Tag: 2002

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 2002: #27 Cornershop “Lessons learned from Rocky I to Rocky III”

<< 28    |    #26 >>

Cornershop’s third album, “I was born for the 7th time” was released in 1997 to critical acclaim but it only became a massive hit for the band after Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, remixed the single “Brimful of asha” and that song hit the stratosphere. It took them five years to release a follow up album, “Handcream for a generation”, though the main players in the band, Tjinder Singh and Ben Ayres, were anything but inactive. Of course, by the time 2002 rolled around, the buying public had moved on and the critics who fell over themselves for “I was born…” weren’t quite so enthused. I personally didn’t know what to think of it at first, beyond the obvious endearment of the grooves, but it has grown on me substantially over the years.

Some say their meteoric rise to fame is the inspiration behind the convoluted lyrics of this album’s second single, the awesomely titled, “Lessons learned from Rocky I to Rocky III”. There most definitely seem to be hits out at the music industry, at “soft rock shit”, at “TSB rock school”, and at hip hop stars bringing guns to meetings in A & R offices. However, all bets are off if you’re looking for depth here because Singh himself can’t account for the meaning in many of the tracks on this album. That is quite okay with me, though, because this tune really does rock and groove. Electric guitar hooks abound and funky drumming and soulful backing vocalists make it a real party. And Singh does his best Jagger swagger while he’s spouting this ‘nonsense’.

For the final word, I asked my friend Andrew Rodriguez to comment on the song and he came up with this:

“Packed lunches, chicks with dicks in miami beach and something about an Overgrown Supership. < lessons learned (and forget everything after 4)”

And this:

“That song in particular was referred to by some dumbf**k music critic as being ‘BTO esque’ ^^^seriously how do these cocks**kers have jobs???? *oh. wait. I answered my own question*”

Thanks again, Rodriguez.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2002 list, click here.

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 2002: #28 The Jeevas “Once upon a time in America”

<< 29    |    #27 >>

Crispian Mills is the son of Walt Disney child actress (and Miss Bliss from “Saved by the Bell”), Hayley Mills. He also happens to be the frontman of a psychedelic pop rock outfit called Kula Shaker that came to prominence in the late 1990s. Like pretty much any band from England that had a vaguely alternative pop/rock sound at the time, Kula Shaker was lumped in under the BritPop umbrella. Mills split up the group after only two albums in 1999 with a mind of going it solo but finally re-formed the group in 2005 after a handful of unsuccessful musical endeavours.

The Jeevas was the closest project during this time that Mills had put together to find a sense a stability. Formed as a trio, with two former members of the band Straw, the group actually released two full-length albums in 2002 and 2003, matching the output of Kula Shaker by that point. They are largely forgotten these days, rightly or wrongly, but I always thought they had a few high moments that were worth mentioning at the beginning of the 21st century.

I couldn’t tell you now how I first heard of the group and came upon their debut album, “1-2-3-4”. I was definitely active in looking for new music on the internet in those days, by both new and old favourite bands. Living in North America, I never did hear a lot about Kula Shaker’s dissolution and since I loved their first two records, I was probably searching for news of the group and its frontman on the regular. I definitely remember recognizing the sound in The Jeevas’ music upon first listen. It was kind of like Kula Shaker but without all the traditional Indian instruments, a mimicking of psych rock of the 60s and 70s and Mills’ furthuring his Lennon-like vocals.

There was something about “Once upon a time in America” that stuck for me amongst rest of the songs on “1-2-3-4”. It just popped with all the energy of a live performance out in the hot sun. I’ve never really paid much attention to what Crispian Mills is singing about here but sometimes, that doesn’t necessarily matter. The guitars cavorted between crisply bouncy and messy noise, the drums pound and crash, and Mills just lays it out there. If these three ever made it big, this could’ve been their stadium anthem.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2002 list, click here.

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 2002: #29 Primal Scream “Miss Lucifer”

<< 30    |    #28 >>

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about Primal Scream’s “Loaded” as my third favourite tune of 1991. That particular ditty turned me on to the Primals and then, after buying and listening to “Screamadelica”, I quickly grew obsessed.

I got to see them live in 1994, when they opened for Depeche Mode at Kingswood Music Theatre, a show I saw with my friend Tim, my eventual wife Victoria, and her cousin Rosa. By this time, Primal Scream were touring “Give up but don’t give out”, a blues-rock hippie jam that I didn’t love quite as much as its predecessor but that had some great, great tunes. After that album didn’t perform quite as well critically or commercially, the band regrouped and dropped “Vanishing point” on all of us in 1997. I survived that bomb but 2000’s “XTRMNTR” almost killed me. In its wake, a handful of years needed to be taken before I was ready to dip my toe back in, eventually doing so with “Riot city blues” in 2006.

So yeah, I completely missed their 2002 album “Evil heat” upon its release. I only got to it after I warmed to the next few albums, building a lasting love rather than the meteoric lust and infatuation I suffered with “Screamadelica”. And only then was I able to revisit their back catalogue without such a black demeanour. I still don’t think it’s their best work but after the maelstrom that was “XTRMNTR”, Bobbie Gillespie and his cohorts really needed a bridge album and in that, “Evil heat” was successful.

“Miss Lucifer” is one of the album’s hot spots, the first single released off it, and it’s a real dancefloor razer. Don’t go looking for any witty or deep lyrics here because you’ll find none. It’s your typical femme fatale/evil woman motif and warning. It’s the drone and angry beat that’s special here, hoofing it like Saturday night’s leftovers from Prodigy’s Friday rave and tumble. Gillespie whispers and hisses and spits venom before getting to the chorus and turning admonitions into invitations to “shake it baby”, over and over and over again.

It’s not “Loaded” but it’s a trip nonetheless.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2002 list, click here.