Dinosaur Jr: Where You Been?

Dinosaur Jr: Where You Been?

1993

Sire Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Out There  2. Start Choppin  3. What Else Is New  4. On the Way  5. Not the Same  6. Get Me  7. Drawerings  8. Hide  9. Goin' Home'  10. I Ain't Sayin



Yuck...I still feel like hammered shit...Why doesn't someone get it over with and cure the common cold already so I can enjoy my damn weekend!!  Sorry, I didn't invite you here so I can bemoan my sorry lot in life...I invited you here to listen to J Mascis endlessly soloing...

Oh my God...Whenever I put on this album it's 1993 again...I'm instantly hanging out in Joe's room on a Saturday afternoon listening to "Start Choppin'" on repeat...I remember back then I used to carry around my CD's in a weird plastic CD carrier...It was this long, hinged box that held maybe 25 CD's...It had a handle and these big tabs that locked it shut...I don't have it anymore and I can't find a picture of it online, so I hastily drew one in MS Paint...

I took this box everywhere...I'd dutifully drag it to school everyday..I'd bring it to my friend's houses when I'd stay the night to inflict my musical tastes upon them:

."Oh, you're listening to Aldo Nova? Turn that shit off, I brought PRIMUS!!"

(♪ Slap slap diddly slap slap ♪ )

Looking at the towering  mountain of CD's that currently clutters my apartment, it's hard to believe that I used to only own 25 CD's... On the other hand, I did have a couple hundred cassette tapes strewn across my teenage bedroom...CD's were a big purchase back then...I had to carefully consider the albums that were important enough to warrant the extra 7 bucks for a CD purchase...Scraping together 15 bucks meant I had to mow about three lawns and maybe a spend a few afternoons babysitting...And "Where You Been" was an album truly worthy of that honor...

 This was the album that got me into Dinosaur Jr, and judging by the fact that this was one of the band's biggest-selling albums, I  can only assume it was the entryway for a lot of other folks too...Why the big uptick in popularity?

See that flannel tied around Joey Lawrence's waist?  GRUNGE!!!

The kids were suddenly all about loud, ugly music that sounded like the performers didn't give a shit about anything...And it's hard to think of  a band that was louder, uglier and sounded like they could give  less of a shit than Dinosaur Jr...Not giving a shit wasn't some MTV slacker pose to these guys...It was deeply ingrained into every fiber of their being...There are a million subtle shades of emotional numbness on display here...They fit the bill perfectly...And it sounds like Dinosaur Jr kind of met the kids halfway this time around...J uses a full band for a livelier feel and the album is full of big, 70's classic rock moves that were being fetishized at the time...Neil Young and Led Zeppelin were to the 90's what Journey and Hall & Oates were to the 2000's...

I know J disagrees with the constant comparisons between Dinosaur Jr and Neil Young, and for the most part I agree with him, but not here...This is an album that kicks off with that growling guitar tone from "Hey Hey, My My"...Furthermore, "Not the Same" and "What Else Is New" recall the Jack Nitzsche ballads on the "Harvest" album, which achieved that same balance between bombast and creepy meekness...J has always included extended guitar solos, but on this album they become especially soaring, bringing back fond memories of the long expanses of guitar soloing on Neil's "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere"...I can't imagine a Neil Young fan not losing their minds over this...

The band were never darker or moodier than they were on "Out There," or catchier than "Start Choppin" or more grandly anthemic than on "Get Me"...There's a lot of room to debate Dinosaur's 80's peak, but their 90's masterpiece is clear...Nothing tops "Where You Been"...Nothing... One of the best albums of the 1990's...This gets my stamp of approval...

                                                                    THA-BOOM!

There it's official...I had a stamp made and everything...This thing rocks my world...

Here's "Start Choppin'" by Dinosaur Jr...Enjoy...

Dinosaur Jr: Whatever's Cool With Me

 Dinosaur Jr: Whatever's Cool With Me

1991

Sire Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Whatever's Cool With Me  2. Sideways  3. Not You Again  4. The Little Baby  5. Pebbles + Weeds  6. Quicksand  7. Thumb (live)  8. Keep the Glove (live) 



Alright...I'm back from Tucson...Bad news is I think I'm getting sick...My throat feels like I've swallowed a big wad of sandpaper so that part sucks, but I had a shit-ton of fun, hanging out with old friends I haven't seen in a long while...Plus I got to bring back four gigantic totes of stuff that I had in storage...I probably won't get a chance to properly dig through it until next weekend (provided the weekend doesn't consist of me lying sick in bed), but I know I saw some good shit in there...I might have to make a whole separate blog or something to showcase it all...100's of  old 4-Track tapes...Gigantic totes stuffed with various writings and home-made comics...Manoman... I think I'm going to start the process off by digitizing all the cassettes I found...I'm curious/afraid of what I'm going to find on them...Oh yea!! Best of all I ran across the Purple Tape! If that phrase means anything to you, please be advised I'm working on getting it converted to VHS as we speak, so the precious image of me spraining my leg on camera will be preserved for subsequent generations to cherish... (I can't wait until the poor soul who gets tapped for that particular assignment gets an eyeful of me stripping down to the saggiest, bluest pair of underwear ever captured on film...Oh, it's gonna get hairy)...Oh, 90's memories...

Speaking of 90's memories (segue), many of them were scored by Dinosaur Jr's "Whatever's Cool With Me"...I originally had this on a cassette tape that I bought from the Saginaw Mall and boy, did I play that cassette within an inch of its life..I love this record!

 

 Essentially a collection of B-Sides (mostly from the European version of "The Wagon" 12-inch single), it's looser and more diverse than usual...You get the bubble-gum alt-rock tracks like the title track and "Not You Again, " which has one of the greatest opening lines of all-time:

 "I Thought of the blob today,
I though to of you..."

Guys, unless you're looking for a swift, bracing slap in the face, I wouldn't recommend trying this line out on your lady-friend! It takes a true genius like J Mascis to make such a line come across as charming...On the other side of the coin we have The Little Baby which sounds like a more organic Big Black with...well...A screaming baby on vocals...Is that J? I don't think we've ever heard him go this crazy...Lou Barlow would usually handle the whole screaming thing...

My personal favorite however is the band's cover of David Bowie's "Quicksand" (which throws in the intro to Bowie's "Andy Warhol" for good measure)...I've never really been that big a Bowie fan, but my wife is...I had never heard the original until I heard her listening to "Hunky Dory" one day...



It's rare to find cover songs that top the original, but this is one of those examples...Bowie's original was too cold,arch, and nazi-ish...J replaces most of the words and finds the haunting ache at the songs core with just his voice and an acoustic guitar and just proceeds to break your heart...You can compare 'em if you like...

Here's Bowie's version...

Here's Dino's...

The album ends with a couple live tracks...A mighty version of "Thumb" lacking the studio's psychedelic touches but ruling anyway...I've always loved "Keep the Glove"'s breezy ramble and always wondered where in the hell the song came from...I mean, here's a live version but surely there must have been a studio take...

Apparently I could have heard it years earlier by picking up the SST "Fossils" compilation, but I always passed over it because of that damn troll cover...I hate those trolls and so should you...Just try and avert your eyes as you watch the video below...

Alright...I'm feeling ultra-shitty, it's getting late and those trolls are freaking me out...Let's wrap this up by saying that "Whatever's Cool With Me" is the most Dinosaur Jr-sounding title possible...You can only say it with a shrug...And Dinosaur Jr at their best are like the audio equivalent of the biggest, loudest shrug possible, shedding light on the endless possibilities inherent in the phrase "whatever"...Definitely an old favorite of mine and I've never grown even remotely tired of it...

Here's "Whatever's Cool With Me' by Dinosaur Jr...Enjoy...

Dinosaur Jr: Green Mind

Dinosaur Jr: Green Mind

1991

Blanco y Negro/Sire Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. The Wagon  2. Puke + Cry  3. Blowing It  4. I Live for That Look  5. Flying Cloud  6. How'd You Pin That One on Me  7. Water  8. Muck  9. Thumb  10. Green Mind



Woah! Look at that cover! The baby from the Van Halen "1984" cover grew up...

I can't believe how irresponsible that girl's parents are! Why don't they get that kid an e-cig?!?!

 They come in all kinds of fruity flavors the kids love...

Anyway...Is it Friday yet? This week's been dragging on forever...Huh? It is?!?! Friday?!?!?!YES!!!! I think I'm going to Tucson this weekend...Forgoing the usual real-life Friday Night Record Party for a change of pace...Hey! I should do a special Tucson edition of the Friday Night Record Party blog...Kind of like when Facts of Life went to Paris...

Ahhh, here we are in beautiful downtown Tucks-son...With it's cozy shops, fine dining and vibrant music scene...

Why here's Mike from local favorites Blues Choogler...Listen to him slap and pop that funky bass...Who would have thought "Born to Be Wild" would sound so good with slap bass? Why, only a visionary like Mike from Blues Choogler could conceive of such a thing...The locals have dubbed the band's music as "Desert Rock" because it's as boring as the dirt of the Mighty Sonoran Desert...

 Hey, Blair...Let's ditch this place and go get an Eegee's...No one can visit Tucson and not get an Eegee's...Especially the watermelon flavor...They're the best (In reality, could secretly care less about any of them...Just want Ranch Fries)...

Now I'm trying to remember what I liked about Tucson...Oh yea... The restaurant where you can get a box of Cap'N Crunch in a giant bowl!!! What was that place called?

 
The Grill!! That's right...Huh? They closed down? Awww....

Hey! I used to love going to the Wildcat House on Friday Nights and getting hammered to high heaven on quarter beers!!! What?!?! That place closed down too? Shit...

 At least Lucky Wishbone is still open...That place is pretty cool...They'd deep-fry your shoes if you'd let 'em... Long Live Deep Fried Chicken Gizzards!! ...and that garlic toast they sell that's just on regular-ass white bread...That shit is the best...

What's that, Tootie? Why am I talking about Tucson when I'm supposed to be talking about "Green Mind" by Dinosaur Jr?  I dunno...I must have gotten carried away again...Here, I'll write a sentence or two about "Green Mind"...ahem...

"Green Mind" is the first album of the post-Lou Barlow (pre-Lou Barlow reunion) era...Hell, even Murph is hardly on this one...I guess it's pretty much a J Mascis solo album, which is probably the healthiest mind-set if you're stepping into this fresh from the SST albums...It's much more cleaned up and professional sounding...The bass is no-longer always distorted and bull-dozing everything in its path...This is just normal bass guitar playing, which makes Dino's sound a bit less distinct and exciting, but you almost get over that about a minute or so into "The Wagon" which is so fucking awesome that you're willing to forgive anything..

I'm calling it the band's second best song after "Freak Scene...A super uptempo pop-rock song (with a few slabs of metal riffage and some sitar thrown in for color)  with the normally drowsy J delivering one of his most exuberant vocals (complete with a falsetto chorus!):

"I ring the doorbell in your mind
But it's locked from the outside
You won't see me..."

Sure, the lyrics look a bit sullen and moody on paper (yes, this blog is printed on 100% recycled paper)  but the performance gives it a sweetly nostalgic feel...The sort of indie rock summer hit anthem, evoking long glowing days of doin' nothin', sweet nothin'...

My other favorite track has to be "Thumb," where the band (?) busts out the Mellotron and get all "Strawberry Fields Forever" on us...That is, if "Strawberry Fields Forever" had a distorted, almost industrial rock bassline and long stretches of flaming, extended guitar-hero soloing...This is good lighter-hoisting music...

 "Muck" is a nice surprise too...You get to hear the band get funky...Who knew such a thing was possible...And who would have guessed it would sound so great? Perhaps, Mike from Blues Choogler?

This is the Dinosaur Jr album I reach for the least, but whenever I play it I always think to myself, "Why don't I listen to this one more?" I thin it's always been overshadowed by the two album's surrounding it, which are two of my favorites...Still, this is a damn fine listen and I'm always psyched to hear it again..."Puke + Cry"...The title track...Come on...It's all great...I have a feeling this is gonna end up in my heavy rotation again...

Let's check out "The Wagon" by Dinosaur Jr...Friday Forever!!...

Dinosaur Jr: Bug

Dinosaur Jr: Bug

1988

SST Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Freak Scene  2. No Bones  3. They Always Come  4. Yeah We Know  5. Let It Ride  6. Pond Song  7. Budge  8. The Post  9. Don't



Man, last time I was at Eastside Records, I found a big stack of 70's Playboy mags and I decided to pick up this particular issue ...

...Mainly, because it reminded me of the cover of Ween's "Chocolate and Cheese"...



Anyway, as I was flipping through the spunk-encrusted pages (and after I was done speculating that, "Woah...All these girls are probably, like, 60 years old now...") I ran across an advertisement that just might be the most beautiful image I've ever seen...

Redd Foxx hoisting a can of Colt 45!! Suitable for framing!! Oh my God...I love everything about this...I've been a Redd Foxx fan as far back as I can remember and a malt liquor enthusiast to boot...I probably should have saved this until I got to the Redd Foxx section, but I couldn't resist sharing this image with you now...Considering the snail's pace the blog has been moving at lately it could be a good 20 years before I get to Redd Foxx!!

Looking at that Colt 45 kinda makes me want a beer...Do we have any beers in the fridge?

Yessum we do...Let's rock the Dino, shall we? (cracks knuckles, cracks beer, puts on record)....

"Bug" is probably my second favorite album by the band...How can you not rank this at the top of their discography? I mean, this is the album with "Freak Scene" on it, which is the "Rock and Roll All Nite"of indie rock...It's so far above anything off "You're Living All Over Me," shifting its approach constantly;  Going from jangle pop to noise rock to heavy metal chug to acoustic balladry with J's simple, drowsy vocal melody holding it all together...And when it culminates with that final, high-flying guitar solo you know that they know they've nailed it...

"Sometimes I don't thrill you,
Sometimes I think I'll kill you,
Just don't let me fuck up will you,
'Cause when I need a friend it's still you..."

(You know that part rules... )

Of course, nothing can top that perfect opener, but the rest of the album is solid...Particularly the pop-punk-y "They Always Come"which gets my vote for the album's catchiest chorus and "Budge" where you get to hear Murph pound the unholy shit out of his snare drum...I always like the sound of Lou's growly distorted bass on that one too...Did I mention how much these guys rock?...

It's cool to hear them stretch out their sound in new directions too..."Pond Song" is pretty folk rock (with a few bursts of squalling noise tossed in here and there) and correct me if I'm wrong, but I always hear "The Post" as an epic blues dirge...Maybe it's the "She's my post to lean on And I just cut her down..." line...It sounds rather murder ballad-y to me, although I don't think that's what J's getting at...

 I can see how the big album-closer "Don't" might drive some people up a wall, but I love the shit out of it...I'm betting there was probably a time in my life when I thought it was the best song on the album...I can't help it..I love raw, unadulterated noise...The noisier the better and this is pretty darn noisy....Nearly six minutes of screaming guitar, blasts of white noise, and Lou puking the words, "WHHHHYYYYY?????!!!!!!! WHY DON'T YOU LIKE ME?!?!?!!!"  Yea? Why don't you like him?!  I love the way the drums just calmly lurch through the proceedings like the masked killer in a slasher flick...Murph sounds absolutely unfazed by his caustic surroundings...Boom...clack..Boom-Boom...clack...Boom-clack...Steady....

I love this record....It's a little more laid-back than the preceding two albums but that only showcases how great a songwriter J was becoming, and with Lou and Murph still in the picture they never sounded more powerful...Powerful and Laid-back...That's the best way I can describe this...

 Here's "Budge" by Dinosaur Jr...Listen away...

Dinosaur Jr: You're Living All Over Me

First World Problems:

 Sorry about the lack of posts...We recently subscribed to Hulu and the only way we can watch it is through the Wii, bu the Wii won't pick up a decent wireless connection for some reason, so we have to plug the Wii directly into the modem...

 As a result,  the computer is sitting there lifeless while season 253 of America's Next Living Skeleton flickers away on the TV...

Y'see, I'd usually work on the blog while everybody else in the house watched TV,  but that's kinda changed now...But I'm working on a solution....

(I have a feeling as time passes the above paragraph will ultimately be the funniest thing on the blog....I imagine it eventually coming across as:

Sorry about the lack of posts...We recently subscribed to America Online but we can't use the World Wide Web and the telephone at the same time...

 As a result,  my dancing baby GIF is sitting there lifeless...

... as we call Miss Cleo all night...

 So let's all agree to reconvene here in 2027 and laugh about the hulu saga...)

Moving on....







Dinosaur Jr: You're Living All Over Me

1987

SST Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Little Fury Things  2. Kracked  3. Sludgefeast  4.The Lung  5. Raisans  6. Tarpit  7. In a Jar  8. Lose  9. Poledo  10. Just Like Heaven


Damn...I also have the first album but I can't find the actual disc...I seem to just have the cover now...I'll pick up another copy soon so we can revisit that one...Let's just say "Cats in a Bowl," "Forget the Swan" and "Repulsion" rule...



 In the meantime, let's check out "You're Living All Over Me"...

 For the longest time I had this on cassette and I still think about it in those terms...Despite my current copy being a pristine digitally-perfect compact disc, I can almost hear the squeaky wheel of the cassette deck...When "Raisans" plays. I still expect to hear the damaged two seconds where my old cassette was eaten...

(I spent so much time doing emergency operations on broken cassettes, I honestly feel like I  might be qualified to perform brain surgery at this point...Just replace the pencil, scissors, centimeter of scotch tape, and tiny screwdriver with scalpels and forceps and collect the big bucks...)

Eventually I lost the cassette and when I went to replace it, I discovered the album had gone out of print in all formats!! But one glorious day in 2005 Merge Records did the Lord's work and reissued the album...Now a whole new generations can discover this album and hear how influential it was for the whole "alternative rock" thing that quickly followed (Note, I've never met anybody under 30 who listens to Dinosaur Jr, so this "Whole New Generation" I'm referring to is strictly hypothetical)....

 While the sound eventually became commonplace, this is one of those albums that I'm sure was pretty startling when it first came out...Imagine a hardcore punk engine with a heroic classic rock chassis... Take "Kracked" for example...After the first verse the rhythm section goes into the obligatory fucking decent HC breakdown but suddenly J Mascis' guitar comes in and he does one of his trademark non-HC virtuoso guitar solos...This was probably a very taboo move back in '87 but the approach has been so thoroughly assimilated into the musical vernacular that it probably just comes across as "90's rock" to the unfamiliar listener...

And I wasn't there in the studio while they were recording it, but I'm going to guess this whole thing was recorded at a fairly punishing volume...Again, going back to "Kracked," the instrumental passages just roar...When the guitar cranks back up after the "I plead the case" section it almost makes your ears ring at even a low volume...Now that's power even if that power is sometimes obscured by J's emotionally vulnerable moan/croak...Another juxtaposition (triple word score) that subsequent generations of musicians took to heart...My favorite moments on the album happen to be the most wounded....""Sludgefeast" and "Tarpit" are giant, swirling, ear-splitting black holes of heartbreak...The band slows things down while cranking shit up:

"Thought I knew you, stuck out my hand
You bit, wish I could understand..."

 How does a band deliver a slow emotional song without it edging into the evil "Power ballad" category? That's how!!! The sentiment hits the right melancholy note while the guitars rip your head off...

Oh yea, I should probably mention the album's most classic moment..."Little Fury Things" kicks off with a torrential downpour of primal screaming and wah wah guitars before it unexpectedly gets all quietly introspective while J and Lou sing the inscrutable lyrics in unison:

"A rabbit falls away from me, I guess I'll crawl
A rabbit always smashes me, again I'll crawl..."

Are you allowed ton rhyme "crawl" with "crawl"? What do those lyrics even mean? Who cares! It falls into the "inexplicably moving" category, which is always an approach that wins me over...And J always sounds best with Lou singing with him...That's why the whole post -"Bug" breakup was so painful...Oh, and Lou can rock the bass like nobody else...As much as I enjoy them, the bass guitar on any Non-Lou Barlow Dinosaur Jr album always sounds kind of hollow to me, missing his primal and forceful approach...You also get to hear the seeds of early Sebadoh being sown on "Poledo" which is a found-sound musique concrète/4-track confessional hybrid...I've met people who hate it, but it happens to be one of my favorite things on the album...

"You're Living All Over Me" still remains my favorite Dinosaur Jr album...There are a few that come this close to dethroning it, but this one wins on the sheer thrill of discovery...The first album, while it had flashes of their signature sound, often felt like it was searching for something elusive...I think "You're Living All Over Me" is where they found it and can't look away...It's just relentlessly Dinosaur Jr-like...This gets my highest possible recommendation, even if the lyrics to "In a Jar" still gross me out...

Here's "Tarpit" by Dinosaur Jr...Enjoy...

Dillinger Four: Civil War

Dillinger Four: Civil War

2008

Fat Wreck Chords

Format I Own it on: Vinyl & Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. A Jingle for the Product  2. 'Contemplate This on the Tree of Woe.'  3. Parishiltonisametaphor  4. Gainesville  5. Ode to the North American Snake Oil Distributor  6. Minimum Wage is a Gateway Drug  7. The Classical Arrangement  8.Americaspremierefaithbasedinitiative  9. The Art of Whore  10. Fruity Pebbles  11. A Pyre Laid for Image and Frame  12. Like Eye Contact in an Elevator  13. Clown Cars on Cinder Blocks




The Friday Night Record Party Blog: A Gripping Tale of Man Against Nature:
 
Ugh...Minor catastrophe in my apartment Monday morning...It goes back to the 4th of July when the freakin' roof blew off of our apartment building in a spectacular holiday-weekend haboob...

We alerted the apartment office that the roof was destroyed and their response was a disinterested, "Oh well, we were planning on replacing all the roofs someday anyway..."

"Yea, but what if it rains again? Surely that would cause a much bigger problem later down the road..." We asked them...

"Ahhh....It'll wait..."

So sure enough Sunday night all hell breaks loose and the city floods...

 Which carried over into my apartment, so I've been dealing with that all day...Luckily most of my beloved vinyl was spared due to a sombrero that was sitting on top of the crates and captured most of the water...

                                                              
                                                                  ¡Buena suerte!

However the same can't be said for one of my CD racks which was completely flooded...So I've spent the morning blow-drying sopping wet Blue Oyster Cult CD booklets hoping the sagging roof doesn't cave in (the ceiling fan has already fallen)...To top it all off, we call the office again and warned them about this...Their response?

"Oh well, we were planning on replacing all the roofs someday anyway..."

Ahh, well...What can you do? Ding-donged if you do...Dog-danged if you don't...I'm just hoping the rain is done, because although the fully-paid day off of work was nice, the flooding kinda sucks...I did take precaution and I went out and bought more sombreros to prevent further damage...

Waitasec...I didn't invite you here to regale you with my endless tales of woe...I invited you here to check out  Dillinger Four's "Civil War" (which was spared in the flood)...

I remember buying this as a new release, although I wasn't in a big hurry to check it out..."Situationist Comedy" was a pretty big disappointment and I kinda lumped Dillinger Four in the Avail post "Over the James" or Swingin' Utters post "Five Lessons Learned" category...A band that made a punk album so flawless that they were never able to regain their bearings...So I picked up "Civil War" but wasn't expecting a whole lot...

But when I put it on and heard "A Jingle for the Product"...Holy shit...My jaw dropped  to the floor...And I was greeted with track after track of pure perfection...I still consider "Versus God" as their high point but I'm willing to admit that ranking might be solely based on nostalgia...

Despite what all the cranky, snobby punks out there would lead you to believe, the band's strength has always been their sense of melody...And the six years (!) they spent on the album has surely paid off...This is the band's best collection of catchy, fist-pumping punk rock anthems yet...Highpoints?

Woo!...There's an awful lot of them...I've always loved "Gainesville" which perfectly executes  the whole "bittersweet triumph" thing that lesser bands have devoted their entire careers to:

"And if the rain begins to fall,
I won't feel it at all,
 Let's live it like we fucking mean it!
And it feels like summer in October
And I hope this day is never over..."

Do you hear that? That's sheer happiness coming from D4...Taking a minute from grumbling about politics gives the band a bit more dimension and makes them even more endearing...I love this damn song...

On the other end of the spectrum we get what might be their darkest song, "Clown Cars on Cinder Blocks" which reads like a suicide note:

"I'd offer up a sacrifice,
If I thought it would do any good this time.
I recognize the harms I've caused,
But I cannot pay for these crimes,
I'm not sure that I expect to be here New Year's Day..."

Dang, are we sure Erik's alright? Has anybody checked in on him lately? The song is a straight-up classic, though...Guitar heavy, hooky and the vibraphone gives it just the right feeling of dread to go with the shallow celebrating and "cheap campaign"...One of my favorites for sure...

I still can't get over how much I love this album...It's everything that was great about D4 multiplied by a thousand...In a time where good pop-punk albums are nearly non-existent this was a gift from the damn heavens...I get the feeling there's no possible way they can ever top this one, but to be fair I've said that before about them and was proven wrong...Three cheers for being wrong!

Here's "The Art of Whore" by Dillinger Four...Hey, that rhymes...

Dillinger Four: Situationist Comedy

Dillinger Four: Situationist Comedy

2002

Fat Wreck Chords

Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Noble Stabbings!!  2. A Floater Left with Pleasure in the Executive Washroom.  3.Fuzzy Pink Hand-Cuffs  4. The Father, the Son, and the Homosexual/Single Parent  5. Sell the House Sell the Car Sell the Kids Find Someone Else Forget It I'm Never Coming Back Forget It  6. Folk Song.  7. Fired-Side Chat  8. 'I Was Born on a Pirate Ship' (Hold Your Tongue)  9. D4=Putting the 'F' Back in 'Art'  10. All Rise for the Rational Anthem  11. Labour Issues in the Toy Department  12. File Under 'Adult Urban Contemporary'  13. New Punk Fashions for the Spring Formal








Hey! What's that in the air?

 I think I hear the ka-chink of timeclocks...

...the cracking of beers...

...and the fragrant smell of black vinyl, followed by the sound of a dropped needle...By God 'amn 'er...

IT'S FRIDAY!! (Glug...Glug...)

Yes! I love Friday nights! I love the anticipatory feel of the upcoming weekend, bursting with possibilities...Who knows what monumental achievements I'll complete on those two days off...

Maybe I'll write a novel...

Or go on a nature hike...


































 Or watch 16 straight hours of Diff'rent Strokes (My money's on this option)...

So what are we going to blare on the hi-fi on this fine Friday night? Why, what else but "Situationist Comedy" by D4!  Which is possibly my least favorite Dillinger Four album! Yay!

I mean, it's not bad...It actually kicks plenty of ass, but I can't help but feel the teensiest bit let-down after the absolute perfection of "Versus God." Although, you might see it differently...Y'see, unlike a lot of folks I don't listen to D4 for their speed or aggression...I listen to them for their brilliant songwriting and razor-sharp pop hooks...I seriously think the band is responsible for some of the smartest, catchiest songs ever recorded...But this album kind of feels like the band trying to reach back to "Midwestern Songs..." more hardcore moments, trying to get back a bit of their edge...This was good for a lot of the band's fans (many of whom single out "Situationist Comedy" as a highlight of D4's catalog) but I happened to be one of the people who really liked the big strides the band made in the melody department and as a result this album's never fully clicked with me...

 I remember putting "Situationist Comedy" on for the first time and hearing the opener "Noble Stabbings!!"...The verses were as exciting as anything the band ever did.. Ratcheting up the anticipation for the inevitable killer chorus, but instead I was greeted with the anticlimactic refrain of "Broken glass and razor wire..."  Huh? That 's it?  That's the killer chorus? What happened to the effortless flow of hooks on songs such as "Shiny Things is Good" or "Doublewhiskeycokenoice'"?  Even after playing it endlessly, the album mostly felt like a pile of parts...Albeit very cool parts, so I didn't complain too much...In the end, I found myself listening to it in the same way I listened to say, Agnostic Front...I put it on for a quick adrenalin rush...

Still, there are a few moments here that rank among the band's best... "Fuzzy Pink Hand-Cuffs" and "Sell the House Sell the Car Sell the Kids Find Someone Else Forget It I'm Never Coming Back Forget It" are both top shelf pop-punk...Oh, and "Fireside Chat" has the coolest moment on any D4 album...Right before the extended clanging drum outro there's a little section where Erik piles the harmonies sky-high as he sings:

"Another day
Another dollar
Another way to live with a life so intolerable..."

 Oh my God...It's so mind-blowingly awesome...It still makes my head swim whenever I hear it...I'd say these three tracks alone made the purchase totally worthwhile...And again, it's a pretty good album whose only real flaw is the spectacularly strong material that preceded it and followed it (but we'll get to "Civil War" in a day or two)...I still maintain this was probably the best punk rock album released in 2002 (alongside Bad Religion's "The Process of Belief" and "Apathy & Exhaustion" by Lawrence Arms)...
 
So let's crank up some Dillinger Four...Here's "Sell the House Sell the Car Sell the Kids Find Someone Else Forget It I'm Never Coming Back Forget It"...Let's make this the best Friday ever!!...