I Want to Believe

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Do Wolverhampton Houses Have Garages?

Album: Mighty Lemon Drops, Out of Hand, 1987

Best Track: "My Biggest Thrill (Live)"

Lasting Memory: I taped this album from my sisters friend Nancy during the summer of 1989, when I was working as a lot attendant (read: carwasher) at Nancy's father's rental-car lot.

That was a tough summer, during which I also became super serious about working out. I dropped between 50 and 60 pounds in a little over two months, between the working outside for 9 hours a day, 6 days a week and then spending 2 hours in the weight room for 4 or 5 evenings each week.

What ever became of that Ed kid who could pull of that kind of schedule?

Rhetorical question: He realized he liked having beers more than not having beers, and he also aged 20 years.

It happens. Even to the likes of you. Don't judge me.

It also happens that good bands and their songs get lost to time, which is what became of the Mighty Lemon Drops. But much like Randall with a certain term, I'm bring them back.

Out of Hand isn't as good as the Mighty Lemon Drops' World Without End, which I praised in my previous post, but Out of Hand is pretty good. Rawer, more garage band-y than its immediate follow-up, Out of Hand opens with a strong title track and keeps right on rocking with slightly psychedelia overtones through the closing song, "The Other Side of You (Live)."

I particularly like the song "My Biggest Thrill (Live)" because it, in 1987, promised exactly what the Mighty Lemon Drops delivered in 1998 on pretty much all of World Without End -- power pop of the purest kind, which can only be produced in garages by late-teen and early-twenties musicians who are too naive to understand that they can't really change the world by causing a few asses to shake.

Which raises the question, "Do houses in the city of Wolverhampton, England, where the Mighty Lemon Drops formed, have garages?" Apparently not, judging by the picture of the Wolverhampton townhouse development to the right. So good show by the lads for never saying, "Count Me Out" when confronted with this muse-denying limitation.

Up Next: Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper, Bo-Day-Shush!!!, 1987

Yep, Every Year

Today's Long-Distance Dedication goes out to





Peggy, Susan, Chris, Dave, and a man who made so much of all we've accomplished possible.

Popping Off

Album: The Mighty Lemon Drops, World Without End, 1988

Best Track: "Inside Out"

Lasting Memory: When I started the project that constitutes the basic purpose for this blog -- listening to all of the cassettes and CDs I've collected since my early teens -- I was hoping I would make some great rediscoveries of bands I had all but forgotten about. To date, such rediscoveries have been rare but welcome, especially in the cases of Firehose and House of Freaks.

I am happy to now add The Mighty Lemon Drops to the list of bands whose music I unwisely relegated to the deepest depths of my tape rack, to be played again probably never by chance or choice. But World Without End has come up in the blog queue, and I am here to report that it is as charming a collection of power pop as was ever recorded and released.

The album opens with the one Mighty Lemon Drop's song that I can recall ever receiving any airplay in the United States, "Inside Out." It's a great song, to put a none-too-fine but completely accurate point on things. I don't know that my picking the song apart to explain why the song is great would be helpful in any way. I do know that whatever the separate and combined elements of that greatness are, they extend to all but probably one of the songs on World Without End.

I was particularly impressed anew with "Hear Me Call," "Fall Down (Like the Rain)," and "One by One." Enjoy at your leisure.

Up Next: The Mighty Lemon Drops, Out of Hand, 1987 (out of order, but what can you do?)

Influential Influences Influence

Album: Meat Puppets, Meat Puppets, 1982 (reissue)

Best Track: "Blue-Green God"

Lasting Memory: I bought this debut EP from Meat Puppets in February 1992 after I had read the eleventy billionth interview in which Nirvana's frontman Kurt Cobain cited the Meat Puppets as an influence.

In truth, the Meat Puppets were a template for Nirvana. Every riff and lyrical conceit of Nirvana was lifted wholesale from the Meat Puppets, right down to the angular A chord that served as the base of each chorus.

I won't swear to the A chord, but I would go to the Supreme Court to defend the proposition that Nirvana stole their shtick from the Meat Puppets. I'd also have to concede the fact that Nirvana did the Meat Puppets much better than did the original puppeteers.

Comparing the Meat Puppets' "Blue-Green God" to Nirvana's "Negative Creep" is as informative as it it is unfair. It's like wondering why Hank Aaron topped Babe Ruth in total homers. Aaron would never have been swinging for the fences if he he hadn't followed Ruth, but Aaron threw his lumber with much more style and grace.

I don't dislike the Meat Puppets, and I definitely like Nirvana, but seeing the strings that connect both bands definitely reduces the "wow" factor whenever I hear either group's songs.

It's also the case that the student should surpass the master. Only if Led Zeppelin reworks "When the Levee Breaks" from Kansas Joe McCoy will rock 'n' roll magic happen.

Since Nirvana found the pop hook in the sonic sludge that the Meat Puppets created, more power to Nirvana. Fair play, after all, has to allow imitation and, sometimes, outright theft.

Maybe you can find it in your heart (or ears) to be blown away by "Tumblin' Tumbleweeds" and excuse/laud Nirvana for "Heart Shaped Box." (Work with me, here. The songs sound totally similar, even though the lyrics are different.)

Up Next: The Mighty Lemon Drops, World Without End, 1988

Le Loi Est Moi

Have you ever caught yourself wondering what would be one of the things I would do if I were king?

Well, wonder no more!

Now you, just like the fortunate residents of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, can learn how I would reform the federal tax system.

This priceless information is available to you -- FOR FREE! -- if you click on the link to the WHRV local-events talk show Hearsay With Kathy Lewis.

I was one of the listeners whose idea on big fixes for the U.S. economy was chosen for consideration by a prominent local economist. I come in at about the 23-minute mark. I haven't listened to myself except to make sure that I wasn't edited out. Counterarguments or kudos are welcome from anyone who gives the program a digital spin.

In a nutshell, my idea is to set a living-wage floor on what earnings are taxable (e.g., the first $40,000/year are untaxed) and then to only collect very small percentages of money earned above that floor in a graduated manner (e.g., 2 percent on $40,000 to $49,999, 4 percent on $50,000 to $59,999).

The top marginal rate would be 10 percent, and separate FICA witholdings would be eliminated. To replace revenues lost by not taxing the first dollar earned, there would be a 1 percent federal sales tax on all nonfood items. There would be no deductions or rebates/returns on federal taxes paid.

I'm flexible on the dollar amounts, marginal rates and a very small number of allowable deductions.

What's your big idea?

Theirs, Yours, Ours

Album: Lowen & Navarro, Walking on a Wire, 1990

Best Track: "Walking on a Wire"

Lasting Memory: I almost saw these guys in concert in 1993, when they came through Blacksburg, Va., and played a very small club. Instead, I went to the mall movie theater and watched Rudy.

Life is a series of bad choices.

Walking on a Wire, on the other hand, is a veritable cornucopia of excellent choices for any rock-leaning pop music artist. In fact, the Lowen and Navarro-penned "We Belong,' which anchors the B side of the this album was a huge hit for Pat Benatar. The L&N version is quite different from Benatar's, but it is easy to hear what drew Benatar and her then-husband/producer/lead guitarist Neil Giraldo to the song. The raw emotion, quiet-loud dynamics, and slow build without true crescendo are perfect for Benatar.

Most of the songs on Walking are perfect for someone, and plenty of those good fits have been found. As L&N write on their official Web site, they are "songwriters of notable cachet ... [whose] works have been recorded by artists as diverse as Pat Benatar ..., The Bangles, The Four Tops, Dave Edmunds, The Temptations and a host of others."

I spared myself and you the tedium of tracking down the other artists' interpretations of L&N's songs, but I bet Edmunds would kill, just kill, "Walking on a Wire" and "She Said No." Luka Bloom was born to sing "Oh Mary."

"What I Make Myself Believe" would sound much worse when sung by an American Idol contestant, but it is aching for some David Archuletta to give it a go.

If these guys would put more of their music online, I'd share it with you. And they would be raking in quite a few more royalties. As things stand though, the bulk of Walking is hard to track down. "C'est la Vie."

Up Next: Meat Puppets, Meat Puppets, 1982 (reissue)


P.S. Two very special people were born on this date -- people who have meant a lot to me throughout my life. Survey says .... this should be a 10 a birthday for Bo Derek and Richard Dawson!

Serious, Moonlight

Album: Los Lobos, By the Light of the Moon, 1987

Best Tracks: "One Time One Night" and "The Hardest Time"

Lasting Memory: My freshman year was the first time that Virginia Tech offered every dorm resident access to cable television. My roommate Barry's parents were kind enough to buy him a television a few weeks after the fall semester began, and we immediately signed up to have all 20 channels pumped into our 12 x 14 foot castle.

One of the very first shows I watched in the dorm was a half-hour special that a group of (I think) University of Oklahoma students had cobbled together to hip their peers around the country to the joys of Americana music and what would soon become known as alt-country. I can't remember the name of the show, but I distinctly remember that the host was a rather large, bearded gentlemen who wore denim overalls but no shirt. I also remember that one of the videos was the Bodeans' "Fade Away." Another video was Los Lobos' "One Time One Night."

I love those songs, but especially the Los Lobos one because it so perfectly portrays how sadness and tragedy lurk right around every corner while never becoming resigned or fatalistic. The last full verse of the song, which also serves as the bridge, kills me just about every time I hear it:

The sunlight plays upon my windowpane
I wake up to a world that's still the same
My father said to be strong
And that a good man could never do wrong
In a dream I had last night in America

Plus, dig that accordion coda.

The entirety of By the Light of the Moon teeters on the edge of melancholy without ever taking that plunge. Even the rockingest tracks, "Shakin' Shakin' Shakes" and "Set Me Free (Rosa Lee)," are all about two things: being scared of and scarred by romance and pursuing romance anyway. (Plus, for family members, who else thinks Cesar Rosas, the lead singer here, looks like Dad when he was younger?)

There are a couple of outright sad songs on the album, as titles like "Is This All There Is?" and "River of Fools" would suggest, but then "Tears of God" actually delivers the message that even

When your only escape
Is a cheap neck of wine
And the peace you need in your heart
Is so very hard to find

....

You find out true
What mother said to you
The tears of God will show you the way
The way to turn

For my money, and for whatever that's worth, By the Light of the Moon is Los Lobos' strongest album. Undoubtedly, its year of release, 1987, was the most successful for the band, as it was then when they had their ultra megahit cover of "La Bamba." So even if all the actual music critics concur that Kiko is Los Lobos' masterpiece, I can at least rest easy at night knowing that the band got their due a couple of decades ago. No reason to be down in the dumps about that.

Up Next: Lowen & Novarro, Walking on a Wire, 1990

What Are Words For?

"Post-Racial."

This neologism has been bandied about like something that gets widely bandied ever since Barack Obama became a serious contender for the U.S. presidency. Since Obama's election victory last Tuesday, the question, "Is America now a post-racial society?" has been tackled on just about every political discussion show I listen to on the radio and watch on TV.

The unanimous answer ha been a resounding "No," and a frequent tidbit offered to support this conclusion is that voters in two states, Nebraska and Colorado, passed referendums making it illegal to use race or other physical characteristics as primary factors when making decisions regarding hiring, school admissions, or the awarding of government benefits.

Jettisoning the prima facie biased policy of affirmative action strikes me as a post-racial move. Judging people by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin was Dr. King's vision, right? And even if that is ignored, the fact that words mean stuff has to come into play.

But to hear the commentators tell it, the affirmative action bans are proof that people only care about race.

I do understand that some people voted against affirmative action because they are a little bit to a lot racist. At the same time, though, the result of abandoning affirmative action will exactly achieve the desired outcome of looking past race (and other things) and only rewarding individuals on their positive merits when it comes to hiring or university selection, or current hardships when it comes to doling out benefits.

When I hear the pundits discuss how America is not becoming a post-racial society, I can only conclude what Inigo Montoya did in The Princess Bride:

Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.

Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

The Spanish Word for Polka Is "Polca"

Album: Los Lobos, How Will the Wolf Survive?, 1984

Best Track: "Will the Wolf Survive"

Lasting Memory: How Will the Wolf Survive? was one of the first tapes I owned, so I listened to it a lot while mowing the lawn, riding the bus to sporting events, doing homework, and all the other stuff that marks an American suburban teen's drama-free everyday life.

I figure I've listened to this album at least 500 times through the years, and it has never failed to entertain and, sometimes, comfort. I've also thoroughly enjoyed all the times songs from Wolf such as the cover of "I Got Loaded" and the original "Don't Worry Baby" have been included on movie soundtracks.

The entertaining and comforting aspects of the music on Wolf can be traced to the same source--the accordion.

Almost as maligned as the bagpipes (another instrument I love the sound of, by the way), a well-played accordion just has a way of getting inside one's ear and producing exactly the effect the musician intends. Try not to at least want to dance when listening to "Corrida #1." Try not to get just a little wistful while listening to "The Breakdown."

By making such extensive use of the accordion, and by including "Serenata Nortena" on Wolf, Los Lobos placed themselves firmly in the Mexican musical genre of Norteno.

Norteno is the oompah music you hear blasting out of, well, everywhere in heavily Latino neighborhoods. Heavily influenced by the German and Eastern folk songs of the mid- and late-1800s white settlers of Texas, Norteno is essentially polka music with Spanish lyrics instead of Czech or Austrian lyrics. And like polka, Norteno can grate as easily as it enthuses. But as performed by Los Lobos on Wolf, Norteno rules.

Much of the reason Los Lobos' take on their own traditional sound works is because the band mixes in just enough rockabilly and Chicago blues to take the sharpest edges of the "pah" off the "oom." The band also dives headfirst into country folk when telling the tale of the indomitability of the immigrante in "Will the Wolf Survive":

Through the chill of winter
Running across the frozen lake
Hunters are out on his trail
All odds are against him
With a family to provide for
The one thing he must keep alive

Will the wolf survive?

Drifting by the roadside
Climbs each storm and aging face
Wants to make some morning's fate
Losing to the range war
He's got two strong legs to guide him
Two strong arms keep him alive

Will the wolf survive?

Standing in the pouring rain
All alone in a world that's changed
Running scared, now forced to hide
In a land where he once stood with pride
But he'll find his way by the morning light

Sounds across the nation
Coming from your hearts and minds
Battered drums and old guitars
Singing songs of passion
It's the truth that they all look for
The one thing they must keep alive

Will the wolf survive?
Will the wolf survive?

Ostensibly about first-generation Mexicans in Southern California, specifically those in East Los Angeles, this is a song that captures the challenge of all newcomers everywhere. Plus, it sounds good.

Up Next: Los Lobos, By the Light of the Moon, 1987

Gone Votin'

Over the past week, I have received four phone calls from Barack Obama, three calls from Michelle Obama, and one call from an actual person working with the Obama campaign.

I can only conclude that the man obviously finds me irresistible and is stalking me, both personally and through proxies.

Instead of filing a restraining order, though, I will shortly go to the polls and cast my vote. I figure that will convince him to leave me alone.

In the Long Tradition of Traditionalism

Album: The Long Ryders, 10-5-60, 1983

Best Track: "10-5-60"

Lasting Memory: My strongest memory of the Long Ryders is that the band did one in a series of Miller beer ads in the mid-1980s. The theme of the ads, as I also mentioned way back when I posted unenthusiastically about the Del Feugos, was that Miller was American beer suitable for Americans who enjoyed American music.

Boy howdy, are the five songs on the 10-5-60 EP American music. Each is an equal blend of honky tonk, psychedelic folk (think: late-period Byrds), and garage rock. The title track shows how this can work in a revved-up format, while the charming love song "Born to Believe in You" shows how blending these styles can work in a slower format.

I don't have much else to say about this band or album, but as roots rockers went, the Long Ryders were just about the rootsiest.

The vocals of lead Ryder Sid Griffin may be a bit of an acquired taste, but it appeals to me and fits the material very well. For me, there are few things that sound better than a cracking voice over a moaning steel guitar line. Feel free to disagree, which will just mean more of that stuff for me.

Up Next: Los Lobos, How Will the Wolf Survive?, 1984

My Bast Is Thoroughly Bombed

Album: Live, Throwing Copper, 1994

Best Track: "Stage"

Lasting Memory: Throwing Cooper is one of the exceptions to my general rule of not owning albums whose songs get played on the radio all the time. I don't know what brings me to ignore that rule in the abstract, but in the case of this album, I specifically remember wanting to be able to listen to the Live song "All Over You" any time I wanted.

I was impressed by the song's intensity and emotion. I was right there with lead singer Ed Kowalczyk every time he got that catch in his throat while transitioning into the chorus, "I ... I ... I alone looooove YOU!"

The song got me going every time, and I figured it wouldn't stop doing that as time passed.

I was right about the lasting effect of "All over You," but wrong about needing to needing to own Throwing Cooper so I wouldn't lose the opportunity to hear the song.

Turns out, radio has never taken "All Over You" or "I Alone" or "Lightning Crashes" out of middling rotation since their release 14 years ago. I don't blame radio programmers for using the songs as a few of their many, many crutches. Each is immediately arresting, have good beats, and on-the-surface interesting lyrics. How could anyone whose job it is to prick up people's ears ask for any more? And could a listener do better than any of these singles?

Those songs are the aural equivalent of a bacon cheeseburger followed by mint chocolate chip ice cream. Even if you're a vegetarian or allergic lactose intolerant, you can't help but want that meal and enjoy it completely when you get it.

Would you want it every day, though?

From it's first note to its last, Throwing Copper is all burger and ice cream. The volume and emotion are constantly set to 11. This makes listening all the way through the album exhausting; I know my bast will require a few days to fully recover from being so bombed by the album.

Constantly ratcheting up the pathos and import of the songs also leads Live into many melodramatic minefields. The lyrics of "All Over You" and "I Alone" can't miss being interpret ted as creepy stalker stories, and "Lightning Crashes" is about a stillbirth.

Things get really beyond the bearable on the last official track on Throwing Cooper, "White, Discussion":

I talk of freedom
You talk of the flag
I talk of revolution
You’d much rather brag
And as the decibels of this
disenchanting discourse
Continue to dampen the day

The coin flips again and again, and again, and again
As our sanity walks away
All this discussion though politically correct
Is dead beyond destruction
Though it leaves me quite erect

And as the final sunset rolls behind the earth
And the clock is finally dead
I'll look at you, you'll look at me
And we'll cry a lot
But this will be what we said
This will be what we said

Look where all this talking got us, baby

Heavy stuff. Self-consciously heavy and decidedly nonrocking stuff. The kind of heavy that verges into the land of portentousness.

I tabbed "Stage" as the best song on Throwing Copper precisely because the lyrics are unintelligible.

When a hidden track titled "Horse" pops up after "White, Discussion" it is a welcome reprieve because it is country-ish, humorous, and muted. A sample lyric runs "She rode a horse inside my head/ Now they're running wild." I would have welcomed more cranking things back to 6 or 7 like this.

Up Next: The Long Ryders, 10-5-60, 1983