Review: The Moon, Without Earth And The Moon

Just as it seems every schlemiel with a guitar who heard the Ramones or Sex Pistols ran out and started a punk band, it's probably a safe bet that a fair number of people who bought Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or Magical Mystery Tour started a psychedelic-tinged pop band. And for some goofy reason, I've been on a run of late picking up a lot of their albums. Most of which, needless to say, are mediocre and terribly dated. And, to be honest, pretty much every great obscure track you really need can be found on the Nuggets and Nuggets II box sets. Still, occasionally I'll stumble across a surprisingly decent obscurity.

This is one of those lucky finds. L.A.'s The Moon, needless to say, didn't exactly take the Summer of Love by storm; their biggest claim to fame was likely the inclusion of guitarist David Marks, who apparently had played in the Beach Boys at some point (nope, I hadn't heard of him earlier. Fortunately, collectors' label Rev-Ola collected their 2 lp's, 1968's Without Earth and 1969's The Moon, onto a single cd a couple years back. And it's actually pretty great. Or if not great, at least something worth repeated listens. The debut is a pretty blatant Beatles rip-off, apparently trying to sound as much like Magical Mystery Tour as possible without venturing into copyright infringement. Of course, nothing is as memorable as anything John & Paul came up with, but there are a few songs (oddly overlooked by Nuggets and comparable collections) that deserve to be played alongside any other 60's pop classics -- most notably the catchy "Walking Around" and the psychedlia-drenched "Never Mind." Much of the rest falls into a sunshine pop sound, perhaps too twee to be memorable, but it ain't bad. The follow-up was more of a departure, with the band apparently adding some Dylan (or, more likely, Donovan) to their collections. A much more folk-oriented sound, though still plenty of light psychedelic pop thrown into the mix. Some gets kinda silly, but the sound is a bit improved, and at least it's less derivative. All in all, a worthwhile purchase for fans of the era.

Review: Yo La Tengo, Prisoners Of Love

(Or, for purists, the complete title: Prisoners Of Love: A Smattering Of Scintillating Senescent Songs 1984-2003 PLUS A Smattering Of Outtakes And Rarities 1986-2002.)

As I've frequently told anyone who will listen (and many who won't), Yo La Tengo was the coolest band of the '90's. (They're still putting out great albums, just not quite as great.) A series of back-to-back fantastic albums, with songs ranging from screaming guitar workouts to quiet, barely audible beauty (often in the same song). The best live show around. Creative choices of cover versions (including the annual WFMU pledge drive, when they would play pretty much any cover request in exchange for a donation to the station). Incredible videos. And just all-around good people.

So it's too bad they went and pissed me off by releasing one of those packages I view as the ultimate slap-in-the-face to longtime fans -- the greatest hits + rarities combo. I've railed against these before: the sort of dedicated fan who most wants the b-sides and rarities already has all the "hits," so why make us shell out for both? (And, I suppose, conversely: the casual listener interested in checking out a band via a greatest hits package probably doesn't want to be saddled with an extra disc of [typically lesser] b-sides.) Price-wise, it's not a bad deal for a 3-disc set, but I still can't see whipping out the ol' Visa card when I own 80% of the songs already.

Of course, setting aside my personal feelings and just evaluating this on the merits -- jesus, this thing is incredible. Lots of great songs that run through the myriad styles they've championed over the years; I might have chosen a significantly different line-up, but a pretty good number of their best tracks are here. (The only really aggravating omission is "A Shy Dog," a personal fave from way back; but otherwise, most of the key YLT tunes can be found here.) So if you don't know the band well, and want me off your back already, just buy the damn thing and discover why Ira, Georgia & James kick the asses of pretty much every indie rock band of the past couple decades. And if you DO know the band well -- ok, then you can stew along with me and decide whether to splurge for the 4 or 5 songs not already in your collection.

Review: Modest Mouse, Good News For People Who Love Bad News

I tried to jump on the Modest Mouse bandwagon early on, but just couldn't get into these guys. Yes, on paper they sound like they should appeal to the indie rocker longing for the days of Pavement, but something about them -- and maybe it's as simple as the fairly unappealing vocals -- just put me off.

Then they had to go and release what was far and away the best single of 2004, "Float On." Let's be serious, can there be a better almost-radio-friendly indie pop/rock song then this? Insanely catchy riff that sticks in your brain like yesterday's oatmeal -- check. Sing-along chorus -- check. Lyrics reeking of a slacker anthem in the making -- check. Hell, there's even a wicked-cool MTV video, just like in the old days when MTV actually showed videos instead of brain damaged teenagers frolicking on the beach. So I had to buy the disc. And is the rest as good as "Float On"?

Well, no. Of course not. There are maybe a half dozen songs that are pretty decent, though -- one placed snugly on either side of "Float On" (most notably the lead-in "The World At Large," which is essentially a slowed-down intro to "Float On") and a few others later on. Then there's a whole bunch of whacked-out wiggy stuff that comes across like a deranged stepchild of Captain Beefheart by way of the Pixies. Which is ok if you're into that sort of thing, and sometimes I am, but it also gets a tad annoying at times. But hit the skip button and something better is around the corner. So overall I can't heartily recommend this if you already have "Float On" somewhere else. But it's not bad.

Check out some samples at Amazon.com.

Review: Elf Power, Walking With The Beggar Boys

Surprisingly enough, one of my favorite albums of 2004. I'd always viewed Elf Power as strictly second-tier among the ranks of neo-pop-psychedelia bands under the Elephant 6 collective umbrella. They lacked the sheer pop chops of Apples in Stereo, the psychedelic craftsmanship of Olivia Tremor Control, and the lyrical intensity of Neutral Milk Hotel. But with most of those bands long gone, Elf Power rises to the occasion with a straightforward glam-infused rock album. Gone are the twisted, fantasy-infused story-songs of recent releases, and the lo-fi sonic meanderings. This stuff is straight-out catchy with no apologies. The title track is one of those riff-driven pop songs you can play 5 times straight and just keep going, and a few other songs come close. Ok, it doesn't compare to the above-mentioned bands, but it's still a fun little disc full o' enjoyable little nuggets.

Check out some Amazon.com samples.

Review: The Clash, London Calling (Legacy Edition)

Ok, I'm something of a sucker for all these "Deluxe Editions" and "Legacy Editions" and whatnot. Tweak the sound a bit (it's getting sad to realize how crappy a lot of early cd's sounded -- I think those of us who grew up on vinyl were so blown away by the lack of skips and pops that we ignored a lot of the hiss and flatness of early cd's), throw in some bonus tracks, and I'm wasting my money on the umpteenth iteration of an album I've already bought on vinyl and cassette and cd. So you toss out a new (third, if you're counting) edition of my favorite album of all time, and of course I'll be whipping out my Visa card. Fortunately, this is a great little collection, at least for diehard fans. The remaster sounds incredible (though even the initial release of London Calling, which was subsequently remastered, sounded pretty decent to my ears). Disc 2 features an hour of demos and rough cuts. And I mean really rough -- and this from someone who has a closet full of bootlegs. Much of it verges on unlistenable. Still, it's interesting to hear the album as a work in progress, and hear the band developing the songs as they go along, but mostly it makes you appreciate just what an incredible production & mixing job was done on the final album. Finally, there's a DVD with a few videos and some footage of the band in the studio making the original album. Great stuff, but again, not something that non-diehards are going to spend much time with.

Check out some samples at Amazon.com.

Review: Wilco, A Ghost Is Born

I've been following the band since 1995's A.M., and have to date felt each album to show substantial development from its predecessor. Unfortunately, this one sort of breaks the mold. Jeff Tweedy is still innovating and stretching himself, refusing to rest on his laurels, but the bottom line is that Ghost is just kinda dull. Now, don't quote me on that. When 1999's Summer Teeth first came out, I thought it was listless, lightweight pop; six months later, it was my favorite Wilco album, and one of my favorite albums of the nineties. Its much-hyped follow-up, 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, drew non-stop raves (in part due to the saga of the band being dropped by the label because of the disc's lack of commercial potential, documented on the fine I Am Trying To Break Your Heart film), but I initially found it underwhelming. Again, repeated listens had the album really growing on me, and today I'm among the converted (though I still find it a bit overrated).

So who knows, maybe next year I'll be a bigger fan of Ghost. For now, though, I just don't love the damn thing. Too few hooks, too many songs that get drawn out without going anywhere. (I felt the same way about mucy of Yankee Hotel, but at least the sonic experiments kept it interesting.) Sure, there are some decent songs, if you take the time to delve in and relax -- the catchy "Handshake Drugs," the droning "Spiders (Kidsmoke)." But for the most part, Tweedy seems to have abandoned the pop gift he demonstrated on Summer Teeth (and Yankee Hotel tunes like "I'm The Man Who Loves You" and "Heavy Metal Drummer"). "The Late Greats" comes close, even if it's a bit slight. "I'm a Wheel" pulls out the stops as an upbeat rocker more reminiscent of Wilco's earlier days, but the song ends up sounding like a trying-too-hard Replacements cover. Wilco remains one of the few truly great bands still kicking around, and it's by no means a bad album, but when I'm reaching for a Wilco album to listen to, this one's pretty far down the list. At least right now.

Here are some samples at Amazon.com.

Review: Camper Van Beethoven, New Roman Times

Reunions generally suck; bands who break up should stay broken up. Pretty good guidelines. But then we wouldn't have New Roman Times, one of my favorite albums of 2004, and probably a more consistently entertaining album than anything CvB put out back in their original mid-80's incarnation. On its face, it should be a total wash-out -- it's not just a reunion album, but a concept album. Ugh. Some sort of impossible-to-decipher futuristic tale of the fascist apocalypse. Geez, I feel like I'm back at summer camp listening to my stoner bunkmate extolling the virtues of Rush's 2112.

But set aside the concept, and there are an unreasonably large number of great songs here. Now, keep in mind that CvB albums usually have 5-6 good songs and a lot of filler (unless you're a fan of their bizarre Baltic-folk-polka-stomps, which I'm not). This one's got maybe 10 good songs. Still far short of the 20 tracks that appear on the album, but 10 good songs are still more than you find on most albums. And some are really great. "51-7" (no, I have no idea what that means) is their strongest anthem since... well, maybe even their first (and greatest) song, "Take The Skinheads Bowling." And "That Gum You Like Is Back In Style" is the prettiest slice of mellow Americana since... well, maybe their last good song, "Sweethearts" (from their pre-breakup swan song). The rest (excluding the weird instrumental nonsense that I mostly skip) is a pleasant, and at times captivating, blend of alt.country and indie pop, earnest songwriting and goofy humor. By all means check it out.

And check out some samples on Amazon.com.

Review: Brian Wilson, Smile

Here it is... a mere 38 years in the making. And let's be honest, how could the ultimate realization of a disc widely heralded as one of the great lost classics of the rock era (if not the great lost classic) be anything other than... well, really crappy? Honestly, this album deserves to suck, and suck badly. Which makes it such a shock to conclude that... hey, it's pretty great. Maybe not as great as the Beach Boys' version (as cobbled together on various bootlegs from the various tracks that have come out, both officially and unofficially, since the original concept was scrapped in '67), but, all things considered, this is one disc which, if not exactly living up to the legend, is at least far from embarrassing.

No need to rehash the sordid history of Smile, which is well-documented elsewhere. But for many of us, it's the great album that never was. I've got a few bootleg versions of it, as well as my own version cobbled together from the various Beach Boys tracks supposedly intended for the album which wound up on the lesser Smiley Smile, 20/20, Surf's Up, and the Good Vibrations Box Set. And while it wasn't perfect, I always thought it was great -- better than the (perhaps overrated?) Pet Sounds, maybe better than Sgt. Pepper. When I heard last year that Brian Wilson had finally been talked into teaming up with indie pop maestros The Wondermints (who'd backed him on his recent solo tours) to rerecord the album, I had mixed feelings. Yes, a fully-realized disc, with today's fidelity standards, would be great -- but why not use the original Beach Boys tracks? Oh well. So, bottom line -- it sounds great. The songs are as wonderful (and, alas, as badly dated) as indicated by the bootleg versions. But the magic of those original God-like Beach Boy harmonies is, of course, long gone. Wilson can still sing (mostly), and the Wondermints do a fine job of emulating the original backing vocals, but it's missing a certain spark. If you can get past that, however (and sometimes I can, sometimes I can't), it's an excellent record. I'll probably listen to it less frequently than my homemade Beach Boys version, but if I want a pristine-sounding, polished version, it's just fine.

Check out some Smile samples at Amazon.com.

An Introduction To The Pop Kulcher Blog

The Pop Kulcher Blog is intended to serve as a spin-off from my music website, Pop Kulcher (also known as fagel.com). That site, should you choose to check it out, is focused primarily on what I humbly proclaim to be the 50 Greatest Rock & Roll Albums Of All Time (a number which has grown over the past decade to about 75), with reviews, samples, links, and so on. The site also includes various other self-indulgent lists, including my infrequently updated New Releases page. As updating that more than every few months (at best) was a major hassle, I thought I'd try to accomplish the same goal through a blog, which, at least in theory, I might be able to edit on a (marginally) more frequent basis. I guess we'll see.