(October 2018) I have completed episode 188 of my “opus project.” This edition: THE B-52s. I bought their first album soon after it came out — one of only two* non-classic rock discs on my shelf . I loved the retro kitsch. But the retro kitsch ran thin fast. Beyond “Roam,” Love Shack,” and “Good Stuff,” most everything after “Rock Lobster” is vacuous.
Favorite album: The B-52s
Favorite song: Planet Claire
Compared to expectations: ↓
(October 2018) I have completed episode 187 of my “opus project.” This edition: THE RUNAWAYS. The first all-female hard rock band, they paved the way for many others (think L7 and The Donnas). KISS may have sold out arenas but their contemporaries The Runaways were no less hard-charging and loud. They also gave us Joan Jett and Lita Ford.
Favorite album: Gueens of Noise
Favorite song: Cherry Bomb
Compared to expectations: ↑
(October 2018) I have completed episode 185 of my “opus project.” This edition: THE HIVES. Inject this punk-inflected garage rock directly into my veeeeiiiins! Regrettably, I did not come upon The Hives until recently, because It Me. If you don’t know them, make them Your New Favourite Band.
Favourite album: Veni Vidi Vicious
Favourite song: Die, All Right!
Compared to expectations: same
(October 2018) I have completed episode 184 of my “opus project.” This edition: MOTÖRHEAD. Rock n’ roll to make your eardrums bleed: the way it should be. Lemmy never diverges from the core concept: loud and fast and whisky-fueled, but even over four decades it never got stale. Beauty in its purity. I came late to Motörhead, which was a mistake.*
Favourite album: Overkill
Favourite song: Ace of Spades
Worst album: March ör Die
Best later album: Bastards
Compared to expectations: ↑
* imagine the enhancement of my musical trajectory if, in 1979, I had bought Overkill instead of Van Halen II
(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: ↓
(September 2018) I have completed episode 180 of my “opus project.” This edition: SIGUR RÓS. I was in Iceland last month. I already did Björk so I started Sigur Rós while there despite having zero familiarity. I was pleasantly surprised with their alt rock/dream pop/ambient music, which provided a perfect accompaniment for the stunning Icelandic landscape. At times, though, it sounds like they’re trying too hard to get licensed for TV and movie soundtracks.
Favorite album: Ágætis byrjun
Favorite song: Svefn-g-englar
Favorite ambient recording: Route One
Compared to expectations: same
(September 2018) I have completed episode 178 of my “opus project.” This edition: THE RASPBERRIES. One of the Power Pop Trinity (along with Big Star and Badfinger). Theirs had more of a 70s-licious soft rock sound, but still with plenty of power pop hooks and melodies.
Favorite album: Fresh
Favorite song: Go All The Way
Compared to expectations: ↓
(August 2018) I have completed episode 177 of my “opus project.” This edition: PARLIAMENT and FUNKADELIC. Of course I did the P-Funk together as two halves of George Clinton’s cosmic brain. Ironically, Parliament is funkier, but aptly, Funkadelic is more psychedelic. The copious output is rather eclectic – rock, soul, psychedelic, R&B, rap, and even a country song and a heavy metal song – but at its core, it’s classic funk. With his versatility, irreverence, raunchiness, prolific-ness, orchestration of rotations of talented musicians, and insistence on doing it his way, George Clinton reminds me of Frank Zappa.
Favorite Parliament album: Standing on the Verge of Getting It On
Favorite Funkadelic album: Mothership Connection
Favorite Parliament song: Red Hot Momma
Favorite Funkadelic song: Up for the Down Stroke
Best album title (perhaps of all-time): Free Your Mind … And Your Ass Will Follow
Best album cover (among the greats): Maggot Brain
Secret Sauce: Eddie Hazel (just listen to his work on the song Maggot Brain)
Compared to expectations: same
(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
(July 2018) I have completed episode 175 of my “opus project.” This edition: FIONA APPLE. Of the many female singer-songwriters to come out of the 1990s, she is perhaps the most enigmatic and interesting.
Favorite album: The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
Favorite song: Criminal
Compared to expectations: ↑
Opus Project 