Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 104

My Top 1000 Songs #169: Rolling Moon

I'm frankly surprised I've gotten this far down the list without hitting any Flying Nun acts. The various New Zealand indie bands who started making fantastic music in the 80s--the Clean, the Bats, the Chills, the Verlaines, Look Blue Go Purple, etc.--have been a big part of my life for decades. Ah, well, they'll be finding their way into the mix soon enough.

And this one seems like an ideal starting point, as the Chills' 1986 compilation of early singles, Kaleidoscope World, was my introduction ...

My Top 1000 Songs #168: Erica's Word

A wonderful pop nugget from Paisley Underground-adjacent indie pop act Game Theory, off 1985's Big Shot Chronicles. It almost feels like the late Scott Miller is teaching a master class in pop music construction, clinically ticking off the basic building blocks:

Nifty chord progression with some unexpected changes? Check.Jangly guitars? Check.Snappy snare drum echo? Check.Gentle verses breaking loose into a triumphant, endlessly hummable chorus? Check.Relentlessly clever rhymes? Check.Rousing sol...

My Top 1000 Songs #167: Moonlight Mile

The Stones' 1971 masterpiece Sticky Fingers is one of those albums where, space permitting, I'd probably include nearly all of the tracks somewhere on the list. So how to narrow it down?

"Moonlight Mile" isn't the catchiest track on the record (that'd go to "Brown Sugar" or "Bitch"). But it's got an emotional pull that's undeniable--a huge, cinematic sweep, with orchestration that feels better suited to an Elton John record (shades of the contemporaneous "Madman Across The Water") (which, as was ...

My Top 1000 Songs #166: So It Goes

The title of Nick Lowe's 1978 debut, Jesus of Cool , was presumably deemed too risky for American audiences (remember what happened to John Lennon?); so for our genteel tastes, it was re-monikered Pure Pop For Now People. Which, c'mon, is still a perfectly fine title, and perhaps even more appropriate given the record's contents. Breaking from the R&B-flavored pub rock and Americana of his Brinsley Schwarz days, the album was littered with quirky, clever power pop, picking up on the vibe of the a...

My Top 1000 Songs #165: Places That Are Gone

A couple weeks ago, I shared my love for the Plimsouls' "A Million Miles Away." Tommy Keene's "Places That Are Gone" feels like a sequel of sorts, both lyrically and sonically. There's a similar theme of leaving things behind and moving forward; though where "Miles" sounded like a break-up song, there's a little more hopefulness in Keene's vision. And as with that other track, the late Washington, DC-based singer songwriter blends classic jangly rock, power pop, and just a bit of new wave, a son...

My Top 1000 Songs #164: Man On The Moon

So, I'm thinking it might be time to wind this endeavor down. I was driving most of the traffic to this site through Twitter posts, and would usually get about 200 hits a day here, which was fine. But since Musk started driving Twitter into the ground, in part by funneling views away from accounts that don't want to pony up a monthly fee, my hits are way down--maybe 30-40 people are seeing each of these posts. And, hey, if you're here, I love you. Thanks for dropping by! But maybe this is a sign...

My Top 1000 Songs #163: Eyes

One of the all-time great television needle-drops.

Is it weird to form such a strong emotional bond to a piece of music because of its appearance in a tv show? Or a movie? Or, what the hell, a commercial? I don't think so. Our love of music is often based on its association with a particular event or time in our lives, whether it's hearing the song at the high school dance or that time we got really high and dragged that old cassette boombox to the beach on Lake Michigan. Why should pop culture t...

My Top 1000 Songs #162: Rudie Can't Fail

Sure, I could be lazy and just post about 90% of the songs from my all-time favorite album, 1979's London Calling, somewhere in the Top 20 slots of this list. It wouldn't be all that hard to justify their inclusion.

But I'm trying to show some restraint. Better to maximize variety, pick a few favorites, and parse them out gradually.

Still, every day for the past 162 days I've had to stop and ask myself, Is today the day to deploy "Rudie Can't Fail"?

Today, the answer is yes.

Joe Strummer & The Mesca...

My Top 1000 Songs #161: The Classical

When I arrived on campus in fall 1984, my new friend Chris introduced me both to the college radio station (WPRB!) and to a ton of indie bands I'd never heard in my sheltered Chicago suburb. Bands like R.E.M. and the Replacements, of course, became instant favorites; others took a bit longer to sink in. Chris was particularly partial to The Fall, but I found them a little too abrasive and lacking in catchy tunes for my taste (though that would change soon enough as Brix Smith became more of a pr...

My Top 1000 Songs #160: I Want You Bad

"I Want You Bad," first recorded by long-running American rockers NRBQ (formed in Kentucky all the way back in 1965, playing in various incarnations ever since) in 1978, doesn't break new ground. Hell, it's a bit lightweight, at least lyrically.  But as a case study in crafting a concise, no-frills pop song that does everything a pop song is supposed to do, it's pretty damn miraculous, the sort of thing you hear for the first time and wonder how it's possible you haven't heard it before.

NRBQ hav...