The iTunes Chronicles: Day 27 – The Clash, Cliff Martinez

When it comes to The Clash, all roads lead to London Calling. It was this classic album that recruited me into Clash fandom, and although I’ve since added the self-titled The Clash and Combat Rock to my collection, neither has garnered the affection I hold for London Calling. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy The Clash or Combat Rock—I have listened to each a fair amount—but at some point during almost every session of listening to either of these, I always find myself wanting to switch to London Calling. And so it was this time around, as the two lesser albums served as appetizers for the main dish.

Other highlights of this session were compositions by Beethoven and Wagner (performed by the Cleveland Orchestra), the amazing Cliff Martinez score for the Traffic soundtrack, and the first of many Coldplay songs found in my library (the mostly forgettable Blue Room EP, and dull stand-alone tracks “How You See the World No.2” and “The One I Love”). As usual, I was overtaken by the pathos of the Martinez score, but London Calling stole the show.

Songs Conquered: 68, from “White Riot” by The Clash to Coldplay’s “The One I Love” (live)

Favorite Album: London Calling by The Clash

Favorite Song: “Helicopter” by Cliff Martinez

Music Listened To For First Time: --

Guilty Pleasure: “Yakety Yak” by the Coasters … “don’t talk back”

Song That Inspired Greatest Air Guitar Session: “London Calling” by The Clash

Song That Made Me Sleepy: --

Song I Most Wanted to Skip: “Charlie Brown” by the Coasters

Embarrassing Revelation: The most embarrassing thing about this post is the fact that it has been four months since the last one.

The iTunes Chronicles: An Odyssey through a Bloated Music Library, Day 26

Over a month since my last post? Time is really flying by. I started a graduate program in August, and since then I’ve been focusing my energy, rightly so, on my studies. However, I didn’t want this series to be completely abandoned, and that’s what it’s felt like. I enjoy writing about music too much to let it go, and I don’t want it to be yet another project that I leave unfinished, like this, or this, or this. Plus, there are a few people out there who were reading these posts, so I don't want to leave my audience hanging.

So, here’s an attempt to get back into this, albeit at a slower pace and with posts that are a bit more concise than those I had been writing before school began.

Today’s highlight was Come With Us, the extremely underrated album by The Chemical Brothers. It’s the rare album that is nearly perfect from start to finish, and even those who are not traditionally fans of electronic music will find themselves drawn in. It’s my go-to album for days at work when I need to forget I’m sitting in a cubicle before I can actually get into any sort of productive flow. It’s at once playful and introspective, danceable and chill, and crafted in such a way that it all balances out.

The other big album of the day was The Chieftains’ An Irish Evening, which is a recording of the band’s performance at the Grand Opera House in Belfast. This album makes me wish I were Irish—not just of Irish descent, but a native. The songs are so beautiful they instill in me a pride for a culture that’s not even my own. Pretty powerful stuff.

The day also featured: Charlotte Gainsbourg, performing “Heaven Can Wait” with Beck; a lesser Chemical Brothers album (Dig Your Own Hole); Chris and Thomas, whose catchy acoustic number “Take These Thoughts” was introduced to me years ago by NPR’s World Café; a few solo tracks by Chris Cornell; Chubby Checker on “The Twist”; Citizen Cope; Clarence Carter’s “Slip Away,” from the Almost Famous soundtrack; and a few others.

I closed out with the first few songs from The Clash’s self-titled album, but I’ll hold off on discussing The Clash till next time.

Songs Conquered: 65, from “Mockingbird” by Inez and Charlie Foxx to The Clash’s “Complete Control”

Favorite Album: Come With Us by The Chemical Brothers

Favorite Song: “Star Guitar” by The Chemical Brothers

Music Listened To For First Time: --

Guilty Pleasure: “Theme from the Godfather” as performed by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra (it’s definitely one of the greatest movie themes of all time, but sometimes I listen to it on repeat, and that seems a little weird)

Song That Inspired Greatest Air Guitar Session: “Seasons” by Chris Cornell

Song That Made Me Sleepy: Wagner’s “Lohengrin (Bridal Chorus),” performed by Chor der Bayreuther Festspiele (I’ve been to a lot of weddings in the past couple years, so this song has a lost a bit of its grace for me)

Song I Most Wanted to Skip: Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria,” performed by Chris Cornell and Eleven

Embarrassing Revelation: I have a Chumbawamba song in my library and it isn't this one. How does this happen? You own a lot of soundtracks. The song is “Mary Mary,” and it comes from the Stigmata soundtrack. If you were wondering, no, it’s not very good. Still, it’s better than Cornell’s rendition of “Ave Maria”—I’m not going to post a link to that song, because I don’t want to hurt your ears.

The iTunes Chronicles: An Odyssey through a Bloated Music Library, Day 25

This was another one of those days with a potpourri of artists. There were albums by The Cardigans (Super Extra Gravity), The Cars (Greatest Hits), Cat Power (The Greatest) and Cee Lo Green (The Lady Killer), and there were singles, soundtrack contributions, or other stand-alone tracks by The Cardigans, Italo-French singer-songwriter Carla Bruni (who happens to be the wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy), Italian pop star Carlotta, Carmen Twillie and Lebo M. (from The Lion King soundtrack), folkster Cat Stevens, indie rockers Catfish Haven, “The Voice of Café del Mar” Cathy Battistessa, Celedonio Romero and Celín Romero with others performing Vivaldi on classical guitar, Cape Verdean singer Cesária Évora and early rockers The Champs. While The Cardigans’ contribution to the A Life Less Ordinary soundtrack (“It’s War”) and their album Super Extra Gravity provided a nice start to the day, their presence was overwhelmed by the unapologetic arena pop guitar riffs of The Cars and the luscious voice of Cat Power.

To call myself a fan of The Cars would be inaccurate, since I only own their greatest hits collection and have never listened to any of their other albums, but I definitely have a deep-rooted affection for them that I’m reluctant to admit. I don’t know where it comes from—maybe it’s because I have Ohio in my blood (my father is from Portsmouth; Cars frontman Ric Ocasek grew up in Ohio)—but something about their in-your-face ’80s sound connects with me. I hear a song like “Drive” and—rather than being revolted by the glamorous synthesizers, which I’d find cheesy if played by most other bands from that era—I have the urge to put the song on repeat until I’m overdosing on audio. So, this is my big confession for the day: I kind of love The Cars (or at least their hit songs).

Cat Power’s The Greatest followed The Cars and swiftly changed the scenery from city lights reflecting off the windshield of a DeLorean to moonlight brilliantly glimmering off the murky puddles of a fetid Memphis alley. All the guilt from my Cars listening washed away in the tide of Cat Power’s stunning vocals. My introduction to Cat Power came via the owner of All That Jazz, an independent record store in Steamboat Springs, Colo., who provided CDs to the Steamboat Pilot & Today during my tenure reviewing music there. The owner seemed to me an old hippie (he looked like a thinner David Crosby), so I was surprised when I walked in one day to pick up my week’s worth of listening and he asked me if I had heard the new Cat Power. Having never heard of Cat Power before, I stood there shaking my head “no” while wondering if he was really about to give me a disc by some Spice Girls wannabe. If you’ve never heard Cat Power before, don’t be deceived by her stage name as I was. The Greatest remains one of the best albums I’ve come across in the past five years. If you’re curious why, check out my old review from the Pilot & Today.

The rest of the day featured some notable tracks—“The Wind” by the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens, “Oh Home” by Battistessa, Cee Lo’s cover of the Band of Horses hit “No One’s Gonna Love You” and Évora’s rendition of “Besame Mucho”—but nothing reached the height of Cat Power.

Songs Conquered: 69, from “It’s War” by The Cardigans to “Tequila” by The Champs

Favorite Album: The Greatest by Cat Power

Favorite Song: “Drive” by The Cars

Music Listened To For First Time: ---

Guilty Pleasure: “Drive” by The Cars

Song That Inspired Greatest Air Guitar Session: “Just What I Needed” by The Cars

Song That Made Me Sleepy: ---

Song I Most Wanted to Skip: “Hate” by Cat Power (it’s not that it’s a bad song; it’s just a huge downer)

Embarrassing Revelation: I’m glad no one was around when I reached The Lion King’s “Circle of Life,” performed by Carmen Twillie and Lebo M., because a 29-year-old man jamming to that song would probably seem a little weird.

The iTunes Chronicles: An Odyssey through a Bloated Music Library, Day 24

One last Built to Spill album and a track each by Burnt Friedman and Butthole Surfers were the final markers in the B’s. Friedman, a German electronica producer who somehow found his way into my collection, and Butthole Surfers provided a disappointing encore following Built to Spill’s You in Reverse, the band’s clumsy yet endearing follow-up to Ancient Melodies of the Future. After Friedman’s “Suzuki” and the Butthole Surfers’ “The Lord Is a Monkey” (the so-called “Rock Version” found on the Beavis and Butt-Head Do America soundtrack), I leapt onto the letter C. I began the C’s with 1,525 songs behind me, a total of more than 100 hours of music.

Calexico’s Carried to Dust was a nice surprise to kick off my third letter. I first heard the band at Lollapalooza ’06, but with the exception of “Cruel” from their album Garden Ruin, I had not listened to any of their recordings. Fortunately, a friend of mine hooked me up with Carried to Dust a couple months ago. The band’s Southwest sound is apparent from the album’s first few seconds on the song “Victor Jara’s Hands,” and I spent the duration of the album recalling the high points of my brief visit to Santa Fe, N.M.

After Carried to Dust, I covered Calexico’s “Cruel” and the Canadian Brass rendition of Vivaldi’s “null: Allegro” before transitioning to some Swedish pop rock with The Cardigans’ First Band on the Moon. I’ve had this album for years but somehow each time I listen to it the experience ends up dominated by two songs: “Lovefool” and the cover of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man.” I feel like “Lovefool” should have worn out its welcome years ago, when it was played on alternative radio stations endlessly as one of the singles from the soundtrack of the Baz Luhrmann film Romeo + Juliet, but I find it as delightful today as I did back then. “Iron Man” remains one of the most unique and interesting covers I’ve ever heard. It’s a complete reinvention of a classic metal song into a slowed down pop song, trading gritty guitar riffs for clean jazz tones and melancholic keyboards. More Cardigans music awaits on Day 25.

Songs Conquered: 40, from Built to Spill’s “Goin’ Against Your Mind” to “Choke” by The Cardigans

Favorite Album: You in Reverse by Built to Spill

Favorite Song: “Iron Man” by The Cardigans

Music Listened To For First Time: Carried to Dust by Calexico

Guilty Pleasure: “Lovefool” by The Cardigans

Song That Inspired Greatest Air Guitar Session: “Goin’ Against Your Mind” by Built to Spill

Song That Made Me Sleepy: ---

Song I Most Wanted to Skip: “The Lord Is a Monkey” (Rock Version) by Butthole Surfers (apologies to my friends who dig Butthole Surfers, but this one doesn’t do it for me)

Embarrassing Revelation: Maybe it should be embarrassing to own the Beavis and Butt-Head Do America soundtrack, but it's not.

The iTunes Chronicles: An Odyssey through a Bloated Music Library, Day 23

Contrary to what that idiot drummer from Metallica tried to make everyone believe many years ago, Napster actually benefited some bands. Built to Spill was one of them.

Back in 2001, I was a freshman at Illinois State University, and like so many college students at the time, I spent several hours each week voraciously downloading music on Napster. A friend of mine had included Built to Spill’s “Stab” on a mix CD she gave me, and I was so intrigued by the band’s guitar work that I sought out more of their music on Napster. Soon after, I purchased Keep It Like a Secret, then Ancient Melodies of the Future, then Perfect From Now On and There’s Nothing Wrong with Love. Since my introduction, I have purchased nearly all of their albums, defying that Metallica asshole’s theory that Napster dissuaded people from purchasing music.

I got to indulge in my Built to Spill fanaticism on this day of listening. I opened with the second half of Live, beginning with their somewhat tedious 20-minute cover of Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer” and ending the album a few songs later with another 20-minute performance, this one of their fiery “Broken Chairs.”

Although Live has a few killer tracks, particularly the epic performance of “Broken Chairs,” the album feels perfunctory (like a release required by the label to meet a contractual obligation), so I was happy to move onto the studio albums. Unfortunately, I first had to trudge through The Normal Years. The Normal Years is a compilation album that includes early singles, live songs and previously unreleased material. It was my first listen, so I was excited to jump in, but I quickly found that with the exception of “Car” and “Sick and Wrong,” the album is at best underwhelming and at worst irritating.

Perfect from Now On finally landed me onto the good stuff, with its meticulous production and grand song structures (the album’s songs average almost 7 minutes) offering a stark contrast to the leftovers found on The Normal Years. The album had been a favorite my senior year of college, and I listened to songs like the philosophical “Randy Described Eternity” and the serene “Kicked It in the Sun” while remembering those salad days.

Next, There’s Nothing Wrong with Love took me back to the band’s earlier days (in a good way, as opposed to the unpolished Normal Years) before I finished with a taste of the new in the band’s brilliant 2010 release, There Is No Enemy. The album is one of their most focused, skillfully balancing Doug Martsch’s inclination toward extended solos with his meditative lyrics. It’s this balance that makes songs like “Life’s a Dream” and “Tomorrow” classics in the Built to Spill catalog, the latter closing the album with these words of wisdom:

The more you have to life for, the more you love your life

The harder it will be for you to die, and we all want living and dying easy

Soon after, the song makes a very gradual fade in a wistful three-minute guitar solo that’s among the finest moments of Built to Spill’s recordings.

There's one Built to Spill album left in my library before I move onto the letter C, and their looming exit feels like an old friend departing after a long-awaited visit.

Songs Conquered: 47, from “Cortez the Killer” to “Tomorrow,” all performed by Built to Spill

Favorite Album: There Is No Enemy by Built to Spill

Favorite Song: “Tomorrow” by Built to Spill

Music Listened To For First Time: The Normal Years by Built to Spill

Guilty Pleasure: none to own up to today

Song That Inspired Greatest Air Guitar Session: “Stab” by Built to Spill

Song That Made Me Sleepy: ---

Song I Most Wanted to Skip: “Cortez the Killer” by Built to Spill

Embarrassing Revelation: I’m sure I’ve heard Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer,” but I’ve heard the Built to Spill cover so many times that I can’t remember what the original sounds like.