Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 150

The Alarm: Strength (1985)

These guys from Wales seemed to walk the line between indie respectability and commercial appeal back in my college radio days, not quite crossing over, but a little too slick to fit in with the cooler emerging indie acts. Personally, they never quite won me over, and I didn't spend much time with their records, though I found playing a stray song here and there on my radio shows would help break up my more US-centric inclinations at the time (primarily R.E.M., Replacements, Hüsker Dü, Feelies, ...

Juanita Stein: Snapshot (2020)

Here's a brand new release hot off the presses, and it's a real stunner. 

Australian singer-songwriter Juanita Stein has released some of my favorite albums of recent years, true cosmic Americana that blends contemporary alt.country singers like Lydia Loveless, twangy indie pop like Jenny Lewis, and trippier psychedelia reminiscent of Mazzy Star. Snapshot, her third solo album (after a few albums fronting Americana/alt.rock band Howling Bells) doesn't stray far from its excellent predecessors, th...

Yuck: S/T (2011)

Been pretty tied up lately with some family visits, but since I skipped a few days I thought I'd drop in a quick album post here. Pulled this one out recently, one of my favorites from the past decade. Perfect recreations of 90s indie rock, shades of Pavement and Yo La Tengo and New Zealand kiwi rock bands like the Clean, polished up a bit for the new millennium. London-based, but still sounding kinda American, with skewed guitar rock, sometimes blissed-out with the distortion pedal for fizzy no...

Morning: S/T (1970)

As noted in prior posts, I'm a sucker for obscure 70s Americana-tinged rock; I'm always astounded by how many good (and occasionally great) albums were released by bands who plainly drank from the same well as American Beauty -era Grateful Dead, CSN, Poco, and Gram Parsons, as well as early UK pub rockers like Brinsley Schwarz, only to promptly disappear until being rediscovered decades later by some reissue label or an intrepid blogger.

Morning were an L.A. band that stuck around for a couple alb...

The Mock Turtles: Turtle Soup (1990)

Can't say I know a whole lot about this briefly-lived UK band. I just remember in the late 80s, when tribute albums started to emerge as a thing, they were one of those bands you'd see contributing covers all over the place (Syd Barrett, the Kinks, the Byrds), but didn't seem to have much of an existence otherwise. But apparently they did release an album of originals some time later, which I belatedly snagged not long ago as part of a deluxe 2-CD set that paired it with a ton of other music (in...

Steely Dan: Pretzel Logic (1974)

There may be no more surefire way to start a social media flame war than to express a strong opinion of Steely Dan. Hell, 40+ years after their glory days, the band seems to draw more serious admirers (and detractors) than ever.

And while my focus on this blog is to highlight the bands/albums I like in the hopes of winning a few converts, let me just say that, when it comes to Steely Dan, I'm pretty much on the fence.

Which is actually a marked improvement over my initial assessment of the band.

Ba...

The Clash: Give 'Em Enough Rope (1978)

When I first got into the Clash (back around 1980, when London Calling hit the States), Give 'Em Enough Rope had a lukewarm rap. It had the misfortune of falling between one of the 3-4 truly seminal punk era debuts and the Greatest Album of All Time. The consensus at the time seemed to be that it was a little short of solid material, and that the production -- from Blue Öyster Cult producer Sandy Pearlman -- seemed designed to make it feel more like a hard rock/metal album than a punk record.

All...

Bettie Serveert: Log 22 (2003)

For my next artist Top 10 and discography overview on Toppermost (hopefully you're checked out my recent piece on the Flaming Lips by now?), I'm digging into the archives of Dutch indie rock band Bettie Serveert. And while their 1992 debut Palomine (previously covered here) remains far and away my favorite, I've particularly enjoyed revisiting Log 22.

After three albums that stuck largely with noisy, guitar-oriented alt.rock that blended classic rock from the Neil Young/Crazy Horse playbook with ...

Rain Parade: Crashing Dream (1985)

As noted previously, Rain Parade's debut, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip, remains one of my all-time favorites, a perfect merger of jangly college radio guitar pop and retro-60s psychedelic shadings. The follow-up (their final proper studio album) couldn't help but fall a little short. Guitarist David Roback (brother of frontman Steven) had departed to form Opal and, later, Mazzy Star, though guitarist Matt Piucci still conjures some delightfully wiggly and trippy guitar work; and the songs are...

Tommy James & The Shondells: Crimson & Clover (1969)

By the time the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper in '67, it became obligatory for every British Invasion band to try their hand at a psychedelic album. Some made the adjustment with surprising adeptness (i.e. the Pretty Things, the Small Faces, the Zombies), some awkwardly (i.e. the Stones' Satanic Majesty, which I personally think is worth a reappraisal). Others seemed a bit begrudging.

Tommy James & The Shondells, who always sounded more comfortable with AM radio pop singles, were a little late to ...