Portlandia Returns

IFC announced that Portlandia will return January 8th. Hard to believe the series is into its fifth season. And while there have been so many good moments over the years, I give you this musically-inspired skit with Fred and Carrie going off about the records in their child's nursery school.

Johnny Marr at the Stone Pony

Johnny Marr's latest effort Playland is a disappointment. There's no use in sugarcoating it. Marr, of course, is a legend -- an icon -- and nothing he does can damage his iconic status in the pantheon of musical greatness. His songwriting partnership with Morrissey yielded a bumper crop of timeless material. But his output as a solo artist is far more inconsistent -- many of his guitar licks feel less than innovative and his songwriting and lyrics just don't measure up. And nowhere has that been more evident than Friday night at the -- similarly iconic -- Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

I'll get back to Marr in a minute but first, about the Stone Pony. I had never seen a show there. It's not a large room and the stage is just a platform on one side. It's so unassuming that there are signs warning patrons not to put personal belongings on the stage, and that includes their drinks. There's also no backstage. There's a stage door that leads to the sidewalk outside and that's where the performers come in before going on stage. Also, the roadies and techs are all right there in a penned off area between that stage door and the stage itself.

We staked out a good location on the side along that pen. We had a clear shot of the stage door, and a very good view of the stage. So around 10pm, in came Marr's band followed by Marr himself. They started with the rather forgettable title track from the new record before launching into "Panic", the first of six Smiths songs. Again, I felt that watching Marr do Smiths songs was totally natural. Sure, he didn't sing on the originals or write the lyrics, but it's his music and seeing Marr do them is as close as we'll come to seeing the Smiths reunite. (It just won't happen.)

After "Panic" was "The Right Thing Right" from the last record -- which is one of Marr's better solo tracks, and the catchy albeit uninspired new single "Easy Money". The new stuff just felt soulless in comparison to the Smiths material, which still crackled after 30 years.

There were a couple of nice touches: He paired two songs about schooling "New Town Velocity" and "The Headmaster Ritual" and he again played Electronic's "Getting Away With It" -- calling it a song about his hometown of Manchester. He paid tribute to the Stone Pony itself by talking about how, growing up in England in the mid-'70s he would hear about it as Bruce Springsteen was coming up and said it was an honor to play on the same stage. And -- of course -- he finished his 15-song first set with "How Soon is Now?" which still sounds better than most anything else out there.

After a quick break, Marr and the band came back out for "Still Ill" - a Smiths song I hadn't previously heard him do - as well as "I Fought the Law" and the show closer "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" which he dedicated to Bruce Springsteen (and everyone in the crowd.)

Overall, it was an enjoyable show. But I came away with the distinct feeling that the Smiths were such a good band that nothing Marr does now can come close to his former greatness. And I was left with a tinge of wistfulness for the Smiths reunion that will never happen.

Best Singing Drummers

A co-worker and I got in a discussion over the best singing drummers. These aren't drummers that became singers, like Dave Grohl, but rather singers who sang and played drums simultaneously. Some are obvious -- some not so much. I'll try and recreate the conversation in this space with a few of the contenders:

Phil Collins
The Genesis drummer was one of the best of all time back in the band's mid-70s heyday. After Peter Gabriel left, Collins became the band's singer, and took the proggiest of prog rock bands to commercial stardom. Here's a collection of some of his best drumming parts with Genesis in the 70s.

And here he is in 1982 drumming and singing his solo hit "In the Air Tonight".

Ringo Starr

Another obvious choice -- but he wasn't the Beatles primary singer, so I'm not sure he should count.

Levon Helm

The late Band drummer/singer certainly deserves merit on this list. He even talks about drumming and singing here. Here he is singing and drumming on the classic "The Weight".

Dave Clark

The leader of the British Invasion band the Dave Clark Five, Clark drummed and sang. And somehow, he made it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Notice there's no microphone at Clark's kit in this 1964 Top of the Pops appearance -- they didn't even try to pretend they weren't lip syncing.

That guy from the Romantics

His name was Jimmy Marinos, and he was an original member of the Detroit power pop quartet. He sung lead and drummed on their first big hit, 1980's "What I Like About You", but he didn't sing on 1983's "Talking in Your Sleep".

 

Grant Hart

This is my personal choice. Hart was the other half of the songwriting team of punk-indie trailblazers Husker Du, opposite Bob Mould. He was a fantastic songwriter, writing and singing many of the bands classics. And the creative competition between Hart and Mould led the pair to continually out-do each other, as writer Michael Azerrad puts it, and with spectacular results. Husker Du's run from 1984's classic Zen Arcade, 1985's New Day Rising and Flip your Wig, and 1986's Candy Apple Gray would be difficult for any band to repeat. Here's the Hart-penned, -sung and -drummed "Don't Want to Know if You are Lonely".

Heard on the Street

I spend a lot of time walking around New York City and sometimes I hear noteworthy songs -- either from stores, cars or just in the air.

The past two days provided two such occasions. This morning, I stopped outside the American Eagle store in Times Square because they were playing this gem:

I hadn't given "Brimful of Asha" a whole of thought since hearing it in a cornershop in London back in 1998. It's such a joyful song that I stopped walking and soaked it in.

Last night, on my walk home, I passed a dude on a tan Harley (I didn't know Harleys came in anything but black). He was blasting "It's Been Awhile" by the horrid Springfield Massachusetts band Staind. But despite essentially being a power ballad, I always liked that song.

Stuck in My Head

My Alex Chilton kick continues, this time with an early 90s band deeply influenced by Chilton's Big Star. Scotland's Teenage Fanclub were critical darlings in their day, but I didn't exactly like them at the time. I've gone back and listened to 1991's Bandwagonesque, which is full of power pop gems that sound like carbon copies of the standout tracks from Radio City or #1 Record. Here's one of them -- "Star Sign".

What is Classic Rock?

The numbers gurus over at FiveThirtyEight put together an excellent analysis of what constitutes classic rock. They analyzed song plays on classic rock radio in the top thirty markets across the country and found that -- while there are a lot of similarities (Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top, Boston), there are just as many differences. For example, Billy Joel gets the most plays in New York and Miami, but far fewer plays elsewhere. Of course, I'd be happy if he got no plays -- how could a piano be the lead instrument in classic rock?

And of course just reading the article will send you down a YouTube rabbit hole. Mine began with Boston's schlock rock anthem "Peace of Mind" (one of two Boston songs among the ten most frequently played songs on classic rock radio) and ended with "Turn Turn Turn" by the Byrds.

Anyway, read all about it here.

Stumbling Upon Gold

Did you ever have one of those times when you fell down a YouTube rabbit hole and discovered something truly great? It just happened to me.

I'm reading the new biography of Alex Chilton, and as a result listening to a lot of Box Tops and Big Star. One of my work colleagues came of age in the late 60s, and knew the Box Tops, but didn't realize Chilton was 16 when their classic single "The Letter" was released.

So then I tried to explain Big Star, and how Chilton went in a completely different direction with that band. I played "September Gurls" (which is probably in my Top 15 all-time) and he thought of Marshall Crenshaw. So I went looking for Marshall Crenshaw songs -- other than "Someday, Someway" which everyone of a certain age knows -- and found this:

I realize I'm late to the game: the song was used in the movie D.E.B.S. and covered by everyone from Freedy Johnston to Bette Midler and to Owen Paul and even Ronnie Spector, but the original is truly great song.