I’m sorry, but I get so sick of new music sometimes. It’s not that I want to live stuck in the late ‘8os or ’90s, enveloped by the past, but I need to see where I’ve been. Not to get all Nick Hornsby here, but I want access to the personal history that comes with MY music. Case in point: Sam and I went to see The Wedding Present on Thursday night in Pontiac (where, apparently, Elvis split his pants playing at the Silverdome), and it was awesome. David Gedge has been making music since 1985, and we’ve been listening to it for almost long, and it felt so good to hear him rip through “Kennedy” and screw up the lyrics to “Crawl” and play half of the Seamonsters album and turn “I-5” into the most intense therapy session. So with this post, I wanted to tap into similar memories, like walking up the Lake Michigan bike path from Hyde Park to Grant Park to see Paul Westerberg play the 1996 Chicago TasteFest wearing a bright yellow suit. I’ll keep the rest of my stories of Westerberg and The Replacements to myself, and let you know that, 1) Paul has been recording and releasing single, studio session length MP3s recently, and 2) a bunch of Replacements albums were remastered and rereleased a week or two ago. Also, for anyone still reading, I can offer one of the best songs ever recorded in the whole history of music (“We May Be The Ones”) and a handful of other tracks kindly provided by Vagrant Records, so you start making some of your own history.
The Comas
It’s my birthday, and I was looking for something trashy and indulgent to enjoy — high fat, high sugar, high gloss, whatever. The Comas seem to fit the bill. As Sean suggested in his original post, the Comas are all about the 90s, which was, if I remember right, a decade of decadence — personal computing, stock market insanity, Monica Lewinsky, etc. So enjoy “Red Microphones” and a whole bag of sea salt and black pepper potato chips, or whatever strikes your fancy.
Red Microphones [MP3, 3.8MB, 160kbps]
Sean’s original post: 02/28/06
With their recent signing to Vagrant Records, an interesting addition to their roster in my opinion, and raving press in Rolling Stone, Magnet, and Spin I’d be a little surprised if you hadn’t heard of The Comas. I say a little surprised because even though I own their last record, Conductor, I must confess it never made the transfer to my iPod and has been regretfully neglected until a recent half-hearted attempt at organizing my music collection. The Comas are so ’90s. I mean that in a good, remember-when-indie-rock-was-still-indie, kind of way. They could have been the band who claimed the throne rightfully belonging to The Pixies if The Pixies wouldn’t have made their comeback. These days though, with so many “indie” bands making inroads into the mainstream, there’s ample room for The Comas to do the same.
Lemonheads
(With all the excitement of Steve Martin in The Jerk upon discovering his new phonebooks…) The new Lemonheads is here! The new Lemonheads is here! My goose has been all up in a gander anticipating the new album. Evan Dando recorded it with reigning punk rock producer Bill Stevenson of The Descendents working the boards (and drums). J. Mascis’ guitar geniusly underscores this track. I know Lemonheads fans were hoping for a return to form. Sounds like they got it…
Audio Learning Center
Audio Learning Center were once members of grunge-era misfits Pond and Sprinkler, bands that disappeared before anyone could notice. “Stereo,” pairing anthemic crescendos with Chris Brady’s endearingly fragile vocals, may just right that wrong.