Meanwhile, at Hoboken . . .
Yo la Tengo released Painful.
Yo la tengo will have an amazing run of albums and Painful was the first. It is also their sixth album. It's hard to think that such a nice looking married couple and a very jovial fellow could make such noise, but Yo la Tengo can knock off the socks of anyone when they feel like it. They can also make the sweetest sounding songs, where Ira's whispers can send you into a diabetic coma. Painful (and you could say most of the band's music) alternates between these two extremes. "I Heard you Looking" ( a 10) begins as some paused strums on guitar before going all ballistic on our ears while "The Whole of the Law" (another 10 and a The Only Ones cover) is as fragile as a snowflake. Heck, even the two time repeater on the album "Big Day Coming" comes in two flavors: shoegaze loud drone and organ crawling soft.
This would be their first album with Matador and the sounds played here will be expanded in many directions in subsequent albums over the years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5CFn5vERbw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5GtdQEWdYYvan
As a bonus here is "Marigold", the first song Dave Grohol wrote and sang on, which was used as one of the B-sides.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEsOww93NM0
Meanwhile, at the angry part of town . . .
Nirvana released In Utero.
"Teenage angst has paid off well, now I'm bored and old". Thus the first words Cobain sings on the album. In Utero is an ugly record in the sense that it's harsh sounding, abrasive, full of screams, feedback and everything sounds pretty much in your face. Gone is the polished sound of Nevermind. This is a punk album made by punks.
It seemed like it was going to be easy, a couple of weeks with Steve Albini and the album was done. Then the drama started, The record label wanted a more friendly sound, Nirvana was having none of that, but over the days they relented and what would be the singles were sent to Scott Litt for remixing. All this was made public before anything was available and made for some nasty comments (especially from Albini). In the end it didn't matter, the album would reach #1 in the US and UK.
Once again, Cobain has pop melodies to spare underneath all the noise, even in the more brutal songs (Milk It, a 10, "Tourette's" another 10). The words on the other hand range not so friendly topics, a lobotomized female star, a murderous maker of perfumes, body fluids, rape, suicide, the relationship with his father, showbusiness, addiction. Knowing now what will happen in the incoming months, "All Apologies" (another 10), with its repeating final words became a fine and very sad farewell song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6P0SitRwy8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0d2f_EqXNc
Meanwhile, at the perfect songs side of town . . .
Bikini Kill released "Rebel Girl".
An ode to femanist solidarity, Rebel Girl scorches everything in its path. Kathleen Hanna knows singing these lyrics won't be enough, she has to shout them to get everybody's attention, the drums pound with fury reserved for punching bags and the guitars explode like a train of TNT. These ladies won't sit down and act nice. Three recorded versions exist, the second one produced by Joan Jett, also providing additional guitar and background vocals. The third version will be included in their debut album Pussy Whipped (that is a great title by the way) released in october, 1993.
It will become the anthem song of the riot grrrl movement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZxxhxjgnC0
Meanwhile at the perfect songs side of town . . .
Mazzy Star released "Fade into You".
Let's say right away, this song is a 10, a 20, a 50, a 100.
Face into You is a lullaby for the melancholy, it's a prayer for those aching of heartbreak, it's a song to listen to in the night while the car eats kms of highway.
Hope Sandoval is an angel and her voice is the light which all the lonesome people flock to. It's a song that sounds like it always has existed, maybe it has and only Mazzy Star were perceptive enough to find it floating in the ether and bring it to us. The way that slide comes in and out is just exquisite, while the guitar gently strums away. The opener to their second album, -So Tonight that i Might See- it sets the tone for a dream state of aura bliss. Other stand out songs included are "Five String Serenade", "Into Dust", "Blue Light", "She's My BaBy" and the hipnotic closer "So Tonight that i Might See" (another 10).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avv2IIdDnnk
check out the compilation called Chau Soda VriginDog, it has a great selection from all their albums and from there you can go from each.
Also Cerati's second album "Bocanada" is the best thing he ever did.
a personal fav:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNzYr4U7Zs8
oh man, i haven't heard this one in a looong time. Great song but yes, it's all gibberish by Kiedis at the end, maybe he got caught up in the music there and just let go. Agree with the 8.
Push away, better to discover interesting, challenging stuff instead of another boring ballad or MOR AC glop.
I had heard this one before. and it's always moving. it could really work as an alternate christmas staple.
Zooropa got much love a couple of days ago, but great to see extra love for The Wanderer.
The version that apepars in the soundtrack of Faraway, So close! has an extra verse.
Here is i think the only time they played it live.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO8DtcW6yAc
hell yeah, Stereolab!
Was thinking of doing a post of this one, good to see the job is taken care of.
An amazing album, that would signal their turn to more electronic soundscapes.
That MTV presentation is so weird, i sure somebody has already asked what they think about it, but they should ask them again anyway just to confirm.
i guess this is a good pace as any to post this version which amps up the intensity of the song in a different way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd7nehSQVQ0
That Taylor Dayne cover is really baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad. Like eating pork before going to sleep bad.
i have no problems with What's Up -even after it was played into the ground, went through the centr of the planet and came out on the other side or River of Dreams.
since now i have to appereantly justify why i did or did not hear a number one, don't worry gang, this one a did listen before.
i can't hate it like Tom and i guess a lot more people because even if it's thin sounding, it coasts along breezely and those horns are not that intrusive. i'm debating between a 6 or a 7.
Unfortunately, this isn't the bands best album, and most of the songs from this one really haven't remind in rotation (at least down here), but their next one will change all that and become very much remembered with some classics.
Before releasing this one, in 1992 Cerati collaborated with Daniel Melero, creating Colores Santos which has some true gems, being the opening and closing tracks the best examples.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIL_Kmx1jMo
Meanwhile, at the... I really can't say which side of town this one is...
Flying Saucer Attack released their debut.
Started by David Pearce, while Rachel Brook was there for a while at the beginning, FSA really is beyond the labels of shoegaze and post-rock. Although the album has the same name as the band, it's sometimes referred to as Rural Psychedelia, since those words appear on the album, and it's a great description of the sounds inside. Imagine a house in one of those big grass fields with nothing around it but electric towers always humming as the sun fades and night crawls in. The walls of the house and fields are all covered in static and with the slightest touch you get a spark or two. Transfer this energy into an am radio and turn it up. It really is something and it goes on for 50 glorious minutes. Highlights are opener "My Dreaming Hill", "Moonset" with a lunatic sax bouncing around, "Wish" and it's barely controlled shrieking guitar, a cover of Suede's "The Drowners" so wrapped in noise it could count as an electromagnetic pulse. "Popol Vuh 1" could count just as one long stare at the stars as the earth turns.
A beautiful album among all the releases of 93.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hB2C-cw_bc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWZp5iCmMLg
Meanwhile, at the perfect albums side of town . . .
Siamese Dream is released.
It begins with a quick drum roll, then a strumming guitar, which cascades and multiples and before you know it, you're in the middle of a vortex of distortion. It's an awesome way to begin an album and from there it only gets better, but it was not an easy path. The songs arrived amid breakups, depression, writer's block, a nervous breakdown, months of bickering, late and over budget. Corgan was looking for perfection, so he ended up playing all the guitar and bass parts himself. His goal was to create a "sonic depth" so guitars were layered multiple times (Soma has 40 for example), to create a maximum sound where there is always something happening. And did it really pay off. The record is so beautiful in it's tornado of noise, while the quiet parts just float on in a marvelous melodic way (one of the things i loved about the Smashing was their ability to navigate a quiet-loud extreme so deftly, another favorite band of mine that's coming will also manage this).
The already mentioned opener "Cherub Rock" (10) sets the pace and you barely get a chance to breathe until "Disarm". In the interim you get sucker punched by the sonics of "Quiet", the unbelievable prettiness of "Today" (10), the lament of "Hummer" and the hopefulness of "Rocket" (10), all drenched in a pandemonium of sound. "Disarm" works as an interlude before everything gears up for another rollercoaster ride. "Soma" creates an amazing tension that explodes like firecrackers on a holiday with "Geek USA", for a noisey, lovely lull with "Mayonnaise" (10) before the utter heartbreak of "Spaceboy" (a song about Corgan's brother). And then, the next one jumps on you, a mexican standoff between guitars intent on killing each other with the amps to the max: "Silverfuck" (a 20, and what an amazing name for a song, also here you really get what a great drummer Jimmy Chamberlain is), a beast of a song where Corgan barely manages to keep all the parts together; borrowing the essential moment, it's around 2:17- 2:40 when Corgan narrowly reigns it in before it breaks apart at the seams, only for it to burst like a supernova at the end. "Sweet Sweet" and "Luna" bring us down softly, the latter as a lullaby to go off and drift to a land of dreams.
The album peaked at #10, ended up selling 6 million copies worldwide and became one of the finest guitar albums of all time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmUZ6nCFNoU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrelrCc7iSQ
Meanwhile, at the noisy part of town . . .
The Breeders released Last Splash.
Last Splash when you really analyze it is a weird record. It has pop hooks, but everything has a fuzz mask over it. It sounds professional in its ramshackle construction, the absurdly lovely harmonies of the Deal sisters will melt you while they sing "the bong in this reggae song", there are instrumentals that consist of feedback, screeching and angry tones, songs have enchanting lines ("do you think of me like i dream of you") thrown out so carelessly that you wonder how they came up with them. It's also a record full of ingenuity and accidents (the bassline of Cannonball for example). None of this detracts from its greatness. This album is the one that got all the attention that the band she was kicked out never got. This album is the one that finally made the band she had with her sister while they were teenagers in Dayton, Ohio a dream come true. This album is the one with one of the best songs of the decade and how the video made playing it so effortless it inspired girls all around the world to pick up an instrument and do it too. This makes Kim the coolest person ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxvkI9MTQw4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUiP5eyx3NM
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