Listening Post: Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam

The inevitable eponymous record. Every band, it seems, either starts with it, or tries to revive their career with it. How did PJ fare?



Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam - 2006 (iTunes)

Live Blog!
1. Life Wasted is a perfect album opener. In your face and groovy and it's followed up by the genius
2. World Wide Suicide. Another groovy rocker, pissed off at George Bush and not taking prisoners. My regret is that I can't play it louder.
3. Comatose. Who are these guys? What did this garage band do with experiment-o-grungers of the last decade? Whatever you do, DON'T bring them back. If this record can keep it up, it's gonna be PJ's Sheer Heart Attack.
4. Severed Hand. I didn't think they could sound this dynamic again since Vs. But they do here.
5. Marker in the Sand. Matt Cameron is the showcase on this album. Without a drummer like him they couldn't probably do stuff like this, although we wouldn't have known it the last few records. I fully expected an audience to cheer at the end of this song.
6. Parachutes. Okay. I think we needed a breather. Neat, trippy, asyncopated Beatles-y psychedila.
7. Unemployed. Nice, epic track. This album doesn't want to let up.
8. Big Wave. Finally, something to surf to. I think we all forgot that Pearl Jam was a rock band. They didn't.
9. Gone. The build on this song was totally unexpected and welcome. This is something that I imagine sounds great in an amphitheater. I love how Vedder describes the car in this song as a hybrid because he knew the character only had one tank of gas and he wanted him to go far.....hysterical.
10. Wasted Reprise. The now expected 1 minute track is a softer reprise of the opener. A song written about Vedder's friend, Johnny Ramone (Yes, THAT Johnny Ramone) after attending Johnny's funeral.
11. Army Reserve. Oh, they sound like U2 again. Don't you remember what I said???? (It's in here)
12. Come Back. I'll say. This record is one helluva comeback. Oh, wait. It's not about that. Doesn't matter. it's lovely.
13. Inside Job. Even the experimental piece works on this release!

This record is really a surprise. I don't know if the world wasn't ready for a Pearl Jam comeback record, I know I wasn't. Maybe they didn't market it correctly. The Avocado just seems so....hippy dippy to me. All told, though, Pearl Jam is the best Pearl Jam record in a while. I like it more than Riot Act and, for me at least, that was a hard act to follow. I would say that this, at this point, is my third favorite Pearl Jam album.

Grade A
A Side: Life Wasted, World Wide Suicide, Gone
BlidnSide: Parachutes, Big Wave, Come Back
Downside: Army Reserve

Listening Post: Pearl Jam - Riot Act

Pearl Jam - Riot Act - 2002 (iTunes)

Riot Act is better than I expected it to be. By this point I've come to accept that the old Pearl Jam is gone. The visceral, biting, musically challenging artists of the first couple albums is gone. Replaced by a band that seems to know what it's core audience will accept all the while remaining slavishly beholden to the 60s Zeppelin classic rock aesthetic.
It took a while for me to become a believer who could accept that, actually. Ten and Vs are such visceral and powerful pieces of work that it was hard for me to accept the Vedderizing of this band. And, let's face it, he was still the new guy on the first album but, by Vitalogy he was muscular enough to become the driving force of all things Pearl Jam.
No Code was the simpy PJ. Yield the attempted comeback. With Binaural they were settling into their new roles as niche, experimenting pothead rockers. With Riot Act they achieve a helluva lot more.

When the 1:00 experimental piece is an a capella multi layered chant that WORKS then that's saying something.
Instead of opening with aggro power as they have so often in the past, Riot Act starts off with a growing, acoustic guitar led "Can't Keep", and it's emotive. The burner "Save You" is the PJ we know. When they get their rock ire up it's ferocious.

But there's something lying under the album and I can't help but feel it. It wasn't until I read the Wiki entry on it that I learned that this was the album that was recorded after 9 people were killed at a Pearl Jam concert. Hard for any performer to take; that 9 people died because they wanted to see you. If Pearl Jam had never recorded or made music, would those 9 have had to die that way, in the crush? If Vedder never got that demo tape......
But who could know, really? "Lost 9 friends we'll never know..." Vedder sings in Love Boat Captain. (Weirder for me that that lyric played just as I read it on the wiki and typed it here. Chilly.)
It's a darker record, sadder, hopeless, really. But dense and tortured and filled with reward for the listener.
Arc was recorded as a tribute to those 9 lives and their loss permeates this record the way 9/11 permeated everything going on in the world when this record was released. How could it NOT be the saddest Pearl Jam record?
The longing in Thumbing My Way is reminiscent of the best Page and Plant gave us in their day and to the band's credit, the song resists bombast and delicate acoustic delivery. It's just right. I want to put a blanket around Eddie or just tell him it's going to be okay, or just sit next to him and cry.

This album is, in many ways, as much a response to 9/11 as The Rising. But it's much much deeper than that. It's the most human Pearl Jam has been in a long while.
A solid effort.

Grade B
A Side: Save You, I Am Mine, Thumbing My Way
BlindSide: Arc, Ghost,
DownSide: Bu$hleaguer,

Listening Post: Pearl Jam - Binaural

(Note. This review is kind of half assed. My blood sugar is really low. I'm hungry. Thanks.)



Pearl Jam - Binaural - 2000 (iTunes)

I like Binaural. I'm not exactly sure why, though. Sure it kicks off with a great rabble rouser (Breakherfall) and it gets denser as the album gets longer, but by the end I started to think about Pearl Jam as a business. I don't know if they think of themselves that way, but bands have to. This is their job, yes? They seem to know how to write "Pearl Jam" songs. But I don't know if even they like the product. There is almost no emotion on this record.

And yet, I liked it.

The title refers to, among other things, the fact that we listen to music "binaurally", using two ears. And on my little piece of shit earbuds this record kicks. But when I play it on my 5.1 stereo with enhanced sound it comes out sluggish and slushy and like a bad Soundgarden record. That can't be good, right? (And, yes, I know that this is the first record with ex-Soundgarden drummer, Matt Cameron.)

The music is lusher, more layered, more constructed than anything I've heard from them since...well, since Vs.
This is definitely a "headsets" record but one that you should hear.

Note: Soon Forget, featuring Eddie and a Ukukele is the kind of experimentation I can get behind. Finally!

Grade B
ASide: Breakerfall, Nothing as it Seems, Insignificance
BlindSide: Light Years, Thin Air, Soon Forget, Parting Ways.
DownSide: Grievance

Listening Post: Pearl Jam - Yield

Just as I was about to give up....



Pearl Jam - Yield - 1998 - (itunes)

Brain of J is a good way to open an album if you've felt you've lost me and want me back as a fan. If you're a band and you're thinking, "We really have been losing Allen the last few records with our experimentation and meandering, how are we gonna win him back?" You better hope you have someone in the band who says, "I've got this little garage rocker that might do the trick." And it does.
According to what I've read, Vedder really kind of took control of the band's direction on Vitalogy and No Code. Which is interesting considering that the hiring of Vedder was based on words he wrote to some amazing pre-existing music. But, that's what you get when you bring in a front man. Stone Temple Pilots were two brothers who tried every genre known to man until grunge hit. They knew they could make that work but they needed a front man. Then they were beholden to the whims of Scott (H is for Horse) Weiland.
So, Vedder decided to give some control back to the band and that brought the world, Yield.
Okay, well this is a live blog situation so let's go, k?
Brain of J. I've already talked about how this was just the right way to open this record.
Faithful. Oh, that big, sexy southern rocky earth epic. Nice.
No Way. A plodding, meandering useless track.
Given to Fly. Hey, Pearl Jam rewrote Going to California! Um, great. Actually, it's pretty great, indeed.
Wish List. Well, someone has put his axe down and relaxed into manhood. Age wears well on some.
Pilate. Interestingly, this is based on the Book, Master and Margarita, which, while I've never read, I have seen a play based on it and that was brilliant. This is Jeff Ament's first lyric writing. Never have Pearl Jam sounded so much like REM. REM meets Pearl Jam. Not bad.
Do The Evolution. Oh, yeah, this was the single. I like it.
The Color Red. It's only a minute. I'll give you a minute to do that. Even though it's crap.
Many Fast Cars. Good, late in the album, energetic place holder. If this was a 40 minute record, it would be a b-side.
Low light. It's big ballad time! With some weird time signatures. And pretty as hell.
In Hiding. Oh, yes. This is a nice song. Perhaps the best on the record.
Push Me Pull Me. Hey! Spoken word time. Again. So soon? Really? blech.
All Those Yesterday. So, the album is sort of petering out, yes?
Hummus. Um. Sure.
Peace out, guys. If this is the note they would have gone out on it would have been fine. Not embarrassing, not brilliant. Good, but not great.
You could do worse. (Hint: if you bought No Code, you did.)

Grade B-
A Side: Faithful, Given to Fly, Do The Evolution, In Hiding.
BlindSide: Brain of J, Wish List, Low Light
DownSide: Push Me Pull Me

Listening Post: Pearl Jam - No Code

"Huh? What? Is it over? What time is it?"



Pearl Jam - No Code - 1996 - (itunes)

We've reached that critical point in Listening Posts. Like the very end of Aerosmith where I just forgot about the band. Or Sonic Youth where I just quit because they were making me hate music, this is the point where I have to go...um...why should I care again?

So, by the time this came out there was no chance that I was going to buy another Pearl Jam record. Vitalogy just scared me off. Had I not been so frightened off, I'm pretty sure that No Code would have done the job. Don't get me wrong, it's a much better record than Vitalogy. Well, it's better.
It's also Pearl Jam's Vishnu record. Instead of leaving world rhythms to masters like Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon, Pearl Jam embrace their earthy world brethren and succeed! In being boring.
In My Tree isn't a PJ song. It's U2. But I don't need Pearl Jam to refashion themselves as U2. There's already one U2. We don't, i mean it, need another.
Off He Goes is beautiful, though. But it really sounds like a 90s era Springsteen tune. And I already own Ghost of Tom Joad, thanks.

The band has said that the recording was rushed, Jeff Ament didn't even know they were recording when the band had already been in the studio for a couple days. And it sounds like it. It sounds disconnected. Disjointed. Unfocused. What does it mean when my favorite track, "lukin" is 1 minute long???

"Present Tense" is as rich as anything the band has ever done but, in the end, what does it mean that the hardest rocker, "Mankind" is written by and SUNG by Stone Gossard? What is happening to this band?

When a band incorporates spoken word to it's repertoire it better not suck. "I am Open" sucks.

I really hope it gets better....

Grade C+
A Side: Hail Hail, Who We Are, Around the Bend
Blind Side: Off He goes, Lukin
DownSide: In My Tree, habit, I am open.

Listening Post: Pearl Jam - Vitalogy

Uh oh.



Pearl Jam - Vitalogy - 1994 (iTunes)

Try as I have, I don't love this record. I bought it in 95, listened once, realized that there were about 3 tracks worth listening to and tossed it somewhere. I dug it out for this LP and...man, I don't get it.
The opener, "Last Exit" sounds like a band that knows what it's SUPPOSED to sound like but they sound like a carbon version of that band, something's lost in the copy.
"Spin the Black Circle" fares much better. It's easily the fastest thing in the band's catalog and like it, but it stands almost alone on this album as something worth hearing.
"Not for You" isn't bad, like this album, it's not "Bad", per se. But it's also not that great.
There's too much experimentation going on. Like a band that is just bored by themselves and are forcing themselves to try out stuff just for the hell of it."Pry to", "Tremor Christ", "Bugs" "Aye Davanita" and the god-awful "Stupid Mop" are perfect examples of this.
I love reaching outside of one's comfort zone. I think it can be great. But I don't think these trips are surprising the players enough. They sound like they've got free reign in a studio and have decided to show us their poop.
Then you get "nothing man", which is right IN the comfort Zone. It's Elderly Woman part II. But I didn't really need part 2. I loved part one. I get it, you can right these melodic, alt-country, California rock songs. Whooppee. Surprise me. Come on. Haven't you listened to your FIRST two records!?!? Oh, nevermind. (um.....)
"Whipping" sounds better live. as much of PJ's songs do. Here it just proves how kinda second rate it is.
"Corduroy" is exceptional. Except that it's a little sluggish in comparison to how they do it live, where it has more energy and makes you say, "What album is THAT on? I want THAT song!" However, unlike tracks from the 1st record, where the band would continue to go after the "song" was clearly over and you loved it and you wanted more and more, on Corduroy and Better Man I just wanted them to stop. You know? The band doesn't seem that inspired. But, what the fuck, they are stuck in a band with a guy who wants to record "Bugs".
The album is only supported by the better tracks, but you don't need it. Go buy "rearviewmorror", the best of collection and you'll be fine.

Grade C
A Side: Spin the Black Circle, Corduroy, Better Man
BlindSide: Immortality
Downside: Bugs, Aye Davanita, Pry To, Tremor Christ, Stupid Mop.

Listening Post: Pearl Jam - Vs.

How do you follow up one of the greatest debuts in the history of rock? Put a sheep on the cover to start.



Pearl Jam - Vs. - 1993 (iTunes)

"Suppose I abuse you?"
Ouch.
On Vs. Pearl Jam sounds like they've got something to prove and, I guess they do. In an effort to make sure the world knew that Ten wasn't a fluke, Vedder & Co. pull out all the stops.
Vs. is sometimes a little too concise for it's own good (Glorified G) but at least it's focused. And the elliptical poetry of Ten (the butterflies in Even Flow) they don't make much of an appearance here. Instead, what Vedder does is inhabit characters that he might have disdain for (W.M.A) or abused girls (Daughter), emulating one of his idols, Bruce Springsteen to great effect.
Vs. (Which i always took to mean either "verses" or that it was, in some way, a concept album about that abused girl and her father. Daughter, Glorified G, W.M.A, Rearviewmirror, all suggest a story about a girl, her father, she eventually gets away, the mother leaves the father and the daughter meets up with her later in Elderly Woman behind the counter. But, I think I've been wrong all this time.) is a perfect follow up to Ten.
The aforementioned Daughter & Rearviewmirror are worth the cost of admission but it's the southern rock-i-ness of "Dissident" that brings the album to that next place for me. There is earth in the untied boots of these flannel wearing rockers.
And they are strong rockers at that. When they bring that 70s funk sound to "Blood" I wanna either punch a wall or slide across the hood of a cop car.
Vs. is an excellent follow-up. A 5 star stand alone.

Grade A+
A Side: Daughter, Rearviewmirror, Blood, Animal
BlindSide: Go, Dissident, Elderly Woman Behind the Counter, Indifference

Listening Post: Pearl Jam - Ten

Little different this time. With the release of "Backspacer" and it being the first Pearl Jam album I have purchased in over a decade, I thought we'd go through the catalog of a band that I once loved and then, just as quickly as they arrived, I forgot about. Let's look at Mookie Blaylock, shall we?



Pearl Jam - Ten - 1991 (iTunes)
A few years ago I met a guy named Joe. He was the drummer in a band that my band was friendly with. Terrific drummer. Just a great player. Should be bigger than he is. He should have "made it". He hasn't yet. Don't know why.
Years ago, when he was living in Orange County, Joe was in a band. One weekend their lead singer told the guys that he was going on a surfing weekend. When he came back the singer quit the band.
See, the lead singer had gone up to Seattle to meet with a couple guys who thought he might be a good fit for them. They were looking for a lead singer.
Ed, the singer, had gotten a hold of some demos, wrote some lyrics, sang over the demos, sent them up to Stone and Jeff and they liked what they heard.
So, Ed left the band. You all know him.
Joe, not so much. Too bad, really. But, then again......we wouldn't have Pearl Jam, would we?

So, 18 years later, does the debut of the band once known as Mookie Blaylock (10 was Mookie's number, hence the title) hold up?
Holy hell, yes.
Ten punches you in the face from the opening track "Once", holds you by the throat, pushes the pedal down and never lets you go, epic through epic, until it finally decides you've had enough and sends you floating down the river to the hypnotic "Master/slave" instrumental.

It's ferocious.

Millions of words have been written about it and I don't think I have any new insights. Except to say that after NOT listening to it for about 9 years it's still an unbelievable debut.


Grade A+
A Side: Silly to even list, really. There is not a bad track on Ten. But, in case you've forgotten, go put "Jeremy", "Black" or "Porch" on full blast and you'll remember.

One Off: Mika - The Boy Who Knew Too Much

Mika - The Boy Who Knew Too Much - 2009 (iTunes Amazon)

How do I convince you that you should pick up the new Mika album? Certainly describing it as Freddie Mercury meets Elton John with a dash of George Michael and a less disco-scene Scissor Sisters and a whole lot of over production isn't gonna do it. Is it?
The Boy Who Knew Too Much is more of the Mika we loved on Life in Cartoon Motion. The boy who loves to dress up and go clubbing club with "big girls" but who is just as happy sitting at home and watching Bogie and Bacall movies.
He certainly knows how to write a hook even if it's all very familiar.
The opening track "We Are Golden" is catchy as hell if it does sound like a car commercial. "Blame it on the Girls" is the catchiest track Mika's come up with, a cha cha number that has me looking forward to hitting the boards with Beth.
But the album doesn't let up from there. "Rain", "Dr. John" it's one discotheque anthem after another. If you want a record that's going to make it feel like sunshine when it's raining, or make you want to drop the top and crusie up the coast, this is it. Pop confection at its best. Never trying to be more than it is and reveling in it's own happy.
The lush balladeering of the previous album is back ("I See You") but's more anthemic than before.
Needs some quasi-calypso island tracking for your tropical adventure? How about "Blue Eyes"? Pining for a little musical theater? "Toy Boy" is this album's "Billy Brown" only it's even better. Or "Good Girl Gone" which takes the place of uber-catchy hip-shaking "Grace Kelly" single.
Can we forgive Mika that "Touches You" steals so blatently from George Michael's "Father Figure"? Hell, yes. Remember how catchy that song was? (Or maybe it was just the MTV played it every 4th song...no, it was a perfect pop confection. And, no doubt, Mika, born a year before that track was a hit, was raised on that kind of music. It fits perfectly that he would find himself musing on the same musical vocabulary.

Here's the deal. I think I've adequately explained this record. If you read this and this sounds like something you would like, get it. I think you'll like it.

Mika

Grade A
A Side: We are Golden, Blame it on the Girls, Good Girl Gone...hell, all of it. This album's great.
Downside: Well, almost. "Pick up off the floor" is a bit too much for me. But that's just me. I suppose someone more appreicative of Diva warbling and torch songs might appreciate it.

The Jay Leno Show.

I've said this before: There is as much scripted/acted television now, with FX, TNT, HBO, et al, as there was in the Golden Age of television in the 70s. (actually, more hours now than in the 70s/80s. And a lot of it is just as good or better. Well, much of it.)
I, for one, don't subscribe to the "Oh, No! 5 hours less of programming per week!" fear that my fellow actors are expressing. Yes, it sucks, but, as I said, the shortfall is made up elsewhere.
No, I think the issue is much larger than that.
NBC is a terrible place in a terrible situation right now. The leadership there has all but abandoned the creative legacy of its past. Do you think the Peacock is the first place on any creative's list to bring a show to? (I have it on 1st hand authority that, indeed, it is not.) Why would you? There are only a few hours of programming and the network has shown disregard for much of what it has. I would bring my pilot to a network where there are more opportunities to get it on the air.
Besides, Fox has traditionally eschewed the 10 o'clock hour, yes? Why aren't we all up in arms about that??
Because of what Jay @ 10 represents not just for actors but for everyone. The quarterly bottom line. The profit margin on a shit show like Jay's is remarkable. You don't even have to spend time in the editing room cutting a "story" like reality TV. Nope. This is a golden hour of prime time that costs nothing and can turn a profit by way of advertising.
NBC has been tossing the "3 million dollars an hour" phrase like it's the conventional wisdom but they forget an even more wise notion:
If you build it, they will come.
Why, if there are only 7 stories, do people continue to queue up at movies, rent dvds, watch tv?
Because from the dawn of communication human beings have all wanted the same thing that they want as children: To be told a story. The power of storytelling is majestic and epic. And, a good story that hooks you (Winnie the Pooh, The Cat in the Hat, Watership Down, Harry Potter, The Shining) you go back to over and over. You watch it in all it's varied forms. You re-re-read it.
Why? If you've seen it once, why bother to read it again?
Because it's that damned good. And we need the comfort of being told stories.
TV is storytelling. Reality, scripted, sketch, the news. All stories.
But, NBC has forgotten that. This team, at least.
Or so it seems.
I think they know damned well that storytelling is where the money is. They know that if they come up with a really great show that grabs attention that the ad dollars will come in. Because it isn't the size of the audience that matters, it's the demographic and THEN the size. If they create a show that every single 18-22 college student in the country tunes in to, in whatever form, advertisers will pay. Maybe not as much as the past, but, believe me, enough. Its too attractive not to.
Only, NBC let itself become a ghetto. So who is going to bring material to them? I mean, really? They have no reputation as a place that will foster a good idea and talent.
What are they left to do but cut off the leg before the leprosy spreads?
NBC will tell you that it's not cost effective to do scripted drama at 10.
CBS says, "really? Um......CSI/NCIS much?"
If I was an exec at ABC do you think I would want Timothy Daly or Nathan Fillion appearing on Leno? Maybe if they go on and say, "You like me? Change the channel! My show's on RIGHT NOW ON ABC!"
No, I think NBC has created this hot mess themselves and this is the only way they can think of to salvage their name. In part, at least.

I'm not mad at Jay. In fact, I feel bad for him. He looks really embarrassed out there. He KNOWS this show is crap. But, what the heck, a job's a job and it isn't up to him to carry the torch for actors. Or writers. or...anybody.

Reflecting Pool: Violent Femmes - Freak Magnet

The last Violent Femmes record.



Violent Femmes - Freak Magnet - 2000 (Amazon) Not Available for digital download.

Right off the bat, with "Hollywood is High" and it's screechy electric guitars, I got the sense that the Femmes were BACK in 2000. I hadn't been this excited by a Femmes track since "American Music", in fact, it's without a doubt their catchiest opener since that record. The wordplay is terrific and clever. (Hollywood is high, Sunset's low--true, Hollywood Blvd is north of Sunset and the double meaning isn't lost)
The 60s groove of Freak Magnet should get you up off your feet, shake your go go boots and hit replay so you can sing, "Seems like a, Seem like a, I'm a freak magnet!". B52s WISH they could still write this well.
So, what happened? First off, this isn't 1991. The world had moved on. When Freak Magnet came out, Britney & the boy bands were ruling the day. The legacy of the Femmes hadn't yet taken hold, there were no bloggers to hawk true indie folk punk. The vegas schmaltz of Michael Jackson acolytes was ruling the airwaves. There was no room in our hearts or minds for new Femmes.
I was guilty of it, too. I BOUGHT the freaking album, listened to the first two tracks, forgot about it in a haze of...something, (who can even remember 2000?)
I should have listened.
I don't think I can recall screechy, retro, roots rock electric guitars on a femmes record before. It might have been a new direction or an attempt to freshen up the sound but, whatever the case, it works. When this record rocks, it rocks hard. (I have a soft spot for the Esquivel-esque "In The Dark". I know it goes on forever but I dig it.)
This album mines just about every musical territory the Femmes have traveled to in the past but somehow, unlike ROCK!!!!! never sounds like retread. Just like a band writing a new record. There are misfires, (Mosh Pit) but many more winners.
I'm glad "I Danced" was resurrected from ROCK!!!!! for this record because it's not that bad. But I have no idea what to make of the closer, "A Story" except that it reminds me of that spoken word track that we all loved by J. Geils Band, "No Anchovies, Please". But it's not as much fun, and it's sounds like it Gano and Richie were listening to too many Residents records.

Like most albums of the CD era, it's heavy with filler to pad out the available disc space and, I guess, give consumers enough songs to warrant the sticker price.
Too bad. If you chop out about 12 minutes from this thing (4 songs, maybe) it would be a pretty tight Violent Femmes record.
The real tragedy is that, because of the poor sales the Femmes never put out another Official album. Richie continued to release niche recordings and there was a special rarities record for eMusic. Gordon Gano released a collection of songs in support of an Indie film that the husband of one of the ex-backup singers in my band directed called "Hitting the Ground". But I haven't heard it. He has a new project called Gordon Gano & The Ryan Brothers
Make of it what you will.

Grade B+
A Side: Hollywood is High, Freak Magnet, I Danced
BlindSide: Sleepwalkin', All I Want, In the Dark
DownSide: Mosh Pit, When You Died

Reflecting Pool: Violent Femmes - ROCK!!!!!

Considered their worst album!! Only released in Australia!!! It's the lost Violent Femmes album!!!!!




Violent Femmes - ROCK!!!!! - 1995 (Amazon)

I have to thank my ol' pal, John for supplying me with this record.

Just about every review of every Violent Femmes album at some point declares that it's "nowhere near as their debut!" And this is undoubtably true. The first album is a Classic. One of the greatest debuts in music history. One of the most important rock albums of all time. And the second one ain't too shabby, either.
If we agree that those early recordings are Violent Femmes Concentrate, then everything later is diluted. This is fine. Weezer is like that. The first two albums are brilliant. Green and everything after are a shallow version of the original.
So, let's not compare ROCK!!!!! to those two early records. Let's look at how it fits in a post-Why Do Birds Sing? Femmes world.
Okay. This way it's much easier for me to listen. I'll be back in a bit.

Imagine there is a Violent Femmes cover band whose lead singer sounds EXACTLY like Gordon Gano. And one day they decide to write their own songs in the Femmes idiom. But the songs are nowhere near as good as Gano writes. But they sound just like them. And the tunes all sound like they COULD have been written by the band.
That, to me, is as close an approximation as to what ROCK!!!!! is to the Femmes catalog.

It really can't be easy to be Gordon Gano. All your classic CLASSIC, legendary songs were written when you were a teen. You play concerts for new stuff but all anyone wants to hear is "Blister in the Sun", "Add it Up", "Kiss Off". How can you live up to that?
Imagine you're the band on that fateful day when they were discovered outside the concert hall by James Honeyman Scott. Imagine they decide NOT to busk that day. Would the Femmes exist today? There's a really good chance that, no, they wouldn't.
And that would be sad because that first album altered the course of alternative/indie music for decades.
What a legacy.

And how hard to live up to it?

ROCK!!!!! reminds me of an afternoon I spent building a set in a theater. I had just gotten a two disc anthology of The Ramones. And we decided to listen to it while we were working. About 2/3s through it the stage manager turned to me and said, "I guess we know how much Ramones is too much Ramones."
He was right.

ROCK!!!!! is where too much Violent Femmes was too much Violent Femmes.

That said, the three songs that are on Viva Wisconsin, "Life is an Adventure", "Dahmer is Dead", & "Sweet Worlds of Angels" are just fine, thanks, however, they are better on the live album.

There is nothing on here as bad as Machine. But no one should ever have to sit through a blues played on the didgeridoo. Sorry.

Grade D
ASide: Life is an Adventure, I Danced
BlindSide: ---------
Downside: Thanksgiving, Didgeriblues, Death Drugs

Reflecting Pool: Violent Femmes - Viva Wisconsin

I don't normally review live albums in the Reflecting Pool, but since the next album in the Femmes' oeuvre, Rock!!!! was originally only released in Australia (!!) and is supposed to be horrible, I will pass on it until someone can send me a free copy. Because of that omission, I'm giving the band a live album pass. That, and I happen to think they are better live than recorded.




Violent Femmes - Viva Wisconsin! - 1999 (iTunes - Amazon)


When Violent Femmes' debut was released it sort of snuck up on everyone. Every dorm room had a copy at NYU. At least, it seemed like it. We were all touched by the Femmes. We knew every word of every song on that album. Some of us quoted them to girls in malls.
It was a no brainer that we would see them when they came around for the Hallowed Ground Tour.
A bunch of us went to see them at Irving Plaza. I remember sitting in the back, talking, smoking and watching the Horns of Dilemma kill it more than once in the set.

I've forgotten just how tight and tense a live show the Femmes were. After all, they were street performers plucked from obscurity and sent on their career almost in spite of themselves.

I'm grateful for Viva Wisconsin! because it reminds me of the collected love of many of the tracks. There is something comforting in hearing the audience get roused and shout when they hear that familiar bassline of Country Death Song. 17 years into their profession and they couldn't be sounding better.

Every track is fueled with energy and tragic frustration, none more emphatically than the 7 minute version of "Confessions". Also the nasal syllable twisting on the frenetic "Add It Up", sublime.

I'm also pleased by "Life is an Adventure" & "Sweet Worlds of Angels" from the much maligned "Rock!!!" album. I wonder just why they sucked so much there and are such a fine crowd pleasers here.

One song really seems to shine in the live format: Good Feelings, the closer from the debut. It's such a uniquely lush song and given a lovely treatment here by the band that it's a true standout.

If I had one complaint about "Viva Wisconsin" it's that it's not a true concert. Often the tracks just fade out, depriving us of the feel of being there and just presenting the live versions of the songs.

Grade A
No Sides, just best tracks: Country Death Song, Confessions, Good Feelings, Sweet Worlds of Angels, Add It Up,

Reflecting Pool: Violent Femmes - New Times

Violent Femmes - New Times - 1994 (iTunes - Amazon)


This is actually the one I've been dreading. I was sent this for review when I was writing for Home Theater Technology 17 years ago. I listened to one track, got distracted by something and decided to write about something else. And then I never got back to it.
That's probably a good thing. Because I don't think I would have been as forgiving back then as I am now.
New Times is a difficult record. It is so OBVIOUSLY a Violent Femmes record. And the opening track, "Don't Start Me On The Liquor" is pretty good. Somewhere in the middle it breaks into a bass led jam that reminds me of "Black Girls" from Hallowed Ground. Maybe it's the addition of Guy Hoffman replacing Victor DeLorenzo on drums that has given the album the muscle that it has. I don't know. It's a pretty dark album.
If "Why Do Birds Sing?" was a return to the debut album sense of "Fun Thru Angst!" this is the follow up to Hallowed Ground.
There are a couple stand out tracks.
Breakin' Up shows the band feeling it's stadium rock oats. Not sure what stadium they imagine themselves playing and truth be told, the song is so dark that it would have probably been better served as a stripped down intimate tune al a the stuff from the previous records. But it's also pretty catchy.
The title track wants to be about something bigger and goes so far as to change itself up a couple times that it almost resembles an attempt at rock opera, but it ultimately fails.
I would really like to have been there, though, when Gordon Gano and Brian Ritchie came up with, "Machine". Because I would have done everything I could to talk them out of it. What the world does NOT need from the Violent Femmes is mediocre synth-laden, pedantic industrial rock. Who thought this was a good idea??? For me, this is like when Marky Ramone put out a rap album. The album loses an entire grade simply because of this incredibly stupid track.
Gano knows how to write the same song over and over again, which he does on "I'm Nothing" & the ballad "When Everybody's Happy." They're fine, but we've been there and Gordon doesn't seem to have much new to say.
This is definitely an eclectic batch of songs. Gordon seems to feel restrained by and yet bask in the idiom that is the Femmes' sound.
I do have a soft spot for Kurt Weill and when bands like Green Day visit that style I get a little excited. The Femmes don't really succeed with it on Mirror Mirror (I See A Damsel) but I give them props for trying. And to follow that with the oompa closer Jesus of Rio....the album just sort of gives up.

Ultimately, New Times isn't really about new times, but revisiting old times with less success.

Grade C-
A Side: Don't Start Me On The Liquor, Breakin' Up,
BlindSide: Key of 2, This Island Life, Mirror Mirror (I See A Damsel)
Downside: 4 Seasons, Machine, Jesus of Rio, Agamenon

Reflecting Pool: Violent Femmes - Why Do Birds Sing?

Gordon Gano's got girl trouble. Girl trouble up the ass!



Violent Femmes - Why Do Birds Sing? - 1991 (Amazon)

You know this album isn't even available on iTunes or Amazon MP3 download. A shame, really, because much of this record, for me, was a real return to the Femmes I fell in love with.
I know that the last bastion of the lazy music reviewer is to criticize the album art but I think the art for "Birds" is important. It's a return to the ambiguous, non-sequitor art that was found on the first album. And, this album is as much an attempt to return to that form as possible.
The opening track, "American Music" has been a staple of repeat play on my music delivery systems for almost 20 years now. It's haunting and desperate and almost calls to mind David Lynch at his most accessible.
By the time we get to the second cover in the band's repertoire, we've actually been set up for it, we discover, for about a decade. The Femmes' version of Culture Club's Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? may have only been about 9 years removed from the original but it could be a generational expanse. It makes sense in Gano's twisted, troubled larynx. At once nostalgic and refreshing at the same time, the Femme's version is, I dare say, as good as the original.
Even piffle like the wistfully chirpy, "Hey Nonny Nonny", cause me to tap my feet and bounce a little. (The backing nods to the Stones' Sympathy for the Devil is a treat) And the counterpoint of melody and melancholy of Used to Be is beautiful. It might be the best produced track in the band's catalog.
When Gano sings "He likes me!" on that song he is so sick with sarcasm and jealousy that he proves that, while he's not in high school anymore, he certainly hasn't lost that frustrating feeling that comes with adolescent, post-adolescent and, even, 20something unrequited amour.
Why Do Birds Sing" isn't their best album. I think we can all agree that that is a battle between their first 2 but it IS one of their most accessible. In fact, I would have to rank it just below Hallowed Ground. It was almost too late for the band to regain the crown of relevance when they released this. Too bad, really.
With the exception of toss-off turds like Flamingo Baby & Lack of Knowledge this album is exceptional. The kiss-off to the jerks who mocked him in his youth, "More Money Tonight", is Gano at his most vindictive.

"Have mercy on me, I have girl trouble up the ass!" Oh, Gordon, you crack me up.

Grade A
A Side: American Music, Out the Window, Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?
BlindSide: Look Like That, Hey Nonny Nonny, Used to Be, He Likes Me
DownSide: Flamingo Baby, Lack of Knowledge

Reflecting Pool: Violent Femmes - 3

Stripped down to their basics, can the Femmes find the fire?



Violent Femmes - 3 - 1988 (iTunes - Amazon)


You know what? I think the Violent Femmes are just exhausted. They cut their teeth busking on the streets of Milwaukee and they were hungry and edgy and young.
Look at the cover of 3. It's that same big, flaccid 80s design that you saw everywhere. As though CDs were cause for more important pictorials. Like anyone actually wanted to see what these guys looked like.
When 3 came out, I hadn't given up on the Femmes. Yeah, I didn't care for Blind Leading the Naked but I was willing to give them another chance.
Stripping down to the basics is probably the best thing they could have done. The songs are about as on par with the previous record but at least the come across as that Ol' Femmes Sound!
In later years Richie would accuse his bandmate as having lost his ability to write songs after Gano sold the use rights of Blister in the Sun to a fast food commercial. ("... you see dubious or in this case disgusting uses of our music you can thank the greed, insensitivity and poor taste of Gordon Gano, it is his karma that he lost his songwriting ability many years ago, probably due to his own lack of self-respect as his willingness to prostitute our songs demonstrates.")
And you can hear Gano forcing himself to write. Looking at the situation, I don't doubt that it was frustrating. Gano wrote the bulk of the first two albums when he was in high school. When he WAS that angst ridden teen. As a mature (26!!) man who maybe wasn't expecting to be the voice of a generation, perhaps he suffered from, well, what I suffer from as a songwriter: I really only wrote anything of any worth when I was in distress. Frustrated. Scared. At the height of emotion. When all that crap was over, the creative burst sort of evaporated. Sure I could put the chords together that I knew and I could pump out a tune or two. But my heart wasn't in it.
Maybe that's what happened.
The album actually has some high points, specifically at it's lowest point. I would love to hear Leonard Cohen or Tom Waits record "Nothing worth Living For", and while that will never happen, it's one of the more despondent moments in the Femmes catalog.
"World We're Living In" is another fine example of Gano tapping into the darkest hippy psyche. And the sparse backing sax is perfectly mournful. And Outside The Palace could've been a leftover track from Springsteen's Tunnel of Love. It has that same "adult contemporary soft rock" feel to it. It's very comfortable but it has no evident teeth. The real bite lies beneath the surface.

It isn't until "Mother of a Girl" that the old Femmes come to life. Maybe it's a holdover, maybe Gano channeled his younger self, but the band is right there. Energized. Explosive. Folk punky as if they invented the form (and they really did!)

For the most part the album is just fine. Perhaps if you've never heard any other VF records this might be refreshing. But it will always have to be compared to the earlier work. And it can't quite hold up.

All that said, 3 is a very listenable spin. It's obvious they will never be the band of yore. But, who among us are the same people in our 20s as our teens?

Grade B
A Side: Nightmares, Fat, Mother of a Girl, See My Ships
BlindSide: Nothing Worth Living For, World We're Living In
Downside: Nothing really. It's all very listenable. I kind of forgot how much I liked it the first time.

Reflecting Pool: Violent Femmes - The Blind Leading The Naked

The 3rd Femmes record. Bigger production. Better distribution. So, what happened?



Violent Femmes - The Blind Leading the Naked - 1986 (iTunes - Amazon)

I really couldn't wait for this album to come out. I think I got it at Tower THAT day. And then I think I listened to it once, taped the songs I liked and never listened to it again.
Why?
What happened?
First off, the Femmes have a much larger worldview this time. They are almost peaceniks from the sound of the opening tracks.
While "Old Mother Reagan" has the edgy, aggressiveness that I've come to expect, it clocks in at less than a half minute and goes right into the almost pedantic but still rousing "No Killing", which suffers from 80s overextension.
The gospel track, "Faith" is one of my favorite songs from the era. But the production isn't quite right. I'm not sure about the horns, the sax, the harmonicas, the jangly piano...the horns of dilemma are given too much room to breath and it doesn't quite sit right. "Breakin' Hearts" sounds like it could've dropped off "Greatest Hits of the Appalachians" but, it, too, is catchy and fun piffle. And abutted up against the pop-punky "Special" it's a neat one-two punch.
But that production. It's just too dry. It's like early Talking Heads records.....wait! That's right. This was produced by Jerry Harrison! No wonder! The early Heads records always left me cold, like they were recorded in a vacuum. The first two Femmes records are wet, dank, bloody and dangerous.
Not here. While this is a much more fun and catchy record than the last, it's production could leave you cold.
It also has the honor of debuting the songwriting stylings of Brian Richie & Victor DeLorezo. If you never have to hear the roots rock "Love and Me Makes Three" count yourself lucky. Then again, "In the Morning of the Morning, I hear Mourning of the deepest kind" are some of the dumbest lyrics Gano has written and that song, Candlelight Song, closes side one.
"My doll is dead", indeed.

Side Two kicks in with one of my favorite Gano songs ever, "I Held Her in My Arms". Lyrically, it's frustrated and confused and just everything you would expect from this songwriter. The flat production sounds like, well, the way the rest of the album sounds. Like the band is nowhere near the singer or the main band. The Femmes actually come across like they're part of a backing band and the producer is more interested in that backing band than the leads. And every song suffers for it.
The cover of Children of the Revolution feels like someone decided they needed a hit single and this was their choice? I think their version of Eep-Opp-Ork-A-A from the Jetsons a few years later has more integrity.
The feel good, stoop sitting in the summer, "Good Friend" wears out its welcome 40 seconds before it ends and "Heartache" just sounds like a leftover at this point.
The Blind Leading the Naked sounds like a band that's trying to hard to be relevant. Coming after two of the most relevant and powerful albums of the decade this is such a disappointment.

Grade B-
A Side: Old Mother Reagan, Faith, I Held Her in my Arms
BlindSide: No Killing, Breakin' Hearts
DownSide: Love and Me Make Three, Two People

Reflecting Pool: Violent Femmes - Hallowed Ground

Their debut was a seminal Indie college radio release. How did Violent Femmes follow it up?



Violent Femmes - Hallowed Ground - 1984 (iTunes)

For my money, Hallowed Ground is Violent Femmes best work. It is one of the darkest albums (Country Death Song, a powerfully crafted masterstroke of familial murder that should horror and scare you) and it's also a Christian Rock Record (Jesus Walking on the Water, I hear the Rain, It's Gonna Rain).
The Horns of Dilemma appear here and really take the elegiac Black Girls to a height I couldn't have expected but, in retrospect, should have. There's a freaking Jew's Harp on that song!
While Hallowed Ground may not be as accessible as the debut (on the surface) one listen and you can't help but be hooked.
The torture is still here, the unease. But, then Gano turns around and gives us a lovely ballad in "I Know But I'm Sorry to Say".
The album is all over the place but it's really not. Just when you get a tongue lashing lesson the band turns around with "Sweet Misery Blues" to show that Gordon is the same guy. He's still falling in love and desperate. But, he's not a high school kid begging for the car anymore. Instead, he's more balladeer. And he believes in God. Which just makes his tortured soul that much more intense to me.
The trio of religious songs do nothing but elevate Hallowed Ground. It's the EXACT kind of Sophomore album every band should aspire to.

Grade A+
A Side: Country Death Song, Jesus Walking on the Water, It's Gonna Rain, Black Girls,
BlindSide: Never Tell, Hallowed Ground, I know it's true but I'm Sorry to Say
DownSide: Nope, nothing to report here.

Reflecting Pool: Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes

It took 10 years for their debut album to make platinum status. They became darlings of the Indie scene in the 90s. And they have fallen off the face of the Earth.
I'm gonna go back and give the Femmes a more than cursory listen.



Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes - 1983 (iTunes - Amazon)

I was at a poker game a couple years ago and the question of what was the most influential album of the 80s was posed.
I know that many people wanted to lobby for Thriller. But I think that the residual effect of Thriller is nothing more than mercenary saleable Vegas pop and I said so here.
For my money the definitively influential album of that sad decade has to be Violent Femmes' debut.
Just firing up The Builders & The Butchers 2007 debut album reminded me of how fresh and contemporary the Femmes' sound is.
The sparseness and simplistically punk sound can be found on Okkervil River's album, The Stage Names.
Gordon Gano's warbly, angst ridden voice laid the groundwork for Rivers Cuomo.
The DIY nature of the record pervades the entire CD and is the precursor to the age of "anyone can make a record".
The story of the Femmes has been told often. In a nutshell they were discovered busking near the theater where the Pretenders were performing by James "Honeyman" Scott. They were invited to play in between opening act and the main Pretenders show.
They got signed to (one of the greatest labels ever) Slash Records.
Their debut never charted but managed to move over 1,000,000 units by, basically, college word of mouth over the course of more than a decade.
Oh yeah! They were the band that practically INVENTED alternative college radio in the 80s. If you were in college in 1984 and you hadn't heard Violent Femmes you weren't "in the know".

About 7 years ago Beth and I were driving across country with Liz in tow. We had our CDs in the player and we were cranking, I mean CRANKING, "Blister in the Sun" and singing along. After it was over, my 10 year old daughter turned to us and said, "Dad, can we stop listening to oldies now?".
I wanted to die.

So, how does the record hold up?

It's perfect. Gano's singing, warbling, desperation plead-singing serves every song. Brian Ritchie's basslines are air-guitar worthy. He's the unsung Entwistle of the 80s.
Blister in the Sun is an anthem of the baby emos.
The sing-a-long of medication on Kiss Off is still fresh.
Add It Up has been a staple on modern rock radio for 25 years and it's still deserving. You could play this for an 18 year old and say it's a new Indie Band from the Pacific Northwest and they wouldn't know the difference. In fact, Gnarls Barkley's cover of Gone Daddy Gone is almost note for note the same song. A quarter century later just why are the Femmes so contemporary?
They weren't part of the machine that was squeezing overdub, anthem drums and big hair sound. They slipped in under the radar. They were punk AFTER punk. They were New Wave after new Wave was gone.
Sure, the record gets a little flabby around the middle with "Confessions". But after a second listen you realize that Gano has his finger on the pulse of danger, foreboding, unease. And that is made even more evident with the tortured "To The Kill".
Thankfully, if you buy the album now you get the singles, "Ugly" and "Gimme the Car". The former could be perceived as the band's genuflectingly absurd attempt at a single and that's fine. It's catchy. And Fun.
But the real crowning achievement is "Gimme the Car". A song so desperate and full of what a teenage boy really wants, needs, craves that it should be required listening for every 15 year old girl.

Grade A+
A Side: Blister in the Sun, Kiss Off, Add It Up, Gone Daddy Gone
BlindSide: Gimme the Car, Promise.
Downside: Are you kidding?

It should be noted that almost ALL of these songs were written when Gano was in high school. No wonder he has teenage angst down so well.

Sonic Youth

Killed this blog.