Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 77

My Top 1000 Songs #426: Earn Enough For Us

[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.]

Hey, ever have one of those songs where you're just walking around, minding your own business, and out of nowhere you find yourself humming some catchy little hook but for the life of you you can't place it, and it goes 'round and 'round in your head for days and you know the only way to make it stop is to track down the song and play it loud and move on, b...

More New Releases!

So much ugliness out there... at least there's some great new music to help distract us!

The Feelies: Some Kinda Love

Been eagerly awaiting this one, and it's finally out today (at least on Spotify; still waiting for it to go up on Bandcamp). I've been a massive fan of the Feelies since forever ago, and having had the joy of seeing them live a few times back in the 80s & early 90s, but denied that pleasure since they regrouped a few years back (they only offer a few limited performances on the Eas...

My Top 1000 Songs #425: If We Can Land A Man On The Moon...

[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 my second pick from Elephant 6-adjacent indie pop outfit Beulah, once again from 1999's lovely, often fascinating baroque pop exploration When Your Heartstrings Break. The full title is a mouthful--"If We Can Land A Man On The Moon, Surely I Can Win Your Heart"--but it certainly does an accurate job of capturing the guileless joy of the song. It's g...

My Top 1000 Songs #424: Talking In My Sleep

[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 to the (very deep) well of that amazing Rain Parade debut album, 1983's Emergency Third Rail Power Trip. "Talking In My Sleep," alongside the comparable "This Can't Be Today," is a perfect merger of jangly, Byrdsy pop, not too far afield from what R.E.M. was doing at the same time, with a darker, more deliberately psychedelic edge. Less over-the-t...

My Top 1000 Songs #423: Too Much Of Anything

[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.]

It's a testament to the remarkable greatness of The Who that some of what I consider to be among their best songs weren't even deemed good enough for proper release by the band. "Too Much Of Anything" is yet another great outtake that first saw light on their 1974 Odds & Sods compilation. It was originally recorded in 1971 for the aborted Lifehouse concept ...

My Top 1000 Songs #422: Hey

[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 got to college in '84, it was my chance to get adventurous (musically) and discover all the music I'd been missing in my cloistered midwestern suburb; all the amazing stuff that never found its way to MTV or the local classic rock station or the mixtapes my high school friends would play at parties.

Still, there were some limits, some artists that fel...

My Top 1000 Songs #421: Step On

[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.]

It's been just a few days since we were last here, but here's another one from the shortlist of UK dance/Manchester/shoegaze tracks that are intractably embedded in my memories of my '88-'91 law school years. Of all the bands from that time in my life, I probably have the least emotional affection for Happy Mondays--probably because their music seemed bette...

My Top 1000 Songs #420: Whisper To A Scream

[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.]

File this one under "High School-era Songs I Still Love Because They Remind Me Of High School (Or At Least The Good Parts)."

"Whisper To A Scream (Birds Fly)" is a pretty amazing 1983 single, later issued on The Icicle Works' 1984 self-titled debut. For added confusion, the original UK release had the title reversed--i.e. "Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)"--a...

My Top 1000 Songs #419: Crayon Angels

[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 was only introduced to the beautiful, often disturbing, folk music of the late Judee Sill about a decade ago; but it didn't take long to be won over by the small catalog of music she produced in her brief time. Plenty of great songs I like equally well, but the opening track on her 1971 self-titled debut seems like the right starting point. Over a gentle ...

My Top 1000 Songs #418: The Only One I Know

[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.]

Killer single off Some Friendly, the 1990 debut from UK's Charlatans (or The Charlatans UK, here in the States). I had a brief window from '88-'91--my law school years--when I pivoted to a lot of UK music, the myriad Manchester/"baggy"/shoegaze acts of the day. There are a half dozen tracks I closely associate with that time in my life, for good or ill, and...