Category Archives: Music

#1446: Pavement – Unfair

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Before I get to the subject of today’s post, I think we should get into the background of another Pavement song. ‘Two States’. Now, that’s a number from the band’s debut album, Slanted and Enchanted. Sounds a lot like The Fall. Written by guitarist Scott Kannberg, usually referred to as ‘Spiral Stairs’, the track expresses a desire to split the state of California into two separate ones. ‘North and South’. I don’t know if there’s some historical context there. Any readers from California, please enlighten me on the subject if you have the time. ‘Two States’ is a fun track. A little primitive. Tom-tom heavy with a swinging tempo and chants of ’40 million daggers’ for a chorus. It’ll get the crowd involved when Pavement bring it out live, which they can do now since they’re a functioning act again. Saw them in Barcelona at Primavera 2022, myself. Was a fantastic night. That’s something I can tick off my metaphorical list of things I want to do in this life.

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain followed as Pavement’s second album a couple years after. On there as its sixth track is ‘Unfair’, which sees Stephen Malkmus addressing the North / South California divide this time round. While Kannberg asks for the complete split in his song, Malkmus makes note of the disparity between the two areas here and outlines his disgust for the southern half of the state. Pavement originate from Stockton, Northern California. I think it’s something they pride themselves on. Because of Hollywood and the glitz and glamour found in the South, the North usually becomes the forgotten part of the entire state, hence the song’s title. “The South takes what the North delivers” is probably the lyric that sums up the song’s entire sentiment. Starting off as this sort of unassuming, catchy, upbeat indie rock song, it takes a turn when Malkmus declares to “burn the hills of Beverly” with a yell and the band then launch into the roaring chorus where Malkmus wails about swinging credit cards in the air and sucking sour kisses. Goes back and forth between the “quiet” / loud dynamic. Makes it another one of the thousands to make that classic move in a rock song during the ’90s.

I enjoy this one a lot. I’ve been made aware I listened to Crooked Rain… in bits and pieces around 2012/13, which sounds about right. But I don’t think I really got into the album as a whole until 2014, when there were a lot of 20th anniversary celebration articles going around for albums released in 1994. I think it’s cool that the two songwriters in the band each gave respective takes on the same overarching topic, coming up with completely different results. ‘Unfair’ is much more fiercer and a little snotty, which I think pins Malkmus down as a person. Probably more so as a person in the ’90s. The ending is chaotic. Malkmus, again, wailing all over, dismissing someone or something as ‘Bakersfield trash’ amongst siren-like-sounding guitars and the bass guitar doing some crazy work. If you were still into vinyl back in the day, this closed out the first half of the record before you’d have to flip it around. Very emphatic statement to end a side of music on. And that’s it for Crooked Rain… on here too. We’ve had some good times together.

#1445: Weezer – Undone – The Sweater Song

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So I have a vague recollection of where I was when I first heard Weezer’s ‘Undone’. I was in the living room, just sitting on the floor. I’ll say I was about nine years of age, early to mid-2005, those were prime sitting-on-the-floor days. Would have been early in the morning, ’cause that was the only real time that I could have the TV to myself before either my mum or sister woke up and took charge of it for the rest of the day. MTV2 was on as per, and the song’s video was there on the screen. I remember kind of being entranced by it. ‘Cause the song’s a bit slow, but powerful at the same time, and with the slomo action in the camera work, everything came together. Couldn’t take my eyes off the thing. The dogs come running out at the end of the guitar solo, the band appear to give up performing. This was a different kind of video with its simplicity. But it was very effective. The way Patrick Wilson was acting had me thinking he was mentally challenged. Once I became aware of the video’s context – the band had to play the song at a high speed over 25 times – the way everyone was acting made a lot more sense.

And ‘Undone’ might just have been the first song I ever heard by Weezer. ‘Cause I remember seeing ‘Beverly Hills’ and thinking “The drummer seems fine here. I wonder what happened to him.” ‘Undone – The Sweater Song’ was the song that introduced the band to the world, when it was released as the first single from the band’s debut self-titled album, commonly known as “The Blue Album”, in 1994. Kurt Cobain had died. Grunge was kind of on the wane. The followers were lost. And over the hill came four guys whose frontman had the thickest framed pair of glasses and a bowlcut that only a mother could love to give the youth something new. At least, that’s how I saw the band’s arrival with this song summed up in an article somewhere. The song’s meaning can get lost because it sounds like Rivers Cuomo singing about a sweater and not much else. He says ‘Undone’ is meant to be sad. I can see it being from the point of view of a guy telling another person to simply take advantage of them, so much so until he’s nothing but a husk of a man, vulnerable, lying on the floor and scarred from the abuse they’ve taken. It’s a bit much, sure. I think it’s a valid interpretation.

That being said, I would understand why any deeper meaning would be lost on anyone, because the song’s too damn catchy. The riff, good, hypnotic. The verse vocal melody mirroring the riff, good. The opening “I’m me, me be…” verse feels like a statement tailored for Gen X, I don’t know why. The explosion when the crunchy guitars come in for the choruses, now, that’s the good stuff. This song’s such a great guitar song, gotta break out the air guitar when listening to it. And I particularly like how, for the first chorus, Rivers Cuomo and Brian Bell sing the lyrics quite straight. But when the second chorus comes around, they go back and forth with the extra phrases, harmonies and vocalizations, making it even more of a singalong than it already is. Then in the final chorus, there’s the further added lines about tank tops and “Superman skivvies” before both Cuomo and Bell belt out the song’s last word, with the former’s voice cracking to top it off. It’s the big release that then falls into the big ending. But then again, the song doesn’t want to seem to finish ’cause there’s that piano outro that comes out of the guitar feedback on the album. ‘Undone – The Sweater Song’, thinking about it, it’s really a mammoth of a track. A damn classic, I’ll take all of it that’s it got.

#1444: The Sheer – Understand

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FIFA 07 on the PlayStation 2. Think I played that game nearly every weekend, probably between October 2006 to whenever FIFA 08 came out the next year. The FIFA series as a whole introduced me to a lot of alternative music via the soundtracks on each annual iteration. ’07’s edition kept that train rolling. In 2006, I was already a full-blown indie kid, well in the depths of getting my music fix from places like MTV2, Kerrang! and so on. It was cool seeing Muse and Boy Kill Boy in FIFA 07’s soundtrack. But what was usually more satisfying were the songs playing in the background that would creep up on me, and to which I would eventually be singing along to ’cause I couldn’t help it. There were a lot of those on FIFA 07, might be one of the series’ best soundtracks actually. But there were only a small few where I thought, “I wouldn’t mind listening to these forever, thanks.” I’ve written about a couple of them before. The Sheer’s ‘Understand’ appears to be the last one to represent the game in this big list. But I’d shout out ‘Was in der Zeitung steht’ by d.o.c.h.! That song still rips today.

I didn’t know anything about The Sheer before FIFA 07 arrived. I still don’t really know anything about the band now. As soon as FIFA 08 came ’round, The Sheer kind of stopped existing to me. All I know is they’re a band from Holland that made this song, it’s on an album of theirs called Feel the Need, and it must have been released as a single because it has its own music video. The only reason I haven’t embedded it above is because it contains an edit of the song that fades out before its minute-long ending, which is arguably the best part. Yeah, ‘Understand’ was a big favourite of mine on the soundtrack. Can’t remember if it was one of those first-time-hit-me kind of deal, but it does only take one listen to understand its appeal. The opening chords, quite emphatic. The bluesy keyboards during the intro and very much throughout, you’ve got to appreciate. The call of a lyric met with the response of some classic “Hey, hey, hey”s, you can’t go wrong. The lyrics are very easy to decipher with a fine melody to go with them. Took me a second not to use the word ‘understand’ in that last sentence. But with all of those things together and a bit more which I’ll leave you to find, it resulted in a piece of pop-rock that I found I could get along with just fine.

‘Understand’ is a song about unity. A very positive song. You’ll find some cliché lines concerning helping hands, working [things] all out and making it to the end, rounded off with those “Hey, hey, hey”s. If this song was to annoy you, I could probably see where you were coming from. It feels like it could be a number in a musical or something. You could probably call it corny. And maybe it is. But I don’t know what to tell you, I really like the stuff. There’s enough sincerity in the lyrics, and everything’s delivered in a way that’s not overblown that I think prevents it from being over-the-top. What does push things further though is that ending. The song fakes you out with a faux-ending about three-and-a-half minutes in, before the guitar charges up and the band fall in together to play out the remainder of the tune in a blaze of glory. I do remember back in those days of ’06/’07 thinking that if ‘Understand’ was on an album, it would only make sense that it’s probably the last song. ‘Cause where can you go after that ending? And lo and behold, when I saw the tracklist for Feel the Need sometime later on, there was ‘Understand’ in its rightful place as the album closer. I was right. Hooray for me. Feel the Need appears to be AWOL online at the moment. When it comes back, I’ll link it at some point.

#1443: Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under the Bridge

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Hey, guys. It’s ‘Under the Bridge’ by Red Hot Chili Peppers. You know, one of the band’s most well-known songs. One of the most recognisable in the genre known as “alternative rock”. I like it. Again, I can’t pin down the first time I ever heard this one. But I’m willing to guess it was on one of the various music television channels that were included with the NTL box. Most likely MTV2. Anyone remember NTL? People in the UK will know. Even if the Chili Peppers didn’t have any new music out, videos by the band were always playing on those channels. They’d been a household name for more than a decade by the mid-2000s. A fond memory I do have of ‘Under the Bridge’ though, is that I was sort of humming it during class one day in, like, 2006 – the ending part where Flea and John Frusciante play the song out – I thought I was being quiet and to myself, but the teacher heard it. She asked, “Who’s humming?” And just as I was about to ‘fess up and apologise, a girl sitting across from me put the blame on a totally innocent classmate. I don’t think she knew it was me who was humming. I think she was just being mean. So I was in the clear, and life went on. Kids can be so cruel.

So, yeah, ‘Under the Bridge’. I don’t know what you could say about it that isn’t on its dedicated Wikipedia page. I guess if you’re reading this for the first time and you’ve never heard the track before, it’s good to start with the basics. Reflecting on a time when he felt he was at his lowest in terms of drug dependency, singer Anthony Kiedis originally wrote the words for ‘Under the Bridge’ as a poem. Not intended for use of any kind, especially not musically. Producer Rick Rubin saw the lyrics one day and pushed Kiedis into showing them to the rest of the band. Kiedis did so, begrudgingly, but John Frusciante, Flea and Chad Smith were all into it. The track was recorded during the sessions for what would become the band’s 1991 album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. A classic, their best LP depending on who you ask, and the record that made the band an internationally recognised name. It was its inclusion on Blood Sugar… that stopped ‘Soul to Squeeze’ from being in the final tracklist too. “One soft song was enough” is what I remember someone saying about that in an interview. Think it was Frusciante.

‘Cause the band always felt a real importance to bring the funk on their work, ‘Under the Bridge’ was unlike anything they had done before. Less in-your-face and more subtlety. Frusciante’s guitar throughout sums that whole notion up, a big chef’s kiss. His mother and her friends provide the choir vocals over the climactic coda. Flea’s bassline is a whole other melody in itself when it comes in the first chorus. Kiedis’s singing ain’t too bad either. The song was released as the second single from Blood Sugar… and commercially shot them into another stratosphere. John Frusciante was not happy about this. The year was 1992, and whenever it came to playing this song live, he would do whatever it took to make sure ‘Under the Bridge’ did not go smoothly. This led to performances like the infamous one on Saturday Night Live or another awkward one in France’s Canal Studios. Generally, he did not enjoy being in the band at the time, citing that he hated how famous they’d become, and he would go off-course in every song they would do when they were out on tour. Being the most successful and well-known out of all the songs, ‘Under the Bridge’ suffered the most at his hands. He soon left the band and got into things that don’t need expanding on, it’s all heavily documented already. But he came back. Then left again. Then came back again. It’s been smooth sailing since.

#1442: Paul & Linda McCartney – Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey

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The last couple times I’ve written about songs from Paul & Linda McCartney’s Ram album, I’ve made note about why it’s my favourite out of McCartney’s solo efforts. There’s no point in getting into the whys again, I think you all get the idea. But seeing that ‘Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey’ was next up in this list, it got me thinking about when I listened to Ram for the first time. That’s something I don’t think I’ve talked about in any prior posts concerning the album. So I went to the Vista computer sitting in the corner of the living room, opened ‘Downloads’, went to the ‘Ram’ folder and selected ‘Properties’. “22nd June 2011”. 4pm on the dot. Even before the 2012 remaster came along. Some other things I found, if you find them interesting, were that it was the last Beatles solo-related album I downloaded after really getting into things like Imagine and Band on the Run and All Things Must Pass… all the good ones, a few months before. And it was the third full album I downloaded post finishing my GCSE exams, after There Is a Way by Dananananaykroyd and the brand-new work by Arctic Monkeys called Suck It and See. It was a good time to be alive.

‘Uncle Albert…’ has been in my bones for so long now, I can’t lie and come up with the scenario where I heard the track the first time and was blown away, thinking “Wow, this song’s amazing”. I honestly can’t remember. It probably took a listen on one unremarkable day where everything clicked. And sometimes that’s enough. It left a mark though, like a big chunk of Ram has. This song charted at the top of the American charts when it was released back in 1971. I listen to it now and think this is a weird song to chart at number one anywhere, especially the US. Then again it was a former Beatle. But ‘Uncle Albert…’ is a strange one. McCartney dips into that Abbey Road medley bag, combining parts of separate compositions to make a whole. Does that on ‘The Back Seat of My Car’ as well. But he also runs away with the possibilities he has at his disposal, changing his voice to take roles of different characters within the song, mimicking the ringing of a telephone, and of course showing off that wide vocal range of his. Linda McCartney’s right there alongside him, pulling off some great harmonies, probably the best parts to look out for in the entire track, and the brilliant ‘butter pie?’ retort that comes along.

I called ‘Uncle Albert’ strange, but I don’t mean to make that sound disparaging. This song is a lot of fun. Like, a lot. The first ‘Uncle Albert’ half of the song is supposedly an apology to the older generation, represented by the Uncle Albert character based off McCartney’s real relative. The ‘Admiral Halsey’ section is meant to depict a snubbing of an authoritarian figure. Just looking at what Wikipedia says McCartney said about it. Never thought about that part that way, it’s kind of interesting. But anyway, “Haaaaaands across the water (water) / Heeeeeeeads across the skyyyyyyy”. For God’s sake, how was this guy so good with melodies? There’s so many alone in this song that can get stuck in the brain, sung and delivered in a manner of ways. Words bouncing off each other to and fro. My favourite melody / harmony is the additional one that’s added under the ‘Hands across…’ melody after the whole butter pie bit. But the whole track is a little masterpiece. It all ends with a bit of riding into the sunset kind of feel, harmonizing McCartneys oohing all over the place. Someone starts going crazy on the piano. But even then, it doesn’t let up as stray guitar plucks and tom-tom strikes enter the frame, leading right into the following song on the album. The excitement keeps rolling on. He’s never sang it live, so a performance video below is AWOL. It would take some doing now. But you never know.