Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 5

Famous Groupies: Black Apple (2024)

I raved about Famous Groupies a few years back when I first discovered them, but I'm just now belatedly getting into their most recent release, 2024's Black Apple. As noted last time, Famous Groupies are the project of Scottish musician Kirkcaldy McKenzie, joined by various friends & family, though the fanciful band bio makes it hard to say for sure. While plenty of bands fussed over on these pages check the "Beatlesque" box, to one degree or another, Famous Groupies are particularly influenced-...

My Top 2000 Songs #1070: Bohemian Rhapsody

I've deliberately tried to focus this list on songs I still enjoy listening to, avoiding the usual, cliched "classics," the universally acclaimed hits which stuff must Greatest Song lists and which have become relentlessly boring due to decades of radio over-saturation.

But I'll make an exception here. Because--no, I never sit at home, turn on the stereo, and surf over to "Bohemian Rhapsody." At most, I'll occasionally play my home-made Queen compilation CDR in the car--frankly, the only 80 minut...

New Releases: Superchunk

Superchunk have comfortably eased into their roles as elder statesmen of indie rock, dutifully releasing a solid new record every few years to remind us Where We Are. 2017's What A Time To Be Alive greeted the Trump I era with a furious blast of punk reviving their early sound, while 2022's Wild Loneliness seemed to breathe a sigh of Biden-era relief with some gentler jangle. Their latest, the aptly-titled Songs In The Key Of Yikes, splits the difference, at least sonically, mostly sticking to t...

My Top 2000 Songs #1069: Police On My Back

Our second selection off the Clash's epic 1980 triple LP Sandinista ; and our second example of the Clash's cover being indisputably the definitive version (with all due respect to the original artists). In this case, "Police On My Back" was originally a 1967 single by British band the Equals, written and sung by Eddy Grant (probably best known outside the UK for the massive 1983 MTV-era hit "Electric Avenue"). And, hey, it's a great song, some post-British Invasion R&B-tinged freakbeat not far a...

My Top 2000 Songs #1068: Going Down To Liverpool

The chiming, Beatlesque power pop ditty "Going Down To Liverpool" was one of the earliest recordings by Katrina & The Waves, back when they were still simply The Waves (with vocalist Katrina Leskanich playing a more limited role in the band). The raw, original version, included on the Waves' 1982 indie debut EP Shock Horror, was sung by songwriter/guitarist Kimberley Rew; he'd joined the Waves flush with original material after his former band, the Soft Boys, broke up and frontman Robyn Hitchcoc...

My Top 2000 Songs #1067: Bad Texan

One of the more recent genres I enjoy, albeit in small doses, is droning neo-psychedelia, atmospheric noisy jams for cranking up and zoning out--Wooden Shjips (and spin-off Moon Duo), Vacant Lots, Flavor Crystals, etc. British act The Lucid Dream (recently broken up, alas) were fine purveyors of sonic blasts with fist-pumping grooves, but still snuck in some catchy pop hooks on "Bad Texan" (off 2016's Compulsion Songs). Six and a half minutes of dark, throbbing waves that still shimmer brightly,...

New Releases: Live Who!

Just as the smoking embers of The Who, grizzled old lions Pete & Roger & a whole buncha drama, take it out on the road one more time (43 years(!) after teenage me saw their first "farewell tour"), they've released an old 1971 gig to help us all relive the glory days. Live At The Oval, recorded in London in 1971, captures them in peak form during the Who's Next era, leaving behind most of the Tommy set in favor of some then-new numbers (alongside the usual chestnuts; alas, the band has never been...

My Top 2000 Songs #1066: Made Up In Blue

The Bats' wonderfully perky 1986 single "Made Up In Blue" (later appended to the CD release of 1987 fantastic debut LP Daddy's Highway ) perfectly captures the early sound of New Zealand's Flying Nun indie label. Pleasant melodic jangle, delightfully hummable, with a percolating bassline and shuffling percussion that keeps it moving at a brisk clip. It's the sort of song one would imagine being a #1 chart hit in a universe where the Feelies were as big as the Beatles.Live 1990:Slow, dreamy cover ...

My Top 2000 Songs #1065: Losing True

Last time folk harmony sister trio The Roches made an appearance, I bemoaned how they (somewhat incongruously) netted guitar virtuoso Robert Fripp (on a break from prog legends King Crimson) to produce their debut, yet he only pulled out his trademark Frippertronics on a single track. Fripp returned for their third album, 1982's Keep On Doing--and once again stayed largely out of the picture. The exception this time around was "Losing True," a beautiful, subdued track, deliriously devastating ha...

My Top 2000 Songs #1064: Paper Planes

Presumably an unexpected entry on the list, British singer & electronic music artist M.I.A. fits pretty squarely in the "artists that are totally not my thing but had that one song" bucket. (And that's just based on her music, without getting into the anti-vax, Trump-supporting political wackjobbery.) But I've made no secret of my weakness for well-deployed samples, and M.I.A.'s 2008 single "Paper Planes" rests near the top of the list--in this case, brilliantly selecting the Clash's "Straight t...