It's May of 1994. Kurt Cobian was only a month deceased. I'm in the Microfisch lab of my Junior High School library (1) researching for the year's final history paper, which, knowing me, was probably due the next day. My topic was the history of Rock & Roll, yet all I could bother to research was Kurt Cobain. You'll have to forgive me, after all, the man had only recently died, and Nirvana was one of my favorite bands at the time. As I was researching, I came across a magazine article - from what magazine I cannot remember anymore - that more or less named Beck as the Grunge poster boy now that Kurt had passed, pointing out how his hit song "Loser" had become an anthem for the slackers that worshiped Nirvana. I rolled my eyes. Loser is right, I thought, that no-talent ass-clown couldn't write a good song if his life depended on it. (2) What did I know? I was young and extremely naive. Besides, I was going off "Loser," and only "Loser." A few months later I stayed up late watching MTV and caught the video for "Pay No Mind" on 120 Minutes. I liked that song much more, and began to ease off my ire for Beck's music.
Needless to say, my expectations were not very high when I first saw the video for "Where It's At," Odelay's first single, on MTV in 1996. (3) While the song didn't do much for me at the time, a strange thought popped into my head, and I distinctly remember thinking to myself, I'll probably end up loving that song in a few weeks. How I could tell the song would eventually grow on me, I do not know. Perhaps it is because that was the age where, more than ever before, I was constantly opening my mind to new music. It was only a few weeks later that I first borrowed Daydream Nation from a friend, a moment that changed my life forever. Whatever the reason, I knew I would eventually wind up a fan of "Where It's At," and I was right. Two weeks of heavy MTV and Alternative Radio rotation later, I made my usual weekend trip to Best Buy (there were no real Ma and Pa record stores in the 'burbs) and bought Odelay.
At the time I could care less about sampling, genre crossing, Beck's hokey cowpoke attire, or the supposed importance of Odelay that established rock critics were already pelting the album with. I just knew I liked it, a lot. Now that I'm older, I can definitely see the Dust Brother's fingerprints all over this record. I notice the meticulous samples and scratches, the dusty, familiar popping from an old record, funk horns and percussion out the wazzoo. Secretly, I believe that without them, the Dust Brothers and their samples, Beck's follow up to Mellow Gold probably sounds exactly like Mellow Gold. So let's give Beck, or whoever was responsible, some credit for pairing them up. The Dust Brother's anything goes sampling strategy meshed perfectly with Beck's anything goes songwriting approach. Thus, Odelay was a child born of their love for all things rock, roll, funk, soul, country, folk, samples, loops, serious philosophical statements, jokes, samples, samples, samples, more samples, and that fucked-up dreadlocked dog on the album's cover.
Now almost 12 years old, Odelay still holds up rather well. The proof exists in 2004's disappointing Guero, which was also produced by the Dust Brothers. The Dust Brothers, thanks to broader and stricter copyright laws (4), are really just a shadow of their former selves, focusing on beats and slick production instead of fretting over which sample would fit perfectly at any particular moment. Not that it probably would have mattered, Beck too had changed. For once, it seemed like Beck had run out of ideas, so he ripped himself off, mostly looking back to Odelay in the process. (5) Lightning does not strike twice, they say, and Beck wound up looking like the older guy at the college party.
Honestly, who cares. Of course its a bummer that Beck albums don't hit my sweet spot like they used to, but the man certainly had a good run. I'll admit that the jury's still out on whether or not Odelay is even Beck's best album - that's like comparing apples to oranges to pears to, well, you get the idea - but here I am anyway declaring that if you don't own this album yet, you probably shouldn't go around telling anybody. Rather, you should do what I did so many years ago. Take your allowance to the record store (or Best Buy, or wherever you prefer to buy your music) this weekend and make Odelay your own.
(1) Remember, this is Kansas in 1994, we maybe had 3 computers in the whole school with internet capabilities. Maybe. And the Microfisch machines outnumbered them five to one.
(2) Office Space was still several years away, so I highly doubt I actually thought of the phrase "no-talent ass-clown," which is too bad, 'cause that would have been hilarious.
(3) Yep, I'm old enough to remember when MTV was actually one of the places where you would first hear a new song.
(4) Are the Rolling Stones to blame? Someone should ask Richard Ashcroft.
(5) Kudos to him for taking so long to get to that point though. Spoon's a great band and all, but they've basically made the same album how many times now?
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Wayback Whensday:
Don't Tell Anyone You Don't Own...
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Don't Tell Anyone You Don't Own:
Yo La Tengo - Electr-O-Pura
(Matador, 1995)
"Pablo and Andrea" [mp3]
In honor of Yo La Tengo's upcoming Springfield show, I wanted to commemorate one of the band's best albums. Perhaps this is the "I heard it first, so I like it better" syndrome, but of the nine hundred YLT albums (ok, eleven plus five compilations), Electr-O-Pura has remained my all-time favorite.
When I was in college, it seemed some band called Yellow Tango was coming through Lawrence every other week. Sometimes it takes someone thrusting an album at me and saying, "Here, listen to this." That's what happened, and here I am now, bowing down to the critical darling and fan favorite known as, not Yellow Tango, but Yo La Tengo -- which means, if years of Spanish lessons can hold up here, "I have it." Boy, do they ever.
What's that, you say? You're into Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, The Velvet Underground, Stereolab, etc.? Well, then you simply must get Electr-O-Pura. Let me lavish some love on this album, track-by-track style.
1. "Decora" - MBV anyone? Seriously, Georgia's vocals are... sublime. The track... ethereal. The perfect opener.
2. "Flying Lessons (Hot Chicken #1)" - This is a staple on Nicole mixes. The intensity of this song is simply unmatched, and proves an astonishing follow-up to the breezy opener. If you like ass-kicking dissonant guitar solos that joyously assault your ear drums (and who doesn't?), this song is it.
3. "The Hour Grows Late" - The pace slows again for a dreamy acoustic number. I can remember first hearing this track and thinking, "This guy sounds kinda like Tom Petty." Now I want to slap myself for making such an analogy. When Ira sings, "In this thriftstore corner of the world," I feel all cozy inside.
4. "Tom Courtney" - An amazing pop song, and one of my favorite tracks in the band's catalog. I DARE you not to sing along. I've still yet to hear a faithful live version of the song; fingers crossed for this weekend.
5. "False Ending" - Chaotic and freewheeling, this :56 track gives us a taste of the pandemonium to come on Track 8. That's right, I said pandemonium.
6. "Pablo and Andrea" - One of RL's favorite fights revolves around this song. In drunken sparrings I've argued that one hokey line ruins the song for me, but in truth it would be impossible to mar its beauty. The guitar solo is chillingly, achingly, gut-wrenchingly perfect. If you like mellow MBV, download this track. NOW. I'll make it easy for you.
7. "Paul is Dead" - Another singalong favorite. The harmonies between Ira and Georgia are phenomenal. This track is a bit of a builder, preparing us for its markedly noisier successor.
8. "False Alarm" - I used to hate this song, preferring to stick with the "pretty" tracks. Now I happily dive into the frenzy.
9. "The Ballad of Red Buckets" - Hazy and meandering. When I hear this know I see a prelude to And Then Everything Turned Itself Inside Out or Summer Sun.
10. "Don't Say a Word (Hot Chicken #2)" - The haziness continues with a Georgia-led ballad. Probably my least favorite on the album, though it's not a bad song by any means. Just makes me a little sleepy...
11. "(Straight Down) To the Bitter End" - Wake up! Yes, you, getting a nap in during the last track! It's time to rock!
12. "My Heart's Reflection" - Uh oh, a little more sleepy. Again, not a bad song. In fact, it's quite lovely. I just want us to get to "Blue Line Swinger" already.
13. "Attack on Love" - A crazy primer for the album's phenomenal closer. This one seems like practice for their 1996 cameo as The Velvet Underground in I Shot Andy Warhol.
14. "Blue Line Swinger" - This one has to be at the top of the "I WANT TO HEAR THIS LIVE" wishlist for the RL staff. This track features eight minutes of orgiastic buildup with a caterwauling payoff that, you know, really pays off. Wow.
Writing about classic albums is a lot of pressure. I only hope I've done the album justice. Or at the very least, that someone person reading this will get their hands on this fantastic album. Then you too can say, "Yo la tengo!"
Monday, December 3, 2007
Don't Tell Anyone You Don't Own:
The Smashing Pumpkins
Last night, December 2nd, marked the seventh anniversary of the Smashing Pumpkins' breakup, well, their first one anyway. The one that mattered. As far as I'm concerned, they're still broken up, but that's a different blog post altogether. What I want to do today is reflect on one of the more positive aspects that the band offered to the world: Great fucking music. And there's no better place to look than the band's halcyon days, starting with the release of Gish in 1991, and concluding with the B-Sides collection Pisces Iscariot in 1994.
Gish
(Caroline; 1991. Re: Virgin; 1994)
15-Year-Old SonicRyan's Grade: 89.0%
25-Year-Old SonicRyan's Grade: 78.0%
Though Gish does not hold up as well as it once did sixteen years ago, there's no denying that it is still a solid album, one that could have been much bigger had the band not been so young, fresh, and from the Midwest. Just listen to the album's opening track, "I Am One", and tell me it wouldn't have been huge in 1991 had the song been given the exposure it rightfully deserved. Though the fact that the Smashing Pumpkins were still relatively new to the scene (To be fair, Nirvana did have an album under their belt and the members of Pearl Jam had been gigging for years, notably in bands such as Green River and Mother Love Bone) and still discovering their sound was probably the biggest factor as to why the song, or the album, never broke big, the blueprint for their later albums is firmly intact. Gish does an admirable job of showcasing both the ball-busting rock side and the mellower, sentimental side that the band would later perfect. However, Gish also meanders a bit into trippy, psychedelic excursions that suggest the band was probably a bit too influenced by Jane's Addiction in the late 1980's (though to be fair again, the Smashing Pumpkins did open for Jane's when they were just young, impressionable pups).
As a whole, Gish may not be the band's high water mark, but despite its growing pains, Billy Corgan's talent as a song writer and the promise of a young band with a bright future shone through. Someone must have noticed too, because soon the band was opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers on their Blood Sugar Sex Magik tour, and they later graduated from the Virgin Records imprint Caroline to Virgin itself. 
Siamese Dream
(Virgin; 1993)
15-Year-Old SonicRyan's Grade: 1,000,000%
25-Year-Old SonicRyan's Grade: 98.0%
Though world domination would have to wait yet again thanks to albums like In Utero and Vs., Siamese Dream finally brought the Smashing Pumpkins up the Alternative Nation ladder. With the exception of a sitar in the album's closing track, the psychedelic sounds of Gish are mostly gone, replaced by overdubbed melody after overdubbed melody. Many a fan has pointed out that Siamese Dream sounds a bit like My Bloody Valentine's classic album Loveless, which at times is a fairly accurate comparison, especially on the one-two punch of "Hummer" and "Rocket", where the money spent on studio time to record the album's layered guitar parts proved to be well spent.
But Siamese Dream is not a great album solely because the guitars shimmer and shine. No, Siamese Dream stands out because the grandiose music is set to Billy's confessional, high school journal lyrics. Sure, Billy's reputation as a whiny bitch starts here, but it is on this album, and perhaps this album alone, where it succeeds. Billy needed an outlet to vent his frustrations, his anger, melancholy and his infinite sadness. The early 90's were rough on Corgan and the band. Most of the problems are well documented, and span from Corgan's severe depression, writer's block, and a marriage that would eventually crumble during the recording of the album, not to mention Jimmy Chamberlain's heroin addiction, James Iha and D'arcy's breakup, and Corgan's belief that the overall work ethic of the band was slacking. Throw in plenty of Billy's unresolved familial issues, and you've got Siamese Dream in a nutshell.
Despite the album's depressing tone, the album sold incredibly well, and influenced a whole generation of teens, including yours truly. Growing up as an only child, I never talked to many people about my problems, which, granted, were awfully petty in hindsight, but at thirteen your perspective is different. Listening to Siamese Dream gave me the sense that I was normal, that it was alright to feel down about parents and girls. My belief was that if Billy Corgan could suffer that much and still create the achingly beautiful piece of art that is Siamese Dream, well, why couldn't I? Soon, I was learning guitar, which in turn became my creative outlet to express myself. I know I'm not the only one either, I still hear their influence in other bands to this day, with no end in sight.
Pisces Iscariot
(Virgin; 1994)
15-Year-Old SonicRyan's Grade: 85.0%
25-Year-Old SonicRyan's Grade: 85.0%
I did not listen to Pisces Iscariot, the first Smashing Pumpkins B-Sides collection, until about a year after Mellon Collie was released. To be honest, I was a bit scared, knowing that these were the "rejected" songs from Siamese Dream, that this album might disappoint me. The only disappointment I faced was in myself when I realized I had put off listening to a great album for no good reason.
The more I listen to Pisces Iscariot, the more I enjoy it, and if it weren't for a few clunkers towards the end, I would probably enjoy it more than Siamese Dream. For one thing, it's an easier listen. Siamese Dream can get a bit heavy, especially when you're all grown up and in a healthy, steady relationship. Pisces, on the other hand, is a much lighter listen. Add the fact that most of the songs are incredible, album worthy songs in their own right, and you can understand why the band felt they needed to be collected onto a single disc rather than spread around a bunch of singles. Hell, Pisces Iscariot is worth the price alone for "Starla", one of the best songs in the Smashing Pumpkins catalog, and Billy's solo rendering of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" tops the original, if only for his voice, which often is ripe for ridicule, but bleeds with emotion and sincerity on this cover.
Its no secret that the Smashing Pumpkins were once a favorite of mine. I ate, drank, and bled this band during my teens. They inspired me to write and play guitar. They aided my studying and made for great late night soundtracks when my friends and I would sneak out of the house. I sang their hymns and cried at their second to last show in Chicago. But at the same time, the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins forced me to grow up too. I explored other bands, other albums, and moved on and further away. Still, when the anniversary of their demise comes around every year, I can't help but get a little sentimental. The Smashing Pumpkins did change my life. Even if I have changed and changed again since, I will never forget that they were the ones that were there for me when I was a kid.
MP3's
"I Am One"
"Rhinoceros"
(Both tracks from the Gish LP)
"Hummer"
"Soma"
(Both tracks from the Siamese Dream LP)
"Obscured"
"Landslide"
(Both tracks from the Pisces Iscariot LP)
Music Video
The Smashing Pumpkins - "Rocket"
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Don't Tell Anyone You Don't Own...
Modest Mouse - This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About
(1996, Up)
"Breakthrough"
One of my husband's coworkers purports to be a big Modest Mouse fan, though in this age of ITunes, his exposure has been limited to "Float On" and "Dashboard." It's for guys like him, if for no other reason, that I'm giving a shoutout to the Mouse's fantastic debut LP.
As Backdrifter noted in his first post, Modest Mouse's music has an energy that is perfect for facilitating inebriation (See: "Breakthrough"), or, as the band's titles often suggest, for driving really long distances. So you're someone with nothing to think about, you say, and all this distance to drive? Well mister/missy, even if you "know your geography pretty damn well," pop some Dramamine and prepare for some road rage.
Although MM's earlier albums are markedly rawer, Long Drive's music still feels lush and scenic. Just listen to the six and a half minute "Lounge" (the first of the track's two incarnations) or "Talking Shit About a Pretty Sunset" (Why or why wasn't this the album closer?? Get an editor, Mr. Brock!). Whether you want to feel pretty or cut yourself in true MM style, Long Drive has something for everyone who claims to love the Mouse, but has yet to hear 9/10 of their catalogue.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Don't Tell Anyone You Don't Own...
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
(Matador Records, 1994)
I know, there are some of you pulling your hair out, screaming at the computer screen (or whatever it is you kids use to surf the web these days) in a fit of rage over the fact that I dared not pick Slanted and Enchanted. Though it may put me in the minority, I still say that Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is the better album. This is mainly because I personally prefer Crooked Rain's poppier leanings to Slanted's endearing sloppiness. These are songs that, unlike much of their debut, get stuck in your head.
Nearly every song on here is a classic. There is the pseudo-sleeper hit in "Cut Your Hair", a staple of college and cool alternative radio stations alike. There's "Gold Soundz", a jangly pop nugget that more than lives up to its name. Hell, even the irreverent "Heaven Is a Truck" is unforgettable, even if
only for Stephen Malkmus' stream-of-conscience-nonsense-turned-lyrics. Of course, there's also "Range Life", where this esteemed blog took its name.
There are also sentimental reasons for why I love this album so much. More than anything, it represents several bygone eras, a trip down memory lane with several detours along the way. This album represents a time when college and commercial radio came so close to having a beautiful wedding. As I mentioned earlier, "Cut Your Hair" received a fair amount of play, and you know that if they're playing the song in Lawrence, Kansas, then surely other radio stations were spinning it too. I also think about Summer when I listen to this album, and that is perhaps the exact reason why I chose it. You see, I've always imagined Crooked Rain as Summer passing by. It moves so slow but yet is always over much too soon, and before you know it the kids with the Vespas are back for the Fall semester. With Summer un-officially over with the passing of Labor Day and the start of the NFL, I'm already missing the bygone days of the past couple of months, hot nights on the porch (beer in hand), Pitchfork Music Festivals, barbecues, and perhaps most importantly of all - my birthday. Thankfully I can relive the Summer, every Summer, with every listen.
From the album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain