Something’s Always Wrong, by Toad the Wet Sprocket. I got this stuck in my head at a rest stop in Pennsylvania on the way home from Ohio. It’s probably the only song by this unfortunately named band that I like; the harmonies in the bridge are beautiful. This was on heavy alternative radio airplay back in the day in a time when “alternative” music was losing steam and leaning towards easy listening. I would have posted the actual music video, but it sucks.
Light Design, Turnstile. You’re probably tired of me posting stuff about them, but too bad. This cut off the new album is happily stuck in my head, displacing The Unforgiven by Metallica, which was stuck there for a day (and thus not worth posting about). My only beef with it is that it’s only 2 minutes long, and I feel like it builds up to something without releasing. Other than that, no notes. The rest of the album (released yesterday) is excellent.
I’ve had Turnstile on heavy repeat in my head this past week. The end of this set from the Hurricane Festival in 2024 covers the highlights; they look like they would be awesome to see live.
Update: They played a show yesterday at Wyman Park here in Baltimore.
There’s nothing like straight-ahead stoner rock played with energy and accompanied by a funny video. This is Wires by Red Fang, a Portland band with a history of this kind of thing. Some of their songs hit and some don’t—I tend to gravitate to their earlier stuff—but it’s all good and on the Spotify playlist. And even more appreciated, it knocked Wanna Be Starting Something out of my brain, which had been stuck there like tape to the bottom of a shoe, all day Thursday.
Somehow I got this tune stuck in my head the other day and the guitar riff has been banging between my ears ever since. My sister bought this album when it came out and had it on heavy repeat for a summer; I wasn’t into the other tracks but Blue Light stood out. It’s a very ’80’s song with an even more unfortunate ’80’s music video, which is why I’m posting the reissue instead. At this point in time all of the musicians from the 70’s were releasing AOR-friendly, overproduced solo albums dripping with horns and reverb (see: Pete Townsend, Steve Winwood, that toothy guy from Chicago). This track isn’t bad, although he leans on the horns way too much and it sort of dies out before he starts jamming; the song fades out on the guy who soloed on Comfortably Numb and Time, which is baffling.
I’ve mentioned this song on here before, but it’s made a comeback in my brain this week: True Widow, Theurgist. Something about the groove has been stuck in my head since Friday. I’m waiting for them to release new music—it’s been nine years since they put out their last proper album. They’re still touring, but there’s no news about new songs.
I’m not sad to have this one going through my head this week: Beck’s Dreams, from the 2017 album Colors. Beck’s catalogue has always been pretty reliably good stuff, especially after Sea Change, and this album has more standout tracks than clunkers. No Distraction and Seventh Heaven are also fantastic tunes. This video is a live recording; I’m told his concerts are fantastic to attend and he puts on an excellent show.
Here’s an earworm I’ve got at least a slight connection to: the Drop Nineteens just re-released their demo album from 1991, which was reviewed by Pitchfork over the weekend. In the recap the reviewer mentioned a vocalist named Hannah who joined the band briefly during that demo session, who then left and transferred into MICA while I was there, and who came through the design program a year behind us. I knew her from the scene and remember hearing she’d sung on an album by a famous band (I’d heard it was the Sneaker Pimps) but this makes much more sense now.
Anyhow, the song Daymom is really good—it’s got a lot of the things I know and remember of the music from that time. It’s got a very chill vibe even though the tempo is fast, and I’m a sucker for a double layered male/female vocal with bass guiding the melody. There’s a lot of Cure/New Order happening here, and that’s not a bad thing.
I could have sworn I’ve posted this before, but a search tells me otherwise. The opening bass riff to You Can’t Quit Me Baby has been rumbling through my head for the past week; there’s something hypnotic about this section and the pre-chorus, with a wailing slide guitar echoing the background vocals. The bass is just a little ahead of the drums, which gives it a laid-back, stoned vibe. This is one of my favorite tracks on the first Queens album, and a lot of fun to play.
In related news, I received the payment for my Steinberger yesterday, quietly putting a bow on that transaction. I will say that my experience with Reverb was very positive—knowing there’s a third party helping guarantee the sale seamlessly was a huge relief.
First, let me say I have NO idea how this song got stuck in my head this week. This is by a prog/thrash rock band called Dream Theater, and it came out way back in the late 90’s, at a time when I was most adjacent to hair metal. I remember the metalheads at high school speaking reverently about the shredding skills of the lead guitarist. It’s the only song I know by this band, and it’s their only song that reached Top 10 charting position (which is probably how I first heard it). It’s got some good ideas but like most prog/thrash bands of the time, the songwriting never coalesces into something complete. It starts and stops and every time it settles into a groove they switch time, switch the beat, or leave the phrase for something completely different in tone. I’m irritated to even admit it’s stuck in my head, but here we are.
Maybe I can offer a chaser to wash that out of our heads. I was watching a video the other day that used a track for background music which I really liked, and tracked it down. It’s by a band called Cigarettes After Sex, and the track is called Apocalypse. This band is all vibe; it’s slow tempo, surf-tone guitars and moody keyboards drenched in reverb.
As usual, this album is six years old, but I’m just getting to it now.