A music-obsessed, retired San Francisco lawyer, and author of the rock & roll memoir Jittery White Guy Music (available on Amazon)... picking a random album or song in his collection every day or so and sharing a few thoughts.
Jimmy Castor (both with and without The Jimmy Castor Bunch) released records throughout the 70s filled primarily with fairly straight soul and R&B (and some smooth jazz), but he also recorded some hugely entertaining funk music--albeit often novelty tracks with goofy lyrics. "Bertha Butt Boogie," off the Bunch's 1974 colorfully-titled Butt Of Course , obviously falls into that latter camp, but for…
With so many great albums from The Jam , it feels like overkill to be paying our third visit to 1978's All Mod Cons . But, damn, what a record! "It's Too Bad" finds Paul Weller in full-on Beatles mode. And, sure, his borrowing of the "She Loves You" riff chords the bridge has a lot to do with it (far from the only instance where Weller found himself cutting-and-pasting a Beatles hook into one of…
I really enjoy the music of Swedish indie act The Amazing , who have about a half-dozen albums blending mellow psychedelia, dream pop, and freak folk. Of course, such music is better suited to quiet backdrops for a lazy weekend morning or settling evening dusk than to active listening, so it's hard for me to pick out specific songs for attention. But I do love "The Kirwan Song," the opening track…
As noted previously , I was never a Bee Gees fan once they got past their late 60s pop-psych era. Still, I've got a soft spot for "Nights On Broadway," from 1975's Main Course , the album which saw them start to pivot from AOR pop into soul & disco. Obviously that pivot would become complete with 1977's Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, an album which seized control of the universe (or at least…
Since the heyday of bubblegum pop music in the late 60s through mid 70s--bands like the Lemon Pipers and Archies and Sweet and Bay City Rollers and Abba --few acts have tried to revive bubblegum, and even fewer have succeeded. But Dressy Bessy , part of the original Elephant 6 stable in the late 90s, have a run of wonderful singles in that vein. "Live To Tell All," a 2000 split-single (later…
This is our second visit to Lou Reed 's 1989 classic New York , one of his strongest, most straightforwardly rocking albums in an indisputably erratic solo career. As with any topical album, New York is a little dated in spots, but "Romeo Had Juliette" holds up, capturing both the romance and darkness of 80s NYC. Lou's lyrics are at their most Dylanesque, sprawling storytelling that's highly…
As Rush works its way through an unexpected (and, based on the YouTube videos I've watched, rousingly successful) tour with German drummer Anika Nilles filling in for the late, greatly-missed Neil Peart--breaking down some longstanding gender barriers in the process--it seems like a good time for me to full-throatedly confirm: I just don't care for Rush. I mean, yeah, there are some pretty cool…
Summer is winding down--classes start up again later this month--and I'm still plugging away on my summer project: An absurd quest to burn myself copies of every 80s-era Grateful Dead show currently circulating in high-quality soundboard. Which is, of course, kinda nuts. I've already got pretty much every 60s/70s show, and a pretty hefty helping of 80s & 90s shows. Do I really need any more? Now,…
The stand-out opening cut from Rockpile 's sole proper LP, 1980's Seconds of Pleasure , "Teacher Teacher" features Nick Lowe at his best. While firmly in the power pop mold of Lowe's early solo work, guitarist Dave Edmunds gives it some rockabilly twang. Thematically, it may be a tougher sale these days--though they beat Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher" to the punch by about four years--but…
Jonathan Richman 's post- Modern Lovers records can be a mixed bag, some genuinely charming music sometimes balanced out by tracks that are a little too childlike to warrant repeat listens. 1992's I Jonathan probably had a higher hit-to-miss ratio than most (albeit including a ringer with a remake of his earlier " That Summer Feeling "). The jaunty "I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar" walks the line…
The downside of decades of obsessive music listening & collecting is that it becomes increasingly rare to have one of those "this is my new favorite band!" moments. So it's always refreshing when you randomly stumble across an artist you haven't heard before and spend a few days listening exclusively to their music. Anyway, I recently came across the latest release from Swedish psychedelic act Les…
While Ramones purists may balk at the band's bid for commercial acceptance with the polished "Rock 'n' Roll High School," the song arguably served its purpose. Once polished up enough to get played on mainstream radio, it helped expose me (and presumably others) to the band. And, for all its sheen, it's still a Ramones song, silly and fun and absurdly catchy. The original 1979 version of the song…
How many 17-minute 2-chord vamps does a Top 2000 really need? Well, apparently two (so far). Detroit's Rare Earth, one of the few all-white acts on Motown, had already released some fantastic (and underrated) R&B albums in the late 60s and early 70s when they decided to go all in on some absurdly over-the-top funk. For the title track of 1973's Ma , they took a basic two-note bass riff and…
Recently got myself into a Very Online Phish Twitter kerfuffle by admitting that I am not enamored with some of the band's earlier, dorkier material (relegating myself to what some phans called the band's "dadrock" era). So be it! But that said, they certainly had some memorable, and musically impressive, songs dating all the way back to their beginnings. Like "The Divided Sky," from their 1989…
Three visits to Hüsker Dü 's 1985 post-punk landmark New Day Rising may be overkill... but since our prior selections were both from drummer/vocalist Grant Hart, I figured we could use a little Bob Mould . Pretty basic song--basically a simple pop song run through the gale-force guitar buzzsaw wringer--but there are few things more bracing than an emotionally unhinged Mould delivering shout-along…
2013's Begin Again was a sweet little film, cute and charming, and, hey, I'm a sucker for movies about the music-making process. (See also Frank for a very different take on the subject of musical creativity.) The songs at the heart of the film--released on the following year's soundtrack album--were surprisingly enjoyable, light pop but oozing with charisma thanks to the disarming delivery by…
Another example of the deep cuts being far more interesting to me than the singles. A bit of a sleeper on Pete Townshend 's 1980 solo LP Empty Glass , "And I Moved" features one of rock's greatest guitars leaving his guitars behind, replaced with a delightful rolling piano figure provided by frequent collaborator John "Rabbit" Bundrick (who also played on the following year's Who LP Face Dances )…
Genesis ' 1969 debut, From Genesis To Revelation , gets a pretty bad rap, and is frequently omitted from retrospectives of the band's Peter Gabriel years--though I just read the record is about to get a long-overdue deluxe edition treatment. Its reputation isn't exactly unjustified, as it's a pretty flawed album. The songs are a little twee, short nuggets quite different from the majestic prog…
Another early single from The Minders , part of the stable of Elephant 6 -affiliated 90s indie pop bands. The flip-side of a 1997 small-pressing 7", later collected on 1998's excellent Cul-De-Sacs & Dead Ends compilation, "Better Things"--not to be confused with the Kinks track of the same name, covered here many moons ago--is short and sweet, a pretty basic lo-fi bubblegum pop tune that sounds…
As noted previously, the Psychedelic Furs ' " Love My Way " was one the most definitive songs of my high school years, high atop the shortlist of new wave-era songs that opened me to music beyond the top 40 hits and classic rock chestnuts I'd been absorbing up until that point. "The Ghost In You," off 1984's Mirror Moves , doesn't have quite the same emotional connotations for me--it's just a…
While I don't spend a lot of time listening to Jimi Hendrix , Guitar God--this is only the second Hendrix original on the list, third if you count " Watchtower " as belonging as much to him as to Dylan (note that I have "Watchtower" credited to Hendrix on the 2000-song database linked below)--I do enjoy Hendrix the psychedelic explorer. And "Third Stone From The Sun," the most extended cut on…
Despite a lengthy list of great Cure singles to choose from, I'm partial to "Six Different Ways," from 1985's The Head On The Door , as a key example of an album track that should've been the hit single. (It did get its day as a b-side, backing up the flamenco-tinged "The Blood," released as a single in Spain.) It's a slinky little track, obviously far less immediate than the same album's " In…
I suppose there will come a day when I can post a Neil Diamond song without adding the " Guilty Pleasure " caveat, but this surely ain't that day. Because writing a heartfelt song about a lonely boy and his imaginary friend? Not a convincing bid for rock & roll coolness (though props to Neil for pushing to record a more introspective song over the objections of his label, which wanted more…
While I've continued to check out anything new Elvis Costello puts out right through the present day, I tend to view his first six albums as untouchable, and the balance as hit and miss with moments of greatness. That said, he could still work the occasional miracle to remind you that he's one of rock & roll's greatest songwriters, and "Veronica," off 1989's Spike , is clearly one of those magical…
One of the all-time-great LP closers, "Donimo," the last cut on Cocteau Twins ' 1984 accurately-title Treasure (and the second cut to make this list), shows what the band could do when given some space to stretch out. The six-minute track opens with a few minutes of ambient synths, Elizabeth Fraser wafting in at her most restrained, just a gentle wash of sheer operatic beauty. It finally cuts…