It’s a Wonderful Life of Albums: Third Eye Blind
If an album can sound like a time and a place, 1997 gave us Third Eye Blind’s self-titled debut. As for the time, if you distilled the elements of nineties alternative rock into a bottle, it would be Third Eye Blind coming in at around 151 proof. Great sounding guitars, edgy lyrics that were just clean enough for radio play, and a collection of heartbreaks that sound so good. As for the place, Third Eye Blind always seemed like a college album to me, sucking the marrow out of life and dealing with an uncertain future while living palpable moments almost every day.
Speaking of radio play, there was a lot of it, the debut reached #25 on the Billboard charts and has sold more than six million copies in the U.S. I heard the singles when they came out listening to 103.3 out of Ft. Wayne and later bought the CD in high school. When I hear “Semi-Charmed Life” now, the pop hit that it was, I am perplexed at the fact that it was on the radio. Sure they edited out, “crystal-meth” long before the TV series Breaking Bad made it popular, but nevertheless risqué to be sure.
Songwriting partners Stephan Jenkins and Kevin Cadigan have a way of putting gut wrenching lyrics to the happiest of guitar sounds. “Jumper” opens with no hesitation to the theme of suicide in an attempt to save a friend from ending it all. “We could cut ties with all the lies you’ve been living in, and if you do not want to see me again, I would understand.” The empathetic verses build to a crescendo finish that starts from a bass backed introduction of the lead guitar and builds to a joyful scream of, “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” Put the past away, but not the part of your mind where this song lives.
Other highlights from the record include “How’s it Going to Be” with its hauntingly beautiful lead guitar dotting the final thoughts of a failed relationship. “Losing a Whole Year” similarly opens the album with an energetic recounting of love gone wrong, “I remember you and me used to spend the whole goddamn day in bed.” Where did it go wrong? “London” rides the driving guitar backing to tell us of yet another failed relationship, this one of the long distance variety. Fan favorite, “Motorcycle Drive By” builds and builds a lyrical tapestry of yet another heartache.
I’ve got a couple years until I turn 40 and square, and in my experience people my age congregate around this album like a bug light. Many a late night, ‘pass the iPod’ playlist included the singles from this album and it was often promptly followed by praise for the album as a whole. The frequent positivity would come from someone you didn’t know listened to Third Eye Blind like that, and a conversation would start. That was way back when we had conversations that you couldn’t re-tweet.
It’s a Wonderful Life of Albums: The Blue Album
If I hear the finger picked arpeggio opening of, “My Name is Jonas” there is a near definite chance that I will listen to the rest of The Blue Album. Weezer’s 1994 self-titled debut that came to be commonly known as The Blue Album is on just about any, ‘best of the decade’ lists. It got the name due in part to the minimalist design of the cover art, featuring the band standing next to each other with a blue background, and also because Weezer released another self-titled album just 7 years later (The Green Album) a trend that would continue throughout the band’s career.
“My Name is Jonas” sets the tone for the next forty minutes and change of nineties rock. The acoustic arpeggio at the beginning quickly gives way to the driving distorted guitars that compose the backbone of the record. The guitars on most of the songs are tuned down a half step on all the strings to give a darker feel to the power chords that accompany the heavy metal caricature lead parts that work so well. This is perhaps nowhere more apparent than the lead guitar fill before the last chorus of “Buddy Holly.”
While I will admit that the single, “Hash Pipe” was my introduction to Weezer, all roads lead to blue. “Undone (The Sweater Song)” became the first single from the album and the first of my person-to-person file sharing downloads that I fell in love with from the band. Its opening notes are the background for conversations between attendees to a show that preempt the first two verses. “If you want to destroy my sweater, hold this thread as I walk away” became an anthem of a chorus, and if anybody could give me a ride to the party after the show, I’ll cancel plans.
The catchy single, “Buddy Holly” makes you stop in your tracks a little bit, especially if you watch the music video that accompanied it. It features the band playing at Arnold’s Drive-In from the sitcom, “Happy Days.” Clips of the show are intercut and the real cast member Al Molinaro making a cameo. The whole time it conjures the question, “Is this guy in Buddy Holly glasses really doing a song called, “Buddy Holly?” Leader of the band Rivers Coumo has maintained the look throughout the band’s career, and he has pulled off the eccentric look for three decades.
River’s introverted and unconfident writing style wasn’t quite as exposed on the debut as it was on the follow up, Pinkerton, but it is definitely present. Stating his jealousy, “I want a girl who laughs for no one else,” isolation, “In the garage, I feel safe, no one cares about my ways,” parental disappointment, “This bottle of Steven’s awakens ancient feelings.” At no point does any of it feel dishonest, and that’s what landed it on the Rolling Stone top 500 albums of all time list at #294. In addition to being a critical and commercial success, it has made Rivers the king of geek-rock since 1994.
I was lucky enough to see them last year on the 30th anniversary tour at Nationwide Arena and they did not disappoint. There were wonderful brush strokes from their whole career that night, but ending with The Blue Album in its entirety was masterpiece theater. The cool part is that I know there are generations of Weezer fans that came after me, so somewhere today there is a teenager re-enacting the line, “This band’s my favorite man, don’t you love them?”
It’s a Wonderful Life of Albums: Bleed American
Welcome to liveforthepage’s new series on some of the classic albums I’ve loved during my decades of putting the iPod click wheel to the first song on an album and listening until conclusion. I generally think this is the way any band’s work should be considered: the album as a whole. There is no doubt something great about a band that just gets it perfect once, it’s hard not to love a ‘one hit wonder.’ I think more discerning listeners would agree that for a band to be truly great, they have to have THAT record.
When you press play on Jimmy Eat World’s 2001 breakthrough album of my youth, Bleed American it doesn’t even give you a chance to think before it hits you with a driving guitar riff and a great opening line, “I’m not alone, ’cause the TV’s on, yeah.” It settles into an energetic alt-rock standard of distorted guitars and passionate vocals which Jim Adkins had been known for on the indie circuit, becoming the band’s lead singer on the previous album “Clarity.”
It’s very difficult for me not to do a song by song breakdown of this album, but I want this to be accessible, so let’s say I don’t skip on this album. “A Praise Chorus” comes next and, “I wanna fall in love tonight” is a lyric I can almost always get behind. Later in the song it blends a bridge of “crimson and clover, over and over” an homage to the Tommy James and the Shondells hit from 1968. The reason you probably recognize the album cover, or Jimmy Eat World in general is from the third track, “The Middle.”
“It just takes some time, little girl you’re in the middle of the ride, everything, everything’ll be just fine.” Can’t hate the sentiment. As one of the most recognizable rock songs of the 2000s, it is their claim to fame. I have heard it so many times, including 7 times live–it’s just a good pop song. If it is the case that all musical elements must come together in such a way that facilitates airplay and record executives’ jets to make the most money, at least it sounded like this. That guitar solo never gets old, and that catchy chorus helped it sell over 1.5 million copies in the Napster landscape.
“Sweetness” is so energetic live and always the sweatiest one if memory serves me. “Hear You Me” is the perfect ‘palette cleanser’ song in the middle that starts out acoustic and builds to beauty. “The Authority Song” hit me immediately and I never looked back. How has that guitar riff not been featured in every coming of age teen movie of all time? “I don’t seem obvious do I?” There are just too many good songs on this album. I hope this serves as nostalgia of the noughties for the people I grew up with. I bet you made out to this album.
Isn’t that John Candy?
Maybe I take a little too much joy in it because is was at the expense of the Cincinnati Bengals, maybe it was because I grew up playing Tecmo Bowl on NES with Montana to Rice becoming my religion. However, there is no maybe in the huddle on the final drive of Super Bowl XXIII, where Joe Montana casually says to his men, “Isn’t that John Candy?” They laugh, and then complete a game winning drive with a touchdown, one of four for Montana and the Niners in the eighties.
It is truly a game of inches when you think about the end of the XXXIV Super Bowl and the great game that it was. The greatest show on turf St. Louis Rams were on the sideline for the defining play, as Kevin Dyson came up one yard short of the end zone. You wanted to see this win for Kurt Warner, but I don’t think anyone wished that kind of Bill Buckner-esque bad ending on Dyson.
My dad will hate me for this, but one of my favorite plays in Super Bowl history is the Elway dive. Super Bowl XXXII on a 3rd and 6 Elway gets 8 as he throws his body, and his whole career really, at the 3 defenders. When he left the ground he was a hero, when he came down with the first down he became a Super Bowl winner. Terrell Davis deserves a shout out for this Super Bowl as well, he was a workhorse.
For you idiots thinking something is fixed, let me take you back to the face of the league Peyton Manning getting out coached and outplayed by New Orleans, who successfully recovered the second half opening onside kick of the century. I am a Manning apologist, but Drew Brees winning this one for New Orleans was the way it was supposed to be.
So when you are on your Super Bowl journey tonight, get the best food, this is the cheat day of all cheat days. Enjoy your friends if you go to a party and resist the narrative that the game is fixed in any way. Regardless of the number of times they put Taylor Swift on TV, it has no impact on the ten 300lb offensive and defensive lineman that decide the game in the trenches, it has no impact on Mahomes being the best quarterback in the game. I’m gonna try to enjoy Kendrick Lamar at halftime, I know he’s a legend, and you should all treat yourselves too, Chiefs cover (-1.5).
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