Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 32

Paul Pena: New Train

So I kinda got a little tired of writing about random albums in my collection a couple years ago, and pivoted to a daily walk through my Top 1000 songs instead. Still, there are a few crevices of the collection I missed and still wanna get out there... Like this Great Lost Album from singer-songwriter/guitarist Paul Pena.

Pena, for the few who know him, is best remembered for writing "Jet Airliner" (made into a hit by the Steve Miller Band) and for being somewhat Grateful Dead-adjacent, opening s...

My Top 1000 Songs #839: I Hear Noises

[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 certified old music nerd, I'm given to crotchety "you kids get off my lawn!" exhortations about the sad state of modern pop music. But every few years I'll hear a song like Tegan And Sara's "I Hear Noises" (from 2002's If It Was You) and think, ok, things are gonna be fine. Next-generation jangly power pop with a fresh twist, for those of us who grew u...

My Top 1000 Songs #838: Don't Feel Bad

[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've spilled a lot of ink in these parts on my love for Rain Parade's 1983 debut, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip , one of my favorite records ever. The follow-up, and final proper studio album until a recent reunion, isn't quite as revelatory. But 1985's Crashing Dream , recording after frontman Steven Roback's brother David had departed for what would becom...

My Top 1000 Songs #837: Up With People

[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.]

Can't say I listen to Lambchop that much these days. Kurt Wagner and his large coterie of musicians have produced some weirdly interesting and often striking music, somewhere between freak folk and Americana and indie rock and blue-eyed soul, and I kinda got into them back around the time of 2000's Nixon, when I saw them open for Yo La Tengo. There were abo...

My Top 1000 Songs #836: Running On Empty

[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.]

That's how I opened my book... Which I bring up because, just the other night, I had a long stretch of dream where Jackson Browne's "Running On Empty" was playing. Don't remember much about the dream besides the song being cranked up pretty loud in my head, though I'm pretty sure I was playing air guitar to the solo. I woke up, maybe around 3 a.m., and coul...

My Top 1000 Songs #835: Rise

[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.]

Johnny Rotten/Lydon's post-Sex Pistols outfit Public Image Ltd. are one of those bands I've never enjoyed as much as I'm told I'm supposed to. Sure, I appreciate the experimental nature of their early, groundbreaking work--on paper. But do I ever feel the need to sit down and listen to Second/Metal Box? Not really.
So while purists may disagree, the one albu...

My Top 1000 Songs #834: Ray Ray Rain

[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.]

Dutch indie rockers Bettie Serveert nailed it right out of the box with their 1992 debut Palomine , still one of my favorite records of the 90s. A long time in coming, 1995's follow-up, Lamprey, couldn't quite match it, but was still pretty damn solid, offering a comparable blend of chiming folk-tinged rock (highlighted by Carol Van Dijk's appealing vocals) ...

Hey! It's More New Releases!

Wussy: Cincinnati, Ohio Sifting through some more 2024 releases as I gear up for my annual year-end mix/playlist. First up is the latest from long-running indie/Americana act Wussy, whose new one gives a nod to their home base. It's raw, cosmic American music, basking in gauzy electric atmospherics, somewhere between Silver Jews and Yo La Tengo, or Cowboy Junkies with the amps cranked up. Seems to have fewer outright rockers than prior records, most the tracks a little more somber, fizzy film noi...

My Top 1000 Songs #833: Son Of Sam

[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 get the sense many/most Elliott Smith loyalists prefer his more intimate, stripped-down work, but I think he shone even brighter when he started giving his songs a more polished, full-band, almost Beatlesque accompaniment. Case in point? "Son Of Sam," from 2000's Figure 8, his final proper studio album before his tragic demise. It's a lush, piano-driven, ...

My Top 1000 Songs #832: Marlene On The Wall

[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.]

Seems we've been on a run of mid-80s songs from my college days; here's another one from an album that I played all the time as a young student. Suzanne Vega's 1985 self-titled debut was a little more mainstream-sounding than most of the college radio indie rock that took over my life back then, but was innovative in its own way. She followed Joni Mitchell'...