Never that good again

I first heard this song when I was 19 years olds. I knew there was something special about it. It was capturing an idea that I do not hear very often in music. I did not understand the idea, but I knew it was something special.

Now that I am 30, I know that special thing well. Listening to American Music, I get the feeling that the Violent Femmes know they will never be as popular as they once were. They will never have an album that is as loved as their self-titled debut. They still had to keep going on. This song holds the feeling of not being as successful as you once were. I understand this idea better then I would like.

Song: American Music

Band: Violent Femmes
Album: Why Do Birds Sing?

Best Quote:
you were born too soon
I was born too late

You think this song is about you

I have always wanted to say, "No Carly, You probably think this song is about me."

Song: You're So Vain

Artist: Carly Simon
Album: You're So Vain

Best Lyric:
I had some dreams
they were just clouds in my coffee

I've never been too good with names, but I remember faces

It's A Shame About Ray leads my list of songs you never realize are about death. Listening to this song makes me wonder if I am connected enough to my past. I wonder if there are guys like Ray in my past that I do not remember.

Today I give thanks that I did not turn out to be Ray.

Song: It's A Shame About Ray

Band: Lemonheads
Album: Its A Shame About Ray

Best Quote:
Some things need to go away

Soft Spots

Semisonic might define what it means to be a one hit wonder. I do not know anyone who heard anything after Strangely Feeling Fine. I am not sure anyone knows any of their songs other besides Closing Time. I know this is the kind of band people always make fun off.

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for this song. I first heard this song on my first visit to Portland. It was March of 1998. I visited Portland and Seattle to see if I could live in either of those cities. My experience in Tucson told me that I had to visit the place before I moved there. You cannot read about a place and find out if you will like it or not. There are so many small, but important things you do not know until you visit a place.

Closing Time was on the radio all the time when I was in Portland. It seemed that every time I got into my rental car this song was on. There was an intersection between trying to figure out where I was going to move and Closing Time. It made sense because I was getting ready to close up my life in Pennsylvania. I thought the song was telling me I had to know when to close things out. No one was going to do it for me.

Before you know a place you experience that place in a different way. That first visit to a city has a feeling that you never have again. I always want to hold on to that feeling. There is a magic and power to that feeling. This song gives me glimpses of how that feeling was in Portland.

Song: Closing Time

Band: Semisonic
Album: Feeling Strangely fine

Best Lyric:
Closing time - time for you to go back to the places you will be from

Covered with Love

If I was a cover song, this is the cover song I would be. A R.E.M. song that only hardcore fans remember covered by Pavement, a band that only has hardcore fans. I would have different lyrics from the original, but never change the meaning. I would be the kind of cover song you would sing at the top or your lungs and no one eles would have a clue what you were talking about.

Song: Camera

Band: Pavement
Album: Cut Your Hair B-Side


Quote:
You were born to be a camera

Power Pop Heaven

For a long time I wondered what ever happened to Power Pop. It is true that some might say that Green Day is really Power Pop, not Punk. I might agree with that, but they are not what I like about Power Pop. They do not drive the cords or the ideas home. I was wondering where all the new bands where that listened to too much Husker Du and Replacements growing up.

The Matthew Good Band is the best Power Pop I have heard in a long time. They are from Canada, so they get overlooked by American radio. They should get more airtime and more attention. I guess they are not pretty enough to be on American radio.

Song: The Future Is X-Rated

Band: Matthew Good Band
Album: Beautiful Midnight

Best Lyric:
cuz power is just another one of those things baby
it's pointless if you ain't gonna use it

Metaphors and Realities

For a long time I did not get Robyn Hitchcock. I would hear his songs and they would not impress me. They talked about his songs like their views of music were changed. I could not tell if I was missing something or if they were overblowing it.

I am not sure how it happened, but all of the sudden I was buying all of Robyn Hitchcock's back catalog. I was the person that was talking about his songs all the time. I was acting like my ideas about songwriting had been changed. I do not remember the moment it happened. I went from owning two of his CDs to owning fifteen of them.

My Wife and My Dead Wife is an example of the kind of song that only Robyn Hitchcock can write. Is the character in the song actually seeing his dead wife or is it only a metaphor? Is this something from his life or just an idea? It is loving and touching while being funny and sarcastic at the same time. Not many song writers can pull all these things off at the same time.

Song: My Wife and My Dead Wife

Artist: Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians
Album: Fegmania!

Best Lyric:
And I can't decide which one I love the most
The flesh and blood or the pale, smiling ghost

What it means to say "California"

What does California mean? What does it mean to live in California? What does it mean to be in California? I think about these questions all the time, but I never have good answers for them. I have been here for three years and I am not sure I have good answers for them. California is such a big place. There are so many ideas here. I cannot even hold all of them in my mind.

I use California Stars at my musical metophor for California. If I am going to trust anyone to explain California for me, it will be Woody Guthrie.

Song: California Stars

Band: Billy Bragg & Wilco
Album Mermaid Avenue

Best Lyric:
I'd like to dream my troubles all away
On a bed of California stars

Low-Fi Heaven

There is something I love about Low-Fi bands. I like the basic sound, the feeling that the recordings are not done in $2000/hour recording studios, and sense that these artists are on the edge. There is almost a democracy in the sound. It is not the musical skill, but the musical intent that is important. It brings me closer to the music. With all of that, I am impressed by the genius that goes into some of these songs.

The Halo Benders is one of those Low-Fi bands that seem to get stuck in my head. I hear their songs and I want to hear them over and over again. They seem to be just a little addictive. They seem to be so catchy and so well written.

I am surprised that Low-Fi bands are not bigger right now. They should be the answer to overproduced pop bands. This is a band that I would not tell all my friends they would like. My friends who will like them, will like them a lot. I know that.

Song: Canned Oxygen

Band: Halo Benders
Album God Don't Make No Junk

Best Lyric:
I'm sure I've had enough to know when I've had enough

Low-Fi Heaven

A long time ago I stopped looking for new bands. I stopped looking for songs. I stopped trying to expand that part of my life. At one time I tried to know everything about music. I tried to have an understanding of every development happening in the musical world. That stopped being rewarding. So I was happy to just listen to the things I know.

Song: Canned Oxygen

Band: Halo Benders
Album God Don't Make No Junk

Filling Pockets and Filling Spotlights

There are legal ethics, academic ethics, medical ethics, but is there any such things as artistic ethics? Is there a line between selling records and selling out? If radio stations use a band's songs to sell products, is it wrong for a band to use their songs the same way? How have these ideas changed as time has passed? I can tell you that everyone does not have the same ideas about this. Eric Laine, the lead singer on Sellout has some very strong ideas about these things.

FELT is one of the best albums I have heard in a long time. I feel that Sellout is a song that could be a pop hit if it had radio support. With a little help it could be an underground hit. Here Are The Facts You Requested is a local band in the bay area. The album is self-released and being sold over their web site. All of my friends should be listening to this album. It is worth your time and effort to get this CD.

Song: Sellout

Band: Here Are The Facts You Requested
Album: FELT

Best Lyric:
Remember Reagan selling Reagan with "Born in the USA"?
Now Pete Townshend's selling Nissans with "Won't Get Fooled Again"
Except the Boss said he objected while Pete went to the bank.
I guess you need to strike while the irony's hot.

Dreaming about College (past tense)

The night before last I dreamt that I was back at my old college, Millersville Univ. In the dream I was taking care of unfinished business and hanging out with an unnamed woman from my college days. I just remembered the dream. It came flooding back to me. With that flood came the driftwood of my college days.

There was a woman Michele Fisher. I went to high school with her. She also went to college with me, at least for the first year. When I first meet her in high school, I thought she was one person. By the time we graduated, I thought she was a different person. By the time that first year of college was over, I thought she was a whole other person.

Michele lent me the Sunday's CD Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. It was one of those CDs that everyone was listening to. There was a period of time when almost every woman I know was trying to look like Harriet Wheeler. This was before Nirvana hit and the world got changed again. Here's Where the Story Ends was one of the big songs of that first year of college. It was a good song for freshman depression.

I am not sure what ever happened to Michele. I used to run into her from time to time. By the time I realized that she was the same person all those years, I no longer knew her. I think I understand why she seemed to change in my eyes so often. She is one of those people from my past that I want to contact from time to time. I want to know what happened to her. I might never know what ever happened to her.

Song: Here's Where the Story Ends

Band: Sundays
Album: Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic

Best Lyric:
The only thing I ever wanted to say was wrong

The Global Village Idiots

When I hear this song I think of the internet, but it is not about the internet. Marshall McLuhan had coined the phrase "global village" referring to television and media. In his book The Medium is the Massage he describes the way the media pummel us with information. He wrote this back in 1969. If you read what he wrote, you would think he was predicting the internet. My guess is that he did not know what the internet was when he died in 1980.

What is a better way to express anxiety about these concepts then putting them to a punk/power pop beat. This songs takes McLuhan ideas, mixes in some big brother imagery and drives with a fast beat. These things together give it a conspiracy theorist feeling. There is almost a level of feel in this song. I really love those ideas.

Song: Divide and Conquer

Band: Husker Du
Album: Flip Your Wig

Best Lyric:
But who's going to stop that burglar
From breaking in my house
If he lives that far away

Bands I Have to Explain to other People

I told my friend that I was going to start this project. He told me that I should include a lot of indie rock bands. I am not sure what indie rock is anymore. I think that a band is indie rock and all of the sudden everyone knows about them. It is not that I am upset or anything that the band gets popular, it is just I am never sure where things stand in this world.

I guess that I will bands that I usually have to explain to other people. My friends know about Neutral Milk Hotel, but the average person I know have never heard of the them. That is a shame. In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is one of the most amazing albums I have ever heard. It has themes of loss, grief, and rebirth. Neutral Milk Hotel is one of those bands that more people should know about.

I think that Holland, 1945 is a song that expresses most of the things I like about Neutral Milk Hotel. It is a song of several lyrical ideas, multiple musical themes, complex rhythms, and a driving pace. It is the kind of song I have to turn up every time I listen to it. If you like this song, check out the whole album.

Song: Holland, 1945

Band: Neutral Milk Hotel
Album: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

Best Lyric: The World just screams and falls apart

Bands I Have to Explain to other People

We are always in search of Great Rock Albums. These are albums like Pavement Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, Hole Live Through This Replacements Pleased To Meet Me, Husker Du Candy Apple Red. These albums have themes of Lost

Song: Holland, 1945

Band: Neutral Milk Hotel
Album: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

Best Lyric: The World just screams and falls apart

Perfect Pop

I should start with the song that inspired me to finally make this blog. There are some songs I hear and just marvel at their pop hooks. My breath is taken away by the perfect use of the normal tools of Rock N' Roll. These tools have been there since Chuck Berry. It is amazing how people can make them sound new all the time.

For many people Pop is a dirty word. It is a word that means that you like the drivel that is on Clear Channel radio stations that play the same songs over and over again. That is not what Pop music is really about. It is about musical hooks and clear ideas. I say that we should throw away negative title and revel in the idea of Pop music.

Song: Teenage FBI

Band: Guided By Voices
Album: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Soundtrack (1999)

Best lyric:
Someone one tell why
I do the things
that I don't want to do
when you're around me

Song-a-day

I think you can learn a lot about people by listening to them talk about music. It is not just what songs are important to them, but it is why they like those songs. It is what excites them about the music they love. I think you might be able to know me just through writing about music and have a good idea about who I am.

I am stilling this idea from my friend Richard. Big Bully's Song Of The Day has not be regular in quite some time. I feel that it is okay for me to just rip this idea off from him. I have friends all over the country. I miss just listening to music with them. There is something special in sharing a song with a person that you think also love the song. Maybe this is a way we can bridge that gap.

I believe in Fair Use. I believe that I should be able to post these songs on my site because they are cultural ideas. I would even say that I am promoting this bands, not hurting them. If you want to send me a cease and desist order, have fun. Until then I will be posting away.