Addictive Sound

Hey gang, happy long weekend.

As summer is drawing to a close I find myself looking back at other memorable summers. I've written before about the time spent working as a carpenter's apprentice and the music I listened to at the time. While I was certainly attached to my portable CD player (which is amazing it ever worked, in hindsight) I also spent a fair amount of time on the job fiddling with radio knobs to pick up the distant stations from the Twin Cities. These stations were way better than anything else I could get at the time, which was either pop, country, talk or religious. I could not stand any of those. Working on houses far, far out in the goon docks allowed for a faint but clear signal to whisper in, the most treasured being the hard rock station 93X, playing all kinds of music I loved but couldn't lug around with me in CD form. On top of that, the carpenter hated the abrasive sounds, often switching back to Rush Limbaugh or some Christian talk station. It was a give and take - he'd give me an opening, then take the radio back.

 Sometimes he would leave me at a site to clean up or work on something monotonous but easy while he went off to do more complicated and involved tasks. These times were great, a free reign to blast the tunes as loud as I wanted. I actually did work with the better station, too - I didn't slack off when not observed. There was one time, though, that I had to sit down and really listen to a song as it came over the airways, though. It was an overcast morning during a stretch of days spent at my grandparents to lessen my commute to the sites. I was tired and bummed to be trapped in the goon docks, far away from any of the metropolitan culture I would eventually embrace. I was unhappy and tired. It was humid. The house I was working in was not even half finished, with drafts and saw dust to bother the eyes and lungs. The radio was a respite from this. So when a strange and eerie song started with a woman's smoky voice singing notes without words, I had to stop to listen.

 The song began to build. A solitary bassline crept in under the intonations. It was almost spooky, but certainly heartbreaking. Slowly, sadly, the woman sang "Breathe it in and breathe it out and pass it on its almost gone". While obviously singing of addiction (of which I knew nothing) it was still a moving song, one that gripped me and made an indelible mark in my mind. I was transfixed by the song until it was over, the song having risen and fallen several times, taking me on a bit of an emotional journey. All the while the signal threatened to fade out, amping up my focus and the intensity with which I listened. Right before some heavy clouds came in and broke the signal entirely, I heard the DJ say "That was 'Not An Addict' by K's Choice, a great band out of..." and then it went to static. The words imprinted on my brain - I had to hear it again.

It wasn't until I got to college, four or five years later, that I would finally download the song and listen to it to death. This was the era of CDs full of filler and I always had some particular album I had to pick up first in my mental queue. Not to say I didn't appreciate the song - I actually heard it once or twice in the intervening years, with other people even confirming how great it was. I'm pretty sure my band (yes, I was in a punk band for years) covered it at one point. It was just one of those special things you keep in the back of your mind, never quite letting it go, occasionally saying "I have to find this!". When I did, it was fantastic.

The song was sung by Sarah Bettens of the band K's Choice. The band, hailing from Antwerp in Belgium, actually achieved some international fame for the single, due in no small part to her distinct and raspy voice. The band had albums before and after but nothing has hit quite as big as 'Not An Addict', for better or worse. Millions of other people have been just as amazed by the song as I have, but I will always think of my solitary, isolated discovery of the song. Even if everyone I know is familiar with this awesome song, it will always bring me back to that special, secret moment when I was all alone and being deeply moved by Bettens' voice. It's a fantastic number. Give it a listen. Enjoy your weekend. 

Lone Pine

Evening, one and all.

I wrote a piece on the new EP from Sims yesterday, which got me thinking about how some of my favorite releases aren't necessarily the most long winded. Brevity is said to be the soul of wit. One of my favorite releases of the last couple years has to be the short but sweet EP from local avant garde rap group Kill The Vultures.

Kill The Vultures are not your average hip hop outfit. You don't hear the typical samples and beats. The vocals often times aren't in the common meter and delivery. What you get when you listen to this group is something out of left field.

Kind of a funny story how I got into Kill The Vultures. My better half had gone on safari in Africa with her mom. They were visiting Kate while she was working for Peace House, establishing their library facilities. This meant that for two weeks I was left to my own devices. Something I've found about being in a long term relationship (which lead to a marriage) is I now hate being left alone for too long. Short spells are okay. Long ones, not so much. I get restless and lonely. I did a lot of writing. Played some video games. I got restless to the point of simply wandering down to the local record store, the awesome and expansive Cheapo Records on Lake and Freemont. 


I had, by this time, fallen hard for local acts like Doomtree and The Plastic Constellations (before their dissolution). Wandering the racks of the local artists, I saw a name I recognized but had never actually heard. So on a whim, resltless and alone, I picked up some releases by Kill The Vultures. I only knew it was in the vein of hip hop. I had no idea it would be as good as it was. One of the albums was The Careless Flame, the other was The Midnight Pines Soundtrack. By just about stumbling over the album, I found something totally unexpected and completely unique. It was bizarre and off kilter in the best way possible.

 I've never even seen the movie to which Kill The Vultures composed the soundtrack. All I've been able to determine from searching online is that it was a local flick, a kind of modern noir. The soundtrack certainly would back up that notion. At only six songs, the soundtrack is a woozy, drunken affair. Songs are full of wheezing, out of focus jazz ghosts that make you feel like you've been transported in time. There are moments where the soundtrack feels like a jumping beat-poet session, rapper Crescent Moon spitting his free-form verses over saxophone and some light percussion, like in 'Where The Cutthroats Stay'. The song is a finger snapping, head bobbing number. Other times it feels like music to accompany scenes of the depths of a bender, like in 'A Long Way Down'. In the track, mournful woodwinds warble over a slightly-out-of-tune piano, Crescent Moon practically just speaking his lines. His vocals are chilling when he speaks "It's a cold, cold city and it's a long way down." 'Midnight Pine' feels like a marriage of the two proceeding tracks - light, jazzy drumming, somber poetry and some lively keys. It's hep cat stuff, for sure. 'Can't Buy Forgiveness' is more upbeat, the time-keeping ride cymbal adding an out of time air, like Kill The Vultures were the baddest outfit in your favorite speakeasy. The whole EP feels amazingly retro yet alive and vibrant, surprisingly genuine and relevant for such a distinctly throw-back idea.

Crescent Moon's vocals are an unquestionable strong force here, as well. His intonation guides the whole feel of the songs - he gets wound up and the track feels like it could burst into flames. When he slows things down to really force every word into your ear, you can feel him forming every syllable and letter. His rapping and voice are so distinct that you can pick him out on anything else he does, be it with his wife in the (sadly now defunct) Roma Di Luna or as a guest MC on countless Doomtree cuts. He has a conviction to his words and a heft to his voice that few other artists possess. When coupled with these amazing jazz constructions, I totally fall apart.

 How many groups these days, especially noise-jazz based hip hop, can make a soundtrack to a movie you've never seen, yet still completely convey the tone of the film? I adore Kill The Vultures for what they've done here. They have other fantastic albums that are more detailed and fleshed out, but I love the brevity and simple concept of what they've done here. If you've never heard of Kill The Vultures this is actually a great, accessible place to get acquainted with their aggressive sound. They're flying just under the radar, so go find them while you can.

Zoo Animal

Well, hello there!

Last time we spoke, I was waxing nostalgic about things long gone. How about instead of focusing on things that are a decade old, we look at something new and fresh?

In my last post about Minneapolis rapper Sims, I made a mea culpa for sleeping on his latest and greatest endeavor, the staggering and alarming Bad Time Zoo. To counteract the guilt and feelings of missing out on something so amazing, I want to use today's post to spread the good word about his latest offering. The thing is, Sims is heading out on his Good Time Zoo tour (see relevant dates and venues here). As a reward for coming to see him perform live he has pressed up physical copies of an EP he recorded with fellow Doomtree crew member Lazerbeak. The EP, titled Wildlife, serves as a coda or addendum of sorts to his sprawling and dangerous album that preceded it. Knowing not everyone will be able to attend the upcoming shows, Sims and co. went the extra mile and distributed the EP for free online, via this link.

 I can't tell you how fantastic of a gesture that is from such a hardworking artist. While Sims has been riding a wave of critical success, we all know the record business is a limping, potentially mortally wounded beast. So to offer fresh, original and (most importantly) high quality content like this is quite simply a gift on the artist's behalf. I'm very grateful, not only for the gesture but for the fact that this EP is just as amazing as the work that preceded it. Sims is on his grind and we are reaping the benefit.

 Musically, Wildlife falls right into line with Bad Time Zoo. The songs are at times, alive and manic, sprinting alongside the rapper as part of a pack. Other times they feel run down and full of history, like an old supper club with outdated décor. They sound, really, like they could be alternate takes of other songs on Bad Time Zoo, and I mean that in the best way possible. Often times an artist will plop out an EP simply to get some spotlight between albums - not so with Sims. These songs are of the same high caliber he always delivers, even showing further signs of growth in certain spots.

 At a mere five tracks, Wildlife is lean but not gaunt. There's just no fat on the record. 'Lighthouse' is an ephemeral track, one that gives the impression Sims is perched high above the Veldt he in which he describes the modern world, watching the chaos unfold. 'Mad Night', technically pulled from Bad Time Zoo, shows how far he's come as a performer. Not to patronize his or anyones rap game, but on this track he shows the strength of his vocals and the depth of his lyricism. It's a track with real flow, not only in the hip hop sense but as a writer polishing his craft. Listening to 'Here I Stand' its easy to conjure the image of Sims as a man on the hunt - monster approaching, the artist grabs bow and arrow and takes aim. When his verses unfold it feels as though he's taken chase, hunting wounded prey. See how effectively the rapper paints imagery with his lyrical themes? Infectious when done right. 'The Line' shows Sims flexing new muscles in his writing style, getting more personal than ever as he weaves a pair of narratives about broken people and the help the refuse. Its haunting and affecting storytelling.

 The final track on the EP, 'Jordan 5's', contains a line I think may encapsulate why he does what he does. In citing the mortal accidents of the King James Bible, he raps "The truth fades but the ink stains". This notion of the fleeting sacred truths held in ink and paper is not unlike his relentless grind. He is an artist with a message that is, at times, difficult to pinpoint. He implores us to be better people, yet cites the flaws of the world in our most animalistic tendencies. On the sliding scale of artistic intent and rappers spreading a message, Sims is definitely on the heavy end. Maybe we'll never know why he perseveres. I think this track at least gives an insight into his reason for being. Either way, I'm just grateful to have the EP to compliment his monster of an album. The Good Time Zoo is heading out on tour - see if you can witness the madness. 

Reconstruction

Heyo. How are you?

Looks like I went a little off the deep end with yesterday's post, huh? I guess its understandable - it was my first time home in a while and I had a fantastic time. It was only natural that some of the mental dirt got tilled, exposing some roots to the air. I hope you enjoyed it - I certainly did. While I do, indeed, get some solid satisfaction out of CKY's iconic single '96 Quite Bitter Beings' I barely touched on the album of theirs that really hooked me in as a listener.

As I wrote yesterday, it was fall when I got turned on to the album. I had been in college only a few months and was quickly acclimating to the horrors of dorm life. Not all was grim, though, as it was still in the heady, carefree days of file sharing, but before the advent of massive lawsuits and torrents. In other words, for better or worse, I was exposed to a great deal of music in a short amount of time. I've since reformed my wicked ways - if I can pay an artist, I will. A lot of artists these days put the music out there for free, however, in an attempt to draw people in for shows. So I cast my net far and wide. Much of it was just obtaining files I had wanted but couldn't shell out for until then, like back catalogues and out of print stuff. Others were more about the rare and obscure tracks I had heard of but never thought I could track down. Surprisingly little came recommended, that I recall, despite the massive amounts of data. I was kind of on my own as far as what I was looking for.

That changed with Sam.

Sam and I clicked almost instantly. He lived across the hall. Once he realized I could be trusted (a surprisingly rare trait in that environment, we found) after watching his stuff while moving in, we started giving the 'What's up' nod all dudes do. I don't recall exactly what it was that started the avalanche, but as soon as he and I both realized we shared an adoration for Jackass and the CKY videos, we started making emphatic recommendations and swapping files. Romantic, right? Anyway, I got him into all kinds of stuff like Thrice while he turned me on to H.I.M. (relevant post pending). One day after class (or maybe during, as not every massive lecture required strict attendance) he called over to tell me to accept the transfer he was sending, as it was higher bit rate than the normal junky mp3s we were normally swapping. What he sent me was CKY's fresh album, Infiltrate, Destroy, Rebuild. It was awesome.

 I'd loved the band's earlier stuff but the mixes and ripped files always sounded terrible. This was huge and heavy, a thunderous, heaving album that saw the band suddenly came to life in my headphones. Even the sounds of the guitars themselves were unique, Deron Miller achieving some odd yet unmistakable tones that made the band stand out among the generic stuff on the radio. The off kilter rhythms gave them an ear-catching sound, as well. The album was unlike anything else I was listening to at the time, and although there have been similar sounds to develop as of late, nothing's been quite as good as IDR. 

While not every song on the album has been released as a single, there is a video for every track, which is due to the devotion of drummer Jess' brother Bam. The lurching 'Escape From Hellview' is a stomping opener that continues the tale that started in '96 Quite Bitter Beings' about the torturous town of Hview. 'Flesh Into Gear', one of the band's most recognized tracks from CKY2K, is given new life and a better mix here, the riff feeling just as hypnotic and amazing as ever. The juggernaut 'Sink Into The Underground' is simultaneously a bizarre shuffle and as heavy as its title suggests. I love the pseudo-new wave elements of 'Plastic Plan', which make the track somehow poppy and strangely melodic despite the grinding nature to it. One of the best tracks on the album is the funky, maniacal 'Inhuman Creation Station', with its insane riff and lock-step rhythm.

As I wrote in yesterday's piece, I had the good fortune of seeing this band live, right after they had released this album. It was one thing to hear this when it was brand new, it was a whole separate beast to hear them rocking out at full volume, careening around the stage while looking like degenerate lumberjacks. It was insane stuff. CKY is unlike any band out there - this album cemented their identity.

96 Retrospective

In the interest of full disclosure I'll share why I had an off kilter posting schedule this past weekend. 


I was out with the better half to visit my parents in Wisconsin, having not seen them since our wedding. It was a fantastic time, lots of good food, a spin in their boat down the river, we all hung out and watched a movie together. It was a really great, relaxing trip out there, although I would have like to stay longer. The place they have is where I spent the majority of my high school years and the off time during college. I have a lot of memories of watching movies late at night in the basement, rehearsing with my band in their garage and generally trying to make the most out of living in the country despite not being the outdoors type. In hindsight I took advantage of the solitude and tranquility of the location, the fact that living where they do affords privacy and peace. This lies in sharp contrast to living in the middle of the city in the heart of Uptown, surrounded by rabble rousers and nightlife. Neither one is better, I've found, just different. I could see myself enjoying the isolation, given the proper circumstances.

I know the grass is always greener, but you never really can go home again. There was a lot in there house that reminded me of who I was and where I've come from. I flipped through old yearbooks, found old dressers with some of my clothes, even walked some trails I used in high school to sneak the odd cigarette when I was young and stupid. While the memories would flood back in, they were accompanied by equal parts nostalgia and saudade. I could delude myself and say things were so much better when I had fewer responsibilities and the freedom to be a teenager but I know that I was unhappy with who I was then and feel like I had to experience what I did to become who I am. I can go back and visit my parents, even sleep in my old room and read the same books, but I can't call it home. I haven't lived there in a long time. It was a strange experience but I enjoyed it, despite the unstoppable progress of life, realizing a chapter has closed. Still, a new one has opened.

As we were winding down one night, I started playing an episode of the late great Jackass on my iPad to amuse my better half before bed. As we watched the first episode of the series it occurred to me that just a month short of ten years prior I had watched the exact same episode in that house with my dad and two brothers. Suddenly this whole part of my brain lit up as I recalled where I was at that time in my life and what I had been doing. I also recalled how hard my dad had laughed at what turned out to be a surprisingly long-standing series. My whole family has always had a strong sense of humor and this show was a real lightening rod for it. Only years later would I be able to hit the nail on the head on why I love it so much - to quote someone whose name I can't recall, "Its like a live action version of Looney Tunes, only more visceral for the post-Fight Club generation." That pretty much summed up my feelings on the show when I first saw it - it was something more than just dumb stunts - there was an underlying sense of danger tied in with a cartoon sensibility. This dichotomy was a breakthrough in the way that I saw the world. It also introduced a new chapter in my life where elements of the Jackass culture and crew would influence my life's path. For example, the music of CKY featured in the first episode.

The song playing behind Bam Margera and co.'s shopping cart antics is '96 Quite Bitter Beings' by CKY, a band fronted by Deron Miller with Bam's brother Jess on the drums. The track, with it's distinct riff and oddly howled vocals, was unlike anything I had heard at that point in my life. I was obsessed with the ominous tone, which I always thought was vaguely Halloweenish. Because of the time of broadcast I'll always associate it with fall and the cool air and leaves on the ground. A year or two later I picked up Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 for PS2 which also featured the song. It was fall then, too. I played it way too much after soccer practice that year, winding down and blowing off stress by working my thumbs to the bone, that song playing too often in the background. A year later I went to college and my best friend, who lived across the hall in the dorm, exposed me to the whole CKY videography and discography. I was hooked on the bizarre, incredibly unique and super-heavy sound. Again, in the fall. When we got tickets to see the band in Minneapolis he introduced me to a friend of his with whom he thought I would hit it off. I was smitten, but I barely registered on her radar. Months later we would reconnect and start dating. Two months ago I married her.

I'm not saying the song '96 Quite Bitter Beings' is the best song in the world, nor is it the most poignant, romantic tune to spin your life around. For whatever reason, call it synchronicity or just coincidence, this song has always factored into my autumns and kept turning up, like a bad penny. Being in my parent's house and hearing this song, while sitting next to my wife, I was struck by how strangely full circle it all felt. Maybe I listen to too much weird music. Maybe we make connections where we want to see them, mind always seeking order from chaos. Regardless, fall is pretty much here and I heard the song again. It might be inescapable, but its still a great song with a memorable riff. Funny how music gets associated with memory. There are other, more romantic songs that symbolize my relationship with my better half, but this one is more of a personal one, a song that has snaked it's way from a decade ago right into the weekend. Strange, huh? 

Howlin' Wolves

Guys, I promised you a double post and a double post is what you're gonna get.


I have to tell you, if you haven't heard this song in the last year...I feel bad for you. Its nothing short of a knock out. Its bad, man. Super bad. The kind of bad that makes you feel like you need to be doing something a little more grimy and gritty whenever it comes on. It has this old school feel that makes it feel timeless and instantly familiar but a fresh energy and buzz that makes you feel alive when it comes on. I'm talking about 'Howlin' For You' by The Black Keys.

I honestly think I hear this song more from my better half rocking out than I ever do in my own iTunes shuffling, which I hope speaks more of her taste than it does my ear-to-the-ground cultural awareness. It's one of those tracks that you hear and think "Damn, has this been out and I've been missing out on it?" In testament to her latent hip factor, though, the better half kept telling me how great the song was whenever it came on and would subsequently crank up the volume. Really all it took was a single listening, but since then I just let her turn up the song cause its fantastic and sounds better with some bass.

The Black Keys are phenomenal. One of the daring two-man-band types, they make a sound that's both a throwback and inherently modern in its simplicity and urgency. Its bluesy, simple rock that gets you by the cojones and holds on, instead of overwhelming and exhausting you with too many cooks and too many tricks. Their songs are stripped down and minimal, relying on quality songwriting and balls rather than gimmicks and guest spots. So a song like 'Howlin' For You'  works due to the few elements it has - there's some thumping drums that are reminiscent of stadium stompers, a guitar line that sounds like its being played through a phone and vocals that are as dangerous as they are appealing. The literally and figuratively distorted guitar lick that permeates the song is super catchy, especially for the solitary little part at the end of the song where it drops an octave for a single bar. Listen for it.

The video for the song is just as fantastic. While the song hasn't been officially announced as a single, the band made a video for it that's in the style of a trailer for a sleazy exploitation flick. Drawing on all of its Grindhouse-summoning imagery and faux-trailer aesthetics, they combine to make a clip that screams to be made into a real movie. The way Hollywood works today, that is entirely possible.

'Howlin' for You' by The Black Keys is huge, and deserves even more love than it already gets. This duo acutally sells albums in this modern era, how much of a seal of approval is that? See what you've been missing out on and listen to it. Its unbelievably good.

Clock Towers

Happy Weekend, kids!


How about something fun for the weekend? Something a little left of center to amuse you? You guys ever heard of Overclocked Remix? I love this site, both for the content and the concept. My neighbor in college told me about it, telling me if I had any love for video games at all, I simply had to check it out. At that point the site was already seven or eight years old. What I found there blew my mind.

Overclocked ReMix is ostensibly a place where artists take music from video games both new and old and reinterpret, remix and reconstitute it into amazing new works. The results are astounding. Name a game and its probably there. There are the heavy hitters of the video game world, like Final Fantasy VI or VII, which boast hundreds of respective remixes, or Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, anything Mega Man, Mario or Sonic related. There are thousands of high quality, mind blowingly original re-contextualizations of memorable music that will really make you step back and reevaluate the idea of music in gaming. The sheer volume of content hosted on the site is staggering - over 2,000 mixes by over 500 artists, all organized in searchable databases or listed by gaming platform.

This is something that you really owe it to yourself to check out, regardless of your stance on videogames - you may not care for them, but how can you deny that the music produced here is gorgeous? Not only does the source material vary widely, from pre-8 bit to modern symphonics, but so do the results - everything from techno and trance to thrash metal to jazz arrangements and classical compilations. Furthermore there are conceptual groupings and albums done by individual artists and the community as a whole. Entire soundtracks get re-worked and released for free as declarations of love for the games that spawned them. There's even a Youtube channel to flip through selections if you don't want to download anything.

Not only have the artists and members of the community received praise in print and across the web, they've received accolades and kudos from the originating artists themselves. The OC community always credits the source material and doesn't profit from the endeavor - this is all about love of the games. In the ultimate stamp of approval, the community was tasked with creating the official soundtrack for Street Fighter II HD Remix, a modern update of the classic fighting game, by the developers themselves. In fact the music for the game was one of the best received elements of the new game.


I adore this site. In the years since being turned on to it I've been consistently amazed at the work produced. It's made me really appreciate the music in games I love and better understand how the composers affect my experience. Old games I've loved have had new life breathed into them. Friends have loved music I've played for them, having no idea the songs originated from a 16 bit game. Normally they'd scoff and think me a geek. Instead they ask for a copy of it. I just want the world at large to know about this amazing community of artists and the crazy work they do. Give 'em  a look and see if your old favorites are there.

Breathing

Hey gang, what's the good word?


I know this is where I normally would post a review of something amazing and under appreciated by the world at large, but at the moment I'm on the go and unable to sit and write the normal amount of appropriate text. So to ease the burden and remain consistent, here's another bit of fiction, picked pure from my mind. I promise that to make up for the lack of music I'll do a double post tomorrow. In the meantime enjoy this little fiction...






They only move when I move, he thought. Silence hung in the room, unmoving and thick, save for the monotonous electronic drone of the wall mounted clock on the north wall. Each second that passed felt forced and deliberate.  He ran a hand up to his short black hair and rubbed the fur in frustration. At the same moment, 24 students and a middle-aged teacher mimicked his movements, right hand sliding up the side of their bodies, rustling their hair, letting out the same barely audible sigh; with 25 people sighing at once the level of the sigh was thicker, a ghostly rush of air from all around him. Tom was growing weary.

Fading Out

Dear, sweet lord. It's the weekend.


Sometimes life is a grind. Sometimes we feel like we have to grind away just to get through the week. Sometimes I don't want my peaceful, quiet trip hop and techno tunes. Sometimes I want the gritty, folksy down-to-earth rock of a songwriter. Someone who can tell a story. But it has to have some teeth, as well. There's a fantastic old album no one seems to listen to anymore that I love to put on for a little relief on a day like this. That album? Sparkle and Fade by Everclear.


Everclear are a strange band. They had a big hit in 1995 with 'Santa Monica', the biggest single off of their major label debut, Sparkle and Fade. This album broke them out in a major way. Their followup So Much for the Afterglow had a few hits but since then it's all been downhill. The band basically hit it big in the late 90s and never hit those heights again. While the sole consistent member, front man Art Alexakis, has toiled away on the band and their albums over the years, this first big album of theirs, with it's California Surf-tinged elements, has always had a special place in my heart. 

Is that a weird thing to say about a seemingly random grunge album from 16 years ago? Maybe. But I like it anyway. It's very du jour - it amazes me the songs were singles and played on the radio and MTV. Hearing what's popular now makes the songs in question here feel so normal and straight forward. In a way, though, that's exactly what it is about this album that I love. It's that simple ability to write and play these songs with no pretension and complication that I love so much. The band is a very nuts and bolts outfit - drums, guitar, bass. That's it. Nothing too fancy, just catchy mid-tempo riffs. Oh, and a songwriter who shone quite brightly for an entire album. Alexakis wrote from the heart here, pulling pieces of his childhood out of his memories and using them to craft these deeply personal and human songs about broken people and their hopes. It sounds corny, I know, but hearing it from such an earnest performer makes it work.

From the dirty little lick that opens the album in 'Electra Made Me Blind', you know what kind of album you're getting into. The songs have some balls. Art sings his heart out. The band plays with steadfast conviction, making simple songs sound strong. Alexakis mines the personal tragedy of his brother's death from an overdose to add terrible weight to 'Heroin Girl', a tragic song that buzzes and drowns in distortion. The mega-pop of 'You Make Me Feel Like A Whore' and 'Santa Monica' take what are quite bleak topics and makes them irresistibly catchy and rocking numbers. The guitar riffs are huge and cliched in the best way only the 90s could produce. There are also sweet and heartbreaking songs, like the saccharine poison of 'Strawberry' with it's shimmering, strummed acoustics. 'Nehalem' is a punchy little punk number that barely clocks in under two minutes but paints a full picture of a breaking couple in a small town. The stealth breakout number, though, is the tragic 'Queen of the Air', where Alexakis tells a story about a man realizing he witnessed something horrible as a child. It's a fantastic song with some personal and haunting lyrics, despite the dreamy alt-rock that backs it. 

Sometimes I wish Everclear were still huge. I'm okay with their decline, though. I still have this great, under appreciated album that makes me feel better after a long week. Life is better when you have something secret and personal to give you a little hidden pleasure. No one I know knows about this album other than the big single. That just makes me love it that much more. So I thought I'd share it with you - to let you in on a secret in the hopes that it means something to you like it does for me.

Pepper Shaker

Alright, fine.


Let's get weird with it, shall we? Let's get a little oddball. After yesterday's halfhearted impugning of Metallic despite my love of some of their singles, let's take a look at a band that completely lost their minds. An equally distant band who never the less had a single I still love that people don't really know about today. Although I suppose if one were to look deeper into the mythology of their careers it could be inferred that they never had proper minds to begin with. I'm speaking (with some trepidation) about the Butthole Surfers and their biggest mainstream success, 'Pepper'.

The Butthole Surfers are a band with a hell of a reputation. They are quite simply infamous for...being themselves. Established back in the early 80s, the band would make a horrifying yet captivating spectacle out of their stage shows. Outrageous outfits and bizarre costumes. Rampant and encouraged drug use. Nudity. Open flames. Prat falls and fake blood to accentuate them. Then there are the rumors about sex on stage which have yet to be confirmed. In the midst of all this the band was making avant-garde noise rock, punk rock and just straight up, weird, jammy stuff. Front man Gibby Hanes got to the point where he had a massive rack for noise effects which had little rhyme or reason, he just liked to switch things up for the sake of weird. I learned all of this after the fact, of course, but I did love their most mainstream release.

In 1996, some fifteen+ years after they got their start, the band released their album Electriclarryland. A single released from the album, 'Pepper', became a bit of a runaway hit with the alternative crowd at the time. This was of the era where Beck was still more of the 'Loser' sound than the 'Lost Cause' sound he later embraced. The music world, especially MTV, was much less nuanced and outrageous. A single like this stood out for its weird sound, the spoken/rapped sections in the verses. The plodding beat and the backwards vocal snippets. We were easily shocked, my friends. Something as pedestrian as 'Pepper' stood out as bizarre in a sea of Bush and Joan Osborn. Hey, I was young and sheltered, okay?

The song is a fantastic example of alternative music in the mid 90s. It's that mid-tempo shuffle, no bass to speak of but a simple drum loop and some fuzzy guitars. It's really a great song made of a handful of parts. Gibby intones about a list of odd characters who all die in bizarre ways. The chorus is awesomely poppy, just a single chord with Gibby singing "I don't mind the sun sometimes, the images it shows. I can smell you on my lips and smell you in my clothes. Cinnamon and sugary and softly spoken lies. You never know just how you look through other people's eyes." Other than a small guitar solo and the backwards vocal piece, that's the entire song. That's it. It's incredibly simple, another example of how producers and execs are screwing up by packing in sounds and cluttering songs with blips and bloops. This is catchy simply because it's so simple and stupid.

The Butthole Surfers are still technically around and, I would wager, just as insane. This song, as great as it is, is the rare commercial bright spot in their canon. If you love this, you probably won't like anything else they do. Still, I love it for its absurdity and du jour elements. It's a great 90s alternative track you owe it to yourself to dig up.