Friday, April 27, 2012

It's The 'Your Greatest Band Eeeeeever' Meme!

I had tried this once before, back when I was posting on a Livejournal called Space Monkey Mafia.  It's been a while now, and I have to think I have a different, more engaged readership...so here it is again.  Please participate!

This was inspired by an episode of The BS Report With Bill Simmons, the excellent ESPN podcast where Bill talks sports, reality television, pop culture and all sorts of other cool stuff. If you're reading this, consider yourself tagged...once you're done and have posted your answers, please post the rules below on your blog/FB/whatever and tag whichever friends you'd like to tag...

The Premise

Like George Carlin in the Bill and Ted movies, you've been given a TARDIS-esque time travel device to assemble The Greatest Band Eeeeeever. Put together said band (heretofore referred to as GBE) and save all of reality as their rocking tunes reach people throughout the world via best selling albums, stadium shows and radio play, engendering fellowship, love and galactic peace!

The Rules

1)Your GBE must be composed of one vocalist, one guitarist, one drummer and one bassist. You may also add one additional musician of your choice--either another guitarist, a pianist, a back-up vocalist, a saxophonist...whatever you can think of to push your GBE over the top into amazing stardom.

2) You can choose any musician who was a band member from any point in his or her musical career. You want John Lennon circa The White Album? You've got him. Prince when he was fronting The Revolution? Go for it.

3) However--you can only choose musicians who were in actual bands. No members known primarily as soloists--or else we'll have Jimi Hendrix shuttling between a thousand bands, and the man deserves his rest.

4) Similarly, only real musicians are allowed. No Animal from the Electric Teeth, or Josie from the Pussycats. We're putting together a GBE for the here and now, not Saturday morning cartoons.

5) If you draft a musician for one position, that musician can only be in that slot--so no drafting Paul McCartney as a guitarist thinking he can double as a vocalist. However, if you can make a case for two iterations of a musician taking two slots, it will be allowed. To extrapolate on the original example, if you want Paul from the moptop version of The Beatles as vocalist playing alongside Paul from Wings as guitarist, it will be allowed.

6) No GBE would be complete without both a kicking band name, an equally kicking first single, and a blockbuster first album...so you are expected to provide the name/title for all three...

So get to work! Once I get a few answers, I'll reveal my GBE...

Saturday, April 21, 2012

36 Songs, 36 Days (2012 Edition), Day Eleven: Impossible Years by The Dancing Hoods

Portrait of a Band That Should've
Been But Never Was....
And tonight, another visit to The Hall of Bands That Should've Been Bigger....

During last year's cycle, I made a brief reference to Sparklehorse when discussing a cover version of one of their songs . Sparklehorse was the brainchild of one Mark Linkous, a gifted and very tortured musician who commited suicide before the band's fifth album was completed. Sparklehorse was a dark, conflicted little band that pretty much acted as Linkous' confessional during those later years of his life.

But before there was Sparklehorse, there was The Dancing Hoods. And The Dancing Hoods should've been the band Linkous was known for.

Unlike the dark, vaguely grunge indie sound of Sparklehorse, The Dancing Hoods were full on, high octane power pop full of crunchy guitars and dancable riffs. While some people might make comparisons to the band's patrons The Replacements and The Del Fuegos, I think a more accurate comparison is to their English peers The Godfathers. Both bands play tough, kick ass music, the vocals barely concealing the snarl in the speaker's tones, the melodies compelling and being both of the present and of the past. Listening to them for the first time after receiving a vinyl rip of their first album, 12 Jealous Roses (from which this song came from), was a revelation. I literally wondered where this band had been all my life, and was floored when I learned of their connection to the mopey, more low-key Sparklehorse.

I simply cannot praise this song, or this band enough. If you like power pop like me, you owe it to yourself to seek out their two albums, 12 Jealous Roses and Hallelujah Anyway. I suspect that Linkous' self-destructive tendencies, a disastrous move to Los Angeles and an inability to land any major label interest led to these two albums falling out of print. However, if you go to the excellent blog Power Pop Criminals, you might be able to find out more about the album and the band.

Here's the song...



Wednesday, April 18, 2012

36 Songs, 36 Days (2012 Edition), Day Ten: Braindead by Zombina and The Skeletons

Well, that bustier sure is...explosive....
Last time we looked back on St. Patrick's Day. This time we're looking ahead--a long way ahead--to Halloween.

There's always been a connection between horror and rock and roll. Yeah, that connection may have started with novelty numbers, but for every 'Monster Mash,' you have Screaming Jay Hawkins putting a spell on you. And once rock began to explore a harsher edge with garage, psychedelia and metal, that connection grew stronger. It's easy to cite a slew of horror-based bands that embrace those darker forms--Alice Cooper, The Cramps, The Misfits, Marilyn Manson...even Kiss on some level take pride in the darkness of their theatricality.

And yet there has also been a parallel stream that embraces its roots in novelty number silliness...which brings us to this Liverpool outfit. Yes, Zombina, Doc Horror and the other members of this combo follow all the tropes of a horror rock band. They dress up in monster make-up and frequently cite science fiction and horror in their lyrics--this song begins with a quote from Night of The Living Dead (I think; don't quote me on that)--and yet this is a very well crafted little bit of power pop. Hell, Zombina herself sounds like Tracy Tracy from The Primitives if Tracy Tracy had been axe murdered, buried, and made to dig her way out of her own grave. And let's be honest, save for that aforementioned quote at the start of the song, what we've got is a song about how love can make you so stupid you can't think straight...this is pure rock syrup, and rock syrup at its best.

And, just like with Adam WarRock, who I discussed a couple of times previously, I have great respect for this band because they don't allow their affiliation with a certain style rule the kind of music they make. I appreciate Zombina and the Skeletons all the more because they're willing to write a simple, fun and classy little love song without worrying about namechecking horror stuff---because if they had, they'd be making the gimmick the only part of the show that mattered.

No official video--but here's the song in You Tube Static Image format...

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

36 Songs, 36 Days (2012 Edition), Day Nine: Waxie's Dargle by The Pogues

Since I haven't purge all my celtic music from St. Patrick's Day, there are still some vestigal Irish rock and punk songs in my rotation....which is why we're discussing The Pogues.

Man, I love The Pogues.

Has there been a more authentic Celtic Punk band? While I have discussed my love for other Celtic Punk and Rock bands before--most notably The Dropkick Murphys--this is the source from which my love of all other Celtic bands flows. And what makes this loose collection of musicians (the official website provides bios for twelve recognized members, as well as three honorary members who passed on) were true to their Irish heritage while embracing the music forms of the future and the forms of other countries. I would always grab a new Pogues album off the racks with the anticipation of a child on Christmas morning, not sure what I was going to get--and these guys didn't disappoint. Where else could you find traditional Celtic songs, ghost stories, tributes to classic 60's pop groups, and festive latin rave-ups all on the same album?
This is Shane MacGowan with his fiance'.  You have no excuse
for not having a girlfriend.

This is from Red Roses For Me, their first album. This is the 'classic' iteration of the band, fronted by The Toothless Wonder Shane MacGowan. The song is a Pogue-ified version of a traditional Irish drinking song. Apparently, Waxie's Dargle refers to an annual get together originally held as part of the Donnybrook Fair, and the song is a simple tale of a woman who is trying to raise money to go to the titular event. Our POV character is recounting her woes to a friend--and is being rather vigorously rushed by the owner of the bar in which they're talking. It's not an earth-shaking tale by any means, just an excuse to have something to sing while drinking. But damn if the energy of the vocals and the uptempo playing of the group doesn't make it seem like something more. And even if it isn't--it's certainly got a beat, and I can dance to it.

The Pogues sputtered out after a split over ideologies with MacGowan, producing two albums before breaking up completely....and then reuniting in 2001 as a sporadic touring group. I kind of wish they were still recording so I can get that same thrill of discovery whenever they decide to put out a new album. Still, I'm grateful I still have a chance to see them before I die.

Here's a live performance from 2005.