Roky Erickson - "For You (I'd Do Anything)" (forgotten song)

I'm pretty late getting to it, but on my birthday this year Roky Erickson died.  He was probably best well-known for his time in the 60s with The 13th Floor Elevators, but even they are all but lost to history, making Roky yet another installment in the "influential but not famous" category.  A song writer's song writer, his passing was noted by Rolling Stone, NPR, The New Yorker, and others. 

To say this life and career had many ups and down would be an understatement -- rather than rehash his troubles here I'll simply recommend the 2005 documentary "You're Gonna Miss Me", a documentary that is both entertaining, and then profoundly disturbing as it veers into Southern Gothic.

There are many parallels between Roky and Daniel Johnston, who died a few months after Roky.  One of the things they shared in common was a near universal respect from other artists.  As such, I'm choosing to mark his passing with a song I learned of from "Phases", Angel Olsen's excellent 2017 LP of covers, demos, and outtakes.  Angel Olsen is a tremendous song writer, and on "Phases" she covers a song by Bruce ("Tougher Than The Rest") as well as "For You (I'd Do Anything)" from Roky's 1995 LP "All That May Do My Rhyme".  There are about 100 reasons why I think Angel Olsen is incredible, and that fact that she does obscure covers from Bruce and Roky is one of those reasons. 

Roky Erickson - "For You (I'd Do Anything)", live version (IIRC, this is from the documentary)
Angel Olsen - "For You"*



Bonus link**: 13th Floor Elevators - "You're Gonna Miss Me"

Bonus bonus link: trailer for "You're Gonna Miss Me"


* So technically, Angel misnames her cover.  "All That May Do My Rhyme" has two different songs with similar titles: "For You" and "For You (I'd Do Anything)"; the song that Angel covers is actually "For You (I'd Do Anything)".

** By law, every article about Roky must mention this song. 

Goodie Mob - "Dirty South" (forgotten song)

Super Bowl LIII concluded yesterday, and while many might say it was a "boring" game because it was the lowest-scoring Super Bowl in history, as a Va Tech fan I've learned to appreciate defensive struggles.  The halftime show, on the other hand, well... that was pretty boring.  Not necessarily bad, but stiff and uninspired. 

It certainly had all the individual pieces: a bland, popular, corporate rock band ("we want someone like Coldplay, but not quite as edgy...") with two guest appearances by rappers with regional ties as well as underground cred, a SpongeBob interlude, a drumline, a choir, a 70s Cadillac convertible, lasers and fireworks, and lots of Adam Levine beefcake.  It's like a machine learning algorithm had processed all the previous halftime shows and then synthesized the best elements into a whole that filled the requisite 14 minutes, but lacked a unifying vision or theme.  In trying to appeal to all and offend none, the result was a sterile simulacrum of a halftime show.

The NFL had trouble lining up performers, given the ongoing situation with Colin Kaepernick.  Maroon 5 was a safe choice, and the choice of Big Boi and Travis Scott for guest spots (neither of which was particularly well-integrated with the Maroon 5 set) was the smallest possible nod to Atlanta's burgeoning music scene.

With that, I choose Goodie Mob's song "Dirty South" as this year's Super Bowl song.  "Dirty South" is from their 1995 debut LP "Soul Food", and is the first known use of the phrase "Dirty South", a sub-genre of hip hop, with Atlanta at its epicenter, that emerged in the early- to mid-90s as separate and distinct from NYC-based and LA-based hip hop.  Big Boi, then a member of Atlanta-based Outkast, guested on both "Dirty South" and last night's appearance, thereby provided the tie in to something more substantive than Maroon 5.  Goodie Mob is still active, with four members also involved in other projects, of whom Cee-Lo is the most recognizable to general audiences. 

Let's be honest: a Goodie Mob / Outkast halftime show, opening with "Dirty South", including radio hits like "Hey Ya!" and "Forget You"), with Maroon 5 as the guest artist, say with a reinterpreted, rap-crossover version of "Harder to Breathe" plus a duet with Cee-Lo on "Crazy" would have been edgy... and great.

Goodie Mob - "Dirty South"

Maroon 5,  Travis Scott, Big Boi - "Full halftime show"

Poe - "Angry Johnny" (forgotten song)

Driving back to VA from NC two weeks ago I heard a song on the radio that I had completely forgotten about: Poe's "Angry Johnny".  A single from her 1995 LP "Hello", I remember it receiving a lot of airplay at the time.  Wikipedia says she had moderate success with other singles, but I don't remember them.  Wikipedia also says that character of "Johnny" is from the book "House of Leaves", which wasn't published until 2000.  I wondered how this was possible, but further exploration revealed that the book's author, Mark Z. Danielewski is the brother of Poe (aka Anne Danielewski). 

I haven't listened to the entire LP, but this single is an enjoyable mid-90s time capsule.

Poe - "Angry Johnny".

Hum - "Stars" (forgotten song)

This song has been on low rotation on 96x for a while now, but I finally Shazam'd it on the way to work today.  I was going to post something snarky like "this new song incorporates everything I loved about early- to mid-90s rock", but then when I googled it I found out this song did indeed come out in 1995!  At first, I was happy that I had pegged the time frame so nicely, and then I started to wonder how I had missed this song 20 years ago...

Apparently "Stars" was a minor radio hit for the now defunct Hum, off their 1995 major label debut "You'd Prefer an Astronaut".  Either it did not get airplay in Hampton Roads at the time, or I've simply forgotten it.  I'm hoping for the former.  Either way, I'm enjoying it like it's 1995.

Hum: "Stars" (studio), Late Night with Conan O'Brien, 120 Minutes

Bonus link: "You'd Prefer An Astronaut" (full LP -- I haven't listened to it yet)

Jill Sobule ‎– "I Kissed A Girl" (forgotten song)

Another Super Bowl has come and gone, and with it a pretty good halftime show, featuring Katy Perry, Lenny Kravitz, and Missy Elliott.  Katy Perry was Katy Perry, I'm not sure why Lenny Kravitz was there (having him sing "I Kissed a Girl" isn't really a stretch), and most people celebrated the return of Missy Elliott.  And then there were the sharks, or more specifically "left shark".  If you didn't enjoy the sharks, trees, and beach balls then you're dead inside (see also: Aqua's "Barbie Girl").

I've already (sorta) blogged about Katy Perry once and that seems like enough.  The third song in the Super Bowl setlist was Katy Perry's first single from 2008, "I Kissed A Girl", but instead I want to focus on another song by the same name that you might not have heard.

In 1995 Jill Sobule released "I Kissed A Girl" as a single off her second LP "Jill Sobule" and it received minor airplay.  Although she's been active continuously I don't think she's had a hit since then.  Katy's song is a different song altogether, even though they share a title and theme.  Obviously Katy played the bi-curious theme to much more commercial success than did Jill.  In a 2009 interview Jill said, tongue-in-cheek:

When Katy Perry's song came out I started getting tons of inquiries about what I thought. Some folks (and protective friends) were angry, and wondered why she took my title and made it into this kind of "girls gone wild" thing....

As a musician I have always refrained from criticizing another artist. I was, "Well, good for her." It did bug me a little bit, however, when she said she came up with the idea for the title in a dream. In truth, she wrote it with a team of professional writers and was signed by the very same guy that signed me in 1995. I have not mentioned that in interviews as I don't want to sound bitter or petty...

Okay, maybe, if I really think about it, there were a few jealous and pissed-off moments. So here goes, for the first time in an interview: Fuck you Katy Perry, you fucking stupid, maybe 'not good for the gays,' title-thieving, haven't heard much else, so not quite sure if you're talented, fucking little slut.

God that felt good.

I watched the halftime show, and I liked it...

Jill Sobule - "I Kissed A Girl"
Katy Perry - "I Kissed A Girl"
Full Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show

Ani DiFranco - "32 Flavors" (forgotten song)

Another song for Danette's birthday!  I first heard "32 Flavors" in early 1998 when Alana Davis released it as her first single off her first LP.  It was a good song and received a good bit of radio airplay, but I soon learned it was originally released by Ani DiFranco, off her 1995 LP.  And although Alana turned in a nice, shorter, radio-friendly version, it does not approach the depth and richness of the original. 

Early 1998 was right before Danette and I got together, and I had a number of significant life decisions to make.  And although Danette never said anything like this to me at the time, I imagined that she did and that's nearly the same thing:

Squint your eyes and look closer
I'm not between you and your ambition
I am a poster girl with no poster
I am thirty-two flavors and then some
And I'm beyond your peripheral vision
So you might want to turn your head
Cause someday you're going to get hungry
And eat most of the words you just said

And after 16+ years, I can say 32 is a significant underestimate.  

Ani DiFranco - "32 Flavors" (studio), "32 Flavors" (live)
Alana Davis - "32 Flavors"

Previous birthday songs:

2013: The Green Pajamas - "Kim the Waitress"
2012: The Cure - "High"
2011: Blink 182 - "Josie"
2010:  Dead Milkmen - "Punk Rock Girl"

Sonic Youth - "Diamond Sea" (forgotten song)

"Time takes its crazy toll
And how does your mirror grow
You better watch yourself when you jump into it
Cause the mirror's gonna steal your soul"

I'm not sure how I've managed to blog this long and not really mention Sonic Youth.  I've been reading "Our Band Could Be Your Life", and this has caused me to go back and rip all the various SY cds that I somehow had failed to in the past.  I have a significant portion of their considerable discography, and while I'd love to tell you that my favorite song is "Teen Age Riot", "Kill Yr. Idols", "Death Valley '69", or something like that, the truth is my favorite SY song is actually "Diamond Sea", the first single from their 1995 LP "Washing Machine". 

I was surprisingly disappointed when in late 2011 it was announced that after 27 years of marriage SY founders Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon were splitting up, effectively ending the 30 year career of Sonic Youth in the process.  Individually, Thurston & Kim are the epitome of cool and their long-standing rock-n-roll marriage was even cooler.  Less than a month ago, Kim revealed in an interview that the marriage ended because of Thurston's mid-life crisis.  Shortly thereafter the identity of the "other woman" was revealed, and then the inevitable back-lash for "shaming" the woman while more or less giving Thurston a pass.  I guess marriages break up every day, but most don't claim the careers of seminal bands like Sonic Youth.

"Time takes its crazy toll
Mirror fallin' off the wall
You better look out for the looking glass girl
Cause she's gonna take you for a fall"

"Diamond Sea": 5:45 radio edit, 19:36 LP version, 20 min live version (1996), 1995 live (on "The State")


Although I'm ashamed to admit it, I frequently prefer the radio edit to the freak-out LP version.

Liz Phair - "Juvenilia" (LP Review)

The 1995 EP "Juvenilia" was basically an extended single for the song "Jealousy" from Liz Phair's excellent 1994 sophomore LP "Whip-Smart". In addition to "Jealousy", there are two new songs and five "old" songs from her fabled Girlysound demo tapes (nearly impossible to get in 1995). Liz mined those demo tapes for a majority of the material on her first three LPs, but the LP versions were always re-recorded with full-production, band members, etc. To the best of my knowledge, "Juvenilia" was the first time she released songs straight from Girlysound.

As such, their sound is pretty bare: just Liz strumming a guitar and a few multi-tracked vocals. No bass, no drums, just Liz with her attitude & guitar. Honestly, that's really all you need.

Do you need this EP? Well, how big a fan are you? "Jealousy" is a great song, but this is the same version that is on "Whip-Smart". Of the new tracks, she does a decent cover of "Turning Japanese" (originally by the one-hit wonders, The Vapors) but I never really cared that much for the original. The other new track, "Animal Girl", is not really bad, but isn't memorable either (foreshadowing for later material).

Of the Girlysound tracks, "California", "South Dakota", "Batmobile", "Dead Shark", and "Easy", only "Dead Shark" is close to being weak. The first two tracks are excellent, and I wonder why were never re-recorded for inclusion on later LPs. "California" was re-released on the 2nd half of 2010's "Funstyle", but I believe "Juvenilia" is the only in-print option to get the other four Girlysound tracks.

Standout songs: "Jealousy", "California", "South Dakota", "Batmobile", "Easy".

Skip 'em songs: none.

Other songs: "Turning Japanese", "Animal Girl", "Dead Shark"

Final score: 7/10. This one is hard to score. If you're a big fan, you already have this. If you're not a big fan, then her demo tapes aren't the place to start. I settled on a "7" since any serious collector should have this.

Bruce Springsteen - "The Ghost of Tom Joad" (the song remains the same)

A Labor Day special...

Here's the condensed version of the conversation I've had dozens of times with some of my European friends: Bruce Springsteen is an activist / protest singer in the tradition of Woody Guthrie, but his songs are written with such a distinctly American, individualistic perspective that the message of struggle, hope & despair, and identity is often obscured, if not completely misunderstood.

In contrast to some of his more indirect songs, "The Ghost of Tom Joad", the title track from the 1995 LP of the same name, is one of Bruce's most overtly political songs. The blistering message is tamed by Bruce's muted, acoustic delivery; it was Rage Against the Machine two years later that realized the inherent, well, "rage" of the narrator against forces so complex and overwhelming that individuals must succumb. In Bruce's songs, the hero can often overcome through sheer force of will (e.g., "Badlands", "The Promised Land", "Thunder Road", "Born to Run") -- or at least believes he can. In "The Ghost of Tom Joad", the hero is bleakly aware of his futile state:

Men walkin' 'long the railroad tracks
Goin' someplace there's no goin' back
Highway patrol choppers comin' up over the ridge
Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge
Shelter line stretchin' round the corner
Welcome to the new world order
Families sleepin' in their cars in the southwest
No home no job no peace no rest

The highway is alive tonight
But nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes
I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light
Searchin' for the ghost of Tom Joad

Tom Joad is of course the main character and anti-hero in Steinbeck's 1940 novel "The Grapes of Wrath", which tells the fictionalized story of the Joad family's travels from Oklahoma during the dust bowl to California in search of a land, jobs, and a better life. Instead, they find California is controlled by corporate farmers, in collusion with each other as well as local law enforcement to ensure an ample supply of cheap, unorganized labor. In short, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's dream.

Now Tom said "Mom, wherever there's a cop beatin' a guy
Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries
Where there's a fight 'gainst the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me Mom I'll be there
Wherever there's somebody fightin' for a place to stand
Or decent job or a helpin' hand
Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free
Look in their eyes Mom you'll see me."

Bruce Springsteen: studio version, live in the studio 2009

Bruce Springsteen & Tom Morello: live 2009

Rage Against the Machine: 1997 single version, 2000 LP version, live 1999 version, fan video

"The Grapes of Wrath": New York Times Review, ReThink Review

K's Choice - "Not An Addict" (forgotten song)

In case you ever wondered what the Indigo Girls would sound like if they played shoegazing, I'm pretty sure it would sound like K's Choice since lead singer Sarah Betten's voice is at least as husky and breathy as the Indigo's Emily Saliers. I remember when I first heard the song, I thought it was a new Indigo Girls song.

K's Choice hails from Belgium and scored a good amount of radio airplay in the US with their 1995 single "Not An Addict", from their second LP "Paradise in Me". Although they continued off and on since then with occasional hiatus and solo project, to my knowledge "Not An Addict" was the only radio play they received here. Discogs shows several different mixes and running lengths depending on the country where it was released. The link below is marked "European Version", but this is the version I recall hearing on the radio.

Although its sound is very much of its time (note the similarities to contemporaries like Smashing Pumpkins (the guitars in "Today") and Alice in Chains (the drums in "Would?")), this song still rawks in my book.

Not An Addict: YouTube. A surprisingly good audience recording (05/16/10).

The Rentals - "Friends of P" (forgotten song)

"Friends of P" was a huge hit in the mid 1990s and shortly after that The Rentals pretty much disappeared. This was the first single of their 1995 debut LP "Return of The Rentals". You are probably asking yourself "why do they sound so much like Weezer?" One reason is because The Rentals were a side project involving Weezer bassist Matt Sharp and drummer Patrick Wilson and this LP was recorded in between the first Weezer LP and their 2nd LP, Pinkerton. Matt Sharp left Weezer after Pinkerton but Patrick Wilson continued on with Weezer instead of The Rentals.

The other reason why it sounds so similar is because Ric Ocasek produced both the first Weezer LP and Return of the Rentals. In fact, the addition of female singers and keyboards places The Rentals more in line with the pop sound of The Cars than Weezer's more garage rock sound. The other thing that Ocasek brings to this song is his wife, Paulina Porizkova -- the "P" in "Friends of P". The story goes that Porizkova, an avid palm reader, was lamenting that "nobody cool was writing songs about her now". So apparently Sharp stepped up and wrote this enjoyable and quirky tribute to her.

After several line up changes and a hiatus, The Rentals are active again. I should search out their new material to give it a listen. Until then, revisiting their hit single will have to do.

Links: MTV, YouTube, YouTube. The first YouTube video is a live version on a French TV show (ca. 95-96) and I believe that is Maya Rudolph on keyboards (she toured with the band but did not record or appear in the studio video). The video does not appear to have either Rachel Haden or Petra Haden. The second YouTube version is fan video featuring the lyrics.