“Can I… Can I put on something like: This is American music. Take one. One, two, three, four…”
Whenever I hear or think about the band Violent Femmes, I think of my friend Jeff from high school, even though I haven’t seen him in a couple of decades (not counting the odd word on Facebook). This is because I lent him my recorded copy of Violent Femmes’ debut self-titled album on cassette at the beginning of our final year (OAC, for those in the know) and no word of a lie, I didn’t get it back until the end of that school year. I started out asking for it daily and he would always make excuses and promise it back the next day. I stopped asking so often after a while and had almost given up hope, only keeping up the charade as an ongoing joke, but then, on the final day of classes, he returned it to me.
Of course, “American music” does not appear on the debut. It’s from the band’s fifth album, “Why do birds sing?”. Really, the only other album besides the debut that I know. Its release came shortly after the band reformed from a brief split and coincided with a tour, whose Toronto stop a bunch of my friends went to see but which I sadly missed. “American music” was another favourite of my friend Jeff’s. He’d often break into a sad impression of frontman Gordon Gano’s nasally vocals when we were hanging out during afternoon spare period and sing: “Do you like American music? I like American music. Don’t you like American music baby!”
Save for the trio’s aforementioned debut, the Femmes have always operated on the periphery of the music industry, sitting precariously on the edge of alternative and mainstream culture. They have a number of songs, though, thanks to usage in films and appearances in TV commercials, that have become part of our collective consciousness. I’d say “American music” is one of these. Though only achieving modest success and moderate airplay, it has become a favourite at the shows the band still performs today.
It is a typically upbeat and off-kilter number for the group, hinting at a love for the red, white, and blue and the Norman Rockwell lifestyle. Gano whines and yelps, Ritchie’s bass lines boom, and Victor DeLorenzo gets us all up dancing at the prom with his get up and go drum beats, whether we have a date to dance with or not.
Yeah. I like American music too… baby.
For the rest of the Best tunes of 1991 list, click here.
(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)
Artist: Teenage Fanclub Album Title: Thirteen Year released: 1993 Year reissued: 2018 Details: Black vinyl, reissue, remastered at Abbey Road Studios, included bonus 7″ single “Country song” b/w “Eyes wide open”
The skinny: After falling hard for “Bandwagonesque“, I was all over the group’s next album, “Thirteen”, the moment I heard it was being released. The first single (see below) was stunning, as was the rest of the album, and demanded that I get tickets for their show when they swung through Toronto that year. This is the second of the five reissues Teenage Fanclub has released this year, all from their time spent with Creation. Of course, I wanted all of them so expect a few more from the fannies in the coming weeks.
I bought “The joshua tree” on CD as one of my ten for a penny from Columbia House (or was it BMG? – I did both, take your pick) in my late teens, so likely a few years after its release. It was purchased on the basis of the first three songs on the album, each of which was tattooed in my brain from hearing them several times. When my package of discs arrived, I did enjoy those three songs on initial spins but rarely did I get past them, and it wasn’t long before the album was just a dust collector on my CD racks. Shortly after arriving at university, then, I gave the disc away to a young lady on whom I may or may not have had a crush. Either way, I didn’t miss it for many years.
In fact, I never fully grew to appreciate “The joshua tree” until the last decade or so, when it found itself back in my music library somehow. I was finally able to listen to it without allowing all the prejudices I had built up against the band and their bloated image to taint my experience. The Irish four-piece’s fifth album was their second to be produced by the tandem of Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. It kept the ambient underpinnings of “The unforgettable fire”, their previous record together, but returned some the harder hitting sensibilities of U2’s earlier work. Mix all of that with the furthering of Bono’s and The Edge’s musical history education, after hanging out with Keith Richards and The Waterboys’ Mike Scott, and you’ve got one heck of a record, much deserving of all the accolades that have been heaped upon it.
Indeed, I have plenty of new favourites on the album but you still can’t beat the triumvirate that begins the album so what other three tracks could I pick for you but those three?
”I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”: “I believe in the Kingdom come. Then all the colors will bleed into one, bleed into one, but yes, I’m still running.” While doing some reading up on this album, I learned how this song was built upon a drum demo by Larry Mullen jr. And if you listen to what he is doing here, you can really gain an appreciation for how great a drummer he really is, which makes the fact that he can easily be pushed out of the picture by the big personas of Bono and The Edge so unfortunate. The beat is augmented by Adam Clayton’s “one note groove” bass line and The Edge’s chiming arpeggios. And on top of all this, Bono is singing gospel at the top of his vocal register, mixing old with new, but pushing the universal theme of spiritual longing and the unending quest for meaning.
”Where the streets have no name”: “I want to run, I want to hide. I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside. I wanna reach out and touch the flame, where the streets have no name.” This was released as the third single from the album but it is the track that opens “The joshua tree”. And as great as The Edge’s guitar playing and effects work and (I suppose) the rest of the band’s performances are, I almost think they are secondary to the music video filmed for the song. Reminiscent of and likely an homage to The Beatles’ final live performance, the video shows the band performing live on the roof of a liquor store in Los Angeles. The performance was portrayed as being shut down by the police, which according to the director was as it happened, but it is obvious that it was all part of the plan and it all smacks of sensationalism. Nonetheless, I did enjoy the video back in the day and it’s rebel attitudes and the song has that same energy.
”With or without you”: “Through the storm we reach the shore. You give it all but I want more. And I’m waiting for you.” The first single released off “The joshua tree” was almost not a single and was in peril of never seeing the light of day at all. It was originally written in late 1985 but the band had to play with the arrangements for a few days before they were happy with it, coming near to scrapping it a few times. Their tenacity paid off because it was a huge hit for the band and their first number one in the US. It is notable for Clayton’s rumbling bass line, The Edge’s wicked sustained guitar effect, and Bono’s vocals, starting low and slow and building to explosion. To me, “With or without you” screams high school dances in the gym. It’s a troubled love song sure, but it was a sure fire hit with slow dancers. I definitely remember doing that slow turn and sway shuffle more than once to this song back in the day.
Check back next Thursday for album #3. In the meantime, here are the previous albums in this list:
My (life in) music lists 