Medialoper

Certain Songs #2580: Supertramp – “Even in the Quietest Moments”

March 27, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Even in the Quietest Moments
Year: 1977

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In the mid-1970s few bands played both sides of the AM/FM divide better than Supertramp, aiming singles at the AM market while their longer, artier cuts got played on FM stations. Nowhere was this more pronounced than on their fifth album, 1977’s “Even in The Quietest Moments,” which featured their first top U.S. Top 20 single, the perfectly serviceable “Give A Little Bit,” but also FM fare like “Lover Boy” and the utterly gorgeous title track, which I only came to love decades later, even though I’m pretty sure I heard it all the time on stations like KFIG and Rock 96FM.

Certain Songs #2579: Supertramp – “Bloody Well Right”

March 24, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Crime of The Century
Year: 1974

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The first thing you should know about “Bloody Well Right” was that it wasn’t really intended to be the lead single from Crime of The Century, which featured that trippy “jail in SPACE” album cover, a marked improvement on the probably infamous and now problematic cover of their previous album, Indelibly Stamped, which I’ve still never heard anything from. Or their first, self-titled album, for that matter.

Certain Songs #2578: Supergrass – “Sun Hits The Sky”

March 23, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: In It For The Money
Year: 1997

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Determined to prove that their instant success — in the U.K, of course — with I Should Coco wasn’t fluke, Supergrass reportedly turned down an offer from Steven Speilberg to become the 1990s version of the Monkees, a factlet that even when sourced back to an old SPIN Magazine article, I still don’t quite believe.

Certain Songs #2577: Supergrass – “Alright”

March 22, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: I Should Coco
Year: 1995

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Unlike their Britpop peers like Blur, Oasis or even The Verve, Supergrass never came close to having a fluke U.S. hit, even as they were utterly massive over in their native U.K. I was going to do a whole thing about comparing them to The Kinks versus Oasis and Blur being the Beatles and The Stones, but it didn’t quite scan properly, for any number of reasons, so just know this: between 1992-1998, Supergrass had eight straight singles in the U.K. top 20, which is most certainly something.

Certain Songs #2576: Superchunk – “If You’re Not Dark”

March 21, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Wild Loneliness
Year: 2022

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The last song on the most recent Superchunk album kinda really sums things up in a lot of ways. Fading in with a picked acoustic guitar circling around some controlled feedback, it seems like it’s going to be a quiet slow reflective one.

Certain Songs #2575: Superchunk – “Endless Summer”

March 20, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Wild Loneliness
Year: 2022

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Somehow, we’re three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, but I still often think about how billions of lives and trillions of plans got derailed by it, even if I focus on all of the things I never got to experience in 2020 and 2021 because of it, especially when it came to my band, Sedan Delivery, who recorded an album in late 2019 and was just about to get it mastered for release when the world shut down.

Certain Songs #2574: Superchunk – “Reagan Youth”

March 17, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: What A Time To Be Alive
Year: 2018

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One of the slyer songs on 2018’s angry What A Time to Be Alive harkened back to the 1980s, when we were all young and railing against the presidency of one Ronald Reagan, who — perhaps starting when the Dead Kennedys rewrote their Jerry Brown satire “California Uber Alles” as “We’ve Got a Bigger Problem Now” — was such a target for hardcore that my friends The Miss Alans jokingly did a song called “Reagan Sucks” that was basically four bars of speedy noise and them yelling “Reagan Sucks!!!” one time.

Certain Songs #2573: Superchunk – “Erasure”

March 16, 2023 by Jim Connelly 1 Comment

Album: What a Time To Be Alive
Year: 2018

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If you’re one of those people who follows Superchunk’s official Twitter account, then you know that Mac — who runs it — wears his political heart on his sleeve. And I might be projecting a bit, but he’s a clearly a fire-breathing lefty, who isn’t afraid to engage with the world, record sales be damned. And more power to him.

Certain Songs #2572: Superchunk – “FOH”

March 15, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: I Hate Music
Year: 2013

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By the time 2013 rolled around, the basic lineup of Superchunk had been in place for twenty years, which is an incredibly long time for any line-up of any band to stay together, but in 2013 Superchunk bassist Laura Ballance announced that due to a hearing condition, she wouldn’t be touring with the band anymore.

Certain Songs #2571: Superchunk – “Me & You & Jackie Mittoo”

March 14, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: I Hate Music
Year: 2013

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It took Superchunk a bit of time to follow-up on Majesty Shredding. But when they did, with 2013’s I Hate Music, it was well worth the wait, as it was almost as good as its predecessor.

And of course, I couldn’t be the only Replacements fan who chuckled at Superchunk titling an album I Hate Music, given that there’s a pretty great song from Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash with that title. But given that the ‘mats titled their greatest album Let It Be, they better have chuckled instead of grumbled.