Something Fierce This Way Comes...Finally!!!

As long-time readers may be aware, Something Fierce -- a bunch of guys I've never met, but with whom I nonetheless have a sort-of personal relationship going back several decades -- are the greatest pop/rock band you've never heard of unless you're from Minneapolis.

You can (and should) read the perhaps poignant details of our shared history over HERE, but the short version is I've been a fan since 1989, when I first wrote about them in the pages of Stereo Review. Suffice it to say that of all the music I was lucky enough to discover as part of my job at that rag, Something Fierce's is the stuff that has meant the most to me over the years. Seriously.

In any event, the reason I bring them up now is that -- yay!!!! -- all their long out-of-print albums (including two flat out masterpieces) are at last available again, for streaming/listening or purchase, over at this one convenient site HERE.

This is like the greatest news ever, although I must admit (to my everlasting shame) that it's actually not (news, that is). In reality, the stuff has actually been up over there for a while, but for some reason I never got the memo, My apologies to the band in this regard. 😎

Anyway, by way of penance, I thought I'd give the PowerPop community a representative sampling of the aural delights you can find at that splendid site.

Let's start with "Deep and Meaningful," which is the first SF song I fell in love with.

And I think we've all known that girl. Hell, I think we've all dated her.

And then there's the gorgeous "Oscillating Fan," with (as I said back in the day) its swirling Revolver-ish instrumental section that doubles back on the lyrical conceit.

Pretty fucking brilliant, no?

And then there's "Poetic Justice Thurgood." An ode to the late great SCOTUS guy...

...that should have been a single, if only because the 45 would have looked so damned cool.

And then of course there's this, which isn't power pop, but is nonetheless a work of genius.

About which, at the time of its original release (in 1996), I wrote ...

"One song [from A Sound for Sore Ears] deserves particular mention...specifically, 'Watergate,' in which [they] posit -- over a hilariously overdramatic instrumental bed -- that A Girlfriend From Hell is the metaphorical equivalent of the Nixon scandals and sustain the conceit for more than five fricking minutes. If nothing else, this must be the first song in history to contemplate rhyming 'spill the beans' with 'Haldeman, Mitchell and Dean,' and I would like to go on record, at this juncture, as saying that this song remains for my money the most audacious conceptual masterstroke on any '90s rock album by anybody. So there."

...and I stand by every word.

Bottom line: Those guys were great, your life is the poorer for it if you haven't heard them, and the band link I posted above -- where you can access every single note they ever recorded -- is the most important cultural treasure trove since the library at Alexandria. Get over there now!!!

PS: Attentive readers may recall that Fierce guitarist Jerry Lefkowitz is currently kicking out the jams as part of the band behind America's coolest punk rock gal Cindy Lawson; if they're ever performing in your neck of the woods, drop everything and go.

PPS: I can't believe I didn't put this one -- "Vegetable Guy" -- up top. It's ostensibly tongue in cheek, but it leaves me with chills every time. Wow.

PPPS: In a daring break with the hidebound traditions of this here blog, I will be posting a new Weekend Essay Question on Saturday. Thought you oughta know.

My god, how avant-garde!!! 😎

Closed for Monkey Business

Tomorrow -- an absolutely fab tribute to the best power pop band you've never heard of unless you came from Minnesota.

Seriously -- with links to some great songs and a true story that will make you a little misty.

Today's Rare Photo -- The Fifth Beatle!!!

Heh.

BTW -- the guy actually responsible for that famous/controversial alleged Bigfoot home movie turned out to be the late great John Chambers, i.e. the Hollywood makeup genius who invented Mr. Spock's ears and, more importantly, was responsible for the costumes in the original Planet of the Apes movies.

Irony is so ironic.

As Promised, Some Actual Power Pop Today!!!

From their 2018 best-of CD Past and Present, please enjoy pride-of-Illinois jangle-rock mavens The Spindles and their drop dead gorgeous cover of the Graham Gouldman-penned Hollies masterpiece "Look Through Any Window."

Hey -- what can I tell you; apparently, I was genetically bred to love that song. But still -- that's an exceptionally fab take on it.

In any case, those guys have been dispensing equally swell stuff for quite a while now, and you should order the aforementioned retrospective album over at their official website HERE now.

You'll also find information about their upcoming gigs -- hello, power pop fans in the Chicago area!!! -- and their new album (due in the spring) over there, so the proverbial word to the wise.

You're welcome very much. 😎

Have I mentioned -- The Spindles rule!!!

Kvetch Me If You Can!!!

From his 1957 album Mish Mosh, please enjoy yiddish Spike Jones-ish musical parodist Mickey Katz -- perhaps better known these days as Cabaret star Joel Grey's father/Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey's granddad -- and his hilariously tacky "How Much is That Pickle in the Window?
.

I stumbled across the above quite by accident the other day; it's an amusing story, but I'll share it with you guys at some other time. Preferably involving something kosher. 😎

In the meanwhile, regular posting -- by which I mean, music and stuff that's actually relevant to the theme of this here blog -- resumes tomorrow.

Sorry for the delay, but I'm still recuperating from the holidays.

La Fin de la Semaine Essay Question: Special "Not Bob Dylan, But an Incredible Simulation!" Edition

As attentive readers are aware, a certain Shady Dame and I went to see Timmy the C in director James Mangold's highly hyped Dylan bio-pic A Complete Unknown the other day.

The short version: to paraphrase Siskel and Ebert, two very enthusiastic thumbs up, and I'm looking forward to seeing it again soon. The occasional (minor) anachronism/chronological inaccuracy notwithstanding, this is both a first-class evocation of some never-to-be-repeated watershed events in pop/political cultural history, and a surprisingly sophisticated psychological exploration of what made an artistic genius tick. Plus it's just a hell of a lot of fun.

More specifically, I should add that the performances are stellar throughout; Timmy and Edward Norton (as the film's conscience, elder folk legend and mensch Pete Seeger) are the obvious (deserved) Oscar-bait, but I was also particularly surprised by and taken with Elle Fanning, who's wonderful in the thankless role of Suze Rotolo, the Sixties counter-culture's most celebrated real-life ex-girlfriend. I should also add that the art-direction/period detail throughout is itself worth the price of admission; in particular, the first-half evocation of Greenwich Village in the early '60s is going to induce many dropped jaws in anybody who was around at the time or who simply has an affection for that historical moment.

The music? Well, older readers may recognize today's title as a play on the advertising tagline for Broadway's Beatlemania, the cheesy 70s musical that essentially invented the phenomenon of the modern tribute band, and thus has much to answer for. I must admit that, along those lines, I was way skeptical going into A Complete Unknown. I mean, just what the world needs, right -- a Zimmerman repertory act; at best it would be tacky, and at worst, an unintentional evocation of the much-missed (and hilarious) Bob Dylan Impersonator's Contest they used to hold annually at the old Speakeasy club on MacDougal Street.

Well, I was wrong; when the film's recreated music is at its most successful, i.e. when Chalamet is center stage, it's across-the-board riveting and dead-on believably convincing -- with the exception of the sonic ambience of the applause in the early coffee house scenes (which for some reason sounds inappropriately huge, as if lifted from the audience audio feed at a Taylor Swift arena show) and for the otherwise terrific performance of Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, who, probably wisely, makes little attempt to duplicate the sui generis folk-angelic vocals of her real-life character.

Bottom line: If you doubt me on this, take a listen to Chalamet doing a certain Dylan classic you may be familiar with (from the forthcoming movie soundtrack album, BTW).

I don't know about you guys, but to me that sounds both eerily accurate and quite ineffably moving.

Two final caveats: I gotta say, I kind of feel sorry for my long-time hero, keyboardist Al Kooper, whose character shows up, briefly, in the second half of the film, limned by actor Charlie Tahan, who does't look a goddamned bit like him. And speaking of ahistorical -- I was kind of shocked to realize that nowhere in any of the film's Village scenes is it suggested, either by Mangold or co-screenwriter Jay Cocks, that New York University is an actual living organism that is, at this very moment, growing inexorably leftward towards America's West Coast. 😎

Which leads us to the rest of the business at hand. To wit:

...and your favorite or least favorite bio-pic of a rock era solo musical artist or group is...???

No arbitrary rules this time; hell, if you want to nominate 40s stuff like The Jolson Story or that Cole Porter bio with Cary Grant (you know, the one where Cole isn't gay), go for it.

Anyway, in case you're wondering, my faves are the 2010 The Runaways (Kristen Stewart brilliant as Joan Jett)...

...and the 2007 What We Do Is Secret, with Shane West also brilliant as the late Germs frontman Darby Crash.

Alrighty then -- what would YOUR picks to click be?

And have a great weekend, everybody!!!

Closed for Post-New Year's Day Monkey Business

My absolutely brilliant review -- I"m not kidding, it's one of my best pieces in a long time -- of Dylan bio-pic A Complete Unknown goes up tomorrow.

Today -- I'm crashing. Sorry. 😎

It's New Years Day, and I Couldn't Be Happier: Special "How Do You Say 'Gallows Humor' in Yiddish?" Edition

Seriously -- Happy fricking New Year, everybody. And I wish you that, secure in the knowledge that 2025 will be without a chinchilla of doubt, the suckiest year any of us has experienced in memory.

Suckier than 1968 even, unless we're very lucky. Which I doubt we will be.

[Cue our readers: "Steve -- adjust your meds."]

Anyway, as I mentioned yesterday, my thoughts on the new Dylan bio-pic and my not-quite-top-ten albums of the year list will appear tomorrow. (Barring the unforseen, of course, which is not guaranteed. 😎)

In the meantime, in keeping with an occasional PowerPop tradition, from his 1990 album, please enjoy the irrepressible Andy Breckman and his ode to feeling reasonably okay despite everything -- "I Had a Good Day."

I didn't throw up
I didn't throw up
About a quarter to four
I almost threw up
But I didn't throw up
I had a real good day

My brother didn't die
My mother didn't die
My father didn't die
My sister didn't die
Mr. Greenblatt died
I had a real good day

Incidentally, I remain convinced that the Rolling Stones are singing "Mr. Greenblatt died" rather than "You make a grown man cry" in "Start Me Up."

Apparently, I have issues.