Hurray for the Riff Raff TIE “The Navigator”/”Hungry Ghost”
Sharon Von Etten “The End of the World”
Nicole Atkins “A Little Crazy”
Nikki Lane “Jackpot”
The Wild Reeds “Only Songs”
Cayetana “Mesa”
Son Volt “Back Against the Wall”
HAIM “Want You Back”
Waxahatchee “Never Been Wrong”
Alvvays “In Undertow”
L7 “Dispatch from Mar-a-Lago”
Arbouretum “Fall From an Eyrie”
Max Richter “Three Worlds: Music From Woolf Works / The Waves - XVI. Tuesday”
+ Every damn song played on new Twin Peaks, but especially Chromatics and Lissi
Honorable Mentions
Sea Battle, Larkin Poe, Krokofant, Princess Nokia, Priests, Japanese Breakfast, Kehlani, June Star Best Show
1. RVIVR and Hemlines @ Comet Ping Pong in DC
2. Best Coast w/ Snail Mail @ The Ottobar
3. Municipal Waste, NAILS, Macabre @ 930 Club
Best New Artist
Sheer Mag
Best Album
1. Kesha Rainbow
2. Roger Waters Is This The Life We Really Want?
3. TIE: Ride Weather Diaries / Slowdive Slowdive
But also the triumphant returns of Grandaddy, Gorillaz, and The Jesus and Mary Chain
Playing over the End Credits of 2017
“Rainbow” (From The My Little Pony Movie) by Sia
“I can see a rainbow In your tears as they fall on down I can see your soul grow Through the pain as they hit the ground I can see a rainbow In your tears as the sun comes out As the sun comes out”
It sure didn't feel like this was the year that dreampop came back, but those Ride and Slowdive albums are both on equal footing with their earlier stuff. Plus The Jesus and Mary Chain finally got around to to recording a new album; it doesn't change the world, but how many times are they expected to up-end popular music? I know that Portugal, the Man song ended up getting over-played, but that's virtually the definition of crossover success; it couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of guys, and it was great to hear an actual band on pop radio again. Kesha wins for her album simply because it's one of few album this year with more than than two standout tracks: "Woman," "Praying," and "Learn to Let Go."; plus I'd long promised that I'd buy her album, or t-shirt, or I'd go see her live (no, it cost $200), and I didn't - so instead she gets this top honor for a triumphant album.That Roger Waters album leans heavily on late-middle period Floyd; it wins with salient commentary and outstanding production, possibly his best solo work since The Final Cut. New stuff by Lorde, Sleigh Bells, The War On Drugs, First Aid Kit, Arcade Fire, and The Flaming Lips fell just outside the Top 30, but I couldn't connect much with other new stuff by Saint Etienne, The Charlatans, NIN, and especially not that new Bjork or Taylor Swift, despite liking all those artists previously.
So - what do you think? As always, I'd love to hear about the artist or songs that I have egregiously neglected this year.
I'm not trying to be a dick. I didn't start writing a music blog just so I could bash shitty bands. On the contrary, I did so because I was willing and able to listen to literally anything by any band that found its way into my digital library, to give it a chance, in context. As a result, I've heard some wonderful things I might have otherwise missed, and I have been exposed to some music I really don't like at all. At least I tried. At least now I am learning about what I like and don't like- and why. And I'm sharing that information with anyone that might be interested in my opinion.
The limits of the project were tested when I listened to every single Aerosmith song in a row. That's 248 songs by my count. It was really tough. It hurt me - badly at times. I lost something along the way, and not just the 18 hours of my life that I'll never get back. Something more than that. It really dampened the flame of rock inside me and filled me with dread for the state of music in the world, in the past, present, and future. Hopefully, this unease is just temporary until my faith is restored by another artist, but the emotional impact was real and powerful. I felt it as loss. Filled with rage and sadness and grief, I tried to organize my response in an effort to restrain the tide of negative emotion this band has brought forth in me. Plus, if I just started screaming at my computer screen what purpose would that serve? Thus, I present: the Five Stages of Aerosmith Grief. It's not exactly Safe For Work. (Even adding the word Aerosmith to the dictionary just now to avoid those irritating red underlines, caused a little bit of me inside to die, as though I was lending legitimacy to something that is not.)
I. Denial
This band cannot be as bad as I think they are, can they? Why is it, really, that they seem so annoying to me? So...grating, irritating, and middling. I feel about them the same way The Dude feels about The Eagles (actually, I feel that way about the Eagles too: so damn middle-of-the-road.) Perhaps I just haven't heard their best stuff. Maybe they only play the lousy Aerosmith songs on the radio. It happens. Surely, considering their massive following and Classic Rock Legend status, there will be plenty of good songs in their 40+ year career. Right? And while historically I have had some criticisms to level at Boston, perhaps this band will rise above it. (They lived in a still-standing, nondescript apartment on Comm Ave. that I passed many times without knowing or caring.) You know what their first band was called? The Jam Band. OK, OK - I'm sure it will get better. The damn drummer drops out of Berklee to join The Jam Band. They quickly become Aerosmith, but, no, it is not a reference to the Sinclair Lewis novel at all; in fact, some of the band members initially resisted the name because they didn't want the band named after some dumb book they were required to read in high school. The other rejected band name? The Hookers. These guys were dicks right out of the gate, buy they get some kudos for pretty much maintaining their original line-up through the present (except for some temporary departures during the height of drug abuse in the 80s).
Some people call them them "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band," though I found far more references to people saying that people say that than actual people saying that. Really? This is our answer to the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin? England strip-mines the best of American roots music then spits it back in our face, and our response is to water it down even further with silly antics and filthy depravity? Although they never really took-off across the pond, one sad fact is indisputable: they are the best-selling American hard rock band of all time, which is depressing and difficult to believe but true. Hard rock is key though because Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and the fucken Eagles have all sold way more. American is key too because AC/DC thankfully outpaces them. Like the Eagles, taken as a whole it all seems so damn middling and uninteresting. It is barely decent rock. Good enough? At times, sure. It is a rock band after all. I've heard worse. I have. There are worse bands. Maybe...
For a band from Boston they sure sound like some boring southern-fried shit on that first album. What is this, rejected Lynrd Skynrd b-sides? "Mama Kin" especially I would have easily identified as a Skyrnd song if forced to attribute authorship--and they still play it to this day! The unimpressive vocals throughout that first album completely lack the urgency and range of subsequent albums....except perhaps on "Shine On," which I must admit is a decent 70s song with appreciable staying power. It's a good pseudo-epic that I give them credit for writing in the beginning of their career and trotting out with relative success at various points throughout the rest of their long tenure on the stage.
However, while lead singer Steve Tyler's voice is already more nuanced for their 2nd album, 1974's largely forgettable Get Your Wings, it would be another album and a half before I encountered another good song, and that's also where the problems become impossible to ignore or even tolerate.
II. Anger
There were times while driving and listening to Aerosmith's discography that I became so enraged, my musical sensibilities so insulted, that I had to pull over to the side of the road and jot down some notes for this blog. What a fucken waste it is sometime! This wasted rock, this pointless distraction. To echo Jello Biafra, but "where are your ideas?!"
Even though it allegedly marks their break into the mainstream and remains their best-seller, 3rd album Toys in Attic didn't impress me either, except it does contain the first versions of "Walk this Way" and "Sweet Emotion." "Sweet Emotion" remains an undeniable classic rock mainstay. It is their first legitimate hit, and only after it breaks the Top 40 do they re-release "Dream On," which actually ends up being a Top 10 hit despite being recorded and released three years earlier. Thus begins an endless stream of successful pop rock power ballads to irritate any unfortunate listeners of commercial radio for decades.
In 1991 "Sweet Emotion" is re-released for no damn good reason (in conjunction with one of their stupid box sets), and that's when I heard it. Or more accurately, that's when I saw its salacious phone-sex themed video. Oh, I saw it many times. It kinda made an impact on me. I was a teen. I could just barely figure out what was going on in the sexy video with the twist ending (the phone sex operator turns out to be a fat old lady with kids- ha). In fact, when I think about the Aerosmith I came in contact with as a youth, all I can picture is scantily clad women gyrating and showing off, whether it's the video for "Love in an Elevator" or those even more exploitative videos of their 90s heyday, which famously included not just an adorable Alicia Silverstone but also, even more sleazily, Tyler's own daughter, Liv. Something is wrong here. As a young horny person without clear thinking, should I have know this band only as that band that I can count on to show off some sexy women? I know sex sells and that's part of life, but there has to be a point where it is taken too far beyond tasteful eroticism and becomes sleazy sexploitation. I'm not saying you can't have sexiness in a music video, but when that's all you've got and you keep hitting it again and again in different ways then it becomes a bit obscene. If I was in a superstar band I'd like to be known for the actual music coming out of the band. There's something so unseemly about repeatedly and blatantly using sexual exploitation to sell your stuff to people, especially impressionable young people.
Night in the Ruts gave us "Bone to Bone (Coney Island White Fish Boy)," which is literally a song about a used condom. Toys in the Attic also includes a cringe-worthy cover of an old Bull Moose Jackson number, "Big Ten Inch Record." The depressingly relentless perversions continue with the predictably titled "Jail Bait" on Rock in Hard Place, along with little else of note. What is wrong with these men?! How many songs do they need about jail bait, shagging the groupies, and trannies (at least 2, apparently)? Why?! That's me using the word they used; they should have listened to Lance Bass schooling us all on why we should avoid that slur, but that was actually in the future. Yet- as that Huff Post article makes clear, it's actually a surprisingly open-minded response to a transgendered person, again, almost progressive. That's Boston for ya! Read the whole thing, but, spoiler: the song was literally about Vince Neil of Motley Crue.
In 1987 we get "Rag Doll" on Permanent Vacation. Let's talk about the lyrics to "Rag Doll":
Rag doll, livin' in a movie Hot tramp, daddy's little cutie You're so fine, they'll never see ya leavin' by the back door, mam Hot time get it while it's easy Don't mind come on up and see me Rag doll baby won't you do me like you done before I'm feelin' like a bad boy Mm just a like a bad boy I'm rippin' up a Rag Doll Like throwin' away an old toy ... Old tin lizzy do it till you're dizzy Give it all ya got until you're put out of your misery Fuck you, you fucken sociopaths. This sound like a celebration of violent, degrading sex. What the fuck?! Why are you singing about that on the damn radio? And why are we letting you? Who the fuck do you think you are that you can a.) treat people like that; and b.) brag about it in a song? I'm no Puritan, but I hardly think this constitutes appropriate behavior to praise in the public sphere. Not when rock bands could be telling us to fight for our right to party and/or party for our right to fight. Again- I'm not going to stop anyone from being a filth monger, but I don't think that shit should be rewarded by things like GRAMMY and MTV awards, pop radio success, and the praise of so-called music critics; this album and their next are highly regraded by the likes of Rolling Stone and bands like tour-and-label-mates Guns N' Roses, Motley Crue (makes sense), but also Metallica and Kurt Cobain (who specifically mentions Rocks in his posthumously published diary). It makes me incredibly angry that this awful band is so widely recognized and appreciated as anything other than the sleazy hacks they are.
III. Bargaining
The next album, the unoriginally named Rocks (1976) is perhaps slightly better, though not to any great degree. There is a bit more sonic variety, although the varieties don't all work and some are still ridiculous. Much of it seems poorly mixed; "Back in the Saddle" does not sound good with everything dumped in the mids, but the looser funk of "Lost Child" works better and is almost fun.
But...What if I told you there's a nearly forgotten Aerosmith album that is actually good? It is called Draw the Line and it came out in 1977. It is the album where they are struggling through the excesses of their early success. In other words, they were all super high and having lots of sex. Ironically, it is actually stripped down and devoid of attempts at studio wizardry and needless effects. As a result, it is actually so much better in terms of recording and mixing; everything is isolated and clear. It's like you're in the room, as they say. Despite all the partying, Tyler somehow restrains the worst of his vocal eccentricities without retreating entirely to the boredom of the first album. When certain people checked out for drugs and sex, others were taking up the lead in terms of both performance and song writing, producing new and different sounds. I'll admit it: this album actually rocks, and occasionally is even interesting! It's a bit more jam-oriented than their typical Verse/Course and solo-based blues progressions. The album also ventures into damn-near-prog rock territory, particularly on "Kings and Queens," which charted and remains a live staple. "Kings and Queens" is a song that Rush would have written if they were C-students instead of nerds.
And then, OMG WTF is this song, "Bright Light Fright"? Is this Hawkwind? It sounds like a very deliberate nod to the Velvet Underground; it rocks, briefly. The story is that lead guitarist Joe Perry brought it to the band, who hated it, so he sang it himself. It's supposed to be inspired by the Sex Pistols, which is certainly believable and fine. The song doesn't seem to have the cult following it should.
In the end, they literally didn't have enough original material to cover the running time of a full album, so they threw on two blues covers. It sold much less than their previous albums. Rolling Stone called it "a truly horrendous record, chaotic to the point of malfunction." I counter that it is an almost great album, a hidden gem. They apparently look back on it in dismay, calling it "the decay of our artistry." So there you have it - the one good Aerosmith record is the one they disavow themselves.
As since this is during their druggiest period, there is the slight Beatles association: they somehow appear in the Sgt. Pepper movie, and elsewhere play a version of "Come Together" that I'm trying to find tolerable.
Live! Bootleg is supposed to capture their drug-fueled rawness, and alright, sure. I was definitely up for their first live album at this point in the chronology, and it actually does not disappoint. They are certainly punchier, faster. It's not all good, but "Toys in the Attic" live is practically heavy metal, and I thought little of the song upon first hearing the album version.
It is several albums away, but as long as I'm trying to find value here then their proto-rap/rock stylings should be mentioned and validated. Actually, that collaboration with RUN DMC was pretty cool, I have to admit. Nobody disputes the value of that team-up, and that it worked relatively well. I mean, he's still annoying as shit, but one could call this "ahead of their time," even progressive.
But these fuckers were just getting started.
I even cheated a little:
I'm not listening to any of those repackaged collections of theirs with alternate versions of songs I didn't want to hear the first time and do not need to rehear. And I'm not leaving them all downloaded on my phone, as a typically do until the blog entry is finished.
IV. Depression
By this point I have listened to only five of the band's fifteen studio albums, plus several more live albums.
Then, at some point, it's like the third week in a row of me listening to nothing but Aerosmith. I'm listening to another sub-par live album, this one from the very peak of the resurgent career in the late 90s. It's summer. I pull up to a red light with my windows down, and the guy in the truck next to me has his windows down too, also playing some loud rock music. I have to say, I was very embarrassed. I found myself tapping along to the music in the adjacent vehicle while my own music continued to blare on unabated. He was playing "Trampled Under Foot," and, say what you will about Led Zeppelin, but I sincerely love that John Paul Jones clavinet breakdown; it's so good he does it twice. I turned my music down, shamefully. It wouldn't be the only time. Pulling into my driveway, pulling into the parking lot at work, I would often have to turn Aerosmith down, mortified by my own listening and anxious about being publicly shamed for it.
"Reefer Headed Woman" is, without exaggeration, the only song I have any memory of listening to from Night in the Ruts. The ensuing tour is when the band almost breaks up; their wives were fighting with each other. Perry leaves for the aptly titled Joe Perry Project. <eye roll> Some other guy plays his parts for awhile before he gets over it and returns. Tyler's on so many drugs he collapses on stage in Portland, Maine in 1980, then lays on the stage for the rest of the show. Then he's in a motorcycle accident, which takes him out of commission for months. The band releases Greatest Hits to distract us. We buy it.
This rough period in the 80s is so rough. There's a shit album called Rock in Hard Place (eyes rolling again for the title alone); Perry and the other guitarist both come back for another shit album, Done with Mirrors, which can't even manage to produce a single.They tour playing much smaller venues, fight on stage, play poorly, collapse on stage again, get divorced...
They sorta clean up and all get back together. At least nobody will accuse the next two live albums of being overproduced; they sound like someone just stuck a microphone in the crowd and let it roll. All the flubs and bad high-notes are there too. Some might call that refreshingly real, but I didn't really enjoy the live performances of weak songs much. It doesn't sound great. When they play "Movin' Out" (not the Billy Joel song) he says it was the first Aerosmith song they ever wrote, and I'm like, "It sounds A LOT like Queen." Too much. The live albums, and the pointless collection Gems (total misnomer), are really just contractual obligations resulting from them switching labels. The best thing they do during this era is appear with Run-D.M.C. on their cover of "Walk this Way," which kinda resurrects them from near-death.
There's got to be a difference between refreshingly-entertaining antics to spice up a performance and outright clowning, but if so the front man in this band has not learned it. To me, he's an irritating clown without tricks or makeup. They should get some recognition for touring consistently and thoroughly throughout this time period. Despite all the inevitable addictions, personal problems, and stints in rehab to challenge their existence, the boys from Boston manage to pull through somehow - for better or for worse.
And those horns. I don't know what it is about this band that every time they throw in a horn section it sounds so stale, so darn white-bread. Too easy. As if that's not bad enough, live they seem to often rely on fucken keyboard horns that sound so awful, but not as bad as the live "strings" via keyboard that show up later in their career. It's all so awful. Why would a musician do this? They just keep cranking them out...
Let's take a moment to acknowledge what might be the most overrated sideman in all of American rock music. I listened to Joe Perry play over a 100 guitar solos, and not a single one impressed me. I love the idea of the non-frontman singing a song or two to change things up, but this guy's song is almost always a clunker.
* * *
The modern, post-rehab Aerosmith era of radio and MTV-dominance begins in 1987 with Permanent Vacation ("Dude Looks Like a Lady," "Rag Doll," and slow-dance staple "Angel"), continues with Pump (GRAMMY winner "Janie's Got a Gun," with a video by future Fight Club director David Fincher, "Love in an Elevator," and "What it Takes"), and culminates with Get a Grip in 1993. Everybody loves a good comeback story, right? I want to acknowledge that "What it Takes" is a decent song, with a video that doesn't entirely rely on T&A; I like that squeezebox part. They do MTV Unplugged, but it makes no impressions and hasn't aged well. This is also when they re-release "Sweet Emotion." As I said, I remember that, and I also remember them playing "Dream On" with Michael Kamen's orchestra to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of MTV. Get a Grip hits when I was really starting to pay attention to pop-rock music and MTV - the year before I graduated from high school. Fresh off his breakthrough role in the second Terminator movie, Eddie Furlong starred in the video for the album's first single, the relatively hard rocking and slightly progressive song "Living on the Edge." I remember the boy deliberately crashes his car, since airbags were a new thing; edgy indeed. It's hard to say whether they got my attention with their awesome song-writing or Alicia Silverstone's titillation in all three videos for their completely indistinguishable power ballads from the alum. I'll never forget how Connecticut's finest ska band responded by mocking them thusly. They deserve that more than another GRAMMY, but that's exactly what they get. They release another greatest hits album while they are peaking.
I should now mention that I've actually seen Aerosmith live, once, in 1994 - when they were riding high. In my defense, my friend wanted me to go with him because he was on a delicate sorta first date, and I was the awkward third wheel. Believe me when I say I can recall not one moment of Aerosmith's performance: nothing about the light show, not one song, not one moment of stage banter, nothing. I'm not being facetious; they literally made absolutely no lasting impression on me, and it's not because my memory is shot. I remember that 4-Non Blondes was the opening act, and I even remember seeing those ladies onstage. I remember getting stuck in the notorious traffic leaving Jones Beach Amphitheater. And, most of all, I remember that before the band went on the venue played a Rage Against the Machine song over the PA and it was the first time I had ever heard them. When it got to the "FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!" part, my friend and I looked at each other and we were both like, "What is THIS?!" (RageATM is not beyond criticism, but there had never been anything like that first album of theirs before.) I can't tell you anything that Aerosmith did that night, good or bad. So there you have it.
[Edit] I never owned an Aerosmith album, but when I was in high school I had a tape with a dubbed copy of Pump on one side and Get a Grip on the other. The only song in my digital library prior to this experience was "What it Takes" - and for that I listened to 15+ albums.
After Get a Grip things quickly take a turn for the absurdly bad. They were already facing criticisms as sell outs for bringing in outside writers and pandering to youth culture, but contractual obligations demanded more music. Nine Lives is irredeemably bad, coming as it does along with various personnel problems and the firing of their long-time manager. Lead single "Pink" is such an awful song, but it somehow earns them their fourth GRAMMY; that's one more than Elvis Presley, by the way.
And then at this point I'm just gonna have to start ripping it verbatim from Wikipedia because every sentence nauseates me and I just don't even want to talk about it anymore:
First they talk about how during this era the band "become a pop culture phenomenon with popular music videos and notable appearances in television, film, and video games." Retch.
It gets worse.
"In 1998, in the midst of setbacks during the Nine Lives Tour, the band released the single "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", the love theme, written by Diane Warren for the 1998 film Armageddon, starring Steven Tyler's daughter Liv. The song became Aerosmith's first and only number 1 single when it debuted at the top position on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed on top of the charts for four weeks. The song was nominated for an Academy Award in 1999. The song helped open Aerosmith up to a new generation and remains a slow-dance staple.1998 also saw the release of the double-live album, A Little South of Sanity, which was assembled from performances on the Get a Grip and Nine Lives tours. The album went platinum shortly after its release. The band continued with their seemingly never-ending world tours promoting Nine Lives and the "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" single well into 1999."
No fucking comment.
[Edit] OK - comment. It is their "biggest hit," after all. Wait- what is that song about? It's either so innocent it's off-putting or incredible creepy - maybe both. He's definitely watching someone sleep. It almost sounds like he is watching his child sleep, but surely it would be in poor taste to release that song as the soundtrack of a movie in which the guy's actual no-longer-a-child stars. The Internets will have me believe that U2 was going to play the song first, but then when Liv Tyler was cast in the movie they approached Aerosmith about doing it. They didn't really write it themselves, and it does sound a bit like "Just Like Jesse James," which Diane Warren wrote for Cher. She says it's about "treasuring every moment spent with another person" and, and! she wrote it inspired by James Brolin missing his wife Barbara Streisand! OH and she also told Performing Songwriter: "Some of the lyrics, like 'I can stay away just to hear you breathing,' I'd be like, "No, don't do that. Don't watch me breath. I won't be able to sleep. Go do something else.' It's so funny, because part of me would never want someone to say that to me, but then again, I write it." OK, lady - you've convinced me: it's creepy! She also said she wanted Celine Dion to sing it. Wikipedia claims "the video was highly successful and greatly contributed to the song's success" and who am I to argue. Just to recap, this band of occasional original rock and blue covers had a cover song as their "biggest hit."
That same year the Rock n Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith opened at Disney's Hollywood studios in Florida. When we were there I kept telling the kids I was going to make them go on that ride if they didn't behave.
They played the Super Bowl halftime show in Jan. 2001 because of course they did. Before the end of the year the world would be changed, and Aerosmith would no longer have a place in it. That doesn't stop them from trying. They do play at a 9/11 benefit concert in DC, not the one in NYC. They play for a couple worthy causes in Boston too.
But Just Push Play, with the stupid cover, is inexcusably bad and almost negates all their semi-legitimate rock. Even they admit it sucks. So of course they get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. VH1 gives them the Behind the Music treatment, and theirs is one of the few episodes to run two hours. Great.
Their inevitable back-to-basics blues album Honkin' on Bobo comes out in 2004, and to me it was a welcome reprieve from their absurdist antics. It's not great, but it's OK. They put out multiple additional collections. They tour the world relentlessly. They occasionally fall off the stage and seriously hurt themselves multiple times(!), leading to a stream of cancellations and reschedules. They feud with each other again, and everyone has solo projects. They hit rehab again, for pills, not booze. I almost feel sorry for them. Tyler enrages everyone else in the band by becoming a judge on American Idol while the rest of them are left to twiddle their thumbs.
Their long-delayed 15th album, Music from Another Dimension! (2012), their first original material in almost a decade, is so pointless and sad. This is some horrific, soul-crushing shit. Meaningless pap. Is this bullshit really produced by alt-rock wonder-producer Brendan O'Brien? Some of it, yes. In a bit of terrible irony, Perry and Tyler are somehow inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame at this point. Total bullshit. To say they were just going through the motions at the end of their career is an understatement. I wish they would stop. I really do. There's been enough Aerosmith already. Too much. Although they tour the world with maddening persistence, they are currently without an existing record contract or any remaining contractual obligations. Meanwhile, Tyler puts out a motherfucking solo country album (the single: "Red, White[,] and You") and tours the shit out of it, playing country fairs and whatnot. Perry plays with Alice Cooper and Johnny Depp in the supergroup Hollywood Vampires. Hard pass.
They keep teasing this farewell tour that goes on forever...
V. Acceptance
MTV gave them an Icon award in 2002, and fair enough.
All the bands they influenced are better than them. Slash says they are his favorite. Staind and Godsmack are also fans. <straight face>
Let's not forget about their associations with Wayne's World, and also Flaming Moes way back in 1991, which is some of the least funny shit that has ever been on (the first dozen seasons of) The Simpsons. The part with Moe singing is alright...
And yet, they had some good songs, right? A few. I would take back every mean thing I said if they would just promise to stop making new music.
Their greatest sin is that they are so American in that it is just a too-neatly packaged product that keeps getting pumped out relentlessly because people will keep buying it. Despite their bad-boys image (and, granted, actual behavior), and despite some of the filth they actually sing about, the music itself is all so safe, so carefully calculated and formulated to sell. Ultimately, the problem is not so much even the quality, as it is the quantity. Perhaps no band has pumped more shit into the world. Quit while you're ahead, guys! (This is, ironically, advice I should have taken myself before typing up 4,000 words about the band. Forgive me - I was mad and filled with grief.)
[Final Edit] I will simply add without any snarky commentary or armchair psychoanalysis that Steven Tyler started a charity for abused girls called Janie's Fund and maybe if something positive comes out of this band it is that everyone who listens to every Aerosmith song in a row (or even just reads about it) gives this worthy organization a little change in the tip jar of life.
Adrian Belew is an extremely prolific songwriter and multi-instrumentalist known primarily for his guitar wizardry. He sure gets some great, freaky, and fun noises out of his guitar. He's got a voice with lots of character too, and a great sense of melody. I don't know why he seems British, but he's American - born in Kentucky, actually. Perhaps my misunderstanding is because he is best known for leading and playing guitar for British prog-rockers King Crimson. Awkwardly, he wasn't a founding member of that band, but joined and influence their sound during their middle-era from 1981 until he left in 2013. Before that he played with Zappa, Bowie, the Talking Heads, and several of his own bands (GaGa and later The Bears) all before beginning an elaborate and length solo career that spans before and after these great bands and associations with others like Paul Simon, Laurie Anderson, and Herbie Hancock. He played on key Nine Inch Nails albums, The Downward Spiral and others, and when it was more recently announced that he would be their touring guitarist it certainly made me sit-up and take notice, but it "didn't work out."
However, I didn't really listen to all that. This was the first case I encountered of an artist's cataloging being seriously curtailed by the streaming platform. Sure, I listened to about 11 albums and EPs, but he has his name on over 20 (to say nothing of all those King Crimson albums and various other projects). I was not sure if it was because he's released different things on different labels that have different deals with different streaming services, but I am confident what I heard was a representative, if not complete, cross-section of Belew's repertoire. It turns out his first three albums are now actually "out of print," although it's not entirely clear why that makes it so they aren't available streaming.
Here's a juicy bit: Apparently when things were getting rough in Talking Heads, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, clandestinely approached Belew about replacing David Bryne as the front-man. He declined, but did end up playing with Tom Tom Club, who might have taken credit for some of his songwriting. Those same sessions, though, led to his first true solo album, 1982's Lone Rhino. I didn't hear it, but I heard 1991's Desire of the Rhino King, which compiles tracks from his first three albums for Island Records. That's where I heard his sorta-thesis statement "The Lone Rhinoceros," which is memorable, and not only for his ability to make rhino noises on the guitar. The awesomeness of "Big Electric Cat" almost speaks for itself; it's a hit with youngsters and the aged alike, and the video is worth seeing:
On 1983's Twang Bar King he plays with Elvis's drummer, but that doesn't get streamed either. The first thing available was Desire Caught by the Tail, a somewhat experimental and indulgent solo offering that makes more sense in the context of a burgeoning and complex musical career. It's an all instrumental album, so I can dig it. However, the lack of commercial potential apparently cost him his contract with Island. Perhaps that partially explain why he subsequently forms and leads a straightforward pop band, The Bears (not as gay as it sound). It seems like Dad Rock, a low-priority, low-stakes project that revolves around their other obligations. Thus they continue to record and tour occasionally.
His tenure in King Crimson is as long as just about anybody who has been in that band, other than founder Robert Fripp. It really begins as work on Fripp's solo project, but everyone quickly realizes it would be better to just call it King Crimson. Crimson super-fans can decide how they feel about that. (I imagine they have mixed feelings; I know how I feel about Momentary Lapse of Reason.) That version of Crimson stumbles through various albums, tours, and line-up changes before Fripp reinvents them again, this time without Belew, in 2013. But hey - at least they held it together long enough to open for Tool in 2001.
In the wake of Crimson and The Bears, he has a genuine solo hit single with "Oh Daddy," (not to be confused with the Fleetwood Mac song of the same title) from his fourth solo record, 1989's Mr. Music Head.The video features some of his most wacky guitars. The song itself is cutesy and hilarious self mocking- a duet with his own daughter asking him when he's going to be a real rock star. His next solo album, Young Lines, comes out in 1990 and features a couple duets with Bowie; I heard that one and it was a solid collection of good songs.
Before I even knew Belew as the guy from King Crimson, I knew him only as the guy who played "Standing in the Shadow." It's from his 1992 album Inner Revolution, which offers one his most fully formed and consistent visions and sounds for a solo album. There's a lot of great distorted guitar, looped and rehashed and everything. I loved the single, having caught it on some free compilation somewhere, but it was all I knew of his work for years. This is a divorce album, for what it's worth. It's no Blood on the Tracks, but it is pretty salient pop rock. Two years later he puts out another straightforward rock-pop album, 1994's Here, and although there's no reason to believe that one is out of print too, it was not available for me to listen to.
It speaks volumes of his skill as guitar player, singer, and song writer that I was even able to enjoy Salad Days, a compilation of acoustic version of songs from throughout his career. I normally get bored quickly when it's just a guy and his guitar, but the playing remains interesting and the songs are strong.
This was also the point I discovered Back Against the Wall , which is not fantastic in Praxis, although it is a great concept: little configurations of various prog-rock super-groups covering The Wall in it's entirety. Belew starts it off and plays with the guys from Yes, Asia, Zappa, Styx and more. Later they do Dark Side too, but Belew isn't credited as the artist on any of the tracks (so I didn't get to listen to it this time), though he does play on it. It's not clear under which conditions this blog project will allow me to listen to that other collection.
Belew brings his career to a fitting climax with the Sides albums between 2005 and 2007. Side 1 features Les Claypol, and although he only plays on a couple songs he looms large over the sound. There are some great hard rockin noise jams and thrashy bits too. Side 2 is all him on every instrument; he even painted the cover. Side 3 brings back the guest starts, including Claypool again and Fripp on flute. Side 4 is a live album, but why I can't hear it streaming is anyone's guess. But the Pretty in Pink EP is available - despite being absent from Wikipedia's discography list! It effectively groups an excellently representative brief collection of songs, including "Oh Daddy," an atmospheric instrumental, and a remastered version of the titular Bowie duet, which is well-deserving of a revisit and the single treatment. Besides a single song from the soundtrack to something called Piper, the EP was fitting closing statement from a wildly talented and entertaining artist.
The Advantage covers the songs from various Nintendo game soundtracks using traditional guitar, bass, and drums instrumentation. They stick strictly to original NES games. There are never any vocals, and usually there aren't any keyboards either. It's a bit of a novelty act, but it seems they were one of the first to do it. In fact, they are given credit for creating the genre known as Nintendocore (although Horse The Band actually coined the term). There are several other bands subsequently doing this type of thing; Powerglove and Minibosses come to mind.. These guys started doing it in high school in California in 1998. They play with the drummer from Hella. They have two albums. I listen to them a ton because of my obsession with instrumental music. I've heard each of the 30 songs on their 2004 self-title album many times, though rarely in order as a full album. Some of these works so well as real rock songs. Sure, we all love hearing the Mario songs, but who knew "Metal Gear (Jungle)" was such a slamming metal song? This was also the first time I noticed that the soundtrack from the Goonies video game contains an allusion to the Cyndi Lauper song from the movie soundtrack (,which from now on I will always associated withe the time I saw Corey Feldman and his Angels sing it live). I was less familiar with 2006's Elf Titled, but it is more of exactly the same. Only their 2010 B-sides anthology adds occasional electronica elements. Some of the songs on that album are labeled: (2005 tour). They don't sound live, so maybe these are just additional songs recorded for a CD to sell on tour. As a matter of fact, I saw them on their 2005 tour, downstairs at the Middle East in Boston. It was good, packed, and well-received, as I recall. It went something like this:
I was first introduced to Aida Victoria by local "adult-alternative" radio station, WTMD. I may have even heard an interview and live performance she did there. She's only got one album under her belt so far, but besides great music she's got really compelling ideas about music and politics and such- some of which we might have to talk about. She's got interesting, complex ideas about the contemporary social landscape that she's adept at expressing effectively, not just in song. She's penned some great articles dealing with race and gender (and one can assume, indirectly, class), and her interviews are always refreshingly fierce. Yes - there is also poetry. It's crazy-girl modern Southern gothic psychodrama and social commentary. She is both of the South and loudly proclaims, "Fuck the South!" That dichotomy is exploited fruitfully, brilliantly. She's from Spartanburg, SC, tried NYC, and is now based in Nashville. Her work is both deeply personal and lushly literary. The radio needs more of this, please. Contemporary music needs more harsh and unflinching critics from within like this.
Beyond the Bloodhounds comes out in 2016, but she put out one of the best tracks, "Stuck in the South," a year earlier, making this a "highly anticipated" debut album. And it is really impressive for its already fully-formed artistic vision and sound. The band jams well, and they sound like they have been playing together forever; they have not. If you guessed that the title of the album is a reference to escaping actual slavery you'd be correct. However, even more specifically, it's apparently a direct reference to Harriet Jacobs's slave narrative, which is pretty famous if you're a scholar of early American literature but is otherwise a fairly deep reference. The album's producer also worked with Sleater-Kinney and Yo La Tengo. Despite being ostensibly roots-music she says her favorite band is Nirvana, and also cites Miles Davis and Fiona Apple as influences, which makes for a nice American-music gumbo. She unabashedly rocks out hard like Kurt Cobain, she gets expansive like Miles, and she's got that crazy glint in her eyes like Fiona Apple. Crazy, but salient- in a good way. Besides the modern influences, she seems to be really into the deep tradition of American blues. You know - the black people the Led Zeppelin ripped off. As this great Washington Post piece suggests, listeners can virtually hear the ghost of Nina Simone wailing on this album. (The article outlines a political spat she was in, one of several, after she felt like the "Americana" music folks we're co-opting and unfairly appropriating her sound, claiming it as their own when shes sees it as much more in an African-American insurgent tradition, as opposed to country music for enlightened hipsters; it offers a sample of her unflinching racial and musical politics.) "Stuck in the South" got all the buzz for it's frank look at the South's, let's say, "complicated legacy," and it's a great song, but it gets buried here towards the end here- almost deliberately as if she wants to emphasize that's not the only thing she has to say on the subject. "Dead Eyes, " at a tight 2.5 minutes, got played on the radio a bunch, so that's a good one too; it's appealing to me because of it's vaguely wicked yet cutesy delivery, but many of her songs have the same allure. "Head Rot" is another enjoyable rocker. Perhaps the album's central track, and a favorite stand-out, is "Sea of Sand," at over five-minutes an almost prog-rock, self-aware song about touring and everything else. I love the heartfelt sarcasm of this drawled line: "Here's a song for all my friends, I hate every single one of ya'll." "And then You Die" is alternately eerie and tight rocking- so that's good too. Much has been made about her impressive guitar playing as well, and how she can coax a slinky drawl out of her ax that's like a lazy Southern belle sipping sweet-tea on Sunday. But of course she don't know nothing about Southern belles, but can "tell you something about Southern hell." No doubt. I've been down there, and can only imagine her experiences beyond my peripheral view. She's not one to ever shy away from expressing her views. This MTV article has an awesome quote from her: “When I’m onstage, I don’t want men thinking about fucking me...Because one, I ain’t gonna fuck you. And two, I’m telling you real stuff." Fair enough. I have a very complex reaction to that quote. In one sense, I want to stand up and cheer; this is the exact opposite of what we might expect from a modern American rock star, especially a rocking lady, but it needs to be said. Especially when we've got pop stars like, say, Tove Lo at the logical extreme on the other end of the spectrum, up there on stage trying to make a virtue of trashiness and literally flashing her tits at every opportunity. We should all be there for the music after all, right? However, as both a feminist and a guy who like girls in bands, I feel a bit maligned by the quote. If I'm looking at a pretty girl singing a good song then I might be enjoying that more than, say, looking at a 300-pound man singing the same song, but it's not because I'm thinking about fucking anybody. Is that what attraction means? Can't one find someone aesthetically pleasing without wanting to fuck her or him? While I certainly appreciate where she's coming from, and don't begrudge her resistance to being unfairly objectified, the stance seems to be a bit reductive. Sorry as I stumble with my male gaze through the pitfalls of 3rd wave feminism and it's intersections with popular culture. Maybe she's just not talking about me. Then again- as an ostensibly-heteronormative cis white American male, if she's not talking about me then who is she talking to?!
She did a Tiny Desk Concert that is extremely compelling, despite all the lights being on (and the set-up in no way being interestingly tiny). It does confirm that this awesome band is kinda proggy, and she might be super impressive in many ways, but she's lucky to also have a super smart and tight band backing her up and jamming with her. This band has only been together since Jan. of 2016, but they jell greatly. It's another paradoxical dichotomy: the solo-artist with an incredible full-band sound. The only other thing she officially put out so far is an EP, How it Feels, that just came out this year (2017). It's fine, and interesting. I love the way speaking a few French lines classes-up an American song (see Blondie or an attempt by Billy Joel, for example ), but throwing some American lines into any otherwise French song is like dragging it through the mud for a hot second - in the best possible way. She knows this, and the EP is delightful, but I want more. I'd definitely give another full album from her my undivided attention. I look forward to hearing that, or the latest articulation of her societal views, soon.
I've got nothing bad to say about Adele. I'm not a mad man. It seems like everybody loves Adele. I've been shopping in Safeway and an Adele song comes on- everybody sings along. The people working there, the people shopping there. Teenagers and old people. Black, white, and everyone else. In era when nobody buys albums anymore, a stunning number of people got hers. It's the rare case of a top artist consciously and deliberately pulling her catalog from streaming services and making us buy a hard copy (Taylor Swift also comes to mind). And, yes, I did buy it - as a holiday gift for my wife in 2015. My goodness, with those omnipresent commercials I had to. Those Target commercials that kept popping up, ironically enough, on Hulu and YouTube, during the holidays really got to me. She's just like ripping out my heart while making eye-contact, and she's just looking at me, and it's just like- yes,fine! yes- please take my money and give me your record of these songs, please! I will pay actual MONEY for your PHYSICAL MEDIA. (One advertisement was with lead single "Hello," but the one for "A Million Years Ago" is the real killer.) It's an outrageous and widespread phenomenon, so clearly she is doing something very right. I suppose it's having raw talent, and the ability to tap into strong emotions through those talents. And that talent is almost all in her singing. It's not like she is famous for her dance moves or guitar solos. It's all about that voice. She does mostly write the songs (on guitar, she says), and I guess she plays some instruments sometimes, but just to hear this lady sing is an amazing experience. People pay good money to experience that live. As well they should. At one point the BBC says that her "melodies exude warmth, her singing is occasionally stunning and...she has tracks that make Lily Allen and Kate Nash sound every bit as ordinary as they are." Such a burn! It's sad but true, but Lily Allen and Kate Nash have other things going for them. And one need not always listen to serious or "good" music.
Adele only has three albums so far. They are all great- each slightly better than the previous one. It's kinda crazy that she gets discovered and her record is put out by XL Recordings, who I had previously thought of as putting out (mostly?) house music and early techno.
She puts on 19 when she is only 19, so that's part of the impressiveness. It's the most stark of her albums, but it was a big hit with critics and the public, especially at home in Britain. "Chasing Pavements" is the standout track (and Grammy winner), but "Hometown Glory" started her career. I like the Dylan cover, "Make you Feel My Love," which erases the relevancy of Billy Joel's cover of the same song. "Right as Rain" will also be a good song for all time.
Apparently we have Sarah Palin to thank for Adele breaking into the American music scene. Her album wasn't doing much here until she appeared on the same SNL episode that Palin appeared on. It was their highest rated episode in years, and Adele's sales starting skyrocketing here after that, topping the iTunes chart (remember when that was important!) the next day. She cleans up at the Grammys that year.
Her second album, aptly titled 21, comes out and is an even bigger deal. Something like 31 million people bought this record! Besides earning the longest running #1 album on the charts by a female artist EVER, she also becomes the first woman in history to have three simultaneous Top 10 singles, and the first woman to have two albums in the Top 5 at the same time. OK! They keep throwing Grammys at her. I hadn't realized that Rick Rubin did some production here, but on the deeper cuts. I think of it as the album on which she discovered the drums that were occasionally sorely missing from the first album. And they really kick on numbers like "Rolling in the Deep" and especially "Rumour Has It." "Someone Like You" is the killer - and, again, it will probably remain so for eternity. "Set Fire to the Rain" was also another international Number 1, but it never registered with me as much as the other three. There are still plenty of the down-tempo contemplative numbers that largely made up her first album. Apparently they call her "blue-eyed soul," and we can perhaps tackle another time whether or not that's a racist term; Daryl Hall thinks so. The first albums are "soul" music in the sense that they deal primarily with heartbreak, suffering, and loss, while contemplating music's ability to transcend with hope; something about her emphatic phrasing too. The second album is more folksy while still soulful, but the rocking bits help. It also sounds like the blues too me occasionally, but whatever you want to call it. "The album's success has been attributed to its cross-cultural appeal." It's also just pop falling into the chasm that is The Monogenre. The Singularity is always getting closer, of course...
"Skyfall" is the excellent theme song she contributed to the James Bond movie of the same name. It charts well and gets her another Grammy. I don't know how we are supposed to hear it though. Buy a damn single?! It inexplicably appears on neither her album nor the movie's soundtrack album. So let's watch the official video:
In 2012 she gets Arts of of the Year and Album of the Year from Billboard
Finally, she kicks it up yet another notch for her third and most recent album 25. Guess how old she was when it came out. It sells so many albums it floats the whole Billboard charts, erasing a previous year's decline in album sales, and makes tons of journalist write about how CDs aren't dead... yet. Whereas the previous was her break-up record, she calls this one her "make-up album." It's funny because, she made it when she was 25 and this is the album where's singing about getting old. The lyrics are like The Avett Brothers, all responsible, deep adulthood, while yearning for the days of youth. Oh, Adele - hang in there! It's the fasting selling album in UK history. It is the most produced of her albums. She said it was a chiefly inspired by Madonna's Ray of Light; it's not that electronica-y, but where it is it benefits from the more modern sounds, which blend seamlessly and effectively with her timeless voice. One story goes that she heard a Taylor Swift song on the radio and said, "Can I have a song like that?" She got Tay's producer, Max Martin, and the results are "Send my Love," which slickened up her sounds with pop-music beats and such. Hey, if it gets Adele played on pop radio (it does) and headlining festivals (it did) then I'm all for it. "River Lea" is a another strong track, even if it's not a single. "Water Under the Bridge" is great too. As is "When We Were Young." This a truly great album with ton of excellent songs. Of course, the multi-award winning "Hello" dominated the singles charts and the public consciousness during this period. When the video was released a million people every hour were watching it on YouTube, breaking more records, even Tay's for "Bad Blood." She performs live at Radio City Music Hall, which is recorded and broadcast by NBC right around Christmas, so everyone watched it - my entire family included. She closes out her tour, and trilogy of albums, with Finale shows at Wembley Arena. Those picking up on the theme should not be surprised to learn that the events broke all previous attendance records.
So we are left to wonder- what is it about this woman that make her 10, 50, 100 times more successfully than other contemporary musical acts? Surely, it can't be just her voice. It might have something to do with her humble begging and demeanor. An (at least) acceptable backstory is absolutely essential for cross-over mainstream gargantuan success of this magnitude. To people in the UK she defines pop culture. She might have one of the greatest voices in the world today, but she doesn't seem too full of her self; she's always very down-to-earth in her performances, and she's not afraid of making a mistake either. Hasn't she restarted a performance mid-way on more than one televised occasion? It makes her seem human, rather than super-human, despite her stunning abilities. Add in her extensive philanthropy plus occasional nods to feminism, the LGTBQ+ community, and her working-class roots, it becomes increasingly clear that Adele is entirely deserving of all the attention she gets from nearly everyone.
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