Frolic in the Shadows: Mix Reviews Volume 16

Gone from our lives for 15 years and more Mr. Cummings returns, and for his first collection fills in the musical gap of the years that we missed. I doubt this collection exhausts his musical experience over that time, but it certainly provides a useful link back to our earlier shared experience. In some ways this is exactly the collection I might have envisioned, though in other ways it is very different. Much of both views is prejudiced by my perception of him in that earlier era.

He was cooler than me. No doubt about it. And his musical taste was light years ahead. While I was fascinated by The Cars Greatest Hits he was pulling Jane's Addiction out of his bag of tricks, complete with shocking image of freaky nudity. It would take me most of college to achieve a level of musical sensibility that he possessed in high school. It will be very interesting to see where his next collection goes relative to his musical sense. The burning question in my mind: is he still five years ahead of the curve - curves being relative.

But onto the songs...

1: 1990. "Havalina", The Pixies, from Bossanova. Release date: 1990.

Frank Black/Black Francis returns to the collection and finds comfort there once again. The Pixies have an image for me that belies their actual work - namely one much harder edged than it really is. Part of that may come from the fact that I arrived at them late, after their demise and the birth of The Breeders from their wreckage. The Breeders are much less satisfying musically, though good as 'angry chick music' if that's your thing. The Pixies are certainly edgy , but are, at their core a pop band with an unmistakable gift for hooks. I'm not sure it's fair to attribute all of this to Frank Black but he seems to have maintained that consistently through his career while the Deal sisters have proven more volatile. It is probably a sum greater than the parts issue to some extent - there are few artists/bands for which their second incarnation can be seen to be better than whatever energy created their first go at music.

You had to like the Pixies in college to be cool. Sadly, I was not. It's not that I didn't like them, they were still off my radar. I was coming to terms with the Led Zeppelin catalogue (as all college males must) and reveling in the wonders of Bob Marely: Legend. It wasn't until I was ensconced in the world of architecture (more exactly the people to be found there) that my musical mind really started to expand. It had only been a few years prior that Mighty Tom and I had sat silently on the couch listening to Madonna:You Can Dance secretly hoping that my room ape didn't return while we did so. To be fair, I pretty much hated that album, annoyed at it's complete lack of track distinction and really never the Madonna fan that MT was. It was and is a long way from there to Bossanova, or even Doolittle.

This is a lovely little song about a wild boar. Is it the pig that's walking on the plain of old Sedona, among the trees? We may never know. It may be interesting to some to know that this closes out the album Bossanova, and it is the bookend of another instrumental song called Cecilia Ann - though they are worlds apart in feel. Cecilia Ann is a rock epic, an anthem perhaps, the counterpoint to the breezy gentility of Havalina. I like this song a lot, though it holds no reminiscents (the scent of memories?).

2. 1992. "I Don't Know", The Replacements, from Pleased to Meet Release date: 1987.

Another band that determined whether you were cool in college and dammit if I didn't fail again. For The Replacements (and subsequent Paul Westerberg) I never really got there. I have no idea why. I knew plenty of people that had every note that had ever been created by them/him but I never bothered or cared to delve.

It's hard not to imagine Morphine when hearing the sax on this song. It's a fun romp, though funny if you read the review on AllMusic. Based on that you probably wouldn't expect to hear this coming out of a supposedly more singer/songwriterly Paul Westerberg. This sounds like a band having fun, though it's not entirely clear they were.

3. 1990-1993. "Way Down Now". World Party, from Goodbye Jumbo, released in 1990.

I know three songs by World Party, and I like them all. This one, Ship of Fools (from the Greenpeace double album owned by both MT and I - possibly bought simultaneously) and Put the Message in the Box (also from Goodbye Jumbo) Oddly, since receiving this collection I've heard that last one at least twice on the radio, and on both occasions it brought a smile to my face and a song from my heart. I may add GJ to my list of albums to consider buying.

World Party has a very full sound (sounds like there are like 10 band members) and seem to deal with somber issues in a relentlessly exuberant way. They seem fun. And boy, the Woo Hoos are straight out of Sympathy for the Devil - I wonder if they had to pay royalties.

4. 1994. "Futterman's Rule". The Beastie Boys, from Ill Communication, 1994.

The Beastie Boys perplexed me. I was genuinely annoyed by Licensed to Ill, having endured almost endless repetitions while running in the dreaded Pit at West High for track practice. Brass Monkey, that funky monkey, haunts me to this day.

My next taste was Paul's Boutique, in a vastly different setting, and my mind wasn't prepared for the shift, even though it was in a direction that I would come to embrace. Where LTI has given license to assholes to like the Beastie Boys, PB spat in their faces (mostly) and made you reconsider what the hell they were up to. It took a few years before I was really on the BB bandwagon, though I remain there to this day.

When I first played this collection (prior to the actual useful track listing - or my googling thereof) this track came on and I thought, 'boy, this sure sounds like a BB song.' And lo and behold it is. If they have a signature funk sound, this is it in spades. This song rocks full blast.

As to rap albums that hold up over time - I can't really speak to the album since I haven't heard it, but a couple of songs from Public Enemy seem as powerful as ever - no matter how much a cartoon Flavor Flav is.

5. 1996. "Pool", Spitz, from Namae-wo stukete yaru/I'll give you a name. 1992.

Funny, my only other experience with 'Japanese pop' comes in the form of some rather different all female bands (the names of which are lost to time). I find it interesting that people that come from a musical tradition so very different from ours (employing the pentatonic scale among other things), and whose indigenous music sounds discordant to my simple western ears, can craft a pop song so on target with western music. I've seen plenty of examples of Japanese 'cover' bands playing note for note recreations of well known western pop songs, words included, but to craft an entire song is something different.

It doesn't really float my boat but I am glad for the hearing.

I seriously considered doing the English teaching in Japan thing, though I was a few years later in the thinking (dammit! again!).

6. 2000-2002. "On Earth." The Sundays. From Blind, released 1991.

You really hit the nail on the head with voice as instrument. I have Static and Silence and feel much the same way about that, though it's not all as 'dreamy' as 'On Earth'.

This song feels at home with Havalina.

7. 2003. "I See Monsters". Ryan Adams, from Love is Hell, Part 2, 2003.

Ryan Adams exploded onto the scene with Gold, released something like 3 albums in one year, and seems to have stepped back to appraise things a bit since then. I only know him from songs that got some airplay, and from discussions among music cognoscenti on some podcasts I listen to. He seems to have been universally praised, and I see no reason to not allow him his moment.

This is a lovely little song with a true shadow lurking behind it. This is a guy who can't accept how good he has it - always seeing the possible disasters that could befall him (or anyone), no matter how unreasonable they might be. This is a glass half empty kind of guy.

I like the guitar playing in this one a lot.

8. 2004. "Automatic Stop", The Strokes, from Room on Fire, 2003.

I've got This is It, 2001 and like it quite a bit, though perhaps not enough, since I didn't check to see if they had anything new. They have a sound, that's for sure, and if you like this, you'll like This Is It just as much.

This song has some interesting instrumental bits, including some relentless metronomic drumming to jangly guitar that is all pretty fun.

9. 2005. "The Shadows". Yo La Tengo, from I Can Feel the Heart Beating as One, 1997.

I've become aware of Yo La Tengo over the last couple of years only to learn that they've been around essentially intact since 1986 and with 13 albums to their credit (the latest being I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass - a great album title).

They floated around my consciousness often being confused with various bands incorporating Spanish in their names (and usually in their songs) and as such didn't inspire me to inquire. I just wasn't in the mood to wade into a wall of brass and lyrics I'd need to decipher. Boy am I an idiot. The name is a total ruse, sonsabitches.

Now if you had been a fan of YLT in the late 80's you would have been the absolute coolest person I've ever known. Screw the Pixies and The Replacements - they're practically N'Sync compared to this band. But no, you got to them before me, though I've closed the gap ever so slightly.

This song certainly fits with The Sundays and is really lovely. I like the muted trumpet part and the generally spare instrumentation all the way through.

10. 2006. "Cleaning Windows", Van Morrison, The Best of Van Morrison, 1991 (originally Beautiful Vision, 1982).

I look forward to some more VM from your extensive collection going forward, but for now I like your take on the meaning of the song. It should be alright to happy with your place in life and not feel the relentless need to strive for more, as if more will ever be enough. I suppose it's somewhat easy given my place in the world to feel that way, and also easier from an energy expenditure point of view, but still closer to the right frame of mind than not.

I was not 'aware' of this VM song previously (though I've owned that Best of collection for a decade at least). This song never stuck, I guess. I have since gotten Moondance to experience a full album from old Van, who may remain prolific but now looks like Randy Quaid after an industrial accident.

Wrap-Up

We seemed pretty aligned musically, if this is any indication of your current musical tastes. We seem to have taken similar musical journeys, though you started with a lead. I look forward to where the journey takes us next.

BS: tough call - possibly, I See Monsters simply because it was new to me
SIWHI: it's your journey

Next month?