6 September 2021 - GTR - When The Heart Rules The Mind

What happens when a couple of prog-rock veteran guitarists get together and make a straight-ahead rock album?  Well, that's what Steve Howe of Yes and Steve Hackett of Genesis did when they got together and formed GTR.   

The project was short-lived, but yielded one pretty good album.  Also featuring Jonathan Mover from Marillion on drums and Max Bacon on vocals, it was quite the superproject.  This was their debut single and went to #14 in 1986.  The band fell apart when their studio sound - sans keyboards (because Steve Howe was sick of that sound from his time in Asia) - didn't work live.  

But let's go back to this song.  It's a standard 80's rock song - less prog, more straightahead - but that doesn't make it bad.  It's a good song.  Co-written by Hackett and Howe, and produced by another Yes/Asia alum, Geoff Downes, it's a song that sounds dated and yet still present.  

3 September 2021 - Mary's Danish - Underwater

It is rare that I can share one of my favorite songs of all time, by one of my favorite bands of all time.  I know that's not true, but just listen.  Then I'll talk about it.  The song is that good.

Mary's Danish was a LA band that released three studio albums and a live EP.  Yes, I own all of them.  This is from their last, 1992's American Standard. The band was short-lived, which is odd (and completely the fault of their record label, Morgan Creek), because the dual lead vocals from Gretchen Seager and Julie Ritter were legendary - they didn't both sing lead on EVERY song, as their voices tended to hit different styles - Grethen tended towards the harder pop/rock songs, whereas Julie had a bit of a twang that lent itself to a folksier/bluesier sound - but they sure did on this one.  Guitarist David King passed away this summer, so they are unlikely to reform again.  

But they left behind many versions of this song. Take this one, a B-side to this very single.  It's an alternate take that some call "acoustic" but was probably the demo.

 

The band made the rounds of the late night talk shows, and performed this song many times.   Let's start with Leno.  The Tonight Show was recorded in the band's hometown Los Angeles, and boy, did Jay ever look uncomfortable introducing them.... 

Get out of here with your Burbank propaganda.

Next, we go to Letterman.  Dave was far more comfortable introducing them.  I know that because I watched it live.  This recording cuts off his intro.

Also, do you remember CD longboxes?!  Man, those were the days.  

(postscript: if you want to read the heartbreaking story of why Mary's Danish broke up, go here.  They say it far better than we could)

2 September 2021 - Transvision Vamp - Born To Be Sold

People who know me well know what my favorite albums are.  If you read this blog last year, I revealed that Velveteen by UK hitmakers (who did next to nothing Stateside) Transvision Vamp is high on that list.  At that time, I posted a really REALLY angry song - my favorite song on that album.

But here's the thing that makes that album so perfect.  There are no bad songs on there.  NONE.  They released two other albums - this was their second - and they were all good.  This one was borderline perfect.  

This song was a hit in the UK and Australia in 1989 and 1990, respectively - and it's a quiet tribute to a lot of pop icons throughout the ages - it's a song full of name drops.  Wendy James can deliver quiet and she can deliver loud, and she proves it on this album.      

1 September 2021 - Santigold - The Keepers

We have come to Santigold.

Santigold is one of a new wave of avant garde artists that have given new life to traditional genres, like pop, rock, and R&B, fusing them all with an electronic sound and lyrical depth not seen previously.  This fusion brings a new sound - one that eschews genre.

This song - co-written by Santigold - dives into the subject of the degradation of American culture while we, the keepers, are asleep at the wheel. I do encourage you to not listen to the lyrics the first time you listen.  It's an aurally interesting upbeat pop song, different than anything you've heard before.  

31 August 2021 - Brie Larson - She Said

In 2005, a discouraged actress from Sacramento, CA made an album with a couple of singles that got MTV airplay.  She was 16 at the time, and since this was her only full-length album, it seems early for her career to peak.....

The song itself is pretty standard fair bubblegum pop/rock, but it's earnestly performed.  Larson co-wrote about half the album, but not this song.

OK, let's stop being coy.  We all saw Captain Marvel.  We all saw Avengers: Endgame.  We all read this post so we know Brie Larson can sing.  

I said she was 16.  The album was released in October 2005, about two weeks after her 16th birthday, but was originally slated to be released in 2004..... so, do the math, people.  This performance from January 2005 would put this future Academy Award winner at 15.  Her stage presence is a bellweather for the greatness to come.  

30 August 2021 - Min x Erik ft. Khắc Hưng - Ghen | Ghen Cô Vy

In 2017, Vietnamese artists Min x Erik released a song called "Ghen" to YouTube.  It was a pretty popular song.  Everyone know "Ghen", the Vietnamese word for jealous.  The song was written by Khắc Hưng.  It's a catchy song about... well, jealousy.  

Fast forward to 2020.  The Vietnam National Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health (NIOEH) were looking to commission a song that would help Vietnamese people learn how to stop the spread of Coronavirus, as it was called at the time (it became better known as COVID-19).   The timeline to write and record this was short.... so Khắc Hưng just went back to his old catalog and put new lyrics on his well-known song.  Hence, "Ghen Cô Vy", or jealous coronavirus.  

The song and accompanying dance challenge were a worldwide hit.  And who can blame people for loving this?  It's darned catchy.  And, even if you don't know Vietnamese 1) turn on the subtitles, because you'll find it's been translated into many languages 2) the video will give you a good idea as to what's going on here.

Of course, you could also listen to the English translation.

27 August 2021 - The Minutemen - Corona

Here's a song all your jackasses will surely know.

No, seriously, this song was the theme for the MTV show Jackass.  That opening guitar lick was the perfect one to capture the essence of that show.  

But it's also a very simple protest song about injustice and greed, with d. Boon's guitar riff, George Hurley keeping time, and Mike Watt on the boom stick.  

That's it.  I went econo with this post.