In the Wake of Poseidon: August 2008

Saturday, August 30, 2008

But surely your time will come, as in Heaven, as in Hell

I never could say that I was a punk rocker. Never. But something about The Clash was just too good. It was beyond punk rock. It's beyond anything, really. The Clash is almost a genre in itself. In grade school, I had a two disc set I got from BMG called The Story of the Clash. It was a great starter set to an artist. When I was younger, Greatest Hits were great ways to get into artists. I know now that albums are more important, but when you are 12 years old, you don't think that for older artists. You just want all the songs that you know and you want to listen to them non-stop. It wasn't until High School that I decided to get fully into The Clash and the first album of theirs I got was, as anyone would start with, London Calling. I bought it the same day that the Weezer Green Album came out, which of course was something I had been waiting for and was wholly disappointed in. I jumped straight to London Calling which I knew a decent amount of songs from already due to The Story of the Clash. Needless to say, it didn't take long for me to become completely addicted to that album with it taking over my sophomore year of high school as the most important record to date.

Something about The Clash really hits home for me. Every song on London Calling is great in it's own right. From the classic standards to the kooky tracks, it's got a flavor all it's own. Two LP's of phenomenal music. But something always struck me ass odd growing up and listening to The Clash. They are considered punk rock, but everything else out there that is punk rock isn't as good as this. This is more than just some punks slaying fast on the strings and screaming anger and disillusionment into the microphone. This mixed sounds from around the world into the punk formula and made it a far better genre of music. I never became a punk rocker like many youths do, but I listened to a shit ton of The Clash. Maybe that makes me a fake, but I feel more like a fan of anything that is purely rock.

"London Calling" is by far The Clash's best track, no matter what anyone says. It's ferocious, it's got a sweet ass bass line and it's probably the most punk rock song on the album. After that, we get a cover of "Brand New Cadillac" which is a sped up blues rocker. "Rudie Can't Fail" is ska brilliance and a fun song to dance to. The brooding of "Guns of Brixton" is among one of my favorite songs of all time. It's gloomy and dark and harrowing and an amazing song to listen to. Some of the more accessible songs like "Clampdown" and "Train in Vain" are radio friendly fun but still classic and singular in their variety compared to every other song on this album. I've always loved the pop, yet highly poetic "Spanish Bombs." It's hard to pick apart such a perfect album.

What The Clash had done to me as a youth was to give me yet another one of musics most important bands and give a different side of what rock and roll could be. Bands like The Clash are few and far between. Up to this point, they were just another British punk rock group. Then, inspired by whatever muses whispered into their ears, they came out with something totally different and awe inspiring without changing who The Clash was. I guess a lot of bands go through this, but being a music lover it's an amazing thing to see happen. I may not have been alive in 1980, but this music still makes me feel apart of that time somehow.

1. The Who - Tommy
2. Beck - Odelay
3. Television - Marquee Moon
4. Weezer - Pinkerton
5. Brian Eno - Before & After Science
6. Wilco - A Ghost is Born
7. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
8. Grand Funk Railroad - Closer to Home
9. Foo Fighters - The Colour & The Shape
10. Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
11. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
12. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
13. Jeff Buckley - Grace
14. Warren Zevon
15. Black Mountain - In The Future
16. XTC - Skylarking
17. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
18. Nick Drake - Pink Moon
19. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple
20. The Clash - London Calling

Up Next: Arcade Fire's Funeral

Friday, August 29, 2008

If you should die before me ask if you can bring a friend

It wouldn't be proper for me to make this list and NOT include the first record I ever bought on my own. It was the first time I decided to use whatever allowance I was getting back in 1994 was deserved of a record. Being 11 years old, I guess this was kind of big. What would I buy first? Would it be The Offspring's Smash? Not yet. Would it be Weezer? That was second. Would it be Soundgarden's seminole Superunknown? Wrong grunge band. No, first was my old favorite band of all times sophomore anti-slump. Stone Temple Pilots' Purple. The album is beyond what I knew then what grunge was and still kind of stands above the rest of what grunge really is. It's not quite Alice in Chains or Nirvana or Soundgarden or even Pearl Jam. Some songs sound like these bands. But there is another layer to the album cuts that stood out to me and that was the bands classic/glam rock leanings on certain tracks. As a young kid, my favorite song was "Interstate Love Song" and if anything, this track reminded me of bands that my parents listened to growing up and allowed me to move out on my own and figure out what music I liked that wasn't my parents. I know I mentioned this with Beck and Odelay, but that was simultaneous to this one for the most part. But Odelay wasn't until 1996 making Purple the first album I ever owned. I still have the original CD and the cover art is on a sweet collage of CD covers I made.

As far as being a young buck liking bands, I was like any young kid and I listened to a lot of alt rock radio. WDRE and Y100 were my youth. These stations played everything from the dance music that was more popular on the Top 40 to bands like the Lemonheads or STP. It was kind of what I imagined old AM radio being only a little less off the charts amazing. There was plenty of random bands like Veruca Salt and Dishwalla to tread through (although I loved both of those band's respective hits.) To show you the sheer gravity of 1994 and it's immense amunt of amazing albums and tracks, here is a quicky list:
Beck - Loser - Mellow Gold
Beastie Boys - Sabatoge - Ill Communication
Green Day - Dookie - Longview
Weezer - Buddy Holly
Soundgarden - Superunknown - Black Hole Sun
The Cranberries - No Need to Argue - Zombie
Snoop Dog - What's My Name? - Doggystyle
En Vouge W/ Salt N Peppa - Whatta Man - Runaway Love
Nas - N.Y. State of Mind - Illimatic
Gin Blossoms - Found Out About You - New Miserable Experience
Nine Inch Nails - Closer - The Downward Spiral

That's just a smattering of awesomeness. But for me, it didn't get any better than Purple.

I can't really say why this was the one that had to be first. But I'm ever glad it was. To make things clear, I feel like STP has never gotten the kudos they deserve. This album did go 6x Platinum which I guess is kudos enough, but how come no one gives them props, yet everyone talks about PJ and Nirvana? I could put Purple song for song against any album by other grunge bands and these songs hold up better and have just as much amazing rock fervor as any. The A.V. Club over at The Onion wrote an amazing blog about how STP gets the shaft and now, with their current US Tour and maybe, God Willing, a new album and maybe a rehashing of the greatness that this band actually has in their catalog.

Take a song like "Silvergun Superman." It's an epic song that sprawls and reels with rock excess yet brilliant songwriting and musicianship that never ceases to amaze. It wasn't a radio hit, but it's a track that is just as good as "Interstate Love Song" or "Vasoline." The real masterpiece of the album was a big hit and that is "Big Empty." One of the bluesiest songs of the 90's, it's an amazing track in all it's aspects. It's even more cream inducing live, which thanks to this reunion tour I was lucky enough to see. "Meatplow" is an amazing first track and sets the tone for the rest of the record. Although this album doesn't have some of the jazzier songs that made the rest of the STP's future albums have a bit more depth, it still had a much bluesier influenced greatness to hold it's own and define the major sound of STP. That of a rock band that had a blues core buried under the intense drumming, fast paced and fuzzy guitars and funky bass lines.

Not many bands that I loved as a youngster have stayed with me this 14 years latter. One thing is for shit sure though. The first record I ever loved is still one of my all time favorite records. It's also one of the most important records on this list as it defined myself as an independent music lover (not indie but one who decides for himself what music rulez.) Rather than angsty grunge, STP was bluesy grunge. It was Grunge with deep seeded roots in the greatness of the delta blues but turned up to 11. The song "Kitchen Wares and Candy Bars" is a perfect example of this hence the selection of this track for the video portion here. I still like to think I was an awesome 11 year old for choosing Purple as the first album worth my hard earned lawn mowing money.

Oh and side note... doesn't the bass player look like Justin Theroux??

Thursday, August 28, 2008

And I'm seeing the light in a station bar and travelling far in sin

The highlight of my young adult life was a moment during the summer of 2004. It was a Zen moment. I was standing in my Dad's hometown on a tiny island in the middle of the Aegean sea. I was standing in this town called Nisyros and the power went off. All of a sudden, the sky opened up even more than it already was and I was awash in the beauty of the night sky in total darkness on a little pebble in the middle of the sea. It was breathtaking and life changing. Something so simple and beautiful really affected me. This is the way I feel about Nick Drake's Pink Moon. Not only was it one of two CD's I had on this trip (more on that later) but it is simplistic beauty. Just Drake, his acoustic guitar and his poetic words. It's a true gem of a record and the best companion piece for a spiritual and physical journey. The haunting beauty of the recrod perfectly set the mood for the perfect trip abroad.

Going to the Motherland for the second was quite an experience and it was definitely enhanced by the music I had on the trip. Sadly, I lost a large chunck of my music library to a stupid airplane mishap. Some lucky sap in Frankfurt is listening to my CD's. I was screwed. I had only one cd with me and it was actually Neil Young's Decade Disc One, which is truly awesome and would make this list too if it wasn't a compilation. Anyway, I was determined to listen to more than just good Ol' Neil. I went to the airport store and sifted through a bunch of CD's to see what I should get to add in addition to the Neil disc and decided on Pink Moon. I had the album somewhere burnt but I figured I'd just go ahead and buy it. At first I was kind of pissed that the album was so short. I then realized that it was so perfect that I had no problem putting it on repeat. It also was the companion album to my current favorite book of all time which I read three times on this trip, Slaughterhouse 5. Random, yes, but it seemed to be just what I needed to listen to whilst laying on gorgeous beaches and soaking in the comforts of the Greek Islands.

Pink Moon also has a strange history of how I heard of Nick Drake. Some of you may remember this:

I hate that my first impression was of a commercial, but sometimes that's the way you learn about music. I then heard other Nick Drake songs in movies and became curious. Pink Moon was the first record I owned of his and it's quite a pretty album. The titular track is hauntingly beautiful with it's amazingly timed piano addition near the middle of the track. Songs like "Place to Be" and "Which Will" are mystical and metaphysical. The songs just float in the air above the ether and relax you and bring a lyrical beauty that is simple and perfect. "Things Behind the Sun" was a revelation of songcrafting with it's very intersting verse structure and moody chord progression. It has easily become one of my ten essential desert island tracks. "Parasite" would come in a close second as it is also a fantastical track.

This album is the perfect reflection record. 2004 was a time of great change in my life. I think it was the first year I started to realize that I was growing up. Although that didn't stop me from having a debaucherous year at the Sexional and Junior Year of college, I still felt like I was reflecting on ideas that were above what my immature mind had up to that point. Certain people in my life became more important than ever and others helped shaped the young adult I am now. Nick Drake's Pink Moon is that contemplative reflection of getting old and worrying about love and life. It's an album to pop on when you need to pass out and enjoy a good rest. The music is very stripped down compared to many of the records on this here list, but that said it's just as important if not more so because of that. Truly beautiful music.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

If I could settle down, then I would settle down

I had mentioned two albums I discovered while working that dead e

nd job at Wow Video would make this list. The first was Television's Marquee Moon and the next one was harder to pinpoint which album. Really the credit should go to a DVD and not an album, but I must pick a record out of the five that I engulfed that first summer working at Wow. Before I go into the specifics of that record, I must make brief mention of the DVD. Slow Century, a two disc set of a band called Pavement's music videos, live concerts and a documentary was something that was played regularly throughout the working days in the summer of '02. As I like to claim, I like a lot of music of th 90s and not having heard anything about this band Pavement, I am super greatful that my first exposure to Malkmus, Spiral Stairs, Ibold and crew was this amazing collection of really bad, yet perfect music videos for a band of slackers. Genius slackers, but slackers nonetheless. When deciding which album I wanted to represent, I had to pick the one that probably hit me the most through this DVD and that is their seminole record, Crooked Rain Crooked Rain. Nothing but goodness attached to it.

The videos collected on the DVD were hilarious. I had never heard the songs and it was cool ot be exposed to a band by their music videos. Especially a band that seemed to have no care for making these videos. Imagine seeing and hearing this as your first exposure of an amazing band:

Being the fan of silly things and great 90s music, it was like a treasure trove finding out about Pavement in this manner. I immediately bought their albums and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain may have been the first that really clicked. Overall, the album is their most accessible. Songs like "Range Life" and "Cut Your Hair" are such perfect examples of what slacker life in the 90s was all about. I missed that culture by about 5 years as I was just a youngin' when this record came out, but listening to it ten years after the fact, I could see how it was such a perfect example of what I call "The Pete & Pete Culture." It really feels like suburban life wrapped in melody sometimes listening to this album and as a young man growing up in Suburbia, I totally feel where the sentiment behind these songs are comin' from. Beyond the songs that had videos for them on the Slow Century DVD, Crooked Rain boasts some of the best Pavement songs in their catalog. "Stop Breathin' " is just one of those gems that was tucked away on their. The amazingly strange arpeggio guitar structure that builds into one of my favorite song outros of all time. "Unfair" and "Elevate Me Later" are as good as any of the singles from the record and could easily be up there on my list of personal favorite Pavement tracks.

I still feel this entry should be sent to either the Slow Century DVD or maybe a smattering of all of Pavement's five albums. But it's the nature of the beast. Crooked Rain also stands as one of the albums that was in constant rotation at the infamous Sexional. I finally was able to find the album on vinyl and it was a constant rotation between that and many other records, but this was almost always a next day after party clean-up album. That and O.J. with E.J. Regardless, many a Saturday morning at a soul sucking job would not have been enjoyable without the slacker pop sounds of Pavement.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Please don't pull me out, this is how I would want to go

Growing up with awesome parents who loved awesome music proved quite impressionable on this young mans mind. One of these loves was born out of a single song entitled "Dear God." This is surprising enough is that my mother, who loved this track, is curious as she is a person who believes very much in her Catholic religion. Such an exuberant and opinionated song is not one to be written off because of what it says. This shows that sometimes art and opinion can be blended into something that anyone can understand. The album that "Dear God" is found on was discovered later in life for me. XTC's Skylarking became the soundtrack for my first year in college, as did many other XTC records. This one stood out and still does as a beacon of amazing pop music goodness and brilliant song craft.

My freshman year at La Salle University was a very strange one at that. I was torn on whether I enjoyed it or no. I commuted and felt very adrift in the ways of friendship and connection to my new school. It was a strange and polarizing feeling as college was far more intriguing and fit to my sensibilities than high school could ever want to be. Somehow, Skylarking was the perfect musical replication of this life changing stage that many of us go through. The manic-depressive structure of the record kind of paralleled the thoughts and feelings that engulfed my weekly activities. Going through campus soaking in the sights yet having to drive back home to a dead end job and to total isolation living at home. Getting involved in activities that connected me to the world of college yet being robbed of the social pipeline that living on campus can afford a young adult.

These themes aren't present on the album, but the music and the song styles change and flow just like this. The hopeful dreamscapes of "Summer's Cauldron" to "Grass" show the mythical grandiosity of college. The dream before it all starts. A carefree environment surrounded by romantic visions of some sort of adult life. As much as the pop music of "That's Really Super, Super Girl" sounds all fluffy and light, the lyrics have a tongue in cheek cynicism that could identify with the false visions of situations that one comes across in life. It may be one of the best songs that sound like something it isn't. Right up there with Elton John's "I Think I'm Going to Kill Myself" or The Who's "However Much I Booze." The real cynic comes out in the oppressively beautiful "1000 Umbrellas." It's the "Eleanor Rigby" of the 80's with a very stark and poetic view of misery. "Season Cycle" also shows the cynical views of religion and institutions in general, yet with more hopeful view of life when stating when it comes to getting to heaven, "I'm already there."

Beyond the musical themes present to show the ups and downs that were paralleled in my life at that time, it also was an albm that really sprawled a whole hell of a lot of genres. The mystical "Mermaid Smiled" and the jazzy "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" showed a band that could jump around from genre to genre yet make a coherent record. I find it interesting that this album is more notable in musical circles. I find XTC to be a band that is forgotten in general and for no justification in my personal opinion. One of the more interesting 80's bands that went through many stylistic changes throughout their recording career with Skylarking being the career highlight. It's music I can identify with and lyrics that just explode with poetic greatness.

It was kind of an addiction that I went through. I think every year I discover a band that I just can't get enough of and for the year 2002-03, it was XTC. I remember imposing my love of this band on many new friends I was making and I even incorporated a song into one of my Public Speaking speeches. It makes so much sense that this record would make the list then. Beyond many plays on The Lost Tracks and many more plays while passing out to sleep at night and having dreams and nightmares of my insecure life at the time, Skylarking was the perfect soundtrack for a moment in time.

Oh and this video is kind of dumb, like most of these, but I couldn't not put the song "Mermaid Smiled" as the sampling for this record. It's just so sumptuous.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Demons may be hiding in our shadows

It's hard to believe that an album not even a year old is impacting this list. That being said, it's impossible for me to not include Black Mountain's undying influence on my love of music. Even if seems irresponsible to have something that's only 6 and a half months old on my list, oh well... that shows the gravity of it's importance. In The Future is this magnificent peice of rock music that really bridges the gap that I myself created. After grade school, I had virtually stopped listening to new music minus a few specific bands. This made my love for classic rock grow immensely, but I also missed out on a lot of good new music that was released from 1998 - 2002. In college, thanks to college radio, I listened to a lot of new music. Even though I have been out of college for two years, it's no surprise that Black Mountain is a contender for one of my all time favorite bands already. It's new music that sounds like classic music! Who could ask for anything more?

My discovery of Black Mountain was actually through their self titled record that came out in 2005. Last.fm is a website that has encompassed a lot of my love of music and has streamlined what I have been listening to a lot into nice little charts. It's semi-stalker oriented, which most online forums like it are, but there is something about documenting that kind of thing that really intrigues me. This list, itself, is documenting when I listened to what kinds of music at certain times over the past 25 years and so last.fm seems to be feeding into my own love of associating music and moments. This band can be directly attached to that whole mythos thanks to last.fm suggesting them to me. Even though it wasn't this album.

That being said, when I saw Black Mountain live, it was the songs on the new album that really hit me deep where you feel it. Right in the soul. The reverberations and the aura of the songs just washed over me. Maybe it was the bourbon I was drinking all night and not the music, but if anything, the bourbon was a conductant for the sweet rocking. I immediately anticipated the release of the new album which came early as I ordered it online on wax and received the digital download instantly. That instant goodness held me over until the next concert which was also amazing and not drowned in bourbon. Same vibrations soaked through my body, into my soul and exploaded into my cortex in a musical frenzy.

The first track I heard of the new record was "Stormy High" which bellows like a loud north storm and really just rocks all out in a way that you don't hear anymore. "Queens Will Play" and "Wucan" show that Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin can still sound relevant as long as their styles aren't played in a cliche manner. And here, they are not. The real astonishing track is "Tyrants." It's a prog rockin' blend of sweeping anti-government narrative, but not shoving ideals down your throat with anti-government cliches. it's more a face-kicking good tune that can be seen as political or just as a grandiose epic. At 8-minutes, it's easily one of the best structured and best listens of the past 8 years of the new millennium. Upon hearing this track live with it's mellotron goodness and it's epic harmonies, I was sold infinitely on a band that will be taken with my to the grave.

Hearing music that emulates your favorite bands without it sounding stale and crappy is breathtaking. Someone who loves old music yet wants to listen to new bands, I find that Black Mountain does everything I ever wanted right. In The Future is grandiose, hard rocking, beautiful and dreamy (especially on the drige-like "Night Walks") and is a companion to either playing Risk with friends or driving a long distance and needing some amazing rock music. Their live act on this past tour was impressive and an experience in itself. The expectation of what might go into a new album and several b-sides to this record show that, God Willing!- Black Mountain has staked a claim in the world of epic rocking that will hopefully continue and be a part of my life for the next installment of this series.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Don't the trees look like crucified thieves?

If one musical artist has changed my life in any way, it would probably have to be Warren Zevon. I guess this is strange since he isn't my favorite recording artist of all time. He is easily in the top five or so. Anyway, there is something mystical and honest and amazing about Warren Zevon's songwriting abilities. His sarcasm is something I can relate to and his melancholy romantic side is definitely relatable too. He may be sarcastic and cynical, but he's a romantic at heart. There is no better album to show this duality than his amazingly genius self-titled record. Warren Zevon shows so many sides of his abilities and on his first real outing as a studio solo artist that it boggles my mind that it isn't more popularly known as a work of genius.

Zevon travelled in strange circles of friends in L.A. Strange, to me, because I kind of hate everyone that worked with him. Fleetwood Mac is #1 on my least favorite bands of all time list. The Eagles are #2 on that list. Jackson Browne is on the list of least favorite solo artists. Then why the Hell should I like Warren Zevon? Because the man knows how to write a song. As he once said himself, "I'm not a musician, I'm a poet." Although he can write a great piano line and a great melody, he is more known to do with the stroke of a pen or a type of his Smith Corona what any great musician can do with their instrument of choice.

All that aside, Zevon is more than just words that I can relate to. It also reminds me of my childhood. Even though Excitable Boy was more of a childhood favorite as my dad had a cassette tape of that, it was upon discovering Warren Zevon that everything clicked. It was the desperation and romanticism in songs like "Hasten Down the Wind" and "The French Inhaler" that really hit you in the heart strings and the cynical and self-depricating "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" that makes you laugh at yourself while still realizing that not everything is so great. We all have these dark undersides that we don't share with everyone. And Warren Zevon knows how to manipulate these moments and make them beautiful and haunting. The pinnacle track, "Desperadoes Under the Eaves" is where this comes to fruition. The melodic beauty of the reprisal of the main musical parts in "Frank and Jesse James" slowed down and orchestrated is just wonderful. The track shows a man desperate, drunk and hallucinating as his life seems to wallow. But the images of "crucified theives" and the "sun looking angry through the trees" just flow with such elegance and brilliance you can't help but be stuck in the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel with Warren. Even the peppier sounding songs are sad! "Mama Couldn't Be Persuaded" and "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" are just as downtrodden as the rest of them, yet more fun to listen to with their rollicking musical performances.

I listened to this album a lot in the later years of high school on and it really just works beautifully with anyone who can relate to a cynical romantic. I guess what can be said about my personality is that I see a lot of Warren Zevon's words in myself. Maybe not all the drinking and drugs and such, but the trouble and desire elements. I cna equate Warren Zevon to Hal Hartley in a way here. Their ideas of adventure and romance are drizzled in the darker parallels of trouble and desire. And who in their right mind is suspect of falling into this pitfalls throughout their lives?

1. The Who - Tommy
2. Beck - Odelay
3. Television - Marquee Moon
4. Weezer - Pinkerton
5. Brian Eno - Before & After Science
6. Wilco - A Ghost is Born
7. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
8. Grand Funk Railroad - Closer to Home
9. Foo Fighters - The Colour & The Shape
10. Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
11. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
12. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
13. Jeff Buckley - Grace
14. Warren Zevon

Up Next: Black Mountain - In the Future

Sunday, August 17, 2008

And I couldn't awake from the nightmare that sucked me in and pulled me under

At one point, a friend of a friend had stated that Jeff Buckley's Grace was my favorite album of all time. And when he said this, it was akward because I had to tell him that I had never heard Jeff Buckley but only knew of the legend and what his album Grace looked like. This to me was strange taht someoen thought something was my personal favorite from my disposition. I immediately got a copy of Jeff Buckley's debut album and would mark the first time I ever bought a record just because someone thought I liked it. Maybe the last time too. Regardless of that, it was an almost religious experience that someone would have mistakenly tapped into the essence of my being through music. I don't recall who it was that mentioned this album to me, but I know it was sometime during my radio show days at La Salle. Probably freshman year. This seemed so strange that a random person would tap into everything I liked and found a package deal of music that was phenomenally breathtaking and refreshing. Thank you, that certain person.

Grace also acted like a crutch when I was down. I wrote a long winded blog about it ages ago and broke it down about it being a loose concept album about break-up and losing that emotional attachment to someone. Looking back, that might be kind of a stretch, but it just goes to show that music can touch people in different ways. It's not a break-up album like Beck's Sea Change, but it has very emotional songs about personal loss and torment and such. Grace was also the gateway to other artists. For example, Jeff's cover of Nina Simone's "Lilac Wine" is not only an amazing cover, but led to the discovery of Nina herself. Both versions are phenomenal and any album that can lead me to more greatness pays off big time. Thinking back to that time where I listened to Grace on repeat is kind of hard so dwelling on that here isn't going to happen. However, one thing is for sure, the album is fantastic.

"Mojo Pin" is one of those unique musical moments I've ever experienced. Much like "Talking Old Soldiers" put you right in that Old West bar, "Mojo Pin" puts you in the nightmare that the lyrics are describing. The swelling of the music, the hypnotic guitar and the screaming of the vocals at the end until you awake from that nightmare. "Grace" is as epic and amazing as it can get. A song for the ages. A song of dying, of being forgotten and loss. Some of Jeff's best guitar and vocal range. "Lover, You Should've Come Over" is probably one of the greatest love songs ever written. The emotions and lyricism in that song are so powerful and imaginative that I can't help but get a bit choked up when listening to it. "Dream Brother" and "So Real" are two stand-out favorites that just can't go unmentioned although, as stated, I don't want to dwell on this too much longer.

From not knowing a damn thing about Jeff Buckley, to being thought of as a Jeff Buckley fanatic to becoming one, it was a fast transition. It was one that also was bittersweet. Knowing that he only had one alum and one posthumus release and some live stuff is kind of sucky. I wonder what he would be recording now if he was still alive. Maybe he would suck now, who knows. It makes him more mysterious and makes his music more poignant knowing that it was a flash in the pan. But still, some part of me wants more. Ah well, I guess it means it's time to pop in Live at Sin-e and soak in the massive amounts of songs that he recorded for this live concert.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Confusion will be my epitaph

One would think they know a lot about music. But with so many bands producing music every day, it's next to impossible to ever know everything. It is easier to think you know every groundbreaking record because, well, everyone talks about them. A lot of the albums on this list are pretty mainstream and widely known. Even this one is to an extent. But for some reason, amongst my many years of researching everything classic rock, a stone was unturned. That time period during high school, I was listening to tons of influential classic rock acts and their seminole albums. And then, one day while cleaning out a room in my parents house, I stumbled upon an old WXPN Most Important Albums list. It was easily from 1985 or so as the paper was worn and old. I looked at the list to see what they figured was the most important albums from their DJ's and other Philadelphia music minds and at the top was a strange three way tie. It was Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica, The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's and King Crimson's In The Court of the Crimson King. I found this an odd three way. A this point, I knew of Beefheart due to the Lebowski soundtrack and no shit I know the Beatles. But who was this King Crimson? How could this band I never had heard be an influence or of any importance if I hadn't heard them? That was very naive of me to think I had heard everything that there was to hear.

I immediately hopped on my computer, opened up my Soulseek and immediately downloaded King Crimson's mammoth debut. After the download was complete, I immediately started it and fell back in my seat. The album being a bands first and being recorded in 1969 that sounded like this was almost unfathomable to me. Nothing up to that point had the sheer velocity and ferocity of In the Court of the Crimson King. To this day, it still shocks me that a band could release a debut as insane as this. I then made it my goal to spread the King Crimson love to my friends and colleauges who, to my knowledge, did not have any Crimson as I'm sure if they did they would have force shoved it down my gullet immediately. It lead to an all out assault on my circle of friend's senses as they all discovered the greatness at the same time that I did. It was a shared event and car rides to friends houses far away were never quite the same.

If you have never heard "21st Century Schizoid Man", you are in for a musical treat. It's free form jazz meets heavy metal. Howling loud vocals and distorted guitars intertwined with phenomenal jazzy saxaphones and drums that play like a cat and mouse game. It swirls in and out from loud bursts of chaos to very quiet subtle moments. I guess this album could be considered the first acid jazz record that I'm aware of, but even then I can't be sure of that. "I Talk to The Wind" is a borderline Moody Blues track, but sounds a little more improvised and free form than the Moody's ever really seemed. There is something less calculated about most of Crimson's songs and it's that notion of keeping you guessing that makes it so great. "Epitaph" is a fantastic epic with probably King Crimson's finest lyrical and vocal work throughout their career. They don't seem to be the best lyricists, but the existential goodness of this track makes up for goofy lyrics like later songs like "Elephant Talk" or "The Great Deceiver." "Moonchild" is yet more improvisation but on a much subtler and stranger scale. The final booming self titled epic is the perfect closer to a phenomenal album and is a mission statement for a band that would be prolific yet would change and morph line-ups with the only constant being the genius Robert Fripp. It was a debut, yet it was a finale as the band would never be the same from album to album.

It's fun to find new classics that seem liek they should be common knowledge because of just how earth shatteringly good they actually are. King Crimson was one of those WTF's that you just don't see coming sometimes. It was also a soundtrack to a few months of greatness. A friend's band covered "21st Century Schizoid Man" and it was amazing. Trips and car rides were spent blasting tracks and discussion over the bands greatness continued. I just recnelty saw the current line-up live and although no songs from this era were played, it was an aura of awesome that prevailed over the band. If only I could go back and see these guys perform in '69.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

We'll collect those lonely parts and set them down

As much as I am a music lover, I went through a drought of listening to new music. That was in high school where I did all my classic rock research, yet didn't listen to a lot of popular music minus a few old stand bys (STP, Beck.) Once I graduated in 2002, I looked for some new music to spice up my life as a college student. I also wanted to host a college radio station and knew that without newer music, my show would suck. Anyway, I went to my local record store, Tunes, and decided to by some albums I had read about in Rolling Stone. One of these new buzz bands at the time was Interpol. I had heard nothing by them, but decided for some reason to believe what they had to say. I bought their debut, Turn On The Bright Lights, with no audio knowledge of what they sounded like. Even the bands they were being compared to were news to me. Needless to say, the fact it is on this list just goes to show you that it severly impacted in all the best ways the way I look at music.

For someone coming out of researching music like Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, The Who and more of the same classic rock ilk, this was mind shatteringly different. And I liked it. It lead to me just buying records without listening to them or even knowing the band. It was a fruitful listen. I still remember it's first run through in my mother's car stereo. It was blasting and it was a fantastic first listen. In time, I started to appreciate albums for what they were rather than just singles or varying songs. This would later turn into my love for vinyl where you have less control over skipping songs like on CD's. This was probably one of those albums where I started appreciating new music and new albums as an art. Comparisons aside to Joy Division and Echo & The Bunnymen, Interpol knows how to write a damn fine tune.

The album got heavy rotation on my radio show. "Untitled" was even a contender for opening theme music for my show, but for the first half of my tenure on La Salle University's radio program, I opted for no theme music. Regardless, every show was probably showcasing another cut from the album. I had just loved the record so much that I needed to constantly play it. Then shortly after, I had made my first trip to the Trocedero theater to see them play. I know, this is crazy, but Interpol was my first small venue concert. It was truly a great event. Seeing a band I just recently started listening to and a band who just recently started producing records in such a small place was phenomenal. That concert experience alone got me into finding even more music. Thanks to that show, I saw The Raveonettes live for the first time and immediately was a follower.

The album has such a great atmosphere to it. Kind of dreary yet with shards of pop riffs and quality musicianship that sheds light on the haze. "Obstacle 1" is one of those songs that just has a structural integrity to it that I can't not ever get sick of it. The drumming alone is inspired and interesting in how it changes. It's a passionate song that is brilliant live. "NYC" and "Stella" are the old classics now. Songs like "Leif Erikson" and "Roland" will stay personal favorites as they just rock on levels that go beyond explaining.

I guess what it boils down to is that Turn On the Bright Lights may be the first record of the Oughts that really had any kind of impact on my musical listening. It shaped the way my radio show went, it made me more aware of new and underground music and it made me discover older bands that they took influences from and spread the ark of my musical loving even further into the spectrum of variety. For this, it will always remain important to me as a great album.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Just ignore all the others, you got your memories

Growing up, my parents really made an impression on me. This is relevant all over this list. As much as Tommy was important to me and was one of those parental observations and as Rubber Soul is likewise the same, Elton John's entire catalog could be on this list. For the sake of brevity, I will include what I consider the best Elton John record as the entry for this great artist. For me, Elton's best mix of musical styles and Bernie Taupin's finest country infused lyrical wisdom can be found on none other than 1970's Tumbleweed Connection. The album never had any singles and I think that makes it so pure and memorable. It's mixture of very stripped down songs to grandiose southern epics makes it a very unique recording in Elton's catalog as well. I think that is why when I want to listen to Elton John, I always return to Tumbleweed Connection.

It may also be my strange love for the old west that this album really means something to me. Stories of riverboats, old Civil War references and just the feeling of longing and searching for something better but finding difficulties seems interesting to me. Growing up, my mom would play this record on her old paper route and I would love every minute of it. Elto John also turned out to be my first real cocnert (not counting the free ones like The Band I saw when I was like, 6 or something and barely remember.) The song selection on Tumbleweed is just fantastic. Tracks like "My Father's Gun" and "Burn Down the Mission" are truly epic pieces of stylistic awesomeness. "My Father's Gun" is a southern Civil War epic with swelling strings and a gospel choir that bursts with melodic goodness. "Burn Down the Mission" structurally is a fantastic composition. It is also one of Elton's finest vocal performances of his early career.

One of my earliest memories of a song that really really struck me as passionate and fantastic is "Talking Old Soldiers." The story of two soldiers having a conversation in a bar is a stirring image both lyrically and musically. Anyone who tries to say that Elton John isn't that talented because he doesn't write his lyrics should listen to this song. The music itself tells the melancholy story jsut as much as the words written do. This struck me as a youngster as one of the most powerful songs I had ever heard. It still ranks up there as one of my all time favorites. Other stand out tracks such as the melancholy love song "Come Down in Time" is just a beautiful arrangement filled with harps and strings that whirl and swell inside you.

Tumbleweed Connection is an album that gave me a learned experience to really appreciate both musical composition and lyrical composition. If I could ever emulate the greatness of Elton John & Bernie Taupin even just a tiny bit, I'd be a happy man. The artistic beauty of Elton John here goes beyond pop music much like current bands like Arcade Fire or The Decemberists go. Without the pop music vision of this kind of baroque goodness, many bands today wouldn't have part of their influences. My appreciation for a beautifully crafted song and album may have started here without me even knowing it until much later.

Friday, August 08, 2008

Everything fades in time, it's true

"Rock and Roll is dead" is a term that is a load of bullshit. It's just morphed and changed. As far as teh grunge era goes, I missed it by a little bit. Yeah, sure I am a fan of STP and Pearl Jam and Nirvana and Soundgarden etc., but for me, the real rocking era of alternative rock or however you want to classify the post grunge era of the 90s was what I grew up with. That said, the best rock band of the 90s after grunge was more or less done are the Foo Fighters. They were a tight rock band built from the ashes of Nirvana. For me, this was a band to emulate and to want to be. Dave Grohl was a real rock star recording the debut album entirely himself. It wasn't until 1997's The Colour & The Shape came out that they were a full band and that they truly showed the world how much ass kicking could be done. This album and the videos that came from some of it's biggest hits were the cream of the crop for my middle youth and therefore a very important record for myself the past 25 years.

Again, like a few on this list, there aren't a lot of attached specific memories. It's more of an overview of my high school career and even into college. Thinking back and seeing that this record is 11 years old now is kind of crazy. It was one of the many that made me want to be in a band. Like Tommy, it has some amazing musicianship and great songwriting. Apparently, this is also a concept album about the beginning and end of a relationship. This wasn't a soundtrack for any kind of break-up the way, say Beck's Sea Change or Jeff Buckley's Grace were, but it is in fact a kick ass rocker showing a gritty, harder side to losing someone close to you.

The most pertinent thing about this record is the fact that my own band, Noringo, which lasted a good three years of my life, were heavily influenced by the sound on this record. We had a few ballady type songs much in the style of "Walking After You" as well as sprawling rockers like "Everlong" or "My Hero." Our band emulated a few 90s acts but the Foos would have to be the biggest comparison. It's no wonder as all of us grew up listening to the Foos and loving every minute of it. As much as all of their albums are good in their own right, there is no mistaking the masterpiece that is The Colour & The Shape. I can't think of many 90s albums that truly rocked as hard and as consistently. The other ones will probably appear on this list as well, but this one is the most important to me out of anythig rock wise in the 90's. Even Pinkerton and Odelay don't really match up in the Rock territory. They are different in a way so they are still favs of mine, but as much as they are great, the Foos just rock a whole lot harder.

As far as what songs really stood out to me, there was no denying that "Hey, Johnny Park!" was by far the finest rock song I had heard in the 90's. Lyrically and structurally it's a beastily track that rips and subsides to show some vulnerability then rips it again. "February Stars" was one of those tracks that when heard live would just put you in awe. Either at the acoustic tour I saw at the Tower or the pit seats I had a few years back, this was a top notch track to hear. It's also one of those tracks I would listen to late at night with headphones in a dark room just soaking in the goodness. "Enough Space" surprisingly is a new favorite of mine. This shows how the record still affects me to this day. Sometimes just damn good rocking is enough to make it change your life, even if nothing personal comes attached to it. The Colour & The Shape proves that time & time again.

Thursday, August 07, 2008

You say we need a revolution? It seems to be the only solution.

Buying vinyl was something that exploded in my life around 2004. Even before I had a record player that worked I was buying records. For $.25, it's hard to pass up an album that seems to look perfectly fine. Even if the record doesn't work too well, you then get a perfect wall hanger. Tunes in Voorhees had a large selection of decent records and one that I bought for one song has turned into one of those rock experiences that just sits with you. That record, surprisingly, is Grand Funk Railroad's Closer to Home. My Dad loves the track "I'm Your Captain" was the track I bought it for. It's a long, epic that you never hear except rarely on the radio. Grand Funk gets a bad rep for it's terrible 70's cover songs and for the equally cheesey "We're An American Band" which just gets overplayed. If the tracks on this album were played in heavy rotation, you would wonder why they aren't as accoladed as bands like Cream and Zeppelin. That aside, this record is proof positive that buying vinyl is so worth it. And now that I have a record player, this still gets heavy rotation.

I lived with a good friend for a year in college at an epic party apartment. I had an ever growing record collection and at parties we would spin records all night rather than hook up an iPod that some drunken fool could wander over to and change what was playing. This wasn't one of the records we played during parties but this was one that if you were to ask either of my too apartment mates, they would know what I was talking about. It was enrapturing. It was gratifying. After my youth stealing music from Napster before Metallica pussed out and complained and the RIAA finally stepped in, it was the perfectly legal alternative. I bought this album for a dollar. And I listened to it non-stop and then bought the CD. That's what we call genius at work. I basically was given the record for nothing and after loving it, went and bought it on CD to support the record industry more or less. See, this is why music sharing isn't a bad thing. If you get turned on to an artist, you end up buying their music. Even if this music artist, like Grand Funk, put the funk back in defunkt.... ok that pun is a stretch but still. Even though I could have easily gone on Soulseek or Limewire or Bittorrent and ganked the shit out of this amazing record, I didn't. I bought it. And forever loved it.

Why does Grand Funk Railroad's Closer to Home rock so hard? Well, let's start with the amazing first track, "Sin's A Good Mans Brother." It may be one of the best rock songs you never heard and it is an empowering song screaming for change. Whether it's for revolution or solidarity, it shows that "one just like the other, sin's a good mans brother... and that's not right." It's a blistering rock song that needs to be spread far and wide. Obama, use this shit for your campaign and I will donate AND volunteer. "Aimless Lady" & "Nothing is the Same" rock just as hard but maybe with a little less meaning and heart behind them. This doesn't discredit the tracks, but it's something to be said when the opening track of an album is as powerful as "Sin's a Good Mans Brother" is. "Hooked on Love" is a rollicking jam as is "Get it Together" and "Mean Mistreater" is as angsty a blues song as any emo track to come down the line. "I'm Your Captain" closes the record and there ain't nothing more satisfying than closing the album with such a sprawling epic.

I listened to this record nonstop for months. It isn't anything groundbreaking... but it was for me. Being a fan of rock and roll music, this was a strange find. I was perplexed that a band I knew of could be as amazing as this without me knowing it. It really opened my mind to just ging for the gusto and buying cheap records to discover music. It really lead me to believe to NOT believe what you hear on the radio or what you know from popular culture to be the accepted norm of great rock music. Grand Funk Railroad, a band I would never have thought was as great as this record makes them to be, could ever exist. God I love vinyl.

1. The Who - Tommy
2. Beck - Odelay
3. Television - Marquee Moon
4. Weezer - Pinkerton
5. Brian Eno - Before and After Science
6. Wilco - A Ghost is Born
7. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
8. Grand Funk Rail - Closer to Home

Up Next - Foo Fighters' The Colour and the Shape

Sunday, August 03, 2008

Try thinking more if just for your own sake

Writing about why you love The Beatles is almost like writing about why you love Van Gogh or Marlon Brando. It's so widely known that they are amazing in their field of expertise, so it's kind of boring to write about and really hard to sound, well, like you have some original idea on the subject. Nevertheless, without The Beatles, I wouldn't be named Paul and I'm sure my life would be drastically different. My mother is the biggest Beatles fan I know. She has a trunk in our family room that is filled to the brim with memerobilia. She has every record on vinyl as well as some Fan Club stuff that are much harder to come by. It's no surprise that the Beatles remind me of my childhood even though my love for them will never fail. When deciding to do this list of 25 important albums that have gotten me to where I am now, it was hard to choose which Beatles album would be best represent what important part of my life. I decided on Rubber Soul which to me is overshadowed by the more widely accoladed albums of their latter career. It probably embodies everything Beatles wise that I loved about them growing up and it is a transitional record for them from Pop Boy Band to Pop Music Innovators.

That being said, the tone of these blogs has been less about the albums but more about the associations. Again, this is tough to pinpoint specific moments to specific Beatles records. I listened to them so much as a kid that it's hard to really figure out any specifics of memories and such. The Beatles were so shortly prolific that it's hard to believe they only laster for seven years as a working band yet had 13 albums. Crazy. Rubber Soul is kind of the midway point in a sense as their style shifted a lot after it. It's a feel good record. It's pop music at it's purest and finest. I grew up with the UK version on CD so that's the tracklisting I'm used to, although the US version kicks off with "I've Just Seen a Face" which is one of my all-time fav McCartney tracks. What the Beatles do best with their songs on this album is create beautiful music simply. It's this simplicity that makes it essential pop music listening. As much as the psychdelic Beatles go, it's all gravy, but it's starting to sound a little dated where as Rubber Soul shines as bright as it did in 1965 when it was released.

This is the first album where the Beatles really started to move away from the cookie cutter covers into new, fresh and truly beautiful song crafting. Why as a adolescent I found this more appealing than most popular music may just be because The Beatles remind me of childhood times cruising with my parents. Songs like "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" remind me of some childhood friends who shared a similar love of the Beatles. "Nowhere Man" was my favorite Beatles song for sometime and is sitll one of my favorites. Something about the harmonies and melody of the track has stayed with me. "Michelle" and "Girl" are classic favorites. My favorite memory of any track from Rubber Soul goes to it's finest track, "In My Life." Beyond it's family stories of slide shows and the like, I sang this for an audition in high school and made a girl cry. It was the kind of a crazy moment and one that has flattered me to this day. Being named after McCartney has it's perks.

1. The Who - Tommy
2. Beck - Odelay
3. Television - Marquee Moon
4. Weezer - Pinkerton
5. Brian Eno - Before and After Science
6. Wilco - A Ghost is Born
7. The Beatles - Rubber Soul

Next Up: Grand Funk Railroad - Closer To Home

Friday, August 01, 2008

Half of it's you, half is me

Albums not only are accompanied to life events but to people. To preserve the well being of said persons, names will be inconsequential although anyone (everyone?) reading this should be able to figure out. Anyway, music that is attached to an important person in your life can become really harsh or bittersweet if things don't go the right way or if the association is with someone negative. In this case, Wilco's A Ghost is Born was the soundtrack for the summer of 2004. I was so in love with the album that events and people will forever well up in my mind. It was a glorious summer in general. A friend instituted his legacy in Brigantine of curating a fantastic weekend/week getaway to the shore and I met someone who changed my life. It was the first time I really felt grown up and felt like I knew someone special.

That summer I was head over heels and was truly enjoying life. I was happy with my job, I was in a band and I had met someone who challenged me and made me feel one with the universe. Why does Wilco's A Ghost is Born remind me of this occasion? I guess I just had a thing with driving down the shore blasting the album. It was just about long enough for the trip from Philadelphia at my place in Bryn Mawr Suites to the Jersey Shore. It had an ethereal element and the more upbeat songs were a good backdrop on a sunny day and the more contemplative songs were very effective on the drive home late at night. The music matched the emotions. It was more than me feeling hopelessly romantic, but contemplative on getting closer and closer to the end of my college career and growing up a bit.

The music of the record just beams with life. The angsty Neil Youngesque opener, "At Least That's What You Said" kind of mirrored the relationship I was leaving. It was a strange ending as it just wasn't working on either end but was one of the better relationships I had been in. The rocking was a good purge of emotions. "Spiders(Kidsmoke)" was the kind of jam session that made flooring the gas to escape the burdens of life at home much easier. The crescendo of sounds in the song made the feelings vanish in sound and as the environment changed around me, so did my thoughts and feelings. "Muzzle of Bees" is musically and sonically the mood I was in once old thoughts were out of my head. "Wishful Thinking" was the thoughts the new relationship was giving me, hoping for things better than they were. Lucky for me, that summer they were much better. '04 turned out to be a stellar year in the life.

And yet, now that those times have passed, you would think that all the good memories attached to Wilco's A Ghost is Born would be tarnished with the feelings that came to pass just about a year later. Luckily for me, if anything, it makes the album better. it's not associated with heartbreak of bad feelings but with maturing, learning and love. This seems strange as this album isn't super happy, but more contemplative and atmospheric. That said, I think that is part of why it's such a perfect time capsule of music.

1. The Who - Tommy
2. Beck - Odelay
3. Television - Marquee Moon
4. Weezer - Pinkerton
5. Brian Eno - Before and After Science
6. Wilco - A Ghost is Born

Up next: The Beatles - Rubber Soul

In the Wake of Poseidon