The first time I heard this song was at a listening station in at a Border’s store. I’d never heard of Allison Moorer (or of her and her sister Shelby Lynne’s startling family background) before then, and being that her music was stocked in the country section, I didn’t really think I’d like her all that much, but the Borders blurb suggested this track from her sophomore album The Hardest Part and so I gave it a listen. And for the next couple of weeks, I kept going back to that Borders just to stand like a dork at that listening station with those gigantic headphones on and listen to it again and again. It was love. I eventually broke down and bought the CD (and all her subsequent CDs – although I got skeptical when she started doing duets with Kid Rock) – after all, they had to change out those listening stations eventually. But ten years later, I can still get lost in all of this song’s epic weepy glory. And I love how she’s taken what’s essentially an archetypal Nashville tearjerker and given it just a hint of Sgt. Peppers-by-way-of-Jon-Brion atmosphere. I’d never actually seen the video until I went looking for it today, and found lots of 70s country rock facial hair and lots and lots of Las Vegas sequins in the middle of the desert.
Category: Videos
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The Tuesday Morning Awesome: Spectrum “How You Satisfy Me” (1991)
In one of the more spectacular acts of musical nuclear fission, the two personalities at the core of the seminal shoegazing outfit known as Spacemen 3 split from the group in the early 90s, with singer-guitarist Jason Pierce forming the band Spiritualized, the better to document his adventures in amateur pharmacology through ambient garage rock, gospel choirs and all manner of decadent-pretending-at-profound bombast – hitting pay dirt when the title track of his monumental 1998 album Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space was licensed for a Gap commercial.
Meanwhile, keyboardist-guitarist-singer Sonic Boom, forming a band called Spectrum (named for Boom’s 1990 solo album) delved deeper into hallucinogenic meditations on, like, existence and stuff, drifting further and further away from song structure into studio-assisted mantra and chant. Listening to Spectrum’s records can be like walking into a hall of mirrors, the vocals drowning in echoes of their own echoes, the backing music more perceived or hinted at than actually heard. That said, the band debuted in 1991 with one supremely catchy, radiation-dappled pop song that manages to balance the band’s trance-y aesthetic – tidal washes of echo and distortion, single-chord structure, melodic repetition and harmonic drone – with the sweet simplicity of a teenage love note. From the album Soul Kiss (Glide Divine), here’s Spectrum’s “How You Satisfy Me”.
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The Monday Night Awesome: The Crystal Method “Name of the Game” (2001)
He’s the most popular kid in the school. He’s the star of the football team, a champion wrestler and a stunt bicyclist. He rules the basketball court. He rules the soccer field. He’s got the hottest date (with the longest index finger) for the prom and when it comes to breakdancing – no one can touch him. He’s got hair like Marshall Mathers, and the swagga to match. He’s Nosey. His face is a nose. He is way cool.