Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 118

My Top 1000 Songs #44: The Musical Box

Ah, yes, prog rears its complicated little head at last...

I wrote a page or two in my book about my teenage discovery of Peter Gabriel-era Genesis and the wondrous 1971 album Nursery Cryme. Not gonna rehash it here, but my first spin through this 10-minute-plus opus, traversing from gentle folk-tinged beauty to acidic, room-shaking rock and back again, transporting me to some mythical place, made clear that more could be done with rock & roll than my earlier forays into radio-friendly classic ro...

My Top 1000 Songs #43: Heroes

Like many kids in the '70s, my first real introduction to Bowie came through the almost-mythical ChangesOneBowie collection, released in 1976 and providing a pretty astounding overview of his earlier work. I worked my way through his pre-Changes albums and found much to love, especially Ziggy Stardust . Only later did I move forward to his more recent records (this was probably around 1978 or 1979, amidst the Brian Eno collaborations of his "Berlin Trilogy Era."

The public library had a copy of 19...

Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness: The Third Wave (2022)

A quick plug for a minty-fresh new release that you're gonna love.

And let's face it; The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness is a fantastic band name. But it's also a bit misleading, as the band sounds little like the Feelies song from which it cribs its name. Who they do sound like--and I imagine they're dreadfully sick of the comparisons by now--is Teenage Fanclub (circa late 90s). And the Cosmic Rough Riders. And maybe a touch of the Pernice Brothers. 

The Scottish/Spanish band (as they're des...

My Top 1000 Songs #42: The Bleeding Heart Show

Finally, the first entry on the list from the 21st century (and--foreshadowing!--the last we'll see for another month or so). As noted a few days ago, I do think a gestation period is needed before you can drop a marker and proclaim a song to be among history's finest. But if a (relatively) recent track lands this high on the list, you know you're pretty comfortable saying your love for it is not just a fleeting fancy.

"The Bleeding Heart Show," off the New Pornographers' 2005 album Twin Cinema, ...

My Top 1000 Songs #41: Teenage Riot

Sonic Youth's outstanding Sister LP from 1987--still my favorite--established that the band could write catchy, hook-based rock songs without surrendering the namesake noisy experimentation that made them unique. But on 1988's Daydream Nation, and "Teenage Riot" in particular, they proved that, with just a touch more polish, they could write a song that was downright radio-friendly.

"Riot" is still, of course, just a tad askew for the mainstream. There's that long, hushed intro, Kim Gordon whispe...

All My Favorite Songs #40: Holland 1945

Back-to-back tracks from the late '90s, but this isn't one I recommend lightly. It's not an easy song--Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum sings it in a cathartic wail that's part Neil Young, part Ozzy Osbourne; distorted guitars over-saturate the speakers, recording levels well into the red; a cacophony of frenetic drums and trumpets pervade the lo-fi production (from Apples in Stereo's Robert Schneider); and of course those lyrics. 

Mangum was apparently reading about Anne Frank and the Holocaust ...

All My Favorite Songs #39: A Shot In The Arm

Finally, with this highlight from Wilco's phenomenal 1999 Summerteeth LP just edging its way into the Top 40, we get the first song of my Top 1000 from the 1990s--and, indeed, the first from the past quarter century (and just barely at that).

Which raises one of those questions music nerds can debate late into the night--how old does a song need to be to qualify as an all-time favorite (or, more broadly, as a timeless classic)? Should there be some sort of waiting period, a chance to see if the s...

All My Favorite Songs #38: The Backyard

Of all the jangly guitar college radio bands of the 80s and 90s, Miracle Legion tended to be on the moodier side, the world-weary vocals of frontman Mark Mulcahy skirting the niceties of more straightforward pop. But the title track from the 1984 EP The Backyard rises above, a simple, insistent guitar hook supporting lyrics that to this day mess me up on every listen. I find it a deeply personal track, and others may hear it differently, but to me it's a wistful, heartstring-pulling look back at...

All My Favorite Songs #37: Outdoor Miner

Original UK punks Wire covered an astounding amount of ground during their original 3-year run. (Which is to say nothing of their surprisingly effective second and third acts, running from 1987-1991 and 2008 to the present.) Their groundbreaking 1977 debut, Pink Flag , was a barrage of pithy art-punk tracks, loud and simple yet wickedly infectious; while 1979's 154 slowed things down while toying with industrial music and synthesizers without abandoning the catchy punk stylings entirely.

But for a...

All My Favorite Songs #36: After The Gold Rush

Neil Young's 1970 masterpiece After The Gold Rush is a work of majestic beauty, full of sweet, heartfelt tracks (broken up only by Crazy Horse's boisterous "Southern Man"). Yet even on such a thoroughly embracing album, the title track manages to stand out. It's just Neil at his piano, his voice at its most plaintive, the lyrics unforgettable--poetic and evocative, Neil journaling his post-apocalyptic dreams, yet still setting the scene of a discrete time and place. "I was lying in a burned-out ...