Today I continue my ongoing feature showcasing my personal picks for the best songs of the past decade, posting ten songs at a time.
290. Les Claypool – Iowan Gal
Where do I begin? Les is one of my all-time favorites, and his past decade work will be represented well on this list through his Oysterhead project, solo work, and songs from his main band Primus. Needless to say, I’m a die-hard fan; I first discovered Les and Primus back in 1996 when my cousin Joe brought Pork Soda to my house during a Christmas visit.
Claypool’s solo work is weirder and leans toward jam-band noodling sometimes, but “Iowan Gal” is good ol’ Les, mostly just him and his mighty bass guitar slapping, popping, and showing off. It’s funky, humorous, and a return to form from the great weird one.
Free Energy are a five-piece band from Philadelphia, PA, who specialize in kicking your ass with feel-good 70’s-lifted rock and roll. Their new album, Stuck On Nothing, is ten tracks of pure easy-going fun. If you don’t like having fun, you won’t like Free Energy.
I first saw the band live in New York during my CMJ escapades back in October 2009, and I saw them again last week at SXSW 2010. Needless to say, they put on a hell of a good show. The lead singer has a Julian Casablancas-like swagger, while the backing band delivers punchy, catchy bass lines and squealing guitar solos the Knack wish they wrote.
A sampling of rocking tunes from the group can be found after the jump. Crank ’em up, pump your fist, and shake your ass.
None of you reading will even come close to understanding what this means to me, except for maybe my former KTXT cohorts (and fellow WOXY peers). I just finished listening to an archived mp3 I kept of Bakerman’s final words before WOXY-FM went dark in 2003. I was listening that night, and, like today, I wept tears for the staff, listeners, bands, and friends who had lost their cool older brother – the one that introduced them to so much cool music. I was only in high school, and I had only been listening to 97X for maybe two years – but, man, what a great station.
I was first introduced to Chuck Klosterman through SPIN magazine back in junior high, and I have bought and read every single non-fiction work he has written. His irreverent, humorous writing links philosophy and pop culture in a unique way. And while his latest may not be his OVERALL best (Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs is hard to beat), Eating the Dinosaur is classic Klosterman at his best.
Tuesday thru Sunday will be post-less, as I will be traveling and partaking in SXSW 2010. So, to get the rest of you as pumped as I am, here are my personal picks for parties/shows happening this year. These aren’t all necessarily shows I will be attending (I’m sure a lot of them are happening at the same time), but they are all ones that I would probably go to if they were more spread out. In this vein, SXSW is a blessing and a curse….but mostly a blessing.
Also, check out The Top 13’s list of day-show picks – pretty awesome.
I learned how to use my dad’s now-primitive CD player by age 3, and I proceeded to go through his somewhat modest collection, picking out my early favorites, music that would end up sticking with me for the rest of my life. I first discovered my personal favorites Dwight Yoakam and the Beatles doing this activity, and that is how I discovered Robert Palmer.
Turns out Palmer was quite a talent, a diverse songwriter and performer who is more known for his 80’s pop stint than his interesting back catalog, consisting of everything from jazz-influenced music to standards to straight-up 80’s electronic tunes. And let’s not forget the great hits he penned for Power Station.
Of course, at age 3, I didn’t really care about any of this; all I was into was his two biggest albums, the ones my dad had a copy of. I’m, of course, referring to Riptide (1985) and Heavy Nova (1988).
Check a sampling of tunes from both albums after the jump, and enjoy expert 80’s pop craftmanship from a gifted, multi-talented, and, today, under-appreciated, musician.
Yes, indeed. Spring is upon us, and with it comes spring break, usually the best week of the entire year. This year, for me, will be spent the same way I have spent every spring break for the past three years – at SXSW. Posting on the blog will probably be a little spotty, so in lieu of that, I have compiled a small compilation of mostly new, mostly upbeat tracks to get you into the best season of the year. Here’s to Spring Break 2010: may yours be as awesome as mine will be.
Yesterday’s post got me all riled up, and since I love lists, I figured I’d go ahead and start yet another analysis I should have posted months ago – this one won’t take as long. Today is the first post in a ten-part series looking at my personal favorite tracks of last year.
100. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll
I wasn’t a huge fan of It’s Blitz – definitely my least favorite from this group. I saw them at Monolith 2009, and, to say the least, they were disappointing. Turns out I’m not as big a fan of Karen O and her “animated” stage antics as I thought. Pretention is something I can’t get past, no matter how rocking the music behind her is….but since they were playing mostly ballads from their latest effort, that wasn’t the case. All this being said, this track is pretty damn catchy. Karen’s try at Blondie was hit or miss for me, but the highlight of Blitz is three and a half minutes of complete dancing hysteria.
Today I begin a project that will take awhile, and one I should have started a few months ago, near the end of this past decade, like most respectable blogs/zines did: I will be showcasing and analyzing my Top 300 Songs of the 2000s – that is, the top 300 songs of the past decade. I will do so in intervals of ten per post. Let’s do this!
300. Cat Power – He War
I didn’t think much of this song when I first heard it on WOXY FM (then known best as 97X – BAM!) back in, I’m guessing, 2003. It didn’t really have a catchy chorus, and it was incredibly unconventional compared to the rest of the modern rock radio dreck I was listening to at a high school. Then again, 97X opened my eyes to a lot of great music. “He War” really grew on me thanks to heavy rotation and a certain burned CD I blared from my shitty yellow 1978 Ford Fairmont. I don’t really have another favorite Cat Power song; her work has never resonated well with me – but this track has stuck with me throughout the years, and earns a spot as one of the decade’s best.
There are many reasons why MC Hammer’s attempt at a gangsta-rap comeback with The Funky Headhunter failed miserably. For one thing, the man was already overexposed and ridiculed ad nauseum by the time the album dropped. Another point is the pure and simple fact that the whole act seemed (and was) forced; Hammer wasn’t a thug, he was a talented dancer and composer. The first single, “Pumps and a Bump,” featured two music videos, both of which feel artificial compared to the classic Hammer strutting and crabwalking that littered the video for his hit “U Can’t Touch This.”
Of course, by this time, that was 4 or 5 years past, and Hammer was dated. He had to redesign his image to pay for the now-multiplying debt and support his family. He also needed a break back into the spotlight. Death Row and Tupac were huge, so a move to the gangsta genre seemed reasonable. But he didn’t fit in, and everyone knew it.
That’s not to say that Hammer isn’t in top form with “Pumps and a Bump.” Quite the opposite, in fact. Sure, the first video, filmed at Hammer’s stupid-expensive mansion, is overtly sexual and, at times, disgusting. But the second is prime Hammer, making love to the camera with smooth lip-synching charisma and a new badass dance made for the song. The track alone is a bumping club jam that probably would have been a radio hit with any other Death Row labelmate at the time; Hammer’s name had been dragged through the mud too much at this point.
He may have been aimless, lost, and on his way out at this point, but even then, when you let him have the stage, Hammer shined.
