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"
Sunday, May 31, 2020
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"
Stuck In Thee Garage #323: May 29, 2020
We're at that time of year where bugs are everywhere, annoying us but also doing their part in the natural kingdom. I still don't see what purpose mosquitoes serve, but nevertheless, we're stuck with them. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about bugs in hour 2.
You might think I'm crazy, but this is a good playlist:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
IDLES - Mr. Motivator/Single
Jeff Rosenstock - Fame/NO DREAM
Drakulas - Terminal Amusements/Terminal Amusements
Eldridge Rodriguez - Country and Western/Slightest of Treason
The Dears - The Worst In Us/Lovers Rock
Beauty Pill - Tattooed Love Boys/Please Advise
Houses of Heaven - A Place Between/Silent Places
Dig Nitty - Lomita/Reverse of Mastery
Low Cut Connie - Private Lives/Private Lives
MAITA - Someone's Lost Their Wallet/Best Wishes
Porridge Radio - Don't Ask Me Twice/Every Bad
Hanni El Khatib - Alive/Flight
Childish Gambino - Algorhythm/3.15.20
EOB - Olympik/Earth
Hour 2: Bugs
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Bartomelo and the Buzzing of Bees/The Brutalist Bricks
Boss Hog - Beehive/Boss Hog
Culture Abuse - Bee Kind to the Bugs/Bay Dream
Pile - A Bug on its Back/Green and Gray
Van Halen - The Full Bug/Diver Down
Ozzy Osbourne - Spiders/Bark at the Moon
Slaves - Bugs/Acts of Fear and Love
METZ - I'm a Bug/Covers
Herzog - Little Bugs/Me Vs. You
Mark Lanegan Band - Beehive/Gargoyle
Brainiac - Beekeeper's Maxim/Hissing Prigs in Static Couture
Ian Sweet - Bug Museum/Crush Crusher
Pearl Jam - Bee Girl/Live on KISW 10/18/93
Ovlov - Moth Rock/am
Mission of Burma - Spider's Web/The Obliterati
The Needy Sons - White Spider Bites/Vis-a-Vis
Drive-By Truckers - Box of Spiders/Pizza Deliverance
Spoon - Mean Red Spider/Written In Reverse
Guided By Voices - Mag Earwhig!/Mag Earwhig!
You might think I'm crazy, but this is a good playlist:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
IDLES - Mr. Motivator/Single
Jeff Rosenstock - Fame/NO DREAM
Drakulas - Terminal Amusements/Terminal Amusements
Eldridge Rodriguez - Country and Western/Slightest of Treason
The Dears - The Worst In Us/Lovers Rock
Beauty Pill - Tattooed Love Boys/Please Advise
Houses of Heaven - A Place Between/Silent Places
Dig Nitty - Lomita/Reverse of Mastery
Low Cut Connie - Private Lives/Private Lives
MAITA - Someone's Lost Their Wallet/Best Wishes
Porridge Radio - Don't Ask Me Twice/Every Bad
Hanni El Khatib - Alive/Flight
Childish Gambino - Algorhythm/3.15.20
EOB - Olympik/Earth
Hour 2: Bugs
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Bartomelo and the Buzzing of Bees/The Brutalist Bricks
Boss Hog - Beehive/Boss Hog
Culture Abuse - Bee Kind to the Bugs/Bay Dream
Pile - A Bug on its Back/Green and Gray
Van Halen - The Full Bug/Diver Down
Ozzy Osbourne - Spiders/Bark at the Moon
Slaves - Bugs/Acts of Fear and Love
METZ - I'm a Bug/Covers
Herzog - Little Bugs/Me Vs. You
Mark Lanegan Band - Beehive/Gargoyle
Brainiac - Beekeeper's Maxim/Hissing Prigs in Static Couture
Ian Sweet - Bug Museum/Crush Crusher
Pearl Jam - Bee Girl/Live on KISW 10/18/93
Ovlov - Moth Rock/am
Mission of Burma - Spider's Web/The Obliterati
The Needy Sons - White Spider Bites/Vis-a-Vis
Drive-By Truckers - Box of Spiders/Pizza Deliverance
Spoon - Mean Red Spider/Written In Reverse
Guided By Voices - Mag Earwhig!/Mag Earwhig!
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)";
Completely Conspicuous 534: In the Dark
I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we discuss
the Grateful Dead album In the Dark. Listen to the episode below or
download directly.
Show notes:
- Recorded via Zoom
- We originally planned to do this in early March, but then something happened
- In the Dark was released in July 1987, seven years after the last Dead studio album
- Phil had just graduated from high school, Jay was going into junior year of college
- The band had been playing the songs in concert for years
- Jerry Garcia had gone into a diabetic coma in '86
- Had to re-learn how to walk, talk, play guitar
- Band was renewed after his recovery
- CDs were just starting to get popular
- We both didn't get CD players until 1989
- First CDs: Phil's was 10,000 Maniacs, Jay's were Cult, the Who, Joe Jackson
- The Best of Steve Miller was a college staple in the '80s
- Recorded live in an empty theater
- "Touch of Grey" was all over MTV and rock radio that summer
- Very catchy single
- Phil: Album was breath of fresh air after two disappointing releases
- "Touch of Grey" resonated with Boomers as well as younger listeners
- New fans were known as "Touch heads" by veteran fans
- People were going to Dead shows for the scene, not the music
- Released videos for "Hell in a Bucket" and "Throwing Stones"
- The one clunker is sung by keyboardist Brent Mydland
- Jay: His vocals didn't seem to fit
- They ladled on the synths
- Phil: Mydland was good at harmonies
- Vocals sounded like Kenny Loggins or Bob Seger
- Phil: Listening to at least one album he hasn't heard every day
- "West LA Fadeaway" may have been inspired by Belushi
- Phil gives it a B+
- The success of "Touch of Grey" was so unexpected
- Next up: We talk about the last Dead studio album
Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts and anywhere else you get podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!
Show notes:
- Recorded via Zoom
- We originally planned to do this in early March, but then something happened
- In the Dark was released in July 1987, seven years after the last Dead studio album
- Phil had just graduated from high school, Jay was going into junior year of college
- The band had been playing the songs in concert for years
- Jerry Garcia had gone into a diabetic coma in '86
- Had to re-learn how to walk, talk, play guitar
- Band was renewed after his recovery
- CDs were just starting to get popular
- We both didn't get CD players until 1989
- First CDs: Phil's was 10,000 Maniacs, Jay's were Cult, the Who, Joe Jackson
- The Best of Steve Miller was a college staple in the '80s
- Recorded live in an empty theater
- "Touch of Grey" was all over MTV and rock radio that summer
- Very catchy single
- Phil: Album was breath of fresh air after two disappointing releases
- "Touch of Grey" resonated with Boomers as well as younger listeners
- New fans were known as "Touch heads" by veteran fans
- People were going to Dead shows for the scene, not the music
- Released videos for "Hell in a Bucket" and "Throwing Stones"
- The one clunker is sung by keyboardist Brent Mydland
- Jay: His vocals didn't seem to fit
- They ladled on the synths
- Phil: Mydland was good at harmonies
- Vocals sounded like Kenny Loggins or Bob Seger
- Phil: Listening to at least one album he hasn't heard every day
- "West LA Fadeaway" may have been inspired by Belushi
- Phil gives it a B+
- The success of "Touch of Grey" was so unexpected
- Next up: We talk about the last Dead studio album
Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts and anywhere else 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.
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"
Sunday, May 24, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Sexx Laws
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).
1999: Beck - Sexx Laws
The turn of the millennium (or even dare I say the Willennium) was quite the time. Everybody was freaking out about the Y2K bug, which supposedly was going to cause the world's computers to shut down after 12/31/99 changed over to 1/1/00. Napster made its debut in June and before long was in heavy use on college campuses everywhere as kids discovered a free and easy way to get MP3s. President Clinton was acquitted during his impeachment proceedings in the Senate. The Columbine High School massacre took place in April; sadly, we're no closer to eradicating that particular problem. JFK Jr. and his wife died in a tragic plane crash. Woodstock '99 took place and the whole thing went to hell during Limp Bizkit's set. It was also the height of the dotcom boom, as plenty of companies with barely an idea were scoring huge sums of money from investors.
I was living with my buddies Mike and Roger for most of the year, but a huge event happened in late July, when I proposed to my girlfriend (we decided to get married in the summer of 2000). A few months later, we got our own place across town. Right around the same time, coincidentally, I left Opus for a new job at a dotcom called Webnoize, which was run by a friend of mine and covered the intersection of entertainment and technology. I had actually been helping out at Webnoize for a few years, writing album reviews and other features, but when they finally got the money to staff up, they offered me an editor job and I accepted. The internet was exploding and it seemed like a fun chance to take. Plus, I'd be working with friends and hopefully getting in on the ground floor of something cool. I joined the company just in time to fly to LA for their annual conference, which was attended by the major record labels and studios as well as a gazillion dot coms. It was a fun way to head into the new millennium.
The music industry was never bigger than it was in 1999. Recorded music sales were $28.9 billion in '99, primarily on the sale of CDs. But soon sites like Napster took off and the labels were not prepared to deal with them. That was what we were writing about at Webnoize. But in '99, it was a time for the industry to celebrate: Acts like Britney Spears, TLC, the Backstreet Boys, Ricky Martin and hell, even Cher (who had the top single of the year with "Believe") were riding high, selling a veritable shitload of albums and concert tickets. What were some crappy-sounding digital files going to do to eat into that monster of an industry?
Nu metal was still big, with Korn, Limp Bizkit and others getting a lot of attention. I never got into it. The Red Hot Chili Peppers had a big hit with their Californication album, although this was the first one I didn't get because I was starting to get bored with them. Santana bounced back with a huge guest-star-filled album, including that song with the dude from Matchbox Twenty that pretty much playing on a loop from the moment it came out.
I was still listening to a lot of so-called alternative rock: Sloan, Frank Black and the Catholics, the Flaming Lips, Sebadoh, Ben Folds Five, Pavement, Guided By Voices, Matthew Sweet, Wilco, The Sheila Divine, Foo Fighters, Luscious Jackson. Concerts attended included: Sloan (twice), Frank Black, Rollins Band, R.E.M. I went to more sporting events that year (hockey, baseball and even a Patriots game) and was doing a fair amount of traveling for work, so that ate into my concertgoing.
The hottest song for me in '99 was Beck's "Sexx Laws," off his excellent Midnite Vultures album, which amped up the funk and R&B sound in a big way. It was 100% fun, all horns and horniness, with Beck at his most self-assured and entertaining. He's done a lot of work since then, but I don't think he's approached the heights that he did in the '90s with Mellow Gold/Odelay/Mutations/Midnite Vultures. If anything, he set the bar too high and hasn't been able to get back there. But that doesn't diminish the greatness of Midnite Vultures and in particular, "Sexx Laws," which kicks all of the ass.
On New Year's Eve, Deb and I decided to stay in and have a few friends over instead of engaging in the insanity of going out to bars. Plus, we wanted to see if anything would happen once the clock struck midnight in terms of technological mayhem. What happened? Find out tomorrow, same Bat time, same Bat station.
Honorable mentions: Beck - "Nicotine and Gravy"; Sloan - "Losing California"; Sloan - "Friendship"; The Sheila Divine - "Hum"; The Sheila Divine - "Like a Criminal"; The Flaming Lips - "Waiting for a Superman"; The Flaming Lips - "Race for the Prize"; Built to Spill - "The Plan"; Gigolo Aunts - "The Big Lie"; Sebadoh - "Flame"; Chris Cornell - "Flutter Girl"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "I Switched You"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "So. Bay"; Pavement - "Spit on a Stranger"; Rage Against the Machine - "Guerilla Radio"; Foo Fighters - "Learn to Fly"; R.E.M. - "The Great Beyond"; Len - "Steal My Sunshine"
1999: Beck - Sexx Laws
The turn of the millennium (or even dare I say the Willennium) was quite the time. Everybody was freaking out about the Y2K bug, which supposedly was going to cause the world's computers to shut down after 12/31/99 changed over to 1/1/00. Napster made its debut in June and before long was in heavy use on college campuses everywhere as kids discovered a free and easy way to get MP3s. President Clinton was acquitted during his impeachment proceedings in the Senate. The Columbine High School massacre took place in April; sadly, we're no closer to eradicating that particular problem. JFK Jr. and his wife died in a tragic plane crash. Woodstock '99 took place and the whole thing went to hell during Limp Bizkit's set. It was also the height of the dotcom boom, as plenty of companies with barely an idea were scoring huge sums of money from investors.
I was living with my buddies Mike and Roger for most of the year, but a huge event happened in late July, when I proposed to my girlfriend (we decided to get married in the summer of 2000). A few months later, we got our own place across town. Right around the same time, coincidentally, I left Opus for a new job at a dotcom called Webnoize, which was run by a friend of mine and covered the intersection of entertainment and technology. I had actually been helping out at Webnoize for a few years, writing album reviews and other features, but when they finally got the money to staff up, they offered me an editor job and I accepted. The internet was exploding and it seemed like a fun chance to take. Plus, I'd be working with friends and hopefully getting in on the ground floor of something cool. I joined the company just in time to fly to LA for their annual conference, which was attended by the major record labels and studios as well as a gazillion dot coms. It was a fun way to head into the new millennium.
The music industry was never bigger than it was in 1999. Recorded music sales were $28.9 billion in '99, primarily on the sale of CDs. But soon sites like Napster took off and the labels were not prepared to deal with them. That was what we were writing about at Webnoize. But in '99, it was a time for the industry to celebrate: Acts like Britney Spears, TLC, the Backstreet Boys, Ricky Martin and hell, even Cher (who had the top single of the year with "Believe") were riding high, selling a veritable shitload of albums and concert tickets. What were some crappy-sounding digital files going to do to eat into that monster of an industry?
Nu metal was still big, with Korn, Limp Bizkit and others getting a lot of attention. I never got into it. The Red Hot Chili Peppers had a big hit with their Californication album, although this was the first one I didn't get because I was starting to get bored with them. Santana bounced back with a huge guest-star-filled album, including that song with the dude from Matchbox Twenty that pretty much playing on a loop from the moment it came out.
I was still listening to a lot of so-called alternative rock: Sloan, Frank Black and the Catholics, the Flaming Lips, Sebadoh, Ben Folds Five, Pavement, Guided By Voices, Matthew Sweet, Wilco, The Sheila Divine, Foo Fighters, Luscious Jackson. Concerts attended included: Sloan (twice), Frank Black, Rollins Band, R.E.M. I went to more sporting events that year (hockey, baseball and even a Patriots game) and was doing a fair amount of traveling for work, so that ate into my concertgoing.
The hottest song for me in '99 was Beck's "Sexx Laws," off his excellent Midnite Vultures album, which amped up the funk and R&B sound in a big way. It was 100% fun, all horns and horniness, with Beck at his most self-assured and entertaining. He's done a lot of work since then, but I don't think he's approached the heights that he did in the '90s with Mellow Gold/Odelay/Mutations/Midnite Vultures. If anything, he set the bar too high and hasn't been able to get back there. But that doesn't diminish the greatness of Midnite Vultures and in particular, "Sexx Laws," which kicks all of the ass.
On New Year's Eve, Deb and I decided to stay in and have a few friends over instead of engaging in the insanity of going out to bars. Plus, we wanted to see if anything would happen once the clock struck midnight in terms of technological mayhem. What happened? Find out tomorrow, same Bat time, same Bat station.
Honorable mentions: Beck - "Nicotine and Gravy"; Sloan - "Losing California"; Sloan - "Friendship"; The Sheila Divine - "Hum"; The Sheila Divine - "Like a Criminal"; The Flaming Lips - "Waiting for a Superman"; The Flaming Lips - "Race for the Prize"; Built to Spill - "The Plan"; Gigolo Aunts - "The Big Lie"; Sebadoh - "Flame"; Chris Cornell - "Flutter Girl"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "I Switched You"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "So. Bay"; Pavement - "Spit on a Stranger"; Rage Against the Machine - "Guerilla Radio"; Foo Fighters - "Learn to Fly"; R.E.M. - "The Great Beyond"; Len - "Steal My Sunshine"
Saturday, May 23, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Somethin' Hot
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).
1998: The Afghan Whigs - Somethin' Hot
Things were changing in 1998. Big things. A couple of nerds founded a search engine with the weird name Google, but nobody really paid them any attention at the time. Some other nerds started MP3 download sites like MP3.com, introducing the joy of using your crappy dial-up modem to download songs at an excruciatingly slow rate. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa revived interest in baseball with a home run race that shattered records (and later was found to be assisted by certain performance-enhancing substances). And it was discovered that President Bill Clinton had an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky, which led to an even messier impeachment trial later in the year.
As for me, I was still working as an editor at Opus Communications, traveling a fair amount to conferences (including a fun trip to New Orleans) and generally having a good time. I was playing a lot of softball (three weekly leagues) and thanks to my girlfriend, who ran the Boston Marathon in the spring, I started running seriously in the fall, something I've continued to do to this day.
Musically, the year was notable for one-hit wonders: Semisonic, Harvey Danger, Fastball, Natalie Imbruglia, Eagle Eye Cherry, Shawn Mullins, Marcy Playground, New Radicals. It was also big teen pop (Britney Spears, N*SYNC, Backstreet Boys) and mainstream pop-country (Garth Brooks, Leann Rimes, Shania Twain). But for rock fans, it was a big time for rap-rock and nu-metal: Korn, Kid Rock, Limp Bizkit ruled the airwaves and kids wearing wallet chains and oversized JNCO jeans were suddenly everywhere. And the biggest albums of the year were the Titanic soundtrack and releases from Celine Dion, Brooks and Twain. Oh, and Aerosmith had a huge hit with the nauseating "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" from the Armageddon soundtrack, but the less said about that, the better.
None of that stuff was my bag. I was listening to a lot of indie rock and old funk and soul. My most-listened-to new albums included Sloan, Frank Black and the Catholics, Beck, Pearl Jam, Pulp, Jerry Cantrell, Page and Plant, Fugazi, Girls Against Boys, Rocket From the Crypt, Rancid, R.E.M., Beastie Boys, The Tragically Hip, Bob Mould, Soul Coughing, PJ Harvey, Buffalo Tom and Sonic Youth. Concerts included Boss Hog, Foo Fighters/Rocket From the Crypt (twice), The Tragically Hip (three times), Girls Against Boys, Cheap Trick, the Afghan Whigs and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.
But where it all came together for me was on the Afghan Whigs' album 1965, specifically the lead single "Somethin' Hot." I was already a big Whigs fan for several years and while they were on Sub Pop at the same time as Nirvana et al., they always had a different sound and an appreciation for old R&B (which they often covered as B-sides). On 1965, they fully integrated the soul side with the rock side and channeled into a tour de force celebrating love and lust. Frontman Greg Dulli had explored the darker side of love and self-loathing with the band's previous three excellent records, but on this one, he was seemingly in a better place. The album should have been huge, but the label didn't know what to make of it and it barely made a dent, only hitting #176 on the Billboard album chart. For industry lunkheads who just thought the Whigs were another Seattle band (which is laughable because the band was from Cincinnati but got lumped in with the grunge acts because of its Sub Pop home), they couldn't get their brains around the band's evolving sound. Which is too bad, because "Somethin' Hot" had crossover appeal. I think I saw it once or twice on 120 Minutes; makes you wonder what might have happened if they played it when people were actually awake.
Honorable mentions: The Afghan Whigs - "Uptown Again"; Sloan - "Money City Maniacs"; Sloan - "She Says What She Means"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "Suffering": Frank Black and the Catholics - "I Gotta Move"; Beck - "Cold Brains"; Beck - "Tropicalia"; Queens of the Stone Age - "If Only"; Pearl Jam - "Brain of J"; Pearl Jam - "Do the Evolution"; Pulp - "Party Hard"; Jerry Cantrell - "Cut You In"; The Tragically Hip - "Fireworks"; The Tragically Hip - "Poets"; Girls Against Boys - "Park Avenue"; Rocket From the Crypt - "Eye On You"; PJ Harvey - "A Perfect Day Elise"; Beastie Boys - "Intergalactic"; R.E.M. - "At My Most Beautiful"; Buffalo Tom - "Rachael"; Rancid - "Bloodclot"; Fatboy Slim - "The Rockafeller Skank"; Chef - "Chocolate Salty Balls"; Rob Zombie - "Dragula"
1998: The Afghan Whigs - Somethin' Hot
Things were changing in 1998. Big things. A couple of nerds founded a search engine with the weird name Google, but nobody really paid them any attention at the time. Some other nerds started MP3 download sites like MP3.com, introducing the joy of using your crappy dial-up modem to download songs at an excruciatingly slow rate. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa revived interest in baseball with a home run race that shattered records (and later was found to be assisted by certain performance-enhancing substances). And it was discovered that President Bill Clinton had an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky, which led to an even messier impeachment trial later in the year.
As for me, I was still working as an editor at Opus Communications, traveling a fair amount to conferences (including a fun trip to New Orleans) and generally having a good time. I was playing a lot of softball (three weekly leagues) and thanks to my girlfriend, who ran the Boston Marathon in the spring, I started running seriously in the fall, something I've continued to do to this day.
Musically, the year was notable for one-hit wonders: Semisonic, Harvey Danger, Fastball, Natalie Imbruglia, Eagle Eye Cherry, Shawn Mullins, Marcy Playground, New Radicals. It was also big teen pop (Britney Spears, N*SYNC, Backstreet Boys) and mainstream pop-country (Garth Brooks, Leann Rimes, Shania Twain). But for rock fans, it was a big time for rap-rock and nu-metal: Korn, Kid Rock, Limp Bizkit ruled the airwaves and kids wearing wallet chains and oversized JNCO jeans were suddenly everywhere. And the biggest albums of the year were the Titanic soundtrack and releases from Celine Dion, Brooks and Twain. Oh, and Aerosmith had a huge hit with the nauseating "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" from the Armageddon soundtrack, but the less said about that, the better.
None of that stuff was my bag. I was listening to a lot of indie rock and old funk and soul. My most-listened-to new albums included Sloan, Frank Black and the Catholics, Beck, Pearl Jam, Pulp, Jerry Cantrell, Page and Plant, Fugazi, Girls Against Boys, Rocket From the Crypt, Rancid, R.E.M., Beastie Boys, The Tragically Hip, Bob Mould, Soul Coughing, PJ Harvey, Buffalo Tom and Sonic Youth. Concerts included Boss Hog, Foo Fighters/Rocket From the Crypt (twice), The Tragically Hip (three times), Girls Against Boys, Cheap Trick, the Afghan Whigs and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.
But where it all came together for me was on the Afghan Whigs' album 1965, specifically the lead single "Somethin' Hot." I was already a big Whigs fan for several years and while they were on Sub Pop at the same time as Nirvana et al., they always had a different sound and an appreciation for old R&B (which they often covered as B-sides). On 1965, they fully integrated the soul side with the rock side and channeled into a tour de force celebrating love and lust. Frontman Greg Dulli had explored the darker side of love and self-loathing with the band's previous three excellent records, but on this one, he was seemingly in a better place. The album should have been huge, but the label didn't know what to make of it and it barely made a dent, only hitting #176 on the Billboard album chart. For industry lunkheads who just thought the Whigs were another Seattle band (which is laughable because the band was from Cincinnati but got lumped in with the grunge acts because of its Sub Pop home), they couldn't get their brains around the band's evolving sound. Which is too bad, because "Somethin' Hot" had crossover appeal. I think I saw it once or twice on 120 Minutes; makes you wonder what might have happened if they played it when people were actually awake.
Honorable mentions: The Afghan Whigs - "Uptown Again"; Sloan - "Money City Maniacs"; Sloan - "She Says What She Means"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "Suffering": Frank Black and the Catholics - "I Gotta Move"; Beck - "Cold Brains"; Beck - "Tropicalia"; Queens of the Stone Age - "If Only"; Pearl Jam - "Brain of J"; Pearl Jam - "Do the Evolution"; Pulp - "Party Hard"; Jerry Cantrell - "Cut You In"; The Tragically Hip - "Fireworks"; The Tragically Hip - "Poets"; Girls Against Boys - "Park Avenue"; Rocket From the Crypt - "Eye On You"; PJ Harvey - "A Perfect Day Elise"; Beastie Boys - "Intergalactic"; R.E.M. - "At My Most Beautiful"; Buffalo Tom - "Rachael"; Rancid - "Bloodclot"; Fatboy Slim - "The Rockafeller Skank"; Chef - "Chocolate Salty Balls"; Rob Zombie - "Dragula"
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