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  • Paul’s Found Vinyl – Episode 2: Eric Martin Band

    Artist: Eric Martin Band
    Title: Sucker for a Pretty Face
    Label/No.: Elektra 60238
    Year: 1983
    Peak Chart Position: #191
    Producers: Kevin Elson and Rodney Mills
    Singles: “Sucker for a Pretty Face” (Mainstream Rock #42); “Don’t Stop” (didn’t chart)

    SIDE A:
    Sucker for a Pretty Face
    Don’t Stop
    Private Life
    Ten Feet Tall
    Letting It Out

    SIDE B:
    Young At Heart
    Just Another Pretty Boy
    One More Time
    Catch Me If You Can
    Love Me

    Judging by the Cover: Looks very power pop to me. The little earring. The heavily shellacked junior mullet look. The rouged cheekbones, and coy androgyny of the sideways glance. The voluptuous pink lips. The black jacket over the red t-shirt, and a lapel pin of the band’s logo. Seriously, what’s not to love. Except, yikes! That creepily exploitive silhouette in the background! Still… his face looks familiar. Where have I seen him before? Oh, shit. What have I done? Do you know what this is? Do you know who this is? Here’s a hint: I’m the one who wants to be with you, deep inside I hope you feel it too.

    What It Sounds Like: Yup, by the end of the decade, Eric Martin would be the lead singer of one of the wankingest hair metal bands ever: Mr. Big. But in 1983, he was leading an eponymous sextet (the other five are pictured with comically feathered hair and blank looks on the back cover) playing the kind of soul-destroying-but-super-catchy hard rock (with keyboards!) that other, arguably more talented bands like Survivor and Journey were taking to the bank. As demonstrated by this LP, the Eric Martin Band really could have been contendahs in the 80s second-tier film soundtrack sweepstakes. Their sound has just the sort of crassly generic bigness that would sound great next to, say, a montage featuring Ralph Macchio preparing himself for, like, the challenge (any challenge) of a lifetime. Needless to say, I love it. The title track has a galloping beat that’s hard not to love, and other songs like “Ten Feet Tall”, the piano-driven, Hammond-organ accented “Private Life”, and “Just Another Pretty Boy” all have an appealing bar band feel to them (that is the kind of bar band that plays in a bar in a 1983 Demi Moore vehicle) that seems thankfully far removed from the Hollywood pop metal scene of the early 90s. On the other hand, the ballads that close both sides of the LP rival Air Supply for pure, shameless, guilty-pleasure treacle. As it turns out, Eric Martin did land himself a spot on the soundtrack of the 1984 film Teachers (starring Nick Nolte and – what? – Ralph Macchio!). But that song isn’t here. (And frankly, though I remember loving it when I was in junior high, it’s been ages since I’ve seen Teachers, so I couldn’t tell you what scene you’ll hear Eric Martin singing in.)

    Recommended If You Like: Survivor (the band, not the TV show), Journey, Second-Tier Sports Movies, Feathered Hair and Jumpsuits

    CD Availability: In the late 90s, “Sucker for a Pretty Face” was reissued in Japan with newer, more generic cover art, and five bonus tracks. Right now, the cheapest you’ll pay for it on Amazon though is $55. Yikes. Keep the vinyl – it’s good.

    The Highlight Reel: Snippets of “Sucker for a Pretty Face”, “Private Life”, “Ten Feet Tall”, “Just Another Pretty Boy”, and “One More Time”

  • Another Way To Die (The New James Bond Theme) Hits The Internet

    http://www.007.com/popup/wallpapers/images/qos_keyart_1280x1024.jpg

    What do Paul McCartney, Chris Cornell, Sheena Easton, Rita Coolidge, Tina Turner, and Sheryl Crow all have in common?  They all performed a song that was featured in a James Bond movie.  And now we can add the duo of Jack White and Alicia Keys to this list.  Hmm? Did you ever think you would see these two heavyweights team up for a song?  I sure as hell never did.  Their collaboration, Another Way To Die, from the upcoming James Bond movie which hits theaters in November, has just begun streaming at http://www.thirdmanrecords.com.

    The song has that unique dark sound that identifies it as a Bond tune, but from the opening guitar riff you can tell immediately it’s something from the White Stripes.   The combination of piano, guitars, and full on orchestra to open the song is amazing.   You can also hear the distinct R&B sound in the song to remind you that this isn’t going to be just a rock & roll tune. The vocals don’t come on for about a minute, with Jack White singing the opening lyric, and then the two trading off.  I was figuring Alicia Keys would be doing the vocals, with Jack White also writing the song and contributing the back-up vocals and guitar work.  I’m glad I was wrong.  Although I respect Alicia Keys, it’s Jack White’s contribution I was more interested in.  You also get the familiar random Jack White guitar riffs in the middle of the song.  Another Way To Die is surprisingly good, and I can’t wait to hear it over the opening credits of the new Bond Movie.

    I give it 4 Stars.  Good stuff, as Jack White usually never lets me down.

    For shits and giggles, here is my personal Top 5 Bond Themes:

    1) For Your Eyes Only/Sheena Easton

    2) A View To A Kill/Duran Duran

    3) Thunderball/Tom Jones

    4) Goldfinger/Shirley Bassey

    5) You Know My Name/Chris Cornell  (From Casino Royale)

    And the the worst was Madonna’s Die Another Day.  Uggh!

  • Commercial-isms: Lee Jeans vs. The Cars

    Usually, when a company is willing to fork over the licensing fees to use a classic pop song in a commercial, they’ve made some kind of connection between the song’s lyrics and the product they’re selling – even if it’s just a catchphrase removed from its context.  I always thought it was funny how the Disney Cruise ads discreetly cherry-picked Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life”.  But the new ads for Lee Jeans dispense with lyrics altogether in their use of The Cars’ awesome new wave hit “Let’s Go”.  Instead, they pitch an Obama-worthy message about their jeans’ utilitarian qualities and modest price points (as opposed to designer jeans with triple-digit price tags) over the Cars’ distinctive synth-meets-guitar, retro-futuristic hook.

    But just as we expect to hear the dearly departed Benjamin Orr sing “she’s runnin’ away”, or the song’s rallying call “I like the night life, baby!”, or even the handclaps that punctuate the chorus – clap! clap! clap-clap-clap! clap-clap-clap-clap! – or the sci-fi laser show instrumental break that follows them, the poor commercial’s over. This song is the very definition of power pop and I’d be hard-pressed to come up with another song which packs so damn many delicious hooks into three little minutes.  So while it’s nice to hear the little bit of “Let’s Go” we do hear, it’s hard to fight my gut feeling that the song’s been squandered on this ad.
     
    Of course, this got me thinking that “Let’s Go” – one of the Cars’ best (certainly my personal favorite), but maybe not their best known (with “My Best Friend’s Girl” serving as the title of a current multi-plex romantic comedy) – is now 30 years old.  And the ad seems to be appealing to people maybe just out of school who are too old for their parents to be buying them clothes, but too broke to be forking over more than 20 or 30 bucks for a pair of jeans.  That is, twentysomethings.

    And I’m guessing that most twentysomethings, even if they’ve heard of the Cars (maybe from their parents!), probably have no clue what the song is that’s playing behind this ad.  It just, y’know, sounds sorta cool.  I hope I’m wrong about that, but an informal survey of a couple of my officemates born in the 80s (and who are both fairly knowledgeable about 70s and 80s music) suggests otherwise.  Neither of them knew the song, and both only had a passing familiarity with the band who produced it.  I might as well have been asking about the Routers song of the same name, a guitar instrumental from 1962 to which the Cars’ hit makes a couple of obvious musical allusions.  (If the song had been recorded today, they might’ve used samples.)

    Personally, I have very specific memories of “Let’s Go” that go back to the daily after-school trip we’d take each weekday to pick my Dad up from work in Kenosha.  Whenever I hear the song, I think of riding in an AMC station wagon with the sun setting over Hwy 50 at its interchange with I-94, the Brat Stop restaurant (before it burned down and was rebuilt), and the Factory Outlet Mall, which was new back then.  And I remember thinking that it was by E.L.O. on account of the violins on the verses, and Benjamin Orr’s Jeff Lynne-style falsetto flourish on the chorus.  The ad’s target audience might not care, but that’s just the point.  It’s weird and sad to hear such a fantastic song used in a way that presupposes listeners’ indifference to it; to hear it gutted of most of its intrinsic excitement and reduced to little more than semi-stylish background music for an ad about, y’know, cheap blue jeans.