Tag: American rock

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 1994: #25 Frank Black “Headache”

<< #26   |   #24 >>

Back in the early 90s, Toronto alternative radio station CFNY collaborated with music retailer extraordinaire HMV on a series of alternative music compilations. Fittingly titled “Free at last”, the radio station would hand them out as promotional items at events and the store would give them out free with purchases of music by at least one of the artists appearing on the compilation. There were five of them made (that I know of) from 1991 to 1995 and I’m pretty sure they were available both on cassette tape and compact disc, though the art work differed between the two.

I must have had friends that had a few of the volumes because I still have a couple of copies dubbed to cassette packed away in the basement. I also have stowed with them a legit one that I got myself from HMV: Volume 4, from 1994. Looking at the track listing, I figure I probably got a copy with Lush’s second album “Split”. Other artists that appeared on this volume included The Breeders, The Charlatans, Meat Puppets, The Tindersticks, and yes, you guessed it, Frank Black. The very track of focus today, the only single off his sophomore solo long player.

I had only just gotten into his band, the Pixies, a year or two before they announced their break up in 1993 and almost immediately, the frontman* appeared with his debut solo album. In truth, Black had been working on solo material for some time, recording some covers for a planned album as early as during the sessions for Pixies 1991 long player, “Trompe le monde”. The eventual self-titled debut only ended up with one cover on it** when it came out but had a banger of a single on it called “Los Angeles”, whose video I recorded one night from CityLimits and watched and rewatched and rewatched. The sophomore release, “Teenager of the year”, appeared the following year, including twenty two tracks, mostly of typical Pixie length, in and around the two to two and a half minute mark. I never really got into that album as a whole but man, did I love “Headache”, and this was mostly due to the compilation I spoke about above.

“This wrinkle in time, I can’t give it no credit
I thought about my space and I really got me down
Got me so down, I got me a headache
My heart is crammed in my cranium and it still knows how to pound”

Economical as ever, Black packs it all into three minutes. There’s no running start here, going from zero to a hundred, right from the get-go. Crashing drums and slacker guitars, feeling so free and loose. But it’s Black’s vocals and melody that are the star. There ain’t no time to sit and ponder one’s place in the universe and in history. You just gotta go for it. Live it and sing along with Frank. Back him up, screaming all the way. You’ll never be sorry.

*Adjusting his assumed moniker slightly from Black Francis to Frank Black.

**Which I loved.

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

Categories
Tunes

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.

Categories
Tunes

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.