Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 16

New Releases: Adult Mom

One of my favorite trends of the past decade or so is the rise of boldly idiosyncratic young women (or, in the present case, genderqueer) singer-songwriters, raised in a world shaped by the likes of Liz Phair and Juliana Hatfield, quietly releasing records in the guise of band-names with revolving casts of musicians. Waxahatchee, of course, but also Snail Mail, Soccer Mommy... and Adult Mom.

Natural Causes is the fourth proper LP from Stevie Knipe and Adult Mom (following some lo-fi bedroom recor...

My Top 1000 Songs #978: To Claudia On Thursday

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

We were just chatting about Sagittarius, the mildly-psychedelic sunshine pop collaboration between producer/songwriter Gary Usher and singer Curt Boettcher... so let's close out the Boettcher loop with his other great project, The Millennium. Their lone proper album, 1968's Begin (though some other work has also crept out over the years) was a delightful mi...

My Top 1000 Songs #977: Chocolate

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Great power pop track off The Sails' self-titled 2006 album. It flirts unabashedly with bubblegum, cribbing a bit of Tommy Roe's 1969 single "Dizzy," and (some odd electronic embellishments aside) would've made an awesome track by the Archies or any other imaginary cartoon band in the early 70s. But what's wrong with that?

I'd say more, but it's a three-minu...

My Top 1000 Songs #976: Once Bitten Twice Shy

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Leading off Ian Hunter's self-titled solo debut, "Once Bitten Twice Shy" kicks off his post-Mott The Hoople period in style. It's a great example of a slow, frustrating work-up building to delightful release. I mean, nothing wrong with the verses, packed with rock star horniness, but you're mostly like, c'mon man, let's get on with it, and then you hit the ...

My Top 1000 Songs #975: Have You Heard The News Today?

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Another stunning shimmer of melodic jangle pop from Daniel Wylie and his Cosmic Rough Riders. Like the last one, "Have You Heard The News Today?" appeared on 2000's Panorama LP (and the essential compilation Enjoy The Melodic Sunshine, which combined a big chunk of Panorama with some other tracks). It's obviously a massive cheat to call this a 50/50 blend o...

My Top 1000 Songs #974: Loser

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

No, not the Jerry Garcia/Grateful Dead chestnut (though that's also pretty great). It's actually a lone appearance from Beck here on the list. I don't dislike the guy--I kinda enjoy his mellow stuff like 2014's Morning Phase, and there's a solid 80-minute CDR of upbeat hits I enjoy playing in the car--but he's not a central part of my listening experience. ...

My Top 1000 Songs #973: Build A Bigger Iceberg

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Between Guided By Voices and frontman Robert Pollard's myriad solo/side projects, there are literally hundreds (ok, thousands) of songs to choose from, yet for what I think is my 10th GbV-related selection on the list--pretty sure that's the most of any act, including the Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Clash, etc.--I find myself latching on to a particularly obscu...

My Top 1000 Songs #972: Get Better

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Husband-and-wife duo Mates Of State released a few albums of the sort of post-millennium alternative rock/pop that doesn't typically get my attention unless I happen to overhear it at the gym or it otherwise gets some sort of pop culture saturation. But somehow 2008's Re-Arrange Us got on my radar screen, and I liked it quite a bit, probably skewing too you...

My Top 1000 Songs #971: Inbetweener

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

I largely sat out the Britpop boom in the 90s. Sure, a few big names got through (Oasis, Blur, Pulp), but even there I didn't know them much beyond the obvious hits; my attention was much more focused on US indie acts like Pavement, Yo La Tengo, Liz Phair, Wilco, Luna, Sleater-Kinney, etc. But a decade or so ago I finally circled back and snagged a lot of t...

My Top 1000 Songs #970: Misty Mountain Hop

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Yeah, it feels a little inimical to the spirit of this enterprise to be giving airtime to Led Zeppelin IV. Cuz, c'mon, Led Zeppelin IV. But here we are again, for the second time... but, hey, at least no "Stairway."

Anyway, I remember checking the album out from the local public library as a pre-teen, just as I was starting to explore classic rock and Zeppel...