18 October 2023 - Sugar - Helpless

Once upon a time, there was a band called Hüsker Dü.  They were huge and then they broke up in 1988, because Bob Mould and Grant Hart had creative differences.  That happens.

Bob Mould went on to release two not-so-well-received solo albums.... but then, he formed a new band, Sugar.  Their debut album, Copper Blue, was grungy and dark and heavy. In 1990, the album would have been criminally ignored.   In a post-Nevermind world, it was a minor hit.  

This song was the big single from the album.It would be the band's biggest hit, rising on alternative charts worldwide.   It's a song that frequently gets stuck in my head, thirty years after its release.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the album, Bob Mould went on a solo tour and played Copper Blue in its entirely.   Of course, that includes this song - and, in this performance, you can hear that the song was really all his.

17 October 2023 - Ice Spice ft. Rema - Pretty Girl

Where the hell did Ice Spice come from?

She's everywhere now, even at your local Dunkin' Donuts.

I mean, who the hell thought to pair her with Ben Affleck?  But it works!

But really, she's making music - good, compelling hip-hop that she's writing (or, in this case, co-writing).  She does not shy away from bold collaborations, like this one with Nigerian artist Rema.  This song is both hot and cool at the same time.  Her current single - she's made four trips to the top 10 and this is sure to follow - it's got all the markings of a hit song.  

You know why I'm posting this, though.

She was on SNL this weekend.  She performed this song.  And her bestie interoduced her.

She's young,  she's new to the music business... and THAT is her new best buddy.  That should tell you everything you need to know about Ice Spice.

16 October 2023 - Kendrick Lamar - Alright

Kendrick Lamar is possibly the most celebrated hip hop artist of his generation.  He's earned that, too - his rhymes hit a little harder than most, with a musical style that is unmatched.

This song, from his third album, To Pimp A Butterfly, was inspired by a trip he took to South Africa.  Co-written by Lamar, Pharrell Williams and Sounwave, it opens with lines from The Color Purple.  

The song's social consciousness and real beats brought Lamar two Grammy awards on its own in 2016 - the album won a third and another song won a 4th.  Lamar's performance in this video also earned a nomination - it's almost as if he's really rising above.

I don't usually like this generation of hip hop, but Kendrick Lamar is a notable exception, and "Alright" is a big reason why.

13 October 2023 - U2 - Numb / Down All The Days

This is exactly what this blog was made for.

The Edge getting harassed.  

We keed, we keed.

When this song came out in 1993, the world was used to Bono as lead vocalist for U2 - so it was a little jarring for this song and video to be released with The Edge as lead vocalist (and Bono and Larry Mullen Jr. as backing vocalists).  He was also the lyricist, with the band writing the rather sparse backing music.  

The song actually started off as another song from the Achtung Baby sessions, but the band hated that song, sung by Bono. It wasn't until Flood and Brian Eno started remixing it and producing it with The Edge that it turned into this absolute masterpiece of minimalism and unhinged electronics.  It ended up being a centerpiece of the Zooropa album.  

I remember listening to this song with my girlfriend at the time, who I don't think quite liked the song at first.  (If my memory serves me correctly, she came around)  I always liked it - it was weird and interesting.

By the way, if you listen closely, you'll hear the song of a cassette tape in a Walkman rewinding - one of many samples included in the song.  

The video itself was so iconic, it was the subject of many parodies.   This one, made by VH1 to promote The New WKRP in Cincinatti.  The show was terrible.  The commercial was amazing.

This isn't a song that the band has performed live much - but they did on the 1993 Zoo TV tour.

The band did eventually release the original song they hated - "Down All The Days" - as part of the 30th anniversary reissue of Achtung Baby in 2021.  

They were probably right to not go with that song originally.  You can really hear the "Numb" in there, though. 

12 October 2023 - Van Halen - Poundcake

This week has been a bit of a struggle for me.  Usually, posts come to me so quickly and easily.   This week, not so much.

For weeks like this, I like to have songs queued up - ones that appear to me in some way, shape or form.  Sometimes, that's helpful.  Today, that was helpful, because this is one of those songs.  

And this song really deserves to be queued.  Written by the band, it was the lead single of their 1991 album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, which every kid on every playground knows spells "fuck" - you've tried to justify using the F-bomb because you were told it was a legal term, right?

That sound you hear at the beginning of the song is not Eddie Van Halen's Frankencaster (how the hell he played that thing, I'll never know), but a Makita power drill.  

Lyrically, this song ain't great.  Musically, the song is dense and interesting and one of the best guitar songs ever written and performed.  

Oh yes.  Eddie did use that drill live.  Take this performance from the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards - where the FrankenMakita is on full display.  

11 October 2023 - Fatboy Slim - The Rockafeller Skank

It's been this long, and this is the FIRST time we've talked about Fatboy Slim in any real way.  Well, there was this remix, but that's it.  

Once upon a time, there was a band called The Housemartins.  They were a major label signed band that lost their bassist right before their debut, so Norman Cook stepped in for their five year existence.  The Housemartins were a guitar band, and that wasn't really what Cook wanted to do.

So, when The Housemartins broke up in 1988, a lot of the rest of the band formed another band called The Beautiful South, but Cook wanted to go electronic, so he formed Beats International, which was a loose collective of musicians.  That loose collective morphed into being just Norman Cook, and so he took on a stage name....

Fatboy Slim.

He hit his commercial success peak in 1998, starting with this song that everyone thinks is called "Funk Soul Brother", but it's not.  It's "The Rockafeller Skank".  In fact, the only lyrics is a sample from some Lord Finesse spoken word stuff.   The song features samples from eight different song.  

This song ended up being a top 10 hit in the US and worldwide, becoming Fatboy Slim's first major hit.

It's also impossible to not dance to this song......

.... which is clearly on display at the 2012 Olympic closing ceremonies. Yes, that's Fatboy Slim on the turntables.  

10 October 2023 - Pixies - Velouria

I can confidently say this is probably the video that was filmed in the shortest amount of time.

23 seconds.

The band is running through a quarry.

You'd have to play it at about 10x speed to see it in real time.

MTV hated it SO MUCH they refused to play it.

It was made to be played on Top of the Pops, a UK show that required a video to list a song on their chart.

They didn't play it, either.  

Which is too bad.  The lead single from their Bossanova album was amazing.  It's got this alien surf sound going on, which is amazing.  The lyrics are odd, based in 1920's Rosicrucians folklore.  How Charles Thompson Iv - a.k.a. Black Francis - got his hands on 1920's Rosicrucian folklore is beyond me, but it makes for an interesting song.  

Yes, someone published the video at real speed.

Yes, they made another video.  No, it's not better.  Yes, it's the same quarry.

Yes, the song sounded amazing when the band performed it live in 2005 in an acoustic setting.