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Stone Temple Pilots | Trippin’ On a Hole in a Paper Heart

“For a band that started out their career hearing countless accusations of them being copycats and carpetbaggers, Stone Temple Pilots sure turned out to be willing to change their sound and blaze their own trail,” (Alternative Albums Blog). “Released in 1996, their third album Tiny Music … Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop found the band leaving behind nearly all traces of the grunge and alt rock of Core and Purple in favor of of glam, psychedelia, and fizzy pop. It is a bold move that mostly paid off.

The album spun off several successful singles, including the manic rush of ‘Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart,’ the second single from the album … (the track) is a jittery rush of music that captures the feeling of a bad acid trip, which (according to singer and lyricist Scott Weiland) is what the song is about … Sadly, Scott Weiland’s demons with drug abuse would … repeatedly cut short tours and other opportunities so that he could attend rehab or spend time in jail. In fact, it is impressive how creative and interesting Tiny Music … Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop ultimately is, considering how much Weiland was struggling at the time.”

Weiland died in 2015. But according to a 2005 Esquire interview, “Over the last decade, (he) established himself as the quintessential junkie rock star. Now thirty-seven, he has to his credit several platinum albums, five drug arrests, a six-month jail stint, and uncountable attempts at rehab … In 1987, he formed the group that became Stone Temple Pilots … One of the biggest acts of the mid-nineties, STP followed the lead of bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam to the top of the charts with its hard, lyric-driven rock. Fabulously rich, monumentally fucked-up, Weiland crossed over to mainstream consciousness in 1996, when the members of his band—his closest friends—held a press conference on the eve of a national tour to out their buddy as an incorrigible heroin addict, ‘unable to rehearse or appear.'”

The tune’s intro and verse are built on a contradiction right out of the gate, built around alternating F# major and A major chords. But the melody, lyrics, and groove take precedent, pulling us along to the chorus (0:34), which is built in B minor (with a i-VI vamp). At 0:48, we return to the verse. The second chorus (1:19) is more expansive, leading to an instrumental verse with a guitar feature (1:51). Lastly, a final chorus (2:22) with an unresolved ending suddenly leads us off a cliff, leaving the final vocal melody note completely unaccompanied. Spiky, manic, off-balance, unsettling? Yes.

Alanis Morissette | Joining You

“Once you’ve scaled the heights of pop music, where else can you go? In Alanis Morissette’s case, the answer is trading altitude for depth — digging deeply into yourself, unearthing all manner of neuroses, questions and thorny realities in the process,” (Dallas Observer). “It’s saying something that Morissette followed up 1995’s seismic, multiplatinum Jagged Little Pill with a record even more psychologically and emotionally bracing, but she did just that with 1998’s Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie.

… Robert Christgau offered backhanded praise in the Village Voice: ‘The mammoth riffs, diaristic self-analysis, and pretentious Middle Eastern sonorities of this music mark it as ‘rock,’ albeit rock with tunes. And in this context I suck it up, feeling privileged to listen along with all the young women whose struggles Morissette blows up to such a scale.'”

“Joining You,” a single from the 1998 album, wasn’t the same level of smash hit as “Thank You,” its predecessor from the same release. But it cracked the top twenty in Morissette’s native Canada and the US, as well as Italy and the Netherlands. Following a start in C minor, the chorus shifts to E minor (0:58 – 1:37) before reverting to the original key.

Jill Sobule | Sad Beauty

“Jill Sobule, who raised eyebrows with her cheeky 1995 anthem ‘I Kissed a Girl,’ has died,” (NPR). “According to her publicist David Elkin and manager John Porter, the 66-year-old singer-songwriter died in a house fire in Woodbury, a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota (this week) … Sobule was staying with friends in Minnesota before heading to her hometown of Denver to perform songs from her autobiographical coming-of-age musical F*ck 7th Grade on Friday.

‘Jill Sobule was a force of nature whose music is woven into our culture,’ said Porter. ‘I hope her music, memory and legacy continue to live on and inspire others.’ Sobule’s confessional songs sparkled with irony and humor and often told stories. Her hit ‘Supermodel’ appeared in the 1995 movie Clueless and she even once wrote a song at the behest of NPR. Her guitar-accompanied performance of ‘Philosophy 101‘ on All Things Considered in 2009 included the lyrics: ‘I am who I am today / Philosophy 101 / Before class, we’d all get high / Philosophy 101 / We think therefore we are / I’m thinking here on NPR.’

But the single that Sobule is most remembered for is ‘I Kissed A Girl.’ Recounting with tongue-in-cheek humor a tryst between two women, the single reached 67 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was one of the first openly gay anthems … In a 2018 interview with NPR, she added, ‘Still to this day, I get people who are saying, you know, that song meant a lot to me growing up in Alabama.’ ‘Jill Sobule wasn’t just a trailblazer in music—she was a beacon for queer artists,’ said Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD President & CEO in an online statement. ‘Long before it was safe or common, Jill was writing and singing about sexuality and identity with raw honesty and wit. At a time when doing so could have cost her everything, she chose truth. That courage helped pave the way for today’s artists like Brandi Carlile, Tegan and Sara, Lil Nas X, Sam Smith, Adam Lambert, and so many others who now stand proud and open in their music.'”

Sobule’s 1989 debut album, Things Here Are Different, was produced by Todd Rundgren and features many subtle touches which enhance the singer/songwriter’s guitar-centric live sound. The mid-tempo track “Sad Beauty,” driven by gentle latin percussion, might be surprising to listeners who are familiar only with Sobule’s broad array of lighter-hearted material. Starting in a distinctive A lydian, the first verse shifts to C lydian at 0:32, the rangy melody vying for attention with the surprising harmonies. The chorus, starting at 0:48 after a long grooveless pause, is in E minor. Verse 2 begins at 1:24; the pattern continues from there.

Counting Crows | Bulldog (demo)

“Counting Crows have enchanted listeners worldwide for more than two decades with their intensely soulful and intricate take on timeless rock and roll,” (BendConcerts.com). Exploding onto the music scene in 1993 with their multi-platinum breakout album, August and Everything After, the band has gone on to release seven studio albums, selling more than 20 million records worldwide, and is revered as one of the world’s most pre-eminent live touring rock bands.

… Over the last 30 years, the masterful songwriting from frontman Adam Duritz put the band at #8 on Billboard‘s 2021 “Greatest Of All Time: Adult Alternative 25th Anniversary Chart.” After nearly seven years, the award-winning rockers announce their highly anticipated new project, Butter Miracle, Suite One. Produced by Brian Deck, the four-track, 19-minute suite is set for worldwide release this spring.”

Starting in E minor, the unreleased demo track “Bulldog,” featuring an insistent energy throughout, shifts at 0:55 to a chorus that shifts to an alternating B major and B minor. At 1:23, verse 2 returns to E minor. The pattern continues from there until the tune’s end, which features an unresolved F major chord at the end of a chorus — an unsettling tri-tone away from the tonic of the key.

for Kelli

Toad the Wet Sprocket | I Will Not Take These Things for Granted

“Toad was in the house last week — that’s Santa Barbara’s beloved (and probably most famous) homegrown rock band, Toad the Wet Sprocket, to those of you who are new to town,” (Santa Barbara Independent, 9/4/2024). “And as we’ve come to count on, they came … bearing gifts of lovely vocals, powerful chord progressions, familiar tunes, enthusiastic friends, family, and fans, plus a strong supply of feel-good vibes.

With the seemingly ageless vocals of founding band members Glen Phillips, harmonizing with bass player/vocalist Dean Dinning, and guitarist/vocalist Todd Nichols, now backed by drummer Carl Thompson and Jon Sosin on keyboards, mandolin, accordion, and more, it was a solid evening of mostly well-known tunes … It’s hard not to think of Santa Barbara when you hear Toad sing ‘Walk on the Ocean,’ which Dinning told me was his favorite Toad song to play live.”

“I Will Not Take These Things for Granted” is the closing track of the 1991 album Fear, which opens with “Walk On the Ocean,” a single which reached #18 on the US pop charts. The track is built in A major overall, with a prominent bVII-I vamp making up much of the chorus. At 1:24, an alternate verse/pre-chorus(?) shifts to a purely diatonic F# major. 1:36 brings the first chorus and a return to A major. The pattern continues from there, with the exception of the alternate verse/pre-chorus, which returns at 2:52 which a longer duration than before. The tune ends with a long run in A major.

Brooke Parrott | Persuade Me

“Growing up, (Portland’s Brooke Parrott) played music and wrote stories incessantly, eventually pursuing a degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston,” (BrookeParrott.com). “The years after found Brooke in London, living in a disused pub rumored to be an old haunt of Charles Dickens and Karl Marx, where she wrote songs on a disintegrating grand piano in the parlor. She began working for a small live music startup company that grew up to be a big one, and learned a lot in the process.

When the siren call of the Pacific Northwest became too loud to ignore, Brooke returned and found her place touring and recording music with Portland darlings Loch Lomond. She released a second studio effort, an EP called Buried, that was written between contrasting worlds—part hectic city and suffocating winter in London, part hinterland yurt in the Oregon woods.”

Starting in D minor, Parrott’s 2008 release “Persuade Me” shifts at 0:52 into a chorus in C minor. From 2:24-2:56, an angular bridge built around chromatic bass motion holds sway before a return to the chorus. The final chorus ends by hanging in the air, unresolved.

Tori Amos | Happy Phantom

An extremely overdue MotD debut for Tori Amos: “‘Happy Phantom’ was written and recorded during the first phase of creating Little Earthquakes. … (It) was included on both a cassette tape Tori submitted for copyright in June 1990 and the original rejected version of Little Earthquakes in December that year,” (ToriPedia). “In the Little Earthquakes songbook, Tori noted that ‘when the songs began showing up I wrote their names on separate envelopes and made a faery ring in the middle of the house. I’d sit in the middle of the ring to focus on a song’s direction. All of the songs seemed to work toward the completeness of the other. They decided we needed to hang out with death for awhile.'”

Amos’ first major-label release, Y Kant Tori Read, saw her fronting a synth-pop band of the same name during the late 1980s. The album “sunk without a trace; she had to dig deep inside herself, in her search for her true identity,” (Songfacts). “She told Rolling Stone this meant killing her old self: ‘To talk about death was really important on Little Earthquakes because there was a part of me had to die. The image that I had created for whatever reason, had to die.'”

“Happy Phantom,” is largely built in Bb major, but erupts into a surprising instrumental interlude in G major (1:45 – 1:57), then pivots around a bit more until returning to familiar territory at 2:14. Wrapping up by returning to Bb major, the tune then falls off the edge of the earth during a few formless closing bars.

Sleeping At Last | Rainbow Connection

Sleeping At Last formed in 1999, originally including Ryan O’Neal (vocals, guitar), his brother Chad (drums) and Dan Perdue (bass). The Illinois-based group released four albums before Chad and Dan left and Ryan continued on his own.

O’Neal has released three compilations of covers, and “Rainbow Connection” appears on Volume 2, released in 2016. The song, written originally in 1979 by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher for The Muppets Movie, has been named one of the greatest movie songs of all time by the American Film Institute.

The track begins in D and modulates up to Eb at 2:01.

Counting Crows | Chelsea (live)

“Leave it to the Counting Crows to follow its first two studio albums with a double live release,” (MusicBox Online). “Many have questioned the need for Across a Wire (1998), but one listen to the music contained on this set reveals the ingenious creativity of this multi-faceted group. The recordings were taken from the band’s appearances on VH-1’s Storytellers and MTV’s Live at the 10 Spot. One of the Counting Crows’ goals of performing on Storytellers was to present reworked versions of its songs. Therefore, although several of the tunes are repeated between the two discs, they are given remarkably different treatments …

Throughout Across a Wire, Adam Duritz’s voice has never sounded better. He masterfully channels the deep-seated emotion behind his lyrics as the band bathes his vocals in both swirling angst and subtle nuance. There’s never a dull moment at a concert by Counting Crows, and this set certainly captures the group at its best.”

Originating in F major, “Chelsea” shifts to a chorus in the closely related key of Bb major (first heard between 1:00 – 1:24). The change is played up yet further by the contrast between the hypnotic I-IV repetition of the the verse and the broader harmonic vocabulary of the chorus.

for Kelli

Bleachers | I Wanna Get Better

“I Wanna Get Better,” released in 2014, was the debut single of the indie band Bleachers, fronted by Jack Abramoff. ” [I see this song as] the story of my existence so far and a lot of the things I struggled with,” Abramoff said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “A lot of things on the album, including this song, are about loss…It feels joyous, but for me it’s very desperate.”

Abramoff recorded all the instruments himself in addition to singing the lead vocal. The track was critically acclaimed and remains the group’s #1 song. It begins in E and modulates very briefly up a step to F# major at 1:52 before returning to E at 2:02.