SOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Stink EP (1982).
The Replacements followed their shambolic Sorry Ma, with this little EP. 8 songs in 14 minutes. If you were going to check out one of these two releases, this is the one to get. If for no other reason than at 14 minutes it certainly doesn’t overstay its welcome.
And song-wise, this album is pretty amazing. The first track, “Kids Don’t Follow” opens with a live recording of the Minneapolis police breaking up a party. Not sure if this was a band party or not, but the Replacements had to change their name from The Impediments because they got banned from a local club because they were too drunk and disorderly.
But even though this album has all the trapping of a hardcore record (check out the sleeve design, and, of course, the name of the EP). And look at these song titles: they’re almost a parody of punk attitudes: “Fuck School,” “White and Lazy,” “God Damn Job,” “Dope Smokin’ Moron.” Once again, the band plays fast, but not terribly angry songs. Rather than being angry ragers, the band sounds more like drunken teenagers. And so the chorus of “God Damn Job” stays with you so and wind up singing the infectious but inappropriate to sing in public “Gaaahhhhhd Damnit. Gaaaaaaahhhhhhhd Damnit. God Damn!”
It’s only White and Lazy that features anything like the hardcore trappings the album suggests. The opening of the song is almost folksy, but when they hit the 90- second mark they bust out a true hardcore section: speed, shouty lyrics and more speed. It’s very cathartic.
But best of all, Stink features “Go” the first song by Westerberg that is truly awesome. It’s slower than the rest, and features a great chorus with a cool screaming guitar. Over his career, Westerberg would writes some amazing anthems, and this is the first.
Although this isn’t their final raucous record, future records will drift from this attitude. And this condenses their stuff into 15 minutes. The whole album sounds like it will fall apart before they finish it, but finish it they do.
[READ: June 6, 2009] The Graveyard Book
Sarah gave me this book for my birthday, with an exciting IOU: that she would get Neil Gaiman to sign my copy when she meets him at ALA this summer. So I got that going for me. Which is nice.
I’ve been a fan of Gaiman’s for years. And yes, Gaiman’s Sandman was what got me interested in comics, so thanks Neil. Plus, as a Tori Amos fan, you pretty much have to love Neil, as their symbiotic relationship goes back almost twenty years now.
Having said all of that I haven’t followed his post comics career all that closely. I read American Gods, but I don’t recall all that much about it. My brother-in-law Tim tells me that it’s amazing, so I will likely go back and read it again someday.
So, what about this book, anyhow.
There’s a chapter of this story available in his M is for Magic collection. Interestingly in the introduction, he notes that, it’s Chapter 4 which he wrote first. Huh. So, it seemed familiar to me when I started reading it although it didn’t seem totally familiar until I got to Chapter 4. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: BELLE AND SEBASTIAN-BBC Sessions & Live in Belfast 2001 (2008).
Virtually every review of the BBC Sessions says the same thing: these tracks barely differ from the original recordings. And, for better or worse, that is very true. In fact, even the trumpets and other instruments sound so perfect, you tend to forget it’s a live recording. Clearly this sends a positive message about their live playing. But if that’s the case, why would you buy this?
SOUNDTRACK: The Core: WVPH, 90.3 FM.
SOUNDTRACK: ——-
The CD player in my car died.
I also have 2 CDs in the player, and they won’t play or eject! The one disc is no biggie, Sabotage by Black Sabbath, easily replaceable and for cheap too. The other one, however, is The Tragically Hip’s Live from the Vault Vol. 4 which came free with their new album, 
We Are the Same. I don’t think it’s available anywhere (not even on their website yet). When I go in for my 60,000 mile tune up next month, I’m going to hope they can rescue it.
This album seems to get overshadowed by the anti-George Bush track “Bu$hleaguer.” Evidently many people were turned off by this track, and that may have had an impact on sales. Of course, I’m sure many other people were introduced to the band by this song, too. Regardless, the rest of the album shouldn’t be judged by this track, as it is rather unusual.
SOUNDTRACK: PEARL JAM-Yield (1998)
This Pearl Jam disc is something of a return to form after the experimentation of No Code. Part of me feels bad that they experimented less, because I do enjoy a band’s wild side, and yet these songs are uniformly fantastic, and they include some of my favorites by Pearl Jam.
SOUNDTRACK: PEARL JAM-Vitalogy (1994).
I always think of this as the “weird” Pearl Jam disc. Mostly that’s because the contents are certainly weird (in that it’s made up like an old book, including excerpts from the book in the liner notes). But also because it has some of Pearl Jam’s strangest songs on it, especially “Hey Foxymophandlemama, That’s Me,” easily one of the weirdest songs in their canon, and possibly the weirdest song on a major label. It’s 7 minutes of samples and scratchy guitars. And it’s more than a little creepy. The disc also contains “Bugs” an accordion-based rant about, well, bugs. and “Aye Davanita” a sort of Eastern chanting type piece.
SOUNDTRACK: PEARL JAM-Vs. (1993).
Ten was a solid record, and although it had diversity within it, overall the sound was pretty consistent. On Vs., Pearl Jam mixed it up sonically and otherwise.
Zadie Smith is the editor and she wrote the introduction. I like to cover all of the written pieces in the book, but there’s not much to say about the introduction except that it fills you in on the details of the collection. She thanks Sarah Vowell for the idea but I gather that the rest of the work was done by her.
SOUNDTRACK: PEARL JAM-Ten (1991).
For me, Nirvana was the band that brought the 1990’s into alternative-rock-land. But, it was Pearl Jam that brought hard rocking music back to the masses. Like everyone I know, I loved Ten. But I gradually lost excitement about Pearl Jam over their next couple of records.
SOUNDTRACK: FLAMING LIPS-She Don’t Use Jelly (1993).
This single contains three B-Sides: “Translucent Egg” is something of an instrumental version of “She Don’t Use Jelly.” It uses the same opening guitar riff, but it changes a few things along the way. The highlights though are the other two tracks: variants from Transmissions from the Satellite Heart. “Turn It On [Bluegrass Version]” is, as advertised, a stompin’ bluegrass version of that track (with help from the Butthole Surfers), and “******* [Porch Version]” is a solo acoustic version of “Plastic Jesus.” Probably not an essential disc, but the alternate versions do highlight the quality of the songs and not just the raucous effects on the main disc.
I Just Read About That... 