In a lot of ways, the 1980s were a strange decade. Speaking specifically to the musical output there was a lot to like, but it was dominated by fads and failed experiments. As someone who had limited access to music other than what my parents played or what popular radio had to offer, the 80s were a kind of dark period for me until much later in life. But during those dark times some names were always part of the conversation, even if they just skirted around the fringe. One of those names was Joe Jackson.
I feel like I’ve always known Jackson’s name. I knew that he had some radio hits but I absolutely could not name one of them. I knew he had a few hit records, one was Look Sharp, the other had a white and blue cover, maybe with a drawing of a piano or something on it. This is about as much as I knew about Joe Jackson. In my pursuit to fill in some holes in my fabric of music information I decided it was time to see what Joe Jackson was all about.
Continue reading [The Past Presents] Joe Jackson – Body and Soul (1984) →
At this point in history I think it would be difficult to find many people who would exclude Radiohead’s OK Computer from a list of the best albums of 1997. I’d also wager that more than 70 percent of those lists would have OK Computer in the number 1 position. Few will argue that OK Computer is an album that will be listened to for decades to come. By 2000, Radiohead was basking in the glow of their fantastic follow-up album, Kid A, and were pretty well set up as one of the biggest bands in the world.
At the same time, another UK band, Catherine Wheel, was calling it quits. In 1997, Catherine Wheel also released an album, Adam and Eve. Like OK Computer, Adam and Eve was lauded by long-time fans and critics as the band’s masterpiece. Prior to this release, Catherine Wheel was known for their guitar-heavy shoegaze albums, particularly from their debut, Ferment, and its heavier follow-up, Chrome. Adam and Eve, the band’s fourth album, signaled a bold, exciting shift in the band’s sound, much like Radiohead’s leap from The Bends to OK Computer.
Catherine Wheel and Radiohead’s music followed similar trajectories in the 1990s. Both bands had highly successful debut records with big singles; Radiohead had “Creep” and Catherine Wheel had “Black Metallic.” Those debuts were followed by sophomore albums, The Bends and Chrome, respectively, which saw both bands brushing off a bit of the fuzz from their sound and pumping up the guitars. Catherine Wheel open Chrome with the thunderous “Kill Rhythm,” probably the closest shoegaze ever came to arena rock. Radiohead’s most popular track from The Bends was “Fake Plastic Trees,” which was one of the mellower tracks on the album. While The Bends was a great album it was clear that Radiohead needed a new direction or they would surely fade out.
Continue reading [The Past Presents] Catherine Wheel – Adam and Eve (1997) →
The Past Presents is typically where I take a fresh look at an older album, either because it’s regarded as a classic album and I’d like to see if it still holds up, or because it’s an album I feel is special and it never really got the love it deserves. For me, this column was always about looking at the records that many people feel are essential to every record collection. Moving forward, The Past Presents will still bring you these looks back at some great older records, but in and around those reviews, I’ll be writing about my own experiences with some records that are widely loved but I’ve just never had the time to hear. Oftentimes I’ll read about albums that have been on best-of lists for decades or my friends will tell me how great their favorite records are. Some of these I just have not had the time to hear beyond what a friend has played for me or what’s been curated by commercial radio. Sometimes I want to know if a Steely Dan album is really as bad as the singles I’ve heard. To make an effort to fill in some of these gaps for myself, I’ll be hitting record stores looking for albums I’ve heard about but have never listened to, then writing about my impressions. I’ve made a few rules for myself: I have to listen to the album start to finish three times before I write anything, I cannot research the album or the band in any way prior to listening, I can’t read re-issue liner notes, etc. This has to try and replicate a clean, unbiased first listen as much as possible.
To begin this new experiment I’ve chosen The Modern Lovers self-titled debut.
Continue reading [The Past Presents] The Modern Lovers – The Modern Lovers (1976) →
The Past Presents revisits revered albums from the past 20-25 years to ask the question, “Is this album still a classic, or has it lost its edge over the years?”. Was it a great record for that particular time and place, or is it something we’ll be passing on to our kids? It also looks at the “lost classics” – countless albums that should have earned more attention but for one reason or another fell through the cracks.
At this point it’s safe to say that most people who consider themselves obsessive music fans have seen the move High Fidelity. One of the classic moments of the film sees Jack Black’s character assisting a customer with records that are essential to his collection such as the Jesus and Mary Chain and Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde. Black slyly tells the customer, “Don’t tell anyone you don’t own Blonde on Blonde. It’s going to be okay.”
If there ever was a modern equivalent to Blonde on Blonde, it’s Slint’s Spiderland. Let’s be clear, Spiderland is not similar to Dylan’s classic in its sound, but it is similar in that it has become a record that you need to own, or at the very least be aware of.
When Slint quietly released Spiderland in 1991, I was too busy freaking out over Nirvana and Sonic Youth to notice, but by 1993 I was one board 100%. Unlike many albums, the noise surrounding this record has grown every year since. It is considered one of the first, if not the first record, to bear the post-rock and or math-rock tags and it is still known as one of the best of the genre. For my money, it’s also one of the best examples of an album’s ability to generate a mood. From start to finish Spiderland gives you the feeling that something sinister is about to happen. The tension is apparent throughout the album and is intensified by the seasickness the music induces. It sounds like a ship bobbing on rough seas; the music in constant motion, rocking back and forth and never letting you forget that something evil is to be unleashed.
Continue reading [The Past Presents] Slint – “Spiderland” →
The Past Presents revisits revered albums from the past 20-25 years to ask the question, “Is this album still a classic, or has it lost its edge over the years?”. Was it a great record for that particular time and place, or is it something we’ll be passing on to our kids? It also looks at the “lost classics” – countless albums that should have earned more attention but for one reason or another fell through the cracks.
I think most avid music fans can document the highs, lows and even the mid-ranges of their lives by pointing to a specific artist or album that is synonymous with a particular event or period of life. These albums typically stay with you for years, remaining a part of the fabric of your life story. For me, Unrest’s last album, Perfect Teeth, will be forever linked to my four years in college. Perfect Teeth, along with a handful of other standouts, kicked open the door to a whole new world of music that never surfaced in the small rural town I called home. This album was released in August of 1993, just as I was entering my sophomore year. As a freshman I’d discovered the Garden of Eden that was the Washington D.C. indie-rock world. In addition to Dischord, there were labels like Simple Machines and Teenbeat, helmed by Unrest front man Mark Robinson. Among these three labels nearly all of the regions’ best bands found a home.
While Dischord was home to the punk and hardcore acts, Simple Machines and Teenbeat took care of the indie-rock bands. As all three labels grew, Simple Machines and Teenbeat started to add bands from out of the immediate D.C. area, but you always knew that these labels were committed to the music of the Washington D.C. region. It seems a bit crazy now, almost 20 years down the road, that two labels of such prominence could pull from the same indie-rock pool and both do so well. I guess that speaks to the number of quality bands in D.C. at that time. Another factor was the labels had very distinct personalities. Simple Machines embraced a more serious, earnest brand of indie-rock, while Teenbeat tended to align themselves with more playful, and sometimes adventurous, bands. I did and still do hold both labels in high esteem, but they were very different animals to me.
Continue reading [The Past Presents] Unrest – “Perfect Teeth” →
The Past Presents revisits revered albums from the past 20-25 years to ask the question, “Is this album still a classic, or has it lost its edge over the years?”. Was it a great record for that particular time and place, or is it something we’ll be passing on to our kids? It […]
The Past Presents revisits revered albums from the past 20-25 years to ask the question, “Is this album still a classic, or has it lost its edge over the years?”. Was it a great record for that particular time and place, or is it something we’ll be passing on to our kids? It also looks at the “lost classics” – countless albums that should have earned more attention but for one reason or another fell through the cracks.
The comparison of music, particularly specific albums or songs, to mile markers on the highway of life is an apt one. It’s exceedingly easy to trace your life’s path just by looking at your record collection. It’s all there: the highs and lows, memorable moments, moments of high accomplishment, and periods of boredom and depression, preserved for all time by the music that scored those moments. In my own experience, U2 found a place on many of life’s mile markers; but, since its release, Achtung Baby has been more like another passenger in the car than just another mile marker. U2 first cropped up for me in 1983. I remember hearing “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “New Year’s Day” on the radio seemingly every time I got in the car. Soon “Pride” was also a fixture on every car ride. It went on and on. U2 were always there, lurking around the edges, always slightly out of synch with me. I liked the band, but it was mostly the singles that stuck with me. I was, without a doubt, a greatest hits fan when it came to U2.
Everything changed in the fall of 1991. At this time I was starting my senior year of high school. My friends and I had been obsessed with music since middle school and we showed no signs of stopping. That summer of 1991 we’d logged many hours at the local record store and spent many more hours pouring over video tape of recent episodes of 120 Minutes (for those too young to remember, this was an MTV show that played videos from alternative/indie/punk bands). I remember being slack-jawed the first time we saw the video for Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” When that video ended I knew this band from Seattle had just changed something for me. What I didn’t know was that I would have that feeling again just a few weeks later when U2 released the video for “The Fly,”the first single from their new record, Achtung Baby.
Continue reading [The Past Presents] U2 – “Achtung Baby” →
The Past Presents revisits revered albums from the past 20-25 years to ask the question, “Is this album still a classic, or has it lost its edge over the years?”. Was it a great record for that particular time and place, or is it something we’ll be passing on to our kids? It also looks at the “lost classics” – countless albums that should have earned more attention but for one reason or another fell through the cracks.
The first half of the 1990s was undeniably a high point in the history of indie rock. While grunge exploded into the mainstream, the indie world played host to a myriad of sounds, some new, some modern adaptations of previously mined genres. Punk experienced a renaissance with a new generation taking the reigns and breathing new life into hardcore and even pop-punk. Indie-pop saw a host of bands offer new takes on the college rock sound pioneered in the late 70’s and most of the 80’s. Perhaps most interesting and, in my opinion, most significant development of the early 90’s was the maturation of the post-rock sound.
While in many ways genre labels are kind of difficult to deal with due to their inherent ambiguity, looking at the definition of post-rock gives a starting point. The term was defined by English music critic Simon Reynolds in 1994 as, “using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, using guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures rather than riffs and power chords”. The guitar, the centerpiece of rock music for decades, escaped its conventional roles and found new life as a rhythm instrument, sometimes percussion instrument, and at times taking over the role played by vocals in the traditional rock blueprint. Post-rock did similar things for indie-rock as free jazz did for the jazz genre twenty years earlier.
There’s no shortage of classic post-rock albums. With many of the traditional rock barriers removed bands were more inclined to explore less traditional expressions of their music. There was a broader acceptance of instrumental bands, jazz-rock albums, and experimental electronic-rock hybrid albums. Through all the experimentation there were still bands that stuck with a guitar-heavy rock sound, but had a penchant for more complex rhythms and timing changes, often referred to as math-rock, a kind of sub-genre of post rock. In this category one of the all-time greats was Rodan. Part of a robust Louisville, KY scene, Rodan, fronted by Jeff Mueller, later of June of 44 and Shipping News, and Jason Noble, also of Shipping News and Rachel’s was a rather short lived four-piece whose lone album, Rusty, remains a classic record. Rusty is a powder keg of an album, filled with overblown guitars and jagged rhythms that leave the listener exhausted but ultimately satisfied.
Continue reading [The Past Presents] Post-Rock Revisited, Part 1: Rodan – “Rusty” →
The Past Presents revisits revered albums from the past 20-25 years to ask the question, “Is this album still a classic, or has it lost its edge over the years?”. Was it a great record for that particular time and place, or is it something we’ll be passing on to our kids? It also looks at the “lost classics” – countless albums that should have earned more attention but for one reason or another fell through the cracks.
It is a sad but true fact that greatness often outshines mere excellence. Did you ever know a family of extreme overachievers? Take the example of a highly successful couple who raised three sons. The first-born son attends Oxford, earns two PhDs, and goes on to be a highly regarded scholar and writer. The second son gradates from Harvard and becomes a ground-breaking research physician. The youngest son graduates from Duke University and starts a successful sports management consulting firm. Taken individually all three would be considered successful; however, when placed side by side, the youngest son pales a bit to his older brothers. Such is the case with R.E.M.’s 1994 album Monster.
Monster’s big brothers Out of Time and Automatic for the People are undisputed gems of the R.E.M. catalog, showcasing the band at the peak of their abilities. These two albums show R.E.M.’s complete mastery of the pop song while also crafting their most polished lyrics. Monster took a different turn. While R.E.M. lit up the airwaves with “Losing My Religion,” “Shiny Happy People,” and “Everybody Hurts”, the rest of the early ‘90s alternative rock scene was deeply ensconced in fuzzed-out grunge and driving guitar rock. Looking back at Monster, it seems that this album was a reaction to the trends of the early ‘90s.
So, was Monster R.E.M.’s desperate attempt to stay relevant in the face of changing tastes? I don’t think so. In 1994 R.E.M. could have released Out of Time 2 and it would have sold millions of copies and had every critic under the sun searching for new adjectives to describe the band’s genius. Instead, I think Monster was R.E.M.’s attempt to reinvent themselves. Monster was to be a reworking of the band’s sound while they were at the top of their game. I believe that Monster was supposed do for R.E.M. what Achtung Baby did for U2. This album was supposed to kick open the door to a new realm of creativity for a band firmly into their second decade. Unfortunately R.E.M. failed to make a landmark album here because they didn’t blow the whole thing up and start fresh. They simply swapped their clean guitar and well-placed mandolin sound for overdriven guitars and effects. Monster fails to be the seismic shift that Achtung Baby was; and as a result Monster was viewed by critics as a good album, but not a great one. Fans bought millions of copies of the album, but after a few years it was regarded as the dog of the R.E.M. catalog. By the start of the new millennium, Monster was a staple of bargain bins everywhere.
I recently dug Monster out of my local bargain bin, wondering, 17 years since its release, if Monster remains bargain bin fodder, or has it blossomed into a bargain bin treasure?
Continue reading [The Past Presents] R.E.M. – “Monster” →
The Past Presents revisits revered albums from the past 20-25 years to ask the question, “Is this album still a classic, or has it lost its edge over the years?”. Was it a great record for that particular time and place, or is it something we’ll be passing on to our kids? It also looks at the “lost classics” – countless albums that should have earned more attention but for one reason or another fell through the cracks.
Debut albums are special. A theory I consider whenever I first play a debut album is when you play that album you could be getting the first-step album, the starting point album, or the big-bang album.
The first-step album is typically a solid effort that leads to bigger and better albums. The first-step record is typically considered a fairly pedestrian debut when compared to the bands future work. A perfect example of the first-step album is Radiohead’s Pablo Honey. That was a pretty good record when it came out, but listen to it now, in the context of Radiohead’s current catalog, and it’s certainly the weakest of the lot.
The starting point album is a debut that is great and leaves you wanting more. With each new album the band gives you pretty much more of the same. Some records are a little better or a little worse than the preceding efforts, but really everything is pretty status quo… see Mudhoney’s self-titled debut and their subsequent albums. Everything is pretty solid, but in the end they never really deviated off the trail set mapped out on their first record.
Then comes the most interesting and most tragic, the big-bang record. This is the debut album that is so good you can barely contain your enthusiasm. You hear this record and you want to buy copies for everyone you know and a few people you don’t know. The tragedy comes into play because typically the big-bang album is so good the artist spends the better part of their career trying to top their first record. Critics compare every new release to the first, no matter how long ago the big-bang was released. The big-bang album explodes leaving you blinded by its greatness and thereby missing the lesser albums released in its wake, even when they have quite a bit of merit. George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass…. I’m looking at you.
Damon Gough, known by most as Badly Drawn Boy, released one of the most notable big bang albums in recent memory. His 2000 debut album, The Hour of Bewilderbeast, was huge news before the album reached shelves. Critics were already dripping with praise for this album; Bewilderbeast was going to be the album of the year, album of the decade and possibly the album of the new millennium, depending on who you asked. No need for a Grammy ceremony, Badly Drawn Boy should just take them all and save every one the trouble. Upon its release it was obvious the critics were right, The Hour of Bewilderbeast was outstanding. It was clear then, as it is now, that this was one of the first classic records of the new millennium.
Continue reading [The Past Presents] Badly Drawn Boy – “The Hour of Bewilderbeast” →
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