Archives for September 2021

Certain Songs #2181: Sedan Delivery – “Untitled”

September 9, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Untitled
Year: 2020

. . .

Sometimes the things that change your life happen with a big neon sign, like a job offer or an unexpected death, and you always remember exactly when they happened. But oftentimes those things happen and you’re not exactly sure, because they take time to show results. But this is how I remember it.

So while Ron “Doc” Morse walking up to me outside of the Olympic Tavern — in the Tower District, in Fresno, for those of you who weren’t part of that scene — at some point during the awful, no-good summer of 1988 and suggesting we play in a band together absolutely counts as a life-changing event, I just didn’t know it at the time. How could I? I was still mourning the demise of Blackbird Stories, the band where I learned to play the drums for reals after years of flirting with it — I wanted to do it as a teenager, but I thought I was already too old to learn an instrument, a position that I smartly abandoned at 24 — who broke up for one of the dumb reasons bands broke up. And Doc’s band, the Sleestacks, had also recently broken up, as well.

Certain Songs #2180: Sedan Delivery – “In The Rain”

September 8, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Untitled
Year: 2020

. . .

September 21, 2019 was one of the best days of my life.

Why? Because it was dedicated to the recording of Sedan Delivery’s first album, entitled Untitled. It was a very very long road to get to this point, which we’ll discuss tomorrow, but the point was that we got to it. Sure, the recording session was all D.I.Y. — we did it in Joseph’s living room, which we dubbed “Parkwood Studios,” because it sounded fancy — Joseph had spent a couple of days making sure that all of the various wires for mics and headphones were ready to go, and I’d even come over the night before to dial in drum sound, but on the other hand, it was all D.I.Y., which is an ethos that we’ve always had.

Certain Songs #2179: Secret Machines – “Nowhere Again”

September 7, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Now Here is Nowhere
Year: 2004

. . .

One of the great lost singles of the mid-2000s, “Nowhere Again” captured me from the moment I saw the video on one of those “hey, here’s some new music” video programs on . . . shit, I don’t remember. I thought it was the 120 Minutes that was on MTV2, but that ended in 2003, so it must have been something else somewhere else. This is the problem with getting older.

Certain Songs #2178: Secret Machines – “First Wave Intact”

September 3, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Now Here is Nowhere
Year: 2004

. . .

“First Wave Intact,” the song on Secret Machines debut album, 2004’s No Here Is Nowhere captures nearly everything you need to know about their ambition to somehow fuse Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Can.

The first thing you hear is Josh Garza’s massive massive drums, doing a beat that earns the comparison to John Bonham’s on “When The Levee Breaks“, and after an initial guitar chord, it’s just that big-ass beat for a bit, followed by some big-ass biting guitar chords from Benjamin Curtis, which then drop away so that keyboardist/bassist Brandon Curtis can sing the first verse.

Certain Songs #2177: Sebadoh – “Flame”

September 2, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Sebadoh
Year: 1999

. . .

At least partially because Lou Barlow was now also working on Folk Implosion records was three more years before we got another Sebadoh album, 1999’s The Sebadoh. And not only was The Sebadoh not up to the standards of the previous two records, it was the last record by Sebadoh for well over a decade. So they maybe they knew it was time to pack it in for awhile.

That said, The Sebadoh had one undeniably great song: the droning, psychedelic “Flame,” which didn’t sound like anything else on the record.

Certain Songs #2176: Sebadoh – “Willing to Wait”

September 1, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Harmacy
Year: 1996

. . .

During the two-year period in between Bakesale and its follow-up, 1996’s Harmacy, Lou Barlow had a hit single. Not with Sebadoh, of course, but rather, his side project Folk Implosion inexplicably hit the top 30 with “Natural One,” — from the soundtrack of a film that could never get made today, Kids — which was slightly funky and groovy, but I never could hear the mass appeal of it.

And maybe that was why Harmacy was the most fussed-over Sebadoh record yet. I mean, by indie standards, of course: they were never going to be Massive Attack or Madonna. Luckily, Barlow was still writing high-quality songs, like “On Fire,” “Ocean,” and the utterly gorgeous ballad, “Willing to Wait,” which is on the short list of Prettiest Songs Ever Recorded, Gimme Indie Rock Division.