SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-Spectres (1977).
Let’s face it, Blue Öyster Cult are silly. If I didn’t know better I would swear that Spinal Tap is a takeoff on them. And yet, they have such well regarded people associated with them: Patti Smith; Michael Moorcock! I first got into BOC because of MTV. Back when MTV first came out they played videos by basically anyone who had a video. And it seemed that at the time it was mostly new wave and metal bands. And naturally, we metal heads embraced all of the metal videos and scoffed at the new wave ones. But it was through MTV that I found out about some of the best metal bands around: Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Blue Öyster Cult to name just a couple. And it was through MTV that I got Fire of Unknown Origin, my favorite BOC record. Several years later when I got to college my roommate was a huge Rush and BOC fan. He got me into BOC in a big way, and even though I know they’re silly, I still love ’em. And this album is a pretty strong classic.
It has the great silly song, “Godzilla.” The hilariously Spinal Tapesque “R U Ready 2 Rock” (with the great chorus answer: Yes, I am.) And of course, “The Golden Age of Metal.” It also contains possibly the worst BOC song I can think of “Going Through the Motions”: A tinkly keyboardy song that belies BOC’s metal roots, and the apparently unironic chorus that they are just “Going Through the Motions.” Weird. Anyhow, I’ve been enjoying the reissues of the BOC CDs, and am looking forward to the special treatment that Fire of Unknown Origin ultimately gets.
[READ: July 28, 2007] The Secret Language of Sleep: A Couple’s Guide to the Thirty-Nine Positions.
I bought this book through the McSweeney’s sale. It looked really funny. And it is. Funny enough that I can’t decide if it’s all a joke, or an actual guide tarted up like a joke. The premise is fairly simple: there are 39 different sleeping positions, grouped by one of the four “elements:” Sun, Wind, Sea and Wood. And these positions range from the common Spoon Position to the rather ludicrous Springloader. What is so very intriguing and simultaneously disconcerting about the book is the way claims to realism are balanced with great absurdity. Suggesting that the way you sleep can determine your personality seems reasonable, and further, that changing the way you sleep can similarly have an impact on your personality also seems plausible. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: THE WHO-A Quick One (1966) & Sell Out (1967) & Tommy (1969) & The Kids Are Alright (1979) & Quadrophenia (1973).
SOUNDTRACK: NADA SURF-Let Go (2002) & The Weight is a Gift (2005).
Let Go. Something happened between Nada Surf’s 2nd and third album, I don’t know what, exactly, but they really made some great material with these two albums. Let Go introduces a new jangly guitar style that makes the band softer and catchier, but which really accentuates the singer’s voice and melodies. Usually, when a band “matures” like this, the results are never good. But in this case, the mellower sound and slower songs really bring out the quality of the work. The first five tracks really shine, with “Fruit Fly” and “Blonde on Blonde” really standing out. The lyrics of “Fruit Fly” seems so simple and yet in context, and with the great melody, they work wonders. 
SOUNDTRACK: THE DECEMBERISTS-Castaways and Cutouts (2002) & Her Majesty (2003) & Picaresque (2005) & 5 Songs (2003) & Billy Liar [single] (2004) & The Tain (2004).
SOUNDTRACK: STEELY DAN-Can’t Buy a Thrill (1972) & Countdown to Ecstasy (1973) & Pretzel Logic (1974) & Katy Lied (1975) & The Royal Scam (1976) & Aja (1977) & Gaucho (1980).
My theory about Steely Dan is that they are the definition of Adult music. No one under the age of 25 should listen to them. I hated Steely Dan all through high school and college, and then sometime around the age of 30, I suddenly liked them. So, it’s something about the style, and the sound, and Donald Fagan’s voice, and Walter Becker’s whatever, that should be utterly anathema to anyone under 25. 
SOUNDTRACK: GUSTER-Lost and Gone Forever (1999) & Keep It Together (2003).
Lost and Gone Forever: Guster’s third album is an unreasonably good one. The songs are all tight and catchy, the production is really warm and inviting, and the choruses just make you want to sing along to every one. Major highlights include: “Barrel of a Gun,” “Fa Fa,” “All the Way Up to Heaven,” and “Two Points for Honesty.” And the rest of the record is just as strong. 
SOUNDTRACK: GUSTER-Parachute (1995) & Goldfly (1997).
Parachute: A really great debut, that, in retrospect, sounds almost nothing like the Guster we know and love. This sounds a bit more like the Indigo Boys. Solid harmonies over a very acoustic sounding record. Over the years, Guster have written fantastic melodies and lyrics. And this album is no exception. It’s really the production that sounds so unusual here. Very sparse and almost cool, as opposed to the warmth that they bring to their later albums. The songs are top notch, though.
Goldfly: “Airport Song” is such a fantastic single, and such a great precursor of what’s to come from Guster, that it tends to overshadow the rest of the album. Goldfly starts Guster down the road of what we’ve come to 
SOUNDTRACK: THE ATARIS-So Long, Astoria (2003) & THE STARTING LINE-Say It Like You Mean It (2002).
THE ATARIS-So Long, Astoria. I am only reviewing this CD because of the circumstances in which I acquired it. Driving out of my driveway this morning, I was surprised by a shiny thing in my lawn. It turned out to be a CD. This one. Indeed, someone had thrown this CD out of their car (I assume) onto my lawn. [Later inspection uncovered two more CDs, one by a band I didn’t recognize and the other a burned CD with no writing on it… I can’t WAIT to see what it is!] So, anyhow, I had not heard the Ataris before, but had heard of them. And the record is okay. It’s sort of generic pop punk, meaning it is really catchy and fairly fast and I probably would have loved it if I were 18. Or maybe 16. This also features the cover of “Boys of Summer” that I remember hearing on the radio oh so many years ago. The only distinguishing feature of the song is they change the lyrics to a “Black Flag sticker on a Cadillac.” Otherwise, not much else of note.
SOUNDTRACK: NADA SURF-High/Low (1996) & The Proximity Effect (1998).
High/Low. This CD features the “novelty” hit “Popular” from some years back, you remember, the spoken word bit about trying to impress your high school sweetheart by washing your hair “every two weeks, once, every two weeks.” The song is pretty great, even after the novelty factor has worn off. However, you may feel that you got screwned (see What I Learned… (5)) if you thought the rest of the record would sound like that. For the most part High/Low is kind of forgettable, and a surprising lead off point to what are some really fine follow-up albums. Overall the sound is, not quite murky, but very samey. So that even the catchy parts sort of blend together. It was not until their next album that they start to show some great songwriting.
The Proximity Effect. As I understand it, when Nada Surf didn’t produce a hit like “Popular” for their second album, the label dropped them. Which is typically short-sighted because The Proximity Effect is a much better album. In fact, it contains a song akin to “Popular” called “Mother’s Day” but it is so much darker–almost the anti-“Popular.” It too has a spoken word type vocal, and yet the song is an anti-rape song. A dark subject to be sure, but the guitar riff is so great it stays in your head, and you wind up thinking even more about the song. The first four songs really break Nada Surf out of the sameyness of High/Low by introducing high notes! It really cracks through the grungy sound by including some contrast. However, it’s the next album, Let Go, that really shows Nada Surf taking off.
I Just Read About That... 