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Spending all your free time listening to music sometimes
will give a person a musical sixth sense, if you will. It’s like a combined
sense of hearing, comprehension and intuition. You can listen to a band’s first
couple of recordings and make a really solid educated guess as to where they’re
going. My music sixth sense used to be sharp and pointy, now it's a little bloated and dull. But, I definitely remember in 1999 listening to Clarity and thinking that
Jimmy Eat World was poised for greatness. That’s not saying that Clarity isn't a great record in its own right, because it is definitely something special.
The songwriting from Static Prevails to Clarity had really taken a giant leap,
the sound of the recording, and the growth of the arrangements all pointed in one
direction. Up. Yet, Capitol records dropped them anyway because nobody
bought Clarity. Stooopid!
In 2001, I was working for a shitty little radio industry
rag and I swear to God we were sent an advanced copy of Bleed American from
Capitol records. (I just emailed the guy I shared an office with, but I can not
confirm this.) Regardless, Dreamworks scooped up Jimmy Eat World and Bleed
American (later named Jimmy Eat World after 9/11) became one of the greatest
albums of the new century… so far.
And I saw their whole arc of greatness coming with my
musical sixth sense. I’m like a Disco Jedi.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Jim Adkins in the summer
of 1999. Jimmy Eat World was playing an outdoor mini-festival for my radio
station and I was broadcasting live from the venue. We started talking about
Emo, because it was a Hot Topic (Hi-Oh) in the late 90’s, but I could tell he
really just wanted to change the subject. “Would you consider Jimmy Eat World
an Emo band?” I asked. “No,” he said quickly. I pointed out that the band’s
fans would disagree and he agreed with that. “Well, what is Emo music?” I asked to try
and find a common ground. He very quickly said, “What do you think it is?” I paused
for what seemed like forever. I was trying to clean up what I was thinking
which was “Crybaby Rock,” but I said, “I think it’s Rock music with very
sensitive lyrics.” I just remember the look that he gave me, as if to say that
he knew what I was thinking, heard what I said and would you want your band
labeled that? He gave a very polite
response about music being subjective, and whatever someone takes away from Jimmy Eat World… blah blah blah. I've run into him a handful of times during my radio career and he's always been a nice guy.
It's been way too long since I listened to all of Clarity. I forgot all about the Christmas jam! Every
Christmas I always listen to Jimmy Eat World’s cover of “Last Christmas,” when I could
have been listening to “12.23.95” too! “A Sunday,” and “Blister” were always
two standouts. And then there’s “Lucky Denver Mint.” One of my all-time
favorite songs!
The joke with the band Failure has always been, “you don’t
name your band Failure.”
Fantastic Planet was released right before I got my first
real job in radio and after I was hired “Stuck On You” was being worked as a
single. Check out the CD single they sent out. The shape of that guy’s helmet
is the shape of the CD. It was the only time I ever remember getting a weird
shaped CD like that and it worked in almost any CD player. So, I listened to that song
a lot showing my friends the weird CD I just got for free at my new job down at
the radio station!
I know many people that love the main guy behind this band, Ken
Andrews. I’ve talked about him in this blog already. He’s been in a few other bands
and has produced a lot of albums. He’s a musician’s musician. There are
countless amounts of music heads that will tell you that Fantastic Planet is one of the best albums ever recorded that nobody has heard! Meaning that if given
the chance, the masses would have eaten this record up and it would be as big
as that President’s Of The United States Of America album that three million
people bought and then sold back for two bucks because they realized when the listened to "Lump" and "Peaches" they looked like drooling wieners. Mr. Average Radio Listener
would have kept his copy of Fantastic Planet and it would have become a
cherished possession. There's a WHOLE other reason that atrocities like that happened, but I'm not even gonna go there right now. I'm talking about good old payola and I'll broach that topic somewhere down the road.
Feeling adventurous? Go listen to three songs from this
record. “Saturday Savior,” “The Nurse Who Loved Me” (A song that A Perfect
Circle fans should know.), and “Stuck On You” should have you wanting more from
Failure. If they don’t then you’re a douche bag. Sorry, but it’s true.
I loved “Telephone” from The Black Angels' last album,
Phosphene Dream. I hated the name of that album. I also hate the name Indigo
Meadow. Fucking hippie dirtbags.
This is another one of these records that I don’t know what
to do with. I like it. As I’m listening to it I think little parts, here and
there, are cool. But, I know me, I’m
never going to throw this record on and listen to the whole thing for the rest
of my life. I’m not in the market for a band that thinks Jefferson Airplane is
the shit. I just want to find the good song or songs I can take away from this album. A trophy or a participation badge
that says I listened to Indigo Meadow and I although I'm not down with their whole thing, I like this song.
Music is such a strange gift. Sometimes it’s opening up an
Atari 2600 in 1980 on Christmas morning, with two games! It’s instant and euphoric.
Sometimes it’s like your first beer. It’s awful. But all the cool guys are
drinking beer, so you stick with it. Sadly, I don’t see any cool guys listening
to The Black Angels right now and I don’t feel like drinking this album 20
times to get it.
This is the biggest conundrum of my 2013 Year Of Music. Some
of these new records I’m listening to just suck a monumental amount of dicks,
and I’m pissed I wasted my time listening to them. I’m looking at you Dirty
Projectors! But then there is something like Indigo Meadow that I feel has some
potential, I just don’t have the time to give it to find it.
I’m almost as guilty as those awful singing asshole shows,
where douche bags tell nice people they suck and millions of people grow strong
on the broken souls of the innocent. You know, American Idol, The Voice et al.
I did like the single “Don’t Play With Guns.” “The Day,”
“Evil Things,” and “Always Maybe” were pretty OK, I guess. I think I just liked
“Always Maybe,” because I’m Brad Maybe. “I Hear Colors” was kind of fascinating
because I saw sound a couple of times while using LSD. It’s not quite the same
thing, but I get it. Fucking hippies.
Tomorrow is "What The Fuck Happened To You" Day! I will listen to Bush Sixteen Stone, Lenny Kravitz Mama Said and the new turd The Strokes just dropped.
Check out my second month of 90's music April Playlist!
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