Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 42

A Buncha New Releases

Got a few new(ish) albums in rotation right now. Let's go!

Robyn Hitchcock, 1967: Vacations In The Past

One of my long-running musical heroes, Robyn Hitchcock has always used his evocative words not just in his lyrics, but in liner notes and live commentary... and finally got around to writing a memoir last year. It's focused on a very narrow slice of time, the titular year, walking us through glimpses of his childhood and, especially, his musical discoveries. Now we've got the soundtrack, Hitchco...

Phish: Billy Breathes

I assume we've reached the point where most music fans fall squarely into three buckets: (1) those who love Phish; (2) those who hate Phish; and (3) those who don't know anything about Phish and are pretty ok with that.

Whichever bucket you fall into, it's probably based on their live shows (or, for buckets 2 and 3, what you imagine their live shows to sound like). Which is fair; I'm firmly among those who love Phish, and it's based largely on their live performances.

But I also find their studio ...

The Feelies: Only Life (1988)

Having spent the past ~750 days writing up the top 3/4 of my 1000 favorite songs, I'm gonna take a breather before hitting those last 250 (or more?). I started this blog (itself just an exercise to get me doing some daily writing) focused on albums in my collection, and, frankly, it feels weird to spend so much time talking about individual songs. As a certified middle-aged dude, I grew up on long-players. And while the days of curling up in my bedroom for hours listening to scratchy vinyl recor...

It Was 40 Years Ago Today (-ish)

Well, maybe not to the day, but it was more or less precisely 40 years ago when I arrived at college. And for me, that freshman year will always be inextricably intertwined with my discovery of R.E.M. (and the countless college radio bands who joined them in completely altering the direction of my musical life). I was turned on to their initial releases all at once, their 1982 debut EP Chronic Town and 1983's Murmur and the still-relatively-newish Reckoning , and still tend to listen to them as a...

My Top 1000 Songs #750: Please

[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.] 

Look, I'm basically a man of simple tastes. I'm perfectly content with a lightweight bubblegum track, something that sounds like it would have been used in a silly montage sequence in a late 60s/early 70s Archies or Josie & The Pussycats cartoon, with a sing-along melody, maybe some boy-girl traded vocals. And then run that sucker through a maxed-out fuzzb...

My Top 1000 Songs #749: True To Life

[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.] 

A deep cut on Uncle Tupelo's second album, 1991's Still Feel Gone, "True To Life" sands off some of the post-punk edge that pervaded their first two albums, leaving behind some unadulterated, harmonica-abetted, folked-out Americana. But the band's raging power remains, delivered through Jay Farrar's imposing force-of-nature vocals and lyrics that stab at y...

My Top 1000 Songs #748: Boy

[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.] 

Yeah, I'm mostly a guitar-bass-drums kinda guy. But when "Boy" came out (as a 1985 single and then on Book Of Love's self-titled 1986 debut LP), it was a great way to break up my radio show, a little synth-pop to intersperse with all the jangle pop & post-punk guitar rock that dominated my playlists. Plus, it was nice to show a little love to a (mostly) gi...

My Top 1000 Songs #747: I Need To Know Where I Stand

[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.] 

Rhett Miller is such a prolific author of good, often great, work--whether as a solo artist or with Americana stalwarts Old 97's--that it's hard for any particular song to rise above the pack. That said, I have a sweet spot for "I Need To Know Where I Stand," off his 2009 self-titled solo LP. It's a relentlessly amiable listen, dead-center between country ...

My Top 1000 Songs #746: Epitaph

[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.] 

"Epitaph" was the other song (suite?) on King Crimson's 1969 debut masterpiece, In The Court Of The Crimson King , that totally floored me, a counterpart to the breathtaking title track that closed the LP. Like "Court," it's big and majestic and over-the-top and pretentious, everything that can make a lengthy prog track magnificent--or truly terrible and un...

My Top 1000 Songs #745: And Your Bird Can Sing

[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.] 

This is the third track off 1966's Revolver to make the list (fourth if you include the contemporaneous b-side "Rain"--referenced all the way back at the #1 spot when I started the reverse countdown--which I think you should). And it sorta makes sense, as Revolver is a helluva Beatles record (particularly the imaginary perfected version which includes the ...