Day After Day #306: Better Than Nothing

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

Better Than Nothing (1994)

There are many examples of how the music industry has chewed up and spit out artists. They sign the artist to a big contract, the artist releases albums that don't sell well, the label drops the artist. This was especially common in the '90s when the major labels were trying to find the next big alternative rock artist. 

This series has documented the major label feeding frenzy that followed Nirvana's success, but it continued to a lesser extent in the mid-'90s when an unknown Boston-based singer named Jennifer Trynin self-released her debut album Cockamamie in 1994. After the lead single "Better Than Nothing" started getting played on rock stations across the country, Trynin got critical acclaim and record company bigwigs began courting her as the Next Big Female Rock Star.

Cockamamie is an excellent collection of catchy, guitar-driven rockers, highlighted by "Better Than Nothing," a midtempo ripper with a chorus that lodges itself in your brain.

"Maybe we could talk in the shower/I'll bet we'd be gone in an hour/Maybe we could leave all this behind/Or we could just stay home/Maybe we could pool all our money/Maybe head out west to the country/It'd be just like here but we'd be there/Or we could just stay home/It's better than nothing/It's better than nothing/I'm feeling good, I'm feeling good/I'm feeling good...for now/But I know that by tomorrow I'll probably come around."

I first heard "Better Than Nothing" on WFNX and then picked up the CD and was hooked. I saw Trynin play at TT the Bears in 1995 and she was excellent.

"Maybe we could stay out all night/2 shots of whiskey and have a good fight/Finally figure out who's really right/I think I'll just stay home/For now things don't seem so bad/I don't wanna know if I will sink or swim away to shore."

Among the labels that were chasing Trynin was Geffen, whose CEO David Geffen told her she reminded him of Linda Ronstadt, and Warner Bros., which was led by Danny Goldberg, Led Zeppelin's former publicist and Nirvana's manager. Eventually Trynin signed with Warner Bros., which gave her a three-album deal and a near-$1 million advance. Warner Bros. re-released Cockamamie in 1995 and "Better Than Nothing" reached #15 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and #40 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. But the second single didn't chart and the album stalled out at #74 on the Billboard 200.

Disappointed with album and ticket sales, Warner canceled a planned European tour and cut promo support. Trynin opened for Buffalo Tom on a fall tour. But by the following spring, Goldberg left the label for Mercury and Warner Bros. opted to put its money behind another female artist, Alanis Morrisette, who had a monster hit with "You Oughta Know" and her album Jagged Little Pill. 

Trynin released her second album on Warner Bros., Gun Shy, Trigger Happy, in 1997. It was quieter than her debut, but was strong nonetheless. It got good reviews but was more adult alternative than alt-rock and didn't sell well. The label refused her recommendation for the first single and then made her change the name of the song they wanted from "February" to "Getaway," but then didn't even release the video that had been made for the song. Eventually, Trynin took a buyout from Warner Bros. that released her from having to make a third album and dropped out of the public eye for a few years.

In 1999, she began playing guitar with the Boston indie rock band Loveless, which released an album in 2003. Trynin, who was a creative writing major in college, released her first book in 2006, Everything I'm Cracked Up to Be: A Rock & Roll Fairy Tale, which detailed her meteoric rise and fall. I spotted it in my local library not long after it came out and really enjoyed it.

Trynin married producer Mike Deneen in 2000 and then took time off after having their daughter in 2003. She started playing music again in 2014 with The Cujo and Band of Their Own, but is also working on her second book. Trynin has also been hosting EARFULL, a performance series that features writers and musicians, in Boston-area spots.

Day After Day #305: Daft Punk is Playing at My House

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

Daft Punk is Playing at My House (2005)

There was a lot going on in the NYC indie rock scene in the early 2000s. The Strokes became the face of guitar rock for a few years, but there was also Interpol, TV On the Radio, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Rapture and the Walkmen. It was an active and vibrant scene and it coincided with the MP3 blog era, in which indie rock fans shared MP3s of new bands they liked. For those of us who had little kids and weren't getting out to rock clubs as much as we used to, MP3 blogs were invaluable.

Another band to emerge out of New York at that time was LCD Soundsystem, an electronic rock act founded by James Murphy in 2002. Working with drummer Pat Mahoney, Murphy released a number of singles on DFA Records, the label he co-founded. The first single, "Losing My Edge," was released in 2002 and got some attention in the U.K. as well as NYC.

In January 2005, LCD Soundsystem released its eponymous debut album on DFA and Capitol Records, featuring the lead single "Daft Punk is Playing at My House." The song is punchy, eminently danceable and pretty fun, if the cowbell solo is any indication.

"Well, Daft Punk is playing at my house, my house/I'll show you the ropes kid, show you the ropes/I got a bus and a trailer at my house, my house/I'll show you the ropes kid, show you the ropes/I bought 15 cases for my house, my house/All the furniture is in the garage/Well, Daft Punk is playing at my house, my house/You got the set them up kid, set them up."

The song, of course, refers to the Parisian electronic music duo that emerged in the '90s and was pretty popular around the world; the two musicians started wearing robot costumes after their second album came out. They got huge in 2013 before splitting up a few years later. 

"Well, Daft Punk is playing at my house, my house/I waited for seven years and 15 days/There's every kid for miles at my house, my house/And the neighbors can't call the police/There's a fist fight brewing at my house, my house/Because the jocks can't get in the door/When Daft Punk is playing at my house, my house/You got to set them up kid, set them up."

The song hit #1 on the U.K. Dance chart and #29 on the U.K. Singles Chart and was nominated for the 2006 Grammy for Best Dance Recording. It was featured in several videogames including FIFA 06, SSX On Tour and Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 3 and X2. It also showed up in movies, TV and commercials; Murphy may have started as an indie artist, but he got paid. 

"Well, everybody's lined up in my house, my house/And Sarah's girlfriend is working the door/Got everybody's PA in my house, my house/All the robots descend from the bus/There's a freak out brewin' in my house, my house/In the basement/'Cause Daft Punk is playing at my house, my house/You got to set them up kid, set them up."

LCD Soundsystem toured with M.I.A. and got critical acclaim. The group, which in the studio was essentially Murphy, released two more albums before announcing a farewell tour in 2011 that sold out immediately; the final show at Madison Square Garden lasted nearly four hours. Murphy got the group back together in 2015; he worked on David Bowie's final album Blackstar and said Bowie convinced him to reunite LCD Soundsystem. Murphy caught some backlash for making a big deal out of the final tour and then bringing the group back a few years later to play festivals. The band released an album in 2017 and is reportedly working on a new album.

Day After Day #304: Brother Louie

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

Brother Louie (1973)

As a young kid in the 1970s, I listened to a lot of AM pop radio thanks to my parents having it on constantly. I can remember hearing countless hours of schmaltzy stuff by Englebert Humperdinck and Paul Anka, soft rock from the likes of 10CC and Wings, pure pop from the Carpenters and Cher, and light funk from War and the O'Jays. Another big part of that era was the one-hit wonders, the songs from bands who were unable to capitalize on their fleeting fame.

Years later in the late '80s, I was working as a news editor at the University of New Hampshire school newspaper, which published two editions each week. I would work one of the two long production nights, every Thursday, which would often see us pulling all-nighters. We usually had music on and sometimes would listen to Barry Scott's retro radio show "The Lost 45s," which highlighted a lot of those one-hit wonders from the '70s that I grew up listening to. One of those songs was "Brother Louie," which was originally released by the British funk outfit Hot Chocolate in 1973 (who had big hits with "You Sexy Thing" and "Every 1's a Winner"), but six months later was covered by the American band Stories.

The Hot Chocolate version of "Brother Louie" was a hit in the U.K., going to #7 on the singles chart, but in the U.S., the Stories version went to #1 on Billboard Hot 100 (and #1 in Canada, where I was hearing it in the summer of '73). The song told the tale of an interracial love affair between a black man and a white woman whose families object to it. Was the Stories version more successful in the U.S. because it was sung by a white rock band instead of a mixed-race band from the U.K.? Perhaps. But the Stories is entertainingly cheesy, with singer Ian Lloyd's over-the-top vocals providing the appropriate amount of melodrama.

"She was black as the night/Louie was whiter than white/Danger, danger when you taste the brown sugar/Louie fell in love overnight/Nothing bad, it was good/Louie had the best girl he could/When he took her home to meet his mama and papa/Louie knew just where he stood/Louie Louie Louie Louie/Louie Louie Louie Lou-I/Louie Louie Louie Louie/Louie Louie you're gonna cry."

Stories was formed in 1972 when bassist-singer Lloyd and keyboardist Michael Brown, formerly of the pop group the Left Banke, set out to create a Beatles-sounding band. They added guitarist Steve Love and drummer Bryan Madey and released their self-titled debut in 1972. The band's second album, About Us, came out in 1973, but it didn't have "Brother Louie" on it at first. They covered the song with Kenny Aaronson providing a funky bassline and added it to later pressings of the album.

"There he stood, in the night/Knowing what's wrong from what's right/He took her home to meet his mama and papa/Man, they had a terrible fight/Louie nearly caused a scene/Wishing it was a dream/Ain't no difference if you're black or white/Brothers, you know what I mean, come on/Louie Louie Louie Louie/Louie Louie Louie Lou-I/Louie Louie Louie Louie/Louie Louie you're gonna cry."

The song spent two weeks at #1 and was on the Hot 100 chart for 18 weeks. Brown left the band after the second album, with Aaronson and keyboardist Ken Bichel taking his place, and Lloyd stuck around for one more album before leaving. The new lineup had two songs crack the bottom half of the Hot 100, "Mammy Blue" and "If It Feels Good, Do It." Stories broke up not long afterward.

Lloyd released several solo albums and worked with Foreigner, Bryan Adams and Peter Frampton. Brown formed the Beckies and Madey played in the Earl Slick Band. Aaronson had a long career, going on to play with Rick Derringer, Bob Dylan, Billy Idol, Billy Squier, Joan Jett, Sammy Hagar and others. 

"Brother Louie" was later covered by a number of artists, including Bon Jovi and the Quireboys. A cover of the Stories version became the theme song for Louis C.K.'s hit show Louie, with Lloyd himself providing the vocals. 

During those production nights, when "Brother Louie" would come on, I would belt out the vocals, which were somehow ingrained in my brain. About a decade later, when me and a bunch of my UNH buddies formed the band Bea Arthur's Revenge to play at a Halloween party, we chose "Brother Louie" as one of the covers we did. As goofy as it is, it's a lot of fun to sing. 

Day After Day #303: Strychnine

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

Strychnine (1965)

Going back to the mid-'60s garage rock boom for today's song straight outta Tacoma, Washington. The Sonics only made three albums before splitting up, but they influenced multiple genres and bands.

Formed in 1960, the band had a few lineup changes before settling on its core personnel: Gerry Roslie on lead vocals and keyboards, Andy Parypa on bass, Larry Parypa on guitar and vocals, Rob Lind on sax and vocals and Bob Bennett on drums. The Sonics started playing local venues and were eventually spotted by Buck Ormsby, bassist for Northwest band the Wailers, who signed them to Etiquette Records. The band's first single was "The Witch" in November 1964; it became a regional hit.

The band released its debut album, Here Are the Sonics, in March 1965. Like many early rock albums, it included a few originals and a bunch of covers, including "Roll Over Beethoven," "Do You Love Me," "Have Love Will Travel," "Walking the Dog" and "Night Time is the Right Time." Roslie's vocals were clearly inspired by Little Richard, full of yowling power while the band pounds away behind him. Musically, the Sonics didn't hold back, with Bennett's hard-hitting drums and Larry Parypa's distorted guitar pushing the meter and Lind's sax trying to keep up.

"Strychnine" is gloriously demented, with Roslie singing about drinking poison for the hell of it.

"Some folks like water/Some folks like wine/But I like the taste/Of straight strychnine (hey hey)/You may think it's funny/That I like this stuff/But once you've tried it/You can't get enough/Wine is red/Poison is blue/Strychnine is good/For what's ailin' you/WAHHHHH."

The entire album was recorded on a two-track tape recorder, with only one microphone to pick up the drum kit. The Sonics played so loud and aggressive that it sounded like they were going to jump out of the speakers. You could imagine them getting a fair amount of play at "Animal House"-style frat parties in the mid- to late '60s.

"If you listen to what I say/You'll try strychnine some day/Make you jump, it'll make you shout/It'll even knock you out/Some folks like water/Some folks like wine/But I like the taste/Of straight strychnine."

The band followed it up with a second album, Boom, in February 1966, that was again chock full of party covers like "Louie, Louie" and "Let the Good Times Roll." The third Sonics album was recorded in Hollywood and reportedly found the band following more modern trends, but it sold poorly. The group splintered between 1966 and 1968, with members leaving to go to college or join other bands, and Lind becoming a fighter pilot in the Vietnam War. Roslie kept the band going with other members until 1980. 

The original lineup reunited for a show in 1972 and the band's albums were re-released in the U.S. and Europe as punk bands in the late '70s and grunge acts in the '90s emulated the Sonics sound. "The Witch" and "Psycho" were included on Lenny Kaye's super-influential garage rock compilation Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era." "Strychnine" has been covered by bands including the Cramps and Barrence Whitfield and the Savages.

The Sonics' version of "Have Love, Will Travel" was used in a 2004 Land Rover TV ad, generating more interest in the band. Kurt Cobain proclaimed his love of the band, as has Jack White of the White Stripes, LCD Soundsystem and noted garage rock aficionado Little Steven Van Zandt.

The band reunited again in 2007 for a garage rock festival, with Roslie, Larry Parypa and Lind on board and backed by a new rhythm section. Different versions of the band have played live since then, with Rob Lind the only remaining original member currently playing in the Sonics. 

Day After Day #302: Sleeping Bag

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

Sleeping Bag (1993)

Everybody thinks of grunge bands as coming from Seattle, but there were plenty of bands signed from all over the country at the height of the grunge gold rush. One of them was Paw out of Lawrence, Kansas, who signed a three-album deal with A&M after a bidding war early in the grunge era. 

I first heard of Paw when I won a prize pack from A&M in late '93 and one of the things I received was a VHS tape with videos of A&M acts, including Soundgarden. The Paw video was for "Couldn't Know," a song about a whale. The band rocked and the singer, Mark Hennessy, had a powerful roar of a voice. I picked up the CD of the band's 1993 debut Dragline and listened to it a LOT over the next 18 months.

Paw was formed in 1990 by Hennessy, guitarist Grant Fitch, drummer Peter Fitch and bassist Charles Bryan. The band combined metal power with Southern rock and got some MTV airplay with their three videos, "Jessie," "Couldn't Know" and "Sleeping Bag." Much like labelmates Soundgarden, Paw was straddling the line between metal and alternative. The band toured with Nirvana, the Afghan Whigs, Tool, Smashing Pumpkins, Urge Overkill and Firehose.

"Sleeping Bag" tells the tale of a brother who's looking out for his sibling after an accident.

"I don't want to see your head caved in/I can't stand to see them wheel you in/Why'd you go and do that to your head?/Are you so goddamned miserable/You'd feel better if you were dead?/And then the tears from my eyes/Makes the road all wet and hard/For you to drive me never/Had a chance to see/The car, she's comin' straight at you/Hey, what are you gonna do?"

Hennessy's emotional vocals bring the brotherly concern to the forefront. 

"Someone call a doctor!/Hey, you're dying and you don't know/Hey, you make me hate myself/'Cause you're my only brother/And I can't say, 'I love you'/And this is pretty hard/Aww, you're not around, so I can't hold your hand/So I crawl/I crawl inside your sleeping bag/Oh, and I don't think he's gonna make it, make it home alive/Please, make it home alive."

The album never charted. Paw's next album, Death to Traitors, came out in 1995 and had more an alt-country feel mixed in with the heavier side of their sound, but it fared poorly and Paw was dropped by A&M a year later. In 1998, the Fitch brothers formed the band Palomar and released an album. Paw released an odds-and-sods collection, and then an EP in 2000 before splitting up.

In the years since, the band reunited in 2008 for some shows, but that was it. Grant Fitch has played in the New Franklin Panthers, but more recently has worked as a production manager on TV shows. Hennessy formed Godzillionaire a decade ago. 

Paw was one of many grunge-era bands who never made it, but they had some good songs.

 

 

Stuck In Thee Garage #554: November 15, 2024

There's never a bad time to escape from the world by listening to music. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played two hours of songs I like: nothing new, no theme, just the good stuff. It really ties the room together.

Crank up your walkman:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Material Issue - Renee Remains the Same/International Pop Overthrow

Red Red Meat - Snowball/Red Red Meat

The Dambuilders - Teenage Loser Anthem/Ruby Red

Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Coma Girl/Streetcore

Urge Overkill - The Break/Exit the Dragon

Rollins Band - Wrong Man/Weight

Living Colour - Funny Vibe/Vivid

A Tribe Called Quest - Check the Rhyme/The Low End Theory

Outkast - So Fresh, So Clean/Stankonia

The Hold Steady - Banging Camp/Separation Sunday

Kathy Valentine - Retouch Me/Light Years

Coaches - Elizabeth Warren/Shush

Archers of Loaf - Nevermind the Enemy/Vee Vee

Okkervil River - Unless It's Kicks/The Stage Names

The Twilight Singers - Live With Me/Live on KEXP 6/22/06

Hour 2

Palehound - Molly/Dry Food

Curve - Horror Head/Doppelganger

Lush - Ladykillers/Lovelife

Electric Six - Gay Bar/Fire

Faith No More - Everything's Ruined/Angel Dust

Snowball II - CR-VUC/Flashes of Quincy

Drakulas - More of the Same/Terminal Amusements

Golden Gurls - I Can See the City/Typo Magic

Kestrels - No Alternative/Kestrels

PJ Harvey feat. Thom Yorke - The Mess We're In/Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea

Teenage Head - Somethin' On My Mind/Frantic City

The Evens - All These Governors/The Evens

Richard Hell and the Voidoids - Blank Generation/Blank Generation

Matthew Sweet - Dinosaur Act/Altered Beast

Monkeywrench - Cold Cold World/Clean as a Broke-Dick Dog

Creature with the Atom Brain - Black Out, New Hit/I Am the Golden Gate Bridge

The Dears - Death or Life We Want You/Gang of Losers

Bad Brains - Supertouch/Shitfit /Bad Brains

Rock your socks with the hott stuff HERE.

Day After Day #301: Roundabout

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

Roundabout (1971)

Some people have an extreme reaction to prog. As in, they can't stand it. It's just not everyone's bag. For me, it had more appeal when I was younger, but I can still appreciate the good stuff. Like Yes. I don't listen to them that much anymore, but when I was a kid listening to rock radio, they really did it for me.

Now that I'm older and more into indie and punk rock, I can see why Yes was anathema for those folks. The focus on virtuosity, the complicated time changes, the songs about elves and castles and shit...it's all pretty silly. And the 1970s were a perfect breeding ground for overstuffed albums, high-falutin' concepts and 17-minute songs about talking wood nymphs. 

Yes was formed in 1968 in London by singer Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire, guitarist Peter Banks, keyboardist Tony Kaye and drummer Bill Bruford. Their self-titled debut featured covers of songs by the Beatles and the Byrds and their follow-up, 1970's Time and a Word, had covers of Richie Havens and Crosby, Stills and Nash songs, but also featured a song accompanied by an orchestra. Banks left the band and was replaced by Steve Howe, and the band had their first real success with 1971's The Yes Album, which went to #4 in the U.K. and #40 on the Billboard 200. The album contains some classic Yes tracks, including "Yours is No Disgrace," "Starship Trooper" and "I've Seen All Good People." The band was already experimenting with longer songs; two were over 9 minutes long and one was just under that length.

Kaye left the band after the tour for The Yes Album, reluctant to play electronic keyboards. He was replaced by Rick Wakeman, who played electric piano, organ, Mellotron and Moog synthesizer; Wakeman had been offered a spot with David Bowie's touring band on the same day he was asked to join Yes, but he took the Yes gig for more artistic freedom. The band entered the studio in August 1971 and recorded Fragile fairly quickly. Four of the nine songs were arranged and performed by the group, while the other five were individually put together by the five members.

"Roundabout" was written by Anderson and Howe while the band was tour for their previous album in Scotland. They had to go through many traffic circles, or roundabouts, while there and Anderson and Howe got the idea to write a song based on that. The song begins with a dramatic recording of Wakeman on piano played in reverse, followed by Howe on acoustic guitar before the rest of the band kicks in.

"I'll be the roundabout/The words will make you out 'n out/I spend the day your way/Call it morning driving through the sound of/In and out the valley/The music dance and sing/They make the children really ring/I spend the day your way/Call it morning driving through the sound of/In and out the valley/In and around the lake/Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there/One mile over we'll be there and we'll see you/Ten true summers we'll be there and laughing too/Twenty-four before my love you'll see/I'll be there with you."

The song is powered by Squire's driving bass, while Wakeman's organ playing captures the 8-and-a-half-minute song's ups and downs. 

"Along the drifting cloud/The eagle searching down on the land/Catching the swirling wind/The sailor sees the rim of the land/The eagle's dancing wings/Create as weather spins out of hand/Go closer hold the land/Feel partly no more than grains of sand/We stand to lose all time/A thousand answers in our hand/Next to your deeper fears/We stand surrounded by a million years/I'll be the roundabout/The words will make you out 'n out."

Of course, there was a 3:27 single version of the song that was primarily played on the radio and it went to #13 on the Billboard Hot 100. It's one of the band's best-known songs and has been played at nearly every Yes show since, despite the band's revolving lineup over the decades. Yes became a huge touring act in the '70s, known for their epic-lengths songs as much as they were for their trippy album covers designed by artist Roger Dean. Bruford left in '72 and was replaced by Alan White. After 1980's Drama, on which Anderson and Wakeman were replaced by Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes, the band split up.

Two years later, Squire and White reformed Yes, with Anderson and Kaye returning and guitarist Trevor Rabin joining the band. Rabin pushed the band in a more pop direction on the album 90125, which featured Yes' only #1 song in "Owner of a Lonely Heart." They released another album in 1987 that did well. In 1989, Anderson was joined by former Yes members Bruford, Wakeman and Howe to release the law-firm-sounding Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe album; they then teamed with Squire, Kaye, White and Rabin to form an eight-member Yes lineup for the 1991 album Union and its tour. Over the last 30 years, there have been various configurations of the group. Squire and White died in 2015 and 2022, respectively. The current lineup of Yes features Howe, Downes (who was a founding member of Asia with Howe), Billy Sherwood, Jon Davison and Jay Schellen.

Yeah, prog can be pretty ridiculous at times, but on "Roundabout," it was also pretty great.

Day After Day #300: Gloria

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

Gloria (1975)

The song "Gloria" had been around for over a decade before Patti Smith got to it. Van Morrison wrote it in 1964 for his garage rock band Them, and it was covered by huge artists including the Doors, the Grateful Dead, David Bowie and Jimi Hendrix. But none of them could touch the incendiary take Smith had on the song in 1975.

Patti Smith was making outsider art right from the start. She moved to Paris in her early 20s with her sister, busking and doing performance art. She returned to Manhattan and lived at the Hotel Chelsea with artist Robert Mapplethorpe; she acted in plays, painted and wrote. In 1971, she held her first public poetry performance, backed by Lenny Kaye on guitar. 

Smith contributed lyrics to several Blue Oyster Cult songs and was briefly considered for the band's lead singer; she dated BOC keyboardist Allen Lanier. She was also a rock journalist, contributing pieces for Rolling Stone and Creem. 

She teamed up with Kaye in 1973 to form the Patti Smith Group, adding Richard Sohl on piano, Ivan Kral on guitar/bass and Jay Dee Daugherty on drums. The band recorded a cover of "Hey Joe" that included a spoken word piece about fugitive heiress Patty Hearst, while the B-side, "Piss Factory," was about working on a factory assembly line before she moved to New York.

In March 1975, the band started playing a two-month weekend residency at CBGB with the band Television. Clive Davis saw them and signed the group to a deal with Arista Records. The band went into the studio to record their debut album, Horses, with producer John Cale. Combining punk rock and spoken word, the album was immediately unique, starting with the opening song, "Gloria," which was merged with lyrics from Smith's poem "Oath." The first line probably freaked out a lot of people at the time, but it's an amazing way to start a song.

"Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine/Melting in a pot of thieves, wild card up my sleeve/Thick, heart of stone, my sins, my own/They belong to me, me/People said, 'Beware,' but I don't care/Their words are just rules and regulations to me, me."

Raised as a Jehovah's Witness, Smith took a rebellious position in the song, although she later backed off it a bit. Smith also shocked some by singing about hooking up with another woman. In 1975, that didn't happen very often.

"I walk in a room, you know I look so proud/I move in this here atmosphere where anything's allowed/Then I go to this here party and I just get bored/Until I look out the window, see a sweet young thing/Humping on a parking meter, leaning on the parking meter/Oh, she looks so good, oh, she looks so fine/And I've got this crazy feeling that I'm going to, ah-ah, make her mine."

The intro of the song is quiet but builds up into a frenzy as Smith continues.

"Then I hear this knocking on my door/Hear this knocking on my door/And I look up to the big tower clock and say, 'Oh my God, it's midnight'/And my baby is walking through the door, laying on my couch/She whispers to me and I take the big plunge/And oh, she was so good, oh/And oh, she was so fine/And I'm going to tell the world that I just, ah-ah, made her mine/And I said darling, tell me your name, she told me her name/She whispered to me, she told me her name/And her name is, and her name is/And her name is, and her name is/G-L-O-R-I-A (Gloria)."

Smith wasn't gay, but said she wrote songs "beyond gender," noting that Joan Baez would sometimes write songs from a male point of view.

"I was at the stadium/There were 20,000 girls/Called their names out to me/Marie, Ruth, but to tell you the truth/I didn't hear them, I didn't see/I let my eyes rise to the big tower clock/And I heard those bells chiming in my heart going/Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong/Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong/Calling the time when you came to my room/And you whispered to me, and we took the big plunge/And oh, you were so good, oh/Oh, you were so fine/And I've got to tell the world that I made ya mine, made ya mine."

Smith didn't sound like any other female artist at the time, singing about sex and religion in a combustible explosion of lust and bravado. The Mapplethorpe-shot album cover of Horses was also iconic, with an androgynous photo of Smith with a suit jacket over her shoulder and wearing an untied necktie. 

The album reached the top 50 of the Billboard 200 but more importantly, inspired many female punk artists; the Slits formed the day after singer Ari Up saw Smith in concert. The Patti Smith Group released three more albums in the 1970s, scoring a hit with "Because the Night," which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen. Smith married Fred "Sonic" Smith of the MC5 and had two children. She returned to making music in 1988 with the album Dream of Life, which had a rock radio hit with "People Have the Power." Smith periodically released music and toured, and also collaborated with R.E.M. on the 1996 song "E-Bow the Letter." Her last album was 2012's Banga.

Completely Conspicuous 646: Don't Speak

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our favorite instrumentals. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• Phil's #8: A jazz-funk classic out of Scotland?
• Jay's #8: Powerful surf rock from the Pixies
• Phil's #7: The Commodores with an early funk workout
• Jay's #7:  Dick Dale hit that was revived decades later in Pulp Fiction
• Song originated in the 1920s
• Phil's #6: Instrumental from Phish that evolved in the live setting
• Jay's #6: A sweeping song from Bowie's Berlin period
• Bowie switched genres and sounds with ease
• Phil's #5 and Jay's #3: A revolutionary moment for guitar heroics
• Edward Van Halen changed the game for rock guitar and hard rock
• Jay's #5: Hendrix blowing minds in the early morning hours at Woodstock
• Turning the national anthem into a protest song
• Phil's #4: Music mogul with a horn-driven dance song
• Sampled by Notorious B.I.G.
• Another horn-based song by Chuck Mangione went to #1 in '79
• Jay's #4:  Iconic full-band instrumental off Zep II
• Killer riff combined with Bonham's monstrous drumming
• Phil's #3: Elton John with the first part of a two-part suite 
• Metallica did a great cover earlier this year
• Phil's #2: Tedeschi-Trunks Band with extended instrumental from experimental project
• Jay's #2: Concise, virtuosic classic from Rush's best album
• Phil's #1: Iconic song released by the Allman Brothers Band after the death of their ace guitarist
• Dickey Betts played song with two fingers as a tribute to Django Reinhardt
• Jay's #1 and Phil's #10: Epic, emotional guitar piece by Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic
• J Mascis did a great cover on Mike Watt's 1995 solo album

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Day After Day #299: Waiting for the Sun

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

Waiting for the Sun (1992)

The year was 1992 and the kids were fired up about the grunge, but there was a lot of other stuff going on. Roots rock was still a going concern, with artists like Neil Young and the Black Crowes exploring those sounds. Another act that struck that vein was the Jayhawks out of Minneapolis, who released an outstanding album that fall seemingly out of nowhere.

The band was formed in 1984 by singer-guitarist Mark Olson, first as a trio before relaunching as a four-piece in 1985 with Marc Perlman on bass, Norm Rogers on drums and Steve Retzler on guitar. Retzler was later replaced by guitarist Gary Louris and the band released their rootsy self-titled debut on Bunkhouse Records in 1986. Louris left the band for a while before returning and the Jayhawks released Blue Earth on Twin/Tone in 1989, with Louris sharing the songwriting duties with Olson. 

The group signed to Def American, a major label headed by Rick Rubin, and released Hollywood Town Hall in September 1992. The lead single, "Waiting for the Sun," was an instant grabber, with Louris' folksy vocals and expressive lead guitar creating a catchy and compelling alt-country song.

"I was waiting for the sun/Then I walked on home alone/What I didn't know/Was he was waiting for you to fall/So I never made amends/For the sake of no one else/And for the simple reason/That he was waiting for you to fall/It was not lost on me/It was not lost on me/Walking on down the road/Looking for a friendly handout/Somethin' might ease my soul."

The band's influences are no mystery: there's a little Neil, a little Stones, a little Big Star, and definitely some Gram Parsons in their sound. But between Louris and Olson's intertwined vocals and Louris' fuzz-tone solos, the Jayhawks definitely had their own thing going on.

"So I kept my spirits high/Entertaining passers-by/Wrapped in my confusion/While he was waiting for you to fall/It was not lost on me/It was not lost on me/Walking on down the road/Looking for a friendly handout/Somethin' might ease my soul."

In addition to the strong songcraft, it was Louris' guitar that really grabbed my attention. I saw the video on MTV and then picked up the album, which became a staple in between all the louder stuff. Hollywood Town Hall hit #11 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and #192 on the Billboard 200.

The Jayhawks followed it up with 1995's Tomorrow the Green Grass and had a hit with "Blue," which went top 40 in Canada, but the album didn't perform up to expectations (peaking at #92 on the Billboard 200) in the U.S. Olson left the band later that year to take care of his wife, folk singer Victoria Williams, who had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis; he and Williams formed the Original Harmony Ridge Creek Dippers and released three albums. Meanwhile, the Jayhawks soldiered on and released three albums of their own before going on hiatus in 2004.

Louris and Olson toured together in 2005 and 2006, although not as the Jayhawks; the 1995 lineup of the band later played a festival in Spain in 2008. The following year, Olson and Louis released an acoustic album, and then a few months later, the Jayhawks reunited to play festival dates. The band has released four albums since 2011 and collaborated with Ray Davies on two albums as well.

The Jayhawks have been touring consistently as a four-piece the last four years.

Day After Day #298: Head Like a Hole

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

Head Like a Hole (1989)

Playing all the instruments on your album isn't exactly a new concept. It's been done by Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Lenny Kravitz, Dave Grohl and others. But in 1988 when an unknown Cleveland studio engineer named Trent Reznor decided to play all the instruments on his debut, nobody thought anything of it...because he was, y'know, unknown. 

Reznor put a band together when he had a chance to open for industrial act Skinny Puppy on their U.S. tour and when he came back, he wrote some new songs, including "Head Like a Hole." The rest of the album had been labored over and revised several times, but Reznor whipped off "Head Like a Hole" in 15 minutes. The song was a rage-filled tirade against corporate greed and it combined the electronic sound of industrial music with big riffs and heavy guitar.

"God money, I'll do anything for you/God money, just tell me what you want me to do/God money, nail me up against the wall/God money, don't want everything he wants it all/No, you can't take it/No, you can't take it/No, you can't take that away from me/No, you can't take it/No, you can't take it/No, you can't take that away from me/Head like a hole/Black as your soul/I'd rather die than give you control."

Reznor had chosen producer Mark "Flood" Ellis to work on the album, but he was busy producing Depeche Mode's Violator album when Reznor entered the studio. Flood was only able to produce two songs on Pretty Hate Machine, one of which was "Head Like a Hole." The song echoed the dark feel of the album, but had a metal feel that was similar to the territory Ministry was exploring.

"Bow down before the one you serve/You're going to get what you deserve."

The album came out on TVT Records in October 1989 with "Down In It" as the first single, but it didn't get popular until "Head Like a Hole" was released as the second single in March 1990, along with a video that got a lot of play on MTV. The video featured Reznor and the band he assembled after the recording playing in a Chicago club amid the debris of trashed equipment and chaos. 

NIN didn't become immediately successful, instead growing a cult following before becoming more widely known. I remember seeing a 30-second ad for the album featuring a clip from "Head Like a Hole" playing on late-night TV in early '91. The song went to #28 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart and #45 on the U.K. Singles chart, while Pretty Hate Machine hit #75 on the Billboard 200 chart (years later in 2003, the album was certified triple platinum in the U.S.). 

The band opened for Peter Murphy and Jesus and Mary Chain before joining the first Lollapalooza tour in 1991; although the band stormed off stage after the first song of the first show in Arizona because of equipment malfunctions, the rest of the tour was much more successful in getting their name out. "Head Like a Hole" became the encore for most shows and on Lollapalooza featured extra guitarists including Dave Navarro, Eric Avery, Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers and Ice-T. NIN then opened for Guns N' Roses in Europe to a mixed response before returning to the U.S. to work on new material.

Unhappy with TVT, Reznor signed a deal with Interscope and recorded the Broken EP in the house where the Manson family killed Sharon Tate. The songs had a heavier sound and the band started releasing graphic videos depicting bondage and violence; it came out in 1992 and hit the top 10 of the Billboard 200. The band's next album, 1994's The Downward Spiral, was even more successful, with the song "Closer" courting controversy with its explicit video and lyrics. NIN played an infamous mud-soaked performance at Woodstock '94, recorded a cover of Joy Division's "Dead Souls" for the soundtrack to The Crow and also produced the soundtrack to David Lynch's movie Lost Highway in 1997. But Reznor was also dealing with drug addiction and writer's block, leading to a five-year gap between albums.

Reznor suffered a heroin overdose while on tour in 2000; he put the band on hold while he went into rehab. NIN has released 10 albums since 2005, adding collaborator Atticus Ross in 2016 as the only other full-time member of the band. Since 2010, Reznor and Ross have also become successful film and TV composers, winning an Oscar and a Grammy for The Social Network and a Grammy for Soul, while also winning an Emmy for their work on Watchmen. Reznor has also collaborated with David Bowie, Queens of the Stone Age, TV On the Radio and Tori Amos, among others.

In addition to being a huge influence on an entire generation of alternative and industrial artists, Reznor's DIY attitude also inspired musicians to create their own sounds without relying on anyone else. Nowadays, it's a lot easier to self-publish your music, but whether anyone will hear it is the bigger issue.