Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 26

My Top 1000 Songs #892: Other 99

[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.]

Big Audio Dynamite never seemed to get the recognition they deserved, and their third album--1988's Tighten Up Vol. 88--in particular felt unfairly overlooked, both at the time and certainly since (where's the expanded remaster we deserve??). After a pair of groundbreaking records which merged pop, rock, and electronic dance music, chock full of samples and...

My Top 1000 Songs #891: Cadence And Cascade

[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.]

Undoubtedly the most beautiful song from my high school prog phase, a stripped-down, simply gorgeous acoustic guitar & piano ballad (plus flute solo--c'mon, it's prog!) that puts the art in art rock. And also a door into myriad King Crimson what-might-have-beens.

After the remarkable triumph of the band's 1969 debut, still one of the defining moments in prog...

Nick Frater: The Rebutles 1967-1970

Randomly stumbled across this one not long ago, and I've been enjoying it quite a bit. British songwriter/musician Nick Frater, an unabashed lover of McCartney-styled piano-based baroque pop music, has released a number of great albums in recent years. On 2024's The Rebutles/1967-1970, he delivers a heartfelt tribute to/pastiche of the Rutles (which, in turn, had delivered a heartfelt tribute to/pastiche of the Beatles, making this project rather meta if you think too hard about it). Imagine the...

My Top 1000 Songs #890: 88 Lines About 44 Women

[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.]

Yep, gonna take up a valuable slot on the list with a silly new wave-era novelty song from one-hit-wonder The Nails. So sue me.

You've got a helpfully literal title, a Casio keyboard drumbeat, and something to offend just about everyone. (I prefer the lo-fi 1982 single version, but the remake on 1984's Mood Swing LP is fine.) Not sure if I first heard it on ...

My Top 1000 Songs #889: Raisans

[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.]

On their second LP, 1987's You're Living All Over Me, Dinosaur Jr. were still firmly in feral post-punk mode, noisy guitar-driven rock, but started to show signs of the slightly more melodic grunge-adjacent alt.rock of later work. "Raisans" in particular sees of J. Mascis making minor concessions to college radio, merging thrashy punk and classic rock guita...

My Top 1000 Songs #888: Wouldn't It Be Good

[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.]

One of those 80s new wave-era songs that, whenever I hear it, reminds me of my high school & college years... or perhaps just reminds me of some movie that reminds me of my high school & college years. One can never be sure; the memory plays tricks.

Anyway, fantastic single from Nik Kershaw's 1984 debut Human Racing. Got that oh-so-80s-British-new-wave synth...

My Top 1000 Songs #887: Starry Eyes

[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.]

Not to be confused with The Records' timeless power pop track of the same name--previously seen here at #115 on our list--this "Starry Eyes" is a modest, retro-styled pop number from the unlikely pen of troubled acid casualty Roky Erickson. After several late 60s garage band psych records with the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Erickson pursued a haphazard sol...

My Top 1000 Songs #886: Wasteland

[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.]

Paul Weller is one of the few songwriters who can match Ray Davies' gift for capturing British life (at least as imagined by us Americans). But while Davies' work often focuses on the denizens of quaint rural villages, The Jam's "Wasteland" situates itself in the bleakest throes of urban blight (or maybe some post-apocalyptic future, it's hard to say). Yet ...

My Top 1000 Songs #885: The American Metaphysical Circus

[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.]

My fascination with obscure & forgotten late 60s psychedelia has led me to some strange places, but few as strange as the eponymous (and only) album from L.A.-based The United States Of America. Their 1968 LP bears some resemblance to the Jefferson Airplane, with their male/female vocals, varied musical influences, and blend of politics & drugs. But they al...

New-Ish Releases: Rose City Band

On their fifth LP, Sol Y Sombra, Rose City Band make a huge shift from their enduringly mellow cosmic American music...

No, I'm kidding. It's another reliable slab of gentle psychedelic country rock, a blend of the Gram Parsons/Grateful Dead/Beach Boys-informed-stylings of Beachwood Sparks and the early 70s Pink Floyd-inspired sunshine psych of Kingsbury Manx. And in the midst of a rainy winter and a country in collapse, what could be more welcome than music designed for a sunny summer afternoon ...