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#1249: John Linnell – The Songs of the 50 States

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Well, I guess there’ll be thousands of people out there who will have no idea what Grooveshark was. Grooveshark was a website existing for a while where people could just straight up upload music online for anyone to listen to. It was Soundcloud and Spotify all kind of mixed into one. Then I guess record labels caught onto it and realized it was kind of an illegal/copyrighting issue going on, so it got abruptly taken down after a few years. Looks like it’s back up again under a new address, but I don’t think it’s really the same. But I say all this to say that it was on Grooveshark that I got to listen to John Linnell’s State Songs album back around 2012, and its second song, ‘The Songs of the 50 States’ was one out of the few I got into immediately.

The late, late ’90s was a time when They Might Be Giants heads John Flansburgh and John Linnell went on their little separate ways to do their own projects. Flansburgh did his thing with Mono Puff. Linnell made the State Songs album, bringing to fruition a concept he initially started working on some years prior. Fifteen of the 16 songs on the album are named after US states, and ‘The Songs of the 50 States’ acts as the record’s theme song. Linnell tells us to get ready for the songs that are coming up, and that even he can’t help but get the good shakes when thinking about the tracks he has lined up. Funnily enough, he sings about the songs of the 50 states, but only wrote numbers for 15 of them. Actually, 16 including the B-side, ‘Louisiana’. TMBG fans hold onto hope that one day a State Songs II will just appear one day. Or at least be announced.

After the album’s introduction of ‘Illinois’, an instrumental played out by a carousel organ, ‘…50 States’ brings things into more familiar sonic territory by being more of a band-centric performance. TMBG fans will know what I mean when I refer to ‘the Band of Dans’. Dan Miller (guitar), Danny Weinkauf (bass guitar), and Dan Hickey (drums) for those who don’t. They’re the backing musicians present on the track, and a bunch of guys Linnell was familiar with anyway having been playing with the two Johns for a couple years up to that point. It’s a great performance by all involved. An upbeat, optimistic tune that builds that anticipation for the songs that follow.

#1245: The La’s – Son of a Gun

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The shimmering notes from an acoustic guitar are the first things you hear if you were to press play/lay the needle on the record after obtaining The La’s self-titled/debut/only album from 1990. First time I heard ‘Son of a Gun’ the opening reminded me of Rusted Root’s ‘Send Me on My Way’, even if though that song was released some years after. Maybe there’s some influence there, I don’t know. But it goes to show, if you can get the right tone on the strings of an acoustic guitar, people will start falling at your feet. Even before Lee Mavers started singing, I was really into the rhythm and the sound of that sole acoustic, so even when he did, I was already under its spell.

“If you want, I’ll sell you a life story” are the first words Mavers delivers on the microphone, and that’s what ‘Son of a Gun’ is. It’s a tale about a man who lives with his demons, but also recognises that he’s not like a lot of other people out there and takes great pride in that aspect. With Lee Mavers being the ever elusive, reclusive man he is, I think ‘Son of a Gun’ is the one song by him that provides an insight into how the guy felt about life. There might be another La’s tune that does it better, please direct me to it. But for me, it’s the clearest ‘song about myself under the guise of someone else’ that I can think of right now as I’m writing to you. Lifts the haze on that sense of mystique, which I think is quite cool.

Lee Mavers didn’t like the sound of The La’s when the album eventually came out in 1990. The band had spent a couple years trying to get the album down, but Mavers was never happy with any of the results. There are many different versions of the songs from the record that you’ll be able to find online. Personally, I think the final version we all know mixed and produced by Steve Lillywhite showcased the best treatment any of those tracks got as recordings. It is interesting to hear other producers’ takes though. ‘Son of a Gun’ by Mike Hedges is in a higher key, utlises more electric guitar and has a bounce to it via added bass drum. A John Porter version has a monoaural mix. I could go through them all. It’s a lot to explore.

#1239: Gorillaz ft. Lou Reed – Some Kind of Nature

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Plastic Beach, Plastic Beach. In my eyes, still the last really great Gorillaz album. It’ll be 15 years old in just under two weeks. I guess it does feel that way. But I can also remember downloading the album a few days before it was officially released in the UK and listening through the whole thing like it was last week. Wikipedia says that it was released internationally on the 3rd March 2010, but that’s wrong because albums were released on Mondays and that date was a Wednesday. I “got” it on the 5th, the album was released in the UK on the 8th. Though I guess the Wikipedia date was when it was released in Japan or something. That place usually got the early release dates, the lucky people. But that explains why it was so easy to find a high-quality version of it online so I could nab it for myself.

‘Some Kind of Nature’ is the ninth song on the album. There’s a range of guest features on the LP to say the least, and ‘Nature’ wasn’t left out in this regard as alongside Damon Albarn on vocals appeared Velvet Underground man and general top singer-songwriter person Lou Reed. He provides some additional guitar as well. Albarn tells the story about working with Reed in this little video here. You might as well watch the whole thing if you’re a fan. But the meat of it is, Albarn sent Reed three songs to work on. Reed rejected them all. On the fourth attempt, Reed accepted with a vague idea. Albarn flew to New York to meet, but then Reed left the studio to go somewhere else and wrote all his thoughts about plastic in a taxi. He came back, showed Albarn his work, did the vocals in one take. And what you hear was the result. But it’s better to hear the person who experienced it actually tell the story, so go ahead and click on that link.

I can’t remember whether this one was an instant like on that first hearing. But just a week or so after I downloaded the album, ‘Some Kind…’ got its own little music video which I guess let me become accustomed to the song very quickly. The whole track runs at a very chill tempo, led by Reed’s very straight, robotic-like vocals which make a great contrast for Albarn’s richer, melodic voice when he comes in later. I also like singing along to the synth that arrives around 25 seconds in. Makes for a good melodic centrepoint underneath Reed’s recited delivery. The lyrics you’ll find online vary from place to place, but whichever site has the line “All we are is stars” as the last line of the chorus is the correct one. It doesn’t make grammatical sense, but then again, a lot of songs don’t. Only got two more songs left to write about from Plastic Beach, and they both begin with ‘S’. So they’ll be coming around relatively soon. Any guesses as to what they are can be left in the comments.

#1212: Bob Dylan – Simple Twist of Fate

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Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks is the one album of his that has stuck with me for the longest time. I’ve heard a bunch of other Dylan LPs and like a bunch of the songs from them. But front to back, it’s always been Blood… for me. I remember it fully clicking when I was back in university. Second year, for me 2014/15, and it was during that time that the album had been out and about for 40 years – gonna be 50 in a few weeks – and I was a nerd about album anniversaries and that kind of thing. So I was alone in my room, listened through it for what was the second time in my life, and there it was. Was like hearing it in a new light. Alone in a room is the ideal setting for listening to it. And I could add it to the collection of sad albums in my mental space that I seemed to resonate with a lot.

‘Simple Twist of Fate’ is the second song on there. Opener ‘Tangled Up in Blue’ gets things off to a lively start. You wouldn’t be wrong to assume that at least the next one would carry on in the same manner. It does not. Instead, ‘Simple Twist…’ arrives as the solemn, reflective follow-up – still with a bit of a swing to it – with six verses detailing a gradual breakup between two people, seemingly unrelated to Dylan as he sings about them in third person, until he takes it into the first for the final verse where you realise he was singing about his own situation the whole time. Each verse depicts a different stage in the relationship captured. So evocative with the language Dylan incorporates, I think it would be difficult for any listener to be unable to picture their own scenes of what’s happening in their heads. And the simple twist of fate of the title is the one thing that weaves all of these stages together.

The chord progression throughout the song remains the same throughout its duration, so while Dylan’s acoustic guitar stays true to it, the bass guitar played by session musician Tony Brown is allowed to skip a few octaves and play around on the scales. Dylan’s vocal take is notable too, in that for the first few lines of each verse, he delivers his words very simply – there’s maybe a two note melody he utilises when doing so – before suddenly singing phrases that end with a howling wail for their penultimate lines and mentioning the song title in the final ones. Think those wails are meant to symbolize something. A kind of pain or yearning, I’d guess? The singing style is actually very similar to how he approaches the track that comes after ‘Simple Twist…’ on the album. That’s for another day. I imagine this track could be quite the brutal listen, especially if you’re feeling lovelorn or recovering from a past relationship. But then again, it’s good to hear a piece of music that somehow manages to put into words the things you couldn’t. Makes you feel you’re not so alone.

#1179: Madvillain – Shadows of Tomorrow

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Almost slap-bang in the middle of Madvillainy, the certified classic alternative hip-hop album made by the legendary pairing of producer Madlib and rapper MF DOOM (RIP) comes ‘Shadows of Tomorrow’. I’m trying to think of how I felt about the track when I first heard the LP sometime during 2013… Nothing comes to mind. But I do remember playing it to a good mate of mine when I was visiting him in university the following year. One of those times where I was like, “Hey, have you heard of this album, Madvillainy? It’s sick, man.” Played it really loudly too. It probably sounded strange to the people he was sharing his accommodation with. But I think by that point I’d become friends with all of them at that point, so anything was fair game. Safe to say, it must have clicked with me somewhere along the way.

The track’s first half is rapped by Lord Quasimoto who, for those not in the know, is just Madlib but with his voice altered to a higher pitch. If you’re interested in what you hear, The Unseen would be a good place to start in order to obtain more knowledge on the Quasimoto character. For the second half, Madlib raps with his normal voice. And I want to say that this was the first track where he had ever done this. If not, someone correct me please. But I want to say I read that somewhere. Left me thinking maybe he should rap with his natural tone a lot more often, he’s got the voice to do it. But only he could find the records he does in order to make an instrumental like the one here. Sometimes you just have to stick to what you know you do best, I guess.

All in all, ‘Shadows of Tomorrow’ is a tribute to other legendary artist, composer and all-round cosmic man Sun Ra. In fact, the lyrics are one of Sun Ra’s poems entitled ‘The Shadow of Tomorrow’. So really, all of Madlib’s work on the track goes onto the instrumental, as he pretty much recites the poem word for word – maybe adding an additional word here and there. The ode to Sun Ra is further emphasised by the sampling of the man himself, with excerpts of his dialogue taken from the 1974 film, Space Is the Place, in which Sun Ra stars. The instrumental’s enough to put you in a trance. I think it’s the fact that the music stays in one chord, led by that droning note, which also gives it this mystic Eastern quality. And if you’re one who’s deep into philosophy and the workings of time, then I couldn’t think of a better song to listen that would get your brain working.