055 The Top Ten Records That Came Out Yesterday

I have to be honest with you, it's been quite the dull week of releases. I blame the holiday weekend. No one in their right mind would release a record after Memorial Day weekend. Ah, whatever. It just makes compiling this list even more challenging... You're not going to believe number 10.


*** The Top Ten Records Released on May 31, 2005 ***

10 The String Quartet Tribute to Yellowcard

I just don't believe it. Vitamin Records is churning these bad boys out at an alarming rate... and coming out soon is a piano tribute to John Legend, a string tribute to Alanis Morrissette, and a piano tribute to Dido? I just have to wonder, especially in the case of Yellowcard, is there a set demographic that is dead set on getting the entire collection of string and piano tributes no matter who it is? Or does Vitamin assume that at least a third of Yellowcard fans would feel that a string tribute would be a nice addition of culture to their CD collection? Perhaps they just want to sell it as a novelty? I even checked the Yellowcard site and there was nary a mention of this.

...wait a goshdarn minute here. Their Piano Tribute to Pink Floyd contains an "original composition." What the hell is that all about? That just makes no sense at all. And i can't help but feel some condescension in this sentence: "When all of the studio trickery and texture is removed, the emotional resonance of these now classic songs endures." I listened to the snippet of "Us and Them." Please bring back the studio trickery. That sounds like a tape of one of my piano lesson from fifth grade. Ugh. They also fucked up the title of the song "Pigs on the Wing." I am so mad right now I could just change the subject.

I had a really great time in Harrisburg PA on Sunday. It all began with a trip to the city that is actually one big store, Hershey PA. I've always seen it on the map, we always seem to pass it, and i've even sent postcards depicting the "chocolate kiss" streetlights downtown, but i'd never actually been there. Until Sunday. The drive from DC was quick and we had a few hours to kill, so we headed down 322 to chocolate heaven, unsure of what to expect.


09 Tears For Fears - Everybody Loves a Happy Ending

Hey, did you know that the two members of Tears For Fears (Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith) were originally in a ska band called Graduate, releasing singles such as "Elvis Should Play Ska" ? I wonder if you can even get their record "Acting My Age" anymore. Maybe in Bath UK, where they were based... a city originally listed on our tour itinerary, but soon to vanish just like Liverpool. Ah well, it's a good thing no big bands came out of Liverpool.

But seriously, I owned the cassette Songs From the Big Chair as did many of my grade school colleagues, but it was always something we were hesitant to advertise. It wasn't necessarily very cool to like Tears For Fears back then. By the time Seeds of Love was released in 1989, I was already in the shallow end of high school and i couldn't care less at my compadres complaints as to what was housed between Talking Heads and Television. Actually I only had the "cassingle" of "Sowing the Seeds of Love." And the record after that boasted "Break It Down Again" which was a staple on the adult contemporary stations, not to mention the shopping mall PA... but it was still pretty catchy. So.. all signs point to Everybody Loves a Happy Ending having at least one good song. But really, how should i know?

I do know that Hershey PA is one big sugary money pit. I suppose that if you had all day and a hundred bucks to waste, you could have an ok time. Paying to park your car, maybe riding the rollercoaster at Hersheypark, doing whatever it is you do in the Giant arena. But we only had two hours, so we had to park in the free lot and trudge on over to Hershey's Chocolate World. And what, pray tell, is that?


08 Melvins - Mangled Demos From 1983

The year was 1996. Braid was on tour with Castor in Florida and via some random connections, we were granted access to the Lollapalooza show happening in West Palm Beach. Much like my recent chocolate excursion, we only had a few hours to kill, so our exposure to the event was limited to a few side stage bands. The first band we saw: The Cows. How the hell did The Cows get on a Lollapalooza side stage? That's a whole other ball of wax, but immediately after their set, on the stage to the left was... The Melvins. If I can reference an old post of mine... it was very loud. And King Buzzo, if that is his real name, had quite a lot of hair to work with. I remember just staring in awe as it waved back and forth in the Florida sunshine. It reminded me of one of those troll guys you used to put on the end of your pencil. You know you did. He must have put so much product in there to get it to stay like that.

As you can probably tell, i didn't care too much for the music, paying way too much attention to the hair and way too little attention to my aching eardrums... But i do give The Melvins credit for consistently being weird. They once contributed a song to a 7" comp that was silence. They actually delivered a DAT to the label with 30 seconds of nothing. That is commitment. From what i know of these Mangled Demos, Melvins started out as a regular ol fast noisy punk band. That's sort of interesting, but as for plopping down hard earned monkeys on demos from 1983. I think my monkeys would be best spent on cupcakes at Hershey's Chocolate World.

Hershey's Chocolate World is just a money pit plain and simple with a few marginally exciting attractions, such as a 3D movie and a walkthrough tour. The best one seemed to be a Factory Worker tour, where you actually took a picture and got a photo ID and then proceeded to create your own candy by turning some cranks and dancing. I'd like to see the real factory workers. I'd like to see kids take a real factory workers tour. Can't you just imagine all of the crying kids trying to operate heavy machinery while Big Brother watches and laughs from above? ... We did purchase two cupcakes at a reasonable price of $1.50 each. One was topped with Reese's Pieces and one with a Peanut Butter Cup, both Hershey products. They were ok, i guess. As we left, a kind Oompa Loompa-esque man took our picture in front of the dancing Hershey bars. OK ready, say "Hershey Corporation!" "Hershey Corporation!" Click.


07 Kent - Du & Jag Doden

I am right now eating fake pepperoni slices and drinking coffee. Disgusting. I just thought i'd tell you that before we went any further. I think Sweden's Kent gained their greatest amount of fame here in the US after their tour with Oasis in 1998. Duing the first City On Film west coast tour, our driver / keeper played Isola nonstop and even Damon keeps that CD close at hand for every tour. I never really got into it that much although I thought "If You Were Here" was a catchy number. But then it seemed as though they disappeared. In fact, they've been steadily releasing albums since, but no one really seems to talk about em here too much. This new album, Du & Jag Doden boasts some really odd artwork for a band of this nature, but as i said, i'm not sure they are interested in making that big of a splash here. I'm also not sure what the title means. Maybe it is the names of the two characters on the front?

The show was not really in Harrisburg proper, rather Lemoyne across the river. Quaint little town. We got there too early so we hit up a nearby Thai restaurant and talked about how the show was going to turn out... City On Film with some hardcore bands and a local garage rock act. Hmm. If it wasn't for the delicious massaman curry in front of me, i'd be pretty gosh darn pessimistic about the event... When we got back to the venue, the parking lot was packed, the hardcore was blasting and my old pal Charile was there waiting for us. Let's go get a drink, shall we?


06 Electro Goth Tribute To Prince

Soon this will all end. I've run across so many cross genre tribute albums, it's disgusting. And no one really seems to care. Cleopatra Records, the label responsible for this tribute album, hasn't updated their website in over 6 months... and i can't find the cover art anywhere. So I did what anyone would do. I superimposed Peter Murphy's face over Prince's body and that is that. I'm not even sure what Electro Goth is, but I guess I'm curious. I was able to find a tracklist though and... what's this I recognize THREE bands on there! Dead or Alive, best known for "You Spin Me Round Like a Record" doing one of my least favorite Prince songs, "Pop Life." Information Society, of course from "Pure Energy (What's On Your Mind?" fame doing "Controversy." And Heaven 17, whom you'd only know if you watched an obscure British video program growing up, doing "Sign O the Times." Wait a minute. Heaven 17 is Electro Goth? I can't keep track of my genres anymore...

OH MY GOD i just noticed something. Look at track 13!


05 Screamin' Jay Hawkins - I Put a Spell On You: The Best Of

I am so miffed right now at the lack of available cover art online for all of this week's releases. The cover you see here is not for the best-of compliation that came out yesterday. Rather, it's for Voodoo Jive, a compilation that came out in 1990... But anyway, let's talk about Screamin' Jay Hawkins. You know the song "I Put a Spell On You," right? Well, there is such a rich rich history behind that song and the man himself. We'll touch on a few interesting points. The song was never a hit for Screamin' Jay. In fact, it was banned by a healthy amount of radio stations that disapproved of the grunts and yells of an obviously heavily inebriated Hawkins. Nevertheless, it became a huge novelty hit and till the day he died, he couldn't perform the song correctly until he was well medicated with scotch.

Screamin' J Robbins seems to know a lot about Hawkins and during a conversation at Pachyderm Studios he told me about the time he actually saw the man play live in DC. Apparently Hawkins was not touring with a band, but rather alone in a car and then he would have the venue provide a backing band for him. I'm not sure if he required the club to furnish a coffin for him to arise from as he was known to do back in the day... but I do know that the band was so unfamiliar with Hawkins' songs, that Screaming Jay actually had to scream out the notes for them during the song! J said it was awful and completely embarrassing. Can you imagine. "I put a spell on you... G SHARP! ... because you're mine... B FLAT! ...stop the things you do... A MINOR SEVENTH DIMINISHED!"

J also told me about the staggering number of children that Jay fathered during his 70 years of R & B. So many that every year there is a "convention" of sorts where all of his children (and their children) come together and throw a party. The children of Screamin Jay Hawkins convention. What an event.

So Charlie and I headed down the street to a local Lemoyne bar with an outside deck and we caught up on all of the new gossip and news and I downed some Yuengling's. Half an hour before my set was to begin, we headed back to the club. I dropped him off and I warmed up in the car.


04 Smog - A River Ain't Too Much To Love

I am a huge Will Oldham fan. From the day I heard his debut record I was so hooked... and what a joy that the guy put out a few records a year and all under different monikers! Like a scavenger hunt. Yes, my friend and I would spend hours drinking and talking about Will, pondering over his lyrics, his voice, his artwork choices. I wouldn't doubt it if i was the only person in the world who sports a Will Oldham tattoo... My fascination has since calmed. My friend's hasn't as much, and so when I introduced Iron & Wine into the mix, he was leery. "It just sounds too much like Will for me to get into it." Whereas it was easy for me to separate Iron & Wine as an entirely different beast than Palace, the same cannot be said for Smog. Maybe it's the label similarities, but I just never got into Bill Callahan's solo endeavors because, well, it's too much like Will and it's just not as good. So, eventually, I may give it another chance. With that being said, I'm sure that A River Ain't Too Much To Love is a great record. Way better than the Melvins demos.

So even though my set was sandwiched by hardcore, it went over so well. Everyone was very cool and responsive and I need to get back there right away. Although... no one was able to identify the original artists behind "Secret Santa Cruz" for a $2 prize. But i don't hold that against anybody. I did enjoy the outburst during the first verse though... "Is it Cannibal Corpse?!"


03 Swervedriver - Juggernaut Rides 89-98

It's just not my week, i guess. I totally missed out on the whole Swervedriver craze. They are one of 2 bands that all of my friends went bitchcakes over but somehow I was left out. The other one is Seam. Before you start throwing tomatoes, let me explain! There were bands that I went crazy over, too! Bands that everyone seems to have ignored or forgotten about since. Can we talk about Seaweed? Now there's a band that needs a proper retrospective. Sub Pop, get on that. The old records, especially Weak and Four, hold up so well... and anyone who knows Weak knows that it got a weak mastering job, so that needs some help... but this isn't about them. It's about Swervedriver. This 33 song, um, juggernaut, should satisfy new ears and old fans alike, given all of those extra tracks and demo versions.

Todd Bell searches far and wide for rare Swervedriver stuff, so you may want to contact him if you want to talk all superfan-like... As for me... During a ride home from Louisville with new friends, i was chosen to be the DJ given the eclecticity of my iPod. Not too far into the ride, the driver asked if I had any Swervedriver and the whole rest of the car erupted with "yeah! Swervedriver! Play some Swervedriver!" and i felt as though i had missed out on the new Beatles or something. Luckily I had raided Todd's ipod the week before and i had one Swervedriver song: "Last Train To Satansville." Everyone sang along and loved it... I just whistled to myself and waited for it to end so i could play what i really wanted to play: Dexy's Midnight Runners.

And here's another embarrassing anecdote. I don't know what I was doing at this party, but there i was at a hipster Chicago affair that may or may not have been at Rebecca Gates' house. As i said, I don't really remember how i got there. So anyway, I'm drinking a little and talking to my friend about music and she brings up Seam. I say, "You know, oddly enough, I never really got into Seam that much." I swear to God it was like the fucking record scratched. Everyone in this backyard shot me the most horrible looks! I turned to my left and the guitarist of Don Caballero was giving me this look like I just ran over his dog. So I think i probably left soon after that... In my defense, I now know and enjoy Seam. I still need help with Swervedriver.


02 The Clash - The Collection: The Clash / London Calling / Combat Rock

This is the biggest no-brainer in history... Sony, in their infinite wisdom, has realized that it's not a good idea to release a record after a big holiday weekend, so instead... we go to the classics. I think Bruce Springsteen got a similar treatment. I'm not sure who decided to bundle these three gems together, but... i guess it works. By now, you all should know and love London Calling. The Clash is also so great because of its genre bending ways. Straight punk rock, then a cover of a reggae song, and then a reggae'd out original! And of course Combat Rock, where I first started my Clash infatuation. It was "Rock the Casbah" that drew me in good. It's a real shame that it gets such a bum rap nowadays. I really think it's a great song yet inevitably i hear a sigh or two when that old familiar drum intro launches. I think "Atom Tan" deserves a little credit as a nice pleasant hidden ditty.

Any other week, I wouldn't even bring this up since there are no extras on it, no nothing... and The Clash have already been remastered, recompiled, re-examined, added to, demo'd up, and shipped out. Seriously, i doubt there's any Clash recordings left that we haven't heard or even want to hear... But I just had to. The week was such a letdown. I mean, this is the first record on the countdown from a band that i actually know and like. Curse you, memorial day!


01 Oasis - Don't Believe The Truth

Everyone who i've talked to agrees that "Lyla," the first single from Don't Believe The Truth, just isn't that good. And i agree. I didn't like it one bit when i heard it... so when it came time to hear some other tracks, I was waiting patiently to be impressed. And "Let There Be Love" did it! It's a really great song, albeit in that typical Oasis fashion. You know what you're going to get and when it's good, it's really good. I'm really digging the odd jangly percussion in the background. I also enjoyed "Keep the Dream Alive." I wish i had more to say about the album and Oasis in general... but instead I should just direct you to the proper authorities.

For all things pro and con regarding the Gallagher brothers, i direct you to Nervous Acid. Along with them, you can keep up to date on what sort of mischief Pete Doherty has gotten himself into. You wouldn't even believe it.