Videodrone #25: Letter from an Occupant

Videodrone is a weekly(ish) feature looking at music videos from the last half century. 

Letter from an Occupant (2000)

What happens when you write a perfect pop song and nobody hears it? Did it actually happen? Well, in the case of "Letter from an Occupant" by the New Pornographers, yes, it did happen and we are all better for it.

Of course, I'm being hyperbolic to say nobody heard it. The song was on the band's debut album, Mass Romantic, which was released on Mint Records in Canada in November 2000. The album got good notices (indeed, the NPs won a Juno for Alternative Album of the Year for it), but it didn't chart and "Letter from Occupant," which was released as a single in April 2002, didn't make much of a splash on radio or MTV. (Although I just discovered it was included on the soundtrack to the movie Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back in 2001.)

But dammit, it sure deserved to. The group was referred to as a Canadian indie rock supergroup, more as a joke than anything else since none of its members had any real success prior to joining. Head songwriter Carl Newman was previously in Zumpano, Dan Bejar was in Destroyer, John Collins was in the Evaporators, Kurt Dahle came from Limblifter and Blaine Thurier later became a filmmaker. Honorary Canuck Neko Case was already an alt-country solo artist, but her career didn't take off until later.

Case sang lead on "Letter from an Occupant," which was an upbeat power pop gem that was very different from Case's usual repertoire. There was a lot going on in the song, Newman told Pitchfork: "I remember 'Letter from an Occupant' was a pretty belabored song. It ended up being almost minimal, but I remember there's so much shit we put on it. There's a psychedelic 12-string guitar solo, a backwards guitar, there's a really cool synth that's in there but buried. At some point, you have to choose. That was the hardest part about mixing the thing: just making that judgment call. I only feel at peace with the record now because people seem to like it."

Newman's lyrics are also excellent. "The time that your enemy gives you/Good times are not the ones you want/I've cried five rivers on the way here/Which one will you skate away on?/The tune you'll be humming forever/All the words are replaced and wrong/With a shower of 'yeahs' and 'whatevers'/You traded me away long gone."

The video was directed by Michael Dowse, who went on to direct feature films including the beloved cult comedy FUBAR, the hockey comedy Goon, and several others. The video features the NPs performing the song in different locations with a screen in the background that jumps to the next scene. It likely got plenty of play on MuchMusic in Canada; if it got any MTV airplay, it was on 120 Minutes. I certainly never saw the video until YouTube came along years later.

I never heard the NPs on the radio, but rather discovered the band the way I learned about a lot of music in the early 2000s, through MP3 blogs. It was around 2003 when the band's second album, Electric Version, came out, that some of the blogs I followed started hyping the New Pornographers. I went back and discovered the greatness of Mass Romantic. 

The early '00s was a great time for Canadian indie rock: The New Pornographers, Broken Social Scene, Metric, Wolf Parade, Stars, Arcade Fire, Death from Above 1979, The Dears, Joel Plaskett Emergency, Hot Hot Heat, Black Mountain, Land of Talk and on and on. 

The NPs just released their 10th album earlier this year. Newman remains the band's leader and Case continues to work with the group, even though her solo career has really blossomed. The rest of the lineup has fluctuated over the years, but the band's output remains strong. Still, Mass Romantic and "Letter from an Occupant" was a hell of a launching-off point.

Completely Conspicuous 672: Amazing Disgrace

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

Show notes:

• Jay's #6: The Spinanes with a decidedly not-grunge album on Sub Pop
• Female singer-songwriter teamed with kickass drummer
• Phil's #5: Power pop that never hit big from Boston's Gigolo Aunts
• Got a song on the Dumb and Dumber soundtrack
• Jay's #5: Another power pop gem from the Velvet Crush
• Saw them play in Austin in '94
• Phil's #4: B-52s avoid the sophomore slump and getting labeled as a novelty act
• Didn't hit as hard as the debut, but strong nonetheless
• Jay's #4: Late '80s/early '90s anthemic indie rock from O-Positive
• Influenced by R.E.M. and briefly on CBS
• Phil's #3: More Boston-area indie rock with Belly
• Tanya Donelly had a great rock pedigree, first playing with Throwing Muses and Breeders
• Jay's #3: Ex-Dumptruck guitarist Kevin Salem with Replacements/Tom Petty sound
• Released a couple of strong albums in the mid-90s before moving into production
• Phil's #2: U2's electronic departure that turned off a lot of their fans
• They were ahead of the game with the techno sounds
• Bad choice for lead single
• Jay's #2: Again with the power pop, this time from the Posies
• Band fell out of favor, Geffen refused to promote it
• Angry album that nobody heard
• Phil's #1: The Neil Young album where he was backed by Pearl Jam but couldn't publicize it
• "Godfather of grunge" with the biggest band at the time
• Did a brief tour of Europe, couldn't play here because of PJ's Ticketmaster litigation
• Jay's #1: Another major label flameout courtesy of Jawbreaker
• Punk act that faced sellout cries from fanbase, but label didn't like finished product and dropped them
• Great album that was a big influence on emo acts to come

Completely Conspicuous is available through wherever you get podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

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

Videodrone #4: Dream Police

Videodrone is a weekly feature looking at music videos from the last half century. 

Dream Police (1979)

There was a lot going on in 1979. Disco was big on the charts, with Donna Summer and Earth, Wind and Fire doing well, but the backlash was growing. New wave was gaining momentum, with acts like the Cars, the Police, the B-52s, Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson getting radio airplay, and punk acts like the Clash and the Jam were transcending the genre. 

It was also a breakthrough year for Cheap Trick, a power pop act out of Rockford, Illinois, that released its debut album in '77 to little fanfare. Two more excellent but under-the-radar albums came out before the band went to Japan in the spring of 1978 to play a few shows. The reaction was over the top and Cheap Trick recorded the shows for a live album called Cheap Trick at Budokan, which was released in early '79. The album was a monster hit, with "I Want You to Want Me" becoming a top 10 single. 

The band had a visual gimmick, contrasting the handsomeness of singer Robin Zander and bassist Tom Petersson with the dorky, goofball looks of guitarist Rick Nielsen and drummer Bun E. Carlos. 

The band didn't waste the momentum, releasing their fourth studio album, Dream Police, on my 12th birthday (Sept. 21). The title track served as the lead single and video, with its lyrics describing a Big Brother situation where the government polices your dreams. 

The video opens with the four band members in a police lineup, pleading their cases for why they shouldn't be prosecuted.

Zander: "I didn't do it. Five years ago, I had no idea I'd be here. Who are you anyway? What do you take me for? I must be dreaming."

Carlos (after fumbling through his pockets for a piece of paper): "Pardon me. Listen, I'll never eat a double cheeseburger before bed again, really."

Petersson: "I'm telling you, I didn't do it. But if I did do it, it was an accident." (A direct quote of Sex Pistol Sid Vicious' comments to the police after his girlfriend Nancy Spungen was found dead in their hotel room in the fall of 1978.)

Nielsen: "In promulgating your esoteric cogitations and articulating your superficial sentimentalities, amicable, philosophical, and psychological observations, beware of platitudinous ponderosities. Are we really the Dream Police?"

The foursome then walks offscreen and dresses in the all-white garb of the Dream Police before the video switches to a band performance, complete with Carlos with a lung dart hanging from his lips as he nonchalantly pounds the skins. The song is a pulsing rocker that's abetted by a string section as a paranoid-sounding Zander sings: "The dream police/They live inside of my head/The dream police/They come to me in my bed/The dream police/They're coming to arrest me/Oh no."

The added ELO-style instrumentation expands the group's sound, elevating the paranoia as the song builds up to a feverish crescendo. "'Cause they're waiting for me/They're looking for me/Every single night/They're driving me insane/Those men inside my brain."

Nielsen takes the mid-song spoken word part: "I try to sleep/They're wide awake/They won't let me alone/They don't get paid to take vacations/Or let me alone/They spy on me/I try to hide/They won't let me alone/They persecute me/They're the judge and jury all in one."

As the band plays an instrumental section before the final chorus, the video shows each member's mug shot alongside them in their Dream Police gear.

This was one of those songs I couldn't get enough of as a 12-year-old rock fan. I bought the 45 and played it constantly. 

Cheap Trick parlayed the success of the Dream Police into headlining arenas and their next album, 1980's All Shook Up, was produced by none other than George Martin. The '80s and '90s proved a bumpy ride for the band, however. The early '80s saw their popularity dwindle (I saw them headline a festival show in Kingston, NH, in July 1984; after second-billed Ratt played their set, a good chunk of the packed audience went home), only to bounce back in 1988 with a #1 hit ("The Flame") and a #4 in their cover of "Don't Be Cruel." 

Zander, Nielsen and Petersson are still recording and touring as Cheap Trick, with Nielsen's son Daxx on drums. Cheap Trick parlayed their visual flair into a memorable image long before MTV became a thing and have continued on (in a less prominent but still rocking) way long after videos were essential for band success.

Unsung: Number of the Altered Beast

Unsung is a feature in which I take a look at a pop culture phenomenon (be it music, TV, literary, whatever) that has been forgotten or underappreciated. In this installment, I take a look at Altered Beast, Matthew Sweet's 1993 follow-up to his breakthrough album.

The music business is a mysterious and unpredictable thing. Many artists have recorded brilliant albums that go underappreciated while the dumbest shit imaginable totally blows up. This is about one of those underappreciated albums.

Matthew Sweet got his start in Nebraska, playing in the bands the Specs and the Dialtones while still in high school. He went to college in Athens, Georgia, as that city's music scene was hitting its stride. Sweet had met R.E.M. when they played in Lincoln, Nebraska, the previous year; he teamed up with Michael Stipe in a duo called Community Trolls and played guitar in Oh-OK, a band fronted by Stipe's sister Linda. He also formed The Buzz of Delight with Oh-OK drummer David Pierce and released an EP in 1984, which led to Sweet scoring a solo deal with Columbia Records.

His first two albums, 1986's Inside and 1989's Earth, received positive reviews but didn't sell well. By the end of the '90s, his label was done with him and his marriage ended. Sweet signed with Zoo Entertainment in 1990 and he put together a powerhouse band featuring indie guitar gods Richard Lloyd and Robert Quine. The resulting album was 1991's Girlfriend, a power pop masterpiece that broke through on FM radio and MTV with the title track (which hit #10 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart). While the album only hit #100 on the Billboard 200 chart, Sweet got a lot of attention in the indie rock world and was poised for bigger things.

But by July 1993, when Sweet's fourth album Altered Beast was released, a lot had changed in the rock world. Grunge was king and music fans were chasing after the latest big thing, which was guitar-dominated heavy rock from the likes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. Sweet's super-melodic power pop wasn't in demand, but Altered Beast also had a darker edge to it that turned some fans of Girlfriend off. It was still catchy as hell, but there was a lot more anger and intensity to songs like "Devil with the Green Eyes," "Someone to Pull the Trigger," "Knowing People" and "The Ugly Truth." The grunge acts had plenty of that darkness as well, but for whatever reason, Altered Beast didn't catch on with the public as much.

It's too bad, because it's an impressive record. Sweet brought back Lloyd and Quine to provide hot lead guitar on several songs but also recruited a who's who of killer musicians: guitarists Ivan Julian and Greg Leisz, Nicky Hopkins on piano and drummers Rick Menck, Pete Thomas, Jody Stephens, Fred Maher and Mick Fleetwood (producer Richard Dashut worked on several huge Fleetwood Mac albums).  

The album's title came from the videogame Altered Beast, and Sweet told Spin magazine that it referred to "whatever is inside you that someday might explode, and maybe you don't know it's there." 

I became a Matthew Sweet fan after hearing "Divine Intervention" from the Girlfriend album, so I was looking forward to Altered Beast. And while I was at first disappointed that it wasn't Girlfriend 2, it only took a few listens to realize this was something different and excellent. It didn't hurt that the album's release coincided with the similarly dark turn my life had taken; I was 25, recently out of a long-term relationship, renting a room in a house in a town I didn't know and working crazy hours (5 a.m. to 1 p.m.). I was depressed and this depressing album really spoke to me. 

You know Sweet was dealing with some serious shit when he put not one, but two clips from the X-rated movie Caligula on the album. The musical scope of the album was all over the place, from stinging rockers like "Dinosaur Act," "Ugly Truth Rock" and "Knowing People" to hooky pop-rock like "Time Capsule," "Life Without You" and "Do It Again" to country-rock gems like "What Do You Know?" and "The Ugly Truth" to searing guitar rippers like "Falling" and "In Too Deep." It's a rewarding collection that it took some folks decades to appreciate.

Strangely enough, Altered Beast charted higher than Girlfriend, hitting #75 on the Billboard 200, but it didn't have near the cultural impact of its predecessor. In 1994, Sweet released Son of Altered Beast, an EP featuring live and alternate versions of Sweet songs, plus a live cover of Neil Young's "Don't Cry No Tears."

In 1995, Sweet returned with the more upbeat album 100% Fun (although the title came from Kurt Cobain's suicide note), which featured the hit "Sick of Myself." In the subsequent 30 years, he's released nine more studio albums as well as covers albums with Susanna Hoffs and an acoustic album as part of The Thorns with Pete Droge and Shawn Mullins. His latest album was 2021's Catspaw. Sweet was touring in Canada with the band Hanson last fall when he suffered a serious stroke; a GoFundMe helped raise enough money to fly him home with a medical crew and to a rehabilitation hospital. To date, nearly $570,000 has been crowdfunded to help Sweet as he relearns how to perform basic tasks again. It's unclear whether he'll ever be able to play music again, but here's hoping. He's one of the underrated greats.

Day After Day #332: Steady, As She Goes

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

Steady, As She Goes (2006)

I just wrote about a side project that turned out to be a big hit for all involved (The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights") and here's another one. While it wasn't as huge as the Postal Service song, "Steady, As She Goes" by the Raconteurs was a catchy rocker that immediately caught the attention of indie rock fans everywhere.

In 2005, Jack White and the White Stripes were riding high with their fifth album Get Behind Me Satan, which hit #3 on both the Billboard 200 and U.K. album charts. White and his friend, singer-songwriter Brendan Benson, lived near each other and got together when Benson asked for help on a song he was working on. Benson had recorded a demo for the song "Steady, As She Goes" but was stuck on the line "Find yourself a girl and settle down," so White helped him with the lyrics. When bassist Jack Lawrence and drummer Patrick Keeler of the Cincinnati garage rock act the Greenhornes stopped by a few days later, White and Benson asked them to play on the song. 

The recording of "Steady, As She Goes" was the first thing the four had done together and they liked it so much they kept an early version as the one they used on the eventual album they made, Broken Boy Soldiers. White's lyrics examined the notion of settling down and getting married.

"Find yourself a girl and settle down/Live a simple life in a quiet town/Steady as she goes (steady as she goes)/Steady as she goes (steady as she goes)/So steady as she goes. Your friends have shown a kink in the single life/You've had too much to think, now you need a wife/Steady as she goes."

The song features a crunchy guitar riff and '60s-inspired power pop construction, just a perfectly infectious ripper.

"Well here we go again/You've found yourself a friend that knows you well/But no matter what you do/You'll always feel as though you tripped and fell/So steady as she goes/When you have completed what you thought you had to do/And your blood's depleted to the point of stable glue/Then you'll get along/Then you'll get along."

Calling themselves the Raconteurs, the band made two videos for the song, one a performance video directed by Jim Jarmusch and the other starring Paul Reubens and featuring the band members racing soapbox derby cars. The song hit #54 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Alternative Airplay chart, while reaching #4 on the U.K. Singles Chart. They were known as the Saboteurs in Australia, where a band already had the name Raconteurs and wouldn't give it up.

The album was released in March 2006 and the Raconteurs started touring, selling out mid-sized venues thanks to White's popularity. It was nominated for two Grammy awards but didn't win either.

White went back to the White Stripes, who released Icky Thump in 2007, and Benson, a prolific solo artist, released My Old, Familiar Friend in the same year. The Raconteurs returned in 2008 with their second album, Consolers of the Lonely, and toured again, playing big festival dates including Coachella and Bonnaroo. After a hiatus, the band played some festival dates in 2011. But no new Raconteurs material emerged until 2019's Help Us Stranger.

In the meantime, the White Stripes split up in 2011 and Jack White began a solo career, which continued with this year's No Name album. Benson continued to release solo albums. Lawrence played on numerous projects, including another Jack White group, the Dead Weather. Keeler joined the Afghan Whigs in 2014.

Things are quiet on the Raconteurs front at the moment, but that doesn't mean they won't get together in the future. Still, the first song they worked on remains their best.

Day After Day #328: 867-5309/Jenny

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

867-5309/Jenny (1981)

Back with another one-hit wonder, although in the case of Tommy Tutone, that's not actually true. Everybody (including me until 5 minutes ago) thinks that "867-5309/Jenny" is the band's (it's a band, not a dude) only hit, but they actually had a top 40 song a year earlier with "Angel Say No," which hit #38 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Nevertheless, the group is known for one song and one song only.

The band was formed in San Francisco in 1978 by Tommy Heath (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards), Jim Keller (lead guitar) and Terry Nails (bass). The band name came from Heath's nickname. Over the years, the band has had many different bassists and drummers, and indeed on their second album, Tommy Tutone 2, Jon Lyons and Victor Carberry play bass and drums, respectively, on side 1's five songs and Lonnie Turner and Rick Cutler perform those duties on side 2.

Side 1 featured the band's big hit, "867-5309/Jenny." The song had a mythology built around it, with both Heath and Keller claiming it was written about a real woman whose number was written on a men's room wall. But co-writer Alex Call said in a 2004 interview that he came up with the idea of Jenny and the phone number while sitting in his backyard, and then his friend Keller suggested the number was written on a bathroom wall. 

Kicking off with a great riff, the song features Heath singing about Jenny.

"Jenny Jenny, who can I turn to?/You give me something I can hold on to/I know you think I'm like the others before/Who saw your name and number on the wall/Jenny, I've got your number/I need to make you mine/Jenny, don't change your number/867-5309/867-5309/867-5309/867-5309."

The song led to a fad of people dialing the number to see if Jenny was there. People who had the misfortune of having the number would report getting bombarded with calls, even as much as 20 years after the song came out.

"Jenny Jenny, you're the girl for me/Oh, you don't know me but you make me so happy/I tried to call you before but I lost my nerve/I tried my imagination but I was disturbed/Jenny I've got your number/I need to make you mine/Jenny, don't change your number/867-5309/867-5309/867-5309/867-5309/I got it (I got it) I got it/I got your number on the wall/I got it (I got it) I got it/For a good time, for a good time call."

It took a while to get some traction, but once the song started getting radio play, it would get plenty of requests. The song got as high as #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Rock Top Tracks chart; the album hit #20 on the Billboard 200. It's one of those undeniably '80s songs

Tommy Tutone released another album, National Emotion, in 1983, but it didn't get much promotion from Columbia and barely cracked the Billboard 200. The band broke up after the album came out and didn't reunite until 1996; they released albums in 1996 and 1998. The latest album came out in 2019. Heath is the only original member left in the band.

The song has been covered by many artists, including Fitz of Depression, Everclear and even David Lee Roth. 

Day After Day #320: Annie's Gone

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

Annie's Gone (1990)

Punk rock can take you in some interesting directions. Jeff (lead vocals, guitar) and Steven (bass, vocals) McDonald were punk pioneers as kids, forming the Tourists in 1978 in Hawthorne, California, when Steven was still in middle school. Timing is everything, since their first gig was opening for Black Flag. The early lineup of the band included Greg Hetson, who would later play with Circle Jerks and Bad Religion, and Ron Reyes, who left to join Black Flag.

The group changed its name to Red Cross, releasing a six-song debut EP in 1980 and their first full-length album, Born Innocent, in 1982. The album was full of pop culture references to Linda Blair, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and Lita Ford, and covers of a song from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and a Charles Manson song. After the International Red Cross threatened to sue, the band changed the spelling of their name to Redd Kross. 

Two years later, Redd Kross recorded Teen Babes from Monsanto, a sped-up power pop EP of covers of songs by the Stooges, Kiss, the Rolling Stones and David Bowie. Lead guitarist Robert Hecker joined the band as they went on tour. They released a full-length album called Neurotica in 1987, combining punk with garage and power pop sounds.

By the time the band's third album, Third Eye, came out in 1990, the McDonald brothers were in their mid-20s and were music veterans. Their sound had evolved into pure power pop, very different from the early days of the band. The lead single, "Annie's Gone," is ridiculously catchy.

"I heard the other day/That she went and gone away/She was always sort of out of step/She couldn't ever be/Something that you couldn't see/She was always there right in your face/Annie's gone/Annie's gone/Annie's gone/It's so dark/It's so dark around here now/Can't believe she's gone away/Can't believe she's gone to stay/But it's true/Annie's gone."

The song got some airplay on college and alternative radio, hitting #16 on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart.

"I guess she couldn't play/By the rules she had no say/And she did her in this way today/I know I feel like this sometimes/Feel like giving up my mind/But it's all I have and it is mine/Annie's gone/Annie's gone/Annie's gone/It's so dark/It's so dark around here now/Can't believe she's gone away/Can't believe she's gone to stay/But it's true/Annie's gone."

The video features the band playing with Jack Irons (Red Hot Chili Peppers) on drums and also includes actress Ann Magnuson. 

Also in 1990, the McDonalds appeared in the movie The Spirit of '76, a comedy spoofing '70s culture that was directed by Lucas Reiner (son of Carl, brother of Rob) and starring David Cassidy, Leif Garrett and Olivia d'Abo. Roman Coppola co-wrote the script and Sofia Coppola designed the costumes (she also appears on the Third Eye album cover nude, wearing a mask). The McDonalds played teen stoners in 1976 who help time travelers from 2176 get back to their time. There are a lot of familiar faces in the movie, including Tommy Chong, Carl Reiner and Moon Zappa; it only had a limited release and grossed a total of $52,310 at the box office.

By the time 1993's Phaseshifter came out, Redd Kross' combination of hard rock riffs and bubblegum pop smarts was tailor made for the guitar-crazy grunge era. Videos for "Jimmy's Fantasy" and "Lady in the Front Row" got play on MTV's 120 Minutes. The band had added new members in Eddie Kurdziel, Gere Ferrelly and Brian Retzell and toured heavily for a year; I saw them play a kickass show at the Paradise in Boston on that tour.

Redd Kross didn't release their next album until 1997's Show World, which got good reviews but didn't sell as well as the previous release. The band went on hiatus after the tour; in 1999, Kurdziel died of a drug overdose at the age of 38. Steven McDonald stayed busy, producing and playing on albums by The Format and fun., and playing in the band on the first Tenacious D album. He joined Sparks in 2006 for a tour and album, and later joined the Melvins in 2015.

Redd Kross resurfaced in 2012 on Merge Records with the excellent album Researching the Blues and then released Beyond the Door in 2019. Earlier this year, the band issued another strong album called Redd Kross. It's been a long, strange trip for the McDonald brothers, but they're clearly having a good time doing what they want.

Day After Day #318: Underwhelmed

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

Underwhelmed (1992)

Discovering new music has changed a lot over the years. In the '70s when I first started listening to music, it was the radio. By the early '80s, it was all about video. MTV was such a game changer, even if it wasn't perfect. It took way too long to start playing videos by black artists other than Michael Jackson and it would play certain videos endlessly until people were sick of them. But MTV was able to give bands exposure that normally wouldn't get any.

By the late '80s and into the early '90s, my favorite show on MTV was 120 Minutes, which would air on Sunday nights and feature bands you wouldn't normally see during the rest of the week. Although some of those bands, like R.E.M. and Midnight Oil, would end up getting more mainstream airtime. 

One such Sunday night in early 1993, I saw the video for "Underwhelmed" by the band Sloan out of Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was an instant grabber, starting with a guitar drone before bassist Chris Murphy starts singing about a woman he's interested in.

"She was underwhelmed, if that's a word/I know it's not, 'cause I looked it up/That's one of those skills I learned in my school/I was overwhelmed, and I'm sure of that one/'Cause I learned it back in grade school/When I was young."

The band kicks in, featuring Patrick Pentland and Jay Ferguson on guitars and Andrew Scott on drums, and Murphy's smartass character continues.

"She said, 'You is funny'/I said, 'You are funny'/She said, 'Thank you'/And I said, 'Nevermind'/She rolled her eyes/Her beautiful eyes/The point is not the grammar/It's the feeling/That is certainly in my heart/But not in hers."

By this point, Sloan had been signed to DGC, which was clearly hoping for another Nirvana. Sloan was lumped into the emerging grunge scene, but they were more influenced by acts like Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. But hey, why mess with a good gimmick?

"We were talkin' about people that eat meat/I felt like an ass 'cause I was one/She said it's okay, but I felt like/I just ate my young/She is obviously a person with a cause/I told her that I don't smoke or drink/She told me to loosen up on her way to the L.C./She skips her classes and gets good grades/I go to my classes rain or shine/She's passing her classes while I attend mine."

Murphy has said the song's lyrical approach was influenced by the Minutemen's "Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing." A different version of the song had been released on the band's EP Peppermint, which was released in 1992 on Sloan's self-run label Murderecords. They re-recorded the song for their DGC debut Smeared, which came out in October '92 in Canada and in January 1993 in the U.S. 

"She told me a story about her life/I think it included something about me/I'm not sure of that, but I'm sure of one thing/Her spelling's atrocious/She told me to read between the lines/And tell her exactly what I got out of it/I told her affection had two Fs/Especially when you're dealing with me/I usually notice all the little things/One time I was proud of it, she said it's annoying/She cursed me up and down and rolled her Rs, her beautiful Rs."

"Underwhelmed" hit #25 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. For its follow-up album, 1994's Twice Removed, Sloan decided to buck the grunge trend and went with a quieter, Beatles-influenced power pop sound. The album was a masterpiece, but it pissed off the label; after the band refused to re-record the album, the label pulled promotional support. Sloan split up briefly in 1995 before reforming and asking to be let out of their DGC deal. They then began a run of excellent albums that has continued to this day, with 13 studio albums under their belt.

Sloan is decently successful in Canada, but never could get beyond cult success in the U.S. They've managed to forge a comfortable existence, playing clubs in the U.S. and theaters in Canada. The band has released four limited-edition box sets of their first four albums, the latest being for Smeared. For the first three box sets, the band has done full tours, but for Smeared, they just played two sold-out shows in Toronto this weekend. I was lucky enough to go to the second one last night; my daughter Lily already had a ticket and got me one when we decided to visit her. I've seen most of their Boston-area appearances over the last 28 years, but this was the first time I've seen them (or anyone) in Toronto. It was pretty goddamn great; they played Smeared front to back and then a bunch of B-sides and rarities from that era; the songs were louder and more raucous than their later albums, and they recreated it pretty flawlessly, albeit without the long hair and the slamming around the stage like 20somethings. Sloan hadn't played many of those songs in decades, so it was great to see them rip through them while also seeing my daughter get into them as well.

Day After Day #274: Girls Talk

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

Girls Talk (1979)

Many artists have had vanity labels over the years, usually to release their own material. When Led Zeppelin was at the height of its powers in 1974, its contract with Atlantic Records expired and the band decided to start its own label, Swan Song Records. The Rolling Stones and Beatles had done similar moves a few years earlier; the idea was to release future Zeppelin albums as well as music by other artists the band liked. 

The first Swan Song releases weren't Zep-related, but the debut album by Bad Company and a new record from the Pretty Things. The label was active for a decade, ending in 1983 after Zep broke up and manager Peter Grant fell into ill health (although Swan Song is still used for re-releases of its albums). One of the artists who signed to the label in the early days was Welsh guitarist Dave Edmunds, who had been playing in bands since he was a teenager in the late '50s.

Although Edmunds was primarily known as a rockabilly artist, he also was a producer and had a big hit in 1970 with a cover of "I Hear You Knocking." He produced early '70s British pub rock acts like Brinsley Schwarz (featuring a young Nick Lowe) and Flamin' Groovies as well as blues-rockers Foghat. Edmunds released a 1972 album called Rockpile and for the tour, called his band Dave Edmunds and Rockpile; after the tour, the band split up.

In 1976, Edmunds and Lowe formed a new version of Rockpile along with Billy Bremner and Terry Williams (who had played drums in the original Rockpile); by this point, Rockpile's sound had evolved into power pop, although it also got lumped in as new wave by the late '70s. But because Edmunds had his deal with Swan Song and Lowe had his with Stiff Records (where he was in-house producer), things got a little complicated. Essentially, the band would record albums and then release them as either Lowe or Edmunds solo albums. 

One of those albums was 1979's Repeat When Necessary, which was billed to Edmunds. The album featured mostly covers, although Bremner contributed three originals, including Graham Parker's "Crawling from the Wreckage" and Hank DeVito's "Queen of Hearts" (which later became a hit for Juice Newton). The most prominent song on the album was "Girls Talk," which Elvis Costello wrote and gave to Edmunds to cover. 

It's a typically lacerating but extremely tuneful Costello composition about the emotionally damaging world of gossip. 

"There are some things/You can't cover up with lipstick and powder/Thought I heard you mention my name/Can't you talk any louder?/Don't come any closer, don't come any nearer/My vision of you can't come any clearer/Oh, I just wanna hear girls talk."

Costello and the Attractions did their own version and released it in 1980 as the B-side to their cover of "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down."

"Got a loaded imagination being fired by girls talk/It's a more or less situation inspired by girls talk/But I can't say the words you wanna hear/I suppose you're gonna have to play it by ear, right here/And now girls talk/And they wanna know how, girls talk/And they say it's not allowed, girls talk/If they say that it's so/Don't they think that I know by now?"

The Edmunds version is more upbeat than Costello's, driven by Edmunds' acoustic guitar work and vocal delivery, while Costello's take is a little more sinister. Both versions are excellent, but they just hit differently.

"But the word up on everyone's lipstick that you're dedicated/You may not be an old-fashioned girl but you're gonna get dated/Was it really murder? Were you just pretending?/Lately, I have heard you're the living end."

Edmunds' version was released in June 1979 and hit #4 on the U.K. Singles Chart; it also got to #18 in Canada, which is where I was hearing it regularly on the radio. In the U.S., the song reached #65 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Linda Ronstadt also covered the song on her 1980 new wavy album Mad Love; she also covered two other Costello songs ("Party Girl" and "Talking in the Dark"). Aimee Mann has praised the song, saying she used to cover it live, and Tegan and Sara did a version for the soundtrack of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

After the success of "Girls Talk," Edmunds and Rockpile released the first and only album under the name Rockpile with 1980's Seconds of Pleasure; Edmunds' contract with Swan Song was up so he was freed to do so. The album had a minor hit with "Teacher, Teacher" and the band ended up playing the Heatwave festival in Toronto in August 1980 in front of over 100,000 fans. But tensions between Edmunds and Lowe, mainly over Edmunds' dislike of band manager Jake Riviera, led to Rockpile splitting up in 1981.

Edmunds released four more albums in the '80s with limited success and by the '90s was essentially retired, although he joined a couple of Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band tours in 1992 and 2000. He did a tour in 2007 and performed live a few times over the next couple of years. His last release was an instrumental album in 2015. 

Day After Day #249: Bittersweet

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

Bittersweet (1985)

Some bands are sneaky good. Sometimes you notice them, sometimes you don't and before you know it, they've amassed a catalog full of great songs. The Hoodoo Gurus are one of those bands.

Formed in Australia in 1981, the band was originally known as Le Hoodoo Gurus and had a lineup with three guitarists (Dave Faulkner, Roddy Radalj and Kimble Rendall) and a drummer (James Baker), playing punk-edged pop. They released their first single, "Leilani," in October 1982 and soon dropped the "Le" from their name. Rendall and Radalj soon left the group and were replaced by bassist Clyde Bramley and guitarist Brad Shepherd.

The Gurus released their debut album, Stoneage Romeos, in 1984. It's a strong collection of catchy garage rock. In addition to hitting #29 on the Australian album chart, the band had some success in the U.S. on college radio, especially the song "I Want You Back." Baker was let go in the summer of '84 and replaced by Mark Kingsmill, who joined the band on their first U.S. tour. 

The second Hoodoo Gurus album was 1985's Mars Needs Guitars!, a takeoff on the 1967 sci-fi movie Mars Needs Women. Faulkner, who wrote and sang most of the band's songs, was front and center on the album's masterful first single, "Bittersweet."

Years later on the band's website, Faulkner wrote that as they were working on the second album, "I vowed to myself that I would write less comic narratives and try to express my sentiments in a more forthright way. I feel I succeeded with BITTERSWEET though at the time I didn't think that a) the band would want to play it and b) our audience would want to hear it. I was happily wrong on both counts."

The song starts slowly before the full band kicks in.

"You are my sword/Your love is its own reward/My heart, I have found/Gets carved surely by the pound/God knows I tried/Tried to hold you with all my might/But time has won/And I could never be that strong/I couldn't be that strong/(Don't cry) that used to be my favorite song/(Don't cry) Tears so bittersweet/(Don't cry) fill my eyes whenever we meet/It's always bittersweet."

For a group whose first album was named after a Three Stooges short and whose first video featured the band backed up by stop-motion plastic dinosaurs, this was a definite tonal shift. At least for a song, anyway. After all, this is on an album called Mars Needs Guitars and the next single was "Like Wow - Wipeout." But while the lyrics have the protagonist pining over a lost love, the music is uplifting, pushing the lovelorn sap to move on.

"We've grown and times change/When we meet now it feels so strange/Well, I hold you like a sword/And you won't cut me, cut me like you did before/It's always bittersweet."

It's 3-and-a-half minutes of power pop perfection. Although it didn't chart here, the song went to #16 on the Australian singles chart and the album hit #5 (it broke onto the Billboard 200 chart in the U.S., topping out at #140). The Gurus were getting known around the world and opened for the Bangles on a two-month tour. Subsequent albums performed slightly better in the U.S. as the band got play on MTV's 120 Minutes for songs like "What's My Scene," "Come Anytime" and "Miss Freelove '69."

But as the '90s wore on, the Gurus found less success in the U.S. After 1991's Kinky, which hit #170 on the Billboard 200, the band's next three albums didn't chart here at all. The band split up in 1998 and reunited in 2003, releasing three albums since, the most recent being 2022's Chariot of the Gods. 

In the fall of 2020, the Gurus were set to do their first tour of the U.S. in 10 years, but it was postponed because of some minor outbreak that happened that year. I had a ticket to see them in Boston, but it was pushed back to the fall of '21, and then that got pushed to 2022 because the Australian government had banned international travel for Australian residents for the rest of 2021. I never did see them in 2022, but a buddy of mine had an extra ticket for their show in Boston tomorrow night and I am finally going. They're playing Stoneage Romeos in its entirety and then a second set of their hits, likely including "Bittersweet." So that should be great fun indeed.

Day After Day #242: Valerie Loves Me

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

Valerie Loves Me (1991)

Unrequited love is a fairly common topic in rock songs (and movies and books and TV shows and). How many times have you had unfulfilled crushes on people over a lifetime? Usually those thoughts are forgotten after a while, but every so often a great song emerges on the topic. One of the great songs about an unrequited crush is "Valerie Loves Me" by Material Issue, the great Chicago power pop act from the late '80s/early '90s.

The band was formed by Jim Ellison (vocals, guitar). He met Ted Ansani (bass) when both were students at Columbia College Chicago in '86 and found drummer Mike Zelenko through an ad later that year. Material Issue released an EP in 1987 on their own label Big Block and got some attention in the Chicago area over the new few years with their power pop singles "Sixteen Tambourines" and "Renee Remains the Same." 

They signed to Mercury Records and released their debut album, International Pop Overthrow, in 1991. Steeped in the tradition of Cheap Trick, Big Star and the Raspberries, the band packed every song full of killer hooks and sharp riffs, singing about girls and cars. "Diane" got some attention on MTV's 120 Minutes, but "Valerie Loves Me" was the group's breakout song.

Ellison wrote the song about a neighbor girl he had a crush on when he was 11.

"Valerie's dancing on the room above my bed, you know/For all the world below to see/Valerie's leaving in a car outside my house, you know/Such a shame she's not with me and all the pretty things/And all the love my heart would bring/I would give my whole life to her/Valerie loves me."

Unable to get her attention, the protagonist watches with envy as Valerie lives what he imagines to be a glamorous life.

"Valerie's riding in a car around my neighborhood/She's thinking of all the men she'll meet/I could only hope for a stolen moment of her thoughts/Between the walk to the club and all the drinks she'll have in a crowded room/Where everybody leaves too soon/I only hope that she remembers me/Valerie loves me."

The song then imagines Valerie as an older woman, living alone while the protagonist has moved on.

"Valerie's lonely in an apartment down the street, you know/And her hair has turned so gray/But she's so happy for the memories she has, you know/She can believe in the day when love was on a string/And she could have had anything she ever wanted/But she can't have me."

The song hit #3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and International Pop Overthrow ended up selling over 300,000 copies and hitting #86 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Material Issue followed it up with 1992's Destination Universe, scoring another radio hit with "What Girls Want." But it didn't perform as well as the first album, no doubt overshadowed by the popularity of a different type of guitar rock. After 1994's Freak City Soundtrack, which only sold less than 50,000 copies, the band left Mercury.

Material Issue continued touring in the Midwest and recorded songs for a forthcoming album that they were shopping to labels. But in June 1996, Ellison died by carbon monoxide poisoning in his garage, leaving behind a suicide note. The band's final recordings were released posthumously on Telecommando Americano in 1997 by Rykodisc.

An annual power pop festival was renamed International Pop Overthrow in the band's honor. Ansani and Zelenko have continued to play in bands in the Chicago area; for the 20th anniversary of International Pop Overthrow, they reformed the band under the name Material Reissue with singer Phil Angotti filling in for Ellison; they played a few shows in 2011 and have performed occasionally since.

Even though they weren't a big act, Material Issue had plenty of fans. A documentary, Out of Time: The Material Issue Story, came out in 2021. "Valerie Loves Me" was covered a few times in concert by Hole, and the Tragically Hip dedicated their 1998 song "Escape is at Hand for the Traveling Man" to Ellison, who singer Gord Downie had met in passing years earlier. 

Although their power pop was a little misplaced in the grunge era, Material Issue was a great band (see the live clip from '92 below) that was gone too soon.

Day After Day #166: (Wearing Down) Like a Wheel

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

(Wearing Down) Like a Wheel (1985)

Every rock band has its unsung members, the ones who are essential to the group's sound but don't get much of the limelight. In the case of the Cars, Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr got most of the attention because they sang the songs, but a guy who was a huge part of that band was guitarist Elliot Easton, who played perfectly concise and ripping solos. 

The Cars had just come off their biggest album, 1984's Heartbeat City; in fact, singles were still being released from it in 1985 when Easton's first solo album Change No Change came out on Elektra. I can't find the exact release date, but I remember seeing the video for "(Wearing Down) Like a Wheel" on V66, the Boston music video channel, and hearing it on local radio during my senior year of high school in the first half of 1985. 

Easton wasn't the first Car to go solo. Ocasek and keyboardist Greg Hawkes both released solo albums earlier in the '80s and Orr and Ocasek both released albums in 1986 that Easton played on. Easton provided lead guitar and backing vocals on every Cars album, but he had zero writing credits with the group. For Change No Change, he worked with songwriter Jules Shear and co-wrote all 10 songs. The album starts out strong with quality power pop, but has a few missteps, including "I Want You," which features Easton half-rapping over a funky beat. No bueno. 

But the lead single, "(Wearing Down) Like a Wheel" is the real prize here. The song chugs out of the gate with a pissed-off Easton singing about a relationship going bad.

"Oh what can be done about you?/You look so at home in blue/It's easy to see what we're coming through/Now you say you want to be alone/And you talk in a funny tone/But the humor escapes/Oh I see us wearing down like a wheel/Do you think it's time to stop?/And I can promise your friends don't know how this feels/I don't care the way they talk."

I didn't realize it at the time, but the song reuses a riff from the deep cut "Getting Through" off the Cars' Panorama album. Hey, if you're gonna steal something, might as well as steal from yourself. And it's much fully realized on the solo Easton song.

Easton's vocals were surprisingly decent, especially on the more rocking songs.

"So believe the life that you hated/With your wheel alleviated/Resigned that your life was so faded/How could you hold back from me?/And how could you act to me?/And how many times/Oh I see us wearing down like a wheel/Do you think it's time to stop?/And I can promise your friends don't know how this feels/I don't care, the way they talk." 

As you would expect, Easton delivers a brilliant guitar solo that fits the psychedelic power pop feel of the song. It's a punchy slice of excellence. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to maintain that level throughout the album, but I think it still has some gems, including "Tools of Your Labor," "Change" and "Shayla." 

The album didn't chart, but it did get some love in New England, where the Cars hailed from. Easton played a short tour for the album and then returned to the Cars, who released their sixth album Door to Door in 1987. Surprisingly, the album was a dud and the group split up in 1988. Easton produced and played on the first two albums by Amy Rigby in the mid-'90s. In 1995, Easton teamed up with bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug "Cosmo" Clifford of Creedence Clearwater Revival to form the CCR covers band Creedence Clearwater Revisited. They played nearly 200 shows in their first year before CCR frontman John Fogerty sued them, claiming the name was confusing to fans who might think Fogerty was involved. A court agreed and issued an injunction preventing the use of the Creedence Clearwater Revisited name, so the band changed their name to Cosmo's Factory. But after an appeal, the U.S. Ninth Court of Appeals overturned the injunction and the band immediately changed its name back to Creedence Clearwater Revisited. Easton played with the group until 2004.

In 2005, Easton and Hawkes formed the New Cars along with Todd Rundgren, bassist Kasim Sulton and drummer Prairie Prince. By this point, Ben Orr had passed away in 2000 after a battle with cancer and Cars drummer David Robinson declined to participate; Ocasek gave his blessing to the endeavor. The group played Cars songs and selections from Rundgren's career and released a new single along with a live album in 2006. In 2010, the four surviving original Cars reunited for a new album and tour. 

Since then, Easton released an album as Elliot Easton's Tiki Gods in 2013 and has played with the Empty Hearts since that year, releasing two albums. The group includes Clem Burke of Blondie, Wally Palmar of the Romantics and Ian McLagan of the Faces (until his death in 2014). 

The Cars were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018, playing a short set with Weezer's Scott Shriner on bass. Ocasek died in September 2019. 

Day After Day #162: Band on the Run

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

Band on the Run (1973)

It must be tough to be an ex-Beatle. Everything you've done since 1970 has been compared to the greatness that came before. By 1973, Paul McCartney had already released four albums either solo or with Wings, but his most recent albums, Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway, hadn't performed well. 

Wings had just finished a U.K. tour in July '73 and McCartney decided he wanted to record somewhere overseas. He made the questionable choice of Lagos, Nigeria, where EMI had a studio, thinking it would be an exotic locale where the band could play during the day and record at night. Right before the band was to leave, after rehearsing in Scotland, guitarist Henry McCullough and drummer Denny Seiwell both quit the band. That left McCartney, his wife Linda and guitarist Denny Laine to record as a trio.

Unfortunately, when they got to Lagos, they realized it was under military rule and in pretty rough shape. The studio was a mess, with only one tape machine. One night, Paul and Linda were out walking and were robbed at knifepoint; among other possessions, the thieves made off with a bag containing lyrics and cassettes with demos. McCartney played bass, drums and lead guitar, with Laine playing rhythm guitar and Linda on keyboards.

Some of the songs on the album Band on the Run were about freedom and escape, including the title track, which was inspired by a comment George Harrison made during one of the Beatles' many business meetings because of problems with their Apple Records label. Harrison said the band were prisoners, so McCartney's song has a band escaping from prison and living on the run. McCartney has also said the song was a commentary on getting in trouble for pot possession.

The song, at 5 minutes one of McCartney's longer singles, has three distinct sections, starting with a slow lament.

"Stuck inside these four walls/Sent inside forever/Never seeing no one nice again/Like you/Mama, you/Mama, you." 

Then it kicks into gear.

"If I ever get out of here/Thought of giving it all away/To a registered charity/All I need is a pint a day/If I ever get out of here/If we ever get out of here."

The third part introduces the chorus.

"Well, the rain exploded with a mighty crash/As we fell into the sun/And the first one said to the second one there/"I hope you're having fun."/Band on the run/Band on the run/And the jailer man and Sailor Sam/Were searching everyone/For the band on the run/Band on the run."

The song was released as a single in April 1974 and in the U.K. in June. It topped the U.S. charts and sold over 1 million copies, while it hit #3 on the U.K. Singles chart. The album was also a big hit, going to #1 in the U.S. and U.K.

It was some validation for McCartney, but of course his career would go through its ups and downs over the next 50 years (!). He's continued to tour and put on amazing shows; I finally saw him two years and it was awesome.