Even if it’s a joke, it’s still awesome to hear The Mountain Goats delve into a galaxy far, far away.
Monthly Archives: January 2017
Stan Boreson: 1925 – 2017
A fixture on KING TV during the early days of television, Stan Boreson brought Scandinavian charm, syntax, and style to the JP Patches show.
He passed away Friday January 27 at the age of 91. He continued to be active into his late 80s.
Bring on the great protest songs
So, the first three newly released tracks I’ve heard in 2017 are all protest songs released within the last 10 days or so…portents of things to come?
Seattle music news update
http://q13fox.com/2017/01/26/seattle-pirate-radio-plays-f-donald-trump-song-on-repeat/
Apparently, 101.9FM in Seattle has been broadcasting the song “FDT” on repeat since at least Tuesday.
In other Seattle-music-sentric news, Neil Young will be inducting Pearl Jam into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in April.
It was 20 Years Ago Today…January 1997
Our Lady Peace: Clumsy
In 1994, Our Lady Peace placed their names on the list of music exports from Canada to the United States with the release of Naveed. The single “Starseed” was a moderate hit on Seattle’s KNDD. After a tour and getting back into the studios, Our Lady Peace returned with Clumsy, an album that featured several radio hits and brough a revamped band with an expanded musical palate.
To announce the albums release, “Superman’s Dead” was included as the lead radio single. Meant as a response to media sensationalism, the track emphasizes the idea that ordinary is not good enough any more in an ordinary world, one needs to be extraordinary in order to garner attention. Hence, Superman saving Metropolis would cease to be a sensation, but Superman dying…now there’s a story!
“Superman’s Dead”, even 20 years later, is the biggest single of Our Lady Peace’s musical career. The song continues to garner radio play across the United States and Canada. This is due in large part to the fact that people are able to shout along to the chorus and the “ow a ho ho”.
“Clumsy” the title track, was the second single released from the album and also featured lyrics about dire circumstances, this time about deciding whether or not to watch somebody drown. Obviously, this song has “In the Air Tonight” from which to draw allusions. The contrast being that Our Lady Peace’s song decides to save the person from drowning.
The album saw two more singles, “Carnival” and “4AM”, neither of which am I familiar with. Their follow up album, Happiness…Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch, brought them even more alternative radio acclaim in the form of the single “One Man Army”. Their fourth album, Spiritual, saw yet more radio success in the single “Life”.
Since 2003, the lead singer, Raine Maida, has been active with the War Child charity and was a vocal opponent of the Iraq War. Though the US radio single success has largely dried up, Our Lady Peace have left a four album streak of singles that all saw more success than many of the Canadian breatheren (bar perhaps Alanis Morissette or Barenaked Ladies).
Audioslave reunion 1/20/17 happenings
If this is the way the music year starts, there is bound to be some good shit happening this year. Bring it on…
An address utterly devoid of specifics
After avoiding everything DC related yesterday, I just got done browsing through the inaugural address. Basically the address stated that America belongs to the people again. In the open letter I wrote to Trump back after election day, I stated that I was willing to give his governance a chance, provided he didn’t disenfranchise people.
One of the large differences between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans like trying to legislate morality while Democrats try to protect the rights of the people, even if they don’t agree with those rights. What concerns me about “belongs to the people again” is that it implies it hasn’t been in American hands for a while. Similarly to Make America Great Again, it implies that it is not currently great.
What must be done over the next years and months is holding Trump to his word that he will fight for all American rights. There must not be a roll back of Healthcare as a right, there must not be new provisions put on gay rights, there must not be restrictions put on voting rights.
Either Trump means what he says, or he is openly lying or trying to confuse the truth. Time will tell, but we must pay attention.
Anti-Inauguration Screed
Team by team reporters baffled, trumped….
Information age of hysteria, calling out to Idiot America…
Using all the wrong lines and the wrong signs….
I don’t want your millions, mister…
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten…
idiot…asshole…(alright so this one isn’t specifically about the new guy)
those awful things you say…
From the Vault: “Godzilla ate Tukwila”
This may be the most obscure “From the Vault” I will ever do, but I’ve got a story to tell and felt like telling it so here goes.
I used to listen to this song with some regularity on Music with Moscowitz, a weekend variety show on 106.1FM in Seattle (at the time it was a country station). It played parodies and silly songs (“Fish Heads”, “Yoda”, “The Dueling Dorks”, etc) and this was one of the local favorites.
When I first started collecting music, this was one that eluded me for quite some time. Only a few years ago did I discover why. I had been spelling T-U-K-W-I-L-A with the same craft as Godzilla, with L-L. It wasn’t until I saw the spelling of the city that I was able to find the song on the internets.
Dave Phillips seems to have put out one album and a couple of singles, but it is this track that will forever be tied to his name.
Happy MLK Day!
seattlemusicnerd 