Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 69

My Top 1000 Songs #501: Jet Boy Jet Girl/Ca Plane Pour Moi

[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.]

Kicking off the second half of this 1000-song/1000-day insanity (as well as kicking off 2024), we're gonna mix things up a bit, with sort of a two-fer. Musically (and certainly lyrically) a little jarring after yesterday's gorgeous, gentle love song by the Small Faces, here's some truly transgressive, not-safe-for-radio punk-heyday kitsch--albeit a love son...

My Top 1000 Songs #500: The Autumn Stone

[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.]

In a weird-ish coincidence, we hit #500 on the final day of 2023. Do I return in 2024 with the second half of my Top 1000? Or call it a day? Been doing this for 500 straight days, give or take, and these days--with the collapse of Twitter resulting in a lot less traffic than when I started--I'm writing this mainly for myself. I kinda get a kick of waking up...

My Top 1000 Songs #499: Goin' Against 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.]

My old college radio crowd used to bristle at my embrace of the Grateful Dead... but there's no shortage of hipster post-punk bands willing to do some serious jamming, eschewing Ramones-styled 3-chord riff rockers for some extended guitar twiddling. Ever since Television's sprawling "Marquee Moon," there have been long, noodly workouts from the likes of Son...

My Top 1000 Songs #498: Bronx Cheer

[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.]

While I generally prefer Mercury Rev's work after they'd pivoted into an artier, more psychedelia-inclined band (particularly on 1998's brilliant Deserter's Songs), this song from their earlier, noisier era--found on 1993 sophomore LP Boces--has long captivated me. Something about its reckless, propulsive chaos and skewed disjointedness, all in service of a...

My Top 1000 Songs #497: When You Wake Up Feeling Old

[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 off Wilco's wonderful 1999 opus Summerteeth, "When You Wake Up Feeling Old" isn't one of their better-known tracks. They only occasionally played it live, and I don't hear a lot of fans mentioning it as a favorite.

But for me, it's always been deeply personal and affecting, something I hear in a stray piano link that gives it a sad, nostalgic vibe...

My Top 1000 Songs #496: Way Behind Me

[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 Primitives' 1988 single "Crash" seems to get most of the love, but "Way Behind Me," released later that year, is every bit as great. A perfect blend of indie jangle and Phil Spector-infused 60s girl group pop, complete with finger-snaps and harmonies, it's hard not to love. Hell, even the band seemed to love it, including it both on 1989's Pure LP and C...

My Top 1000 Songs #495: Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory

[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.]

Returning once again to the deep well of Guided by Voices' 1994 classic Bee Thousand, we pluck out a tiny trifle of a song, barely a minute and a half long, which somehow manages to quickly capture what it is that hooked me on the band (and especially their fertile mid-90s run). It's one of those songs that's all but impossible to explain, and may not click...

My Top 1000 Songs #494: Smell Of Incense

[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.]

Some underappreciated 60s psychedelia, a track that deserves more than sub-Nuggets-level obscurity, "Smell Of Incense" perfectly captures a nostalgic, hazy, drug-addled Summer of Love vibe, crashed out on the second-hand sofa after a few bong hits. It's a lush and pretty tune from the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, the elusive act with the clunky nam...

My Top 1000 Songs #493: Such Great Heights

[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 first got into Death Cab For Cutie around the time of 2003's Transatlanticism. It took me awhile longer to get into singer Ben Gibbard's other project from the same year, teaming up with musician Jimmy Tamborello for The Postal Service's one-and-done LP Give Up. I don't listen to a lot of electronic music, preferring Death Cab's more traditional guitar-ba...

My Top 1000 Songs #492: No Matter What

[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. One of the truly definitive power pop tracks, one of those things where, if a stranger were to approach you on the street and ask, "What do you mean when you say 'power pop'?" you'd pull out your iPod and cue up "No Matter What."

Ok, yeah, this is the sort of conversation I have in my head all the time. (You'd know that if you...