Howling At The Moon...Or Letting The Moon Howl At Us?

If you are a confirmed One Buck Head with some history of visiting here, you might remember that the point where power pop and New Wave intersect is a sweet spot of mine, as evidenced by OBG-compiled anthologies on Martin Briley and Randy VanWarmer that cover these guys' New Wave adventures. So it would seem surprising to you, that until a year and a half or so ago I was relatively unaware of Moon Martin. Probably heard the name, and I knew of course "Bad Case Of Loving You" via Robert Palmer and "Cadillac Walk" via Mink De Ville, but other than that...not much. So give a virtual hand to your music blog buddy and mine, Jonder, who mentioned Martin repeatedly in comments here, until I got my butt in motion to check out Mr. Martin. He also provided the albums of Martin's latter years over at Jonky's. Good job, J-Man, because Moon Martin does indeed rock, and the One Buck Record of the day is out to prove it.

Since the One Buck Guy is not one for doing things half-assedly, today's offering is another two disc proposition, with two drastically different listening experiences. Disc One, Crescent, is - as the subtitle suggests - presenting a Moon on the rise and focuses on Martin's heydays in the late 70s and early 80s. Crescent mainly draws on the first three albums he issued for Capitol, which arguably present his best work. 1982's Mystery Ticket and 1985's Mixed Emotions get a representative selection each - the former's clear highlight "Don't You Double (Cross Me Baby)" and the latter's "Short Skirts - but were decidedly weaker stuff. After Mixed Emotions Martin was dropped by Capitol and took a big break before a low-key return in the early 90s. 

Selections from those very low-key comeback efforts on small and mini labels throughout the 90s make up the second disc, Decrescent, which, well, show a moon (arguably) in decline. While I was happy to comb through those recordings from the 90s courtesy of Jonky's, and there's quite a bit to like here, they were also a step down and a step away from Martin's imperial phase. One thing that jumped out was that Martin would take the same songs - sometimes in exactly the same recordings - from mini-label to mini-label, so the overlap of songs is, uh, overkill. Do we really need three almost entirely same-sounding versions of Dylan's "Stuck In Mobile (With The Memphis Blues Again)" from Mr. Martin? I don't think so, so I picked what were the best-sounding versions to my ears and left it at that.

Another thing about those llatter-day recordings was that Martin, like many aging artists, discovered or redisvovered his love for the Blues, which I personally don't think is his strong suit, so I really only picked songs I liked and came up with a lean 12 song less-than-an-hour sequence that gives you a good overview of what Mr. Martin was up to in the 90s, far away from prevailing music trends or the public eye. Just to give you an idea of how low-key that 90s return was: His comeback record Dreams On File was issued by FNAC Music, FNAC being a French electronics store chain with, at least at the time, a huge music selection, and FNAC Music being their in-store label. Anyway, for those keeping records, Decrescent's track list breaks down as follows: Tracks 3, 5, 6, 9 and 11 come from Dreams On File; 1 and 4 from Cement Monkey; 2, 7 and 12 from Louisiana Jukebox, and 8 and 10 from Lunar Samples.  

So, that's a lot of Moon Martin coming your way. I'm glad to have discovered Mr. Martin, and so will you, if you don't know him yet. Even if you know him and are a fan, Full Moon will serve as a handy primer either way. So let's howl at the moon have the Moon howl at us...

Spring Cleaning, Part I : Hey, Remember These Guys ?

Having finally finished my project on the transitional period of Fleetwood Mac with the compilations on Bob Welch and Danny Kirwan a mere year after starting it, I decided to go through the One Buck Records archives to see what other follow-ups I might have missed. And guess what ? I fell on the third and final part of my Jimmy Eat World Bleed American project. Maybe this oversight is for the best, as after two posts on the album you were maybe a bit burned out on these guys and these songs, after a couple of months off you will hopefully enjoy some cool crunchy powerpop once more.

So here is Trophy Shelf, which raps up all the loose ends from that era. With this compilation you get another batch of alternative versions of the Bleed American songs including a great acoustic version of "The Middle", which approches a Byrds-ian jingle-jangle sound. You will also find a couple of outtakes, including the excellent "(Splash) Turn Twist". Somewhat unrelated, there is also their great, moody cover of The Prodigy's "Firestarter", which they recorded for a charity compilation for the New Musical Express.

So, folks, nothing much to say besides wishing you a good time with about 35 minutes of music from Mesa, Arizona's finest to lively up your day ... 

Bleed American or The Sound Of Summer - Youth Department

Bleed American was issued *checks notes, curses the passage of time* 24 years ago smack in the middle of summer, and I will always associate its sound with summer, and - given the release date - being young. Bleed American was part of the soundtrack of my college year in the United States. It has llit up that summer of 2001, and probably a couple of summers after this, and it's time it livelies up the summer of 2025. 

So, what makes Bleed American an album that immeditaly makes you - oh, at least two and a half decades younger? For one thing, everything about the record is big: its hooks, its feelings, its attitude. In many ways, the more direct approach of Bleed American leads to its approximation of what it is to be young and uncertain and in love and out of love and not sure where you are going next. Everything in its direct attacks on the senses - the power chords, the irresistible hooks, the emotive singing - works into emulating the sort of heightened senses experience that engulfs you when you are a teenager or a young adult: Everything is - or at least feels - bigger and more dramatic in those moments, every setback, romantic or otherwise is the end of the world, every success seems to be the beginning of a road into the golden future. Being older and just a little bit wiser, we all know those things to not be true. It's easy to chuckle at our own dramatics of youth now that we see them for what they are, but the roots of nostalgia lie therein, for every generation.

Nostalgia for simpler times back when we were young really started to become a thing in the early-to-mid 70s when things around people became more and more complex: Endless Summer, American Graffiti, most of Bob Seger's career from Night Moves onwards... It works, because we all remember how some of these moments that seemed momentuous urned out not to be that, but we remember how they made us feel. And some of the music of that time brings back these feelings as well. Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American always does this for me. It also happens to be a killer set of songs and hooks, somewhere right between college rock and power pop.  

Bleed American could not escape its time, and the shadow of 9/11 loomed large over everything, including seemingly innocuous titles. Bleed American was briefly withdrawn from stores to be re-issued with the album title as simply Jimmy Eat World (making it their second such album after their 1994 debut) and the title song being renamed "Salt Sweat Suger". The title song and opener is by far the hardest-edged song on the album, a flashback to when they would play songs at thrash metal speed. It also establishes the alum's modus operandi: After Clarity (which I rejiggered a bit to improve it) saw their growth in more elaborate structures, for Bleed American they return to a greater simplicity, while keeping the compositional strides they've made since their noisier beginnings. 

"The Middle" became the biggest song of the album, and you immeditaley get why: it has one of the biggest hook on the record, and the lyrics who encourage all looked-down on youth that things will get better hits right into the heart of their prospective listeners. How many teenage girl bedrooms or sorority dorm rooms have been lit up by the irresistible chorus "It just takes some time / little girl, you're in the middle of the ride / everything, everything will be just fine / everything, everything will be alright, alright"? Some moments that seemed to be calculated were pure accidents: All The 'Whoa's' in second single "Sweetness", which sound like they were designed to have a stadium crowd singing along, were placeholders when Jim Adkins developed the song and were supposed to be replaced later, but since no one in Jimmy Eat World could come up with something that worked, they stayed in place. 

The hooks here ae so abundant, that basically everything here besides the slower, moodier "Cautioners" and epic melancholic closer "My Sundown" could have been a single. Which means that Bleed American plays a lot like a gretest hits compilation, three minute blast of energy after three minute blast of energy, with the occasional ballad thrown in for good measure. Speaking of: The biggest ballad is the stately "Hear You Me", with Adkins' pleas of "May Angels Lead You In", written as a tribute to a couple that had recently died in a car crash and had gained a reputation for letting burgeoning rock groups crash at their place when they were in town ("you gave us a place to go"). Even when Jimmy Eat World were going for the feels, it wasn't mindless sappiness.  

Since Bleed American became a Platinum-certified bestseller and the three singles plus a couple of album tracks became rock radio staples, it's easy to forget that its inception wasn't as simple as a lot of non-researched 'and then they built on the strengths of Clarity' articles would suggest. The commercial failure of Clarity led them to be dropped by Capitol, soon afterwards they also quit their management. All four members rejoined the mainstream work force in odd jobs like car dealer, but a succcessful tour in Europe and the compilation Singles (which was the main source of my Earlybird Special compilation) brought in enough money to start sessions for the follow-up. When money statred to run out towards the end of the work, producer Mark Trombino proposed to finish working for free with the band repaying him later. As a promotional tool, the band uploaded some demos from the sessions on Napster (hello, early 2000s) for their fans, which in turn attracted interest from record labels due to its commercial appeal. Finally, six record labels went into a bidding war (including Capitol Records who had just dropped them!) before the band signed with Dreamworks and delivered the commercial juggernaut the lables were expecting.

Not everyone liked the streamlining of Jimmy Eat World's music. They were the victims of an all-time vicious pan by the snobmasters at Pitchfork, but time has shown that Pitchfork ended up on the wrong side of history on this one. Most critics raved, and the album's reputation only has grown larger in the intervening, uh, almost-quarter-of-a-century. It has now shown up on several 'best of the decade/the century/of all time' lists that are exercises in futility, but the proof is in the music itself. If this music leaves you cold, you might already be dead. So, taste the summer of youth, turn down the car (or, failing that, apartment) windows and play this as loud as you can...and then sing it back Who-ho-ooo-ooo-oooo!

Let the World-Eating Start...with Jimmy Eat World's Early Days...

Well, this has been a long time coming. I wanted to start posting some Jimmy Eat World for a good long while now but something else always jumped the line. But now we finally launch the series of albums from Mesa, Arizona's finest. Like that other punk-cum-pop band Jimmy Eat World needed a couple of albums and a change of lead vocalists two albums in to really get somewhere. And the somewhere is Jimmy Eat World being probably the most beloved of all 'emo' bands coming out in the late 90s and early 2000s. And then, with Bleed American in 2001 they actually did hit the big time. 

The emo tag shouldn't turn you off, by the way, as misunderstandingit might indicate that this is somehow music for teen boppers. Instead, it is some of the best pop punk and power pop you'll hear. It's lyrical content and pleading vocals could probably account for the 'emo' label, but as someone who never was 'emo', I can't really say much other than that Jimmy Eat World are first and foremost a kick-ass rock band with smarts and songs to spare.

But it's undeniable that Jimmy Eat World make music for young people - or at least the young at heart. The - yes - emotional content amplifies and accompanies the heightened emotional states of teenagers and young adults, the time where every romantic drama promises to be the end of the world and everything feels ten or a hundred times more important than it turns out to be. But that's what getting old(er) teaches you. Anyway, I digress. So, whether you call them punk, or emo, or power pop, or simply good old fashioned rock'n'roll, Jimmy Eat World was a great band for a couple of years around the change of the millenium. And today's Earlybird Special will hopefully start the mission in style, while focusing on the quicker and heavier music they did during their early days.  

The main basis for Earlybird Special is their Singles compilation, from which ten of the sixteen tracks here are sourced. There is one track ("Splat Out Of Luck") from their demo tape (just edging out the same track in the finished version from their not particularly impressive debut album), three from Static Prevails, their sophomore effort and major label debut, which has its moments - most of them collected here - but not hinting at what they could and would be just a little later. The one track from their self-titled 1998 EP, album closer "Roller Queen" already points in that direction, as do early versions of "Cautioners" and "The Most Beautiful Things", both of which would show up on Bleed American. There is also their cover of Duran Duran's "New Romance" which for some copyright dispute reasons wasn't included on Singles, with Jim Adkins' liner notes advising the reader to "get it off Napster or something. You have our blessing". well, that's nice; It also really dates the release and these liner notes...I mean, when was the last time you heard the word Napster..?

So, who's ready for some crunchy guitars and some well-adjusted noise? Get the jump on these guys early during their tenure here at One Buck Records and enjoy this Earlybird Special, for a kickass start to your weekend...

Gimme some power...gimme some pop...gimme some power pop!

 

A discussion over at Jokonky's Bar Blog concerning albums you're still looking for reminded me to post this. I stumbled upon Jonathan Kupersmith, almost entirely unknown master of power pop , while fishing for pearls, being successful in unearthing two which (among many others) one of which you can find here. So I got interested in what else Mr. Kupersmith was up to (his entry at Discogs is otherwise empty) and found this. It seems to be a non-label self-published album that I would presume Mr. Kupersmith would sell at gigs and such. Still, Your Dog Ate My Homework wan't quite what I wanted it to be. Shedding two slightly boring-ish ballads and reworking the sequencing et voilà - a very fine album of power pop that can slide in just fine with more known alumni like Dwight Tilley, Big Star, Shoes or The Posies. 

Songs like the recently pearled "Christopher Robin", "My Maid Maryian" and "Broken Arms" are just powerpop manna from heaven. Slightly twee, maybe, but lovely all the way 'round. And in this slimmed down version you'll get an 'all killer no filler' album, thirty minutes of fine power pop confections!  

The artist in his younger years

So, friends and neighbours, you have half an hour to spare? Invest it into Mr. Kupersmith's slice of power pop heaven...

So, he's gone to the great power pop palace in the sky, right?!

 

R.I.P.  Dwight Twilley

1951 - 2023

Didn't see this until yesterday. Feel like listening to some Twilley. Looked for "Twilley Don't Mind" but didn't seem to have it, so had to change that. Twilley always kept that power pop flag flying high. Let's listen to some Twilley then, Twilley don't mind you know...

Find below the two albums by the Dwight Twilley Band, first one with bonus tracks.