(December 2019) Episode 242 is HÜSKER DÜ. This is what I should have been listening to in the 1980s instead of what I was listening to. Well, at least the first two kick-ass punk-ish albums; the rest were rather meh. Highlight is drummer Grant Hart until he let the gated reverb ruin it. IMHO Hüsker Dü is America’s The Jam.
Favorite album: Zen Arcade
Favorite song: I’ll Never Forget
Compared to expectations: same
(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: ↓
(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
(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
(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: ↓
(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: ↓
(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: ↓
(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
(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
(September 2018) I have completed episode 181 of my “opus project.” This edition: THE STROKES. Angular rock. Their first album “Is This It” spent a lot of time in my CD player in the early aughts. Subsequent albums are of diminishing interest.
Favorite album: Is This It
Favorite song: The Modern Age
Compared to expectations: ↓
Opus Project 