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...