Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 165

The Silos: Cuba (1987)

The Silos are another entry in the post-R.E.M. mid-80s college radio scene, distinguishing themselves by adding a dark Americana vibe to their sound that has carried them through to the present day. While that pastoral, Byrdsy guitar sound was certainly prevalent on Cuba, their second album -- frontman Walter Salas-Humara had been an early member of under-appreciated jangle-poppers Vulgar Boatmen -- you can also hear the darker Paisley Underground vibe of the Dream Syndicate and an unabashed...

Culpeper's Orchard: S/T (1971)

Dipping back into my vast file of obscure late 60s and early 70s lost gems, I introduce the self-titled debut from Danish rockers Culpeper's Orchard. While less colorful and whimsical than the trippy cover may suggest, it's still a way-above-average example of late 60s European psychedelia as it started moving into a harder rocking, more progressive rock-oriented ethos.

Following a brief intro, "Mountain Music Part 1" wastes no time in setting the tone for the album, beginning with a jangly,...

Jonathan Richman: I, Jonathan (1992)

The Modern Lovers' self-titled debut is one of the great one-"hit" wonders of the rock era, a fantastic, timeless proto-punk album that built off the Velvet Underground's sound, while up-ending Lou Reed's tales of drugs and degradation with Jonathan Richman's at times tender, at times pointed odes to clean living, romance, and old-fashioned values.

Alas, by the time of its belated 1976 release, Richman had largely moved on.  While continuing to perform with various iterations of the...

Original Soundtrack: Multiplication Rock (1973)

No, I'm serious, hear me out. This is a great record!

Ok, I'll admit I can't really separate the album from the childhood nostalgia, having watched the Multiplication Rock educational video clips when they first rolled out during the Saturday morning cartoons I would immerse myself in as a 7-year-old back in 1973. I can't pretend I'd be gearing up to listen to the musical recitation of multiplication tables, even buried within great pop tunes, absent that whiff of nostalgia.

But face it, these...

Freedy Johnston: This Perfect World (1994)

Freedy Johnston has been quietly releasing jangly singer-songwriter music for a few decades now, usually just under the radar (though I remember this one, his third album, getting a bit of attention at the time). This is by far my favorite, a poignant blend of Americana-leaning alt.rock bands like the Gin Blossoms, the more introspective songs of power poppers like Matthew Sweet, and maybe a bit of Tom Petty's mellow heartland rock stylings and mid-period Elvis Costello's character sketches.

A...

X: Alphabetland (2020)

I look at what's going on the world around us, and have to ask, do we even deserve a great new X album?  And the answer is almost certainly no. But here it is nonetheless.

I caught them live a couple years back and was shocked at the energy and vibrancy they brought to the show; you could close your eyes and have no clue that you were hearing a band whose most primal work was released nearly 40 years earlier.  This album, on first listen, takes me to a similar place. It's rousing,...

Uncle Tupelo: When You Find Trouble

Having made an attempt at creating an imaginary final Clash album earlier this week, with admittedly mixed results, I was in the mood to take a run at a far easier undertaking.  Now, Uncle Tupelo is the rare band that went out on a high point, 1993's Anodyne showing them in peak form just as they dissolved, with Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy splintering off to follow their own individual muses with Son Volt and Wilco, respectively.  Still, it's fun to speculate what a fifth Tupelo...

Neil Young: Trans (1982)

I think it's fair to say that Trans is not one of Neil Young's better albums. You can start ticking off your favorites -- After The Gold Rush? On The Beach? Rust Never Sleeps? Zuma? Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere? Tonight's The Night? -- and you're gonna be well down the list before Trans comes up.

If you remember it at all. I'm sure plenty of Neil fans try to put it (as well as much of his 80s output) out of mind.

But it's just so damn weird I find it irresistible. Is it a fascinating...

The Clash: This Is England (The Great Lost Final Album)

Following an online prompt courtesy of Elizabeth Nelson (music writer extraordinaire and singer-songwriter for hyper-literate indie rockers The Paranoid Style), I thought it would be interesting to construct an imaginary final album for the Clash.  Certainly they deserve a better send-off than the last studio album to appear under the band's name, 1985's Cut The Crap, where Joe Strummer, having booted Mick Jones from the band, tries to come up with a disc full of ready-made post-punk...

Fleetwood Mac: Bare Trees (1972)

I tend to come across two types of Fleetwood Mac fans. There are the fans of their astoundingly successful records in the mid- and late-70s, when Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined the band, turning intra-band soap opera theatrics into some of the best-selling albums and best-known singles of all time.  And there are fans of the original Fleetwood Mac, helmed by bluesman Peter Green, with Green classics like "Oh Well" and "Rattlesnake Shake" and of course the original "Black...