Tag: alt

232. R.E.M.

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(September 2019) Episode 232 is R.E.M. How did a band so central to my generation slip to #232? It may be heresy to my peers, but I find R.E.M. … boring.  Yes, the premier college radio band had 10-12 great songs that were the soundtrack of our college years, and their stripped-down jangle rock was a welcome antidote to 80s synth.  But I find most of it limp and listless. R.E.M. greatly influenced alt-rock, but unfortunately that led to limp-rock acts like Gin Blossoms and Toad the Wet Sprocket.

Favorite album: Lifes Rich Pageant

Favorite song: Superman

Best late-period album: Accelerate

Compared to expectations: ↓

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213. Neutral Milk Hotel

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(May 2019) I have completed episode 213 of my “opus project.” This edition: NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL. This is the performing name of Jeff Mangum, the reclusive and enigmatic co-founder of the fantastic Elephant 6 collective. I characterize this music as lo-fuzz. Don’t try to comprehend the lyrics. There are Elephant 6 bands that I listen to more than NMH, but “Aeroplane” has grown on me over the years. I hope for more releases.

Favorite album: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Favorite song: The King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. One

Compared to expectations: same

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212. Foxygen

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(April 2019) I have completed episode 212 of my “opus project.” This edition: FOXYGEN. It’s exceedingly difficult to characterize their music, so here goes: Imagine Olivia Tremor Control reincarnated as a duo in Los Angeles as the love child of Ty Segall and Lou Reed, mixed with early Beck, mid-period Kinks, Satanic-era Stones, Oh Sees, late Beck, and a sprinkling of ELO and Zappa. That might be Foxygen, for now, because their next sound could be completely different. Fun fact: their latest album came out yesterday, setting the OP record for quickest incorporation of a new release.

Favorite album: We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic

Favorite song: San Francisco

Compared to expectations: same

foxygen

210. fIREHOSE

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(April 2019) I have completed episode 210 of my “opus project.” This edition: fIREHOSE. I finished Minutemen, so I naturally started fIREHOSE next as it featured its two surviving members. This is what I should have been listening to in the 1980s instead of whatever I was listening to. Early fIREHOSE is much better than later fIREHOSE. Mike Watt is an incredible bass player.

Favorite album: If’n

Favorite song: Honey, Please

Compared to expectations: ↓

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208. Minutemen

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(March 2019) I have completed episode 208 of my “opus project.” This edition: MINUTEMEN. I did not follow them in real time, but listening in retrospect, their influence is clearly recognizable, especially in funk-punk. Notable is their sense of adventurism. I particularly like the echoes of Captain Beefheart. It’s apt that Minutemen’s early songs clocked in at about one minute each, although I don’t think that’s where their name comes from.

Favorite album: Double Nickels On The Dime

Favorite song: The Glory of Man

Favorite EP: Minuteflag

Best approximation of a Captain Beefheart song: Power Failure

Compared to expectations: ↓

Doublenickels

203. Weezer

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(February 2019) I have completed episode 203 of my “opus project.” This edition: WEEZER. I just listened to 12 Weezer albums and the only songs I remember are Buddy Holly and the Sweater Song. The fun of their debut album – the right sound with the right attitude at the right moment – serves to accentuate the banality of the following releases, with the most sterile lyrics I’ve heard since I did Foreigner.

Favorite album: Weezer (the Blue Album)

Favorite song: Undone — The Sweater Song

Compared to expectations: ↓

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195. Ian MacKaye suite of bands

~ ernopepper ~ 1 Comment

(December 2018) I have completed episode 195 of my “opus project.” This edition: the IAN MacKAYE suite of bands (MINOR THREAT, FUGAZI and THE EVENS, as well as Teen Idles, Skewbald/Grand Union, Egg Hunt, Embrace, and Pailhead). Minor Threat was my intro to hardcore punk through my college roommate; not really my thing but I grew to appreciate it. Same with Fugazi, although as a local D.C. institution I greatly regret not attending a show. The spare The Evens is a pleasant, and more approachable, surprise.

Favorite Minor Threat song: In My Eyes

Favorite Fugazi album: Red Medicine

Favorite Fugazi song: Arpeggiator

Favorite The Evens album: The Odds

Favorite The Evens song: Timothy Wright

Compared to expectations: same

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190. Franz Ferdinand

~ ernopepper ~ Leave a comment

(November 2018) I have completed episode 190 of my “opus project.” This edition: FRANZ FERDINAND. The angular rock of their first album spent a lot of time in my CD player in the mid-aughts. Stuff after that, where they trended toward this neo-disco thing, not so much.

Favourite album: Frank Ferdinand

Favourite song: Take Me Out

Best song that’s also a spot-on homage to a Kinks song: Eleanor Put Your Boots On

Compared to expectations: same

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176. Red Hot Chili Peppers

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(July 2018) I have completed episode 176 of my “opus project.” This edition: RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS. Many excellent songs. But overall, the sum does not equal the (funk + rock + punk + jazz) parts. Their early stuff was ground-breaking (esp. Get Up and Jump). Everything after Californication is boring. In the 1980s, you’d put on their latest album to show how punk you were. In the 1990s, you’d put on their latest album to show you were edgier than your friends who listened to Gin Blossoms and Dave Matthews. In the 2000s, you put on their latest album to show that you once thought of yourself as punk and edgy.

Favorite album: One Hot Minute

Favorite song: Give It Away

Special sauce: Flea

Compared to expectations: same

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