Mark Stratton's Blog: AGGASPLETCH, page 9

81. (iPod Challenge) The Morning Afterglow and I Smell Like Smoke

You ever hear a song, or side of an album that grabs you and won’t let go? Where three to five songs just have to be played over and over again? They’re the last thing you hear at night, and are rattling through your head first thing in the morning? Songs that simply demand your attention?

Until earlier this year I’d never heard of the band “Watershed” from Columbus. I don’t feel too bad about this because a whole lot of other people hadn’t and still haven’t. I discovered them by reading the b...

82. (iPod Challenge) About Those Thousand Points of Light

This song was a real eye-opener for me upon its release. I’d grown up with a certain set of political views that were pretty well handed down to me and I didn’t really think much about them. They simply were. I voted with most of my family and didn’t listen to anything that didn’t fit into my hereditary worldview.

This song changed that. It opened my ears and my eyes. It has to qualify as one of the angriest and most graphic protest songs every put on wax. Lyrics like

I see a woman in the night...

83. (iPod Challenge) Keep Going, Hope is Just Around the Corner

What is it that you want? Do you even know? Can you answer the question, “What Do You Want From Life?” (and no, this isn’t about the song by The Tubes)

The things an artist can do with a thought like that can sometimes boggle the mind. Case in point is this song by Dawes, “A Little Bit of Everything.”

I found out about this band by reading the Lefsetz Letter, a semi-regular (Which means, I’ve no clue when it’s going to show up and neither does he) email newsletter that now I couldn’t tell you h...

84. (iPod Challenge) A Favorite From a Band You’d Not Expect

I’d sort of realized it, but hadn’t really paid that much attention to the fact that when a Fleetwood Mac anthology was assembled, it was primarily from the Buckhingham/Nicks era, the Peter Green era, both, or might include material from post Lindsey Buckhingham records. With the exception of the box set, there has been no anthology or greatest hits collection of the Bob Welch era. This point, which I’d sorta noticed but hadn’t paid any attention to, was driven home when he died last last yea...

85. (iPod Challenge) Springsteen Liked Him so Happened?

Out of nowhere they come. At least to those who don’t read magazines, or aren’t otherwise tuned in during the 80′s. Artists who had magic in their music just sort of show up, make an impression and you’re left with the question, “Whatever happened to…?” 20 years later in addition to the songs that grabbed you.

David Lynn Jones is one of those artists for me. Back in the late 80′s, what was and wasn’t Country Music was wide open. That allowed some interesting performers to gain exposure. Jones...

86. (iPod Challenge) Anchors Aweigh and They’re Attached!

Okay, so it’s Friday and it is time to PLAY SOMETHING LOUD!

It seemed like you couldn’t escape the opening guitar riff of “Keep Your Hands to Yourself” in 1986. It was everywhere. Four on the floor rock ‘n roll wasn’t in style at the time, but this number caught on in a big way. It was inescapable.

Which is why when I hearken back to those halcyon days of my misspent youth, I recall the single “Battleship Chains” with more fondness and affection. I mean, what’s not to like about this song with...

87 (iPod Challenge) Odes to People Don’t Always Work

Trying to force emotions into song, prose or poetry is a pathway littered with poor execution and schmaltz. It’s tough to say I love you in a song (even if Jim Croce did it quite well) without fluff or treacle to overwhelm the proceedings. As a sometimes poet, I see this in my own writing and it’s very apparent when the love-fest jumps the shark into glurge.

That’s what makes ‘Song For My Father’ such an absolute joy. Horace Silver takes some bossa nova ideas and combines them with other influ...

88 (iPod Countdown) 8 Days a Week is Not the New Math

It recently occurred to me that New Wave is over 30 years old, closer to 40 if you bring in the pre-MTV influences. Which means it, like me, is getting long in the tooth. So when I hear a more contemporary band mining the synth driven sounds of late 70′s/early 80′s New Wave Sounds, I sit up and listen. Such a band is The Sounds, from Sweden.

While they were very much a cross between Blondie and Missing Persons on their first two albums, and have moved towards a wider musical pallette over time...

89. (iPod Challenge) Perspective and Safety

Perspective is an interesting thing. It can change over time. The first time I became really aware of this was when I was in high school; fairly early in the school year. For reasons I can no longer remember, I had to go to my old Jr. High School for something or other. I’d attended there three years, and it had only been a few months since I finished 9th Grade, but when I went back, I was startled at how small everything seemed to me. So had the kids. It was a an eye opener, to be sure.

It’s...

90. (iPod Challenge) Bargain Bin Surprise and Bad Hair

There’s a part of me that is ashamed to admit how much I like the band A Flock of Seagulls. These days, they are best remembered for Mike Score’s unfortunate hair and some really crappy video’s that got lots of play during MTV’s early days. Visually iconic as Score’s style was, it made their musicalachievementsseems almost beside the point. An 80′s Skinny Elvis vs. Fat Elvis if you will.

Oh well, such is fame.

A few years ago, Elaine and I were visiting family in Toledo, Oh. We stopped in one o...