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#25 album of 2013 – We Need the Rain by the Bye Bye Blackbirds

Artist: Bye Bye Blackbirds

Album: We Need the Rain

If I’d run a personal poll of my music-geek friends to name the best album of 2013, I think the winner would have been We Need the Rain, an old-fashionedly tuneful guitar-pop album by the Bye Bye Blackbirds. This comes with a caveat: a large share of my voters would have been personal friends of Blackbirds singer/songwriter Bradley Skaught (with whom I’m a friendly online acquaintance). But it also represents something real: Skaught has made at least four albums prior to this, and it’s We Need the Rain in specific that I’ve seen capture listener enthusiasm in such a major way. Its songwriting fits a clear musical tradition — emphatic male tenor/alto vocal melodies, guitar riffs, vocal harmonies, simply propulsive drumming, interesting chord changes, everything built for sing-along catchiness — that used to be highly commercial (Buddy Holly, Rubber Soul) and then kept existing long after it wasn’t anymore (the Rubinoos, the dB’s, Marshall Crenshaw, Adam Schmitt, Richard X Heyman). Its performance, unlike with Skaught’s previous band lineups, is a louder, chunkier rock take on these sounds, with some new country-rock leanings as well, as if Neil Young or the Old 97s had ever tried to pass as British Invasion bands.

Because there’s so many records like this, what makes one stand out can boil down to collections of little details. All in Light cuts the guitars and vocals in and out to leave plenty of emphasis on a syncopated tambourine-and-drumbeat built for sports arenas. Like a Thief spreads out to accommodate several different very good guitar solos, gang-harmonized call-and-response chorus vocals, classic-rock organ, and various key changes, but is pushed along by 5 minutes of gloriously persistent quarter-note drum stomping. Don’t Come Back Now‘s legato vocal melodies trace the quarter note beats with unusual precision, and the guitars flip from mildly sinister to rousing when the lyrics flip from bad romance (“Fathoms deep but still we walk the plank again”) to a determination to move on and be alone. Butterfly Drinks puts a blues-rock swagger to its pop harmonies, pumping up its realistic seduction lines “Meet me where the light looks better on me, I’ll meet you where the light looks better on you./ Just a few drinks for the nerves, and just a few drinks for the road”.

Brand New Sitting Still — co-written with Paula Carino (a wise-ass tunesmith whose 2002 album Aquacade is We Need the Rain‘s major competition for “most widely loved album made in my friendship circle”) — is pretty and restrained, with Christmas-y percussion, but shows off with quietly impressive guitar soloing and an extreme number of chord changes. Waiting for the Drums genuinely sounds like a re-mastered early Beatles track — not counting the quick rock-god drum solo — right as they were moving on from “She loves you and you know that can’t be bad”, to lyrics more like Skaught’s “Two sad eyes soaking up a desert/ Look around, nothing’s getting better./ Listen to the verse, waiting for the drums/ Aching in your heart, playing like your numb./ But now that you find you’re in love/ will you surprise me?” Arena-rocker Broad Daylight rings out forcefully, but with heavy syncopation and plenty of space.

Then there’s 6-minute album closer Spin Your Stars, co-written with lazy, abusive comic-strip cat Garfield (whose full name turns out to be Lindsay Paige Garfield). It leaves us with a mastery of classic-rock slow-burn drama — I’m thinking of current band Black Mountain, but you can imagine a heavier, de-countrified Hotel California or one of Neil Young’s unfolding desert rockers — building to the plea “Call and change me/ call and save me/ call and change me/ leave this world behind”. Which would be an intense relief to Jon and Odie.

We Need the Rain exists partly to bring vibrant melodies and vocal harmonies to exactly the kinds of guitar-rock where it’s expected, and then again, partly to other kinds of rock where it isn’t. It’s by a California guy I spent a very pleasant afternoon with once, fifteen years ago, a guy who liked me before I had any social skills, and that probably made me pay closer attention than otherwise. What I heard when I did so was all up to the band.

– Brian Block

To see the rest of our favorites, visit our Favorite Albums of 2013 page!

June 19, 2014
Remembering Casey Kasem…

I wasn’t surprised when I got the news on Father’s Day that he’d died. Today, I’m remembering Casey Kasem.

Like a lot of other folks who get the bulk of their news from the Internet, over the past few weeks I became aware of the drama surrounding the last days of Casey Kasem’s life. His children from his first marriage to Linda Myers were at odds with his second wife, Jean Kasem, over the legendary announcer’s medical care. I read a number of disturbing accounts of what was going on between the kids and the wife, but I hesitate to draw conclusions. So much of what has been written about how Casey Kasem was cared for during his final days seems very dramatic. Given that I don’t know any of the people involved and recognize how the press can distort things, all I can say is that Kasem’s last weeks on earth were probably a lot less peaceful than they needed to be.

Casey Kasem had lewy body dementia, a cruel disease that also affects my father. My dad is a year younger than Kasem is, though at this point, he still seems relatively coherent at times. Having seen lewy body disease and the dementia it causes up close, I can imagine that Kasem’s last days were very painful for his family. Lewy body dementia typically causes hallucinations and disorientation. In Kasem’s case, it also took his voice. My father has also lost much of his voice and that makes me realize how traumatizing it must have been for Kasem, to lose that one thing that he’d built his life around. My dad used to be a good singer but can barely speak now. It’s hard to imagine Casey Kasem without his famous voice; naturally, he stayed out of the public eye in his last days.

I remember Casey Kasem so well as the voice of Shaggy on Scooby Doo and the announcer on the American Top 40 radio show. On weekend afternoons, I’d be cleaning stalls at the barn where I boarded my horse. The radio would be playing and nine times out of ten, it was Casey Kasem’s show that was on, counting down the nation’s favorite pop songs. His voice had sort of an everyman quality to it. He sounded like a next door neighbor rather than some golden throated announcer. That quality made Casey Kasem easy to relate to; he just sounded like a nice, friendly guy who loved music and wanted to share it. He could be your friend, even if it was only over the airwaves.

Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 circa 1987.

Maybe today’s young people don’t have the memories of Casey Kasem’s show like I do. It’s been awhile since he was last on the air and radio is not the medium it once was, given the many entertainment choices we have available today. But besides hearing him on the radio, I remember seeing Kasem guest on a number of TV shows, including one memorable episode of Saved By The Bell, a show that was initially popular in the late 80s and eventually became even more popular in syndication.

Casey Kasem on Saved By The Bell, introducing “The Sprain”. Looks like he enjoyed that gig!

Of course, Kasem wasn’t without moments of drama. Since his death, a couple of clips on YouTube have sprung up, indicating that he had a tendency to curse sometimes.

There’s a lot of swearing on this video, but I have to admit I get a kick out of hearing Casey Kasem cuss.

Casey Kasem does Shaggy on Scooby Doo.

In addition to his lengthy radio career, cartoon voices, and television cameos, Casey Kasem’s voice also pitched a lot of products. He lent his famous voice to many different product endorsements, doing voiceovers for everything from the California Raisin Advisory Board to Chevron.

Casey Kasem does a voiceover for a Dairy Queen ad circa 1986.

I think of Casey Kasem as being sort of the voice of my generation. At 82, he lived a long and very productive life. He was famous for his long distance dedications and his familiar tag line, “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars…” I hope wherever Casey Kasem is now, he’s among those stars and at peace.

June 17, 2014
June is going by too fast…

It’s the last month of my husband’s full time employment… June is going by too fast!

I’ve been awaiting June 2014 with a mixture of dread, anticipation, and excitement. I dread it because it may mean the start of hard financial times. My husband, Bill, is retiring from the Army and is job hunting. Some of his colleagues have had a tough time finding work and I fear the same for him. I anticipate it because it heralds a new beginning for us. Imagine it! We’re going to start a life that doesn’t involve the government telling us where we have to live (though in fairness, the places we’ve lived have been fine). And there’s excitement, because I’m curious about what’s next. I hope it’s good. I’m glad that the chances of my husband being deployed again are pretty much nil, unless there’s some kind of crisis and he gets recalled after retirement. I’m glad he’s survived having a commission for 30 years and isn’t haunted by so many of the things that haunt veterans, like PTSD and serious injuries and exposure to chemicals.

The past weeks have been an emotional roller coaster, though. I’ve watched Bill apply for jobs, research housing solutions, network with people, celebrate, and enjoy his time off. This week, he’s mostly watched me cough and hack and complain about my sore throat. I think I picked up a nasty bug while bobbing for apples at a “hail and farewell” event put on by his soon to be former co-workers. At least I had the pleasure of throwing an apple at the guy who organized the apple bobbing activity. That was very satisfying. On the other hand, I was dumb to bob for apples. I don’t think my immune system is what it used to be.

Adding to my apprehension is the fact that next Friday I will turn 42. Seems like yesterday I was 21 and these 40s years seemed very far away. Anyway, what does this have to do with Pop Rock Nation? Not a lot, really, other than my getting comfort and meaning out of music, especially when I’m stressing out over a life transition. I find music by certain artists very comforting. James Taylor has always been soothing to me, but in more recent years, I’ve gotten a lot out of Beth Nielsen Chapman’s music.

Beth Nielsen Chapman has written a lot of great songs made famous by other singers. A lot of times, I prefer her original renditions to the covers done by other people. Her songs are always from the heart and have lyrics that anyone can relate to. She’s written some particularly good songs about death and loss, having lost her husband, Ernest Chapman, to cancer in 1994. In 2000, she suffered her own bout with cancer, which inspired her to release Hymns, her own arrangement of Catholic songs she’d grown up with. The songs had given her faith as she struggled through treatment. She’s written some very good love songs and breakup songs… and songs that are nothing but good stories. She’s even written about difficult parent/child relationships and the process of becoming elderly and/or sick.

As the days pass, I have a feeling I’ll be listening to more Beth Nielsen Chapman. Hell, I may even sing some of her songs.

“Beyond The Blue” seems like an appropriate song for our rapid life changes.

“Free” is a great song for cheering up… I think it might have been inspired Chapman’s experiences with cancer.

This is my version of Beth Nielsen Chapman’s “All I Have”, which is a wonderful love song.

In any case, I’m hoping to keep my optimism alive, despite the photo I used for this post. Wish me luck!

June 13, 2014