This entry is a twofer. The first song led me to the other and I think the second song is necessary to fully explain the first. So, I present both of them.
Tennessee-based Rob Jungklas scored a pair of very modest rock hits in the late 1980s. “Make it Mean Something” (which I’ve never heard and cannot find on the Internet) reached #87 on the Billboard Hot 100 and “Boystown” got some MTV airplay because it ripped of a previous Wang Chung video. See for yourself. He recorded 2 poorly selling albums and then seemingly hung it up in 1989. He left the music industry and went on to get a college degree, get married, and become a high school teacher.
The point is, you’ve probably never heard of him and neither had I. A buddy of mine who used to frequent the mini-mall where I worked for the first half of the 00′s brought Arkadelphia by one day and insisted I listen to it.
Overall, I wasn’t very impressed. The dirty-South white guy blues rock wasn’t a revelation and the music and songwriting, while occasionally engaging, did little to hold my attention. Something about his music seemed too cerebral — and the one thing you can NOT do is think when playing the blues.
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The first thing that sticks out to those unfamiliar with the band Morphine is their odd make up: a crooning singer that plays a 2-string bass, a sax player, and a drummer. No guitars. Making rock music. Surprisingly, this unusual setup does not come off as a gimmick or an oddball novelty. In fact, once you immerse yourself in Morphine’s music you discover that you never feel like anything is missing in the music. On the contrary, the lack of guitars opens the music up for a much richer coloration by the sax and allows the listener to focus on singer Mark Sandman’s superb lyrics.
His lyrics were generally cynical, self-deprecating, and melancholy. They tended to deal with dark issues such as addiction, romantic betrayal, and low self-esteem. Despite this the music would often be somewhat upbeat which helped to cushion the blow of his words.
Morphine was formed in 1989 and released 4 albums in the 90s before disbanding in 1999 due to Mark Sandman’s sudden death. He had a heart attack while performing on stage. (At least he died while doing something he loved.) A 5th album, The Night, was released posthumously in 2000.
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In 2005 Iron & Wine (singer-songwriter Sam Beam) and Calexico teamed up to record a 7-track EP called In The Reins. For those familiar with both artists it was exciting to hear how 2 extraordinary songwriters and musicians would sound together since Calexico had a distinct desert western sound and Beam (up to that point) was a one-man band whose sound was influenced by his rural South Carolina upbringing. The result was THE best EP of the decade. (Go ahead and argue with me. You’re wrong.)
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Before I began writing this entry my general take on the word “emo” was that it was a fashion fad practiced by kids half my age that involved wearing black clothes, having mop-headed haircuts, and walking around with a scowl all the time. Which is kind of what I did when I was that age, only we called it other things back then like “being alternative” or “being a hood”. Self-described “emo” music that I had heard in passing over the past few years always made me either laugh or grimace – I could never take it seriously. So I was shocked when I went to Wikipedia (and then to AllMusic) and they listed Jets To Brazil as an “emo” band. I just thought they were an Indie Rock band. And I hate the term “emo”.
However, after doing a little more research I began to see how Jets To Brazil could fall under that classification. Especially with regards to lyrical content. From AllMusic.com: “Emo lyrics are deeply personal, usually either free-associative poetry or intimate confessionals.”
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I came across my sister’s Copper Blue tape in 1993 and “borrowed” it to have in my car. I was 16 or 17. I don’t know if she ever listened to it because she never seemed to notice that it was missing, something she almost always did when I “borrowed” her stuff, so I ended up not feeling so bad about keeping it. I remember listening to it the first few times while driving to and from school and thinking. It was definitely not the kind of music I gravitated towards at that time. I mostly listened to death metal. Sugar was decidedly not that.
Like all teenagers, I had already experienced my share of heartbreaks by that age. At the time I felt that these experiences were, naturally, devastating and traumatic. Any art that captured that sense of heartbreak or loss instantly resonated with me. This is why “The Slim” was the track that kept me listening to this album over and over again.
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There are a handful of songs that I can listen to that will perk me up 100% of the time, no matter the situation or my mood. Little Computer People is one of those songs. I cannot help but grin and start bopping my head when it comes on. It is silly and nerdy, just like me. Maybe dorky is a better word.
You see, Little Computer People was originaly a computer game put out in 1985 by Activision. It was the 80s version of The Sims and featured state of the art graphic and music (for the time). It was the music from this video game that inspired Little Computer People (the artist) to record the Little Computer People (the song) in 1998.
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XTC was a band that came back to life at least 3 times during their 20-year existence. “Jason and the Argonauts” is a great example of where the band was musically at the end of their first rebirth.
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