Remember This Song? #7. Hum - "Stars"

I heard a song in a Ralph's today-

(Ed. note: Ralph's is a California chain of grocery stores, in case you aren't a connoisseur of such places)

-that made me think of the band Hum.

(Ed. note: Hum is a Champaign, IL space-rock band that released 3 amazing albums before disbanding.)

Not because it sounded like them at all - just the opposite. This song, whatever it was, was so cookie-cutter and cliche, it felt like it might have been made by a computer. It probably was. Just a bunch of characteristics of popular songs fed into the Hit-O-Matic, slap an algorithm on it, and bam - instant hit. Maybe not hit, but at least something that sounds like it should be a hit because it sounds like all other hits have sounded. That's popular music now.

In 1995, simply-named Hum released their 2nd album, You'd Prefer an Astronaut, which spawned their only thing even resembling a hit, the similarly simply-titled "Stars." But to call the song a hit is being more than generous - it got some radio support and a decent amount of exposure on 120 Minutes and maybe even Alternative Nation if they were out of Chili Peppers videos. No matter, "Stars" did okay,  peaking at #11 on the Billboard Modern Rock/Alternative chart. To compare, the #11 slot is currently occupied by Mumford and Sons, one of the biggest groups on the planet right now and pretty much the closest thing the 2010s have to a Dave Matthews Band. So how did a very heavy, riff-based song with a monotone vocal get all the way to #11 in 1995, when the biggest neo-folk band in the biggest neo-folk time misses the Top 10?

Who wouldn't prefer an astronaut?

It all comes down to exposure. While bands today rely on blogs or licensing to commercials and TV shows for widespread exposure, terrestrial radio and MTV were the main sources for new music in 1995. And there were a hell of a lot more rock stations than there are now. Over the last 10 years, almost all modern rock stations have either altered their formats to include more commercial rock or have changed formats completely due to declining ratings, the most influential among them. WHFS in Washington, DC and WXRK in New York are only 2 of the many casualties the format suffered as alternative rock lost commercial viability. Even Orlando, the medium-sized city that I grew up in, had two modern rock stations in the mid-90s, only one of which is still a rock station today. And with most of these stations eschewing older and mainstream acts in 1995, program directors found themselves with more time for alternative than ever, which meant it was more likely that a song like "Stars" to have at least some success.

But more of what made "Stars" successful was the confluence of its mysterious lyrics, simple melody and insanely heavy guitar, even for the time. The song begins with four bars (two on the single version) of strummed clean electric guitar and singer Matt Talbot quietly singing the song's refrain before the pretty much HUGEST dropped-D chord you've ever heard hits just once, blowing out your speakers and fading out completely before another set of clean, strummed chords give way to the barreling two guitar attack that made Hum one of the most interesting groups of the 90s.

Besides the subject matter of their songs, Hum relied on all kinds of tricks that few other bands of the era employed. Melding space-rock, shoegaze and metal elements, "Stars" was one of their few songs with a distinguishable chorus as oftentimes walls of distorted, shimmering guitars gave way to Talbot's hypnotic, droning yet tender voice that focused more on structure than repetition. While this may sound unappealing to radio programmers of today, the 90s were one of the only times in rock history that this type of music could have been successful. Save perhaps for the early 70s, as Hum isn't terribly far from Led Zeppelin's more obtuse material like "Dazed and Confused". But without Robert Plant's histrionic vocals, would the average listener have been able to stomach something like "Dazed" or "Kashmir"?

What's more remarkable about Hum is that despite "Stars" and You'd Prefer An Astronaut being their biggest single and album, respectively, neither are their best or most polished work. That distinction belongs to their next album, 1998's Downward is Heavenward. Continuing with the prevalent theme of space that carried through so much of Astronaut (see? that's a space thing), Downward tells the story of a group of astronauts stuck in space, desperate to return home to Earth. Heady stuff, even for 1998. I'm not sure this album could even get made now, let alone be released on a major label and given video support, which Downward was, though history has been kind, as Pitchfork put it at #81 in their Top 100 Albums of the 90s and the album has 4.5 out of 5 stars on All Music.

Sadly, the band broke up shortly after that, but have gotten together a few times to play reunion shows in Chicago or whatever city they feel like playing. And each time, the venues are packed with fans who appreciated the band for what it was, and not those who stay for the hit and then leave.

More to come on Hum in this blog, as Downward was a hugely important album for me, but for now here's "Stars" in all it's glory, live on NATIONAL NETWORK TELEVISION! And the guys are wearing shorts - something that would never fly in these image-centric internetting times we live in.

Whatever.

Happy Birthday, Billy Corgan!

Little known fact: long before he was a professional wrestling promoter, Billy Corgan was once in a rock n roll combo named The Smashing Pumpkins. They never had the mega-success of say, a White Town or Baja Men, but they did alright.

WRONG THEY WERE THE GODDAMNED SMASHING PUMPKINS JUST ABOUT THE GREATEST BAND THAT EVER LIVED FOR A FEW ALBUMS.

Now, the Pumpkins live on with a kid for a drummer and none of its original members, save for Billy.

Let's ignore what they are now, and focus on their best song ever, "Cherub Rock"

Happy Birthday, Billy! May today be the greatest day you've ever known.

Whatever.

Sugar Ray Sinks Boat

As great as the 90s were for music, it's only a matter of time before we have to endure a terrible commercial on a Sunday afternoon advertising a watered down and overpriced Time Life compilation featuring nothing but "the best" of 90s alternative. No doubt, a man and woman dressed in some sort of flannel will speak directly to the camera (and you), reminding you of how great things were when you were young, and how easy it will be to feel that way again for 4 easy payments of $19.95 + S&H.

And this compilation will no doubt skip over the Nirvanas, Smashing Pumpkins and Radioheads of the world because their music still sells a good amount and doesn't need the licensing money that Time Life will offer them to put a 2nd or 3rd single on their box set.

Not only will those bands not be featured because they're too expensive, but also because the curators of this collection will try to get songs with the broadest appeal ("One Week" by the Barenaked Ladies will be on this hypothetical CD, I can guaran-damn-tee it), because let's face it - most people don't give a shit about music. Most people aren't interested in what made the Dandy Warhols different than Spacehog, because to most people it's the same shit and I just want to hear it and not think about it.

This is known in television as the "CBS Syndrome."

And it is because of the CBS Syndrome that Sugar Ray, Smash Mouth, the Gin Blossoms, the Spin Doctors and Marcy Playground will all appear on this compilation.

This is what people think of when they think of the 90s. Sugar Fucking Ray.

And because of this homogenization of the era's music, Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray was able to get the aforementioned bands together to tour.

Tour what? Arenas, with comfortable chairs and $10 parking? State fairs? Theme parks.

Nope. They're (going) on a boat.

To be precise, WERE going on a boat. Because as of 2 days ago, this Tragical History Tour was canceled.

Citing Carnival Cruise's Triumph disaster, in which an engine room fire let to looting and hall-pooping within presumably minutes, the planned cruise from Miami to the Bahamas has been canceled, leaving at least dozens of thirty-somethings desperate to get away from their kids (and relive the part of their lives that wasn't centered on a co-dependent 2'4" vomit machine) with nothing to do for 4 days and 5 nights in mid-October.

But don't fret fans of How I Met Your Mother, aka "No, Really, It's Not Like Big Bang Theory At All" (SPOILER ALERT: Yes, it fucking is.), for Mark McGrath and Co. have ditched the boat for the luxuries of charter tour buses and will be hitting the road this summer with a pretty much identical tour of Sugar Ray, the Gin Blossoms, Smash Mouth, Fastball and Vertical Horizon.

Vertical. Fucking. Horizon.

Whatever.

Stone Temple Pilots Terminates Scott Weiland

No doubt showing up naked and immediately stealing some bikers' clothes, the 3 members of Stone Temple Pilots that are not Scott Weiland have "terminated" Scott Weiland from the band just days before he is about to embark on a solo tour. A solo tour on which he will play Stone Temple Pilots songs. Without the rest of Stone Temple Pilots.

To further complicate things, Weiland claims that he hasn't been fired, and how could he, given that he "founded, fronted and co-wrote many of its biggest hits"?

Given that Weiland has made numerous bad decisions that have led to drugs, legal troubles, and being in Velvet Revolver, the fact that the DeLeos are moving on without him is hardly surprising. After all, they have done this before, when they formed Talk Show which lasted exactly one album before STP came back with No. 4 in late 1999.

Just so everyone remembers, here's STP with Weiland:

And here's STP without:

On second listen, maybe it doesn't matter if he's in the band or not. Just get that guy to put on a Weiland mask.

Whatever.

Happy Birthday, Kurt Cobain.

Had he not taken his own life, Kurt Cobain would have turned 46 today. As I've written before, the impact that Nirvana had on my life is immeasurable, and you can't hear their music today without wondering what might have been.

Here is one of my favorite Kurt interviews, from the beginning:

 

And another great one, from the end:

Wherever you are, I hope you've found peace. None of this would exist if it wasn't for you.

Whatever.

Happy Birthday, Billie Joe Armstrong!

A Happy 41st Birthday to Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, who is hopefully celebrating without drinking somewhere because of that whole breaking-down-at-a-giant-popfest-thing.

Wait, what the shit?! 41?! How is that possible?!

Good lord, it's been more than 20 years since this?

Incidentally, this is probably Green Day's best song. It's weird to think that there might be people reading this blog-

-Doubtful.

-Ahem. People reading this blog who are younger than that song. You see kids, a long time ago, back before the war(s), Green Day were an actual punk band that did ironic punk things, like tour in a bookmobile and throw mud at people on the biggest stage of their lives and curse on television and play a different song than they told the MTV people they were going to. Those rascals. Yes, believe it or not, they weren't always the corporate, polished, pretentious arena rockers they are today.

Uno, Dos and Tres? Seriously? C'mon guys. You couldn't cut those down to one album? There was one single between all three and it was T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E. "Oh, Love." THOSE WERE THE ONLY LYRICS! And you can't act like rock stations like KROQ wouldn't support it because they still play "When On I Come Around" on an HOURLY rotation like it was still goddamned 1995! KROQ, GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER! YOU WERE ONCE AN IMPORTANT ROCK STATION! Now, you're playing that "$20 in my pocket" rap song. Just stop, already! And maybe ease up on the Sublime and Chili Peppers a little so I wouldn't be more inclined to listen to sports talk radio all day.

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Billie Joe. Please come back and excite me like you did when I was 15 and you were 23.

That sounds weird.

Whatever.

Marilyn Manson is Literally Sick of His Own Music

When alt rock took off in the early 90s, and being punk came in vogue again, there was a period where shock value was brought back into rock. The slam-dancing punk rock of the late 70s and early 80s had done their best to challenge the establishment, but there were only so many body parts you could pierce with safety pins before the effect wore off. This gave way to the 80s and more mainstream artists like Cyndi Lauper and Missing Persons making bold fashion statements by co-opting what was previously meant to shock.

After a while, that subsided and rock was once again fairly clean cut. Sure Motley Crue and GnR had did their best, but for each of them, there were 7 Warrants and 10 Def Leppards negating the attempt to defile every nubile girl and snort every ounce of coke on the Sunset Strip.

So when Nirvana came along, with their metered and determined anti-establishment ethos, and the resurrected gimmick of smashing their instruments after every performance, they seemed new and interesting and edgy. Kurt died his hair and wore a dress. He kissed his bandmates. They put a naked baby on the cover of their album.

While Nirvana and others did their best to upset things, there was a band gaining popularity in Florida that was determined to take it even further.

With each member creating pseudonyms for themselves comprised of a famous beautiful person and a serial killer, Marilyn Manson was born. The band, I mean. Not Brian Warner, the lead singer of the band that shares his fake name.

In starting a band, Warner seemed more intent on garnishing negative attention from his persona and stage antics than he did the music he was attempting to draw attention to. He was arrested for performing oral sex on a man onstage (really Jack Off Jill singer Jessicka Addams wearing a dildo). He named a song "Cake and Sodomy." He wore face paint.

This rebelliousness continued as the band gained popularity, largely based on an interesting cover of the Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams" and its video in which Warner rides a pig. 

 

Seriously. That's what he does.

Deciding he wasn't getting the right kind of attention, Manson named his next album Antichrist Superstar (at least he had a sense of humor about the whole thing. Kinda.) which spawned their most successful single to date, "The Beautiful People." And it was this song that prompted Manson to collapse and vomit onstage yesterday in Saskatoon, Canada, when he just kinda tipped over mid-song.

Good thing it was in a land with universal health care, eh?

Here's the video:

"The beautiful people, the beautiful pee- BLEEEECHHHH!!!!"

Compounding the problem was that he fell right as the song exits the chorus, when Manson and/or the backing track let out a pained wail. Even watching the video, it's hard to tell whether or not A. he sang that part and B. if it was a legitimate moan this time. Concert goers reported that he barfed all over but you can't tell from the video. Which is a good thing.

Given that this is the band's biggest and sort-of-only hit, Manson probably has had enough of the now 17-year-old (!!!) song and just doesn't want to play it anymore.

Maybe slipping back into the androgynous alien costume he wore during the Dope Show tour will lift his spirits. It certainly did ours.

Whatever.