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18
Dec
2009

100 for 2000 – #25. Coldplay – A Rush Of Blood To the Head

categories: music

To end another wonderful decade of great music, I’m going to write about ten albums from each of the last ten years, that are either great, or hold some sort of personal significance. A musical kiss off to 00s.

2002 – #5. Coldplay – A Rush Of Blood To the Head
(Capitol)

This is, I think, the highest selling album on this list of 100, and by some margin. Amazing that 7 years down the line, Coldplay are still friggin huge. And even though everyone knew them already, it was with A Rush Of Blood to the Head that I discovered a place for Coldplay in my life.

Now, I thought Coldplay sucked. Like sucked HARD. I remember, on their first record, comparing them to a quick wank – satisfying and ultimately pathetic. Such moody, whiny bunch of middle class knobs.

That’s exactly how I felt when I walked into the big tent in Byron Bay’s Splendour in the Grass festival. It was raining, I just got into a fight with someone, and I was sulking, I wanted to be alone (with a large crowd and the festival headliner). And then Coldplay took to the stage.

And they blew me away.

This terrible, rainy night, on comes Coldplay – ever positive and ever pleasing, even when you don’t want to be pleased. Starts with a smile, and ends with a sing-along. They opened with Politik, the song that opens this album, and I never knew Coldplay could be so loud.

By the time Chris Martin went to the piano, and sang the Scientist, I was hooked. I’ve been a casual fan ever since, and will defend them to the hilt. They want to please people. Get over it.

The rest of that terrible, rainy night went by ok after that.

I’m sure better in depth studies on this album and it’s historical impact can be found elsewhere. I wont bother you with those.

17
Dec
2009

100 for 2000 – #24. The Streets – Original Pirate Material

categories: music

To end another wonderful decade of great music, I’m going to write about ten albums from each of the last ten years, that are either great, or hold some sort of personal significance. A musical kiss off to 00s.

2002 – #4. The Streets – Original Pirate Material
(679)

I hadn’t heard anything like the Streets before I heard the Streets. I was working at Warners at the time and everyone was raving about this Streets record – Original Pirate Material. So I gave it a go. It blew my mind.

It actually wasn’t that different to some of the music I loved. Mike Skinner’s use of lyrics is as sharp as Elvis Costello. The British-ness was no more British than Blur or Supergrass. Even the song structures – it wasn’t like there was long bits of beats with no lyrics or ideas – in a way this could be tal;king blues over synths.

All that is well and good, it explains why I didn’t hate it. But why did I love it?

I loved the politics of it. I loved the self reflectiveness. Two things that had abandoned rock, who after the Strokes, had lost all sense of irony, subtext and intelligence.

The two big early songs spell it out. Has It Come To This? is a manifesto, with Skinner asking why the rave scene he used to love has grown so shallow. even better is Let’s Push Things Forward – hooked by one of the best lines ever to use in a music argument

You say that everything sounds the same
Then you go buy them

When was the last time you heard anyone in any genre say hey, our music can be better, in a song? Chances are Lets Push Things Forward was it (it also has a dated shout out to Alta Vista).

The social commentary is spot on as well. Geezers Need Excitement is such a simple statement on England’s thuggier side. More powerful is The Irony of It All, a debate between a drunken football lout and a pot head.

It’s not all heavy handedness either. The brilliant Don’t Mug Yourself is a great tune, and the type of Streets fun that Skinner would return to again and again.

It had really been quite a while since I heard an album that threw so many big ideas out there. Yet Skinner really, truly loved the music. It’s best summed up on Weak Become Heroes – a gorgeous nostalgic look back at the musical heroes that inspired Skinner, who finally got their day in the sun.

Skinner claims the next, fifth, Streets album will be the last. He has made four close to perfect albums so far, and a fifth to wrap up ten years of music will be perfect. It will be like Felt. I hope he pulls it off, and he joins the pantheon of heores he sang about on this record. and 7 years later, he definitely did push things forward.

17
Dec
2009

100 for 2000 – #23. Paul Westerberg – Stereo/Mono

categories: music

To end another wonderful decade of great music, I’m going to write about ten albums from each of the last ten years, that are either great, or hold some sort of personal significance. A musical kiss off to 00s.

2002 – #3. Paul Westerberg – Stereo/Mono
(Vagrant)

I love the Replacements and I loved every Paul Westerberg solo album. But after the flop of Suicane Gratification, it just seemed like it was over. I was (and still am) a regular visitor to Kathy Shine’s fantastic Man Without Tieswebsite. And it seemed like he had disappeared off the map. So with great surprise, he released two albums in 2002, the double set of Stereo/Mono. And it’s utterly, utterly fantastic.

After high profile producers and production budgets, Westerberg finally left the majors game and spent some years in the wilderness. When he came back he had changed. He stopped trying to be the next Tom Petty and went back to being pure Westerberg. Sparingly (and often badly) recorded songs from his basement studio, he fires off classic after classic.

The first part of the set, Stereo, are the more considered songs. They share a sadness, but also a great wit. The opening couplet is one of Westerberg’s all time best:

Baby learns to crawl
Watching Daddy’s skin

And from there it doesn’t let up. The ode to a deceased friend in No Place For You, and the kind of losers-with-hope anthems that he invented with Boring Enormous and We May Be the Ones.

The flip side is Mono, the rock side (release separately under his pseudonym ‘Grandpaboy’). 11 rocking and rolling blues pop things, full of smiles, sadness and style. The self-depreciating Silent Film Star, the two line wonder Eyes Like Sparks, the touching 2 Days Til Tomorrow and the truly touching Between Love And Like…these are Westerberg’s best rockers since Pleased To Meet Me, 16 years earlier.

There is a rawness in every song, and despite the title, they sound of a piece. Some songs cut in and out, and end abruptly. It’s subtle and not as annoying as the same trick he did years later on 49:00. The feeling is voyeuristic – Westerberg rocking out on his own in his basement, being completely honest.

Having pretty much lost it all, Westerberg was back and he even took to the road. Following all the fan updates on Man Without Ties – I got quite emotional. Reading about people finally seeing PW play, and how he would play the hits and the great new songs everyone loved. It seemed in a small way he was getting his due. And after years of being unable to, we could give back to him. The shows were a big success.

All this is captured on the Come Feel Me Tremble DVD, which ends with footage of PW signing records after the show. A wonderful montage, showing the huge lines, and Paul’s reaction as he signs old records given to him. One person even gives him a custom Paul Westerberg baseball bat, and the man almost cries.

I’ve still never seen the man live – and likely never will. But In an age where people never really disappear or bands never break up, it’s hard to fathom how exciting this resurrection was. And these two records are the best of PW’s solo work. If you’re a Mats fan who never went beyond, here’s the place to start.

16
Dec
2009

100 for 2000 – #22. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

categories: music

To end another wonderful decade of great music, I’m going to write about ten albums from each of the last ten years, that are either great, or hold some sort of personal significance. A musical kiss off to 00s.

2002 – #2. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
(Nonesuch)

I’m not sure if you need this blog to tell you how great Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is. Wilco’s fourth album knocked it out of the park.

Worth gave me this album, on cassette, ages before it came out. He knew somebody, somehow. He gave it to me at the Vic On the Park in Marrickville, after some show. By the time I walked away from the venue, onto the train and made it home, 40 odd minutes later, the album had finished. Looking at the lights of the city fly by on a late night neon lit train is the best way to hear this record.

I was very happy to see the towers on the cover in Chicago earlier this year.

Go out and get it if you don’t have it, then check out the movie I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, one of the best rock movies/docos in recent years.

16
Dec
2009

100 for 2000 – #21. Nada Surf – Let Go

categories: music

To end another wonderful decade of great music, I’m going to write about ten albums from each of the last ten years, that are either great, or hold some sort of personal significance. A musical kiss off to 00s.

2002 – #1. Nada Surf – Let Go
(Liberation)

Let Go by Nada Surf is my favourite album of the decade. I have worn it out. From the second I heard it til now, it is still an album I return to over and over. It has come to mean different things, my favourite songs have changed, but this album has always been in the forefront of my mind. I’ve quoted so many of it’s lyrics, ripped off many of it’s songs, still put songs from this album on mix CDs. This is my soundtrack to the 00s.

I had just started at Warners and was getting to know Simon Killen (where are you now, buddy?), an A&R guy at Liberation. We chatted about music and one day, months before it was released, he gave me this record and said “I think you’ll love this.” He wasn’t fucking wrong.

I had heard of Nada Surf – they had that one hit back in the day called Popular. I’m a huge fan of 90s one hit wonders but that song was not one of the better ones. So it was with some hesitation that I approached this. But they were a completely different band.

It’s pretty straight pop rock, with a shiny 80s vibe. But it’s the amazing songs – written mostly by singer Matt Caws – and the theme of redemption that really hit you. It’s like the best You Am I, Springsteen or Replacements songs – there is a passion for change, that life can be better. But it’s not pub rock – it’s something far prettier.

I have stories for just about every song.

Blizzard of ‘77 is what they opened with when I first saw them. It was just about as empty as I’ve ever seen the Metro theatre, but I didn’t care. I had been raving on about this band so long, and thanks to Liberation and the low ticket sales, managed to drag quite a few people along. I thought I would explode with happiness when they played this song.

The Way You Wear Your Head – I think of sitting in a friends car, and hearing Cheap Trick’s I Want You To Want Me, and finding out Nada Surf had ripped this bit off. I also remember Casey showing me how to play this song one afternoon at his old place.

Fruit Fly – I think about this song a lot, but the story I will tell here is Casey mentioning one day how clever the guitar bit at the beginning is, how he’s patting the strings. I had no idea what he was talking about until I saw them do it it live and it made sense. It was clever.

Blonde On Blonde – this was a hit single in some places. One of my many fave lines is “I have no time I want to lose/To people with something to prove”. Still a mantra of mine. I thought it was so cool to write a song about an album, an idea that I stole and eventually turned into a song about a series of Joni Mitchell albums.

Inside Of Love – I was pretty lonely for years, and this song was my little wrist slashing anthem. I remember so many late night calls to Marianne, one of my best friends living in the UK. With my sleeplessness and crazy hours, we were actually awake at the same time. And the lines

Making out with people
I neither know or like
I can’t believe what I do
Late at night

They were discussed a lot in our calls. I got this added to the first FBi radio full broadcast playlist, which is quite funny. Probably the one and only time they played this band.

Hi-Speed Soul – makes me think of Death Disco, and going out in Sydney. I wasn’t drinking, but I didn’t want to go home, and as a result I spent too much time in shitty indie dance clubs full of fuckheads. I would sit there for hours barely talking to anyone. What a waste. The only solice was a good song or two that I could dance to.

I also remember the strange shampoo commercial this was used in, and how I hope they made a lot of money on this.

No Quick Fix – same as above, the feeling that I can’t stay home at nights. The excitement of living the night life, the disorientation and the come down. We ripped this song off something savage in the Reservations. I was pretty sad to find this didn’t come on the US version of the album, and hence is not on my vinyl copy.

Killian’s Red – I never loved this song as much as some others until I saw it live. I like how I gave Lucy this CD only a couple of years ago and she told me her sister loved this song best. I’m glad someone does. I still think it’s a fantastic song – so sad and struggling.

La Pour Ca – it’s the yellow submarine of the album. I like it sometimes, I like the fact it’s in French (this band has a series of French tracks).

Happy Kid – One of my all time faves. It pretty much spells out how I felt for years. I was a happy kid, and I was not happy when I wasn’t happy. I shared this album with a special person at the time, and this was her favourite song as well.

I really love the line about how the candles make the bottles glow, a scene I’ve noticed on hundreds of bar tables ever since.

Treading Water – a lovely song, and again, ripped off shamelessly by my old band. This is probably the best example of that Replacements-ish ‘come on things can be better’ feel. Always rushing, always late…quite existential.

Paper Boats – an amazing song to finish on. Rightly or wrongly, I felt I had too many people coming at me and wanting things from me at this point in my life, especially emotionally. That awesome second verse – the dialogue of an argument – reminded me of too many uncomfortable situations. Tell me what’s wrong. What are you thinking about. How do you feel about this? Just people constantly taking strips off eachother to make themselves feel better. This song – it helped me realise there are certain types of people that aren’t good for me. We are set in our paths – and it’s the way it’ll always last.

There will be more stories to come. I’m not done with this album. I can’t believe I’ve known it for so long. That’s what a great album can do.

16
Dec
2009

100 for 2000 – #20. Youth Group – Urban & Eastern

categories: music

To end another wonderful decade of great music, I’m going to write about ten albums from each of the last ten years, that are either great, or hold some sort of personal significance. A musical kiss off to 00s.

2001 – #10. Youth Group – Urban And Eastern
(Ivy League)

Youth Group loom large over the decade. Originally from Canberra, they started off in Sydney just as I was old enough to go to gigs. They are my favourite Australian band of the last ten years. Probably tosses and turns with one other as being THE band of the decade for me. They will recur again and again on this list, but right now lets talk about their debut album Urban And Eastern.

Youth Group had released four singles by the time this album came around. They were great, they were fun, and they were already my favourite band on the Ivy League label. Then they went on tour with Gaslight Radio and Gersey and came back sounding very different. That bright little pop band now opened up to something spookier, with long guitar freak outs and moody elements.

They brought this to their debut album. Blue Leaves, Red Dust is as fine an opener as any song I’ve heard. Starting slow, it tells of a trip through the Australian countryside for a funeral, but also looking for a musical voice that’s not from “Tallahassee or Nashville”, before the song does a take off into the sky.

The funeral theme is closed out in the second last track, Spry Griever. Another 7 minute plus epic, it’s a heartbroken scream of a song. Sadder still, months after this album came out, there was a death in the family of the Youth Group ranks. Those shows immediately after were of stunning power.

In between those two, there are plenty of the quirky pop stuff that made Youth Group’s early name. Happiness’ Border has a Pavement feel but never loses Toby Martin’s unique voice (and lyrical concerns). Booth Street is the most touching love song Martin had written to date. Elsewhere, I Don’t Care, written for bassplayer Andy Cassell’s wedding day, is still a rush of fun and romance.

It’s hard to find heros in life sometimes. I loved so much music, but I didn’t actually want to be like Tim Rogers of You Am I, or Jeff Tweedy or Wilco. Or Iggy. Or Jagger. I wasn’t as tough as that – and I didn’t want to be. I was on the look out for something new – after my dalliance with po-faced alt-country – and found it with Youth Group. They were just guys in Sydney. They weren’t wacky pop stars, and they weren’t tortured artists. They weren’t Dandy Warhol type posers… they were just so natural.

And clever. Those early singles and this album especially, they looked like they were having fun. And I wanted to have fun too. I wanted to wrote witty things, and bright melodies. I wanted, like this band, to write songs that mentioned animal rennet, the Mascot ANZ and Chris De Burgh. Having loved music so much, Youth Group were really the catalyst for me to start taking seriously the business of making music. I moved to Newtown and got some decent guitars after this.

They went on to do so much more than this record, but god I saw a lot of shows where they played a lot of these songs. They got so good so fast. And as excited as I was about this record, I knew the next one would be better…

15
Dec
2009

100 for 2000 – #19. Pernice Brothers – World Won’t End

categories: music

To end another wonderful decade of great music, I’m going to write about ten albums from each of the last ten years, that are either great, or hold some sort of personal significance. A musical kiss off to 00s.

2001 – #9. Pernice Brothers – World Wont End
(Ashmont/Spunk)

I guess we are doing revisionism, because when I look at my list of 2001 albums, this Pernice Brothers one stands out. I thought World Won’t End was pretty good in the day. It has aged very well. I find myself coming back to it a lot.

I really only came to really get to know this album around 2003/2004, when someone pointed out how many songs on the Reservations first album sounded like songs from this album. And it’s pretty true. My other association with the Pernice Brothers is that Joe Pernice used my amp once, and Thom Monahan – producer extraordinaire – wrote some settings on a peice of tape and stuck it on there. I had the key to the Pernice Brothers sound from then on.

It’s only really in the last 3 or so years that the wonder of this record has really hit me. The occasional appearance on the iPod shuffle always made me think how good the songs were. A couple of dates later and now we are suddenly quite serious about eachother.

So there’s not much else to say here other than I really friggin like this record. It has aged better than the Posies or Apples In Stereo or other similar sounding bands because they try to show off their record collections a bit less. Joe Pernice always had a great voice.

It’s definitely another happy pop record. In places it sounds like the sunshine pop of the Hollies. So odd too, as Joe Pernice has written more songs that make me want to slash my wrist than just about any other artist. Hearing him happy may well have been what turned me off this record in the first place.

For the record – best songs: Working Girls, 7:30, She Heightened Everything, Let That Show, Cronulla Breakdown. How great that they have a song that mentions the Sydney suburb of Cronulla. I wonder why they did that. I seem to recall they would stay down that way whenever they toured.

More interesting I think is how I feel about albums from 2001 that I used to like more than this one. Stuff like Super Furry Animals, Weezer, Pulp, Ben Folds, The Fauves, Lucinda Williams… all artists I love, but they all made so-so albums that year. This record stacks up as a start to finish album. It took it’s time but it has won me over completely.

15
Dec
2009

100 for 2000 – #18. Nick Lowe – The Convincer

categories: music

To end another wonderful decade of great music, I’m going to write about ten albums from each of the last ten years, that are either great, or hold some sort of personal significance. A musical kiss off to 00s.

2001 – #8. Nick Lowe – The Convincer
(Proper)

Before this record, I knew Nick Lowe as 1) Producer of early Elvis Costello and others, 2) the writer of Peace, Love and Understanding and 3) the once husband of Carlene Carter. After this record, I became a die-hard Lowe-aphile, grabbing anything I can. The Convincer is probably still my fave Nick Lowe album.

Sometime in 1994, Lowe took stock on his life, and carved himself a new sound. The bratty, witty, new wave he helped make famous was gone. He was getting older, and in came a more relaxed sound. A mix of jazz, soul, doo wop, brill building economy and a dash of country. Above it is his trademark wit, no longer used to show how clever Mr Lowe is, now to make his point even more subtle.

That 1994 record, the Impossible Bird, became the first part of a trilogy of similar sounding records – Dig My Mood and this one, the Convincer. All three are now available in a box set called the Brentford Trilogy. I would put the 2007’s At My Age, his last album, in the same boat.

The self proclaimed Jesus Of Cool definitely remains cool over these records. The Convincer has opens with Homewrecker, a lovely soul ballad accusing a woman of leading him astray and leaving him with nothing. Lately I’ve Let Things Slide is one of his masterpieces – so short and economical, it contains some of his finest lyrics:

Smoking I once quit
But now I’ve got one lit
I just fell back into it

In just three lines, you know exactly where this man is, and how he feels about himself.

Basically, this is the TV show Mad Men as an album. The long hard upbringing of of the man in Indian Queens shares the same theme as that show – how to be a man, when the world is set against you. It’s an album about the losers and the heartbroken. Cupid Must Be Angry, Only A Fool Breaks His Own Heart… all sound like forgotten soul classics.

But there is hope at the bottom of the glass. Has She Got A Friend? is sung from the view of a lonely man, but one who has not given up hope. In Poor Side Of Town, the girl returns to our working class hero, after not making it with some city man. And as much as a 50 something year old man can, he ends the album on s seductive note on Let’s Stay In And Make Love.

For me, I worked out most of these songs immediately on the guitar when I got this record. I often return to them – there’s usually a lyric I hadn’t noticed, some cool guitar line I’ve missed. One day I will be bored of the energy of rock n roll and this will be it for me, this so cool, so smokey sound.

It’s a tribute to the songwriting that many songs from the Brentford Trilogy has been covered already (most famously the Beast In Me by Johnny Cash). I think all 3 are essential. I loved how last year’s Quiet Please, the New Best Of Nick Lowe had one whole disc devoted to this part of his career. They are already classics.

15
Dec
2009

100 for 2000 – #17. Semisonic – All About Chemistry

categories: music

To end another wonderful decade of great music, I’m going to write about ten albums from each of the last ten years, that are either great, or hold some sort of personal significance. A musical kiss off to 00s.

2001 – #7. Semisonic – All About Chemistry
(MCA)

Very interesting, looking back, how much affirmative music I loved in 2001. I must have been quite happy. And it in the pantheon of Love Gone Right albums, this is a great one. A few of us still speak of this album in hush tones (hello Liam, hello Tim)…this band was pretty good, and this album really captured something. It didn’t capture the public and All About Chemistry remains the last album by Semisonic.

Semisonic had a big hit in the US and Australia with Closing Time (in the UK, it was Secret Smile). I bought that last album, Feeling Strangely Fine, and it sat along side another dozen records that year as decent pop rock fare from America.

With All About Chemistry – there was a change. The songs became less personal, more anthemic. Songwriter Dan Wilson expressed this is an interview at the time – he wanted to write to a room. He had a big international audience for the first time.

Chemistry was the first single, and a brilliant one at that. Using science and chemistry to discuss dating – the ups and downs, and how the great experiment continues.

So for awhile we conducted experiments
In an apartment by the River Road
And we found out that the two things we put together had a
Bad tendency to explode

In fitting with a talented band that a label didn’t know what to do with, the album is heavy with collaborators. First and foremost is Carole King, who co-wrote and performs on One True Love. Another big song about how people love (rather than a love song), it should have been a hit. Elsewhere, Gary Louris of the Jayhawks provides some fantastic guitar to I Wish, another highlight.

I’m surprised this record didn’t do a lot better. It’s a perfect college rock record, although I guess that alternative pop was out of vogue at the time. It was also clever enough to hit the pop geeks, but perhaps their previous hit maker status turned them away. Probably the bigger death knell is the overall mood – it’s very mature.

(With the exception of the song Get A Grip, a cheesy ode to masturbation, not one of the better songs, but desperately released as a last single).

My two favourite songs are: Follow – just a great pop love song. A classic, should have been single, should be sung by buskers the world over. The other is El Matador – written by the drummer Jacob Slichter – a woozy goodbye with shades and allusions to Joni Mitchell, a trick I would blatantly steal later.

I still listen to this record. At it’s core, it’s what I like. Semisonic, however, broke up shortly after. It took lead guy Dan Wilson 6 years to make a follow up, having taken up a role as songwriter for hire. You can probably find this album in a bargain bin near you…

15
Dec
2009

100 for 2000 – #16. The Flashing Lights – Sweet Release

categories: music

To end another wonderful decade of great music, I’m going to write about ten albums from each of the last ten years, that are either great, or hold some sort of personal significance. A musical kiss off to 00s.

2001 – #6. The Flashing Lights – Sweet Release
(Outside)

I was a huge fan of the Canadian band Sloan, and the bands in their circle – anything on Murderrecords, or from the Halifax pop scene. One of those bands were the The Super Friendz, who broke up in 1997, and lead Friend Matt Murphy had moved onto the Flashing Lights. Sweet Release is their second and last album.

You know, this album did not alter the course of popular music. It wasn’t even that popular in Canada. No wikipedia page, no myspace…barely any record that this band ever existed is in question. I’m not being obscurist – someone had to hear it for it to be obscure. Being obscure is having those albums that are actually valuable on Ebay. This is one of the couple of hundred albums I bought that year, and it’s just really good.

At it’s heart, it’s just really fun. Murphy’s guitar playing and energy was all over their debut album (Where the Change Is), but this was more laid back. It was definitely retro – a early 70s guitar record vibe. Somewhere between T. Rex and Todd Rundgren. Even the album cover – it’s colour, the font… I always wanted this on vinyl.

The record opens with Been Waiting, a slowly chugging groove with an ironic lyric about being the kings of the Canadian scene (“I’m late for my limousine ride”). Through the couple of singles – Same Things Twice – a super fun rocker, and Friends You Love To Hate – a more studied song but just as fun. There’s not a bad song of course, but special notice for Same Old Life, the only really acoustic/ballady song of their short career.

Lyrically it’s quite simple. The riffs, the arrangements – they’re clever but not groundbreaking. It’s not what this album was about. It’s the fun you know all about. It’s the old friend you get along with straight away. There’s something to be said about those kinds of records.

The Flashing Lights no longer exist. I doubt Murphy ever performs these songs anymore. But I have the record. And I have the memory of a drive in the outer suburbs of Perth, looking for a copy of the Only Ones on vinyl, where we listened to this album, windows down, on a hot day. I’m pretty happy with that.

Author: admin