BLATANT. DYING ON THE HILL.
Okay grain of salt but, basically it's the verses of P and the chorus of 2.
They both start with falsetto "WOO HOO" and "OO-WOO-OO-OO" on the 4th (pickup) beat coming into the bar (although P has the pickup to the pickup, but "WOO" is still on 4), and then land on the 1st beat of the bar. Then there's 3 beats of rest, and the vocals come in on the 4th beat at a steady series of eighth notes until you get to the 4th beat of the second bar, at which point the "WOO HOO"/"OO-WOO-OO-OO" comes in again and the cycles repeats.
That's an overly descriptive way of saying "You can sing them both over each other!" Plus they are both pretty heavily led by overdriven/distorted bass guitar, which was a normal move for the Rentals but was probably one of the first times Blur did it.
Also the Rentals toured with Blur for a bit in 96, and there's even video of Blur performing "Friends of P" with Matt Sharp, before "Song 2" was released. They clearly liked the song and heard it a lot. So like, even if it isn't actually "blatant ripoff" (like I said, grain of salt, I'm MOSTLY just goofing), it was definitely in Albarn's head when he wrote Song 2.
Oh shit, Cloakroom is this week!
I've spent the last 20 years trying to find bands that can give me that same specific high that Hum could, and while the last few years has presented a new crop of these mega-guitar-shoegazey-emo-destroyers, Cloakroom has gotten the closest. They fucking get it. These singles have been their best work so far and I'm stoked to hear the rest of it!
Please do yourself a favor and imagine that it's Weird Al shredding at 1:37.
(Also this is a top 5 Bowie song for me, maybe top 3. I'm a LITTLE underwhelmed by this cover, but it's still a super cool choice and a good attempt.)
This is looking more and more like what happened.
When even the MAGA-humping New York Post is calling you out for the irony of your demise, you know there must be something to it.
(Not that I'd usually take anything in the Post at face value, but this seems like something they'd go out of their way to hide or whitewash, but they seem to be fully onboard with the story.)
In Waiting was my 2020 AOTY, except I didn't hear it until January 2021 so I wasn't able to properly anoint it.
Sarah Corcoran is a magical vocalist; like all the greatest Irish rock singers, she wields that accent like a weapon. And the rest of the band is right there with her.
Wish this song was SO much of a slow build, but whatever, I'll take it. Cannot wait for the full release.
It's felt to me like they're just re-doing the Mandalorian with a much less charismatic lead character (wild considering you can actually see this one's face) and no transcendent surprises like Baby Yoda. There's truly no reason to watch this show.
I've been sold on Daniel Radcliffe as a secret-weirdo-who's-game-for-anything since his appearance on Extras back in 2006. But then Swiss Army Main really sealed the deal.
Shrink is probably my #2 Notwist album, and I like one or two of their older "heavy" albums even more than than most of their post-Neon stuff. But of all those, Vertigo Days I think has been my fave. It's a nice chill listen, and I listened to it quite a bit last year.
Although I almost want to say Close To The Glass just because I like the artwork so much. I bought the vinyl just because it looks cool!
(Plus they're German, so I feel like they never got associated with any scene, didn't tour the US as much as other bands, etc. etc. Might have something to do with why they never made the indie rock A-list.)
That might depend on how tuned-in you were in 2002-03. I feel like this album got super buzzy for a short time, and then the Blogoblogs moved on. If you were too young at that point (or otherwise just not living your life on music websites), I'd totally believe someone could have heard of it all without having heard of the Notwist.
Perfect album.
The article mentions how the Notwist presaged bands like Cut Copy and Hot Chip, but I've thought for years about how they seemingly had a direct influence on Radiohead's pivot into their Kid A era. Shrink (a pretty great album in its own right, although not up to Neon Golden level IMO) parallels (and pre-dates) Kid A in a lot of ways—90s heavy alternative band throws away their distortion pedals, embraces IDM, and completely warps their sound in post production. I'm pretty sure Thom Yorke mentioned the Notwist in interviews at the time, and they maybe toured with them for a spell? I've just felt for a long time that the Notwist was an overlooked progenitor of stuff that the Radiohead got all the glory for, and Shrink had more than a little influence on the making of Kid A. (And of course those Radiohead albums are all good and great, and this happens with evolution in popular music. I just wish the Notwist could've received a bit more love for Shrink and Neon Golden.)
The other thing Neon Golden makes me think about is how I've never—in 20 years now!—truly loved another Notwist release. Everything has been totally fine and listenable (and I think last year's was my favorite of the bunch), but whatever magic they had in 1998 to 2002 has never quite surfaced again.
Anyway! Neon Golden, please listen to it if you haven't.
When Shamir brings the goods, he's really one of the best young songwriters out there—although it seems like a coin flip every time he releases a song whether he's bringing those goods or not.
In this case, the goods have been brought.
I end up commenting on every one of these Cloakroom posts, but I can't get over how Extremely My Shit this is.
Their last album was pretty dang good, but didn't 100% get there for me—don't think it made my AOTY list in any significant way? But whatever that record was "missing" is absolutely present in this new stuff, and I'm ready and waiting to be destroyed by it.
Wowww I had no idea he wrote that! Genuinely thought it was just an old 80s jam that they sourced. It's a masterpiece.
I also just learned that Nathan Larson was once engaged to Kerri Kenney from The State. So many dots suddenly being connected!
Holy shit, Shudder To Think's Spotify numbers are bleak! "X-French" has a solid 400,000 plays, but after that nothing even sniffs 6-digits. Even [pulls a comparable 90s grunge-adjacent no-hit-wonder out of a hat] Archers Of Loaf has a handful of million+ tracks and plenty more 100k+.
Good on Wedren for getting that Hollywood paycheck. And double good on Nathan Larson for marrying into the Cardigans empire.
Here's a funny story! (Did I say "funny"? I meant "tangentially topical".)
A few weeks ago we were watching The Sopranos, the episode when Christopher's girlfriend takes the awful rock band under her wing. When the dude was singing in the studio, I actually wondered if it was maybe Craig Wedren singing the vocal part, with the actor lip syncing. It kinda sounded like him, and I knew he did some film work sometimes, so maybe they'd connected with him. Turns out, no, it was not him.
Then later that night, my partner had Yellowjackets on, and hearing the song, it never even occurred to me that it was Wedren. But then later I caught his name in the credits and my mind was blown!
Anyway. Shudder To Think rules. Pony Express Record yeah yeah blah blah, but allow me to recommend their very underrated later album 50,000 BC. It's been pretty much ignored since they released it (to quote a 1997 review from Drop D magazine: "As you might guess, this album sucks!"), but I think it's aged wonderfully, and has a handful of STT's best songs on it. I'll put "The Man Who Rolls" up there with any "X French Tee Shirt"s.
Anyway, wow this is a long comment.
(For the record, the only two studio album discographies I even thought to check were Miles Davis and Bob Dylan. Miles' 35th was a dud [although his 34th was Sketches of Spain, so GBV lucked out there], and Bob's is Tempest. Your mileage may vary.)
Luv Young Guv.
Meanwhile, my partner and I made a couple 8 hour drives over the holidays, and let me tell you, that Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Greatest Hits CD we found in an old travel disc wallet under the front seat hits REAL GOOD on a road trip.
Not that anyone needs me to vouch for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers at this point.
Count me in. I had to check out 5 or 6 or 7 years ago, just couldn't follow that shit anymore. Every time a new one gets rave reviews, I'll dip my toes in and watch the first half hour, but every single one (other than maybe Guardians of the Galaxy) makes me want to bash my head into a wall. Every single character had the same "ain't I lil stinker" personality, the humor is never actually funny or clever, the action scenes are seizure inducing, the effects look cheap as shit, and the plots have become so deeply circular and self referential that they're functionally meaningless if you haven't seen the previous dozen movies. I just can't.
I even tried Wandavision, which was clever and half entertaining until it turned into just another nonsense-a-thon in the second half. Loki also seemed fun until it wasn't.
I hear everyone hates The Eternals though, so I'll have to check it out.
What I like about this band (just based on Hunger for a Way Out at least) is that they actually bring some joy and verve and melody to the realm of post-punk. So many new bands that fall under that umbrella are so purposefully bleak and monotone, it becomes a stylistic exercise too often. But Sweeping Promises seems to actually be having fun and aren't afraid to let it rip now and then.
I missed that the readers poll even happened! But Turnstile was my #1 anyway so I guess it didn't need me.
Also, that "Hard Drive" song seriously reminds me of:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG9C0VwruXE
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