(Editor’s note: Two straight weeks of entropic wandering on Lazy Saturday, principally because of the following: I’m tired. I’m stressed out. I’m busy. I’ve got a grant burning, a paper cooking, IEP progress reports to write, hogs to feed, a harem to tend to, capital gains taxes to calculate, and so forth. I don’t have any space left in the old cognitive load to give you a well-developed, cohesive bit of content today. You get a numbered list. The items contained therein are not connected. Unless you think that the universe has thrown them together to be reflective of some greater purpose. Or whatever.)
1. Nirvana – Mrs. Citizen went to college in Buffalo; I went to Bowling Green. When I was drunk and sad and lonely and unable to get her on the phone, I’d play “Jesus Don’t Want me for a Sunbeam” from the Nirvana Unplugged record and feel shitty about myself. (Don’t you dare judge me internet.) That’s a pretty important record at this point, right? You might even argue that the Unplugged record is Nirvana’s crowning contribution to modern music; Mudhoney was Nirvana before Nirvana was, but nobody else took those ideas out of the loudness and fuzz like Cobain did on the MTV. (I certainly wouldn’t make that argument, by the way, but I think the it’s legitimate. Even though anybody who says that the Unplugged record is “more important” than Nevermind is a contrarian idiot.) Nearly everything about that record is iconic at this point, including the first thing Cobain says, that sadly self-deprecating “This is off our first record, most people don’t own it.” Tragic encapsulation of the gist of that dude, right? “This is from before we were famous. You don’t know it because you only love us because we’re famous. Being famous sucks. And so do you.” All that aside, Sub Pop just reissued Bleach for the twentieth anniversary of the record. (Don’t get me started on how old that makes me feel.) “About a Girl” is still the truth. “Sliver” has always been a better song, it just wasn’t on the record that made “About a Girl” part of the zeitgeist, so we’e got a video of that one as well.
2. White Denim – The show at the Grog Shop was amazing. I haven’t been able to get “Heart From Us All” out of my head since. It’s interesting to me that White Denim doesn’t appear to have ever mistepped; they were awe-inspiring when they stepped out of the sonic womb. “Paint Silver Gold” from Workout Holiday is evidence that these dudes knew what time it was from the jump. I’m going to finish writing the last two bullet points and then go and listen to Exposion for the 734th time this week.
“Paint Silver Gold” – White Denim
3. Harlem – I do not like Harlem. Kevin likes Harlem. I do like semi-serious covers however. Lot of internal onflict for me on this one.
4. The Jesus Lizard – Question: How terrifying a force was David Yow onstage on the early nineties? Answer: Only slightly more terrifying than he appears to be now. I’ve never seen the mayhem that is live Jesus Lizard, but the two bits below force me to continue to hope that I will at some point. The first is a track for the studio session the band did with the inimitable Kot and DeRogatis that shows off their stout chops, impressive in a band often dismissed as pure noise. The video shows the dervish that is 1991 Yow. I’m amazed that the cameraman made it through the set without getting slapped in the face with Yow’s balls. (On second thought, maybe that’s in the outtakes.) Enjoy.
“Bloody Mary” – The Jesus Lizard, Live on Sound Opinions
“This is off our first record, most people don’t own it.”
Yeh, but can you think of any records that MOST people do own?