Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 10

My Top 2000 Songs #1025: A Dream Away

Obviously, there are far better songs by The Cars; certainly better known songs. But The Cars are one of those artists--like, say, Tom Petty or Led Zeppelin--who were such a radio mainstay in my formative years that I just don't have a ton of interest in their most popular tracks. Yet I can still find some joy in the lesser-known deep cuts that weren't worn into the ground by classic rock overplay. 

Like "A Dream Away," off 1981's Shake It Up. Yeah, the title track is the more obvious hit; and if...

My Top 2000 Songs #1024: What Led Me To This Town

A second pick from the Jayhawks' 2000 album Smile , where, as the album title suggests, they moved from their jangly Americana roots to Brian Wilson-fueled delicate pop. "What Led Me To This Town" straddles these styles--the emotional feel of a country ballad, but adorned by lush, baroque harmonies. Probably the most gorgeous track the band has recorded, the "blue lights are shining over my life" refrain lingering long after the song has wafted off into the atmosphere.Live 2018:

R.E.M.: The Peter Buck Tapes

So, how are you spending your summer?

Now that school's out--I was teaching a couple courses last semester, but I'm off 'til January--my current project is organizing/sifting through all the live music and other bootlegs I accumulated back in my tape/CDR-trading days. I've been ripping some shows to my digital library (something I started a few years back but never finished), and purging some of the lower quality recordings that are taking up space but aren't worth holding onto.

Mostly it's just g...

My Top 2000 Songs #1023: Red Dragon Tattoo

Fountains Of Wayne crafted some ridiculously detailed, poignant, slice-of-life songs; they also wrote some pretty funny ones. (At their best, these would overlap; see, e.g., "Hackensack.") The problem with the funny ones, of course, is that after a few listens the joke gets old--and who wants to listen to a funny/clever song once the joke is stale?

They walked the line pretty deftly on "Red Dragon Tattoo," from 1999's sophomore LP Utopia Parkway. Yes, the song about the nerdy guy getting some ink...

Rain Parade Return

Trying to keep up with the availability of Rain Parade's catalog is maddening. And it shouldn't be; their 1983 debut, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip , isn't just the peak of the 80s Paisley Underground psychedelic revival scene, but quite simply one of the greatest albums ever, and it shouldn't be so damn hard to turn people on to its majesty. But their music was absent from streaming media (and physical media) for many years; then popped up on Spotify a few years ago (either to coincide with a ...

My Top 2000 Songs #1022: Jennifer Louise

Of all the Elephant 6 indie pop bands that kicked off in the 90s, I probably found Of Montreal the most challenging. Kevin Barnes' early lo-fi records could be interesting--quaint little concept albums, like a record tracing the entire course of a relationship, from love to break-up, over a quirky song cycle--but his casual naivete could quickly pivot from sweet to cloying. Still, there are a number of gems in the catalog I still enjoy visiting on occasion (though I dropped off once Barnes start...

Reissues: The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles, Giles & Fripp (1968)

I've always had great love for this 1968 psychedelic pop gem, essentially the first King Crimson record. Young guitarist Robert Fripp joined up with brothers Peter & Michael Giles for this one-off, and while it bears little similarity to the stunning prog beast that would emerge barely a year later on In The Court Of The Crimson King , it's still worth checking out. Most falls into the sort of whimsical British pop-psych championed by acts like Chad & Jeremy or Nirvana (the UK one, not the Cobain...

My Top 2000 Songs #1021: Stay With Me

As noted previously, I'm much more a Small Faces guy that a Faces guy... largely because, while a lot of the cool kids seem to love Faces, I simply don't enjoy Rod Stewart. Indeed, to the extent I spend much time with Faces records, I tend to prefer the non-Rod tracks.

Still, sometimes I can set aside that bias. Like if a song is as much a barnburner as "Stay With Me," off 1971's A Nod Is As Good As A Wink--by far the best Stones song the Stones never had. Because if you're looking for one of tho...

My Top 2000 Songs #1020: Feel The Pain

There was a brief, shining moment in that post-Nirvana world where it seemed like the cool college radio music of my 80s might successfully infiltrate the mainstream. So, yeah, it was pretty awesome when Dinosaur Jr., certainly one of the less mainstream-friendly of those college radio bands, got some traction on MTV with "Feel The Pain," off 1994's Without A Sound. A killer riff and attention-grabbing production gave the song some radio-ready wallop (with bonus points for a fun Spike Jonze-prod...

Mt. Misery: Love In Mind (2024)

So when a trusted online music friend tweets about an album and compares it to Teenage Fanclub, Cosmic Rough Riders, and Big Star, it does seem like he's just daring me not to like it.

So I took the bait and checked out Love In Mind, a 2024 album from UK indie pop act Mt. Misery... and, yeah, of course I like it. Full of jangly guitars and lovely melodies, with pretty mid-tempo pop songs, it's right in my sweet spot. (See also, e.g., The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness; Chime School.)

I missed...