Scuzz Sundays: Avril Lavigne – “When You’re Gone”

September 26, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘The Best Damn Thing’ (LP) (Released on April 11th, 2007) (via RCA Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up on the blog for yet another one of my daily posts, seeing that it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! ‘Scuzz Sundays’ marks the end point of the week where we take an in-depth look back at some Pop-Punk anthems released between the late-90’s and the mid-00’s, and the Canadian vocalist Avril Lavigne was one of the most famous female role models of the era. Best known for the multi-platinum selling singles ‘Sk8erboi’ and ‘Girlfriend’ and her nickname of ‘Pop Punk Queen’ from the music publications of the time, Lavigne still holds the title of having the best-selling album of the 21st century by a Canadian singer with her 2002 debut release, ‘Let Go’. She’s also dabbled in acting work, as she did voice work for 2006’s ‘Over The Hedge’ and she appeared in the comedy-drama film ‘Fast Food Nation’ that also opened in cinemas in 2006. ‘When You’re Gone’ was released as the second single from her third full-length album, ‘The Best Damn Thing’, which hit the shelves of Woolworths in 2007. This LP incorporated more elements of Post-Grunge into her recordings than before, and it has sold more than six million copies globally, topping some of the US Billboard charts along with reaching the top of the charts in twelve countries. ‘When You’re Gone’, as a single, peaked at #24 on the US Billboard 200 and it reached #3 on the UK Singles Chart. Refresh your mind below.

Lavigne wrote ‘When You’re Gone’ with Butch Walker (Panic! At The Disco, Dashboard Confessional) who also produced the track, and the subject matter was reportedly written about her marriage to Sum 41’s lead singer Deryck Whibley at the time and how she feels when the two of them are touring separately, but she has been quick to dispute this rumor during interviews with The Belfast Telegraph at the time. She also worked with the composer Rob Mathes to orchestrate the single. You may have noticed the genuine String section in the brief early goings, for example, when you just listened to the track via the video. She also incorporates a fluttering Piano line and a gentle Synthesizer to the mix too. The lyrics are simple, with universal themes like separation from a love interest and expressing how you feel when you’re apart from a special someone in your life, shining through brief sequences like “I always needed time on my own/I never thought I’d need you there when I cried” and “And the days feel like years when I’m alone/And the bed where you lie is made up on your side” that deal with internal conflict a little bit, and these words are matched by an anthology of cheesy love stories in the music video. The chorus makes these lyrics feel a bit more catchy, with some explosive Drum sequences and a lightly distorted guitar melody creating enough of a Hard Rock angle to the tune, reminding us that it is, indeed, a track by Avril Lavigne. Personally, I felt it was fine. This is superficially like any kind of Pop-Rock ballad though, with some contemplative songwriting and some touching instrumentation lending the record at least a little bit of emotional depth. My issue is that there’s absolutely no subtlety here, however, and it simply feels too straightforward for the vocals to really tug at my heart strings very much. There’s some nice Piano sequences and a lower tempo that gives the track a slightly poetic feel, but the bombastic drums and the basic themes feel a bit soulless and lacking in much of a distinctive character. Overall, this is a so-so effort that tackles themes of both loss and longing in a warming way, but not a poignant one due to the simplicity.

Pictured: Avril Lavigne at an undisclosed gig on tour (2012) (Photo via Zine Cultural/Getty Images)

That’s all for now! Thank you for checking out my new post on the blog today, and I’ll be back to do it all over again tomorrow by kicking off the new week of music with an in-depth look at the current LP from a Swedish House DJ who is the owner of the Young Ethics label and he has also been featured on KEXP’s Song Of The Day podcast.

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Scuzz Sundays: Bowling For Soup – “Almost”

September 19, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Jaret Reddick (Lead Vocals/Slide Guitar), Chris Burney (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals), Rob Felicetti (Bass Guitar/Acoustic Guitar) & Gary Wiseman (Drums/Backing Vocals) (2015) (Photo via PR)

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and THAT time of the week has arrived where we talk about the teenage music from THAT phase of our lives, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! This week’s delve into the ‘Scuzz Sundays’ library comes from the 00’s Texan Pop-Punk staples Bowling For Soup, who were formed in Wichita Falls around 1994. They have previously made two appearances on the blog, with their last being a bizzare rock anthem named after the female WWE wrestler Alexa Bliss, which was unveiled to the world last February as a single. ‘Almost’ is another one of their classics, and it’s fair to note that Bowling For Soup are really one of the few surviving members of the ‘Scuzz’ music video scene of the late 90’s to early 00’s, and so they have done pretty damn well for themselves to be honest, and my slowly maturing ear buds had a little soft spot for the Jaret Reddick-led quintet when I was younger, and so they strike me as a little bit underrated, compared to acts like Avril Lavigne and Paramore, in the mainstream rock sphere. ‘Almost’ was the second single to be taken from their fifth album, ‘A Hangover You Don’t Deserve’, which was the boys’ third album released on Jive Records. The album also features ‘1985’, another one of the band’s most well-known singles, which quickly reached Top 40 radio chart status and peaked at #5 on Billboard’s Adult Top 40 chart. ‘Almost’ memorize it below.

As well as writing and recording odd teenage crush-like songs about Alexa Bliss and how cool she is, Bowling For Soup have taken a few other steps into wider popular culture. For example, you may have heard the theme tune for the very popular Disney Channel animated TV series ‘Phineas and Ferb’, which ran for a fairly long time between 2008 and 2015. You’re also less likely to know that Reddick’s band created the vocal track for ‘Sonic Unleashed’, a video game released in 2008 for several platforms. Meanwhile, ‘Almost’ came before these wacky creative endeavors, and it tells the simple story of a young adult character, who seems very stereotypical by media standards, who goes through several ‘Almost’ experiences during his life. Redick goes on about “I almost got drunk at school at 14/Where I almost made out with the homecoming queen/Who almost went on to be Miss Texas” and he recites rhythmic lyrics like “I almost dropped out to move to LA/Where I was almost famous for almost a day” where he tries to get the title word in as much as humanly possible, it seems. The chorus goes for a slightly more sentimental feel, with hooks like “I almost had you/But I guess that doesn’t cut it” and “I almost wish you would have loved me too” that bounce off the playful refrains in the verses, with a more fiery note of “I almost wrote a song about you today/But I tore it all up and then I threw it away” to trigger the more raucous finale. You could say that it ‘Almost’ feels like a celebration of life’s little moments when we can each get tangled up in the excitement of ‘Almost’ achieving a personal goal, and so the fact that Redick’s song actually has a relatable meaning makes it feel above the average level of other Pop-Punk bands of the time. There’s still definitely a 00’s sitcom theme tune feeling to this one, as usual for Bowling For Soup’s tunes, but at least he tries to say something vaguely meaningful here. There’s still plenty of references to sex and booze that characterized this era of Pop-Punk to a stereotypical tee, but it’s mostly done with a tongue-in-cheek nature and an acknowledging way. The instrumentation is pretty typical for the time too, with Reddick using a nasal voice delivery over the top of melodic guitar riffs and some mid-tempo drum sequences, with a tiny bit of distortion on the bass guitars along the way, however. All in all, I reckon this one is still decent. It’s certainly not a masterpiece and it relies on the Pop-Punk archetypes of the day, but there’s some good fun to be had here. The lyrics are a tad subversive and the songwriting comes close to having a message that you can latch on to. It is pretty catchy, with lyrically barbed verses and clean guitar picking riffs that work well together. ‘Almost’ a big hit.

Pictured: An image from the official music video for Bowling For Soup’s ‘Alexa Bliss’ (2020) (via PR)

As mentioned above, we’ve heard from Bowling For Soup previously on the blog, and so I hope that I may have piqued your interest in catching up on a few of my other posts concerning them. Check out their recent hit ‘Alexa Bliss’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/02/12/todays-track-bowling-for-soup-alexa-bliss/ and revisit their 00’s classic ‘Girl All The Bad Guys’ want: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/03/01/scuzz-sundays-bowling-for-soup-girl-all-the-bad-guys-want/

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Drunk Enough To Dance’ (LP) (Released on August 6th, 2002) (via Jive Records)

Thank you for reaching the bottom of the page with me today! I’ll be back tomorrow, as per usual, for an in-depth look at a track that I wish that I’d gotten around to covering nearer to the time of its release, and it comes from a singer, songwriter, actress, dancer and model from New Orleans, Louisiana who began her impressive career after she auditioned for the US reality talent show ‘Making The Band 3’ in 2004.

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Scuzz Sundays: Puddle Of Mudd – “She Hates Me”

September 12, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Come Clean’ (LP) (Released on August 28th, 2021) (via Flawless/Geffen Records)

Good Morning to you! It is Jacob Braybrooke here, and it sure looks like we have quickly reached the end of the week and so that means, for the blog, it is time for another entry in our ‘Scuzz Sundays’ library, where we relive or cringe along to the Pop-Punk hits of the angsty adolescent times of our lives, not forgetting that it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Puddle Of Mudd were a Post-Grunge-meets-Hard Rock band who were formed in Kansas City, Missouri during the early 90’s and, to date, they since went on to have a string of #1 singles in Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the US. They are still active today, having released another studio album, ‘Welcome To Galvania’, in 2019. They also have one EP, an independent album and five studio albums to their name, and so it seems quite surprising that Puddle Of Mudd have never made an appearance on my throwback feature until now. The band have also faced a share of downs amongst their ups, including their lead vocalist – Wes Scantlin – being hit with allegations of lip syncing during live performances since 2012 and some controversy surrounding a feud with their former connection, Fred Durst, which turned sour in the early 00’s, although the band still appreciate how he has initially aided them on their way to gaining attention in the industry. ‘She Hates Me’ was taken from their debut album, ‘Come Clean’, which has sold its way to over five milllion copies and it has been certified Platinum three times following its release in 2001, and you should probably recognize the famous LP cover artwork that was created by photographer Kate Schermerhorn. Released as a single in 2002, ‘She Hates Me’ reached the Top 20 of the singles charts in Austria, the UK, US, Ireland and Australia. Give it a spin below.

Originally titled as ‘She F***ing Hates Me’ for its initial release as a track on their debut album, this profanity-filled Nu-Metal tune continued the group’s rising popularity in the US, having peaked at #13 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, and it also reached the very top spot of Billboard’s Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for one week in late 1992, becoming Puddle Of Mudd’s second single to sell over 500,000 copies alone in their native country. It was also the group’s third top 20 hit in the UK, and it also won an ASCAP Pop Music Award in 2004. Kicking off with a bright acoustic guitar strum that sounds just like ‘Summer Nights’ from the musical ‘Grease’ to my ears, Scantlin swings for a Southern Blues sound with his husky voice, starting with lyrics like “Met a girl, thought she was grand/Fell in love, Found out first hand” which feel optimistic, before changing his tone to recite lyrics of a more grizzled nature as his romantic experience takes the turn for the worse, with lyrics like “In a trap, trip I can’t grip/Never thought I’d be the one who’d slip” in the later verse, before he shouts his way to angry hooks like “She tore my feelings like I had none/and ripped them away” atop a serve of lightly distorted bass guitar riffage during the chorus. What you see is basically what you get, with a straightforward sense of navigation through a sour summer romance of an angsty adolescent age during the large bulk of the track, as super slap-dash lyrics like “Went well for a week or two/Then it all came unglued” and “She was queen for about an hour/After that, s**t got sour” take centre stage, with the track’s original sweary title being very badly blurred out in the chorus of the edited single version that we just heard today. It all sounds clunky and cumbersome, on the whole, as there’s simply no detail to the lyrics at all and very little character development as a whole. We know that his former interest hates him – but why? Probably because he makes songs like this that makes barely any logical sense and poorly borrows ideas from the likes of Kurt Cobain, and ‘Grease’ of all things, to a blatant degree. I hate to say it, but I thought it was awful, overall. There’s sadly not much of a unique selling point here, and the lyrics are quite horrendous. The more Country-inspired vocals were certainly alright, but the instrumentation felt very bland otherwise, and the tune as an overall package just fell flat for me in the process, and there’s sadly little fun to be had here. A memory from the era that I’d rather not relive.

Pictured: Wes Scantlin (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar/Acoustic Guitar), Matt Fuller (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals), Michael John Adams (Bass Guitar) and Dave Moreno (Drums) (2019) (Photo by WeGow.com)

That’s all for now, and thank you very much for joining me, as always. I’ll be back tomorrow for business as usual, and a far more positive revelation of new music, as we divert our attention to the new album from the solo project of a Montreal-born Alternative R&B singer-songwriter who used to be a part of Mac DeMarco’s touring band – and he released his debut solo album as a cassette via Fixture Records in 2013.

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Scuzz Sundays: The All American Rejects – “Dirty Little Secret”

September 5, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Move Along’ (LP) (Released on July 12th, 2005) (via Interscope Records)

Good Morning to you! This is, of course, Jacob Braybrooke, and this is the time of the week where we revisit some of the Pop-Punk anthems of the past – typically released between the late-90’s and the mid-00’s – to see whether any of the most popular music from THAT phase of our lives can still hold a candle to quality in the modern times, and that fits in with my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! It’s been a hot minute since we wrote about The All American Rejects other major hit, ‘Gives You Hell’, for the feature, and so it naturally feels like a decent time to unveil their other big ‘Dirty Little Secret’. This was a commercially successful rock band from Stillwater, a city in the state of Oklahoma, who were one of the Dreamworks Records pack of the Scuzz TV Pop-Punk 00’s that had also included bands like Smash Mouth and Papa Roach among their line-up. Led by Tyson Ritter, the 4-piece group have shifted units to the heights of Platinum success when they hit the peak of their popularity, and ‘Dirty Little Secret’ was certified Gold in the UK in 2019, almost ten years after the original release of the single. These days, the band do not seem to be working on albums anymore, but they have continued to tour and in 2019, they released a new single on their new label Epitath. They were ranked at #183 on Billboard’s ‘200 Artists Of The Decade’ list in 2010. Spin ‘Dirty Little Secret’ below.

‘Dirty Little Secret’ was not actually about an angsty end to a youthful relationship, as commonly assumed, but the memorable hit track was actually written about a light case of tax fraud experienced by frontman Tyson Ritter and the follow-up of a hasty cover up that cleared up the boys time for finishing off their second studio album, ‘Move Along’, a well-enough reviewed sophomore release that spawned three top 15 singles in the US, and therefore bolstered the LP’s appeal to solid sales to the tune of a Double Platinum certification by the RIAA after the milestone of two million copies was met. ‘Dirty Little Secret’ led the band to become a fair household name, and so it’s definitely the type of music that you would have expected to hear from them, and the genre, at the time. The driving bass melodies power it to the Power-Pop side that bands like Relient K or Wheatus aimed for, and this formula of mostly pure Pop meets a light slab of Punk worked out well for the fame-seeking dreams of these artists at the time. Lyrics like “You are the only one that needs to know” and “These sleeping thoughts won’t lie” largely fit the themes of secrets and, ironically, don’t reveal too much, and that works out in favour of the songwriting here because it gives things a little bit of fun, rather than simply blurting out the obvious meaning, if you will. The furnishings of Acoustic Guitar in the beginning soon become more distorted and dirty guitar riffs, and we’re led into a vastly more Grunge-influenced second half that gives proceedings more of an edge, albeit very briefly. The chorus has a catchy hook of “I’ll keep you my dirty little secret” that scream for a festival crowd to sing along to, and the straightforward Drums give the production a tighter feel. The vocals feel a bit generic for the time, and the lyrics aren’t really that interesting, and it’s a catchy Pop-Rock tune from the 00’s that plays out predictably. However, I place an emphasis on the word of ‘Catchy’ there, because it is a pleasant tune to listen to as it simply feels punchy and engaging. On the whole, this is not necessarily great, but when I was younger I found that All-American Rejects were one of the better ‘Trashy’ bands of the era, and this is nowhere near the absurd levels of Crazy Town or The Bloodhound Gang. It perhaps borrows from too many typical ideas from its time, but the self-indulgence of Ritter’s vocal delivery and the snappy guitar melodies were enough to keep me entertained. Inoffensive and rather anthemic, ‘Dirty Little Secret’ didn’t ever quite match the feel-good fun of ‘Gives You Hell’ for me, but it’s a fair effort to do so. Harmless and reasonably nice, its success was understandably no secret for the band.

Pictured: Tyson Ritter (Lead Vocals/Keyboard/Piano/Acoustic Guitar), Nick Wheeler (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals/Synths), Mike Kennerty (Rhythm Guitar) and Chris Gaylor (Drums/Percussion) (2018) (Photo by Jeff Neumann/AlternativeMusicPress.com)

Right – that leaves us at the end of the line for another week. Thank you for joining me, and I’ll be back to kick off the next week of daily uploads from the morning onwards. Tomorrow’s track gives us a closer look at one of the upcoming weekend’s new EP releases, and it comes from a project who previously made an appearance on the blog in January, and have been supported by Lauren Laverne on a recent episode of ‘The New Music Fix’ on BBC Radio 6 Music. This Avant-Garde Duo is formed up of two previous members of Spring King, who have been on the cover of Dork Magazine.

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Scuzz Sundays: Evanescence – “Call Me When You’re Sober”

August 29, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘The Open Door’ (LP) (Released on September 25, 2006) (via Wind Up Records)

Good Morning to you! You’re reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, I have returned from my short break away from the blog, and so it’s time for me to add another entry to our ‘Scuzz Sundays’ library, because it is – once again – my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! It has been a little while since we had a female-led band featured on a ‘Scuzz Sunday’ on the site and I like to be inclusive for all on the site, so I’ve decided to whip up a quick one from Amy Lee’s Evanescence today since, all things considered, they are a good quality group. The lead single from their second album – ‘The Open Door’ – released in 2006, ‘Call Me When You’re Sober’ reached the top five of the UK singles chart that year. For their second album, the Arkansas 5-piece group decided to head towards a Symphonic Metal direction and they used backing vocals from choirs when the album was written over an 18 month period. Evanescence have always sold well in European markets, and this album was no different because ‘The Open Door’ topped the album charts in Greece, Switzerland, Germany and Australia too. The record also won ‘Album Of The Year’ at the MTV Australia Video Music Awards in 2007, and the record has also been certified as Double Platinum according to the RIAA. Let’s revisit the lead single below.

The pressure was certainly mounting up for Amy Lee’s quintet to deliver the goods for the follow-up LP to their widely successful ‘Fallen’ debut in 2003, and they made small steps to repeating their huge success with ‘Call Me When You’re Sober’, a single that reached ten of the different component Billboard charts in the US. Lee wrote the anthemic single about her dwindled relationship with Seether’s lead vocalist, Shaun Morgan, and she recorded the soon-to-be hit of the time with co-producer Dave Fortman (Slipknot, Simple Plan) as she penned the lyrics about how addiction issues had terminated the ties with her former love interest. To change things up, Lee’s band transformed the Grunge sounds of ‘Bring Me To Life’ and such earlier hits for a more sultry mix of strings and delayed pedal effects for ‘Call Me When You’re Sober’, while the rest of ‘The Open Door’ included a few classical Piano ballads. This single would have played out as more familiar for their fans though, with hard-hitting lyrics like “Don’t cry to me/If you loved me/You would be here with me” and “Sick with shame, Must be exhausting to lose your own game” being recited above a fairly radio friendly style of melodramatic guitar riffs and mascara-wearing aggression. Lee still seems very confident in what she’s going after here, however, and she delivers these lines with a cool confidence that suggests a little bit more than simply selling units. While the instrumentation is admittedly a little on the forgettable or even predictable side of her usual angle, the whimsical Piano breaks and the sweeping bass melodies are packaged together neatly. There’s some nice personality to the slightly evil sort-of chuckle towards the end, and the assortment of Strings towards the melodic chorus decorates the proceedings with a solid coat of polish. Overall, this is a haunting monologue that may come off as a bit bland or a bit too pop-oriented at times, but it certainly does more good than it does any real harm. Amy Lee’s vocals are lovely, as always, and the swooping mixture of different instruments feels very neat overall. It definitely has a lot of polish to it, but it has enough substance to stand out nicely enough by the time it stops spinning. A solid, if not quite up to personal best, offering.

Pictured: Amy Lee (Lead Vocals/Keyboard), Troy McLawhorn (Lead Guitar), Jen Majura (Rhythm Guitar/Backing Vocals), Tim McCord (Bass Guitar) & Will Hunt (Drums) (2020) (Photo via Concord.com)

If you want to revisit another taste of Evanescence’s 00’s days, then make sure that you are ‘Going Under’ with me for an in-depth dig through their prior discography here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/10/11/scuzz-sundays-evanescence-going-under/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Fallen” (Released on 3rd March, 2003) (via Wind-Up/Epic Records)

That’s all for now! Thank you for your patience in allowing me to deliver some new content to your eats when the time suited me, and I’ll be kicking off a brand new week of daily music recommendations tomorrow with a sleeper hit from a British female indie rock singer-songwriter from Ripon, North Yorkshire. She started to gain attention by attracting new viewers to her acoustic YouTube performances in their hundreds when she was only twelve years old, and, in 2015, she was nominated for the BBC’s ‘Sound Of 2016’ Award.

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Scuzz Sundays: Velvet Revolver – “Slither”

August 15, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Contraband’ (LP) (Released on June 8, 2004) (via NRG and Pulse Recording)

Good Morning to you! You’re reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for a new weekly entry to our ‘Scuzz Sundays’ library, as we revisit some of the powerful Pop-Punk anthems of the past, while keeping in mind that it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A super-group who were active between the years of 2002 and 2008, Velvet Revolver was another one of Slash’s post-Guns ‘N’ Roses projects on paper, yet, the project also seemed to be largely more of a collaboration between Slash and Stone Temple Pilots upon closer inspection, as their line-up featured previous members of both Guns ‘N’ Roses and Stone Temple Pilots, with Wasted Youth’s Dave Kushner as the odd one out. In 2018, vocalist Scott Weiland abruptly left the band to rejoin Stone Temple Pilots, and later in the year, the rest of the band contacted RCA Records, their label, and asked to be released from their contract to allocate themselves “complete freedom to go through whatever process it would take to accomplish” replacing Weiland, but such a goal was never met. It was not entirely clear what caused the split, despite a one-off reunion show with Weiland taking place in 2012. In their time, however, the group initially earned decent praise from critics and their audience alike, notably toured with Alice In Chains, released two full-length albums, and, in 2005, they won the Grammy Award for ‘Best Hard Rock Performance’ with ‘Slither’. Give the trademark tune a spin below.

‘Slither’ was released as the second single from 2004’s ‘Contraband’, Velvet Revolver’s debut album, and it reached the top of both the US Billboard Mainstream Rock and Modern Rock Charts, and it also reached #35 on the UK Singles Chart. The album found similar success, becoming a commercial success for Velvet Revolver by reaching the top spot of the US Billboard 200 chart and eventually being certified as Double Platinum by the RIAA in sales, alongside a score of 65/100 on Metacritic to indicate a mostly “generally favorable” reception from critics. ‘Slither’ became almost certainly their most well remembered single – a Hard Rock anthem which takes it’s strutting flair from 90’s Post-Grunge and 70’s DIY Garage-Punk. With a tight four-minute duration, the band encompass through a decent range of upbeat guitar hooks while throwing in some persistently crunching cymbal melodies and some harsher, more bitter bass riffs. Weiland gives the vocals a sinister, yet Soulful delivery that reminds me of Nick Cave and Iggy Pop, as he recites slow-burning lyrics like “Here comes the water/It comes to wash the sins of you and I” in the pre-chorus, and exciting lyrics like “Rape my mind and smell the poppies/Born and bloodied every single time” in the verse, where he surely does not mince any of his words with a lighter tone. I would say that I felt the singer was just a little at odds with the more melodic direction of the instrumentation and so he isn’t terribly well-suited for the harsh Grunge sounds that Slash seems to be going for, but I felt he added a nimble range of variety to the proceedings. On the whole, the track sounded a little bit generic, but I felt that it was perfectly listenable. The more Punk-influenced riffs have a real 70’s vibe to them, which I felt worked rather well, and the drummer does a nice job of counteracting Weiland’s slick, polished vocals with a more aggressive pallete of sounds. After a below-average month of quality for these Scuzz Sundays flashbacks, I felt Velvet Revolver got us back on track with their robust guitar work and their very ‘Scuzz’ sound. An enjoyable entry in their small, but compelling enough, discography.

Pictured: Slash (Lead Guitar/Talkbox), Scott Weiland (Lead Vocals/Keyboard), Duff McKagan (Bass Guitar), Dave Kushner (Rhythm Guitar) and Matt Sorum (Drums/Percussion) (2020) (via Gnrcentral.com)

That’s all for now! Thank you for reaching the very end of the page, and, if you enjoyed what Velvet Revolver had in store for us, then I think that you’re also going to enjoy hearing tomorrow’s selection, which was recently featured on KEXP’s ‘Song Of The Day’ podcast. It comes from a pair of very little rockers from Liverpool, England who really are young (I’m talking 12 and 14 years old) with a love for Johnny Ramone.

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Scuzz Sundays: Trapt – “Headstrong”

August 8, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Chris Taylor Brown (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar/Synths/Samples), Pete Charell (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals), Brendan Hengle (Lead Guitar) and Mike Smith (Drums) (2020) (via PR)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here and, yet again, it’s time to revisit the Pop-Punk of the past for our weekly ‘Scuzz Sundays’ feature, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Trapt are a rock band, synonymous with Kerrang and Scuzz during the 2000’s – from Los Gatos, California – who seem to have been through more line-up changes than landing hit singles in the charts. The band’s most recent debacle saw Trapt’s fifth drummer, Mike Spence, announce his departure from the band, citing “primary political” reasons, back in January 2021. However, they were very relevant and well-known at the time for ‘Headstrong’, a hit released in 2002. Trapt sang the tune of ‘Headstrong’ to mass numbers of teenagers who seemingly flocked to HMV to buy the CD, and their self-titled album, also released in 2002, ended up going certified Platinum, mostly based on the strength of this single alone. The track also won two Billboard Awards for ‘Best Modern Rock Track’ and ‘Best Rock Track’ in 2003. Thanks to the Warner Vault, you can view a restored version of the original music video. Get ‘Trapt’ in nostalgia below.

There seem to be conflicting opinions about ‘Headstrong’ in more modern times, as Billboard ranked ‘Headstrong’ as their #1 Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock song of 2003, as well as the most successful modern rock song of the 00’s decade. However, in 2018, an official poll by readers of Ultimate Guitar saw Trapt’s crossover hit rated as having the 4th worst guitar riff of all time, according to their site’s users. All art can be subjective – after all. As for my side of the fence, I had a listen and I felt this mostly played out like a more radio-friendly version of harder Nu-Metal bands like Deftones and System Of A Down to my ears, but there was some fun to be had here. The lyrics are melodramatic, with lines like “A different motive in your eyes/And now I’m out” giving off some Rapcore vibes, and the hooks in the chorus, such as “I know that you are wrong/And this is not where you belong” having a simple rhyme to them. The pre-chorus adds a few twinkling Synths riffs to the infrastructure, to the tune of “I see your fantasy/You want to make it a reality paved in Gold” with a downtempo pace, and it’s funny to recall what was considered masculine within music during the 2000’s. It felt largely unremarkable to me, and it never really goes fully in-depth to the rougher sounds that the croaking vocal before the chorus teases. But, for the most part, I thought it was relatively harmless and it didn’t anger me to the point where I wanted to turn it off. However, that is still saying that I would have rather listened to the bands that it borrows from. The vocals sounded a little blunted and unproductive, but the guitar riffs are melodic enough to have a catchy twang to them, especially in the verses, as we build up the animosity of the mood going into the chorus. It just simply didn’t quite hack its target for me though, because it still feels largely like a product of it’s time. In conclusion, there was nothing inherently wrong with this, but it failed to gauge much interest from me either, as it simply fails the test of time. While I had a little bit of fun with the catchy guitar hooks and I feel it may appeal to those nostalgic fans looking to pad out their collections, the overall sound felt arbitrary and pedestrian, with limited appeal to transcend the abilities of the bands who it imitates.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Trapt’ (LP) (Released on November 5th, 2002) (via Warner Bros. Records)

That’s everything I’ve got to share with you for now! Thank you for your continued support in reading the blog, and I’ll be back for more tomorrow, as we start another week’s worth of musical taste-making. I’ve got some brand new music tomorrow from a brand new artist – and I’m typing that because it’s her debut single. This comes from a German radio host who was committing to the cause of World Ocean Day for her first foray into ethical Dream-Pop sounds that she’s been writing for 10 years now.

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Scuzz Sundays: The Hives – “Tick Tick Boom”

August 1, 2021 — Leave a comment

Not based on the musical of the same name from Jonathan Larson. It’s Scuzz Sunday!

Pictured: Per Almqvist (Lead Vocals, Piano), Niklas Almqvist (Lead Guitar/Keyboard), Mikael Karlsson (Rhythm Guitar/Organ), Christian Grahn (Drums) and Johan Gustafsson (Bass Guitar) (2020) (via PR)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and it’s time to revisit one of the Pop-Punk anthems of the past for ‘Scuzz Sunday’, not forgetting that it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! ‘Tick Tick Boom’ marks the, very explosive, second appearance on the site from The Hives. The sharp suited Swedish Garage Rock 5-piece revivalists from the mid-2000’s have built a reputation for themselves as one of the best live Rock acts, according to music critics, and they made a claim to that fame with the release of their 2005 live DVD, ‘Trussels In Brussels’. ‘Tick Tick Boom’ was the opening track and lead single for 2007’s ‘The Black And White Album’, and the track was voted in at #99 in the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2007. It also reached #41 on the UK Singles Chart, and has been used as the theme track for WWE’s ‘Survivor Series’ pay-per-view event in 2007. You may have also heard it from the movies ‘Jumper’ and ‘The Nut Job 2’, along with several video games including ‘LEGO Rock Band’ and ‘Dirt 4’. As a side note, my mother is celebrating her 48th birthday today, and she reads the blog every single day as well as liking the Facebook posts, so a very special shout-out goes to her today. If you wish to leave a comment to wish her a lovely day as well, I don’t mind one bit. But, for the moment being, let’s get back to the task at hand. Set your detonator to ‘Tick Tick Boom’ below.

A fun fact for you is that two different music videos for ‘Tick Tick Boom’ used to circulate Scuzz and Kerrang, including the museum-themed, surrealist take on the track that you have just seen above my text, however, there’s an alternative video which is a staged, choreographed live performance of the track from The Hives, part of which was displayed in a Nike/Finish Line commercial. As for the track itself, the popular quintet aim for the charts for a fun Pop-Punk tune built on frenetic guitar riffs and neat Drum riffs, with recognizable lyrics like “I was alright/You come taggin’ along” and “I was right all along” that don’t seem to make much of an impression in terms of having any significant meaning, but it sounds catchy and rhythmic. The chorus is notable for the sound effects of a literal bomb explosion, which was the call of the producer – Dennis Herring – to be included on the track, and so it’s obvious that he wanted to really go to town on the general namesake of the single nearer to the time that it was being written. The chorus adds punchy hooks like “I got my eye on the score/I’m gonna cut to the core” and “It’s too late/It’s too soon” that all have a fairly loud delivery, while the tight, breakneck Bass guitar chords and the light Sonic modifications of the vocals were based on the same formula that had carried them a fair distance towards commercial success in their career’s peak time. Although fairly unimpressive, this was a fine effort. The sound effects would probably come across as cheesy to some, and these lyrics said nothing to me, but I felt the speedy Garage-Rock beats, the subtle electronic blips and the enthusiastic vocal performance added up to a decent level of engagement with the sound, for me. I could definitely picture this one being some good fun on a packed festival floor, although it’s difficult to argue the core ingredients of the sound are very typical for The Hives and didn’t reinvent the wheel at all. Still, it’s a fun track that, in some ways, went down like a bomb going off.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘The Black and White Album’ (Released on 9 October, 2007) (via Polydor Records)

If you’re still wondering whether The Hives have been a part of a feature on the blog before, then I ‘Hate To Say I Told You So’. Give that previous post a look-in here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/03/08/scuzz-sundays-the-hives-hate-to-say-i-told-you-so/

Pictured: The Hives performing for Rolling Stone (in 2012) (Photo Credit: Dave Wood/YouTube.com)

That brings us to the end of the road for today, and here’s to another year of happy existence for my mother. Thank you for your continued support in making it this far, and please feel free to join me again tomorrow for the start of another week of new music recommendations. Coming up tomorrow, we will be looking at a Parisian electronic dance music producer who has enlisted the help of Bakar, Mac DeMarco and Juan Wauters for his debut album, which is out now on Ed Banger Records and Because Music. He was one of four members from the Electronica group Club Cheval.

Scuzz Sundays: Feeder – “Just A Day”

July 25, 2021 — Leave a comment

After hearing this for the 1,000th time, you’ll be getting Fed Up of it. It’s Scuzz Sunday!

Pictured: Grant Nicholas (Lead Vocals/Lead Guitar/Piano/Keys), Taka Hirose (Bass Guitar/Occasional Backing Vocals) and Mark Richardson (Drums/Percussion) (2006) (Photo via TheDailyRecord.co.uk)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke, writing to you with another new entry in our ‘Scuzz Sundays’ feature, as we rekindle the Pop-Punk of the past in a bid to see whether the anthemic tunes that we all once heard on the Scuzz TV channel can still hold a candle to quality and value in these more modern times, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music each day! Feeder are a Welsh rock band formed in Newport in 1994 who are one of the few 90’s Brit-Pop era to have continually found success long after the sell-by date that similar bands fell victim to, with an accumulated number of 25 singles to reach the top 75 of the UK Singles Chart between 1997 and 2012. The peak of the now-duo’s commercial success saw Feeder win two Kerrang! Awards (in 2001 and 2003) and they were inducted into the mainstream publication’s own ‘Hall Of Fame’ in 2019. The band have since seen changes to their line-up, as drummer Mark Richardson left the band in 2009 to join a reformed Skunk Anansie, and the group’s previous drummer, Jon Lee, was tragically found dead in his home in Miami from Suicide in 2002. ‘Just A Day’ was notable for becoming their final single with Lee, and also known for it’s video, which saw fans jumping around in their bedrooms in home footage alike to an old repeat of ‘You’ve Been Framed!’ on ITV 2. ‘Just A Day’ was only ever released as an EP with a cover of The Police’s ‘Can’t Stand Losing You’ as the B-side of the release, but it has become a fan-favourite at their live sets, and has sold a staggering figure of over 100,000 copies in both physical copies and digital downloads combined. Time to give it a spin below.

A battle cry against loneliness and isolation from the Welsh rockers, Feeder’s ‘Just A Day’ reached the #12 spot on the UK Singles Chart, where it stayed in the Top 20 for four weeks on the trot, and it was later included on their compilation LP ‘The Singles’ in 2006, making it the only time that the radio edit of ‘Just A Day’ was available to buy on an album. As a single, there was also a limited run of the track on an orange Vinyl, including a rare remix of ‘Just A Day’ from Brian Serper as the A-side, although the differences in this version were very subtle. As for the successful original, ‘Just A Day’ is a very radio-friendly affair that would not sound out of place on a daytime Radio X or BBC Radio 2 programme. We get a cheerful whistling intro, hugely upbeat guitar riffs and arena-sized Drum sequences, while Grant Nicholas’ vocals come across as sardonic, with lyrics like “Feel my head explode from a night of Gin/I guess you think it’s funny now” and “Who’s gonna catch me?/When I’m coming down to hit the ground again” that are delivered with a touch of sarcasm and bitter emotion. Lyrics like “I don’t wanna drink/Don’t want to be a clown” touch on sobriety, and the swooping chorus of “All by myself/Waking up at twelve in my clothes again” adds a touch of wit to the themes of picking up the pieces of your life after straying down a darker path. Nicholas’ vocals are decent, with a brisk pace and a series of relatable lines that should connect with a large crowd of more casual music listeners. The rest, I’m sorry, was a very two-star rated type of affair for me. There’s nothing offensive about it, but there was just nothing that made much of an attempt to really hook me. There’s no experimentation here, with the band sticking to a tried-and-tested formula of soaring guitar riffs and pop-oriented hooks. I never felt there was a great amount of variation here, but the rhythms are pretty catchy in places. The “doo-doo-doo-doo” sections got a little irritating, however, and got to the point of just feeling like filler to pass the time and fill a gap, and not a lot else. The tune has a great energy and a fairly good flow, but the lyrics and the instrumentation simply does nothing intriguing with these elements. The track perfectly fits the video’s vibe of folks jumping around in their bedrooms, but that’s also seen as a downside in a way, because it shows a lack of much thoughtfulness in the sound. It was, overall, tolerable enough. It just isn’t something that I can see myself coming back to. It was playing a bit too safe for me, with a lack of interesting influences to elevate beyond it’s fun, casual radio hit barrier.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘The Singles’ (Compilation LP) (Released on May 15, 2006) (via BMG/Echo)

Well, that leaves us to the end of the road for today. Thank you for joining me, and please feel free to check back up on the site tomorrow for the start of another week’s worth of musical musings. Tomorrow’s pick veers to a different genre, as we hear from one of the most important Black voices of our current Jazz, Funk and Soul landscape, with a new track from a Michigan-born singer-songwriter known for his self-described “Slop ‘N’ Soul” style of combining old-school Gospel, Blues, Country and R&B elements into his style. He backed CeeLo Green, and he played in Night Sun.

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Scuzz Sundays: Interpol – “Say Hello To The Angels”

July 11, 2021 — Leave a comment

In 2002, Interpol were knock, knock, knocking, on Heaven’s Door. It’s Scuzz Sunday…

Pictured: CD Copy of ‘Turn On The Bright Lights’ (Released in November 2001) (via Matador Records)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here – allow me to be your only escape from anything regarding football today, as we delve into the Pop-Punk of the past for another addition to our ‘Scuzz Sundays’ library, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! You’ve probably heard of Interpol before. They are a pretty famous band, after all, and a group that deserves a little more credit than they may usually get in terms of bringing Post-Punk music back into the consciousness of mainstream audiences in the 2000’s, although it can be easy to box them in to an ‘Indie Boom’ category with Editors or White Lies. ‘Say Hello To The Angels’ was one of the first singles they released, along with the B-side of ‘NYC’ on a 7″ Double Single in 2003, and it reached #65 on the UK Singles Chart. The two tracks also appeared on Interpol’s debut album ‘Turn On The Bright Lights’, which was awarded the #1 spot on Pitchfork’s list of the Top 50 Best Albums of the year when it saw the light of day in 2002. A music video for ‘Say Hello To The Angels’ was never produced, but it’s still become one of the Manhattan musicians’ best-known singles. Across their career, Interpol have released six albums, and regularly release fresh material today. ‘Say Hello To The Angels’ with them at Glastonbury 2014 below.

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the release of their debut album ‘Turn On The Bright Lights’, Interpol released an expanded version of that old record. Dubbed as the ‘Remastered Edition’, the re-release came with a disc of unreleased demo material, the bonus tracks that were previously only available on the International editions of the original release, and a DVD featuring the LP’s music videos and live performances. This breathed new energy into ‘Say Hello To The Angels’ because it reminded us of their roots: A good mish-mash of clear influences from other bands of a New-Wave or Gothic rock ilk. We’re greeted by a thick and fast intro of humming guitar lines, with a slight fuzz of distortion, that soon becomes a head-nodding riff enhanced by the dark drawling of Paul Banks’ wry vocals. Lyrics like “I want your silent parts/The parts that birds love/I know there’s such a place” and “This is a concept/This is a bracelet/This isn’t no intervention” are repeated with a catchy tenacity, as Banks discusses how a blooming relationship is allowing him to turn a new lead from a darker past, but it’s done in a way where it doesn’t feel particularly sweet or light-hearted. Paul Weller’s biting guitars and the progressive, bass forward sound point to influences like The Jam, Radiohead and Gang Of Four. The retro-casual style of the chorus is another highlight of the track, and Banks repeats lyrics such as “But each night, I bury my love around you/You’re linked to my innocence” with a woefully abtruse poise. Paired with the black, three-piece suits of their live costumes and the headstrong punch of the melodic Snare groove, we’re left with a head-nodding rock tune that pairs the ethical Post-Rock of Fugazi with the book-ending harmony of Robert Smith. It’s a perfect blend, and it would be easy to assume they were another Manchester band from their homage to the UK’s Post-Grunge and Experimental Rock scenes. Almost 20 years later, this is a cracker of a modern classic.

Pictured: Paul Banks (Lead Vocals/Bass Guitar/Rhythm Guitar), Daniel Kessler (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals) and Sam Fogarino (Drums/Samples/Percussion) (2018) (Photo taken from XSNoise.com)

That’s all I have lined up for you today! Another daily upload is on it’s way to you tomorrow, meanwhile, and it comes from a London-based electronic music producer who was formerly known as Deadboy, and he notched up a solid reputation for himself on the cross-section of UK dance music history with several popular releases on underground Techno labels including Numbers and Well Rounded.

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