Pop That Goes Crunch!

Seven Decades Of Melodic Rock & Roll

23 Jan 2012

A Damned Cool Record

Butch Walker has the innate ability to put sounds and words together in such a way so that they rattle around in your head for days, months or even years. He writes great hooks and wraps them in endlessly hummable melodies. He’s also quite witty. I still can’t get this verse out of my mind two years after the release of  “She Likes Hair Bands”:

She likes hair bands/On satellite radio/But I was in one/So that’s a little too close to home

On his not-so-new album The Spade, Walker and his band The Black Widows serve up thirty-six minutes worth of snarky, semi-autobiographical rants and raves about the past and the present. Its loud, its boisterous, its endlessly catchy, and sometimes it even gets downright bluesy.

The band is at its best when looking back in time to understand the present. At first glance, “Summer Of ’89” seems like a rehash of the “life is all downhill after high school” theme that occasionally litters pop music (see, e.g., “Jack and Diane”) with its rousing chorus:

Can I go back to when/I was the winner/Way before the rain came/And washed away the sinners/Everyone was something and/Nothing was done right or wrong

Walker notes, however, that this is all just useless nostalgia about stoners, minimum wage jobs, high school jocks, fast cars and mindless sex:

Or he’s 46 and alone/Cast the heaviest stone/Suburban cover band playing Bad To The Bone/In a bath tub of meth/You can smell your own death/You know when you can’t look the past in the eye

Heady stuff cast in fist-pumping, anthemic guitar rock:

“Day Drunk” is about how yesterday’s next big thing can turn into today’s also-ran after the supposedly “cool kid” drowns “in a pool of his own hype and beer.”

After a “false start,” “Bullet Belt” begins with a fuzz of bass and Walker singing over a rocking beat about his dad smoking pot in the parking lot at an Iron Maiden concert in Carolina. That where Walker is from: “Maybe I’m not that crazy/I’m just playing with the hand I was dealt/ Maybe I’m not that crazy/Just a chip off the old bullet belt.”

“Synthesizers,” written by band member Jake Sinclair, along with Micheal Trent, runs with the basic theme of doing “what feels right instead of waiting for the next big compromise.”  Even better, it talks about the virtues of getting down “like Duran Duran in 1985” and about getting down “like Frank Poncherello on a motor bike”:

The Spade is fun, and a concise listen at only thirty-six minutes. There is no filler. Walker and the band also make some big statements with loud guitars, but without sounding like self-important navel gazers. This is not U2, thank goodness. Its just cool, and funny. So much so that Little Steven picked it as his single coolest album in the world for 2011. Indeed it is.

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23 Dec 2011

A Jangle Pop Christmas

Music has the ability to blow you away. Sometimes, its fun. Sometimes, its meaningful. Sometimes, its surprising.

I decided to listen to a Christmas album during my afternoon commute. It wasn’t your typical Christmas album. It wasn’t sweet or sentimental or traditional. It wasn’t the kind of stuff that pop radio stations play over-and-over again in December.

It was, instead, Under The Influence Of Christmas by the Grip Weeds, and it is “surprising.”

Under The Influence Of Christmas

In fact, “under the influence” is the perfect title. The album is “influenced” by Christmas.  But it is in all respects a rock and roll album that just happens to contain eleven Christmas songs, some traditional, some not.  All are done in the Grip Weeds’ signature rocking, slightly psychedelic, jangle pop style.

The album gets off to a great start with “Christmas Dream,” which just happens to be “The Coolest Song In The World This Week'” on Little Steven’s Underground Garage. Grand and soaring, it’s reminiscent of “Speed Of Life,” which kicked off their 2010 double-CD Strange Change Machine.

Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere & The Raiders fame lends some rougher-hewn vocals to the bluesier original tune “Santa Make Me Good.”

The Pretenders’ “2000 Miles,” with its wistful “it must be Christmastime” plea, gets the full jangle treatment, with guitar assists from Pat Dinizio and Jim Babjak of the Smithereens.

“Merry Christmas All” is a bit of 60’s West Coast sunshine pop about that “very good time of the year.” And so it is.

The band gets (somewhat) traditional on “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and “Hark The Herald Angels Sing.” The former gets a driving guitar and swirling organs. The latter is anchored by a beautiful Rickenbacker guitar. Both have gorgeous harmonies.

Toward the end of the set is another original song, “Christmas Bring Us,” which you can hear band members Kristin Pinell and Kurt Reil perform “live” in acoustic glory, here:

It all ends with a rockin’ version of “Welcome Christmas” from none other than How The Grinch Stole Christmas.  Oh, and for good measure, they even cover Jethro Tull and Emerson Lake & Palmer.

Under The Influence Of Christmas (sound clips of the entire set can be heard here) is simply the best Christmas album I have heard. Ever.

Tidings of comfort and joy, indeed.

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19 Dec 2011
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A Perfect Pop Gem

A mantra of mine lately has been “if it jangles, I’ll listen to it.”  I never thought of myself as a “jangle pop” person back in the 80’s when “jangle pop” became a genre, but I always had a soft spot for the more melodic parts of the left side of the dial. The Replacements’ “I Will Dare” beat their “Dose Of Thunder” hands down. I could listen to Husker Du’s “I Apologize” and “Hate Paper Doll” any day of the week.

The Red Button takes a decidedly mellower approach to the same melodic formula. Their first album, “She’s About To Cross My Mind,” put 1965 and 1966 into an update machine to craft the perfect pop record that stays in your mind for days, weeks and months at a time.  The word “girl” figured prominently. The ninth song on “Rubber Soul” is, of course, “Girl.” I put their “Free” on a playlist right after The Beatles’ “Rain.” Two more perfect companions might never be found.

Their new record, “As Far As Yesterday Goes” might be even better. Its reach certainly is greater.

Redbutton

Flourishes of Burt Bacharach’s sophisticated 60s pop come in an out. The title song could have been on The Zombies’ “Odyssey and Oracle.” “Easier” does Emitt Rhodes better than Emitt Rhodes does Emitt Rhodes. And, keeping with tradition, there is “Girl, Don’t,” a perfect power pop gem. Jangles can be heard throughout. They also can get breezy with “On A Summer Day”:

<p>On A Summer Day – The Red Button from Seth Swirsky on Vimeo.</p>

“As Far As Yesterday Goes” is my favorite collection of 2011. It’s smart and catchy. It wears its influences without being nostalgic or derivative. It’s sophisticated without being bland. It has an edge without being trendy or falling into alternative rock cliches. And, just like in 1966, its less then 40 minutes long. Brevity is a virtue.

Go get it.

 

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19 Dec 2011
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The Greatest Song You Probably Never Heard

big-starSometimes a song seems in retrospect to be “ahead of its times.” That usually means that the song or band proved to be influential. The song thus sounds contemporary, even though its old.

Rolling Stone picked “September Gurls” as the 180th greatest song of all time. “A nonhit from [Big Star’s] second LP . . . ‘September Gurls’ is now revered as a power-pop classic.”

“September Gurls” was destined to be a non-hit, coming out in 1974 as rock became bloated and self-important. Instead, Big Star looked back to the British Invasion with concise, elegant guitar pop. In turn, they influenced everyone that followed — REM, The Replacements, Matthew Sweet, Wilco, The Posies and Teenage Fanclub, just to name a few. What sounded old gave birth to the new.

“September Gurls” sounds as fresh and as beautiful as it did 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, etc. That is one of the makings of a great song.

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19 Dec 2011
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A Happy Way To Spend The Fourth Of July

This one was pulled right out of the time machine. The Merry-Go-Round were a great band out of Hawthorne, California. Their “big” hit, “Live” made it to No. 63 on the national charts, and was covered by the Bangles in the early-80s. It’s playing at the beginning of the clip below of their day on The Dating Game in 1967.

The definitive collection from their brief existence is called, naturally, “The Definitive Collection” and is worth checking out. Writing in the All Music Guide, Tim Sendra noted:

The Merry-Go-Round is a breathtaking blend of chiming folk-rock guitars, British Invasion harmony vocals, baroque pop arrangements, and pure pop songcraft that sounds daisy fresh in 2005. The Beatles are a huge influence, there is plenty of Paul McCartney in [Emitt] Rhodes’ sweet vocals and their vocal harmonies. You can hear the Byrds a bit, some Left Banke (especially on the sweeping orchestral pop gem ‘You’re a Very Lovely Woman’), some L.A. garage on rockers like ‘Where Have You Been All My Life’ and ‘Lowdown’; the group definitely didn’t exist in a vacuum.

Rhodes recently released his first recorded material in 35 years.

But, back to the time machine:

After reminding viewers that The Dating Game is “in color,” Johnny The Announcer says “we couldn’t think of a happier way to spend the Fourth of July than with the Merry-Go-Round.” Rhodes is Bachelor No. 2 who, according toJim Lange, projected a “warmth” that made him a teen idol. Bachelor No. 1, the bass player, perhaps took the Sgt. Peppers thing a wee bit too seriously.

The kitsch value of this is spectacular:

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18 Dec 2011

Go-Go Dancing To The Byrds

Groovy 60’s Go-Go Dancing and the Byrds are not often mentioned in the same breath. The Byrds are more associated with folk rock. Their influence can even be heard on The Beatles’ “Help” and “Rubber Soul,” among countless dozens of other records from the mid-60s

Go-Go dancing was big in the mid 60s, and here are the Byrds performing “Feel A Whole Lot Better” in front of a bevy of go-go dancers on a long-forgotten show called “Shivaree.”

The Byrds did, however, help create something brand new in ’65 by adding a back-beat to folk music to make it “danceable.” When Bob Dylan heard their version of “Mr. Tambourine Man,” he supposedly said “Wow, you can dance to that.”

The Byrds’ first four albums with most of the original line-up intact — “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “Turn, Turn, Turn,” “5th Dimension” and “Younger Than Today” — are classics that influenced everyone, most notably R.E.M. and Tom Petty, who covered “Feel A Whole Lot Better” on “Full Moon Fever.”

Some colleagues of mine were exchanging all-time Top Twenty Lists last fall. I put “Feel A Whole Lot Better” on mine. Roger McGuinn’s 12-string Rickenbacker guitar is one of the greatest sounds in rock history, and the song has a great melody and the band’s trademark four-part harmonies. All of that greatness propelled it all the way to Number 103 on the Billboard chart.

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18 Dec 2011
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Here’s To You, Mrs. Pace

Back in 1977, I had a very old school seventh grade music teacher. She played the piano and taught us to sing songs like “Erie Canal.” It went like this: “I’ve got a mule her name is Sal/Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal/She’s a good ol’ worker and a good ol’ pal/Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal.” Real cutting edge and contemporary stuff, written back in 1905.

One day, she came to class and said sternly: “I read an article in the newspaper yesterday about this very bad music that is coming over from England. Its called punk rock. There is a group called the Sex Pistols. The music is loud, and they curse and vomit. Do not listen to it.”

I immediately thought to myself, “Wow, this punk rock stuff must be pretty bad. Or maybe pretty good. I gotta check it out.”

I went home and, of course, read the article:

News

What she had said about the article was mostly true. The group was called the Sex Pistols. They cursed and they vomited. However, this “punk rock” was said to have come originally from America, not from England as she claimed. America would never have generated such stuff. She obviously never heard of the Stooges, the MC5, the New York Dolls, etc.

I was not yet 13 in January 1977. I couldn’t buy something called “Anarchy in the U.K.” The radio wasn’t playing this stuff. And, what would have happened if I came home with something with the words “Sex Pistols” written on it? This came, and went. 1977 was a dark time for music you could actually hear on the radio. The Number One song in the United States at the time was “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing,” by Leo Sayer.

But, a couple of years later, I read about the domestic release of a supposedly “bombastic” record by The Clash. By this time, though, I had a decent bike and some cash. I was able to up to ride up to Westwood one day after school to buy the domestic version of “The Clash,” which I later called “The Green Album”:

Clash

I hadn’t even heard a single song on this record before buying it. But, not only was it supposed to be “bombastic,” it also was the dreaded “punk rock,” the scourge of old school music teachers leading their students in rollicking renditions of “Erie Canal.” And, it had lyrics like this: “All over people changing their votes/Along with their overcoats/If Adolf Hitler flew in today/They’d send a limosuine anyway.”

It was great. I listened to it over and over again. Things would never quite be the same.

So, here’s to you, Mrs. Pace — a little “Anarchy In The U.K.”:

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