Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 133

Vanessa Peters: Modern Age (2021)

With barely a month left 'til I have to assemble my annual Year In Review mix (yes, I've got these dating back to 1966, you can check them out on my home page), I've been running through my picks to date. And here's an album I keep circling back to, the latest from oft-overlooked but terrific singer-songwriter Vanessa Peters. On this one, she casts aside the folkie Americana that has accented much of her prior work and amps things up a bit, adding some guitar crunch, while retaining her gentle m...

Echobelly: On (1995) -- Plus A Britpop Mix For You

As noted previously, I didn't pay much attention to Britpop during its mid-90s heights. I was firmly in US indie mode at the time, busy with Yo La Tengo and Pavement and Guided by Voices and Sleater-Kinney and Liz Phair and Luna and so on. Obviously a few of the more successful bands penetrated the US radio market, bands like Oasis and, to a lesser extent, Blur and Pulp, but some of the more peripheral acts (at least in the US) never hit my radar screen.

Anyway, last week I was on a bit of a Brit...

Heatmiser: Mic City Sons (1996)

Like (I assume) a lot of people, I came across Heatmiser and its moving swan-song album only after getting into Elliott Smith and working my way backwards. So not surprisingly, I was primarily interested in the half of the record that Smith wrote & sang, though over time I came to appreciate the  balance that was helmed by co-bandleader Neil Gust.

It's an interesting record, primarily abandoning the hard rock (dare I say grunge?) sound of the first two Heatmiser records and moving in a gentler, m...

Weezer For Beginners (A Mix)

Weezer make me feel old. Mainly because I'm perpetually confused about what the cool kids think of them. Am I supposed to legit like Weezer? To like them, but only ironically? To straight-up hate them? No clue. I get the sense there is a universe out there with formal rules governing what Weezer albums are deemed cool and uncool, when you're supposed to appreciate River Cuomo's perpetual middle-school mindset or mock it, and I'm not privy to those rules.

Personally, rock nerd expectations aside, ...

Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Sit And Think... (2015)

I've been listening to the great new Courtney Barnett album, Things Take Time, Take Time, since its release last week, enjoying it a lot, but it's also a good excuse to revisit her prior releases. Which has served as a helpful reminder of just how much I love her 2015 debut, Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit. Actually, it was only sort of her debut--her two prior EPs were later combined onto a single album, and that one sounds more like a proper debut, terrific but still a bit ...

Martha And The Muffins: Metro Music (1980)

Inspired by the recent release of an outtakes/rarities collection, I flipped through some of my old Martha And The Muffins records from back in the day. The Canadian band were one of the more original acts of the new wave era, though they've continued to intermittently regroup for new music over the ensuing decades. Their 1980 debut is out of print and doesn't stream, which is a shame, as it's a pretty cool little gem. They veered from guitar-driven new wave pop to artsier, jagged post-punk expe...

Television: Adventure (1978)

Television's 1977 debut, Marquee Moon , is such an immortal piece of the original New York punk scene, alongside the Ramones' debut and Talking Heads 77, that its follow-up often gets overlooked. And maybe that's not entirely unwarranted; there are a few snoozers here that keeps the album from rising to the same level as Marquee. But there are also some tunes here easily as good as the prior tracks. Overall, it's a solid record with some stunning highs that deserves a little more attention than i...

The Freak Scene: Psychedelic Psoul (1967)

Been awhile since I've visited the Rightfully Obscure Psychedelia™ shelf in my collection (figuratively speaking; it's all digital, the shelves are loooooong gone from my home...). Thought I'd throw this one out there as another example of silly, badly-dated fun that's nonetheless good for a spin.

The Freak Scene were an American one-off psyche band (well, kind of a two-off; a different iteration of the band, called The Deep, released a 1966 album similarly entitled Psychedelic Moods). Whereas Mo...

The Lemon Twigs: Songs For The General Public (2020)

A pair of brothers from Queens, the Lemon Twigs are sort of a mash-up of campy '70s pop-rock and the twee retro-pop of Elephant 6 acts like early Of Montreal. Their 2016 debut was kinda fun, if undercooked, and 2018's Go To School was a sprawling concept album that was a bit over the top. They got the balance just right on their third try, a delightfully catchy collection of songs that's still pretty oddball. It's a blend of 70s soft-pop (kinda in line with, say, Foxygen and Ariel Pink), Mott Th...

Pavement: Brighten The Corners (1997)

Sure, I've already chatted up Pavement a few times in this space; hell, I've got a whole chapter in my book dedicated to how Pavement changed my life back in the 90s. But with the band gearing up for another reunion tour, their first in a decade--just got my tickets, see you at the Masonic next September!--I'm firmly back in Pavement mode today.

When Brighten the Corners first came out, I greeted it with a sigh of relief. I had found the preceding album, Wowee Zowee, a bit of a sprawling mess, an...