Archives for May 2018

Certain Songs #1224: Mystery Science Theater 3000 – “Love Theme From Mystery Science Theater 3000”

May 31, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Clowns in the Sky
Year: 1988

There has never been a TV show more in the spirit of indie rock — at least the indie rock with which I grew up with in the late 80s / early 90s — than Mystery Science Theater 3000. Totally self-produced, and self-contained, the evil geniuses at MST3K had full artist control of every aspect of their production, from set design to theme song.

A theme song that I think is one of the greatest — and most underrated, as it never makes any of the occasional lists of great TV theme songs — to ever grace any TV show.

Certain Songs #1223: The Mysteries of Life – “Shiver”

May 30, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Focus on the Background EP
Year: 1997

While they were working on their follow up to their major label debut album Keep A Secret, The Mysteries of Life put out a pair of indie EPs in 1997 — Anonymous Tip and Focus on the Background — that showcased a more playful side of their music.

Both EPs had surprising covers — The Jam’s “But I’m Different Now” and Talking Heads “Naive Melody” — guest musicians, and in the case of Focus on the Background, a song written by new bassist Kenny Childers.

Certain Songs #1222: The Mysteries of Life – “Once in a While”

May 29, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Keep a Secret
Year: 1996

If you are wondering how I got to The Mysteries of Life without ever posting anything from the two bands that drummer and co-founder Freda Love played in previously, I’ll admit cheerfully that both of those bands — The Blake Babies & Antenna, for those of you keeping track at home — have never crossed my radar.

I know I tried Juliana Hatfield as a solo artist when she was cool, but she never took (though I love love love her new Olivia Newton-John covers album), meaning maybe it’s time to try some of this stuff.

Certain Songs #1221: My Morning Jacket – “Gideon”

May 28, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Z
Year: 2005

Because the early reports made them seem like a band I would really like, I remember checking out My Morning Jacket’s 2001 At Dawn album, and being totally put off by the production. Maybe there were songs there, maybe Jim James had a great voice, but I really couldn’t tell one way or another.

So I ignored them until 2005’s Z, which I really liked, and have been paying attention to them ever since, though I haven’t liked any of their other albums as much as I liked Z.

A Ranking of Neil Young Live Albums

May 26, 2018 by Jim Connelly

So a couple of weeks ago, as part of the excitement of seeing Neil Young & Crazy Horse for the first time in decades — did that really even happen? — I put together a highly controversial ranking of Neil Young’s studio albums.

And that should have been that, but no, Tim asked for a ranking of live albums, which as you’ll see is a slightly more malleable category. Obviously Time Fades Away doesn’t count, but A Treasure does, even though wouldn’t have if it had been released in 1985 instead of Old Ways. There are even a couple of things here that aren’t even officially Neil Young live albums.

Certain Songs #1220: My Bloody Valentine – “In Another Way”

May 25, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: m v b
Year: 2013

In 1992, My Bloody Valentine left Creation records — whom they were rumoured to have bankrupted — signed with Island, built a home studio and went to work on the follow-up to Loveless.

Then some time passed. We all got older, though some of us got younger than that now.

In 2003, over a decade after Loveless — whose already stellar reputation had ossified into “all time great” at least partially because there hadn’t been a follow-up — Kevin Shields put out some new music as part of the soundtrack to Lost in Translation. But it wasn’t My Bloody Valentine, so it only counted to a certain extent.

Certain Songs #1219: My Bloody Valentine – “Soon”

May 24, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Loveless
Year: 1991

Then again, I kept playing the puzzling Loveless in order to get to its final song, the glorious mesmerizing “Soon,” which ended the album on a massive high.

One of those songs that get you lost in time and space, “Soon” almost defies any kind of musical analysis, but then, I wouldn’t have anything to write about, now would I?

Certain Songs #1218: My Bloody Valentine – “To Here Knows When”

May 23, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Loveless
Year: 1991

Of course, if Loveless was all bombs bursting in air all of the time, then it probably would have gotten tedious, no matter how unprecedented those bombs happened to be.

That’s why Loveless also featured a few songs that were far more atmospheric than the bangers that mostly dominated it. Of course, “atmospheric” is a relative term on a record that is dominated by tidal waves of massed sound, which is why “To Here Knows When” almost trails off into the ambient realm.

Certain Songs #1217: My Bloody Valentine – “Only Shallow”

May 22, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Loveless
Year: 1991

Two years in the making, and totally and completely obsessed over by Kevin Shields until every single ounce of spontaneity had been wringed from every microsecond of music, Loveless is a record that took me some time to love as much as I respected.

Usually, I like my rock ‘n’ roll a tad more human than the unearthly sounds that made up the vast majority of Loveless, so while I appreciated all of the different guitar sounds that Shields had uncovered, I’ll admit to never being quite as whelmed — much less overwhelmed — as the rest of the known universe.

Certain Songs #1216: My Bloody Valentine – “Sueisfine”

May 21, 2018 by Jim Connelly

Album: Isn’t Anything
Year: 1988

The other song that brought me into Isn’t Anything was perhaps the the most conventional song on the album: the short sharp shocking buzzsaw of “Sueisfine,” which — if you didn’t pay that close attention — could almost be mistaken for something you’d actually heard before.

But of course, with drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig never quite committing to a straight out punk beat, or finishing his snare rolls where you would expect them to, Kevin Shields has plenty of room to pile on shiny guitars, noisy guitars and hazy guitars, all swathed in a boatload of distortion and feedback.