Category Archives: I Like This Song

Stinking Polecats, She Was Great

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Friend of the remnants, Evan Davies, the WFMU DJ, is traveling around the UK buying records. Today he posted yesterday’s haul, which like his excellent radio show was an eclectic mix of punk and rock and novelties. One band name jumped out at me: The Stinking Polecats. Who?

It’s an excellent name and a quick survey at YouTube revealed a pop punk guitar band with an excellent attack and a bit too much (for my taste) of that cute uplifted voice in the vocals, like the theme song from Friends and a million other bands of their time. Which was from 1996 or so until 2006, when they stopped updating their blog.

There isn’t much out there about them, but Googling revealed that the Stinking Polecats, who sound 100 percent USA, were Italians from Piacenza, which is south of Milan. Plus, the chorus seems to be, “She was reading, and my heart was beating so fast.”

Darlingside, “Terrible Things”

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I went with my daughter to see these four young men called Darlingside last night at the excellent Rockwood Music Hall in lower Manhattan. It’s a clever but lousy name. Darlingside, I mean. Rockwood is a clever and excellent name. We were there at the invitation of the author, John Seabrook, who is writing about the band for the New Yorker, who was there with his son Harry. Lucy and Harry were born two months apart 16 and a half years ago, and have grown up together in many ways. Rockwood is a 21+ venue. Special exceptions were granted. They were the youngest people in the room, surely, just as John and I were probably, statistically at least, the tallest. And maybe the oldest, now that I think about it.

John knew about Darlingside because his wife’s niece went to college with them recently at Williams. They’re very cute and apparently the kids at Williams thought they were great. These two things aren’t unrelated, but cuteness doesn’t diminish their skills. They are talented multi instrumentalists and harmonizers. Their first album came out yesterday and the show we saw was their first on their record-release tour. All of which is supposed to suggest that I didn’t know much about them until I listened to the album yesterday. It is full of very smart lyrics, and soft but engaging arrangements and vocals. In other words, it is not rock.

But watching their lovely show, which was thoroughly enjoyable and displayed a sense of humor the earnest songs on the album don’t, it was kind of easy to project back a few years to a band that was perhaps a little edgier, a lot less interested in being lovely and a lot more interested in telling it like it is. With drums.

Today my daughter found this old (from 2012) music video from Darlingside. It’s not hard rock by any stretch, but it’s a strong song with a rock beat and a sharp video that came way too late to hit the indie boom. But the harmonies are still front and center, and delightful, as is the dark storyline with a happy ending. This, I think, is Darlingside.

Armageddon Amuse Bouche!

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Listening to Def Leppard I was not reminded of these two great songs, but both come to mind when I’m in an armageddon frame of mind.

There is a 12″ cover of the Willie Williams song, by the Clash, which I own, that goes beyond beyond. It doesn’t make me want to smoke pot, it makes me feel like I’ve smoked pot, and while the 7″ version that I found on YouTube is pretty great, it isn’t the best. While the original, which I have the 7″ of, too, is very very fine.

Patti Smith, of course. Though she screws up the armageddon line. But they’re in Sweden in 1976. Sweet.

 

Rihanna, “Stay”

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I may have posted this song when it came out, because Sophie Muller’s video is so clear.

But in the many months since, I’ve grown attached to this slow song simply because it is a very simple song about longing. Similar to some of the tunes on Adele’s monster hit collection, this isn’t devoid of production, but it sounds like a tune.

The song was written by the falsetto-voiced dude, Mikky Ekko, who you have to assume is Scandinavian. That’s cool. It’s not rock ‘n’ roll, at all, but I like it.

The Best Doowop song ever

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Yeah, that’s right. Lots of people don’t like doowop and I understand, very often it is sappy, but done right it’s a beautiful thing. This one is a little post-doowop in that it was released in 1965, so what. The hit version was by The Students in 1958, not bad but one-dimensional. It was covered several times by the likes of Rosie & the Originals and the Del-Vikings (note metal name, who knew?). For the Beach Boys it was an album track on Beach Boys Today!, never even a B-side as far as I know. The playing by the Wrecking Crew, and the singing by all of them especially the perfect color of Brian’s falsetto, and Brian’s production which is stripped-down Phil Spector which is a helluva concept in itself, and if you don’t care about that stuff it’s just plain gorgeous. If you’re gonna wimp out go all the way and then it’s not wimping out.

Leave It To Rick Rubin

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Some of my very favorite albums are produced by Rick Rubin – Master Of Reality’s debut, Danzig’s debut, The Cult’s Electric, the great live Red Devils album King King to name a few.

In fact, there was a time years ago when I would take a chance on albums specifically because Rick Rubin produced. Can’t say that about any other producer.

Which brings us to ZZ Top’s La Futura. As one of the Amazon reviews says, “How many times have we heard ZZ Top has gone back to their 70’s sound only to be disappointed?” Desperate for something new to me, I checked this out, sampling a couple tunes. It sounded pretty damn good. I ordered it.

“Blown away” is all I can say after playing it three times yesterday. This is back to the old 70’s sound as far as I’m concerned. No crappy processed, compressed guitars, no electronic drums, no fucking stupid synthesizers. This is dirty boogie blues in the spirit of those early gem albums, stripped down and in-your-face in usual Rick Rubin style. This album kicks ass.

And funny, as much as I hate slow songs, I’m gonna give you the only slow one on the album, which I actually like. Call me crazy, but this song reeks of Phil Lynott/Thin Lizzy and perhaps that’s why I love it so much. Everything else on the album is straight-ahead and upbeat. I highly, highly recommend it.

I was thinking this was my favorite album of 2015, but it came out in 2012. Oh well. My loss for not finding it until now.

Leave it to Rick Rubin.

It’s Concert Time!

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Uncle Acid is touring in September to support their new album, also coming out in early September. As one of the few surviving bands still worth a shit, you owe it to yourself to see them in September when they are near. Ticket price $20. (My girlfriend made me take her to Elvis Costello and Steely Dan(?!?) recently and it cost me $300 for two decent seats. “Thank God by the time bands get to this level I either don’t care about them anymore or never did,” I thunk to myself.)

Anyway, here’s the newly released “single” (look out Bad Blood!). Sweet Sabbath drone with sweet Lennon vocals and two even sweeter guitar solos. See you in Philly on September 13th.

Yuck, “Get Away”

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More than most of my friends here, I’m a fan of 90s indie rock. I think Pavement is major, I dig Beck, have a fondness for Bettie Seveert and the Pixies and many others.

Yesterday I read about this English band called Yuck. Good name!

And not exactly bad music, but just outright copying of music that was made 20 some odd years ago. If you are 15 years old now and into rock and heard this, I can’t argue against that. This is indie rock that sounds pretty great and fuzzy.

But on the other hand, this sound is all about marketing. It sold once, it will sell again. It peddles nostalgia to those who aren’t old enough to realize that this stuff was all done before.

In fact, you can Google Yuck and find their songs. Here’s a Bettie Seveert song instead.

Luther Ingram, “If Loving You Is Wrong, I Don’t Want To Be Right”

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I think I drove my mom to the hospital to see my step great grandfather who had just had a hernia operation. Or she drove and I got to go back out to the car after the perfunctories, which is where I heard this pretty much perfect pop song for the first time. (And I mean that the poetry is right on, meaning the ambiguity wins.)