3.24.13

(Editor’s Note – In an effort to get caught up, the next few posts, 3/21-3/25 are gonna be like my underpants… brief! Between my MP3 player deleting 140 gigs of music, thank you ghost of Steve “Hand” Jobs, being five days behind in write-ups, and still having to make a playlist for April, the next 15 records I listen to will be lucky to get a line written about them.)

On March 24th I listened to The Cranberries Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We, Liz Phair Whip-Smart, and Bruno Mars Unorthodox Jukebox.

Did you know that the couch The Cranberries are sitting on on the album cover was rented? It’s true. They rented the same couch to sit on for their second album too. When they were preparing to shoot the cover for the third album the guy that had rented them the couch decided to jack up the price. So, they blew up his car… or just told him to “piss off.” One of the two.

Super easy album to like and it spawned two mega-hits, “Linger” and “Dreams.” I’m pretty sure “Dreams” is in the running to be the most used song in movie trailers and that kind of killed it for me. I still enjoy “Linger,” though.

I know I listened to this whole album a lot when it came out, but most of these songs sounded like I was listening to them for the first time. I thought the second half of this disc was catchier than the first. “Still Can’t…” sounded like a hit that never happened. There was something about that song and “Wanted” that had me thinking about The Smiths. If I had ever thought The Cranberries sounded like them before I completely forgot. But it had to be one of the reason I liked them. I love The Smiths!

If you put a gun to my head today, ten years ago, or twenty when this album came out and asked me to name one person in the band, other than Dolores O'Riordan... just shoot me. Although I know the couch story. 

Even though this wasn’t Exile In Guyville Part II, it’s a pretty strong offering from Liz Phair. “Supernova,” really gave off the impression that she had totally changed up her sound, but the rest of the record pretty much runs straight down Fuck And Run Street, where Liz lives. The album’s opener “Chopsticks” will attest to that.

I haven’t thought about the song “Whip Smart” in years and I loved hearing it again. Yeah, it’s a cornball track, but it’s awful cute! Is "May Queen" about Brian May? 

I had to punch Nic Harcourt in the junk so I could get this cell phone picture with Liz at a Radiohead show.

After listening to Unorthodox Jukebox I came to the conclusion that Bruno Mars likes to get laid. But when he sings about it, it comes off a little crude and clunky. The album’s opener, “Young Girls,” comes off like a four minute open invitation for college girls to try and get back stage at one of his shows so he can fuck them. I dunno, maybe?

Take the song “Gorilla.” It’s not horrible but it builds to the crescendo of “You and me, baby will be fucking like Gorillas.” After that line I started staring at my MP3 player with a very perplexed look on my face. I swear to God it shrugged as if to say, “Yeah, that’s what ya heard. What do you want from me?”

Then he rips off Michael Jackson on “ Treasure,” much like he borrowed from The Police on “Locked Out Of Heaven” and it somehow works. I checked out at this point. I thought I’d save this album for later. 

Catch Bruno all summer long on the Moonshine Jungle Tour! Ladies, please bring proof of age and a raincoat, the front row will get wet.

Tomorrow we celebrate the mighty Dave Grohl and The Foo Fighters!

March Playlist is here!