Music Exceeds the Headphones
I am almost taken aback this morning at how good Better Than Ezra’s Deluxe actually is, once I stop pressing the “track backwards” button each time “Good” finishes playing.
I always saw this album as being kind of a bee-bop alternative precursor to the much more sophisticated, polished, and beautiful Friction, Baby. Baby is certainly all of those, but Deluxe is better assembled than I originally had assumed.
They lay down a nice jam progression in “Rosealia,” and “Cry in the Sun” evokes quite a bit of Black Crowes for me. I’d like to hear a purely acoustic rendition of “Porcelain,” because the bongos really work for me. Altogether very much fun to work my way through between hacking up a lung on the way to work this morning.
My hand muscle massage hocus pocus must not forestall new exotic international illnesses, because I’ve been totally wrecked by a nasty cold all weekend. I’m just glad to be getting it out of my system before London.
I read through the Wikipedia entry on the Stone Temple Pilots this morning, and I am struck at how many grunge bands got panned by Rolling Stone as being Pearl Jam soundalikes. Apparently, in one year STP was voted best band by fans at the same time the editors voted it worst band.
STP was headbanger hard alternative. This was punch beat, high energy music for working through deep personal issues and angst by rattling your brain around and slinging water off your 8” combed-back grunger hair.
It was good music. Trippy, playful, but not too progressive. I’m sure we’d all like to see a present-day David Bowie or Rush show up to save us from this rat crap we’re being served up now, but we don’t need hundreds of those types of guys. I think the nineties was such an incredible time, everyone could afford to be a little too picky.
Sometimes you just need to tap your foot, bang your head, or ask a girl to dance. I mean, Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4” might be pretty musically important, but “Colour My World” is a better song to me.
As to the title, my new snazzy blue Phillips headphones have already (1 month or so?) found a way to sever the connection to the left bud. Not a big loss for work listening, as I tend to keep the boss-facing left ear unbudded, but it’s a serious deal-breaker working my way down the noisy Buyukdere Cd. on the way to work.
How many sets of earbuds have I thrown away in my life?