I was watching Anvil: The Story of Anvil on VH1 Classic the other night, and I believe it was Slash who said something like: “You know, there aren’t many bands who have been together for 30 years.” And he’s right (well, if Slash really did say what I attributed to him). Bands or singers who have been recording music for long periods of time are rare birds indeed. Some certainly hang on to their core sound and often fit prevailing musical trends into one or two songs (Think “Emotional Rescue” or “Miss You” by the Rolling Stones), while others will revamp their sound and sail off on a new musical direction– leaving puzzled fans wondering: “What the hell is this?” (Think KISS in Music From “The Elder” or when Rush went headfirst into a synthaholic binge).
What I wanted to do for this mix was to feature bands and singers who, by hook or crook, have been able to maintain a musical career that went beyond their salad days. In putting together this mix, I generally took the first album and the most recent release, paired them together to see what, if any, changes or similarities were there. Sorry if this sounds a little too academic in its description, but really what I’m trying to do is best summed up in the title of this mix: “Then and Now.” (more…)
Welcome, fans of the Vampire Diaries! In episode 3, the closing moments of the show featured a cover of the classic New Order song “Temptation,” as envisioned by Moby and vocalized by Laura Dawn. If you’re here, you probably enjoyed the cover version of the song quite a bit and might be surprised to find that it’s older than you think – it was originally released on Moby’s 2005 album Hotel. Anyhow, please stop by the main site (www.popdose.com) to see if we’ve written about any other subjects you might be interested in.
This album and band brings out my innermost old codger (which isn’t nearly as inner as it should be), because it has me telling days-of-yore stories about what music geeks once had to do in order to find out about new tunes: read Billboard magazine.
That’s right, even towards the end of the internet-booming ’90s, many of us stuck to our old-school methods of poring through Billboard – still at the book store, of course, since it was prohibitively expensive to subscribe to the damn thing – and looked for the albums or singles that received the highly coveted star of approval. One day in early 1998, I stumbled upon a band called Blink, an Irish band that sparked “Next U2″ Bidding War #296,435,071. The write-up for The End Is High, the band’s second album, must have contained some Medsker-friendly buzz words (”New Order,” most likely), and I went straight out and bought a copy.
Now, I’m not saying that The End Is High didn’t deserve a star…okay, that’s exactly what I’m saying. In retrospect, it probably should have gotten a circle. The album definitely had its good points; it satisfied my New Order fix at a time when Barney & co. hadn’t recorded an album in five years, and Blink’s band-out-of-time approach was rather charming. But singer Dermot Lambert’s voice was even reedier than Barney’s, if that’s possible, and the album was clearly self-produced. U2 could sleep soundly. They band could sure bring it live, though; I saw them on some package tour with, I think, Matchbox Twenty or someone else equally mismatched, and they were fab. I even tried to buy Dermot a beer afterwards, but he already had one. We talked about Blur, as we were both big fans, but he had to get in the van for their next gig.
One song from the album, however, still gets the odd spin here and there, and that is “The Girl with the Backward Skin.” Nice backward cymbal intro, great quiet-LOUD opening and a powerful, climbing guitar line after the verses, not to mention a nifty false ending. “Always…” rat-tat-tat-tat-tat BOOM. Good stuff, which in 1998 was not easy to come by.
If you’ve been reading this column for the past four years or so, you may remember me calling out certain songs as one of “the top blahblah new-wave songs ever.” I’ve done it a few times, as I recall — most recently last Tuesday, in fact — and good commenter Pete stated:
“John, I’d be curious to know what your other top 5 new wave songs are …”
Well, Pete my friend, because you asked for it, here are not only my top 5, but my top 15! Who says it’s a waste of time to comment on Popdose?
First off, some ground rules:
While acts such as Roxy Music, Sparks and David Bowie certainly laid the groundwork, if not the entire friggin’ blueprints for what we call new wave, this list is limited to artists who came of age and were active during the classic new-wave period from 1979 through 1984, give or take as I feel like.
And what the heck is new wave, anyway? While we can argue it was just an umbrella term coined by Seymour Stein to cover any of his acts that weren’t overtly commercial, let’s agree for our purposes that we know it when we hear it.
It would be easy to rattle off ten or twenty songs that really should be on this list, like for example, New Order’s “Blue Monday.” But this is Popdose: we assume you’ve seen obvious lists like that a million times and the average Popdose reader is more knowledgeable and likes to be challenged. So, while we’re not gonna go all Pitchfork-y on you and rattle off names like Pylon or the Plastics, you may seem some less obvious choices.
This list will be from a very American point of view, since I sort of grew up in America and stuff. Don’t worry though – it’s probably the most Anglo-centric Americanized list you’ll ever read.
And last, but not least, this is my list, my opinions, my decisions. It is by no ways meant to be comprehensive, complete or the final word on anything. That’s why you’re going to leave comments after you read it, so I can either praise you for bringing up an act I forgot, or ridicule you for suggesting I left out the Bongos and how dare I.
If you’re just joining us here, Bottom Feeders is a look at both the awesome and terrible songs that came out of the ‘80s — each week we cover about 20 songs that peaked no higher than #41 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart that decade. We’re moving alphabetically from A to Z, so we still have a long way to go. After many weeks stuck on M, we finally move to the letter N and more songs from the ass end of the ‘80s.
Graham Nash
“Innocent Eyes” — 1986, #84 (download)
Ooofah. When I first heard this, I was shocked that this was the same Graham Nash that I knew. I don’t blame the guy for trying to stay relevant, but his album that bears the same name as the single above is a crappy overdubbed jumbled mess. “Innocent Eyes” is definitely the best track on it and that may very well be because of the presence of Kenny Loggins on background vocals.
Nazareth released a ton of records with very little success on the Billboard singles charts in the US. And while this single isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever heard, it’s got no punch. Nice riff in the verses, but the chorus turning into light rock schlock just doesn’t do it for me.
Phyllis Nelson
“I Like You” — 1986, #61 (download)
This was a #1 dance hit for Nelson, her only song to cross over to the pop charts in the US. Her earlier ‘70s and ‘80s appearances in music were mostly with disco oriented tracks so it’s not a surprise she jumped on the mid-‘80s dance wagon for her 15 minutes of fame.
Willie Nelson
“My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys” — 1980, #44 (download)
Pure country may not be my thing, but this is a really nice song off his soundtrack to Sydney Pollack’s The Electric Horseman. Gotta love it when Willie starts talking about picking up hookers in the middle of a track. I’ve never paid attention to the Willie Nelson story in full but what a crazy trip his life must be. Close to 100 albums, been on probably hundreds more, smoked hundreds of pounds of weed — I’m assuming this guy has had one crazy, eventful life.
Last week, I was trying to figure out the awkwardly titled decade called “The 2000s.” Yes, there’s been an A.D.D. quality to the last 10 years, but it could also be argued that there’s also a postmodern current flowing underneath all those mini-trends that came and went so fast they didn’t say goodbye. If I may be so bold as to throw another musical novelty borne out of the proliferation of cheap multitrack audio software into this decade, it would be the mashup. I think the first time I heard a kind of mashup was with the release of the Small Soldiers soundtrack. Just a few years later, people wouldn’t need recording studios to do what the DJs where able to do on that soundtrack — and I’m thinking specifically of the “Love Is a Battlefield” Kay Gee remix with Queen Latifah and Pat Benatar. Nowadays, it’s clear that ProTools can do wonders, and the more people with time and interest on their hands delve into what new musical forms they can weave into familiar songs, the more the original songs take on new and interesting twists when mashed up together. Having tried to do my own version of a mashup called “the smashup” — where I smashed covers of certain songs together — I know the time and dedication it takes to put these mixes together. So, here we go with a mix from some very creative individuals who clearly have talented ears and great skills with a multitrack recorder. (more…)
I’m going to guess most of you have seen Pretty in Pink (1986), but if you haven’t, I’m sure you have a good reason — like being totally lame.
I kid, I kid. You’re not lame. (Or are you?)
Of all the movies John Hughes wrote, produced, and/or directed, this one just might be my favorite. I had wanted to see it in the theater when it was first released, but I was only eight, so that never happened. I did, however, get to watch it many times on video and cable and could probably recite every line of dialogue by the time I was 12.
Written by Hughes and directed by Howard Deutch — who also directed Hughes’s Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) and The Great Outdoors (1988) — Pretty in Pink is the story of Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald), a high school senior “from the wrong side of the tracks” with a new-wave fashion sense, an unemployed father, and a best friend, Duckie Dale (Jon Cryer), who’s madly in love with her.
Rich preppy Blane (Andrew McCarthy) makes a visit one day to Trax, the record store where Andie works, and the two do some serious flirting. After a few more flirtatious encounters there and at school, he finally asks her out. The two attempt to start a romance but encounter judgment and resistance from their friends, including Blane’s best friend, Steff (James Spader), who secretly likes Andie; Steff’s girlfriend, Benny (Kate Vernon); and Duckie.
Things get especially rough after Blane asks Andie to the prom, and once Steff gives him the hard sell, Blane backs out of taking her. Heartbroken, but refusing to let the “richies” get the better of her, Andie decides to go to the prom anyway — by herself. But once they’re both there, she and Blane realize they do love each other and want to be together in spite of their friends’ objections.
I can say without hesitation that today’s Hooks ‘N’ You was written more quickly and with less forethought in the history of the column, but whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is a judgment call that only you can make. I guess we’ll find out soon enough, eh?
Earlier this morning, I posted some photos on Facebook from my college days at the school which is now known as Averett University. (It used to simply be Averett College, but it’s clearly much cooler now than it was when I attended.) The majority of the shots are of the various folks who haunted the halls of Bottom Bishop, where I made my home from 1990 – 1992, but the series begins with four photos of my dorm room. When I arrived in Danville, VA, I had just spent a year working music retail for Record Bar, so I had more posters to put on my walls than I had available wall space…but believe you me, I took advantage of the opportunity to plaster every last inch with something cool. If the space wasn’t big enough for a poster, then I put up an album flat. If it wasn’t big enough for an album flat, I put up a magazine cover.
In short, it was a desperate attempt to look cool.
It would be a lie to claim that this attempt succeeded, because there have been very few occasions in my life when I have been able to pass for “cool,” but at the very least, the combination of my decor and the music that was regularly blaring out of my room managed to help me in creating a circle of friends who have remained my friends to this day. Indeed, several of them have already commented on some of these photos on Facebook (I’m sure they will continue to give me shit about a couple of them for quite some time yet), and since I’m in a reminiscing mood, I thought I’d just offer up a few comments about some of the posters that can be seen in the photos and how the music has aged over the years.
David: Sweet Jesus. It’s that Aphex Twin album cover brought to life. Who asked for that?
The funny thing is, if a new band had sent that song and video to MTV, the answer would have been a resounding “hell to the no.” But because it’s Aerosmith, it gets power rotation. The song itself actually isn’t that bad, even if Tyler ran out of colorful sexual metaphors sometime during 1977.
Jon: I don’t know if this has been the point of Chartburn all along, but this is the first video I’ve seen lately that has sent me into full-on Beavis & Butt-head mode:
BUTT-HEAD: Uhhh … huh-huh … These guys are old …
BEAVIS: Yeah! Yeah! I think my gramps listened to these guys, heh-heh …
(And then, at the 2:02 mark …)
BEAVIS: Boobs! Boobs! Boobs!
BUTT-HEAD: Uh, huh-huh — they’re all green and blue, but they’re still pretty cool …
BEAVIS: Yeah! Yeah! … I’ve seen better.
BUTT-HEAD: Beavis, the only boobs you’ve ever seen were on your mother.
BEAVIS: Shut up! Heh-heh … well, hers were better than those.
Will: I’m pretty sure that this is the single most disturbing video I’ve ever seen, and given that it left me thinking “I will go out of my way to avoid ever seeing it again,” I can’t for the life of me imagine why Aerosmith thought it was a good idea. Brrrrrrr. I’m legitimately disturbed. I’ll be having nightmares tonight.
Ken: Could have been all right at about a minute shorter. This is a band well past its vital era. I do kind of like the choruses, which would have been musically at home on the White Album, especially the Harrison-esque chorused lead guitar.
Zack: It is definitely possible to stay too long at the fair, and that sentiment has never been illustrated more vividly than it is here, in both the audio and the video. The brilliant burlesque images that were Aerosmith’s trademark have seen far too much sun, gin, and barbiturates, and instead of being tantalizing have become just plain disturbing, like some leathery cougar that hangs out at casino bars and leans in as she asks you to light her cigarette. Anytime a songwriter resorts to using the word “very” as an adjective, it’s safe to say that he has failed miserably.
Robert: Hmm … are they talking about what I think they’re talking about? To paraphrase Tenacious D, “You’re too old to sing about poontang. No more poontang songs for you!”
That’s right, even towards the end of the internet-booming ’90s, many of us stuck to our old-school methods of poring through Billboard – still at the book store, of course, since it was prohibitively expensive to subscribe to the damn thing – and looked for the albums or singles that received the highly coveted star of approval. One day in early 1998, I stumbled upon a band called Blink, an Irish band that sparked “Next U2″ Bidding War #296,435,071. The write-up for The End Is High, the band’s second album, must have contained some Medsker-friendly buzz words (”New Order,” most likely), and I went straight out and bought a copy. 
