High School Album #1

We finally got to this....the number 1 album for my high school years. There were a lot of albums that almost made the top five, and I'll hopefully get around to posting them soon, but this one, this one takes the cake. One member of this band has appeared multiple times on this site, but no....it's not The Rentals....no, it's not The Decemberists....it's:



Retreat From The Sun is....well, it's that album that I throw on for my happy days, my sad days, my lonely days, my big days and my small days. It is my favorite album. Period. The best way to describe the album? I'll quote Stephen Thomas Erlewine: "Producer Brad Wood helps form these songs into shiny alterna-pop nuggets, making Retreat from the Sun into the best album Liz Phair never made." If Liz Phair had released this instead of....well, Liz Phair, she would still be atop the indie world's throne as their Queen.

Let's set the timeframe for this album. It was the winter of my Sophomore year. I was dating a girl name Kat and my infatuation for indie rock was growing. I had downloaded all of that dog.'s album Totally Crushed Out and I needed more. Me and Kat (and my mom, I was still 16 and without a license) were out shopping. We stopped at a used record store that no longer exists and went browsing. And there it was, sitting in the middle of a row of used CDs like it didn't matter. And it didn't, at the time. But after a few listens, two songs were played over and over. After a few more listens, four songs were played over and over. I kept playing it till every song was played over and over. I've probably listened to the album close to 1000 times, and that's a lot if you think about it.


What Anna, Petra, Rachel and Tony did for this album, it's just inspiring. If I ever had my own band (my pipe dream, for I need to learn an instrument), I'd play this whole album as my encore set. So instead of just posting a few songs, I'm giving you guys something extra: the whole album. It's long been out of print, and the band is no longer together, so I see no reason as not to give you the whole shebang!

Part 1 (save file as a .rar file)

Part 1 includes the songs: "I'm Gonna See You", "Never Say Never", "Being With You", "Gagged & Tied", "Retreat From The Sun" and "Minneapolis".

What's great about this album is that it does mix the nice slow pop songs with....well, what is the best example of 60's pop meets 90's alternative rock. "I'm Gonna See You" and "Being With You" take a slow approach, using the girls harmonies like never before on their previous records. You could definitely see them playing these two songs on the beach infront of friends. With "Retreat From The Sun", the same thing, only in front of tourists for pocket change, for this has to be the suniest song ever, the rays are so damn bright on this thing. "Gagged & Tied" has the most incommon with Liz Phair, mostly songs where she's a bit more domineering. Then you have "Never Say Never" and "Minneapolis which are that dog. at their best. "Never Say Never" was the first song where I really noticed the bass line in a song so damn much....I still play air bass every time I hear it (check out the bass solo of sorts towards the end of the song). Then....there's "Minneapolis", which is my favorite song about long distance relationships. I've never really had one, but if I did, I would hope that the romance would be like this. When I sent this to my friend Sarah, we both agreed it sounded like her romance with her then boyfriend Andy (they're both musicians).

Part 2

Part 2 includes the songs: "Annie", "Every Time I Try", "Long Island", "Hawthorne", "Did You Ever", "Cowboy Hat" and "Until The Day I Die".

This is actually the...well, not quieter, but the calmer side of the album, with the exception of "Long Island", which is a quick burst of popity....goodness. "Annie" and "Did You Ever" are great mid-tempo songs, while "Every Time I Try", "Cowboy Hat" and "Until The Day I Die" are the slowest songs on the album, allowing Anna Waronker to stretch her voice a bit. But it's "Hawthorne", a song about high school life that still sticks with me for a long time. About seeing your friends play in their garages. Driving around California. I just love it.

Overall, this is thing will continue to be played over and over again. Probably till I wear the damn thing out. This is one of those CDs that I hope to pass down to my kids some day, because it's influenced me so much.

Bonus:


While Petra and Anna have been proficient in providing post that dog. music, Rachel hasn't. She produced one song (Poems, Prayers & Promises) for a John Denver tribute album, and that's about it. She's guested on many other band's albums (most notably Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American, which I loved and bought the day it came out due to her....way before those idiots saw them on MTV....how sad am I?) But now, with the internet being the way it is, it allows people to much more freely distribute their music, so I find out that Rachel has a Myspace site.

I have to check this out. This girl is in my Top 5 favorite bass players (others include Sarah Saturday, Manda Marble, Matt Sharp and Chris Cain....three who are friends, weird). And her voice, her damn angelic voice, her harmonies with her sister Petra and Tanya, man, can't go wrong. So I downloaded one of her songs:

Devil's In Me

Holy shit, wow this is good. As good as Petra. Damn you Rachel, release more songs! Do an interview with me! Something, please! You can download more of her stuff at her site. Check them out.

New Dresden Dolls Tracks!

I was at my favorite local record store (Gem City Records, downtown Dayton, OH) and I was talking with my friend Dan (drummer for the lovely band Shrug. who will get a post someday soon), when I saw in the background a Dresden Dolls CD of some sort. I ask, "What's this? New songs?"


So Dan just gave me one, for he is a sweet man. And this CD.....very sweet. It has one of my favorite songs of all time, one I posted in my earlier in DD post....somewhere in the January archive. "Backstabber" is one those tracks....well, the lyrics aren't subtle, but that's okay. Cause they just so damn funny and angry and you can't help but not love them.

But this new song, the one I hadn't heard...."Dirty Business"....man, I'd hate to be any of the people in this song. With lyrics like, "She's the kind of girl who leaves out condoms on the bedroom dresser, just to make you jealous of the men she fucked before you met her." My god, only Amanda Palmer could write shit like that, but wow, is it good. Check these tracks out.

High School Album #2

This one and the #1 album used to switch back and forth a lot. #2 was very influential for starting me off on so many damn bands, but it just hasn't stuck as much as #1. So, here we go:

I first got into Weezer way back at the end of '99. I had just seen Mallrats for the first time and I heard the song at the end. "Suzanne" was a great pop song, how good was it you ask? Well, let's ask Academy Award winner Ben Affleck, who sang the song on the commentary for Mallrats for a few seconds....okay, that was lame. Anywho, I downloaded the song on....get this....NAPSTER! I know, scary. And I was like, "Hey, wasn't that the 'Buddy Holly' band?" I ended up downloading a few more songs and got The Blue Album. It was great and I had to have more.

At the time, they only had one other album....Pinkerton. But at the time, the thing still hadn't sold 500,000 copies, so it was hard to find. I had to search a few different record stores, but it was my mom who actually found it. She gave it to me for X-mas that year. And X-mas Eve, I opened it, put it in my CD player and went to bed. And my first reaction to it when I awoke the next morning:

"What a disappointment!"

I had TBA and it's b-sides and they were all great pop hits, but this album....this thing, what the hell was it? It was all scratchy and the vocals weren't as poppy, they were singing about being monks and lesbians and butterflies, I mean, what the hell!? I actually put the CD away for almost three months before listening to it again.

Then something happened. One night, I was sitting at the computer and I had no new music to listen to (this was in '00, when I had no broadband and no blogs to keep me filled with new music), so I decided to pop open that damn Pinkerton again, see what all the fuss was about on the net about how damn great it was. Man, I must have been fucking crazy when I heard the album the first time, because thing was a whole new world. Scratchy guitars, they were cool. Lyrics about lesbians and monks, right on! Matt Sharp's beautiful falsettos? My god, they were beautiful. Why had this thing changed on me? I don't know, but I can' t be happier.

You take a song like "Across The Sea", which has that beautiful bit of piano, then it turns into an anthem about longing. Rivers wrote it about a Japanese girl who wrote him fan mail, but for my teenage mind, it was every cool girl on the net who said, "You're a cool guy!" and bullshit like that. That song spoke to my teenage mind.

Then you have the one two combo of "Pink Triangle" and "Falling For You", you probably have the most heartfelt lyrics that Rivers Cuomo ever put on an album. "Pink Triangle" has actually happened to me. Of course, not like Rivers. I didn't pick out the wallpaper patterns yet or anything, but I did have a crush on a lesbian. And "Falling For You"....wow. The lyrics are just....I can't describe the lyrics so that you get a good sense of them, but download the fucking song if you don't have the songs. Do it now!

Bonus:

Pinkerton was not always the way it is now. It used to be....A SPACE OPERA!!!! Well...a rock space opera. Songs From The Blackhole is....well, I'd hate to call it my generations's Smile but, it's kind of close. There is a rumor that this year, being the 10th anniversary of Pinkerton, that we may get the album as it was meant to be. So here are a few demos that you must check out, for they're great:

Blastoff!
Longtime Sunshine

I'm Such A Liar!

I can't believe I went this long before posting again. I really had a few problems, personal and financial going for a few days, but I've got most of them cleared up now, so I'm good to go. I'm ready to rock. So unbutton your pants, it'll make it easier to blow them off now.

So, first off, I'm not really going to post anything on Sigur Ros, mostly because everyone has already beaten me to that punch, and done it much better. Matt has already done a good job (and I called him a punk for it too) on posting photos and a story on them. But, he didn't get to enter the show based on nefarious deeds....yes, that's right, we beat up some little kids for their passes!

Okay....we didn't do that, but we did have a good time, my friends Nick and Lauren. It was actually kind of cool, at one point I said to myself that the music was very romantic at times, then out of nowhere, two couples start to slow dance, it was like they could read my mind. Yep, we have mutants in Columbus.

On to better things:I had a great time at the Chasing Game/Chaselounge show back....I don't know, a week ago or more? Something like that. Anywhatzles, both bands performed great (I was only there for The Chasing Game, but I came out loving another band). The Chasing Game put on a good performance, but I still think they need probably another year or so before they're really really tight. Some of their songs sound the same and the lead's vocals need to brought up a bit louder, but when those are my only complaints, I don't think that's all that bad.


But Chaselounge, oh yeah, they were more my cup of tea.


They have a great 50's rock meets jangly power pop. Kind of like The Hang Ups, who had this great great song called "Jump Start"....which you can download here. Enjoy that song, it was on the Chasing Amy soundtrack (another appearance for a soundtrack that does not exist!)

But this band is pretty damn good. Shawny Scott, lead singer and guitarist has it down, really. He's a good looking guy, so I'm sure that helps bring in the ladies, but they'll stay for his voice and lyrics. Their sort of pattoned "Doo-Rock" style really fits the whole band, especially on stand out track "The Postman & The Constable", which features back and forth vocals between Scott and bass player Aaron....Scott, but I believe there is no relation. Anywho, the song just makes you tap your toe, which turns into moving your feet, which of course leads to dancing the night away.


The rest of the band is just great, with guitarist Chris Lambert (he must be the only one?) and drummer Adam Eilers keeping the energy up. The band just looks like they have a ton of fun on stage, and that always makes for a great show.

You can check out both bands at their respective MySpace profiles here and here.

P.S. I will soon continue my High School album posts and will have an interview with friend and musician Sarah Saturday, who must finally answer the damn interview! *glowers at Sarah* Till then, stay hard!

More In A Few Days

I will continue my High School Album posts no later than Wednesday and I will have a few extra bands to be posting about. I'd update sooner, but I'm aparently being taken to Sigur Ros tonight, so I will post later. See ya!

Petra....Thriller.....A Capella? Fuck Yeah!

Go....now! Petra Haden has a new track up...and yes, it would make even Michael Jackson blush, for she's doing "Thriller". Go....NOW!

High School Album #3

I had a hard time picking the number 3 spot on my list, because there were a few bands in the running. But of those bands, most of them were more influential in my college life than in my high school life. So I went with my gut, which usually has shit for brains, but not this time. This time, I think I got it right.

I used to work for my high school's radio station: WKET 98.3 FM Kettering, HOME OF THE FAIRMONT FIREBIRDSSSSSSSSS.....lame, I know, but I was pretty damn good at being a DJ and a producer. I was also News Director, but that amounted to printing off the news of the AP wire. Yeah, any stupid monkey could do that, and better I bet. I even got to bring in Saving Face for an acoustic set, which was a blast, for they were ripping on everything that day. Anywho, there was always a bunch of cool CDs in the station that no one played, so I would sometimes just play random stuff. One of the singles we had on there was "The Battle Of Who Could Care Less". So yes, my #3 album from high school is:


And....
Wait....what?

Both of these perfect albums have to go hand in hand. Whatever And Ever Amen was my first introduction to Ben and Co. And the first song that struck me....was what has to be the popiest song on the whole damn thing: "Kate" is full of goofy lyrics about mix tapes and birds and flowers and smoking pot and the damn thing feels like Summer. And how can you hate Summer songs? You can't, that's right!

After that, I was actually going through what my teenage addled mind called a "bad break up", whcih now, I wish I could have a break up like that again. So, you have to know what song would fill that hole in my heart: "Song For The Dumped" had all of those high school style slams on that damn ex you hate. If your parents heard it, they wouldn't be scared you'd be falling into the wrong crowd, they'd bop along to the melody and go "Now, when I was in high school, we weren't so foul mouthed, but we felt the same"....which is what my mother did the first time she heard it.

So after appreciating the fun that Whatever And Ever Amen had, I graduated backwards to the little more serious, yet still fun album Ben Folds Five. So with graduating to a more mature album, I gravitated to more mature songs, like "Best Imitation Of Myself". This song really got to me at the end of high school, when my love life became a bigger part of my life, when I had to actually impress a girl to get her attention (something I'm trying completely not to do anymore). I didn't know exactly what my personality was, I was still a huge smart ass who joked at all the wrong occasions, but still had a sweet side. Of course, it was only the girls who wanted to be my friend that saw the sweet side.

And that takes us to what has to be in my Top 5 favorite songs of all time list (another month when I have nothing good to post)...."The Last Polka". All it took was this one verse to almost move me to tears, for at the time, I was just "dieing" after a breakup (I got dumped a lot):

"She said,
"You've been pushing me like I was a
sore tooth"
"You can't respect me 'cause I've done
so much for you"
He said,
"Well I hate that it's come to this,
but baby I was doing fine"
"How do you think
that I survived the other 25 before you?"

If that line doesn't strike you as much, that's cool. It does for me. I've found that my problem with women is that I either date people who have had a lot more relationships, or fewer relationships than I've had. So that song fit.

Bonus Song:

I hate Jam bands. I hate them so much. I think that playing something that really doesn't have structure, lyrics, a pure melody, well, it just doesn't make sense to me. If you like 'em, cool, good for you. But I don't. But my god, this jam song, this improv, is easily one of the coolest things I've ever heard. And if I had heard it when it was played, I would have fallen appart, just from the laughter alone. "For Those Of Y'All Who Wear Fanny Packs" is just so damn fun, you can't help but love it. I wish the Five were back together, just so I could hear it live (I've seen Ben twice, and a third time is most likely coming up soon at either Columbus or Miami University).

Also, if you love the singing on the song, that's drummer Darren Jesse, who if you read Dodge, know that he has a solo project out now. Hotel Lights have a very cool sound to them, at least from the songs I've heard. Check em out.

High School Album #4

So now, I was starting to use the internet to find bands. And before blogs, there was really only one great way of finding new music: message boards. And since Weezer was one of those bands I was totally over the moon for, I was on their message boards a lot. And you all know that power pop is my favorite genre (and if you don't, I'm sorry, I actually believe all of you have known me for years). So the perfect fit was this little Detroit guy:


At the time, he was pretty much in hiding, so this would put it around '00. Lapalco hadn't come out yet, so there was no car commercial, no lauding by the huge critics. At the time, there was only:
One Mississippi was the real deal. A pure power pop album, like from the 70's, but modernized a bit. But I felt bad for Brendan. Here was a guy that had put out an album that was sort of received well, but completely ignored by the music world in general. Most of that was due to the record company just not knowing what to do with the guy. So here sat this album, that at the time, was completely out of print and would go for over $30 a pop sometimes (not unlike a certain other album). But I had to hear this damn thing. So I used the free program (at the time) Audiogalaxy to finally hear the whole thing. And whoa....was this damn good.

Where in the world can you hear a pop song about literally tieing up your girlfriend just because you don't want to lose her? Well, in "Sittin' Pretty", that's where! This song sounds feel good, until you hear the lyrics, then they shock you a bit. "Wait a minute, did I hear what he just said?" Then you have the exact opposite, a beautiful ballad about a favorite home. "House In Virginia" is really touching, in a corny sort of way. It's part longing song about someone coming to visit you, yet feels like it was written from your Grandma's perspective...but I still love it.

When I finally was able to buy the album, which I think was about two years ago or so, they put on a bunch of bonus tracks and EP tracks. When you re-release an album, that's how you do it. Of the tracks, there was one that really caught my attention. "The Swamp" was a bonus track off the Japanese release I believe, and it starts slow, just strumming along with some cool little lyrics about a weird little man. But then, with one line, the song got me.

"I know a place, where you can meet girls, and at the same time, you can get your vegetables."

And I don't know why, but that line just kicks lots of ass to me. For no apparent reason I guess.

Bonus:
In August of this past year, I finally got to see Brendan Benson live. He was playing at Southgate House in Covington, and I knew I finally had my chance. And he played great, playing a good mix of songs from all three of his albums. When one of his guitars went out, he started fiddling around on his accoustic. Well, he said..."What should I play?"

And I immediately shouted...."Me Just Purely"! This was the first song I ever heard him play, the song that got me into him. It wasn't on the set list (which I got at the end), and he said he might not remember the words. Well, a few of us up front shouted we would help. And he banged it out of the park, with a lot of us singing to help him along, as if he needed it. This is probably in my top ten favorite songs of all time. Enjoy it.

Quick DD Post

Connor over at I Guess I'm Floating posted a new song by The Dresden Dolls that is just fucking weird. Maybe he'll be right about the album being like Picaresque. Let's hope they hit Ohio again, I have some huge prints to show Amanda and Brian.

Modern Moonlight

High School Album #5

High School was really funny for me, at least music wise. When I started out, I was into two major bands: Weezer and Metallica. I know, the last one is pretty funny. But not if knew my history in music. From birth to the lovely age of 11, I was completely raised on Hair Metal. My Dad would wake me up every morning by putting in tapes of Def Leppard's Hysteria or Van Halen's 1984 (both of which are in my CD collection). Hell, I still love the stuff and will make a very cool Hair Metal post in the near future, but let's get back to what this is about: my High School albums.

Throughout High School, I was very quiet (yet considered a loud mouth asshole, and how I did that will continue to be a mystery to me) and kept to myself a lot. I always had on head phones durring lunch and the bus ride home, blasting out whatever tunes I had burned onto a CD. Durring my Freshman year, I really got into searching out bands on the internet. But it's funny, for my pick #5, I didn't find this guy on the net, I found him on Letterman.


Pete Yorn was playing....I believe it was "Life On A Chain" and I just....I've never been a country fan, and I don't think Pete is country, but there was this country charm about him. And I was like, well, I should get something by this guy. See what was out there. But there wasn't much, because he was just releasing his album. So, I did something very unexpected: I bought the album unheard.


musicforthemorningafter is still one of the most perfect albums for me. It opens with "Life On A Chain" and follows it with "Strange Condition", still one of the best one-two punches in Alternative Rock/Pop. This album came out at a great time for me, because I was growing as a person. I could accept the country flavor, the more adult lyrics and great pop of it all. When you have a song like "Murray" that just makes you want to get up, find your favorite dive bar and just dance, you can't go wrong. Everyone should own this album. I swear by it, for it's part of my growing up.

Bonus Track:

Mr. Yorn is from the lovely state of New Jersey, so you know there are probably two artists that inspire him: Bon Jovi, who are quite good in small doses, but the better one is, of course, The Boss. And I bring him up because I do love The Boss too. So when I heard that Pete did a cover of "Dancing In The Dark", I thought that it would be great to hear a take on this, because I've never heard anyone cover it. And man, did he take it somewhere else. Just by putting it acoustic and slowing the tempo down a lot, he's made this fun dancey rock hit into something that I never thought it was: a beautiful song about loneliness, confusion, and anger.

Polar Opposites

At the moment, I have two songs competing for my attention, both being on the oposite sides of the musical spectrum, but both being terrific songs.

In the Red corrrrnerrrrrrrr, from the South Bronx, wearing the Black Tuxedo shorts, we haveeeeeeee:Mack The Knife himself, Mr. Bobby Darin singing the wonderful song "I'm Begining To See The Light". One of my favorite movies of all time is Swingers and this is the song over the closing credits. And it's a perfect fit.

In the bluuuuuuue corner, from the dreary UK, sporting sunny Yellow shorts:



Those funny boys in Supergrass singing "Alright" The perfect Summer song, which is what I need in this snowy winter in Ohio.

So what was the fucking point of all this? None really. I just wanted an interesting way to put up two songs I like at the moment. We'll see what else I come up with later. Probably nothing good.

Well...Again

Pittsburgh won. Yaaaaaaaaaaywwwwwwwwnnnnnnn.....I mean, I'm glad they won because at least we lost to the Super Bowl Champions, but I just can't wait till next year. We'll have Carson, Chad, Rudy, Landon and the rest, and we'll be gunning for the Steelers.

MOTHER FUCKING BULLSHITING ASSSUCKING MWHLJAKJDLJFDLKAAAAAAA!!!!!

Okay.....calm down Bubba....

You all remember when I said I was bidding on something great, something I've always wanted, something I desperately need. I was bidding on this:


And I had it. I so had it. I kept refreshing. I kept refreshing, for I wasn't going to lose this. I refresh one more time with like three seconds left.....I didn't have it. I don't know what I'm gonna have to do to get this album. For six years now, I've been trying harder than ever to get this damn thing.

If there is some way someone can get this thing, and not mp3s, I have mp3s, but the real CD, you let me know. There's a comment section here plus you can email me. I need this thing like a junky needs a hit, six years is starting to get to me.

Well...

It's halftime for the Super Bowl and I have to say.....*yawwwnnnn*....what was I talking about? Oh, the big SB. I'm just sad my Bengals aren't in it. I watched every single game this season, most with my Dad (a first for us, for we usually bond over soccer and hockey). Anywho, it should be Carson Palmer and company in the Super Bowl this year or at least, not Pittsburgh. If not for that hit on the Bengals second play, the Steelers would be sitting at home this year. See ya at the end of the game.

Volcano, I'm Still Excited!....wha?

Said to have been named for the movie Joe Versus The Volcano, this is one of the coolest little pop bands that should of made it big (I know it's supposed to be should have), but sadly didn't. The band was formed by Mark Duplass, who could no longer play guitar due to tendinitis. So he switched to the organ. And it was a perfect fit. They recorded their selftitled debut for Polyvinyl in 2004. But sadly, I was told they have broken up, forever robbing me of seeing them live, like so many of my favoritest bands ever. Yes....favoritest bands ever. But here's some songs to tide you over, a few from offical sites and one I love enough to put up. All are recomended.

In Green
2nd Gun
Trunk Of My Car
New Brad

Paper Tigers

I first met Andrew Paley way back in the Summer of '04, when his band The Static Age was opening for Manda & The Marbles for their release party for Angels With Dirty Faces....what a long fucking sentence. But it's how I met the man, and I'll talk about his band on a later post. This....Paper Tigers....is his solo project. And what a project it is. Part very dark, acoustic driven songs and part perfect little pop songs, with mixtures like this:

Love Scenes

You can check out the rest of Drew's solo work here:

Paper Tigers Purevolume Site
Paper Tigers Myspace Site

The Currents

A while back, Matt posted a song by The Currents that I sent him, so I thought, hey, if you guys like 'em, I'll post some too.

The Currents "You're The One" Easily the best prom song that never happened. I do a very small part time work for this company called Independent B Movie.net (check out Mummy Sleepover Masacre for audio commentary by me), and when I was writing scripts (which were usually more dramas than horror), I'd always have this song on in the background, for it's perfect for love scenes.

The Currents "Surf's Up" A great song about trying to get away from every day life, and I don't really believe it's about surfing, because I think Chris Voss lived in Texas, far away from good surf.....unless they surf in the Gulf Of Mexico....anyone got a clue?

The Currents "Melody" This was probably the first song that Chris sent to me when I still talked to him, and it's still one of my favorites. A nice chorus and good power pop sound.

If anyone knows what Chris is up to now a days, contact me cause I'd love to say hi again.

Fourth Times' The Charm!

I'm bidding on a certain CD by a certain artist who shall remain nameless, because I always lose out on this CD and I don't want anyone to know what is out there. It's currently out of print and I've tried to bid on it three different times and each time, I've lost. I'm hoping against all hope that I can win this time, for I can then get on my way to completing this artist's collection. If I win, I can then buy this person's other two albums and then work my way to buying all the CDs that they have guested on. If I win, I will throw a blog parade here, trumpeting my victory....if I lose....I will cry. Many tears. And those tears will flood the Earth.