1.14.13

On January 14^th I listened to The Kinks The Kinks, The Beach Boys Pet Sounds and The Maccabees Given To The Wild.

The Kinks The Kinks is kind of similar to The Rolling Stones debut. It has a bunch of cover songs done almost in the same style. But, The Kinks offer more originals and with a little more flair.

Apparently, in the U.S. this album was called You Really Got Me and had three less songs.

“You Really Got Me” is definitely the star here and I can see how hearing this in 1964 would have caused a lot of people to lose their shit! Here’s a mind F. "You Relly Got Me" turns 50 next year!

I really like the Chuck Berry song that kicks this one off, “Beautiful Delilah,” but let’s focus in on the Ray Davies penned tracks. “So Mystifying,” “Revenge,” and “Just Can’t Go To Sleep” demonstrate The Kinks potential to rock the fuck out! While “I Took My Baby Home,” and “Stop Your Sobbing,” are pure 60's bubblegum pop.

I got the reissue, which includes their go at “Long Tall Sally” and it doesn’t hold a candle to the version by the boys from Liverpool.

I don’t wanna end on a sour note though, so “You Really Got Me,” alone, is an accomplishment that has endured 50 years!

I have a weird relationship with The Beach Boys. As a little kid, to me, they were the Oldies California Surfing Band, I thought that was their only shtick. I didn't know the whole Brian Wilson story. I never owned any of their albums. And then when I was in high school they put out “Kokomo.”

Soon after Frank Black released his first solo album, in 1993, with a cover of  “Hang On To Your Ego,” (AKA “I Know There’s An Answer.”) I started hearing all these stories about how brilliant Brian Wilson was, how influential he was, and what a shame he’s locked away in a room and some doctor is draining his bank accounts. Plus, The Beach Boys that played after minor league baseball games every summer was a bastardized version of the band! 

Somewhere there in the middle of the 90's it got real fucking cool to talk about how much you loved The Beach Boys. 

I’m going to be quite honest here. If a Beach Boys’ song isn't about surfing, or chicks, or surfing with chicks, or old ladies from Southern California towns, then they usually freak me out. 

Perfect example of this is the use of “God Only Knows” for the opening theme of Big Love. Fucking creepy! Not creepy in a pervy way, but in an eerie life is short and our mortality is stalking us kind of way. Somehow, the lyrics peer too much into my soul that it makes me uncomfortable. The songs are too “something” for me.

Then there's the production. Sparse and weird. The reverb on the vocals, the harmonies, the tinkling pianos, the horns, the drums and the echoing are too chilling and haunting. This record sounds like it was recorded by lunatics in the rec room of the asylum. Pajama wearing geniuses with demented minds that know something. What do they know?!

I don’t know if this is coming from the fact that I just listened to the Talking Heads' debut album with “Psycho Killer,” but “I’m Waiting For The Day,” from Pet Sounds, is definitely somehow a cousin to "Psycho Killer's" sentiment.

"I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times,” doesn’t speak to me at all. “Hang On To Your Ego,” apparently was about dropping acid and checking out, and I kinda get that. Get ready for a story.

Brad Maybe’s First Acid Trip

In the spring of 1992 I went to a college party where half the people there were tripping and the other half  were drunk. I was both. 

At some point in the middle of the party a fat guy puked on Crybaby Tim and half the party left. Where are those joints now, Crybaby Tim? WHERE ARE THEY? (You have to read yesterday's post to get that reference.)

I spent the next hour begging the host to put The Queen Is Dead on and when he finally did, I collapsed into a euphoric state on the couch. This is the first time that I saw sound. The phenomenon will only happen to me one more time in my life, six months later.   

At about four in the morning, the host had crashed and there was only two other people left at this party. Chris Prospero, who just got off work and was swinging by because there was still gallons of beer in the keg, and some prissy little dork I will call "Nancy." A girl I would later find out was a toilet paper hoarder. 

Well, the three of us shot the shit for a couple hours and then as the sun was coming up, Chris left. He was getting a definite hook up vibe off of me and "Nancy" and I'm gonna be quite honest, I thought I was gonna need the condom he slipped me as he walked out. 

Alone, we instantly kissed. I would compare that kiss to licking a dog's butthole. I said as much, she slapped me and I as ran out the door I was praying I could catch up to Chris so he could give me a ride home. I missed him and as I took the twenty minute walk back to the dorms I thought to myself, "leggo my eggo." Cause it was breakfast time and that commercial campaign was still running. 

In conclusion, Pet Sounds sucks... to me.

The same guy that told me to spend more time with Two Door Cinema Club told me that he really loves The Maccabees.

I tried to get into this album about a year ago when it came out. It got a lot of press, but it’s just white noise to me. 

I love a band called Doves. The Maccabees are like Doves, if Doves didn't have any talent and sucked. I'm not being anti-Semitic when I say that, right? Cause I love the Jews! 

1.12.13

On January 12^th I listened to Genesis Selling England By The Pound, The Pixies Doolittle, and Muse The 2^nd Law.

I was listening to Genesis for about a minute, maybe, and thought to myself “what kind of egghead bullshit is this?” It was cool to hear Peter Gabriel singing for a second and then the novelty wore off.

I do not get Prog Rock. I barely spent 15 minutes skipping around Selling England By The Pound and couldn’t take it anymore. I seriously doubt there're more than fifty people in the world that have listened to this stinkbomb in the last 10 years from front to back. To put it in dork ease… I’d avoid this album much like the Starship Enterprise 1701-D avoids the planet Vagra II.

I’m not sure why I didn’t start off with Surfer Rosa and went straight to The Pixies second effort, Doolittle. I think because this is the first album from the band I really noticed and it took awile for me to get into. The Pixies, to me, was like a cold pool. I eased in for a while but then once I was in, I was in.

Doolittle is a solid album. But, just to play devil’s advocate, I think this record would have been nearly flawless at ten songs. At fifteen it’s just a wee bit bloated.

Let’s play armchair producer and come up with the perfect tracklisting;

1.       “Debaser”
2.       “Tame”
3.       “Wave Of Mutilation”
4.       “I Bleed”
5.       “Here Comes Your Man”
6.       “Monkey Gone To Heaven”
7.       “Crackity Jones”
8.       “No. 13 Baby”
9.       “Hey”
10.   “Gouge Away”

Now that looks like a perfect album!

“Monkey Gone To Heaven,” and “Gouge Away” are two of their best! I still like “Here Comes Your Man,” but I gotta be in the right mood to get into it. “Debaser,” “Wave Of Mutilation,” and “Hey,” are songs I’ll never get sick of ever.

This Muse record is almost a little too majestic for me. I’ve always liked Muse, but I’m not a super fan. If I boiled down their six albums, there's probably three albums worth of music that I would consider awesome!

Was Muse in the running to be on the last James Bond sountrack? Because that’s what this album’s opener sounds like. “Supremacy” starts off strong, loses me in the verse, kind of wins me back on the “chorus,” and then just makes me think of Queen.

“Madness” is a hit. But I don’t find myself loving it, or wanting to hear it more.

Does “Panic Station” remind anyone else of like Robert Plant in the 80’s?

“Survival” really brings home the “too majestic” criticism I have for this album. Where is anybody going to listen to this song? It sounds enormous and I’ll give them all the credit in the world for shooting for the moon, but it’s just a bunch of really great sounding elements piled on top of each other without a great song at the base.

“Follow Me,” should be the Twitter national anthem. But, also the first song on this disc that I enjoy. It’s got a hook, it’s got a bouncy 80’s beat and I can bug out to it. (Beastie Boys reference for no reason.)

I got to “Explorers” and was like “what does this sound like?” Obviously, it wears the Queen influence on its cock ring, but it sounds like something. What? What? What? Oh, I know! It’s Radiohead’s “No Surprises!” I like it!

Second half of The 2^nd Law is definitely better than the first and I have no idea why “Liquid State” reminds me of The Beach Boys. It doesn’t even sound like Muse at points, and I love that.

I’m curious to see how much of what I just bitched about, I’ll 180 on and love in a few more listens!