Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 29

My Top 1000 Songs #868: Smells Like Teen Spirit

[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 much to say about this one. And, look, obviously if we were talking about music in terms of cultural relevance and musical influence, Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is something I would've listed 100s of songs ago. But this list is based on my personal relationship with a song, not some external measure. And on that basis? It's #868. Whatever, neve...

My Top 1000 Songs #867: Piggy In The Middle

[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.]

Back in the late 70s, one of Chicago's classic rock stations--I think it was WLUP (The Loop! Long-since sold and turned into a Christian radio station, ugh)--would have an annual Beatles weekend, 72 straight hours of nothing but Beatles and Beatles-related music. I was still a pre-teen at the time, first getting into the band, familiar with the obvious hits...

My Top 1000 Songs #866: Yankee Bayonet

[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.]

So... the Decemberists, huh? Mixed feelings for this band (as the fact that this is their first appearance on this site may suggest). At their best, I find their songs very stirring and emotional, Colin Meloy's vocals and the lyrical imagery and the sweetly folk-tinged but sometimes challenging music conjuring just a bit of Neutral Milk Hotel. But some of i...

My Top 1000 Songs #865: God

[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.]

Tori Amos is one of those artists who's been around forever, I've got a ton of her music, yet I only infrequently find myself pulling out her records... but whenever I do, I end up thinking, hey, I really need to listen to this more often! And while there have been some fine releases all along, she hit an early peak on her second solo record (not counting t...

New Releases: Ex-Vöid

The first new release I've picked up in 2025, Ex-Vöid's sophomore LP, In Love Again, gets the year off to a fine start.

As if the band's metal-sounding name wasn't already enough to put listeners off the scent, the album cover wonderfully suggests a thrashy black metal record that couldn't be further from what lies within.

Sure, the album kicks off with a squeal of feedback, and there's plenty of post-punk distortion... but at heart it's another burst of 90s-reminiscent giddy jangle pop, highlight...

My Top 1000 Songs #864: Pink Moon

[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.]

Did I first hear this song in a 2000 Volkswagen commercial? Yeah, probably. Up to that point, somewhat obscure British folk music wasn't really in my wheelhouse. Maybe Donovan, or some of the unplugged pre-T.Rex Tyrannosaurus Rex, but even that wasn't really my speed. But I did belatedly get around to checking out Nick Drake's catalog, as my aging ears beca...

My Top 1000 Songs #863: Ever Fallen In Love

[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.]

Buzzcocks' Singles Going Steady collection, one of history's most unassailable "hits" (loosely speaking) compilations, is another record where I could comfortably throw most of its contents up on this list. So I've shown remarkable restraint so far, finally getting around to a third selection. "Ever Fallen In Love" (originally from 1978's Love Bites) may be...

My Top 1000 Songs #862: The Story In Your 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.]

As a teenager who got very much into the Moody Blues early in high school, I had no illusions about their inherent uncoolness. (Especially at that moment in time, when they were pivoting from their old 60s & 70s classic rock & prog blend into the adult contemporary phase of their later years, though I thought 1981's Long Distance Voyager did a surprisingly ...

My Top 1000 Songs #861: Ageless Beauty

[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.]

Sometimes a pop song is just a pop song, ok? Montreal-based Stars are one of those post-millennium bands I like just fine, more on a song-by-song basis than a life-changing-LP basis, but "Ageless Beauty," off 2004's Set Yourself On Fire, definitely made me sit up and take notice. Big, chiming pop hooks, with a gentle dream pop vibe given just enough shoegaz...

My Top 1000 Songs #860: Baby Fish Mouth

[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.]

When I picked up His Name Is Alive's 1993 LP Mouth By Mouth, I was living in an old, drafty Victorian in San Francisco's Noe Valley. Something about the record's blend of Cocteau Twins-inspired goth ambience and a weird amalgam of more alt.rock-friendly pop and Big Star's Third-like melancholy (including a nifty cover of that record's "Blue Moon") and home-...