Caesars were a Swedish indie rock band that were prevalent in the "aughts" but never got the recognition as some of their peers like Peter, Bjorn and John, The Shout Out Louds, The Mary Onettes, and The Concretes despite the fact that their song "Jerk It Out" was included in an iPod commercial. The band didn't get a popularity bump like Cansei de Ser Sexy, Chairlift and Feist did when their songs were featured in Apple ads. It's too bad because they produced two amazing albums with Paper Tigers and Strawberry Weed in the late "aughts" before they called it a day. Even though their sound was little bit more "garage" than most of the Swedish bands around at that time (except for The Hives) the title track to Strawberry Weed proved they could write a an almost perfect pop song. And being from Sweden they kind of have to as everybody aspires to be ABBA, even the indie bands.
Jonathan Fire*Eater is one of the greatest lost bands of the 90's and were highly influential to the NYC garage rock revival groups that sprung up in the following decade. In fact, they might have invented what we now know as "indie sleaze", the term that describes the era that spawned The Strokes and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs that is illustrated in Lizzy Goodman's book Meet Me In The Bathroom (The introductory page to Part One of the book has a picture of lead singer Stewart Lupton smoking a cigarette while donning angel wings).
Jonathan Fire*Eater were poised for big things and had signed a major label deal after the release of their first EP, but their debut album tanked and Lupton who was schizophrenic developed a drug addiction that eventually led to the break up of the band. The remaining members hooked up with singer Hamilton Leithauser and went on to form The Walkmen. Sadly, Lupton took his own life in 2018.
Third Man reissued their compilation album Tremble Under Boom Lights in 2019 which contains the tracks from their EPs, and features their best song, the boisterous garage rock anthem "Give Me Daughters".
After last year's amazing Someday Is Today album, I needed to go back and listen to Winnipeg shoegaze band Living Hour's previous two records. Not surprisingly both are equally as good as last year's release and "Seagull" from their debut self titled is the best of the songs from their earlier albums.
"Vicious Streak" is a great song from New Order's first album of the 21st century. I don't think New Order has ever released a bad album and Get Ready from 2001 showed that they were still a force to be reckoned with. A couple of guest musicians doesn't hurt with Billy Corgan and Bobby Gillespie cameoing on two of the tracks from this release; at this point of the band's career they probably had a lot of contemporaries knocking on the door to come and work with them.
That when you walk away
It's gonna be for good
You were my Tom Verlaine
Just sitting on the hood
From the song "Tom Verlaine" by Alvvays (Blue Rev-2022)
A few weeks ago when Public Image Ltd guitarist Keith Levene passed away he was feted as being one of the most influential post punk guitar players, same with Gang of Four's Andy Gill when he died a few years ago, but these two greats probably would not have become who they were without the legendary Tom Verlaine. Verlaine was not only the greatest post punk guitarist to ever play, he was one of the greatest guitarists, period. Television released one of the all time great albums of the 70's with Marquee Moon and it's influence can be heard throughout punk and post punk history including many modern acts like Parquet Courts, Ought and The Strokes.
A good read is Robert Forster of the Go-Betweens article in The Guardian on how he thinks the song "Venus" off of Marquee Moon is the perfect pop song: "It was a great rock song and a great pop song combined. Perfect, I thought. A song could be highly melodic and still challenge. Rivers of melody could be flowing and the lyric was “My senses are sharp and my hands are like gloves”.
I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, so I decided to start watching the HBO series The Last Of Us. Everybody's talking about the third episode, and I will watch it soon enough, but what made my day was the Depeche Mode song "Never Me Down Again" playing over the end credits in episode one. Some of the best movies and TV shows include choice music cuts and so far this series is showing promising results.
In 1993, to promote the movie Judgement Night, the sound producer was tasked to bring hip hop and alternative rock acts together to record a unique set of songs for the movie. These included collaborations between Pearl Jam and Cypress Hill, Sonic Youth and Cypress Hill, Sir Mix-a-Lot and Mudhoney!!!, plus the song "Fallin'" from Teenage Fanclub and De La Soul. (There was another collaborative album that brought together divergent artists for a movie soundtrack; the 1997 Bruce Willis film The Jackal featured electronic artists teaming up with alternative rock bands.)
Ya won't believe in me
But you would fancy leprechauns or groundhogs
No, thank you, Easter Bunny
There's so much fuss about Santa Claus, but see
Cupid will not be defeated
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