shiny happy Apocolypse!

ok, never mind why Beast is so tiny (which might just owe to the varying degrees of size that Apocalypse has been depicted over the years). why the hell is the most powerful, evil mutant EVER grinning and waving? he just seems so... friendly... you'd never know that he's probably getting ready to send a new wave of 4 horsemen out to get you! this is almost as bad as the DC Superfriends Batman, with it's knowing smirk. way to blur that line between good and evil Marvel Superhero Squad.... (and looking at their other figures... i mean, if everyone else, good or evil, were grinning all happy and friendly like, it would maybe make sense. but other than a few - and mostly bad guys - other smiles, it's a lot of looks of determination but nothing so overtly... joyful... i mean, this Apocalypse is one i wouldn't mind playing in a tree fort with whereas this Apcolypse:

would probably make me run and hide. (although he does kind of look like he's wearing a puffy sleeved pirate shirt, doesn't he? hmm....))

bootlegs, singles, and new romantics oh my

another walk through parts of my music collection. hooray.

this entry:
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - the Tyranny of Distance; Jimmy Eat World - bleed american; My Superhero - Solid State 14; Duran Duran - Rio; Mates of State - Bring it Back; Hefner - I Took Her Love For Granted (single); Belle & Sebastian - Une Nuit a Paris (bootleg)

so when i saw ted leo a few years back, opening for belle and sebastian, i had no recollection of actually having this cd, largely because - as evidenced by the big "Add Date" sticker slapped on the front - this was a Radio promo, so i didn't buy it as much as liberated it with my station manager's approval (truthfully, he didn't really give a shit about anything but letting his buddies do whatever they wanted at the station). Ted Leo draws from a wide variety of influences on this cd, from punk to new wave (definite echoes of elvis costello) to 70's rock (specifically Thin Lizzy, especially on the track Timorous Me which has some definite "boys are back in town" like moments). and just, well, damn this record is good!

bleed american - and the copy i have, is also i guess being a radio promo from around the same time the ted leo came in, this i remember actually being a "second copy" so my taking it wasn't so much liberation as it was taking the giveaway copy, since nobody listened to the station enough to have any sot of contest for it. they renamed it after the 9/11 attacks, because "bleed american" was, i suppose, a bit controversial (and they were on major label at this point, so we wouldn't want to offend the big radio markets or anything). the album, anything but. jimmy eat world were, to me, always a sort of weak jawbreaker imitation. so, of course, just like jawbreaker when they released a watered down attempt at some mainstream acceptance, so did jimmy eat world, the biggest difference being that they succeeded (though i don't think the critical reception was as good as Dear You's). unfortunately, jimmy eat world are not jawbeaker - they will not be looked upon fondly in a few years, except maybe on "hits of the 2000's" style compilations. so let's get to the hits - "the middle" and "sweetness". the middle is an innocent enough song . poppy, great hook, no wonder it was a hit single. but so goddamned annoying! i think if it hadn't been as big a hit, it might not seem so terrible in retrospect, but it was and so it does. it's just one of those stupid, motivational songs that seems to always be a hit (see "Rockstar" by... umm... that annoying band that sang rockstar...). "sweetness," on the other hand, is overproduced gabage - jimmy eat world trying to be U2 or something. big verses, big choruses... blech. the rest of the album is largely forgettable, except maybe the third - and less popular - single, "praise chorus" which is actually not a bad song, has the guy from the promise ring on it, and references not just the promise ring, but crimson and clover, our house by madness, and don't let's start by they might be giants. so at least on an "i'm a big music nerd" level, it works (on another song they complain about a dj not having "automatic" by JaMC. but by that point i just wanted the album to end...)

ahh. more ska punk... i guess... is it? hmmm... it has the guitar sound that basically defined the supposed genre, certainly. i don't know. i'll give my superhero a little bit of credit for having an accordion (i really like accordions in pop music i think, it's sort of a problem i have). there are definite highlights - their cover of "groovy kind of love" (just titled "groovy") is actually quite good - and i'll give them a pass on the "obligatory cover" problem, as this isn't really an 80's song, but a 60's song, despite phil collins' brutalization of it. the song "another kind" is also pretty good, with a guitar solo that apes the melody of "kids in america" and "sunday" (which i'm fairly certain is also a cover, or at least an adaptation of another song). then they kind of crap it up with an "intermission" (are they trying to be blur?) and then close the cd with an acoustic love/breakup song that just sounds so much like a bad beach bum tune that it's hard to listen to. mostly, the cd is just too serious. at least a lot of the other ska/punk bands - good or bad - seemed to be making fun music (the supertones aside... man did the supertones suck! jesus ska!! with generic horn lines and even more generic guitars!). it's not a bad cd, it's just too wistful in the sad way to really enjoy much (plus, honestly, there's just no "punch" to most of the songs - it's just very very blah). i think i bought it because of the song "another kind" which was on some ska compilation i picked up somewhere and liked it - yeah, i had a bit of a ska-punk phase, even though i probably would have listened to most of the bands with or without the little trend that happened between pop punk and swing.

in defense of duran duran, if it weren't for mtv highlighting how photogenic they were, i kind of doubt they would be as maligned as they seem to be these days. honestly, they could have easily been another Roxy Music, but instead they became the poster boys for style over substance - did they have to look so good in blush and eyeliner? - which was apparently the only thing the whole new romantic thing had to offer to the music channel. so they went from art/glam rock to teeny bopper music, and then to whatever the Reflex was (one can blame the decline in quality from Rio until their early 90's comeback as to the bloated egos that came with their MTV notoriety, something they couldn't even escape when a few members went to form power station with robert palmer, who also became a style over substance mtv idol with his own flashy videos). but Rio is a great album. yeah it has the singles - "rio" itself is a good song which served it's "let's break america" purpose quite well. "hungry like the wolf" is possibly the best song on the record, with it's background female moaning hinting only slightly what the song is rumored to be about. things get a little darker at the end - most noticeably on "the chauffer" which is all dark, and nervy and sinister sounding - not something you'd expect based solely upon the bright pop of "Rio" and "hold back the rain." and admit it.... you all sing along to any of these songs when they come on, whether it's on the radio in your car, or in a shopping mall. my sister was a huge duran duran fan - as a teenager at the time, it made sense. honestly, i probably never really thought of them as much more than an 80's band until their 90's phase - all glam rock and "hey, we actually are musicians!" attitude (it didn't help that i actually liked the ska/punk heavy tribute album, which renewed my interest quite a bit). i think i may have, at times, passed my liking of duran duran as ironic, but i state with all honesty, that no. it's not. i love duran duran. period.

mates of state do an awesome cover of david bowie's "starman". it's not on this album, but i bring it up because i heard the original "starman" on the radio the other day and realized how awesome that era of bowie really is. and also, how awesome it is to heard bowie on the radio at all (seriously - he doesn't really fit any of the major radio formats anymore: he's not really classic rock, though i guess "ziggy stardust" or "changes" might pop up there periodically, his new music tends to be ignored or terrible, such has his brief flirtation with nine inch nails industrial-light). but this has nothing to do with this review (neither does their awesome cover of nico's "these days", also not on the album). i first heard mates of state on internet radio, downloaded a bunch of stuff from previous albums (team boo being my favorite). it's not "cute" music (though the whole husband and wife/ keyboards and drums angle might seem to some as a bit cute/twee). but they pretty much rock. it's unique. it's fun. their voices meld well together. and... yeah. they kind of fit musically with tilly and the wall - that same variety of indie pop. hence, why i love them, as i happen to love that variety of indie pop (ooh. they have a new record out in may... ).

i own a lot of hefner singles, bought in the uk where they seemed to be pretty easy to get a hold of in the record shops. they cover jonathan richman on one of the b-sides on this one, very well i might add, which makes sense. i actually first got a hole of hefner because of the album this song also appears on, the fidelity wars. it's a single so it's short - hefner singles are always top notch though, a sides and b sides. here's what they wrote on the back of the cd, for what i suppose can be called liner notes:

Granted, Babies, and Thought all recorded by Miti. 'To Hide a
Little Thought' was recorded at the BBC Maida Vale studios for
the Steve Lamacq Show (12th April 1999) where Miti was
assisted by Rupert Flindt (p) BBC 1999. Jack Hayter played the
stylophone and has joined the band, well at least while the sun
is out. John wrote another recipe for you inside. Eat yourself
fitter. antony has bought some congas though he didn't have
them when we recorded this.

which, i think sums it up pretty well...

so i really don't own a lot of bootlegs, and most of the ones i own are belle and sebastian. i was never a fan of the shoddy, by from the crappy dealer at ocean city "live" recordings of various bands - everything from the outcesticide comps people assembled of nirvana rarities to other live shit. i think i have a couple of things on cassette - the pixies in newcastle and the housemartins at glastonbury 83 or 4. but mostly, just the belle and sebastian ones. everything from bowlie weekender to radio sessions (man, they should just put out a peel session comp like every other british band), this was the first one i ever bought, right after telling someone at a record show in Reading that, no, i didn't have enough money to spend 300 pounds on an original vinyl edition of Tigermilk. i believe it's the black session - sort of like a peel session, but longer, done for paris tv (or radio? hmmm). most noteable, it's the first appearance of the song "the wrong girl" which made me very excited for fold your hands child, you walk like a peasant. it's probably also the best quality of the bootlegs i own.

next episode (episode? what??): ska comps, tributes with too much damned irony, and some all time favorites... and yes, it will probably be a long one...

music catch up

yeah, i'm tad behind on this, aren't i?

so, the breeders and the pixies tribute happened to pop up on the same day (i returned to my randomness method of pulling cd's).

title tk - the breeders

this was the breeders supposed big comeback. and it was, in a sense. the first two breeders albums - when tanya donnelly was in the band and the pixies still existed - were brilliant. noisy, poppy but not TOO poppy. and just... great. then came last splash (i might have the divine hammer single somewhere, but never owned that album) and the annoyingly ubiquitous "cannonball." (catchy bassline + cute video + pot references = hit song!). then, of course, came the inevitable collaps when fame is too much. drugs, personal issues between the deal sisters... it was ridiculously tabloidy, really. there were some other bands and projects, with that vague "hiatus" word bandied about. then, finally, with different band members, came title tk. not catchy, not really, still noisy, very much a steve albini produced record (but, you know, not like when he produced Bush). "off you" nicely echos the velvet underground. it was definitely not meant to be a "hit" album, more a "get some of the aggression and anger from the past few years" album. i remember when i bought it - i ordered it at my work, which sometimes sells cd's, though my store at the time had a very small selection, and was primarily just the "book" part of their name - someone asking me if it had songs like cannonball on it, and me laughing derisively. i'm a jerk.

(7/10)

where is my mind: a tribute to the pixies

so a good tribute album takes bands with a decent amount of debt to the band being paid tribute and has them take the songs people know and love, and then has them not improve on the songs, but pay tribute in their own way. the band maintains their own identity (ie. doesn't just clone the songs verbatim) while also honoring the band in question. here's how where is my mind ranks:

bands who owe a debt: check. yeah, it's a little hard to see where the pixies really influenced some of the late 90's ska/punk scene (reel big fish, teen heroes, siren six) BUT the rest of the bands all really show an obvious influence - weezer, superdrag, nada surf = definitely. but even the host of "emo" bands that make up the majority of the disc pretty obviously owe a debt to frank black and co.
bands maintaining identity: eh. nobody really makes much NEW out of any of the songs, with 4 exceptions. eve 6 makes allison boring and into an eve six song - a mercifully short eve 6 song, since i always found their music kind of draggy. weezer make velouria a weezer song, but still maintain its absolute pixiesness. this was weezer's big comeback - the first recorded material since pinkerton (and the reason i bought the CD), and it went off brilliantly. reel big fish then turn gigantic into a duran duran-esque synth pop song (i have always liked when they covered things, even though they were a definite perpetrator of the mid 90's trend of covering the 80s) and siren six turn holiday song into a nice little reggae tune. everyone else then pretty much just plays pixies songs. maybe a little louder and heavier, but still, nothing really new. i like most of the bands in question just fine, and the songs they choose fit, and it makes perfect sense to have these bands covering the pixies, but... i dunno...

(7/10)

self navigation - crushed stars

where did this cd come from? probably the college radio station, though i have no real memory of grabbing it from there.

there's something very hazey about the cd - maybe something to do with the singer who sounds a little like the guy from stellastar*. musically, it's sort of post rock, sort of space rock, a little bit of jazz. and there's a song about liza minelli (err?). the song titles are possibly the best "descriptive of how the song sounds" titles i have ever seen: liza in silver, letters to munich, ever since autumn, asleep on a bus near lowell, outside the stars are falling, moontears...
one slightly our of place addition is "exit wound" - sounding quite a bit like early REM, or actually more exactly like the band For Squirrels at the moments they sounded like early REM. (actually, some of the rest of the album also evokes early REM, in particular "Camera").

(8/10)

it's a shame about ray - the lemonheads

fact: this is the last truly great lemonheads album. come on feel the... was a drug addled, hippydrippy, mess. car button cloth, which i actually liked some of, was a mess. i guess evan dando has done some other stuff since then, but nothing interesting. but ray is the lemonheads at their most consistent and complete album. early lemonheads - up through lovey, the album that came before this, still straddled their mix of gram parsons and punk, with a bit of dinosaur jr thrown in. Ray is just a nice little collection of 2-3 minute pop songs, backing vocals from julianna hatfield, and a cover of "mrs robinson" which i kind of like more than the original... it's one of those rare gems of an album that's brilliant from start to finish (though, okay, i'm not a big fan of "my drug buddy" but i'll let that one slide). it's sort of too bad that this was the album that made evan dando a pin up celebrity, easily mocked (the zine, evan dando must die, came not long after this), and ultimately a washed out celebrity (drug busts, hanging out with courtney love a little too much, etc.)

(9/10)

It Means Everything - Save Ferris

didn this cd really come out 10... 11 years ago? man, i feel old... honestly, i think the last time i head save ferris anywhere was in some rerun of some late 90's TV show where they used it as a fun, bouncy montage song (the song was "the world is new", i'm pretty sure, and was possibly also chosen because i think it was one of those makeover type montages). and i guess that was kind of typical of what ska had become in the late 90's - montage and movie preview music.

anyway, so when it comes down to it, this cd is pretty inconsequential. light, fluffy, bouncy pop-ska, with some swing thrown in for good measure (because, well, everyone was a swing band in 1997/98). it would be pretty easy to call them generic: obligatory 80's cover, a song about food (spam)... the swingier songs fare a little better, if only because the singer, monique powell has a strong voice, (though i think it was too easily compared to any Gwen Stefani... which was kind of bullshit, if anything she sounds more like one of the Dancehall Crashers, and even that's a stretch). the horn section is probably what's best about the album, though i'm maybe a little partial as a trumpet player. it's not a bad cd, not by a long shot. it's kind of what pop music should be. i saw them live a couple of times and met them once. it was sort of a shame that the follow up album, modified (which i may or may not still own... i don't remember...) was kind of not particularly good.

6/10 (though the nostalgia part of it, because it really reminded me of high school, might knock it up to a 7).

more to come...

day four - top 'o the mornin' to ye

going to do this in a bit of a new format, because i think it was getting too image heavy and it also got kind of boring just writing reviews, which wasn't entirely the point of this exercise anyway

listened to:

U2- WAR
The Undertones - the Very Best of the Undertones

so i've sort of hit a point on my cd rack where there's some vague alphabetization going on - this probably will happen periodically, though largely any organization i once had has long been forgotten. oddly enough, it may as well have been grouped by country, as i picked two irish bands. this morning.

i may or may not be in a minority here, but War is my favorite U2 album. it has my favorite song by them - "2 hearts beat as one", for whatever it's worth - and just, overall, has the most i like from U2. which is nothing against their other stuff, not at all. joshua tree was probably the album that really got me into U2, but then War made me like them. i guess it might be easy to argue that, oh, well, he likes War better because it's not the "popular" album. - not true, and sort of a dumb argument, as War had as many popular singles as Joshua Tree. and it was this, as well as the unforgettable fire, that got them on live aid. i like War because it captures U2 at an intensity they haven't really matched since. yeah, it doesn't hurt that there are bits that make me think of joy division (a sort of obvious, but generally uncited influence on AT LEAST early U2). and... yeah. it also, probably, is the least pretentious, least self conscious album they ever did (sorry, it is, and sorry, they started to get really pretentious at some point).

okay. i said i hate greatest hits compilations but now i'm about to say how much i like one. the very best of the undertones IS a greatest hits album. however, in the typical way the Rhino records compiles these things, it's not a typical one, and is not only exhaustively complete. full disclosure: i only really knew the undertones for teenage kicks, which is a brilliant song and, to be honest, creates enough of a legacy in and of itself.

25 tracks! holy crap! from punk - though the more melodic variety, in the mode of the buzzcocks - to post punk where you can start to hear their influence on bands like REM (well, early REM) to U2 (hey! how'd they get in here...). 25 tracks, but kinda short still. what i like the most about the undertones is fergal sharkey's voice. that slight vibrato makes even the early punk records of theirs, with the spit and the venom, sound less like the generic spit and venom of all the other early punk records. and they have a song that's an ode to the mars bar! the freaking mars bar!!

i want a mars bar.....

day three music challenge

4 in one day! 4! man....

The Who - Who's Greatest Hits

or "why i'm not a big fan of greatest hits compilations part at least 1."

i don't really like greatest hits compilations. so i rarely buy them. actually, i didn't buy this one, i sort of inherited it from my brother or maybe my sister or whatever. yep. hand me down who.

which is not to say that MCA records didn't pick good songs. hell, some of the best songs by the who. "substitute," "Pinball wizard," "Magic Bus," "My Generation." all there.

but... well....


where's "baba o'reilley"? where's "the kids are alright"? is "my wife" really a better song. and, yeah, love the blatant, so obvious it's hardly even double, double entendre of "squeeze box," but "pictures of lily's" ode to self love while reading dirty magazines is a better song. yeah, the who are one of the few bands from the 60's i will willingly listen to with much regularity, but this just seems like an excuse to sell a cd (i much prefer my who on vinyl. sadly, that can't really come in the car.)

and, okay, so i might be crazy, but "the relay" sounds like rod stewart. okay, maybe rod stewart singing for the faces but still. hardly sounds like the who to me. and there are some moments in "won't get fooled again"that sound like they could/should be a schoolhouse rock song (the whole "i tip my hat to the new constitution" bit... which i guess shows in reverse how cool schoolhouse rock really was.... but....).

rating 5/10

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Machine

yay for stop gap singles between albums!

so i really like the yeah yeah yeahs. i think it's mostly karen o's voice, and how she's ballsier than pretty much any current "rock" singer out there.

machine is just moe of the same, meaning it's awesome. i mean, it's a yeah yeah yeahs song. that said, today was probably the second time since i bought it that i listened to it... errr... i'm bad with singles i guess. (i have so many, it's sort of weird). i think it's largely due to my time in the UK where i would always brows the singles racks at HMV, at first because it was an anomaly to me, and at second because i managed to find some pretty cool stuff...

the b sides are what they are. a song called graveyeard which is just more of the yeah yeah yeahs i love. and a remix of pin, which completely obliterates the song into an unrecognizable mess that is remarkably listenable to.

rating 9/10 (cos, okay, it is a single).

Maria Taylor - Lynn Teeter Flower

okay. i have a huge crush on maria taylor. have since i first heard (and, okay, saw pictures of) Azure Ray. her first solo album, which i didn't buy, is an amazing piece of folky/artsy goodness. so, when i heard she a second one coming...

it's good. not as good as 11:11 but... good. more diverse songs - a few folksy tunes with obvious debt to her own band and also bright eyes. a beatle-esque organ driven tune ("smile and wave") and then some songs that, while quite good, have a slight feel of something done to try and broaden her appeal, as they wouldn't be terribly out of place on albums by any of the recent crop of female singer/songwriters with acoustic guitars and pianos.

but, when it comes down to it, i love maria taylor. the last song on the cd is something recorded of her when she was little - 5, maybe? and it is so adorable... man...

rating 8/10

The Talking Heads - Little Creatures

cos, well, why can't i pick apart supposedly legendary bands if i wanna...

so i am a fan of the talking heads. i really think myself to be one. but when i listened to this i pretty much only could tolerate the singles. i know this was one of their last albums before the acrimonious split...

i grew up with the talking heads, thanks to my older siblings. however, this cd i think was given to me by a friend from middle school who for some reason always gave me christmas and birthday presents, to the point of embarassment, especially as they were often cd's or something that i didn't particularly want... and i don't remember ever consciously WANTING this cd. i always felt bad taking things from him, especially since i rarely had anything GOOD to give him back.

so yeah, the singles - "and she was", "stay up late", and "road to nowhere" - awesome songs. hell, "road to nowhere" is one if my favorite songs ever but the rest of the album... i hate to think of myself as someone who would only listen to/like the singles from an album but with this one... which doesn't discount their brilliance. david byrne is a genius. etc. etc. but really, this album is just... no...maybe the talking heads are a band where i should have a greatest hits cd?


and that's day 4. so this has so far been kind of fun. i dunno. i think i'll slowly move away from reviews and sort of edging towards making it a little more autobiographical. we'll see...

my inner geekdom music challenge days 1 and 2

day 1

traveling through the depths of my cd collection, i decided the best way to start was to randomly grab 2 cd's, in the thought that i was more likely to grab something i hadn't listened to in a while. and i was right!

Terris - Learning to Let Go

who??????


who is right. okay, i'll admit that i don't think i even listened to this cd when i bought back when i was living in the UK. they released a couple of singles first (which i am sure i'll get to eventually) which were much better than the album ultimately turned out to be (gotta love those UK bands releasing non-album singles...).


basically, Terris were one of the few bands i ever actually bought completely into the music press induced hype, as NME and others basically said they were the best band EVER! and there's a lot to be said for them in a positive light i guess. they do have more than a passing resemblance to the Manic Street Preachers, before they became stadium rock and were making an angry, intense hybrid of the clash and guns and roses. their gravelly voiced singer, gavin goodwin, has a passing resemblance to james dean bradfield vocally, and they certainly have the intensity. on the album though, they filtered their obvious debt to the manics - and other welsh bands, in particularly and kind of unfortunately, the stereophonics (yawn) - through a slightly blatant mix of post american grunge, or "grunge" since the first thing that came to mind when the track "beneath the belt" started was "candlebox??" the album isn't all bad - it starts off nicely, with "white gold way", and even the second track "fabricated lunacy," is nice. mostly, though, i felt i was trudging my way through it on monday morning. worth keeping for a few of the tracks, but not something i would call a favorite. for a band that was hyped for their intensity, at a time when a lot of british rock was being dominated by sensitive rockers like coldplay and twee popsters like belle and sebastian, the album just falls flat. apparently, Terris didn't make it past then hype, and quietly disbanded not long after this album. it would be interesting to see what happened to them, as they definitely had the talent, i just don't think the album was really what the hype led me to want it to be at the time.

rating: 6/10



Japanic - The Social Disease

whee! this was more like it. boy/girl. vocals. no fabricated intensity. angular guitar lines. aaah. this would have been much better to start the morning with...

when did i get this CD? i don't even remember, other than it was - looking at the release date - something i rescued from the college radio station at the change of management (the incoming station manager told me i could take what i wanted, and i wasn't about to defy a direct order, especially since he might sit on me!) but i'm glad i picked it up. again, i probably haven't listened to this since i first grabbed it.

basically, the cd is a bouncy, giddy, call back to early B-52's. all slightly shouty male vocals with slightly droning girl vocals cutting in periodically. there's also a lot of debt to Gang of Four in the songs (which you can hear some samples of here, on their website). as far as i can tell, this was their second album, and they didn't release anything beyond that. which is kind of a shame, as with bands like the yeah yeah yeahs, be your own pet, and some of the bands riding the dance/indie rock craze of the past few years, Japanic could have made a definite mark.

rating: 9/10


DAY 2

No Doubt - the Beacon Street Collection

Not the Reissue, bitches! the original pressing!!

or: the album i told a million mystfied teenagers was actually better than the no doubt album they knew during my brief tenure as a record store employee, even though i'm not sure that's true anymore, and was probably only saying because they annoyed me.

Ahem. guilty pleasure? check. now, at least, though i certainly was more of a fan at a certain point in my life, even being a regular on an aol music message board (where i actually made a friend or 2, one i still maintain semi-regular contact with through livejournal, another who i actually dated for a period of time when she lived in baltimore). i probably bought this not long after it came out, in 95, probably when i also bought Tragic Kingdom. i had heard a few of the songs before - hell, i saw no doubt live in 93 when i was convinced by some people that there was this band that sounded a little like fishbone and madness, both bands i was very into in 8th/9th grade - so i figured owning them wasn't a bad idea. (confession: i didn't own their first, self titled, album for another year or 2, largely because i couldn't find it. i have a more interesting story about no doubt when i get to listening to tragic kindgom). anyway... the fishbone/madness thing definitely holds, probably a little more on the fishbone side (and also a good sized debt to sublime).

honestly, the cd just made me ridiculously nostalgic. it has a definite mid-90's feel - that slightly odd glossy-plasticness that many things up until 1995 seemed to have. total hate 95 - their duet with sublime's brad nowell - probably holds up the best, and is still possibly one of my favorite songs, if only one my favorite songs by no doubt. it's certainly not bad, and serves as a bridge between their quirky, sort of two-toneish debut and their full on ska/punk meets fleetwood mac breakthrough. i definitely bopped my head a bit while listening to this one. as much as i didn't mind what no doubt progressed into - return of saturn kind of bored me and rock steady seemed to serve more as a prelude to gwen stefani's solo albums than a no doubt album - i probably hold this album in a little higher regard than it deserves, as even with the re-release in 97, it still feels kind of like a secret to me.

rating: 7/10

Self - Gizmodgery

toy instruments and circuit bending goodness before that became vogue!

in a perfect world, self would have been beck. even before this album, there was a chance. i forget the name of the single from subliminal plastic motives, but it certainly had the quirky angle that beck rode to stardom on. however, fate didn't work this way, and matt mahaffey never reached the heights of mr hansen.

which is not to say that self is a beck knock off. not even close. even using toy instruments, as he does on this one, there's a much darker tone to his music than beck. darker, and funkier.

i bought this after we got it in at the radio station, loving it pretty much on first listen. geeky, funky, never twee despite it's slightly cute concept. even the cover of the loggins/messina "classic" what a fool believes is given a slightly dark edge. the last song sounds a bit like weezer, which is also not a bad thing, though after the white indie funk/groove of the rest of the album, it's a little jarring. trunk full of amps, which is reprised in a clean version (essentially adding guitar note bends in place of "motherfucker") seriously could have been a huge single had it been given a chance. but there's not a single track on this album i wouldn't listen to over and over again.

rating: 10/10

more to come....

the challenge

the challenge:

i am going to go though my oversized cd collection and listen to at least one different cd a day. i will then blog about it, essentially reviewing the cd, but with more... i dunno... personal touches? (like, why i bought it, etc.). not the most exciting blog topic i guess, but i'm sure some will enjoy. and maybe interestingly cathartic.

it starts tomorrow.

johnny 5, alive

they're remaking short circuit?

they're remaking short circuit?!?!

hot damn!

(can they get gutenberg for it? because the man needs some work...)