Snobbin: Beautiful Trash in the Pop Culture Gutter

Crimpshrine and Fifteen songs often interpolate or play with the idea of reworking/reusing lines from earlier famous songs within the lyrical and musical framework of songs, Ott's and Jack Curran's melodies are deceptive because they bury them in layers of distortion. However, just as their lyrical ambition often tells complex stories through the framework of deceptively simple choruses, the lyrics hide Easter eggs within simple love and relationship songs. Crimpshrine's "Tomorrow" borrowed lyrics from "Tomorrow" from  Annie , but Ott has continued to include popular lyrics in interesting ways. Pop melodies were common in many of the bands that played with Fifteen at 924 Gilman Street in the 1990s, but Ott's hardscrabble songs stand out because of their wordplay and insistence on melodic invention.  Other bands that played with them reveled in wordplay and definitive walking East Bay basslines, but generally fitted into different frameworks. While th...

I used to be a wallflower at the punk show.  Standing in back like those cool people in that Jawbreaker lyric or Peter Parker, replete in sweater vest a tour song well defined. I watched everyone else participate, slunk in the corner like a ragdoll  in required black hoodie, shock of auburn hair, drooped over crooked glasses. '90s indie fashion or a Weezer video extra, the early days of emo.  A backpack possibly slung over my shoulder, and a lack of beer in my hand, made me stand out, an awkward clown, never a joiner. Even though I loved the volume of the music, the warmth of the room, distinguished from the blustery, wintery outside, I found it hard to join.  These states never get warm. The band never breaks a string. Once I finally joined and met the people in the room, I became a figure in the scene, with my own nickname and relevance. Seldom a band member, I was the eternal commenter, the guy who could talk records, a legend in my hometown. Like that irredeemabl...

From the opening notes of Propagandhi's anthem of resilience, "At Peace," the title track on their eighth album, listeners will realize that the band has learned how to reflect and grow, despite the anger they continue to feel from years of governmental malfeasance. The band's flirtations with metal are becoming more hardened with each release, and this track is heavy. metaphorically and musically. The feeling of doom is underscored by menacing metallic guitar arpeggios before Chris Hannah's weary, world worn vocals break the heaviness. The verses and choruses reach a riffy consensus as he hits a breathy, hypnotic, drawn-out mantra, "I am at peace," The band, including bassist Todd Kowalski, guitarist Sulynn Hago, and drummer, Jord Samolesky find their groove in a sludgy, trudging heaviness that martially moves along with the lyrics.  Hannah sings a plea that resonates heavily with many of us who have been trying to understand how we have gotten to this ...

Roddy Bogawa's 2004 documentary I Was Born, But is named after Yasujiro Ozu's 1934 silent film and mirrors that film in specifics of identity formation, particularly how class, culture, and nation inform who we are. The film is parts quiet meditation on Japanese American identity, including thoughts on Pearl Harbor, and the formative influence of the punk rock scene. Through additional reflection on his childhood in California and Hawaii and its impact, Bogawa creates an entrancing narrative that feels very different from Ozu but still tells a similar story on how art and identity shapes us.

Jeff Tweedy's newest book contains short and sometimes pithy discussions of songs that influenced his life and music. He intersperses them with memories and events that augment his thinking. Generally fun, often astute, occasionally maddening, but always entertaining, the book often goes in unexpected directions. Tweedy finds new life within the grooves and the stories that surround his musical discoveries. The most eye-opening moments  to me happen when Tweedy finds something in each song that might relate to any of us. However, I also loved his discussions of early SST punk and lesser-known songs, and he often changed my mind or gave me new perspectives to ponder. He might also influence your approach to some popular tunes that he covers. 

When Definitely Maybe came out in 1994, I had not entirely solidified into my 1990s role as a primarily punk music listener. I loved much of what came out that year under the mantle of alternative rock. Cue Mr. T Experience's "Alternative is Here to Stay" for an appropriate soundtrack to the mainstream acceptance of alternative sounds that was foreshadowed by 1980s new wave. I bought records by Pavement, Wilco, the Meat Puppets, Tripping Daisy, 311, Liz Phair, the eels, and many others that popular media tangentially connected to the "Alternative Explosion" if they were not part of specific, related genres.  Oasis's first record was somehow different in my estimation because I seldom listened to other Britpop at the time. However, Blur's "Girls & Boys" and a track or two by Supergrass also caught my attention. There was something more rocking and seductive about their debut LP. Was it more specific rock and roll lyrical subject matter? Trac...

It's hard to believe that I will be moving back to the Midwest soon. I snagged a teaching job in Ironwood, Michigan, a town that I visited often in the late 90s because it was an hour from my hometown. I generally went there to buy records at a corporate record store (Was it a Sam Goody?). I was living in my small hometown after a poor trial run at college, and did not get back to central Wisconsin until Fall 1999.  I had heard there was a punk venue, and I found it on one of these forays into Upper Michigan. It was called The Rat Cellar. They sold a few records and had shows in the basement. For a few years, I hung out with the local punk kids and watched many local and national touring bands in that dank basement.   There were a few highlights from those shows besides the friends I made. Sadly, I did not keep in touch with any of them. However, I did see one of the little kids who attended those shows more than a decade later in a Wisconsin Rapids basement. Connections ...

Jeremiah and I rented the Lost House some time in 2001 because we wanted a bigger place that would hold us and our friend, Matt. The place was too big, so we had to get a roommate. Eventually, Jeremiah's cousin moved into a room in our house that was not that bigger than a closet. Another guy  moved in upstairs with Mat, and maybe I will discuss him in more detail in a future post. Needless to say the guy was a mess and caused us more stress than you could ever imagine.  We decorated the house in Punk and Industrial Chic, taping flyers, newspaper clippings, and comic strips to the dirty walls. It soon resembled  a larger version of my bedroom in high school. Much to my mother's dismay, I covered the walls of my room with clippings and pictures from floor to ceiling, tacking up whatever took my fancy from punk ads to clippings from old books. My room was on the second floor of the house, which earlier had been converted from an attic, so the lower half of the wall had pa...

I had an internet discussion with friends a few weeks ago and was shocked to find out that one of them was a Pink Floyd fan. Either I never noticed or ignored it because he never really seemed like the type. Of course, there is nothing wrong with liking Floyd, but it got me thinking about what I want in music since prog always reminds me of hanging out with stoners and listening to Dark Side of the Moon for the thousandth time.  At his suggestion, I attempted to listen to Pink Floyd's Division Bell . I made it through, but I was awfully bored. I enjoyed parts of it, but my mind strayed, and I wanted to listen to something pithier and more straightforward. I know it is an unpopular opinion to rip on bands like Floyd in some circles, but they just don't do much for me. (Of course, other groups make a sport of it.) Nor does much radio classic rock because it lacks the hooks and melodies that I like. I'm not saying I don't listen to longer songs or other genres because I l...

I moved in that summer, not prepared for a hot, festering several months in a strange, small house that had seen its share of drunken, college parties. I moved in with three other guys who I had known awhile: Dave, Joe, and Jeremiah. We were a motley crew: a punk rock English major, a brusque music major, a science major, and an opinionated psychology major. I was the progressive English major that flirted with anarchism, like a less obnoxious version of Rik from The Young Ones . In some ways, we resembled that troupe, except with far less humor.   Joe was a more conservative psychology major who liked to argue. We were both from the same hometown and had honed our friendship as outsiders. Dave majored in teaching music; he was the authoritarian taskmaster that wanted to keep us in line. Jeremiah, the science major, added a new flavor to our little group of outsiders. We met Jeremiah when he took a room in the house the previous January. He and I would move into another house, T...

When I first heard SNFU's "Reality is a Ride on the Bus" (1993) on Epitaph Record's first Punk-O-Rama compilation, it shook me a little bit. Mr. Chi-Pig chronicles a nightmarish scenario on a city bus that could be masquerading as social conscience or punk-rock bravado. While dealing with a similar situation to Bad Religion's "Struck A Nerve" from the same year, which chronicles poor people on a bus and questions why their lives are so terrible, SNFU provides zero solutions. Instead, the narrator imagines the disfigured people that await him with little consideration for them. Does he feel sorry for those he will meet? No, he just hides behind a book. Part Ramones-Part D.O.A., this song blusters about social anxieties.  "My face is buried inside a book Everybody's wearing a haggard look The sirens scream, a baby cries Every day on this bus I ride." "Reality is a Ride on the Bus" - SNFU (1993) Track This  is a recurri...

Every time I listen to the Mr. T Experience, or MTX for short, I marvel at how Dr. Frank takes a clever turn of phrase and uses it to ever greater effect in each song. For a band that writes "Songs About Girls" with tongues planted firmly in their collective cheeks, the group has gone through many permutations, but Frank has been the one constant in their long career. The band has written many great songs in different periods, whether one is a fan of the more punk and rock 'n' roll period with Jon Von turning in the occasional raucous, garagey anthem like "Kill The Ramones" or "I'm In Love With Paula Pierce" or the power pop records in the early 90s with tracks such as "Even Hitler Had a Girlfriend. Of course, the Joel Reader era produced pop-punk classics like Love is Dead , which morphed into a brief indie rock period before the band's dissolution. The other day I was listening to 1989's Making Things With Light , an album t...

  When I was a young and impressionable punk rock kid in the 1990s, I went down a lot of paths. I was indoctrinated into the fold like many a naïve youth of the time by Green Day and then after pursuing their earlier albums and the Lookout Records catalog, I stumbled on to Fat Wreck Chords and Epitaph before disappearing ever further into the underground and classic hardcore. I flirted with many labels and have moved into other genres practically entirely, but I never forgot my love for those earlier records. The Shit Split , the joint collection from Bay Area crusty bands, Blatz and Filth, was one that was stamped indelibly on my mind, and I wish I had been in the scene when it was released in 1991. I made up for lost time when I got it later on CD, but I now I wish I had invested in the vinyl. I do have the 7 inches because I scoured every bin for Lookout releases for years. Blatz's “Cheaper Than The Beer” has been a longtime turntable favorite, but I was always partial to t...

The Last's music is a raging, timely love letter to 60s psychedelia with an 80s flare and a punk rock ethic. All the touchstones of the so-called 80s Paisley Revival are included, beginning in 1976: The Byrds, Dylan, Love, The Pretty Things, and more. Yet there is so much else here; there are touches of mod, power pop, surf, and punk, all tied up in an energetic package. The first track, "She Don't Know Why I'm Here" is an anthem that could have been written in the 60s; it's timeless power is evident because it is a catchy pop tune undercut with a current of danger and cynicism. The Last justly increase the power and speed over its three minute running time. Not unlike The Barracudas, The Last traffic in sweet and sour melodies, often juxtaposed; Joe Nolte writes upbeat pop numbers, but also dabbles in psychedelic sadness. "She Don't Know Why I'm Here" combines both worldviews. I first heard the track on an old Bomp compilation, Destina...

Green Day has maintained a low profile since they released three full albums of music, ¡Uno! , ¡Dos! and ¡Tré! , in 2012, and now return with a collection of demos from the same recording sessions. The aptly yet not originally named, Demolicious , clever portmanteau notwithstanding, is slight, yet infectious. Released on Record Store Day 2014 the collection purports to give fans what bassist Mike Dirnt wrote on his instagram account: how ¡Uno! , ¡Dos! and ¡Tré! would have sounded if we were still on Lookout Records!" The record is certainly more immediate than what the band has been doing in recent years. "99 Revolutions" kicks it off with a poppy burst of inspiration that is more stripped down than the version on ¡Tré!, but sounds more like it would fit nicely alongside Insomniac's "Stuart and the Ave." one of that album's more melodic songs. The intro of "Angel Blue" sounds like the Clash before Billie Joe Armstrong's vocals shif...

Jeffrey Lee Pierce was a blues man at heart, gifted with all the talent and power of a young Howlin' Wolf. His music borrowed heavily from the delta blues and other American roots music, but he took inspiration from these forms and created something new. Once president of the Blondie fan club, Pierce was a student of many musical disciplines, from reggae to progressive rock, but his commitment to the blues helped Gun Club, the band he formed in the late 1970's and continued with until his untimely death in 1996 at the age of 37, with varying lineups, become a powerhouse that ultimately released a few seminal records. Early Gun Club was a primal rush, often resembling Nick Cave's more manic output or slower Cramps sides, but its influences ran deeper than either. Pierce was a student of the blues form that followed his own muse and created records that are still far different than most of what is out there. Fire of Love draws primarily from blues with a heaping dose of ...

Mick Foley is a cultural icon in some circles. New York's Night Birds know this, and have delivered a mean paean to another New York boy who found fame through professional wrestling. "Maimed for the Masses" chronicles Foley's massive success through a series of choice quotes from the man himself, backed with the kind of punky/surfy music that only Night Birds can deliver. A modern update of the Dead Kennedys guitar sound is married to the basic tenets of an east coast wrestling sensibility.  Brian Gorsegner’s snotty, speed fire vocals intermingle with vocal harmonies that create a monster of a song. The chorus and verses are damn catchy and the bridge demonstrates their guitar virtuosity; they seem to get tighter and more efficient every album, even though this song is on the longer side for the band, clocking in at more than three minutes. The song first appeared on the "Maimed for the Masses" EP, but easily remains a standout track on Born To Die in Su...

Gilman Street bootlegs are a funny thing. Many times the sound quality is bad because they were recorded by audience members by any means necessary. For example, Lint Rides Again , which chronicled the last Operation Ivy (interestingly enough they played with an embryonic Green Day) show has fairly poor sound quality, but is listenable. Most sound better than earlier hardcore bootlegs, especially if they were taken from the soundboard. Regardless of sound quality, the energy level and enthusiasm at these shows makes them worth a listen. Songs are debuted, loose sloppy versions of early songs are auditioned for an enthusiastic audience, an errant cover song will slip out as if by chance or happenstance. Green Day shows are no exception. The between song banter is as interesting as historical chronicle and the list of later fan favorites that the band plays is exemplary. The crowd knows many of these songs, even as Billie Joe Armstrong continually plugs Kerplunk . The album had be...

In issues of the old "Lookout Records! catalog," Larry Livermore, or some earnest shitworker, referred to Pot Valiant's eponymous EP as "what your cough syrup daydreams sound like." With an awful cold, while fighting through my own cough syrup haze, I listened to the new Green Day album for the umpteenth time, wondering just how far the boys from Rodeo had come from their early days on the aforementioned (and sadly gone) pop punk label. Green Day's new record, Uno! , is much better than expected. Gone is much of the rock star posturing and  topical songwriting that plagued or strengthened their last two rock operas: 2004's American Idiot and 2009's 21st Century Breakdown . Nor is there an overarching conceptual theme, except perhaps an attempt to write fun songs in the tradition of their Lookout! records. Yet, if you are looking for the ubiquitous return to form record, you may need to imbibe in similar large amounts of cough syrup. Perhaps a r...

Since I last blogged, lots of ridiculous stuff has gone down. I'm tired of my life and its direction. This blog is an evident attempt to pull myself up by my boot straps and really get down to some serious writing. Mostly it will be about life, adventures, and, most important of all, records. Yes, I am creating just another music blog. Hopefully, I can add something to this old and tired genre. My goals are many, but the primary one is to write about one "lost scattershot, genre-crossing classic" a week, more or less. Not all of them will be genre-crossing. Hell, not all of them will be classics, at least in a traditional sense. But they will be records, that if not genre-bending or mind-blowing, have added something to the musical landscape that was not there before. (Don't they all). I hope to pick my favorites that skirt the borders of all those indie genres (psych, punk, hardcore, post-punk, post-hardcore, etc.) Sometimes I might even dedicate a blog to an album ...