itsthemusicinmylife

Monday, October 2, 2023

Sons Music- Parry Gripp

Kids love novelty songs. I loved Weird Al Yankovic and bought all his albums until I was 19. Country radio played in my house and I also bought Ray Stevens albums. I also know several of my generation that grew up on Dr Demento

So I get that my kids love jokey music. Joke music, viral music, meme my. There may not be a better joke music artist than Parry Gripp. Gripp has given us classics like “Raining Tacos”, "Riding on a Llama" “Hug a Turtle” and “Baby Yoda”.

Now there’s plenty of adults who like what gets termed “nerd rock” or “geek rock” and there are massive fan bases for artists like Jonathan Coulton, Paul and Storm, MC Frontalot , and I Fight Dragons. Music is such a hard thing to box in that it’s sometimes hard to decide where the genre starts and stops. Throw anything from Nerdcore rap to video game inspired music.

Parry Gripp interestingly is his real name and he came to fame as singer for the band Nerf Herder

Now, if you are looking for a path for this genre - there’s Weird Al and They Might Be Giants, but it goes back as far as Tom Lehrer, Stan Freeberg, and Allan Sherman and lest we forget, Monty Python. Do you count Zappa and Devo and numerous New Wave and Prog bands that led to 80s bands like Ween, the Dead Milkmen and Violent Femmes. Canada had a mini boom in the late 80s that includes bands (many that became stars in the 90s in the US) like Barenaked Ladies, Moxy Fruvous and Crash Test Dummies.

I bring this up because Nerf Herder was part of what became the 90s wave that rode the Alt rock explosion- Bowling for Soup, Fountains of Wayne, Ben Folds Five, Wheatus, and probably the biggest example Weezer.

For whatever reason, Nerf Herder never quite hit that one big hit those other bands enjoyed. “Van Halen” was an alt rock hit and they got press in CMJ and Spin. Yet it’s sort of a forgotten song, while the others mentioned above had at least one evergreen single.

And Nerf Herder never really went away. They performed the theme for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and then would go a bit viral in 2016 with the autobiographical “We Opened for Weezer”.

Now, Gripp has viral hits about food, animals, and for someone who was in a band named after the Princess Leia quote "you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy looking nerf herder" from Empire Strikes Back, songs about Jawas, Admiral Ackbar and Grogu.

So maybe Parry did when the long game- millions of songs streamed and a cult audience that loves his band and him.

2013 - Parry Gripp/Oglio

Concert Review- JAWNY

I spoke recently of how I had hoped to be seeing more concerts than I had been. Part of that of course is a mix of seeing old favorites and bands that are new to me.

A friend suggested we see JAWNY so we did. I was not familiar with the Philly- based artist who clearly is more famous than I

I couldn’t find much in terms of why on his Wikipedia although it did mention he dated Doja Cat. I could not tell you a Doja Cat song but I know she is one of the biggest stars in music now.

I also could tell you that at least by Spotify numbers, he eclipses any of my indie heroes like Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, and Pavement, even more than Violent Femmes or the Velvet Underground.

I do know that by the old trademark, that I do have at least two friends that were fans. I also knew the cliche is to “cram” in a band’s discography before seeing them perform

It would not have been hard to do- he has a new album and maybe another two albums or so of material. Nor do I think anything is wrong with that, but I wanted to come in and experience with little preconceptions.

I did spend some time with his song “Take It Back” which is a collaboration with Beck. In fact my first impression from this song and snippets of others is that JAWNY was a bit of a similar polymath.

My thoughts of the concert start with opener 18 year old Adan Diaz, who comes across as the new generation of musicians-more bedrooms and computers, less garages and amps.

I am struck by some probably obvious things.

First, the crowd was probably the largest and most energetic that I have seen in some time (from the perspective of I really only attend mid size or smaller venues in a Top 75 sized market - comparable to say Salt Lake City or Tallahassee or Little Rock, so not large).

But the crowd was young and excited. Certainly a better response than at shows of bands who had made their name on 30-40 years of performing.

JAWNY still perplexes me so I went back to the internet with the only clue being that one of his songs broke out as a Spotify Fresh Find

I feel 100 years old but I suspect the youth has word of mouth and shared media, and there probably wouldn’t be much difference to an outsider attending a Depeche Mode concert in the late 80s

JAWNY is a heck of an energetic performer. He plays guitar and is accompanied by a bassist and drummer, and surely something electronic in the background. I can’t find any faults in his frontman ship.

Musically, he wasn’t my taste though I wouldn’t have guessed why.

The clues were in his intro (Killers’ “Mr Brightside, his Shawn Mendes jokes and his choice of a Taylor Swift cover.

JAWNY might not be my favorite but I can see why he has won over a legion of fans. He’s good at what he does.

Just what he does is way more poppier than i expected. I had seen a lot of Strokes references on his reviews in the NME and the Guardian, but it would be more accurate to say he sounds like the latter day descendents who took the sound more mainstream and had way more chart success- band like Glass Animals and Neon Trees.

The second thing that struck me had to do with the songs. As a white middle class Gen Xer, my generation “discovered” rap. Aerosmith and Run DMC of course, but more importantly also a class that was as likely to listen to NWA or Tupac as it was Pearl Jam or Aerosmith. Gen Y combined genres even more with the popularity of Nu Metal.

But both artists- the opener and JAWNY - a more seasoned 27 year old- are indicative of a generation that doesn’t think about genres. Rock, hip hop, dance, pop- all fluidly blend together.

I like JAWNY at his best when he is playing the more new wave-y stuff. I can picture him touring with Cheap Trick in the 70s or an 80s glam band. I hear Oughts hopefuls Rooney and modern day chart toppers AJR.

JAWNY seems much more in line with the poppier alternative bands of the last 20 years - Foster the People, lovelytheband. The energetic “Take it Back” is a highlight, so they do a second version to close the show.

Critical fanfare or commercial success? Both show high probability in JAWNYs future.

Friday, September 29, 2023

Sons Music- Darude

It was such a fun time writing about Mom’s records (and I’m not done) and it occurred to me I probably ought to write about #sonsmusic too.

I have a 7 and 9 year old. It is one of the most rewarding things in my life. The seven year old especially loves music and wants to be a DJ when he grows up. As my first (and often favorite) music memories are around 8 and 9 (with vague recollections of earlier years), it strikes me how these are going to be those years for them.

As mentioned elsewhere, satellite radio is something we have in my wife’s car. This sounds unhip, but it cannot be understated how KidzBop is so influential and is inescapable. Of course, there’s always been something like that, but this is the current iteration of music marketed to kids. It’s not the worst thing in the world as my kid does keep me current with pop music.

Another route is the sporting events we go to. These are generally their favorite songs and why not- energetic and uplifting, not complicated.

I don’t try to foist my tastes on my kids. Ok, not often. I have found negative feedback for 60s Rock (Yardbirds, Screaming Lord Sutch) and positive feedback when I played Sham 69 (which follows the same template as the sports songs above)

My seven year old does love some of my favorite bands like Soft Cell and New Order along with most of the popular music of the day. He occasionally will go on wild searches that bring in every thing from SoundCloud rap to doom metal.

My nine year old is quite scattered and less traditional. The Trans Siberian Orchestra is a favorite. He likes a variety among other things of Catholic hymns, the Cello Guys, assorted kids music and soundtracks. He loves a lot of instrumental music that probably would be labeled trance or ambient (like Robert Miles “Children”, and Astronomia” by Vicetone )

It is probably a internet meme. It might be THE internet meme if Rick Ashley didn’t exist, but I think my son's favorite song might be Sandstorm by Darude

Both kids do love it, and hey, who can hate it? With evidence like this, maybe it is the best song ever.

What I'm Listening To: Reigning Sound

I have to admit that I pretty much missed the 90s garage rock revival. Now, I did have a couple of friends who were a bit more knowledgeable and the other part of that is that it was a pretty underground phenomenon. I am talking that (mostly) late 90s (mostly) Memphis based garage punk scene that was on labels like Crypt and Sympathy for the Record Company, whose only real means of advertising were word of mouth and zines. Bands that come to my mind are the Oblivians, New Bomb Turks, the Reatards, Nine Pound Hammer, the Dirtbombs, and the Gories and then you could (depending on how you want to define the scene) broaden it out to what became the early 00s garage rock scene and eventually broke through in terms of bands like the White Stripes and Black Keys. (Bands like Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the Supersuckers and Rocket from the Crypt with larger label support and audiences generally don’t get grouped in but aren’t that much different) So I missed a lot of the scene at the time and to a certain extent, didn’t really find the bands that would come out of it until much later- King Khan, the Detroit Cobras, Black Lips and so on I didn’t even revisit the Oblivains until the year 2000 album Crystal Gazing Luck Amazing by the Compulsive Gamblers- a band formed by two thirds of the Oblivians - Greg and Jack (and actually predating the Oblivians) Whereas the Oblivians were primal frantic rock n roll birthed of the Stooges and Cramps, the Compulsive Gamblers were certainly less wild, but retained some of the same elements and sort of skipped around elements of the Nuggets style garage bands Greg “Oblivian” Cartwright went on to from Reigning Sound. Upon releasing the live album “Memphis in June” last year, Greg announced the bands break up I was bummed as I really enjoyed 2021s “A Little More Time with”. I was consoled by the fact that I doubt Cartwright will go idle. In a vein of the Gamblers, the Reigning Sound is a mix of garage rock with a bit of soul and Americana. On the “A Little More Time” album, they slow it into Flying Burrito Brothers territory at times. It almost sounds radio friendly but Americana stations seem to be few and far between. “Memphis in June” is of course being a live album- strongly focused on the most recent albums with a couple of greatest hits thrown in. It is missing probably their finest moment - a fast paced cover of the Gants “Stormy Weather”- the original from an underappreciated lost mid-1960s Beatles influenced Mississippi garage band, and you have to go to the band's excellent second album, 2002's Time Bomb High School

2002 - In the Red Records

Moms Music- Queen

One of my mom’s favorite bands is Queen. I acquired three of Mom’s records, a fact that I mainly bring up because prior I only had one Queen album on vinyl and that was Hot Space (everything else on CD) It’s always interesting to me how tastes change. Classic bands like Queen, Led Zeppelin, the Doors, the Who and so on seem to ebb and flow with cultural tides Clearly the Freddie Mercury biopic put Queen back on the map. More recently, Brian May was named the best Guitarist of all time in a March poll. This was a big controversial conversation starter on social media. But seriously, May was incredibly humble and any ranking of art is going to be subjective I don’t have anything I can say about Queen that hasn’t already been said. They aren’t necessarily at the top of the list of my favorite bands but I do like and enjoy them and listen to them still quite a bit. They have transcended generations and my sons listen to them. I am not sure I even have a favorite album - Queen 2 and Night at the Opera are generally regarded in conversations of the best. But I do love plenty of their songs. The Three Albums from #momsrecords were A Day At the Races, Live Killers and Greatest Hits I think I actually place “A Day..” with the two more popular platters mentioned above. I don’t find any of them perfect but they are all great listens with a mix of memorable songs and some filler. Live Killers similarly is slated as “less than”, but I find it a wonderfully sounding document of the Queen live show. The general consensus is that one of the problems is that Freddie’s voice isn’t as strong here as say, contemporaries like Robert Plant or Roger Daltrey. Yet, for me, the energy really does it- capturing at least a bit of what made Queen great. On the singalong of “Now I’m Here”, you get a glimpse of Freddie the showman, vocal criticism is secondary. Some don’t like the Medley format that gets used like Killer Queen with Bicycle Race, though I think it helps bring out the uniqueness of the band in concert I am not sure if they ended up releasing a better live album (in that, this is the only one I have spent time with). I know there are several other choices now from various points in their career- Wiki lists 10 proper live Queen albums - but I believe this was the only live Queen reord released in the US until the early 90s 1981s Greatest Hits is like ChangesBowie, an essential compilation that came out while the artist was still vital. In the CD and cassette age- it got the 1992 makeover. This was important timing to coordinate with the success of “Bohemian Rhapsody” re-entering the charts. The newer version removed Under Pressure, Flash and Keep Yourself Alive and added Body Language, Seven Seas of Rhye, Now I’m Here, Save and, Don’t Stop Me Now, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy and I Want to Break Free Though I think mainly that was to move those to a second disc, add everything from the 80s and release an album in the States called Classic Queen that added all the 80s hits that had yet to be recorded before the original greatest hits and added some important omissions like Stone Cold Crazy and Tie Your Mother Down. The label also moved Bohemian Rhapsody to this disc to make both albums necessary purchases to complete an essential collection. (At least in the US, where both discs were a success and made a completed pair. The UK had a Greatest Hits 2 instead)

Moms Music- The Beatles

I have likely already told you all this before but I can’t talk about #momsrecords without talking about the Beatles. I was relieved to find all her Beatles records in the mess that was her garage. I think she had a couple of “Tony Sheridan” records she sold but everything else was intact So here is the rundown -Paul McCartney and the Lennons - John and Julian were radio stars when I was a kid and lest we forget Stars on 4(# 1 in 1981) and Beatles Movie Medley (# 12 in 1982) -One Beatles song is on the short list of my favorite songs of the preteen years - but it’s not an usual cjoice - it’s Ringo’s “With a Little Help from my Friends” -My first real immersion like others was a compilation- in this case in high school driving around town with a friend listening to eight-track tapes of the “Red” and “Blue” albums -Listening to Revolver and Rubber Soul were a revelation. At the time, Sgt Pepper’s seemed to be the unassailable “best album ever” - that’s changed but I didn’t know what I was getting with those “middle” albums. I also vividly recall buying Revolver on CD my sophomore year in high school. - Similarly, I bought the White Album in college, the favorite Beatles record of both Morrissey and Marr. It might be (depending on the day) my favorite too. The eccentric mix of songs anticipated “college rock” - In my preteen years, I watched the Magical Mystery Tour movie. In those years, every movie watched has some kind of impression and MMT is truly a weird movie to begin with. It would be easy to categorize it watching it now for what it was, but it was just an unorganized film with some striking moments otherwise. - When push comes (and I’m not sure if related to the above or not), I really do believe the Magical Mystery Tour is my favorite Beatles albums. Sgt Peppers has some great songs. Revolver is such an amazing beginning to end listen. Rubber Soul is probably a shade lesser than Revolver, but covers a lot of musical ground. White Album of course is great and the last “two” albums are not personal favorites. I am of course talking about the American version of Magical Mystery Tour which is on one side - the British EP of songs from the movie and on side 2- five strong singles from 1967. In my estimation, if you’re picking 5 songs from a year by a single band you could do worse. .

Moms Music- The Rolling Stones

A record my Mom gave me long time ago was Between the Buttons. If we were talking about almost any other band, we would be talking about their greatest albums. But it’s the Stones, and I think everyone will say one answer and if they don’t, then surely there’s another answer that is the answer. So there’s those three, and that’s if you don’t prefer Beggars Banquet, Some Girls, my favorite Goat Heads Soup or any left field choice you might have There may be a couple of reasons. One being it’s one of those albums that was released in different versions in the UK and the US. I would also suspect that like many people, I grew up with “Hot Rocks” - as good as a compilation as one can find and didn’t really need to look any further. Still, I suspect like the Beatles and the Who, that later work is just so overshadowing of the early stuff But Between the Buttons does feel like an essential album and an all time classic. The US version is pumped up by the addition of two UK singles - Let’s Spend the Night Together and Ruby Tuesday. These are classics but the whole first side consists of great songs- Connection, Yesterday’s Papers, She Smiled Sweetly and Cool Calm and Collected. The B sides aren’t quite up to that all star lineup but they’re not filled either -with songs like Miss Amanda Jones- a prototype for where the band was going to be with Exile in Main Street in a few years The album of course is that gateway - Their Satanic Majesties Request was their next album. “Buttons” would be the last Stones album wholly produced by Andrew Loog Oldham. Brian Jones plays multiple instruments like marimba, recorder and kazoo. So many of the early Stones records are great and I am guilty of skipping to the big singles, but if you’re like me, Between the Buttons is a great listener experience

Moms Music - Buddy Holly

How about another round of #momsrecords. Mom is a huge Beatles fan and a huge Buddy Holly fan I have gone back and forth with Holly’s music. He certainly influenced everyone. I particularly find my love of Holly in his influence on cult musician Roky Erickson. But of course, whether British Invasion or garage rock or power pop, it starts with Holly. It’s hard not to picture Elvis Costello on the sides of his feet banging at “Pump it Up” and not see the obvious Holly influence. I acquired the now iconic self titled 1958 album where Holly on the cover could pass for a young John Lennon -which got the reissue treatment in 1988-the last album released by Holly before his death. I suspect most people’s experience with Holly begins with 20 Golden Greats- another iconic record, this one with the graffiti Buddy Holly Lives on the cover. Granted, that’s a good suggestion but “Buddy Holly” is a nice start too - there’s “Peggy Sue”, “Rave On”, and “I’m Gonna Love You Too” which are all great must haves. The latter as good as a rock song ever- covered by Blondie, the 13th Floor Elevators and others. But there is a nice mix of songs- slow and fast as well as songs made more famous by others- Lieber and Stoller’s “You’re So Square” popularized by Elvis and “Ready Teddy”, an early hit for Little Richard. As an aside, I have now lived in Iowa for 20 years and one thing I have yet to do is to visit the Surf Ballroom the site of the last concert. It often comes up what Buddy Holly would have done if he had lived. It is one of the all time great music questions that gets applied to Hendrix, Lennon, Janis, Cobain, Otis Redding, the original Lynyrd Skynyrd and countless others. This one is tough because I take a pessimistic view. Elvis and the British Invasion changed everything. Would he have became a “nostalgia” act? This seems a likely answer. We know how the careers of the Everly Brothers and Ricky Nelson played out. That seems like a likely path Yet, you never know. He was beloved by the Beatles. I am sure he would have been given similar treatment as Lennon would give to Chuck Berry. We saw Berry and Roy Orbison get huge, star-studded tributes in the 80s. The likelihood of a latter years Holly revival almost seems assured. I would surely be wrong if I compare him to musicians like Bobby Vee and Frankie Avalon. That's got to be underrating his sizable talent and influence, right? Between the 70s variety shows, the ascent of various neo rockabilly and traditional rock acolytes and late 90s/early 00s Rick Rubin makeovers - someone would have lifted Holly’s star again. Springsteen, U2, Robert Gordon, the Clash, Costello, the Ramones, The Rolling Stones and most obviously Lennon and McCartney -without a doubt, someone would have found tour support and album appearances for Holly as they did for his contemporaries (Note: I typed this out and forgot all about the Weezer hit. Definitely was in the cards for him to get his heyday again, and though I didn’t plan on writing on it- clearly between “American Pie”, the Gary Busey biopic and “La Bamba”, America still had cravings for early rock n roll)

Thursday, September 7, 2023

Album Review: the Ventures- New Space

While streaming via both Spotify and Pandora, I kept running into a new single by the Ventures.

I have to admit that I was a bit confused. “New” Ventures? I had to dig in. It was hard to find anything but here is what was easy to find.

All the members of the most famous lineup of the Ventures were dead. Guitarist Don Wilson passed away in 2022. Bob Bogle, Nokia Edwards and drummer Mel Taylor all preceded him. This opens a conversation of whether a band can exist without its members. (Some of the names often cited in these conversations are acts like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Thin Lizzy, and Foriegner).

So let’s look at the make up of the Ventures. The current lineup of the Ventures has evolved and been approved over the years. The current iteration of the Ventures is led by Bob Spalding and his son. Spalding has been active with the band in some capacity since 1980 (his relationship with Mel Taylor going back about a decade earlier before that) and the face of the band for the last 15 years. It helps that the Ventures seem to exist more as a concept than a personality led band like Dick Dale and the Del-Tones.

The most recognizable member likely being Taylor, and Taylor’s legacy (he passed in 1996) is represented here by his son being the drummer. This may not please everyone. This may feel like Jack Osbourne and Tony Martin touring as Black Sabbath in 2023.

There is also the argument that this album would go unnoticed under any other name (the only lengthy article I can find on this band is from a website called StormSurgeofReverb.com and they mention this band had been also advertised elsewhere as V2- presumably Ventures 2) Personally, I am surprised how much I love this new album “New Space”.

It seriously feels if not like the actual Ventures, an updated take on what a 21st Century Ventures would sound like. There are of course, dozens of surf bands, but somehow this continuation seems to hit perfectly upon it.

The album opens with a cover of “Fly Me to The Moon” which has the same crunch as “Walk Don’t Run”. It’s an instrumental cover of the song made famous by Sinatra but given a sharp clean production that you hear on the Ventures most famous tune but all of the other greatest surf tunes (Pipeline, Wipeout, Miserlou, and so on) Smartly, though the album opens up to a set of originals that follow the early 1960s Space (and Surf) theme. It’s a really good record.

We are a good 20 years removed from where we seemingly used to worried about such things as credibility. It still comes to mind that we are aware that the Four Tops currently on tour are just a lineage of a band that no longer really exists; and I feel that we have been comfortable calling an album sans Entwistle and Moon a proper Who record. Do the Ventures feel like more of a band or do they feel like a sports team or a business? Are they to be treated like the Beatles or more like The New York Yankees or Sears Roebuck? The Byrds played in my old home town (population 20,000) in the 90s but it wasn’t a lineup that McGuinn, Crosby or Hillman could recognize. These were thoughts I wasn’t comfortable with at the time, but seem to be okay with now. And this group is bringing the Ventures sound back properly, so I guess that’s enough for me.

Wednesday, September 6, 2023

Moms Music- Paul Revere and the Raiders

One record I got from #momsrecords was Paul Revere and the Raiders 1968 album Something Happening I didn’t expect much. To be honest, I am not sure I know a bunch about the band whose career is punctuated by 1966s garage rock sounding classic “Kicks” and the number one song “Indian Reservation” after the band had otherwise declined in popularity Paul Revere might be underrated. At vinylstories.ca, the author posits that it could be a number of things. First, of course, the Revolutionary War dress. Second, the way they were marketed as a pop band, and additionally aligned with Dick Clark Productions, as opposed to being a serious “rock” band. Lastly, the band’s internal politics with singer Mark Lindsay and keyboardist and band namesake Paul Revere Dick fighting for control. I don’t expect much from the bands ninth album which didn’t even break the Billboard 100 and the band popularity on the wane. The album is credited to Paul Revere and the Raiders featuring Mark Lindsay. Allmusic gives it a dismal two stars out of five. From a production point of view, the band is no longer working with Terry Melcher (Beach Boys, Byrds, Dylan) Lindsay is in the producer chair. Also I understand the studio band known as the Wrecking Crew were probably more involved in the album than the actual Raiders. But having discussion in vinyl groups, I find respect for the album. It’s closer to a pop album than “Kicks” something more in line with the Monkees or Grass Roots. There isn’t a killer single like they’re better known “What's it Going to be- Him or Me” from a year earlier. “Too Much Talk” isn’t a bad contender and it did get to # 19. . Fans probably are best recommended to the bands “Spirit of 67” which has had a rebirth through some songs used in “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood” but it is a decent little start to end genre record.

Album Review: Gorillaz- Cracker Island

Did anyone expect Gorillaz to have the career they have had? The debut album came out in 2001. Blur may have been heroes of Britpop, but that movement never gained much traction in the United States. Not that it was anything to be embarrassed of, but Blur was a mid tier band in America So I doubt anyone could expect Gorillaz to be Damon Albarn’s legacy. As compact discs changed to streaming and the music industry becoming highly fragmented- Gorillaz somehow has thrived. There are very few rock bands that get as much attention as this “cartoon” one. It’s really hard to think of many bands that currently exist with as much in terms of sales and airplay and critical acclaim and attention. It’s pop, it’s rock, it’s alternative. The bands second album 2005s Demon Days is probably where the legacy begins. That legacy begins not only with “Feel Good Inc” which was a smash hit, but with an album that sets up a template of this musical menagerie full of rock n roll animals (if you will, stay tuned) and sounds. While Ibrahim Ferrer and the Tom Tom Club played on tracks on the debut. Demon Days starts to resemble a soundtrack. There’s Shaun Ryder, De La Soul, Neneh Cherry, Ike Turner, Roots Manuva and even Dennis Hopper among others While Demon Days is clearly the bands high watermark to date, I am a big fan of the third album 2010s Plastic Beach and it’s improbable lineup of galactic talent- Bobby Womack, Lou Reed, Mark E Smith, Mos Def, Gruff Rhys, Mick Jones & Paul Simonon and Snoop Dogg Since then, Gorillaz has leaned into one genre or another. 2017s Humanz is largely funk, hip hop and R&B with guests like Mavis Staples, Grace Jones, Pusha T, Vince Staples and Anthony Hamilton. In 2020, it was more new wave and rock sounds like Peter Hook of New Order, Robert Smith of the Cure, Beck, St Vincent and Elton John for the first part of Song Machine, while the second half had Earthgang, Skepta and Goldlink featured alongside artists like Chai and Joan as Police Woman Cracker Island largely succeeds because it doesn’t particularly try to be as ambitious or scattershot or genre schizophrenic as some recent work It generally feels like a sequenced albums. Clearly helped by the anchor of two great singles “Skinny Ape” and “Silent Running” and a killer opener and solid closer “Possession Island”. Not that it isn’t an all star lineup with Stevie Nicks, Bad Bunny, Tame Impala, Thundercat, Beck and Bootie Brown from the Pharcyde, but it always feels like a Gorillaz album with the star names generally playing supporting roles In a year where I have largely been listening to old favorites instead of new releases, Cracker Island has been a nice surprise (Note: I generally try not to read other reviews of a record until after I wrote mine. I have now read the Guardian’s review which makes mine feel like a cheap carbon copy. I guess that means this album does give off particular vibes I also read Pitchfork which gave it a 6.5 which proves my Theory that 6.5 is the sweet spot for Pitchfork reviews. Under that probably is deserving, but their 8, 9 and 10s are generally given to those “critics darlings” that Pitchfork will quickly discard by the wayside as the same artist makes the tragic mistake of making a third album or turning Thirty.)

Moms Music- Paul McCartney

There weren’t a ton of records in my house (#momsrecords) growing up so the ones there were, hold a significant weight. There are people who venerate Paul McCartney (the local indie radio treats him as he was Jack White) and undoubtedly there’s people who don’t care for him. Not surprising maybe, I should say that I fall somewhere in between To be honest, I actually must like Paul quite a bit. As a social media experiment, I thought of the first ten favorite Beatles songs and I believe they were 6-3 Macca. I don’t love any of “those” ballads but I do love a lot of his songs and I would also add I like most of those best known Wings a lot. Like Elton John (at least to an extent), his 80s and 90s singles have a reputation as being somewhat lesser. But I do like quite a bit of his songs of this era and I will probably get around to writing about those some day. Also while I am airing it all out, I quite like the much maligned Give My Regards to Broadstreet and am always happy to find someone who shares that view. The Paul album in my house was 1982s “Tug of War”. “Coming Up” had been ubiquitous, the Wings were in the past, and now John Lennon was dead. My memory of Tug of War was that it was a very good album. Sure there’s that one well-meant but frankly terrible song that everyone knows (and inspired a great Saturday Night Live skit) but the rest is pretty great. It was a reunion with George Martin. “Take it Away” was one of my favorite songs of that age. There’s a little bit of everything that defined Macca’s career- baroque pop, straight traditional rock and novelty aside ambition. With age, it seems he’s rarely been back to these artistic heights and yet the album seems a bit lost to being obscured to earlier releases. Here Today could sit along his best work- a ballad obviously dedicated to John - not cloying but heartfelt. Get It is a classic quirky jaunt tribute to early rock n roll with Carl Perkins guesting. The Pound is Sinking is in the spirit of Uncle Albert or Band on the Run. The title track has a real world weary feel but still succeeds as a real memorable and listenable song. These days critics would probably make a pithy comment about Wanderlust sounding like an AI generated McCartney song. It does remind me of other Paul songs, though not in a bad way. It still stands on its own So here’s the thing- I think these songs stand up on their own and separately. I think any of the songs I mentioned could hang as singles. Tug of War, the album, may now be a “forgotten” classic 1982 - Columbia/Parlophone

Moms Music- Rod McKuen

My moms record collection (#momsrecords) is inevitably divided into two categories- artists that I love (Dylan, the Who, Donovan, etc) and artists that I hate (I will avoid naming names in case they might be some of your favorite artists). Really until recent years, I would have happily included Rod McKuen in the latter. But that is no longer the case. I attribute the Specials 2021 covers records as the catalyst (they cover the Vietnam era “Soldiers who want to be Heroes”) and so I am frankly excited to have more McKuen in my life. Now, I probably should like McKuen. I do like “Seasons in the Sun” among his most famous songs, a perennial contender for worst song of all time as made famous by Terry Jacks. I am a huge Marc Almond fan and one of his biggest influences is the Belgian singer Jacques Brel (Brel has been claimed as an influence by David Bowie, the Divine Comedy and the Manic Street Preachers to name a few of many). It was McKuen of course that brought Brel to an English speaking audience. So I should recognize “If You Go Away” as a song covered by both McKuen and Almond. McKuen compiled his Brel compositions in an compilation in 1972. Almond recorded an album of all Brel covers during some of his most fruitful solo years in 1989. McKuen’s history is an interesting and surprisingly non traditional one. He was for a time the biggest selling poet in the world. In so much as McKuen would become a LGBT+ trailblazer, that wasn’t a particularly lucrative profession (in fact of course, quite the opposite.). In hindsight, we respect that, but it wouldn’t have been much of a career benefit at the time. I suspect that as many came along and saw the many McKuen albums in garage sales and secondhand shops, they had the same impression I had. McKuen may have been popular but he was increasingly less hip as time went on. His Wikipedia entry has an entire section on how much critics hated his work) But that may be too easy, in a Slate feature on the rise and fall of McKuen, the author suggests he sees McKuen influences in artists like Richard Hell, Nirvana, and Ween. Really being surprised how much I am enjoying listening to these songs, I would say my journey into McKuen is still very much at the beginning.