Tuesday Special: NSync, "Pop"

"Hey now, cut that out, Scotto. Quit posting lame old '90s boy band songs. You love rock, you love Arcade Fire and Nirvana!"

Yes. Absolutely, and I wouldn't be caught dead holding an NSync CD, but y'know, I was not in their market so they probably would've been okay with that. If you had told 14-year-old me in 2001 that in ten years' time I would think Justin Timberlake was a pretty all right guy, that I would look forward to his appearances on Saturday Night Live or that he could go on TV and perform Eminem and Jay Z (and the Digital Underground!!) with utter impunity I would be shocked. Shocked, I tells ya! But here we are, it's 2011, I write about music, and Justin Timberlake seems like a really cool dude.

I don't have to like old Boyband songs, but they were exactly what they needed to be: groups of dudes singing and dancing in unison, to make girls between the ages of ten and 17 scream. And sometimes, it was better than it needed to be.

"Pop" is exactly what it claims: three-odd minutes of undiluted musical candy (plus a tag of weird beat-boxing thing.) But "Did you ever wonder why this music gets you high?" Sometimes, yes. I know now that Timberlake has a sense of humour about himself. What I couldn't have figured was that the whole NSync project had a vague air of self-awareness about itself, that they knew what they were doing was maybe not a stab at great art, but it was effective and fun. They took not taking themselves seriously pretty seriously, and it resulted in, yes, fairly disposable dance pop, but nothing you would look back at ten years later and recoil in disgust.

This type of music will always make up a certain segment of the musical tapestry. At times bigger than others. At the time I was very much of the opinion that none of it could ever be good. That's wrong. As with anything, it absolutely can be good, when you take care over it.

Tuesday Special: Bran Van 3000, "Astounded"

In 2001, when Bran Van 3000 released their sophomore album, disco hadn't yet enjoyed its brief early-2000's revival under Kylie Minogue, the Mamma Mia stage show, and later Madonna. So Bran Van couldn't be accused of jumping on the bandwagon, but they also weren't in a place to influence anyone else, so it was just an oddity.

There has always been dance pop, of course. It's not usually a subject music critics broach with much enthusiasm. Generally, it's made to order, according to specifications, rhythmic and repetitive. But ten years after this album we have Foster the People, among a host of others, applying rock philosophy to danceable music. So it's not like the entire concept is un-salvageable. Music like this has the capacity to be really fun, and at its best, get away with some weird stuff.

Legend has it, Curtis Mayfield's final recording session was for his part in this song. He had been paralyzed for most of a decade, but still wrote and recorded music, painstakingly line-by-line from his bed. Imagine being unable to move yourself, but still having the power to make others. I dare you to keep your head and feet still during this song.

Cover: The Byrds, "Mr. Tambourine Man"

If nothing else, this exists to showcase the evocative beauty of the 12-string guitar. Goddamn.

Someone I know online one wondered how Bob Dylan must feel that so many of his songs' definitive versions are done by other artists. My guess is he's okay with it. Because shit, that's what folk's about, isn't it?

Serious Contenders: Marcy Plaground, "Sex & Candy"

I love music, and I love thinking about music, but I'm not such a huge fan of ranking music. When you're thinking about making a list of great songs, you start with the obvious choices. "Satisfaction" here, "Like a Rolling Stone" there, "Respect" after that, "Hey Jude" in between... by the time you get to songs that are sort of outside the "canon" of great music that exists, there's no time to think about them.

My objective with this series is to take songs that are outside the spotlight, or in many cases just on the edge, and shine on them. Songs you know are great but never had a cause to think were "Serious Contenders" for such a list. Stay tuned.



I love this song very much. It's impossible not to bob your head along to. I think it's the closest anyone got to another "Come Together." There's no reason we should know exactly what "Disco lemonade" is, but for some reason the lyrics all just fucking work. Hell, the "serious contenders" series could just all come from the 90's, it was a real fertile time for awesome music that we're just now rediscovering and dusting off.

Tuesday Special: Three Great Songs about Stagger Lee

For kicks, please to compare these three bitchin' tunes relating the story of Stagger Lee, American folk hero and outlaw hat enthusiast.

Tuesday Dance-Off, Technotronic vs. Deee-Lite

Get your booty on the floor tonight.





Oh Lordy, if I keep allowing myself to revisit old dance music from the 90's, this blog is in danger of becoming a parody of itself.

Make my day.

Tuesday Special: Roy Orbison, "Ooby Dooby"

Just for the fuck of it: Do the Ooby Dooby with all of your might!

Don't worry about the directions being vague. I think it's pretty easy to understand exactly what he's talking about.

Serious Contenders: Bran Van 3000, "Drinking in LA"

Because I've got nothing going on tonight, enjoy this classic from Montreal supergroup Bran Van 3000.

To me it captures 90's ambivalence really well: finding interest in small, quirky moments, and then repeating them minimally but with flourishes of window-dressing: half-hip hop, half-samples that come from nowhere, yet wholly itself.

Does it Rock? Steven Tyler, "(It) Feels So Good"

Ignore for a second that the music video looks like some kind of leathery bi-curious psychotropic nightmare.

I was initially very pleased with this solo single from Steven Tyler. I've been attacked by middle-of-the-road rock singles for a few years now via work, both from acts who have aged into MOR-ness and acts that were born into it. There seems to be an exact formula to creating what "the man" thinks is the ideal rock track, which always comes across as lame, uninspired, and forgettable background music. You know the ones I'm talking about.

"(It) Feels So Good" manages to avoid this sound, built on a shuffling boogie guitar riff and filled with the sort of vaguely-nonsensical yet obviously sexual lyrics that has always made Aerosmith strangely awesome. Few vocalists can sing ridiculousness the way Steven does and imbue it with such soul. Especially old white dudes. But as we know, Steven Tyler is no ordinary old white dude. He is pretty goddamn insane. I just read the first page of his book. There's some pretty brilliant madness in there.

So yes, happily, it does sound like Steven Tyler, without necessarily sounding like Aerosmith. It's not got the same musical muscle as a band-effort would have, which makes it breezy and also softens it up safely for Steven's new audience. This allows them to feel like they're hearing something edgy without necessarily getting "Love in an Elevator." "(It)" apparently, feels very good, and you can use your imagination as to what "(It)" is, although if I had to guess, I'd say it's blowjobs.

The song, I'm told, hails from the same songwriting period that begot the Just Push Play album, which I have some very particular thoughts on indeed. Remarkably, it still sounds fresh due to nothing in Top 40 pop ever having sounded like JPP anyway. So if nothing else, it's distinct, catchy, and enjoyable enough to inhabit the airwaves in 2011.

I'm not entirely sold on Steven Tyler's solo career yet. The tune is amicable enough, but I'm wondering if he cuts a whole album, whether I'll be missing the other four. But here on this site, we don't spend too much time worrying about what something isn't. The only thing that's of concern to me is whether it rocks. And this song, from a a performer coming up on 113 years in music? Yeah, it rocks.

Does it Rock? Pink Spiders, "Busy Signal"

New concept, folks. I was up late one night surfing the YouTubes looking for new shit that hasn't been talked to death, and I came across this song called "Busy Signals" by the Pink Spiders. Have a listen.



Now then. On the one hand it sounds like a whole lot of whiney, pseudo-rapping pop-rock that I hear way too much of on the radio at work lately. On the other, occasionally they work some weird, cool, scraggly guitars into the mix, along with a delightfully tense undercutting of synths that aren't too-ironic-to-function and help propel the song decently.

I've never considered myself the paragon of culture. I like what I like, and I feel like I can only hope, at best, to articulate that for your benefit. But with this, I truly don't know. It's catchy, but is that always a good thing? The song isn't extraordinarily-impressively-written, but it was worthwhile enough for me to listen a few times and wonder the driving question of this article: contrived or original, catchy or not: does this rock?

I'm curious what you think (hey, look at me, fishing for a comment here now,) don't let me influence you. Every so often we need to refresh what we consider "good" and examine what we like about music. Leave aside whether you think it would be cool to like this band, does it do anything for you?

For what it's worth, they have another song, called "Seventeen Candles" that is an 88-style power pop effort I really liked, and a metallic jam, "Gimme Chemicals" that also speaks in their recommendation. But as for "Busy Signals," what do you think? Specifically, the song above: does it rock?

Tuesday Special: Pixies/Marvin Gaye, "Get It On My Mind"

Admittedly, this goes on a fair bit longer that it needs to, because of Marvin Gaye's vocal track... considerable as his sexiness is, nobody really knows much about his song beyond the first 45 seconds or so. Yet combining it with the Pixies of all things makes it that much sexier. How weird!

Tuesday Special: The Spoons, "Romantic Traffic"

I couldn't put my finger on where I had heard White Lies' album before until I started humming the chorus to this song, probably the best Canadian entry into the New Romantic movement, by virtue of being the only notable one. It's a bit poppier than White Lies, but the synth-guitar combo, along with the chant-along chorus and thin lyrical conceit about love and romance in a dreary urban setting, provides a basis for the type of sound White Lies emulates. The difference, I think, is that this is a bit more fun. Yes, it seems they mean it seriously from the verses, but the peppy "doot doot doot doot" chorus seems to be a nod and wink moment, which ties the thing up rather nicely. The video appears to have been shot on the TTC subway somewhere, which is a bit odd considering the lyrical concept is specifically about cars. Well, I guess they couldn't have shot the damn thing on the QEW.

Then again, if you see below, it's clear I have pinpointed White Lies' true inspiration...

Tuesday Special: Seona Dancing, "Bitter Heart"

Man, I could not believe it. In the 80's, a young, David Bowie-looking Ricky Gervais was in a New Romantic band. Weird how time changes people. Thank goodness he grew out of it. The two singles this group released were not even remotely hits, and they never released an album. We're all better for it. I mean look at that video again... there are no words. Even if you think it's good, you have to admit it's pretty friggin' weird.