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Pop Rock Nation

Author: David Middleton

  • 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.

  • FORTY-FIVE REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE #8: Love Me Tongue

    SHANE MACGOWAN & THE POPES  “Nancy Whiskey” b/w “That Woman’s Got Me Drinking” (ZTT/Warner Bros. 7-17782 white label promo, 1995)

    I recall chuckling out loud when I’d heard that The Pogues had “fired” their captivating frontman, Shane MacGowan, for…well you can guess what for.  It wasn’t so much the circumstances that cracked me up as it was the fact that the remaining Pogues had stated they would continue without him.   That just made no sense to me;  The Pogues were, in my opinion, THEE ultimate Irish folk group, and MacGowan THEE classic drunken poet and centerpiece, bar none.  Joe Strummer filled in for some live shows, which I imagine was fun, but ultimately the band tried to go on with a giant gaping hole where Shane was.  It wasn’t bound to last.

    MacGowan, on the other hand, trundled onward like a cockroach, carrying drink and dope addictions and a skull rotting his head to pieces from the mouth out.  Before long he had a new backup band, The Popes, and an album, titled The Snake, to promote.  Warner Bros. obviously handed out hundreds of these white-label promo singles in an attempt to drum up some interest in the album, and possibly to get some airplay and snag a slot or 2 on a jukebox here or there.  The disc came with no artwork, of course, just a white paper sleeve.  But it did feature this little jukebox slot-card, which drums up a mental image of a couple at a malt shop, holding hands and saying, “Oh honey, it’s ‘Nancy Whiskey,’ our song!”

    Of course, I imagine some of the old Irish codgers down at the local pub or diner might recognize the A-side, a traditional drinking song, arranged by MacGowan.  Not far from standard Pogues fare, the track offers up nothing new, but methinks this was a purposeful attempt at reactivating the old Pogues audience.  It doesn’t fail, but it’s the B-side that’s the real scorcher here.

    “That Woman’s Got Me Drinking” (notice the running theme here?) covers the flip with 3:24 of pure liquor-soaked thrash.  While The Popes bash away at the standard three-chord E-D-A progression that is the bastion of so much classic garage rock (think “G-L-O-R-I-A!”), Shane gives us his take on the economical aftermath of The Teapot Dome Scandal.  It’s punk as fuck.  Thrill to the video, directed by and starring your friend and mine, Mr. Johnny Depp.

    SHANE MACGOWAN & THE POPES \”That Woman\’s Got Me Drinking\” on YouTube

    MacGowan and The Pogues eventually reconciled, and are touring and performing together again.  Sometimes.

    NEXT WEEK: It’s round on the ends and high in the middle, and it rolls like a snowplow through the Motor City.