Remember This Song? #3. Aerosmith - "Eat the Rich"

Aerosmith

"Eat the Rich"

Get a Grip

Up to this point, I've been focused on alternative music from the 90s, but after hearing this song today, I thought it'd be interesting to take a look at something slightly more mainstream.



Years before Aerosmith were best known for being "the band the guy from American Idol was in", they were actually a relevant, popular rock band. Which in 1993 was pretty special, given that they were 20 years into their career. Like Pearl Jam are today. Wow.

However, instead of re-releasing their entire back catalog and holding a gigantic birthday party for themselves, Aerosmith did what they knew best and made a record. A fairly decent record that got a lot of airplay. Unheard of, given their age. These were the same music consumers that shunned Guns N' Roses for being old and stodgy, and their first album had come out only 6 years prior.

"Eat the Rich" is the collaboration of Tyler, guitarist Joe Perry and Jim Vallance, who was a professional songwriter that had written "Rag Doll", "The Other Side", and "Deuces Are Wild" from the Beavis & Butthead Experience album.

It was a different time.

Easily the most rock of the singles from Get a Grip, "Eat the Rich" features a signature Joe Perry guitar riff backed by some pretty Dave Grohl-esque drumming from Joey Kramer, who is really pounding the shit out of the skins, for an Aerosmith song.

But this was a new Aerosmith, a cool, sexy one as their record label would have you believe. They wore black, didn't button their shirts and looked pissed off. And it worked, as Get a Grip sold over 7 million copies it's first 2 years of release.

"Eat the Rich" peaked at #5 on the Mainstream Rock chart, but was the album's least successful single, thanks to the mega-success of their video trilogy of "Cryin'", "Amazing" and "Crazy" in which Steven Tyler's daughter Liv and her friend Alicia Silverstone danced around in their underwear and teased Steven Dorff.

It was a different time, indeed.

Back to "Eat the Rich", as you can hear (and see) from the above video, Aerosmith (and/or their management) were trying hard to fit in with the current youth alternative movement. However, there's something hugely amiss with the song - its message. Aerosmith are hardly the first rock band to rally against the upper class, but at this point in their careers, Aerosmith were the upper class. They were probably the richest people they knew. So if the song's orders were to be carried out to their most literal interpretation, Aerosmith would be committing cannibalism, or even worse, self-cannibalism. That's just gross.

It's rare for a band to make it to the two decade mark, as Aerosmith did with the release of Get a Grip, but it's even more rare to be relevant at the time. U2 marked their 20th anniversary with the release of All That You Can't Leave Behind, their 2nd most successful album. R.E.M., however, released Around the Sun, an album I still haven't heard. So the success of this album, and this song, is fairly significant.

Unfortunately for "Eat the Rich", the song hasn't really aged well. It became a big live hit for the band, one they play constantly on tour, but when you hear it today, it sounds more dated than other songs released at the same time. Additionally, the lyrics are very much a 90's sentiment, as the Alternative Revolution was very much born out of a socioeconomic backlash and not just a artistic one. While these same anti-upper class feelings remain in less mainstream music, the popular music of today is more about assimilation when it comes to class struggle than rebellion.

Of course, the song's dated feel may be a psychological effect as well, since the members of Aerosmith are now SIXTY years old and no one ever made important, relevant rock music at that age.

But you don't have to, because you're still rich from back when you did.

Whatever.

90s Live Now - #2 Archers of Loaf

One of the main goals I have for this blog is to explore not only what the music (and other stuff) of the 90s meant to me then, but also what it means now. We're about 15 years removed from the peak of the Alternative Revolution, an interesting time to explore the legacy that this era has left behind. With a little bit of a history lesson, too.

Tonight, I saw a reunited Archers of Loaf, playing to a sold out crowd at the Troubadour in Los Angeles.

I knew little of Archers of Loaf back in the 90s; they had appeared on a few compilations and soundtracks (Mallrats and My So-Called Life among them), but I loved their 1993 hit "Web In Front". I use hit loosely, since it never got any airplay on any of the alternative stations I grew up with, but the song stands as their biggest single, and in my opinion, one of the best tracks of the 90s.

Archers of Loaf then.

Because of the derth of new bands in the 1990s, it was easy for a band whose music wasn't as accessible as most to get lost in the shuffle. Bands like Pavement, Superchunk and Guided By Voices weren't irrelevant, but hardly got the attention that more radio-friendly groups like Everclear and The Smashing Pumpkins did.

However, now that we've put some miles between then and now, it's easier to see what the better music of the decade actually was. As much as I like Everclear's Sparkle and Fade album, it feels more like a guilty pleasure now than it did when I bought it in 1995. Perhaps it's the indie/hipster aesthetic that came with the emergence of The Strokes, or perhaps what became of Everclear post-Sparkle that has caused this shame. I'd like to think it was more of the latter, as their albums got progressively worse and worse. Not to pick on Everclear, but to me they represent the most middle-of-the-road of mid-90s alt rock. Them and Better Than Ezra.

So the question becomes, would Everclear be more highly regarded if they had stopped after their third album? Hard to say, but it certainly didn't hurt Archers of Loaf in retrospect.

Which brings us back to tonight. Archers broke up in 1998, but have recently reunited (obviously) and are touring (still obvious). As evidenced by the crowd tonight, Archers legacy was never tarnished by increased attempts at the mainstream in order to make money, and has instead held intact as a respected and beloved group that is equal parts experimental noise as melodic rock.

Archers of Loaf tonight.

Tonight, the melodic rock side of Archers won out, with the rock weighing heavier into the equation. the band took the stage and tore into "Audiowhore" from their 1994 EP Vs. The Greatest of All Time. They continued the set with "Lowest Part is Free!" from the same disc.

As the show continued, I was surprised at how many songs I had managed to find a spot in my mental jukebox. And I wasn't the only one. When the band launched into 1995's "Harnessed In Slums" (their 2nd biggest hit), nearly the whole crowd was singing along, something that only increased as the night went on. By the time they played "Web In Front", around the 40 minute mark of their 45 minute set, the audience was raucous, yelling back at the band with fervor.

One thing I've noticed while seeing these reunited bands is that they don't show any signs of wear or age (except for The Cars, but since they were defunct for the 90s, they won't find their way onto this blog). In most cases, they're a better band than they were back in the day. With age comes wisdom and learning from your mistakes. Just like Buffalo Tom, Archers were tight and played with enthusiasm, something that is no doubt a by-product of not having to play the same songs night in and night out for the last 15 years.

I've often said that I think bands should resolve to stay together for a decade. Put out as much or as little music as you want, but after 10 years you have to make a choice: break up or tour only as a nostalgia act. There's always exceptions, but a band's creative output suffers greatly around the decade mark. Think of Weezer if they had stopped at Maladroit (we'd still have the green album, but that would be the worst of it). Or Metallica if the Black album was the last they'd put out. Their legacies would not be tarnished and their fans would not have to wish they had the "old Weezer" back. As I do so very often.

So because of their breakup, which came as a result of creative stagnation, Archers of Loaf never suffered through the post-decade garbage years and have instead re-emerged as relevant examples of the highest quality alternative music released in the 90s and can still put on an exciting - and cool - show.

Whatever.

15 Years Ago Today #1 - 6/3/96

What a difference 5 years makes. Not only were none of the top artists from the same week in 1991 in the top 10 of 1996, with the exception of Soundgarden, none of the groups below had even released an album by 1991. (You could exclude Alanis Morissette as well, since she was making manufactured pop in 1991 instead of manufactured Adult Alternative.) A big difference from just 5 years prior, when R.E.M., Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello and the Violent Femmes were already 10+ years into their careers. Young people were important as artists, not just as a demographic with expendable income.

Even more incredible is the fact that, save for R.E.M., none of the chart stars of June of 91 had even released relevant material since that time. While some would argue that the same kind of chart fleetingness is present today, the difference is the cultural "revolution" of the 1990s brought forth more new artists than there had been in years, instead of short attention spans.

The Cranberries were on top with their single "Salvation", a far cry from their first single, "Linger", or their enormous hit off of their second album, No Need to Argue, "Zombie". Where as "Linger" recalled the breezy pop of The Sundays, and "Zombie" the heavy sludge associated with Seattle, "Salvation" had more in common with the new wave and ska sounds of contemporaries Elastica and No Doubt, respectively. That was one thing that was great about The Cranberries - you never felt like you were hearing the same song twice. Unless, of course, you were hearing the same song twice, which was a likely occurrence during the peak of "Zombie"'s popularity.

Despite the more kinetic sound, the song fell flat with its anti-drug message, and was not nearly as effective as the anti-terrorism slant of "Zombie". Which is surprising, given the first lines of the song:

To all those people doing lines, don't do it, don't do it.

If there is a more effective anti-drug message, I have yet to hear it.



Warning: Watching this video will no doubt bring on a heavy wave of nostalgia for the time that there was music on MTV, videos were important and may bring back some certain unhealthy feelings for Dolores O'Riordan.

Something else notable about June of 1996 was the prevalence of female artists and female fronted-bands. Besides The Cranberries, Tracy Bonham and Alanis Morisette made the Top 10, but the aforementioned No Doubt and Elastica were also getting a lot of airplay, as was Garbage, Hole, Magnapop, Sheryl Crow, Jewel, The Goops, Letters to Cleo, Juliana Hatfield, Lush, Fiona Apple, and Veruca Salt. Not to mention the fact that 73% of bands of the time had female bass players.

1. The Cranberries - "Salvation"
2. Tracy Bonham - "Mother Mother"
3. Soundgarden - "Pretty Noose"
4. Dishwalla - "Counting Blue Cars"
5. Bush - "Machinehead"
6. Dave Matthews Band - "Too Much"
7. The Verve Pipe - "Photograph"
8. Oasis - "Champagne Supernova"
9. Goldfinger - "Here In Your Bedroom"
10.Alanis Morissette - "You Learn"

Whatever.

20 Years Ago Today #1 - 6/3/91

Before the Alternative Revolution (led by Grunge, followed by Alt Rock, with Pop Punk and Ska bringing up the rear), when there was still such a thing as Progressive music, there was just Alternative. Or Modern Rock. Or College Radio. Whatever it was called, the Alternative music of the very early 90s bore little semblance to the raucous cacophony heralded by Nirvana.

On top of the chart was Elvis Costello's "The Other Side of Summer", a fairly lackluster track that pays tribute to The Beach Boys. The only problem is, British artists don't make good surf music. It's not an easy thing to pull off, but being from a from a place where people actually surf certainly helps.

All in all, June of 1991 was fairly anemic, with only The La's "There She Goes" and Siouxsie & The Banshee's "Kiss Them For Me" real classics. However, a strong case could be made for The Violent Femme's "American Music" as it is almost certainly gracing the front page of a screenplay in a desk somewhere.

Billboard's Most Popular Alternative songs from 6/3/11:

1. Elvis Costello - "The Other Side Of Summer"
2. Joe Jackson - "Obvious Song"
3. The La's - "There She Goes
4. Julian Cope - "Beautiful Love"
5. Violent Femmes - "American Music"
6. Electronic - "Get The Message"
7. The Farm - "All Together Now"
8. R.E.M. - "Texarkana"
9. Siouxsie and The Banshees - "Kiss Them For Me"
10.EMF - "I Believe"

Whatever.

Cover Art #1. Seaweed - "Go Your Own Way"

While the movie soundtrack album was by no means a new invention in 1994, as The Big Chill and Saturday Night Fever had proved, they were near ubiquitous at the time. Nearly all studio released comedies and tentpoles had an accompanying album of the songs featured in the film (and ones written for it). Some were great (Empire Records), some were terrible (Airheads) and many were superior to the movie they were made to promote (The Crow: City of Angels, Mallrats, Judgement Night).

More often than not, these albums were made up of 4 types of tracks:

1. A song inspired by the movie, written by the flavor of the month in order to help sell both CD and movie (The Smashing Pumpkins - "The End is the Beginning is the End" from the Batman & Robin soundtrack)

2. A b-side from a popular band that for one reason or another didn't find its way onto an album, but was a quality song nonetheless and often received airplay (Weezer - "Suzanne" from the Mallrats soundtrack)

3. A song intended to break the "next big thing" but ultimately becomes a "whoa, I remember this song" while perusing the used soundtracks section at your local record store (Neve - "It's Over Now" from The Faculty soundtrack)

4. A cover, sometimes a tribute and sometimes a joke but usually uninspired, of a popular song, often from the 70s, by a band of the day.

For the first installment of Cover Art (how clever!), we'll take a look at the Tacoma, Washington band Seaweed's cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way" from the Clerks soundtrack.



As legend remembers it, the Clerks screening at the Sundance Film Festival was a watershed moment for independent film, and the movie grossed over $3 million domestically despite never playing on more than 100 screens at a time. Legend also has it, and is probably true, that the music rights for the film cost more than it did to make it, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of $28,000. Cheap, cheap, cheap.

The soundtrack featured a number of popular and less-so bands of the time: Alice in Chains and Soul Asylum (type 2 above), Bash & Pop and Supernova (type 3) and Golden Smog and Seaweed, both of whom contributed pure Type Fours: the aforementioned Fleetwood Mac cover and Golden Smog's version of Bad Company's "Shooting Star".

While the Golden Smog track is good example of bland take on a mostly bland song, Seaweed's version of this Fleetwood Mac classic is one of the best covers of the 90s. The song starts with the same simple chords of the original, but singer Aaron Stauffer, bass player John Atkins and drummer Bob Bulgrien give it a sense of urgency that is missing from it's predecessor. For the first 38 seconds, you're on the edge of your seat, less so from the familiarity of the upcoming chorus, and more because the band puts you there. Finally, when the chorus kicks in at the 0:39 mark, they launch into it with the punk abandon that separated them from the grunge brethren in Seattle. This song is played with passion from it's opening guitar strums and when the chorus finally kicks in, you're rewarded with the catharsis the band has been promising.

From there, they don't let up. Instead of keeping the double-time beat of the chorus throughout the song, the band uses the "Nirvana dynamics" (though to a lesser degree) and dials it back just enough in the second verse to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Later, the guitar solo kicks in and takes us through the end of the song, with the anthemic repetition of the song's hook repeated in true punk rock style: everyone yelling at once, fists no doubt pumping in the air. However, Seaweed never turns the song into a typical punk rock cover of the era, which usually featured a sneering, nasally singer making a joke out of a great song while the band plays it twice as fast as it was written. Theirs instead is a great moment, and Seaweed breathes new life into the song, introducing it to a generation of music-goers who no doubt shunned Fleetwood Mac because it's something their parents like. Me included.

Unfortunately, Seaweed never gained the notoriety of their peers, despite having one of the best singles of the alternative rock era, "Start With" from their 1995 album, Spanaway. But that's for another entry.

Whatever.

Remember This Song? #2. The Dandy Warhols - "Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth"

The Dandy Warhols

"Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth"

The Dandy Warhols Come Down

Another great 90s band that ultimately will be remembered for little more than a theme song to a CW show (see: Remy Zero, Nerf Herder), The Dandy Warhols first taste of mainstream success was not "We Used to Be Friends" aka Theme From Veronica Mars, but rather a catchy song with a catchy video and a catchy name, "Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth."



The first single off of their stellar 1997 album ...The Dandy Warhols Come Down, (the band's second) "Junkie" is instantly recognizable from it's refrain "heroin is so passe," a scathing indictment of...someone. The full line, "I never thought you'd be a junkie because heroin is so passe" was perfectly timed for alternative rock fans who had watched their patron saint commit suicide after well publicized heroin use not 3 years before, in the prime of his career. Countless other rock stars of the time fell prey to the drug and many, including Blind Melon's Shannon Hoon, Alice in Chains' Layne Stayley and Sublime's Bradley Nowell (not to be confused with Sublime With Rome's Rome), gave the drug their lives. However, the most popular theory is that the song skewers the Brian Jonestown Massacre's Anton Newcombe, no doubt made more credible by the bands' long running feud, documented in Ondi Timoner's great documentary, DiG!

All that aside, the band pushed the cheek hard in the video for the song, directed by photographer David LaChapelle. The video featured the band playing on a cheesy, drug-addled hybrid of The Price is Right and a Busby Berkeley movie, complete with dancing girls in syringe costumes and sets designed by Walter Barnett. The clip stood out on MTV (and it's much-greater sister station M2) not only for its silliness and imagery, but for it's use of color and lighting, which contrasted heavily with the dark, brooding videos of the time. I'm looking straight at you, Billy Corgan. Yep, you.

Also standing out at the time were the boobs of keyboardist Zia McCabe. Did this girl even own a bra? Not that we minded at the time...

Back to the song, its power-pop sensibility with it's relentless drum groove and Korg keyboard riff reminded all of its listeners of the most important thing with The Dandy Warhols: they were fucking cool. The lead singer had awesome hair and a hyphenated last name - and they were both the same name! Courtney Taylor-Taylor - how cool is that shit? Yes, in hindsight it seems pretentious and trite, but this was the 90s. You could get away with that kind of crap and even be considered cool for it.

The album itself is some kind of awesome (produced by Tony Lash of Heatmiser) and features some outstanding tracks, sharing the same pop sensibility as "Junkie" ("Every Day Should Be a Holiday") but maintaining their neo-psychedelic sound. This was a band at their peak.

Whatever.

90s Live Now - #1 Buffalo Tom

Tonight I had the pleasure of seeing one of my all-time favorite bands, Buffalo Tom, for the first time.

In the 90s, I had 3 key moments of exposure to the band, all of which are fond memories and factored heavily into who I am today. Or something like that.

Moment #1 - The "Self Esteem" episode of MY SO-CALLED LIFE. You know, the one where Angela and Jordan were making out in the boiler room and she goes to the Pike to see Buffalo Tom and Jordan is playing pool and totally gives her the cold shoulder. What a douche. We heard "Sodajerk" when Angela enters and "Late at Night" during that unforgettable moment. Side note: who would have thought that years later Jordan Catalano would be in a bigger (but in no way better) band (30 Seconds to Mars) than the one he was going to see that night? Crazy.

(Side note: Claire Danes was in attendance tonight. Awesome.)

Moment #2 - The June 25, 1995 episode of MTV's 120 Minutes, hosted by The Catherine Wheel. The episode premiered Buffalo Tom's video for "Summer," which was most appropriate, not only for its timeliness, but also that it will forever remind me of the summer of 1995, aka The Best Summer Ever.

Moment #3 - The last episode of the John Stewart Show. In his introduction to them, John said the network had given him his choice of musical guest for his last episode. His first choice was Nine Inch Nails, arguably the hardest act to book in 1995. His second choice? Buffalo Tom, a relatively unknown band at the time. Actually, they still are today. The played their newest single, "Summer" and I was hooked.

Fast forward to 1998. Buffalo Tom was running a promotion on their website. Fans could write their local radio station requesting their new single, "Rachael" and forward or cc the email to the band. One lucky winner (presumably) from each town would be put on the guestlist for an upcoming show.

It was to my great surprise one evening that my mom told me that there was a message on the answering machine (no voicemail yet!) from a guy named Bill. Sure enough, it was Bill Janovitz, thanking me for the email I sent to Orlando's terrible (and at the time only) rock station, WJRR. The station around this time had Stabbing Westward and Korn in heavy rotation, so the chances of "Rachael" getting played were slim to none, but I tried. For my reward, Bill would put me on the guestlist of the nearest show...which was in Connecticut. Buffalo Tom had not come through Orlando before and would not again before their breakup, and I never had the chance to see them.


Bill Janovitz on a different night

Which brings us to tonight. When I saw that they were playing the Troubadour, one of the greatest music venues in the world, I couldn't pass it up. And thank god I didn't. Opening with "Tree House" from their album Big Red Letter Day, the band launched right into their 90+ minute set, and hit all of the highlights; every song I wanted to hear. I can't remember the last time I saw a band that played so many of my favorite of their songs. "Summer", "Late at Night", "Mineral", "Taillights Fade", "Sodajerk"...even a cover of New Order's "Age of Consent" and a great one at that.

On top of that, the band was extremely tight, engaging and played with an enthusiasm rarely seen anymore. A fantastic show and the perfect first entry for this feature.

Whatever.