Did a little bit of shopping yesterday at Second Spin in Santa Monica and right as I was about to check out I noticed a cheap-o bin. The first cd staring back at me there in the mix of others was the one and only Mallrats soundtrack for $0.99 and I couldn’t resist picking it up. I liked the movie well enough at the time, but the thing I actually remember most about the film is the Weezer song “Suzanne” that plays over the end credits. Thirteen years after the release of the film, I feel pretty safe in saying this song holds up better than the movie itself.
Remember these 3-D picture things? No? Cross your eyes.
I resisted Weezer from the start. Why? I’m not sure. I think they were too popular too quickly. The “Sweater Song” and “Buddy Holly” were just too easy to swallow. They had none of the grit of the bands that started the shift in radio from hair metal to grunge. I was listening to Helmet, NIN, Ministry, Skinny Puppy and Tool at the time and what I was hearing from Weezer was such a stark, cheerful sounding contrast to those bands that I think I chalked them up as simplistic and not worthy of any sort of serious listen. This opinion didn’t last though and I think “Suzanne” has much to do with that. It helped bridge the gap for me.
I don’t know anything about this tune and why it wasn’t on the Blue Album, an album I grew to absolutely love for how much fun it captured without becoming overly silly and dumb. I like and I don’t like that they reference Guns N’ Roses in the song (clever or too clever?), but mostly it’s just damn catchy stuff. In hindsight, I realized that it’s easy to put up cynical walls keeping Weezer out…but it’s way easier and way more rewarding just to let them in.
And every now and then, Weezer still manages to capture the brand of dorky fun they established back in the day. For my money, there’s no better example of this than the “Keep Fishin’” video:
So I’m in Los Angeles this week, which isn’t really worthy of its own blog post but is inspiring this one nonetheless. There are dozens upon dozens of L.A. and California themed tunes; the Red Hot Chili Peppers, in fact, sometimes seem to exist for no other purpose than contributing to this collection. You may have heard though that there was an earthquake here yesterday. It was short and harmless where I was at, but still a weird feeling and enough to remind you that you’d never, ever want to go through a strong quake. With that in mind, I thought I’d do a simple search in my iTunes library for the word “earthquake” just for craps and chuckles, and sure enough one song popped up.
Still a Loser.
The song, of course, is Beck’s “Earthquake Weather” from his 2005 album Guero. The track is a nice bit of light pop weirdness done in the way Beck is well known for; doesn’t strive for new ground but doesn’t feel too much like a boring retread either. I typically prefer my Beck a little more somber (think Sea Change) but the chorus of this tune actually works well for making me forget about the earthquake altogether. I can just walk around humming this instead. And by walk, I mean “drive.”
Switching things up a bit today with a tune called “The Club” by Nick Lowe. I knew nothing about Nick Lowe before discovering this song. I thought I knew of him, but I think the reality is I probably just lumped him into the brain bank with other Nicks like Nick Cave or Nick Drake. “Oh, yeah,” I thought to myself. “Nick Lowe. Of course. He’s that guy who sounds like…uhh…wait, is he the one who….Okay, I give up. I don’t know who he is.” Well, wikipedia tells me he’s an English singer-songwriter in his late 50’s who was a one time producer who worked with The Damned and Elvis Costello. Skip ahead a couple decades and Lowe’s got an album that came out in June 2007 titled At My Age.
Not a New Yorker cartoon.
Let me admit a few things right up front: one thing I really love about this track is that it feels like it belongs in a Tarantino movie. There’s an airy coolness to the song and a hint of darkness, as well. Despite being a new composition it feels more like the product of a much earlier decade. The second thing I really love about this is how much I paid for it. Nothing.
It’s nice to see what Amazon has going on over in their mp3 department. I don’t think the iTunes store is going to start shaking in its apple-boots any time soon, but I think Amazon has become a very substantial alternative for legally downloading music. For starters – and most important to me anyway – they’ve got a healthy selection of songs available for free. Some good (including The Avett Bros. and Albert Hammond, Jr.), some bad, but all free. In addition, they’re doing a daily deal on an entire album at a ridiculously low price. On Monday, for example, you could’ve bought Elliott Smith’s Either/Or for a whole $2.99. That’s Elliott Smith, dudes! $2.99!!?!?!? Crazy. In addition, every download is DRM-free and available at over 200k (I think). I’m not entirely sure what that all means, but I’m told it’s good. There’s an installer app. available that makes downloading multiple tracks a breeze. It even provides artwork and moves the tunes right into your iTunes library for you. Easy, breezy, amazoneezy. Take a look at it if you’re interested. It seems that Tuesday’s albm deal is quite often an older release by an artist that has also has a new release coming out that day. For instance, I got Coldplay’s X&Y for $2.99 on the day that Livin’ La Vida Loca (or whatever their new one is called) came out.
Anyway, that’s enough free advertising for a little mom n’ pop company like Amazon. Go ahead and listen to Nick Lowe and see just how chill you can get. Take pictures, in fact. Then show them to no one.
And here’s a video of Mr. Lowe doing his thing back in the day. Oddly enough, I think he’s become cooler with age, which is pretty much the opposite of how it works for the rest of us.
As the title suggests, today’s post is brought to you by the letter M (as in mhmm). I figured the first day of the week would be a perfect day to spotlight a featured genre, but struggled between two choices: “Metal Monday” or “(emo)nday.” Ultimately, I’m a sucker for alliteration and couldn’t quite figure out how best to pronounce (emo)nday. E-Monday or E-Moanday? So, metal it is! If banging your head and conjuring the likeness of Satan isn’t exactly your thing, well then just enjoy a three day weekend courtesy of Holepuncher. But if you’re down with having your blood pumped and your genitals destroyed then Mondays at Holepuncher are for you. Lastly, if you were really pulling for (emo)nday, don’t worry; I’ll be getting to emo soon enough. I promise. Please do not cut yourself (kidding).
Frodo sucks.
Friend of the blog, Brandon J., recently informed me that he was actually in a band called “Holepuncher” back in the early 90’s. Can you believe that??? I’ve been searching high and low (mostly low) for a band with this great name, and there it was in my own backyard. Sadly, and perhaps the root of their eventual demise, they later changed the name to “Paperface.” Not a bad second choice, but clearly the band would never be the same. Since then, Brandon’s tastes in metal have fortunately not suffered any lasting effects of this ill-advised naming decision. One of Brandon’s favorites is a band that caught my immediate attention about a year ago on the travesty that has become MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball. Hoping you’ll have a similar reaction, I’m going to point you to that video first and say nothing else about it except for this: if you can’t stomach the music that’s okay. But hit “mute,” don’t hit “stop.” Just watch this thing. It’s incredible.
See? Everything about Amon Amarth is iconic. From the hair, to the choreography of the hair, to the name – which is elvish for the most metal of icons in Lord of the Rings, “Mt. Doom” – it all adds up to an amazing blast of Swedish melodic death metal. If the words “melodic death metal” sound like a contradiction to you or something you wouldn’t normally enjoy, I understand you completely. I considered myself to be of the same mind. But then a weird thing happened. I could not get this song out of my head. Or those images! I mean, who the heck are these guys? Are they for real? Their album is called With Oden on Our Side? Do they really think they’re vikings?? Is this all a tongue-in-cheek joke?
I’m convinced it isn’t. Best I can tell, this is a band who takes what they do extremely seriously while keeping a sense of humor about themselves. When asked about the band’s genre, singer Johan Hegg said “We play death metal. We write about vikings so therefore some refer us to viking metal, but I have no idea what that is. I can’t imagine the viking’s [sic] veer into metal at all except on the swords and stuff. And musically, I guess they only played these strange lip instruments and some bongos or whatever.”* Ha! I love it. Go get “Runes to My Memory” stuck in your head, too.
So here’s your non-music required listening for the weekend. Former astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell has claimed that we are not alone, nor have we been for quite some time. This is a guy who has walked on the moon. What have you walked on? Carpet? Maybe some peanut shells at Outback Steakhouse? Please. Child’s play…
Hear what the good Doctor has to say and then decide for yourself if he’s just blown the whistle on the most important cover up in history, part of some clever viral marketing by Fox for the new X-Files movie, or quite simply insane in the membrane.
