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    One Song


    2011 - 11.03

    My Dear Children,

    I thought it was important to tell you how one song changed my life.

    I was in high school from August 1990 to May of 1994.  My Freshman year was hard because there are some terrible social pressures on you when you’re 13 years old.  I was certainly not cool by any stretch of the word, and usually spent my free time hiding in the library avoiding people.  Maybe you have noticed I still do that from time to time when I’m uncomfortable – thank God I have your mom to help me when I fail socially.

    When I started my Sophomore year of high school, it looked like I would have a similar, lonely year.  A few weeks after school started, when I was 14 years old, something changed me: “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana.

    You see, I’ve always loved music but it was misdirected.  The first album I got was Can’t Slow Down by Lionel Richie.  In high school, I was listening to stuff like Poison, Guns n Roses, INXS, or White Lion.  I liked music with guitars, stuff that was listenable and “edgy.”

    As I listened to Nivana’s Nevermind album, though, music became a passionate affair for me, and no longer a passive relationship.  I got the edge I wanted, but now I loved music – I started to seek stuff that spoke to me. I was learning how to play drums at the time, and so I played Nirvana songs.  I made friends at school who also liked Nirvana.  We got their first album Bleach and loved that too.  We played music together.  My parents – God bless em – let us practice in their garage.  We played a few shows throughout the remainder of high school.

    Do you see how this wasn’t just about Nirvana anymore?  I began to play music with others.  I made good friends.  I had fun and I became a music critic – not professionally, of course, but I am aware of the massive impact music can have on a life, so I love music, I argue about music, I complain about music, I am fickle about the music that I do and don’t like.  It’s really important to me.

    For some people, music is entertainment, but for me it’s passion, it’s definition, and it’s essential.  Music is something serious and music is something fun at the same time.  There are choices that musicians make and choices we make as listeners that are really important – these things can either drive or mute our passions.  “Smells Like Teen Spirit” began my path of pursuing passion.

    Nevermind was released 20 years ago.  The moral of my story is not “I wasn’t cool and I became cool because I liked cool music.”  Here’s what I want you to learn from this: something small, like one song, can change everything.  The message is not to find the song that changes you, but I want you to be that song that changes people’s lives.  Live passionately.

    Love, Dad.

    I wish it was The Best Of….


    2010 - 06.04

    The Best of Doves (“The Places Between”) was released on April 5, and two months later, I have a beef.  Doves are a stellar band with a great body of work, and I love their most recent albums The Last Broadcast, Some Cities, and Kingdom of Rust.  Admittedly, their albums tend to run out of steam by the later tracks (especially The Last Broadcast), very much like some  Snow Patrol albums.  Because of this, a greatest-hits-type album showcases Doves in a very good light, featuring all the stellar tracks: The Places Between: The Best of Doves.

    A grave error has been made though.  I looked through the tracks today for the best song Doves have recorded, “Satellites,” from The Last Broadcast, which I also happen to consider one of the best songs ever recorded by any band. Also missing were songs I love like “The Greatest Denier” and “Sky Starts Falling.”  Now I realize that ultimately, you’ve got to appease the greater audience with a “Greatest Hits,” so I can forgive the last two, but leaving off “Satellites” is a shame.

    Links:

    Listen to/buy “Satellites”

    The Places Between on Amazon

    The Last Broadcast on Amazon

    Some Cities on Amazon

    Kingdom of Rust on Amazon

    In 2010, The Punks Are in Crystal Castles


    2010 - 05.20

    Check out my guest post over at the new Promotions Crew blog, it’s a review of Crystal Castles’s second album and a discussion of dancepunk in general: http://www.promotionscrew.com

    5 albums you probably don’t own (but should)


    2010 - 05.11

    Here’s 5 albums and bands that I have in my collection that I talk about a lot, but most folks have never heard of.  There are Amazon affiliate links with each one to listen and buy if you wish.  By my count, 4 out of the 5 bands listed are long broken up, but regardless, they made some great albums.

    #5: “Caution” by Hot Water Music.

    I discovered HWM after they had fizzed out.  Hailing from Florida and releasing albums sporadically since the mid-90s, I always describe them as “swamp-water punk,” and I think it’s really fitting – throaty, thick music with a nice southern thwomp.  Their later albums are the better ones, and this is my favorite release from them.

    #4: “Year of the Rat” by NY Loose

    NY Loose came and went with one release in 1996.  I offer this as a mid-nineties predecessor (and truthfully, a better alternative) to Paramore.  New York City grimy rock with a female vocal.  Plus, they cover Velvet Underground!

    #3: “Hoarse” by 16 Horsepower

    I know like 4 people who’ve ever heard of 16HP.  16HP released 8 albums from the late nineties until they broke up and made little more than a ripple in the alt-country scene.  They’re from Denver, and I tell people to imagine if the Cure made a country album, but I think that doesn’t give enough credit to 16HP.  They’re dark, dreary, hard, and spiritual in all their recordings and as their releases went on, they got darker.  This one is a live album with most of their best songs, so it’s a good start.

    #2: “Smack Smash” by Beatsteaks

    Beatsteaks are a German band who’ve been around since the mid-nineties, but unlike most on this list are actually still together.  This album is one of their most recent and is unbelievable.  It’s a punk album with incredibly catchy songs but none of the pop-punk goofiness.  The vocals are beefy and cool, the music is tight and refined.  As far as I can tell, there were initially no US releases of their stuff, though through the miracle of the internet, you can get them on Amazon and iTunes now.  I got this album in 2004 from a German friend and it’s one of my favorite albums ever.

    #1: D-Generation’s self-titled album

    This album is so cool, you can’t even find it anywhere.  If you do, buy it!  With Jesse Malin on vocals (who has some great solo albums as well), D Generation single-handedly introduced the US to glam again in the 1990s.  The link above is for their second release, No Lunch, which features a few of the songs here, but this one is a gem – think Appetite for Destruction.  Rumor has it, DGen was so frustrated with their original record company Chrysalis, they took the masters of this album and threw them in the East River.  Don’t bother with their third album, Through the Darkness, my friend Jason is the only person I’ve ever met who likes it.