Raised on Radio - Taco

I think the music of my youth is the best ever. For a second, I will pretend that everyone doesn’t think the music of their youth was the all time best. I write about the forgotten (and not so forgotten) songs of my youth and I call it #raisedonradio. But dang, if MTV helped usher in some adventurous music in the early 1980s. I am going with a one hit wonder but it really is an all-time favorite song of mine, and I don’t think I ever heard a second song from this artist. Taco probably doesn’t need an introduction. You likely know the Simpsons reference ("Thanks Taco for that loving tribute to Falco"). The Indonesian-born German-based singer really had the one huge hit. His follow up “Singin in the Rain” got some world airplay (except in the US) and he had a couple of minor European hits. I remember Casey Kaseum said something that I never have heard or be able to verify since. But my understanding was that Taco appended a certain amount of “There’s No Business like Show Business” and the original “Gotta Dance” bit so he got some time of writing credit as it became a medley instead of a cover. (Which makes sense if true, Marc Almond surely lost a large sum of money by pairing a cover "Tainted Love" with another cover "Baby, Where Did Our Love Go" instead of an original) Again, in a world where you can look anything, I can’t confirm what I vaguely remember from a radio bit I heard once 40 years ago. But I do love Taco who’s singing a depression era tune, dressed to the nines, he looks mad, possibly evil. A rock star but a rock star seemingly moved to the Vegas (or New York) lights. OMG!?! Did Bono just rip off Taco wholesale for his Mephisto/ Zoo TV character?

Album Review- Iggy Pop- Every Loser

I feel like the last two thirds of Iggy Pop’s 50plus year career has been “comeback”s. Maybe that is the way it works for any long time artist. He has had some high points of course. 1993s American Caesar and 2016s Post Pop Depression felt like late career capstones. 2023’s Every Loser feels every bit of a marker of where Iggy is going next. I have read a few reviews that suggest that it’s every aspect of Iggy’s career covered in one album. It’s certainly more catchy than 2019’s Free- a Pop into poetry, jazz and atmospheric introspection. In many ways, it’s hard not to compare Every Loser to 1990s Brick by Brick. That album paired Iggy with a big time producer (Don Was) and a bunch of stars- Slash and Duff from Guns N Roses, John Hiatt, Kate Pierson, Waddy Wachtel and Kenny Aronoff. Every Loser is produced by Andrew Watt (Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Ozzy Osbourne, Eddie Vedder) and features an all star list of rockers- Dave Navarro, Eric Avery, Stone Gossard, Taylor Hawkins, Travis Barker, Josh Klinghoffer and once again, Duff McKagan Iggy has done the rock star cameo thing before with 2003s Skull Ring with Green Day, Sum 41, and Peaches. Though there are as many opinions as fans, I consider Skull Ring one to skip. Every Loser does have some of that “big, dumb” rock that Iggy is known for, but Watt generally knows what to do here. There’s no great single on par with the best songs off Brick by Brick but the album holds together. Opener “Frenzy” and “Modern Day Ripoff” get closest to the mark as the kind of rocker Iggy made in the 1980s. If anything, the album reminds me of 1999s Avenue B. Not necessarily sonically- though it does at times share some characteristics of introspection and occasionally slowing down especially on songs like “Morning Show” and those two tracks labeled as “interludes” But Avenue B was an album that at first few listens felt like it would be one of Iggy’s better albums, but it didn’t really hold over too much over time. I doubt Every Loser will float to the top either. Watt is a positive but also a bit of a negative too. If Iggy really wanted to shake some listeners, he is a bit polished here. Closer “Regency” is the most discussed song here and it probably should be, as it feels like what the album is building to. It’s also a pretty good example of the album. It is very ambitious, and yet feels like it falls short. It’s full of profanity. Musically, it is the closest to 80s and 90s Iggy, which is notable considering some of his recent detours. Neither the song nor the album are the type of quality that gets mentioned in the obituary. Yet, that isn’t to say it’s not a good album. Album tracks like “Strung Out Johnny” and “Comments” are amazingly strong despite some pretty overused lyric fodder - hard drugs and social media.

Alan Rankine RIP (The Associates- An Appreciation)

The Associates are probably the last band I would ever expect to hear in my small Midwestern town. Yet, I became aware of them via two ways. One was from being a huge Smiths fan and the implication that “William, It was Really Nothing” might be inspired by the Associates’ Billy MacKenzie (and he would later reply with a song called “Stephen. You’re Really Something”.) The second being an album review in Spin magazine. These were rough times for me personally (in my mid-20s) and I would read and re-read these magazines This was also during a time where I was routinely hitting up the CD section in local pawn shops and to my shock, found two Associates CDs while doing this. One was 1990s Wild and Lonely- the bands fourth album is essentially a McKenzie solo album with collaborator Alan Rankine out of the band. It’s a bit of a completists only record that production wise, is off its time. But I also found Popera: The Singles Collection (also 1990) a collection of the band’s Greatest Hits I know that there probably is one Associates fan who will read this, so I hope to continue discussing the band without causing offense. There are a lot of similarities between the Associates and one of my favorite bands, Soft Cell. Both are duos. Both are ostensibly synth pop bands with an ear for melody, but more interested in making art over chart success. Because of this last aspect, I would suggest that they fall into a category of “love it or hate it”. It was the 80s and they weren’t the only band so strongly committed to their craft, but so committed they were, that it is hard to think of too many bands that approached them in style and quality - Besides the aforementioned Soft Cell, I would suggest Bronski Beat, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Fad Gadget, Cabaret Voltaire and a select very few others that would come to mind. Popera is what makes the Associates great in one disc. Here are the band’s greatest moments - front loaded with songs from their most acclaimed album “Sulk” along with a career of worthwhile singles and a few well selected covers like “Love Hangover” and “Heart of Glass”. The title of the compilation perfectly capturing the operatic vocals and the synth pop beat. McKenzie committed suicide at the age of 39. Since his death in 1997 (and despite little success in the US), his influence shows in big ways via songs that were dedicated to him post-mortem by musicians like Siouxsie, Bjork and the Cure. Last year, Sulk received the 40 year anniversary boxed set treatment. There’s not much to recommend social media in 2023, but a real positive is that we hear about musicians who have passed, and can celebrate their work. Last month, Alan Rankine died at age 64. After the Associates, he recorded three solo albums, produced the Cocteau Twins and played a role in the early years of Snow Patrol and Belle and Sebastian via the Electric Honey label.