31 December 2022 - Mary's Danish - Leave It Alone

So, here's some questions:

Why post a band that hasn't been together since the mid-1990's as your last song of 2022?  Why post a 30 year old song that isn't even available on Spotify?

I've stated earlier that I am a fan of Mary's Danish - one of my favorite bands of all time.  This despite the fact that the band only had three albums and a live EP (with a version of "Foxy Lady" as a bonus).  None of these albums were available on any streaming service.... and there was a good reason for that. 

You see, the masters were lost.  All of them.  

In 2022, the masters for their EP, Live + Experienced, and their first album, There Goes The Wondertruck, (some thought to be lost in the famous Capitol Records fire of 2008), originally released on the defunct Chameleon Records, were found in the Warner Brothers archives by Gretchen Seeger herself. So, now, we can stream "Don't Crash The Car Tonight".

This song is from their third album, American Standard.  That and their second album, Circa, are still missing, as they were part of the Morgan Creek records archives - a record label that doesn't exist anymore, although Morgan Creek FILMS does, and they do license music.  

So, in very much the John Oliver style, I have personally asked Morgan Creek Films for the licensing rights for these two albums - just in the hopes that they were open up their archives and find these masters.  Let's see if this gets us anywhere.  

30 December 2022 - Soundgarden - Rusty Cage

This isn't the last post of 2022.  

It is a good completion of a grunge tribute week.

This was the 3rd single off the Soundgarden album Badmotorfinger and it was an instant hit.  Featuring an odd tuning (the E string on Kim Thayil's guitar was tuned down to B) and really erratic musical time signatures and tempo changes, it had a unique sound that's very difficult to replicate - but that's what Soundgarden did - create unique sounds that were difficult to replicate.  

It's a song that endures, too.

As Chris Cornell moved onto solo artistry, he still performed his songs.  This particular song, however, was famously covered in the interim by country music legend Johnny Cash.... who absolutely took the song and made it his own, so much so that Cornell used Johnny's version of his song when performing it live.

29 December 2022 - Temple Of The Dog - Hunger Strike

If you didn't see this coming, you aren't paying attention.

The Temple of the Dog self-titled debut album, their only release, was issues in April of 1991, a project featuring what would end up becoming Pearl Jam along with Chris Cornell of Soundgarden.  It would remain largely unnoticed until 1992, when Pearl Jam hit it big and their whole story, including how Eddie Vedder joined them, came to light.  

So, you could consider this to be Pearl Jam's debut album.

This was their best known song, written by Chris Cornell. 

I do, however, want to paint a picture for you.

Here's this gas station attendant from San Diego who happens to be a basketball buddy of a Red Hot Chili Pepper, who was recommended for this project by said Chili Pepper, just walking into a studio with some giants of grunge who knew each other pretty well.  Yes, at this point, Chris Cornell was well known.  Soundgarden was a hit band.  Mother Love Bone was iconic.  

This gas station attendant steps up to the mic and turns this song into a duet, which he was unaware Cornell was already looking to do, and constructed the duet you see here, and cemented his own career. 

None of this matters if  A&M Records don't wake up and see they have a collaboration between two of their biggest hit bands a year after this album's release.  None of this matters if this isn't an instant classic of a song.

The song and album were reissued in 2016, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the initial release.  A new video for this song was released, compiled from old footage of Cornell and Vedder.

28 December 2022 - Pearl Jam - Alive

Yesterday, we talked briefly about Mother Love Bone.  But what happened to the rest of Mother Love Bone after the death of Andrew Wood?

Many of you know the answer to this, at least partially.  Stone Gossard, guitarist for the band, started writing some hard-edged stuff in reaction, and started revisiting other stuff he had written as a member of MLB.  One of these songs was an instrumental named "Dollar Short".  He and Jeff Ament were taking part in a tribute project (to Wood) called Temple of the Dog with Chris Cornell from Soundgarden, and a San Diego vocalist who I'm sure you've never heard of named Eddie Vedder was recruited to do some vocals for this.  

Anyway, Vedder got his hands on "Dollar Short" and came up with lyrics.  Those lyrics were "Alive".  After Temple of the Dog, Vedder stuck with Ament and Gossard, along with other participant Mike McCready (who was already playing with Gossard and Ament with the goal of a new band) formed a new band, Pearl Jam, which would become one of the biggest and most influential bands in the Seattle scene.

This single, the band's first, was, believe it or not, only a minor hit - bubbling under the Hot 100 and getting some commercial airplay - but it set the table for their bigger follow-up songs.  And, clearly, the song (with the added McCready outro, considered one of the best guitar solos of all time) endures.

27 December 2022 - Alice In Chains - Would?

When everyone in the music business discovered Seattle and their "grunge" music scene, one of the first bands signed (after Soundgarden, who really opened that door) was Mother Love Bone.  Unfortunately, Mother Love Bone didn't get very far, as their lead vocalist, Andrew Wood, passed away in 1990 from a heroin overdose.  

The influence of Mother Love Bone was felt throughout the scene, even after Wood's death.  His friend, Jerry Cantrell, vocalist and guitarist for Alice in Chains, wrote "Would?" as a tribute to his friend.  Originally appearing on the soundtrack for the movie Singles (the band also appeared in the film), which also featured a Mother Love Bone song, it would go on to be one of AiC's best known songs

The unusual makeup of Alice in Chains allowed for some interesting harmonies.  Cantrell sings the verses on this song, and the late Layne Staley - lead vocalist - sings the chorus.  

As was commonplace in the 1990s, the band appeared on the TV show MTV Unplugged and did a version of the song that was.... well, Layne Staley gave this version a very different feel.

Staley himself passed away from a heroin and cocaine overdose in 2002, but the band eventually persevered, reforming a few years later.  In 2006, AiC got together to pay tribute to Staley and performed this song, with Phil Anselmo of Pantera (themselves also dealing with the tragic loss of Dimebag Darrell, to whom this performance is also tributed) taking his vocal role and Duff McKagan of Guns 'n' Roses joining in on guitar.  With the new tribute, this song becomes even more poignant.

24 December 2022 - Cœur de Pirate - Noël Blanc

I hope you are enjoying your Christmas Eve as much as we are here.   To celebrate, we have "Noël Blanc" - a French version of "White Christmas."   

And you know I'm posting this only because I have the œ on my clipboard..... 

22 December 2022 - Phantogram - As Far As I Can See

It's been a while since we featured Phanotgram.  We're featuring this because we had a draft of this post already written for such a time like this - when we were too lazy to go hunting for a new song and research it.

Nevertheless, here we are.  And, since we forgot to add that research piece, we saved almost nothing.

The band's third single from their great debut album, Eyelid Movies, it wasn't quite as well-known as the two previous singles - but it still got a video and a bit of label backing.   The song itself is a bit of a sonic experiment in this format, although it is one of the band's older songs.