Tuesday, June 11, 2024: TWOfer Tuesday - Sex Bob-Omb Edition

 

I avoid playing favorites, usually, but I honestly have to give it up for probably my favorite fictional band, Toronto's own Sex Bob-Omb.

From the movie Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, Sex Bob-Omb puts the power back into Power Trio.  The band is fronted by vocalist and guitarist Stephen Stills, aka "The Talent" (Mark Webber), with bassist Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), drummer Kim Pine (Alison Pill), and Young Neil, aka "Obviously NOT The Talent", (Johnny Simmons), who just hangs about and subs on bass whenever Scott can't be asked. 

The movie's music supervisor Nigel Godrich described the fictional punk band, Sex Bob-Omb as either “genius” or “complete shit."  This is exactly how I feel about Devo.  And sometimes The Doors.

Michael Cera could already play the bass guitar, but Webber, Pill, and Simmons had to learn their instruments, see below:

Indie superstar musician, singer, songwriter Beck wrote the songs for Sex Bob-Omb in just two days.  “It needed to be underthought,” Beck says. “They had to be funny, but I also wanted them to sound raw. like demos.”  The songs end up being a wonderful mix of  lo-fi indie rock sound of Pavement, the minimalist, gritty approach of The White Stripes, catchy hooks reminiscent of The Strokes, with the ghost of "Bleach" era Nirvana subtly haunting the vibes and production value.  And how the hell Stephen Stills supposedly gets that tone out of that beaten up acoustic guitar is beyond me. But it's glorious.

If you've never seen Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, do yourself a favor and check it out.  The film kicks as much ass as the characters, and the soundtrack. The world right now is filled with boring, uptight, stale and restrained movies, SPVTW is a call back to when movies took real chances to be fun, entertaining, experimental, smart, giddy and loud.

Thursday, August 23, 2012: Bob Dylan - Jokerman

In 1988, the Beach Boys had a #1 hit with the song Kokomo.  It was The Beach Boys' first #1 hit in the United States since "Good Vibrations" in 1966.

And that was the thing, see.  I doubt anyone had ever expected The Beach Boys to have any other #1 hits. Ever.  Especially since 20+ years had passed since their last #1.  The best of their catalog was way back in the 1960's.  Their songs were classic.  But Classic = Old.  You got the feeling like they were the very definition of the term Resting On Your Laurels.

The 80's were like that.  Growing up in the 80's, you got the impression that, unless you were very into computers, the best things to ever happen to the world had already happened.  Way back when.  The 1940's, the 1950's (very popular in the 1980's), and the 1960's were all held up as those golden years, those halcyon days, the best of days.  I think Bob Dylan wrestled with a large portion of that sentiment.

Like the Beach Boys, the conventional wisdom was that all his best stuff happened in the 60's.  He, and his generation, helped change the world.  The answers just simply blew in the wind, back then.  His songs were the soundtrack to the evolution and revolution of those turbulent times.  A beautiful encapsulation of those powerful days.  Then the 70's rolled around.  As Jim Morrison famously sang, "Let's change the mood from glad to sadness." No lyric better describes that transition between those decades.  Dylan was full electric by then, and becoming less and less relevant.  Oh, he still had a couple of classic albums in him, Blood On The Tracks for instance.  But it was no Blonde On Blonde.  And everyone knew it.

In the late Seventies, Dylan found religion and sang about it for a couple of albums, Slow Train Coming (1979) and Saved (1980).  Both have great moments, but aren't necessarily great albums.  1981's Shot Of Love marks his transition from being a "Christian" artist to going back to just being an artist.  It was a lackluster effort, and hardly anyone remembers it.  Then, in October 1983, he released his 22nd studio album Infidels.

Produced mostly by Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler, Infidels isn't a great album compared with the traditional Bob Dylan Canon. It, too, is no Blonde On Blonde. But, away from those impossible comparisons, Infidels is, on it's own, a very good album. It is also a fantastically underrated album. And, compared to anything else released in 1983, it is an album that has aged magnificently well.

Listen to Jokerman, then go listen to anything else released that year.  The soundtrack for Flashdance, for instance, or Mental Health by Quiet Riot, or Can't Slow Down by Lionel Richie.  Can you listen to those albums and not think of pastel colors, Nagel prints and neon light fixtures of palm trees?  I thought not.

Infidels, and specifically Jokerman, needs to start seeping, slowly, into the Canon.  If the Canon isn't already closed.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012: The "Bob Seger Will Be Around Longer Than Bruce Springsteen" Edition

When I was growing up in the 1970's & 1980's, I was all about Bruce Springsteen and Bob Seger.

This was weird considering I grew up in suburban Southern California. Being a fan of two rockers who spoke more to the sensibilities of the Mid-West rust belt and East Coast hustlers just didn't fit the scene.

Most of my friends were into New Wave, New Romantics, Punk, Rap, Heavy Metal, 70's Soul and just about everything else. None of them wanted to listen to songs about how working in a factory stole your life and soul, or how you used to work on an assembly line making Thunderbirds. There were no factories where I was from. Only malls.

There are many other rockers who fit into the working man's middle America rock category, Tom Petty and John Mellencamp also come to mind. But for me, it really came down to Bruce and Bob.

There is a truth within Bob Seger songs that just isn't present in Springsteen's. When I say truth, I mean honesty. Bruce was always more about imagery and poetry. Bruce's debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ really was trying to match Bob Dylan's verbosity through the prism of mescaline and speed.

Early Bob Seger just wanted to Get Out Of Denver.

The characters in Springsteen's songs were larger than life. Well, that is before he wrote Tunnel Of Love. Then, like his personal life, it all came crashing down. Bruce has gone back to painting with that large, romanticized brush since The Rising, however. Bob? He's sold one of his top 5 best songs ever to a large auto maker and has just kept rocking.

And that's sort of the most basic appeal Bob Seger has for me. Bob Seger had a record deal and a hit on the charts four years before Springsteen released his first record. And while Springsteen has flirted with folk music and some other career variations, Bob Seger still writes songs for those guys and gals who worked on the long vanished factory assembly lines.

And 100 years down the road, when it's all said and done and history has gone through it's first draft and is in the process of the early revisions, Bob Seger's songs will come out on top. Just listen to Against The Wind. From 1980's album of the same name, I dare you, I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU to find any other song released in 1980 that sounds as fresh, clean, clear and relevant than Against The Wind. This is a song for the ages, with Seger's powerful voice (he was always a better vocalist than Springsteen) cutting through that lament of loss, regret and dreams unrealized. Or, take Hollywood Nights, the vibrant excitement of those anything-can-happen nights, with those Hollywood hills the perfect poetic representation of the ups and downs, cliffs and valleys of a life lived to the full.

These are songs that still sound outstanding today. They don't sounds stuffy or dated, or "classic" or whatever. Kids, adults, people of all types still experience these emotions, and will continue to do so for as long as guys and girls get together, then drift apart.

Bob Seger is an American vocalist and songwriter for the ages, along with Bob Dylan and Woodie Gutherie. And wherever the human race stands in 100 years, there will always be those who are listening to Bob Seger.  When all the factories are gone, when all the Thunderbirds are in museums, there will still be Bob Seger.  And Bob, like the rock that his is, will be reminding them that while time changes everything, while sweet 16 will always become 31, Rock and Roll Never Forgets.

Wednesday, December 29,, 2010: B.o.B feat. Bruno Mars - Nothing On You

Here's a bright ray of summer sunshine for these cold, closing moments of 2010.

Honestly, were would music be without songs about trying to pick up on pretty girls?

The world would be a dark, dismal and hopeless place without those great odes to the pick up, the chat up, the "Hey, girl, look at me" music that dominates most pop culture, and has done since the first guy with a lute tried to impress some Medieval wench with his musical prowess

And, besides, without the hook up songs, why would we need break up songs?