Monthly Archives: June 2017

My brother’s albums: Rick Springfield, Working Class Dog

[Rick Springfield - Working Class Dog]

This entry in the Sibling Rivalrly Collection Race is so old, it involves my sisters.

They thought Rick Springfield was dreamy. My brother and I dug the catchiness of “Jesse’s Girl.”

Mom intervened in this fight, letting me take possession of the 7-inch singles, while my brother took the full album. He wasn’t about to share, of course. My sisters just wanted to look at the covers.

I was 9 years old when Working Class Dog turned Springfield into star, but looking back, I had to admit I wanted to look at the covers too.

Springfield was indeed dreamy, and I recognized it even if I was a few years away from translating that to actual desire.

By the time that inkling turned into a confusing suspicion, Springfield’s star had waned. It was all about Duran Duran, Huey Lewis and Sting then.

As the ’80s turned into the ’90s, the only Rick Springfield album you needed was a greatest hits collection, just for “Jesse’s Girl.”

That does Working Class Dog a disservice.

From start to finish, the album doesn’t let up its frenetic pace. Springfield does some hard swinging on “Red Hot and Blue Love” before stepping off the accelerator for the concluding track, “Sylvia”. In an interview with the AV Club, Springfield says he would lean more toward a heavier sound than his producer preferred.

For good or no, Working Class Dog became a template from which the Outfield and Bryan Adams would eventually draw. It’s tough to picture the ’80s without it.

 

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My ambivalent relationship with Weezer

[Weezer - Pinkerton]

My first encounter with Weezer was at a concert. A friend of mine had an extra ticket, and I was curious about the band, having heard about them for years.

It was not a pleasant introduction.

First, I had a beer in my hand and was about to take a sip when a frat boy bumped into me, spilling my drink. The motherfucker turned to me and said, “Watch where you’re going.” That did not put me in a receptive mood.

Weezer got on stage, and the only thing I heard was a bunch of songs ripping off the Pixies.

I said as much to my friend who asked me what I thought. He hadn’t yet discovered the Pixies.

I wrote off Weezer from that moment on.

There was just one problem. Rivers Cuomo is so totally my type.

Whenever I flipped through rock magazines, I would do a double-take whenever I spotted Cuomo, then feel let down when I discovered the cute guy in the pic was in that band I totally hated.

By 2002, I surrendered to my hormones and gave Weezer a chance. So I picked up Maladroit. I still wasn’t impressed, mostly because I was deep into Japanese indie rock. Among my friends who were Weezer fans, the post-Pinkerton albums were varying degrees of disappointment.

So Rivers Cuomo joined that cadre of musicians who I found attractive but could not support. I was not the target market.

I do make one exception: Pinkerton.

I found a copy of the album at the Lifelong Thrift Store and bought it on reputation alone. Whatever traces of the Pixies at which I scoffed in the concert aren’t found here. I might buy another Weezer album if it sounded like Pinkerton.

Similar to Billy Joel’s Storm Front, Pinkerton is the album to own if you don’t really like Weezer all that much.

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Vinyl find: Steve Winwood, Roll With It

[Steve Winwood - Roll With It]

You can’t judge a book by its cover, but sometimes, the cover is incentive enough.

The Sibling Rivalry Collection Race precluded me from getting Steve Winwood’s Roll With It when it was released in 1988. My brother had already called dibs on Back in the High Life, which made Winwood his exclusive.

I feigned a lack of interest anyway because Winwood was at the peak of his solo career, and I had started my exploration of college rock by then. Winwood, by virtue of topping the charts, was immediately deemed square.

Except, he was kind of hot.

Not hot in the George Michael/Duran Duran sense of hot. More like a Robert Palmer/Huey Lewis kind of hot.

The cover of Roll With It dolled him up to look dangerous, but the back cover of the album drew my attention.

[Steve Winwood - Roll With It (Back cover)]

The album title is in the way, so let’s clear that up a bit.

[Steve Winwood - Roll With It (Back cover without title)]

Yup. I would have bought this album for a crotch shot. (An arse shot, too, now that we look closer.)

Would I have cared one whit about the music? Perhaps. At least, I would have pretended to.

In terms of hits singles, Roll With It didn’t have quite the same staying power as Back in the High Life, and I don’t think the cross promotion with a beer company did any favors to “Don’t You Know What the Night Can Do?” Reviews of the album weren’t enthusiastic, but sales-wise, it managed to ride the coattails of its predecessor.

I left the album on the store shelf safe in the knowledge that I just wasn’t the target audience, despite how much I wanted to stare at that crotch.

I have no such reluctance 29 years later, especially when a nice 12×12 LP cover can be had for $1 at the Lifelong AIDS Alliance Thrift Store. I could probably find a store clerk who would understand.

 

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Looking ahead, June-July 2017

[Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain]

Even after posting a preview of June, more titles were announced as May wore on. Seriously, labels, why are you all putting all this stuff out in one month? You got 12 from which to choose.

Beth Ditto, Fake Sugar, June 16

I was sad to see Gossip split up, but it did feel like the group had gone as far as it could.

Wendy and Lisa, Eroica (Deluxe Edition), June 16

I was wondering when a deluxe edition of this album would appear. Even Fruit at the Bottom got a deluxe treatment.

Onitsuka Chihiro, Tiny Screams, June 21

Onitsuka Chihiro has released a number of live DVDs, but Tiny Screams is her first live album.

Prince and the Revolution, Purple Rain (Deluxe Edition), June 23

Of course, I’ll be getting this reissue, but the deluxe edition on my wish list is Parade.

Radiohead, OK Computer OKNOTOK, June 23

I picked this album up for $1 at the Seattle Public Library Book Sale back in March 2017 in an attempt to understand its appeal. I’ve encountered OK Computer over the years, but it has never left enough of an impression with me to warrant its unadulterated praise.

TLC, TLC, June 30

How is it I own every TLC album except Ooooh, On the TLC Tip!?

LOVE PSYCHEDELICO, Love Your Love, July 5

It’s been four years since Delico released an album, but the duo has never seen the need to rush.

k.d. lang, Ingenue (25th Anniversary Edition), July 14 (Vinyl, Aug. 18)

File under: The one album you would own of an artist if you bought nothing else from that artist.

Arcade Fire, Everything Now, July 28

I ended up at an Arcade Fire concert because I wanted to see Explosions in the Sky. It was one of the best live shows I’ve seen. But the only album I really own is Funeral.

Anne Dudley, Plays the Art of Noise, TBD (US/UK, out now in Japan)

Art of Noise was always so coy about who did what, but in those early years, I had inkling Anne Dudley brought in the music, while everyone else brought in the noise. Later interviews would confirm that was exactly the case.

Vinyl

The Cranberries, Everyone Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?, June 16

The soundtrack to romantic comedy movie trailers.

Helmet, Meantime, June 23

I remember reading about the bidding war to sign Helmet to a major label deal. I bought the album out of curiosity and wondered how Interscope was going to recoup its advance.

Emmylou Harris, Pieces of the Sky, July 5
Emmylou Harris, Elite Hotel, July 5
Emmylou Harris, Luxury Liner, July 5
Emmylou Harris, Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town, July 5
Emmylou Harris, Blue Kentucky Girl, July 5

Did you miss out on the Record Store Day boxed set, Queen of the Silver Dollar? It looks like the box is being broken out into individual releases. Or you can find fairly decent used copies of these albums for a bargain.

Soundtrack, Pride and Prejudice, July 7

The soundtrack to the film with Keira Knightley is actually pretty good, but like everything else about Pride and Prejudice, it’s not as good as the BBC mini-series.

Beyoncé, Lemonade, July 28

Unofficial pressings of this album have been in local record shops for a while now.

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