Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about the music of 2009. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").
Show notes:
Jay's non-top 5s: Arctic Monkeys, Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, Patterson Hood, Alice in Chains, Obits, Eels, Tragically Hip, Brendan Benson, Neko Case, Heaven and Hell
Phil's #5: Yeah Yeah Yeahs make foray into dance rock
Judas Priest makes good pump-up music
Jay's #5: Trippy prog-metal from Mastodon
Phil's #4: Neko Case is a force of nature
Jay's #4: Art Brut with an entertaining collection of ripping artsy punk
Phil's #3: Slow-burning solo excursion from Patterson Hood
Jay's #3: Anthemic punk/classic rock mix from Japandroids
Phil's #2: Phish returns after a 5-year break
Jay's #2: Jarvis Cocker with the kickass Albini-recorded solo ripper
Phil's and Jay's #1: Monster supergroup debut from Them Crooked Vultures
Jay saw TCV in Boston on their only tour
Always cool to see someone from Zeppelin play live
Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Kerosene (1986)
I don't usually make these posts timely, but it made sense today with the news that Steve Albini died last night of a heart attack at the age of 61. Albini was a legendary audio engineer/producer out of Chicago who recorded legendary albums by Pixies, PJ Harvey, Nirvana, Brainiac, Mclusky, Helmet, Boss Hog, Low, Superchunk and many, many more. Before that, he was a performer, fronting the bands Big Black and Shellac, which is about to release a new album and had just announced a tour.
Albini was a prickly sort, especially in his younger days, but he had softened a bit in recent years and has apologized for some of his controversial choices. He is best known for his workmanlike approach to record production and his refusal to take royalties from the albums he worked on, a decision that cost him millions just from Nirvana's In Utero alone (the 1993 album has sold 15 million copies).
Albini formed the punk act Big Black in 1981 while a student at Northwestern University. The band was industrial before industrial was a thing: Abrasive, clanky guitars, a drum machine and lyrical content that was not for the faint of heart. The band sang about murder, rape, arson, racism, child abuse, but from a detached point of view, condemning satirically rather than condoning, although not all listeners may have been able to tell the difference. Big Black was proudly anti-corporate rock and DIY all the way; they didn't owe anybody anything.
Afte releasing a few EPs and building up a fanbase through constant touring, Big Black released their debut album Atomizer in 1986 on Homestead Records. Albini was joined by Santiago Durango on abrasive guitars while Dave Riley played bass and of course, there was Roland the drum machine. The album features the band's best known song, "Kerosene," which starts out with clanging guitars before erupting into a punishing groove. Albini sings as a denizen of a small Midwest town (like the one in Montana he grew up in) who's got nothing to do but set things on fire and have sex.
"Nothing to do, sit around at home/Stare at each other and wait til we die/Stare at each other wait til we die/Probably come to die in this town/Live here my whole life/There's kerosene around, something to do/There's kerosene around, she's something to do/There's kerosene around, she's something to do/There's kerosene around, we'll find something to do/Kerosene around, she's something to do/Kerosene around, set me on fire/Set me on fire, kerosene."
Life's so pointless in his nothing town that the protagonist might as well set himself on fire. It's something to do. It's 6 minutes of unforgiving guitar scraping awesomeness. "Kerosene" was later covered by Pitchshifter, Lamb of God and St. Vincent (see below).
Atomizer created enough buzz that the band secured European distribution and toured over there. A falling out with the label led to a deal with Touch and Go Records, where they released an EP and the 1987 album Songs About Fucking before breaking up. Albini went on to form the unfortunately named band Rapeman and then Shellac, which stayed together from 1992 up until his death.
Albini bought his studio Electrical Audio in 1995 and recorded albums for just about anyone, including artists as varied as Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, Bush, Joanna Newsom and Ty Segall. He also played in the World Series of Poker and won a few tournaments. Even as much as he didn't care about popularity, Albini's legend will live on through the amazing body of work he left behind.
Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
The Laws Have Changed (2003)
Supergroups are an interesting phenomenon. In a lot of cases, they end up being disappointing because taking the best parts of other bands and putting them together in a different band doesn't always work. But there are cases where the different pieces complement each other really well. One good example is the New Pornographers, an indie rock act out of Vancouver whose members have done a lot of incredible work on their own.
Formed in 1997 by Carl (A.C.) Newman, the band has featured a revolving cast of musicians including Neko Case, Dan Bejar, Todd Fancey, Blaine Thurier and John Collins. Case and Bejar notably have gone on to have successful careers, especially Case, who has become an alt-country star. But at the start, it was just relative unknowns Newman (who had been in the band Zumpano) and Bejar (who fronted his own band Destroyer) who wrote the songs, which were decidedly power pop in nature. The band's first album, Mass Romantic, came out in 2000 in Canada and was well-received (it was re-released in 2003 on Matador).
The second New Pornos album was 2003's Electric Version and it came out at the perfect time for an indie power pop act. It was the beginning of the MP3 blog era, where tastemakers were posting indie rock songs on their blogs for fellow music lovers to download and enjoy. It was a great way to learn about new bands that weren't getting much love on radio or MTV and it was where I first found out about the New Pornographers (as well as bands like The Hold Steady).
The band's stock in trade is super-catchy, hooks galore power pop, which Newman can write in his sleep. "The Laws Have Changed" is the standout among standouts, with Newman and Case trading lead vocals as they sing about...ancient Egypt?
"It was a crime at the time/But the laws, we changed 'em/Though the hero for hire's/Forever the same one/Introducing for the first time/Pharoah on the microphone/Sing 'All Hail'/What'll be revealed today/When we peer into the great unknown/From the line to the throne?"
Honestly, it doesn't really matter what the song's about when it's so damn catchy.
"Awakened to cheers/After years on the faultline/We are shocked to be here/In the face of the meantime/Pharoah, all you methods have taught me/Is to separate my blood from bone/It will all fail/Feel what I feel today/When we peer into the great unknown/From the line to the throne."
Electric Version wasn't a huge commercial success (although it sold over 113,000 copies as of 2009) but definitely was a critical one, placing on numerous critics polls, including #7 on The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll of 2003. The band has released seven more albums in the last 20 years and toured regularly. Meanwhile, Case has released four relatively successful solo albums, Bejar has made eight Destroyer albums and Newman has made three of his own. Bejar has been an occasional contributor to the New Pornographers because of his Destroyer commitments.
The laws may have changed, but what has remained consistent is the quality of the band's output, the most recent of which was 2023's Continue as a Guest.
Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Here Come the Rome Plows (1994)
There are some songs that, when you first hear them, you're instantly blown away. That was the case with "Here Come the Rome Plows" by Drive Like Jehu. It came out in April 1994 on Interscope and I remember being amazed that it was on a major label, because it was one of the most uncompromising and ferocious things I'd ever heard.
The post-hardcore act was formed in 1990 by San Diego singer-guitarist Rick Froberg and lead guitarist John "Speedo" Reis, who had both played in the band Pitchfork previously. They were joined by bassist Mike Kennedy and drummer Mark Trombino, who played in the band Night Soil Man. Around the same time, Reis formed Rocket from the Crypt, which was playing horn-driven punk party rock.
Drive Like Jehu was a decidedly different animal. Froberg's yelping vocals were loud and insistent as Reis and Froberg played pummeling riffs and snaky guitar leads. They were tagged as part of the early emo scene of the '90s, but I'd say they were originators of the "screamo" sound that At the Drive-In picked up a few years later and then many bands followed afterwards. They're also referred to as an early "math rock" act thanks to the precision of their guitar parts and unusual time signatures.
DLJ released their self-titled debut in 1991 on Cargo Music and Headhunter Music at the same time as Rocket from the Crypt's debut Paint as a Fragrance.
At the same time, the major labels were sniffing around San Diego in their search for the next Nirvana and Interscope ended up signing both Drive Like Jehu and RFTC. Jehu released their major label debut first, with 1994's Yank Crime. I found out about the album a month or two later from my brother, who had picked up their debut. This wasn't a band that was getting played on alternative rock radio or MTV; it was too goddamn intense. Upon hearing the lead track "Here Come the Rome Plows," I was hooked. There was nothing else like it at the time. That summer was a fun one for me, and I was driving around blasting mixtapes that included Drive Like Frickin' Jehu (I was probably alone when I was blasting them, but nonetheless).
I didn't know what the hell a Rome plow was at the time. I just assumed it was a Biblical reference like the band's name, but in fact, a Rome plow was a specially armored bulldozer made in Rome, Georgia, and used by the U.S. military to clear forests providing cover for the Viet Cong in the Vietnam War (literally just found that out). But the song sounds like a bulldozer as it slams into your head, piledriving your skull with monster riffage from Reis and Froberg.
"Sad to say/It's over now/Here come the huns/Pick a side/Pick a spot/Here come, here come/Rome plows! Rome plows!/Rome plows! Rome plows!/Rome plows! Rome plows!/Rome plows! Rome plows!/Cal state/No fun/Stay put/Here come/To clean the state/To pass the time/To erase/Yank crime."
Even as I moved further away from my metal roots, I was getting into heavier, more atonal music like Jehu, Helmet, Rollins Band and Sonic Youth. Songs like "Rome Plows" would just ratchet up the tension, not just with the amazing guitar work but also Froberg's shouty vocals, which sounded like he was getting run over by one of said same plows.
"Why waste/Your time/Here come the huns/Be my/Date tonight/Here come, here come/Rome plows! Rome plows!"
The song careens along unrelentingly, teetering this way and that as it charges through the jungle. Just an incredible experience as it thunders along for nearly 6 minutes.
What makes the band so interesting is the rest of Yank Crime isn't just eight more "Rome Plows" but long, slow crawlers like "Do You Compute," "Luau" and "Sinews"; out-and-out rippers like "Super Unison," "New Math" and "Golden Brown": and quiet interludes like "New Intro."
Sadly, I never got to see Jehu live. The band split up in 1995 so Reis could focus on Rocket from the Crypt, who I have seen several times. Trombino became a producer and audio engineer who worked with bands like Blink-182 and Jimmy Eats World, Kennedy left music to become a chemist and Froberg moved to New York City to work as an illustrator. He eventually reunited with Reis to form yet another killer band, Hot Snakes, who played from 1999 to 2005; later he formed Obits while Reis formed the Night Marchers.
In 2014, Drive Like Jehu reunited for a performance in San Diego and then played several dates in 2015 and 2016. Hot Snakes reunited for a tour in 2017 and I saw them play an amazing show at the Middle East in Cambridge that November. Froberg was working on a new Hot Snakes album last year when he passed away of natural causes at the age of 55. I was at a cookout at my cousin's house last July when I heard the news and it knocked me for a loop, much like "Here Come the Rome Plows" did when I first heard it.
Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely (1986)
When you think of bands that had great runs of albums, Husker Du has to be near the top of the list. The Minnesota punk trio had seven studio albums and they were all great, but their 1984-1986 run of Zen Arcade, New Day Rising, Flip Your Wig and Candy Apple Grey was nothing short of legendary. The key to any great band is the songwriting and Husker Du had two great songwriters in Bob Mould and Grant Hart.
The band formed in 1979 when Mould, a college freshman and guitarist in Saint Paul, met Hart, a record store clerk and drummer, and they decided to form a band. They recruited Greg Norton to play bass (as well as a keyboardist who didn't last long) and started developing a blazing fast hardcore punk sound. They began touring heavily and eventually caught the ear of Greg Ginn of Black Flag, who signed them to his label SST.
The band had no intentions of remaining stuck in the hardcore scene and started writing more melodic material on their October 1983 EP Metal Circus, with both Mould and Hart contributing songs that looked beyond the confines of hardcore. Their next release, Zen Arcade, was an epic double album that saw the band branching out their sound to include folk and psychedelic elements; it was a concept album about a young man who runs away to escape his life. It was critically acclaimed and sold well for an independent release.
The next two albums, New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig, were both released in 1985 and continued Husker Du's move to slower, more melodic songs. While punk purists decried the band's more "commercial" sound, Husker Du was creating excellent music that stood on its own. By the time Flip Your Wig was released, the band had signed with major label Warner Brothers, who released their next album, Candy Apple Grey in 1986.
There were many great Husker songs throughout their career, but I'm going with the first single off Candy Apple Grey, "Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely." Written by Hart, the song is written from the point of view of someone who has broken up with a partner and isn't looking back.
"I'm curious to know exactly how you are/I keep my distance, but that distance is too far/It reassures me to know that you're okay/But I don't want you to go on needing me that way/And I don't want to know if you are lonely/Don't want to know if you are less than lonely/Don't want to know if you are lonely/Don't want to know, don't want to know."
The song rocks furiously as Hart assures the other person that the relationship is done, even if the other person is the one who did the breaking up is the one who's having second thoughts.
"The day you left me, left me feeling oh so bad/Baby, I'm not sure about all the doubts we had/From the beginning we both knew it wouldn't last/Decisions have been made, the die has been cast."
The song never charted, but it ended up in the movie Adventureland decades later. Green Day also recorded a decent cover as a B-side to their single "Warning" in 2000.
Candy Apple Grey reached #140 on the Billboard Top 200. Husker Du released one more album, 1987's Warehouse: Songs and Stories, before the tensions between Mould and Hart boiled over. The band toured for the album and did a lot of press, including an appearance on The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers, but between Hart's heroin problem and the outside pressures each member faced, things were getting strained. Mould decided to break up the band in January 1988.
Mould went on to a solo career, and then formed the band Sugar for several years before going back to his solo work. Hart also went solo and formed a new band called Nova Mob that ran from 1989-94 before resuming his solo work. Norton went into the restaurant business before getting back into music in 2006. Mould and Hart reunited in 2004 at a Minneapolis benefit show for Soul Asylum bassist Karl Mueller, playing two songs. That was the only reunion they would ever have, as Hart died of liver cancer in September 2017 at the age of 56.
Mould has continued his successful solo career and Norton joined the band Ultrabomb in 2022 but had to cancel appearances after a prostate cancer diagnosis. Two months after Hart died, Numero Group released Savage Young Du, a three-CD/four-record set that covers the band's first four years, with demos, studio and live recordings. It's too bad Husker Du never reunited because I never saw them when they were together, but I've seen Mould play several times with Sugar and solo and I caught Hart live right before he died.
Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Vital Signs (1981)
I know Rush can be an acquired taste (or a complete turnoff) for some folks. But not me. I grew up in Toronto in the '70s and early '80s and Rush was what I gravitated toward. I've expanded my musical worldview considerably since then and got into punk and indie and funk and all sorts of cool shit, but I still like to listen to Rush every so often.
Growing up in Pickering, Ontario, a suburb east of Toronto, I used to hear about how Rush played at one of the high schools in town in the mid-'70s. I got into them around 1980 when Permanent Waves came out, although the first album I had was 1975's Fly By Night.
I was in seventh grade and a classmate of mine, who was kind of a troublemaker, had an older brother who went to college so naturally, the kid decided to sell a bunch of his brother's stuff. Because that's what you do, right? No consequences down the road for that. Anyway, the kid knew I was a big hockey card collector and traded two of his brother's records for a bunch of cards. I gave him a bunch of my doubles for Led Zeppelin II and Fly By Night. This was just as I was getting into music, so I immersed myself in these records, which were both amazing. Of course, fast forward a few months and the kid comes back to me, begging me to give the albums back because his brother was home from college and obviously enraged that all his shit was gone. I was bummed but I sold them back for a few bucks each and then went and bought Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door, which was still relatively new.
Even though I didn't have the album anymore, my temporary ownership of Fly By Night turned me into a big Rush fan (as well as hearing them on the radio regularly). Not long afterward, the band released their eighth studio album Moving Pictures, which is their most successful. They had begun playing Led Zep and Cream-inspired riff rock, turned to prog-rock and long, complex suites, and then with Permanent Waves, started playing shorter, more radio-friendly songs.
Moving Pictures saw them do this to full effect, with "Tom Sawyer" becoming their best-known song and eventually a classic rock radio staple. That, "Limelight," "Red Barchetta" and the instrumental "YYZ" made up a killer side 1 of the album, while side 2 got a little less hype. But album closer "Vital Signs" might be one of the more underrated songs in Rush's catalog.
In "Vital Signs," Rush lyricist and drummer Neil Peart discusses how humans are interacting with technology, which admittedly was very different 43 years ago than it is today.
"Unstable condition/A symptom of life/In mental and environmental change/Atmospheric disturbance/The feverish flux/Of human interface and interchange/The impulse is pure/Sometimes our circuits get shorted/By external interference/Signals get crossed/And the balance distorted/By internal incoherence."
In the chorus, singer Geddy Lee notes that despite the acceptance of technological advancements, it's important to maintain your individuality. Peart often wrote about individuality in Rush's early years, especially on the album 2112.
"A tired mind become a shape shifter/Everybody need a mood lifter/Everybody need reverse polarity/Everybody got mixed feelings/About the function and the form/Everybody got to deviate/From the norm."
Another interesting thing about "Vital Signs" is it was sort of a preview into the band's next musical shift, as they used it to try out some Police-esque reggae as well as some futuristic sounding sequencers. And Peart was also very influenced by Police drummer Stewart Copeland's more minimalistic style; known very much as an "everything but the kitchen sink" drummer, Peart began playing more economically like Copeland.
Indeed, the band's next album, 1982's Signals, was very different from what came before. The band introduced much more electronic sounds (and have acknowledged after the fact that maybe they went a little overboard) for the rest of the '80s before going back to a more guitar-based sound in the early '90s. They continued to release albums and tour successfully until 2015, when Peart retired. Lee and Alex Lifeson have made occasional appearances since then, but the band effectively ended when Peart called it a day. Sadly, Peart died in 2020 after a battle with brain cancer.
I saw Rush in concert on the Grace Under Pressure in 1984 and then twice on the Power Windows tour in '85, but I never saw them again after that. Honestly, I'm not sure why, although it was partly because I was just listening to other types of music for much of that time. I wanted to see them on one of their final tours but just never got my act together to get tickets. But thankfully there's plenty of great live footage on YouTube to check out whenever I feel like it. I especially like finding old clips of them that I haven't seen from the early days, which remind me of trading extra hockey cards for some stolen vinyl.
Superlatives are the best, aren't they? So definitive and descriptive. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs with superlatives in hour 2. They're the greatest.
Believe it or not, this playlist rules:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Hallelujah the Hills - Here Goes Nothing (Patrick's Version)/DECK
Gouge Away - Stuck In a Dream/Deep Sage
METZ - Wound Tight/Up on Gravity Hill
Gesaffelstein - Digital Slaves/GAMMA
Bodega - ATM/Our Brand Could Be Yr Life
Chastity Belt - Blue/Live Laugh Love
Cloud Nothings - On the Chain/Final Summer
Alejandro Escovedo - Bury Me/Echo Dancing
Pearl Jam - React, Respond/Dark Matter
Daniel Romano's Outfit - All of Thee Above/Too Hot to Sleep
Dyr Faser - Connection/Impressions
Chelsea Wolfe - Everything Turns Blue/She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She
Kim Gordon - Dream Dollar/The Collective
Torrey - Moving/Torrey
Yard Act - When the Laughter Stops (feat. Katy J. Pearson)/Where's My Utopia?
Mannequin Pussy - Of Her/I Got Heaven
Dope Yeti - I Might Be Broken/Dope Yeti
Hour 2: Superlative
R.E.M. - Finest Worksong/Document
Ovlov - The Best of You/TRU
Hammered Hulls - Hardest Road/Careening
Husker Du - The Biggest Lie/Zen Arcade
Courtney Barnett - Pedestrian at Best/Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit
Blondie - The Hardest Part/Eat to the Beat
Palehound - Holiest/Kitchen
The Jesus and Mary Chain - The Hardest Walk/Psychocandy
Spoon - The Hardest Cut/Lucifer on the Sofa
Sebadoh - Worst Thing/Harmacy
TV Priest - The Happiest Place on Earth/My Other People
The Reds, Pinks and Purples - The Biggest Fan/Uncommon Weather
Stephen Malkmus - The Greatest Own in Legal History/Traditional Techniques
Elvis Costello and the Attractions - Sunday's Best/Armed Forces
Brendan Benson - Biggest Fan/The Alternative to Love
The White Stripes - A Boy's Best Friend/De Stijl
The Pursuit of Happiness - Man's Best Friend/Love Junk
White Reaper - The World's Best American Band/The World's Best American Band
Frank Black - The Hostess with the Mostest/Teenager of the Year
Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Entertain (2005)
Nostalgia is a powerful thing. One could argue this entire year-long feature is an exercise in nostalgia. My take is nostalgia is fine as long as you're not consumed by it. But when you're a rock band, the line between nostalgia and "inspired by" is thin indeed.
One of my favorite bands of the last 25 years or so is Sleater-Kinney, who got their start as part of the riot girrrl movement and became one of the most influential indie rock acts going. The group was formed in 1994 in Olympia, Washington by Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker, inspired by punk and indie rock. There were three drummers before Janet Weiss of Quasi took over in 1996.
Over the course of seven albums, Sleater-Kinney developed a reputation as one of the best bands in the business. The band was known for Tucker's caterwauling vocals, which had a polarizing effect; eventually, Brownstein started singing some songs. Tucker and Brownstein both played guitar, while Weiss was a powerhouse on drums.
In 2005, they released The Woods, their loudest album to date. The band had opened for Pearl Jam in 2003, which influenced their foray into a harder rocking style. There are echoes of Led Zeppelin, from the massive guitar riffs to Weiss' Bonham-esque pounding. It's a visceral and thunderous affair.
The lead single "Entertain" slams the seeming appetite for nostalgia acts.
"So you want to be entertained?/Please look away, don't look away/We're not here because we want to entertain/You can go away, don't go away/Reality is the new fiction, they say/True is truer these days, truth is man-made/If you're here cause you want to be entertained/You can go away, please go away."
The song is also a broadside at bands who were emulating post-punk icons like Joy Division, the Cure, Gang of Four and Wire (think Interpol et al). Brownstein angrily swipes at the wave of early aughts nostalgia in indie rock.
"You come around looking 1984/You're such a bore, 1984!/You star child, well you're using it like a whore/It's better than before, oh it's better than before/You come around sounding 1972/You did nothing new, 1972!/Where's the fuck you?/Where's the black and blue?"
She calls herself out as well.
"1-2-3! You can drown in mediocrity, it feels so nice, sublime/1-2-3! Yeah, it sounds like someone pushed the rewind/1-2-3! Yeah, give it to me easily, fill your mind this time/1-2-3! Yeah, make it sweet and syrupy with wine."
The album reached #80 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. It was the last Sleater-Kinney for nearly a decade. Weiss joined Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks for a few albums and a tour. Tucker recorded a few solo albums and Brownstein started Wild Flag with Weiss, Mary Timony and Rebecca Cole. Brownstein also became a TV star after she and Fred Armisen launched the IFC sketch comedy show Portlandia.
Sleater-Kinney reformed in 2014 and released three albums before Weiss left after the recording of The Center Won't Hold, citing a lack of creative input. Since then, S-K has released two more albums and toured with multiple backing musicians. The albums are decent, but they don't have the spark of that first run of releases.
Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
She Says What She Means (1998)
If a band has two singer-songwriters contributing, that's pretty good. When there's three people bringing quality songs to the table, that's a blessing. But when all four members contribute songs to every album and they're all talented, well, that's above and beyond. There aren't too many bands that can make that boast, but Sloan is one of them.
The band was started in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1991 by Chris Murphy (vocals/bass/drums), Jay Ferguson (vocals/guitar/bass), Patrick Pentland (vocals/guitar) and Andrew Scott (vocals/drums/guitar). They had been playing in other Halifax bands previously and decided to team up. Geffen signed them in the summer of '92 and their first album, 1992's Smeared, reflected their interest in bands like My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth, shoegazy grunge but with a pop sensibility. In early '93, the album was released in the U.S. and the single "Underwhelmed" got some airplay on MTV's 120 Minutes and on alternative stations. Murphy was serving as the de facto frontman during this time, although Pentland and Scott both contributed songs to the debut.
But when Sloan recorded their second album, 1994's Twice Removed, they veered away from the feedback-laden sound of their first album and leaned into quieter, Beatles-inspired power pop. Geffen asked the band to re-record the album and when Sloan refused, the label pulled promotional support for it. The album did well in Canada but was a blip in the U.S. The band split up briefly in late 1995 but decided to release another album to boost their Murderecords label; they asked to be released from their Geffen deal and then recorded the power poppy One Chord to Another in 1996. The album was very successful in Canada, scoring three hit singles and earning the band a Juno award the following year. Their profile was lower in the U.S. but they did some small tours; I saw them in Cambridge.
By this point, all four members were contributing at least two songs to each album and were finding their own niches: Murphy wrote clever lyrics and McCartney-esque melodies, Pentland delivered catchy hard rockers, Ferguson came up with dream pop songs that would have been at home on AM Gold stations in the '70s and Scott wrote songs that were simultaneously melodic and off-kilter.
Sloan's fourth album was 1998's Navy Blues, which found the band leaning into '70s rock influences in addition to their Beatles fixation. By this point, the band had relocated to Toronto. Pentland's riff rocker "Money City Maniacs" is probably the band's most popular song, but I'm going with the album's lead track and second single, Murphy's "She Says What She Means."
It starts with a cough leading into a chugging riff and then Murphy launches into the vocal.
"When in the world?/I'm gonna get it together/I'm telling you, girl/I'm gonna make it all better/But I don't know how I'm going to/'Cause I don't know what she is going through/What I know is that's even mean for me/'Cause she means what she says and she says what she means."
The song stacks hooks upon hooks as Murphy and Scott play guitar instead of Pentland and Ferguson. In an interview with Chart Attack magazine back in '98, Murphy said the song was the last one recorded for the album.
"Patrick had 'Money City Maniacs' and 'Iggy and Angus,' which I was jealous of. Me and Andrew are playing guitar all the way through, so I think it's the one with the most over-the-top soloing, but it's not the guitar players. I wanted to make a hard rock song because I felt that Patrick was kicking my ass."
"What is the word?/It's like you don't even know me/Haven't you heard?/This sort of thing is below me/But I don't know what I would stoop to/Have you got another jump I could hoop through/Now I don't even know if that's meant for me/'Cause she means what she says and she says what she means/When she says that I'm mean, does she mean what she says?"
The song races to its conclusion as Murphy pleads for forgiveness.
"Whenever you want me, whenever you need me/I know that you're angry, you know that I'm sorry/But this situation has come back to haunt me/Whenever you need me, whenever you want me."
I saw Sloan again on this tour, as I would for pretty much every time they came through Boston in the subsequent years. Despite their incessant catchiness and chops, the band never became more than a cult favorite in the U.S. They've released nine studio albums since then, as well as archival box sets. They're much of an established act in Canada, where they play theaters and the occasional arena, whereas here they're playing small clubs. But that's good for Sloan nerdz like me because I can see them at Brighton Music Hall or the Paradise and get right up front. They've managed to keep their sound fresh and fairly timeless, thanks to that four-man songwriting machine.
Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about the music of 2009. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").
Show notes:
In 2009, Phil had a newborn and was expecting another
We had a global pandemic in '09 (H1N1 swine flu)
Biggest selling album in the world was by Susan Boyle
Black Eyed Peas had a big year
U2 had an album out, but didn't make much of an impression on us
Phil's non-top 5s: The Dead Weather, Son Volt, Wilco, Jason Isbell, Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, A.C. Newman, Titus Andronicus, Deer Tick
To smarm or not to smarm
To be continued
Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!
The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.
Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
This Ain't No Picnic (1984)
The original image of rock 'n roll was that of rebellion, the raised middle finger, sticking it to The Man. But as the decades wore on, rock grew more corporate, which is not surprising. But every so often, an artist or a movement would come along and shake things up. The '80s were a time of big, glossy pop and arena rock, but in San Pedro, California, a band called Minutemen were doing their part, playing what they felt like and not worrying about what anyone else thought.
Formed in 1980 by guitarist/vocalist D. Boon and bassist/vocalist Mike Watt, who had been playing together for several years and added drummer George Hurley. The band leaned into their eclectic interests, playing a mix of hardcore punk, funk, jazz and whatever else they wanted. Their first gig was opening for Black Flag and they eventually signed to SST, but they didn't sound like anybody else.
Minutemen took their DIY "We jam econo" work ethic seriously, forging their own way by touring relentlessly and remaining steadfastly anti-image. Their third album, 1984's Double Nickels on the Dime, was the perfect distillation of the band's philosophy: it was a 45-song double album with music written by all three members that explored many different themes: working class struggles, racism, war, the band's history. It's a sprawling affair that was named as a reaction to Sammy Hagar's song "I Can't Drive 55," which protested the national speed limit at the time.
The band thought the song wasn't exactly a huge form of rebellion. "The big rebellion thing was writing your own fuckin' songs and trying to come up with your own story, your own picture, your own book, whatever. So he can't drive 55, because that was the national speed limit? Okay, we'll drive 55, but we'll make crazy music," Watt said in an interview.
"This Ain't No Picnic" was written by Boon, inspired by his experience working in an auto parts store but being told by his racist boss that he couldn't listen to a jazz and soul station on the store's radio.
"Working on the edge, losing my self-respect/For a man who presides over me/The principles of his creed/Punch in, punch out, eight hours, five days a week/Sweat, pain and agony, on Friday I'll get paid/This ain't no picnic."
The video for the song intercuts footage of the band performing with clips from a Ronald Reagan war movie; Reagan's flying a bomber and firing on the band as it's playing. The video was nominated for an MTV video award.
Musically, the song speeds along, with Boon's chugging guitar and Watt's pummeling bass pushing the pace.
"Hey mister, don't look down on me for what I believe/I got my bills and the rent, I should go pitch a tent/But our land isn't free/So I'll work my youth away in the place of a machine/I refuse to be a slave/This ain't no picnic."
Minutemen were one of the 13 indie bands featured in Michael Azerrad's seminal 2001 book Our Band Could Be Your Life, which took its title from the band's song "History Lesson - Part II."
The band released two more albums after Double Nickels before Boon was killed in a van accident in December 1985. Minutemen were no more and Watt needed some convincing before he started playing music again. He and Hurley formed Firehose in 1986 with Minutemen fan Ed Crawford; the band was active until 1994. Watt has remained busy since then, releasing solo albums (including 1995's epic Ball-Hog or Tugboat) and playing with the Stooges, Porno for Pyros and J Mascis and the Fog.
The legacy of Minutemen lives on, thanks to Azerrad's book and the excellent 2005 documentary We Jam Econo. I've seen Watt play a few times, including on his 1995 tour for the Ball-Hog album when he had a new band called Foo Fighters open for him and serve as his backing band.
