Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2019: Sharon Van Etten - Seventeen
So here we are, caught up to last year. Of course, the way things have been going lately, 2019 feels like it was a decade ago. It was a year full of presidential candidates strutting their stuff, noted perv Jeffrey Epstein is arrested and ends up dying while in prison and articles of impeachment of President Trump are introduced. Deaths include Luke Perry, Bill Buckner, Ric Ocasek, Dick Dale, David Berman and Eddie Money.
I did a fair amount of traveling, going to Huntington Beach, Calif., in January, Toronto (for another Leafs game), Virginia (for a soccer tournament Lily played in), Houston, Philadelphia, Ottawa (for a college visit), Baltimore (with a brief trip to Washington, DC, to go to a Capitals game with my brother) and Orlando.
Musically, it was a pretty diverse year. I got heavily into albums by The New Pornographers, PUP, Titus Andronicus, Bob Mould, Purple Mountains, Ex Hex, Mike Krol, DIIV, Ride, Hallelujah the Hills, Pile, Mark Lanegan, Desert Sessions and Kim Gordon.
Concerts included Belinda Carlisle (a corporate gig at a conference I went to), Bob Mould, Jawbreaker, Drive-By Truckers, Iron Maiden, Courtney Barnett, Titus Andronicus, Sleater-Kinney, Superchunk and Caspian.
My favorite song came from an unexpected source: Sharon Van Etten, whose album Remind Me Tomorrow was one of my favorites early on. I fully admit to not being overly familiar with Van Etten's previous
work, but her fifth album grabbed my attention with its synth-driven and
sweeping looks at life as a teenager and the various pitfalls she (or
her protagonist) encountered. Van Etten revisits those teenage decisions
with the wisdom of hindsight, but the excitement of being in the
moment. Her song "Seventeen"is a haunting look back at the loneliness of those teen years, but from the vantage point of a mature adult who knows things will get better.
Honorable mentions: Bob Mould - "What Do You Want Me to Do"; Beach Slang - "I Hate Alternative Rock"; PUP - "Morbid Thoughts"; Black Mountain - "Future Shade"; Telekinesis - "Set a Course"; Better Oblivion Community Center - "Dylan Thomas"; Fontaines DC - "Big"; Ride - "Future Love"; Piroshka - "Everlastingly Yours"; Jenny Lewis - "Red Bull & Hennessy"; Weyes Blood - "Everyday"; Flat Worms - "Into the Iris"; Hash Redactor - "Step 2: Success"; Kiwi Jr. - "Leslie"; Ex Hex - "Diamond"; Nanami Ozone - "Affection"; Elizabeth Colour Wheel - "34th"; Versing - "Tethered"; Goon - "Datura"; Pile - "The Soft Hands of Stephen Miller"; Titus Andronicus - "(I Blame) Society"; L7 - "Fighting the Crave"; Courtney Barnett - "Everybody Here Hates You"; DIIV - "Skin Game"; Froth - "Laurel"; Plague Vendor - "New Comedown"; The Menzingers - "America (You're Freaking Me Out)"; Mini Mansions - "Bad Things (That Make You Feel Good)"; Purple Mountains - "All My Happiness Is Gone"; Hallelujah the Hills - "Folk Music Is Insane"; The New Pornographers - "Falling Down the Stairs of Your Smile"; Big Thief - "Shoulders"; Redd Kross - "Beyond the Door"; Sleater-Kinney - "Bad Dance"; Refused - "REV001"; Ty Segall - "Whatever"; Mikal Cronin - "Shelter"; Kim Gordon - "Air Bnb"; Mark Lanegan - "Stitch It Up"; Desert Sessions - "Something You Can't See"; Lizzo - "Truth Hurts"; Mike Krol - "What's the Rhythm"
And that wraps up my look at 41 years of favorite songs. I put all the songs I picked into a Spotify playlist that's pretty damn good if I say so myself. Check it out here.
Showing posts with label Ye Olde Hit Parade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ye Olde Hit Parade. Show all posts
Sunday, June 14, 2020
Saturday, June 13, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: What a Time to Be Alive
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2018: Superchunk - What a Time to Be Alive
All things considered, 2018 was full of some huge stories. The Parkland school shooting in Florida was horrible and shocking, maybe moreso for the fact that these things keep happening and nobody seems to do anything about them. President Trump and Kim Jong Un of North Korea played a really weird game of "He loves me, he loves me not and now we're going to fire nuclear missiles at him." Trump's border policy and the separation of families was brought to horrible light. The confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh brought back memories of Clarence Thomas/Anita Hall way back in '91.
There were some major deaths, including former President George H.W. Bush, Sen. John McCain, Aretha Franklin, Stan Lee, Stephen Hawking, Burt Reynolds, Anthony Bourdain, Stan Mikita and Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks.
I did a lot more traveling this year than in the previous several. In February, I flew up to Toronto to go to a Maple Leafs game with my cousin and hang with his family. It was so much fun I did it again a year later. Right around that time, I was named editor of a magazine my company publishes and part of the job involves attending conferences a few times a year. I hadn't traveled for work since 2012, which was fine, but it was cool to get out of the office and travel a bit. I went to Minneapolis in June, Nashville in October and Orlando in December (although I went down a few days early with the family to hit Disney and Universal). In addition, we drove to Toronto in June to visit family and some colleges for Hannah, then made a similar trip in November to Montreal to do some more college visits.
This was an invigorating year for the rock music. I mean, I always find a lot to like in every year (as you can see from this series), but there was a lot of really cool shit released in '018. This included hot rekkids from the likes of IDLES, Fucked Up, Courtney Barnett, Albert Hammond Jr.., Parquet Courts, Sloan, Jeff Rosenstock, Ovlov, Bodega, Ty Segall (with multiple releases once again), Kurt Vile, Buffalo Tom, The Breeders and Hot Snakes.
Concerts I attended included the Posies, Judas Priest, Superchunk/Swearin', Buffalo Tom, Sloan, Fu Manchu, Quiet Slang (in Minneapolis), Neil Young, George Clinton and P-Funk, Ex Hex and Courtney Barnett.
The band that really captured the tenor of the year, both on record and in concert, was Superchunk. Written in direct response to the 2016 presidential election, What a Time to Be Alive found Mac McCaughan and compadres raging against the dying of our democracy. The title track aptly sums up the band's anger: "The scum, the shame, the fucking lies/Oh what a time to be alive." Sounding like a band half its age, Superchunk raced through the album like it hasn't since its '90s heyday. But its vitriol was converted into exciting catharsis; the band's show at the Sinclair was frenetic, pissed off and awesome.
Honorable mentions: Parquet Courts - "Wide Awake"; The Breeders - "Wait in the Car"; Jeff Rosenstock - "All This Useless Energy"; Albert Hammond Jr. - "Far Away Truths"; Superchunk - "Break the Glass"; Screaming Females - "I'll Make You Sorry"; Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - "Mainland"; Buffalo Tom - "Lonely, Fast and Deep"; Dream Wife - "Hey!"; The Spook School - "Bad Year"; Camp Cope - "The Opener"; Painted Doll - "Hidden Hand"; Fu Manchu - "Don't Panic"; Judas Priest - "Lightning Strike"; David Byrne - "Everybody's Coming to My House"; The Hold Steady - "Eureka"; Speedy Ortiz - "Buck Me Off"; Moaning - "Don't Go"; Sloan - "Spin Our Wheels"; Ty Segall - "She"; Wye Oak - "The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs"; Preoccupations - "Disarray"; Hot Snakes - "I Need a Doctor"; Jo Passed - "Millennial Trash Blues"; IDLES - "Colossus"; Slaves - "Chokehold"; Jim James - "Just a Fool"; Courtney Barnett - "Nameless, Faceless"; Neko Case - "Hell-On"; Jeff Tweedy - "I Know What It's Like"; Tony Molina - "Look Inside Your Mind"; Savak - "Silhouettes"; Rick Rude - "Firewater"; Stove - "Stiff Bones"; Fucked Up - "Raise Your Voice Joyce"; The Beths - "Future Me Hates Me"; Oh Sees - "Abysmal Urn"; J. Mascis - "See You at the Movies"; Kurt Vile - "Loading Zones"; Bruno Mars feat. Cardi B - "Finesse"; Kendrick Lamar and SZA - "All the Stars"; The Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar - "Pray for Me"
2018: Superchunk - What a Time to Be Alive
All things considered, 2018 was full of some huge stories. The Parkland school shooting in Florida was horrible and shocking, maybe moreso for the fact that these things keep happening and nobody seems to do anything about them. President Trump and Kim Jong Un of North Korea played a really weird game of "He loves me, he loves me not and now we're going to fire nuclear missiles at him." Trump's border policy and the separation of families was brought to horrible light. The confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh brought back memories of Clarence Thomas/Anita Hall way back in '91.
There were some major deaths, including former President George H.W. Bush, Sen. John McCain, Aretha Franklin, Stan Lee, Stephen Hawking, Burt Reynolds, Anthony Bourdain, Stan Mikita and Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks.
I did a lot more traveling this year than in the previous several. In February, I flew up to Toronto to go to a Maple Leafs game with my cousin and hang with his family. It was so much fun I did it again a year later. Right around that time, I was named editor of a magazine my company publishes and part of the job involves attending conferences a few times a year. I hadn't traveled for work since 2012, which was fine, but it was cool to get out of the office and travel a bit. I went to Minneapolis in June, Nashville in October and Orlando in December (although I went down a few days early with the family to hit Disney and Universal). In addition, we drove to Toronto in June to visit family and some colleges for Hannah, then made a similar trip in November to Montreal to do some more college visits.
This was an invigorating year for the rock music. I mean, I always find a lot to like in every year (as you can see from this series), but there was a lot of really cool shit released in '018. This included hot rekkids from the likes of IDLES, Fucked Up, Courtney Barnett, Albert Hammond Jr.., Parquet Courts, Sloan, Jeff Rosenstock, Ovlov, Bodega, Ty Segall (with multiple releases once again), Kurt Vile, Buffalo Tom, The Breeders and Hot Snakes.
Concerts I attended included the Posies, Judas Priest, Superchunk/Swearin', Buffalo Tom, Sloan, Fu Manchu, Quiet Slang (in Minneapolis), Neil Young, George Clinton and P-Funk, Ex Hex and Courtney Barnett.
The band that really captured the tenor of the year, both on record and in concert, was Superchunk. Written in direct response to the 2016 presidential election, What a Time to Be Alive found Mac McCaughan and compadres raging against the dying of our democracy. The title track aptly sums up the band's anger: "The scum, the shame, the fucking lies/Oh what a time to be alive." Sounding like a band half its age, Superchunk raced through the album like it hasn't since its '90s heyday. But its vitriol was converted into exciting catharsis; the band's show at the Sinclair was frenetic, pissed off and awesome.
Honorable mentions: Parquet Courts - "Wide Awake"; The Breeders - "Wait in the Car"; Jeff Rosenstock - "All This Useless Energy"; Albert Hammond Jr. - "Far Away Truths"; Superchunk - "Break the Glass"; Screaming Females - "I'll Make You Sorry"; Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - "Mainland"; Buffalo Tom - "Lonely, Fast and Deep"; Dream Wife - "Hey!"; The Spook School - "Bad Year"; Camp Cope - "The Opener"; Painted Doll - "Hidden Hand"; Fu Manchu - "Don't Panic"; Judas Priest - "Lightning Strike"; David Byrne - "Everybody's Coming to My House"; The Hold Steady - "Eureka"; Speedy Ortiz - "Buck Me Off"; Moaning - "Don't Go"; Sloan - "Spin Our Wheels"; Ty Segall - "She"; Wye Oak - "The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs"; Preoccupations - "Disarray"; Hot Snakes - "I Need a Doctor"; Jo Passed - "Millennial Trash Blues"; IDLES - "Colossus"; Slaves - "Chokehold"; Jim James - "Just a Fool"; Courtney Barnett - "Nameless, Faceless"; Neko Case - "Hell-On"; Jeff Tweedy - "I Know What It's Like"; Tony Molina - "Look Inside Your Mind"; Savak - "Silhouettes"; Rick Rude - "Firewater"; Stove - "Stiff Bones"; Fucked Up - "Raise Your Voice Joyce"; The Beths - "Future Me Hates Me"; Oh Sees - "Abysmal Urn"; J. Mascis - "See You at the Movies"; Kurt Vile - "Loading Zones"; Bruno Mars feat. Cardi B - "Finesse"; Kendrick Lamar and SZA - "All the Stars"; The Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar - "Pray for Me"
Friday, June 12, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Tinseltown Swimming in Blood
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2017: Destroyer - Tinseltown Swimming in Blood
I'm almost caught up here. In 2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. It's still kind of unbelievable. Aaron Hernandez, the former New England Patriots star tight end who was in jail for murder, was found hanged in his prison cell. There were more mass shootings throughout the year, including one in Las Vegas that killed 58 people and injured almost 500.
More celebrity deaths including Mary Tyler Moore, Don Rickles, Roger Moore, Adam West, Roy Halladay, Malcolm Young and Charles Manson. But the big ones for me were Gord Downie and Chris Cornell, two musical heroes of mine. Downie succumbed in October to brain cancer, but not before releasing one last solo album that he worked on in the last year of his life with Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene. Cornell committed suicide after a May Soundgarden concert, although there was much speculation whether the medication he was on contributed to it. Whatever the case, it was a case of two musical geniuses taken way before their time.
On the personal front, we took a long-awaited European vacation over a few weeks in the summer, going to London, Paris, Belfast (where my brother was living at the time) and Dublin. We did a lot of touristy stuff, as you can imagine, and had an incredible time. It was a little nerve-wracking before we got over there because there were several terrorist attacks in London and Paris in the weeks leading up to our trip. Fortunately, nothing happened while we there, but the increased security presence definitely kept it on our minds.
Musically, I was listening to a lot of Soundgarden and Tragically Hip after the deaths of Cornell and Downie, but there was also plenty of great new music: Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile (who teamed up on an album), the Afghan Whigs, Mark Lanegan Band, Downie, St. Vincent, METZ, Queens of the Stone Age, Ted Leo, Boss Hog, The War on Drugs, LCD Soundsystem, Protomartyr, Ron Gallo and Pile, among many others.
Concerts included Bash & Pop/So So Glos, Los Campesinos!, Midnight Oil, Meat Puppets/Mike Watt/Grant Hart, Iron Maiden, Mark Lanegan Band, Oh Sees, Paul Weller, The Breeders, Hot Snakes/Savak and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists/Bill Janovitz.
In a year where I didn't have an obvious favorite song, I'm going with Destroyer's "Tinseltown Swimming in Blood." Basically a one-man show courtesy of Dan Bejar, Destroyer has spent the last several years exploring '80s sounds. On the 2017 album ken, he embraces a darker synth-pop sound that's reminiscent of Depeche Mode or New Order. There are also jazzier passages that call back to 2011's Kaputt, gliding along while Bejar sings of paranoia and disillusionment. "Tinseltown" has a real noir feel as it details moral decay in Hollywood. Just a cool breeze of a song.
Honorable mentions: The Afghan Whigs - "Demon in Profile"; The New Pornographers - "High Ticket Attractions"; Ron Gallo - "Kill the Medicine Man"; Cloud Nothings - "Enter Entirely"; Japandroids - "North East South West"; Snowball II - "CR-VUC"; Melkbelly - "Off the Lot"; Ty Segall - "Break a Guitar"; Ride - "Charm Assault"; Slowdive - "Star Roving"; Bash & Pop - "Anything Could Happen"; Spoon - "Can I Sit Next to You"; Los Campesinos! - "I Broke Up in Amarante"; Pile - "Texas"; The Feelies - "Gone, Gone, Gone"; At the Drive-In - "No Wolf Like the Present"; Boss Hog - "Ground Control"; Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile - "Over Everything"; Waxahatchee - "Silver"; Mark Lanegan Band - "Drunk on Destruction"; Nine Inch Nails - "Less Than"; Wolf Parade - "Valley Boy"; White Reaper - "Party Next Door"; Lo Tom - "Overboard"; Palehound - "Carnations"; Alvvays - "In Undertow"; Ted Leo - "You're Like Me"; Infinity Girl - "The Winner Always Talks"; EMA - "I Wanna Destroy"; A Giant Dog - "Fake Plastic Trees"; METZ - "Mr. Plague"; Protomartyr - "My Children"; Gord Downie - "Love Over Money"; St. Vincent - "Masseduction"; Queens of the Stone Age - "Head Like a Haunted House"; Oh Sees - "Nite Expo"; Destroyer - "Tinseltown Swimming in Blood"; The War on Drugs - "Knocked Down"; LCD Soundsystem - "Emotional Haircut"; Bruno Mars - "That's What I Like"
2017: Destroyer - Tinseltown Swimming in Blood
I'm almost caught up here. In 2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. It's still kind of unbelievable. Aaron Hernandez, the former New England Patriots star tight end who was in jail for murder, was found hanged in his prison cell. There were more mass shootings throughout the year, including one in Las Vegas that killed 58 people and injured almost 500.
More celebrity deaths including Mary Tyler Moore, Don Rickles, Roger Moore, Adam West, Roy Halladay, Malcolm Young and Charles Manson. But the big ones for me were Gord Downie and Chris Cornell, two musical heroes of mine. Downie succumbed in October to brain cancer, but not before releasing one last solo album that he worked on in the last year of his life with Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene. Cornell committed suicide after a May Soundgarden concert, although there was much speculation whether the medication he was on contributed to it. Whatever the case, it was a case of two musical geniuses taken way before their time.
On the personal front, we took a long-awaited European vacation over a few weeks in the summer, going to London, Paris, Belfast (where my brother was living at the time) and Dublin. We did a lot of touristy stuff, as you can imagine, and had an incredible time. It was a little nerve-wracking before we got over there because there were several terrorist attacks in London and Paris in the weeks leading up to our trip. Fortunately, nothing happened while we there, but the increased security presence definitely kept it on our minds.
Musically, I was listening to a lot of Soundgarden and Tragically Hip after the deaths of Cornell and Downie, but there was also plenty of great new music: Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile (who teamed up on an album), the Afghan Whigs, Mark Lanegan Band, Downie, St. Vincent, METZ, Queens of the Stone Age, Ted Leo, Boss Hog, The War on Drugs, LCD Soundsystem, Protomartyr, Ron Gallo and Pile, among many others.
Concerts included Bash & Pop/So So Glos, Los Campesinos!, Midnight Oil, Meat Puppets/Mike Watt/Grant Hart, Iron Maiden, Mark Lanegan Band, Oh Sees, Paul Weller, The Breeders, Hot Snakes/Savak and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists/Bill Janovitz.
In a year where I didn't have an obvious favorite song, I'm going with Destroyer's "Tinseltown Swimming in Blood." Basically a one-man show courtesy of Dan Bejar, Destroyer has spent the last several years exploring '80s sounds. On the 2017 album ken, he embraces a darker synth-pop sound that's reminiscent of Depeche Mode or New Order. There are also jazzier passages that call back to 2011's Kaputt, gliding along while Bejar sings of paranoia and disillusionment. "Tinseltown" has a real noir feel as it details moral decay in Hollywood. Just a cool breeze of a song.
Honorable mentions: The Afghan Whigs - "Demon in Profile"; The New Pornographers - "High Ticket Attractions"; Ron Gallo - "Kill the Medicine Man"; Cloud Nothings - "Enter Entirely"; Japandroids - "North East South West"; Snowball II - "CR-VUC"; Melkbelly - "Off the Lot"; Ty Segall - "Break a Guitar"; Ride - "Charm Assault"; Slowdive - "Star Roving"; Bash & Pop - "Anything Could Happen"; Spoon - "Can I Sit Next to You"; Los Campesinos! - "I Broke Up in Amarante"; Pile - "Texas"; The Feelies - "Gone, Gone, Gone"; At the Drive-In - "No Wolf Like the Present"; Boss Hog - "Ground Control"; Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile - "Over Everything"; Waxahatchee - "Silver"; Mark Lanegan Band - "Drunk on Destruction"; Nine Inch Nails - "Less Than"; Wolf Parade - "Valley Boy"; White Reaper - "Party Next Door"; Lo Tom - "Overboard"; Palehound - "Carnations"; Alvvays - "In Undertow"; Ted Leo - "You're Like Me"; Infinity Girl - "The Winner Always Talks"; EMA - "I Wanna Destroy"; A Giant Dog - "Fake Plastic Trees"; METZ - "Mr. Plague"; Protomartyr - "My Children"; Gord Downie - "Love Over Money"; St. Vincent - "Masseduction"; Queens of the Stone Age - "Head Like a Haunted House"; Oh Sees - "Nite Expo"; Destroyer - "Tinseltown Swimming in Blood"; The War on Drugs - "Knocked Down"; LCD Soundsystem - "Emotional Haircut"; Bruno Mars - "That's What I Like"
Thursday, June 11, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Lazarus
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2016: David Bowie - Lazarus
As 2016 closed out, the general feeling was: Well, THAT happened. And boy, did it ever. Wikileaks. The Benghazi report. More police shootings of unarmed black men. More mass shootings. Hillary Clinton's emails. Oh, and there was a presidential election of some note as well.
If all that wasn't enough, it was a tough year for celebrity deaths: Bowie, Prince, Alan Rickman, Abe Fucking Vigoda, Muhammad Ali, Gordie Howe, Elie Wiesel, Arnold Palmer, Leonard Cohen, George Michael, Carrie Fisher. Just brutal.
Things were good on the home front. I volunteered at the Boston Marathon again, ran a couple of half marathons. My office moved again, this time to Middleton. The company was about half the size it was when we moved to the Danvers office, so we downsized a bit. My commute doubled, but it was still only 20 minutes going on back roads, so it wasn't a big deal. We vacationed in Myrtle Beach, which was nice.
Musically, it was another interesting year. The standouts included a great comeback album from Iggy Pop (backed by a killer band including Josh Homme and Matt Sweeney), Toronto's PUP with a kickass second album, Jeff Rosenstock with another excellent release, Drive-By Truckers with a genuine protest record, Black Mountain perfecting their prog-stoner thing, and fine albums from Parquet Courts, Bob Mould, Car Seat Headrest, The Tragically Hip, A Giant Dog, Savages, Dinosaur Jr., Split Single and Beach Slang.
And right after they announced the release of their latest album, The Tragically Hip revealed that frontman Gord Downie had terminal brain cancer, but they still pulled off a tour. The Hip are one of my favorite bands and I always caught them when they came through town. I was hoping they'd play a few U.S. dates, but they did 15 shows in Canada, culminating in a final show in their hometown of Kingston, Ontario that was broadcast and streamed worldwide. It was a terrific and gut-wrenching performance. The chemo had left Downie, an electric performer, with short-term memory loss, but he was able to get through the shows with the help of teleprompters. What a way to go out (he died in October 2017).
Concerts I saw included Bully, Elizabeth Colour Wheel/Earthquake Party, Greg Dulli, Deer Tick, Savages, Iggy Pop, Bob Mould/Ted Leo, Eagles of Death Metal, Buffalo Tom, Black Mountain, X, Descendents/Beach Slang, Sloan, Teenage Fanclub, Jeff Rosenstock, and Elizabeth Colour Wheel/Coaches/Sneeze/Lilith.
But for me, it was all about Bowie. His album Blackstar was recorded secretly and came out on January 8, his 69th birthday. I bought the digital version that day and remember going for a long run the next morning listening to it and thinking how amazing it was that he released such an excellent record this late in his career. His 2013 album The Next Day was good, but this was next level, recorded with an unknown jazz-rock band supporting him and bringing a whole new jazz/hip hop sound. So it was a shock to most when he died two days after Blackstar came out of liver cancer, which he had also kept quiet. He had recorded this album while dealing with cancer, knowing that he was dying. An amazing feat, to be sure. The videos he released prior to the album's release were creepy and unsettling, but captivating. Much like the album itself. "Lazarus" features Bowie lying on his deathbed, with a bandage over his eyes. It's an intense experience. I have to admit I haven't listened to this a lot in the years since it came out. It makes me sad. But it's a triumphant accomplishment nonetheless.
Honorable mentions: David Bowie - "Blackstar"; Beach Slang - "Atom Bomb"; Split Single - "Leave My Mind"; Dinosaur Jr. - "Goin' Down"; Savages - "The Answer"; A Giant Dog - "Sleep When Dead"; The Tragically Hip - "Machine"; PUP - "DVP"; PUP - "If This Tour Doesn't Kill You, I Will"; Car Seat Headrest - "Vincent"; Bob Mould - "Hold On"; Parquet Courts - "Berlin Got Blurry"; Black Mountain - "Florian Saucer Attack"; Drive-By Truckers - "Surrender Under Protest"; Jeff Rosenstock - "Wave Goodnight to Me"; Iggy Pop - "Sunday"; David Bowie - "Sue (In a Season of Crime)"; Radiohead - "Burn the Witch"; The I Don't Cares - "King of America"; Used Cassettes - "President"; Descendents - "Comeback Kid"; Preoccupations - "Zodiac"; Gord Downie - "Haunt Them, Haunt Them, Haunt Them"; Living Colour - "Who Shot Ya"; PJ Harvey - "Ministry of Defence"; Hallelujah the Hills - "I'm in the Phone Book, I'm On the Planet, I'm Dying Slowly"; Angel Olsen - "Shut Up Kiss Me"; Mitski - "Your Best American Girl"; Kristin Hersh - "Hemingway's Tell"; TUNS - "Back Among Friends"; Teenage Fanclub - "Thin"; Terry Malts - "Won't Come to Find You"; Ty Segall - "Candy Sam"; Run the Jewels - "Thieves! (Screamed the Ghost)"; A Tribe Called Quest - "Dis Generation"; Washer - "Do It Yourself"; Wolf Parade - "Floating World"; The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk - "Starboy"
2016: David Bowie - Lazarus
As 2016 closed out, the general feeling was: Well, THAT happened. And boy, did it ever. Wikileaks. The Benghazi report. More police shootings of unarmed black men. More mass shootings. Hillary Clinton's emails. Oh, and there was a presidential election of some note as well.
If all that wasn't enough, it was a tough year for celebrity deaths: Bowie, Prince, Alan Rickman, Abe Fucking Vigoda, Muhammad Ali, Gordie Howe, Elie Wiesel, Arnold Palmer, Leonard Cohen, George Michael, Carrie Fisher. Just brutal.
Things were good on the home front. I volunteered at the Boston Marathon again, ran a couple of half marathons. My office moved again, this time to Middleton. The company was about half the size it was when we moved to the Danvers office, so we downsized a bit. My commute doubled, but it was still only 20 minutes going on back roads, so it wasn't a big deal. We vacationed in Myrtle Beach, which was nice.
Musically, it was another interesting year. The standouts included a great comeback album from Iggy Pop (backed by a killer band including Josh Homme and Matt Sweeney), Toronto's PUP with a kickass second album, Jeff Rosenstock with another excellent release, Drive-By Truckers with a genuine protest record, Black Mountain perfecting their prog-stoner thing, and fine albums from Parquet Courts, Bob Mould, Car Seat Headrest, The Tragically Hip, A Giant Dog, Savages, Dinosaur Jr., Split Single and Beach Slang.
And right after they announced the release of their latest album, The Tragically Hip revealed that frontman Gord Downie had terminal brain cancer, but they still pulled off a tour. The Hip are one of my favorite bands and I always caught them when they came through town. I was hoping they'd play a few U.S. dates, but they did 15 shows in Canada, culminating in a final show in their hometown of Kingston, Ontario that was broadcast and streamed worldwide. It was a terrific and gut-wrenching performance. The chemo had left Downie, an electric performer, with short-term memory loss, but he was able to get through the shows with the help of teleprompters. What a way to go out (he died in October 2017).
Concerts I saw included Bully, Elizabeth Colour Wheel/Earthquake Party, Greg Dulli, Deer Tick, Savages, Iggy Pop, Bob Mould/Ted Leo, Eagles of Death Metal, Buffalo Tom, Black Mountain, X, Descendents/Beach Slang, Sloan, Teenage Fanclub, Jeff Rosenstock, and Elizabeth Colour Wheel/Coaches/Sneeze/Lilith.
But for me, it was all about Bowie. His album Blackstar was recorded secretly and came out on January 8, his 69th birthday. I bought the digital version that day and remember going for a long run the next morning listening to it and thinking how amazing it was that he released such an excellent record this late in his career. His 2013 album The Next Day was good, but this was next level, recorded with an unknown jazz-rock band supporting him and bringing a whole new jazz/hip hop sound. So it was a shock to most when he died two days after Blackstar came out of liver cancer, which he had also kept quiet. He had recorded this album while dealing with cancer, knowing that he was dying. An amazing feat, to be sure. The videos he released prior to the album's release were creepy and unsettling, but captivating. Much like the album itself. "Lazarus" features Bowie lying on his deathbed, with a bandage over his eyes. It's an intense experience. I have to admit I haven't listened to this a lot in the years since it came out. It makes me sad. But it's a triumphant accomplishment nonetheless.
Honorable mentions: David Bowie - "Blackstar"; Beach Slang - "Atom Bomb"; Split Single - "Leave My Mind"; Dinosaur Jr. - "Goin' Down"; Savages - "The Answer"; A Giant Dog - "Sleep When Dead"; The Tragically Hip - "Machine"; PUP - "DVP"; PUP - "If This Tour Doesn't Kill You, I Will"; Car Seat Headrest - "Vincent"; Bob Mould - "Hold On"; Parquet Courts - "Berlin Got Blurry"; Black Mountain - "Florian Saucer Attack"; Drive-By Truckers - "Surrender Under Protest"; Jeff Rosenstock - "Wave Goodnight to Me"; Iggy Pop - "Sunday"; David Bowie - "Sue (In a Season of Crime)"; Radiohead - "Burn the Witch"; The I Don't Cares - "King of America"; Used Cassettes - "President"; Descendents - "Comeback Kid"; Preoccupations - "Zodiac"; Gord Downie - "Haunt Them, Haunt Them, Haunt Them"; Living Colour - "Who Shot Ya"; PJ Harvey - "Ministry of Defence"; Hallelujah the Hills - "I'm in the Phone Book, I'm On the Planet, I'm Dying Slowly"; Angel Olsen - "Shut Up Kiss Me"; Mitski - "Your Best American Girl"; Kristin Hersh - "Hemingway's Tell"; TUNS - "Back Among Friends"; Teenage Fanclub - "Thin"; Terry Malts - "Won't Come to Find You"; Ty Segall - "Candy Sam"; Run the Jewels - "Thieves! (Screamed the Ghost)"; A Tribe Called Quest - "Dis Generation"; Washer - "Do It Yourself"; Wolf Parade - "Floating World"; The Weeknd feat. Daft Punk - "Starboy"
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Elevator Operator
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2015: Courtney Barnett - Elevator Operator
When looking back at a year in the not-too-distant past, it's funny to see what your thoughts were at the time about it. Here's what I wrote about 2015 in my year-end music wrap-up: "From a general news standpoint, 2015 was flat-out fucked. Crazy-ass mass shootings on the regular, idiotic acts of aggression from pretty much every global power and some up-and-comers, a dogshit political system dredging up the lowest of the low in the latest U.S. presidential election folly."
I'm sure at the time I thought there was no way things could get any worse. HA.
The 2016 presidential campaigns were in full swing, with Bernie Sanders gaining in popularity, while the top Republicans at the end of 2015 were Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. Notable deaths included Leonard Nimoy, B.B. King, Moses Malone and Lemmy of Motorhead.
Things were stable on the work front. No traveling, but plenty to do in the office. On the home front, I was busy with my various activities but also with coaching and attending my kids' soccer games. We went to Disney World again for a big extended family vacation in August.
As I continued doing my radio show, I was able to get on indie label promo lists and increase my access to new music from artists like Mike Krol, Nai Harvest, Flagland, White Reaper, Pile, Nadine Shah and Stove. I discovered Jeff Rosenstock, Beach Slang and Colleen Green. And I enjoyed music from established acts like METZ, Speedy Ortiz, Ty Segall and Destroyer. There were also new releases from bands that had recently reunited including Faith No More, Sleater-Kinney and Swervedriver.
I had a busy concert schedule, including The Tragically Hip, Sleater-Kinney, Swervedriver/Gateway Drugs, Ex Hex/Kuroma, Rough Francis/Varsity Drag, Soccer Mom/Infinity Girl/Chandos, David Bazan, The Upper Crust/Watts/Humpmuscle, an Exploding In Sound show with Krill/Big Ups/LVL Up/Stove/Palehound, Bob Mould, Ride and Elizabeth Colour Wheel/Coaches/Gold Muse.
Another discovery in '15 was Courtney Barnett, an Australian singer-guitarist who released her debut album Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. I actually had heard a few songs from an EP she released the year before, but this was my first extended listen to her. There was some buzz about her sounding like Nirvana, but I didn't get that. She reminded me much more of Stephen Malkmus, both vocally and musically. She has a wordy, almost talk-singing style, while the band rocks furiously at times and laconically at others. Barnett's lyrics are wordy ruminations on the mundane aspects of everyday life but her laid-back delivery is compelling, especially on slow-burners like "Small Poppies" and "Depreston." But she flat-out rocks on upbeat numbers like "Pedestrian at Best," "Dead Fox" and my favorite song of the year, "Elevator Operator." She rocks hard but doesn't take herself seriously, like an honorary Gen Xer (at least the ones that didn't take themselves seriously, anyway). She's justified the hype in the last few years, with a couple of excellent releases and a tremendous live act.
Honorable mentions: METZ - "Acetate"; Courtney Barnett - "Pedestrian at Best"; Palehound - "Molly"; Speedy Ortiz - "Raising the Skate"; Colleen Green - "TV"; Jeff Rosenstock - "Novelty Sweater"; Jeff Rosenstock - "Get Old Forever"; Mike Krol - "This is the News"; Wimps - "Take It as It Comes"; Mikal Cronin - "Say"; Ty Segall - Drug Mugger"; Protomartyr - "The Devil in His Youth"; Pile - "#2 Hit Single"; The 20/20 Project - "Got It Made"; Krill - "Foot"; Flagland - "Awesome Song, Kerry Jan"; Nai Harvest - "Spin"; Bully - "Sharktooth"; Eagles of Death Metal - "The Reverend"; Kuroma - "Love is on the Way"; Nadine Shah - "Fool"; Hard Left - "Imagination"; Titus Andronicus - "Dimed Out"; White Reaper - "Pills"; Jesse Malin - "Turn Up the Mains"; Mac McCaughan - "Lost Again"; Barrence Whitfield and the Savages - "Incarceration Casserole"; Infinity Girl - "Dirty Sun"; Chandos - "Cobra Points"; Beach Slang - "Young & Alive"; Destroyer - "Dream Lover"; Wilco - "Random Name Generator"; Woolen Men - "Hard Revision"; Viet Cong - "Continental Shelf"; Faith No More - "Sunny Side Up"; Sleater-Kinney - "Bury Our Friends"; Stove - "Aged Hype"; Swervedriver - "Autodidact"; The Weeknd - "Can't Feel My Face"; Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars - "Uptown Funk"
2015: Courtney Barnett - Elevator Operator
When looking back at a year in the not-too-distant past, it's funny to see what your thoughts were at the time about it. Here's what I wrote about 2015 in my year-end music wrap-up: "From a general news standpoint, 2015 was flat-out fucked. Crazy-ass mass shootings on the regular, idiotic acts of aggression from pretty much every global power and some up-and-comers, a dogshit political system dredging up the lowest of the low in the latest U.S. presidential election folly."
I'm sure at the time I thought there was no way things could get any worse. HA.
The 2016 presidential campaigns were in full swing, with Bernie Sanders gaining in popularity, while the top Republicans at the end of 2015 were Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. Notable deaths included Leonard Nimoy, B.B. King, Moses Malone and Lemmy of Motorhead.
Things were stable on the work front. No traveling, but plenty to do in the office. On the home front, I was busy with my various activities but also with coaching and attending my kids' soccer games. We went to Disney World again for a big extended family vacation in August.
As I continued doing my radio show, I was able to get on indie label promo lists and increase my access to new music from artists like Mike Krol, Nai Harvest, Flagland, White Reaper, Pile, Nadine Shah and Stove. I discovered Jeff Rosenstock, Beach Slang and Colleen Green. And I enjoyed music from established acts like METZ, Speedy Ortiz, Ty Segall and Destroyer. There were also new releases from bands that had recently reunited including Faith No More, Sleater-Kinney and Swervedriver.
I had a busy concert schedule, including The Tragically Hip, Sleater-Kinney, Swervedriver/Gateway Drugs, Ex Hex/Kuroma, Rough Francis/Varsity Drag, Soccer Mom/Infinity Girl/Chandos, David Bazan, The Upper Crust/Watts/Humpmuscle, an Exploding In Sound show with Krill/Big Ups/LVL Up/Stove/Palehound, Bob Mould, Ride and Elizabeth Colour Wheel/Coaches/Gold Muse.
Another discovery in '15 was Courtney Barnett, an Australian singer-guitarist who released her debut album Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. I actually had heard a few songs from an EP she released the year before, but this was my first extended listen to her. There was some buzz about her sounding like Nirvana, but I didn't get that. She reminded me much more of Stephen Malkmus, both vocally and musically. She has a wordy, almost talk-singing style, while the band rocks furiously at times and laconically at others. Barnett's lyrics are wordy ruminations on the mundane aspects of everyday life but her laid-back delivery is compelling, especially on slow-burners like "Small Poppies" and "Depreston." But she flat-out rocks on upbeat numbers like "Pedestrian at Best," "Dead Fox" and my favorite song of the year, "Elevator Operator." She rocks hard but doesn't take herself seriously, like an honorary Gen Xer (at least the ones that didn't take themselves seriously, anyway). She's justified the hype in the last few years, with a couple of excellent releases and a tremendous live act.
Honorable mentions: METZ - "Acetate"; Courtney Barnett - "Pedestrian at Best"; Palehound - "Molly"; Speedy Ortiz - "Raising the Skate"; Colleen Green - "TV"; Jeff Rosenstock - "Novelty Sweater"; Jeff Rosenstock - "Get Old Forever"; Mike Krol - "This is the News"; Wimps - "Take It as It Comes"; Mikal Cronin - "Say"; Ty Segall - Drug Mugger"; Protomartyr - "The Devil in His Youth"; Pile - "#2 Hit Single"; The 20/20 Project - "Got It Made"; Krill - "Foot"; Flagland - "Awesome Song, Kerry Jan"; Nai Harvest - "Spin"; Bully - "Sharktooth"; Eagles of Death Metal - "The Reverend"; Kuroma - "Love is on the Way"; Nadine Shah - "Fool"; Hard Left - "Imagination"; Titus Andronicus - "Dimed Out"; White Reaper - "Pills"; Jesse Malin - "Turn Up the Mains"; Mac McCaughan - "Lost Again"; Barrence Whitfield and the Savages - "Incarceration Casserole"; Infinity Girl - "Dirty Sun"; Chandos - "Cobra Points"; Beach Slang - "Young & Alive"; Destroyer - "Dream Lover"; Wilco - "Random Name Generator"; Woolen Men - "Hard Revision"; Viet Cong - "Continental Shelf"; Faith No More - "Sunny Side Up"; Sleater-Kinney - "Bury Our Friends"; Stove - "Aged Hype"; Swervedriver - "Autodidact"; The Weeknd - "Can't Feel My Face"; Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars - "Uptown Funk"
Tuesday, June 09, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: What Color Is Blood?
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2014: Parquet Courts - What Color Is Blood?
Six years ago feels like 16 years ago. In 2014, Ebola arrived in the U.S. but was fortunately kept under control. David Letterman retired from his late night show after 32 years and was replaced by Stephen Colbert, while Jimmy Fallon took over The Tonight Show. U2 pissed everybody off after their new album was automatically added to the collections of all iTunes users. And there were some shocking deaths, including Robin Williams, Tony Gwynn, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jan Hooks.
Things were much more stable at work after a few roller coaster years. The 2014 Boston Marathon went off with no problems, thanks to added security measures. Meb Keflezighi became the first American to win the race since 1983.
We did something different for our summer vacation, driving down to Williamsburg, Virginia for a week. In addition to visiting Colonial Williamsburg, we went to Virginia Beach, Busch Gardens and a ropes course. Good stuff.
On the running front, I ran the Around Cape Ann 30K on Labor Day, which was tough not only because of the many hills but also because of the heat and humidity. A few weeks later, I did my sixth consecutive Reach the Beach.
Musically, there was a lot to choose from: Interesting new acts like Protomartyr, Two Inch Astronaut, Big Ups, Ava Luna and Ex Hex. New music from old favorites like the Afghan Whigs, Bob Mould, Gord Downie, Stephen Malkmus and Sloan. And discoveries of bands like Hallelujah the Hills and the War on Drugs.
Concerts included Rocket From the Crypt/Ex Hex, Gord Downie and the Sadies, The Afghan Whigs (twice), Parquet Courts/Protomartyr, Guided By Voices, Titus Andronicus, Ty Segall/La Luz, Caspian, Kal Marks, Sloan, Speedy Ortiz/Big Ups and Palehound/Chandos/Coaches.
My favorite band of the year was Parquet Courts, another act that had emerged in the previous few years and was coming into its own. As I noted at the time, "Parquet Courts made a splash in the indie rock world last year, when their 2012 release Light Up Gold was reissued and caught fire. The New York by way of Austin quartet upped the ante with Sunbathing Animal, which took their brand of CBGBs-inspired garage rock and infused it with more fully developed songs. It feels like the natural evolution of the band's sound." There were more midtempo grooves and slower meditations. "What Color Is Blood?" is just one of many standout tracks, as the band displays its art-rock chops a la late '70s NYC acts like Television and Talking Heads. It's a killer song from a killer band. And live, they can deliver the goods as well. Parquet Courts has proven itself to be a prolific band, releasing a fine album called Content Nausea in October 2014 and several excellent records in the years since.
Honorable mentions: Bob Mould - "The War"; Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - "J Smoov"; Spoon - "Do You"; The New Pornographers - "War on the East Coast"; The War on Drugs - "Red Eyes"; Hallelujah the Hills - "We Are What We Say We Are"; Gord Downie and the Sadies - "Crater"; Death From Above 1979 - "Right On, Frankenstein!"; Ex Hex - "Hot and Cold"; Protomartyr - "Scum, Rise!"; Ty Segall - "The Faker"; Sloan - "Keep Swinging (Downtown)"; The Afghan Whigs - "Parked Outside"; Parquet Courts - "Bodies"; Speedy Ortiz - "American Horror"; Two Inch Astronaut - "Foulbrood"; Krill - "Turd"; King Tuff - "Headbanger"; Mastodon - "High Road"; The Hush Now - "Panda"; Gold-Bears - "From Tallahassee to Gainesville"; Ryan Adams - "When the Summer Ends"; Against Me - "Dead Friend"; Cloud Nothings - "Psychic Trauma"; Big Ups - "Fresh Meat"; Ava Luna - "Daydream"; Damaged Bug - "Photograph"; Radiator Hospital - "Five & Dime"; Johnny Foreigner - "Le Schwing"; Young Adults - "Old Kids"; Benjamin Booker - "Wicked Waters"; Run the Jewels - "Close Your Eyes (and Count to Fuck)"
2014: Parquet Courts - What Color Is Blood?
Six years ago feels like 16 years ago. In 2014, Ebola arrived in the U.S. but was fortunately kept under control. David Letterman retired from his late night show after 32 years and was replaced by Stephen Colbert, while Jimmy Fallon took over The Tonight Show. U2 pissed everybody off after their new album was automatically added to the collections of all iTunes users. And there were some shocking deaths, including Robin Williams, Tony Gwynn, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jan Hooks.
Things were much more stable at work after a few roller coaster years. The 2014 Boston Marathon went off with no problems, thanks to added security measures. Meb Keflezighi became the first American to win the race since 1983.
We did something different for our summer vacation, driving down to Williamsburg, Virginia for a week. In addition to visiting Colonial Williamsburg, we went to Virginia Beach, Busch Gardens and a ropes course. Good stuff.
On the running front, I ran the Around Cape Ann 30K on Labor Day, which was tough not only because of the many hills but also because of the heat and humidity. A few weeks later, I did my sixth consecutive Reach the Beach.
Musically, there was a lot to choose from: Interesting new acts like Protomartyr, Two Inch Astronaut, Big Ups, Ava Luna and Ex Hex. New music from old favorites like the Afghan Whigs, Bob Mould, Gord Downie, Stephen Malkmus and Sloan. And discoveries of bands like Hallelujah the Hills and the War on Drugs.
Concerts included Rocket From the Crypt/Ex Hex, Gord Downie and the Sadies, The Afghan Whigs (twice), Parquet Courts/Protomartyr, Guided By Voices, Titus Andronicus, Ty Segall/La Luz, Caspian, Kal Marks, Sloan, Speedy Ortiz/Big Ups and Palehound/Chandos/Coaches.
My favorite band of the year was Parquet Courts, another act that had emerged in the previous few years and was coming into its own. As I noted at the time, "Parquet Courts made a splash in the indie rock world last year, when their 2012 release Light Up Gold was reissued and caught fire. The New York by way of Austin quartet upped the ante with Sunbathing Animal, which took their brand of CBGBs-inspired garage rock and infused it with more fully developed songs. It feels like the natural evolution of the band's sound." There were more midtempo grooves and slower meditations. "What Color Is Blood?" is just one of many standout tracks, as the band displays its art-rock chops a la late '70s NYC acts like Television and Talking Heads. It's a killer song from a killer band. And live, they can deliver the goods as well. Parquet Courts has proven itself to be a prolific band, releasing a fine album called Content Nausea in October 2014 and several excellent records in the years since.
Honorable mentions: Bob Mould - "The War"; Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - "J Smoov"; Spoon - "Do You"; The New Pornographers - "War on the East Coast"; The War on Drugs - "Red Eyes"; Hallelujah the Hills - "We Are What We Say We Are"; Gord Downie and the Sadies - "Crater"; Death From Above 1979 - "Right On, Frankenstein!"; Ex Hex - "Hot and Cold"; Protomartyr - "Scum, Rise!"; Ty Segall - "The Faker"; Sloan - "Keep Swinging (Downtown)"; The Afghan Whigs - "Parked Outside"; Parquet Courts - "Bodies"; Speedy Ortiz - "American Horror"; Two Inch Astronaut - "Foulbrood"; Krill - "Turd"; King Tuff - "Headbanger"; Mastodon - "High Road"; The Hush Now - "Panda"; Gold-Bears - "From Tallahassee to Gainesville"; Ryan Adams - "When the Summer Ends"; Against Me - "Dead Friend"; Cloud Nothings - "Psychic Trauma"; Big Ups - "Fresh Meat"; Ava Luna - "Daydream"; Damaged Bug - "Photograph"; Radiator Hospital - "Five & Dime"; Johnny Foreigner - "Le Schwing"; Young Adults - "Old Kids"; Benjamin Booker - "Wicked Waters"; Run the Jewels - "Close Your Eyes (and Count to Fuck)"
Monday, June 08, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Do I Wanna Know?
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2013: Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know?
It was a hell of a year, that 2013. Same sex marriage became legal in a number of states throughout the year. Edward Snowden was charged with espionage for leaking secrets. Notable deaths included Lou Reed, Margaret Thatcher, Peter O'Toole and Jonathan Winters.
The morning of April 15 started off on a good note. I went in to Wellesley to volunteer along the Boston Marathon course, handing out water at mile 12, just before the midpoint of the race. I was with a group of folks from my running club and we set up, handed out cups of water and then cleaned everything up after the last runner had gone through. I was a half-mile from my house just before 3 p.m. when I heard on the radio that there were explosions at the marathon finish line. The next few days were spent watching the coverage of the marathon bombings, which killed three people and injured 250 others. I knew people who were in the vicinity when the bombs went off, and obviously it was a difficult time for the city and the running community. The hunt for the bombers was at first full of red herrings as suspects were falsely identified on social media at first. Finally, the city was essentially on lockdown for a day or two while police tracked and caught the two brothers (one was killed) who committed the bombing.
On the work front, we had an interim CEO trying to get the company ready for sale. I spent most of the year editing 15 monthly newsletters, which was an insane amount of work, but it was work and I was glad to have it. By the end of October, we were sold to another publisher. It was good news, but it was still a painful transition as a bunch of folks were let go after the sale. My department was luckily kept intact and we continued on. Also around the same time, Deb and I got to attend the clinching game of the 2013 World Series at Fenway Park, when the Red Sox took out the Cardinals. It was mayhem afterwards, with drunken idiots tipping over cars and causing general mayhem. We ended up walking a couple of miles to Boston Common before we could get to a subway stop that wasn't overrun with revelers.
We had a couple of vacations, going to Toronto for a week in July and Hilton Head, S.C., in August. After we got back, I started up yet another side activity (I began doing a podcast in '06 and writing a column about running for the local paper in '08). A friend and former co-worker had moved to San Francisco and was starting up an online radio station called Best Frequencies Forever, or BFF.fm. She needed some content to launch the station with and asked if I would do a pre-recorded show, so I began doing Stuck In Thee Garage, a two-hour program focusing on indie rock, in September. Almost seven years later, BFF.fm is a thriving force on the SF music scene with a full complement of in-house DJs, but I'm still doing my show and loving it.
Musically, I was getting into the local indie rock scene a lot more thanks to my good buddy Jay, who was documenting it for his fine blog Clicky Clicky Music. I was digging bands like Soccer Mom, The Hush Now, Krill, Speedy Ortiz and Ovlov (from Connecticut, but close enough to be local). There were good new albums from Queens of the Stone Age, Kurt Vile, Superchunk, David Bowie, Savages, Future of the Left and Iceage.
Concerts attended included Mission of Burma, Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven, Titus Andronicus/Palma Violets, Drive-By Truckers, Living Colour, Soccer Mom/Golden Gurls, Obits/Pile, Earthquake Party/Hush Now/Soccer Mom/Kurt Heasley, Lucero/Titus Andronicus and the Smithereens.
But for me, the standout song of the year was "Do I Wanna Know?" from Arctic Monkeys, a band that had taken a lot of turns since its 2006 debut album. It had explored hard rock, stoner rock and on this record, embraced more of a groove and pop sensibility. "Do I Wanna Know?" was especially catchy, as was "R U Mine?" and several others on the album. The former even ended up getting licensed to be in commercials, which I guess is a decent revenue stream given the general decline in record sales. The band has continued to evolve, not always successfully, but this was a particularly good document of a band hitting its stride.
Honorable mentions: Parquet Courts - "Borrowed Time"; FIDLAR - "Cheap Beer"; Iceage - "In Haze"; David Bowie - "The Next Day"; Grant Hart - "Morningstar"; Barrence Whitfield and the Savages - "The Corner Man"; Pearl Jam - "Mind Your Manners"; Mudhoney - "Douchebags on Parade"; The Night Marchers - "All Hits"; Obits - "Taste the Diff"; Kurt Vile - "KV Crimes"; Swearin' - "Echo Locate"; Arctic Monkeys - "R U Mine"; Savages - "Husbands"; Future of the Left - "Donny of the Decks"; Calories - "DMT"; Los Campesinos! - "What Death Leaves Behind"; Arcade Fire - "Normal Person"; The National - "Demons"; Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - "We No Who U R"; Queens of the Stone Age - "I Appear Missing"; Yo La Tengo - "The Point of It"; Speedy Ortiz - "Tiger Tank"; Krill - "No Joke"; Idiot Genes - "Puke"; Ovlov - "Where's My Dini"; Deer Tick - "The Curtain"; Mikal Cronin - "Weight"; Thee Oh Sees - "Maze Fancier"; Mind Spiders - "They Lie"; Superchunk - "Me & You & Jackie Mittoo"; Diarrhea Planet - "Separations"; Lorde - "Royals"
2013: Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know?
It was a hell of a year, that 2013. Same sex marriage became legal in a number of states throughout the year. Edward Snowden was charged with espionage for leaking secrets. Notable deaths included Lou Reed, Margaret Thatcher, Peter O'Toole and Jonathan Winters.
The morning of April 15 started off on a good note. I went in to Wellesley to volunteer along the Boston Marathon course, handing out water at mile 12, just before the midpoint of the race. I was with a group of folks from my running club and we set up, handed out cups of water and then cleaned everything up after the last runner had gone through. I was a half-mile from my house just before 3 p.m. when I heard on the radio that there were explosions at the marathon finish line. The next few days were spent watching the coverage of the marathon bombings, which killed three people and injured 250 others. I knew people who were in the vicinity when the bombs went off, and obviously it was a difficult time for the city and the running community. The hunt for the bombers was at first full of red herrings as suspects were falsely identified on social media at first. Finally, the city was essentially on lockdown for a day or two while police tracked and caught the two brothers (one was killed) who committed the bombing.
On the work front, we had an interim CEO trying to get the company ready for sale. I spent most of the year editing 15 monthly newsletters, which was an insane amount of work, but it was work and I was glad to have it. By the end of October, we were sold to another publisher. It was good news, but it was still a painful transition as a bunch of folks were let go after the sale. My department was luckily kept intact and we continued on. Also around the same time, Deb and I got to attend the clinching game of the 2013 World Series at Fenway Park, when the Red Sox took out the Cardinals. It was mayhem afterwards, with drunken idiots tipping over cars and causing general mayhem. We ended up walking a couple of miles to Boston Common before we could get to a subway stop that wasn't overrun with revelers.
We had a couple of vacations, going to Toronto for a week in July and Hilton Head, S.C., in August. After we got back, I started up yet another side activity (I began doing a podcast in '06 and writing a column about running for the local paper in '08). A friend and former co-worker had moved to San Francisco and was starting up an online radio station called Best Frequencies Forever, or BFF.fm. She needed some content to launch the station with and asked if I would do a pre-recorded show, so I began doing Stuck In Thee Garage, a two-hour program focusing on indie rock, in September. Almost seven years later, BFF.fm is a thriving force on the SF music scene with a full complement of in-house DJs, but I'm still doing my show and loving it.
Musically, I was getting into the local indie rock scene a lot more thanks to my good buddy Jay, who was documenting it for his fine blog Clicky Clicky Music. I was digging bands like Soccer Mom, The Hush Now, Krill, Speedy Ortiz and Ovlov (from Connecticut, but close enough to be local). There were good new albums from Queens of the Stone Age, Kurt Vile, Superchunk, David Bowie, Savages, Future of the Left and Iceage.
Concerts attended included Mission of Burma, Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven, Titus Andronicus/Palma Violets, Drive-By Truckers, Living Colour, Soccer Mom/Golden Gurls, Obits/Pile, Earthquake Party/Hush Now/Soccer Mom/Kurt Heasley, Lucero/Titus Andronicus and the Smithereens.
But for me, the standout song of the year was "Do I Wanna Know?" from Arctic Monkeys, a band that had taken a lot of turns since its 2006 debut album. It had explored hard rock, stoner rock and on this record, embraced more of a groove and pop sensibility. "Do I Wanna Know?" was especially catchy, as was "R U Mine?" and several others on the album. The former even ended up getting licensed to be in commercials, which I guess is a decent revenue stream given the general decline in record sales. The band has continued to evolve, not always successfully, but this was a particularly good document of a band hitting its stride.
Honorable mentions: Parquet Courts - "Borrowed Time"; FIDLAR - "Cheap Beer"; Iceage - "In Haze"; David Bowie - "The Next Day"; Grant Hart - "Morningstar"; Barrence Whitfield and the Savages - "The Corner Man"; Pearl Jam - "Mind Your Manners"; Mudhoney - "Douchebags on Parade"; The Night Marchers - "All Hits"; Obits - "Taste the Diff"; Kurt Vile - "KV Crimes"; Swearin' - "Echo Locate"; Arctic Monkeys - "R U Mine"; Savages - "Husbands"; Future of the Left - "Donny of the Decks"; Calories - "DMT"; Los Campesinos! - "What Death Leaves Behind"; Arcade Fire - "Normal Person"; The National - "Demons"; Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - "We No Who U R"; Queens of the Stone Age - "I Appear Missing"; Yo La Tengo - "The Point of It"; Speedy Ortiz - "Tiger Tank"; Krill - "No Joke"; Idiot Genes - "Puke"; Ovlov - "Where's My Dini"; Deer Tick - "The Curtain"; Mikal Cronin - "Weight"; Thee Oh Sees - "Maze Fancier"; Mind Spiders - "They Lie"; Superchunk - "Me & You & Jackie Mittoo"; Diarrhea Planet - "Separations"; Lorde - "Royals"
Sunday, June 07, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Wave Goodbye
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2012: Ty Segall Band - Wave Goodbye
There was a considerable collection of humans who spent 2012 expecting the world to end. I mean, that happens every year, but some interpretations of old Mayan predictions found a belief that some sort of cosmic event would happen to end life as we know it. As we now understand, the end of the world is actually happening right now (I keed, I keed). But in things that actually happened in 2012, President Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney to win a second term in office. Facebook bought Instagram and went public. Tablets like the iPad became a big seller. Did I mention the world didn't end?
For me, it was a difficult year at work. It was clear the company was having some serious issues with its direction; namely, that direction was the wrong one and the layoffs continued throughout the year. It all culminated in December, when I was called into a colleague's office to find out my entire division had been eliminated. Fortunately, they still needed someone to do my old job and offered it to me. Having no other options, I took it. Turned out to be a good move.
One cool work-related thing was a trip I took to Austin in March. It was the week after South by Southwest, so there were literally no bands in town, which was a bummer. But even though I was by myself, I had a great time eating BBQ, going to cool bars and see movies at the Alamo Drafthouse. In the summer, we drove up to Montreal for a week for a good family vacation. It was a lot different than previous trips to Montreal, which revolved around drinking, hockey and adult entertainment. But it was fun, and little did we know at the time that my oldest would be going to college there (she joins the class of '24 at McGill University this fall).
Commercial radio had been dying a slow, painful death for a while, but in 2012, it hit a crescendo when WFNX went off the air. The station had always been an independent alternative rock station and it was my station of choice pretty much from the early '90s onward. Boston's big rock station WBCN had gone off the air a few years earlier and hard rock station WAAF finally gave up the ghost this past February. But I had stopped listening to commercial radio years before 2012, especially after I got an iPod and then got into podcasts.
It was another year full of interesting music that I was into. Strong indie rock from the likes of Divine Fits, Titus Andronicus, Japandroids, Cloud Nothings, A.C. Newman and METZ. Returns from old favorites like Van Halen, Soundgarden, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Mission of Burma, Bob Mould and Paul Westerberg. Cool new stuff from Torche, Parquet Courts, Golden Gurls, Metric, El-P and Redd Kross. Concerts included: Wild Flag, Mark Lanegan Band, Matthew Sweet, Iron Maiden, Mean Creek/Mellow Bravo/Soccer Mom, Bob Mould, the Afghan Whigs, Sloan, Guillermo Sexo/Johnny Foreigner/Speedy Ortiz/Infinity Girl and the Tragically Hip.
But my favorite song and album came from the Ty Segall Band. Segall is a prolific fellow, releasing three albums in 2012, but my favorite was the scuzz-rock masterpiece Slaughterhouse. Backed by a powerhouse band including the great Mikal Cronin on bass, Segall unleashed a scorching collection of bangers that mix psychedelia with bone-crushing heaviness. "Wave Goodbye" is the best distillation of this formula, a Sabbathy freakout that is guaranteed to get heads nodding vigorously. Thankfully, the subsequent eight years have done nothing to slow Segall down. He's continued to release great and varied music. Seeing him live is the best, though, as you can see by the clip above. I saw him a few years ago in a tiny club and it was intense and almost overwhelming.
Honorable mentions: Ty Segall - "Death"; Divine Fits - "Would That Not Be Nice"; Divine Fits - "My Love Is Real"; Mark Lanegan Band - "The Gravedigger's Song"; Titus Andronicus - "Ecce Homo"; Titus Andronicus - "In a Big City"; Japandroids - "Fire's Highway"; Torche - "Kicking"; The Tragically Hip - "At Transformation"; Neil Young and Crazy Horse - "Walk Like a Giant"; A.C. Newman - "Encyclopedia of Classic Takedowns"; Mission of Burma - "Semi-Pseudo Sort of Plan"; Van Halen - "China Town"; Dinosaur Jr. - "Watch the Corners"; Cloud Nothings - "No Future/No Past"; METZ - "Wasted"; Bob Mould - "Star Machine"; Bob Mould - "The Descent"; Paul Westerberg - "My Road Now"; Shearwater - "You As You Were"; Craig Finn - "Honolulu Blues"; Redd Kross - "Researching the Blues"; Two Gallants - "My Love Won't Wait"; Ladyhawk - "You Read My Mind"; Band of Skulls - "Sweet Sour"; Aimee Mann - "Charmer"; Metric - "The Wanderlust"; David Byrne & St. Vincent - "Who"; The Afghan Whigs - "Lovecrimes"; Gary Clark, Jr. - "Glitter Ain't Gold (Jumpin' for Nothin')"; Guided By Voices - "The Unsinkable Fats Domino"; Golden Gurls - "I Can See the City"; Ceremony - "Hysteria"; Parquet Courts - "Borrowed Time"; The Henry Clay People - "EveryBandWeEverLoved"; El-P - "Drones Over Bklyn"; Soundgarden - "By Crooked Steps"
2012: Ty Segall Band - Wave Goodbye
There was a considerable collection of humans who spent 2012 expecting the world to end. I mean, that happens every year, but some interpretations of old Mayan predictions found a belief that some sort of cosmic event would happen to end life as we know it. As we now understand, the end of the world is actually happening right now (I keed, I keed). But in things that actually happened in 2012, President Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney to win a second term in office. Facebook bought Instagram and went public. Tablets like the iPad became a big seller. Did I mention the world didn't end?
For me, it was a difficult year at work. It was clear the company was having some serious issues with its direction; namely, that direction was the wrong one and the layoffs continued throughout the year. It all culminated in December, when I was called into a colleague's office to find out my entire division had been eliminated. Fortunately, they still needed someone to do my old job and offered it to me. Having no other options, I took it. Turned out to be a good move.
One cool work-related thing was a trip I took to Austin in March. It was the week after South by Southwest, so there were literally no bands in town, which was a bummer. But even though I was by myself, I had a great time eating BBQ, going to cool bars and see movies at the Alamo Drafthouse. In the summer, we drove up to Montreal for a week for a good family vacation. It was a lot different than previous trips to Montreal, which revolved around drinking, hockey and adult entertainment. But it was fun, and little did we know at the time that my oldest would be going to college there (she joins the class of '24 at McGill University this fall).
Commercial radio had been dying a slow, painful death for a while, but in 2012, it hit a crescendo when WFNX went off the air. The station had always been an independent alternative rock station and it was my station of choice pretty much from the early '90s onward. Boston's big rock station WBCN had gone off the air a few years earlier and hard rock station WAAF finally gave up the ghost this past February. But I had stopped listening to commercial radio years before 2012, especially after I got an iPod and then got into podcasts.
It was another year full of interesting music that I was into. Strong indie rock from the likes of Divine Fits, Titus Andronicus, Japandroids, Cloud Nothings, A.C. Newman and METZ. Returns from old favorites like Van Halen, Soundgarden, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Mission of Burma, Bob Mould and Paul Westerberg. Cool new stuff from Torche, Parquet Courts, Golden Gurls, Metric, El-P and Redd Kross. Concerts included: Wild Flag, Mark Lanegan Band, Matthew Sweet, Iron Maiden, Mean Creek/Mellow Bravo/Soccer Mom, Bob Mould, the Afghan Whigs, Sloan, Guillermo Sexo/Johnny Foreigner/Speedy Ortiz/Infinity Girl and the Tragically Hip.
But my favorite song and album came from the Ty Segall Band. Segall is a prolific fellow, releasing three albums in 2012, but my favorite was the scuzz-rock masterpiece Slaughterhouse. Backed by a powerhouse band including the great Mikal Cronin on bass, Segall unleashed a scorching collection of bangers that mix psychedelia with bone-crushing heaviness. "Wave Goodbye" is the best distillation of this formula, a Sabbathy freakout that is guaranteed to get heads nodding vigorously. Thankfully, the subsequent eight years have done nothing to slow Segall down. He's continued to release great and varied music. Seeing him live is the best, though, as you can see by the clip above. I saw him a few years ago in a tiny club and it was intense and almost overwhelming.
Honorable mentions: Ty Segall - "Death"; Divine Fits - "Would That Not Be Nice"; Divine Fits - "My Love Is Real"; Mark Lanegan Band - "The Gravedigger's Song"; Titus Andronicus - "Ecce Homo"; Titus Andronicus - "In a Big City"; Japandroids - "Fire's Highway"; Torche - "Kicking"; The Tragically Hip - "At Transformation"; Neil Young and Crazy Horse - "Walk Like a Giant"; A.C. Newman - "Encyclopedia of Classic Takedowns"; Mission of Burma - "Semi-Pseudo Sort of Plan"; Van Halen - "China Town"; Dinosaur Jr. - "Watch the Corners"; Cloud Nothings - "No Future/No Past"; METZ - "Wasted"; Bob Mould - "Star Machine"; Bob Mould - "The Descent"; Paul Westerberg - "My Road Now"; Shearwater - "You As You Were"; Craig Finn - "Honolulu Blues"; Redd Kross - "Researching the Blues"; Two Gallants - "My Love Won't Wait"; Ladyhawk - "You Read My Mind"; Band of Skulls - "Sweet Sour"; Aimee Mann - "Charmer"; Metric - "The Wanderlust"; David Byrne & St. Vincent - "Who"; The Afghan Whigs - "Lovecrimes"; Gary Clark, Jr. - "Glitter Ain't Gold (Jumpin' for Nothin')"; Guided By Voices - "The Unsinkable Fats Domino"; Golden Gurls - "I Can See the City"; Ceremony - "Hysteria"; Parquet Courts - "Borrowed Time"; The Henry Clay People - "EveryBandWeEverLoved"; El-P - "Drones Over Bklyn"; Soundgarden - "By Crooked Steps"
Saturday, June 06, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Senator
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2011: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Senator
It was a year like many others, with plenty of big moments: The deaths of Osama Bin Laden and Moammar Gadaffi, uprisings in Egypt, Libya and Syria, the controversial trials of Casey Anthony and Amanda Knox. And Charlie Sheen went off the deep end.
For me, things were good. My company moved in December 2010 from Marblehead to Danvers, which cut my commute down by about 70%. It was an easy 10-minute drive, which was nice. No marathons for me; I decided I'd done plenty of them (13 to be exact) and had nothing left to prove. I still liked running, just not distances that long.
I had a work trip to Seattle, my first visit to that city since I moved from Washington state in 1983. While I was there, I met up with a couple of friends from my short stint in high school. It was good to see those guys after so long. A few weeks later, we did a big road trip down to Orlando to his Disney World again. Unlike the first trip, we broke up the drive, stopping in New Jersey at Deb's brother's place before continuing on in the morning. Made a huge difference. It was a fun and tiring week. While we were there, I found out that I was moving over to a new division of my company to work on electronic products. I had spent the previous 10 years working on print products, so this was a big move, or so I thought (a little foreshadowing for future posts).
Musically, I was still digging on the indie rock, although that genre covered a lot of ground. There were your alt-rock stalwarts like PJ Harvey, Sloan, Wilco, Foo Fighters, the Twilight Singers; older acts like the Feelies and R.E.M. (who released their final studio album); hip hop acts like the Beastie Boys and the Roots; younger artists like Yuck, Johnny Foreigner, Los Campesinos!, Soccer Mom and Fucked Up; and the beastly roar of metal gods Mastodon. For concerts, I saw Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven, Robert Plant, Queens of the Stone Age, Jason Isbell, Ted Leo, Dinosaur Jr., Sloan, Young Adults/Ringo Deathstarr, Big Audio Dynamite and Buffalo Tom.
My favorite song was "Senator" by Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, off the album Mirror Traffic. It was primo Malkmus, a sardonic look at shady politicians and pretty timely, given Anthony Weiner's, uh, problems. "I know what the senator wants/What the senator wants is a blow job," sang Malkmus cheerily. Supposedly he even recorded a radio-friendly version substituting "corn dog" for "blow job," although by 2011 there weren't many radio stations left playing Malkmus songs. Whatever, the song kicks ass.
Honorable mentions: PJ Harvey - "The Words That Maketh Murder"; Mastodon - "The Curl of the Burl"; Foo Fighters - "Rope"; Yuck - "Get Away"; Mighty Fine - "Ready to Roar"; Drive-By Truckers - "The Thanksgiving Filter"; J. Mascis - "Is It Done"; Beastie Boys - "Make Some Noise"; Buffalo Tom - "Guilty Girls"; The Twilight Singers - "On the Corner"; Wild Flag - "Romance"; Deer Tick - "Main Street"; Sloan - "Follow the Leader"; Sloan - "Unkind"; Fucked Up - "Ship of Fools"; Fucked Up - "Queen of Hearts"; Destroyer - "Chinatown"; The Dears - "Blood"; Radiohead - "Lotus Flower"; R.E.M. - "Discoverer"; TV On the Radio - "Caffeinated Consciousness"; Arctic Monkeys - "Brick by Brick"; St. Vincent - "Cheerleader"; Wilco - "Art of Almost"; The Roots - "Make My"; The Black Keys - "Lonely Boy"; Soccer Mom - "It's Probably Not Your Fault"; Johnny Foreigner - "(Don't) Show Us Your Fangs"; The Feelies - "When You Know"; Los Campesinos! - "By Your Hand"; Telekinesis - "Car Crash"; Jason Isbell - "Go It Alone"
2011: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Senator
It was a year like many others, with plenty of big moments: The deaths of Osama Bin Laden and Moammar Gadaffi, uprisings in Egypt, Libya and Syria, the controversial trials of Casey Anthony and Amanda Knox. And Charlie Sheen went off the deep end.
For me, things were good. My company moved in December 2010 from Marblehead to Danvers, which cut my commute down by about 70%. It was an easy 10-minute drive, which was nice. No marathons for me; I decided I'd done plenty of them (13 to be exact) and had nothing left to prove. I still liked running, just not distances that long.
I had a work trip to Seattle, my first visit to that city since I moved from Washington state in 1983. While I was there, I met up with a couple of friends from my short stint in high school. It was good to see those guys after so long. A few weeks later, we did a big road trip down to Orlando to his Disney World again. Unlike the first trip, we broke up the drive, stopping in New Jersey at Deb's brother's place before continuing on in the morning. Made a huge difference. It was a fun and tiring week. While we were there, I found out that I was moving over to a new division of my company to work on electronic products. I had spent the previous 10 years working on print products, so this was a big move, or so I thought (a little foreshadowing for future posts).
Musically, I was still digging on the indie rock, although that genre covered a lot of ground. There were your alt-rock stalwarts like PJ Harvey, Sloan, Wilco, Foo Fighters, the Twilight Singers; older acts like the Feelies and R.E.M. (who released their final studio album); hip hop acts like the Beastie Boys and the Roots; younger artists like Yuck, Johnny Foreigner, Los Campesinos!, Soccer Mom and Fucked Up; and the beastly roar of metal gods Mastodon. For concerts, I saw Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven, Robert Plant, Queens of the Stone Age, Jason Isbell, Ted Leo, Dinosaur Jr., Sloan, Young Adults/Ringo Deathstarr, Big Audio Dynamite and Buffalo Tom.
My favorite song was "Senator" by Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, off the album Mirror Traffic. It was primo Malkmus, a sardonic look at shady politicians and pretty timely, given Anthony Weiner's, uh, problems. "I know what the senator wants/What the senator wants is a blow job," sang Malkmus cheerily. Supposedly he even recorded a radio-friendly version substituting "corn dog" for "blow job," although by 2011 there weren't many radio stations left playing Malkmus songs. Whatever, the song kicks ass.
Honorable mentions: PJ Harvey - "The Words That Maketh Murder"; Mastodon - "The Curl of the Burl"; Foo Fighters - "Rope"; Yuck - "Get Away"; Mighty Fine - "Ready to Roar"; Drive-By Truckers - "The Thanksgiving Filter"; J. Mascis - "Is It Done"; Beastie Boys - "Make Some Noise"; Buffalo Tom - "Guilty Girls"; The Twilight Singers - "On the Corner"; Wild Flag - "Romance"; Deer Tick - "Main Street"; Sloan - "Follow the Leader"; Sloan - "Unkind"; Fucked Up - "Ship of Fools"; Fucked Up - "Queen of Hearts"; Destroyer - "Chinatown"; The Dears - "Blood"; Radiohead - "Lotus Flower"; R.E.M. - "Discoverer"; TV On the Radio - "Caffeinated Consciousness"; Arctic Monkeys - "Brick by Brick"; St. Vincent - "Cheerleader"; Wilco - "Art of Almost"; The Roots - "Make My"; The Black Keys - "Lonely Boy"; Soccer Mom - "It's Probably Not Your Fault"; Johnny Foreigner - "(Don't) Show Us Your Fangs"; The Feelies - "When You Know"; Los Campesinos! - "By Your Hand"; Telekinesis - "Car Crash"; Jason Isbell - "Go It Alone"
Friday, June 05, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Evil
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2010: Grinderman - Evil
The new decade began as the previous one ended: In the throes of an economic recession. Fortunately, I still had a job, but it was bad. The stock market continued to plunge, there were more layoffs at my company, and Ronnie James Dio died.
I ran the Providence Marathon in May, but unfortunately for me, it was 80 degrees and super humid that day. I was fine until about mile 20, when I got dehydrated and started struggling with muscle spasms. The last five miles of the race or so were mostly walked. It was not good. In the fall, I was going to run a full in Hampton, NH, but an injury forced me to drop down to the half. Which was a good thing, because it started pouring at mile 9. I was soaked to the bone, but I was glad I didn't have to run another 13 miles.
We went on a different vacation this year, flying in July to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It was pretty fun, although the one time I went on a computer in a nearby internet cafe, I found out there were layoffs at work. Crazy.
It was a strong year from a musical perspective. Plenty of good stuff to dig into, from Ted Leo & the Pharmacists to Superchunk to the Henry Clay People to LCD Soundsystem. Concerts included We Were Promised Jetpacks, the Feelies (who had six encores on a late Friday night show that had me begging for it to end, even though it was great), Mission of Burma, Spoon, Drive-By Truckers, Los Campesinos!, the Kominas, Superchunk (on my 43rd birthday), The Hold Steady, Greg Dulli, Black Mountain/Black Angels, Guided By Voices and Grinderman.
My song of the year was by the last band mentioned, Nick Cave's hard rocking side project Grinderman. I will admit to being extremely late to the Cave bandwagon, only really getting into his stuff in the previous few years (something I've worked to remedy over the last decade). They've only done the two albums, but both are glorious works, with Cave presiding over the unholy clatter like a deranged televangelist. "Evil" is but one of several killer tracks on this album. And live, holy crap, what an amazing show. Cave is one of the most magnetic frontmen ever, and this song presents him at the peak of his powers.
Honorable mentions: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - "Bottled in Cork"; Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "Mourning in America"; Titus Andronicus - "A More Perfect Union"; Grinderman - "Heathen Child"; Superchunk - "Digging for Something"; The Black Keys - "Tighten Up"; Black Mountain - "The Hair Song"; The Henry Clay People - "Your Famous Friends"; Spoon - "Written in Reverse"; Los Campesinos! - "Romance is Boring"; Les Savy Fav - "Sleepless in Silverlake"; Drive-By Truckers - "This Fucking Job"; LCD Soundsystem - "Drunk Girls"; Girl Talk - "Oh No"; The Besnard Lakes - "Albatross"; Frightened Rabbit - "Swim Until You Can't See Land"; Das Racist - "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell"; The Hold Steady - "Hurricane J"; The New Pornographers - "Your Hands (Together)"; Wintersleep - "Blood Collection"; Wolf Parade - "Ghost Pressure"; Arcade Fire - "Ready to Start"; Iron Maiden - "El Dorado"; The 20/20 Project - "Back to Work"; Neil Young - "Angry World"; Cee-Lo - "Fuck You"
2010: Grinderman - Evil
The new decade began as the previous one ended: In the throes of an economic recession. Fortunately, I still had a job, but it was bad. The stock market continued to plunge, there were more layoffs at my company, and Ronnie James Dio died.
I ran the Providence Marathon in May, but unfortunately for me, it was 80 degrees and super humid that day. I was fine until about mile 20, when I got dehydrated and started struggling with muscle spasms. The last five miles of the race or so were mostly walked. It was not good. In the fall, I was going to run a full in Hampton, NH, but an injury forced me to drop down to the half. Which was a good thing, because it started pouring at mile 9. I was soaked to the bone, but I was glad I didn't have to run another 13 miles.
We went on a different vacation this year, flying in July to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It was pretty fun, although the one time I went on a computer in a nearby internet cafe, I found out there were layoffs at work. Crazy.
It was a strong year from a musical perspective. Plenty of good stuff to dig into, from Ted Leo & the Pharmacists to Superchunk to the Henry Clay People to LCD Soundsystem. Concerts included We Were Promised Jetpacks, the Feelies (who had six encores on a late Friday night show that had me begging for it to end, even though it was great), Mission of Burma, Spoon, Drive-By Truckers, Los Campesinos!, the Kominas, Superchunk (on my 43rd birthday), The Hold Steady, Greg Dulli, Black Mountain/Black Angels, Guided By Voices and Grinderman.
My song of the year was by the last band mentioned, Nick Cave's hard rocking side project Grinderman. I will admit to being extremely late to the Cave bandwagon, only really getting into his stuff in the previous few years (something I've worked to remedy over the last decade). They've only done the two albums, but both are glorious works, with Cave presiding over the unholy clatter like a deranged televangelist. "Evil" is but one of several killer tracks on this album. And live, holy crap, what an amazing show. Cave is one of the most magnetic frontmen ever, and this song presents him at the peak of his powers.
Honorable mentions: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - "Bottled in Cork"; Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "Mourning in America"; Titus Andronicus - "A More Perfect Union"; Grinderman - "Heathen Child"; Superchunk - "Digging for Something"; The Black Keys - "Tighten Up"; Black Mountain - "The Hair Song"; The Henry Clay People - "Your Famous Friends"; Spoon - "Written in Reverse"; Los Campesinos! - "Romance is Boring"; Les Savy Fav - "Sleepless in Silverlake"; Drive-By Truckers - "This Fucking Job"; LCD Soundsystem - "Drunk Girls"; Girl Talk - "Oh No"; The Besnard Lakes - "Albatross"; Frightened Rabbit - "Swim Until You Can't See Land"; Das Racist - "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell"; The Hold Steady - "Hurricane J"; The New Pornographers - "Your Hands (Together)"; Wintersleep - "Blood Collection"; Wolf Parade - "Ghost Pressure"; Arcade Fire - "Ready to Start"; Iron Maiden - "El Dorado"; The 20/20 Project - "Back to Work"; Neil Young - "Angry World"; Cee-Lo - "Fuck You"
Thursday, June 04, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Alcoholics Unanimous
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2009: Art Brut - Alcoholics Unanimous
The first decade of the new millennium came to a close with a global pandemic of all things. The H1N1 swine flu caused more than 12,000 deaths in the U.S. and about 284,000 worldwide. Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett died on the same day (June 25). And the biggest-selling album in the world was by...Susan Boyle?
It was also a strange year for late night TV. NBC announced that Conan O'Brien would take over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno, only to pull the rug out from under O'Brien after seven months. Jimmy Fallon ended up getting the gig and O'Brien got a show over at TBS.
It was a decent year for me personally. I ran the Boston Marathon for the third and last time in the spring, finishing in just under 3:57. We drove up to Toronto for a vacation for the first time in several years. Got to see a great Roy Halladay start for the Jays vs. the Red Sox. I didn't end up doing a fall marathon, but I did my first Reach the Beach relay in the NH (which I continued for the next 10 years; we'll see if they hold it this fall).
Musically, there was a lot of good stuff as usual. I was on an MP3-heavy diet of indie rock: Mission of Burma, Jarvis Cocker, Johnny Foreigner, Dead Weather, Dinosaur Jr., St. Vincent, Metric, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Arctic Monkeys and more. My music discovery was done primarily via blogs and podcasts.
Concerts attended: Jason Isbell/Deer Tick, The Tragically Hip, The WMBR Breakfast of Champions 25th birthday show (Condo Fucks/Bevis Frond/Sleepyhead), Destroyer, Eagles of Death Metal, Dinosaur Jr., Them Crooked Vultures, Sonic Youth/Feelies, Ted Leo/Titus Andronicus and Sloan.
My favorite song of '09 was a fun ripper from Art Brut called "Alcoholics Unanimous" off their Art Brut Vs. Satan album. I had their previous two albums, which were good, but this record (produced by Frank Black) was a lot more raw and immediate, echoing the sound Black was accustomed to getting from his solo projects. Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos is more of a shouter than a singer, kind of the British equivalent to the Hold Steady's Craig Finn (see yesterday's post). The song details a wild night out and the resulting after-effects, which is something I didn't really do anymore, but it definitely took me back to my 20s.
Honorable mentions: Mission of Burma - "1, 2, 3, Partyy!"; Them Crooked Vultures - "Mind Eraser, No Chaser"; Them Crooked Vultures - "Elephants"; Mastodon - "Oblivion"; Jarvis Cocker - "Angela"; Art Brut - "Slap Dash for No Cash"; Art Brut - "Alcoholics Unanimous"; Arctic Monkeys - "Crying Lightning"; The Dead Weather - "Treat Me Like Your Mother"; Japandroids - "Rockers East Vancouver"; Johnny Foreigner - "Ghost the Festivals"; Danananananaykroyd - "Watch This"; Patterson Hood - "Heavy and Hanging"; Dinosaur Jr. - "Over It"; The Von Bondies - "Pale Bride"; Metric - "Gimme Sympathy"; St. Vincent - "Actor Out of Work"; The Raveonettes - "Bang"; Sonic Youth - "Sacred Trickster"; Obits - "Two-Headed Coin"; Pearl Jam - "The Fixer"; Alice in Chains - "Check My Brain"; Brendan Benson - "A Whole Lot Better"; The Gaslight Anthem - "Great Expectations"; Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - "Soldiers Get Strange"; The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "Young Adult Friction"; Neko Case - "People Got a Lotta Nerve"; Riverboat Gamblers - "A Choppy, Yet Sincere Apology"; The Tragically Hip - "Love is a First"; We Were Promised Jetpacks - "Ships With Holes Will Sink"; Wilco - "Bull Black Nova"; Jay Reatard - "I'm Watching You"; Yo La Tengo - "Here to Fall"; Condo Fucks - "What'cha Gonna Do About It"
2009: Art Brut - Alcoholics Unanimous
The first decade of the new millennium came to a close with a global pandemic of all things. The H1N1 swine flu caused more than 12,000 deaths in the U.S. and about 284,000 worldwide. Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett died on the same day (June 25). And the biggest-selling album in the world was by...Susan Boyle?
It was also a strange year for late night TV. NBC announced that Conan O'Brien would take over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno, only to pull the rug out from under O'Brien after seven months. Jimmy Fallon ended up getting the gig and O'Brien got a show over at TBS.
It was a decent year for me personally. I ran the Boston Marathon for the third and last time in the spring, finishing in just under 3:57. We drove up to Toronto for a vacation for the first time in several years. Got to see a great Roy Halladay start for the Jays vs. the Red Sox. I didn't end up doing a fall marathon, but I did my first Reach the Beach relay in the NH (which I continued for the next 10 years; we'll see if they hold it this fall).
Musically, there was a lot of good stuff as usual. I was on an MP3-heavy diet of indie rock: Mission of Burma, Jarvis Cocker, Johnny Foreigner, Dead Weather, Dinosaur Jr., St. Vincent, Metric, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Arctic Monkeys and more. My music discovery was done primarily via blogs and podcasts.
Concerts attended: Jason Isbell/Deer Tick, The Tragically Hip, The WMBR Breakfast of Champions 25th birthday show (Condo Fucks/Bevis Frond/Sleepyhead), Destroyer, Eagles of Death Metal, Dinosaur Jr., Them Crooked Vultures, Sonic Youth/Feelies, Ted Leo/Titus Andronicus and Sloan.
My favorite song of '09 was a fun ripper from Art Brut called "Alcoholics Unanimous" off their Art Brut Vs. Satan album. I had their previous two albums, which were good, but this record (produced by Frank Black) was a lot more raw and immediate, echoing the sound Black was accustomed to getting from his solo projects. Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos is more of a shouter than a singer, kind of the British equivalent to the Hold Steady's Craig Finn (see yesterday's post). The song details a wild night out and the resulting after-effects, which is something I didn't really do anymore, but it definitely took me back to my 20s.
Honorable mentions: Mission of Burma - "1, 2, 3, Partyy!"; Them Crooked Vultures - "Mind Eraser, No Chaser"; Them Crooked Vultures - "Elephants"; Mastodon - "Oblivion"; Jarvis Cocker - "Angela"; Art Brut - "Slap Dash for No Cash"; Art Brut - "Alcoholics Unanimous"; Arctic Monkeys - "Crying Lightning"; The Dead Weather - "Treat Me Like Your Mother"; Japandroids - "Rockers East Vancouver"; Johnny Foreigner - "Ghost the Festivals"; Danananananaykroyd - "Watch This"; Patterson Hood - "Heavy and Hanging"; Dinosaur Jr. - "Over It"; The Von Bondies - "Pale Bride"; Metric - "Gimme Sympathy"; St. Vincent - "Actor Out of Work"; The Raveonettes - "Bang"; Sonic Youth - "Sacred Trickster"; Obits - "Two-Headed Coin"; Pearl Jam - "The Fixer"; Alice in Chains - "Check My Brain"; Brendan Benson - "A Whole Lot Better"; The Gaslight Anthem - "Great Expectations"; Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - "Soldiers Get Strange"; The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "Young Adult Friction"; Neko Case - "People Got a Lotta Nerve"; Riverboat Gamblers - "A Choppy, Yet Sincere Apology"; The Tragically Hip - "Love is a First"; We Were Promised Jetpacks - "Ships With Holes Will Sink"; Wilco - "Bull Black Nova"; Jay Reatard - "I'm Watching You"; Yo La Tengo - "Here to Fall"; Condo Fucks - "What'cha Gonna Do About It"
Wednesday, June 03, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Constructive Summer
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2008: The Hold Steady - Constructive Summer
It was an eventful year, that's for damn sure. The financial markets collapsed in the fall, leading to an economic recession that would last for a few years. The U.S. elected its first black president in Barack Obama. There were a lot of political scandals involving a variety of individuals, including former New York governor Elliot Spitzer, Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, former Senator and current presidential candidate John Edwards and former Alaska senator Ted Stevens. Oh, and OJ Simpson finally went to jail, although not for those murders in 1994.
Things were good to start the year off. My company was doing well, got bought by a new investment firm and we all got nice bonuses. I ran the New Jersey Marathon in May and set a new personal best with a time of 3 hours, 43 minutes. We vacationed again on the Joisey Shore. Things got a little ugly at work after the stock market crashed and there were several rounds of layoffs. I survived, but it was a sign of things to come for the next few years. In November, I ran the Philadelphia Marathon and had hopes of breaking 3:40, but a chest cold and some brutally cold weather combined to slow me down a bit. I ended up doing it in 3:52, which wasn't bad.
It was another indie rock-heavy year for me. I was looking at the list of Billboard's top 100 singles of the year and I was unfamiliar with a lot of them. But I was listening to a lot of great new music, primarily via my eMusic subscription that allowed me to download a certain number of MP3s per month. I occasionally bought a CD, but for the most part, it was MP3s. Among my favorites were Black Mountain, Sloan, King Khan and the Shrines, the Gutter Twins (Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan), Ladyhawk, Drive-By Truckers, the Raveonettes, TV On the Radio and Johnny Foreigner.
Concerts included: Black Mountain/Bon Iver, Drive-By Truckers, Gutter Twins (twice), Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Mission of Burma, Iron Maiden, Sloan, Pearl Jam/Ted Leo, The Feelies and Eagles of Death Metal.
My song of the year was by a band that had continually released great music in the '00s: The Hold Steady. Their album Stay Positive came out in July and I listened to that thing all summer. I can remember doing speed work on the track at Village Middle School in Marblehead at lunchtime, sweating like a sumbitch while listening to this album. "Constructive Summer" is a rollicking riff rocker that opens the album, with singer Craig Finn simultaneously harking back to summertime drinking with his friends and looking ahead to do something bigger. While, of course, raising a toast to Saint Joe Strummer. As one should.
Honorable mentions: The Hold Steady - "Constructive Summer"; King Khan and the Shrines - "Torture"; Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - "Baltimore"; Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - "Cold Son"; The Gutter Twins - "Idle Hands"; The Gutter Twins - "Front Street"; TV On the Radio - "Dancing Choose"; The Dirtbombs - "Wreck My Flow"; Black Mountain - "Stormy High"; Black Mountain - "Evil Ways"; Sloan - "Believe in Me"; Sloan - "Witch's Wand"; Ladyhawk - "I Can't Always Hear What You're Saying"; Ladyhawk - "Corpse Paint"; The Raconteurs - "Salute Your Solution"; Drive-By Truckers - "That Man I Shot": Eagles of Death Metal - "Anything 'Cept the Truth"; The Raveonettes - "Dead Sound"; Frightened Rabbit - "Head Rolls Off"; Dead Meadow - "What Needs Must Be"; Jay Reatard - "Always Wanting More"; The Kills - "U.R.A. Fever"; Destroyer - "Foam Hands"; R.E.M. - "Supernatural Superserious"; Tapes 'n Tapes - "Hang Them All"; The Black Angels - "Science Killer"; Foxboro Hot Tubs - "Mother Mary"; Santogold - "L.E.S. Artistes"; Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - "Come On Over (Turn Me On)"; Johnny Foreigner - "Eyes Wide Terrified"; Beck - "Chemtrails"; Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!"; Night Marchers - "I Wanna Deadbeat You"; Black Francis - "The Seus"; The Breeders - "Bang On"
2008: The Hold Steady - Constructive Summer
It was an eventful year, that's for damn sure. The financial markets collapsed in the fall, leading to an economic recession that would last for a few years. The U.S. elected its first black president in Barack Obama. There were a lot of political scandals involving a variety of individuals, including former New York governor Elliot Spitzer, Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, former Senator and current presidential candidate John Edwards and former Alaska senator Ted Stevens. Oh, and OJ Simpson finally went to jail, although not for those murders in 1994.
Things were good to start the year off. My company was doing well, got bought by a new investment firm and we all got nice bonuses. I ran the New Jersey Marathon in May and set a new personal best with a time of 3 hours, 43 minutes. We vacationed again on the Joisey Shore. Things got a little ugly at work after the stock market crashed and there were several rounds of layoffs. I survived, but it was a sign of things to come for the next few years. In November, I ran the Philadelphia Marathon and had hopes of breaking 3:40, but a chest cold and some brutally cold weather combined to slow me down a bit. I ended up doing it in 3:52, which wasn't bad.
It was another indie rock-heavy year for me. I was looking at the list of Billboard's top 100 singles of the year and I was unfamiliar with a lot of them. But I was listening to a lot of great new music, primarily via my eMusic subscription that allowed me to download a certain number of MP3s per month. I occasionally bought a CD, but for the most part, it was MP3s. Among my favorites were Black Mountain, Sloan, King Khan and the Shrines, the Gutter Twins (Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan), Ladyhawk, Drive-By Truckers, the Raveonettes, TV On the Radio and Johnny Foreigner.
Concerts included: Black Mountain/Bon Iver, Drive-By Truckers, Gutter Twins (twice), Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Mission of Burma, Iron Maiden, Sloan, Pearl Jam/Ted Leo, The Feelies and Eagles of Death Metal.
My song of the year was by a band that had continually released great music in the '00s: The Hold Steady. Their album Stay Positive came out in July and I listened to that thing all summer. I can remember doing speed work on the track at Village Middle School in Marblehead at lunchtime, sweating like a sumbitch while listening to this album. "Constructive Summer" is a rollicking riff rocker that opens the album, with singer Craig Finn simultaneously harking back to summertime drinking with his friends and looking ahead to do something bigger. While, of course, raising a toast to Saint Joe Strummer. As one should.
Honorable mentions: The Hold Steady - "Constructive Summer"; King Khan and the Shrines - "Torture"; Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - "Baltimore"; Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - "Cold Son"; The Gutter Twins - "Idle Hands"; The Gutter Twins - "Front Street"; TV On the Radio - "Dancing Choose"; The Dirtbombs - "Wreck My Flow"; Black Mountain - "Stormy High"; Black Mountain - "Evil Ways"; Sloan - "Believe in Me"; Sloan - "Witch's Wand"; Ladyhawk - "I Can't Always Hear What You're Saying"; Ladyhawk - "Corpse Paint"; The Raconteurs - "Salute Your Solution"; Drive-By Truckers - "That Man I Shot": Eagles of Death Metal - "Anything 'Cept the Truth"; The Raveonettes - "Dead Sound"; Frightened Rabbit - "Head Rolls Off"; Dead Meadow - "What Needs Must Be"; Jay Reatard - "Always Wanting More"; The Kills - "U.R.A. Fever"; Destroyer - "Foam Hands"; R.E.M. - "Supernatural Superserious"; Tapes 'n Tapes - "Hang Them All"; The Black Angels - "Science Killer"; Foxboro Hot Tubs - "Mother Mary"; Santogold - "L.E.S. Artistes"; Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - "Come On Over (Turn Me On)"; Johnny Foreigner - "Eyes Wide Terrified"; Beck - "Chemtrails"; Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!"; Night Marchers - "I Wanna Deadbeat You"; Black Francis - "The Seus"; The Breeders - "Bang On"
Monday, June 01, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: The Underdog
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2007: Spoon - The Underdog
The year 2007 got off to a big start in January when Apple announced the introduction of the iPhone. The Mitchell Report came out, unveiling the rampant use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. And Larry Bud Melman died.
It was a big year for me because I hit the big 4-0, although I didn't make a big deal about it. Just another year. We drove down to Disney World for our family vacation in July; it was an exhausting drive and an exhausting week going through the various parks, but we had fun. Hannah started kindergarten in the fall, which was tough for her at first, but she got the hang of it. I ran the Baystate Marathon in October and did pretty well (for me, anyway).
There was plenty of good music happening. Radiohead caused a stir by releasing their new album In Rainbows as a pay-what-you-want download. Nick Cave got loud again with his Grinderman project. Dinosaur Jr. released their first album with the original lineup since 1988 and it sounded like they picked up where they left off. And there was interesting new music from M.I.A., El-P, Marnie Stern, the Besnard Lakes, LCD Soundsystem and the Horrors, among others.
For concerts, I saw Sloan, Mission of Burma, The Tragically Hip (twice), Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Queens of the Stone Age and Spoon.
It was that last act that had the song of the year for me. I started getting into Spoon with their last album, Gimme Fiction, but the new one, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, was their big breakthrough. And "The Underdog" was the standout song, augmented by horns and acoustic guitar, two very un-Spoon-like features. It ended up getting used in a fair amount of TV shows and movies. It's an indie rock song that can be appreciated by mainstream music fans and indie rock snobs alike, and it definitely cut across radio demographics. On this tour and beyond, you started seeing a lot of older folks who learned about the band on NPR and adult alternative radio. But it wasn't a sellout. It's just a damn good song.
Honorable mentions: Spoon - "Don't You Evah"; Radiohead - "Bodysnatchers"; of Montreal - "Suffer for Fashion"; Bloc Party - "Hunting for Witches"; Arcade Fire - "Black Mirror"; Grinderman - "Depth Charge Ethel"; Grinderman - "No Pussy Blues"; Queens of the Stone Age - "Sick, Sick, Sick"; Queens of the Stone Age - "3's and 7's"; El-P - "Flyentology"; Modest Mouse - "Dashboard"; Marnie Stern - "Vibrational Match"; Joel Plaskett Emergency - "Drunk Teenagers"; Arctic Monkeys - "Brianstorm"; Dinosaur Jr. - "Been There All the Time"; The White Stripes - "Bone Broke"; Les Savy Fav - "Pots and Pans"; Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Down Boy"; M.I.A. - "Paper Planes"; The Good, the Bad and the Queen - "Kingdom of Doom"; The Besnard Lakes - "Devastation"; Kaiser Chiefs - "Everything is Average Nowadays"; The Horrors - "Jack the Ripper"; LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends"; LCD Soundsystem - "North American Scum"; Andrew Bird - "Fiery Crash"; Wilco - "Impossible Germany"; Tim Armstrong - "Into Action"; Buffalo Tom - "Three Easy Pieces"; Flight of the Conchords - "Business Time"; Okkervil River - "Unless It's Kicks"; The New Pornographers - "Myriad Harbour"; Eddie Vedder - "Hard Sun"; Kevin Drew - "Tbtf"; Future of the Left - "Real Men Hunt in Packs"; PJ Harvey - "When Under Ether"; The Fiery Furnaces - "Restorative Beer"; Electric Six - "Down at McDonalds"; The Hives - "Tick Tick Boom"; Black Francis - "Tight Rubber"; Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - "Bomb. Repeat. Bomb."; Mondo Generator - "Lie Detector"; The National - "Mistaken for Strangers"
2007: Spoon - The Underdog
The year 2007 got off to a big start in January when Apple announced the introduction of the iPhone. The Mitchell Report came out, unveiling the rampant use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. And Larry Bud Melman died.
It was a big year for me because I hit the big 4-0, although I didn't make a big deal about it. Just another year. We drove down to Disney World for our family vacation in July; it was an exhausting drive and an exhausting week going through the various parks, but we had fun. Hannah started kindergarten in the fall, which was tough for her at first, but she got the hang of it. I ran the Baystate Marathon in October and did pretty well (for me, anyway).
There was plenty of good music happening. Radiohead caused a stir by releasing their new album In Rainbows as a pay-what-you-want download. Nick Cave got loud again with his Grinderman project. Dinosaur Jr. released their first album with the original lineup since 1988 and it sounded like they picked up where they left off. And there was interesting new music from M.I.A., El-P, Marnie Stern, the Besnard Lakes, LCD Soundsystem and the Horrors, among others.
For concerts, I saw Sloan, Mission of Burma, The Tragically Hip (twice), Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Queens of the Stone Age and Spoon.
It was that last act that had the song of the year for me. I started getting into Spoon with their last album, Gimme Fiction, but the new one, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, was their big breakthrough. And "The Underdog" was the standout song, augmented by horns and acoustic guitar, two very un-Spoon-like features. It ended up getting used in a fair amount of TV shows and movies. It's an indie rock song that can be appreciated by mainstream music fans and indie rock snobs alike, and it definitely cut across radio demographics. On this tour and beyond, you started seeing a lot of older folks who learned about the band on NPR and adult alternative radio. But it wasn't a sellout. It's just a damn good song.
Honorable mentions: Spoon - "Don't You Evah"; Radiohead - "Bodysnatchers"; of Montreal - "Suffer for Fashion"; Bloc Party - "Hunting for Witches"; Arcade Fire - "Black Mirror"; Grinderman - "Depth Charge Ethel"; Grinderman - "No Pussy Blues"; Queens of the Stone Age - "Sick, Sick, Sick"; Queens of the Stone Age - "3's and 7's"; El-P - "Flyentology"; Modest Mouse - "Dashboard"; Marnie Stern - "Vibrational Match"; Joel Plaskett Emergency - "Drunk Teenagers"; Arctic Monkeys - "Brianstorm"; Dinosaur Jr. - "Been There All the Time"; The White Stripes - "Bone Broke"; Les Savy Fav - "Pots and Pans"; Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Down Boy"; M.I.A. - "Paper Planes"; The Good, the Bad and the Queen - "Kingdom of Doom"; The Besnard Lakes - "Devastation"; Kaiser Chiefs - "Everything is Average Nowadays"; The Horrors - "Jack the Ripper"; LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends"; LCD Soundsystem - "North American Scum"; Andrew Bird - "Fiery Crash"; Wilco - "Impossible Germany"; Tim Armstrong - "Into Action"; Buffalo Tom - "Three Easy Pieces"; Flight of the Conchords - "Business Time"; Okkervil River - "Unless It's Kicks"; The New Pornographers - "Myriad Harbour"; Eddie Vedder - "Hard Sun"; Kevin Drew - "Tbtf"; Future of the Left - "Real Men Hunt in Packs"; PJ Harvey - "When Under Ether"; The Fiery Furnaces - "Restorative Beer"; Electric Six - "Down at McDonalds"; The Hives - "Tick Tick Boom"; Black Francis - "Tight Rubber"; Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - "Bomb. Repeat. Bomb."; Mondo Generator - "Lie Detector"; The National - "Mistaken for Strangers"
Sunday, May 31, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Wolf Like Me
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2006: TV On the Radio - Wolf Like Me
You remember 2006, don't you? Well, I guess it's all kind of a blur now. But it was the year that Dick Cheney shot a dude in the face and was so powerful that the victim apologized to him. James Brown, Gerald Ford and Saddam Hussein all died within a few days of each other at the end of the year. And the movie Borat introduced the fun-loving side of the country of Kazakhstan to the rest of the world.
Satellite radio had been around for a few years, but Sirius made a big push in '06 when Howard Stern made the jump from terrestrial radio. Back when I was at Webnoize in '01, my buddy Ric and I got a sneak preview of then still-to-be-launched XM (pretty sure it was XM and not Sirius, but I could be wrong); they had just set up the satellite repeaters around Boston and gave us a ride around the city listening to it. Anyhoo, Sirius and XM merged in '08 and are still at it, but I've never seen the need to pony up the dough for it. At the same time Stern was starting his satellite era, David Lee Roth began as his replacement but only lasted a few months before getting canceled.
No big changes in the work situation and the family was good. Both Deb and I were doing a lot of running early in the year as she ran the Boston Marathon and I did the Vermont City Marathon in May; I also ran the Chicago Marathon in the fall. For concerts, I saw Pearl Jam, Arctic Monkeys, Mission of Burma, Bloc Party, X/Rollins Band, Yo La Tengo, Iron Maiden (a work buddy got me back into them and we saw them at Agganis Arena...but were a bit bummed when they played their new album front to back), the Hold Steady, Frank Black, the Twilight Singers and the Hold Steady again while I was on a work trip in New Orleans.
There were some terrific albums out in '06, including the Arctic Monkeys' debut, the Hold Steady continuing their hot streak with their third straight great release, another excellent comeback record from Mission of Burma, a killer double album from Sloan and a terrific Twilight Singers album. But it was TV On the Radio's Return to Cookie Mountain and specifically the song "Wolf Like Me" that was the big one for me. Just a whirling dervish of a song that was simultaneously catchy and creepy. It was the sound of a band hitting its stride, combining killer instrumental chops with amazing vocals.
Honorable mentions: Arctic Monkeys - "I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor"; Arctic Monkeys - "Fake Tales of San Francisco"; Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - "Rise Up With Fists!!"; Robert Pollard - "Love is Stronger Than Witchcraft"; The Minus 5 - "Rifle Called Goodbye"; Ray Davies - "Things Are Gonna Change (The Morning After)"; Danko Jones - "Invisible"; Destroyer - "Your Blood"; Neko Case - "Star Witness"; Band of Horses - "The Funeral"; Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Gold Lion"; The Black Angels - "Sniper at the Gates of Heaven"; The Black Angels - "Bloodhounds on My Trail"; Built to Spill - "Goin' Against Your Mind"; Eagles of Death Metal - "I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)"; Drive-By Truckers - "Gravity's Gone"; Gnarls Barkley - "Crazy"; Pearl Jam - "World Wide Suicide"; The Raconteurs - "Steady As She Goes"; The Twilight Singers - "Bonnie Brae"; The Twilight Singers - "Forty Dollars"; Mission of Burma - "Spider's Web"; Mission of Burma - "2wice"; Frightened Rabbit - "Be Less Rude"; Sonic Youth - "Incinerate"; TV On the Radio - "Province"; Peter Bjorn & John - "Young Folks"; The Black Keys - "Your Touch"; Mastodon - "The Wolf Is Loose"; Yo La Tengo - "Mr. Tough"; Sloan - "Who Taught You to Live Like That?"; Sloan - "Ill-Placed Trust"; Beck - "Cellphone's Dead"; The Hold Steady - "Stuck Between Stations"; The Hold Steady - "Massive Nights"; The Blood Brothers - "Spit Shine Your Black Clouds"; The Tragically Hip - "The Lonely End of the Rink"; Jarvis Cocker - "Running the World"
2006: TV On the Radio - Wolf Like Me
You remember 2006, don't you? Well, I guess it's all kind of a blur now. But it was the year that Dick Cheney shot a dude in the face and was so powerful that the victim apologized to him. James Brown, Gerald Ford and Saddam Hussein all died within a few days of each other at the end of the year. And the movie Borat introduced the fun-loving side of the country of Kazakhstan to the rest of the world.
Satellite radio had been around for a few years, but Sirius made a big push in '06 when Howard Stern made the jump from terrestrial radio. Back when I was at Webnoize in '01, my buddy Ric and I got a sneak preview of then still-to-be-launched XM (pretty sure it was XM and not Sirius, but I could be wrong); they had just set up the satellite repeaters around Boston and gave us a ride around the city listening to it. Anyhoo, Sirius and XM merged in '08 and are still at it, but I've never seen the need to pony up the dough for it. At the same time Stern was starting his satellite era, David Lee Roth began as his replacement but only lasted a few months before getting canceled.
No big changes in the work situation and the family was good. Both Deb and I were doing a lot of running early in the year as she ran the Boston Marathon and I did the Vermont City Marathon in May; I also ran the Chicago Marathon in the fall. For concerts, I saw Pearl Jam, Arctic Monkeys, Mission of Burma, Bloc Party, X/Rollins Band, Yo La Tengo, Iron Maiden (a work buddy got me back into them and we saw them at Agganis Arena...but were a bit bummed when they played their new album front to back), the Hold Steady, Frank Black, the Twilight Singers and the Hold Steady again while I was on a work trip in New Orleans.
There were some terrific albums out in '06, including the Arctic Monkeys' debut, the Hold Steady continuing their hot streak with their third straight great release, another excellent comeback record from Mission of Burma, a killer double album from Sloan and a terrific Twilight Singers album. But it was TV On the Radio's Return to Cookie Mountain and specifically the song "Wolf Like Me" that was the big one for me. Just a whirling dervish of a song that was simultaneously catchy and creepy. It was the sound of a band hitting its stride, combining killer instrumental chops with amazing vocals.
Honorable mentions: Arctic Monkeys - "I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor"; Arctic Monkeys - "Fake Tales of San Francisco"; Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - "Rise Up With Fists!!"; Robert Pollard - "Love is Stronger Than Witchcraft"; The Minus 5 - "Rifle Called Goodbye"; Ray Davies - "Things Are Gonna Change (The Morning After)"; Danko Jones - "Invisible"; Destroyer - "Your Blood"; Neko Case - "Star Witness"; Band of Horses - "The Funeral"; Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Gold Lion"; The Black Angels - "Sniper at the Gates of Heaven"; The Black Angels - "Bloodhounds on My Trail"; Built to Spill - "Goin' Against Your Mind"; Eagles of Death Metal - "I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)"; Drive-By Truckers - "Gravity's Gone"; Gnarls Barkley - "Crazy"; Pearl Jam - "World Wide Suicide"; The Raconteurs - "Steady As She Goes"; The Twilight Singers - "Bonnie Brae"; The Twilight Singers - "Forty Dollars"; Mission of Burma - "Spider's Web"; Mission of Burma - "2wice"; Frightened Rabbit - "Be Less Rude"; Sonic Youth - "Incinerate"; TV On the Radio - "Province"; Peter Bjorn & John - "Young Folks"; The Black Keys - "Your Touch"; Mastodon - "The Wolf Is Loose"; Yo La Tengo - "Mr. Tough"; Sloan - "Who Taught You to Live Like That?"; Sloan - "Ill-Placed Trust"; Beck - "Cellphone's Dead"; The Hold Steady - "Stuck Between Stations"; The Hold Steady - "Massive Nights"; The Blood Brothers - "Spit Shine Your Black Clouds"; The Tragically Hip - "The Lonely End of the Rink"; Jarvis Cocker - "Running the World"
Saturday, May 30, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Entertain
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2005: Sleater-Kinney - Entertain
Some big stuff happened in '05. Hurricane Katrina and the botched response to it. A new video-sharing site called YouTube was launched (wonder if it's still around?). Pope John Paul II died. Lance Armstrong won his 7th straight Tour De France, cementing a record that would never be tarnished (right?).
In my world, things were good. The girls turned 3 and 1 and Lily started walking early in the year, so we had our hands full. After taking 2004 off from marathons, I had planned to run Vermont in the spring of '05, but I had some Achilles issues that forced me to bow out. But I recovered to run New York City for the second time in the fall.
We vacationed on the Jersey Shore again, but this time, I had to do some work editing a book while I was there. Check out the technological fun I had (from my blog post on 7/22/05): I also had to do some work the first few days down there, inputting edits to book chapters that came in late; I borrowed a laptop from work but had to get creative because the room had high-speed wireless but the laptop was not enabled to work with it. Ended up getting a 256 MB USB storage card, transferred the documents I needed from PC at the hotel's business center, spent parts of two days finishing the chapters, and then emailed the finished versions from the biz center. Not how I originally envisioned my vacation, but it had to be done.
I've had other years when I had to work on vacation, but it's a lot easier now.
It was another big year for indie rock and I was immersed in reading a bunch of MP3 blogs to learn and hear about new stuff. Among my favorite new acts were Black Mountain, LCD Soundsystem, Kaiser Chiefs, Okkervil River, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Bloc Party and Wolf Parade. I even posted a few MP3s from this blog, but that was short-lived because the buddy was providing me with access to his FTP site to host the songs ended up shutting it down or something, and I was too cheap to pay for my own. Whatevs.
The NHL's 2004-05 season was wiped out because of a labor lockout, so I ended up going to a lot of college and minor league hockey games. Still went to some concerts, though: Queens of the Stone Age, Mudhoney, Sloan and U2.
The song of the year for me was Sleater-Kinney's "Entertain" from their kickass album The Woods. I had been a fan since 2000's All Hands on the Bad One, but this album really crushed it. S-K redefined the power trio, driven primarily by Janet Weiss' pummeling drumwork. On "Entertain," Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker trade vocals while Weiss just destroys.The band split up after this tour, reuniting in 2015 with a new album and tour. Sadly, Weiss left the band after making their 2019 album The Center Won't Hold, due to musical differences. Too bad, because she rules.
Honorable mentions: Black Mountain - "Druganaut"; LCD Soundsystem - "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House"; The Mars Volta - "The Widow"; Kaiser Chiefs - "I Predict a Riot"; Kaiser Chiefs - "Everyday I Love You Less and Less"; Brendan Benson - "Alternative to Love"; Queens of the Stone Age - "Little Sister"; Queens of the Stone Age - "In My Head"; M.I.A. - "Galang"; Beck - "E-Pro"; Tom Vek - "I Ain't Saying My Goodbyes"; Okkervil River - "Black"; Robert Plant - "Shine It All Around"; Teenage Fanclub - "It's All In My Mind"; The Hold Steady - "Cattle and the Creeping Things"; The Hold Steady - "Your Little Hoodrat Friend"; Nine Inch Nails - "The Hand That Feeds"; Spoon - "Sister Jack"; Spoon - "I Turn My Camera On"; Gorillaz - "Feel Good Inc."; Maximo Park - "The Coast Is Always Changing"; Sleater-Kinney - "Jumpers"; Art Brut - "Formed a Band"; The White Stripes - "Blue Orchid"; The Dropkick Murphys - "I'm Shipping Up to Boston"; Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - "In This Home on Ice"; The Subways - "Rock and Roll Queen"; Frank Black - "I Burn Today"; The New Pornographers - "Use It"; Bloc Party - "Like Eating Glass"; Metric - "Monster Hospital"; Wolf Parade - "You Are a Runner and I am My Father's Son"; Franz Ferdinand - "Do You Want To"; Broken Social Scene - "7/4 (Shoreline)"; My Morning Jacket - "Off the Record"; Paul Weller - "From the Floorboards Up"; Snoop Dogg - "Drop It Like It's Hot"
2005: Sleater-Kinney - Entertain
Some big stuff happened in '05. Hurricane Katrina and the botched response to it. A new video-sharing site called YouTube was launched (wonder if it's still around?). Pope John Paul II died. Lance Armstrong won his 7th straight Tour De France, cementing a record that would never be tarnished (right?).
In my world, things were good. The girls turned 3 and 1 and Lily started walking early in the year, so we had our hands full. After taking 2004 off from marathons, I had planned to run Vermont in the spring of '05, but I had some Achilles issues that forced me to bow out. But I recovered to run New York City for the second time in the fall.
We vacationed on the Jersey Shore again, but this time, I had to do some work editing a book while I was there. Check out the technological fun I had (from my blog post on 7/22/05): I also had to do some work the first few days down there, inputting edits to book chapters that came in late; I borrowed a laptop from work but had to get creative because the room had high-speed wireless but the laptop was not enabled to work with it. Ended up getting a 256 MB USB storage card, transferred the documents I needed from PC at the hotel's business center, spent parts of two days finishing the chapters, and then emailed the finished versions from the biz center. Not how I originally envisioned my vacation, but it had to be done.
I've had other years when I had to work on vacation, but it's a lot easier now.
It was another big year for indie rock and I was immersed in reading a bunch of MP3 blogs to learn and hear about new stuff. Among my favorite new acts were Black Mountain, LCD Soundsystem, Kaiser Chiefs, Okkervil River, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Bloc Party and Wolf Parade. I even posted a few MP3s from this blog, but that was short-lived because the buddy was providing me with access to his FTP site to host the songs ended up shutting it down or something, and I was too cheap to pay for my own. Whatevs.
The NHL's 2004-05 season was wiped out because of a labor lockout, so I ended up going to a lot of college and minor league hockey games. Still went to some concerts, though: Queens of the Stone Age, Mudhoney, Sloan and U2.
The song of the year for me was Sleater-Kinney's "Entertain" from their kickass album The Woods. I had been a fan since 2000's All Hands on the Bad One, but this album really crushed it. S-K redefined the power trio, driven primarily by Janet Weiss' pummeling drumwork. On "Entertain," Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker trade vocals while Weiss just destroys.The band split up after this tour, reuniting in 2015 with a new album and tour. Sadly, Weiss left the band after making their 2019 album The Center Won't Hold, due to musical differences. Too bad, because she rules.
Honorable mentions: Black Mountain - "Druganaut"; LCD Soundsystem - "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House"; The Mars Volta - "The Widow"; Kaiser Chiefs - "I Predict a Riot"; Kaiser Chiefs - "Everyday I Love You Less and Less"; Brendan Benson - "Alternative to Love"; Queens of the Stone Age - "Little Sister"; Queens of the Stone Age - "In My Head"; M.I.A. - "Galang"; Beck - "E-Pro"; Tom Vek - "I Ain't Saying My Goodbyes"; Okkervil River - "Black"; Robert Plant - "Shine It All Around"; Teenage Fanclub - "It's All In My Mind"; The Hold Steady - "Cattle and the Creeping Things"; The Hold Steady - "Your Little Hoodrat Friend"; Nine Inch Nails - "The Hand That Feeds"; Spoon - "Sister Jack"; Spoon - "I Turn My Camera On"; Gorillaz - "Feel Good Inc."; Maximo Park - "The Coast Is Always Changing"; Sleater-Kinney - "Jumpers"; Art Brut - "Formed a Band"; The White Stripes - "Blue Orchid"; The Dropkick Murphys - "I'm Shipping Up to Boston"; Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - "In This Home on Ice"; The Subways - "Rock and Roll Queen"; Frank Black - "I Burn Today"; The New Pornographers - "Use It"; Bloc Party - "Like Eating Glass"; Metric - "Monster Hospital"; Wolf Parade - "You Are a Runner and I am My Father's Son"; Franz Ferdinand - "Do You Want To"; Broken Social Scene - "7/4 (Shoreline)"; My Morning Jacket - "Off the Record"; Paul Weller - "From the Floorboards Up"; Snoop Dogg - "Drop It Like It's Hot"
Friday, May 29, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: The Rat
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2004: The Walkmen - The Rat
In 2004, George W. Bush was re-elected as president, the Iraq war raged on, some dork at Harvard created a social networking site called Facebook, Martha Stewart went to jail for insider trading, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake stirred up some controversy at the Super Bowl halftime show and the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years.
Our house got a lot busier in March with the birth of my second daughter Lily. I swear I spent the next year changing diapers nonstop. It was just second nature after a while. But it was fine. We vacationed on the Jersey Shore for the first time with my brother-in-law and his family. I spent a sweltering few days in Phoenix in June for a work conference.
Indie rock was booming. I finally got an iPod and was constantly downloading stuff to put on it: New bands, bootlegs, B-sides. And there was plenty of good new music: The Hold Steady, Modest Mouse, Mark Lanegan, Hot Snakes, Wilco, PJ Harvey, Mission of Burma, The Twilight Singers and on and on. I was still listening to WMBR in the mornings at work via their website, but most of my music discovery was done through MP3 blogs. Late in the year, I also discovered podcasts. For concerts, I saw Sloan, Mission of Burma, the Tragically Hip, Wilco, and the reunited Pixies (with Mission of Burma opening).
The Walkmen were another of those new bands that I discovered through the rock blogosphere in '04. They got some exposure through shows like "The O.C." but their song "The Rat" was an instant classic for me. Driven by the powerhouse drumming of Matt Barrick, the song builds in intensity and peaks with frontman Hamilton Leithauser's soaring, sneering vocals. Just a pissed off, brilliant screed of a banger. So goddamn great.
Honorable mentions: The Walkmen - "Little House of Savages"; The Hold Steady - "The Swish"; The Hold Steady - "Most People Are DJs"; Modest Mouse - "The Good Times Are Killing Me"; Modest Mouse - "Ocean Breathes Salty"; Mark Lanegan Band - "Hit the City"; Mark Lanegan Band - "One Hundred Days"; The Tragically Hip - "Vaccination Scar"; The Tragically Hip - "Heart of the Melt"; Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - "Little Dawn"; Mission of Burma - "Hunt Again"; Mission of Burma - "The Enthusiast"; Hot Snakes - "Kreative Kontrol"; Hot Snakes - "Hi-Lites"; Eagles of Death Metal - "I Only Want You"; Wilco - "At Least That's What You Said"; A.C. Newman - "Drink to Me Babe Then"; Drive-By Truckers - "Where the Devil Don't Stay"; The Twilight Singers - "Too Tough to Die"; Sonic Youth - "Unmade Bed"; Probot - "Shake Your Blood"; TV On the Radio - "The Wrong Way"; Feist - "Inside and Out"; Elliott Smith - "Don't Go Down"; William Shatner - "I Can't Get Behind That"; The Von Bondies - "C'mon C'mon"; Franz Ferdinand - "Take Me Out"; PJ Harvey - "Who the Fuck?"; !!! - "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Karazzee"; The Black Keys - "10 A.M. Automatic"; Arcade Fire - "Wake Up"; Green Day - "American Idiot"; Death From Above 1979 - "Romantic Rights"; U2 - "Vertigo"; Jay Z - "99 Problems"; Beastie Boys - "Ch-Check It Out"
2004: The Walkmen - The Rat
In 2004, George W. Bush was re-elected as president, the Iraq war raged on, some dork at Harvard created a social networking site called Facebook, Martha Stewart went to jail for insider trading, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake stirred up some controversy at the Super Bowl halftime show and the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years.
Our house got a lot busier in March with the birth of my second daughter Lily. I swear I spent the next year changing diapers nonstop. It was just second nature after a while. But it was fine. We vacationed on the Jersey Shore for the first time with my brother-in-law and his family. I spent a sweltering few days in Phoenix in June for a work conference.
Indie rock was booming. I finally got an iPod and was constantly downloading stuff to put on it: New bands, bootlegs, B-sides. And there was plenty of good new music: The Hold Steady, Modest Mouse, Mark Lanegan, Hot Snakes, Wilco, PJ Harvey, Mission of Burma, The Twilight Singers and on and on. I was still listening to WMBR in the mornings at work via their website, but most of my music discovery was done through MP3 blogs. Late in the year, I also discovered podcasts. For concerts, I saw Sloan, Mission of Burma, the Tragically Hip, Wilco, and the reunited Pixies (with Mission of Burma opening).
The Walkmen were another of those new bands that I discovered through the rock blogosphere in '04. They got some exposure through shows like "The O.C." but their song "The Rat" was an instant classic for me. Driven by the powerhouse drumming of Matt Barrick, the song builds in intensity and peaks with frontman Hamilton Leithauser's soaring, sneering vocals. Just a pissed off, brilliant screed of a banger. So goddamn great.
Honorable mentions: The Walkmen - "Little House of Savages"; The Hold Steady - "The Swish"; The Hold Steady - "Most People Are DJs"; Modest Mouse - "The Good Times Are Killing Me"; Modest Mouse - "Ocean Breathes Salty"; Mark Lanegan Band - "Hit the City"; Mark Lanegan Band - "One Hundred Days"; The Tragically Hip - "Vaccination Scar"; The Tragically Hip - "Heart of the Melt"; Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - "Little Dawn"; Mission of Burma - "Hunt Again"; Mission of Burma - "The Enthusiast"; Hot Snakes - "Kreative Kontrol"; Hot Snakes - "Hi-Lites"; Eagles of Death Metal - "I Only Want You"; Wilco - "At Least That's What You Said"; A.C. Newman - "Drink to Me Babe Then"; Drive-By Truckers - "Where the Devil Don't Stay"; The Twilight Singers - "Too Tough to Die"; Sonic Youth - "Unmade Bed"; Probot - "Shake Your Blood"; TV On the Radio - "The Wrong Way"; Feist - "Inside and Out"; Elliott Smith - "Don't Go Down"; William Shatner - "I Can't Get Behind That"; The Von Bondies - "C'mon C'mon"; Franz Ferdinand - "Take Me Out"; PJ Harvey - "Who the Fuck?"; !!! - "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Karazzee"; The Black Keys - "10 A.M. Automatic"; Arcade Fire - "Wake Up"; Green Day - "American Idiot"; Death From Above 1979 - "Romantic Rights"; U2 - "Vertigo"; Jay Z - "99 Problems"; Beastie Boys - "Ch-Check It Out"
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2003: Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?
In the year 2003, there was a lot going on but with a baby, we understandably were a little shell-shocked. The U.S. invaded Iraq, the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded upon re-entry, Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor of California and Apple launched iTunes.
In the spring, my daughter Hannah turned one and took her first steps. By the summer, we discovered Deb was pregnant with our second child. We had planned on having two kids, so things were going along as planned, although I was definitely wondering what doubling the diapers was going to be like.
Meanwhile, I was getting into running in a big way. I ran two marathons in '03, Boston in the spring and New York in the fall. We drove up to Toronto for two weddings in the summer. And I did some more traveling for work, going to San Antonio in June (a tad toasty) and Chicago in the fall.
MP3 blogs were all the rage (at least for indie rock nerds such as myself) so I was downloading a lot of stuff and getting introduced to a lot of new music from bands like the Postal Service, Cat Power, Fiery Furnaces, Drive-By Truckers, the Wrens and TV On the Radio. And there was plenty of other great stuff from the likes of Greg Dulli's Twilight Singers, the White Stripes, the Black Keys, Gord Downie, Sloan and a boatload of others. Concerts included Pat DiNizio (playing a "living room show" with my friend Andrew's band WOW backing him up in Portland), Yo La Tengo, Gord Downie, Radiohead and Guster. (Speaking of blogs, I also launched this one in '03, although not as an MP3 blog.)
My favorite song was from Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, who released their second terrific record in a row with Hearts of Oak. "Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?" was a rollicking tribute to old-school ska, featuring Leo's hot guitar work and high-pitched vocal style. The album as a whole is a feel-good combination of punk-pop that was part Clash, Thin Lizzy and Elvis Costello. It was a perfect blend of all the good stuff I dug, and Leo has continued to do quality work to this day. But "Rude Boys" has that timeless feel that never fails to raise your spirits.
Honorable mentions: The Postal Service - "Such Great Heights"; Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "The High Party"; Cat Power - "He War"; Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - "Water and a Seat"; Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks - "(Do Not Feed the) Oyster"; The White Stripes - "Seven Nation Army"; The White Stripes - "The Hardest Button to Button"; Yo La Tengo - "Today is the Day"; The Black Keys - "Set You Free"; The Black Keys - "Have Love, Will Travel"; Matthew Sweet - "Dead Smile"; Matthew Sweet - "Tonight We Ride"; Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Maps"; Electric Six - "Gay Bar"; Electric Six - "Danger! High Voltage!"; Riverboat Gamblers - "Hey! Hey! Hey!"; Radiohead - "2 + 2 = 5"; Radiohead - "Myxomatosis"; Drive-By Truckers - "Outfit"; Drive-By Truckers - "Hell No I Ain't Happy"; TV On the Radio - "Staring at the Sun"; Sloan - "Gimme That"; Sloan - "Backstabbin'"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "Nadine"; Outkast - "Hey Ya!"; Outkast - "The Way You Move"; The Twilight Singers - "Teenage Wristband"; The Twilight Singers - "The Killer"; The Shins - "So Says I"; Mark Lanegan - "Methamphetamine Blues"; Mark Lanegan - "Message to Mine"; Johnny Cash - "Hurt"; The Wrens - "This Boy is Exhausted"; Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - "Coma Girl"; Gord Downie - "Figment"; Gord Downie - "Pascal's Submarine"
2003: Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?
In the year 2003, there was a lot going on but with a baby, we understandably were a little shell-shocked. The U.S. invaded Iraq, the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded upon re-entry, Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor of California and Apple launched iTunes.
In the spring, my daughter Hannah turned one and took her first steps. By the summer, we discovered Deb was pregnant with our second child. We had planned on having two kids, so things were going along as planned, although I was definitely wondering what doubling the diapers was going to be like.
Meanwhile, I was getting into running in a big way. I ran two marathons in '03, Boston in the spring and New York in the fall. We drove up to Toronto for two weddings in the summer. And I did some more traveling for work, going to San Antonio in June (a tad toasty) and Chicago in the fall.
MP3 blogs were all the rage (at least for indie rock nerds such as myself) so I was downloading a lot of stuff and getting introduced to a lot of new music from bands like the Postal Service, Cat Power, Fiery Furnaces, Drive-By Truckers, the Wrens and TV On the Radio. And there was plenty of other great stuff from the likes of Greg Dulli's Twilight Singers, the White Stripes, the Black Keys, Gord Downie, Sloan and a boatload of others. Concerts included Pat DiNizio (playing a "living room show" with my friend Andrew's band WOW backing him up in Portland), Yo La Tengo, Gord Downie, Radiohead and Guster. (Speaking of blogs, I also launched this one in '03, although not as an MP3 blog.)
My favorite song was from Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, who released their second terrific record in a row with Hearts of Oak. "Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?" was a rollicking tribute to old-school ska, featuring Leo's hot guitar work and high-pitched vocal style. The album as a whole is a feel-good combination of punk-pop that was part Clash, Thin Lizzy and Elvis Costello. It was a perfect blend of all the good stuff I dug, and Leo has continued to do quality work to this day. But "Rude Boys" has that timeless feel that never fails to raise your spirits.
Honorable mentions: The Postal Service - "Such Great Heights"; Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "The High Party"; Cat Power - "He War"; Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - "Water and a Seat"; Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks - "(Do Not Feed the) Oyster"; The White Stripes - "Seven Nation Army"; The White Stripes - "The Hardest Button to Button"; Yo La Tengo - "Today is the Day"; The Black Keys - "Set You Free"; The Black Keys - "Have Love, Will Travel"; Matthew Sweet - "Dead Smile"; Matthew Sweet - "Tonight We Ride"; Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Maps"; Electric Six - "Gay Bar"; Electric Six - "Danger! High Voltage!"; Riverboat Gamblers - "Hey! Hey! Hey!"; Radiohead - "2 + 2 = 5"; Radiohead - "Myxomatosis"; Drive-By Truckers - "Outfit"; Drive-By Truckers - "Hell No I Ain't Happy"; TV On the Radio - "Staring at the Sun"; Sloan - "Gimme That"; Sloan - "Backstabbin'"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "Nadine"; Outkast - "Hey Ya!"; Outkast - "The Way You Move"; The Twilight Singers - "Teenage Wristband"; The Twilight Singers - "The Killer"; The Shins - "So Says I"; Mark Lanegan - "Methamphetamine Blues"; Mark Lanegan - "Message to Mine"; Johnny Cash - "Hurt"; The Wrens - "This Boy is Exhausted"; Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - "Coma Girl"; Gord Downie - "Figment"; Gord Downie - "Pascal's Submarine"
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Fell In Love With a Girl
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2001: The White Stripes - Fell In Love With a Girl
When you think about newsworthy events in 2001, there's really only one thing that stands out: the merger of AOL and Time Warner.
I keed, I keed, it's 9/11, of course. But plenty of other stuff happened before that. Napster shut down. Apple introduced the iPod. The XBox and the Segway were released. Dale Earnhardt and Aaliyah died.
The dotcom economy tanked, as expected. At Webnoize, we saw it coming and as the year wore on, things got bleaker. We watched dotcoms run out of money and go out of business and by the end of the summer, it was obvious the ship was sinking. So I started looking for a new job. I had a little extra urgency because Deb and I found out we were going to have a baby the following spring.
Of course, September 11 really dealt the finishing blow to the company. Our conference in November still happened (although most of us didn't go), but given a lot of the companies that went the previous two years didn't exist or had no money to fly there. I went on some interviews, but nothing really clicked. Finally, I ended up getting a job back at my old company in Marblehead, so I gave my two weeks' notice. At the end of the first week in mid-November, we were all laid off. I had a unplanned week off, and then was back in Marblehead.
This year, a lot of '90s acts were continuing into the new decade on a strong note: Radiohead, Sloan, Guided By Voices, Frank Black, Built to Spill, but there were good new efforts from Stephen Malkmus, Destroyer, Ted Leo and the Strokes. Concerts attended included: Radiohead, Gord Downie, The Tragically Hip, Built to Spill, PJ Harvey and Buddy Guy.
The White Stripes were the breakout band for me in '01. I had been hearing tracks from their new album White Blood Cells on WMBR, but it was seeing the band at the Middle East with a bunch of my Webnoize buddies that clinched it. The guitar-drums garage rock attack was particularly effective in the live setting, but the album kicked ass, especially "Fell In Love With a Girl." Jack White's guitar especially provided a jolt of energy. It didn't really catch on nationally until it was released as a single in April 2002, but I loved it from the moment I heard it. And it was great to see the band when they were still playing small venues, which definitely was not the case when they returned on their next tour.
And speaking of changes, we were bracing for the biggest one so far in our lives coming the next spring.
Honorable mentions: The White Stripes - "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "Robert Onion"; Stephen Malkmus - "Black Book"; Rocket From the Crypt - "Heart of a Rat"; Gorillaz - "Clint Eastwood"; Guided By Voices - "Glad Guys"; Guided By Voices - "Chasing Heather Crazy"; Destroyer - "The Sublimation Hour"; Radiohead - "Knives Out"; Radiohead - "Pyramid Song"; Sloan - "If It Feels Good, Do It"; Sloan - "The Other Man"; Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "Biomusicology"; Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "Timorous Me"; Built to Spill - "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss"; The Strokes - "Last Nite"; The Strokes - "Is This It"; Ben Folds - "Annie Waits"; Ben Folds - "Rockin' the Suburbs"; Tenacious D - "Tribute"; Fu Manchu - "Mongoose"; Jay Z - "Izzo (HOVA)";
2001: The White Stripes - Fell In Love With a Girl
When you think about newsworthy events in 2001, there's really only one thing that stands out: the merger of AOL and Time Warner.
I keed, I keed, it's 9/11, of course. But plenty of other stuff happened before that. Napster shut down. Apple introduced the iPod. The XBox and the Segway were released. Dale Earnhardt and Aaliyah died.
The dotcom economy tanked, as expected. At Webnoize, we saw it coming and as the year wore on, things got bleaker. We watched dotcoms run out of money and go out of business and by the end of the summer, it was obvious the ship was sinking. So I started looking for a new job. I had a little extra urgency because Deb and I found out we were going to have a baby the following spring.
Of course, September 11 really dealt the finishing blow to the company. Our conference in November still happened (although most of us didn't go), but given a lot of the companies that went the previous two years didn't exist or had no money to fly there. I went on some interviews, but nothing really clicked. Finally, I ended up getting a job back at my old company in Marblehead, so I gave my two weeks' notice. At the end of the first week in mid-November, we were all laid off. I had a unplanned week off, and then was back in Marblehead.
This year, a lot of '90s acts were continuing into the new decade on a strong note: Radiohead, Sloan, Guided By Voices, Frank Black, Built to Spill, but there were good new efforts from Stephen Malkmus, Destroyer, Ted Leo and the Strokes. Concerts attended included: Radiohead, Gord Downie, The Tragically Hip, Built to Spill, PJ Harvey and Buddy Guy.
The White Stripes were the breakout band for me in '01. I had been hearing tracks from their new album White Blood Cells on WMBR, but it was seeing the band at the Middle East with a bunch of my Webnoize buddies that clinched it. The guitar-drums garage rock attack was particularly effective in the live setting, but the album kicked ass, especially "Fell In Love With a Girl." Jack White's guitar especially provided a jolt of energy. It didn't really catch on nationally until it was released as a single in April 2002, but I loved it from the moment I heard it. And it was great to see the band when they were still playing small venues, which definitely was not the case when they returned on their next tour.
And speaking of changes, we were bracing for the biggest one so far in our lives coming the next spring.
Honorable mentions: The White Stripes - "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "Robert Onion"; Stephen Malkmus - "Black Book"; Rocket From the Crypt - "Heart of a Rat"; Gorillaz - "Clint Eastwood"; Guided By Voices - "Glad Guys"; Guided By Voices - "Chasing Heather Crazy"; Destroyer - "The Sublimation Hour"; Radiohead - "Knives Out"; Radiohead - "Pyramid Song"; Sloan - "If It Feels Good, Do It"; Sloan - "The Other Man"; Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "Biomusicology"; Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "Timorous Me"; Built to Spill - "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss"; The Strokes - "Last Nite"; The Strokes - "Is This It"; Ben Folds - "Annie Waits"; Ben Folds - "Rockin' the Suburbs"; Tenacious D - "Tribute"; Fu Manchu - "Mongoose"; Jay Z - "Izzo (HOVA)";
Monday, May 25, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Optimistic
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2000: Radiohead - Optimistic
First things first, we survived Y2K intact. Nothing happened, the computers kept working and on we went. It was another presidential election year in the U.S. and this one was particularly crazy, with George W. Bush edging out Al Gore after a controversial monthlong recount in Florida. The dotcom bubble began to burst, leading into a lot of companies going under.
That last piece of news wasn't particularly great for the dotcom I was working at, although we weren't as reliant on big money as some of the more infamous companies were. We were busy in 2000, moving our office from Stoneham to Central Square in Cambridge, which was fun. We had a pretty cool space and I was working closely with a good group of folks covering all these dotcom investments. One big story we followed was when Metallica decided to sue Napster, followed soon afterward by the major labels filing suit. We went to South By Southwest in March, where we had a booth and spent a lot of time covering the event; we also spent a lot of time eating BBQ and going to see bands including Modest Mouse, Fu Manchu and the Bevis Frond. In November, we were back in Los Angeles for our annual conference. But as we tracked how a lot of these internet-based companies were unable to take advantage of the funding they had received, we also were facing a similar dilemma as we headed in 2001.
Meanwhile in Beverly, Deb and I spent the first part of the year getting ready for our wedding in July. About a month before the big day, a huge tree branch fell on and totaled my car. Since I was taking the train to work anyway, we decided to just go with one car for the time being. The wedding itself was great and we went to St. Lucia for our honeymoon. Then in the fall, we ended up buying a two-family house across town with Deb's mom. By total coincidence, it just so happened to be the same house I rented an apartment in eight years earlier.
We had shitty dial-up internet at home so using Napster was out of the question. I tried it, but it was so slow. But in the office, we had a nice, fast T1 line, so we used it "for research purposes" (which was actually true, because we had a research department that was publishing reports on the service). New music was getting leaked early on Napster, including Madonna's latest single. This was the pre-iPod era, but we had gotten different MP3 players sent to us, including my personal favorite, the Diamond Rio. The player only had 64 MB of memory, which could play about an hour's worth of music (depending on the bitrate or size of the files; we used to get stuff at 96 or 128 kbps, which is pretty low-quality, but it worked). But you could add a memory card and double the memory. So I was getting advance copies of new albums and listening to them on my commute. These included the new releases from Radiohead (more on that in a bit), At the Drive-In, The Tragically Hip, U2 and others. I was also still buying CDs and ripping them into MP3s to listen to on my MP3 player; these included albums from Queens of the Stone Age, PJ Harvey, Sleater-Kinney and Outkast.
Once we moved to the Cambridge the office, we started listening to WMBR, the MIT campus station, which introduced to a lot of newer acts like the White Stripes, Peaches, Modest Mouse and others. We also had this weird Sun ray computer system (you used a smart card to log in, so you could go to any terminal and get your settings and stuff) with a shared music drive full of stuff we had downloaded from Napster. You couldn't download it to a personal player, but it was cool when you were working in the office. For concerts, I saw Supergrass, the Tragically Hip and Guster, in addition to those shows I saw in Austin. But certainly a lot fewer shows than in previous years, probably due to a longer work day (I was up at 5 to go to the gym and then catch the 7:20 train to Boston and then didn't get home until 7:30 p.m.) and the fact we only had one car now.
Coming off the success of 1997's OK Computer, Radiohead had established themselves as a band to watch and the anticipation for their follow-up was immense. Fans and critics were expecting a continuation of the guitar-heavy sound the band had used on their first three albums, but 2000's Kid A ended up going in a totally opposite direction, embracing electronics in an almost shocking way. I'm a guitar fan so when I first heard songs from Kid A via Napster, I was disappointed, but the more I listened, the more I liked them. That was where the intimate experience of listening to those songs on my Rio 500 player really paid off. I dug into those songs while on that long-ass commute, which included walking to the train station, 35-40 minutes on the train, another 10-minute walk to the subway and yet another 10-minute walk to my office. That made Kid A really imprint itself onto my brain, and there was so much to like about it. I especially liked "Optimistic," which sort of melded the band's old and new approaches.
For me, "Optimistic" represented a lot of different things, not the least of which was a positive outlook as I moved into the "grown-up phase" of my life. It ended up coming in handy the following, which presented a lot of grown-up challenges, both good and bad.
Honorable mentions: Radiohead - "Everything In Its Right Place"; Radiohead - "Idioteque"; PJ Harvey - "Good Fortune"; PJ Harvey - "This Mess We're In"; Queens of the Stone Age - "In the Fade"; Queens of the Stone Age - "Feel Good Hit of the Summer"; The Tragically Hip - "My Music at Work"; The Tragically Hip - "Lake Fever"; Pearl Jam - "Nothing As It Seems"; Rollins Band - "Get Some Go Again"; Yo La Tengo - "Cherry Chapstick"; Steely Dan - "Cousin Dupree"; Elliott Smith - "Son of Sam"; Sleater-Kinney - "You're No Rock 'N Roll Fun"; Modest Mouse - "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes"; The White Stripes - "Hello Operator"; The White Stripes - "You're Pretty Good Looking (for a Girl)"; U2 - "Elevation"; U2 - "Walk On"; Outkast - "Ms. Jackson"; Outkast - "So Fresh, So Clean"; Dr. Dre - "Forgot About Dre"'; Fu Manchu - "Boogie Van"; Fu Manchu - "King of the Road"; Geddy Lee - "My Favorite Headache"; At the Drive-In - "One-Armed Scissor"; At the Drive-In - "Rolodex Propaganda"
2000: Radiohead - Optimistic
First things first, we survived Y2K intact. Nothing happened, the computers kept working and on we went. It was another presidential election year in the U.S. and this one was particularly crazy, with George W. Bush edging out Al Gore after a controversial monthlong recount in Florida. The dotcom bubble began to burst, leading into a lot of companies going under.
That last piece of news wasn't particularly great for the dotcom I was working at, although we weren't as reliant on big money as some of the more infamous companies were. We were busy in 2000, moving our office from Stoneham to Central Square in Cambridge, which was fun. We had a pretty cool space and I was working closely with a good group of folks covering all these dotcom investments. One big story we followed was when Metallica decided to sue Napster, followed soon afterward by the major labels filing suit. We went to South By Southwest in March, where we had a booth and spent a lot of time covering the event; we also spent a lot of time eating BBQ and going to see bands including Modest Mouse, Fu Manchu and the Bevis Frond. In November, we were back in Los Angeles for our annual conference. But as we tracked how a lot of these internet-based companies were unable to take advantage of the funding they had received, we also were facing a similar dilemma as we headed in 2001.
Meanwhile in Beverly, Deb and I spent the first part of the year getting ready for our wedding in July. About a month before the big day, a huge tree branch fell on and totaled my car. Since I was taking the train to work anyway, we decided to just go with one car for the time being. The wedding itself was great and we went to St. Lucia for our honeymoon. Then in the fall, we ended up buying a two-family house across town with Deb's mom. By total coincidence, it just so happened to be the same house I rented an apartment in eight years earlier.
We had shitty dial-up internet at home so using Napster was out of the question. I tried it, but it was so slow. But in the office, we had a nice, fast T1 line, so we used it "for research purposes" (which was actually true, because we had a research department that was publishing reports on the service). New music was getting leaked early on Napster, including Madonna's latest single. This was the pre-iPod era, but we had gotten different MP3 players sent to us, including my personal favorite, the Diamond Rio. The player only had 64 MB of memory, which could play about an hour's worth of music (depending on the bitrate or size of the files; we used to get stuff at 96 or 128 kbps, which is pretty low-quality, but it worked). But you could add a memory card and double the memory. So I was getting advance copies of new albums and listening to them on my commute. These included the new releases from Radiohead (more on that in a bit), At the Drive-In, The Tragically Hip, U2 and others. I was also still buying CDs and ripping them into MP3s to listen to on my MP3 player; these included albums from Queens of the Stone Age, PJ Harvey, Sleater-Kinney and Outkast.
Once we moved to the Cambridge the office, we started listening to WMBR, the MIT campus station, which introduced to a lot of newer acts like the White Stripes, Peaches, Modest Mouse and others. We also had this weird Sun ray computer system (you used a smart card to log in, so you could go to any terminal and get your settings and stuff) with a shared music drive full of stuff we had downloaded from Napster. You couldn't download it to a personal player, but it was cool when you were working in the office. For concerts, I saw Supergrass, the Tragically Hip and Guster, in addition to those shows I saw in Austin. But certainly a lot fewer shows than in previous years, probably due to a longer work day (I was up at 5 to go to the gym and then catch the 7:20 train to Boston and then didn't get home until 7:30 p.m.) and the fact we only had one car now.
Coming off the success of 1997's OK Computer, Radiohead had established themselves as a band to watch and the anticipation for their follow-up was immense. Fans and critics were expecting a continuation of the guitar-heavy sound the band had used on their first three albums, but 2000's Kid A ended up going in a totally opposite direction, embracing electronics in an almost shocking way. I'm a guitar fan so when I first heard songs from Kid A via Napster, I was disappointed, but the more I listened, the more I liked them. That was where the intimate experience of listening to those songs on my Rio 500 player really paid off. I dug into those songs while on that long-ass commute, which included walking to the train station, 35-40 minutes on the train, another 10-minute walk to the subway and yet another 10-minute walk to my office. That made Kid A really imprint itself onto my brain, and there was so much to like about it. I especially liked "Optimistic," which sort of melded the band's old and new approaches.
For me, "Optimistic" represented a lot of different things, not the least of which was a positive outlook as I moved into the "grown-up phase" of my life. It ended up coming in handy the following, which presented a lot of grown-up challenges, both good and bad.
Honorable mentions: Radiohead - "Everything In Its Right Place"; Radiohead - "Idioteque"; PJ Harvey - "Good Fortune"; PJ Harvey - "This Mess We're In"; Queens of the Stone Age - "In the Fade"; Queens of the Stone Age - "Feel Good Hit of the Summer"; The Tragically Hip - "My Music at Work"; The Tragically Hip - "Lake Fever"; Pearl Jam - "Nothing As It Seems"; Rollins Band - "Get Some Go Again"; Yo La Tengo - "Cherry Chapstick"; Steely Dan - "Cousin Dupree"; Elliott Smith - "Son of Sam"; Sleater-Kinney - "You're No Rock 'N Roll Fun"; Modest Mouse - "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes"; The White Stripes - "Hello Operator"; The White Stripes - "You're Pretty Good Looking (for a Girl)"; U2 - "Elevation"; U2 - "Walk On"; Outkast - "Ms. Jackson"; Outkast - "So Fresh, So Clean"; Dr. Dre - "Forgot About Dre"'; Fu Manchu - "Boogie Van"; Fu Manchu - "King of the Road"; Geddy Lee - "My Favorite Headache"; At the Drive-In - "One-Armed Scissor"; At the Drive-In - "Rolodex Propaganda"
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