Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 171

XTC: Black Sea (1980)

Continuing with the motif of yesterday's Mott The Hoople write-up, XTC are another band I love with a hot burning passion, yet can't really point to any one album I find truly compelling from start to finish.  As with Mott, I've made myself an XTC compilation drawn from their long career, and I think it's pretty face-meltingly great and mostly does the trick.  (The exceptions are the EP and LP they released under their Dukes of Stratosphear moniker, wonderful 60s psyche-pop...

Mott The Hoople: Mott (1973)

Mott The Hoople are one of those bands where I have great passion for the band, but don't find any one of their albums consistently great from start to finish.  Across the seven studio albums released during their original half-decade or so run, there are enough unbelievably great songs to make for an absolutely perfect compilation; yet I rarely listen to the albums themselves.  (That said, I have yet to see a compilation as great as the one I made for myself, or I'd be posting it...

Supertramp: S/T (1970)

I suppose this is another one from the guilty pleasures file.  'Cuz let's face it; Supertramp is singularly uncool.  Here's what I had to say about Supertramp in my book:
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Salad Boys: Metalmania (2015)

I've long extolled the magic of the New Zealand indie scene of the 80s (and on into the early 90s), that whole stable of great bands on the Flying Nun label who mined the sounds of 60s garage bands, the Velvet Underground, and early punk-adjacent acts like Television and the Feelies -- bands like The Clean, The Bats, The Chills, The Verlaines, etc.

And while those bands and myriad others have continued to kick around in one form or another, it's been awhile since I've come across a...

My 500 Favorite Songs

Taking a brief break from the album-of-the-day today to talk about... songs.  Now, I assume everybody has taken a few minutes at one point or other to quickly jot down a list of their 500 favorite songs, in order.  Hello?  Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Bueller?

Ok, I guess I'm a little strange.  I had a little down-time a few years ago -- I think I had just resolved a bit of litigation, was waiting to start gearing up for a large trial, and decided to undertake...

Manfred Mann: Best Of The Fontana Years (1966-1969)

Keyboardist Manfred Mann has been helming some variation of the band that bears his name for decades.  And like Fleetwood Mac, another British act that bears the names of its sturdy backbone rather than the highly distinctive frontmen/women that have personified the group over the decades, each era is distinct enough to represent more or less an entirely different band.

Manfred Mann began in the early/mid-60s as a second-tier British Invasion act, a blend of updated R&B not indistinct...

Built To Spill: You In Reverse (2006)

While these days it doesn't seem Built to Spill get as much credit for their role in building up the 90s indie rock scene as, say, Pavement, Yo La Tengo, and Guided by Voices, their immense contributions can't be denied.  At least as much as YLT's Ira Kaplan, BTS's Doug Martsch blew up any suggestion that punk rock killed long and wonky guitar solos and creative fretwork (though Television's "Marquee Moon" clearly belied that myth); while Martsch can write a pithy indie rock tune with...

The 6ths: Wasps' Nests (1995)

Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields is not only one of the most gifted lyricists of our age, but for a period of time was one of the most prolific.  Back in the '90s, beyond just providing material for his main band (including the fantastic 3-CD set 69 Love Songs ), he had a number of side projects.  My favorite was The 6ths, where he recruited a who's-who of indie rock luminaries to provide vocals for his songs.  1995's Wasps' Nests (both the artist name and album title...

Yung Wu: Shore Leave (1987)

I've made no secret of my undying love for the Feelies' 1986 classic The Good Earth , the Peter Buck-produced slice of jangly, pastoral heaven that rarely leaves my stereo for very long.  Yet while it took them 6 years to release Good Earth following their 1980 debut, they managed to come up with a sequel in under a year.  But it wasn't an actual Feelies album; that would take another year, 1988's terrific Only Life.  Instead, 1987's Shore Leave was an album by Yung Wu --...

Liz Phair: Exile In Guyville (1993)

Pardon the distraction, but I thought I'd share another excerpt from my recently-published book.  (Yes, I'd love it if you'd check it out and pass the word to your friends!) 

I passed over Exile In Guyville last time I talked about Liz Phair because, frankly, there's not much more to be said about the album.  Plus, I think some of her follow-up work, particularly Whip-Smart , is unfairly (pardon the pun) overlooked as everyone steps over one another to extoll the wonders of Exile...