Column: The Switchback

We find new parallels in stacking up artists from yesterday to those of today

The Switchback: Spunky Punks of Gen X and Y, Mia Zapata vs. Jemina Pearl

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published on June 7, 2011

While the majority of Seattle’s rock community in the early ’90s was testing a sound that blended the blister of the Ramones with the bluster of Zeppelin, Ohio transplants the Gits kept their punk unfiltered. The band bashed out sharp barre chord combinations with a bluesy twist that perfectly accentuated singer Mia Zapata’s deep, gutsy attack. With a throat that rivaled Joplin, Zapata could make her heartache and bitterness reverberate in your rib cage. She sang like she had lived more than a few lifetimes of stinging romantic ventures intertwined with alcohol-soaked regrets.

1992′s Frenching the Bully was a diamond drill of raw nerve, one that ground its targets into a fine gruel. Is there any other punk dis tracks as visceral or eviscerating as “Here’s to Your Fuck?” When Zapata hits that final verse (“Now baby, this is the fuckin’ end / You sure gotta fucked up way of makin’ friends!”), it’s the way she holds out those last two words that lets you know she’s just done with this backstabbing high school drama bullshit forever. It’s rage just about to boil over the pot, and the fact that she sounds barely able to …read more

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The Switchback: Nick Lowe’s Labour of Lust vs. Britney Spears’ Femme Fatale

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published on March 26, 2011

I’m not going to ply you with rock critic bullshit here: Nick Lowe’s second album and Britney Spears’ seventh sound nothing like each other. What I’m here to talk about are the signifiers they share and how the same shapes in pop are appealing—not just over time but across generations too. While we claim to love songs about making love, shallow sex is a classic rock ‘n’ roll trope, and its devious cousin, the cheap pickup line, is not lacking in stock then or now. With single-entendre hard-rock gone the way of all Nickelback and Hinder, and sincere-oblique indie’s exponential Billboard growth, it’s hard to say whether or not people are actually hungering for cheap carnality again. One new release and one reissue this month may determine that once and for all.

Britney Spears isn’t exactly a staple for the Crawdaddy! audience, and as one of those damned poptimists myself, I’m the first to admit your record collection’s not lacking much for what you haven’t heard. 2001’s Britney and 2007’s Blackout are fascinating and often surprising albums with some very good songs, if not listenable transience. 2008’s album track “Unusual You” is a melancholy dancefloor masterpiece; “Piece of Me” her greatest, funniest statement. But that’s about it, until now. …read more

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The Switchback: A Name Game Starring M.I.A. and M.I.A.

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published on February 4, 2011

Follow music long enough and it will slowly be revealed to you that many of history’s greatest band names have been used at least once before. In 1967, the year Kurt Cobain was born, Patrick Campbell-Lyons and Alex Spyropoulos formed a progressive rock act called Nirvana that experienced a fine amount of success in their native UK until the grunge explosion of the early ’90s wiped them out of the history books. Also in the UK, circa 1980, sprung forth an anarcho punk band named Anthrax; no one would ever dare confuse them with the wild-haired, rap-obsessed Long Island thrash band that came together a year later.

Don’t even get me started on the two Undeads, who basically just tolerated each other for a couple decades until the New Jersey Undead brought a trademark case against the California Undead in 2006. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled in favor of the former Undead because the latter Undead couldn’t legally prove they were a band prior to 2002 (even though there are probably at least one or two old fanzines lying around somewhere that could cement the fact the CA Undead existed a full four years before the NJ Undead). The wildest part of this Undead kerfuffle is that the two bands apparently played a show together once long before all this legal back and forth. Why the California Undead waited so long to try and copyright their name is anyone’s guess (cough cough drugs cough cough).

The Undeads actually could have learned a lesson from two competing bands in the mid-1970s named after a certain racial slur. The New York N-words (I’m not even kidding) helped listeners differentiate from the Detroit N-words by abbreviating their name to N.Y.N. Of course, paring California Undead and New Jersey Undead down to acronyms probably would have made them sound like competing trade schools. CAU let me keep all the tools in my tool belt! …read more

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The Switchback: The Delicious Decadence of the Time and Cee Lo Green

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published on November 11, 2010

“You don’t know ‘Jungle Love?’ That shit is the mad note! Written by God herself and handed down to the greatest band in the world—the motherfuckin’ Time!”

Interesting choice of words the character Jay uses early on in Kevin Smith’s 2001 magnum opus Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. “Written by God herself” not only slyly references Smith’s earlier film Dogma, in which Alanis Morissette played the Lord n’ Savior, but also serves as a nod toward the fact tiny effeminate superstar Prince wrote and recorded most of Morris Day and the Time’s material. Sure, Morris Day and Time guitarist Jesse Johnson got a writing credit on “Jungle Love”, but that may have been a mere formality. The only people who know for sure are Day, Johnson, and Prince, and do you really think any of them are going to tell the truth about who did what to craft Jay and Silent Bob’s favorite party anthem?

This leads me to another ageless ponderable: Do Time fans face the ultimate identity crisis? By saying you’re a fan of the Time, aren’t you basically just admitting to subsidized Prince fandom? I mean, the only reason this band existed was because Prince watched The Idolmaker and decided it was a good idea to follow Ray Sharkey’s lead in terms of creating a separate funk pop band that could act as a retainer for the “classic” Prince sound. The fussy artist could still write stuff like “Uptown” and just hand it off to this new assembly of musicians (thereby appeasing his most fickle fans) while simultaneously exploring the “more profound” musical genres where his interests really lay. No wonder they used to call this guy Purple Yoda.

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Piano Men: Elton John vs. Mark Mallman

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published on October 6, 2010

Elton John: Photo by Ken FriedmanAll right so it’s no contest: Sir Elton, aka Captain Fantastic and one half of a famous songwriting partnership that’s produced number ones and top 10s up the yin yang, versus a dude from the Midwest of whom you’ve yet to hear. But consider if you will some interesting parallels between one of rock’s greatest entertainers—the outrageous pianoman schooled in the tradition of wild men of the keys from Jerry Lee Lewis to Little Richard to Fats Domino—and a similarly flamboyant but awkward gentleman from Milwaukee via Minneapolis. Sure, the former has a wardrobe that made Liberace look conservative, eyeware that rivals Dame Edna, is host of his own Oscar party, and lives a sober life of AIDS activism, while only Mallman’s closest friends know for sure what he does in his free time. But I assure you, once you get to know him, you’ll embrace Mallman (who’s nicknamed “The Fastest Piano in the Midwest”) like a brother: He’s already been compared by others to Meatloaf and Harry Nillson, and let’s just say that makes him a whole lot more interesting than say, Ben Folds, whose only reasonable prior decade’s comparison is Billy Joel.

As you may’ve heard by now, Elton John was born Reg Dwight in 1947 in Middlesex, England, before becoming Elton (after Elton Dean, and John, after Long John Baldry) in 1967. For the record, Mallman was born in 1973, the year John released his pivotal albums Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player, the latter including the piano-banging “Crocodile Rock.”

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Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde vs. Ochs’ Pleasures of the Harbor

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published on August 18, 2010

In the early ‘60s, two giant talents appeared on the streets of New York City’s Greenwich Village—Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs. Both musicians had individual styles that set them apart from other folksingers of the time, and both first became known as protest singers, although Ochs preferred the term “topical songwriter.” It has been said that there was a long-running feud between the two artists, but with 20/20 hindsight, it seems it was more of a friendly rivalry.

Like all friends, Ochs and Dylan had their ups and downs, complicated by the relentless touring both artists undertook in an effort to bring their message to the masses. In 1965, Dylan famously told London’s Melody Maker magazine, “I just can’t keep up with Phil. And he just keeps getting better and better and better.” It’s also well known that Ochs admired Dylan’s verbal and musical prowess. Their careers had a similar track, moving from protest songs to pop, but by the time Ochs cut his first album, the acoustic All the News That’s Fit to Sing (1964), Dylan was getting ready to shock folkies by going electric at the Newport Folk Festival, just months after the March ‘65 release of Bringing It All Back Home, the last album to feature his acoustic guitar for decades. It’s hard to know if Dylan’s move to rock inspired Ochs to write the pop songs that appeared on Pleasures of the Harbor, but no record company, much less stodgy old A&M, would have taken a chance on Ochs if Dylan hadn’t proved the commercial viability of what was then called folk-rock.

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Screeching Weasel vs. Teenage Bottlerocket: The Battle Near the Cattle

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published on June 23, 2010

Screeching Weasel“Screeching Weasel on their worst day is a million times better than Teenage Bottlerocket on their best day.”

So spoketh Queers frontman Joe King in a 2007 interview with Chuck Wurley. It’s hard to get a handle on this particular diss, as Joe’s been known to verbally dagger even those he loves (in the interview I conducted with him for Crawdaddy!, J. King took swipes at beloved Queers producer Mass Giorgini and one of his own musical heroes, Leslie Gore). Maybe Joe really does have a severe distaste for Teenage Bottlerocket. Maybe Joe was just sticking up for his old-school bro Ben Weasel. Maybe it’s a whole Jerry Lawler/Andy Kaufman thing Joe cooked up in his mind to break T Bottlerocket. All I know is you can’t necessarily take at face value anything said by the man who wrote Beyond The Valley Of The Assfuckers.

Yet, I still respect Joseph King, and I enjoy both Screeching Weasel and Teenage Bottlerocket, so I must ponder this quizzical statement. How equivalent are these bands to one another on any given day of the week?

Truth be told, both Screeching Weasel and Teenage Bottlerocket at their worst just shamelessly ape the Ramones, rattling off tepid swill about the basement and/or the numerous clinical drugs Joey Ramone preferred chomping on. Sadly, I think ripping off the Jeans From Queens is a prerequisite for every pop-punk band in the post-Brain Drain world. Write a few “I Wanna Do This” songs, write a few “I Don’t Wanna Do That” songs, adopt silly surnames (SW once hosted a Vinnie Bovine and a Steve Cheese, at the same time), throw in a few elements of B-grade horror—oh my God, Fat Wreck Chords is on the phone, they want to release your first split 7″ and put you on a tour with the Real McKenzies.

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Edumacation: They Might Be Giants vs. the Dimes

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published on February 3, 2010

They Might Be GiantsAttempting to trick children into learning is a tradition that is probably as old as teaching itself. From Dick and Jane to Sesame Street to Dora the Explorer, educational materials combining lessons with illustrations, music, and mojo have long been used to make reading, writing, and arithmetic fun. Sure. When they’re too preachy or dry, kids usually wise up; when they’re superficial, parents don’t usually take the bait. But when they’re done just right, everybody wins.

Popular music made for kids often has an edutainment bent, and in recent years there has been quite a few indie artists working in this mold, including performers as varied as the Moldy Peaches’ Kimya Dawson (whose 2007 work Alphabutt is a parental favorite, despite its plethora of pooh and fart jokes) and the Dino 5 (an underground hip-hop supergroup composed of members of the Roots, Digable Planets, and Jurassic 5). The year just past saw a pair of particularly standout educational albums: They Might Be Giants’ Here Comes Science and the Dimes’ American-history focused The King Can Drink the Harbour Dry. Both are aimed at older kids, and both expertly incorporate fairly heady academics with catchy, memorable songs displaying high levels of musicianship. The question is: Which group sets the curve?

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The Side Projects of Jack White and Josh Homme

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published on January 27, 2010

Jack White: Photo by David SwansonOver the past couple of years, my inbox has teemed with press releases making ample use of the word “supergroup.” It seemed that 2008-09 were to bands what 1978-79 were to marriage—indie artists worth their salt need to partner swap to stay with it. Sticking the tour van keys into a bowl at the beginning of the party, M. Ward and Jim James pulled out Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis’ to form Monsters of Folk, while James Iha and Adam Schlesinger got Taylor Hanson and Bun E. Carlos to form the weirdest generational mash up ever, Tinted Windows. But a couple of greedy gents dipped their mitts in twice, forming bands on the side of their side bands, and only one will be allowed to get away with it.

Jack White and Josh Homme are both reigning kings of the retro-rock scene: The former for founding two-piece garage-rock machine the White Stripes, and the latter for leading the rowdy riff rock of Queens of the Stone Age. White got a jump on the supergroup trend when, in 2005, he formed the Raconteurs with Brendan Benson and Greenhorns members Patrick Keeler and Jack Lawrence, and then doubled down in 2009, sliding behind the drum set and bringing Jack Lawrence along to form the Dead Weather with the Kills’ Alison Mosshart and QOTSA’s Dean Fertita. Homme’s first side project—Eagles of Death Metal,which started in 1998, with its first album released in 2004—avoids the supergroup label, as its main lineup contains only Homme and friend Jesse “The Devil” Hughes, while his 2009 collaboration with Dave Grohl and legendary Led Zepplin bassist John Paul Jones is the textbook definition of the supergroup cliché, bringing together three rock powerhouses.

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Psych Dread: Grateful Dead vs. the Boredoms

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published on January 12, 2010

Grateful Dead vs. Boredoms

I was randomly matched with two other freshmen in a large, undivided dorm and expected to live civilly for a full year. One guy I initially expected to get along with, since before moving we’d both thought to coordinate who should bring the turntable. Turned out his vinyl collection included mostly Phish, assorted ’90s alternative, and the compulsory classic rock albums.

He had recently begun growing dreadlocks. Each knotted, three-inch lump bobbed at an odd angle, unsure whether to be pulled up by the roots or down by gravity. When I ridiculed that he always cued Sublime when company was around, he was shocked and said, “I thought everybody likes Sublime.” He added derisively, “I guess it’s not one of those bands.”

At the time, it was clear that he couldn’t be any more wrong about my music. My CD book contained everything from folk to hardcore to jazz. I was too eclectic to grudgingly admit the truth of his statement. The truth was that both of us fell pretty neatly within opposing demographics. He was a crunch and I was a hipster. As infantile as these labels might seem, they tore us apart and made friendship impossible.

The chains of lifestyle marketing have become so pervasive that very similar musical styles can seem worlds apart to fans. The Grateful Dead lies near the beginning of a long tradition of psychedelic music. Every music fan is entitled to love the Grateful Dead without shame. Like almost any music from the Edenic 1960s, the Grateful Dead can appeal equally to high schoolers, investment bankers, artists, and jocks.

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