Gift To Myself...
Each year for Christmas, I typically receive some cash from various parents, grandparents, petty cash drawers, etc. Invariably, most of that money finds its way from my pockets into a local record store's cash register. If I'm lucky, I'll buy perhaps 10 new albums a year, a significantly lower rate of music consumption than I used to maintain, and wish I still could. One of my favorite guilty pleasures is to walk into a record store and just look, and if I feel like coming out with four or five CD's, then that's no problem. It seems the only time that happens is on my annual Christmas trip to my local record store.
This year, I walked out with the new Rhett Miller, the remastered X album Under the Big Black Sun (used), the new Flaming Lips, the new Black Heart Procession, and The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. Paul Westerberg's Stereo, the Vines, and a Soviettes/Valentines split EP didn't make the cut.
The Rhett Miller album is pretty decent on first listen...
The X album is great, but I already knew it pretty well. Rhino put out a reissue with some bonus tracks, so there are some great pictures to feed my crush on Exene Cervenka...
The Flaming Lips are pretty much amazing. Their music is indescribeable; you just have to hear it to believe it. Straight outta Oklahoma...
The Black Heart Procession album is great; very dark, sort of like a Sixteen Horsepower, with a latin/reggae influence instead of the backwoods Deliverance mood you get with 16HP. This was the first album I listened to of the five I came home with, and I thought I would listen to it repeatedly, until...
I listened to the Kinks album. That was two days ago, and I haven't listened to anything else but "Village Green Preservation Society" since then.
Look, I know I came out strong in defense of the Who a few weeks ago, and I meant it. I think the Who are an underrated band, in comparison to the Beatles. But let me be clear: The Beatles are the best band ever. I had to laugh when I got so many impassioned arguments for the Beatles in response to that column, because I mostly agreed with what was being said.
But if you want to talk about "Underrated Bands", the Kinks have to be near the very top of the list. Growing up, I listened to AOR classic rock-format radio (due to lack of choice), where you will hear a variety of Kinks songs. But when you look at that catalogue of songs, it's all either the very early stuff (You Really Got Me, Tired of Waiting For You), Lola, or Destroyer or Come Dancing. There are probably six Kinks songs that most people recognize, and that's because those are the songs that AOR kept playing. So, because I am stupid, I long assumed that was pretty much what the Kinks had to offer. What are all these albums with songs I've never heard of? "Face to Face"? "Something Else"? Who needs that? I've never heard of any of these songs...
Well, after awhile, you figure out that there must be reason people regard these albums and bands so highly, and that maybe there's something worth hearing on those albums. I bought "Something Else By The Kinks" some time ago and was blown away by it. It's mostly identifyable as mid-60's Brit music, but it's unlike anything else I've heard. The lyrics are more literal and focused on everyday life, especially life in Britain. And the music is just very diverse.
As good as "Something Else" is, "Village Green" is substantially better. Much of this album sounds like it could have been released yesterday. I can't say that about any Who albums. How did this stuff not become as popular as the Beatles, or Zeppelin?
If you get the chance, check this album out. I hear the lament that "Rock Is Dead" a lot, and I don't buy that. But if you are bored with whatever you are hearing today, chances are there are some great albums from the past 35 years or so that you haven't run across. Whenever I find one, I always look at some of the forgettable music I've purchased over the years, and wonder why I hadn't bought the good stuff the first time around.
Here's a fun trick: If you know a Ween fan (and who doesn't?), try playing "Wicked Annabella" for them and telling them it's the new Ween single. They'll never know the difference.
2:42:58 PM 
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