Monday, April 30, 2018

Review of The Waitresses' "Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful?"

I posted this review on the Sputnik Music website just a little earlier tonight:

Review Summary: "Nice things.../Don't mean nothing, if they're dumping/Things that sting on you/Don't take that, honey!" - from "Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful?"

Nowadays, to the extent that The Waitresses are remembered at all, it's only for two songs: The novelty holiday song "Christmas Wrapping", which still gets plenty of airplay on '80s stations every December; and "I Know What Boys Like", their 1982 single, which has been featured in several film soundtracks over the years, and still gets play today as the background music in various TV commercials. During their heyday in the early '80s, they were also somewhat known for two other tracks: The theme song to the TV show Square Pegs (which gave Sarah Jessica Parker her first big role), and the jaunty number "Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful?", which got at least some airplay on American New Wave stations. "Christmas Wrapping" and "Square Pegs" are both on the 1982 EP I Could Rule the World If I Could Only Get the Parts. The other two songs, however, are on this album.

The Waitresses were a post-punk band formed in Akron, Ohio in 1979 by guitarist Chris Butler. Their choppy rock sound was notable for their use of occasionally discordant saxophone, and especially for the playful vocals of Patty Donahue. Donahue's style was fairly unique: her vocals were usually half-spoken, half sung, and her persona was a mix of flirtatiousness, brattiness and world-weary feminism of the kind you'd expect to find from a gum-chewing truck stop waitress.

Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful? was The Waitresses first, and best, LP. This probably isn't setting the bar too high, considering that the band's entire output consisted of just two LPs and two EPs. Nevertheless, this is a pretty likable little album. It reached a peak of #41 on the U.S. Billboard charts in 1982, driven mostly by "I Know What Boys Like".

Musically, you wouldn't necessarily expect "I Know What Boys Like" to be a successful single. It's a slow song, driven by bass and jangly guitar, that's fairly repetitious throughout. It's carried by Butler's clever lyrics, and by Donahue's mischievous performance as the stereotypical schoolgirl "tease", who revels in getting the boys all hot and bothered, then laughing in their faces: "I got my cat moves/That so upset them/Zippers and buttons/Fun to frustrate them." 

Other songs find her playing an assortment of roles: The sympathetic confidant ("Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful?"); the girl who thrives after the breakup ("No Guilt"); the annoying friend with the car who always gets you lost ("It's My Car"); and the stiff interview lady from the human resources department ("Wise Up").

The songs don't all work, but some are unknown gems. Especially strong are "Heat Night", which is probably the most upbeat and exciting song on the album; and "Jimmy Tomorrow", a song which might or might not be about how your ideals and goals get jaded when the real world intervenes. On this one, an increasingly frustrated Donahue gets repeatedly heckled by the rest of the band, and finally ends the song with the declaration, "My goals are to find a cure for irony and make a fool out of God."

You won't find The Waitresses on any of the '80s nostalgia tours making their way around this summer. This is because sadly, Donahue died of lung cancer in 1996, and, well, The Waitresses just wouldn't be The Waitresses without her. Few would cite them as one of the top bands of their era, but they definitely deserved at least a place at the table. Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful? gives you a good example of their charm.


Rating: 3 of 5 stars

A Quick Interlude and an Off-topic R.I.P. to Bruno Sammartino

I haven't had a whole lot to say here lately, mainly because a combination of a lot of work (which is good) and family issues (which aren't so good) have kept me from catching much live music lately.

On the album front, I'm finding 2018 to be a little bit of a slow year so far, especially as compared to 2017. And I haven't been to any concerts by national acts since the OMD show, which I wrote about a few months back. Denise and I have a bunch of tickets for shows over the summer, though, so I'll have at least some stuff to talk about then.

On an off-topic note that still has to do with the entertainment industry, I was sad to read about the death of wrestling's "Living Legend" (well, now that I'm reading it, I guess that term doesn't apply anymore, but "Legend", anyway) Bruno Sammartino.

There was a period in time where my father used to take my brother and I to Madison Square Garden almost every month to see the likes of Sammartino, "Superstar" Billy Graham, Chief Jay Strongbow, etc., and although we knew the results were pre-determined, it was always a great show (especially when Bruno was on the card). I actually watched Monday Night RAW! this week, which I haven't done in years, to watch some of the tributes to Sammartino, and while today's wrestlers are physically bigger and the show is more glossy, for me, they don't hold a candle to the days of Bruno stuffing Stan Hanson under a table and standing on Billy Graham's face.

So if you need to turn this back to music, let's all pay tribute by going up on YouTube and watching the video of one of Bruno's greatest nemeses, "Classy" Freddi Blassi, and his classic original single "Pencil Neck Geek". And hard Rest in Peace, Bruno!

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Review of Smol Data's "Smol Data: The EP"

I posted this review earlier tonight on the Sputnik Music website:


Review Summary: What kind of monster doesn't love a glockenspiel?

Smol Data is a 5-piece band from Long Island, New York, that has only been around since September of 2017. I struggle to tell you their genre. They're a little bit dream pop and a little bit shoegaze, but with some harsher, more dissonant sounds mixed in. Their Facebook page describes their genre as "Guitar go 'dur nurnur nur', keyboard go 'beep boop'," for however much that helps. Their bandcamp page tags them as "soundtrack", "bedroom pop" and "idk". They have a love for the artist known as Oso Oso, and share some of his emo attitude. None of these descriptions nails it completely, but if you take all of them together and picture them as forming one big sphere, somewhere dead in the middle, you'll find Smol Data.

Smol Data: An EP is their second release of the year. It contains five songs, the best two of which are reworked versions of tracks from their first EP, Smol Data: The Demo

I know that 2.5 stars doesn't sound like a great rating, but it's all relative. Sometimes I might give an album 3 stars for good execution, but still find the music a little boring. These guys don't bore me at all. It's just that I feel like they're not fully formed yet. The truth is they're a little raw, maybe even still a little amateurish, but there's something charming about them. "Normal Jeans" (which was called "Normie Beans" on the first EP) is actually quite a good song, and at least three of the other four tracks on this EP have some good ideas, even if they're not completely developed. The lead singer Karah Goldstein isn't really hitting the notes dead on, but I have a feeling that's a deliberate choice on her part, and either way, there's something I like about her. And I absolutely love the band's use of the glockenspiel.

They mostly lost points with me because of that whole raw quality that I mentioned earlier, and because they do some weird-ass things with the recording process (like having Gillian Pitzer's backing vocals so low in the mix in some spots that it's practically subliminal, and having them only coming out of one speaker, so if you listen with headphones, it's like you're hearing voices in your head that might or might not be telling you to sell all of your earthly possessions, move to the desert and live only off of raw iguana meat). I could also do with a little less harshness in the music, but that's more about my own personal taste than an actual shortcoming of the band.

Anyway, I can't fully recommend the EP, because it's a cake that's still half baked. But if these guys stay together for any length of time, I'm looking forward to their future projects. And hell, what kind of monster doesn't love a glockenspiel?


Rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Review of Joan Baez's "Diamonds & Rust"

I posted the following review about an hour ago on the Sputnik Music website:


Review Summary: "Well I'll be damned/Here comes your ghost again" - from Joan Baez's "Diamonds & Rust"

Joan Baez first rose to fame as one of the great protest singers of the Vietnam War era. She established herself in the early 1960s, becoming known for her interpretations of classic folk ballads, and for her beautiful vibrato voice. She was also instrumental in Bob Dylan's rise to prominence. She was already well-established in the Greenwich Village folk scene when he came along, and although she was initially unimpressed with him, they became lovers. Baez soon came to appreciate Dylan's skills as a writer and a performer, and her endorsement of him helped the folk community to accept Dylan and to gradually come to understand his genius. Baez eventually capped off the 1960s by performing at the Woodstock Festival. Clearly, she was among the most important voices of her generation.

Nevertheless, as happens to most artists, her fame had a shelf life. She had a Gold-certified album in 1971, Blessed Are..., which featured a very successful single in her cover of Robbie Robertson's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". By the middle of the decade, however, the Vietnam War was coming to a close, and Baez's star seemed to have faded ... until the release of this LP.

Diamonds & Rust is a stunning achievement. It revitalized Baez's career, and gave her an opportunity to show off her exquisite voice to a new generation. It also featured arguably the strongest original song she ever wrote, the poignant title track. And the rest of the album ain't too shabby either.

So let's talk "Diamonds & Rust". The song was written after Baez received a phone call from Dylan out of the blue. Dylan was working on his own iconic Blood on the Tracks album, and called to read her the lyrics to his composition "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" (which might have been partially about his relationship with Baez). It always seemed to me that Baez cared more about Dylan than vice versa, and although she was the more established artist when they first met, he certainly went on the greater prestige in his career than she ever reached. In any event, the phone call brought back a bunch of memories and feelings for Baez, which she then poured into this song.

"Diamonds & Rust" features a simple, but elegantly picked, folk guitar, a perfect vocal, and some of the most personal and affecting lyrics that Baez ever wrote. It begins with Baez receiving the phone call, and her reminiscence: "As I remember your eyes/Were bluer than robin's eggs/My poetry was lousy you said," continuing, "Ten years ago/ I bought you some cufflinks/You brought me something/We both know what memories can bring/They bring diamonds and rust." Clearly, these aren't all happy memories. She goes on to accuse Dylan of being an expert at "keeping things vague", and concludes, "I need some of that vagueness now/It's all come back too clearly/Yes, I loved you dearly/And if you're offering me diamonds and rust/I've already paid." Ouch! Over the years, there have been some fine cover versions of this song, by artists ranging from Blackmore's Night to Judas Priest. However, there's never been a more impassioned or beautiful version than this original one.

As mentioned, the rest of the album contains some other treats, although nothing quite as memorable as that intense title track. These include "Dida", another original that gives Baez a chance to cut loose vocally with another of the great female folk singers of the era, Joni Mitchell; some well done covers of John Prine's "Hello in There", Janis Ian's "Jesse" and Jackson Browne's "Fountain of Sorrow"; and a hokey-but-enjoyable medley that splices together a pair of old classics, "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Danny Boy". And if you can't get enough of the whole Dylan/Baez vibe, there's also a cover of Dylan's "Simple Twist of Fate", and another, less pained track which Baez also wrote about Dylan, called "Winds of the Old Days".

Diamonds & Rust is one of Baez's best LPs. It gives a powerful sample of her capability as both a singer and a songwriter, and it makes an irrefutable case that she deserves to be remembered at least as much for her musical talent as she is for her social activism.


Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Monday, April 9, 2018

Review of Mary Beats Jane's "Locust"

I dropped this review about an hour ago on the Sputnik Music website. It was written as part of a random album review contest. (Well, maybe "contest" is the wrong word. Nobody wins any prizes or anything). Anyway, I submitted the album Door to Door by The Cars, which another User reviewed, and I got this one. So without further ado:


Review Summary: An allegedly metal album for non-metal fans, featuring cannibalism (maybe), and the musical stylings of Tool.

Mary Beats Jane was a Swedish band active through the mid-1990s. Their most famous member was Peter Dolving, the vocalist, who later garnered some acclaim in The Haunted, a well-respected thrash metal band with whom he was active for most of the first decade of this century. (Dolving is currently the lead singer for IAmFire, a Copenhagen-based heavy rock collective.) For their part, Mary Beats Jane only ever released two full-length studio LPs, their self-titled debut in 1994, and this one, in 1997. Why they then broke up is unknown, but Holving has been quoted as saying that MBJ will never re-form, so it must have been for a serious reason. I like to think it was something to do with cannibalism, but I can't prove it.

In any event, I had a problem with reviewing this album, namely this: I'm not a metal guy. It's not like I've never listened to metal, or metal-tinged, bands. But honestly, it's far from my favorite genre, and it's way outside of my realm of expertise. So I pondered the predicament -- how can I review this LP in a way that does it justice? In the end, I figured that the fairest thing to do was to not only describe what I hear in the album, but also to give an overview of what others have said about it and where they might be coming from. I also did a little research by listening to the band's first LP, and also by listening to a Haunted LP, for context. 

What I learned was this: I'm still not a metal guy. I didn't like the Haunted album at all, nor did I like MBJ's inaugural LP. However, weirdly enough, I did like Locust. Here's the reason -- Locust isn't really a metal LP, at least not in the classic sense. The Haunted LP was very heavy, as was the MBJ debut. Locust, on the other hand, definitely rocks at times, but it's clearly not thrash metal. Instead, what I hear in this album is a band who sounds very like Tool. I mean very like them. I won't claim to be a Tool expert, but if I heard most of Locust on the radio, or a friend played it for me, I'd be like, "Tool, right?" In fact, it sounds so much like Tool to me that I'd have to assume that the band was attempting to deliberately make an album that sounded just like Tool, but with maybe just a smidgen of Nine Inch Nails thrown into the mix. Come to think of it, maybe cannibalism wasn't the reason that the band broke up. Maybe it was more like half of the band wanted to go back to thrash metal, and the other half of the band was like, "No, let's make more albums that sound like Tool," and finally Peter Dolving was like, "You know what, eff you guys! I just got asked to join The Haunted, so I'm out of here." Maybe. Possibly. (Pause.) Seriously, though, it was probably cannibalism.

Anyway, it's not like there are a ton of ratings or reviews for this album out there, (at least not in the American internet realms), but after checking Sputnik, Amazon, AllMusic and RYM, the conclusion I came to was this -- real metal fans tend to hate this album, while more casual fans of the genre consider this to be a quality LP, and tend to rate it pretty highly. Also, the general consensus, which I agree with, is that the biggest weakness of the album is it tends to lose a little energy towards the end. 

To my way of thinking, the best three tracks on the album are "Blackeye", the second track, which is fast and very Tool-like; "Pure", the 3rd track, which is pretty heavy, and features an unusual time signature; and "Dog Relish", the fifth track, which sounds a little more influenced by Led Zeppelin. There are two other songs that I especially enjoyed, but they're two of the ones that most inclined classic metal lovers to want to blow their own brains out. These are: "Fall", a quieter number with strummed guitars that even throws in some vocal harmonies for good measure; and "Cradlewake," an eerie song that features a high-pitched, slow guitar line that feels like worms eating through your brain. Oh, and it kind of reminded me of Tool.

So to summarize what I heard in Mary Beats Jane's Locust: Tool. Cannibalism (perhaps). Traces of NIN and Zeppelin. And lots of metal-tinged music that many (most) true metal fans will hate, but other rock fans will probably appreciate.


Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Monday, April 2, 2018

Review of Frankie Cosmos' "Vessel"

I posted this review a short while ago on the Sputnik Music website:


Review Summary: The tunes on this album gently carry you along, even if it's only for about a minute-and-a-half or so.

Frankie Cosmos is a band. It's also the alias of the band's lead singer/songwriter Greta Kline, the daughter of film actors Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates. Their new album Vessel is being credited as their third studio album, although there seem to have been a few other indie releases that they're no longer counting. You can tell they're moving up in the world, because this is their first release on Sub Pop, their most prominent label to date, and because they're booked along with Perfume Genius to open for Belle and Sebastian at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium this summer. In spite of their band-on-the-rise status, though, soundwise, Vessel doesn't sound all that different from their previous release, 2016's Next Thing. However, that's not necessarily a bad thing, as that was also a pretty good LP.

I'm going to tell you up front, there are a few things that annoy me about this album. The main thing is that they seem so afraid to fully grasp their rising prominence as a band that at times, it feels like they're trying to hit you over the head with the notion that, "Hey, we're really not thatprofessional!" So for example, at the end of "This Stuff", one of the LP's most enjoyable songs, they end abruptly with an out-of-place-seeming synthesizer morsel, followed by the sound of Kline giggling. Or on another number, the brief "Ur Up", the track starts with a male voice coming from the sound booth followed by the band flubbing the first few notes and Kline once again nervously laughing. I'm probably getting crotchety in my old age. Things like this have been done by classic artists throughout the decades, from The Who's Pete Townshend bellowing "I saw ya!" at Keith Moon at the end of "Happy Jack", to Joni Mitchell's weird cackling at the end of "Big Yellow Taxi". But it irked me when Keshe did it on her album last year, and it irked me here, especially because in this case, it felt like maybe the band was just trying too hard to cling to their DIY cred by leaving this kind of thing on the recording.

The second thing that I had a hard time coming to grips with is more my problem than theirs. It's their song structures. There are 18 tracks on this album, which sounds like way too many, until you realize that the total running time is only 33:17 minutes. There are only two songs here longer than three minutes, the first track ("Carmelize") and the last one (the title track). Kline likes to work in snippets, and even then, many of her songs start out one way, totally deconstruct, and then come back together. Or not. She clearly has the talent to do a more traditional pop thing. She just doesn't want to. She's like a poet who works only in haiku. For me, as a listener, it sometimes gets a little frustrating. But that's more my problem than hers.

So having said all of this, why did I give the album three-and-half stars? Because in the end, I still really like it. It's eminently listenable. Kline's voice is high, and kind of wispy, but very pretty, and the music is really smooth. It's my understanding that for awhile, she was very active in the New York anti-folk scene, and I can hear that in her resistance to typical song structures. Her music, however, is much less aggressive than what I think about when I hear the word "anti-folk". The songs gently carry you along with them, even if it's only for a minute-and-a-half or so. And I love most of what the band is doing throughout, whether it's leisurely strumming guitars, dreamily playing a synthesizer, or quietly singing in the round as they do at the end of their "Being Alive" track.

All told, I respect what Greta Kline and Frankie Cosmos have done here, even when they frustrated my expectations. I'd just like to see them be a little more self confident, and a little less self-consciously "indie". Nevertheless, this is still one of my favorite albums so far of 2018.


Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars