Monday, March 18, 2024

Day After Day #75: Word Up!

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Word Up! (1986)

When you watch old music videos on YouTube, one thing you notice a lot is commenters pining for the good ol' days. The comments usually are along the lines of "This takes me back to when music was great, not like the crap we have today" or "I was 25 when this came out with a full head of hair and a Camaro. Now my wife left me and everything sucks." 

I'm not going down that road because I have no desire to go back to my youth, but there was definitely plenty of fun music going down in the '80s. Case in point, the funky lunatics in Cameo were one of the weirdest and best party acts going. In 1986, they were riding high but they took a long road to get there.

Larry Blackmon (the dude with the red codpiece) formed the band in 1974 as the New York City Players; they were signed by Casablanca Records imprint Chocolate City the following year as The Players, but they had to change their name after Mercury Records said it was too similar to the Ohio Players. The name Cameo came from a Canadian brand of cigarettes they had seen.

They were a hard funk act similar to Parliament when they started out, but Cameo expanded their sound to appeal to the burgeoning dance scene. Cameo did well on the R&B charts with songs like "Flirt" and "Shake Your Pants" but they started to break through to a wider audience in 1984 with the title track to their album "She's Strange," which got to #47 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

On their 13th album, 1986's Word Up!, Cameo hit it big. The title track is totally 1986: monster funk riff, plenty of synths and horns, Blackmon's funkier-than-funky vocals, some guitar flourishes and a ridiculously catchy chorus, as well as the opening notes of the theme to The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. Oh, and it had a video featuring Levar Burton that was on MTV all the time.

"Wave your hands in the air/Like you don't care, glide by/The people as they start to look and stare/Do your dance, do your dance quick/Mama, come on baby, tell me what's the word, ah, word up."

It's one of those songs that never fails to fill up the dance floor and it certainly took off in 1986. It was Cameo's first top 40 hit in the U.S., shooting all the way to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the R&B chart and the Hot Dance Singles chart. It was also a big hit in the U.K., spending 10 weeks in the top 40 over there and peaking at #3.

"Now all you sucker DJs/who think you're fly/There's got to be a reason/And we know the reason why/You try to put on those airs/And act real cool/But you got to realize/That you're acting like fools/If there's music we can use it/We need to dance/We don't have no time for psychological romance."

Cameo had another top 40 hit with the follow-up single "Candy," and the Word Up! album went platinum, going top 10 in both the U.S. and the U.K. That was the height of the band's popularity, though, as subsequent albums fared less well. The band kept going until 2000, when it went on hiatus. Cameo reunited in 2016 for a Las Vegas residency.

The song "Word Up!" has been covered by several artists, including Korn (not good), Mel B (aka Scary Spice, from the Austin Powers 2 soundtrack), Scottish hard rock act Gun and British girl group Little Mix. Hopefully they made Blackmon and Cameo some more money to keep those red codpieces in stock.


Sunday, March 17, 2024

Day After Day #74: The Body of an American

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

The Body of an American (1986)

It's St. Patrick's Day so it kinda makes sense to write about the Pogues. I mean, I could have gone with U2 or the Mama's Boys cover of "Mama Weer All Crazee Now," but let's stick with the real deal here. I was never a Pogues fan when they were a going concern. I knew about them but didn't really pay attention, but I have come to appreciate them over the years.

Formed in London in 1982, the Pogues combined punk rock with traditional Irish music. Their original name was Pogue Mahone, the phrase James Joyce coined from the Irish phrase pog mo thoin, which meant "kiss my arse." Led by frontman Shane MacGowan, the band played in London clubs before opening for the post-Mick Jones lineup of The Clash on their 1984 tour. Shortening their name to the Pogues to avoid BBC censorship, the band released their first album Red Roses for Me in October 1984, mixing covers of traditional Irish songs with originals written by MacGowan.

Their second album, 1985's Rum Sodomy & the Lash, was produced by Elvis Costello. It put the Pogues on the map, hitting #13 on the UK album chart and featured their cover of "Dirty Old Town" and originals "A Pair of Brown Eyes" and "Sally MacLennane." The band then released an EP of songs recorded with Costello the year before, Poguetry in Motion, in February 1986. In addition to "A Rainy Night in Soho" and "London Girl," the EP included the song I'm writing about today, "The Body of an American."

Written by MacGowan, the song tells the tale of an Irish immigrant named Big Jim Dwyer, a boxer, who is being remembered at his wake.

"When we turned and shook as we had a look/In the room where the dead men lay/So Big Jim Dwyer made his last trip/To the shores where his father laid/But 15 minutes later we had our first taste of whiskey/There was uncles giving lectures on ancient Irish history/The men all started telling jokes and the women, they got frisky/By 5 o'clock in the evening every bastard there was piskey."

The Pogues played the song when they appeared on the St. Patrick's Day 1990 episode of Saturday Night Live, with the apparently drunk MacGowan smoking a butt and drinking while sitting on the drum riser during the final instrumental section.

In the great HBO series The Wire, creator David Simon used the song three time in scenes of wakes for Baltimore police detectives. The dead cop was laid out on a pool table at Kavanaugh's Tavern as his fellow detectives remembered him with an elegy and then sang "The Body of an American." The last took place in the final episode of the series, when Det. Jimmy McNulty was given a "wake" after he left the force, even though he was very much alive. An amazing end to an amazing show.

"Fare thee well, gone away, there's nothing left to say/But to say adieu to your eyes as blue as the water in the bay/To Big Jim Dwyer, the man of wire who was often heard to say/'I'm a free born man of the USA.'"

As for the Pogues, their popularity grew in the late '80s. Their cover of "The Irish Rover" with the Dubliners was a huge hit in '87, followed by their Christmas single "Fairytale of New York," a duet with Kirsty MacColl that was a monster hit (#1 in Ireland, #2 in the UK) and remains a holiday classic in the UK and really, everywhere. 1988's If I Should Fall From Grace with God was a big hit in the UK and an underground hit in the U.S. The band released two more albums with MacGowan before firing him during a 1991 tour after his drug and alcohol use got out of control. The Pogues forged on with Joe Strummer and later band member Spider Stacy as frontmen, releasing two more albums before splitting up in 1996. They reunited with MacGowan for tours starting in 2001 and ending in 2014. Guitarist Philip Chevron died in 2013, bassist Darryl Hunt died in 2022 and MacGowan passed last November.

But the band lives on through its timeless music, especially on St. Paddy's Day.

 

 

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Day After Day #73: I Don't Like Mondays

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

I Don't Like Mondays (1979)

Long before Law & Order was doing "ripped from the headlines" storylines, musicians were using the news as inspiration. Bob Geldof of the Irish new wave act The Boomtown Rats was doing an interview in the Georgia State University radio station WRAS in January 1979 when he read a report about a school shooting at an elementary school in San Diego. Sixteen-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer fired into an elementary school playground, killing two adults and injuring eight children and a police officer. When asked why she did it, Spencer said, "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day."

Geldof later said the line "Silicon chip inside her head had switched to overload" came to him right after the interview and Geldof and keyboard player Johnnie Fingers wrote a song about such a senseless act. The band performed "I Don't Like Mondays" in concert less than a month later, originally intending to use it as a B-side, but U.S. audiences reacted well to it so the song was released as a single in the UK in July '79 and in the U.S. in October. 

School shootings were still pretty rare back in 1979, even in the U.S. Spencer fired 36 times into the schoolyard that morning as students were going into the school. She barricaded herself inside her home for several hours before she surrendered. Spencer was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon. She was sentenced to life in prison and is still incarcerated.

The Boomtown Rats had formed in 1975, releasing their first album two years later. Their second album, the Mutt Lange-produced A Tonic for the Troops, followed in 1978. It featured three U.K. hits including the #1 song "Rat Trap," which was the first rock song by an Irish band to hit #1 in the U.K. The band had a lower profile in the U.S. but was making inroads when its third album The Fine Art of Surfacing came out in June 1979.

Up in Toronto, I had never heard of the band until "I Don't Like Mondays" came out and immediately, I was hooked. Led by Fingers' on piano and accompanied by orchestral strings, the song was unusual sounding, especially for a new wave band. And of course, the lyrics. Even though I hadn't heard about the school shooting, "I Don't Like Mondays" was a grabber.

"The silicon chip inside her head/Gets switched to overload/And nobody's gonna go to school today/She's going to make them stay at home/And daddy doesn't understand it/He always said she was good as gold/And he can see no reason/'Cause there are no reasons/What reasons do you need to be shown?"

The song was a huge hit in the U.K., where it went to #1, and in Canada, where it went to #4 on the singles chart. It was catchy and shocking and sad all at the same time. The Rats caught some heat for capitalizing on a tragedy, and Geldof later said he regretted writing the song because he made Spencer famous. But there's no denying the power of the song.

Of course, some folks who didn't know or care about the story behind it just adopted the song as an anti-Monday screed because who doesn't hate Mondays?

"Tell me why?/I don't like Mondays/I wanna shoot/The whole day down."

Geldof and the Rats released a few more albums and had some hits, but he became bigger than the band eventually. He starred in Pink Floyd's movie of The Wall and then in the mid-'80s became famous for organizing Live Aid, where the Rats played at Wembley. The band split up a year later and reunited in 2013 for a tour. They released a new album in 2020.

Meanwhile, school and other mass shootings have become a common occurrence here in the U.S. Crazy to think that it's been 45 years since "I Don't Like Mondays" and we're no closer to a solution.


Friday, March 15, 2024

Day After Day #72: The Emperor's New Clothes

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

The Emperor's New Clothes (1990)

If there's one thing about Sinead O'Connor that is indisputable, it's that she had an amazing voice. When she burst onto the music scene in 1987 with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra, it was that voice and her shaved head that got plenty of attention. She was nominated for a Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "Mandinka," and performed on the award show, but she had her first big controversy when she painted Public Enemy's logo on her head to protest that the first Best Rap Performance award was given off-screen. 

As successful as her first album was, O'Connor's second album, 1990's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, really blew up. Rightfully so, all the focus was on her monster cover of Prince's "Nothing Compares 2 U," which went to #1 on just about every singles chart in the freakin' world. The video, which is basically a tight shot of her face as she sings the song, was ubiquitous and won three MTV Video Music Awards. 

The album also went to #1 on most album charts and went double platinum in the U.S. It was nominated for four Grammy awards and won Best Alternative Music Performance, but O'Connor refused to accept the nominations or the award.

The second single off the album was "The Emperor's New Clothes," a guitar-driven track in which an empowered O'Connor sings about dealing with being a young mother and the judgment she faced from the public. Even as the lyrics are heavy, she delivers them in an upbeat tone.

"He thinks I just became famous/And that's what messed me up/But he's wrong/How could I possibly know what I want/When I was only 21?/There's millions of people/To offer advice and say how I should be/But they're twisted/And they will never be any influence on me/But you will always be/You will always be."

The song was a radio hit, getting to #1 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart and #3 on the Canadian singles chart, but only hitting #60 on the Billboard Hot 100. Still, it was a strong follow-up to "Nothing Compares 2 U" that showed Sinead could still rock if she wanted to.

"Maybe it sounds mean/But I really don't think so/You asked for the truth and I told you."

Of course, O'Connor's success and high profile led to a series of controversies. She refused to play on Saturday Night Live in 1990 because the host was Andrew Dice Clay, who she said was disrespectful to women. Later that year, she caught flak for saying she wouldn't perform if the U.S. national anthem was played before one of her concerts. But the height of the tempest was when she finally appeared on SNL in 1992 and protested the Catholic Church by ripping up a photo of the Pope. She said later she felt the Church was responsible for child abuse and for some of the abuse she received as a child. O'Connor drew protests from various groups and celebrities, and she was booed at a tribute concert for Bob Dylan a few weeks later. Nine years later, Pope John Paul II publicly acknowledged child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. 

O'Connor's career was up and down after that. She made a lot of guest appearances and continued to release albums, but nothing came close to the early success she had. She went through a lot of personal crises, including multiple short-lived marriages and the death of her 17-year-old son. She passed away last July at the age of 56 of natural causes.

Sinead lived a life of turmoil and turbulence, but none of that diminishes her brilliance.

Stuck In Thee Garage #519: March 15, 2024

Movies and music go hand in hand. Even before people were talking in movies, there was music in them. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played hot new rock from the likes of Charles Mootheart, Savak and METZ (and also paid tribute to the late Karl Wallinger) in hour 1 and songs from movie soundtracks in hour 2. It'll smack you upside the head like a mustachioed Bill Hader.


This playlist hits hard:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Charles Mootheart - Roll/Black Holes Don't Choke

Savak - Up With the Sun/Flavors of Paradise

METZ - 99/Up on Gravity Hill

Mannequin Pussy - OK? OK! OK? OK!/I Got Heaven

Mary Timony - Looking for the Sun/Untame the Tiger

Near Beer - Al Pacino/Single

Daniel Romano's Outfit - Chatter/Too Hot to Sleep

Glitterer - No One There/Rationale

Ducks Ltd. - Harm's Way/Harm's Way

Office Dog - The Crater/Spiel

Bedbug - Halo on the Interstate/Pack Your Bags the Sun is Growing

Ty Segall - Eggman/Three Bells

Sprints - Literary Mind/Letter to Self

The Waterboys - The Whole of the Moon/This Is the Sea

World Party - Ship of Fools/Private Revolution

World Party - Is It Like Today?/Bang!


Hour 2: Soundtrack songs

The Jam - Town Called Malice/The Gift (Spider-Man: Far From Home)

Joe Jackson - Memphis/Mike's Murder

Echo & the Bunnymen - The Killing Moon/Ocean Rain (Donnie Darko)

Roxy Music - Virginia Plain/Roxy Music (Velvet Goldmine)

Boss Hog - I'm Not Like Everybody Else/SubUrbia

Husker Du - Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely/Candy Apple Grey (Adventureland)

The Clash - Rudie Can't Fail/London Calling (Grosse Pointe Blank)

Odds - Eat My Brain/Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy

The New Pornographers - Your Daddy Don't Know/Fubar

Frank Black - I Heard Ramona Sing/Frank Black (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World)

Dinosaur Jr. and Del the Funkee Homosapien - Missing Link/Judgment Night

Van Halen - Everybody Wants Some!!/Women and Children First (Better Off Dead)

Smashing Pumpkins - Drown/Singles

The Flaming Lips - Hot Day/SubUrbia


Reel in the hot rock playlist HERE!

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Day After Day #71: Idioteque

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Idioteque (2000)

After the successes of their albums The Bends and OK Computer, Radiohead had become one of the biggest bands in rock. OK Computer had redefined their sound and they were being hailed as the natural inheritors of the mantle that U2 and R.E.M. once held as a Very Important Band. Critics and fans alike were anticipating the band's next album to see how they would once again transform guitar-based rock.

But there was just one problem: Radiohead had no interest in doing that. The band was burned out and felt like other bands were copying their sound. Singer/songwriter Thom Yorke suffered from writer's block and became disillusioned with rock music in general, choosing instead to listen to electronic artists like Aphex Twin and Autechre. 

The rest of the band wasn't buying it at first, especially when Yorke was bringing in fragments of songs with no guitars or drums. There was a lot of time spent in the studio experimenting with electronic instruments like synthesizers and sequencers, as well as with using effects on their guitars to create synth-like sounds. It took a while but finally the songs began to take shape by early 2000, and in April of that year, Radiohead had completed 20 songs. Eventually, they decided to release them on two albums, starting with Kid A in October 2000.

This was at the height of the popularity of Napster, the file-sharing service that allowed users to share/steal MP3s. Radiohead decided not to release any singles or videos and did very little press for the album. But the album leaked on Napster months before its official release. I was working at Webnoize, where we were writing about the impact technology like Napster was having on the music industry, and we were using it for "research purposes." I heard some of the Kid A stuff before its official release and it was wild.

The band incorporated a wide variety of electronic and other instruments, as well as vocoders, strings and horn sections. In addition to electronic acts, influences on the new sound included Krautrock acts like Can, jazz artists including Miles Davis and Charles Mingus, Talking Heads circa Remain in Light, and Bjork. For someone expecting OK Computer 2.0, it was probably a major disappointment. 

The song "Idioteque" grew from an improvised sound collage that guitarist Jonny Greenwood put together using '70s-era synths, found sounds and samples; Yorke took a short section and wrote lyrics based on that. Yorke's lyric-writing process was much different than on previous albums. Inspired by David Byrne's haphazard lyrics on Remain in Light, Yorke would take phrases and then pick them from a hat to put them together. Amazingly, it works.

"Who's in a bunker? Who's in a bunker?/Women and children first/And the children first and the children/I'll laugh until my head comes off/I'll swallow til I burst/Until I burst."

The song sounds like it's from the year 3000, not 2000. For the second verse, the synths drop out and Yorke sings over the electronic percussion, seemingly about climate change.

"Ice Age coming, Ice Age coming/Let me hear both sides/Let me hear both sides, let me hear both/Ice Age coming, Ice Age coming/Throw it in the fire, throw it in the fire, throw it on the/We're not scaremongering/This is really happening, happening."

The band rearranged the Kid A songs to play them live. They ended up doing just a few North American shows in small venues, and also played on Saturday Night Live, where they did "Idioteque" and "The National Anthem" in two of the best performances that show has ever seen. 

The critics were split on the album, some loving it and others trashing it, but by the end of the decade, it made most best-of lists. Kid A topped the U.S. Billboard 200 and the UK Album chart and was top 10 throughout the world. The rest of the songs recorded during the Kid A sessions were released on the album Amnesiac in May 2001; it included more of what one would consider traditional Radiohead songs along with experimental sounds.

I saw them on the Amnesiac tour at Suffolk Downs of all places and then a few years later in Mansfield (the venue formerly known as Great Woods and many other names) on the Hail to the Thief tour. Radiohead is a terrific live band.

Radiohead released one more album for EMI before self-releasing their seventh album, In Rainbows, as a "pay what you want" download. This naturally freaked the industry out; the band later released the album as a CD through the traditional retail route and it went to #1 in the U.S. and UK. The band has only released two albums since, the last one coming out in 2016, but the group's members have been busy, releasing solo projects and working with other musicians. Yorke and Jonny Greenwood formed The Smile with drummer Tom Skinner and have released two excellent albums that feature a decent amount of guitar, don't ya know.

 

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Day After Day #70: Drown

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Drown (1992)

Let's face it, soundtrack albums are usually a mixed bag. One or two good songs, a couple of songs you've heard before and then a bunch of filler. This was especially the case in the 1980s, when artists discovered they could make a lot of money doing songs for movie soundtracks; a video of the song would feature clips from the movie interspersed with the musical performance. It was pretty lucrative for the likes of Phil Collins, Bryan Adams, Sting and the like. 

Soundtracks got a little better in the '90s because directors had more of a say in what went on them. Quentin Tarantino created eclectic soundtrack albums for Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction that featured older AM radio hits from a wide range of artists. Then there was the Singles soundtrack, which benefited from having new music from artists who were blowing up at the exact same time. 

Singles was a Cameron Crowe-directed rom-com looking at the romantic lives of a group of Gen X young adults in Seattle, with the burgeoning grunge scene happening around them. It's nothing overly special, but it's charming and I like it more than Reality Bites, a 1994 movie directed by Ben Stiller that has its moments but tries a little too hard to be hip. People bag on Crowe for jumping on the Seattle bandwagon, but he was living there at the time (he was married at the time to Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson) and his previous film, 1989's excellent Say Anything, was set there. Filming of Singles took place between March and May 1991, several months before grunge really exploded, but bands like Soundgarden and Alice in Chains were definitely happening, and three-fifths of what became Pearl Jam were featured as Matt Dillon's character's backing band (Nirvana declined to be included, possibly because they were working on Nevermind at the time and possibly because they didn't give a shit.). 

The soundtrack was released in June 1992, nearly three months before the movie finally came out (it made a modest $18 million and had mostly good reviews). By this time, grunge mania was running wild and Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden were enjoying newfound success. The soundtrack featured new songs from Seattle stalwarts Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden (in addition to a Chris Cornell solo song), Mudhoney and Screaming Trees, as well as the first post-Replacement songs from Paul Westerberg, a Zeppelin cover from the Lovemongers (aka Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart) and older songs from Mother Love Bone and Jimi Hendrix. 

It also featured an 8:17 slow-building ripper from Smashing Pumpkins, a Chicago band that was coming off its outstanding 1991 debut album Gish. The Pumpkins were lumped in with the grunge bands, although they blended a lot of different styles including hard rock, psychedelia, shoegaze and prog under the mad hatter auspices of singer-guitarist Billy Corgan. Gish wasn't a big success, peaking at #195 on the Billboard 200, but it was produced by Corgan and Butch Vig (who went on to produce Nevermind). The band signed with Virgin Records not long after Gish came out.

"Drown" was recorded after Gish was released and made its live debut on that tour. Unlike some of the other songs that became popular off the Singles soundtrack, it starts quietly as Corgan laments a lost love.

"No matter where you are/I can still hear you when you drown/You've traveled very far/Just to see you I'll come around/When I'm down/All of those yesterdays/Coming down."

The song remains calm until the bridge, when the big guitars kick in, and then gets quiet again before it ramps up to the final verse: "I wish, I wish I could fly/I wish, I wish I could lie/I will, I will try/I will, I will/Goodbye." That's where the single version of the song ends, the full version then continues for the next four minutes with trippy yet tuneful guitar feedback. It's truly majestic.

Corgan has been quoted as saying he wanted "Drown" to be released as the second single off the soundtrack, but the label (Epic) opted to release the Alice in Chains and Screaming Trees songs, both of which became radio staples. Eventually, a promotional single was released to radio only and "Drown" became fairly popular, albeit only the first four minutes. 

I wasn't familiar with the Pumpkins at the time and thought this was what they sounded like on all their songs, and I was there for it. Sadly, that wasn't true, but I picked up their next album, Siamese Dream, when it came out in '93 and later got Gish, which I really love. Siamese Dream was a huge hit, selling 4 million copies in the U.S., although Corgan and the Pumpkins caught flak from indie rockers like Pavement and Bob Mould. They forged on and had another monster hit in 1995-96 with the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Things were up and down for them after that, as they switched to a more electronic sound and look and struggled with substance abuse issues and lineup changes. Corgan split up the band in 2000, only to reform it in 2005. The band has released several albums since then and continues to record and tour.

I've never seen the Pumpkins in concert, although my brother and I had tickets to see them at Avalon in Boston in 1993 on Siamese Dream tour. Two hours before the show, the band canceled, citing illness; the rescheduled date was at the Orpheum, a bigger venue that I didn't feel like dealing with so I got a refund. My interest in Smashing Pumpkins waned in the late '90s, especially as Corgan got weirder and weirder, but I still enjoy the early stuff. There's a lot of strong songs in the early catalog, and that "Drown" might be the best of them all.


Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Day After Day #69: Accident Prone

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Accident Prone (1995)

What is a sellout? In the punk world, the term carries a lot of weight, even if it might be a bit harsh. Nowadays, it's exceedingly difficult to make money if you're a rock band, but in the mid-'90s for a few years there, it seemed like everyone was going to get rich or die trying. 
The post-Nirvana indie rock explosion has been referenced early and often, but the post-Green Day 'splosion was also pretty notable. After the Bay Area trio's 1994 album Dookie blew up (it has sold 20 MILLION copies!), the major labels started checking out the other bands in their scene. One of those bands was Jawbreaker, a trio that had just released its third album 24 Hour Revenge Therapy a few months before Dookie. They weren't exactly unknowns, having toured with Nirvana a year earlier.
Although singer-guitarist Blake Schwarzenbach and drummer Adam Pfahler were from Santa Monica, they moved to New York City in 1986 to attend NYU and started a band, responding to a flyer posted by bassist Chris Bauermeister. They moved to LA the following year and called their band Rise, with Jon Liu on lead vocals. Eventually, Schwarzenbach replaced Liu as singer and the band renamed itself Jawbreaker. 
The band's 1990 debut album Unfun displayed a knack for pop hooks mixed into hardcore punk. Jawbreaker briefly split up after tensions increased during a grueling summer tour, but they reformed and moved to San Francisco. In 1992, they released the album Bivouac, which was more ambitious than their debut. But Schwarzenbach developed painful throat polyps that made it difficult for him to sing; they halted the tour so he could have the polyp and resumed a week later.
Jawbreaker's third album was recorded with engineer Steve Albini, although the band was dissatisfied with some of the songs and re-recorded them later. But 24 Hour Revenge Therapy was and is beloved by fans, although it was overshadowed by Dookie and the Offspring's Smash, which brought pop-punk to the masses. Nevertheless, the band caught flak from its fans for touring with Nirvana, as well as Schwarzenbach singing differently after the surgery; he was screaming a lot less than before.  
Despite having a much different sound than Green Day or the Offspring and more serious lyrical content, Jawbreaker were touted as the “thinking man’s Green Day” and began receiving major-label offers.  Schwarzenbach steadfastly denied any plans to sign with a major, and the band had decided to break up after the tour, but they ended up signing with Geffen Records anyway. This, of course, enraged their fan base even more than before.
Dear You was their major label debut in 1995, but Jawbreaker’s longtime fans were turned off by the cleaner sound and clearer vocals. The album was unable to get much in the way of radio or MTV airplay and sunk like a stone, and the band broke up in 1996 after the Dear You tour ended. 
I was unfamiliar with Jawbreaker prior to Dear You, picking it up after hearing the lead single "Fireman" on WFNX. I really enjoyed it, but was dumbfounded by the general apathy shown the band. Of course, I had no idea of the backlash Jawbreaker was dealing with. 
The second song on Dear You, “Accident Prone” talks about near misses of the emotional variety. “A near miss or a close call?/I keep a room at the hospital/I scratch my accidents into the wall/I couldn't wait to breathe your breath/I cut in line, I bled to death/I got to you, there was nothing left.”
A sad, intense song that builds as it goes, "Accident Prone" has provoked many online debates about its meaning, whether it's about a bad breakup or some close calls the band had touring in the winter. Whatever the case, it's a devastating song that is one of the standouts on an excellent album.
"What's the closest you can come to an almost total wreck/And still walk away, all limbs intact?/And when I go, you'll be there/Crying out, begging me/I won't hear/I'll just go fast into this night on broken legs."
As mentioned earlier, Dear You sunk like a stone, but in retrospect, critics have lauded its tight musicianship and introspective lyrics. The album has been cited as a big influence on the emo movement that emerged a few years later. Many artists have covered songs from Dear You, including Julien Baker (see below for her cover of “Accident Prone”).
Dan Ozzi's excellent book Sellout takes an in-depth look at Jawbreaker and 10 other indie bands who were decried as sellouts after signing major-label deals. It's well worth checking out if you're interested in such things.
The members of Jawbreaker reunited in 2017 and have toured a few times since but haven’t released any new music as of yet. I caught them when they came through Boston in 2019 and they were great. The sellout tag doesn't follow them anymore, nor should it.

Monday, March 11, 2024

Day After Day #68: The Whole of the Moon

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

The Whole of the Moon (1985)

I hadn't even had a chance to think about what I was going to write about today when I heard the horrible news that Karl Wallinger had died. Having written about one of his masterful World Party songs in January, the logical next move was to write about the epic Waterboys song "The Whole of the Moon," which Wallinger played on. 

The Waterboys were formed in London in 1983 by Scottish musician Mike Scott, with a self-titled debut filled with sweeping anthemic songs released that July. Early influences included David Bowie, Bob Dylan and Patti Smith. Wallinger joined the band on keyboards in time for their first public performance on the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test. The album got good notices, as did the 1984 release A Pagan Place. The band's sound was being called The Big Music, which was also the name of the first single on A Pagan Place, referring to the wall of sound Scott would build with a variety of instruments. 

Released in September 1985, This Is the Sea was the third Waterboys album and the last of their Big Music rock albums. It was also the last Waterboys album featuring Wallinger, who would leave to form World Party. The album features the greatest Waterboys song (and there are many great ones), "The Whole of the Moon." 

In the song Scott pays tribute to an inspirational figure, although he's claimed in interviews it's not about a specific person. There was speculation it was about Prince or British musician Nikki Sudden (who had collaborated with Scott previously), but Scott has denied that, saying it's about a composite of many people including writer C.S. Lewis. 

"I pictured a rainbow/You held it in your hands/I had flashes/But you saw the pan/I wandered out in the world for years/While you stayed in your room/I saw the crescent/You saw the whole of the moon."

The band's kitchen sink instrumental approach is in full effect on "The Whole of the Moon," including classical-sounding trumpets, a saxophone solo, and synths and synth bass from Wallinger. Scott said he wanted synth lines echoing ones used by Prince on the songs "1999" and "Paisley Park." And Wallinger's backing vocals at one point were meant to echo Bowie's "Fame." 

"With a torch in your pocket/And the wind at your heels/You climbed the ladder/And you know how it feels/To get too high/Too far too soon/You saw the whole of the moon/The whole of the moon."

When it was first released, the song reached #26 on the UK Singles Chart, while getting frequent FM radio and MTV play in the U.S. But when it was re-released as part of a best-of compilation in 1991, it became a hit, going all the way to #3 in the UK; it even received an Ivor Novello Award for "Best Song Musically and Lyrically" in 1991. In recent years, it's been covered by the likes of Frightened Rabbit and Fiona Apple.

Despite (or maybe because of) the success of This Is the Sea, Scott took the band in another musical direction, exploring roots music: first American, then Irish. This led to 1988's Fisherman's Blues, which became the Waterboys' best-selling album, hitting #13 in the UK and #76 on the Billboard 200. The band released two more albums (including the rougher-edged Dream Harder) before splitting up the Waterboys. He played as a solo artist for the rest of the '90 before reforming the band in 2000. The band has had more than 70 members over the years, but Scott remained the only constant in the Waterboys, releasing nine albums from 2000-2022.


Sunday, March 10, 2024

Day After Day #67: Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Pulling Mussels (From the Shell) (1980)

Imagine being a band so good but you're constantly under the radar your entire career. That was the deal with Squeeze, especially here in the U.S. So many great songs...hell, even trying to pick one for this feature took me a while because I kept changing my mind. 

Formed in 1974 by guitarists-singers Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, the band played around London for a few years and released a couple of singles before John Cale produced their first EP and self-titled debut album. Their second album, 1979's Cool for Cats, scored hits with the title track and "Up the Junction," which both went to #2 on the UK Singles Chart. 

I became aware of Squeeze with their third album, Argybargy, which was released in February 1980. "Another Nail in My Heart" started getting play on the radio in Toronto, sort of lumped in with the new wave of British music that rejuvenating the rock world at the time. The album was also the first to get recognized in the U.S., hitting #71 on the Billboard 200.

Squeeze was proudly British, as the album title exemplifies; their manager told them nobody in the U.S. would know what "argybargy" meant, but they insisted (it's a British expression for a lively discussion or argument). Turns out it didn't matter. Squeeze's super-catchy pop featured clever lyrics by Difford and strong musicianship that transcended any cultural differences. 

The first track on the album and third single, "Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)," is a great example of the band's greatness. Written by Difford about his experiences at a seaside resort where UK working class families would go to vacation. These seaside villages would have older folks in the shops, families getting away from the city, and then other stuff going on. The term "pulling mussels" is a British slang term for a sex act; the chorus refers to young people trying to hook up with strangers behind the chalet on the beach. 

"Squinting faces at the sky/A Harold Robbins paperback/Surfers drop their boards and dry/And everybody wants a hat/But behind the chalet/My holiday's complete/And I feel like William Tell/Maid Marian on her tiptoed feet/Pulling mussels from a shell/Pulling mussels from a shell."

Most listeners probably missed the sexual connotations because the song's so bouncy and Tilbrook's vocals are so pleasant. Meanwhile, the band is cooking musically, with both a Tilbrook guitar solo and a piano solo from Jools Holland. Just a pop classic. 

I never bought a Squeeze album until the late '80s, but I did tape the amazing comp Singles, 45s and Under off one of my college roommates and listened to that constantly. Just banger after banger: "Take Me I'm Yours," "Cool For Cats," "Up the Junction," "Slap & Tickle" "Another Nail in My Heart," "Tempted," "If I Didn't Love You." Just an embarrassment of riches. Alas, I only saw them in concert once, at Endicott College in the early '90s, and they were excellent.

Squeeze actually split up after 1982's Sweets from a Stranger album, although the two lead dudes released an album as a duo called Difford & Tilbrook in 1984 that is now considered an unofficial Squeeze album. They reformed in 1985 and played together through 1999, although the lineup was constantly changing; Aimee Mann actually toured with the band in 1994, playing songs by her and Squeeze. Difford and Tilbrook reformed Squeeze in 2007 and have released three albums since and are still together. 

The best thing about writing this is I've been listening to Squeeze songs all afternoon.


Saturday, March 09, 2024

Day After Day #66: Don't Believe a Word

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Don't Believe a Word (1976)

Rock history is filled with bright lights who were taken too soon. One of those is Phil Lynott, the founder, singer, bassist and main songwriter for the Irish hard rock act Thin Lizzy. A charismatic stage presence with a commanding voice, Lynott led the band (which had a rotating collection of guitarists and drummers over the years) to be one of the leading touring acts of the '70s before substance abuse derailed the group in 1983. Lynott died just three years later at the age of 36. 

But over a 12-year span, Thin Lizzy released 12 albums with a wide variety of excellent songs, from outright rippers to sweet ballads to Celtic-tinged laments. In the middle of that run, the band released its seventh album Johnny the Fox in October 1976. It was the last studio album that featured on-again, off-again guitarist Brian Robertson as a full-time member. The band was notable for its use of harmony guitar parts, so Gary Moore (who was an on-again, off-again member of the group) stepped in for the tour. 

Johnny the Fox was following up Jailbreak, the band's biggest album featuring its two biggest songs, the title track and "The Boys Are Back in Town." Reviewers found it a bit underwhelming compared to the big rock sound of Jailbreak, but it has its defenders and its strong points. The strongest is the song "Don't Believe a Word," which Lynott first brought in as a slow 12-bar blues jam. Robertson told him the song was "shite" and Lynott took off for a few days. In the meantime, Robertson and drummer Brian Downey reworked the song to be faster and heavier, and when Lynott returned, he liked what he heard. 

"Don't Believe a Word" packs a lot into its 2:20 as Lynott sings some decidedly unromantic words to a would-be partner. The protagonist is unfaithful but wracked with guilt as he tells his lover she shouldn't believe anything he says.

"Don't believe a word/Words are only spoken/But your heart is like a promise/Made to be broken/Don't believe a word/Words can tell lies/And lies are no company/When there's tears in your eyes."

The song ended up going to #12 on the UK Singles Chart, the only hit from that album. The live version below from the Midnight Special show in 1977 is a great display of the raw power of the band at that time. Moore ended up recording the original slower version of the song for his 1978 album Back on the Streets, featuring Lynott on bass and Downey on drums (see a live version below).

Thin Lizzy was a veritable Spinal Tap of guitarists, even bringing in Midge Ure (who about to join new wave act Ultravox, which is where he found fame and fortune) to replace Moore after the latter had abruptly quit in the middle of a tour. The last Thin Lizzy album, 1983's Thunder and Lightning, featured John Sykes (later of Whitesnake and Blue Murder) on guitar. With multiple band members, including Lynott, struggling with addiction, the band split up in late '83. Lynott started a new band called Grand Slam but it never really got off the ground. He contributed to Moore's solo album Run for Cover in 1985, garnering a UK hit with "Out in the Fields." 

Lynott was planning to reform Thin Lizzy in 1986, but he ended up in the hospital in December 1985, suffered multiple organ failure and died in January '86. Sykes reformed Lizzy in 1996 with various former members joining over the years to play concerts but not record new material. Sykes left and Scott Gorham took over, playing shows as Thin Lizzy and then eventually recording new songs as Black Star Riders. 

Lynott is beloved in his hometown Dublin, where a memorial statue of him was erected in 2005. I never saw Lynott in action, but when we were in Dublin seven years ago, I was able to get a picture with the statue, which was pretty cool in and of itself.


Day After Day #75: Word Up!

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4). Word Up! (1986) When you watch old music...