Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 43

My Top 1000 Songs #744: Wasted

[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 arrived at the college radio station in 1984, the DJs were largely divided into two camps--those who preferred the jangly indie pop of bands like the dB's and R.E.M. and the Feelies; and those who were into the hardcore punk scene. (Of course, plenty of bands blurred those lines or avoided them altogether, like the Replacements, Minutemen, Sonic You...

My Top 1000 Songs #743: Free Fallin'

[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 wonder if this one has moved into the Guilty Pleasures column...
The track (off Tom Petty's first "solo" album (sort of?), 1989's Full Moon Fever) isn't exactly his most musically complex work, those same three chords gently (and endlessly) strumming through the verses and choruses. Some memorable lyrics in the verses, sure, but then that chorus, over and...

My Top 1000 Songs #742: Bazooka Joe

[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.] 

Oddly vivid record store memories:
For a brief time in the 90s, the late, lamented Tower Records installed these cool Listening Station kiosks. They'd have a dozen new releases loaded into the machine, jukebox style, and you could slip on some headphones and preview the CDs before purchasing. Not quite like some of the used record stores I used to haunt, wh...

My Top 1000 Songs #741: If I Can't Change Your Mind

[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 second visit to Copper Blue , the terrific 1992 debut from Bob Mould's post-Hüsker Dü power-trio Sugar. And if "A Good Idea" showed Mould at his most menacing, "If I Can't Change Your Mind" is Mould at his most easy-going and poppy. It's a sequel of sorts to "See A Little Light," off Mould's 1989 solo debut, infectious jangle free from the buzz & howl of ...

My Top 1000 Songs #740: Cruel To Be Kind

[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 other than--the perfect pop song, perhaps? Ok, we've hit on a pretty good selection of "perfect pop songs" on this list, but it seems awfully obvious for Nick Lowe's "Cruel To Be Kind" (a song he'd played with Brinsley Schwarz but polished up a bit for 1979's Labour Of Lust). No great pretentions of greatness, just every conc...

New Releases: Chime School

It's been a great year for indie jangle pop (see 2024 releases from Quivers, Laughing, Polite Company, Ducks Ltd., The Umbrellas, etc.

Now, "jangle pop" is a term I throw around quite loosely in these parts, but if you're looking for a definitive example of what I'm talking about, go check out "The End," the incongruously-titled opening cut on Chime School's new LP, The Boys Who Rain The Paisley Hotel. Pretty jangly, right?

And that's what you get throughout the second release from the San Francis...

My Top 1000 Songs #739: Jocko Homo

[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 previously written about Devo's "Uncontrollable Urge," also from the band's 1978 debut Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo . So maybe just go re-read that one, way back at #369 on this list. Because they're kinda flip-sides of the same coin. But while "Urge" had a relatively straightforward new wave pop backing its utter strangeness, "Jocko Homo" (origin...

My Top 1000 Songs #738: Far Gone & Out

[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 you (mostly) strip away the trademark buzzsaw distortion of the Jesus and Mary Chain's early records, you're still left with one of the greatest pop bands of the post-punk era. "Far Gone And Out," off their fourth LP, 1992's Honey's Dead, feels like something they tossed together in about two minutes--and in all the best ways. Ultimately, it comes dow...

My Top 1000 Songs #737: Bitchin' Camaro

[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.] 

Yes, "Bitchin' Camaro," off the Dead Milkmen's 1985 debut Big Lizard In My Backyard , is more a novelty song than a legit great (or, ok, even good) track.
Yes, it's silly and sophomoric and awfully cringe (its gratuitous and unfortunate AIDS joke was terribly dated even at the time of release).
But, still...
The spoken-word dialog over a bluesy shuffle between...

My Top 1000 Songs #736: And She Was

[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.] 

The Talking Heads have so many songs that are simply brilliant--groundbreaking, complex, absurd, insightful, and unlike anything anyone else has ever recorded. I've cited a few, and I wish I had room for more. So it feels a little odd including "And She Was," which is, quite frankly, none of those things. 
It's just a silly pop song--almost a Talking Heads ...