Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about the music of 2009. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").
Show notes:
Jay's non-top 5s: Arctic Monkeys, Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, Patterson Hood, Alice in Chains, Obits, Eels, Tragically Hip, Brendan Benson, Neko Case, Heaven and Hell
Phil's #5: Yeah Yeah Yeahs make foray into dance rock
Judas Priest makes good pump-up music
Jay's #5: Trippy prog-metal from Mastodon
Phil's #4: Neko Case is a force of nature
Jay's #4: Art Brut with an entertaining collection of ripping artsy punk
Phil's #3: Slow-burning solo excursion from Patterson Hood
Jay's #3: Anthemic punk/classic rock mix from Japandroids
Phil's #2: Phish returns after a 5-year break
Jay's #2: Jarvis Cocker with the kickass Albini-recorded solo ripper
Phil's and Jay's #1: Monster supergroup debut from Them Crooked Vultures
Jay saw TCV in Boston on their only tour
Always cool to see someone from Zeppelin play live
Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Common People (1995)
We didn't feel the impact as much over here, but in the mid-'90s, Britpop was all the rage across the pond. Oasis and Blur got most of the attention, but there's a strong argument to be made that the best band to emerge from that scene was Pulp.
The band had actually been around since the late '70s, when frontman Jarvis Cocker and Peter Dalton formed a band that sounded like a combination of ABBA and the Fall. Pulp's career really got into gear in 1992 with the release of their third album Separations, which had been recorded three years earlier. After getting some good notices, the band signed to Island Records and released His 'n' Hers in 1994, which reached #9 on the UK Albums Chart. Pulp opened for Blur on a U.S. tour.
But it was 1995 when Pulp hit the big time, at least in the U.K. The album Different Class entered the UK Albums Chart at #1 and won the 1996 Mercury Music Prize. The biggest splash from this record came from the lead single "Common People." The song pokes at rich folks "roughing it" by hanging out with the "common people." Cocker came up with the lyrics after meeting a Greek art student while taking a college course. There's been plenty of speculation about who the song is about; Cocker says he doesn't remember.
"You wanna live like common people/You wanna see whatever common people see/Wanna sleep with common people/You wanna sleep with common people like me/But she didn't understand/She just smiled and held my hand."
Musically, "Common People" starts with a simple keyboard line before launching into full guitar anthem mode. The song ended up hitting #2 on the UK Singles Chart. While it didn't chart over here, "Common People" gave Pulp a bigger profile in the U.S. Meanwhile, the band was huge in the UK but tensions were rising and Cocker was growing disillusioned with the trappings of fame. The followup, 1998's This Is Hardcore, also did well, reaching #1 in the UK and #114 on the Billboard 200 album chart in the U.S. Pulp released We Love Life just after 9/11 in 2001 and it was received well critically but less successful commercially. The band members then went their separate ways before reuniting for shows in 2011 and again last year. Cocker has released four well-received solo albums, the most recent being 2017's JARV IS.
"Common People" has been covered a few times, most notably by William Shatner on his 2004 album Has Been, which was produced by Ben Folds. The song starts off with Shatner's spoken-word interpretation before launching into a guitar-driven rocker featuring Joe Jackson on vocals. It's actually pretty good. Other covers have been done by My Chemical Romance and Libitina.
The song has done well in listicles from the likes of Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, NME and in fan polls. Talk about a lasting impact."Common People" still packs a sarcastic punch.
Here's part 1 of my conversation with Ric Dube about our mutual appreciation of bad movies. Part 2 will be uploaded later in the week. You can hear the show in streaming audio here or download it directly here (right click and "save as").
The show notes...
Topics: - Appreciating Kevin Smith - Good bad movies vs. crap - The genius of Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Dube pitches documentary ideas - Pinhead of the Week
Music: - Jarvis Cocker - Angela - King Khan and the Shrines - Land of the Freak
Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes and Podcast Pickle podcast directories. Subscribe and write a review!
The Jarvis Cocker song is on the forthcoming album Further Complications on Rough Trade Records. Find out more and download the song here.
The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his blogs Clicky Clicky and Keeping Some Dark Secrets. Additional music used in the show is by Me and Boris the Bull, which is the brainchild of Mark Campbell.
Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Word.
Another long weekend came and went. I'm still cranking away at my NaNoWriMo book; I'm up to 17,000+ words. Found time to run a 10-mile race in Andover Sunday morning and set a PR with a time of 1:16; it was 29 degrees out and I was running in shorts, so I figured that made me run faster. Took the girls bowling today.
And here's the latest episode of tha CC. Download it directly here (right click and "save as").
The show notes, maestro...
Topics: - The troubled U.S. economy - The impact of 20somethings on the workplace - Pinhead of the Week
Music: - Thurston Moore - Fri/End - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Berlin - The Black Furies - Murder City Shakedown - Mudhoney - Blindspots - Jarvis Cocker - Don't Let Him Waste Your Time
Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes, Yahoo Podcasts and Podcast Pickle podcast directories. Subscribe and write a review!
The song from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is on their album Baby 81 on Red Int/Red Ink Records; find out more here. The Jarvis Cocker song is on his album Jarvis on Rough Trade Records; find out more here. Both songs are courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network.
The song from Mudhoney is on the album Under a Billion Suns; find out more here. The song is courtesy of Sub Pop Records.
The song from Thurston Moore is on the new album Trees Outside the Academy on Ecstatic Peace Records; find out more here. And the Black Furies song is on their album Death Trip Saturday Night on Gearhead Records; find out more here. Those two songs were provided by IODA Promonet.
The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling by visiting his excellent music blog. Additional music used in the show is by Me and Boris the Bull, which is the brainchild of Mark Campbell; find out more here.
Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Word.
"Fri/End"
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