THE 2006 TOURNAMENT OF TUNES
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Disclaimer:
At this point of the competition, each song has already been evaluated twice,
with my supply of adjectives being all but exhausted and my lack of musical
training being glaringly exposed, leaving me with little new to say about these
songs. Thus my decision-making from now on will be based much more on
inexplicable gut feeling than rational thought, and the narratives will be
considerably more free-form in nature. Your continued patience is greatly
appreciated.
THE ELVIS REGIONAL
Sebadoh –
Got It [RealAudio]
vs.
Built to
Spill - Untrustable Part 2 [WM]
I’ve seen both of these bands in concert in Chicago. Sebadoh played a terrific show at the Vic in 1996, on their Harmacy tour. That often-delicate album came across much more noisy and raucous when played live, and the band displayed a wonderful lack of formality. Besides Lou Barlow and Jason Loewenstein trading off guitar and bass duties every few songs—Viva Populism!—by the end drummer Bob Fay had become the frontman vocalist and a roadie was playing lead guitar. Built to Spill, by contrast, played a barely-noticed show at Metro in 1998, supporting headliners Archers of Loaf. (BtS as an opening band? Yes, it’s true. In fact, it had to be the strongest four-band lineup I’ve ever witnessed, along with 764-HERO and Creeper Lagoon.) I say barely noticed, as I knew a bit about the band but didn’t own any of their albums yet (since rectified, five albums later), and Julie knew nothing of them at all. About the only thing I remember is them playing “Virginia Reel Around the Fountain” by the Halo Benders (Doug Martsch’s weird side project with Beat Happening’s Calvin Johnson) with the absence of Calvin’s bullfrog-deep bass vocal being particularly noticeable. Julie has subsequently asked about us going to see Built To Spill sometime, and I point out that a) we’ve technically already seen them; and b) the band is more than a bit guitar-wankery playing live, with 10-20 minute songs being fairly routine. So we’ve declined, settling in our suburban comfort for the wonders of BtS studio albums.
As for the songs: “Got It” is a nice piece of rock economy, but “Untrustable Part 2” is an even nicer piece of rock epic, one which, incidentally, I’m relieved to have never seen the band perform live. In concert, this one could easily run on for thirty minutes or so. Since I get to listen with the luxury of a fast-forward button, “Untrustable” is the pick.
Winner: Built to Spill - Untrustable Part 2
Ted Leo -
Loyal to My Sorrowful Country
[mp3]
vs.
Archers of
Loaf - Greatest of All Time [RealAudio]
I don’t
know what it is, but there’s just something about a solo electric guitar. Not
playing a solo, mind you, but playing solo with no other
instrumentation. As rock listeners we’ve been trained to think that when a
frontman steps away from the band to play a solo tune, he’ll do so with an
acoustic guitar. I’m not sure where the
giving-the-rest-of-the-band-a-break-and-playing-solo-acoustic idea first began,
but it’s become so common that it’s now practically cliché. So when an artist
steps up on stage, or goes into the studio, armed only with an electric guitar,
it really gets my attention. Billy Bragg appears to have done this almost
exclusively during his early years, and those recordings have a raw immediacy
that probably would have been missing if he was picking an acoustic while
delivering his political rants rather than banging out chords on an electric.
As I’ve mentioned earlier, Ted Leo owes an obvious stylistic debt to Bragg,
particularly on the solo EP Tell Balgeary, Balgury is Dead.
Archers of
Loaf were (was?) probably the first shared musical experience that my wife and
I had. I remember hearing their seminal “Web in Front” on a college radio
station shortly after picking her up for one of our very first dinner dates. A
trip to the record store and purchase of Icky Mettle soon followed, and
before long we found ourselves regularly shouting along with that song’s
irresistible “All I ever wanted was to be your spine” chorus while driving
around. “Greatest of All Time” didn’t quite reach that communal pinnacle, but
we did get a lot of car-singing out of it as well, or at least we did until we
became parents. At that point, the obscenities scattered throughout the song
made us start skipping the song. Let our daughter pick up her bad words on the
playground, like we did. They won’t be coming from us, or from our record
collection.
As for the
songs: “Loyal to My Sorrowful Country” remains an essential part of our lives,
so much so that Julie wants to sing it on American Idol as an antidote to most
of the crap performed on that show. “Greatest of All Time”, great as it is, has
seen its time come and gone. Maybe it will come back someday after the kid gets
her own car, but for now it’s Mr. Leo front and center. “Loyal to My Sorrowful
Country” moves ahead.
Winner: Ted Leo - Loyal to My Sorrowful Country
Morphine –
Whisper [RealAudio]
vs.
Elliott Smith - Some Song
[mp3]
Wow, what a couple of tragic stories we have here. Morphine, whose mastermind Mark Sandman died of a heart attack onstage in Rome in 1999, and Smith, who died of a stab wound (whether suicide or homicide, it was never determined) at home in 2003. Morphine was just starting to overcome a couple of so-so albums and was branching out into intriguing new directions, while Smith, it appeared, was making great progress on conquering his addictions and inner demons while continuing to craft essential, pristine, gutwrenching art, when both were taken away from us. Sandman and Smith are sobering reminders of the fickleness of fate, and of the importance of living and enjoying life to its fullest, every single day, since there’s no assurance that you’ll have a tomorrow. What I wouldn’t give to see either Morphine or Elliott Smith performing live today. What a loss each is for all of us.
As for the
songs: “Some Song” is too musically rudimentary to fully reflect Smith’s
musical genius, while “Whisper”, with its slow, sensual, smoky vibe, is the
great Morphine at its very best. “Whisper” quietly advances.
Winner: Morphine - Whisper
Scruffy the
Cat - You Dirty Rat
vs.
R.E.M. -
So. Central Rain [RealAudio]
Here I face
a dilemma: choosing between a band virtually nobody has ever heard of but which
I love dearly, and a band absolutely everyone knows which I also love, though
to a lesser degree. Scruffy the Cat has been gone for so long—over fifteen
years now—and was pretty obscure even when there were still around, so much so
that I can pretend they’re “my” band. Like I have them all to myself and don’t
have to share with anyone if I don’t want to. I can wallow in the wistful
vocals, perky rhythms and tasty riffs, all to myself. In a way, though, I can
also enjoy early R.E.M., particularly the overlooked Reckoning, in the
same self-indulgent manner. Only true musical geeks—few of whom I associate
with anymore—know anything off of this album other than “Don’t Go Back to
Rockville” or maybe, maybe “Pretty Persuasion.” (In fact, I wonder how
many people who heard Pavement’s fine Reckoning tribute, “Unseen Power
of the Picket Fence” off of the 1993 No Alternative benefit album,
caught any of the references at all—“Finster’s art and titles to match”, “Time
After Time was my least favorite song!”, etc.) But even the obscurist in me
realizes that “So. Central Rain” was indeed included on the band’s Eponymous
mid-career best-of (the album that late converts picked up after the success of
“The One I Love, “Stand”, etc.), so maybe the song really isn’t that
obscure at all. And I have to admit that it isn’t even one of the two or three
best songs on Reckoning, while “You Dirty Rat” is one of Scruffy’s most
wonderful songs.
As for the
songs: Call it an upset. “You Dirty Rat” tops “So. Central Rain.” The unknown
heartbreak kids from Boston upend the superstars of Athens. Chalk one up for
self-indulgence and a love of obscurity.
Winner: Scruffy the Cat - You Dirty Rat
THE JOHNNY CASH REGIONAL
The Jesus
Lizard - Fly on the Wall [QuickTime]
vs.
Joel R.L.
Phelps - God Bless the Little Pigs
[mp3]
This
matchup, unlike most of the previous from this round, offers no overriding
theme, no interesting perceived parallel between the two competitors. So I’ll
start with an anecdote. Once while I was in grad school, three buddies of mine
and I headed to St. Louis for a weekend of frivolity. During the late
afternoon, we were walking through Laclede’s Landing—the city’s riverfront
nightlife destination—on our way to the first of many bars, taverns, saloons,
gin joints, etc. when we passed a music club, outside of which some roadies
were unloading a tour van. The marquee read: “TONIGHT – HELMET – THE JESUS
LIZARD.” Yet even as I remarked what an ear-splitting double bill that one
would be, we walked on, for reasons now unknown to me. All I remember about
that evening was too much beer, a singalong in some cheesy theme bar, and
getting tossed out of another as one of my buddies a) lit an entire book of
matches on fire at once; and b) broke a beer glass. But had I attended that
Jesus Lizard show, I undoubtedly would have had a night to remember and tells
the grandkids about—assuming the grandkids would bother listening to their
feeble old grandpa who had been deaf for sixty years, ever since his eardrums
spectacularly imploded in St. Louis in 1993.
I’ve never
seen Joel Phelps in concert either, another regret, although I’ve never knowingly
passed on the opportunity. He seems to keep primarily to his home base of the
Pacific Northwest, even though his old Silkworm pals now live here in Chicago.
As for the
songs: Up until now in this tournament I’ve been a veritable cheerleader for
The Jesus Lizard, coasting them past Jeff Buckley and Guided by Voices,
probably because their raw, gut-pounding music is so completely different than
anything else in my collection. But while primal catharsis is always a welcomed
departure, it’s probably unhealthy on an everyday basis, which is why I
inevitably find myself returning to gentler, more cerebral music. Sure, “God
Bless the Little Pigs” does indeed rock—especially for the generally reserved
Phelps—but it does so in a more nuanced way that is ultimately closer to my
aesthetic sensibilities. Joel Phelps’ music moves me with an emotional
resonance that I’ll never accurately describe, and for that he moves ahead.
Winner: Joel R.L. Phelps - God Bless the Little Pigs
The Pixies
- Debaser [RealAudio]
vs.
Mission of Burma - Fame and
Fortune [RealAudio]
Once again,
we have parallels. Two indie rock titans, both from Boston, both highly
innovative and influential to countless later bands, both recently reunited
after lengthy hiatuses, and both of which I respect a great deal. And
yet…neither band has managed to make a genuine emotional connection with me.
They engage my intellect, but not my heart, unlike many other bands to reach
this round of the tournament—Morphine, Scruffy the Cat, Joel Phelps—who happen
to engage both. Which isn’t a knock against either the Pixies nor Mission of
Burma. Both are seminal bands which have created an incredible body of music
(with “Debaser” and “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver” in particular
achieving Valhalla status), but then again I won’t be packing up Doolittle
or Signals, Calls and Marches for my desert island departure, either. If
I’m going to be lonely and sad and stranded for a good long time, I’m opting
for Cure For Pain, Tiny Days and Warm Springs Night.
As for the
songs: As I admitted above, “Debaser” is a truly great song—scintillating,
cathartic, invigorating. But “Fame and Fortune” isn’t quite “…Revolver”, which
means it ain’t quite “Debaser” either. Pixies advance.
Winner: The Pixies - Debaser
THE CARL PERKINS REGIONAL
Saturnine - Peace and Rest [mp3]
vs.
Camper Van Beethoven - Sweethearts [RealAudio]
I won’t
even pretend that this contest was ever in doubt. It’s so one-sided, in fact,
that I won’t expend many words in discussing it. Suffice it to say that “Peace
and Rest” is pleasant, tuneful but ultimately inconsequential, while
“Sweethearts” is epic, witty, infectious and simply one of the best songs ever
created by one of my all-time favorite bands. Besides, I really need to pick up
the pace here, with one more titanic matchup to take care of before moving on
to the Elite Eight, so any words voiced on Saturnine’s behalf would hardly be
constructive.
As for the
songs: See above. “Sweethearts” trounces “Peace and Rest.”
Winner: Camper Van Beethoven - Sweethearts
Mudhoney - No One Has [RealAudio]
vs.
Bad Religion - 21st Century
Digital Boy [WM]
It’s hardly
hyperbolic to call this one a clash of the titans.
Winner: