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Certain Songs #2699: Thelonious Monster – “If I”

October 2, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: The Boldness of Style EP
Year: 1987

I neither loved nor hated Thelonious Monster’s first two albums, 1986’s Baby … You’re Bumming My Life Out in A Supreme Fashion and 1987’s Next Saturday Afternoon. That’s because I couldn’t make heads nor tails of them. I listened to them, and I no idea what ringleader Bob Forrest was trying to do.

This remains weird to me, because I liked his voice, and knew that it he was — for lack of a better phrase — on our side, and he worked in various idioms that I loved, and yet, and yet, none of it stuck, not even the ones where they were actually trying. Looking back, the only thing I can imagine is that they wanted to try to turn a Replacements disintegration show into a studio album.

Certain Songs #2698: That Petrol Emotion – “Sensitize”

September 26, 2023 by Jim Connelly 2 Comments

Album: Chemicrazy
Year: 1990

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After recording That Petrol Emotion’s third album, 1988’s End of the Millennium Psychosis Blues — about which the best thing was the title — founding member (and former Undertone) John O’Neill left the band, which you might think would have signaled the end of the project. Wrong!

While John O’Neill had been the principal songwriter, he wasn’t their only songwriter, and not only did bassist Damian O’Neill go to guitar — he was the lead guitarist in the Undertones, after all — he wrote a few more songs than normal, as did guitarist Raymond O’Gorman and drummer Ciaran McLaughlin, and with the help of producer Scott Litt, their fourth album, 1990’s Chemicrazy has my favorite of their songs, “Sensitize.”

Certain Songs #2697: That Petrol Emotion – “Big Decision”

September 25, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: Babble
Year: 1987

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After The Undertones — on whom we will definitely spend some time next year — split up, founding guitarist John O’Neill formed That Petrol Emotion with his brother Damian, who switched from lead guitar to bass in order to make sure that the new band sounded different from their former band.

Which they certainly did: on That Petrol Emotion’s first two albums, 1986’s Manic Pop Thrill and 1988’s Babble, the best songs featured John O’Neill continually wrapping his guitar around the guitar of Raymond Gorman and the funky drums of Ciaran McLaughlin, my favorite example being the lead single from Babble, 1987’s “Big Decision.”

Certain Songs #2696: that dog. – “hawthorne”

September 22, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: retreat from the sun
Year: 1997

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One of the things I’m not sure of is why retreat from the sun’s three greatest songs are all named after places — which makes the lower case stylization of the song titles even artier or weirder or funnier or something — but here we are, as “hawthorne” followed hard upon the heels of “long island,” and “minneapolis,” and was somehow more powerful and melancholic than either one.

Which, as you know, is utter catnip for your humble scribe.

Certain Songs #2695: that dog. – “long island”

September 21, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: retreat from the sun
year: 1997

. . .

Brad Wood was the producer of retreat from the sun. If you look at his Wikipedia page, you’ll see that he produced a whole bunch of records, including two more of my all-time favorites, Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville and Pete Yorn’s Musicforthmorningafer, both of which were everything-but-the-kitchen sink debut records.

Certain Songs #2694: that dog. – “minneapolis”

September 19, 2023 by Jim Connelly Leave a Comment

Album: retreat from the sun
Year: 1997

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“minneapolis” isn’t quite an answer song to “Left of the Dial,” — the newly remixed version I can’t hardly wait to hear when Tim: The Let it Bleed edition comes out later this week — but it kinda plays in the same ballpark, though the relationship described in “minneapolis” was clearly far more intricate if not more intimate.

Certain Songs #2693: that dog. – “never say never”

September 18, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: retreat from the sun
Year: 1997

. . .

that dog.’s first two albums — the 1994 self-titled and 1995’s Totally Crushed Out spent too much on the avant side of their post-Breeders avant-pop conglomeration.

But on their third album, 1997’s retreat from the sun, they leaned straight in to the pop, and produced an album that I think is one of the finest records of the entire year — the only ones I loved more were Whiskeytown’s Strangers Almanac and a little thing called OK Computer — and a record that has a handful of songs that I would put up against anything else that came out that decade. Or ever, as we’ll see.

Certain Songs #2692: Terry Allen – “The Beautiful Waitress”

September 15, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Lubbock (On Everything)
Year: 1979

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On the short list of the Prettiest Songs Ever, Proto-Alt-Country Division, “The Beautiful Waitress” is also maybe the most gorgeous song ever about being a total jackass towards a pretty girl, and is on of those songs I fell in love with before I fully read the lyrics, as we’ll discuss in a little bit.

Certain Songs #2691: The Tenants – “Sheriff”

September 14, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Tenants
Year: 1983

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As the Police started having hit after hit in the early 1980s, there was no doubt that in every other major label boardroom, someone stood up and shouted “get me one of those!”Easier said than done, of course, and given that the Police were continually growing and even they weren’t really doing the combo of pop & reggae they’d broken through with anymore, other bands definitely worked the same kind of territory, most successfully Men at Work. Or maybe, ahem, Rush.

Certain Songs #2690: Tenacious D – “Tribute”

September 13, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Tenacious D
Year: 2001

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While he’d been in a few films I’d seen, I’m pretty sure the first time I noticed Jack Black was in the Mr. Show With Bob And David sketch “Jeepers Creepers – Semi Star,” a skit that hit all of my buttons by crossing Life of Brian with Jesus Christ Superstar, and was all the more better for making absolutely no fucking sense at all.

So naturally, I watched the Tenacious D shorts, which were basically part of the MSWBAD Extended Universe, given the Bob Odenkirk and David Cross were involved, and at that point, I would follow those guys just about anywhere. Well, maybe not to Run Ronnie Run, but just about anywhere else.