Mike Watt

Mike Watt. The Hardest working man in rock and roll. Here he is at the Monterey Jazz Festival, doing what he does. Seeing Watt live, and feeling his sweat in my heart, it changes things, you know?

Band of Horses - The Funeral

I started my iTunes library from the alphabetical beginning yesterday, letting it play through without skipping anything during my working hours. I think Will mentioned doing this once. It's an interesting (and yes, dorky) exercise that forced me to listen to The Band right after Bad Religion. I made it up to Band of Horses and this song off of their debut album, Everything All The Time. Looks like today's going to feature a lot of Beastie Boys and Beatles...

Elliott Smith - Needle in the Hay

Marty, you bring up a good point. We often think back to country legends for commiseration when in reality, there are some modern day depressing gems out there. My point being, I think it is the nature of music to provide a cathartic moment for musicians and listeners. As Rob Gordon in High Fidelity says, "What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?" So, I provide "Needle in the Hay" to bring you right down. It would also be in my top 3 best utilized songs in a motion picture - Royal Tenenbaums. I promise no more depressing songs - at least for this week.

John Roderick - The Commander Thinks Aloud (saddest song cont.)

My first idea for the saddest song thread was Johnny Cash singing Spiritual. I mean, how can you get sadder than the Man in Black repeating the lyrics "Jesus, I don't want to die alone" over and over? I thought that might put us in a rut of old country dudes singing sad songs though.

John Roderick is the front man for The Long Winters. I found some clips of the full band performing this song, but it was a little tough to make out the lyrics. Unfortunately there's not much to look at here besides Roderick's back. This song attempts to describe the observations made by the Commander of the Space Shuttle Columbia during re-entry. I think Roderick pulls it off in a pretty devastating way, from the joyous line "Can you feel it? We're almost home!" to the grim observation that "The crew compartment is breaking up."

Townes Van Zandt - Tecumseh Valley (saddest song)

I don't know what is sadder, his life or his music. His voice seems to communicate the desperation and troubles of those he writes about. Here is just one example of many for saddest song from Townes.

Saddest song of all time

Actually, this is the second saddest song of all time. I'll post the saddest tomorrow.

Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen were kind of well known in the late '60s/'70s when it was in vogue for big rock bands to "go country" (See the Stones, Byrds, Kinks, etc.) Cody was always country, though, and not just country but honky f'n tonk.

Now he's old, so it's tough to imagine what he was like in his prime. When you listen to this song, picture someone who looks like Lemmy from Motorhead if he was from Oklahoma.

Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma

In some ways this album has become the soundtrack to my year in Hong Kong. I don't see me being able to listen to this in the future without thoughts of HK rising in my mind. I don't want to like their album as much as I do, I am not sure why, but I can't resist it. Perhaps that is the very idea of what pop music is. It gets in your brain and you can't get it out. So, you might as well embrace it.

Titus Andronicus - Titus Andronicus

Okay, so the main guitar riff in this song sounds like Molly's Lips and a handful of other Nirvana songs... but they weren't the first to use it so why think they'd be the last? I bought Titus Andronicus's debut album, The Airing of Grievances after hearing this single a few times. It's full of angst anthems that make you assume these kids are from New Jersey before you even get to the liner notes...

Jose Gonzalez/The Knife - Heartbeats (2 for Tuesday)

I first heard this song on Jose Gonzalez's debut album, Veneer. It's a really good quiet acoustic album that reminds me a lot of Nick Drake. I later heard The Knife's version which is actually the original. I've grown to like it just as much, even with the 80's synth breaks. All of these folks are from Sweden...

Calexico - Alone Again or

It has taken me a while but I have finally come around to appreciate Calexico. I think what they do musically is interesting and unique at this point. I first heard this song on the Bottle Rocket soundtrack and I like the cover they do of it.

Going Solo continued - Lou Barlow - Round-n-Round

As frontman for Dionosaur Jr., J Mascis always seemed(s) to get the spotlight, but since his departure (read: getting kicked out) in 1989, Barlow has turned out some interesting records. His work in Sebadoh and Folk Implosion seemed to gain him some critical attention, but it was this last album Emoh that I think I enjoyed the most. While Dinosaur Jr. have reunited, I still think of Barlow as doing his own thing more than standing in Mascis' shadow. Hope you enjoy this Ratt cover.

Paul Westerberg - World Class Fad (more going solo)

In quantity, Westerberg's solo output has now eclipsed the Mats catalog. There's some pretty excellent quality in there too. I love the biting lyrics in this song. It's the perfect F-you...

Dee Dee Ramone, Peter Murphy: Solo

Of Dee Dee....Cocaine, it's a hell of a drug.




Peter Murphy....it's not awful, but it's so boring.....and I'm not sure that his look here was EVER cool. Well, I guess maybe on Sprockets

Lauryn Hill - Everything Is Everything (going solo cont.)

The Score was playing everywhere on my college campus during my freshman year. It seemed like the Fugees had the potential to make a few more great records and then all of the sudden it was over. The relationship between Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean soured and the group became another victim of the Fleetwood Mac syndrome.

The good news is that Lauryn Hill went on to make one of the best hip hop albums ever. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill has the beats, the lyrics, the melodies... everything. She was only 23 years old when it came out, but she had already found fame, lost her group and had a baby with a married man. She seems both experienced and naive at different turns. Even on this song, she goes from sounding like a 1st semester philosophy student in the chorus to sounding like she could teach you a thing or two during the the rap break. Unfortunately she fell off the map after this, returning only for an MTV Unplugged performance where she was barely coherent and seemed to be having a breakdown.

Carla Bozulich--solo day 2

Carla Bozulich was a writer for Maximumrocknroll who sang with the industrial band Ethyl Meatplow in the early 1990s. Despite their ridiculous name, Ethyl Meatplow was really really good, but they broke up after one album. Bozulich started a new band, The Geraldine Fibbers, who combined a sort of Texas flavored roots rock with punk and avant-Eurotrash (they cover Can's Yoo Doo Right on their second album). Anyway, I like them a lot.

Going solo

It's always interesting to me to see what happens when a great band breaks up and members attempt to go solo. You really see who the talents are. For example, Sebastian Bach sucked as a solo artist, because Skid Row depended on the bass player for his songwriting skills. Thus, "Slave to the Grind."

Then again, why do obviously talented individual members always make bad solo albums? Mick Jagger and Keith Richards always made crap solo work. (Of course, the Rolling Stones make crap albums now too).

Dee Dee Ramone wrote all the best Ramones songs, yet his solo work is almost as embarrassing as Bob Mould's techno albums. (And do I even need to mention Chris Cornell's latest shitbrick with Timbaland?)

Of Genesis, the only good solo artists was Peter Gabriel. Of Guns 'N Roses, Izzy Stradlin.

My case study today is Bauhaus. Love them, but Peter Murphy's solo work is terrible. The rest of the band formed Love and Rockets after the breakup, and they were so-so. But I recently discovered Daniel Ash's solo album, and this single. While it's not life changing, I kind of dig it. (His other solo stuff isn't so great, though. Sounds kind of like Love and Rockets, but not quite as fun.)

This is my daydream

Work has been so insane of late that I've disappeared from the blog. I'm raising my head and opening my bleary eyes, just long enough to slur, I gotta get out of this homework! If only Mike Muir and Suicidal Tendencies were here to do this:

The Thermals - Returning to the Fold

The Thermals will be in Chapel Hill (Local 506) on May 14th! This seems like a good Friday song to me. Happy Hour's only 8 hours away...

The Specials - A Message to You Rudy

You know, I think if I could go back in time I would like to experience the music of the late 1970s and early 1980s. It seemed important, innovative, and ecclectic. Perhaps we are setting up oursleve for another breakthrough from the popular crap of the past 10 years.

Tom Petty - American Girl

He has put out some great records over the years but I don't think he really gets the recognition he deserves. Perhaps it was the MTV exposure that did him in. He does have some pretty iconic songs though - "American Girl" is one of them. I like this version better, but I can't embed it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNgt7U9QrFQ

Harry Carry - Take Me Out to the Ball Game

This is for you Marty. Good luck with A-Roid this season. 162 games to go.

Guided By Voices - I Am A Scientist

I've been on a bit of a GBV kick lately and I love this song. I only got to see them once at the Siren Festival at Coney Island. It was one of those days when you realize that too much beer along with too much sun can be a really bad thing...

Ravi Shankar - Rag Dhun

Meditate on it and enjoy some a cultural tour of the Monterrey Pop Festival. Was it better than Woodstock? Will, I think I saw you at around the 4:11 mark.

The Clash - Know Your Rights

The only band that matters.

K'naan - What's Hardcore?

This guy came up in a conversation with Will last night and I promised I'd post this video. I don't think a whole lot of explaination is needed here, other than that growing up in the midst of the Somali Civil War might change your view of "hardcore" rappers in the U.S...