Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 83

My Top 1000 Songs #370: Elephant Talk

[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.]

Another pair of songs that remain intrinsically linked in my mind--King Crimson's "Elephant Talk" first came to my attention when the band appeared as a musical guest on late-night Saturday Night Live imitator Fridays, much like my initial exposure to Devo (referenced yesterday). I had read a little bit about Crimson--I was just starting to get into Gabriel...

My Top 1000 Songs #369: Uncontrollable Urge

[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 impossible to explain to someone today what it felt like to first experience Devo as a kid. If your frame of reference is the classic rock of your childhood, and some emerging new wave/punk artists who are still mainstream friendly--the Clash, the Go-Go's, the Police--it completely upsets your equilibrium the first time Devo shows up on your tv set. Ne...

My Top 1000 Songs #368: 2541

[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, ok, just a little too cute to have the late Grant Hart's "2541" back-to-back with Bob Mould's "See A Little Light." But I tend to closely associate the two. Both are wonderful break-up-ish songs; Hart's seems a little easier to link to the dissolution of Hüsker Dü, but like Mould's, it works perfectly fine as a send-off to any sort of relationship, a ...

My Top 1000 Songs #367: See A Little Light

[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.]

Definitely one of those right-songs-at-the-right-time kinda deals.

1989. The pivot from college to post-graduate life a little bittersweet. Definitely missing the steady flow of new music and like-minded musical friends from the college station.  Hüsker Dü broken up; R.E.M. and The Replacements on major labels, still making good music but the magic of the al...

My Top 1000 Songs #366: Fly

[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.]

One of the joys of an obsession with obscure 60s psychedelia is culling through all the badly-dated, entertaining but not necessarily enduring ephemera of the era in search of the rare gem that truly stands out and encapsulates the whole vibe you're searching for.

One such track is "Fly," off the sole album from J.K. & Co., 1968's Suddenly One Summer. As I n...

My Top 1000 Songs #365: That Great Love Sound

[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.]

Wow... #365... exactly one year (give or take a few vacation days) ticking through my 1000 favorite songs for about three regular readers. For this I retired from the practice of law?

But, hey, let's make #365 a good 'un. And it is! This blistering Raveonettes track, from their 2003 full-length debut Chain Gang Of Love, checks off a lot of boxes on the post-...

David Bowie: The Berlin Trilogy (An Imaginary Album)

A few weeks back, a few of us music geeks over on Music Twitter were having a polite conversion on the relative merits of David Bowie's late 70s so-called "Berlin Trilogy," the three albums he recorded (largely in Berlin) with Brian Eno and producer Tony Visconti. Like other Bowie fans, I find the records both terrific and frustrating, offering some of Bowie's greatest songs, but not necessarily records I ever listen to from beginning to end. I resolved to create my own imaginary Bowie album inc...

My Top 1000 Songs #364: Genius Of Love

[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.]

For awhile, "Genius of Love" was one of those tunes with serious high school nostalgia vibes. The Tom Tom Club's 1981 self-titled debut LP (a side project from Talking Heads rhythm section Tina Weymouth & Chris Frantz) came out at the tail end of my freshman year, and was kind of inescapable that summer. Plus I was just getting really into Talking Heads at ...

My Top 1000 Songs #363: Chivalry

[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 don't necessarily share the same passion for the Mekons as some devotees out there. Their wide-reaching and at times experimental amalgam of punk, country, folk, and British whimsy can be hit and miss for me (though I really like 1988's So Good It Hurts and 1989's Rock 'n Roll). But wow, I adore this song!

"Chivalry" appeared on 1985's Fear And Whiskey, an...

My Top 1000 Songs #362: Friends Of P.

[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.]

Is this another one from the Guilty Pleasures file? I suppose it can be cast aside as a lightweight one-hit wonder that, for better and worse, encapsulates the sound of mid-90s alternative rock radio... but, fuck it, a great pop song is a great pop song.

Weezer bassist Matt Sharp set out on his own after that band's first couple records, helming the Rentals ...