I’m So Tired

I’m so tired, sheep are counting me. No more struggle, no more energy. I’m So Tired, Fugazi. I like Minor Threat, but I just couldn’t get into Fugazi. I like one song of theirs, but mainly for the live version of it by a group of lovely ladies in sundresses. Was it called “Waiting Room”? Yeah, I’m not even sure. I like that song because, who doesn’t like ladies in sundresses rocking out a Fugazi tune? And I like this one as well, because of its title, because it’s slow, and it’s played on piano, which is probably the most hardcore non-hardcore thing the band has ever done.

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Thursday night, I’m making Denise. Friday night, I’m making Sharise. Saturday night, I’m making Luis (?) Oh, why can’t I be making love come true? Tired of Sex, Weezer. Rivers made up an interesting situation here. He’s tired of banging different girls every night but he’s also sad because he’s missing something. Could this be a metaphor for work? Okay, I’m making this a metaphor for work, because there’s no way it applies to me in a non-metaphorical sense, as in being Rivers-(un)lucky, making girls come one each night — not because I can’t but because I won’t. Um, just want make that last part clear. Very clear. By the way, in its metaphorical, my made-up metaphorical reading of it, at work, it’s the bosses, the management that you have to make come. And I think I’m tired of that.

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So tired, tired of waiting, tired of waiting for yooooooouuuuu. Tired of Waiting For You, Green Day. I think Green Day covered this for a soundtrack or something, maybe around the time Billie Joe Armstrong was getting into the Kinks, around the time he lifted inspiration from Kinks’ “Picture Book” for Green Day’s “Warning.” Edit: This was actually originally issued as B-side to “Basket Case,” which means Green Day recorded this way before they wrote “Warning.” By the way, “you” here means work — work with better pay and lesser stress.

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Yeah, I’m waiting — for you, it’s been so long. Come Around Again, Jet. Yeah, this is from their debut album, which I think is fine, Pitchfork’s negative review notwithstanding. Some of their songs sound pretty derivative, as if they’re emulating Oasis, the Stones, or AC/DC. And I don’t think their lyrics are on par with that of Alex Turner’s on Arctic Monkeys’ debut. But you know what, I like some of the songs. It’s not a four star album, it’s not a classic, and I’m perfectly fine with that.

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Tired Eyes. Neil Young. At this point, it should be obvious that I made this by searching the word “tired” on my Pulsar app (titles without the word “tired” are late additions to this playlist) whether or not they’re about being tired or not. In this case, it’s about drug murder in Los Angeles canyon, according to Neil Young. This is off the album Tonight’s the Night. And it’s not about being tired.

I’m so tired. I haven’t slept a wink. I’m so tired. My mind is on the blink. I’m So Tired, The Beatles. Yes, same title as the first song because it needs reiterating. I first heard the Elliot Smith version of this song. I think it’s Smith performing the song live. By the way, Elliot Smith also covered The Beatles’ “Because,” which appeared in the movie American Beauty, which won Oscars Best Picture, although film critic Noel Vera wasn’t a fan, and titled his not-so-glowing review for the movie, “American Boobies,” which I thought was apt, despite the fact that I like the movie, because it was highlighted by scenes featuring exactly that, American boobies! Still, that dream sequence where Mena Suvari is lying on a bed of roses, her privates barely obscured by petals of red red roses, and she’s floating from the ceiling above the main character’s bed, I think it’s one of the most iconic movie scenes I’ve seen. Or, maybe I should watch more movies?

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I’m so tired of being alone. I’m so tired of on-my-own. Won’t you help me girl, just as soon as you can. Tired of Being Alone, Al Green. Tired of Being Alone? Here’s 7 Reasons Why You Never Attract A Healthy Relationship. Ok, that appeared on the search results. Also, based on my Google search, it says that this song was also covered by Texas in 1993. By the way, I like Texas’ “Say What You Want.” Who’s Texas? They’re a pop/rock band from, not Texas, but Glasgow. By the way, those lines are actually about getting that girl to join your team and help you because you are so undermanned (i.e., alone) and overworked.

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You try so hard to be someone that you forget who you are. Hold On, Jet. I never listen to this song without auto-playing that scene in my head where Peter has to choose what to wear: is he gonna be Spider-Man tonight? Or is he gonna be just Peter Parker? That always comes back, that feeling, the struggle, the struggle to balance things out, the struggle to keep trying. I probably didn’t relate to this particular scene before the way I would later, the way I’m reading it now. Someone said on Twitter that the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies were faithful to the character’s working class origins in the comics — something that has been lost in the other versions of the character in later, newer movies.

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The damage has been done. I am not having fun anymore. Ann Don’t Cry, Pavement. I was wondering whether Stephen Malkmus wrote these particular lyrics before or during the recording of the band’s final album, Terror Twilight. I was wondering if these lines reflect how Malkmus felt about being in the band at the time. I checked the track listing of Farewell Horizontal so I can make an educated guess. Based on the tracklist, the first version of the song was recorded in Echo Canyon, Sonic Youth’s studio/rehearsal space(?) And in this version, Malkmus already sings the same exact lyrics. Which means, he must have written those lines already before things turns a bit sour later in the recording of the album. Which means, he wrote the lyrics not because he was kinda bummed about the difficult recording process of Terror Twilight, which, depending on who you asked, may have influenced the eventual dissolution of the band. Anyway, I’m just so fried.

Revisiting Cornershop’s “Brimful of Asha” On a… Compact Disc

Something renewed my interest on this indie rock band called Cornershop, who scored a hit with “Brimful of Asha” back in 1997. No, it’s not this new-ish indie rock group from London who call themselves Bombay Bicycle Club, who probably thought adopting a name based on a defunct Indian restaurant would make it sound like

Pavement’s Farewell Horizontal, Harness Your Hopes, and The Age of the Ass

After years of waiting, Terror Twilight: Farewell Horizontal will finally see the light. Of day. If you don’t know what that is, Terror Twilight is Pavement’s fifth and final album, and the only studio album of theirs that has yet to get an expanded or deluxe reissue. Brighten the Corners: Nicene Creedence Ed. came out in 2008; it was the last in the series

Brighten the Corners

Pavement’s Autumnal Fourth Record Turns 25

It was around the time after Matador released the superlative re-issue of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, when I rediscovered Pavement, through the internet, on one Radiohead fansite, on music review sites and online magazines. People were just sharing stuff, and before long, I have Pavement’s first, second, and fourth

Bummed Playlist

This could’ve been a Friday Slide playlist, trademark Jam 88.3, I’m making this bummed out playlist instead. A missed opportunity at work due to some late capitalism assessment tool. Then, I have drive to work for at least two weeks (my carpool friend got himself “sanctioned”). Not that I don’t like driving.

Songs for the Pandemic

Photo by Skitterphoto on Pexels.com

You have your Sad Bastard Music playlist, your All-Nighter Playlist, your Daily Bus Ride playlist, your After-Five Overtime playlist, your Aerobics Playlist, your Daily Traffic Anxiety playlist, and so and so. Oftentimes, these playlists are more or less the same, interchangeable, except for the first one. Unless, of course, all your playlists are actually Sad Bastard Music with different names.

5 Songs by The Beatles—Explained

Scrambled Eggs, Socialism & Getting Hitched

1) “Yesterday” (off the album Help!) 
In one episode of GAME KNB? Kris Aquino revealed that “Yesterday”, one the Beatles’ chart-topping hits, was originally titled “Scrambled Eggs”. Not only that, it had a totally different set of lyrics with the words “omelette” and “eggs” in it. John Lennon even suggested to change the title to “Here Comes the Sunny Side Up” but this got him

Night Shift – Lucy Dacus (2018)

I was reading Consequence of Sound’s best rock albums list when I found this song. I was looking for songs too good for me to have missed so I clicked on a few YouTube links. But then of course the list includes Foo Fighters’ Wasting Light, which I think is fine, but no Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks? Just saying, Mirror Traffic‘s way better than Wasting Light.

David Berman

The roads are colored black

It was probably only weeks ago when I read about David Berman’s return from hiatus, via a new band called Purple Mountains and the release of the band’s eponymous debut. And it was just few days ago, when I read about the shocking news of David Berman’s death. He was only 52.

And Then

Let’s make this a quick one. Jolene here, wanted me to try this exercise. And so, I gave it a try. Can’t think of any poem so I went with Lang Leav’s And Then because Pavement has a song with the same title. I also remember that one joke in that stoner movie Dude, Where’s My Car? around the time Ashton Kutcher and Sean William Scott “Stiffler” were probably the “coolest” dudes around.

10 Favorite Cover Songs (That Are Better Than The Original)

Second-hand serenades

Pavement – Watery, Domestic (1992)

You just can’t go in the studio toss out four “distinguishable, hummable songs” (Christgau) and call it an album. You can’t just invite your two buddies let one of them play bass and the other just basically do nothing and make them official members of the band afterwards. You can’t just have your drummer make a head-stand on the drum stool while tracking his parts.

Sandwich – Debris (2016)

Debris, Sandwich’s eighth LP, despite having “Kagulo” and “Outlaw,” is a little less than their previous outing—the one which they recorded live, in studio. “Kagulo”, easily Sandwich’s most recognizable hit since “Betamax,” could have been up there with the band’s best album openers—alongside “Sugod”, “Procastinator”, and “Cheese Factor Set to 9”—if only it isn’t the third cut in the album. Instead, we have “Border Crossing” opening Debris, which isn’t just as good. I miss the charred, slow burning eponymous track that opens their last record.

Ciudad – Follow the Leader (2012)

The trajectory Ciudad took from Happy Bear to Follow the Leader, isn’t quite slanted and enchanted turning into bright corners until terror twilight comes in. See, Pavement references Ella Fitzgerald, not Helmet; Ciudad, on the other hand, echoes Korn, the fathers-in-denial of the bastard sub-genre called Nu Metal. Maybe they’re more like The Dead Milkmen, who ditches the punk-rock girl after they found the secret of life. But you get the drift—they started as ramshackle crew of awkward geeks and became more and more mellowed out with each release. But the problem isn’t really mellowing out—their previous effort, the somewhat Bandwagonesque-esque Bring Your Friends, is mellower, but still better. As far as Spiral Stairs knows, Stephen Malkmus never stopped being fun even when the lyrics start to reveal their meaning (i.e., The Hook, Jenny & The Ess-Dog). I guess it’s them losing touch with their younger crazier selves, their nonsense lyrics, the geeky ball-busting, fuzz face-melting, Corina Turina-shouting. It’s the crude appeal of their earlier stuff, the band dynamics, the warmth—all of which are miserably missing here.

Camera Obscura, Interpol and Other Favorite Records from the Zeroes

Another list. A list of albums I like, from that decade after the Millennium Bug crashed the world’s supercomputers and left the world in chaos. Albums I still listen to from time to time. Not necessarily the bests, nor great ones. More like comfort food. Like burger and fries.

Obligatory Pavement Post #3: Ironic Love Songs

“Harness — your hopes to just one person, because you know a harness, is only made for one.” Tell me that isn’t about love. Or marriage. Maybe I’m not right. But I’m sure I could not be wrong. Because seldom are there wrong interpretations when it comes to Stephen Malkmus’ songs. At least that’s what my lit teacher told us in school. Of course, she was talking about poetry then and not about songs written by some semi-obscure slacker from Stockton, California. That line, by the way, is from “Harness Your Hopes,” B-side to a single off Pavement’s 1997 LP, Brighten the Corners.

High & Dry: My Top 5 Radiohead LPs

“Hey, here’s the new Radiohead album”, a friend offered few months ago. I put it on, listened. So this is how they sound now. Interesting, I thought. But theirs is not the kind of music that I need. At least for now. Some people find meaning in lyrics that reflects the despairing things happening around the world. I already had enough of that—not from music, but from other things.

Rock is Dead, Mellon Collie & The Nicene Creeders’ Slackerful Mysteries

Despite all the press, an MTV hit and all other atrocities ascribed to them during their heyday, Pavement was one of those bands whose popularity (or rather lack thereof) flew under my radar during the nineties. And I’m rather thankful for that.

I am endlessly grateful that I’ve had Stone Temple Pilots, Silverchair, Green Day, The Offspring, The Smashing Pumpkins—the “alternative” bands of the nineties. That a friend lent me his Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness so I could spend hours and hours of boredom listening to the said double album, rather than someone hand me a tape of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain or Wowee Zowee. Because I would have probably made the mistake of dismissing these slackers as unrelatable, lousy and lame. Or simply because they’re no Better Than Ezra. But missed them totally I did not. For when the second single off Brighten the Corners hit the DWEB weekly countdown two Saturdays in a row, I was all ears—listening to “Shady Lane”, trying to separate the song from the noise, beneath all static and radio hiss, which was due to poor reception (DWEB was four hours drive from home). That became my then only Pavement experience. And to think of it now, the experience was not so different from listening to Westing or Slay Tracks—because the version of “Shady Lane” I knew was all wrapped up in static and white noise.

Aside from my broken radio experience, there were other things, from which I came to know of Pavement’s existence. There was this music magazine “Hot Hits” that features the lyrics of “Stereo” and “Shady Lane” and a picture of the band. The band’s picture was almost nondescript—any group of regular looking guys could actually pose as them. And on the last page of the mag was the previous week’s Billboard Modern Rock Tracks, in which both songs had charted, among other unfamiliar songs and bands. The magazine’s main feature and the reason I bought that issue in the first place were The Smashing Pumpkins, with the complete lyrics and chords for all the songs from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. There was also a Jim DeRogatis article about the said double album, reprinted from Rolling Stones (with permission I suppose). Later, on a separate issue of the same magazine around early ’98, there was an article in which the editor proclaimed that rock is dead; that aside from Radiohead’s OK Computer and Pavement’s Brighten the Corners, 1997 was filled mostly with duds. Or simply, most alternative bands got boring and people already grew tired of grunge. Hence, the “Rock Is Dead, and electronica is taking over” banner. In reality, it was really more like, the Backstreet Boys and N’Sync took over.

My re-discovery of Pavement took longer time than Spiral Stairs could have ever imagined. It was somewhere between the release of LA’s Desert Origins and Sordid Sentinel Edition that I was able to listen to “Shady Lane” again. This time, with the other eleven tracks on the album—from the opening basslines of “Stereo” down to the “Infinite Spark” fade-out.

I was looking for the band’s hits compilation then (this was years before Quarantine the Past). While I read mostly high recommendations for Pavement’s first three studio albums, I decided to go with Brighten the Corners because of “Shady Lane”. I also read somewhere that it is their most accessible LP, so I thought I’d give a try. Initially, I was only interested on the hits and someone told me to check the first three or four songs on the album, but also suggested that I might as well check the whole album. So spin the whole album I did. And since then I found myself sitting stuck in this Velcro seat, every time I play it.

To be continued…(Maybe.)

Baby I’m-A Want You

Not All Songs with the Word Baby Are Wussy

The word baby, like love, is one of the most frequently abused words in popular music. From Peter Frampton’s 1975 single “Baby I Love Your Way”, to the annoyingly ubiquitous Big Mountain cover of the same in the mid-90’s, to Ed Sheeran’s 2014 hit “Thinking Out Loud”, there have been countless times the word appeared in songs’ lyrics and titles. Needless to say, the word has been used and abused by singers and songwriters, especially in the pop and R&B genre. So that when someone posted a question on the internet, asking about songs that have the word baby in the lyrics, someone answered that it’s probably easier to list down songs that don’t contain that word.

Overusing the word in songs surely cheapens its meaning and intended impact. The good news is, creativity knows no boundaries. Yes, there are countless forgettable songs with the word baby in them, but there are also songs that made use of the word in ways more imaginative than just rehashing same old variations of “baby, I love you”.

Below is a list of songs that use the word baby, but not in a way most songwriters have used them. This list will not include songs that go along lines of Bon Jovi’s “Always” or Guns & Roses’ “Patience”. So, songs like Pearl Jam’s “Last Kiss”, a straight-ahead cover of an old 1961 non-hit that eventually became the Pearl Jam’s highest charting single; 3 Doors Down’s maudlin and watered-down post grunge ballad “Here Without You”; and Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby”, which is actually fine, will not be included. And definitely not “Thinking Out Loud” – because even at its best, Mr.Nice Guy’s song sounds like a low-rent version of Van Morrison’s “Crazy Love”.

“Can’t Lose You”, F4

That one song that has a chorus that sticks to your head like glue – even if you don’t understand the lyrics except for the words, my and baby. Forget about what they’re actually singing in it. In the years before Google Translate and smartphones – good looks, hair mousse, catchy chorus and the lines “Oh baby, baby, baby/my baby, baby” were enough to make a hit as big as this Mandopop meteorite.

 “…Baby One More Time”, Britney Spears/Travis

Britney Spears’ 1999 hit made the cut mainly for Travis’ sort of impromptu and knowing cover version of it. On second thought, the original gets half a point for having the words hit me and baby in the same line – undeniably, an artistic achievement in teen pop music. Some people mistook it for S&M, some, misogyny. Turns out the guys behind the hit only meant “call me”. So, despite all the suggestive dance routines in a school girl outfit, it’s actually quite harmless. But Travis’ version is hilarious, and probably the best version there is. Like the audience in that concert, I had good laugh the first few times I heard it.

“Tender”, Blur

Before Vampire Weekend, Mumford & Sons, and [insert recent cool indie band here], there was Blur. And before Blur, there were Faces, The Kinks, and well, The Beatles. “Beetlebum” and “Song2” may be their most recognizable songs, especially in the US, but the band is way much more than the noise-guitar band that they were in 1997; as can be heard on their previous singles like “The Universal” and “Girls and Boys”, and on this first single off their 1999 album 13. “Tender” was a departure from the sound of Blur (the album that houses “Beetlebum” and “Song2”), and features both Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon on vocals (with Coxon singing the “oh my baby”-part) backed by the London Community Gospel Choir. With all the aggression that dominated rock in the late nineties, this break-up tune with the line “Love is the greatest thing (that we had)” was like a beacon of hope shining across the dark Nu Metal-infested landscape.

“Antukin”, Rico Blanco

There’s a very thin line between clever and lame and Rico Blanco probably crossed it more than once on one of the best tracks off his debut Your Universe. This is one of those where he played all the instruments (and he was splendid on drums!) And whether the lines “Gumawa na lang tayo ng paraan/Gumawa na lang tayo ng (baby)” is clever or not, this remains as one of his all-time bests – a hopeful love song that acknowledges his keyboard-man role in Rivermaya and pays homage to his namesake thru its Tag-lish lyrics and one off-color joke.

“Radiation Vibe”, Fountains of Wayne

You probably knew them for “Stacy’s Mom”, a.k.a. the MILF song, which is also their most popular hit. The music video for which, pays homage to Fast Times At Ridgemont High. Outside of the said song, Fountains of Wayne is hardly the type of band that thrives on peddling sophomoric jokes, as one might assume based on that song. Most of their songs tell stories (i.e., Leave the Biker, Hackensack (yes, the one covered by Katy Perry)), but Fountain of Wayne’s first single “Radiation Vibe” is lyrically ambiguous. And that’s probably the reason it was a minor hit, despite the ear-worm melodies and knockout musicianship. The lines “Baby, baby, baby/Come on, what’s wrong?” aren’t really the most ingenious part of this song – it’s the melody with which Chris Collingwood sing those lines. It’s the way the song transitioned from the seemingly bottled up verses then burst into the chorus like an exploding bottle of soda. Sounds exactly like the kind of vibe the song is referring to.

“Kaliwete”, Eraserheads

Here’s another song that pays tribute to the one and only Rico J. Puno. The inspiration for the song came one time the Eraserheads did a show with him. The lines “Mag-ayos lang daw ng upo”, according to them, came from one of Rico’s joke that night. Whether the joke was about sitting in general or specifically about sitting on the toilet, we don’t know. What I know is that the word baby is uttered somewhere in this song. And I didn’t catch it until about…a few months ago? Sticker Happy came out in 1997 and I’ve been listening to this song sporadically for almost twenty years. (Damn, I really need to quit on loud music now and go visit an ENT specialist before I totally lose my ears.)

“Superstar”, Carpenters/Sonic Youth

Whether it’s the 1971 Carpenters version or Sonic Youth’s fuzzed up tribute to the former, one can never go wrong with this classic. Written and first recorded in 1969 (by a bunch of musicians who were so in loved with themselves that they had to write a song about a groupie longing for someone who’s really good with guitars – someone like Eric Clapton), Richard Carpenter took the song and turned it into what is now the most popular version of it. One might think that this made use of the common “baby, I love you” line and does not belong in the list. But it’s not a cutesy boy-who-plays-guitar-meets-girl kind of story. More like rockstar-meets-groupie-had-one-night-stand-and-then-goodbye. Of course, I don’t hear it that way. What I hear is just a good schmaltzy song – a bit naïve, romantic and sweet. And that’s the kind of magic only Karen Carpenter could make. The same magic Sonic Youth destroyed and reconstructed in the 1994 version.

“Stereo”, Pavement

The most sentimental song on the list, Pavement’s “Stereo” is actually the long lost answer to the previous song – the Carpenters classic. “Hey, listen to me! I’m on the stereo! Stereo-oh!” is definitely about a guitarist addressing someone who’s listening on the radio (i.e., the groupie). And on the next line, Stephen Malkmus appropriated Karen Carpenter’s “Baby, baby, baby…” line, before shouting “Give me malaria! Hysteria!”

Wait, that didn’t sound right.

Okay, maybe this isn’t really the answer to “Superstar”, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is one of the greatest slacker songs ever—not to mention having the balls to make fun of Geddy Lee’s impossibly high register. Which isn’t really surprising given that they once dissed both The Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots before, in one of their songs. Which only proves that, Pavement is ultimately, definitely, and absolutely rad.

Pavement – Shady Lane (Japan Tour Ed.) (1997)

Japan could be last bastion of selling tangible music. Not only because Japanese people still love to buy CDs and LPs – but also because a lot of people from outside Japan go there just to buy these stuff and to see Ochanomizu‘s great collection of guitars. And the girls of AKB48 are cute. Maybe not all of the above are true, but I’m sure one thing is absolute – Shady Lane, the EP exclusively sold in Japan, is really awesome – it’s rad. It’s almost as good as the full length album that preceded it. There’s an alternate mix of “Stereo” (by Steve Fisk), just as awesome as the original, a pair of Meat Puppet-inspired numbers – “Slowly Typed” (countrified version of “Type Slowly”) and “Cherry Area” – and an instrumental number about an epileptic seizure – all rare materials every good boy like you and me deserves. And if you look really hard into the back cover, you’ll find an Easter egg, you’ll find a hidden EP, inside. Shady Lane EP in itself is already nice. But an EP within an EP? That’s Last Year at Marienbad! So, we got four more bonus tracks. The first about Salem Witch Trials isn’t that bad – it’s one of the best pop songs Pavement ever released – if only Malkmus could sing. Then we have the oddest of oddball oddities – “Gangsters and Pranksters” and “Saganaw” – the best freakout fillers outside of Wowee Zowee. And d’you know what’s not fair? That short sweet song about moving to Australia (“I Love Perth”) – they also gave it to Japan.