If you build it, they will come.

Nothing Feels Good

Seems crazy, but 2007 marks the 10th anniversary of one of the BEST RECORDS EVER MADE.

"Nothing Feels Good" by the Promise Ring, 1997

Feels like yesterday. This record blew my mind and was extremely formative as a creative person and just as a human also. I remember reading about it in some straightedge zines and indierock zines (in print) that a friend gave me. And I bought the CD and I gobbled it up. Paul even had the limmited edition red vinyl version. I don't know that I had a friend in the late 90s who didn't own this record. It was special to us. I was 19 years old and we were indestructable and totally fragile at once.

Still a great record today. Was blasting it on my way to work when I realized it has been 10 years and I felt old.

"Spent afternoons

Spent afternoons
Measuring time in spoons."

Beep- Beep!

Hello Goodbye

Also, Son Volt's version of the Beatles'es "Hello Goodbye" is up on iTunes now.
Sounds great! They did it for a Bend it Like Beckham commercial.
Like a little Son Volt snack!

DON'T MAKE ME A TARGIT ! (spoon review)

Several friends have exposed me to SPOON lately. Their new record just dropped and it's all over the trade rags. People love this band and they've been around forever. So I thought I'd pick it up- see what the fuss was about.

I ended up really enjoying "GaGaGaGaGa", Spoon's 5th full-length release.

Jill and I tried for a long while to come up with the category Spoon would fit into. Not that Spoon is super original or breaking any new ground here..... it's just fun American indie rock. That's all we could come up with.

But here's the main quality that makes Spoon stand out- If they've got one thing, it's this: Frontman Britt Daniel just says words cool. That's it. He says words in such a cool way, nothing else matters. He says "evah". He says "Targit". Bottom line is that you get taken with the way he says words. Forget everything else.

There are 3 real hits on the album: "Underdog" "You Got Yr.Cherry Bomb" and "Don't Make Me a Target" that are worth the price of the album by themselves. Or great iTunes single-purchases. They would be all over the radio if Coke or Clearchannel or McDonalds didn't own everyone's souls.

The rest of the tracks are still super fun. It's just that Daniel rarely puts a lyrical hook with a melodic hook. In other words, a tune might be catchy, but the words aren't. Or the words are catchy, but the tune doesn't get stuck in your head and sounds awkward. Take "Don't You Evah", for example. It's full of melodic hooks, but what the heck is he saying? We hear what he's saying, but it's just that he chose to say something specific for art's sake rather than just coming up with something sweet and stupid for me to easily digest. And while, usually, I like that approach, I don't think it works here. I walk around humming the melody to the lines "Petals getting picked by the love-yous and the love-you-nots" and "Five years going by everyone is still on their side" but I never sing the words, because they're awkward and forgettable.

Don't get me wrong. Love the album. Especially the 3 songs mentioned above. It was the smash of the summer. And check out the vid(s) below.

Here's the smash hit, "THE UNDERDOG"!



Oh, and you might recognize this from that car commercial:

MEE-MEEP!

The Best Show on TV!

I call do-overs on my last post called "Best Show on TV". Because, actually, The Singing Bee is the best show on TV. It's got everything that's great about American TV (the whole classic gameshow vibe) and, at the same time, cleverly pokes fun at everything wrong w/ TV (extravegance, excess, the illusion of instant stardom).

Nobody gets a million dollars. Nobody has to "lock in" their "final answer". America doesn't "vote". And there is no ominous lighting or intense mood music. Just good fun.

It had Jill and I laughing uncontrolably, yelling "Hey! That's not fair!", and singing along to Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now" all in the same 30 minutes.

Can't wait to Netflix season 1 !

Your top 5 albums?

OK, so me, Jill, and LoRizzle were talking last night about our picks for top 5 favorite albums and I thought that would be an interesting post.

Mine are (in no particular order):
"Trace" by Son Volt
"Rust Never Sleeps" by Neil Young and Crazy Horse
"The Aeroplane Over the Sea" by Neutral Milk Hotel
One of the Starflyer59 albums- probably "Americana" (a.k.a. the red album)
"Graceland" by Paul Simon

So.... What are your top 5?
Please comment.....

note: Keep in mind, this is not the famous "5 albums you would take on a desert island" scenario, because usually, for that, people don't pick their faves, they pick stuff they wouldn't get sick of. This is strictly your favorites.