100 Yard Dash

I guarantee you'll be hooked on this one from the opening bass line:



Man, I love Raphael Saadiq. I first heard about him on a guitar tone forum, but then caught him live at Bonnaroo in 2009. This cat has some serious style and skill; from the fitted suits and classic spectacles to the down right phenomenal vocals and guitar chops. And while he may not be the first to try to bring soul back - Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu got it off to a good start in the '90s - Saadiq has to be the first to actually bring it all the way back. This isn't lukewarm throwback music. Hell no. This is hot off the presses new soul music, with just as much passion and swagger as yesteryear - maybe even a little more! Although, I suppose you have to have swagger to single-handedly revive and recreate a whole era of music.

I also love the way his backup singers sing something like:

(I need you oh so bad)
(My heart's beatin' so fast yeah)

That little "yeah", or what sounds like a yeah. That makes it to me.

Great, great song from a band making real music. Go check it out, The Way I See It:

Lost Cause

Dude, this is one melancholy tune. In fact, I only know of one other super singable melancholy tune that outshines this one: Imagine by John Lennon. Yeah, that's right, I said it, and I'll say it again: Imagine. Imagine is better. This is pretty close. Look, you're just going to have to deal with it, OK?

Well, then you have to at least give me this: it's a deeply moving song and one that couldn't hardly be more catchy. I mean, I know it's one of only like a bazillion breakup songs, so it's not totally groundbreaking stuff or anything. But, if you listen carefully, you can tell Beck wrapped his heart around this one, and it was hurting.

Here it is, Lost Cause, performed in 2002 with The Flaming Lips:



Listen to that first verse and chorus again:

Your sorry eyes; they cut through bone
They make it hard to leave you alone
Leave you here wearing your wounds
Waving your guns at somebody new

Baby you're lost
Baby you're lost
Baby you're a lost cause

From the heart and empowering; hence, a lot like Imagine. There's pain, but there's the promise of starting life anew. I can dig that.

A few interesting facts about the album, Sea Changes:

• In 2002, it was only the second album Rolling Stone gave 5 stars
• It's #440 on their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
• It debuted to widespread critical acclaim due to it's departure from Beck's normally eclectic musical stylings and nonsensical lyrics
  

I think that last point is why I also like the album so much. My wife, a former serious Beck devotee, thinks it's a snooze, and I don't totally disagree with that. But, I think it was a bold and memorable move - doing a complete musical "180" - and it was a move that a few bands I know could take a lesson from. (One of her favorite bands actually.) Sometimes less is more. Right, Christina Aguilera? Thanks for fucking up the national anthem last night.

And I digress...

So let's see: I've stirred up Lennon's ghost and my wife. Go ahead people, get your hate on.

Judith

May 27th, 2000 (the Riverport Amphitheater, St. Louis, MO) - I went to see Nine Inch Nails on tour for The Fragile (one of my all time favorite albums), but had the unexpected pleasure of seeing Maynard Keenan of Tool open in one of his first shows ever for side project A Perfect Circle. In fact, their debut album had been released only that week. I learned today that it is the highest debuting rock album of all time; it appeared at number four on the Billboard 200.

Here's the track that most people recognize and the one that still gives me the chills:



I remember distinctly when they played this number. A thunderstorm was rolling into the area and it began raining on us in the crowd. I swear to you lightning cracked overhead precisely at 3:16. (Kind of apropos if you listen to the lyrics.) Or, maybe that's just how I remember the sound of my brain snapping inside my skull. Fucking awesome. Bear in mind I don't always like my music this over the top, but when I want some alternative metal - some steel in my spine - this is the kind of stuff I turn to. Ballsy guitars, operatic vocals.

I'll never forget that show.

Echoes

OK, some history first. I pretty much grew up with Pink Floyd in the background, blasting though my dad's beloved Bose 901s. He'd put on his albums - The Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, A Momentary Lapse of Reason - and play discreet air guitar for what felt like hours. (God love him.) So, The Floyd, aside from being one of the greatest bands of all time, has a special place in my mind. I've been fascinated with their music for as long as I can remember.

One album, though, enchanted me above all the others. Meddle. Take a look at the cover:


This record is amorphous. It's not an easy one to grasp. It's even a little creepy. Echoes, the twenty-three minute cut - on what was Side B back in 1971 - is the prelude to the rest of the band's career. It's fucking breathtaking. And while I recommend that you listen to the whole track - hell, the whole album - in order to appreciate it fully, here's the best part:

Skip ahead to 14:45 and begin with the crescendo. The pillowy keyboards sound like they're rising slowly out of some cold, dark, subterranean place. And then, somewhere around minute 16 or 17 the muted guitar and cymbals roll in. It goes on like this, Rick Wright, gradually building drama on the keyboards, until 18:13 when: oh. my. god. David Gilmour [pictured below] launches into one of the most mesmerizing and out of this world lines ever written. Listen to it! He played that. In 1971! We're talking ten years before U2, or any of the experimental post-punk of the early '80s. You should go and listen to that right now and hear what it sounds like when sonic ground is being ripped wide open. It's the best, dude.

Here's the man who did it. The Aural Saviour himself, Mr. David Gilmour:


Seriously, when I listen to Echoes, I wonder why I even bother to play guitar. I know I will never write anything as dramatic and spellbinding as what you'll find in that song. Enjoy.

Oh My God, Yet Another Blog...

But I kind of feel like this one will be my last and most epic blog. I started this thing up a few days ago, when it occurred to me that truly one of my life's greatest joys is "nerding" out on music I like with other people. I love it. I love pointing out my favorite bits of songs and getting all technical with my musically inclined friends. (I wish I could talk technical stuff with my wonderful wife, but she, understandably, just wants to listen to the damn thing and for me to shut the hell up.) And so, what better forum to nerd out on anything than on the fantastical interwebs. Here, I can talk all day about whatever I want.

I won't talk at length about whole songs on this blog. Again, just the bits that I really, really like. The spine tingling riffs. The creme de la creme.

So what will be my first post? Lately, I've been listening to a lot of Radiohead, Pink Floyd, and prog rock stuff (God Speed You Black Emperor!, Forensics, The Antarcticans, etc.). Throw in a little Stone Roses, just to keep things light. Lovely. But, I like hippity hop and metal a helluva lot, too. So who knows. That's another thing that appeals to me about blogging these mental footnotes: it's a never ending source of entertainment and self-education.

Ah whatever. All of this is bullshit anyway. Why blog, right? Well...I suppose because it's fun. And when it stops being fun, I guess I'll stop blogging again. I've done that before.

Until then, stay tuned!