SGR's Gold Mine: Music I'm Listening To

[SGR]

Aware as I am, and I never stop whining about it, that few people comment even if they read, and that it's otherwise impossible for an author to know if their journal is being read, just wanted you to know I've been reading this and I like your idea of concentrating on one track rather than a full album. As I've said before, you're a hell of a writer.

Um, you do have a canary in this mine, don't you? What's that I smell, and why am I suddenly feeling fain....

Thanks Trolls! If this journal sub-forum was the 'Dungeons & Dragons' of SCD, you'd indisputably be 'The Journalmaster', so I appreciate the kind words and readership! 

The focus on one track is something I thought could help in terms of keeping things relatively brief (to avoid the tl;dr), but also to allow me the freedom to switch what I'm writing about relatively quickly. If you've read much of this, you can probably see I do tend to be unable to resist providing a little bit of broader context with the album as a whole (this is usually inevitable, as the format of the 'album' is typically how I consume music), but I think a little bit of that context isn't a bad thing if the reader/listener actually enjoys the track, as it gives them a clear direction of where to go if they'd like to hear more. 

[SGR]

Alice In Chains - Frogs (1995)

It's no secret that Alice In Chains' lead singer Layne Staley had a serious drug problem. Poor guy was addicted to heroin, painkillers, and cocaine. He deteriorated rapidly, eventually causing the band to cancel an entire tour they had planned with Metallica - and eventually, the live shows they did were far and few between and making it all happen and go off without a hitch was like threading a needle.

In 1995, Alice In Chains would release their third album, which was self-titled, and it would become the last studio album they'd release with Layne Staley. As the third album, released three years after their previous album, with rumors of Layne Staley's death swirling at the time (his condition wasn't good, so the rumors were not completely unfounded), the album cover was one that you could derive multiple different symbolic meanings from:



As a kid, my Dad actually owned the CD - in the original nasty transparent yellow jewel case. It definitely had an allure for me as a child, and as a depressed and angsty teenager, it became something of a common companion. A look through the liner notes provided no respite from rather macabre nature of the cover art (flipping through liner notes to see the lyrics, credits, and pictures is something I always did as a young'n - always helped me better immerse myself in the album):







This track here though, "Frogs" (apparently titled after some loud frogs they heard in a nearby lake when they were doing some practice sessions in a barn - they recorded the sounds of these frogs which you can hear most clearly at the end of the studio recording), is somewhat of a culmination of all the dark demons and sadness that was a hallmark of this band. The lyrics are generally vague enough that you can't tell explicitly, with full confidence, what it's really about. There are lyrics with seeming reference to drug use, but also references to isolation, a friendship soured and lost (betrayal), and the inevitable ephemerality of childhood innocence:

What does friend mean to you?
A word so wrongfully abused
Are you like me, confused?
All included but you
Alone

The sounds of silence often soothe
Shapes and colors shift with mood
Pupils widen, change their hue
Rapid brown avoid clear blue

Flowers watched through wide eyes bloom
A child sings an unclaimed tune
Innocence spins cold cocoon
Grow to see the pain too soon

The track slowly lumbers along, punctuated and kept grounded by Sean Kinney's understated percussion - there's a lot of empty space in the mix, to really help you feel that isolation - and when we finally get to the "chorus", Layne repeats, rather pleadingly:

Why's it have to be this way...?

It's powerful and saddening stuff. By the end of the track, the typical structure of the song in a vocal sense is lost - and Layne begins to have what sounds like a internal dialogue with himself:

At 7:00 AM
On a Tuesday in August
Next week, I'll be 28
I'm still young, it'll be me
Off the wall, I scraped you

This is pretty loaded, but just to give you an idea of the meaning here - Layne would be turning 28 soon after the release of the album - this is somewhat meaningful as a reference to the 27 club, and how so many musicians die young, often due to drug abuse. "Off the wall, I scraped you" is somewhat inscrutable, unless you've heard Alice In Chains song "Dirt" (which this is a reference to), which more properly adds the horror of depression, drug addiction, and suicidal ideation:

I want to taste dirty, a stinging pistol
In my mouth, on my tongue
I want you to scrape me from the walls
And go crazy like you've made me

In the broader context of becoming 28, and making it clear he was the one doing the scraping, it seems like it's a reference to fellow musician Kurt Cobain, who died at 27 a year earlier. But, as Layne unfortunately prophetically adds:

I'm still young, it'll be me

And it would be him eventually. Not through a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but through an overdose of heroin and cocaine (2002). His state around the time was rather horrific, but I won't include much about that here.

Anyways, the studio track of course is great. But what's even more powerful is their live performance of the song for MTV Unplugged. This track, and really the entire performance, feels like attending a wake for someone who's still alive. You don't know when the funeral will be afterwards, but you won't have to wait long.

Even without looking at the lyrics too closely, it's a very spooky track. It feels like you're in a bog during the dead of night, in the middle of the summer heat, and as you try to wipe the sweat off your brow, biting and buzzing insects are making their way behind your ear - your shoes are getting soaked, the mud makes it incredibly difficult to walk, and then you start to smell those gross, often unindentifiable, but definitely putrid smells one would associate with a summer swamp - and the little light you have available from the moon just got snuffed out through cloud coverage. All alone. At this point, you don't even necessarily want to get out. You just accept this as your fate.

This song is, in my opinon, probably the darkest and bleakest track Alice In Chains ever did. The studio version is worth listening to as well of course.

Remember kids, you don't do smack, smack does you.

[SGR]

Nobonoko - Music for Animal Cafés (2023)



Man, Alice In Chains is a little depressing - a real buzzkill - so this little gem I recently found is quite the refreshing palate cleanser.

As far as I know, nobonoko is a one-man show, and he's from Brazil. He's the kind of small indie artist who posts his full works on Youtube, and the only way you can purchase them is digitally via his bandcamp (linked here).

In the original post, I reserved the right to post albums as well as just individual songs - so in this case, that's what I'll do - because I can't seem to find any Youtube uploads of any individual tracks from the album - but also because if you like any track you hear on this thing, I'm 99% confident you'll like the rest of the album too. Nothing diverges too much from the basic mood and formula here.

Look at that damn album cover! It's so colorful, expressive, unique and downright adorable. And really, that's how I'd describe most of the album too. The music is this sort of lounge-ish electronic chiptune kinda thing (no vocals or lyrics) - what it really sounds like, for a more relatable reference, is a soundtrack to a Nintendo Wii game from years ago. Sort of like what you might find in Animal Crossing, but much faster, bouncier, and more varied. Some of these tracks I could imagine featuring as the music for Mario Party minigames - yes, in a way, it reminds me of simpler times in my life, no worries in the world due to my age - just carefree fun and laughs with friends and family. I think my favorite selection is track 9, "Storm". It's one of the few moments in the album where the pace is slowed down to a relative crawl, and a synth-accordion is introduced to great effect - like I'm lounging in a digital Italy, calmly enjoying digital pastries with my digital animal buddies.

There's this element of banality to the album that is so completely irreverent that it makes it a joy to listen to. In fact, I could even see the exuberance and bubbliness as being a con for some (at least in album-length form) - so admittedly, you have to be in the right mood. But when you are in the right mood, this album does the job and more.

If nobonoko does a limited pressing of this on vinyl, I'd definitely shell out $20 - $30 for it. Not only because I really like it, but because seeing that album cover every day would be an easy and effortless way to bring a smile to my face.

[SGR]

Vanessa Daou - Sunday Afternoons (1995)



What do you think about on Sunday afternoons? I think of you. Or at least, Vanessa Daou does. For her first solo album, Vanessa works with her husband Peter Daou to deliver a moody and absolutely sybaritic record full of hypnosis and sensuality. On some tracks, she utilizes more of a spoken vocal approach in an attempt to tempt, but it's her breathy, wispy, almost whispered vocals on the likes of "Sunday Afternoons" that I find the most appealing. Oh yeah, this whole record's lyrics are adopted from novelist/poet Erica Jong's book of poems called Becoming Light. I guess she's related to Peter Daou somehow. He's her nephew, I think?

Peter Daou provides an absolutely excellent backing track, with a memorable and catchy bassline, fluttered forward with synths and...is that glockenspiel?...as Vanessa unfurls ephemeral epicurean memories of longing and lust:

Your sweet head would bow,
like a child somehow,
down to me
and your hair and your eyes were wild.
We would embrace on the floor
You see my back's still sore
You knew how easily I bruised,
It's a soreness I would never lose
I think of you
on Sunday afternoons

What genre is this track? It's sort of trip-hop/lounge - but the album as a whole definitely leans more into spoken word/ambient. That's not everyone's cup of tea, especially given how flagrantly erotic it usually is - but I'd highly recommend this track - which is simple, effective, and delightful.

File this under: "The singer is trying to seduce me!" and "Definitely should've been a big hit" 

[Saulaac]

^didn't know this artist, SGR. She sounds sweet. Liking those major seconds played over the root tone along with the chimes and bells. Will have to give the album a listen.

[SGR]

^didn't know this artist, SGR. She sounds sweet. Liking those major seconds played over the root tone along with the chimes and bells. Will have to give the album a listen.

She's definitely got a nice voice. And I loved the instrumental on the track too! Let me know your thoughts after you've had a chance to listen to the album.

[SGR]

The Chemical Brothers - Goodbye (2023)



I've been listening to The Chemical Brothers and their infectious rhythms since I was a teenager. I remember blasting "Leave Home" as soon as I left home to commute to my first job. The brothers gonna work it out. I remember introducing them to my college roommate, who for a time, became my best friend. He had classes really early, much earlier than me, and I remember him coming back into our dorm room while I was still sleeping absolutely blasting Tom Rowlands' solo work through his headphones - probably woke up the whole fucking floor. God I hated that. We haven't spoken in years though. My god, how time flies. We started a radio show together. I snuck booze into a college campus building and got fairly drunk while we'd do our radio show. Who could blame me? It was scheduled for 11pm to 1am on Friday nights. We picked that slot so we wouldn't have to conform to any of the censorship rules of daytime radio. We'd go from playing Brotha Lynch Hung's most offensive tracks to playing the most depressing shit you can imagine by Low. What a time.

Anyways, The Chemical Brothers released a new album last year, For That Beautiful Feeling. I gave it a few listens - I thought it was alright, but it didn't blow me away. One song that did stick with me was their first single from the album, "Live Again". But beyond that, nothing made a serious impression. A week or two ago, I went back to it and listened again, and this track, "Goodbye", just floored me. I guess it needed to marinate in my head a little while first before I could really see what they were going for. But man, what an absolutely excellent song.

An absolutely excellent vocal sample provides the flavor - from this track from 1980 - they pitch it down to great effect:

As for the instrumental, wow - it sounds like it could come out of the modern day house scene (almost "future house"), but those space born laser synths are absolutely fantastic. The somewhat muted drums for much of the track help build the tension until it really kicks into full fuckin' gear. Those ear (or maybe speaker) splitting synths actually remind me of the level of noise that Low went for on their final record.

But damn, the juxtaposition of beauty and ugliness, calm and excitement, love and hate - it feels like a rollercoaster for your ears. And I love it. The music video, as seizure-inducing as it might be, exemplifies this wonderfully. That beautiful feeling; a love one lost, and relationship frayed, the bad times may even outnumber the good - but yet, the memories will always remain. The human condition is ugly. The human condition is beautiful. Most importantly, the human condition is fleeting. That's the beautiful feeling. Thanks Chemical Bros.