In Retrospect... The Top 90 of the 90's

As all the "Best o' Decade" lists come pouring out for the 00-hs (and I doubt I'll be able to contain my opinion on such things in the next few weeks), just wanted to look back at where we were at musically exactly 10 years ago. Figured there would be no better way to do that than to resurrect a noble attempt to take measure of the last decade of the millennium: Acoustic Neurosa's "Top 90 of the 90's" radio shows.

Pals Bubba and Sloth had a radio show called "Acoustic Neurosa" at the college station for Millersville University in Millersville, PA, just outside of Lancaster. They organized a project wherein several of us who were nursed to musical health by indie rock each made a list of our favorite 90 albums of the 1990's. The participants were Bubba and Sloth (natch), myself (double natch), Moo, JenMahar, and PatGibbs. (The last two people lacking a catchy nickname to obscure their identity.) From a scoring system created by Sloth, a man who obviously has a secret passion for crunching numbers, the lists were compiled so that each album on each list was assigned a score based on how highly ranked it was on each list. The number 90 album on your list garnered 1 point. The number 1 album on your list got 90 points. Albums would then get all of the points from each list it appeared on and that sum would be its score.

You could pretty much select any release from the decade, even EPs. Just no singles comps. So no 'Tossing Seeds' for example. But something like "Celebrate the New Dark Age" was eligible. (Though sadly didn't make the cut. A lesson to be learned about compromise and democracy.)

Based completely on my age, the 90s was the decade when I cut my musical teeth, so its significance to me is immeasurable. And as such, I succumb fairly easily to these bouts of nostalgia. Mainly though, by compiling this stuff digitally, everyone, specifically the participants/organizers (though also the curious), will get to join in or at least sample the nostalgia.

(Merry XMas Bubba, Sloth, Moo, JMahar, PGibbs, and everybody else as well...)

Track list:

Intro

90. Sebadoh-“Oceans” from Harmacy

89. Unwound-“For You Entertainment” from Repetition

88. Portishead-“Sour Times” from Dummy

87. Wedding Present-“Dalliance” from Seamonsters

Without a Hitch

86. Unwound-“Re-Enact the Crime” from The Future of What

85. Luna-“Bonnie and Clyde” from Penthouse

84. Pavement-“Debris Slide” from Perfect Sound Forever EP

83. The Sea and Cake-“The Cantina” from Nassau

Getting the Frogs and the Brits Out of the Way

82. Fugazi-“Repeater” from Repeater

81. Heavens to Betsy-“Terrorist” from Calculated

80. Thee Headcoats-“I Wasn’t Made For This World” from The Good Times Are Killing Me

79. Karate-“If You Can Hold Your Breath” from Karate

Wrong Karate Song

78. Built to Spill-“Carry the Zero” from Keep It Like a Secret

77. Huggy Bear-"Herjazz" from Taking the Rough With the Smooch

76. Galaxie 500-“Fourth of July” from This Is Our Music

75. Modest Mouse-“Dramamine” from This Is a Long Drive For Someone With Nothing to Think About

That Is a Ridiculously Long Album Title

74. Silver Jews-“Random Rules” from American Water

73. Moped-“Hotel” from It Won’t Sound Any Better Tomorrow

72. Mercury Rev-“Trickle Down” from Boces

71. Nation of Ulysses-“A Kid Who Tells On Another Kid Is a Dead Kid” from 13 Point Program to Destroy America

66% Dave Matthews

70. Mule-“Hayride” from If I Don’t Six

69. Cat Power-“Headlights” from Dear Sir

68. Trans Am-“Carboforce” from Surrender to the Night

What Timing

67. Pavement-“Starlings of the Slipstream” from Brighten the Corners

66. Franklin Bruno-“For the Fire Drill” from Bedroom Community

65. Firehose-“Making the Freeway” from Totem Pole EP

64. Palace Brothers-“You Will Miss Me When I Burn” from Days in the Wake

He Has Issues

63. Sebadoh-“Soul and Fire” from Bubble & Scrape

62. Seaweed-“Bill” from Weak

61. Tortoise-“Magnet Pulls Through” from Tortoise

60. Shellac-“House Full of Garbage” from Terraform

Three Dollars at Circuit City

59. Eggs-“John’s Bar Mitzvah” from Bruiser LP

How I Announced to the World That I was Leaving Bachelorhood

58. Urge Overkill-“Goodbye to Guyville” from Stull EP

57. Smog-“Bathysphere” from Wild Love

56. Elliott Smith-“The Biggest Lie” from Elliott Smith

55. Wimp Factor 14-“Heart of My Stupefaction” from Ankle Deep

54. Guided By Voices-“Non-Absorbing” from Vampire on Titus

53. Belle and Sebastian-“Boy With the Arab Strap” from Boy With the Arab Strap

52. Unwound-“Valentine” from Fake Train

51. Urge Overkill-“Blackie’s Birthday” from Supersonic Storybook

Getting In Trouble for Talking About Breasts

50. Mercury Rev-“Coney Island Cyclone” from Yerself Is Steam

49. Mudhoney-“Into the Drink” from Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

48. Unrest-“Makeout Club” from Perfect Teeth

47. Tortoise-“The Taut and Tame” from Millions Now Living Will Never Die

Mormons At Our Place

46. Polvo-“Feather of Forgiveness” from Exploded Drawing

45. Gastr Del Sol-“Rebecca Sylvester” from Upgrade & Afterlife

44. Sleater-Kinney-“Dig Me Out” from Dig Me Out

43. Belle and Sebastian-“Fox in the Snow” from If You’re Feeling Sinister

Fox Smells His Own Hole

42. My Bloody Valentine-“Only Shallow” from Loveless

41. Palace-“Werner’s Last Blues for Blockbuster” from Hope EP

40. June of 44-“Anisette” from Tropics and Meridians

39. Yo La Tengo-“Sugarcube” from I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One

Stevie Wonder DUI

38. Butterglory-“Skills of the Star Pilot” from Crumble

37. Neutral Milk Hotel-“Holland 1945” from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

36. Guided By Voices-“Game of Pricks” from Alien Lanes

35. Smog-“Ex-Con” from Red Apple Falls

I Needed That 14 Minutes

34. Mule-“Mississippi Breaks” from Mule

33. Rocket From the Crypt-“Sturdy Wrists” from Circa: Now

32. Stereolab-“Our Trinitone Blast (Wow and Flutter)” from Transient Random Noisebursts with Announcements

31. The Sea and Cake-“Jacking the Ball” from The Sea and Cake

Everybody Was There to See Rancid

30. Sebadoh-“License to Confuse” from Bakesale

29. Beastie Boys-“Gratitude” from Check Your Head

Is It "Suckerpunch"?

28. New Bomb Turks-“Sucker Punch” from Destroy Oh Boy!

The Kernel of Good Music

27. Archers of Loaf-“Vocal Shrapnel” from All the Nation's Airports

26. Trumans Water-“Rations” from Spasm Smash XXXOXOX Ox And Ass

25. Smog-“37 Pushups” from Julius Caesar

24. Pavement-“Feed Them to the Lindin Lions” from Watery Domestic EP

Why Am I So Slow Today?

23. The Sea and Cake-“The Transaction” from The Biz

22. Sleater-Kinney-“Start Together" from The Hot Rock

21. Small Factory-“Pretending It’s Sunny” from I Do Not Love You

20. Rodan-“Gauge” from Rusty

Indie Bands That Start With “S”

19. June of 44-“Have a Safe Trip, Dear” from Engine Takes to Water

18. Polvo-“Lazy Comet” from Today’s Active Lifestyles

17. Karl Hendricks Trio-“Pittsburgh’s Hottest Babes” from Some Girls Like Cigarettes

16. Archers of Loaf-“Harnessed In Slums” from Vee Vee

You Deserve the Verve Pipe

15. Liz Phair-“Divorce Song” from Exile in Guyville

14. Superchunk-“Skip Steps 1 and 3” from No Pocky For Kitty

13. Unrest-“Suki” from Imperial f.f.r.r.

12. Archers of Loaf-“The Lowest Part Is Free/Freezing Point” from Vs. the Greatest of All Time EP

My AC/DC Impression

11. Silver Jews-“New Orleans” from Starlite Walker

10. Sebadoh-“God Told Me” from Sebadoh III

9. Shellac-“The Crow” from At Action Park

8. Slint-“Good Morning Captain” from Spiderland

Sicko

7. Pavement-“Stop Breathing” from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

6. Guided By Voices-“Buzzards and Dreadful Crows from Bee Thousand

5. Palace-“New Partner” from Viva Last Blues

What Time Does the Mall Close?

4. Built To Spill-“Stab” from There’s Nothing Wrong With Love

3. Archers of Loaf-“Might” from Icky Mettle

2. Modest Mouse-“Styrofoam Boots/ It's All Nice On Ice, Alright” from Lonesome Crowded West

A Mandate From the People

1. Pavement-“Trigger Cut”, “Zurich Is Stained”, and “Loretta’s Scars” from Slanted and Enchanted

Happy Winter Solstice

Download here:

(Make sure you take the "Top 90 of the 90s" playlist included in the "90-81" folder. To import into iTunes, go to "File" pulldown menu --> "Library" --> "Import Playlist..." That's the only way you'll be able to listen to the radio show in order. Of course if you want to just listen to the tunes randomly or build the tracklist yourself, then please ignore the .XML file.)

Top 90 of the 90s: #90-81
Top 90 of the 90s: #80-71
Top 90 of the 90s: #70-61
Top 90 of the 90s: #60-51
Top 90 of the 90s: #50-41
Top 90 of the 90s: #40-31
Top 90 of the 90s: #30-21
Top 90 of the 90s: #20-11
Top 90 of the 90s: #10-1

Shit From an Old Mixtape vol. 3: A Completely Untitled CD Mix

{A Completely Untitled CD Mix}
I really don't have much to say about this mix. I apparently didn't have much to say about it then either, since I didn't give the thing a name. I could have just tossed it accidentally, which would have been a real shame. Cause it's good listening. And that seems to be the only theme: I really like all of these songs. I wish I had something deeper to go along with it. But I don't. Sometimes it is what it is.

1) The Verlaines-"Jesus What a Jerk" Some Disenchanted Evening (1990)
Every songwriter wants to write a tune that eviscerates some guy for being a total douchebag. That instinct never comes out more than in the city of Los Angeles. I adore this Verlaines album.
2) Shellac-"The Rambler Song" The Rude Gesture: A Pictorial History 7" (1993)
I don't know if the ee-lectric gee-tar can sound better than on this song. Strings of barbed wire wrapped around the neck/body of a bull. "She's a winner!"
3) Gang of Four-"What We All Want" Solid Gold (1981)
Obviously the go-to record of the GO4 catalog is Entertainment!, but Solid Gold isn't as far behind as you might think. I think I had just found this on vinyl somewhere on the cheap...
4) Volcano Suns-"The Central" Bumper Crop (1987)
And I must have found this one in the same bin. It's sort of the sloppy sound and vocals that lure me into this song. And the mantra of the tune: "When I didn't know any better, I was plugged into the central." Pete Prescott from Mission of Burma's Post Burma band, which then led me to....
5) Mission of Burma-"Wounded World" ONoffON (2004)
New MOB! (New circa 2004. As in a couple decades after they initially said goodbye.) The song has the intensity of original Burma material, but a little simpler in the songwriting column. "I'm a puppet, you're a puppet too" was Reagan-esque commentary for the W-era.
6) Constantines-"Young Offenders" Constantines (2001)
A sign that you're a pretty consistent band is if I can't remember which record which song is from. Like I would have sworn this song was from Shine a Light, as opposed to their self-titled debut. Though for the Constantines, the more it sounds like Fugazi, the earlier in the 00s it's from. Also, always good to blend Rod Stewart and James Brown lyrics into your song.
7) Sufjan Stevens-"Chicago" Come On Feel the Illinoise! (2005)
This is my fave from Illinoise! But I'm sure that's true for a lot of people.
8) Low-"California" The Great Destroyer (2005)
I adore Low. This was their "rock" record. I don't play this one a lot, because I never liked the production on it. But I could listen to Alan and Mimi harmonize The Black Eyed Peas and somehow enjoy it.
9) Crayon-"Reason 2600" Brick Factory (1994)
From Crayon's only record which is chalk-full of awesome twee-noise-pop goodness. I'm glad Sean Tollefson is still making tunes in Tullycraft. I think I would miss his voice.
10) Heavens to Betsy-"Playground" These Monsters Are Real EP (1992)
I just love these pre-Sleater-Kinney tracks from Corin Tucker. But you know who doesn't? My wife. Not so into the riot grrrl movement. If Lisa was in the car and this song came on, she would be reaching for the >> by note two.
11) Sleater-Kinney-"Little Mouth" Call the Doctor (1996)
Same for this one. I love it. Wife doesn't. Marriage, right?
12) Modest Mouse-"Convenient Parking" Lonesome Crowded West (1997)
This album is just one of the best of the 90s. I don't think there's anything else in their discography that comes even close. Which always weirds me out about a band.
13) Spoon-"This Damn Nation" The Nefarious EP (1994)
I bought this record from the drummer from Spoon at a show they did in NYC in the summer of '95. They were opening up for the Grifters and the drummer was telling me how they just signed with Matador Records. And now they're indie giants. I don't know when they ditched the chick bass player/singer.
14) Mule-"A Hundred Years" If I Don't Six (1994)
What an underrated songwriter P.W. Long is/was.
15) The Arcade Fire-"Haiti" Funeral (2004)
No idea why I picked this track of all of the tracks off of Funeral. Boredom, maybe? It's a good song, but I don't know how well it stands alone on a mix.
16) Seaweed-"Let Go" Actions and Indications (1999)
Another absurdly underrated band. I thought this record was a great way to go out.
17) Colder-"Shiny Star" Again (2004)
And for a second this guy was being pimped as the next big thing. The electronica French Joy Division. Never happened, but a good track nonetheless.
18) Lali Puna-"Micronomic" Faking the Books (2004)
Certainly I was getting into the Morr Music sound around this time. As evidenced by this song...
19) Ms. John Soda-"Solid Ground" Blue Skied an' Clear comp (2002)
And this one from the Blue Skied an' Clear Morr Music comp, which if you like any sort of electronica pop, is a great comp to have. A 2-disc tribute album from various Morr Music artists of Slowdive. But you don't have to like Slowdive one bit to get into it.
20) New Order-"Temptation" Substance (1987)
The grandfathers of electronic pop. One of their earlier songs that showed where their evolution was heading after getting out from under the legacy of Ian Curtis and Joy Division. This is the shorter and tighter version from Substance and not the original 1981 Factus 8 EP release.
21) Styrofoam-"If I Believed You/Back Into Focus" I'm What's There To Show That Something's Missing (2003)
The closer from that album. Works as a closer here as well.

Download here:
Shit From an Old Mixtape Vol. 3 p1
Shit From an Old Mixtape Vol. 3 p2

Woodbine Willie Project: The FMTana-“His Mate”

This might be my last one of these for a while. While it's a good exercise, it's ultimately just an exercise.

(Although I'm learning that exercising is necessary at my age. Even though it's usually boring as shit.)

This song is one of the longer G.A. Studdert Kennedy poems I've taken on. It has more of a narrative than most of the other poems, which seem mostly to capture a snapshot of wartime in the trenches. And it's got some piano. And the baritone pipes are in full effect.

(Subsequently, the baritone pipes brought to mind one of the better rock and/or roll bands of the past 5 years: The National. Click the pic "Up and to the Right," and there's some National tracks awaiting. Including an amazing drunken acoustic version of "Start a War" from La Blogotheque, which, if you've never perused, is a fantastic site featuring live performances from a ton of great bands, placed in natural settings where the found sounds of the environment almost become another instrument. My friend Rob played me The National outing for Blogotheque. Just a great performance.)

But like I said, this is probably the last one of these for a while. I need to do something beyond exercise. So I might start posting some original stuff here soon. In the meantime, let me know what you think.



Download file here:

The FMTana-"His Mate"

Shit From an Old Mixtape vol. 2: Shhhh...

Shhhh...
I never use to be able to fall asleep to music. I tried. In high school, I'd turn the CD player next to the bed on and try to drift off. Never worked. I'm a light sleeper.

Then I got to college and discovered alcohol. And that if I used enough of it, I could sleep inside a stack of Marshall amps. Some people call it "passing out." But that sounds so tawdry and crude, doesn't it? I think it's an unfair stigma attached to such a wonderful process. My favorite part of a night of drinking in college was to stumble home, stumble upstairs, stumble to CD collection, stumble through CDs (usually to the "C"s for Codeine or Cat Power), stumble to stereo, stumble fingers to PLAY > button, and stumble to bed, awash in sound. That was a perfect end of a likely enjoyable evening for me.*

(*now that i think about it, college was apparently a lonely time for me. biblically speaking.)

Flash forward from college, and I discovered that somehow I had trained myself to fall asleep with music in my ear. With or without booze. I can't stress how happy that has made me over the past 10 years. It was a psychological wall that I simply drank through. I would like to thank beer. And probably the bartenders at Faegan's in Syracuse, NY.

So as happy as falling asleep to music makes me, I obviously then made mixes that paid tribute to this lovely experience. This was one. Since it's called "Shhhh..." As in "Shhhh... Go to sleep and forget about all the crappy stuff day-to-day life shits upon your shoes." Wonderful melodic peace. Ahhhh...

(aside: as a mix, i can blend applicable tracks from records that as a whole are not conducive to a tuneful sleep into a wonderful new LP of the quiet, restful variety. however, if i was being put in suspended animation for some sort of space exploration, and i had to pick 10 albums to repeat for the next billion light years while i slumbered, i'd probably select the following in no particular order: colleen-the golden morning breaks, mogwai-come on die young, godspeed you! black emporer-f#a#(infinity), cat power-moon pix, codeine-the white birch, mountains-sewn, loren mazzacane connors + david grubbs-arborvitae, low-things we lost in the fire, james blackshaw-a litany of echoes, and the very obvious, brian eno-music for airports. but i don't know why anyone would send me to space.)

Onto the mix:
1) Low/Dirty Three-"I Hear...Goodnight" In the Fishtank EP (2001)
What an opener for a mix. A literal blend of two great sleepy bands in Low and The Dirty Three. And then the song title ends in "Goodnight"? Should have just repeated this track 20 times.
2) Gillian Welch-"Revelator" Time (The Revelator) (2001)
Another nice opener. There's an acoustic guitar solo in here that I wish I could play even just a bar of. And I hate guitar solos.
3) Crooked Fingers-"Sunday Morning, Coming Down" Reservoir Songs EP (2002)
Such a good cover, bleeding into the guy who made the song famous....
4) Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash-"Girl From the North County" Nashville Skyline (1969)
...on another tune with some Bob dude. This is really the only Bob Dylan record I ever feel a need to listen to. And this is my favorite track off of it. Heart-wrenching regret spilled over 3 chords.
5) Cat Power-"Good Woman" You Are Free (2003)
I've said enough about Cat Power before: (http://thefmtana.blogspot.com/2009/07/no-ground-is-being-broken-to-say-chan.html) This song is a sad, sad goodbye.
6) Kings of Convenience-"Singing Softly to Me" Quiet Is the New Loud (2001)
This tune might be a little too swingy to be on a mix like this. But the title is very apropos.
7) The Mountain Goats-"Have To Explode" Tallahassee (2002)
My favorite Mountain Goats record, and this is the Shhhh...-iest song on it. (Not shittiest, Shhhh...-iest.) If you were the character in this song, you'd want to sleep it all away too.
8) Nick Drake-"Which Will" Pink Moon (1972)
Pink Moon always reminds me of when I first met my wife, which is a nice thing to think about as you fall asleep.
9) Califone-"Stepdaughter" Quicksand/Cradlesnakes (2003)
There's a really drowsy slide steel guitar that's working very well in this song. A nice closer to a great album.
10) Bonnie Prince Billy-"Wolf Among Wolves" Master And Everyone (2003)
When I play this diddy on my gee-tar, I can almost knock myself right out.
11) The Kingsbury Manx-"Piss Diary" The Kingsbury Manx (2000)
I haven't listened to this song in years. A nice rediscovery.
12) Gastr Del Sol-"Each Dream Is An Example" Camoufleur (1998)
Sometimes, Gastr Del Sol can get kind of scronky and frantic, but this track never does. You can really hear the Jim O'Rourke in this one. One of the most unique groups of the 90s.
13) B.Fleischmann & Ms. John Soda-"Here She Comes" Blue Skied An' Clear comp (2002)
This is off a Morr Music comp that has a lot of great bands. I'm not a wikipedia of electronica lingo, but I believe this would be considered "downtempo."
14) Scott Walker-"Montague Terrace (In Blue)" Scott (1967)
Scott Walker is kind of a weird choice. And this song's not that quiet in parts. But he did* have a very soothing baritone. (i use a * not because he's dead, which he isn't, but because later scott walker records like tilt and the drift would wake dead dudes for miles.)
15) M.Ward-"Let's Dance" Transfiguration of Vincent (2003)
Man, I just have always had a hard time getting into M.Ward, but it's a nice cover of a good song, so I guess that's where he works for me: recording nice covers of good songs.
16) St. Thomas-"I'm Coming Home #2" I'm Coming Home (2002)
Another song I haven't listened to in years. And another good closer, if you like your closers 10 minutes in length.

Download here:
Shit From an Old Mixtape vol 2 pt 1
Shit From an Old Mixtape vol 2 pt 2

Covers Project: The FMTana-"That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate"

This was one we used to do a cover of, but we did the full rockin' 200 bpm version. It usually juiced up a set. I cut the pace in half, stripped it down and layered the vocals. I kept it simple. Tried some keyboard flourishes, but ultimately I didn't think it added anything, so I nixed most of them. The only keyboard part I kept was the Sigur Ros-esque sort of repeating chime. That I liked. Mostly I didn't want much in the way of the vocals. And the Lead II, pictured here. So that's it. As usual, let me know what you think...



Download here:

The FMTana-"That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate"

Things I Think About When I Think About Mission of Burma

Feels Like The First Time>
Except it’s not. When we first started the band that would ultimately become Halogen, my high school/college/slightly post-college band, I was playing the drums. We did two Burma songs where I Don Henley-ed, or better yet, Phil Collins-ed it: singing and drumming on “Academy Fight Song” and “That’s When I Reached For My Revolver.” Once we added Kurt, AKA a really good drummer, I could move to guitar/vox, where all narcissistic jag-offs who play music ultimately end up. We learned three other Burma classics: “Fame and Fortune”, “That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate” (covered above), and “Forget.” I remember the first time we did “Forget” in the basement of my parents’ house, my vocals on the song were somewhat… unrefined. Ben, the tactless bass player who will be mentioned further here, looked at me and asked if it was always going to sound that bad. I, of course, got pissed and channeled every angry cell of being into the vocal melody of that song. It sounded (and felt) really good. As if anyone needed more life lessons about focusing anger through constructive outlets. You could just listen to The Clash. Or, of course, Mission of Burma.

The Horrible Truth About Alex Minoff>
Alex Minoff was a year older than us and had unparalleled taste in music, especially for south central PA. He worked at the only good record store in Harrisburg, It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll, even though it never seemed like a place that did enough business to sustain operations, let alone hire help. Very nice guy for an upperclassman, so he tolerated bass player Ben and myself. He was also a really good guitar player, so naturally the three of us started a band. I think the band lasted about 4 practices. He started another band with even upper-upperclassman, a trade any of us would have made. But in that time, he passed on some names that stuck with us. Probably the most obscure, and therefore most intriguing, was Mission of Burma. How could something sound this good, and we just find out about it? At that point, most of Burma’s stuff was out of print, except for the ironically now out-of-print Rykodisc collection simply called Mission of Burma, which compiled the Signals, Calls and Marches EP and the Vs. LP, which is considered their album of note. Ben took to Burma like a fish to water. I was more reticent, but equally enamored. Ben was always the experimental-leaning-to-pop guy, and I was the pop-leaning-towards-experimental counterweight. (Perhaps not unlike Roger Miller and Clint Conley themselves. At least that's probably what we liked to think.) It's the first two songs that grabbed me, and probably many others, and the two that we immediately covered: "Academy Fight Song" and "That's When I Reached For My Revolver." But that's what gets you in the door. Then, as I listened to that CD more and more, my ears changed. And to me, that’s what you look for in bands: a sound so astounding and provoking that your ears adjust. They're seduced by the noise. This is really a whole other discussion, my theory on changing ears, but I can tell you those moments in my life where I can pinpoint how and when and why my ears changed, those are precious moments to me. Mission of Burma was one of those moments. And I would thank Alex Minoff for that.

Follow the Leader>
I bought one. I played this cover song on one. The Fender Lead II. It’s probably best known as an Eric Clapton guitar, but “Slow Hand” plays so many friggin’ guitars, he seems almost indiscriminate. I like to think of the Lead II as Burma axeman Roger Miller’s guitar of choice. Bass player Ben bought one a long time ago when our band was still going. I feel about guitars much like I do cars: I hate buying them, but love using them. (Although living in LA has murdered my love of driving.) First one I bought was a sunburst Fender Strat, a pretty generic choice, but Bob Mould played one, so I thought "Why not?" It was a good guitar for years, and it was my only guitar for years. Then last August, I was making OK money and I decided to splurge on a guitar. I immediately thought of the Fender Lead. It has such a versatile sound, and it's so heavy. Like it's made of rock. It just feels like a guitar. And I think if a burglar broke into my house, I could use it to separate his head from his neck. Either physically or sonically.

Need Guitar Lessons?>
Speaking of Roger Miller, he lived in Amherst, MA post-Burma, which is where bass player Ben went to school. Walking the streets of Northampton/Amherst, Ben came upon an ad for guitar lessons from Roger Miller himself. Naturally, he signed up. I’m not sure exactly what he picked up, but I’m sure for Ben that was barely the point. Wouldn’t you pay $20 a week to hang out with your punk rock idol? Especially if he was a nice guy who taught you stuff on the guitar? I went up to visit Ben and we actually saw Miller play a solo show at a festival. Just him, a guitar, a loop pedal, and an amazing version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire.”

Geezer Punk>
And they can still play. When Burma reunited in 2002, I almost flew to Boston to see them, figuring there was a good chance it was a one and done thing. Then they played a few more shows. Then they recorded a new record. Then they went on national tours and on and on. Then I finally got to see them last September. They performed Vs. in its entirety. And they were amazing. They’re probably all around 50 years old, and they still just kill it. The sound at that show was almost as if it was pulled right off the record. I couldn’t have been happier.

Click the pic Up and to the Right for some Burma hits.

Shit From an Old Mixtape vol. 1

Mix #6 Karl Hendricks Trio, Verlaines, Stereolab, CCR
So the other day, I found this mix I made. It was in my wife's car under the passenger seat. Her car has a CD player. Mine never did. But now it doesn't matter. We all have iPods. So who gives a shit? Right?

But I use to love to make mixes. From the 8th grade on when I got my JVC Dual Cassette/CD Player boombox (which I only said goodbye to last year), I became obsessive with them. I bullet-sweated the details, from song order to lengths to transitions to themes. If you love/loved music, you love/loved mix tapes. And now I don't make them. Because again, what's the point? But it seems like this is more than just a scratched up CD found under the passenger seat. It's a little time capsule of where my musical head was at a very specific point in time. And archiving these rediscovered mixes here seems more deserving than chucking them into the trash.

So a new addition to The FMTana: "Shit From an Old Mixtape." Click the links at the bottom and you can download the whole thing. I think this one is from 2005. I must have made 5 others at some point, since this one is "#6." Seems like I had just figured out how to convert vinyl into mp3s, because more than a few of these tracks, I only had on record in '05. Not much presentation, so it must have just been for personal listening. No idea where the other ones are. But if I find them, they could end up here.

1) Karl Hendricks Trio-“Naked and High On Drugs”
A great opener from Pittsburgh’s favorite non-football related son.
2) Butterglory-“Our (Proud) Mascot”
There are 3 Butterglory songs from Crumble that I feel very comfortable putting on mixtapes. This is one of them.
3) Further-“Ferrets and Weasels”
These were LA locals from before I became an LA local. They always seemed to have a chip on their shoulder about being compared to Sebadoh or something. They have a lot of good stuff on their own, so I don’t know what they were getting all worked up about.
4) Small Factory-“So What About Love”
Certainly my favorite folk-pop band, if not my favorite pop-pop band.
5) The Verlaines-“Whatever You Run Into”
I “liberated” this album from a college radio station I was doing time at. Fantastic Kiwi pop.
6) The Who-“Odorono”
I never went through a Who phase, even when I was ear deep in Classic Rock radio (both at times by choice and at times by no choice at all.) I don’t know why. There’s stuff of theirs that just has never sat right with me. But I like a lot of the songs off of The Who Sell Out.
7) The Talking Heads-“Warning Sign”
It is a blemish on my record to not know the Talking Heads as well as I should. I think I had just snagged this on vinyl for cheap.
8) Cat Power-“Speak For Me”
You Are Free has a lot of movin’ (as in groovin’) tracks. Especially for Cat Power. This is one of them.
9) Broken Social Scene-“Almost Crimes”
Scrawk.
10) Stereolab-“The Seeming and the Meaning”
I keep thinking this is a Modern Lovers song every time it starts. Then that beautiful Frenchified voice of Laetitia Sadier’s comes on, and it all becomes very obvious. Early S-Lab goodness.
11) Sufjan Stevens-“The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders”
Circa 2005, this is an obvious choice. I’m a Michigan man over an Illinois man, but this is an enjoyable track.
12) Peter Gabriel-“White Shadow”
These first three Gabriel solo records are all titled Peter Gabriel and they’re all reeallllllly good.
13) Pink Floyd-“Fearless”
The standout song on Atom Heart Mother.
14) Palace Songs-“All Gone, All Gone”
Right in the heart of a time period where Will Oldham changed my ears. From the now-titled Days in the Wake to this EP, Hope, to the following year’s Viva Last Blues.
15) Creedence Clearwater Revival-”Good Golly Miss Molly”
This is a weird choice. But it is a nice bridge, blending the countrified air of Palace with the R&B funk of…
16) James Brown-“Down and Out in New York City”
I think there’s something really gutty in this song. James Brown can be kind of mechanical for me. Even with songs of very passionate sentiment. This song has something kind of earnest at the heart of it.
17) A Tribe Called Quest-“Excursions”
Boom-boom-boom, ba-boom-boom, ba-boom-boom, boom-boom-boom, etc. etc.
18) Kanye West-“Spaceship”
I know everyone’s all worked up about some bullshit that Kanye did at the VMAs, as if that still has, or ever had, some sort of relevance in what makes music important and good and life-changing, but I don’t care. This is a great song off a great album. That actually means something.
19) Common-“Go!”
Kanye’s on this track too. This album came out right around the time I made this mix. It’s good, but it’s a little too “clubby” probably. I’ve never been to an afterparty in my life, so I don’t know what’s that all about. But I think Kanye has a good touch. (As if that's a groundbreaking statement...)
20) Stevie Wonder-“He's Misstra Know It All”
Innervisions, bitches.

Download here:
Shit From an Old Mixtape vol 1 pt 1
Shit From an Old Mixtape vol 1 pt 2

Woodbine Willie Project: The FMTana-“Prayer Before an Attack/A Scrap of Paper”

Back to it.

After too many flights and turnpikes tolls and exit ramps and just in general a month of constant displacement, I made it home. And I'm home for a while. And so I should be posting more consistently.

(Should be.)

Hadn't done a Woodbine Willie in a while, so I'm going back to that well. Twice. I'm also tapping another old well. But first things first...

I had one poem of G.A. Studdert Kennendy's that I had come up with a vocal melody for, his "Prayer Before an Attack." However, it morphed as I messed with the guitar melody. I did a different tuning with my gee-tar. (One I stole from Alan Sparhawk, which he uses for Low's song "Starfire.") I tend to try different tunings or my capo or my e-bow whenever I'm experiencing some sort of songwriting block. Subsequently, the tuning was so inspiring that this song has a lot of guitar. In fact it's just guitar, vox and the above pictured GarageBand "Hip Hop Kit." That's right. This song is chalk-full of hip hop.

(No. Not really.)

However, it does tap the part of the brain that must be chalk-full with remnants of "emo past." The second section of the song, which uses a different yet similarly themed Kennedy poem called "A Scrap of Paper", sort of came out of nowhere. Even though the two halves of the song have a stark contrast, they also seem to blend pretty well via the build section. But still I haven't come up with something this thrashy since my college days. It was a surprise. Haven't decided yet if it's of the pleasant variety of not. But the deeply buried angry white kid part of me sort of digs it. You can take the distorted guitar out of a boy's hands, but you can't take the distorted guitar out of his heart.

(Side note: As a nod to this emo-related breakthrough, my "Up and to the Right" section is an emo salute to Cursive, whose Domestica record will find its way on my favorite albums of the decade.)

As always, let me know what you think...



Download file here:

The FMTana-"Prayer Before an Attack/A Scrap of Paper"

Covers Project: The FMTana-"I Do Believe You Are Blushing"

And the cover....

I've been holding onto this one for a while, but you get away from it for too long and you forget how much you initially liked it. The song is completely held together by "The Doctor", my Boss DR-660 AKA Dr. Rhythm (pictured here.) It's a pretty simple drum machine that has a very simple way of creating songs with some very simple sounds. Anyway, this version of what is probably my favorite Unrest song is probably the first and last time I'll ever channel my inner Sam Prekop. I'm just not that jazzy. But it works here I think. To quote the great Chicago aluminum guitar rawk gods Tar, "Good part wrong band."

Hopefully this won't be my only post of the month, but it's possible with my upcoming sked.



Download file here:

The FMTana-"I Do Believe You Are Blushing"

Things I Think About When I Think About Unrest

That Mark E. Robinson is a tough cat to figure out>
Listen to Malcolm X Park from 1988 and then listen to Perfect Teeth, their virtually perfect pop swan song, and you would be hard pressed to not text a friend "WTF?!?!?" As the founder of Teenbeat Records and the driving force behind Unrest, Mark E. is an eclectic man. His fixations range from Blaxploitation to Winona Ryder to Sammy Davis Jr. to obscure British musician Cath Carroll. They took their name from 60s avant rockers Henry Cow. They have an album called F*** Pussy Galore and All Her Friends, either a reference to the Bond Girl or Jon Spencer's DC noise rock band. Dealer's choice. It's his diversity that seems to fuel the vast voyage the band makes over its tenure. And it somehow makes the simple pop that the band ultimately arrives at seem completely natural.

Enter Bridgit>
Of course, Unrest probably doesn't make that final leap from messy, genre-blending, sort-of punk band to pop perfection without adding Bridgit Cross on bass and sometimes vocals. Certainly from her joining in 1990, you can immediately hear the difference, especially in what would be considered Unrest's seminal albums Imperial f.f.r.r. and Perfect Teeth. She has one of the sweetest voices of 90s indie pop.

See If the Shoe Fits After the Acappella>
One thing I think singers have to develop is confidence in their vox. I'm not sure that was ever a problem for Mark E. as he'll just pull the faders on everything except the vocals and let it rip. One track "Full Frequency" is just a stripped down version of their amazing song "Imperial" where the first 4 1/2 minutes are just the vocals of the song before the beautiful guitar progression comes in and plays out the rest of the way. The songs that blend his trance-like repetitive guitar progressions and his and/or Bridgit's vocals are some of their best.

Don't do it (YES I CAN!)>
So it's not the song from Heathers, but it is the song from Heathers... Either way, Unrest's "Teenage Suicide" is a fantastic song. A catchy, darkly comedic song. I would even say it's better than "Suicide Is Painless" from M*A*S*H, the other hilarious song about suicide. Although the fact that "Suicide Is Painless" was co-written by Robert Altman's 14 year old son makes that number a little bit stranger. Certainly the strangest tune to ever be the theme to one of the most watched TV shows in history.

T-shirt retirement>
I had a lot of old indie rock t-shirts. Old t-shirts that developed severe holes. Probably the most drastic hole vs. its level of favoritism was my Teenbeat Records shirt. It said Teenbeat on the front and had a list of the label's bands on the back (See above.) By the end, there was a hole big enough to expose my right nipple. The only humane thing to do really was to put it out to pasture.

Click the pic Up and to the Right for some premium Unrest cuts.