The Streets - The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living (2006)

There was a bit much about this record not living up to the scattershot genius of Original Pirate Material and his new and interesting take on a concept album (that with an uninteresting protagonist), A Grand Don't Come Free but seriously FUCK IT, guys. The Streets' third record finds mixing the usual jumpy and disjointed beats with trance-synthesizer loops that sound like they came straight out of a Snap or Haddaway record. I guess sometimes it's hard to live up to your own hype, and strangely enough that's exactly what this record is about.

Where on the last record, Streets bro Mike Skinner found himself an audience of normal twenty-somethings who try to take money out of the ATM to find they have insufficient funds, this record starts out almost immediately with the pretty widely unrelatable lyric "I get back from tour and suddenly it doesn't seem like much fun to be off my face at quarter to 11am." I think that the deatched-from-reality standpoint on this record is what makes it interesting; mainstream hip-hop is often lyrically talking about how much money you've got and how you spend it. So why is it that when Ghostface Killah or Kanye West rap about money everybody seems proud, but when Mike Skinner does it it seems awkward?

I think it's because Mike Skinner seems like a normal dude, sitting at a laptop making beats and playing videogames like a million other hopeful musicians in the world. I think his honest look at what happens when the mainstream all of a sudden comes to you is quite a bit more relatable than what would happen if Ghostface started rapping about finding a life-changing $1,000 lodged behind his TV. Granted some of the beats and lyrics on this record are a bit much, but that's why The Streets are great... it's got ups and downs, and there can be points on the record when you cringe but there's also moments when you rewind and listen over and over. Also "When You Wasn't Famous" combined British underground white rap and Reggaeton. Best song ever. Blast it.

The Aquabats - Return of the Aquabats (1996)

I think it's weird that the records that keep coming up on my iPod are records I got for review during a very brief period in the 90's when I had a 'zine. Anyway, I remember Fearless Records as a label that only put out authentic punk rock done in a variety of ways; from the rock-and-roll of the Grabbers to the surfiness of Whitekaps to the snottiness of 30footFALL to the metalness of Bigiwg. I remember that I got this to review along with another band I had never heard of called At the Drive-In and I was really fucking confused. I had assumed that Fearless was also jumping on the ska/punk bandwagon, and as a kid who really liked ska/punk I was pretty bummed out to hear no distortion and tons of farfisa organ. And it wasn't recorded very well as far as I was concerned.

Eventually, the Aquabats put out "The Fury..." where they re-recorded a handful of these songs and had two very helpful additions: a better recording studio and Travis Barker. Suddenly there was no denying that this band is genius. Listening back to this record afterwards, it's not bad at all. It's actually pretty good and ACTUALLY it adds a real dimension of charm to hear the Aquabats early stuff; it feels like they were singing about Martian girls and tarantulas because they were nerds, not because they had to be weeeeeird! It's still pretty much a straight up ska record, but where most traditional ska bands reached for the sounds of days of old, The Aquabats were quoting Emilio Estevez and sounding like they were from another fucking planet. After enough time, The Aquabats started experimenting with a lot more styles and really couldn't find a place for ska in their songs anymore, so this album will always hold a special place in my heart. Let's face it, the ska boom was for band-geeks and nothing melts my inner nerd's heart more than a bunch of Mormons putting on day-glo spandex so they can look like superheroes. And naming your first album "Return of..." is always a surefire way of winning full force.

Cleveland Bound Death Sentence - S/T (1999)

Man, I remember how pumped I was when I heard about this supergroup. Paddy from Dillinger Four? Aaron Cometbus from Pinhead Gunpowder, Crimpshrine and a dozen other Berkeley punk bands? Two other folks? Yeah! Count me in. At the end of the day, this record isn't re-inventing the wheel but the fact that it doesn't have that glossy, wall of guitars production that was influencing pop-punk towards the turn of the millennium is quite revolutionary. Before Protools and amp simulators, punk rock records were recorded in makeshift studios and in different environments, thus making the records a product of those environments, giving them personality and adding another layer of character. How fucking interesting! So this was a real breath of fresh air, especially considering the change in sound over the several 7"s that are compiled on this. Maybe this even helped make more bands feel comfortable recording their great pop songs in non-sterile conditions.

Anyway, this record rules. I still listen to it a lot. It's very short, very socially/politically pointed but without being preachy and the sharing of the vocals between Emily, Paddy and Aaron help keep the record from falling into the trappings of track 12 sounding like track 1 and all the other tracks in between. A lot of people describe the Cometbus fanzine as a literary equivalent to a cup of coffee and I think that Aaron writes the same way musically. This record gets in and out, gives you a lot of memorable hooks and leaves you feeling energized and ready to face a shitty day in a shockingly dull American culture that keeps slipping into garbage. Fuck yeah let's go.

Talking Heads - Remain In Light (1980)

Talking Heads are a band that I never really got very into. Like everybody else, I was familiar enough with the singles but I never had any of the full records. Once everybody got MP3 players however, it seemed as if I was the only one. My friend Rick gave me every one their albums assuring me that they are all worth listening to several hundred times, and instead of realizing that I had six or seven great albums I felt more burdened with the pressure of listening to sixty some-odd songs a million times to catch up with everyone else. Naturally, I avoided listening to the records even though they are all still on my iPod waiting to be listened to, and until a day or two ago the only album I've listened to is "Stop Making Sense" which is a live album.

So when this randomly came on my iPod I figured that it's album time to give Talking Heads a shot. For anyone else with the same problem of tackling a behemoth as I have, I would say this is a good place to start. There's a certain style that Talking Heads have on Remain In Light where they eschew the normal cadential songwriting that rock and roll generally follows, with verses and choruses having different chord progressions. Talking Heads start out pretty minimally with only a few chords, and instead of moving forward they let the chords stew with more and more rhythms, instruments and melodies piling on top of it leaving it to David Byrne's narratives and vocal patterns to drive the song forward.

The thing about Remain in Light that makes it so interesting to me as a person in 2008 listening to it for the first time is how much the listener is involved with the songs. You can very easily let it all wash over you, but at the same time there are so many nuances in the layers and layers and layers of instruments that you could listen to single songs for hours and still discover new things. This record also doesn't sound dated at all, and that might have to do with the fact that LCD Soundsystem has already brought Talking Heads' style to a new set of fans, but it's also because instead of relying heavily on synthesizers (which is detrimental to most records in the 80's), this record is all about percussion and performance. When they do cave into strange keyboard sounds, like the ones in the solo in "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)", they play the parts and play with the sounds so creatively that it still sounds like it's from the future. And for a record that came out almost 30 years ago at this point, that's saying an awful lot.

Bouncing Souls - S/T (1997)

Aside from a few scattered compilation tracks, a review copy of this record was my introduction to the Bouncing Souls. As an early teenager, it seemed as if the punk community was trying to keep the Bouncing Souls a secret and consequently some backlash from the underground ensued when the band signed to Epitaph. However, when bands would usually take this jump to a big time as a chance to take advantage of a huge budget to make their first big glossy record, the Souls' first Epitaph record is more of a victory song. The production is better, but the band is playing faster and at some points sloppier than ever. I remember the first time I heard this record a friend told me it was bullshit because the drummer was skipping beats on the kick drum because he couldn't play the songs as fast as he wanted to properly. I always thought that was really endearing and proof that the Bouncing Souls were just a really good punk band filled with normal people that wrote good enough songs to get on Epitaph without any bullshit posturing.

This record has a lot of really great ups: "Kate is Great" is one of the most poignant anthems for the punk underground in the nineties, "Cracked" manages to be a fitting tribute to 80's punk/hardcore while maintaining its own sloppy personality and "Single Successful Guy" makes me feel like I'm driving around in the summer with the top down on a convertible even if I'm riding on the J train in the cold winter months. Even throwaway tracks like "Whatever I Want (Whatever That Is)" the organ-driven instrumental jam "The Screamer" are brimming with fun and life that the band has sadly been lacking since this record.

This record marks a transition. Afterwards, the Bouncing Souls would start doing things that band who sign to a larger label do: honing their specific pop-punk sound, touring relentlessly and thus seeming less passionate on stage, and experimenting with dynamics and other instruments in a more refined way. You can even see it a little bit in this album. Whereas The Good, The Bad and the Argylewas a cohesive album ostensibly built around 80's nostalgia and Maniacal Laughter was a furious blast that seemed to just say "FUUUCK YOUUUU" to everything, this record lacks that cohesion which is essentially a sign of things to come. However, that doesn't stop the songs on this record from being fucking awesome and even eleven years later I'll still sing along to every word.

Squirtgun - Another Sunny Afternoon (1997)

It's gotta be hard to have a voice that is so over-the-top that it borders on unlistenable. This is the downfall of Squirtgun, who you may know from the Mallrats soundtrack, as they sang the opening credits jam "Social." When I was first getting into pop-punk the voice was really tough to get past, but when I received a review copy of this for my old 'zine it just came blazing out of the gate so well that the voice seemed more and more charming with each track.

I don't understand what it is about what it is about early-90's Lookout Records pop-punk, but it seems like every record put out in this period was pretty much a classic. Another Sunny Afternoon starts out faaaaaast with "Field Trip" and the wall-of-guitars/direct-springy-bass production just screams 1995 but that's alright. This is followed with a handful of songs about girls and the fabulous "Butterbean," a simple slow pop song that for some reason kills me every time I listen to it. I guess it's tough to follow such a strong opening set of songs up, and for a bit of it, Squirtgun can't really, venturing into a terrible ska song (hey, remember the 90's?), one or two boring straight forward rockers, and a retread of "Butterbean" that just isn't as good.

Now, that's not to say this record is bad. Sure, the voice is a bit grating, the bass is overplayed and the second half of the record isn't as good as the first half. But from the day-glo cartoon packaging to the production of the record, these songs just jump out of the speakers like a million cans of soda exploding and it's hard not to love it. If Squirtgun were to release this album today it wouldn't go as unnoticed as it did and it would still remain fresh, but it came out at such a good time for pop-punk that it's slight downfalls unfortunatelycaused it to be ignored.

Pearl Jam - Vitalogy (1994)

For all the credit Nirvana gets with changing music forever, the band that was really at the head of the "grunge" music (an therefore destroying hair metal) was Pearl Jam and everyone seems to forget this, maybe even Pearl Jam themselves. Sure, Nirvana's music has certainly stood up better over time and was arguably more unique, but before April 1994 Pearl Jam were the kings. When Nirvana were whining about how hard it is to be famous and talking about how great these little bands were, Pearl Jam were using their fame to take on the giants: refusing to make videos and cater to MTV, refusing to sell their tickets through ticketmaster even though it crippled their career and releasing this record on vinyl two weeks before it's release date to bring vinyl back. All I'm sayin' is you need to wonder what would have happened if Eddie Vedder had killed himself instead of Kurt Cobain.

But at the same time, Pearl Jam is responsible for a slew of terrible bands who channel Eddie Vedder's deep and intense cowl and layer it on top of uninteresting middle of the road rock. Vitalogy as it turns out, was the last Pearl Jam album that would matter. Pop-punk would soon overshadow it, and the band's refusal to channel mainstream media outlets really stunted their growth. It kicks off with a fucking fierce one-two punch for a mainstream rock album, the second fist being "Spin the Black Circle" which not only the best Pearl Jam song ever, but probably the best, if not most ignored, single released during this era. To hear this on the radio was proof that Pearl Jam was not going to lose any footing because of Green Day, or Kurt Cobian's suicide or their public legal battles.

So why did they? I guess to put it simply, the rest of the album is uneven. Though songs like "Not For You" and "Nothingman" start out pretty promising, a lack of chord changes robs them of the necessary forward momentum to make them interesting for their five or six-minute lengths. They also insert little jam sessions such as "Pry, To" and "Ave Davinita" which while they sound like they were fun to play, they sound out of place - almost as if someone just cut little snippets of Pearl Jam screwing around and put it on the record. And although it kicks off with Eddie Vedder's voice sounding better than ever, he often falls into the trappings that made grunge a trend instead of a real genre.

Instead of being the masterpiece that Pearl Jam were clearly going for with it's elaborate artwork and semi-conceptual format, this turned out to be the last CD of an era. It's kind of a shame because when they write good songs, Pearl Jam are one of the best. Take "Corduroy" for example, the song was so damn good that despite a minute long intro and outro that had little to do with the meat of the song and being the only song without lyrics in the insert, was so powerful that radio just started playing it and it became a single. But where this record has obvious standout hits (just like Ten!) and honestly furious tracks (just like Vs.!), the low points are just too low and inconsistent to make this record say anything except "grunge is dead."