Archives for September 2015

Certain Songs #327: Dogmatics – “Thayer Street”

September 30, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Everybody Does It
Year: 1986

Possessed by the same rock ‘n’ roll spirit as The Replacements — not really hardcore, but fueled by punk rock — all that Boston’s Dogmatics lacked was a singer and songwriter as world-beating as Paul Westerberg. (Which, to be fair, was the same for 99% of every other band ever.)

Their two records — 1984’s Thayer Street and 1986’s Everybody Does It — were full of song titles like “MTV-O.D.,” “Pussy Whipped” “Hardcore Rules,” and “Shithouse.” And the one song you might remember — “Teenage Lament” — had the chorus “Why must I be a teenager on drugs?”

Certain Songs #326: Dobie Gray – “Drift Away”

September 29, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Drift Away
Year: 1973

I can’t even begin to tell you how much this song speaks to me. All I can tell you is this: it was one of those songs that was peaking on KYNO-AM just as I started listening like a fiend, meaning that I sometimes heard it several times a day as it rode its way to number 5.

But if this isn’t the greatest song ever written about the power of music, it’s way up there. And the first time 10-year-old Jim realized that people whose lives have been bettered by great songs could make great songs about how great songs made their lives better.

Certain Songs #325: Dixie Chicks – “Sin Wagon”

September 28, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Fly
Year: 1999

This is all because of Rox. She’s always been a fan of country music — especially tough-chick country music — and in the years just after we got married, nobody was bigger or tougher than the Dixie Chicks.

Had they not been so popular, they would have slotted easily into the alt-country that I’d been a fan of since Rank and File, but their popularity was part of what made them great.

Certain Songs #324: Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy – “Music And Politics”

September 27, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury
Year: 1992

Oh fuck this song. Fuck it for the goddamned jazz guitar, effortlessly played by Charlie Hunter. Fuck it for Michael Franti’s crooning on the chorus. Fuck it for pretty melody he’s crooning.

But most of all, fuck this song for capturing exactly who I was as I was living the 30th year of my life.

Certain Songs #323: Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy – “Television, The Drug of The Nation”

September 26, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury
Year: 1992.

Look at all of the words! In the name of the artist. The name of the album. The name of the song. So many words!

In 1992, Michael Franti had a lot of words floating around in his head, and with the help of his partner-in-crime, Rono Tse, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprosy put out an album where Franti said every single of those things over beats and sound collages that didn’t really sound a whole hell of a lot like anything else anybody was doing.

Certain Songs #322: Dinosaur Jr. – “I Don’t Wanna Go There”

September 25, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Farm
Year: 2009

One of the myths that has been completely exploded by the generation of indie rockers that came of age in the 1980s is that reunion albums suck. Time and time again bands from that era that broke up, flamed out or faded away have figured out how to get back together to cash in on whatever residual affection might still remain, but to make music as vital as their heyday.

Not all of these reunions are successful ::coughs:: Pixies ::coughs::, but the ones that are — for example Jason & The Scorchers or Superchunk — have produced records that stand proudly with their original recorded output.

Certain Songs #321: Dinosaur Jr. – “Loaded”

September 24, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Hand it Over
Year: 1997

The last album by Dinosaur Jr. for a full decade, 1997’s Hand It Over is an overlooked and underrated entry in their stellar discography. Which makes sense: whatever moment they were going to have in the post-Nirvana world was squandered with 1994’s uncharacteristically tepid Without A Sound, and by the time 1997 rolled around, the alt-rock landscape was radically different.

Which is fine. Full-blown stardom, 1990’s style would have suited J Mascis even less than it seemed to suit folks like Eddie Vedder and Billy Corgan. So, instead, he just did his thing as Dinosaur Jr. for what felt like the last time, and it was damn good.

Certain Songs #320: Dinosaur Jr. – “Get Me”

September 23, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Where You Been
Year: 1993

With his cracked voice and crackling loud guitar, there was always a bit of Neil Young in J Mascis’ music, but it wasn’t until Where You Been where it really came out to play.

Which wasn’t surprising, because in 1993, Neil Young was at the peak of his “Godfather of Grunge” phase, and artists as far afield as Matthew Sweet and Teenage Fanclub were putting out songs that borrowed riffs and especially rhythms from Uncle Neil. And so for Dinosaur Jr. to do a song that acknowledged the debt with the familiar mid-tempo kick-snare, kick-kick-snare drum pattern that graced some of Neil’s biggest tunes wasn’t really a surprise.

Certain Songs #319: Dinosaur Jr. – “What Else is New?”

September 22, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Where You Been
Year: 1993

My favorite Dinosaur Jr. album has long been 1993’s Where You Been, which was pretty much the only 1990s Dinosaur Jr. album to be recorded with a full band, meaning that J Mascis didn’t have to worry about doing anything but writing, singing and playing guitar.

You know, the easy stuff.

The result is what I think is his best batch of songs, full of great hooks, great vocals and — naturally — fantastic guitar. While there weren’t any punky singles like “Freak Scene” or “The Wagon,” they were replaced by Mascis fully embracing his inner classic rock guy, which my inner classic rock guy fully appreciated.

Certain Songs #318: Dinosaur Jr – “The Wagon”

September 21, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Green Mind
Year: 1991

If “Freak Scene” (and their slighly askew cover of “Just Like Heaven”) were indicators that Dinosaur Jr were something new and different in the indie-rock world, then “The Wagon” — and to a lesser extent, Green Mind — sealed it.

Green Mind was the first Dinosaur Jr album not to feature Lou Barlow — something that became more important in retrospect as Barlow started demonstrating his songwriting chops — but it suffered a bit as Mascis spent the vast majority of the album overdubbing himself like Prince or Todd Rundgren.