Fluxblog 372: Madelline • KH • Jean-Luc Swift • Kurt Vile
Plus a podcast tribute to the Scissor Sisters and LOTS of hard rock
This week I have three playlists for you, a trilogy covering three eras of HARD ROCK between 1975 and 1990. This sequence starts with hard rock becoming a big part of the mainstream, the era in which New Wave of British Metal and thrash enters the mix, and then culminating in the hair metal phase which overlaps with more arty hard rock acts who would become more identified with “alternative” in the ‘90s.
Here’s HARD ROCK 1975-1979, featuring the likes of Led Zeppelin, Heart, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, Nazareth, ZZ Top, and Queen. [Spotify | Apple | YouTube]
Here’s HARD ROCK 1980-1985, featuring the likes of Van Halen, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Mötorhead, and Mötley Crüe. [Spotify | Apple | YouTube]
Here’s HARD ROCK 1986-1990, featuring the likes of Guns N Roses, Poison, Lita Ford, Beastie Boys, Jane’s Addiction, Living Colour, and Faith No More. [Spotify | Apple | YouTube]
I made a guest appearance on the Pop Pantheon podcast for a special Pride month kickoff episode about the Scissor Sisters! It was really fun to talk to Louis about one of my favorite acts of the 00s in depth and I think whether you’re a fan or don’t really know them at all you’ll have a really good time with this episode. You can find it on Apple, Spotify, and all other podcast platforms. I recommend smashing that subscribe button, this is a terrific series with many great guests.
My Immediate Action Is Required
Madelline “Participation Trophies”
“Participation Trophies” is written in the plain spoken first person “relatable” voice that has been dominant in young pop for a while now but veers off model in a significant way – instead of being written from the perspective of some annoyed and wronged person, it’s an incredibly self-deprecating song about being a total loser. Send this song 30 years back in time and it’s an indie slacker song, though people might be lost on what “airpods” are. Madelline’s vocal delivery is deadpan even in the more uplifting bits of the song which nudge the sentiment towards shrugging self-acceptance. The production style is clean and glossy enough to make it all sound like a sunny day, but the structure of the song gently rebels against its own drive towards anthemic rock. It gets there, but everything seems to resolve in some form of “oh well, whatever, never mind.”
Buy it from Amazon.
Seeing Different Numbers
KH “Looking At Your Pager”
Every time I write about Kieron Hebden’s music I end up focusing on his masterful use of vocal sampling, which tends to obscure lyrics in favor of pure vocal sound and melodic inflection. “Looking At Your Pager” goes in another direction – he flips the entire opening verse from 3LW’s relatively obscure early 2000s hit “No More” into a totally different piece of music. The words are the same but the melody is pushed into another shape, and processed just enough that unless you’re paying close attention it doesn’t totally register as being sung in English. The track has a pulse that’s familiar with other Four Tet tracks but the addition of wubs and dubs makes the music pop a bit more in an direct way, like he’s pandering to the floor much more than usual but in the best possible way. On paper this is as obvious and accessible as Hebden gets but the music still retains his essential abstraction, an unmistakable blurry bliss that’s particular to his sensibility.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
A Good Look Around
Jean-Luc Swift “B Like U”
The arrangement of “B Like U” is fussy with little details but still overwhelmingly airy and light, bringing to mind a statement of relaxation with lingering trace amounts of tension and worry. I find this song to be a “come for the loose part, stay for the tight part” proposition as I particularly love the sections in which the music seems to compress around a vocal sample that reminds me a lot of the bit in Spice Girls’ “Wannabe” where they repeat “I wanna, I wanna, I wanna.” This part also includes a bit of turntable scratching that really sells a specific late ‘90s vibe, a musical sensation that hits like an unexpected and disorienting wave of nostalgia in the midst of a song with a very different feel to it. It’s a little too cerebral and grounded to qualify as spacey and stoned, but it’s almost there.
Buy it from Amazon.
A Time When Everything Rhymed
Kurt Vile “Like Exploding Stones”
Kurt Vile’s music always sounds like something made to please himself when left to his own devices, but he’s fine with you listening in. It’s all the languid and indulgent stuff that other artists might tighten up in later drafts, and the kind of slightly goofy lyrics that you might make up on the spot as a stopgap to get the melody down. It’s not as though he’s just recording random jams, though – he is refining everything, especially these days, but the key is preserving the essence of himself at his most relaxed and instinctive. “Like Exploding Stones” leans towards the more produced end of his output, a mellow groove filled out with synths that sound like grey clouds and a sax part that drifts into the mix with a surreal tone similar to that of Destroyer’s Kaputt album. He narrates these moves in real time – “Moog making noise now, guitar’s feeding back now” – and it’s funny in a deadpan way, but then he states that it’s all just at attempt to soothe his own pain and it’s suddenly quite poignant.
Buy it from Amazon.
LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS
• Here’s a good feature story in The Guardian about Pavement coming back together to rehearse for their first tour since 2010.
• I’m a little late to the party but I’ve been enjoying Rob Harvilla’s 60 Songs That Explain The ‘90s podcast, which leans heavily on clever storytelling about his life as a teenager in the era. They’re all good, but the episode that really won me over was about Alice In Chains’ “Would?”
• Here’s Kristin Robinson at Billboard on how major labels love to test pop music out on TikTok, but it’s causing tension with songwriters and producers.