Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 145

Shack: Here's Tom With The Weather (2003)

Here's a truly gorgeous album from a band that, as far as I can tell, has never gotten much (any?) attention here in the States.

Shack are fronted by Liverpool-based brothers Michael and John Head. They originally formed the Pale Fountains, another UK act with little footprint, releasing two fantastic 80s albums of jangly, literate, haunting Britpop, sort of blending the Smiths and Talk Talk and Paul Weller and the Housemartins, with hints of the Cure. They later formed on again/off again act Sha...

NOT The Great Lost Velvet Underground Album

I was recently listening to (and posted here) my homemade Great Lost Velvet Underground Album, comprised of outtakes recorded during the band’s brief run and ultimately released from the vaults decades later. And that got me thinking… what might a post-breakup Velvet Underground album have sounded like?

This is not that mix. Because, frankly, a post-Loaded Velvet Underground album (a real one, not the 1973 Squeeze album recorded by Doug Yule and released under the Velvets’ moniker) would probab...

DIIV: Oshin (2012)

Brooklyn-based latter-day psychedelic rockers DIIV have had a fairly deliberate releases schedule, with just 3 albums since 2012, but all make for nice, ambient yet lively mood pieces.

2012's debut Oshin sounds like a blend of bass-driven moody goth rock a la the Cure or Cocteau Twins coupled with more pastoral jangle reminiscent of Real Estate or the War on Drugs -- all tucked firmly behind a dense wall of reverb. The result is kinda schizophrenic, a batch of dreamily zoned-out atmospherics over...

Some Non-Musical Reading: Reflections on a Life of Crime

Taking a brief respite from blathering on about music, I decided to blather on about something entirely different. It's a deeply personal, short bit of non-fiction, part of a series of contemplated pieces on various remembrances triggered by the pandemic lockdown. See what you think; it's online today on Medium. Thanks!
 

Superchunk: Majesty Shredding (2010)

It's been a rough few weeks, right? I mean, sure, the Biden presidency finally becomes formalized, something we all knew would happen but still felt just tenuous enough in light of right wing lunacy to keep you from completely relaxing; and of course Georgia was a wonderful surprise. But we've got the assault on Capitol, and what appears to be record-setting numbers of Covid diagnoses and deaths day after day.

And when you get down, there's always that shortlist of bands and records that get you ...

Hangman's Beautiful Daughters: Smashed Full Of Wonder (1987/2020)

Despite a band name presumably borrowed from a legendary British folk album, this short-lived UK indie band (an early part of the British DIY C86 scene) shares little with its namesake. Instead, their two 1987 EPs, reissued last year as a single CD, offer jangly guitar pop comparable to a lot of mid-80s college radio fare, but interwoven with darker, psychedelic-tinged garage band rock. 

The music was produced by Dan Treacy of Television Personalities (who also wrote a few songs for them). Singer...

Matthew Sweet Top 10

I took a stab at picking Matthew Sweet's Top 10 Songs over on Toppermost (along with a review of his catalog); check it out! Meanwhile, in case you missed 'em, some other recent Top 10s I've submitted on the site include Badfinger, the New Pornographers, and Bettie Serveert.

Material Issue: International Pop Overthrow (1991)

With the world again on fire, the President of the USA exhorting his white power brigade on to violence while a significant number of Republicans in the House and Senate boldly cheer on the end of democracy, urging that an election be cast aside and a leader installed by fiat based on ludicrous, repeatedly debunked conspiracy theories... well, we could use a real feel-good album about now.

Material Issue were a terrific power pop band from Chicago (and, yeah, the exuberance is tempered by the sad...

Lucinda Williams: It's Only Rock & Roll (2020)

I've been a huge fan of Americana singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams ever since I saw her open for Neil Young a couple decades back. At the time, I was still pretty dubious of anything that wreaked of country music (Uncle Tupelo/Wilco and a few exceptions aside), but her scorching set floored me. Her discography is loaded with phenomenal music that can make a country convert of any rock fan; 1998's terrific Car Wheels on a Gravel Road may be the most logical entry point, full of some of her best...

Outrageous Cherry: Supernatural Equinox (2003)

Outrageous Cherry are a midwestern indie band that have been quietly kicking around for quite a while, steadily releasing albums since the '90s. Their sound blends jangly, melodic power pop with trippier psychedelia and '60s-styled garage rock. There are strains of Paisley Underground bands like the Rain Parade, though one of the closest analogs is the like-minded Asteroid No. 4.

2003's Supernatural Equinox is particularly strong, a stylistically diverse album that successfully taps into their va...