The Zimmermann Note

Japancakes are another one of those silly Athens, Georgia bands that probably do not get the credit that they deserve. Sure they did an instrumental version of My Bloody Valentine’s ‘Loveless’ which was the price of admission but unlike some of the other bands that have graced this list, this is the first band which is completely instrumental.

For me the emotional connection for this record is two-fold. One, this album is my soundtrack to Athens, a sleepy little college town that the Japancakes seemed to have been able to capture through the tempo of the record. Living in Chicago, the south has this very deliberate nature to it which does not exist here. Often the speed is such that we are already worried about three breaths in the future rather than where you were and what you are doing. The album has always just felt like warmth and well, falling asleep drunk in a fountain in Athens, if that is even possible.

Secondly, the album has also become part of my southern listening. While the summer of 2013 has not been a killer like last year, Chicago can still get hit with high heat and humidity. And for this reason, it’s become a fairly regular standby on my pod and probably my go to summer album.

“Now Wait For Last Year” pulls you in with it’s Steel Guitar and the Japancakes wind you up and down the streets of Athens showing off different images and feelings. ‘Elephants’ offers the warmth of strings alongside the steel guitars as this extended epic gives you the opportunity to stare out the car window and dream of trees being covered in Kudzu (Or dream of eating Szechuan . The daydream is able to be snapped from the poppy “Westworld”, a reminder that the band is still aware of current pop songs.

As I have been counting down the albums and staring at the unlikely #26 in the eyes, I was thinking that maybe I was being a little too generous with this albums place but I realized that as I am listening to it now, maybe I short-changed it. Sometimes, it’s these types of albums that just seem to fit the holes of our soul.

When Rhino released ‘No Thanks: 70’s Punk Rebellion’ there was a statement in the liner notes about the lack of any Sex Pistols in the compilation. Rhino had apologized for this fact and indicated that they were denied permission to include the songs but at the same time indicated that anyone who had bought the boxed set should either have this or buy it anyhow for it’s contributions to the punk movement.

Talking about punk without the sex pistols is like talking about peanut butter without jelly. They go hand in hand. This album should be a true starting point in that discussion. There will always be arguments about who started the movement, but in the UK there was a sense of pent up energy of a post World War 2 economy gone bad. Safety Pins were not a fashion statement, they were used to hold ones clothes together. The Sex Pistols were more than an image created by Malcolm McLaren. Sure, he was responsible for picking out John Lydon based on his looks, but at some point, it could have been nothing if Lydon did not have any talent.

Back to the R.E.M. comparisons, I had always felt that Michael Stipe had borrowed some of Lydon’s stage mannerisms and watching old footage of the band is fairly obvious that he is comfortable on stage.

But the music, well let’s just say that it shocked. The band released “God Save the Queen” during Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee and that started a minor flareup. Let’s just say that their music had been banned, they lost record contracts due to their shocking behavior and in the meantime started a movement.

There were issues within the band itself. Glen Matlock was sacked in favor of Sid Vicious who was more in the image of what the Sex Pistols were portraying but did not have any musical talents. Watching the video of Holidays in the Sun above it is fairly apparent that the stage presence of Vicious is notable but his playing abilities is pretty awful.

The Sex Pistols only lasted one album and by 78 the band played their last gig in San Francisco where Lydon had just about enough. It was no fun.

Their lasting legacy was writing music that mattered; that was more than just an image but a statement about current society at the time. It created a rebellious nature that is necessary because music is a critique of our current times. Writing about dragonflies and honeydew will only get you so far with a 17 year old that is not content in their current situation. Behind Lydon’s public persona there was an intelligent human with a heart, especially for his friend Vicious who lost his life to his heroin addiction. At the end it was no fun, but for a time it was all the rage.

Wilco – Being There

The opening sequence of Misunderstood should have informed anyone that had been paying attention to Wilco that its sound had morphed from the No Depression/Alt. Country darlings of their Uncle Tupelo roots to a band that was mixing The Replacements, Stones, Beatles and Dylan. By this time, Jeff Tweedy was teaming up with Jay Bennett and with Tweedy’s lyrics and Bennett’s pop sensibilities created a masterful album that if made today would probably be given a much better reception considering that Pitchfork (Ryan Schreiber for that matter) gave it a 6.8. In the same way that the Stones were growing during albums such as ‘Aftermath’, the Jeff Tweedy show blew the Alt. Country label out of the water. While there are some country moments, the honky tonky “Monday”, and “Forget the Flowers” there are also the serene beautiful moments such as “Far, Far Away” where Tweedy reminds all Chicagoans that the CTA can still be romantic. The brilliant moments are in many ways self-indulgence but isn’t most of rock about that?

Tweedy’s subjects over they years have typically been about relationships and or personal matters rather than subjects that are external such as politics, social issues and even religion (although he did touch on the subject matter briefly with both Uncle Tupelo as well as on the Mermaid Avenue project where he wrote songs based on selected lyrics from Woody Guthrie.) This was one of those personal albums that the dug a little deeper for a pop album and that was definitely why it always appealed to me so. I have always respected Tweedy as a folk singer, as a writer of material but taking those lyrics and turning them into an appropriate pop song is a different story. I can say that over the past decade there has been a level of disappointment but this album is not one those moments but rather is one of those pining moments that I realize this band was much better when there was a guy by the name of Jay in it.

Some of my greatest Wilco moments was watching two individuals talk during a solo rendition of “Sunken Treasure” only to have the woman in front of them politely ask those two individuals to keep it down, er “Shut the Fuck Up” which I believe would have received a ringing endorsement for Jefferson Starship Tweedy.

Outside of relationships, Tweedy’s other subject seemed to be that of the rockstar but also one of doubt. In “The Lonely One”, it’s Tweedy looking in on the rockstar that suggested both a level of envy as well as a relief that he was not in that role. (Realize that as of writing this material that Wilco were not one to be releasing Gold records).

On “Someone Else’s Song”, be plays the role of the rockstar speaking to his critics for whom have labeled his music as nothing different than what’s already been written and produced by others. (And btw, the way that they would perform this song earlier in their career always gave me goosebumps like in the video above, vs. the acoustic version on the album).

The epic moment is “Sunken Treasure”, where he utters, “Music is my savior, and I was maimed by rock and roll”. It’s that true “High Fidelity” moment where he indicates that music is his drug. “Wrapped inside my ribs in a sea black with ink”.

Tweedy hits these moments that are both depressing and inspiring He tells a story throughout the double length album that is both engaging but also very recognizable for his audience. He had the balls to release a double length album which is unheard of in today’s world and there is no moment that feels like filler.

I remember going home for college for winter break. I remember checking out MTV for the first time in a long time (We did not have cable in our dorm rooms, nor any computer system where we could watch videos on such as Youtube). But the thing that I remember most from that moment was going back during the winter quarter and everyone knowing who these folks were.

It’s been over 20 years since Nevermind graced MTV with it’s cynical cheerleaders in a fully fledged pep rally watching 3 men from Seattle jam and introduce the world to a completely new culture: grunge and flannel.

Overnight, men in spandex had been given their pink slips. “Your rock and roll is silly now”, they exclaimed, taking a healthy swig of coffee while they were at it. This is real. ‘Nevermind’ are 12 verified classics that sit back and spit in our faces with the same power and passion that the Sex Pistols and the Clash did a generation before this.

Sadly, this ends up being the middle album in their career as Kurt Cobain committed suicide. Whether it is the angst of a war in Iraq, a generation grown up under the policies of Republicans in the White House, Nirvana struck a chord once they were a Buzz Clip on MTV for ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’. Nirvana brought fans because of their sound but they stayed because of their message. There is a rebellious attitude that is taking place.

The ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, video captured it all. It introduced the world to a music scene that was not going to lie on it’s back or “Just Rock”. It dealt with serious subjects like rape on “Polly”, a song that shows the wide spectrum of Nirvana’s talent that went beyond grunge. At the core of their music, they were always very melodic and while Cobain has surely become an inspiration for his music and lyrics among his legions of fans, there is no doubt that many of his lyrics were very difficult to transcribe, which is not necessarily a bad thing (See R.E.M.’s Murmur).

20 years later, this is still an album that sounds fresh, and there is still something to pull out of it. And just ask my wife. I still have plenty of flannel in my closet to reminisce with as well.

Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation

I think that if there were ever a process to consider the poster children for indie rock, Sonic Youth would have to be in that discussion. The band had been together for almost 30 years, continually making music by their rules.

“Teen Age Riot” is one of those songs that contains the spirit of punk with the sounds of avant-garde rock. Having performed this song a good 100 times on the air guitar with my wife, I think that we have the first two minutes of the song memorized as we would interchange on our interpretation of Thurston Moore/Lee Ranaldo on guitars. While the song itself has been described anointing J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. President, for me it signifies a Pre-“Smells Like Teen Spirit”.

This is the album for the beginner to start with in the Sonic Youth canon. When the Library of Congress is preserving an album, it should give an indication of it’s worth. Sonic Youth not just borrow from their predecessors like the Velvet Underground and the Stooges; there is still that movement after Punk broke to expand that energy into an artistic endeavor. At times, it’s Kim Gordon channeling Patti Smith in the delivery of the lyrics, and other times feels like a progressive rock albums as Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo battle head to head and noodle their way through the album. There are also 4 songs that last more than 7 minutes in length which is somewhat unheard of on prior Sonic Youth albums but this room allows for their sound to open up.

It was the idea that going in that they would try to capture some of the bands live sound on the record, but they were able to balance the sound such that it sounds precise but not over rehearsed. It sounds like punk, powerful and psychadelic at the same time.

Oh yes, the air guitar. Teenage Riot was the song that my wife and I “performed” at our wedding. I think that the guests must have thought that we were insane for doing so but it always became our thing and still is and also the clinching reason why this album is a classic in my eyes.

Sidebar:

Whenever considering the battle of rock bands between UK vs. America in the 80’s the early favorite, based on MTV videos was obviously the UK but there is something that happens in America. While the UK was busy “Flock of Seagulling” their hair and acting fairly egotistical in the process, it was the US that was exploring the depths of rock and roll and will own the legacy of that era. (As a side note: Seeing photos of Robert Smith at Lollapalooza makes me realize that the Cure are just a caricature of their former selves). I think that while I was writing this that this album felt like another feather in the cap of the American rock scene.

Radiohead – Kid A

“Kid A, Kid A, Kid A”

When the common fan thinks about Radiohead and the internet, they might think of “In Rainbows” the album that Radiohead allowed fans to choose their own price for, a milestone in the ages of music and the internet. However, ‘Kid A’ might have been a bigger internet sensation, one that Radiohead had to sit on the sidelines and watch.

You just released one of the greatest records ever and what do you do as a follow-up? Release one of the greatest records ever. The jump from The Bends to Ok Computer to Kid A is by all accounts one of the bigger jumps of three consecutive records on memory. They are going from your common Britpop Band creating a futuristic album that works at both destroying everything within Ok Computer but ends up changing music once again.

Historically, the album plays a much larger significance by being one of the albums that ended up getting leaked on the internet. Instead of the leaks being a detrimental effect, they created an early buzz for the album that after listening to it, you could understand the difficulty that they were under. Radiohead was in a unique position of having one of the most anticipated albums of it’s generation and do so with flying colors.

Some might suggest that the album was commercial suicide and it might have been if it not for the album leaking and allowing for fans to listen and digest it. After Ok Computer received so much critical support, this album suggested there was an audience for experimental rock. While there was an obvious post-apocalyptic event which happened in their music, the themes on the album entailed much of the same thoughts. I have always felt that ‘Everything In It’s Right Place’ and the track ‘Kid A’ in particular sounded like a bunch of ones and zeroes, essentially introducing us to the 21st century. Is Kid A dealing with the first cloned human? Then there were songs such as “How to Disappear Completely”, based on a conversation that Thom Yorke had with Michael Stipe dealing with the stresses of being in a band.

Even with it’s influences among electronic music and jazz, Kid A still stands by itself, really unable to be repeated or attempted. There are a host of forces at work, including the beautiful musicianship as well as Yorke’s sorrowful vocal exhibition. So much credit has to be given to a band that took a true leap of faith to create one of the best albums ever made.

R.E.M. – Automatic For the People

At a time when everyone else was wearing flannel, R.E.M. was naked and nightswimming. It was an album that upon release, received more promotion from the lack of it, or at least the official kind and more from the various rumors that were swirling about concerning the health of the band, specifically Michael Stipe for which some individuals claimed looked “Thin”. In 1992, AIDS was still a killer and considering that much of the album deals with either death, or a certain recollection of one’s life, the content plus physique brought up this entire storyline. But instead of squashing rumors, it seemed the Stipe thing to do was just remain silent and let the music and rumors speak for themselves.

I had been living in college for about a year, enjoying many of the record stores that the north side of Chicago had offered (Tower Records, Second Hand Tunes, Dr. Wax, Reckless to name a few). It about this time that I had started on my R.E.M. obsession, and this would include countless treks out to these record stores looking for anything and everything R.E.M.

I taped the first single ‘Drive’ off the radio, Q101 I believe, because of course it was the new rock alternative, and yet, ‘Drive’ would not necessarily stand for what was popular at the time. I went to Tower Records the day the album came out. As Tower was known for in the day, they would come out with some original types of promotion for the top albums that hit their stores and this was no exception. There was a full table set up with “Automatic For the People” albums stacked on top of it including a floor display.

This is a reflective album, looking back and remembering family, friends and icons (Andy Kaufman and Montgomery Clift being the two obvious). It is their most serious and depressing album to date, stripping any parts of the Shiny Happy persons on Out of Time and replacing that with a hefty amount of morbidity.

It’s an album that they strip down even further. There are a couple songs that lend themselves to plugging in instruments but as a whole this album follows a path that began during Green by making music that was meant to be played on your front porch, and not in front of 20,000 fans. However, even with the morbid state of lyrics there is a warmth to this record. The opening chords, in “Drive” give it a very open feel to it, and the small additions string sections to the album, aided by John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin.

My favorite track however, without question is “Sweetness Follows” which adds more than a couple of acoustic guitars. I think that I was always impressed with the guitar work on this track because for one, the style is something that they bring to the table much more in the following albums.

For many diehard fans, their favorite track is “Nightswimming” a piano ballad with Stipe reflecting on years past. “Every streetlight reveals a picture and a verse”. He is able to capture this visual moment perfectly while even if someone might say that they have not been skinny dipping that an object will remind them of a more innocent period.

Most critics would argue that this is their best album and if I was introducing someone into the band I might suggest this as a starter, depending on who they are. From a singles standpoint it has 3 recognizable songs and a host of album tracks that make this a solid release.

Leonard Cohen – I’m Your Man

Talk Hard.

The moment that I heard “Everybody Knows” sung by Cohen in his deep baritone voice, I knew I was hooked. It was spooky, scary, perfect but best of all it felt truthful. The song like it was being sung by a seedy underworld character explaining the realities to today’s youth. The song was introduced to me in the movie ‘Pump Up the Volume’ and the soundtrack offers a glimpse into the music of Generation X, (Pixies, Jesus & Mary Chain, Soundgarden) but this song is inexplicably covered by Concrete Blonde on the soundtrack which is slightly odd because I think that Cohen is cooler than all the artists that I have rattled off.

During my own personal introduction to Cohen’s music, out popped a tribute album to his work featuring none other than those Athen’s fearsome foursome covering “First We Take Manhattan” and as always it was something familiar helping me pursue uncharted territories.

The music itself is severely dated. I have to admit that some of the “Muzak” on this sounds like it was straight off of an 80’s soundtrack especially with the saxophone intro on “Aint No Cure For Love”. Listening to Cohen for the music is like being a fan of the Chicago Cubs for the championships. Cohen is a poet that has turned his craft into organic matter and that is the difference between any artist that puts together some words on a lyric sheet and Cohen. Cohen delivers.

At the same time, Cohen’s lyrics, singing and enunciation make up for any lapses with music. ‘I’m
Your Man’ is still a sexy love song that goes way beyond the simplicity of the lyrics but the way that he presents them. Every syllable is purposeful, not just sung but believed.

Neutral Milk Hotel’s first full length album did not have the impact when it was released that it obviously holds now. Clocking in at around 48 minutes, as the debut album of Jeff Mangum, it’s legacy has grown over the years. Unlike their second album, On Avery Island is mostly recorded by Jeff Mangum and Robert Schneider of the Apples In Stereo, with Schneider also acting as producer.

NMH sounds like every band that I want to be into, a combination of complicated and yet serene lyrics and lo-fi fuzz. Neutral Milk Hotel had wallowed in a level of oblivion for awhile until their records began to get noticed and truly embraced. Take a song such as “Song Against Sex”. If you did not pay attention to the lyrics the first thing you want to do is tap your foot, maybe get up and jump up and down a bit and yet, if you decide to take a gander at the grotesque nature of some of the lyrics, the first thought to me is confusion. Outside of getting too deep into meanings of songs, he paints a very vivid portrait of a sexual encounter that I would expect has never been somehow repeated in the same vision by any other musician or artist. And that says quite a bit when you consider all the songs that have been written over the years about sex. It only gets better. “Someone Is Waiting” still gives me goose bumps and “Naomi” (See Naomi Yang) is the type of woman that I would imagine that several men have known.

On a stroll back from a concert one night I was talking to a young kid who was about 18 about the Elephant 6 show that we just attended. He seemed perturbed by the fact that Jeff Mangum as of this point had not released and or played many live shows (This was mid 2011). I stated that we should just be happy that he gave us two of the most important rock records that have been made in the last 20 years.

Neutral Milk Hotel’s “Naomi” from Naomi Yang on Vimeo.

As simple as it might seem, there has not been anyone that has been able to reproduce Mangum’s stream of consciousness lyrics that hold so much depth within them and I think it goes without question that their other full length album will make this list but the only question is when.

U2 – Achtung Baby

Following their critically acclaimed ‘Joshua Tree’ and subsequent movie and soundtrack “Rattle and Hum”, the expectations for U2 were high and they met them. Achtung Baby was greater than just an album but an idea, a prequel to the 21st century, to mass consumption and superstardom. What U2 did during Achtung Baby is try to be the biggest band on the planet and actually succeed with some level of credibility. Their left-leaning, progressive positions such as trying to call up George H.W. Bush while on the Zoo TV tour, their support of various causes and putting out one of the most massive tours of it’s day changed big budget tours forever. But any tour would be nothing if the songs were not worth their weight.

My favorite of the album “Until the End of the World” (same title of a Wim Wender’s movie), encapsulates the sound of the album although I have never agreed with it’s Jesus/Judas relationship but rather the movie for which it was taken from. The movie, (easily one of my top 5 movies) discussed the future in such a manner that in some cases invaded the human psyche. The electronic sounds, the increased use of computers, the fall of communism, the world was changing and U2 released this momentous album that ushered in Generation X to a different world.

U2 put everything on the line, even their very Americanism that they captured during the mid-80s that their shift in sound is worth mentioning. Borrowing from dance music, electronica, the band recorded part of their album in East Berlin soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall in trying circumstances. There were differences among the members as to the direction of the album. There were questions whether the band would make it out alive but they battled through those trying times.

There is still something romantic about a band like U2 at the time releasing this album. Thinking back at the moment, it was the closest thing to the Beatles and it is also the album that defines their legacy. The bold move of releasing the unconventional “The Fly” as their lead single. The fact that it still stands with me all these years, even considering the host of other great material released this year (1991).

It’s their epic moment, their “Rubber Soul”, their shift from a fairly popular band to an artistic one and for me their best album that they ever released.