Notes from Snowy St Louis en route to Sunny San Diego

Jedediah Parish – Tried, but couldn’t get into this one. It really dragged on. Sounds like a one-man band type of thing, and it didn’t engage me musically or lyrically. “Clawfoot Tub” is just brutal. 1 star

Joe Ely – Nice disc. Ely is a good songwriter, with a tight band. He’s an excellent storyteller, and musically versatile. The two songs running over 5 minutes dragged this down by half a star. What is entertaining at a show doesn’t always transfer to recordings. 3 stars

Kate Nash – Very different, and a nice change of pace. The lyrics are great, and the pop-oriented songs like “Foundations” and “Pumpkin Soup” work really well. A little too precocious in places (“Mariella”, “Dickhead”) but all in all a really good effort. Love the Cockney accent. 3.5 stars

Pucifer – The title is prophetic. What’s round, has a hole in the middle, is entertaining for 3-4 minutes and stinks the rest of the time? This disc. ½ star

Thin Lizzy – A handful of great tracks, and a lot of mediocre ones. I can see why people like them, but that whole mid-70’s arena rock sound just isn’t my cup of tea. 1/3 of the disc made it to the Zune.


Discussion

Nirvana was a good band that made a great CD. Were they revolutionary? No. Guns and Roses were playing in-your-face guitar music before Nirvana. Pearl Jam’s “grunge” debut (and infinitely superior) “Ten” was released a month before “Nevermind”.

Radio:
Nirvana may have changed the sound of radio for a while. Certainly bands like Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, and to an extent Green Day got some radio play that maybe they don’t get if the hype of “Nevermind” isn’t in full swing. But most of the better-known cuts on “Nevermind” now get played on “classic rock” formats, so how revolutionary is that? Radio sucks worse today than it ever has, so I can’t see how Nirvana changed it for the better over the long haul.

Live:
Townshend was smashing guitars long before Kurt. The “Unplugged” series existed before Nirvana did their gig. Don’t see anything revolutionary or rock-changing here.

The Business:
Again, short-term, they definitely left a mark. A boatload of smaller, independent bands got signed in Nirvana’s wake that probably wouldn’t have without “Nevermind”. Today, the industry is in worse shape than ever. Radio and sales are dominated by teen-pop, fake country and rap, much like before the release of “Nevermind”. They didn’t change anything over the long-haul for the better.

Bottom line for me is that Nirvana was a good band, one that was at the forefront of a fashionable wave that lasted a few years. Sadly, Cobain’s death romanticizes the band’s alleged influence. I say if Eddie Vedder had blown his brains out and Kurt had hung around for 15 years making (mostly) good music, D’Arcy’s question would have been centered on Pearl Jam’s influence and legacy.


Discussion – Part II

The first song I remember really liking was “Bennie and the Jets”. It was the first 45 I ever bought, and Elton John’s Greatest Hits was the first album I ever bought. He was my favorite artist during my childhood, and I still have a soft spot for his music 30+ years later.