-one years, grown a few feet taller, and have forgotten the words (though not the melody) to "Baby Beluga". The Smiths probably would've warped this five-year-old's mind anyway.

As much about re-discovery as it is about the regular sort of discovery, here are five kickin' songs from 1987. Reoccuring themes include life after punk rawk, bitter ends, and disturbing stories. Enjoy!


Husker Du - Ice Cold Ice
In January of 1987 Husker Du released Warehouse: Songs and Stories. In December of that same year the band unexpectedly broke up following a show in Columbia, Missouri. It was unexpected in the sense that they were in the middle of a tour, but drugs and strained relationships, those things that slowly wedge bands apart, things Husker Du had been trying to work through for years, finally culminated and destroyed the band. You'd never know that by listening to this album, though. They sound great. There's the odd 80's production that makes these songs feel a bit dated, but the tunes themselves are brilliant. As far as "Ice Cold Ice" is concerned, revel in the sweet melody, the desperate vocals, the harmonies... even some call-and-response. And underneath it all is the aggressiveness and attitude that made them such an awesome early 80's hXc punk band. By the way, if you turn the volume up to listen to the fade-out, watch out for that final chord. BWAAAAANG.


New Order - 1963
Murder you can dance to! The lyrical story is a bit vague, but evidently Bernard Sumner wrote this about the Kennedy assassination. The story goes that JFK hired Jack Ruby to take care of Jackie O. so that he and Marilyn Monroe could live together happily ever after. Ruby turned to Lee Harvey Oswald to make the actual hit. The hit was a miss and the bullet got JFK instead. Monroe, distressed that her lover had been killed, committed suicide. Ruby, miffed that Oswald screwed up the job, shot him in the stomach on national television. Obviously this isn't a story to be taken literally (Kennedy had been hit with two bullets, and Monroe died in 1962), so you can take the song to mean whatever you want. "1963" was released as a b-side to "True Faith" in July and appeared on the Substance compilation in August.


The Smiths - Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
Probably the most depressing song EVER. I don't know what's up with the intro at the beginning, but it sets a weird mood. Two minutes of piano and an angry mob(?) and orca sounds(???)... only to be crushed by a sudden wall of sadness when the real song begins. If it annoys you then pick up the 7-inch single, which omits the intro. But if you're a big enough Smiths fan to purchase vinyl singles then you're probably not going to care either way. This appears on the band's final studio album, Strangeways, Here We Come, and is in fact their final single (apart from re-issues, which obviously don't count). A downer song on multiple levels.


Rites of Spring - Patience
Time to get emo, but in the original post-hardcore definition of the word. Forerunners of the now-mislabeled genre, vocalist Guy Picciotto (later to join Fugazi) attacks and wrestles with the lyrics in a manner that is definitely reminiscent of punk and hardcore. The instrumentation, on the other hand, is almost subdued and even kind of jazzy. It all comes together, though, to create this brief and intensely emotional package. "Patience" appears on their 4-song All Through a Life EP, but you might as well get End on End compilation which contains the entire EP as well as their entire self-titled 1985 album. (Each of these releases, by the way, was produced by Ian Mackaye.)


The Sugarcubes - Birthday
You know what this post needs? More Bjork. Though this song appears on 1988's Life's Too Good, "Birthday" was released as a single in October of 1987. It was the band's first hit and was voted the #1 song that year on John Peel's radio show. It's got that doomy Icelandic feel to it, but this is most certainly a chipper pop song about love between a five-year-old and the... bearded guy... who lives... next... door... ew. If you don't want to admire the lyrics then you can admire Bjork's enormous pipes. She's, like, five feet tall but has a voice that can knock down a brick house.

1968

If 1967 had the summer of love, then 1968 had the summer of HATE, right? No, of course not. Hippies still existed in abundant numbers and those motivated enough to write songs in '67 got around to recording and releasing them in '68. These would be rock 'n' roll's last innocent years, though, as arena rock would soon rear it's ugly head.

I'm actually featuring a variety of song-styles here. We've got the Motown sound, a British band, an Irish folky guy who likes his jazz, Nederpop, alt-country in its infancy, and, um, Lee Hazelwood.

Also, I'm trying out a new file hoster, so if things don't work correctly then please let me know.


Edwin Starr - Twenty-Five Miles
Starr is more well-known for asking what war is good for (answer: absolutely nuthin'), but here we have him huffin' and hawin' out this thigh-slappin' song about walking a bunch of miles. There are a lot of numbers mentioned (twenty-five miles, three days, two nights, etc) but if you can keep everything straight you'll find this guy's serious about his devotion to his woman. Best part of the song? The countdown near the end.


Lee Hazelwood & Nancy Sinatra - Some Velvet Morning
When they did the dead people montage during the Grammys the other night, I was disappointed that they didn't play this song when they put up Lee Hazelwood's picture. Instead they played "These Boots were Made For Walking", which Hazelwood wrote. But that in itself showed how inseparable Hazelwood was from Nancy Sinatra. Hazelwood was a gritty cowboy-type character, and Sinatra was a smokin' minxy little songstress. Yet somehow they joined forces during the 1960s to create music most excellent. "Some Velvet Morning" is, if nothing else, their most interesting collaborative effort. It's flowery, pastoral, orchesteral, and lyrically bizarre. The song see-saws between Hazelwood's tough-as-bark vocals and Sinatras heavenly "Phaedra" presence. He says he's gonna open up your gate. I don't know what that means.

Van Morrison - The Way Young Lovers Do
This is by far the most pop-friendly song from the super-awesome Astral Weeks, and it's probably for accessibility reasons that I chose it. A nine-and-a-half minute song about a transvestite makes sharing awkward, so here we have "The Way Young Lovers Do". The rest of the album moseys along, so it's a little bit startling to encounter this swingin' jazzy tune. The instrumentation is outstanding, and Morrison's voice is at its soulful best. It's that Richard Davis double-bass that really sets this song apart from any others, though. It ambles along with little regard for what the rest of the song is doing and dang near leads the charge into musical destruction about halfway through. Then everything somehow snaps back into sweet cohesion and things continue as if nothing had happened. Awesome.

The Zombies - A Rose for Emily
In 1930 William Faulkner published a short story called "A Rose for Emily". It's about a shut-in named Emily who kept the dead body of her lover upstairs. Southern gothic necrophilia is the way to go. This song, released thirty-eight years later, has absolutely nothing to do with that story. Instead it's about a woman named Emily who tends a rose garden. Couples in love pluck her roses, but nobody gives her any. So her garden withers and she withers and everything dies. The music itself is very stripped down and features Colin Blunstone's wistful vocals, a simple piano melody, and some sweet Zombie harmonies.

The Shocking Blue - Send Me a Postcard
Apart from "Venus" (yeah baby, she's got it), Shocking Blue didn't do very well Stateside. That's really too bad because they had a handful of very good songs. Take "Send Me a Postcard" for instance. Super-fuzzed guitars, moments of elated rock frenzy, Mariska Veres's big Dutch pipes... it all kinda makes me want to run through a wall. Though released as a single in 1968, this song didn't peak on Euro-charts until 1969 and didn't appear on an album until 1970's The Shocking Blue compilation.

BONUS TRACK

The Byrds - Pretty Polly
This song was recorded for Sweetheart of the Rodeo but ultimately didn't make the final cut. When Sweetheart was reissued in 1997 "Pretty Polly" was featured as one of the bonus tracks. Personally I think this song is better than the original eleven. It's a traditional murder ballad rearranged and country-rockified by Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn. The instrumentation is appropriately blue-grass inspired but comes across as a little frantic. The song gallops along at a steady rate and seems like a sweet little hillbilly love song until, terrifyingly, pretty Polly gets stabbed IN THE HEART. Two-part harmonies are used here for optimal effect and kick in when murderous intentions are discovered. If you're interested, on Roger McGuinn's Folk Den blog you'll find the lyrics and a more traditional recording of the song.