Marc Fagel's Blog: Jittery White Guy Music: The Blog, page 98

My Top 1000 Songs #225: Little Babies

This song was my introduction to Sleater-Kinney, my buddy cranking this up on the speakers shortly after Dig Me Out 's 1997 release and saying "you've gotta hear this." And it's one of those songs that makes you fall in love with a band within about 10 seconds. You've got the offsetting guitars and call-and-response vocals from Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein; the rousing "dum dum di-di-di dum dum" chorus; and of course Janet Weiss barreling through it all like a locomotive on the toms. By the...

My Top 1000 Songs #224: Walk On The Wild Side

With so many groundbreaking and still relatively underappreciated Velvet Underground songs out there (to say nothing of his long & varied solo career), it feels like kind of a cop-out to give a shout-out to the one Lou Reed song most people have actually heard. Screw the pop singles, bring on "Sister Ray"!!! But its status as a longtime classic rock mainstay detracts from the simple fact that "Walk On The Wild Side" (from 1972's Transformer) is just a brilliant, undeniably wonderful song. That b...

My Top 1000 Songs #223: The Good Mr. Square

I suppose I'm "cheating" (for the second time) by going with a medley of sorts, though "The Good Mr. Square" and the adjoining "She Was Tall, She Was High" are properly heard as a single song (checking in at a combined three minutes, just barely). I was tempted to go with a longer swath of the Pretty Things' underappreciated 1970 album Parachute --the record's psychedelic first half makes for a singular suite of music--but figured I'd keep things a little more focused.

As noted in my write-up on t...

My Top 1000 Songs #222: Shaking Through

Given Murmur 's integral role in my life, I think I've shown amazing restraint in cherry-picking just a few songs from the LP, this being only the third to hit the Top 1000 so far. It's a prime example of the band's early Peter Buck jangle (augmented by some lovely piano from bassist Mike Mills) coupled with an unforgettable melody, a chorus that sounds as stunning and refreshing as it did on that first listen nearly 40 years ago.

It's also Michael Stipe at his most mumbly, with maximum space to i...

My Top 1000 Songs #221: Sloop John B

Sure, on the surface it's a silly Bahamian folk song set to pop music, an odd little trifle wedged among the seemingly more noteworthy Pet Sounds classics. But it's the expendability of the surface level song that allows you to focus on the remarkable vocal arrangements. Much like a Cocteau Twins song, the vocals are notable for their sound, not for what the lyrics do or don't convey. It's Brian Wilson earning the genius title, layers upon layers of vocals--and the 10-second a capella break in t...

My Top 1000 Songs #220: Public Image

Public Image Ltd., starring the post-Sex Pistols Johnny [Rotten] Lydon, are on the list of bands I know I'm supposed to like a lot more than I actually do. They've had some fine singles over the years, and I think 1986's Album did a fine job tethering Lydon's abrasive wail to a more (college) radio-friendly indie rock sound. But while I can appreciate the inventive experimentation of, say, their second album, it's more something I respect in principle than a record I feel like spinning up very o...

My Top 1000 Songs #219: Thrasher

Every time I'm about to post yet another Neil Young tune, I have to stop and think, yeah, that's a pretty good one, but what about...? (Frankly, I'm similarly indecisive on his LPs, cycling regularly among Zuma , On The Beach , and After The Gold Rush as absolutely, positively, without a doubt my all-time favorite.)

But I'm sticking with "Thrasher," returning once again to the 1979's Rust Never Sleeps--another contender for his best album?--but this time flipping it over to the acoustic side. It's ...

My Top 1000 Songs #218: Pretty In Pink

This one stands alongside "Love My Way" as the twin pillars of my high school love of the Psychedelic Furs. A fun (albeit disturbing) new wave rocker, Richard Butler's gritty rasp and the bittersweet tale of an ill-treated young woman given a deceptively bright sheen by the song's joyous pop hook. Is it a slightly misogynistic put-down of a "loose" girl, or a sympathetic look at a self-unaware girl trying to find herself? I vacillate. Though for me, the tougher question is whether to go with the...

My Top 1000 Songs #217: Sugar Hiccup

Another one of those songs I cite more for its emotional resonance than strictly on its objective merits; indeed, there are other Cocteau Twins songs I prefer and am far more likely to throw onto a mixtape if I'm trying to evangelize for the band. But "Sugar Hiccup," off 1983's Head Over Heels LP, was the song that lured me in to their undeniably distinctive ethos, and still holds a certain magic spell over me. 

I came across the band's first few records a couple years after Heels' release, in co...

My Top 1000 Songs #216: Some Jingle Jangle Morning

Singer-songwriter Mary Lou Lord has always had a lot of jingle-jangle in her melodic indie folk-pop tunes. Title aside, though, this track breaks the mold, a heavily distorted blast of power pop (overlaying a Byrdsy hook) that betrays more of her proximity to the early 90s Seattle grunge scene (and Kurt Cobain friendship) than her more typical fare. After its initial appearance as a rough-hewn 1993 indie single, it was polished up a bit (while retaining its bubbly energy) for her 1998 debut long...