I don’t know where this was filmed, but I’m pretty sure it was not Santa Monica. Geographical inconsistancies aside, it’s one of my favorite Everclear songs. I’m also pleased to report that there seems to be a new record on the way!
Kasey Anderson and the Honkies are from both Seattle and Portland, and are Kasey Anderson on vocals, guitar, percussion, Andrew KcKeag (Presidents of the United States of America) on guitar, vocals, Eric Corson (The Long Winters) on bass, and Mike Musburger (The Posies, The Supersuckers) on drums.
Heart of a Dog is the result of Anderson’s desire to move beyond being a solo artist and “just make a rock n’ roll record” and, dear readers: he, the band, and their all-star guest stars (Jenny Comlee of the Decemberists and Dave Harding of Richmond Fontaine, among others) have most definitely succeeded.
I’ve been carrying the songs around with me for a while now, and listening to them in all kinds of situations: while studying for exams, while on the train, and now, poolside, and they always improve both my mood and my day, whether I apply them directly or they float up on shuffle.
I can’t really isolate one or two favorites for you – the whole record is strong – but I can say that the slow dirty burn of Let The Wrong Light In was an especially fantastic contrast to the anodyne confines of law school. I’m also fond of My Baby’s a Wrecking Ball and Kasey Anderson’s Dream.
Here’s Let The Wrong Light In in video form so you can listen for yourself. Be sure to turn it up:
The Dollyrots, of Los Angeles, are also signed to Blackheart Records. They started out in Florida in 2000 and later moved to Los Angeles; Brand New Key (The Rollerskate Song) started out as a folk song in the early ’70s – it was originally sung by Melanie – and here is a pop-punk gem.
And now, on the other end of the glam metal / hard rock spectrum, here is Guns n’ Roses with Welcome to the Jungle. My favorite part of this one is the quick-cut between “Axel Rose, country boy getting off the bus chewing on an actual hayseed” (I never noticed this absurdity before) and “Axl Rose, teased-hair, leather-trousers-clad ROCK STAR”:
These two gentlemen are Matthew and Gunnar Nelson, the twin sons of Ricky and Kristin Nelson. This song is from their first record, After the Rain, released in 1990. True confession: I totally bought it, and may even still have the tape somewhere.
This video is a thing of beauty and a joy forever for their outfits alone. There’s the matching artfully ripped jeans, in the beginning, which are followed by a series of epic costume changes. I spent at least a minute trying to decide if the one on the left – I think it’s Gunnar, but I can’t be sure – was wearing red legwarmers or especially fancy boots in the first several frames on the stage, and I’ve decided those are boots which look like legwarmers. In any case, they’re fabulous.
As you watch this, I want you to contemplate the magic of a couple hundred college kids in various stages of inebriation (some still clutching their red solo cups) shouting along to the lyrics and trying to do this dance. Because that was at least a few of my Saturday nights in 1993.
Because I am going to be seeing them this evening, in an ACTUAL CLUB, I am SO EXCITED; because all y’all have heard Hey Jealousy a bajillion times already; and most of all because it’s the one that the pacing doesn’t give me a headache. And also because they don’t seem to have made any records for the new stuff. Yes, there is new stuff! You can find out about the new record (and their ongoing tour) at their website.
Reasons I love Pretty Handsome Awkward: 1) the percussive guitars and roaring drums and 2) it sounds like one-half of every rage-fueled break-up conversation ever, the one you probably shouldn’t have with the actual person you are leaving / has left you because you might sound a tiny bit unhinged, but good lord does it ever feel good to vent your spleen.
As it happens I heard it for the first time in the aftermath of a split. I wasn’t angry so much as numb, overwhelmed, and directionless, and in many ways it was like a big blinking arrow that said When In Doubt, Follow The Sound of the Electric Guitar. Not long afterward I fell face-first (back) into rock and roll and, well, suffice it to say, I feel a lot better now.
The Used have been a band since 2001; Pretty Handsome Awkward is from their third record, Lies for the Liars, released in 2007. They are currently label-less, but still working on their fifth record, which may possibly be out later this year.
Other things to know: Pretty Handsome Awkward coincided with singer Bert McCracken’s blond period, and when he is blond, he looks startlingly like Kurt Cobain. It can be a little bit dislocating, so, you know, brace yourselves. Also, embedding is (again) maddeningly forbidden, but you can watch it here.
Alternatively, you can watch this one for Empty with You, which is from their last record, Artwork, released in 2009. The guitars are just as killer, and McCracken looks like himself again!
Creepy black and white imagery: check. James Hetfield and co. with all of their hair and the occasional ridiculous moustache: check. Reminder of why so many hard rock stations had “Mandatory Metallica” bits: also check.
This is not the song that caused me to become a Metallica fan – that was One – but it is certainly among my favorite tracks. They would go on to name two more songs “Unforgiven” but this one, from their fifth record, entitled Metallica, aka The Black Album, is the one that I think of as Original and Best. Also, The Black Album was the one I used to put on almost every night to listen to as I was winding down to sleep.
And now i have just discovered that, in what I can only call as CLASSIC METALLICA MOVE, I can’t embed the damned thing to share with you. I promise the click-through to YouTube will be worth it, though.
Or you can watch a classic video from a band on the other end of the sharing spectrum: Nine Inch Nails. I was in to them before I was in to Metallica, and, because MTV used to play them back to back, I often used to mute the video for One while waiting, impatiently, for Head Like a Hole to come on. So have some skinny, angry, dreadlock-flinging Trent Reznor:
(And if you’d like to know why I caved to Metallica, well, you can blame that one on a boy. He sang Bon Jovi to me in science class and persuaded me to give James Hetfield and his not-so-merry crew a shot, so I stopped hitting the mute button and listened. Eventually I bought  . . . And Justice For All, and it was all downhill from there.
My other distinct Metallica memory is opening an issue of Circus magazine and flipping eagerly to their poster in the center only to find they had cut their hair. I think I made some sort of undignified noise and petted Kirk Hammett’s papery face with my finger tips. I still hung the poster up, though.)
Last month, NTSIB friend @popa2unes reported on The Dead Exs record release party, and now I’m here to heartily second his ringing endorsement of the band. I got to see them this weekend, when they were back at the Bowery Electric for an early show. One of the highlights of the evening was that I was not the only one dancing this time.
The Dead Exs are David Pattillo (dp) on vocals and guitars and Wylie Wirth on drums, and their sound is a delicious blues-funk stew lightly seasoned with garage-rock flair. If you get a chance to see them live, do it; their show is a raucus good time, messy and loud in all of the best ways, if sometimes unintentionally so. And by that I mean dp’s finger-slide made a break for freedom half-way through the evening, but it was swiftly recaptured and they went right back to rocking out.
As an example, here is Shut Up and Love Me, from their Bandcamp:
Here are a few more pictures from the evening:
David Pattillo (dp)
Wylie Wirth
