3.21.13

(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 21st I listened to The The Dusk, Rancid And Out Come The Wolves, and David Bowie The Next Day.

I’ll never forget when Leah Kanderfurd (SIC) introduced me to The The in 1987, by lending me her copy of Infected. That album changed my life.

I’d put Dusk up there with the best music ever committed to tape! All I need to say about how much I love this album is that “Love Is Stronger Than Death” will play at my funeral! If I have any money when I die I want all of it to go Matt Johnson to actually sing live, if he’s still around. If he’s not with us or won’t do it, then play it off the vinyl. If you’re the only person there and you don’t have a turntable or the album, then at least take the two minutes to steal it online and play it on anything. If I’m lucky enough to have a tombstone, I want it to say “Brad Maybe – Just Because I’m Dead Doesn’t Mean You Can Go Through All My Stuff.”

Open Letter To Matt Johnson:

Dear Matt,

Call Johnny Marr and Neneh Cherry and whip up another The The record, ok? Take five years if you need to. Just get on that shit! Gee Whiz! 

Smell ya later,

Q. Brad F. Maybe Esquire 

I was never a Rancid album guy. I like their hits and a couple tracks here and there. I remember listening to this album when it came out, and it sounds like Rancid doing their thing… milky white punk rock with a dash of edge. And sometimes that’s just what I’m in the mood for. The real stuff is too exhausting. All the yelling and awful songwriting is just too much. 

How can you listen to a new David Bowie album objectively? Seems like when a living legend drops an album after a long hiatus, all the weight of their entire career comes along with the new music. Nobody’s going to give it a bad review, and nobody did.

I’m basing my listen on one question? Will I ever voluntarily play any music from this album again? Yes.

I genuinely like the title track and maybe “Set The World On Fire” and “The Stars (Are Out Tonight),” but lets me honest. If David Bowie comes to your town and in the middle of the show says, “Thank you, Cleveland! This is another one from my new album, it’s called ‘I’d Rather Be High.’ A one and a two and a three.” You’re gonna say to your friends, “I’d rather be pissing and getting a beer. Be right back.” If Bowie does tour do you realize how short the beer and bathroom lines are going to be during “Let’s Dance?”

I hope I’m not the only one that got excited when they saw “Boss Of Me,” and thought Bowie was doing a cover of They Might Be Giant’s Malcolm In The Middle theme song. It’s not it.

I love making funny of dipshit rock journos and this was my favorite quote. The Daily Telegraph’s Neil McCormick wrote that The Next Day is a “bold, beautiful and baffling electric bolt through its own mythos.” All the good records aren't afraid to just kick their own mythos right in the balls, ya know? I was totally thinking the same thing, but I just couldn't quite put it into unintelligible gobbledygook.

Let me dumb it down for ya.

I’m a David Bowie fan. I like a lot of his music. I do not like all of his music. This record was better than I’d thought it would be. It rocks and there are some nice hooks to keep you interested throughout all 14 tracks, but there’re some stinkers on here. His voice has lost a little of its magic at 66, but not that much. Definitely worth a listen. Another Bowie classic? That's for the years to decide. 

Tomorrow I will listen to Third Eye Blind, Creed and Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Or, I might do what my father always told me to do... go play in traffic. 

Here's the March Playlist!

1.15.13

On January 15th I listened to David Bowie The Man Who Sold The World, Nine Inch Nails Pretty Hate Machine, and The Big Pink Future This. 

If medieval minstrels were given electric guitars by aliens, from outer space, they would have recorded The Man Who Sold The World 1200 years ago.

The fist side of this album is kind of run-of-the-mill weird for Bowie. There’s some monsters and madmen, but then side two starts off with “Running Gun Blues,” and I just wanna check out.

After Pet Sounds creeped me out yesterday, I can’t take it. This ablum is a whole different kind of creepy. I picture Bowie floating in a black room, with a strobe light flashing, he’s wearing some kind of tight or loose blouse, or maybe a tight blouse under a loose blouse and he’s dancing with his hands like a Liza Minnelli singing these songs. 

I hate to say all of this, because I LOVE David Bowie. I do! I guess it’s just tough to appreciate everybody’s full body of work. Speaking of full bodies, I almost forgot to mention he looks stunning in that dress on the cover! It's like lazy androgyny. 

I mentioned this earlier when I started this blog, but sometimes when you go back to an album you don’t know, if you’re not familiar with that pocket of time it came out or when you were younger and into it, the lack of nostalgia just prevents you from really digging it. Ya dig?

Is this really a great record or is it as bad as I think it is? I like to make fun of dickbag hipsters by saying they “pretend” to like certain bands. You liked the new Grizzly Bear record? Yeah right! Is it like that? I should track down everybody that loved Fischerspooner ten years ago and ask them if they’re still loving Electroclash?

On a lighter note, it was nice to blow the dust off of Bowie’s original take of “The Man Who Sold The World.” As sick and tired I am of the Nirvana version, it is pretty spot on.

Jesus H. Christ! Bowie sounds like the Madame puppet on the last track “The Supermen.”

I figure if I show a picture of Madame with Peter Griffin, people will get the reference. Family Guy's endless array of pop culture references has come in handy! Who knew?

My friend Eric Beris used to think the line “I was up above it,” from “Down In It,” was “I was at the party” or he used to just sing that anyway.  

This record was out for about six months before “Head Like A Hole” was released as a single and after I heard that sometime in the Spring of 1990, this album went straight into heavy rotation in my CD player and stayed there for years. I was a big fan of a bunch of Industrial bands at the time, so it wasn't a stretch to get into this album.

At the dawn of the 90’s this album was a true alternative, before the world took NIN from “us,” when they belonged to the freaks, I would have never guessed in a million years that this band’s music would find a global audience. 

Several years later when commercial Alternative radio stations were signing on all over the county, it was a mind fuck that “Head Like A Hole” went into all their libraries and they acted like “we've been playing this for years!” Same thing happened with Jane’s Addiction “Jane Says.” Fucking Lollapalooza! Way to go Perry Ferrell! Good job creating something so cool, the squares took notice, co-opted it, sucked the life out of it, then murdered it, and now I’m stuck with hipster doofuses churning out turd after turd! (Sorry, I got off on a rant. It is and it isn’t your fault Perry. I still love you.)

Not much else I need to add here, this is a near flawless collection of songs, couple of stinkers. If you haven’t heard anything other than “Head Like A Hole, “Down In It,” or “Terrible Lie” from this album in a while, do yourself a favor and throw it on right now! Or, the Devil will fuck you in the back of his car! Maybe you are all messed up, Trent.

I’ve been looking for an excuse to listen to this record. I am a huge fan of “Dominos,” from The Big Pink’s previous album, the dumbly named, A Brief History Of Love. Still listen to that track a lot!

Future This starts off strong with “Stay Gold,” but sounds a little too much like “Dominos.” “Hit The Ground” is pretty solid. It’s definitely too dense to digest in a listen. I’m hoping I circle back around to this one sooner than later.

I liked “1313” and not just because it used to be my ATM code, until I saw a list of the most common ones and changed it. “Rubbernecking” is fun and “77” stuck out with a nice quiet groove. Whatever.