Supergrass - "Caught By The Fuzz"

Yesterday, I mentioned how certain aspects of Let's Wrestle's sound reminded of early Buzzcocks recordings. After posting I got to thinking of other bands that, at one time or another, reminded me of the Buzzcocks. The first one that occurred to me was Supergrass. Now, if you're only familiar with their newer records, you're presently thinking I'm out of my mind. But on earlier releases, like my favorite, I Should Coco, the resemblance was at times uncanny. For example, on the standout track and first single (back in 1994) "Caught By The Fuzz." Above, is the best live version of that song that I could find a video of. I wish it was a little bit louder but at least the band is hitting on all cylinders and the vocal just kills.

Let's Wrestle - "I Won't Lie To You"

Every once in awhile I hear a new song that knocks me flat on my ass from the first note. "I Won't Lie To You" by Let's Wrestle is one of those. Since I first found this one, around the beginning of last week, I've probably listened to it 30 or 40 times. And it still has legs!

Let's Wrestle, the self-described "most miserable and hateful band in North London", is a three-piece that cranks out loud, ebullient, rough-around-the-edges, rock music with pop undertones that'll have you immediately hankering for your old Buzzcocks and Wedding Present albums. On their first EP In Loving Memory Of . . . you'll find songs in the vein of the aforementioned and contemporaries such as Art Brut and labelmates Pete & the Pirates, a comparison that rests on their sound but also on the level of snark, wit, and self-deprecation to be found here.

"I Won't Lie To You" was apparently released as a limited-edition single in the UK around this time last year. The song kicks off with a fuzzy burst of guitar and the killer lyric "No matter how many records I buy/ I can't fill this void" and doesn't let up until the final note. The best news is that, despite their small output thus far, this song is no exception for these guys. There isn't a dud to be found on this EP or amongst the smattering of other tracks you can listen to on their Myspace page. Keep an eye out for these guys because I, for one, think they are going places.

Jessica Lea Mayfield - "Kiss Me Again"

The second post that I ever did on this blog was about Akron's Jessica Lea Mayfield. It's been almost 6 months since then, and I am pleased to say that I've seen her get a lot of well deserved credit since that time. She isn't yet the household name that she deserves to be. But, I imagine that she will continue to win over more and more fans as more and more people get the chance to hear her beautiful music.

One very good way to earn more fans is to make a music video of one of the best tracks on your album. And that is exactly what Jessica has done with the above video of "Kiss Me Again." Enjoy. And if you like this, you should definitely pick up her album With Blasphemy So Heartfelt, one of last year's best. You will not be disappointed. In fact, you'll probably come back and thank me.

Russian Red - "Fantasia"

I'll be the first one to admit that I'm a huge sucker for a beautiful girl with a beautiful voice. So, maybe my judgment is just clouded here. But, I don't think so. I only discovered Russian Red about a week ago and have been loving the album I Love Your Glasses ever since. Russian Red is from Madrid, Spain. Other than that, there is very little that I can tell you about her/them (see, I don't even know if it's a band or if Russian Red is just the stage name of the girl in the above video) except that if you like this song, you will like the whole album.

The Nerves - "Hanging On the Telephone"/The Plimsouls - "A Million Miles Away"

Everybody has heard Blondie's version of the song "Hanging On the Telephone." But, how many of you knew that Debbie Harry and Co. were actually covering a song by the short lived 1970's L.A. power-pop act, The Nerves? I know that I didn't, until I came across the above YouTube clip the other day. And, wow, I am blown away by how good this sounds. The aforementioned cover might be slicker and more radio ready. But this one has more bite, more energy, more heart. If I didn't know any better, I could have easily mistaken this for a Replacements track from their incredible Twin/Tone years.

The Nerves were only together for 3 years, from 1975-78, during which they released one proper album, and a few singles, "Hanging On the Telephone" being the best and best known. Three members were songwriters and this is what led to the quick break-up. All three members continued their careers in music. Most notably Peter Case, whose Plimsouls recorded a pretty big hit with "A Million Miles Away" from the soundtrack of the Nic Cage movie Valley Girl.

Whipping Boy - "When We Were Young"

I was supposed to go out to a party tonight. But, what happened . . . I fell asleep on my couch and woke up 10 minutes ago (at 1:30AM). This is becoming too common for me. And it makes me feel old. The one serendipitous thing that saved my night, in a way, was that when I woke up my iTunes were still playing on shuffle and the second song that came on was "When We Were Young" by Whipping Boy.

It's a reflective song all about the carefree drunken revelry and me-against-the-world, live-just-for-the-moment mentality that so many of us possess in our younger years (as did I). The song ends with the narrator waking up from dreams of his past and plaintively questioning all that he might have done and all that he might have been.

While I doubt that my failure to attend the party tonight is going to have an earth shatteringly negative affect on my life, it does remind me that I won't be able to do these things forever and I should take advantage while I can; while there is no girlfriend, no wife, no kid, etc. Because if I don't, I fear that I'll find myself sitting at home some Saturday night in the future, wishing that I could be out somewhere, and realizing that I was laying on a couch snoring years ago when I had my chance.

If you don't know Whipping Boy, you should really do yourself a favor and buy their album Heartworm at your earliest convenience. They were a late 80's-mid 90's Dublin band that cut their teeth playing cover versions of The Fall and Velvet Underground in Irish pubs. They eventually went on to put out a pair of albums featuring their own tunes, Heartworm being the real gem. The familiar themes and tone of their songs stay true to their working class roots, often cynically dealing with the mundanity and minutiae of everyday life, which makes them a pretty easy band to relate to. If you like this track, click here to see the YouTube video for their song "We Don't Need Nobody Else" which is actually my favorite song they put out, but was less pertinent to this post.

Oh, and next time you have the chance to go out and do something fun, take advantage. That way you'll never find yourself laying on your couch wondering What If . . .

Neko Case - I Wish I Was The Moon Tonight

Neko Case possesses, without a doubt, my favorite female voice in music today. Maybe my favorite voice of all time. This track, "I Wish I Was The Moon Tonight", is amongst her best, and a personal go-to song for me. It's a heartbreaking song about loneliness and giving up on love. I've never decided exactly how to interpret the line:

"I'm so tired/ And I wish I was the moon tonight."

However, my best guess is that the moon always seems to be at peace. The heartache, stress, and other baggage that comes with falling in and out of love seems to run anathema to the quiet, serene peacefulness and constancy that is embodied by the moon. To be the moon is to have adopted a certain clarity and ease that is so often foreign to one that is prone to romantic whimsy and the ups and downs that come with it.

If ever you feel that your heart has been trampled on one too many times, or you've given up on ever finding a romantic counterpart, you could do worse than to put this song on. If for no other reason than to be reminded that someone as beautiful and talented as Neko Case is sitting right next to you in Eros's doghouse.

It came to mind tonight when I was reading the E.E. Cummings poem "I Carry Your Heart With Me", in which the best line states:

"and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant/
and whatever a sun will always sing is you"

And, as I read this line and thought of Neko's line, I had something of an a-ha moment. Or, at very least, I made a personal connection between the way that I interpreted each artist's use of moon as metaphor.

Cummings' poem is addressed to a lover and, though I've read it many times and been smitten with the above lines, I liked them more for their tone and sentiment than for actually knowing what they meant. In light of my new found insight, on both poem and song, my reading is that the moon represents a personal peace in each case. Peace out of love, because of it's soothing calm and tranquility. Peace in love, as one accepts that one's lover has taken the place of the moon, has become the moon and all that it represents, if you will.

And now, I don't think that I'll ever be able to mentally separate poem and song again.

P.S. - Neko's new album, Middle Cyclone, releases this Tuesday March 3rd. Since she's never put out anything that didn't sound divine (whether solo, or with this little side-project she's involved in called The New Pornographers, wink wink), I can quite comfortably tell you to run out and get this album at your earliest convenience. For now, the entire thing is streaming on NPR's website.

Joe Pernice -Cribs/Pernice Brothers - "Baby In Two"

One of the better bands going right now are Boston's Pernice Brothers who, for what it's worth, aren't actually brothers but are led by Joe Pernice. It has been a little while since their last release, 2006's Live A Little, so I decided to check their website today to see if there was any new news. I'm sorry to report that there was no mention of a new album or upcoming tour. However, the following was posted there:

I need to get some of this stuff out of the house! I have lowered the prices of all Ashmont-owned stuff we have. You’ll find $5 CDs and some t-shirts for under $10. US store only for now, until I figure out how to update the int’l store. Please help me make space for all the stuff I am going to buy when Ashmont is deemed too big to fail and we get our bailout.

Nearly all of the Pernice Brothers' albums are currently available in the $5 to $8 range! If you don't own all of their albums, which you should, this is a great chance to fill in the gaps for a more than fair price.

While on the site, I also found the above video (from 2006) of Joe Pernice doing his take on what it would be like if MTV2 made an indie-rock version of their old hit show Cribs. This is a pretty hilarious send-up of a show that basically did little else than give regular Americans a chance to see what unnecessary material possessions obscenely wealthy celebrities wasted their money on. Pernice's version, while obviously intended to be funny, also reminds us that most bands are comprised of regular guys and gals who are working hard to pay the bills just like all of the rest of us.

Just in case you aren't familiar with this band I've also tacked on the video for their track "Baby In Two" below. There are dozens more great tracks where this one came from. So, if you like this, make sure to head to their store and buy something.

Sigur Ros - "Takk.../Glosoli"

Hands down, the best concert I have ever seen before (and I'd estimate I've seen, at a minimum, 500) was when Iceland's Sigur Ros performed here in Columbus a couple of years ago. I've never seen a band command the attention of everybody in a crowd before with the ease that they accomplished it with. Though there was nothing easy about these intricate songs or the expertly executed, never-a-dull-moment stage show. Sigur Ros presented us with a multi-sensory performance art experience, rather than a standard, run-of-the-mill concert. From fans who've been backing these guys since their earliest releases, such as myself, to those in the crowd that had never even heard Sigur Ros before that night, like my brother's friend who joined us at the show, the whole house was floored.

Their set, much like their albums, bounced back and forth between soaring, uptempo, ethereal postrock epics and more subdued, almost orchestral, movie-score type tunes. The sound was perfection, seemingly washing over and surrounding all in the audience. Visually, it was also stunning. For much of the show the band was separated from the audience by a semi-transparent screen. The screen was used in two different ways. At times films were projected onto it that perfectly accompanied the music in both tone and timing. At other stages the light man became an extra member of the band as he also used perfect timing and coordinated lights to project massive shadows of the players onto the screen. This effect was incredible, giving the feel of a larger than life band towering over the crowd, which also complimented this larger than life music nicely. Walking out the door after the show, I was absolutely dumbfounded, spent, and nearly speechless. Yet, at the same time, I wanted to call every person that I knew and tell them what they'd just missed.

The highlight of the show, one that consisted of almost nothing but highlights, was "Takk.../Glosoli". Above, I have posted a video of them doing this song couplet live in Reykjavik during that same tour. It embodies everything that is great about this band and their show. While I wish that the sound was louder on this video, the visual is better (read: not bootleg) than any others that I could track down. I dare you to skip the next Sigur Ros show that lands in your town.

Bob Dylan - "Masters of War"

I don't know if you guys have heard or not ;) but, as of yesterday, we have a new administration in charge here in the States! Whether they are any better than the last remains to be seen. I for one, despite my general mistrust of politicians, feel pretty optimistic about what Barack Obama and his people are going to try to do for this country and this world. So, Mr. Obama, do those of us that supported you proud.

This video set to the song "Masters of War" by my all-time favorite artist, Bob Dylan, is pretty self-explanatory. It is my dedication to George W. Bush and the outgoing administration. Best wishes in what is hopefully your disappearance into complete irrelevance and obscurity.