Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 139

Sleater-Kinney: Top 10 Songs

I've been relatively quiet for a few weeks as I enjoyed some post-vaccination travel (you can read some of my road trip observations & confessions in the two-part Fear & Bison on the Post-Pandemic Trail). But I'm not done here; still too many albums to talk about!

While I work on picking out the next target, you can check out my Sleater-Kinney Top 10 and career overview over on Toppermost. Got that one published just in time for the release of their new album, Path of Wellness. I'm still digestin...

Shaun Cassidy: Wasp (1980)

This is definitely one of the stranger albums in my collection. Which isn't to say it's a great album, or even a very good one, but it's at least an interesting and weirdly fascinating one.

Folks of my generation presumably remember Cassidy as the 70s teen heartthrob who, after starting out on the Hardy Boys tv series, released a series of bubblegum, teen-oriented Top 40 singles and albums (and, later, some dreadful disco music). By the time of this, his fifth and final LP, his star had faded, bu...

Grateful Dead: Ramble On Rose (The Great Lost 1972 Album)

Another in a series of imaginary albums I like to make for myself from time to time, this one is an attempt to capture what a 1972 studio album from the Dead might have sounded like. 

After releasing their 2 legendary 1970 albums, Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, the Dead didn't release a proper studio album (at least under the Grateful Dead moniker) until 1973's wonderful (and underrated) Wake of the Flood. But this doesn't mean they weren't coming up with new material during that time; to...

Quivers: Golden Doubt (2021)

One of the tell-tale symptoms, and unabashed joys, of being an Obsessive Music Fan™, is that you never quite outgrow that tingly feeling you get when you randomly discover some wonderful new album and just have to share it with everyone you know.

Anyway, Australian indie band Quivers just released a new album full of sweet, jangly, occasionally melancholy pop, and I'm just loving it. As a jangly Australian band, they're obviously gonna draw a lot of Go-Betweens comparisons (particularly from that...

Psychic Ills: Inner Journey Out (2016)

Here's a cool neo-psychedelic/drone band out of Texas I discovered when they showed up on a playlist Spotify compiled for me based on my listening habits. Think Spacemen 3/Spiritualized, Moon Duo, Brian Jonestown Massacre, and a whole lot of Mazzy Star. Indeed, the clear stand-out track here, "I Don't Mind," sounds like a great lost Mazzy Star song, which isn't all that surprising given that Hope Sandoval provides guest vocals.

But it's a solid, headphone-friendly album even beyond that track, tr...

The See See: Late Morning Light (2010)

Hey, I'm back! I took most of the last 3 weeks off as I went on an extended road-trip through the western U.S. (Do I have some rambling ruminations from my travels? You bet; I'll post a link here when the article is complete.) I gave some thought to just silently disappearing from this endeavor, but, hey, I'm back home, listening to my music collection, and the need to share and wax poetic is inescapable.

Here's one I hadn't played in a while and stumbled across on a random shuffle. The See See w...

The Rolling Stones: Satanic Majesties Revisited (1967)

Taking a break from my break with a quick hit... a little something I pulled out this week.

In the late 60s, it was obligatory for every British band to try their hand at a psychedelic album, blending the trippy and the quaint, making their ow stab at replicating Sgt. Pepper and Piper at the Gates of Dawn. (I think only the Who and the Kinks avoided the indulgence.) Some bands with their roots in British Invasion R&B made the transition with surprisingly great results -- the Small Faces' Ogdens'...

Liz Phair Top 10

I've been a little scarce in these parts lately as I take some post-vaccination personal time. Don't worry, still way too many records in my collection to talk about for me to stop now. Back soon enough. Meanwhile, I've got another artist Top 10 over on Toppermost, this time a Liz Phair career overview--and, yes, I actually like some of the critically-panned later stuff. Plenty of overlooked gems to be found.

Ween: White Pepper (2000)

The problem with cult acts is that, if you're not part of the cult, it can be hard to find your way into their work... and you can end up missing out on some pretty great music.

When Ween first got some public attention in the early 90s, it was for a few alt.rock novelty songs with fun videos but not necessarily a lot of musical staying power (e.g. "Push Th' Little Daisies," "I Can't Put My Finger On It"). And their first "real" album (after a string of lo-fi cassette recordings), 1992's Pure Gua...

My Top 9 Most Emotionally Devastating Songs

Yeah, I like happy songs. I'm a sucker for chiming power pop and rave-up punk anthems. 

But it's the sad songs that seen to make the biggest impression on me. I wrote an essay awhile back about the saddest song I know, though that was a left-field choice that owed more to how a particular piece of unlikely music affected me through the power of association. Here, I'd like to talk about some songs that, through the power of their lyrics, are musical gut-punches. The songs that invariably bring tea...