Death Cab For Cutie - The Photo Album : The Perfect Picture

Death Cab For Cutie - The Photo Album (2001)

A while back I wrote an entry about bands, I wish I liked more than I do. The entry was to show how much I did appreciate their talent and respective places in music history. Unfortunately, is caused the drummer of one of the bands to curse me out on Twitter. I didn’t know whether to be upset or complimented that they took my opinion so personally. It felt kind of like when John Travolta's Rolling Stone writer character in “Perfect”, ran into Carly Simon who pissed about a story he wrote in the magazine about her, tosses her drink in his face.

 

Anyway, there are a few bands out there that I also only really like one album. I’m not saying there aren't other songs the group has done off other albums I enjoy. Just when it comes to complete albums, only one really holds my ears' attention.

 

Some band’s albums which may fit this category:

 The Flaming Lips 1990 In A Priest Driven Ambulance the Suicide Machine’s 2000 Self-Titled, where they dropped most the horns”,

Another one that particularly sticks out because I listen to it so much would be Death Cab For Cutie’s 2001 The Photo Album.

In their first album Something About Airplanes the band still has a very Built To Spill influence on their sounds. Ben Gibbard’s voice even resembles Doug Martsch’s voice. The songs even have a few Built To Spill-ish signature time changes. “Fake Frowns” is a very good song but if I heard it without knowing was performing the song, I would have assumed it was Built To Spill. The band’s guitarist Chris Walla’s production also does not help the album. The music and lyrics sound jumbled together with the drums sounding particularly harsh. Again, I understand this is the band’s first album, so this is understandable.

 

The second album 2000’s We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Against the band has really worked out its sound. The album does have a couple good songs in “405” and “Company Calls”, but the production, again by Chris Walla, still has the music and vocals a little too muddy for my tastes. Looking back, it’s a little bit of a shame since once the Doug Martsch similarities were gone singer Ben Gibbard would soon have one of the best and most discernable voices in rock music, first really noticed in “Employment Pages” at track 2. At least the drums are less harsh.

 

At this point I almost gave up on the band. But I am glad I didn’t. In the fall of 2001, I moved the New York City, soon finding a record store just a few blocks from my job. The store, where I bought and traded so many CDs for the next 19 years, was called Academy Records. The first CD I bought from them was Death Cab For Cutie’s The Photo Album.

 Almost right away you can hear a big improvement on the band’s sound. Again Chris Walla is at the controls, but he must have been practicing. On the album opener “Steadier Footing” you can hear singer Ben Gibbard’s voice perfectly along with the guitar. This quiet and slow song serves as a great introduction to the album. It’s almost as if the protagonist is settling in before going to sleep and dreaming the rest of the album. Some of the lyrics like “It's gotten late and now I want to be alone; all of our friends were here; they all have gone home” help create this imagery. Or perhaps the person is first waking up to take on the day like some lyrics in later songs on the album may prove.

“A Movie Script Ending” and “We Laugh Indoors” at Track Two and Three are more great examples of the much better production. You can hear the drum, bass, guitars, and of course, Gibbard’s now all his own sounding vocals perfectly. As a matter of fact, over the course of the whole album, the vocals and instruments are perfectly balanced. I recommend listening with a good pair of headphones to receive the full effect.

Track 5 “Why Would You Want To Live Here”  about Los Angeles is one of the biggest highlights of the album. The song explains all the things like “freeways creeping”, smog which may cause trouble breathing, “thickening shrouds of egos”, or star maps which are “never current”. The perfect speed-up, and distorted bridge where a now stressed-out Gibbard sings “The vessel keeps pumping us through this entropic place,

In the belly of the beast that is Californ-I-A, I drank from a faucet

and kept my receipts for when they weigh me on the way out, here nothing is free. but the greyhounds keep coming, dumping locusts on the street. Til the gutters overflow and Los Angeles Thinks” also made me realize I made the right choice in moving to New York rather than “The City of Angels or Demons”. Especially since it probably would have been the Greyhound that got me out there. This is definitely my favorite song on the album, maybe in my Top-50 songs of All-Time and it always amazes me it wasn’t a single.

"Blacking Out The Friction", the single "I Was A Kaleidoscope", and "Styrofoam Plates" follow before we come to another song that may fall into that Top-50 at well. 

"Coney Island" at Track 9 is sheer perfection. Only two minutes long its music and lyrics totally relay the history of the past greatness of the attractions and the joy which they would bring in the upcoming summer. All while sitting and admiring the calmness of the offseason. The song has a similar feel to "Ghostown" by The Specials, but unlike that song, this one is positive since the attractions would be opening up again in a few months. This song, as well as Joseph Heller's "Now and Then: From Coney Island to Here" which I had just read, made me eager to go to Coney Island in the upcoming summer. At this point, I had only seen it from the Belt Parkway while driving back and forth from school. 

Over the course of the next 17 or so years, Death Cab For Cutie would release another seven albums. All, of course, are very good. There are many songs on them like "New Years" of 2003's Transatanticsm, "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" of 2005's Plans, or "I Will Possess Your Heart" and "No Sunlight" off 2008's Narrows which I love and will listen too over repeatedly and put on a mix for years to come. When it comes to a whole album from start to finish, The Photo Album will stand alone. 

To end on a positive note in an effort not to have a member of the band curse me out on social media, Ben Gibbard's 2003 Postal Service "project" or anything he does solo will always be in my heavy rotation. I highly recommend checking out his cover of the whole Teenage Fanclub Bandwagonesque album, including a song focused on in this blog just a few entries ago. 

Here is an Unofficial "Coney Island" video with classic Coney Island scenes:

"The Last Lemonheads Album" - Lovey 30 Years On

The Lemonheads are my second favorite band, right behind The Descendents/ALL at number one. Like I said in my blog entry for their third album Lick here, this includes the whole package. Everything under the band's name from their Laughing All The Way To The Cleaners debut 7", to the two recent covers albums. 

But there are a couple of different "eras" of the band.

When Evan Dando, Ben Deily, and Jesse Peretz formed the band they chose their name because like the candy they were self-proclaimed "sweet on the inside and sour on the outside". Melodic hooks surrounded by punk noise. 

Soon they were on Boston's TAANG! Records and recording the album Hate Your Friends, Evan, and Ben switching off vocals. For their second album Creator, the band picked up Corey Loog Brennan from their labelmates Bullet Lavolta, and the classic Lemonheads lineup was in place. 

This is where the band really shined, winning me over when I first heard their sweet and sour cover of Suzanne Vega’s “Luka” off their third album Lick on MTV's 120 Minutes.

In the summer of 1990, I would be able to pick up my first brand-new Lemonheads album. This time on a major label Atlantic Records.

Somewhere in between Lick and the upcoming album Deily left the band. Evan Dando would now be the sole singer of the band. He really took the opportunity and ran with it.  

When I picked up the album I was happy to see the duo of Paul Q Kolderie and Sean Slade at the production controls. They had just done an incredible job on Uncle Tupelo’s debut which was just a few weeks earlier. Plus, there was the Lemonheads' fellow Massachusetts band Dinosaur Jr's Bug album Kolderie and Slade recorded just a few years earlier.  

Pressing play on the CD player you could hear their influence almost right away on the first three tracks in “Ballarat”, with its wall of noise guitars with Blake Babie's Juliana Hatfield screaming along. and driving guitar fuzz of “Year of the Cat” and “Half the Time” at tracks 2 and 3.  

  

“Ride with Me” slows it down. It is good to hear a Lemonhead's slower songs like “Don’t Tell Yourself” off Hate Your Friends or “Out” off of Creator with a little more hefty production.

After some straight-ahead hard rock in “Litl’ Seed”, comes the perfect example of Kolderie/Slade production in the revved-up and fuzz-filled metaphor of the replacement of a kitchen appliance in “Stove”. For a rougher version of this song check out the soundtrack to the 1990 movie A Matter of Degrees which also features songs by fIREHOSE, Miracle Legion, Grant Hart’s post-Husker Du band Nova Mob, Alice Chilton, Yo La Tengo, the before mentioned Uncle Tupelo and more.  

A couple loud and fast numbers in “Come Downstairs” and “Left for Dead”(a redo of “Clang Bang Clang” off Creator), before the album's only acoustic number “Brass Buttons” (almost) closes out the album. The song is a cover of a Gram Parsons song off his 1974 Grievous Angel album which I would soon be searching out. 

The 5:30 minute heavy metal influenced “(The) Door” closes out the album.   

So why do I refer to Lovey as the “Last Lemonheads album”?  

In a way it was.  

After Lovey bassist, Jesse Peretz would exit the band leaving Evan Dando as the only original member. Peretz would go on to be pretty successful in photography and film, even directing the video for The Lemonheads' cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson”  

Corey Loog Brennan also exited the band

The Lemonheads would not really be a band. Now they were an Evan Dando vehicle.  

It's A Shame About Ray line-up, Dave Ryan, Julianna Hatfield, Evan Dando

Don’t get me wrong, Evan put out some of his best stuff post-Lovey and I love all of it. But with the breakthrough, It’s a Shame About Ray, and the power/pop-influenced Come On Feel The Lemonheads the band had a revolving door of members. The before mentioned Juliana Hatfield plays bass on only It’s a Shame About Ray. 1996's Car Button Cloth has numerous different musicians on it. The Descendents Bill Stevenson and Karl Alvarez took up the drums and bass for the 2006 self-titled release but by the time I saw The Lemonheads on tour for that album, they were both long gone. 

I did get to see the Lovey line-up of The Lemonheads in 1990 at the old 9:30 Club while on tour for this album and they were awesome. 

From 1994 to 2009, I saw The Lemonheads dozens of times. They were great almost every time but each show was Evan and a whole new band. 

 Plus, the Robb Brother production on those two post-Lovey albums took the sour part, the noise, out of the equation, leaving us with just the sweet.

Again I love the whole picture of the band and listen to each album almost equally. But when I listen to those first four albums I am reminded of that sweet and sour sound that blew me away when I first heard the band that late Sunday night on 120 Minutes. 

Here is the official video of "Half the Time" off of Lovey, which honestly I am not sure I ever saw before. 

Uncle Tupelo's No Depression - 30 Years Of An Album Worth Listenin'

Over the past few months, I rated my Top 100 favorite album. Narcissistic but fun.

In hindsight, I did miss a couple vital albums. One that actually just turned 30 years old a couple weeks ago was the Uncle Tupelo debut No Depression.

1990 when the album was released it was during a really important time in my music listening history. At 17 years old I had my first car and was no longer regulated to just the local record store which at the time did not have too deep a selection. Now I could venture on my own down to Smash and Orpheus Records in Georgetown for a nice selection of punk and new wave respectively. A trip to the used record store in College Park where I could trade in my unwanted CD for a great selection of all sorts of Alternative, Punk Rock Hardcore, Metal, and everything else on LP, CD, or even cassettes. These stores along with the Record Theater right outside Baltimore City on Liberty Road where I bought Nirvana's Bleach and Jawbreaker's Unfun are long gone, except for Smash which still survives at another location. 

Another store that was formally just out of reach was Vinyl Ink in Silver Spring, MD. I’m pretty sure this was where I found a copy of the recently released No Depression.

The album was released on Giant Records, only now renamed Rockville Records. A name perfect for a record company that put out this album.

The band had been described as “Hank Williams meets Husker Du”. Even though at the time, the only Husker Du albums I had heard were  Zen Arcade and maybe one of the two major-label albums, they were already becoming one of my new favorite bands.

Unfortunately that time because of being played on commercial radio in the area I was more familiar with Hank Williams Jr than Senior. This made me a little cautious.

Once the play button was hit on the CD player, I was sure the purchase was correct.

The album has an awesome lead-off track in "Graveyard Shift". It also serves as a great introduction to guitarist Jay Farrar's vocals, as song #2 does for bassist  Jeff Tweedy on "This Year". 

In song three the bands do an acoustic number in the title track. I wouldn't find out until years later when I had a whole store containing all types of CDs to listen to that the song was a cover of the classic made famous by the very early folk/county band The Carter Family, which Johnny Cash's wife June was a member at one point. 

There are also a couple songs dealing with small-town life, like "Factory Belt" at Track #5. I always interpreted when  Jay Farrer sings "Stop messing around. Don't want to go to the grave without a sound

Give this whole place a rest. Not to ride on the factory belt" The character in the story is relating how he sees the "Mad men in suits walking about" and thinks they are no better than him. So why waste his life here just working in the factory?

Another would be "Train" at Track 8. Jeff Tweedy sings I'm twenty-one, and I'm scared as hell.I quit school, I'm healthy as a horse. Because of all that I'll be the first one to die in a war". This probably many small-town young men across the country were scared of happening at one time. 

Side note: This was probably the first time I heard the name Roger McGuinn, lead singer for The Byrds, A few songs had been heard in passing but soon I was seeking the whole Byrds discography. 

This song as well as "Flatness" right before it and of course the lead-off track are perfect examples of why Sean Slade and Paul Q Kolderie were perfect choices to record the album. Uncle Tupelo picked the duo because they liked the job they had done on Dinosuar Jr's Bug album just a few years earlier. The duo was great at letting bands get loud, adding just the right amount of fuzz and distortion without it getting out of control, drowning out the vocals. or Mike Heidorn's drums. Sean and Paul had also just recorded the soon-to-be-released Lemonheads album Lovey and would go on to do Morphine's Cure for Pain, fIREHOSE's Flyin' The Flannel, Radiohead's debut Pablo Honey, and many more. 

Many subjects and characters in the songs on No Depression are timeless. The ones in "Screen Door"  could be from the year the album was released, possibly from 20+ years before, present-day, or 20+ years from now. The same goes for the song right before it "Life Worth Livin'", my favorite song on the album. 

The last song "John Hardy" closes the album out. This is another song made famous by the Carter Family, a fact I would again learn years later, The only difference now is I was familiar with the lyrics from singing it at a summer camp years before, Imagine the backlash a camp would get today if they had campers singing a song that goes "John Hardy was a desperate little man. He carried two guns every day. He shot down a man on that West Virginia line"?

On the next couple of albums, two electric and one acoustic, Uncle Tupelo would add more members, taking a little away from their sound. They were very good albums but I listen to them about a tenth of the time that very same copy of No Depression I have owned for the past 30 years makes it into my stereo, As it will for another 30 years to come. 

The album pretty much created a new genre, bands like Giant Sand and the Long Ryders have been combining the sound of underground rock with a country vibe for many years, but Uncle Tupelo really put the term "Alt-Country" on the map. The premier magazine of the genre would even take the album's title for its name. 

A couple years because of tension between Jay and Jeff, the band would split up. Jeff would form Wilco, while Jay took drummer Mike and formed Sun Volt. Surprisingly, two bands, I could never get into. 

Are There Any Songs You Consider a "Perfect Song"?

I have a confession to make.

While at college I was involved in the school radio station at Long Island University, CW Post Campus. Our call letters were WCWP. The station had two locations on the dial. 570 on AM, 88.1 FM. For some reason, the FM station was extraordinarily strong. Where most campus radio stations had a very minimal range, ours reached New York City to the West and all the way out East almost to the border of Suffolk County. Nearby New York Tech’s radio station you could barely get a few feet off campus

.

Because of this many of the station programmers and DJs attempted to compete with larger radio stations in the area like the WDRE and WBAB, playing songs in rotation and airing talk shows they felt would be aired on those stations. This basically went against the whole theory of college radio. This would probably be the only time in our future broadcasting careers where we had carte blanch on what to play and talk about while on the air. 

I, on the other hand, took full advantage of my playlist-less, zero-rotation two-hour shows to play whatever I liked and thought listeners would like to hear. There would be plenty of time for conformity later.

But on to the confession.

The radio station had a whole wall of records, mostly of heavy metal and hard rock which the WCWP had been known for through the ’80s. There were a few punk rock albums mixed in as well. Each album had WCWP written all over them, some with notes about which songs could and could not be played on the air. Opposite the AM and FM studios, there was another room holding an almost equal number of compact discs, all with their own WCWPs written all over them. The writing was to let everyone know the albums were the property of the station, not to be taken home with them.

But they forgot to label one of them.

One afternoon I was doing my show “The Fuzzy Blast”, named after a Dinosaur Jr bootleg (I still have to this day), when I saw it sitting on the shelf Teenage Fanclub’s not yet released second album Bandwagonesque.

Teenage Fanclube Circa 1991

The year before I picked up the hyped new Scottish indie band Teenage Fanclub’s debut Catholic Education on Matador Records and was instantly a fan. The band was soon snapped up by the still-new DGC records. Bandwagensque was probably one of the most anticipated albums of the year. Even more anticipated than Nirvana’s Nevermind, which DGC had released just a few months before.

 And there it was in all its unmarked up glory with no one else in the whole radio station building with me. To this day it is probably the only thing I have ever stolen in my life. Plus, stolen is a pretty hefty word to use since it probably would have never been played on any of the WCWP DJ’s shows trying to compete with the big stations.

In a way, you could say I was liberating it from years of collecting dust on the shelves in the room opposite the AM and FM studios with all the other CDs that were not getting played. It was going to be played by me an awful lot over the next 29 years. The very same copy sits in my collection right now and will get plenty more spins in the future.

Whew. Feels good getting that off my chest after all these years. Now on to the music.

Now I could go into a long explanation about everything I like and don’t like about the album, and it is a great album that would go on to be picked by Spin magazine as the best album of the year. Yes, even beating out Nirvana’s Nevermind. But that is not the reason I want to write about Bandwagonesque.  I do even not consider it my favorite Teenage Fanclub album. That prize goes to the nosier and much rougher-sounding debut A Catholic Education. The reason why this album came to mind is that it possesses what I consider one of the most perfect pop songs out there in the album's first single “Star Sign”.  

To get their full experience of the song you must pass on the single and go straight to the much better album version.  This is because the single, and video to follow, go straight into the songs. The album version has a little over a minute of droning guitars getting louder and louder, like a rollercoaster climbing higher and higher before that first drop. This builds up the anticipation of what you know is going to go over the other side and deliver that thrilling ride. And it does go over but just like those rollercoasters that pause at the very top just for an ever so small moment, so does "Star Sign" at the 1:13 mark where the droning guitars trail off, and the song really kicks in. 

And just like those rollercoasters, once it sets off the next two minutes are quite a ride. 

The first aspect that makes a song perfect is the lyrics. 

Bassist Gerard Love sings simple but awesome lyrics like “Hey, there’s a Horseshoe on my door, big deal” The vocals flow perfectly through each verse. The “big deal” stabbed a little of the slacker attitude which early 90’s rock would go on to be none for.  

"Star Sign" also has a perfect balance, Each good luck charm mentioned is balanced out with bad luck like “And say there's a black cat on the floor. Big deal”. Basically, that’s life. Good and bad luck. It really is no big deal. 

The lyrics are looking a little to the future when in the third verse the song’s narrator states  “Hey there's a side of me unknown, big deal. And say, should this unknown force be shown big deal.”  

The second aspect that makes a perfect song is the music.

"Star Sign" is filled with Teenage Fanclub’s melodic power/pop-influenced guitar hooks, with just a slight jangle present. Now with producer Don Fleming’s new clear production, instead of the rough self-produced sound of the debut A Catholic Education. 

The lyrics and music combined together to form a perfect song. A song I consider so perfect there have been times when I have played it up to three times in a row.  

The day in 1991 when I brought that contraband copy of Bandwagonesque back to my dorm I think it was more like five. 

This may be too short of an explanation but a perfect song should be able to speak for itself. Give it a listen"