Archives for April 2023

Certain Songs #2594: The Sweet – “Block Buster!”

April 19, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Sweet
Year: 1973

Emboldened by the success of the “Little Willy” single, The Sweet’s U.S. record company decided to cobble together a debut album which from what I can tell, consisted of only two songs that were on their U.K. debut, 1971’s Funny How Sweet Co-Co Can Be, and instead, consisted mostly of singles and b-sides that had been released in the U.K. in 1972 & 1973. And hilariously, they just called it The Sweet.

Certain Songs #2593: The Sweet – “Little Willy”

April 18, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Sweet
Year: 1972

. . .

Even though it was half-century ago, I still remember exactly where I was when I first heard “Little Willy.” It was at my friend Keith’s house, as he had the 45. It was right around the time I turned 10 years old, and while I don’t specifically remember playing it over and over and over and over, I have to assume that he did.

My parents had albums — though the most contemporary record they owned was Peter Paul & Mary’s Ten Years Together — but I don’t think they had 45s, and so the fact that I could own a song and play it whenever I wanted to instead of waiting for the radio to play it seemed like a revelation. And soon, I was buying my own singles — Elton John’s “Daniel,” War’s “Cisco Kid,” Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein” etc — to listen to over and over again.

Certain Songs #2592: Swearin’ – “Grow into a Ghost”

April 17, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Fall into the Sun
Year: 2018

. . .

After releasing a pair of well-regarded indie-pop albums in the early 2010’s, the Philly-based band Swearin’ broke up when their founders Alison Crutchfield and Kyle Gilbride did. However, sometimes you realize that musical chemistry is even harder to find than romantic chemistry, and they reunited for what I think is their best album, 2018’s Fall into the Sun.

Certain Songs #2591: SVT – “Heart of Stone”

April 13, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: No Regrets
Year: 1981

. . .

SVT was one the more interesting what-ifs? to come out of San Francisco’s punk/new wave scene. While they were probably suspect because they had an ex-hippie ringer on bass — Jack Casady was on all of the Jefferson Airplane albums and founded Hot Tuna — their single album, 1981’s No Regrets, straddles the line between noisy punk and power pop very convincingly.

That was probably because of the quality of the songs by guitarist/singer Brian Marnell, who penned basically the entire album, which peaked with a re-recording of their 1979 “Heart of Stone,” which was one of the first songs to ever be released on influential indie 415 Records, though the album itself was on a different label.

Certain Songs #2590: Suzanne Vega – “I Never Wear White”

April 12, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Tales From The Realm of the Queen of Pentacles
Year: 2014

. . .

Of course, like so many artists from the 80s & 90s, Suzanne Vega never stopped recording, though in the second half of the 2010s she did a four-volume set of re-recordings from her back catalog — each album’s songs grouped thematically — with stripped-down arrangements, kinda like what U2 just did with Songs of Surrender.

Certain Songs #2589: Suzanne Vega – “99.9F°”

April 11, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: 99.9F°
Year: 1992

. . .

When 1990’s Days of Open Hand came out and failed to replicate the success of Solitude Standing — lead single “Men in a War” was pretty great, even if it mined the same depressing territory as “Luka” by discussing phantom limb syndrome — it seemed like Suzanne Vega was going to be firmly ensconced in “one-hit-wonder” territory.

Certain Songs #2588: Suzanne Vega – “Luka”

April 10, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Solitude Standing
Year: 1987

. . .

On the short list of Prettiest Songs Ever Recorded, Content Warning Division, Suzanne Vega’s breakthrough hit, “Luka”, catapulted her to the top tier of late-1980s alt-rock singer songwriters, and was the first hit spawned from her second album, 1987’s Solitude Standing.

Certain Songs #2587: Surfer Blood – “Karen”

April 8, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Carefree Theatre
Year: 2020

. . .

The Florida indie-pop band Surfer Blood had been making well-regarded albums for nearly a decade when the released their fifth album, Carefree Theatre, in 2020. And while I remember enjoying their first couple of records — 2010’s debut Astro Coast definitely got some buzz — it was Carefree Theatre that broke through with me.

Certain Songs #2586: The Surfaris – “Wipe Out”

April 7, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Wipe Out
Year: 1963

. . .

So the reason I knew that Mike in my post high-school covers band — the one where I attempted (and failed) to be a front man — was a great drummer was that he could play the tom rolls in “Wipe Out.”

I mean there were other reasons, of course, but I seem to recall that “Wipe Out” was a particular highlight in our sets — and not just because it was a song that I didn’t sing (I don’t think) — and that had to do with his drumming. Which got him into Fresno hardcore kings Capital Punishment, and is still a thing he’s doing today.

Certain Songs #2585: Surf City – “Kudos”

April 6, 2023 by Jim Connelly

Album: Kudos
Year: 2010

. . .

All of the promise shown on Surf City’s self-titled 2007 EP came to full fruition on their debut album, 2010’s Kudos, which still retained the garage-y vibe of their earlier record, but also just sounded better and fuller.