24 June 2020 - Letters To Cleo - Awake

As many of you know, I am a fan of the show "Parks and Recreation."  If I had to identify one moment in this show with which I most personally identify, it's this one:

"I love you, Kay Hanley!"

I had that shirt.

23 June 2020 - Veruca Salt - Volcano Girls

A couple of weeks ago, I told you which was the best band I ever saw live.

Today, I tell you about the most disappointing. But there's a happy ending.

The band was Veruca Salt, opening for PJ Harvey and Live.   I was a really big fan of the energy they brought to their music - but in  September 1995, they brought absolutely none of that energy.   Let's be clear - I have seen WORSE bands live (and, to be fair, when I wrote THIS, I had not seen the band I now consider the worst I've seen live) but this was a show I thought would be amazing, and it wasn't.

This song came after that, and they clearly recaptured the energy they had lost that one day.  So, I'll forgive them.  Plus, this song is so creative, it completely switches tempo and plot at 2:25 - which I always found to be intriguing.  Veruca Salt knew what their fans wanted, so they catered to it.

Besides, now we know who the seether is. 

It's Louise.



Two years later, they seem to have gotten their mojo back, so maybe I'd give them a 2nd chance.

21 June 2020 - Luscious Jackson - Daughters of the Kaos

I brought back Guilt-Free Sunday because I'm on a Luscious Jackson kick.

I have spent the last week walking you though their catalog, but I had up until now avoided their debut EP, In Search Of Manny.  The seven songs on that set (3 early Jill Cuniff/Gabby Glaser demos and four others) were hip-hop/pop/rock fusion unlike anything the music industry had ever seen.

"Daughters of the Kaos" was their first video and you can see the hip-hop group influence, with Cuniff and Glaser taking turns on verses, not unlike other similar artists of their time, and the heavy use of samples - which persists through their music going forward.  Lyrically, the song is possibly a little more badass than their image going forward (remember, this was also a single of theirs), but they were well on their way to finding their sound.



Somehow, the song is better live.  When the song opens, you don't expect police sirens to follow the Spanish guitar - and yet, there it is. 


I may have taken forever to get to the earliest Luscious Jackson music, but they don't at all avoid it.  Somehow it sounds a little less dark as they perform it twenty years later, but it's still tight.

19 June 2020 - Luscious Jackson - Show Us What You Got

Luscious Jackson broke up in 2000, but they started undoing that breakup pretty quickly, and by 2010, they were back together.

In 2013, they released a really solid album called Magic Hour.  This was the first single.  It clearly retains the hip-hop sensibilities, but it's edgier than their earlier stuff.  Listen to this post from two days ago, then come back to this one - and remember that it's the same band.



Here they are in 2013 on Letterman.  They always look like they are having so much fun live, so I love sharing these.

18 June 2020 - Luscious Jackson - Here

Yes. The answer to my question yesterday was yes.  I am posting another Luscious Jackson song today.

I am posting this for four reasons..

1)  Luscious Jackson in general deserves a lot more attention and respect than they get.  You've got a band with four REALLY good female musicians, making inventive yet accessible music.  That they didn't have more huge hits is criminal.

2)  This song features all three vocalists, and three part harmonies are awesome.

3) Few videos were more blatantly made prior to the song being put on a movie soundtrack (Clueless), forcing a movie tie-in to be added where it could be.

4) The song is exciting and easy to dance to.  You know you're dancing to it right now.  If you aren't, why not???!!!



As per my style, here's the band performing live.   No Clueless tie-ins necessary.

17 June 2020 - Luscious Jackson - Ladyfingers

So I couldn't even wait to finish my story.

At the end of my post YESTERDAY, I alluded to the fact that Vivian Trimble left Luscious Jackson and the group made another album, this one as a trio.

This was the relatively well-received single from that third album, Electric Honey.   The group broke up soon after, but not because they thought they were were making bad music or not enjoying it.  The official word was "they wanted to spend more time with their families" but really, females weren't getting radio airplay in 1999 and 2000 - which is a shame, because this is excellent music. 



You can see how much the band loved performing - and really, they didn't stay broken up for long. 



Will I post another Luscious Jackson song tomorrow?  Tune in.

16 June 2020 - Luscious Jackson - Naked Eye

I know - I've written about Luscious Jackson before, and I will write about them again.  But it's different this time.

I wrote about the harmonies between Jill Cuniff and Gabby Glaser before, and today  I won't be doing that.  Reason:  these harmonies don't include Glaser, but rather, keyboardist Vivian Trimble - that's right.  There are THREE solid vocalists in Luscious Jackson - or rather, there were.  More on that in a minute. - and they all harmonize well together.

Between their first and second albums - Natural Ingredients and Fever In, Fever Out - Cuniff and Trimble did a side project, called Kostars.  A single album came out of it -  and even though Glaser and drummer Kate Schellenbach were both part of the recording of that album, it was quite clearly not a Luscious Jackson record.

This song was more classic LJ - a significant hip-hop feel, while retaining a rock feel.  It ended up being the band's only Top 40 hit - peaking at #36 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997 - and remains a cool song to this day.  The video itself is somewhat cool looking - with all four band members never appearing together but also seemingly playing the same stoic role.



They had a lot more fun and were a lot less stoic playing live, as you can see in this clip from Late Night With Conan O'Brien from 1997.



Vivian Trimble eventually left the band, and they broke up completely in 2010 after an album as a trio (see a future post for details on that) but they reformed in the early 2010's, still as a trio, to make new music and tour.  Here's a stripped down version of the some, featuring Cuniff and Glaser, who does NOT step in on Trimble's vocals.

It's the mark of a great song - when it works so brilliantly both with a full band, loudly, and stripped down, quietly.   And THIS is a great song.



(edit: 18 June 2020):  I have discovered that the Luscious Jackson Twitter account recently posted a handwashing guide based on this song.   And yes, I did.

9 June 2020 - Game Theory - Erica's Word

This is possibly the first time I am purposefully repeating a song.  But I have a good reason.

In 2012, I wrote a very long post about Game Theory, featuring many of their lesser known songs.  Scott Miller, lead vocalist and mastermind behind Game Theory, passed away a year later, and I appended that post to include this song and one other ("The Real Sheila").

I regretting not giving this beautiful, snarky piece of pop jangle its personal due. So, today, I remedy that.

"Erica's Word" was the big single from Game Theory's 1986 breakthrough album The Big Shot Chronicles.  Of course, between the time the song was recorded and the video's release, there were a couple of lineup changes to the band - which was OK.  Scott Miller was the only constant in the band.  It was his baby - and it is the 1986 iteration of the band, which recorded two subsequent albums together, that appears in the video.

The song itself is beautiful, sweet, and yet ends its third verse with quite a bit of snark.  How this song wasn't a huge hit is an absolute mystery to me.  It's endlessly catchy.



Here's Game Theory in 1985, performing this song live, prior to its release.  This is the 4-piece lineup that recorded the song - the differences being a different bassist and lack of rhythm guitarist.

8 June 2020 - N.W.A. - Express Yourself

This may be the angriest song I've ever posted.

I was introduced to N.W.A in the early 90's while in college.  I probably missed the messages of their songs at the time, but in this time of protest, this song about freedom of expression resonates.

This is probably the only song they ever did that could be played on radio.  Which is hilarious, because the song itself calls out other hip hop artists for avoiding profanity just to get on the pop charts. 

They didn't need to curse to make an anthem about expression.  Primarily performed by Dr. Dre, the song was written by Ice Cube. 

4 June 2020 - Elastica - Connection

When Elastica exploded onto the scene in 1995, with this single, I was an immediate fan.  I mean, the power pop! The cool electronic opening!  The homage to Wire (I choose to believe it was an homage, because that lawsuit was settled out of court).

(I was also a young man and I thought their guitarist was cute.  I was spot on with that assessment)

I still love this song.  It's high energy and I still use it to pump myself up, a quarter century later.

That video wasn't the one that MTV showed, though.  They used this much higher quality video with quick edits and more nude men.  (And more Donna Matthews. She's the guitarist)

But there's more of a personal story here.

I went to Lollapalooza in 1995, in Hartford, CT.  I was looking forward to the lineup, which included Sinead O'Connor.   I really wanted to see her live.  Well, about a week before that show, Sinead O'Connor dropped out and was replaced with Elastica.  I was really disappointed......

.....until Elastica took the stage.  They were BY FAR the best band that day, and that day included some fantastic bands.  It wasn't close.  Elastica blew them all off the stage. The band brought so much energy to the show.

A couple of months later, I got the opportunity to see Elastica again, in Springfield, MA, in a smaller club.   Their lineup had changed slightly - bassist Annie Holland had left and been replaced by Beck's touring bassist - but the energy had not.  If anything, they were better!!

I've been to a lot of great concerts and seen a lot of great bands. To this day, if I am asked which is the best band I have ever seen live, the answer is, without fail, Elastica.

This video is from Tokyo, two weeks before I saw them at Lollapalooza in 1995.

1 June 2020 - Panic! At The Disco - High Hopes

I had never been a huge fan of Panic! At The Disco.  I mean, it's really just one egotistical guy - Brendon Urie - and a bunch of studio musicians.

Brendon is the guy who's walking up the side of the building, by the way.

This song, released twelve years after their breakthrough hit "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", was something of a comeback, in fact, becoming not only their biggest hit, but their FIRST top 40 hit SINCE "I Write Sins Not Tragedies".

And they did it by writing and performing a more mature, humble, uplifting song that wasn't full of minor chords.

So, maybe I'm a bigger fan of theirs now.

What gives me a better feeling about the band is that, in this live performance 1) it looks like it's the same band as appears in the video, so consistency in lineup is happening 2) it's clearly really a live performance and 3) more horns than a Chicago concert.

I gotta be honest - this performance gives me chills.  The band - the WHOLE band - is clearly enjoying themselves.

11 May 2020 - Bee Gees - Tragedy

The Bee Gees have never gotten due respect for their songwriting abilities.  And yet, in one day, they wrote this song, "Shadow Dancing", performed by their brother Andy, and "Too Much Heaven" - all while making a movie (the terrible Sgt. Pepper movie, but still)

That's three Number one songs in one DAY that they wrote.

This would be the group's fifth of six consecutive #1 hits.  The only other artists to match this are The Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Bing Crosby.  They were this huge in the late 1970's.

The song itself is a breakup song - with the title becoming an exclamation point in a chorus to follow the desperate verses. 



You might be wondering how they get that exploding sound near the end of the song.   It was created in studio by Barry Gibb cupping his hands over the microphone and making the sound - and then duplicating it so it sounded impressive.

Yeah, you're making that sound right now. 

Here they are in studio, recording this song and showing the process - notice how Barry isn't singing every lyric in this take. 

8 May 2020 - Childish Gambino - This Is America

Well, it ain't Troy and Abed in the Morning!

What it IS is a provocative song with a a video featuring a lot of Jim Crow imagery.   The song, which was a breakthrough song and Donald Glover's biggest hit to date, won four Grammys, including Record and Song of the Year.

The song itself moves between African-style folk, gospel, and dark trap rhythms, and it is exceptionally well constructed.  The lyrics - which address gun violence and police brutality, among other things - are not always easy to hear, the video difficult to watch at times.  Please, watch and listen anyway.   You'll be glad you did. 

6 May 2020 -The Darling Buds - Hit the Ground

Remember music programs when they made the artists lipsync?

On this ninth annual Darling Buds Day, we go back to the late 80's and Top of the Pops, where there were no cables or microphone cords to trip over and the band sounded studio-fresh.

They STILL rocked it.



There was an official video for this song, too.  This way, you can hear the whole song.


Will we be able to do this in Year 10?  Well, the Darling Buds are rumoured to be in the studio, so I am guessing we will.

4 May 2020 - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - Ohio

On May 4th, 1970, at Kent State University in Ohio, National Guardsmen opened fire on students protesting the US bombing of Cambodia, a neutral party during the Vietnam War.  Four people were killed, and nine were wounded.

The poster announcing the protest at Kent State

Neil Young saw the pictures of the incident in Life Magazine and wrote this song.  Released in June 1970, the song was a top 20 hit - despite being banned on many radio stations for its indictment of the Nixon administration - and a poignant reminder of what had happened on that fateful day.



The incident and the song sped the tide of sentiment already turning against the US involvement in Vietnam.  The massacre in Ohio is one of the darkest moments in American history, and this song brilliantly captures the nation's feelings.  Music can really capture and sway a culture, and this song is perhaps the best example of that.

Here's Young performing his song solo. 

1 May 2020 - KONGOS - Come With Me Now

John Kongos was a bit hitmaking musician in the early 1970s, best known for his hits "He's Gonna Step On You Again" and "Tokoloshe Man" (both covered by the Happy Mondays)

Kongos had four sons who went on to form their own hitmaking band, KONGOS.  They made their own label - Tokoloshe Records - to release their music.  Part of the result of that was this song - which you might have heard if you paid attention to big action movies or the WWE - because it became a big hit and directly resulted in their major label record deal.

It's a rare rock song not starring Weird Al that features a lead accordion so prominently - and yet this one does, giving the song a bit of a folksy feel without being folk music.  All four brothers sing and harmonize well... which is something they got from their father.

Also, check out the musically synchronized lipstick (and blowdried hair).



KONGOS is still around and still touring and releasing music.  Here's a taste of them performing in Toronto in 2019.

30 April 2020 - Chicago - Hard To Say I'm Sorry

"Hold me now

It's hard for me to say I'm sorry."

Man, don't we all feel that?

This very beautiful song about longing and trying to make things right was Chicago's 2nd #1 hit, in 1982.  In a bit of a departure from other Chicago songs, 1) it doesn't feature much in the way of horns, and 2) it features musicians that were not members of Chicago in supporting roles, including three members of the band Toto.

Peter Cetera's longing voice matches well with the lyrical content and the early 80's sound.  I hope you enjoy it!

27 April 2020 - Oingo Boingo - Stay

There was a time when there was a band named Oingo Boingo, fronted by a man named Danny Elfman.  They had a fair amount of success with the theme from the movie Weird Science and an appearance in the movie Back to School, the latter of which Scott wrote about several years ago.

Elfman would go on to be a big time movie score guy and be embarrassed by Oingo Boingo.  He shouldn't have been.  They were amazing.

This is not a fun and happy song.  It's a love song.  Specifically, it is a song in which the protagonist is begging his significant other to stick around and work through their problems, rather than running away.  Comparing their relationship to many things that it isn't, it's a much deeper song than you would have expected from Oingo Boingo at the time - and remains one of my favorites.



After the music industry changed and left the sound of Oingo Boingo behind, they struggled to reinvent themselves, but ultimately threw in the towel in 1995 with a huge farewell show.  Here is the band, performing this song for the last time.



The song was not a huge hit for the band in the States, but, oddly, it was in Brazil, where it was used in a telenovela named Top Model.   That's not a joke. 


Hence, there were several Brazilian bands who have covered this song - and you can see them over on Totally Covered right now!

17 April 2020 - Liz Phair - Polyester Bride

Girly Sound.

Those of you who are Liz Phair fan know approximately what Girly Sound is.  For those who don't, or only know about it casually, the Girly Sound tapes were early releases self-produced by Phair in the early 1990's - Girly Sound being her stage name at the time - that led directly to her record deal.  There were actually three of them - Yo Yo Buddy Yup Word To Ya Mutha, GIRLSGIRLSGIRLS, and Sooty.

I know what you're thinking (and no - it has nothing to do with how many shots I took).  "Why is he mentioning these lo-fi recordings when today's entry is clearly well produced?"  It's an excellent question, as this song was the opening single from Phair's third studio album whitechocolatespaceegg.  However, it was a rewrite/rerecording of a song from GIRLSGIRLSGIRLS.  So, all those years later, she was still using her Girly Sound stuff as a library.

whitechocolatespaceeg, unlike her previous work, came after she got married and had a kid - it wasn't just about sex, which Exile in Guyville and Whip-Smart clearly were.  So, this song, written in her overtly sexual era, was reimagined as a more introspective and less sexual piece.



Compare this version to the GIRLSGIRLSGIRLS version.  First of all, it's a lot longer - so budget some time.   It's also a slower, sparser and I think sadder song - and more self-deprecating.  And Henry, her bar-tending friend seems to be more of a dick.



Phair still tours, and was supposed to be opening for Alanis Morrisette and Garbage this year on their tour.  I hope that still happens, but until then, here's a live performance from 2018.

16 April 2020 - Madonna - Ray of Light

I usually start this posts with the official video - because, you know, that's how most people know the song. 

I'm not doing that this time.  That's Madonna with a guitar, people.  We need to appreciate this.  And, although this in its original form was electronic-driven (albeit with a significant guitar piece), I kind of dig this version.

So, before I get into some random facts about this song, I wanted you to rock out to Madonna.



I mean, we're of COURSE going to have the official video here, too. It's really good, too.  It's not just good because it's a great electronic dance tune (that, by the way, I just made you rock out to).  It's good because Madonna's energetic performance - not only vocal, but visual - is mesmerizing. 

The song itself, largely written by Ms. Ciccone, was written in the aftermath of the birth of her daughter and her career-changing turn in the movie Evita. It remains to this day one of my favorite Madonna songs.  Interestingly, it was purposely produced, musically, just outside of Madonna's vocal range.  When you hear her straining to reach the notes, that's real.  And it's spectacular.

15 April 2020 - Norman Greenbaum - Spirit in the Sky

Today, we go ahead and embrace our hippie roots....

But this song seems a little Jesus-y for that, doesn't it?

And yet, that's exactly what Norman Greenbaum did - he wrote a religious hippie song.  Of course, it wasn't well-known or much of a hit in secular circles - it was legitimately a Christian song and a hit! - until Doctor and the Medics covered it in the 1980's

Really, the simple and earnest song was criminally overlooked at initial release - but it's a classic now.

14 April 2020 - ABBA - Take A Chance On Me

This is a song that I am certain all of you have heard. There's not much more to say - it was the final UK #1 for ABBA (their 7th, a record), and was one of the biggest hits of their career worldwide.

Stig Anderson had assisted with the lyrics on prior ABBA singles - but on this one, it was all Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, establishing them as a strong songwriting team in their own right.  This song is so sweet, and upbeat, that it endures to this day.  Agnetha didn't have much of a solo career outside of Sweden (where she was a hitmaker BEFORE ABBA) but this is really her song, even though most of the lyrics are shared with Frida (real name: Anni-Frid - get it?).

By now, you should know that I like to include alternative versions when I make a simple post like this.  This is the 1977 demo of the song.  It speaks to the consistency of the band that it was hard to find any variation from the final studio version at all!  Other than a slight key difference in the chorus, I don't hear one.



Compare this with a 1978 live recording.....  in a lot of live performances, ABBA frequently lip-synced their songs - mostly because the studio recordings were so complex, and not at all an indicator .  In this case - look in the background.  There's a complete orchestra!!!


If you got this far - this song was famously covered by Erasure.  Check out the Totally Covered post from 2012!

13 April 2020 - Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water

Like many of you, my parents were Simon & Garfunkel fans. I grew up listening to their Greatest Hits on repeat.  So, for a lot of us, this song is like a big ol' bowl of comfort food.

Now that I'm an adult, and I know that the song was, in Paul Simon's words, inspired directly by "Mary Don't You Weep", a pre-Civil War spiritual about the Bible story of Lazarus being raised from the dead, I hear it a lot differently.  Originally written for guitar, Paul Simon moved it to piano to keep the gospel feel and message.

And can we talk for a minute about Art Garfunkel's powerful voice that completely OWNS this song?  It's an instrument in and of itself.