Tag: alternative

Crash Test Dummies | In the Days of the Cavemen

From Sputnik Music‘s review of “In the Days of the Cavemen,” from Crash Test Dummies‘ 1993 album God Shuffled His Feet: “Oh Canada! Hail to my neighbor to the north. I praise you because not only have you shared with us some major musical talents over the years, like Rush and Joni Mitchell (for which I am eternally grateful), but you’ve also given us a host of quirky smaller bands throughout the last four or five decades, so many of whom I’ve enjoyed: Bands like Klaatu in the seventies, and Martha and the Muffins in the eighties. Oh, and in the nineties — Crash Test Dummies!

Although they made a nice little career for themselves in the great white north, God Shuffled His Feet was this band’s only internationally successful album … (It) took off around the world … powered by the success of one unconventional single, a slow and poignant track about how it feels to be different, the oddly- titled ‘Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm'”.

Brad Roberts’ voice is quite unusual for a frontman, given its edge-of-the-bell-curve bass/baritone range. Adding to his immediately recognizable sound are the relatively slow pace of the lyrics and his habit of over-enunciating: it often seems as if he’s passing on time-sensitive directions on how to diffuse a bomb — over the phone, to a middle school student. Roberts also was central to the band as an instrumentalist. Frequent contributor JB adds: “The bassline is exquisite throughout the whole tune: clean and melodic, but the same can be said of almost every bass part played by Brad Roberts.”

The tune is set in B major for the verses and the chorus; there’s a big jump to G major for a bridge at 1:35 – 1:54 (or rather a bridge-like section, because it happens again at 2:37 – 3:16).

Coldplay | Trouble

From Pitchfork’s review of Coldplay‘s debut album Parachutes (2000): “… Coldplay’s secret deadly weapon is vocalist Chris Martin. With the ability to mimic a Brit-accented Dave Matthews one minute, Jeff Buckley revived from the dead the next, and sometimes even a young Peter Gabriel, Martin’s heartfelt delivery seems to be what’s winning the hearts, wallets and alternative radio request lines of Americans young and old.”

Parachutes produced four singles, the most prominent being “Yellow,” and enjoyed popularity in the UK and US. Billboard reports that the third single was “Trouble,” which reached number 10 in the UK charts. It was released more than a year later in the US, reaching #28 on the US Alternative Songs chart. Martin has claimed that the single had saved them from being a “one-hit wonder” band, notes MTV. The band incorrectly guessed that the single wouldn’t perform well in the United States.

After starting in G major, the tune progresses through a hook-centric instrumental intro, a verse, an interlude which mirrors the intro, and another verse before shifting to A major for the chorus at 1:31; the key then reverts to G major at 1:57. The choruses grow in intensity, fueled by a compelling chord progression that seesaws between I major and a distinctive v minor.

Jamie Cullum | Anyway

One of my favorite singer-songwriters, Jamie Cullum, makes his MotD debut today with “Anyway,” included on his 2013 album Momentum. Shortly after the album’s release, Cullum elaborated on the inspiration behind it and how he chose its name in an interview with the German magazine Nothing But Hope and Passion:

“Well, it seems like a good title for the album for a lot of reasons. One is that this album was entirely made with a sense of momentum. My life’s changed in a lot of ways since the last few records, you know, I’m a father now, I have multiple responsibilities, far beyond just looking after myself, and so this album was made in pockets of time, rather than the luxury of all the time in the world. So I just kind of hurled myself into it, and the whole thing happened without a great deal of thought, which sounds careless, but I’ve come to realize that thought is the enemy of creativity in a lot of ways.

The other thing, the album is really about that crossover period where you’re really still a young man, but also you’ve got one foot in this incredibly grown-up, adult world where you’re the leader of your pack, and the album really is about that kind of balance of your childish fantasies with these grand and quite epic responsibilities. I think it’s momentum that carries you through that, really, so that’s how I came up with the title.

The tune is primarily in Eb minor, briefly modulating to G major at 2:59 before returning to Eb minor at 3:16.

Toad the Wet Sprocket | Scenes From a Vinyl Recliner

Many thanks to chronic mod submitter JB for today’s feature: “Scenes from a Vinyl Recliner,” a 1989 release (and MotD debut) by Toad the Wet Sprocket. AllMusic reports that the band was “named in honor of a sketch by the Monty Python comedy troupe … one of the most successful alternative rock bands of the early ’90s, boasting a thoughtful folk-pop sound that wielded enough melody and R.E.M.-styled jangle to straddle both the modern rock and adult contemporary markets. The group broke into the mainstream with the 1991 release of their third album, Fear, and its hits ‘All I Want’ and ‘Walk on the Ocean.'” The tune alternates between C# minor and E minor.

JB writes: “While lots of Toad’s tunes have juicy mods, this is one of their less-known songs. Even though the ‘structure’ of the mods is just the vanilla A/B verse/chorus structure, the subjective tonal quality of each mod is pretty unusual. Some of this is the direction and interval of each mod, but the instrumentation is also critical: The mod into each chorus (0:38, etc.) is very abrupt, and is primarily announced by the vibes (or synth equivalent thereof), striking a note in the new key in relative isolation. Likewise, the mod back to each verse (1:10, etc.) is announced by a single note on the piano, again in relative isolation. These timbres, sounding in isolation, make a nice contrast to the rest of the song, which follows the sort of cliched soft/loud verse/chorus structure that was one of the things that made TTWS alt-rock adjacent, rather than a pure folk-rock sound.”

Owsley | Oh No the Radio

Owsley had a brief but distinguished career as a band member, solo artist, and session/touring musician. Sadly, he apparently took his own life at age 44 in 2010, but his short discography is memorable. AllMusic reports: “Alabama-born multi-instrumentalist Will Owsley followed a career path not unlike Sheryl Crow‘s, by backing up big mainstream pop artists, collecting the rewards and channeling them into his own solo work. Owsley plied his wares in the bands of Shania Twain and Amy Grant in the mid-’90s, then recorded his own material at home, and offered the finished product to record companies on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.” Owsley’s early-90s band, The Semantics, briefly featured a young Ben Folds on keyboards; AllMusic describes the two musicians’ “likemindedness” as “hard to miss.”

“Oh No the Radio” (1999) is an account of the hold that radio had on music fans’ lives during a time when that medium was the primary way that music reached our ears. The tune seems to describe a music fan’s love/hate relationship with a medium so omnipresent that going to a drive-in movie provides a welcome but brief respite.

The intro and verse, both in C# major, feature the guitar’s crunchy, relentless battery of eighth-note seventh chords in a I7 – bVII7 vamp. This rock-solid foundation frees up the bass to intermittently depart from covering the roots, going airborne and adding harmonic context from the rafters. The chorus shifts to C# minor (for the first time at 1:47), bringing with it a far smoother and lyrical feel, before returning to the original C# major.

XTC | Wrapped In Grey

AllMusic.com calls XTC “one of the smartest — and catchiest — British pop bands to emerge from the Punk and New Wave explosion of the late ’70s. From the tense, jerky riffs of their early singles to the lushly arranged, meticulous pop of their later albums, XTC’s music has always been driven by hook-laden songwriting of guitarist Andy Partridge and bassist Colin Moulding.” In an interview with Popdose, Partridge described 1992’s “Wrapped in Grey” as “ersatz Bacharach” and one of the “perfect songs” of his career, feeling that he had “exorcised a lot of those kind of Lennon-and-McCartney, Bacharach-and-David, Brian Wilson-type ghosts out of my system by doing all that.”

Drenched with harmonic tensions from its opening, the tune starts in B minor, transitioning to F# major for the chorus from 1:19 – 1:57; the cycle then repeats. The “everything but the kitchen sink” arrangement of saloon-style piano, sweet strings, varied percussion, wide-ranging backing vocals, and a chaotic, meter-shifted tag at 3:31 make this waltz a true “Exhibit A” from the later output of this singular band.

Shishamo | Ashita Mo (明日も)

Guest contributor Alejandro Espinosa (@wolfman1405) has submitted a song called “Ashita Mo (明日も)” by the Japanese indie rock band Shishamo. The band’s members met during high school and made their debut in 2011.

Alejandro reports that the tune “begins in Db major. At 1:15, the chord progression goes V7/vi -> vi (also related ii) -> V7/V -> IV -> bVI -> V7). The V7 (Ab) resolves deceptively as a sub V into G major. The transition back happens at 2:09; it’s just kind of sudden and unprepared and it feels great. G into F, and now we’re on a Db again.”

Guster | Overexcited

According to Boston.com, the NYC-based/Boston-made band Guster is “a buoyant pop act formed by Tufts University students (which) has used its word-of-mouth popularity to hit the big time.” Apparently the “intelligently playful pop band” gives a bit of extra thought to its Boston appearances: “When the band last played the Pavilion, it arrived in a rubber dinghy. And once, at the Orpheum Theatre, band members came in from the ceiling.” Guster has cranked out college radio anthems for years, but none more quirky than 2019’s “Overexcited.” The video, an earnest homage(?) to modern dating, adds a few more smiles and cringeworthy moments to the simplicity of the lyrics and the earworming melody.

Modulation at 2:04. Many thanks to chronic contributor JB for this submission!!!

Weezer | Undone / The Sweater Song

After a long vamping intro (through 0:40), “Undone / The Sweater Song” (1994) by college radio favorites Weezer starts in F# major, modulates up to A major for a guitar solo from 1:51-2:16, then reverts back to F#. In John Luerssen’s biography of the band, frontman Rivers Cuomo says of the band’s debut single, “It was supposed to be a sad song, but everyone thinks it’s hilarious,” and was his “attempt at writing a Velvet Underground-type song.” From AllMusic‘s review: “meticulously crafted…smart, quirky, poignant, and insanely catchy — all characteristics that would go on to define Weezer as a band and their debut as one of the most successful alternative rock records of the ’90s.”

They Might Be Giants | Birdhouse In Your Soul

“Birdhouse In Your Soul,” a 1989 single from the always-quirky They Might Be Giants, reached #3 on the US Modern Rock Tracks Chart, performed well on college radio, and has been the alternative rock band’s best-performing release to date. The tune bounces back and forth between C major and Eb major throughout (starting at 0:27), with the exception of an early instrumental bridge from 1:24 – 1:43, which plays by its own rulebook.

Also stranger than fiction: the tune was later covered by Broadway stars Kristin Chenoweth and Ellen Greene for the TV series Pushing Daisies (see second video below).