10 1/2 minutes? Yikes. It's basically a 3 1/2 minute song with a jam tacked on at the end. You get some spoken word kicking in at the 5 1/2 minute mark (yes, I'm basically just proving to the faithful that I listened to the whole thing). Then we get into a Bela Lugosi's Dead-style whoosh and whoop and feedback period, with the song kicking in at 8 1/2 minutes again. I really expected it to go somewhere at this point, but it just kind of does the chorus again and devolves for the next 2 minutes.
Wikipedia has some interesting stuff about how Greg Sage, the lead singer, was obsessed with cutting records as a kid (actually making them) and had equipment and used to study record grooves under a microscope. This song sounds exactly like it was made by someone who never lost sight of what the music he was making would look like
The riff here is excellent. Spooky stuff (but not to my son Xavier, who says "not spooky"), with a lot to it, a little winddown at the end of the bar. It carries the song, but not for anywhere close to 10 minutes.
RATING: 62.
November 21, 2009
117. Black Flag: Rise Above
I always associated hardcore with the high school outcasts forming their own thing. (too often, it seems that the outcasts "thing" devolved into its own caste and social system, but I'm not 15 so I don't need to worry about that shit any longer).
Black Flag seems like something new altogether to me; I never really felt like it was hardcore. TV Party was just too obvious. The singer works out at a gym? Isn't that what the "insiders" do? What's up with these shouty, little-too-slow choruses? Lyrics that they seem to be overarticulating. Frat boys in sheep's clothing, it seemed to me (not that there's anything wrong with frat boys).
This is, in my opinion, their best work, and a good microcosm of everything good and bad about them. Positive too simple lyrics (the final chorus using the word "chance" multiple times being the best example). The solid alternating, driving guitar. The shouty chorus. This is Black Flag.
RATING: 64.
November 1, 2009
116. Dead Kennedys: Holidays in Cambodia
Jello Biafra's voice is such an acquired taste, around 25 years after first hearing it, I'm still acquiring it. I'm not quite there yet. This song is straight out of the nihilistic/political punk, which always felt more aligned with the music to me than any straight Reagan bashing.
Here the target is more on the left, with Jello inviting lefties to go ahead and hang out in Cambodia if they love it all so much:
So you been to school; For a year or two
And you know you've seen it all; In daddy's car
Thinkin' you'll go far; Back east your type don't crawl
Play ethnicky jazz; To parade your snazz
On your five grand stereo; Braggin' that you know
How the niggers feel cold; And the slums got so much soul
I do believe this is PF500's second "use of the n-word by a white group" sighting, although I feel safe that this will be the last.
So with shaky vocals but an interesting set of lyrics, that leaves the music. The music is long-form (i.e., mediocre) punk, with lots of minor chord variations and a few too many echo effects.
RATING: 52 (59 due to the repeated chant of "Pol Pot" in the last 20 seconds of the song)
October 17, 2009
115. Minor Threat: Minor Threat
Now we're back in my wheelhouse. My favorite (and many's favorite) hardcore band ever, I must've listened to this song 500 or 1000 times. The directive to "play it faster" taken seriously right from the get-go, this rocks through 90 seconds of heart-on-your-sleeve stuff that Ian MacKaye was so damn good at. The lyrics giving the punks a philosophy they could scratch into their school book covers ("pay no mind to us!...").
I've never been a big fan of the thrash choruses (although I'm sure it was fun live). This one at least doesn't devolve into screaming, and the anticipation in the build-up back into the verses makes the change at the chorus more than worth it.
Do you like the blue cover better than the red? I like the blue, but secretly feel like a sellout for it.
RATING: 89.
I've never been a big fan of the thrash choruses (although I'm sure it was fun live). This one at least doesn't devolve into screaming, and the anticipation in the build-up back into the verses makes the change at the chorus more than worth it.
Do you like the blue cover better than the red? I like the blue, but secretly feel like a sellout for it.
RATING: 89.
114. Bad Brains: Pay to Cum
I watched American Hardcore for the first time and just thought "they were black?" That's really fucking crazy. Sitting in Eric Stempel or whoever's room, listening to the album in 1987 after getting them to stop with the Dag Nasty or the Circle Jerks, how would you know that? And hell if I knew that they were real musicians and just idolized by the rest of the hardcore scene.
This is nice hardcore, everything it should be: melodic, sincere, fast and driving. With the whole band getting to shout a word now and again.
Don't fear the dirty title of the song; the lyrics are unintelligible like much good hardcore.
The original release doesn't appear to be widely available. Here's my favorite of the second generationals:
RATING: 78.
This is nice hardcore, everything it should be: melodic, sincere, fast and driving. With the whole band getting to shout a word now and again.
Don't fear the dirty title of the song; the lyrics are unintelligible like much good hardcore.
The original release doesn't appear to be widely available. Here's my favorite of the second generationals:
RATING: 78.
113. Journey: Don't Stop Believing
The tune was drilled into my head first through a video game, Atari 2600 version:
My 9 year old self had assumed that with the sci fi album cover, this would be a space game. Instead, you inhabited Steve Perry and ran away from various agents, promoters and groupies (which were giant hearts that chased you ... running away from girls was something 9 year old me could get behind).
PF500 does well: "You can tell something about a person's relationship to popular music as a whole by how they feel about this song. Generally, people fall into two camps." PF500 goes on to describe the "guilty pleasure" camp and the "just plain like it" camp. "You'll notice no consideration of those who don't care for the song at all."
RATING: 77.
112. Atlantic City: Bruce Springsteen
I was one of those kids that, at age 11, spent several years not getting the irony of Born in the U.S.A., so I certainly knew nothing about "Nebraska" Bruce.
So this, when I first heard it 5 or 6 years ago, was a nice surprise. I've yet to just listen to Nebraska end-to-end. I deal with a little too much manufacturing world depression in my everyday life. I don't need it in the car ride to and from work as well.
Quick folk. That's what I'd call this. The story keeps going.
RATING: 74
So this, when I first heard it 5 or 6 years ago, was a nice surprise. I've yet to just listen to Nebraska end-to-end. I deal with a little too much manufacturing world depression in my everyday life. I don't need it in the car ride to and from work as well.
Quick folk. That's what I'd call this. The story keeps going.
RATING: 74
111. Under Pressure - Queen [ft. David Bowie]
Is Leonard Nemoy anything but Spock? Is Jaleel White anything but Urkel? Some things just are what they are, even if you feel bad about it. Wikipedia embarasses itself by not mentioning it. PF500 goes meta in its description: "And notice we don't mentio nthe bass line once." Of course it's the baseline!, ranked as the greatest of all time by people that might even know.
I used to love Mr. Ice's descriptions about how he added an extra "bum" to the bass line. Which, you know, is true, if you listen to it (link here is to his apology).
But with this song diced and stuck into commercials, you forget its scat-ripoff aspects (ee do bo bup bup), finger snaps, the ascending chorus. You recall the ending, but the whack-job third minute isn't one you remember.
Most big star collaborations have sloppiness going against them (no one can be a control freak; limited studio time; etc.). But they can normally make up for it with joy, and that nets out to a positive here.
RATING: 71.
Gotta love mashups:
I used to love Mr. Ice's descriptions about how he added an extra "bum" to the bass line. Which, you know, is true, if you listen to it (link here is to his apology).
But with this song diced and stuck into commercials, you forget its scat-ripoff aspects (ee do bo bup bup), finger snaps, the ascending chorus. You recall the ending, but the whack-job third minute isn't one you remember.
Most big star collaborations have sloppiness going against them (no one can be a control freak; limited studio time; etc.). But they can normally make up for it with joy, and that nets out to a positive here.
RATING: 71.
Gotta love mashups:
September 20, 2009
110. Roxy Music: More Than This
Oh Dear God. Risking the wrath of teenage girls the world over is a bit scary, but I just don't get this one. It's overproduced pop - not only the synths, but the guitar straight off a Dire Straights b-side. And with vocals that could have made 1980's David Gahan blush, which is tough to do. Ambiguous lyrics for 15 year olds to project directly onto.
Not for me, really.
RATING: 49
Not for me, really.
RATING: 49
109. ABBA: The Day Before You Came
I HATE ABBA. Not sure how else to put it. PF500 tries to play this as ABBA getting serious, I guess about how "something's not right." I'm not wasting another second.
RATING: 0.
RATING: 0.
A Thought
My wife mentioned to me that reading this blog, when you don't know a song, and it isn't linked to, is absolutely maddening. It's really a fuck up on my part. So I'm linking everything I can find now, of course.
September 19, 2009
108. Michael Jackson: Billie Jean
Wanna Be Startin' Something seems to me to be the choice, here, if only because we get surreal "you're a vegetable" Michael. I've always felt in that song you got Michael saying "I'm doing surreal lyrics, I'm bringing in multiple instruments, I'm making this song go 2 minutes longer than it should," and I'm not even bringing up mamasaymamasamamamusa (I know, it kinda was Quincy saying all that, but still...)
I'm sounding too disappointed. Billie Jean is very solid, even before considering the video (but "Billie Jean" is actually mentioned in Wanna Be Startin' Something!?!).
The most surprising thing to me when I listen to Michael Jackson is that he's such a storyteller. From Thriller and thereafter, his best songs tend to put you in the middle of a particular situation (which is why Black and White sucks).
Much has been written about Jackson since his death. I tend to agree with the "we're really going to ignore that he was a total freak for 15 years?" school of thought, but the music is excellent. My kids, who slough off music all over the place, ask to hear Michael's songs. "Play a different one that's good" they say. And I always can find one.
RATING: 86.
I'm sounding too disappointed. Billie Jean is very solid, even before considering the video (but "Billie Jean" is actually mentioned in Wanna Be Startin' Something!?!).
The most surprising thing to me when I listen to Michael Jackson is that he's such a storyteller. From Thriller and thereafter, his best songs tend to put you in the middle of a particular situation (which is why Black and White sucks).
Much has been written about Jackson since his death. I tend to agree with the "we're really going to ignore that he was a total freak for 15 years?" school of thought, but the music is excellent. My kids, who slough off music all over the place, ask to hear Michael's songs. "Play a different one that's good" they say. And I always can find one.
RATING: 86.
107. Hall & Oates: I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)
Starts off a lot funkier than you remember, smoother. No one listening to the first 60 seconds would have predicted Hall & Oates. It's a bit of a shame, Hall & Oates seem like a punchline for those of us born in the early 1970s, with John Oates, mute-like-Teller, dancing around a la Andrew Ridgely of Wham, but this makes you step back and respect. The song meanders around a bit in a surprising way, with melodies a sharp above or flat below where you think they're going (like on the multiple variations of the slide on the "nooooo"), they really bring the soul, and there's a fair amount going on, and the Hall & Oates harmonies, whatever their other flaws, are always spot on. (I can do without the upper range tinkly shit, which they should've realized would doom them to easy rock hell, but hindsight is 20/20 I guess)
Can I just admit it and say that I cannot hear this song without thinking of a guy that hates to eat pussy? I Would Do Anything For Love by Meatloaf too. Anyone else? Is it really just me?
RATING:73 66
Can I just admit it and say that I cannot hear this song without thinking of a guy that hates to eat pussy? I Would Do Anything For Love by Meatloaf too. Anyone else? Is it really just me?
RATING:
106. Prince: Dirty Mind
I would imagine over the years that many guys watched prince seduce countless women and thought "I'm not sure I get this." And that's how I feel about his music.
I realize that prince turned into a punchline there for a while, with the symbol and stuff, and at the same time represented what happens to an artist when he fights too much with his record label, and of course he didn't deserve to be the butt of jay leno's jokes for too many years, but ... I've been crucified for this, and I've really tried, but at the end of the day, it's just not there.
And I think I know what it is for me, at least in part. I just don't believe that anyone should take their sexuality that seriously, song after song, year after year, decade after decade. It's a bit ridiculous, if you think about it, all that theatrical stroking of the little man. I certainly wouldn't want to be around a person like that, trying to talk about whether iced coffee is actually getting more popular or not, and having him suck on a straw. Enough.
This song is basic synth 101. Verse Verse Verse Bridge Verse Verse winddown. Or something like that. And the 3 chord synth line becomes annoying about 90 seconds into this 4 minute song.
RATING: 47.
I realize that prince turned into a punchline there for a while, with the symbol and stuff, and at the same time represented what happens to an artist when he fights too much with his record label, and of course he didn't deserve to be the butt of jay leno's jokes for too many years, but ... I've been crucified for this, and I've really tried, but at the end of the day, it's just not there.
And I think I know what it is for me, at least in part. I just don't believe that anyone should take their sexuality that seriously, song after song, year after year, decade after decade. It's a bit ridiculous, if you think about it, all that theatrical stroking of the little man. I certainly wouldn't want to be around a person like that, trying to talk about whether iced coffee is actually getting more popular or not, and having him suck on a straw. Enough.
This song is basic synth 101. Verse Verse Verse Bridge Verse Verse winddown. Or something like that. And the 3 chord synth line becomes annoying about 90 seconds into this 4 minute song.
RATING: 47.
105. Tom Tom Club: Genius of Love
While I think the inclination is to stick this in the electronica/club section, to me this is a nice and easy summer song. A farty bouncy 6-note synth riff, and the puffy female harmonies make this ideal for patio drinking. Steals the best of reggae in this regard.
That said, the rap verse and the german verse don't completely stand up to multiple close listens in a row.
Bo-hannon, bo-hannon, bo-hannon, bo-hannon.
Who? Hamilton Bohannon of course, Stevie Wonder's drummer.
RATING: 74.
That said, the rap verse and the german verse don't completely stand up to multiple close listens in a row.
Bo-hannon, bo-hannon, bo-hannon, bo-hannon.
Who? Hamilton Bohannon of course, Stevie Wonder's drummer.
RATING: 74.
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