Of all the singles Jade Bird has released (though it is growing on me with every listen), this would be my least favorite, but it is still a pretty entertaing music video.
High as a Kite – Weezer
Hasn’t Weezer already done the children’s show music video with the Muppets a decade ago? Granted, they just redid their Undone video. But maybe if your write a very boring song, maybe not highlight the boringness by having everyone yawn. Maybe it is time for a Keep On Lovin’ You cover.
Arya Stark has been trying to kill Cersie Lannister since way back in season two but on the eve of the final season, the two put aside their differences to film a music video for Freya Ridings. How nice. Now I cannot wait for Arya to steal Jamie Lannister’s face and kill Cersie.
You would think for a song called Sisyphus, Andrew Bird would push a boulder up a hill. Nope instead he puts a boulder on his head and climbs a mountain. Alrighty.
I found Sweetner to be Ariana Grande’s weakest album (despite God Is a Woman being her best song) and I was not expecting much from her follow up Thank U, Next after the title track, 7 Rings, and this dropped the same time as the album. But despite the week singles, I actually found it her strongest album totally. The music video had an obvious twist because that dude was acting like a total douche.
Africa was fun, but Weezer’s full-fledged cover album was pretty crindgeworthy (especially No Scrubs). It was at its best with the other cheesy eighties songs like this. Still the song and video are pretty unnecessary.
I have been complaining for two years that all the anti-Trump songs kind of totally suck. Well it took a while but Sara Bareilles finally wrote a good one. Now if we can only get someone to write a great one.
I guess you can add Preach by John Legend to that good but not great protest song, but For What It’s Worth it is not. Although it may get a bit awkward with Legend as the newest coach on The Voice, a show by Mark Burnett who refuses to turn over the Trump tapes that reportedly has plenty of racist comments by the president.
What strange long trip this year has been to Weezer’s biggest hit in over a decade. From a kid requesting they cover Toto on Twiiter because she heard the song on Stranger Things and culminates with “Weird Al” Yankovic. Though if you are going to parody Undone, where are the dogs? Even Africa mentions wild dogs crying out in the night.
Leave to Prince to have one of the best albums of the year even after he died with a simple piano live to tape album. And he does not get enough credit for his social activism despite Sign O’ the Times being very profound, but the video just follow his legacy in that matter.
Here is a video Beck released six months ago on Apple Music but it has only become available on YouTube now. But anything with Alison Brie and directed by Edgar Wright is certainly worth the wait. Thankfully there have not been many exclusive since.
Everyone has to grow up sometime (except for maybe Angus Young) but it is weird seeing Avril Lavigne in what could have been a treatment for a Celine Dion music video. Unfortunately the song is about as boring as a Celine Dion ballad.
Two things that really stood out to this nineties child when giving a once over to the list of albums coming out this fall. First off we are getting dueling Gallagher albums! Okay, this would have been much more exciting if this were 1997 not 2017. And the other thing was an album being released by some guy named William Patrick Corgan. If you have not figured it out yet, that is Smashing Pumpkins Billy Corgan. Apparently he thought Deborah Gibsn's name change was not silly enough so he also added the middle name. In other ninties news, Beck is coming out with a fun album after his super depressing Album of the Year one, Wu-Tang Clan is back with an album anyone can buy, while U2 is also back to making people buying albums again. Oh, and Hootie of the Blowfish fame is still putting out country music while Primus is back with their original lineup since 1995. And of course Weezer is back with their bi-yearly release of disapointing tracks. In other artists you probably did not realize were still releasing music news, oh, hey, Barenaked Ladies, Boyz II Men, and Seal.
I spent so much time on the nineties because as usually I am mostly meh on current music. I have enjoyed what I have heard from the upcoming Jessie Ware album and Jillian Jaqcqueline and Carly Pearce are a breath of fresh air in country pop music along with Danielle Bradbery who put out a track I kind of like (though weird to release a song called Hello Summer on the first day of fall) but that is about it. I will give at least a Spotify stream to these albums. You can pre-order the albums by clicking the album title or go to their iTunes page by clicking on the artists name.
Pure Heroine was a great album that I had on heavy rotation, I just realized that I listened to the new Lorde once when it came out and that is out. Perfect Places was my favorite track off that album, I may have go back and revisit it. I do really like the video; it reminds me a time when people actually spent money on videos by going to exotic locations. Just imagine how great those Rio-era Duran Duran videos would have looked in hi-def.
Bibia Be Ye Ye – Ed Sheeran
How do I put this nicely: Ed Sheeran is very white so it is weird to see a bunch of black people sing his songs. But I wonder if Ed has a Graceland in him, that could be interesting.
Charli XCX can be very hit or miss for me and I am learning towards the latter for my early assessment of Boys. I like the chorus but the repetitive chorus may get very annoying.
I thought the twist would be that Run The Jewels would not be fingered, maybe the police dog. Instead they went with the obvious Usual Suspects ending. Oh well.
Okay it is a simple camera trick, the new Marian Hill video is kind of cool.
Feels Like Summer – Weezer
It feels like a bi-yearly occurrence that I complain about the latest underwhelming lead single from a Weezer album, and this is no exception.
Don’t Look Back – Dia Frampton
Aw, Dia Frampton, still my favorite contestant from The Voice. I actually liked her big pop album Red, but this song has a great slow burn build to it.
Left Handed Kisses – Andrew Bird featuring Fiona Apple
Simple music video from Andrew Bird. But I do wonder if Fiona Apple’s allusions to You Can Call Me Al were intentional or not.
California Kids – Weezer
Just last week I was mentioning how I kind of liked Weezer's new song even though the music video was embarrassingly bad. The new video just plays of the cringworthy videos they have produced from this album cycle but the song is almost as embarrassing.
Okay, not a full New Edition reunion because there is no Bobby Brown and it is technically just a Johnny Gill song featuring the other guys, but I will take it. But oh my, Biv is looking old, I fear he can no longer smack it up, flip it or rub it down.
Love Like That – Mayer Hawthorne
The second installment of Mayer Hawthorne’s noir music video anthology has arrived and it is already running thin. Why is he singing about wanting a love like that why developing crime scene photographs?
I am not entirely sure James Bay is not just John Mayer changing his name in hopes people forget some of his hotter hot takes that put him in the public’s doghouse (somewhat unfairly; what he said was stupid, not a shunnable offence… but anyway). After a bunch of midtempo songs, this is his first upbeat single, and though catchy, cannot say it is very memorable.
LA Girlz – Weezer
A lot of Weezer’s output over the past decade has mostly been embarrassing but this song does kind of sound like their old self. Okay, and outtake or B-side, not an actual album cut or even a single. Unfortunately the music video is very chringeworthy.
The “moon” Corinne Bailey Rae goes to looks a lot like the planet Simmons went to on Agents of SHIELD. Well, without the blueish-grey filter.
Daughters – Lissie
While watching Survivor, it is sometimes easy to forget, that the lack of access to quality drinking water is a reality for large segments of the population. And it is still hard to put it in perspective because even though we know the contestants have to walk to watering hole, then boil the water, we do not see just how long that takes, and then we know that after a month they get to fly home where they can just turn on the faucet to get water (unless they live in a city like Flint or near where fracking takes place where the water is just as poisonous) But there are no plane rides home for those that live in Africa. Though it is hard to put into perspective the 40 billion miles women in Africa have to walk a year for water. I kind of wish Lissie would have done a per woman average to give us a better idea the struggle for water on that continent is.
Who would have guessed two and a half decades after imploding, we would be having an N.W.A. reconnaissance? And there is not a better time considering the most popular rappers this year have no flow and are just really bad RnB singers (seriously, how are Fetty Wap and Future a thing?). Straight Outta Compton comes out this month while Dr. Dre is releasing a pseudo soundtrack to it (assuming it is not perpetually delayed but unlike Detox, Compton has a release date, we will see if it actually drops tomorrow). Beating both of those is Miguel's ode to the group that does not actually feature any members aside from a third degree of separation Kurupt instead. C'mon, do not tell me Miguel could not at least get MC Ren on the track.
Ditmas - Mumford and Sons
After shunning music videos when their album was originally released, now Mumford and Sons cannot stop releasing them. The got silly dressing up for The Wolf, not they are going a more serious, artsy path for their latest with a song that pretty much has the same structure as The Wolf. As I blindly hated on their new electric sound, I did not realize at the time how similar many of the songs sounded.
Pharrell Williams's last album was kind of annoyingly (pardon the pun) happy. It looks like he may go a little darker on the follow up. Sure Freedom is as dark as his darkest moments with N.E.R.D. but I think I like this better than anything on G I R L.
I should probably enjoy Weezer making fun of a dating app, but after Hilary Duff's blatant commercial a couple months ago masked as a music video, this just leaves me a little cold. It does not help that the song is not very good.
Earlier this week I posted my list of the 100 Greatest Songs from the Golden Age of Alternative Rock. The mid nineties was a time when the music business was so prosperous that even minimal effort could result in a Gold record. I doubt anyone outside of the Deal family could name a second song by The Breeders yet Last Splash still went platinum. I contributed to many of those RIAA certifications (R.I.P. BMG 10 albums for a penny deals that they kept letting you quit and renew for a new batch of albums).
1. Anna Begins – Counting Crows: Not only one of my favorite deep cuts from the era, but one of my favorite songs ever in the history of the world. “Every time she sneezes I believe it is love” meant everything to me in my youth. Still does.
2. The World Has Turned and Left Me Here – Weezer: The Blue Album had the most songs of any album on my list as every song is great. This is my favorite of the rest, just another great teenage anthem.
4. Warehouse – Dave Matthew Band: Record companies are usually good at releasing singles, but for some reasons the singles off of Dave Matthews Band albums are never my favorites. Ants Marching may be my fifth favorite song off their major label debut. The best is Warehouse which only get more epic when you hear it live. And thanks for the band’s penchant for releasing live albums, which will be easy to find because even though they always switch up set lists, there is always a good chance that this song will be represented.
5. Bad Habit – The Offspring: The ultimate road rage song. I probably listened to it way too much while learning to drive.
6. Immortality – Pearl Jam: No list is perfect and my own personal eyeballing of mine is there could have been a lot more Pearl Jam. It is probably after the success of the first album, they decided to step back from the spotlight not making music video or releasing proper singles leaving individual radio station to play their own favorites. Immortality is just the kind of mood I am in right now, but anything on those next two albums is worth checking out.
7. Let Me In – R.E.M.: Those first three R.E.M. albums from the nineties are worth checking out, this is probably the best track on their most fuzzed out album of the trio.
8. Happy Endings – Better than Ezra: I recently read an article where the lead singer suggested that they may have had Goo Goo Doll’s career had they been on a better record label and not one that went under. As a owner of all their albums sans their last I would have to agree as they made some of the best adult contemporary music of the past decade. You can hear them go down that root on songs like this.
9. Sad Songs and Waltzes – Cake: The band had a minor hit with their I Will Survive cover, another stand out on the same album was this Willie Nelson classic. The irony of course was during the alt-rock era, depressing songs were all the rage.
10. I'm the Ocean – Neil Young: The godfather of grunge hooked up with Pearl Jam and made an album which sounded exactly like you expected. This seven minute epic without a chorus is the highlight of the Mirror Ball album.
11. I Love You Mary Jane – Sonic Youth and Cypress Hill: When I first started working on my list I considered some more “alternative” rap song like Insane in the Brain. Instead I will include Cypress Hill’s awesomely weird collaboration with Sonic Youth for the Judgment Night Soundtrack where the two bonded over their love of the sticky icky. The song worked a lot better than their track with Pearl Jam.
12. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness – Smashing Pumpkins: In the of the alt-rock heyday, who would have expected the Smashing Pumpkins to start their double album with a sweet, well, melon collie, piano-based instrumental.
13. Sir Psycho Sexy – Red Hot Chili Peppers: The Peppers are weird to begin with, but this was easily their most bizarre track from Blood Sugar Sex Magic. The teenage version of myself loved the lady cop verse.
14. Slide Away – Oasis: That first album was brit-pop gold, this was definitely my favorite non-single.
15. The Wanderer – U2: Nirvana gets a lot of credit for the start of the alt-rock era, but with Achtung Baby, U2 was getting weird at the same time. They got even weirder on Zoorepa which ended with a country euro-trash song featuring Johnny Cash on vocals, a year before his carreer got resurrected with the American Recordings series.
16. Swing On This - Alice In Chains: Who would have guessed Alice in Chain would ever release a song that was actually danceable?
17. Pillar of Davidson – Live: There were plenty of epic songs on Throwing Copper, this song may have actually been the most epic.
18. Bogusflow – Beck: DGC Rarities vol. 1 was a must own by any alt-rock fan with plenty of rare gems. At the time, Beck was heading for one hit wonderdom and this drunken Bob Dylan type song was not going to help him out of that label but was awesome nonetheless. I am still waiting for vol. 2.
19. Mad Dog 20 / 20 – Teenage Fanclub: Fun fact: The first legal drink I ever bought was Mad Dog 20/20. I cannot confirm nor deny it is because of this song.
20. April 29, 1992 (Miami) – Sublime: Humorously the band actually got the date wrong in the actual lyrics song (April 26), legend has it that the take with the mistake was the best so they kept it.
21. Steven's Last Night In Town – Ben Folds Five: There were not many New Orleans inspired tracks during the alt rock era, but this one was really good.
22. Brother – Toad the Wet Sprocket: This was off their “rarities” album which was one of the few albums that was just as good as the “proper” albums in an artist discography.
23. Price to Pay – Blues Traveler: Just great storytelling in this song and of course plenty of harmonica.
24. Carrion – Fiona Apple: The big hits of this album were song of Fiona’s more angry songs; I also appreciate her more subtle songs like this one.
25. Nada – The Refreshments: In the introduction I mentioned how easy it was to get a Gold album, this is one of the few bands from the time that did not manage one and I am not sure why, I really enjoyed both of their albums. Maybe too southern and not enough alternative in their rock. And then too weird for the country crowd. Nada was a great way to end that first album.
Honorable Mentions
Shamrocks and Shenanigans (Butch Vig Mix) – House of Pain: Another rap song I considered for this list, but the Butch Vig version. Vig was fresh from producing Nevermind and a few years away from becoming a founding member of Garbage and gave an alt-rock bent to the song.
Iron Man – The Cardigans: I considered a couple songs by the band for this list but Lovefool was a bit too poppy and Been It just missed the cut (had I expanded the end date by a year, My Favorite Mistake would definitely made the list). But the album was much more weird and darker than you would expect from the group that brought you Lovefool, case in point this trippy cover of the Black Sabbath song.
For the purpose of this list, the Golden Age of Alternative Rock started with the release of Smells Like Teen Spirit and ended when Limp Bizcuit released their first album.
Last week, Grantland featured a story on the art of the comeback explaining how to do it (Daft Punk) and what not to do (Guns N' Roses). Not surprisingly the writer suggests not letting the back-story overshadow your record, you know, like taking fourteen years and thirteen millions dollars to record it and certainly do not wait until Dr. Pepper guilt you into releasing it because it will turn out bad for the both of you (five years later I still have not bought a Dr. Pepper after getting stiffed on my free can that I was promised). But in the article, the writer suggested that Chinese Democracy is better that you probably remember which made me pop up Spotify to give it a first listen in five years (nope, still extremely disappointing). I bring this up because while on Spotify I had a big laugh at who was listed as Guns n’ Roses top “Related Artists” according to Spotify. I got such a good laugh out of it I decided to comb through the sight for the most absurb “Related Artists” according to Spotify and here are the top ten I found.
1. Guns n’ Roses – When I think Guns ‘n’ Roses I think eighties Sunset Strip and the hair bands of the era or possibly the other hard rock heavyweights of the time Metallica who they had an ill fated tour with back in the nineties. But nope, the most related artists to Guns n’ Roses is The Proclaimers. Yes the creepy twins one hit wonder from Scotland who sang I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).
2. Beastie Boys – Most people think of the Beastie Boys as rappers but they have released punk albums too back in the day, and this may very well lead to the most random top five related artists currently on Spotify: classic rock God the The Jimi Hendrix Experience, underground hip-hop group Jurassic 5, the industrial Nine Inch Nails, alternative rockers Smashing Pumpkins, and the indie group Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Pull up the full Related Artists page and it gets even more random: Justice (dance), The Heavy (funk), Soundgarden (grunge), The White Stripes (garage rock), Wu-Tang Clan (hardcore rap), and Blind Melon (one hit wonders).
3. The Chemical Brothers – Here is another group that is listed as a Related Artist of the Beastie Boys but just because their top Related Artist is another Related Artist of the Beastie Boys (though I have no idea how either group are related to the Beastie Boys) does not make it any less head-scratching because do not ask me how the electronic group from the nineties is at all related to punk forefathers The Clash.
4. Taylor Swift – Taylor is a country artist whose records get poppier and poppier as they are released and other female contry crossover artists Carrie Underwood, The Band Perry and Sugarland are all in her top five, but number one? The YouTube superstars and elecro-pop duo Karmin.
5. Rage Against the Machine – Sure Rage and Thin Lizzy are both technically rock artists that were featured on VH1 Classic’s Metal Evolution but it was two entirely different episodes, sub-genres, and eras. Granted if I were Rage Against the Machine, I would not want to be linked to the horrible nu-metal moment that came after them either.
6. Snow Patrol – Earlier this month when I posted my Greatest Eras in Rock and Roll History, Snow Patrol was featured in the Pop-Rock wave of the early 00’s and I would have figured other acts I had with them, Coldplay, David Gray, The Killers, would be among their top artists. Nope, instead it is the teenaged cover artists who takes every song and turns it into a mopey depressing ode, Birdy. Snow Patrol is not even one of the bands she covered. The rest of Snow Patrol’s top five which includes Lissie, Paloma Faith, and Counting Crows is almost as head scratching).
7. Lionel Richie – Lionel was one of the biggest acts of the eighties and I fully expected to see other RnB-pop acts of the time like Michael Jackson or Prince in his Related Artists or even his former group The Commodores. Instead his top five in order are new wave band Berlin number one followed by Cyndi Lauper, Phil Collins (who is also absurdly Jackson’s top Related Artist), Chicago, and Eric Carmen.
8. Robin Thicke –Considering he has the biggest song on the planet, Spotify would get this blue eyed soul man some artist of his ilk like contemporary Mayer Hawthorne or maybe the greatest blue-eyed soul man ever Daryl Hall, either solo or with Oates, but no, his top artist is Janet Jackson while other female nineties RnB acts TLC and Aaliyah also populate his top five.
9. Weezer – Sure Weezer and Stone Temple Pilots both are under the very large alternative rock of the nineties tent, but I would like think Spotify would be smart to have Weezer grouped together with other geek rockers Barenaked Ladies or Ben Folds Five instead of the second wave of grunge.
10. The Breeders - The Breeders were an alternative rock one hit wonder off shoot of The Pixies from the nineties, Robert Johnson was a blues singer who was born 102 years ago. Seriously Spotify, how does this even happen?
