"Papermoon" by Whiskeytown

1. "Papermoon" is my favorite Whiskeytown song, just narrowly edging out "Don't Be Sad".
2. Both are available on their final Lp, "Pneumonia", which languished for 2 years before the record company released it. The idiots.
3. It's the best Whiskeytown album, period. "Strangers Almanac" does not have a chance against this masterpiece. And hey, name another album that has members of both Smashing Pumpkins and Guns'n'Roses playing in it. (James Iha and Tommy Stinson lent their talents to a couple of tracks)
4. The song "Papermoon" has everything you could ever hope for in a ballad : strings, tympani, ukuleles, the lot.
5. For some reason, i always think of Hawaii when i listen to this song. This is very weird, as i have never even been to Hawaii.
6. David Ryan Adams beat Pete Wentz to the punch by a few years. He was using terms like "baby doll" way back before Pete Wentz made "Sugar" popular again.
7. David Ryan Adams is so prolific, that his unofficial albums outnumber his official ones.
8. And most of them are good, too.
9. Adams look a lot like Rick Moranis, if you ask me.
10. Ryan Adams would make more successful albums than "Pneumonia", but this album has him both firing on all cylinders AND being quality-controlled by the band, mainly Caitlin Cary.
11. Check out Caitlin Cary's ballad "MAtrimony" on their first LP "Faithless Street". Crazy good, man.

"Fighting Fit" by Gene

1. Gene, for most of their career, was dubbed as Smiths copyists, Smiths soundalikes, Smiths fanatics, and all things Smiths-related, the point being that they sound a lot like the Smiths (duh)
2.Their song titles read like stolen snatches from Morrissey's journal ("I Cant Help Myself", "London Can You Wait?", "Your Love It Lies")
3.Needless to say, they werent as good as the Smiths. Hell, even Morrissey and Johhny Marr themselves cannot attain the heights reached by their former band.
4.Beyond the surface resemblance, one can find certain subtle touches that made Gene a wee bit more distinctive : the guitars are glammy instead of jangly, the song structures are mostly conventional verse-chorus-verse, and Martin Rossiter's habit of yelling "No!" every third line or so.
5.Their first album, "Olympian", is really rather good.
6."Drawn to the Deep End", their second album, is a bit uneven, but it contains such pearls as "Long Sleeves For The Summer" and "Save Me I'm Yours".
7.The album was produced by Chris Hughes, whose previous credits include Tears for Fears and Adam Ant.
8.Though do not expect any tribal beats, war-paint or primal scream therapy anywhere on the LP.
9.Instead, it's a bold, risk-taking LP that is still severely under-rated.
10.It still sounded like the Smiths, but instead of a slavish imitation, Gene provided the sonic possibilities had the Smiths continue beyond their final LP.
11. I want to share with you the sumptuous "Save Me I'm Yours", but even the wonder that is Youtube doesnt have any clip on it. So, enjoy the Tamla-Motown-like grooves of "Fighting Fit"
12. The guys looked dapper in it, no?
13. I miss Gene.

"He Thought Of Cars" by Blur

1. The more i listen to it, the more i think of "He Thought Of Cars" as the deformed, misshapen twin of "End of A Century"

2. I say this because of several reasons: (1) Both concern the future, and (2) the future described in the song is not a very pleasant one.

3. However, in "End Of A CEntury", at least the protagonist is content, comfortably numb, as Roger Waters might say. Although the end of the century is 'nothing special', they still find comfort in the mundanity of their lives.

4. On the other hand, "He Thought Of CArs" depict a very bleak future indeed.

5. Images of endless queues, cocaine ("Columbia is in top gear"), a feeling of pure loneliness in a crowd ("He thought of planes/ and where to fly them/ and who to fly them with/ there is no one"), hopelessness ("the Evening News/ says he was confused"), and something improbable becoming grimly true ("The motor ways will all merge soon / lottery winner buys the moon")

6. The contrast also extend to the music. While "End of a Century" sounds polished and pristine, "He thought of Cars" seem wobbly and distorted. Every instrument seem 'hung over': the drums nondescript, the guitars backward-sounding.

7. Thankfully, cheese tycoon Alex James is there to supply his melodic bass lines through out.

8. It also possess a beautiful tune, something it has in common with "... Century".

9. It's on the "Great Escape" LP. Dont listen to the band, who all hate it (except Alex). If you take it out of the hype, it stands as one of the great albums of the '90's.

10. I'm not persuading you. I'm simply telling you.

"Well I Wonder" by The Smiths

1."Well I Wonder" is included in the Smiths' sole chart-topping album, 'Meat is Murder', from 1985.
2. It's also included on the 'How Soon Is Now' single.
3. According to Johhny Rogan's book 'The Smiths', it has never been performed live.
4. This is a very sad fact, since 'Well I Wonder' is a beautiful, beautiful song.
5. I dont know why it was so overlooked. I mean, you can hear all four Smiths doing some of their best work on this song : Andy Rourke's melodic bass leads, Johnny MArr switching his Rickenbacker for an acoustic, Mike Joyce's masterful drum breaks, and Morrissey's yodelling.
6. I love this song, it's my favorite Smiths song.
7. Everyone who ever experienced the anxiety of falling in love can instantly relate to the lyrics of this song.
8. Anyone who does not relate has never truly been infatuated with someone.
9.The noise at the end of the song i used to think was the sound of pouring rain, until someone pointed out that it sounds like a frying pan.
10. This does not reduce its romantic value in any way.
11. Check out the above fan-made video from Youtube.com for a quick and handy visual history of the Smiths. (You'd notice Morrissey's neck get larger as time goes by)

"Dance With Me" by the Old 97's

1. The video to Old 97s' "Dance With Me" is pretty much what a red-blooded geek would have hoped for : it has Tricia Helfer, the blonde, busty, man-killing Cylon Number Six from Battlestar Galactica in it
2. Tricia Helfer sadly did not wear the sheer one-piece crimson dress she wears on the series.
3. This error is rectified by having Tricia look approximately 7.5 times more beautiful. And that canary yellow dress she wears looks great. Everything would probably look great if its worn by Tricia Helfer
4. This fact alone has made the video one of the all-time greatest videos ever, in my opinion, certainly above Coolio’s “Gangster’s Paradise” which has Michelle Pfeiffer in it and definitely bumps Aerosmith’s “Crazy” down a few notches.
5. However, some additional kudos should be given since the visual treat is accompanied by the barnstorming country rock of the Old 97s.
6. One friend of mine had this impression when he first heard this song (which is available on the Old 97s' new CD "Blame It On Gravity), "Ih, kok kayak lagu dangdut?"
7. After suppressing the rage that automatically comes when something i love is associated with the art form that boasts Julia Perez and Dewi Persik as its leading stars, i have to admit : damn, it is a dangdut song in almost every way.
8. Heck knows how Rhett Miller came across this, but the landmarks of all dangdut songs is apparent :the "dum-DUM" bass that comes very few notes or so and the general feeling of everyone having a good time.
9. Don’t be turned off by this, because the Old 97s provide some of the most raucous roots-rock music today.
10. Girls, don’t feel left out. Frontman Rhett Miller supplies the necessary eye candy for the females.
11. Oh, and the geek does some nifty kung-fu moves too.

"The Hardest Thing In The World" by The Stone Roses

1. "The Hardest Thing In The World" is a great pop song. However it's beauty is often drowned out by its context : it's the b-side to the mighty "Elephant Stone". Any pop song, however good it is, will be obscured by that seminal blend of dance and rock.
2. This really should not be, because, yes, i'm saying it again, "The Hardest Thing" is a great pop song. Adam Levine would kill to write something as immediately catchy as this. Though most of us would wish that Adam LEvine would just off himself.
3.Not to put a fine point in it, but, being a great pop song, "The Hardest Thing" deserves a lot more attention to everyone, and that includes fans of Adam fricking Levine.
4. The phrase "The Hardest thing in the world" is a favorite of me and my pal Jimmy in my high school years. The reason being that it can be applied to anything difficult. Stumped by that tricky Physics formula as taught by Pak Yurnalis (whose classes are 3-hour marathons because he has a job in another school), we used to say, "The Hardest Thing In The Woo-oo-oo-rld!" and follow it up with the melodic guitar lick : "naw-naw-naw-na-na-na-na-na-naw!". Frustated that our efforts of impressing the class beauty Lily got ignored because she's too infatuated with her juvenile delinquent paramour Franky, we also said : "The HArdest thing in the Wo-oo--oo-rld!", needless to day, some vocalizing of the guitar lick followed.
5. Understand that High school students are, as a rule, really foolish.
6. Not to mention, in retrospect, really embarassing.
7.I love the Stone Roses, and everyone should as well.

"I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better" by The Byrds

I got into the Byrds very late, about 2003 or so, when I read an excellent feature of them in UNCUT magazine. It was then that I realized that far from being just Beatles clones (though they started out that way), the Byrds managed to tread their own distinct path in rock’n’roll history. This was largely down to their music and mesh of personalities. Roger McGuinn (then still named Jim, for reasons I will explain later on) is a brilliant guitar player, and his chiming 12-string Rickenbacker would inspire countless guitarists, Johnny Marr and Peter Buck among others. He also looked the coolest with his tiny square sunglasses. David Crosby has one of the finest voices in history, and before the liver and drug problems, he looked cuddly and cute in his raincoat. Chris Hillman, in the beginning was the stereotypical bass player, the one who always looked down at his shoes while playing, avoiding all kinds of eye contact. (on TV appearances, the camera almost never focused on him) Behind that shy veneer, it turned out that he was an accomplished banjo player and he then grew into a very accomplished songwriter. Michael Clarke, with his moptop and pouty mouth, cannot play his drums very well, but hey, he’s the most handsome of the bunch.
And then there’s Gene Clark.
Everyone has their own favorite ‘what-if’ scenarios. Me, I often wondered what would happen if Gene Clark didn’t leave the Byrds. The circumstances of Gene’s departure is a legendary rock story: When The Byrds are preparing to leave for a tour, Gene Clark suddenly suffered a panic attack and demanded to be taken off the plane. Some said he had fear of flying, while others said that it was just the drugs and alcohol that has taken their toll on the guy. Anyway, legend has it that Roger McGuinn said to Gene : “Well, you cant be a Byrd if you cant fly”. Maybe McGuinn didn’t have any intention of firing Gene, but the effect is immediate: Gene Clark was no longer a member of the Byrds.
Without Gene, the Byrds would scale some dizzying heights, but just imagine if Gene was along for the ride: He was a great songwriter, a great vocalist (he had an exceptional baritone voice), and to top it all off, he looked awesome, a journalist once coined him “Prince Valiant With a Tambourine”. During his time with the Byrds, they are still finding their feet at becoming a band, and most of their albums rely on other peoples’ songs (Dylan’s especially), but the handful of originals are mostly Gene’s.
“I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better” is a timeless slice of tuneful power pop. It started with Crosby’s guitar which a couple of bars later was joined by McGuinn’s jangling 12-string. Then the vocal comes, delivering melodies to die for. This song managed to sound upbeat and sad at the same time. While the lyrics explore disappointment with a lover (“After what you do/I cant stay on/And I’ll probably feel a whole lot better/When you’re gone”), the music provide an irresistible backing : you cant help but shake your head and dance to it. The guitar break is also something very special indeed, with Crosby continuing the rhythm and McGuinn goes on all kinds of jangling guitar lines. I said that it’s ‘timeless’ is because if you don’t know beforehand who performed the song, you’d probably think it’s a new track from a ‘next big thing’. There’s at least one band from every decade that sounds like the Byrds : the ‘70’s had Big Star, the ‘80’s had Cheap Trick, the ‘90’s had Teenage Fanclub, The Posies, Super Deluxe, etc, the ‘00’s has Cosmic Rough Riders. But none of them can achieve the alchemy that the Byrds did on this song.
Weird fact: Jim changed his name to Roger because it was said that “Roger” would vibrate better with the earth. The suggestion is by someone McGuinn called “Bapak”. Yes, Bapak is an Indonesian, and McGuinn converted to the religion of Subud as taught by him. Unlikely, but true!

"End of the Century" by Blur

Blur’s album “Parklife” was released in 1994, when I was in high school. I remember I used to listen to it all the time in the car in the morning on my way to school. I remember that since the journey only took about 20 minutes, the listening experience only lasted till the end of the title track or the middle bit of “The Debt Collector”. To my ears at least, “Parklife” is a great pop album, filled with hooks and catchy tunes. But to some other people (in this case, my erstwhile driver, Pak Akub) it’s just too annoyingly weird.
I listened to it for weeks (I still do, though less frequently nowadays), and by the second week, even Pak Akup’s resistance to anything weirder than Elvi Sukaesih and Bang Oma proved futile. He was tapping his fingers and nodding his head along to it, especially the third track, “End of The Century”.
Now this is undeniably a superb song, Damon said in interviews that it was his favorite Blur songs for a long while. Even his nemesis Noel Gallagher grudgingly admitted that it’s ace. The melodies are delicious, and Graham’s guitar playing is fantastic as always. But if you listen to it on headphones or a very high volume, you realize the subtler touches : the “ooooh-aaaaah” backing vocals (still spine-tingling after all these years), the choir-like bridge, and the horns at the end.
It’s quintessential Britpop Blur, a high watermark of what was called by Graham as the Blur Stomp, which in subsequent efforts can be taken to effortless highs (“Charmless Man”) or absurd lows (“Mr. Robinson’s Quango”. Ugh, awful awful song).
Weird fact : “End of A Century” only charted at a lowly number 19 on the UK singles chart, probably not helped by a live video filmed at Alexandra Palace that features an inferior live version of the track.

"Stockton Gala Days" by 10,000 Maniacs

I was introduced to 10,000 Maniacs by my pal Alvin. The weird thing is, I’ve become more fanatical about the band than him.
Having your first 10KM record is an unforgettable experience. First, you’re intrigued by the cover art, some obscure artifact of Americana, a reminder of a bygone time so familiar yet so strange. Then you open the sleeve and as you read it, you realize that these aren’t just words for songs. It’s literature. Genuine works of art in the form of words, assembled in concise, perfectly constructed paragraphs. The words as written by Natalie Merchant can open your imagination and take you to another place. “Stockton Gala Days” is the most vivid example: the lyrics are very specific , pegging the setting somewhere in the American heartland, yet the longing uncannily describes and sums up a youthful experience that is universal, full of escapades and flings, a time when promises mean a lot more than deeds.
Aside from the lyrical perfection, musically it is also quite remarkable. Beginning with an eerie, shaky ramble then slips into a serene, jangly verse, while the choppy, hesitant drums in the chorus gives it a cool touch, before that rumble comes again for the middle eight when Merchant sings “You’ll never know…” (For the unplugged version, the Maniacs retooled it so that the song became a folk instrument extravaganza : banjos, fiddles, the whole lot. Arguably it’s superior to the recorded album version )
Corn fields, blue streams, foxglove stalks, blossoms, images like that of pilgrims in an uncorrupted America, where the lust is not political or financial, but kept to the innocent desires of youth.

"You're not the Only One I Know" by The Sundays

My infatuation with the now-forgotten British group known as the Sundays began, sadly, near the end. Their second CD, “Blind” was good, but not impressive (at least, I thought so back then). In 1997, which I think is the best year of music in my lifetime so far, the Sundays released their third album, “Static & Silence”. I fell in love with it and haven’t stopped listening since.
Nineteen ninety seven will also be permanently etched In my memory because it would probably be the last time I went abroad. The whole family went to the States on a package tour, and during an evening stop at the local Seven Eleven, me and my brother separated ourselves from the pack (after purchasing a Big Gulp, of course) to browse the nearest Wherehouse. It sold lots of secondhand records, and I found a beaten-up cassette of the Sundays’ first effort, the wonderfully titled “Reading Writing & Arithmetic”.
I must say, I wasn’t initially smitten by the thing. Most of the songs in side A are floaty, weedy indie jams. But when I turned the tape around (this being the days of the cassette), I encountered the thing of wonder that is “You’re not the Only One I Know”. Needless to say, i love it immediately. It’s a great pop song.
Musically, the arrangement seem to borrow wholesale from the Smiths’ “Well I Wonder”, though this has a more chipper pace and a rather juvenile attitude (more explanation about this follows). The bass-line on the intro is superb, and the economic guitar playing mid-song deserves thumbs-up for subtlety and grace. On hindsight, the Sundays resembled the Smiths with a female lead singer. ( Elsewhere, “Here’s Where The story Ends” has the same dynamic as “Cemetry Gates”). But just listen to that voice! I don’t think anyone has ever equaled Harriet Wheeler’s dulcet tones. Bjork is too quirky, Leigh Nash too baby-ish, Angie Hart too whimsical. Hell, I have begun to think that no other voice will equal that.
The lyrics, as I mentioned before, is, well, a bit immature. “Where’s the harm in talking out loud? What’s so wrong in reading my stars? I’m too proud to talk to you anyway” It’s a million miles away from the maturity displayed in “Static & Silence”. But these days I find myself longing for that kind of defiance. In society, in our workplace especially, its sometimes too easy to fall to other people’s expectation of normality. This song always brings a smile when some guy said I’m a bit weird. Hey, man, what’s so wrong in reading Batman comics in the age approaching 30? Where’s the harm in getting choked up from listening to classic Elvis? Dude, slag off, I’m far too proud to talk to you anyway!
OK, so, back to the day I purchased this precious piece of plastic… I listened to the whole tape over and over (alternating it sometimes with another second-hand purchase : Prefab Sprout’s “From Langley Park to Memphis”, but that’s another story), and the whole album grows on me. I listened to it on the bus, I listened to it while watching Star Trek, I listened to it while munching on industrial-size packs of Cheetos.
The Sundays became part of my life. They still are, and, I strongly suspect, will always be.

"Half A World Away" by R.E.M.

1. I loved REM. They were my favorite band throughout the nineties.
2. You can see the past tense above, and its no mistake. After Bill Berry left in 1997, to me REM seems diminished somehow.
3. Bill Berry is not just a drummer. He can play guitar, bass, ukulele, supply backing vocals and sundry stuff besides. And he has eyebrows to rival Liam Gallagher. Bill Berry played bass on this song while Mike Mills go on organ duties.
4. Berry’s also a great songwriter. REM’s best ballads like “Perfect Circle” and “Everybody Hurts” were developed from his initial ideas.
5. My favorite REM ballad has always been “Half a World Away” from their 1991 album “Out of Time”.. “Electrolite” comes a close second and I have a soft spot for “Wendell Gee”, but “Half a World Away” is still untouchable.
6. However, if someone asks me to tell them some good songs from REM, I usually mention “Man on the Moon” and “Everybody Hurts”… you know, the usual suspects. I never mentioned “Half a World Away”. I guess I feel that this song belongs to me and myself only.
7. Why, you may ask? I don’t know. I just love the tune. It’s sad yet hopeful. I love the lyrics (“This could be the saddest dusk ever seen, to turn to a miracle”). I love the instrumentation (mandolins and harpsichords ahoy!)
8. “Half a World Away” cannot be called a unique song. Sonically it resembles “You Are The Everything” and “Hairshirt” from the band’s previous effort “Green”.
9. To me that defines its appeal. There’s something nondescript yet totally unique about it.
10. “Out of Time”’s tracks is arranged in such a way that it seems cyclical. The narrative starts climbing on the first song (‘Radio Song’), peaks on the third track (‘Low’), before ending in a calm, content instrumental (‘Endgame’). Side 2, on the other hand, starts with the protagonist seemingly blissful (‘Shiny Happy People’) and one-by one conflicts come into his life (On ‘Me in Honey’, end of side 2, the guy got his girlfriend pregnant). With the conflict unresolved, you have to turn the tape, start again (‘The world is collapsing….”) and hear side 1 again to get some closure. To me at least, this goes on and on and on until I can recite all the lyrics off the top of my head.
11. But that was when I was a teen. Now I even find it hard to remember my ATM pin number.
12. The video, which is available on the “This Film is On” video comp, features a guy brooding and hitch-hiking.
13. I still hope that REM can rekindle the magic they had in the 80’s and 90’s. I’d love to be thrilled again.
14. I also hope Bill Berry can quit his farming business and go back to make REM the best band in the world once more.