#13 Alex Chilton - The Replacements

I'm a new convert to The Replacements.  When I say new, I mean only this year.  Its criminal really, you would think that someone who loves R.E.M. Sonic Youth and the Pixies would seek out another underground 80's band.  But no, for whatever reason I hadn't.  I had heard, and liked, the two Paul Westerberg solo songs on the Singles soundtrack (one of the best soundtracks around), Dyslexic Heart and Waiting for Somebody.  


Alex Chilton encapsulates all that I love in music. Its about loving music and loving bands, especially bands that aren't that popular.  Its about wishing that your favourite band would be the biggest in the world, and that everyone can get the same feeling that you do, even though you know thats not going to happen.


Don't get me wrong I equally dislike indie hipsters as I do people who love only vacuous top 40 auto tuned madness.   Music should't be about having to apply a veneer of hipster coolness to yourself, its not about wearing skinny jeans or whatever is 'hip' at the time. Music should be about passion and how a song makes you feel, even if you are wearing bootcuts.  Sometimes your musical hero's just aren't that cool at a certain time.  But they are cool to you.  And that is all that matters.


"Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton when he comes 'round
They sing "I'm in love. What's that song?
I'm in love with that song."


The Replacements - Alex Chilton

#12 She's leaving home - The Beatles

Where does one start with The Beatles.  I mean its the bloody Beatles. I could write a whole blog on my favourite Beatles songs.  But I won't

She's Leaving Home is, believe it or not, a song which has come to my attention only recently.  Sgt Pepper, for all its acclaim, never came into my possession until fairly recently.  The quality of the CD (until the recent remasters) really put me off.  It sounded tinny and while it was good, it just didn't sound right.  When I actually listened to the album properly was actually in the middle of a 12 hour flight to Shanghai on my way to Ireland.  I am a pretty bad flyer and while going through some equator-crossing turbulence I happened upon Sgt Peppers on the in flight entertainment.  My heart was racing, the plane was jolting about, and then She's leaving home came on.  I'm not sure if it was the Rescue Remedy kicking in, but I was immediately calm. Serene. Stress free.  Cheers Nothern Songs Ltd.

It's a thing of pure beauty. McCartney's lead vocal.  Lennon's refrain.  The strings.  The melancholic lyrics of a parents sadness about their growing up and leaving.  The final Bye bye. Its all there.  And its not even my favourite Beatle song.  Sgt Pepper isn't even my favourite Beatle album (that goes to Rubber Soul, which I will get to in the future)

The ability for music to change emotions in the human mind has always fascinated me.  How can a piece of music evoke such feelings?  I guess its what separates us from the animals.

In any case I'm not Freud so I will keep believing that the mystery of it all is the best part.

Enjoy the song, preferably with headphones on, and listening to the mono version.*



And a nice little doco here on the making of it:



*I have just recently come into posession of the Beatles albums in mono.  And wow, they are amazing.  Don't be like me and think that the stereo version is automtically better. They are not.  The mono versions are how the Beatles themselves wanted the songs.  More here.

#11 Days on end - Pine

Actually this is really an excuse to have a bit of a bitch at NZ Music.  What has set me off is I just got a card from ASB bank for 20 free songs for NZ music month.  Wow, I thought, that's really cool, I can download 20 songs of my choice.  Then when I read the card I got the sinking feeling.  And it got me thinking.
Sure enough, not 20 songs of my choice.  Not even 20 NZ songs of my choice.  No no, 20 NZ songs automatically chosen and downloaded to my computer.  Of the 20, I now have 6.  It saddened me a bit.  Not to sound ungrateful, but Opshop, Midnight Youth? Dane Rumble?  It's bad enough you can't get through an All Blacks game without being subjected to it.

And that's what has angered me about NZ music and NZ Music Month.  Its lowest common denominator.  There is no creativity in what is supported or pushed.  It's basically, "this is what is popular at the moment, where is the NZ version."  We want the next Kings of Leon, here's Midnight Youth.  Quirky pop is selling, hello Kirsten Morrell.

Compare that give away to Arch Hill records.  They recently gave away about the same number of songs from artists on their roster.  And this was music you most likely haven't heard on ZM. Interesting music that wasn't ripping off anyone else.

I remember hearing Pine for the first time back in 2003.  It wasn't close to anything that was popular at that time.  It was quirky, a bit different.  That was what made NZ music different, there was an almost rejection of what was popular. Look at the Flying Nun bands, they were left of centre while still keeping their pop sensibilities, and not really like anything else around.  It's sad to see really because there are still some good NZ bands around (eg. The Phoenix Foundation) but if they don't want to become some bland derivative ripoff, a lot find it really hard to survive.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for supporting NZ music, but if I walk into a cafe and have to be subjected to Fat Freddies Drop or the Black Seeds I may just scream.  Reggae was cool for a bit, but man, if you release the same album four times it gets really boring.

So my little attempt here is to broadcast a nice little band called Pine (Also on Arch Hill).  They play simple lo-fi pop music.  Catchy and very hooky.  And they have been around for about 10 years.  Have a listen, I like them, hope you do too.

#10 Sadrach - The Beastie Boys

Hip hop. What's happened to you?  You've changed.  You used to be cool.  It used to be about the music...

Of course being white, my first exposure to hip hop was the Beastie Boys. But it was a good place to start.

I only really 'got' hip hop after I finished high school.  Going through school it was quite frowned upon to listen to rap or r'n'b in fact I really hated it with a passion.  I really couldn't relate to gangsta rap, too many 'bitches and ho's and bling' for a person eating up alternative music which preached the direct opposite.  Maybe that's why I gravitated to the Beastie Boys, because they were so different to the gangsta rap that was so predominant in the late 90's.  And for me, they were so goddamn cool.  The archetypal 90's band, drenched in irony.

Listening to the Beastie Boys is like looking at an encyclopaedia of pop culture.  In Sadarach squeeze in references to Rambo, Charles Dickens, JD Salinger and Harry S Truman, amongst others.

And the music.  I have been listening to a bit of hip hop lately and it is cliced, but hip hop really has died a slow and painful death.  Where are the beats?  Where is the sampling?  Sampling was the best thing about hip hop.  The fact that you can turn something like a Beatles song on its head without descending in sacrilege. That was the art of hip hop.

So thank you Beastie Boys for constantly being able to produce smart, creative hip hop without losing all self respect and credibility like this. And this.

Enjoy hip hop before It was acquired in a hostile takeover by major record labels, homogenised, then sold off piece by piece.

#9 Vasoline - Stone Temple Pilots

This follows on nicely from the previous post because it reminds me of the same year.  1995, my first year of high school.  There was a radio station back in Hawkes Bay called 'Hot 93FM', and they used to play fairly alternative music, well not really that alternative, but fairly alternative compared to what I had previously listened to.

Now you have to remember that this was in the dying days of radio stations being stand alone.  Now there is only really a small amount of national stations owned by large conglomerates pumping out lowest common denominator rubbish.  Back in 1995 we still had regional stations which could still play music that was slightly edgy.  But I digress.

93FM had a 'Top 9 at 9' and it introduced me to a whole lot of music that might not have ever heard.  Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and along with such gems as "Who the fuck is Alice?" and "Cotton eye joe" and Stone Temple Pilots.  I love and hate Stone Temple Pilots in equal measure.  In particular their first album is generic crap, timed to cash in on the wave of grunge bands popular at the time. But their second album just hit at the right time for me.

When I first heard Vasoline I loved it, enough to tape it off the radio.  I then managed to buy the cassette of Purple and thrash to pieces over the summer on holidays and trips to the beach.

To this day I still have a strong fondness for that album.  For me when I hear it I will always think of the 45 minute trip (my Dad driving of course to Ocean Beach to go body boarding with my best mate.  Funnily the car ride out there was the same running length as the album.  The excitement of the waves that lay ahead of us as you approached the steepest descent to a beach I think, in the entire world (well it seemed so at the age of 13).  And then on the way home once you had the exhilaration behind you, the salt still fresh on your lips, and the beginnings of the sunburn to come, you could enjoy the album again.  I don't think my Dad quite grasped it.

It's a quirk of growing up that this was Stone Temple Pilots only good album.  The rest of their music was as clichéd as Scott Weiland's descent into drug abuse.  I also see that 93FM is now 97.2 More FM.

Sunrise, sunset.

Stone Temple Pilots  - Vasoline

#8 - Once - Pearl Jam

Or when I became musically self aware.  

It's quite funny but I have got to number 8 before talking about Pearl Jam.  Its best to start with Once, because it is the first Pearl Jam song on record.  And it was the first Pearl Jam song I heard.  And I remember it like it was yesterday.  

Early on in third form I remember seeing ad's on TV for Ten.  It seems strange now because the year was 1995 and Ten was released in 1991.  But for whatever reason the album was still being advertised on TV (it seems even more superfluous now that albums are almost never advertised).  The ad had clips for Even Flow, Jeremy and Alive.  And the songs stuck.  And they never left.  I just had this feeling that I HAD TO GET THIS ALBUM.  It seems funny now because Pearl Jam is classed as very mainstream.  But to my 12 year old brain its was the most alternative music going.  I managed to get Ten on tape, purchased by my Mum (I had no money then) at K Mart in Hastings.  I remember taking it home and playing it in my parents stereo and turning the volume up.  It seemed dangerous.  It seemed vital.  Once kicked in and it was like New Kids had never happened.  This was something I had never heard before.  THIS WAS ROCK N FUCKIN ROLL!

Say what you will about the merits of Pearl Jam but that memory will always linger with me.  The day I that I got the feeling that rock meant something to me.  And I have never lost that feeling.

Pearl Jam - Once

#7 - Jenny - Sleater-Kinney

Heartbreak.  It's the basis for about 95% of all rock music.  I'm of the opinion that you haven't really lived (or loved) until you have had your heart broken.  It is easy to say this as a person who is happily married and very much in love.  But you can't really savour the good things unless you have experienced the bad.

Sleater-Kinney (were) a brilliant 3 piece female band from Washington State.  Very political, very feminist, very punk and an extremely talented band.  Dig me out was the first album of theirs I heard, after reading a bit about them in various magazines.  You know you are onto a winner when the album, fly's through and all you want to do is hit repeat.

At first I was drawn to first half of the album, until I started listening more intently to the second side, which is arguably the heartbreak side.  Especially the final four songs.  But it is Jenny that stands out the most to me.  Its a  harrowing song to listen to.

It was especially harrowing to listen two when someone has just put up the brick wall and called it quits.  The booming, drama filled music throughout and the repetition of the line "didn't we almost have it", still gets me.  Its an acknowledgement really that, while it was good, it is really over. And that is always the hardest part, admitting to yourself that it is truly over.  Songs can be really cathartic in that way, sometimes, like counselling, you need someone (even if it is a musician you have never met) to tell you that its over.

I didn't read until later that most of the songs on Dig me out are about the break-up of (band members) Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker's relationship.  The fact that they continued recording and touring as a band for a decade before finally calling quits is real commitment to the music.

This isn't the only song I associate with my own heartbreak.  There are many more still to come...

Jenny - Sleater-Kinney

#6 - Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

I had the fortune this week to return to the town I grew up in, Napier, and it gave me some time to reflect.  It's always funny going back there now in that a town that can be so familiar, and yet so distant from my life now.  I'm sure I'm not alone in this feeling.

For me Napier was a great place to grow up, but I always had this pang to explore the world and make it to a city.  This song typifies that for me.  Towns like Napier are nice, but sometimes you have to leave and never look back or the town will suck you in.  I know, because it almost did to me.  I got homesick when I first move to Wellington.  That town almost pulled me back, thank god it didn't.

Some people never leave their home town and that's fine for them, that's their choice.  But not for me.  Exploring new cities and new countries has enriched my life so much I couldn't even imagine not doing it.  Heck I wouldn't have my lovely wife if I hadn't.

There is an amazing world out there and Springsteen nails this with Thunder Road, so I will close with the final line which speaks for itself:

"It's a town full of losers, and I'm pulling out of here to win."


Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - Thunder Road

#5: Protection - Massive Attack

"I'm a boy and your a girl and you know you can lean on me. And I don't have no fear I'll take on anyman here who says that's not the way it should be.... "

A very simple line but one of my favourites.  Massive Attack for me are all about mood.  And I don't mean Celtic Moods, I mean really affecting songs, which can turn your mood around.  Tracy Thorn's voice in this song is one of understated beauty, matched by an amazing backing track, with perfect and memorable beats.

This song take me to a time when my wife and I had to do a long term relationship while we waited on her visa.  a whole six months.  The longest of my life.  I listened to this song a lot in that time and it really reassured me that things would work out and I would try and be the best god damn partner I could possibly be.  

And I would take on any man here who thinks that's the way it should be.  Treat your partner right.  Because it is the right thing to do, and because you love them. That sounds terribly earnest but I wear my heart on my sleeve and that's just the way I feel.

(and listen to the full cut if you can, not just the single edit.)

Protection - Massive Attack

#4: Head over heels - Tears for Fears

Wow my first piece of cheese.  But there is nothing wrong with a bit of cheesy pop.  I first came across this song via one of the opening scenes to the terrific Donnie Darko.  A perfect way to kick into an 80's set high school movie, the fact that it encapsulates all that was good and bad in the 80's, and somehow manages to get Seth Rogan, Carter from ER, Drew Barrymore and Patrick Swayze in the same montage.



I can't actually say what actually stands out for this song over the other million cheesy pop songs.  Maybe it is because it reminds me of how much I like Donnie Darko.  Maybe I am being a typical Gen x'er and liking it ironically.  Or maybe its just because it is a really great hooky pop song, with a wonderfully huge chorus

Or maybe it is because this makes it even better...(is that Dave Coulier?)

#3: My Generation - The Who (Live at Leeds version)

Ahh The Who.  One of my favourite bands.  Without them there would be no punk in my opinion.

This song reminds me of the daily walk to work in 2005.  I was working in parliament and life was pretty good.  The funny thing is, this version of the song was so long (15 minutes 49 to be exact) that I would often have to skip to my favourite parts of the song before I got into work (I lived close to work).  It was a good time in my life and this song gave me an extra big spring to my step as I went to work.  Sometimes I physically had to stop myself from jumping up and down for risk of looking like a complete fool.

In essence, this is barely even My Generation.  It kicks into parts of See Me, Feel Me, The Seeker and Sparks, amongst extended jams.  This version is absolutely BLISTERING.  It has multiple false stops and tempo changes at the blink of an eye.  Amazing album Live at Leeds, one of my fav's.

A good time in my life coupled with  rock and roll at it's best.

The Who - My Generation - (Live at Leeds)

#2: Lover you should've come over - Jeff Buckley

It is funny how songs sometimes just pass you by, and then for some reason with whatever is happening in your life they smack you in the face and say "HEY"!  This was one such song.

Breaking up is hard to do.  2004 was the year, a rather up and down year for me.  I had just experienced a break up and was listening to a lot of moody love songs.  Then suddenly listening to Grace this song came on, and I got that smack in the face.  Buckley's voice and the constant refrain of "it's never over" leading to the build up at of the song at the end and the last line "cause it's not too late" seemed to give me hope that the love could rekindle.  It gave me hope.  Fortunately it was not to be.

Lover you should've come over - Jeff Buckley

#1: For Tomorrow - Blur

This is where I start.  Slightly at random....

I should explain, I was a bit of a late starter to Blur.  I was about 13 when I first remember hearing them, namely Country House, a pretty catchy pop song, but awful in one sense.  Especially awful considering the Oasis vs Blur hoopla. I enjoyed some of their music, but was a fairly casual fan up until a few years ago when I really got into them in a major way. That was when my inner anglophile kicked in and I was hooked in a big way.  This was one of the first song's which really got me and I never looked back.

This has to be one of the best songs written about London since Ray Davies wrote Waterloo Sunset.  From mentioning the views from Primrose Hill, being lost on the Westway.  In some ways it makes me nostalgic for the 90's, when I was young and everything was ahead of me (ironically I didn't hear this song until at least ten years after it was released.)

Maybe its the imagery, the horns, the optimism of greater things to come "so we hold each other tightly and hold on for tomorrow,"  but listening to the song makes we want to chuck everything in and move straight to London . In fact if they wanted a theme song for the Olympics in 2012 that should be it (funnily enough Damon Albarn has been chosen to choreograph the opening cermony).  It encapsulates everything I love about England, right down the dry wit of "modern life well it's rubbish..."


And yet I am yet to visit to Primrose Hill. I hear the view is nice....
For Tomorrow - Blur

In the beginning....

Now admittedly this blog is a rip off of this blog which I discovered covering every REM song.  But hey, most rock and roll is essentially borrowed from something so here goes.

My goal here is to write about songs that I love.  So really it is a bottomless list (not literally, but you get the gist).  These could be songs I really love, I used to love, love to hate.  In essence it gives me an outlet to pine about some songs which I have love for.  Which is a long list.

People write screeds and screeds or words about the 'true' meanings of songs.  I won't really be doing this.  I will be focusing on how these songs have molded my life and what they mean to me personally.  For me this is what where the beauty of music lies.

Right, into the fray.  First question, where do I start?