30 Songs, 30 Days, Day Twenty Eight: Perspex Iron by Wire

I came to enjoy Wire relatively late. For some reason WDRE had started playing a single off their album A Bell Is A Cup Until It Is Struck, and I dug on it so much that I went out and bought the cassette from St. Mark's Sound in Greenwich Village. That was during a period in my life when I was spending almost all of my free time in a patch of land stretching from St. Mark's Place to Houston, from Second to Eighth Avenue. I still vividly remember some of the places I hung out in, almost all of them gone--the original Pluck U. Chicken Restaurant; the Horror and Science Fiction Video Store right next door; the Ritz (now Webster Hall...)

(Pluck U. was something of a local success story for a while--two NYU students who decided to start a fast food place next to their dorm. The food, specializing in very hot buffalo wings, was so good that they expanded to include several places throughout New York--only for the whole chain to implode save for one sad little remnant around 2005. The same thing happened to another place I love, Sabena's Sandwich Shops)

I also remember being thrilled when Wire showed up in an issue of Savage Henry, Matt Howath's bizarre science fiction comic that kinda sorta can be seen as a precursor of Cowboy BeBop, with its storylines being informed by the music styles creator Howath loved. It was like, at least for this band, that Howath approved....

I know I haven't said anything about the song itself, and the reason is because it's unremarkable for Wire. I find it much more interesting in its purpose as a time machine for me--evoking its name has brought all these memories up, and that's more precious to me that a cool song....

But I'm sure tomorrow will bring a new musical rumination....

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Twenty Seven: Mercy by Duffy

And now, for our listening pleasure....Little English Girls (well, Welsh girls in this case) with Big Black Voices.

And I'm a sucker for this weird sub-genre of pop music, a sub-genre that's gotten itself something of a resurgence in the last few years with the advent of Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse...and now this little slip of a thing. There's something about this loud, booming, tangy voice whipping out of the mouth of someone so improbable that makes me weak in the knees.

It's obvious that Duffy loves her Shirelles..."Mercy" definitely apes the impenetrable wall of sound that convicted murderer Phil Spector used as his trademark. Although there are some things that still echo of a more modern sensibility--when we get to the bridge at the 2 and a quarter minute mark, the near-subliminal lyrics that whisper from underneath her pleas is something straight out of the mid 90's Alt-Rock playbook. Of course, the combination is melded together so well that it helps to strengthen the song rather than throw it off the rails.

Of course, the question does arise...why do we have such a plethora of these white-girls-singing-black these days? My guess is that right now 'modern rhythm and blues' has wandered so far away from its roots, allowing the heritage of Aretha and Ronnie and Darlene to be diluted into so much generic sludge (I'm sorry, but Darlene Love in her prime could kick both Rhianna and Beyonce's asses musically. Together. With one hand tied behind her back) that those of us who love the real stuff are willing to embrace that sound no matter where its coming from. And quite frankly, Joss and Duffy seem to know more about R&B than the present R&B Divas ever will.

Before we leave this song, I wanted to show the rather...disparate...way the American and English labels promoted 'Mercy.' Here's the English video, from Polydor UK...

I actually like this one a lot...there's something very, very creepy about its hazy lighting and the minimalist sets, like it's a broadcast of Ready, Steady Go from limbo. In that context, the sight of the dancers catching fire has an altogether unpleasant connotation.

It turns out the American version has disappeared from YouTube--it was blocked by Universal Music Group.  It's pretty sad, because the American version is rather different from this one.  On one hand, it's obvious the American version, like the English version, is trying to keep the concept of Duffy being something of a throwback in the video....but the whole implication that this is the equivalent of a old school stag loop (What's with the arbitrary shots of the photographer shooting a bra-and-pantied Duffy that pop up out of nowhere halfway through?) makes me think they're missing the point....

Incidentally, rumor has it that Duffy is going to be offered the chance to perform the next James Bond theme song...and you know, I'm pretty good with that.

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Twenty Six: The Lonesome Kicker by Adam Sandler

I love this song. This is from Sandler's album What's Your Name?; apparently Sandler was suffering from the same feelings of not being treated seriously as a musician that Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest did (see Day Twenty-Two) and came up with a whole load of songs to prove he was. And the funny thing is, a lot of the songs were really good, like the first (and to my knowledge, only) single.

The concept behind the parody element of the song is that it's a grandiose Springsteen song about the trails and tribulations about a downtrodden man....except that Sandler, a diehard pro football fan, has chosen to write this song about the most inconsequential member of a football team (every time I hear this, I think of Mark Schlereth's comments about kickers not being a real member of a football squad). Sandler goes whole hog in the recreation, right down to the saxophone solo bridging us to the end.

But here's the genius part of it. I have always said that the secret to creating an effective parody or satire is to structure it so that if all the comedic elements are removed it will still work as an example of the thing being parodied...and you know...it's true! Take out all the jokes about having very small hands and being a minor league soccer star, and you still get a decent Springsteen knockoff.

To my chagrin, I could not find the really funny video that goes with this song. It's such an effective ape of Springsteen circa Born In The USA that I almost wish Sandler took the same path Al Yankovic took, focusing primarily on his musical parodies rather than making a succession of films featuring rage-filled man-children with annoying voices.

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Twenty Five: Hair Like Alain Delon by White Town

You remember White Town, don't you? You most likely do, even if you don't know it; this Indian born English DJ was responsible for the compellingly weird single "Your Woman." This is one of his other songs...and its pretty damn good. It comes from that strange 'hero worship' sub-category; English pop at one point was littered with them, as the singer either wishes to be one of his heroes or looks to that self-same hero for some sort of advice. The most extreme example of this is Bananarama's "Robert deNiro's Watching," which I took for a piece of fluff....until one of the members of the band revealed in an interview that the POV character was a rape victim who only felt comfortable retreating into a fantasy world where her hero protects her.

This is nowhere near as dark, being a straight-on paen to French actor Alain Delon. Delon was an icon of the New Wave, a dark-haired man with a startling gaze. I recently got a chance to watch what is considered his greatest film, the 1967 noir caper Le Samourai and let me tell you, the man had charisma in spades. I don't doubt that Jyoti Prakash Mishra worshipped at Delon's altar, wishing he could have the suaveness and presence of this man.

To my surprise, Mishra is still performing and recording as White Town even now.

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Twenty Four: You Oughta Know by Alanis Morisette

I think it would take us only a few minutes to list all these female singers that came onto the scene suddenly as a 'startling new feminist voice'....only to slowly fade out after that first fistful of hits. Although I guess an argument could be made for Tori Amos being the first, Alanis Morissette was arguably the one that attracted the most attention. Who can deny how this single (and its accompanying video, with the painfully angular Morissette walking through the desert carrying that painting) acted like a massive shot across the bow of pop culture that year? And how the anger in that song got kinda forgotten when all the other singles from Jagged Little Pill got dropped. Let's face it--it's hard to keep that fury in mind when MTV is showing us that same fury acting as a spazz in the back of the car.

What's funny is how the two other women that more often than not get lumped together with Morissette--Amos and Fiona Apple--seem to cut from the same template. All three, according to their bios, were driven to their uniquely raw sound by personal trauma. Of course, both Amos and Apple were raped, which kind of makes Morissette's tale of entering into a sexual relationship with a much older co-star before she was ready seem...petty in comparison. And given how Amos and Apple continued to mine deep into the female psyche (Amos successfully, Apple not so much), while Morissette got all hippy on us before returning to rehash her complaints with the much less angry--although very engaging--'Hands Clean' also diminished her in people's eyes.

I don't think Morissette's body of work holds up in retrospect, but I also don't think that means we should dismiss the raw, angry power of this song. Sure, it's now more catching lightning in a bottle than the first shot across the bow of pop culture we thought it was...but on its own it still has the power to bite, and bite deep.

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Twenty Three: Disturbance At The Heron House by R.E.M.

I'm feeling profoundly depressed today, but make a promise, keep a promise....

And for today's patriotic entry we have proof of the American Dream--namely, R.E.M. Now be honest--don't you think that Michael Stipe is one of the most unlikely rockstars ever? A voice that may not be beautiful but is a tornado of emotions, a face that is at turns nondescript and ugly, a body like a scarecrow missing half its stuffing....and yet this man has fronted a band that has been on the cutting edge of modern rock music for over twenty five years. Oh, sure, I doubt anyone would argue that Around The Sun or Up are Titans of Rock Goodness....but their batting average is way above average. Hell, the guys' batting average is better than David Ortiz' these days (metaphorically, of course).

So this is a deep track from Document, which is arguably the album that really broke the band--it was the first album to crack the top ten, and the first to have a real Top 40 hit in "The One I Love." The song itself is a bit of fluff, basically using a fictitious breakout of animals in a fictitious zoo as a metaphor for people who are repressed to throw off their chains and celebrate themselves; I have to assume that Stipe, a not-really-closeted-but-not-talking-about-it-at-the-time homosexual was using it to talk about his own sexuality. I would have preferred something more meaty to talk about for the 4th of July, but it could have been worse--we could've been stuck with "Happy Shiny People," which threatened to turn the band into a pop group....

And still, when I think of Mr. Stipe, still living in his home town, using his money to make the lives of others better...I think that's what America is all about.

Happy 4th, everyone.

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Twenty Two: Russian Pop Song by The Zambonis

Which is worse--being in a band that's considered a joke, or being trapped in a joke when you find yourself with a popular song.

That's probably the question my hero Harry Shearer asks his friends Christopher Guest and Michael McKean every single day.

But we're not talking about Spinal Tap today (although given that the trio has once again tried to convince the world that they are real musicians by putting out an album makes this entry particularly relevant). We're talking about The Zambonis.

The Zambonis were a band that came on stage in hockey gear, their sneakers painted to look like hockey skates, who then proceeded to sing songs exclusively about hockey.

No, I'm not joking.

The scary thing was that the band was good. Every one of these songs were a well-constructed number that ranged from hard rock to ska to pop to punk....and just happened to be about some aspect of hockey. This particular song is about two friends who are reviled by their families for leaving Russia, find success in the NHL, and are celebrated when they return. And it's serious when it calls itself a pop song--this has a gentle, jangly melody that's upbeat and inoffensive, some great phrasing and overall comes off as upbeat.

And as for the popular song...on their album More Songs About Hockey...and Buildings and Food, the band presented "Hockey Monkey." It's an exceedingly silly song, and the band acknowledges it in the liner notes by pointing out that when you're devoted to only writing about one thing, you're going to end up with something like "Hockey Monkey." And for no readily apparent reason, someone liked it enough to make it the theme for the Fox series The Loop, and people...well, people started discovering them. People like Nickelodeon....

The Zambonis are still around, spreading their gospel of hockey. And they don't seem to mind their status as musical oddity. They're not fighting against their status, like the Spinal Tap trio. More power to them.

30 Songs, 30 Days(2009 Edition), Day Twenty One: String Bean Jean by Belle and Sebastian

Now honestly...does this sound like 'Sad Bastard Music'? Get a load of that crunchy surf-guitar riff that gets changed into something wondrous when the synth slides into the background with its very eighties blips...

A song about summer and how the drudgery of the workaday world can be redeemed by a few drinks with the right girl (a girl he calls 'String Bean' because the label on her jeans says 'seven to eight years old'....a label that makes the POV singer remark 'that's pretty small'), this is yet another argument for Belle and Sebastain having, you know, a variety of feelings and not just the slow, maudlin melancholy most people dismiss them as.

I sometimes wonder how a band gets a rep like that, especially when it can be potentially deadly--after all, look at the case of Texan band Deep Blue Something, who had a hit with the college-y 'Breakfast at Tiffany's.' That song's rather....fawning, obsessive nature branded them as something of a joke, which was a surprise given that it's unlike any of the other songs on the band's album. Granted, Belle and Sebastian have maintained a rather healthy fanbase, some partially because they had the 'sad bastard' brand put on them, but there are other bands with less on the ball who have died due to pigeonholing.

Sorry about that. I promise I won't ramble as much tomorrow.

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Twenty: Why? by Annie Lennox

And now...what happens to New Wave Icons when they age....the successful ones become 'Adult Contemporary' artists.

I'll be honest--this is not how I prefer to remember Ms. Lennox. Given my druthers, I'd rather remember her as the wailing banshee of "Would I Lie To You?" and especially "Missionary Man*," when she got in touch with her inner Aretha and let herself loose. It does seem like the second she divested herself of Dave Stewart (who, let's be honest, was more interested at that point in producing rather than performing), Lennox began to slowly chip away at that image of her, shedding the harder, more rhythm-and-bluesy bits until what you got was a consistent synth-sludge designed to be played ad infinitum on 'Lite Rock' stations.

It's funny how we are as serious music fans. On one hand, we want to see our favorite artists grow and evolve--at least until that moment when they hit the kind of music we like the best, at which point we want them to freeze in place and do the same thing over and over again like a musical monkey for our amusement. Keeping that in light, I can't fault Annie Lennox for evolving into what she is now--Hell, we could have seen that this was the path she would choose when we listened to "Julia" from the 1984 soundtrack.

As a bonus, because I find her adorable (yes, I said it), here's a very shaky-cam'd Kelly Clarkson covering the same song....

*--Of course, "Missionary Man" will almost always bring memories of one of the strangest dreams I ever had. It happened when I was in college, and I dreamed I was walking around the neighborhood of Hunter--particularly 3rd Avenue--and I was being followed by The Beastie Boys circa License To Ill, who proceeded to sing a Beastie-esque version of the song. It made such an impression on me that I found myself singing the Beasties version I dreamed up in the streets.

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Nineteen: I Believe by Abra Moore

(It seems, looking back at these things while reposting them, that I produced two Day Nineteens in the 2009 Edition...which makes me feel a little better about how the 2010 Edition got truncated.  I decided not to correct the mistake for versimilitude's sake....so enjoy!)

It seems that this week is The Week Of Shoulda Coulda Been Bigger...for here we have Abra Moore.

Abra Moore's second album, Strangest Places was one of the seemingly dozens of review albums I received through the mail when I was a music journalist, so I didn't have much hope for it. But upon listening to it straight through, I thought the record label had something here in this ethereal blonde girl with the country twang in her voice--a twang she got legitimately, being an Austin, Texas native. And it seems that at least part of the country agreed with me, as the first single from that album, "Four Leaf Clover," was a mainstay of VH1 for a short while and became something of a hit in the midwest.

This song is from her most recent album, On The Way, and I think it's indicative of why I was charmed by her--the lush production manages to be full without drowning out her true strength, her voice. At turns coy and sad, but always with a hint of a smile, Abra's voice has an undeniable delicateness that works for the variety of songs she writes.

I don't have a video of the song we're discussing here, but here's a live performance of the aforementioned "Four Leaf Clover"....

I don't know why Abra Moore's success seems confined to the Midwest (although I do wonder if her wistfulness--it wasn't a surprise to me that she was a member of the Hawaiian collective Poi Dog Pondering prior to her solo career--in the age of the pop tart doesn't restrain her potential). I know that she's one of these artist who seems to have perpetual label troubles--her last three albums have been on three different labels, after all. But it's a shame that more people don't know her and appreciate her work.

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Nineteen: Apollo Nine by Adam Ant

To file under Shoulda Coulda Been Bigger....one Adam Ant.

Oh, yeah, I know he was bigger in England, where his original group Adam and The Ants spearheaded the 'New Romantic' movement that gave us such stalwarts of 80's New Wave as Duran Duran, ABC and Culture Club. And I know that he actually had something of a major hit here in the states with "Goody Two Shoes," thanks partially to a video featuring the absolutely stunning Caroline Munro and her skunk patch...

....I loves me some Caroline Munro....this is Caroline Munro.

....but Stuart Leslie Goddard did have a career beyond the album Friend or Foe, although the underperformance of follow up albums Strip, Viva Le Rock and Manners and Physique. This is a single from Viva Le Rock, and I just love it. I mean, just get a load of that drum line, will you? The song, like many of Mr. Goddard's work, is fairly simplistic--it boils down to 'Hey, my gal left me, so I left the planet,' but that wonderfully martial sounding drumbeat, popping guitars and the insanely earworm-y chorus just makes for a truly compelling pop song.

Here is the video....

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Eighteen: Grade Nine by Barenaked Ladies

And here we have the first Barenaked Ladies song I ever liked...and the one that prevented me from getting into them until later.

I have established my love of things ska in a previous entry in this series. When I first heard this song on one of the rare attempts to create an new alternative rock station here in New York out of the ashes of WLIR/DRE, I went nuts.* After all, here was a brand new ska band who had the same sense of fun the classic 'revival bands' of the 80's had...

And then I heard the other tracks on Gordon, the Barenaked Ladies' initial album...and I got thoroughly confused. A trip up to the aforementioned radio station's super-tiny studio to see an acoustic performance by them further confused me. I mean, yeah, I liked "Brian Wilson," the second single from the album, but it...it wasn't like this one.

Later on, when I discovered the true joy of the Ladies the way most Americans did with Stunt, I was able to re-acquaint myself with this song. In retrospect, it's actually a textbook example of what we now know as 'geek rock.' It's all there--the references to being an outcast, outright geek references and a winsome fondness for high school. It's almost required that a geek rock combo to do a paen to their high school days, isn't it?

No video for this song officially--Much Music apparently created one that Warners was NOT happy with...so here's a live version.

*--I don't know why, for a city as musically diverse as New York, we are throughly incapable of supporting an alternative rock station. I can't speak for anyone else, but I am tired of having to choose between three different top 40 stations, four different urban contemporary and two reggaton stations. At least WRXP, one of two 'classic rock' stations, is more than willing to acknowledge that alternative rock is a viable genre, and will play such modern acts as MGMT, Death Cab for Cutie, Kings of Leon and my new favorite band, The Hold Steady.

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Seventeen: Dirty Little Secret by The All-American Rejects

Ask me why I like The All-American Rejects so much, and I wouldn't know quite what to say. Yeah, I can point to the fact that in their own way they're carrying forward the power pop tradition I love so much. And I'll be the first to admit that these guys have mastered the whole upbeat melody/downbeat lyric thing that I have a weakness for. But it's hard to ignore that there's definitely something...mercenary in the trajectory of their career. The guest spot on House, for example, always struck me as done more because the label felt the show's highbrow hipness might rub off on the boys.

Still, I find it hard to dislike any of this Oklahoma band's singles, of which this is the first. The moment I first heard this single, I fell in love with it--even as I realized the heinousness of the song's message. After all, we are talking about the POV character telling this woman he's fucking that she'll never be his girlfriend, that he'll never be with her in public, that she will always be hidden away and if she ever tries to break this arrangement, she'll become 'just another regret.' This is arguably the first song of the bunch I've written about where the singer is a true emotional monster, using another person for his own amusement and not even trying to rationalize it.

Which, come to think of it, might be the reason this song is so compelling to me. We have all known people like this in our lives, men and women who have callously manipulated someone they knew damn well was in love with them (hey...maybe that placement on House wasn't such a random thing after all). And while we may flatter ourselves in saying we weren't that horrible person, hasn't there been a moment where you considered--even for a second--doing just what the singer of this song proudly cops to doing.

Who has to know?

Here's the rather clever video. I love the concept here--transposing the song with a succession of people literally hiding behind postcards depicting their own 'dirty little secrets.' I have to give this group credit for actively trying new and creative interpretations for their videos, and I'm glad they've continued to work to make each of their videos compellingly original.

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Sixteen: You Might Think by The Cars

Ahhhhh, Rik Ocasek....the man that convinced us back in the 80's that looks don't matter. After all, you're arguably one of the butt-ugliest men on the planet and you married a supermodel....

This is, of course, the lead single from Heartbeat City, the album that briefly made this group from Columbus, Ohio into mainstream Gods. I think a lot of their success had to do with the synergy of a series of highly inventive videos directed by unusual directors (one was even directed by Andy-freakin'-Wharhol!) and the ascendence of MTV as a taste maker. Hell, take a look at the video for this song....

Yeah, it looks...artificial looking at it now from the lens of the Oughts...but in 1984 that was state of the art video effects...so state of the art that it won 'Video of the Year' in that year's MTV Video Awards.

As for the song itself...it may very well be The Cars' most commercial piece of work, stripped mostly clean of Ocasek's vocal quirkiness and propelled by a not-quite-toy piano rift that's got a definite earworm quality to it. It's also a very strong showcase for how Ocasek, Benjamin Orr and Elliot Easton were almost a perfect package for power pop strength--I literally can't think of one of these men achieving much success without the other

....and later efforts have proved my hypothesis. For, while both Easton and Ocasek have created great solo albums (Easton's effort Change No Change produced a song that floors me to this day, "(Wearing Down) Like A Wheel"), neither has had the success apart they have had together. And we will never, ever speak about that Frankenstein-like aberration that was The New Cars.

No, really. Never. I'm doing us all a favor.  That band was so bad I'm awful leery of the upcoming Cars reunion....

Luckily, the influence of The Cars lives on in one of my all-time favorite bands. It's a not-very-well-kept secret that Fountains of Wayne's biggest hit, "Stacey's Mom," is a painstaking reconstruction of The Cars' formula for power pop heaven. And every once in a while, one of the members shows up out of nowhere, contributing their talents and, presumably, their blessings to other power pop and rock acts like Black 47 and The Click Five. As long as the band members continue to operate like that, power pop will continue to live on in our minds and our hearts.

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Fifteen: She's Losing It by Belle and Sebastian

You know, given the reputation Belle and Sebastian has for being 'Sad Bastard Music,' I'm always struck by how so many of their songs have a determinedly cheerful disposition....like this portrait of two women who, rather than falling into the malaise of everyday madness with boys that'll mistreat them, find solace in each other. There's a decidedly upbeat melody here not out of place in a 60's Brit-pop number and an ending that may be unconventional, but is certainly happy.

Okay, so I don't have a lot to say about this one...here's a live performance from 2006....

...and because I'm a geek, here's a Doctor Who fanvid for the song....

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Fourteen: Jumping Jack Flash by Aretha Franklin

Yes. You read that right.

And to be fair, it's not as wild a combo as it sounds on the surface--there's always been a little R&B in the Stones, and all Aretha does is coax that little bit out and push it front and center....and you know that no matter what she sings, Aretha is going to sing it into submission. There are some moments here where she starts growling that lyrics which sends chills down your spine.

See, this is the kind of cover I do enjoy--one that tackles the original text from a different direction and maybe makes you look at it in a different light. Granted, the reason this cover was made was far from the best...before it showed up on her album Aretha, it was part of this....

Great artists should never cover great songs for Whoopi Goldberg movies. Seriously. That this turned out as good as it did is a credit to the artists.

Now let's never talk about the time when Whoopi Goldberg was the actress you asked to be in your movie when your star backed out (the film Jumping Jack Flash was written as a vehicle for the then-inexplicably popular Shelly Long; Other films Whoopi acted as stand-in for were Fatal Beauty--originally written for Cher--and, most gob-stopping of all, Burglar, meant for Bruce Willis) again.

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Fourteen: Speed Kills by 10cc

...or Godley and Creme had to start somewhere.

10cc is kind of curious. They're a band most people have some recognition factor of--if only for being the band that recorded 'that 'big boys don't cry' song' (You might know it under its more common title of "I'm Not In Love")--but may be most famous for truly launching the careers of Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, a duo who are best known for being pioneering music video directors. And they were pioneering music video directors primarily because, well, they didn't seem to like the form very much and did their best to twist, fold, spindle and mutilate every song they were hired to make a clip for. Don't take my word for it...check out the video for the Howard Jones nugget "Life In One Day"....

I love how this video just pushes Jones The performer more and more out of his own video in favor of little nonsensical channel flips...

Then we've got the wish-fulfillment incarnation of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Two Tribes"....I don't know about you, but I thought about this video and how I'd like to see it re-enacted with Dubya during the last eight years....

Another favorite of mine is the video for The Police's "Synchronicity 2,"which recasts the band as the kings of some post-apocalyptic junkheap.

And, of course, there's the beautiful, utter symplicity of "Cry," an excellent song in its own right, where the duo uses the then-nascent technology of video morphing to create an ongoing facial montage. And let me tell you, as one who saw this video when it was new, it was a creepy experience.

The duo became obsessed with new video tech--Huey Lewis' risible argument for not rocking the boat "Hip To Be Square" used a medical camera then utilized by dentists to get the extreme close-ups.

You'll notice I haven't been talking much about the song...well, it's because it's been a while since I heard it and....it's not very good. There's some neat guitar licks that drown out the lyrics, but it's pretty bog standard.

But if there was no 10cc, there would be no Godley and Creme...and without Godley and Creme, well...we wouldn't have the kick-assery of these videos, huh?

　

Cover-versies: 'Dear God' by Sarah Maclachlan

I was listening to Brian Ibbot's excellent podcast Coverville this morning. It's a great twice-sometimes-thrice weekly show about, you know, cover songs--and I love me cover songs. A great cover of a song serves, much like a great remake of a movie or a theatrical production of a classic play, to illuminate and/or transform the original, giving us new insight into the artifact. In some rare cases, a cover of an awful song can raise that original up, revealing nuances the first artist either could not or would not explore.

Of course, sometimes that isn't always the case. And this is where Cover-versies come into play.

Getting back to the podcast....the episode I was listening to was the first part of the 2010 Coverville Countdown. And, amongst such gems as the version of 'Start Me Up' by The Folksmen (the surreal moment of my hero Harry Shearer intoning the salacious words of Mick Jagger as if he was Pete Seegar is just...wow), was the Sarah MacLachlan version of XTC's 'Dear God.' And, as always when I listen to that version, it bugged the crap out me.

Y'see, I know a lot of people who praise the MacLachlan version as being the superior one. And I can't disagree more. But before I get into it, let's look at the original by Andy Partridge and XTC...

This was originally intended as a B-Side for XTC's 1986 album, Skylarking...but apparently, American DJ's picked up on the song and gave it so much airplay that Virgin Records pulled the original version of the album to put it on in place of 'Mermaid Smile.' Even though it begins gently, this is a brutal song, a discourse about confronting religion and trying to coalesce it with your faith...and having to consider the fact that maybe they can't be reconciled. Even though it begins with the typical beautiful XTC string arrangements and a sweet boy singing, it rapidly becomes a railing against the storm, helped massively by the vocals of Andy Partridge. I know there are some people who might not care for Partridge's somewhat ungainly tones, but the emotion in his voice is raw and powerful--and I will always take a singer who is less classically trained but wears his emotions on his sleeve than one who studied at Juilliard any day.

So almost ten years later, in 1995, Sarah MacLachlan covers this song for the tribute album Testimonal Dinner: A Tribute To XTC. Here is a fan-made video with a woman named Kellie overacting....

You'll notice a couple of differences right off the bat....the changing of the arrangement to something jazzier, the slowing down of the tempo, the presence of a number of instruments that weren't there before (Hello, piano! How you doin', woodwinds?), the subtle-but-still-there treatment of MacLachlan's vocals, the removal of the slow build to make her outburst towards the end all the more dramatic. Maybe it's me, but all the alterations seem to take the savage bite out of the song, turning it into something, well safer. And the fact that MacLachlan's vocals never quite leave the range she sets up in the initial stanza without the producer fiddling with the gain nob blunts the arc of the song itself. In XTC's version, there's a whole passage where Partridge seems to be conspiring with the Creator (it comes at roughly the two minute, eight second mark), trying to cozy up to him to get him to admit that what he believes about him is the truth...only for that strategy to break down into his last bit of rage. That arc isn't in the MacLachlan version--it's all smoothy-cool-breeze jazzhands, her vocals remaining steady before BAM!, here comes the distortion and the echo to make Sarah sound like a monster, and it. just. doesn't. work. Even the way she tries to out-eccentric Partridge on some phrases--the way her voice consciously 'cracks' at the moments where Partridge tries to conspire--seem calculated.

The XTC version of 'Dear God' is sung from the point of view of a man who's been beaten down and has had Enough, railing and ranting and giving notice that he won't allow these things to stand. The Sarah MacLachlan version is sung from the point of view of a woman who reads about terrible tragedies in the paper, whines about it to her pomo friends in the Williamsburg bistro she hangs out in and decides to write a song in support with money she borrowed from her parents. The original is the better version.

Deal with it.

What cover songs would you like to see contrasted with their original? Let me know.

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Version), Day Thirteen: Chasing The Sun Away by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Here's something that combines two things I adore: bands from Boston and ska.

While the Bosstones weren't the most successful of the 'Third Wave' ska bands--arguments can be made for both No Doubt and 311 having that distinction--the Bosstones were certainly amongst the top ten acts from that revival, thanks mainly to the surprise popularity of "The Impression That I Get" from Let's Face It. The strength of that single allowed Dickey Betts and company to keep going for a live collection and two more studio albums, the last of which, From A Jacknife To A Swain, spawned today's song.

I think the biggest impediment to the band's popularity is also its greatest strength, namely the vocals of Dicky Betts. By no means a polished, professional singer when the Bosstones started out, Betts still had a raw emotionality that propelled their songs, making them into more than they maybe should have been. Oddly enough, one of the reason Jacknife may have been something of a flop is because Dicky seemed to have gotten some singing lessons and become more pleasing to the ear....but at the expense of that emotionality.

The song itself is a little fluffy (which might also explain why the album tanked; there are a number of lighter songs like this which both blunts the impact of the overall album while also making the more 'traditional' Bosstones songs like "Mr. Moran" and "I Want My City Back" sound uglier by comparison), but it's pleasant enough for what it is.

The Bosstones still play together, including their legendary Christmas shows at the Mid-East.

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Twelve: Light Up My Room by Barenaked Ladies

One of the great misconception about this band of Canadians is that all they're good for is writing silly, witty pop songs. While the bulk of Barenaked Ladies' work is, well, fluffy--sort of like Squeeze on mood elevators (and that's meant in the best of all possible ways)--there's also a somewhat middling body of work which is darker and more melancholy in tone. Hell, these guys wrote "Pinch Me," which to me is one of the best representations of the tonally grey feeling people who suffer from chronic depression get, and "Call and Answer," a painfully sweet song about trying desperately to let go of a destructive lover...and failing yet again. They have this talent for cushioning the seriousness of their lyrics in a blanket of words that sounds on the surface to be their usual whimsey...but when you look at them closer, you realize the seriousness of the tales held within.

This isn't as dark as those songs--there are little glimmers of hope, like sparks that rise from a campfire--but I always thought this song had its own twilight taste. A song about making do when your resources are dwindling and your life partner is maybe eyeing the door, it benefits from the vocals of Ed Robertson, who sounds weary but won't let that weariness overtake him. It's prolly not the favorite track of a lot of people from Stunt--we are talking the album that produced both "One Week," "It's All Been Done" and the aforementioned "Call And Answer," after all--but it is a track that holds up after repeated listens.

Here's a video of Robertson doing a solo acoustic version of the song:

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Eleven: Vigil by Tribe

And now, a little sidetrack into Obscure Bands of The 90's.

This is one of my favorite bands that just Never. Went. Anywhere. It wasn't until recently that I learned from this article by David Medsker that they were a massive phenomenon in their home town of Boston (which once again proves, given my music proclivities and my love for a certain baseball team, that I may have been born in the wrong city).

And the odd thing is that when I first saw them, I didn't like them. They opened for Toad The Wet Sprocket one night during my years as a college student-cum-music journalist and I just didn't get them, even though I was rather struck by lead singer Janet LaValley--try to imagine Emma Peel strung up on heroin and finding herself stuck in front of a dream pop band. It wasn't until I came across their first album, Abort lying around my friend S. Guy Guimento's house and listened to it did I become a fan. It must've been a bad show I caught that night, because on the album their music was amazing--creepy at times, sweet at others, and with a massive swirling soundscape I just fell in love with. I then made it a point to catch their next show...and the show after that...and the show after that...and....

Well, you get the idea. I became a follower of the band, and loved them to death. I became so enamored that some of the members used to recognize me from show to show...which I guess makes me sad. But at least I now know I wasn't the only one who was going to shows by Ethyl Meatplow and the like because they were opening.

Tribe is one of those bands that, like Big Dipper, was a victim of the Signing Frenzy of the early 90's. Abort, from which this paen to night terrors comes from, did poorly, and their follow-up Sleeper did even worse despite some national coverage of their first single "Supercollider." In light of that poor showing, Slash Records released them, and the band went their separate ways. Granted, the separate ways included the husband and wife team of Terri Barous and Eric Brosius creating a video game called Guitar Hero, so it seems to have worked out okay for them.

(About that national attention--I remember quite vividly hearing a piece of NPR that interviewed LaValley and Brosius, as well as members of the Supercollider project....talk about strange transpositions).

If you like dream pop, you really need to give these guys a listen. I was fortunate enough to come across a website that includes everything you need to know about them, including mp3s of the demos for what would have been their third album. They're one of those forgotten bands that really don't deserve to be forgotten.

Here's a video that contains a live version of this song....

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Ten: Oliver's Army by Elvis Costello

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you one Declan Patrick MacManus.

This is not from his best album--I still insist that Imperial Bedroom holds that status, which I have been devoted to ever since I found a tape of it in a Quarter Bin during the twilight days of the Queens Boulevard Alexander's Department Store--but this is one of the first songs of his that blew open my mind to his greatness. It still ranks as one of my favorite songs he ever penned, a position it held very, very quickly after I first heard it. Heck, it had such an impact on me that I named a villain group of mercenaries after this song in my Villains and Vigilantes campaign (But, to be fair, I also had another villain named after an Echo and The Bunnymen song...).

A pretty important song, given it almost was cut from the album it appeared on, Armed Forces.

A song about class distinctions being played out in the military, its has the typical Costello word salad gamboling all through it, from the titular reference to Oliver Cromwell to the way the hot spot keeps hoping from Belfast to Hong Kong to Palestine to Johanessburg--and yet its message stays clear. If you're poor, Costello's POV character tells us, you'll fight for us. And if you die fighting for us, you'll just be 'one less white nigger.'

Incidentally--this song is maybe unique in that radio stations usually play it without censoring the word 'nigger.'

I owned a tape of Armed Forces that I wore out, then bought a second hand CD. One of these days I'll buy the Rhino version with the extra disc of outtakes. I'll keep all version, much like I've kept both the Rhino CD and that quarter bin tape of Imperial Bedroom....and I'm sure that Oliver's Army will keep marching through the back of my head.

Here's the video. Incidentally, I'm pretty positive the beach he's singing on at one point is the same that he uses as a setting for his video for "(What's So Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding?"

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Nine: Oxford Girl by 3rdness

Hey! It's a song I don't think I've ever heard before!

If you recall from last week, I mentioned that I love those free online samplers you can download from record companies as zip files to sample their wares. Well, record companies aren't the only ones--thanks to the wild-frontier-ness that still exists on this internet, many band will offer EPs and even whole albums up to net surfers for free; the band gets their music exposed and hopefully a paying customer for their next project, whereas lil' ol' us gets something for free--and stuff for free, as I'll always tell you, is the best stuff of all. Hell, we're now at a point where big name acts will give you free tracks and the like; I belong to the Coldplay mailing list, and not that long ago was treated to a special live EP the band released to their list members as a thank you for spending money on them during these trying times.

Which brings us to our song for the day, I can tell you it's not one I would have sought out if it wasn't for the free EP offer...but that's not necessarily a bad thing. 3rdness is a mainly electronic band, with an emphasis on repetitive synth loops and the rhythm carrying the song to its conclusion--we are talking about a song that maybe has about two dozen words in its lyrics, tops, most of them the chant 'This is on the other song.' But it's not without a certain hypnotic charms. If you like this sort of thing, you'd really enjoy it.

It seems that 3rdness is Noam Schatz of The Mobius Band, and the track is from his solo EP Red Chanterelles. The album is still available for free here.　

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Eight: I Cannot Get My Head Around It, Baby by Aimee Mann

And for the second time, here's Aimee Mann.

This is a song from Mann's ambitious concept album The Forgotten Arm, which tells a love story between a girl and a boxer who is addicted to heroin. I rather like the album as a whole--although the nature of the concept album makes pulling isolated songs out from it problematic, to say the least. It's one of the reasons why all those 'rock operas' that were popular in the 70's never quite caught on...much to Styx's chagrin.

It's another example of a song whose sweet, poppy exterior hides a darker meaning--namely that this is a song about her POV character having great trouble coming to grips with her boxer boyfriend's addiction. And make no mistake--I've always thought Aimee Mann is a master (mistress?) of the tension between message and messenger. The melody here is so uplifting and swinging and loving, and yet Aimee is giving voice to a woman who is telling her lover that she Just. Can't. Cope.

I don't think I'm spoiling anything for anyone who might be curious about The Forgotten Arm that the songs that follow this one get darker before the album ends with a very faint ray of light in the last two songs. I do recommend it, althought I'd strongly advise you listen to it at least that first time straight through to get the full impact of what Mann is trying.

Since this song wasn't a single, there's no video...but here's a rather striking scene from Magnolia, which finds the characters of the film channeling her at a particularly dark moment.

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Seven: Moon River by Bell

It's exactly what you think it is--a cover of the old standard by a modern artist, in this case a group calling itself Bell.

It's...well, it's not very good. A Casio-like synth track, some unimaginative vocals and voila'...nothing much to go on. Now don't get me wrong--I like cover songs enough that more will prolly pop up before we reach the end of this journey. But this song represents the worst kind of cover, namely one that simply repeats the original without any sort of attempt at being original.

And this kind of cover is the standard...it's one of the reasons I truly feel that there should be certain songs that should be banned forever from the songbooks of aspiring and struggling artists ("You Really Got Me?" Get out of here! "The Boys Are Back In Town?" Well, get back outta town before I kick you out. Pretty much 80% of the Beatles back catalogue? Your services are no longer needed...). These days a lot of artists think a by-the-numbers cover is just the thing to either jumpstart a career or rejuvenate it (and I'm looking straight at you, No Doubt...your money or your life, indeed). One of the reasons I was so disatisfied with Everclear's last album, The Hollywood Years, was that it was nothing but a collection of covers of the usual suspects done with an astoundingly lack of imagination from an artist I had learned to expect better of.

My favorite covers are those that find a way to rejigger the song in such a way that you look at it in a different light. One of the reasons William Shatner's version of "Common People" works so well is that Shatner's talk-singing brings out the mercenary side of the POV character, while contrasting him with the extremely emotional Joe Jackson almost sets up an inner dialogue between the outer face of our hero and the loathing he's holding inside. Ben Folds' version of "Niggers Ain't Shit" emphasizes the ridiculousness of Snoop Dogg's original by resetting it in such a harmless way (that Folds' version, along with Nina Simon's version of "Straight Outta Compton," ushered in a whole slew of soft-alt renditions of hardcore rap covers that totally missed the point is besides the point...) Hell, the collaboration between Matthew Sweet and Suzanna Hoffs (which thankfully is about to see the release of the second volume) works because the duo makes the connection between 60's cheese and modern pop.

sorry...got out of hand....

So what I'm saying is...if you're going to start making a cover, be sure you have something to say beyond just 'I like this song.'

I don't think this is connected at all, but here's a guy named Bell singing 'Moon River'....

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Six: It's Oh So Quiet by Bjork

And for today....another Bjork song.

It's perhaps the most untypical of her songs--not surprising, as it's a cover--but the great thing about this little ditty off of Post is that it brings to the forefront both her sense of humor and her brassy showmanship. It's something we haven't seen from her in a long while, and it's nice to be reminded they both exist somewhere in that lil' body.

In the original posting of this entry, I mentioned that the record company did not want me to post Spike Jonez' video for the song, which uses Bjork as the center of a big movie musical that the song hints at.  That doesn't seem to be the case anymore...so enjoy!

30 Songs, 30 Days, Day Five (2009 Edition): Hope by Bjork

Ahhhhhh....another woman I once had a crush on.

But with good reason...if you were into alternative music when The Sugarcubes hit back in 1988, you couldn't help but be fascinated by this little pint-sized brunette with the babydoll face and the strangely acrobatic voice. Now, I've always said the Sugarcubes were Iceland's answer to The B-52's, only Iceland didn't understand the question--something I became even more convinced of when I saw The 'cubes for the first of several times live and watched co-lead singer Einar flailing about like an epileptic in an attempt to be like Fred Schnieder--but it was obvious right from the start that Bjork was destined for something more...

Which brings us to this song from her most recent solo albun, Volta. I don't know what it is about women singer songwriters I crush on and cyclones--she begins this song by repeating the couplet 'This is my version of it/internal whirlwind', while my beloved Neko Case not only named her most recent album Middle Cyclone, but released as a second single "This Tornado Loves You"--but this number hides a really nasty question in its the shimmery chimes and stripped down melody. Namely, by presenting us with a suicide bomber pretending to be pregnant, Bjork asks us which would be worst...if she kills her intended target or dies before achieving her purpose. Which, she is forcing us to ask, is the worst betrayal of the hope this woman has? It's a kind of song I've always had a morbid attraction to, where the beauty of the music hides the brutality of the lyrics...and after you unearth that brutality, that beauty throws the message in sharper relief.

Now, granted, in the end Bjork takes this horrific scenario and ties it in with her own belief about love--namely that she will dare to drown, to fail miserably, because love is everything--which I guess gives the song an uplifting ending But what lingers in my mind is that fictitious suicide bomber, her hand on that cord that will unleash hell, her heart full of the titular emotion that her death will have meaning.

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Four: I Should've Known by Aimee Mann

...dot...dot...dot...

Ahhhh, Aimee Mann...who most people remember for the creepy cat's eyes and the wacky hairstyle in "Voices Carry." Of course, while the majority of people ascribe her to one hit wonder status, we know better, don't we? We know how she's built up a big fanbase for her solo work that has netted her, among other things, a Penn brother for a husband, a movie based on her music (Magnolia, in case anyone is wondering) and a guest musician spot on Buffy The Vampire Slayer where she bemoaned the hazards of playing vampire towns.

Here's the video....

I love this song because of its wistfulness in the face of a relationship that just crumbles into nothingness. I also like the fact that it has a build--going from the quiet intro with its shimmery high hats, moody guitars and synth lick to become this big, grand celebration of 20/20 vision.

It's the kind of song that shows me how I'd like to approach every disastrous break-up, with a smile and a strength borne of newfound knowledge that will make me more confident the next time I meet someone--a someone who might very well be The One.

Granted, that's not how it ever happens, but a man can dream, can't he?

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Three: Walking On A Wire by Annalivia

This is a cover of the Richard and Linda Thompson song about trying--and failing--to take care of both yourself and a loved one, and beginning to resent it. Here's a performance of the original:

Given what I endured during the Four Year Engagement We Will Not Speak Of, where I learned the lesson that you cannot help those who do not want help the hardest way, it's a song I can emphasize with. The feeling of futility that grows within you that in turn generates a sense of guilt for feeling the futility, and how the love you feel for this significant other turns poisonous...let's just say I've been there. A lot.

Granted, the vocals on this version--young where Thompson was old, bright where Thompson was dim, sweet where Thompson was bitter--seem to work against the effectiveness of the song. The brightness of the traditional celtic arrangements don't help either, speeding the song up juuuuust enough that it appears a little...well....hopeful when it's anything but...

Look, just because you can make a song sound different doesn't necessarily mean you should.

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition), Day Two: Goodbye, Eddie, Goodbye by Archie Hahn and the Juicy Fruits

Wow...did not expect this one to pop up.

This is a number from the Brian dePalma rock opera The Phantom of Paradise, made when dePalma was still interested in making movies and not clip shows. While Archie Hahn is listed as lead vocalist, he--along with Jeffrey Comanor and Peter Elbing--played all three of the rock bands who weaved in and out of DePalma's Faust reworking. According to imdb, the part was originally offered to Sha Na Na, but there were...artistic differences.

As for the song itself...it's a rather clever reworking of one of rock and roll's most peculiar traditions, the romantic tragedy song, into an actual epitaph. I never understood the appeal of songs about people dying for love, but I remember how Craig Shaw Gardner one year at NeCon played a long medley of all of these songs that reached the top ten during the 50's and 60's....

30 Songs, 30 Days (2009 Edition) Day One: Army by Ben Fold Five

Note: to keep the consistency of the '30 Songs, 30 Days' concept, I'm going to post all the previous ones in order, only posting new ones once everything's been migrated over here.  There might be some out of place or obsolete comments (especially the references to LiveJournal), but I will endeavor to keep everything the way it was when I first wrote it.  That being said, I will do some minor tweaking, updating and elaborating when the mood hits me....now onto the show...

A little preamble:

I don't know if you'd call this a meme or not, but it is something I am going to do over the next thirty days, and it's something I am challenging others to do along with me. I hope it will help keep my writing instincts wet, and hopefully will be fun. So feel free to join me, and feel free to post this challenge on your own LiveJournal. Let's see what sort of conversations we can get started.

The concept: once a day I will turn on my MP3 player, set it to random, and press play. I am then obligated to write something about the first song that comes up.

So, for day one..."Army" by The Ben Folds Five, from the insanely titled album The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner.

You know, even though I was aware of Ben Folds before this song--how could you not the way "Brick" was being played by every alternative music and Top 40 station who aspired to be adult until you wanted to scream?--it was hearing this ditty on a CMJ free CD that made me realize this was an artist I could like. And I wasn't wrong; in the ensuing years, Folds has become one of my favorite singer/songwriters, a sort of southern-fried Billy Joel only with less douchebaggery.

I've always suspected that this song, especially the last stanza with the singer looking into a mirror and worrying his 'redneck past is nipping at my heels', was about then-President Bill Clinton. There's something charming about one of the most powerful men in the world looking in the mirror and still seeing some lazy asswipe who decided to form a band than join the army after eating a microwave apple pie. Of course, the truth is probably a lot more mundane, especially given the album's theme of coalescing your past with your present....but I'll always picture Bill, just before addressing the world, looking in the mirror, adjusting his tie and gulping, the taste of apples still in his mouth....

See you tomorrow.