I Like American Music pt. 30 of 50 - Loose Cryptic Connection pt 3

Brian Jonestown Massacre - Dawn('s)

Earlimart - 10 Years

Television - Guiding Light

I Like American Music Pt 29 of 50 - Loose Cryptic Connection pt 2

Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You

Bob Mould - See a Little Light

Guided By Voices- I Am A Scientist

I Like American Music Pt. 28 of 50 - Loose Cryptic Connection pt 1

Music Explosion - Little Bit O'Soul

Floorian -Or So They Say

Yo La Tengo - You Can Have It All

I Like American Music Pt 27 of 50 - Massachusetts pt 6 of 6 - Lou Barlow

  Lou Barlow was a founding member of Dinosaur Jr along with J Mascis and drummer Murph.  Lou was unceremoniously yet creatively dismissed from the band when Mascis informed him that the band broke up and then immediately reformed without Lou.

Dinosaur Jr. - Just Like Heaven (Cure Cover)

  Note that the green muppet thing is wearing a 'Deep Wound' t-shirt. That is the name of the first band that Mascis and Barlow played together in, while still in high school in Amhearst, Massachusetts.

                                   

  Before his Dinosaur Jr departure Lou was working on a side project with Jason Loewenstein called Sebadoh.

Sebadoh - Rebound

  Folk Implosion was Barlow's next endeavor.  They contributed most of the tracks to the soundtrack of Larry Clark's quasi-documentary 'Kids'. Here is the most well known song from that album.

Folk Implosion - Natural One

I Like American Music Pt 26 of 50- Massachusetts Part 5 of 6- Pixies Pt 4 of 4 - Animals.

Pixies - Havalina

Pixies - Caribou

Pixies - Monkey Gone to Heaven

I LIke American Music Pt. 25 of 50 - Massachusetts Pt. 4 - Pixies Pt 2 - Aliens and UFOs

  Charles Thompson (aka Black Francis),  has often found inspiration in alleged visitors to Earth.  

Pixies -Motorway to Roswell

Pixies - The Happening

  Space travel doesn't have to be a one way street.  Here is the song that should be the first morning wake up song if an earthling crew is ever sent to Mars.
Pixies - Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons

I Like American Music Pt 24 of 50 - Massachusetts Pt 3 -The Pixies Pt 1

Velouria

Ana

Allison

I Like American Music Pt 23 of 50 - Massachusetts pt 2 - Boston

Modern Lovers - Roadrunner

Blake Babies -Cesspool

The Lemonheads - Confetti

I Like American Music Pt. 22 of 50 - Massachusetts Pt 1

 Massachusetts a hotbed of higher learning is also an epicenter of innovative  music.  I've heard Missions of Burma described as the following ' Imagine if the Stooges not only knew more than three chords but actually knew all the chords'.
Missions of Burma - That's When I Reach for my Revolver

  I remember hearing the following song by the Del Fuegos on the the CBC Radio 2 show 'Brave New Waves back in the mid-80's. From their 1984 album The Longest Day.

Del Fuegos - I Think I Should Be the One

   Lastly Morphine's Mark Sandman writes,on their 1996 song "French Fries with Pepper" from the album 'Like Swimming',  about where he was at in life on the numerically significant dates of 6/6/66, 7/7/77 and 8/8/88 with hopes of sitting on the back porch drinking red wine on 9/9/99.  Unfortunately he didn't make it.  Sandman died instantly from a massive heart attack on stage in Palestrina, Italy on 7/3/99.

Morphine - French Fries With Pepper

  In honor of Mark Sandman to this day I always pepper my fries.

I Like American Music Pt. 21 of 50 - Windows, Blinds and Curtains

Smashing Pumpkins - Window Paine

  Veruca Salt with Pure Power Pop Goodness and a nod to the Pixies at the 1:50 mark.

Veruca Salt - Number One Blind

Jonathan Fire*eater - When The Curtain Calls For You

I Like American Music Pt 20 of 50 - Elephant 6 Collective, Earth Air and Sea

  We resume our trek across America where our previous post left us in Athens, Georgia. 

Elf Power - World is Waiting

 Down to Ruston, Louisiana with......Neutral Milk Hotel - Aeroplane over the Sea 

                                  

Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel and Robert Schneider of Apples in Stereo were childhood friends in Ruston who along with Will Cullen Hart and Bill Doss formed the Elephant Six Collective recording label.
  Apples in Stereo - Shiny Sea

I Like American Music Pt. 19 of 50 - Southeast region Produced by Don Dixon

In the mid-80's Don Dixon put his stamp on the janglepop movement by acting as producer on albums by several bands in the Carolinas and Georgia.

Guadalcanal Diary - Trail of Tears

Fetchin Bones -Steam Whistle

REM - Radio Free Europe

I Like American Music Pt. 18 of 50 - Stormy Weather

  Pixies - Stormy Weather 

Blood on the Walls - Lightning Song


Walkmen -  Blizzard of 96

I Like American Music pt.17 of 50 - No Sleep 'til Brooklyn

  Brooklyn's Beastie Boys - No Sleep 'til Brooklyn

Here are a couple of other artists also based in Brooklyn

Blood on the Walls - Rize

At the age of 18 Orville Burrell moved with his family from his hometown of Kingston, Jamaica to the Brooklyn borough of New York City.  He took on the stagename Shaggy, here is his 1993 cover of a 1960 Folkes Brothers ska hit 'Oh Carolina'.
Shaggy - Oh Carolina

I Like American Music pt. 16 of 50 - Velvet Underground Covers

Staying with the New York City theme here are three covers of Velvet Underground songs.

The Kills - Pale Blue Eyes

Rainy Day - I'll be your Mirror

                                     
Those Darlins - White Light White Heat

I Like American Music pt 15 - New York City

New York Dolls -  Personality Crisis 1973

 August Darnell's alter ego Kid Creole performs a tribute to an annoying neighbor.
Kid Creole and the Coconuts - Endicott

yeah yeah yeahs - cheated hearts

I like American Music - Pt 14 of 50 - Jersey

  Had to jump coasts from the recent posts as research into the music of the mountains and plains is going to take some time.  In the meantime here are three bands that would have put New Jersey on the map if it wasn't there already. 

  The Wrens - Everyone Choose Sides

Yo La Tengo - Deeper Into Movies

Titus Andronicus - Fear and Loathing in Mahwah, NJ

I Like American Music pt. 13 of 50 - Apparently I'm not Alone

  Esquerita  was an early influential Rock n Roll artist who was like Little Richard before Little Richard was Little Richard.  His real name was S Q Reeder but everybody knew him as Esquerita...here we'll let Mick Jones(not American) in his post-Clash band Big Audio Dynamite tell the story.

  Big Audio Dynamite - Esquerita

  The Pixies' frontman Charles Thompson aka Black Francis aka Frank Black paid tribute to the Ramones on his debut solo album

Frank Black -I Heard Ramona Sing

Before there was Wilco and Son Volt there was Uncle Tupelo.  They memorialized the late Minutemen guitarist, singer and unfortunate member of the 27 Club, Dennes Dale Boon

 Uncle Tupelo - D. Boon

I Like American Music pt 12 of 50 - Everyone's Public Idaho

  I tell you, I didn't expect to find three appropriate songs to do a post on Idaho.  Here are Boise's Paul Revere and the Raiders version of a 1966 anti-drug message originally written for and turned down by Eric Burdon and the Animals.
Paul Revere and the Raiders - Kicks

  Next the Treepeople also from Boise featuring Doug Martsch on guitar cover the Smtihs

Treepeople - Bigmouth Strikes Again

  Doug Martsch went on to form Built to Spill in 1992.  They are still recording and touring to this day.

Built to Spill - Wouldn't Hurt a Fly

I Like American Music pt.11 of 50 - Washington State

Tullycraft - Then Again Maybe I Don't
Tullycraft- Then again Maybe I don't

Pedro the Lion - A Mind of her own

Modest Mouse - Bankrupt on Selling

I Like American Music Pt 10 of 50 - Oregon

The Crabs - Alien Girl

Dandy Warhols - Every Day Should be a Holiday

Everclear - So Much For the Afterglow

I Like American Music Pt 9 of 50 - Bands of San Francisco

Flaming Groovies - Shake Some Action

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - White Palms

Stratford 4 - Where the Ocean Meets the Eye

I Like American Music pt 8 of 50 - Bands of LA

Warlocks - Bleed Without You Babe

Dream Syndicate - Tell Me When It's Over

Darker My Love - Helium Heels

                                      

I Like American Music Pt. 7 of 50 - Austin Tx

  Austin Texas is known for South by Southwest  Musical Festival that has grown to over 2000 bands performing at more than 100 venues. Needless to say there is a whole lot of home grown talent that flourishes in that environment. Here are three bands based in Austin.

.....And You'll Know Them by the Trail of Dead - Relative Ways

Black Angels - Manipulation

 Butthole Surfers - Pepper

I Like American Music pt. 6 of 50 - Come on Feel the Illinois - Bands from Chicago

Three 90's bands everyone has heard of from Chicago.

Urge Overkill - Sister Havana

Smashing Pumpkins - Drown

Veruca Salt - My Sharona

I Like American Music pt 5 of 50 - Feeling Minnesota

  In the mid-80's 's to the early 90's Minneapolis's Replacements created raucous, rebellious rock and roll that the intended to be broadcast in supermarkets in the 21st century Replacements music at meijer's

Here is their tribute to Alex Chilton who as a teen had a massive hit with 'The Letter" as lead singer of the Boxtops.  Later he as a member of Big Star he wrote an sang 'In the Street' which subsequently covered by Cheap Trick and went on to became the theme song for 'That70's Show'.  Incidentallly I watched that show for three years before I realized it wasn't a documentary.

The Replacements - Alex Chilton

  Another Minneapolis native is John Wozniak of Marcy Playground.

Marcy Playground - Saint Joe on the School Bus

   Across the Mississippi River from Minneapolis is its twin city St. Paul, where Bob Mould and his friends formed Husker Du.

 Husker Du - Makes No Sense At All + Hidden Bonus track

I like American Music Pt. 4 of 50 Ohio

  On September 28, 1991 Greg Dulli of the Cincinnati's Afghan Whigs received a message from the band's manager on his answering machine giving directions to a backyard barbecue. As it turns out earlier that day jazz great Miles Davis passed away.  The message ended with 'Miles is dead. Don't forget the alcohol'.  Dulli under time constraints  to write another track for their album 'Congregation'. Inspired by the message Dulli wrote the song 'Miles iz Ded' that contains the line 'Don't forget the alcohol'.  
Afghan Whigs - Miles iz Ded

Also from Cincinnat is The National.

The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio

In April my wife and I attended a concert by Cleveland's Mr. Gnome at the Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids.  Below is a video from an earlier tour when they also played the Pyramid Scheme.
Mr Gnome - Cleveland Polka

I like American Music Pt 3 of 50. Independence Day

   Today is the 239th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  We commence the tribute to the USA with a noted dignitary's interpretation of the National Anthem.

  In the early 1780's Thomas Jefferson was asked what was his inspiration for the Declaration of Independence.  He testified 'so that our descendants will have the freedom to Rageth against thee Machine'(independent verification needed).   

 When the poor, tired huddled masses reach our shores one of the biggest obstacles is learning how to speak American.  Here is a compilation of Kubrick film clips set to the (non-American)Screaming Blue Messiahs' tutorial 'I can speak American.

I Like American Music Pt.2 of 50 - Detroit

The Upholsterers - Ain't Superstitious

Majesty Crush - No. 1 Fan

Von Bondies - C'mon C'mon

I like American Music pt. 1 of 50 -- Wisconsin

   We start our tribute to American Music in Wisconsin. I don't know why but I had to start it somewhere.  So I started........there.

  From Milwaukee we have the Violent Femmes.  Discovered as street corner musicians by James Honeyman-Scott of the Pretenders.  They were invited to open for James's band that night and took the opportunity and made a 30+ year career out of it. 

  Next the first of two bands based in the college town of Madison.  The three-piece Rainer Maria turned an inventory of Abraham Lincoln's pockets into a full length song.

   Producer Butch Vig's resume' includes shaping the sounds of two of the touchstone albums of the 1990's Smashing Pumpkins' "Gish" and Nirvana's "Nevermind".  As a drummer he was part of a couple of bands Spooner and First Person before he struck gold with Garbage.  Though the band was based in Madison, they were fronted by Scottish lass Shirley Manson. 

oh Canada, pt. 7 of 7. Fireballs Bursting in the Sky, Wasaga Beach First of July

    The last part of the seven part tribute to the music of Canada.  Lots of talent gets displayed on their airwaves due to the CanCon requirements.  Here are four songs that probably never received much air play in the US.

  5440 - Radio Luv Song

 Treble Charger - Friend of Mine

  King Cobb Steelie - Rational

  We'll let renowned producer Daniel Lanois plays us out of our tribute to our neighbors to the north  with a song of his own. 

Daniel Lanois - Lotta Love to Give