Way Back Wednesdays: The Sugarcubes – “Birthday”

February 3, 2021 — Leave a comment

I went to Iceland before. I left with a Frozen Pizza and an Indian meal. New Post time!

Pictured: Bjork Guðmundsdóttir (Lead Vocals), Einar Örn Benediktsson (Trumpet), Sigtryggur Baldursson (Drums), Þór Eldon (Guitar) & Margrét Örnólfsdóttir (Keyboard) (1992) (via Pinterest.com)

Wishing you a Good Afternoon – I’m Jacob Braybrooke and it’s time, yet again, for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! I recently made my own audio documentary podcast for my MA degree coursework which explored the socio-economic impacts of Bjork as a contemporary cultural icon, and when I asked my mother and my father if they could recall her early work as the lead singer of The Sugarcubes, both of their faces looked a little too blank. On this note, I thought that “Birthday” would make a great choice for our weekly vintage music appreciation feature – here on the blog. This old Icelandic Post-Punk band were arguably where it all started for Bjork, and “Birthday” is widely considered to be her first international hit. Released as the first single from their debut studio album, “Life’s Too Good”, back in 1998 – “Birthday” is a fitting embodiment of the subversive and slightly playful character of Bjork and The Sugarcubes, and after gaining support from BBC Radio 1 icon John Peel, along with the influence and support from trusted publications like NME and Melody Maker at the time, “Birthday” reached #2 on the UK’s Indie Singles chart, and the band would find success in the US after performing the track on an episode of Saturday Night Live, in October 1998. Check out the (English) video below.

“Life’s Too Good” turned out to be a surprise success for the group of 1980’s Icelandic Punk culture producers, with the band taking elements from the Post-Punk sound that characterized both the Icelandic modernity and long-standing naturalist views of their country of the time, and they blended these old capitalist ideas with a quirky twist on the conventional Pop song structure in their compositional approach. The lyrics find Bjork singing about the character of a child who has strikingly unusual habits for a five-year-old girl. The repetition of the line “Today is her birthday” makes these themes clear, although the vocals are more based around very tight wordplay, as opposed to a clear and straightforward context. Lyrics such as “She has one friend, he lives next door/They’re listening to the weather” and “Collects fly wings in a Jar, Scrubs horse flies, and pinches them on a line” are guided through the off-key melodies created by the fairly industrial New-Wave shrills. The list of weird interests and the jumbled poetry on the imagination of the character rattle along to upbeat keyboard riffs, warm syncopated percussion and the clunking Trumpet melodies, while it never becomes very clear what the small girl is doing. Instead of following the build-up with an evident response, we instead get a very experimental method of singing from Bjork, which some listeners may conceive as yelling – as a refusal to conform to any specific style or format. The cries are guttural and expressive, and while the band follow a typical Pop song structure, there’s a noticeable touch on Dance music elements that gave this single it’s depth to stand out. The drums keep things moving along at a swift pace, and the swooping guitar melodies evoke a Cocteau Twins-like feeling of Shoegaze for me to create a more ethereal and brighter atmosphere. The sound would have been a very forward-thinking one at the time, and it was also very notable for that star-making performance from Bjork, who has a career of such longevity. There’s absolutely no wonder to what she would go on to do.

Pictured: Cover Art for “Life’s Too Good” (Released on April 25th, 1998) (via One Little Indian Records)

Well – there’s some nostalgia that I never could have properly had. Way Back Wednesdays will be back at the same point next week. Before then, I’ll be continuing to champion fresh new tunes on the blog. That’s true for tomorrow – with an in-depth look at a hot-off-the-press artist who has yet to even release a full length LP. We turn to the Contemporary R&B genre for our introduction to a female artist who took the bold decision to drop out of her training at the BRIT’s School, and she’s since supported Rita Ora and Ray BLK on tour. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Scuzz Sundays: The Bloodhound Gang – “The Ballad Of Chasey Lain”

November 17, 2020 — Leave a comment

Well…Here we are again! It really is a Dog Eat Dog world out there! It’s Scuzz Sunday!

Pictured: Jimmy Pop (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar), Jared Hasslehoff (Bass Guitar/ Vocals), DJ Q-Ball (Keyboards/Synths/Turntables), Daniel P. Carter (Lead Guitar) & The Yin (Drums) (2015) (WeGow.com)

There goes your Sunday! Greetings to you, I am Jacob Braybrooke and it’s time for another weekly installment in our Scuzz Sundays series, where we take a listen back to an Emo-Rock or Pop-Punk relic released between the late-90’s and the mid-00’s, to see if they hold on to value and quality in our current times! We previously covered “The Bad Touch” in our series, and it’s a song that everybody is familiar with (Never Again!). However, generally, the public don’t seem to be very aware of their other material, but the band have actually been quite successful, commercially speaking, with sales of 6 million copies of their albums worldwide, and a particularly decent following in European territories. Today – that changes – as we take a listen to “The Ballad Of Chasey Lain” in retrospect. Much like their biggest hit, this track was released as a single from their debut album, “Hooray For Boobies” (Yeah….Seriously), which was released in 1999. The track was re-released as a single in 2000, with the single’s title alluding to Jimmy Pop (Yes, that is really the alias of the lead vocalist) seeing Chasey Lain, a pornographic film actress, in a clothing shop advertisement. He commented “No” when he was questioned if the infatuation was real…and this was an interview with BBC. This reached #15 in the UK Singles Chart. Let’s listen in below.

Of all places, the track has been frequently used as the bumper music for a lucrative US Texas-situated radio station, KRBE. Along with this, Jimmy Pop has confirmed in his interviews over the years that the core melody for the track was sampled from “Sea Of Sin” by Depeche Mode, of all bands. Writing from the viewpoint of a mock stalker, Pop recites lines like: “I just wanted to ask/Could I eat your a**?” and “You’ve had a lot of d**k Chasey, but you ain’t had mine” over the top of a jangled, heavy guitar riff and a harsh bass guitar riff. You’ve probably noticed – this is just incredibly, undeniably silly music, but I think that it’s important to remember that Bloodhound Gang have always been a Novelty group, and you’re not really supposed to take them seriously as a sub-contemporary piece of music. That doesn’t mean it’s really any good, though. Lines like “Now, show ’em them t***ies” and, in the end, “Would ya f**k me, for blow?” feel tired and ware very thin by the end, although I think the monotone delivery that Pop uses is quite amusing. This is much less Rap-Rock driven than a lot of their other work, with a skewed Punk instrumental giving off a low-fidelity Folk-Blues idiom instead. The lyrics are about the lowest common denominator nonsense you would expect, as a harsh and crude set of lines like “How could I ever eat your a**, when you treat, your biggest fan like that?” and “You’ve had a lotta d**k/I’ve had a lotta time” get repetitive and lose any charm they had, before you gradually get to the end-point of the track when you realise that you’ve just wasted 3 minutes of your life – I’m sorry for wasting yours. It’s a shame that Pop isn’t using enough variation to keep things, at least, mildly catchy here, as the Punk-Folk mismatch of instrumentation is more interesting. For what it’s worth though, it’s crap.

Pictured: "No reason to live but we like it that way" - Bloodhound Gang (2017) (Photo via Reddit.com) — Pictured: “No reason to live but we like it that way” – Bloodhound Gang (2017) (Photo via Reddit.com)

I’m not sure why you really would, but if you must – You can read up on my thoughts of “The Bad Touch”, of which we already covered as part of our 1st Anniversary Special of our long-running Scuzz Sundays weekly feature on the blog, here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/08/23/scuzz-sundays-1st-anniversary-special-the-bloodhound-gang-the-bad-touch/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Hooray For Boobies” (Released on October 4th, 1999) (via Geffen Records)

Thank you very much for reading my new post! As always, I’ll be back at it all again tomorrow, as I hope to aid you through the daily grind again. We’ll be taking an in-depth look at the big return track from a UK hip-hop rapper, songwriter, lyricist and poet who previously appeared on a few episodes of Channel 4’s Celebrity Gogglebox with his mother – Jean Coyle-Larner. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Today’s Track: Phoenix – “Identical”

October 24, 2020 — Leave a comment

Twinned together like Abingdon-on-Thames and Schongau, Germany. New post time!

Pictured: Thomas Mars (Lead Vocals), Deck “The Halls” D’Arcy (Bass Guitar, Keyboard), Laurent Brancowitz (Lead Guitar) and Christian Mazzalai (Rhythm Guitar/Percussion) (in 2019) (via press shot)

It’s the weekend! My name is Jacob Braybrooke and, as per usual, I’m here to get typing up your daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music each day! Best known for the singles “1901”, “Lisztomania”, “Chloroform” and “If I Ever Feel Better”, Phoenix are an established Alternative/Indie Pop-Rock band from Versailles, France. They have six evolutionary albums under their name, and they are a band who I have followed for a large number of years, much like my post about The Mountain Goats yesterday. “Identical” is their new single release, and it marks their first new material since 2018’s one-off single “Monologue”, and it also follows their excellent Latino-leaning 2017 album record, “Ti Amo”. It was also dedicated by the band to the memory of the longtime collaborator Phillipe Zdar, who sadly passed away last year at the age of 50. The track is also the soundtrack for the brand new film “On The Rocks”, which stars Bill Murray, Rashida Jones and Marlon Wayans, and it was directed by Sofia Coppola, of whom the band’s frontman Thomas Mars is married to. The film was released earlier in the month in selected cinemas and on the Apple TV+ subscription streaming service. The online music video for the track features Roman Coppola-directed imagery spliced together by the movie producer, Masa Tsuyuki. Let’s take a listen to “Identical” below.

Phoenix have also compiled the score for the new film, which tells the story of “Faced with sudden doubts about her marriage, a young New York mother (Jones) teams up with her larger-than-life playboy father (Murray) to tail her husband (Wayans) in this bittersweet comedy.”, according to the film’s press release. “Identical” opens it’s path to uplifting pop anthem with a more reserved, fractured stop-and-start synth beat as Mars layers: “I don’t just know you/I’ve grown like that too” and the drum section becomes more prevalent in the pre-bridge, where Mars layers: “In the same room, on the same night/I found you caught in the headlines” as the synth riffs gradually increase in their acidic qualities and the tempo steadily increases. Mars has begun to chronicle the band’s relationship with Phillipe Zdar, with lines like “Gazing ’round the corner of the university/Can’t call it out, but keep calling you out loud” and “I’m no prophet/I’m your friend/Take my advice, make your mistakes” sticking out lyrically, over the top of a propulsive keyboard sequence and a snappy, percussive rhythm guitar distortion which gives the chorus it’s slightly abrasive edge. The synth beats maintain a melodic flow, however, and never skitter too heavily towards a harsh and raw sound. The mood feels rhythmic and uplifting, instead, as well as lyrics that feel rather self-reflective, as Mars riffs on about getting to know the specific traits of a person and how to try and wash away their more negative characteristics. It results in an overall sound that feels less catchy and punchy than most of Phoenix’s older work, and it has a much more introspective tone to it instead. This also ensures that there is a decent balance of familiarity with the electronic direction we’re used to hearing from them, whilst also offering a different mood to represent something a little bit fresh, and I feel it works out pretty well. It’s perhaps going to be forgotten quite easily, but it sees the band delivering well on their noticeably more intelligent pop template.

Pictured: Official Movie poster for “On The Rocks” (Dir. Sofia Coppola) (in 2020) (via PR/Apple TV +)

I spotted some mince pies and stollen cakes in my trip to Aldi yesterday, so if you’re feeling in the mood for some early festive spirit today, you can still check out my post about Phoenix’s seasonal yule rock single, “Alone On Christmas Day”, here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/12/12/todays-track-phoenix-feat-bill-murray-alone-on-christmas-day/

Pictured: Phoenix in a still from the official music video for “Ti Amo” (2017) (Photo via YouTube.com)

Thank you for reading this post! Don’t forget to join me again tomorrow, where I’ll be delivering on a new entry in our weekly Scuzz Sundays series, where we dig out a relic from the Pop-Punk and Emo-Rock genres, from the late-1990’s until the mid-2000’s, to see if it can hold up in the present day! If If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Scuzz Sundays: Evanescence – “Going Under”

October 11, 2020 — Leave a comment

In 2020, I wonder if there’s any new life yet to be bought to this act. It’s Scuzz Sunday!

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

You know what time of the week it is! Good Morning, I’m Jacob Braybrooke and I’ve arrived to type up about your daily track on the blog, as it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! This week’s installment of our Scuzz Sundays, our weekly look back at a late-90’s to mid-00’s classic of the Emo-Rock or Pop-Punk ilk, comes from one of the most commercially popular bands of the era, particularly in the territories of Europe, in the Amy Lee female-fronted Gothic Metal group, Evanescence. The band were formed in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1995 by Lee and guitarist Ben Moody. The band’s first major studio album, “Fallen”, followed a string of independent album releases. It was released in 2003, and it has sold over 17 million copies worldwide (That’s probably thanks to their killer record, “Bring Me To Life”, which is still one of their best-known singles), along with winning Evanescence two Grammy Awards, out of five nominations overall. Although the group have dealt with a few line-up changes and the odd hiatus or two, they are still currently active, and make a killing in territories like Finland and Sweden due to their European “Nu-Metal” style. “Going Under” was a single from “Fallen”, and it reached #8 in the UK Singles Chart. It also reached the top ten of the Billboard US Alternative Chart, and also the top ten of Brazil, Italy and New Zealand as well. Let’s take a listen to it below.

In an interview with MTV News, Amy Lee explained: “The lyrics are about coming out of a bad relationship, and when you’re at the end of the rope, when you’re at the point where you realize something has to change… It’s a very strong song”, and Lee matches these lyrics about “drowning” to the bad arms of a toxic partner with an undeniably hook-driven, Pop sensibility, despite the heavy guitar chords and the soft hip-hop inspired backing beats. Lee takes on a very self-reflective, first-person stance vocally, as she chants: “Drowning in you/I’m falling forever/I’ve got to break through/I’m going under” above an amplified layer of grinding bass guitar riffs and heavy sets of reverberated drum beats, and you’ll find harsh guitar licks in the verses, instead of any twinkling piano melodies. The lyrics play quite heavy on the intensity of love, and the consumption that falling in love can bring to your mental health, as Lee pleads “Blurring and stirring the truth and the lies/So I don’t know what’s real and what’s not” in the verse, before an interlude of echoed synth rhythms signal for a quick post-bridge, before we get a guitar solo which feels very celebratory and anthemic. It mostly feels like everything has been turned up to eleven in volume instrumentally, and for me, well… It actually works really damn well. Lee manages to push quite a well-layered vocal performance throughout the track, and at a time where her male co-horts would often get main production credits when she was doing a lot of the work herself is something worth praising. The anthemic feel of the lead vocals and the guitars together are pretty cheesy, and it gained comparisons to Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit at the time, but again, it manages to feel rather anthemic and enjoyable, instead of cliche or cringeworthy. It’s just Pop, but with heavy chords, and the hooks luckily have the impact needed to flesh it out adequately. To be honest with you, I may usually pick quite a Crap song to cover for the Scuzz Sundays feature because it’s just a bit of fun, so it’s a welcome change of pace to find something that has a bit of value here and I can see why “Going Under” was such a big hit. Good stuff.

Pictured: Amy Lee (Lead Vocals/Keyboard), Troy McLawhorn (Lead Guitar), Jen Majura (Rhythm Guitar/Backing Vocals), Tim McCord (Bass Guitar) and Will Hunt (Drums) (2020) (Photo by Paul Brown)

Thank you for reading your new Scuzz Sundays post! As per usual, we’ll be back to our usual business again tomorrow, with yet another daily track. I’ll be kicking off the new week with an in-depth look at a recent-ish track that I sadly didn’t get around to covering nearer to it’s release. It comes from just a small band from Portland, Oregon in the United States who like to explore “dreamy landscapes” and “hazy memories” through the means of Shoegaze, Alternative Folk and Dream-Rock. Their latest work explores “the unease of modern band life” and “themes of nostalgia and hope” through the ethereal chimes of the band’s vocalist Sarah Nienabar in a packaged-up psychedelic production. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

Scuzz Sundays: The Rasmus – “In The Shadows”

September 6, 2020 — Leave a comment

That’s where the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles do their business. It’s Scuzz Sunday!…

Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Dead Letters”) (“Fan Edition”) (Released on 21st March, 2003) (via Playground Music)

Good Morning, I am Jacob Braybrooke and I’m writing up about your daily track on the blog, as traditionally, because it is my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Of course, it’s time for another weekly installment in our Scuzz Sunday series, where we look back at an Emo-Rock or a Pop-Punk relic that was released between the late-90’s and the mid-00’s, named in tribute to the defunct Scuzz TV rock music video channel, to see if it can hold up to quality standards, many moons later. “In The Shadows” is a track which I immediately did not recognize by it’s name, but once I clicked the play button on that YouTube link, I thought…. Ohh, it’s that one… I used to actually quite like this tune as a child, and I’d forgotten it since. The Rasmus are a Nu-Metal quartet from Finland, who met in 1994, forming the project while studying in their upper comprehensive school in Helsinki. They had a big hit with this tune, “In The Shadows”, which is taken from their fifth LP record, “Dead Letters”, which was released in 2003. This track reached #3 on the UK Singles Chart and #1 in New Zealand, along with top 10 positions in several European territories. There are several versions of the track’s associated music video, with “The Crow” version releasing in Europe, “The Bandit” version taking precedence in their native Finland, and a “Mirror” version circulating about the US. There was also a plain version, which followed one year later, in 2004. Let’s have a blast from the past below.

The Rasmus has sold 5 million albums worldwide, and have estimated sales of about 350,000 copies of records in their native soil of Finland alone, just to bring you up to speed. Lauri Ylönen opens: “No sleep, until I am done with finding the answer” and “Won’t stop, before I find a cure for this cancer” to the sound of a blipping Synth bed and a steady bass guitar riff, following a quiet intro with a distorted lead guitar line, then a quickly paced, crashing drum melody. Ylönen bursts through with the first chorus: “I’ve been watching, I’ve been waiting, In the shadows for my time” with a quick Pop hook as the band mesh upbeat, punchy guitar refrains with a grinding, heavy Drum signature. A bit of Auto-Tune greets the later breakdown, when Ylönen recites: “Feel me, touch me, heal me, come take me higher” above a glistening Synth line and the same, grooving bass guitar pattern, before we turn the drama back up a notch with an explosive, concluding chorus. To be honest, I really think this is not a bad song. You can see the commercialism from a mile away, and there’s also the questionable decision of Ylönen using a thick American accent in the hopes of exporting the track, as a package, to western territories. However, I think the guitar riff is pretty infectious and well-developed throughout, with hooks and grooves which pull off a catchy effect. The lyrics are a bit dumb and cheesy, but I think there’s a little bit of expression to them, as Ylönen explores the battle with mental health issues, with a sugar-coated nature admittedly, but also a reasonable level of heft. It works as a Pop track, and although it might be difficult to love it, it’s not hard to like, this track.

Pictured: Lauri Ylönen (Lead Vocals), Eero Heinonen (Bass Guitar/Ocassional Backing Vocals), Pauli Rantasalmi (Lead Guitar/Rhythm Guitar) and Aki Hakala (Drums) (Current band line-up as of 1994) (Photo via Ordo/Fanpop.com)

Thank you for reading this post! As always, I will be back tomorrow, as we kick off the new mid-September week with an in-depth listen to a new track from a Bolton-born, currently based in Berlin, producer who I’ve previously covered a long while ago on the blog. The producer burst onto the DIY scene with a 2006 hit, “Have It All”, as part of the ‘Chicks On Speed’ female music ensemble. She has since remixed tracks by The Knife, Robyn, Telepathe and AUSTRA. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/

One Track At A Time

Euro-Rock