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Pop Rock Nation

Author: David Middleton

  • FORTY-FIVE REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE #11: Saving My Milk For Jesus

    VARIOUS ARTISTS  The Now Wave Sampler  (Columbia Records AE7-1187 white-label promo, 1979)

    First, allow me to point out that this is a special “33 & 1/3” edition of 45 RPM, as the 7-inch platter I’m dissecting this week plays at the slower speed, for the purpose of accomodating four full-length tracks.  That said, this is an exciting little slab of plastic from a bygone (but very fun) era, when the loose, decadent Jimmy Carter-late-’70’s hadn’t yet slipped into the buttoned-up, tight-assed Ronald Reagan-early-’80’s.  I was old enough to enjoy it, and young enough not to have any serious responsibilities weighing me down, so I spent just about every weekday afternoon, and every Saturday, rain or shine, down at my neighborhood record shop.  (A what what, now?)  Well, sonny boy, I guess you just had to be there.

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  • FORTY-FIVE REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE #10: Halste Whilste

    VARNALINE  “The Hammer Goes Down” b/w “Hear The Birds Cry”  (Zero Hour Records ZHS7-11 white-label promo, 1996)

    The “Lo-Fi Explosion” that seemed to take over the U.S. after the first few Ween, Pavement and Guided By Voices records was short-lived.  Much to my dismay, actually.  I mean, for all that I may kvetch about the sound-quality of certain discs, or that some recordings leave me with “listener’s fatigue” (fancy studio-lingo for an earache), I found so many diamonds-in-the-rough during that period that I secretly wish it never ended.  Maybe it’s still going on somewhere, wherever there’s disenfranchised suburban kids with guitars and tape-recorders in their bedrooms.  But ultimately, home-studio equipment has become too advanced, and too ubiquitous.  Anyone can make an Aja-quality recording in his or her own kitchen these days with Pro-Tools and a decent computer.  But back in the ’90’s, that stuff wasn’t as readily available.  Talented songwriters like Varnaline’s Anders Parker had to use a 4-track and lots of elbow-grease to get their point across, and that gave the songs an extra power, an almost subterranean quality, that made them stand out from the pack.

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  • FORTY-FIVE REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE #9: Desperados Under The Palapas

    AFGHAN WHIGS  “Conjure Me” b/w “My World Is Empty Without You” (Sub Pop Records SP142, 1991)

    All roads lead to Cincinnati, if you believe the cover art of this single, a not-so-subtle take-off on the old Motown label design.  In this case, however, you’d be right, because this week’s slab of ancient wax comes from Greg Dulli and the Afghan Whigs, one of the finest musical outfits ever to emerge from the Queen City of southwestern Ohio.  Combining grunge power and Sonic Youth-style dissonance with a passion for classic R&B, the Whigs were the first non-Northwestern band to sign to Seattle’s prestigious (and, at the time, financially hemorrhaging) Sub Pop label.

    Pressed on delicious-looking milky-white vinyl, this early Whigs 45 gives us the original track, “Conjure Me” on the A-side, which later appeared on their debut LP, Congregation.  A straightforward, uptempo rocker, very much within Sub Pop’s usual vein of things at the time, “Conjure Me” finds Dulli & Co. swimming in thick walls of guitar distortion and beefy vocal hooks.  This promotional video, which probably landed on 120 Minutes once or twice, combines all that with dark images of sex and death.  Ahh, the early ’90’s…

    AFGHAN WHIGS \”Conjure Me\” on YouTube

    Now the real prize here is the B-side, a cover of the Holland/Dozier/Holland-penned Supremes classic, “My World Is Empty Without You.”  Originally a non-hit for the Supremes in late 1965, “My World…” has been covered by everyone from Jose Feliciano to David McCallum.  But it’s this Whigs’ version here that I find the most compelling of all, mainly because of Greg Dulli’s excellent interpretation.  Here he’s using his best John Lennon-meets-Joe Cocker (or is it John Belushi?) vocal, skewering right deep down into the meat of the song’s lyrics, then turning it all upside-down and bashing the living shit out of it.  By the time he & the band reach the second refrain, the song becomes positively unhinged.  This rehearsal tape sez it all.  (And by the way, ladies and gentlemen, notice that Greg Dulli is so good, he can deliver a vocal like this while SEATED.)

    AFGHAN WHIGS \”My World Is Empty Without You\” on YouTube

    The Whigs went on to record many great albums before disbanding in 2001.  Dulli (along with Screaming Trees’ Mark Lanegan) continues in The Twilight Singers.

    NEXT WEEK: I can see for miles and miles, from Portland to the Space Needle and back again.