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Best tunes of 2020: #9 Andy Bell “Love comes in waves”

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Ever since pioneering shoegaze rock band, Ride, called it quits rather spectacularly back in 1995, I’d been firmly planted in camp Mark Gardener in terms of following the post-breakup careers of the two warring principal songwriters and driving forces behind the band. I’d always preferred his voice and with the exception of “Vapour trail“, enjoyed far more the songs he led with Ride. I always thought he’d do greater things. Who knew the opposite would turn out to be true?

Sure, Gardener was the first of the two to record and release a solo album by a long shot. However, Bell seemed to get back on the horse quicker, forming Hurricane #1 in 1996, a band of whom I’ve still only heard a few tracks but who released a couple of reasonably successful albums before breaking up a few years later*. Shortly after that, he was recruited by the Gallagher brothers to replace founding Oasis member Guigsy, a job for which he had to quickly learn the bass. He stuck with them until their rude implosion a decade later** and stayed on with Liam for a couple of albums under the Beady Eye moniker. Fans (and readers of this blog) will know that Ride successfully reunited just over ten years ago and not only toured but have released three amazing new albums that build beautifully on their legacy. There’s also been a host of other collaborations and projects that I know little about or only heard tell of so I won’t list them, but know Mr Bell has been quite active indeed.

And in the midst of all this productivity, Andy Bell has been writing, recording and tinkering with songs, a step away from all of these projects, refining and honing sounds, lyrics and melodies. Apparently, “The view from halfway down” became something more than just a ragtag collection of song snippets shortly after David Bowie’s death, this event lighting a fire under Bell’s comfy chair. As a debut solo album, it works perfectly, recognizable enough as Andy Bell but different enough to set it apart from his other projects. And, yeah, some excellent tracks here.

“If you’re searching for meaning
Or a secret worth revealing
And you’re missing the feeling
Of connection, a reflection back from above
You’re ready to ride the first wave of love”

“Love comes in waves” is the opening number and the lead single from the album, a clarion call, a demand for attention. It’s frenetic jangling guitars repeating and not giving up, pounding it in to you, dancing up and down your spine. Meanwhile, the drums just chug along, breathless and immovable, like the unbreakable ocean that he’s comparing with love. A thing of beauty that creates a space that I would definitely want to revisit again and again, sometimes dancing, sometime just being.

*Hurricane #1 was re-formed by cofounder Alex Lowe without Bell and really, the rest of the original lineup in 2014.

**Of course, he was asked to join them on their wildly successful reunion tour this past summer/fall as well.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2020 list, click here.

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Best tunes of 1994: #26 Sonic Youth “Bull in the heather”

<< #27   |   #25 >>

On my old, long defunct blog Music Insanity, I remember writing a post about all those bands that I’ve respected and tried many times over the years to ‘get into’ but ultimately, failed. The list at that time included The Ramones, Skinny Puppy, Husker Du, Bon Iver, Destroyer, Broken Social Scene*, and of course, Sonic Youth. I later wrote about this difficulty to fully enjoy Sonic Youth and anything more than a handful of their singles on this very blog, when one of these singles, “Kool thing”, appeared at number twenty four on my Best tunes of 1990 list. And today, we’re here to consider another of the tracks that appears on their ‘best of’ compilation, “Hits are for squares”**, and my 26th favourite song of 1994: “Bull in the heather”.

Sonic Youth was formed in New York City in 1981 by Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals), and Lee Ranaldo (rhythm guitar). This trio remained a constant in the group throughout their thirty year history and were complemented during that time by a series of drummers. For their first decade of existence, they toiled in the underground, toying with art rock, punk, and noise, making a name for themselves with their use of alternative guitar tunings, feedback, and generally changing the way we think about guitar rock. Indeed, their influence on alternative and indie rock is unfathomable, counting Teenage Fanclub, Slowdive, Pavement, Swervedriver, Sleater-Kinney, Dinosaur Jr., and Superchunk amongst their fans. Sonic Youth broke into the mainstream around the time that alternative rock was being crowned as the music of choice in the 90s before fading back into the background in the 2000s. They called it quits in 2011, around the time that Moore and Gordon divorced after a 27 year marriage, and all three members have had relatively active solo careers since.

“Time to tell your dirty story
Time turning over and over
Time turning, four leaf clover
Betting on the bull in the heather”

“Bull in the heather”*** is track two on Sonic Youth’s eighth studio album, “Experimental jet set, trash and no star”, was released as the album’s lead single, and its video was notable for featuring Riot Grrl icon and Bikini Kill vocalist, Kathleen Hanna dancing and generally hanging around the set while the band performed the song. It has an instantly recognizable intro, the band as usual playing with guitar effects, a guitar pick screeching down a guitar string like nails on a chalk board and fingers tapping on strings feeling like running a wet finger around the rim of crystal glass. In true Sonic Youth fashion, there’s lots of feedback and avant garde noise, a raunchy mess, oddly tuned guitars screeching and ringing, but there’s some play here with straight ahead guitar rock, like they are allowing mainstream to creep into their consciousness just slightly. What makes this song for me is the funky beat, the drummer using a maraca shaker as a drumstick and of course, there’s Kim Gordon’s vocals, as if under duress, each line pained and forced. She’s singing like she’s just run 10 laps around the high school track.

“Bull in the heather” feels completely of its time and place: slacker angst at its best. But sorry Sonic Youth fans, I’m still not one of you.

*I have managed to get into Broken Social Scene since that time, largely helped along by seeing them perform live.

**Sonic Youth’s only representation in my Apple Music library.

***I’ve read that the song title was the name of a race horse known around that time.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 1994 list, click here.

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Best tunes of 1994: #27 Green Day “Longview”

<< #28   |   #26 >>

For a couple of weeks last month, my life* revolved around Ottawa’s Bluesfest, the local big music festival and arguably one of the biggest in Canada. I’ve been attending this shindig to some extent for the past fifteen years or so and have seen some amazing acts in the process. In fact, one of the things I love most about it, besides discovering new bands, is how it has made it possible for me to see a litany of acts that I likely wouldn’t have otherwise seen. Green Day is a band that fits into this latter category from this year’s edition, a band that I’ve known for decades but never really actively followed and would never have bought a concert ticket to just see them. But man, they did put on a great show and played pretty much every song I would have wanted to hear, including this one.

I first heard of the punk trio from California with the release of “Dookie”, the band’s major label debut. A number of the singles from that album got regular play on CFNY in 1994 and given that that was the radio station of choice for me, I heard quite a bit of them, their songs were ear worms that stuck with me, in spite of me. Later on, that summer, I distinctly remember watching footage of their legendary performance at Woodstock ‘94, the mud fight that ensued, and my appreciation for the band grew. The following fall, my university friend Craig loaned me his CD copy of “Dookie” one day while giving me a ride back to my basement apartment north of the city. I recorded it to cassette and it entered into history as part of my soundtrack for second year university.

I stopped actively following Green Day after that though, and am pretty certain that I haven’t listened to any of the eleven studio albums since “Dookie” in full. However, as I discovered at their show, I’ve still been indirectly exposed to a lot of their material. I was amazed but shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was at the crowd that they drew**. And it occurred to me as I sang along with the masses at how well they have transitioned from the punk pranksters of their youth to a crowd pleasing stadium rock band and seemingly managed to keep their integrity intact.

“Peel me off this Velcro seat
And get me moving
I sure as hell can’t do it by myself”

“Longview” was among the songs they played at the show that I was able to and happily sang along with. It was the first song that I ever heard by Green Day and is still quite simply my favourite by the group. The themes of boredom and lethargy definitely rang true for me back in the day, especially when I thought I was going to be stuck in my small hometown forever, and the memories have me wistfully smiling every time I hear the words. That loping drum intro and out for a stroll bass line gets me every time and when it jumps into overdrive at the chorus, I’m right there with the band. Yeah, it plays that loud-quiet-loud card, giving you downtime between explosions to catch your breath. This is perfect gen X power chord punk.

*And my wife will tell you hers too despite not attending at all this year.

**Rumour has it that was the best attended night of the festival this year and possibly, any of the years yet.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 1994 list, click here.