Mixtapemotions

  • “Scared of Me” by Plankeye, Sunday, April 28, 2024

     

    Brandon Ebel said on the band’s episode of Labeled Podcast that after MxPx and the O.C. Supertones, Tooth & Nail Records’ third biggest seller in the ‘90s and early ‘00s was Plankeye. Debuting as a punk band with lead singer Scott Silletta, the band released Spill independently in 1994 and then re-released the album after signing to Tooth & Nail Records. The band refined their sound on subsequent releases and even ventured into a mainstream Christian Rock sound on 1997’s The One and Only. The album was their best-selling record in part due to the promotion from a national tour with the Newsboys. 


     I LANDED THERE, YOU TOOK THE FALL. In 2002, Plankeye released Wings to Fly, a compilation of greatest hits and new recordings as a final farewell to the band. After the success of The One and Only, the band parted with lead singer Scott Silletta who founded the band Fanmail, bringing the singer back to his punk roots. Drummer Adam Ferry also left the band. Guitarist Eric Balmer recalls Plankeye’s dark days after losing their lead singer on the Labeled Podcast. While The One and Only was the band’s best-selling record Plankeye fans felt that the band had sold out and the members of Plankeye weren’t particularly happy with the direction the band had taken. To make matters worse, the national tour with the Newsboys was costly. To match the extravagant production of the successful Aussie-American band, Plankeye went into debt, renting sound equipment for the venues which were much bigger than they had previously played. But whereas most bands would have broken up, remaining members Balmer and bassist Luis Garcia felt obligated to repay their debts and fulfill their contract with Tooth & Nail Records. 


    SO MANY WORDS THAT I CAN’T TAKE BACK. Over twenty years after they broke up, Plankeye is probably best remembered for their emotional song on 1999’s Relocation, “Goodbye.” Guitarist Eric Balmer took lead vocals for the band. Balmer talks about struggling to perform a set at Cornerstone with only bassist Luis Garcia accompanying him on stage. He tells Labeled host Matt Carter that the set was horrible until they premiered “Goodbye.” Balmer and Garcia assembled a band for their 2001 follow-up, Strange Exchange, but by the next year, Balmer and Garcia decided to break up Plankeye after releasing Wings to Fly. The compilation shows the band’s progression from punk to modern rock. Today’s song, “Scared of Me,” which seems to deal with a personal conflict in which both parties did wrong, was a new track on the compilation. The song’s final refrain “You can steal the blue from your own eyes,” echoes the line from Relocation’s “When It Comes”: “When it comes, it steals the blue from your eyes.”


  • “House on a Hill” by Eric Nam, Saturday, April 27, 2024 (repost)

     Eric Nam released his first English mini album, Before We Begin on January 18, 2019. The Atlanta-born, Seoul-based singer-songwriter was beginning a new phase in his career. Prior to Before We Begin, Nam had been busy as an entertainer in South Korea, starting with finishing in the top 5 of a Korean singing competition show and debuted his first single “Ooh, Ooh” in 2014. Nam has talked extensively about his experience as a first-generation Korean American who was not fluent in his parents’ language, yet became a pop star singing in Korean. Learning Korean on the fly, he was featured frequently on Korean television both promoting his music and later interviewing celebrities who came to Korea for press tours.

    THE GRASS IS GREEN, BUT I WISH IT WAS GREENER. Eric Nam’s dream was to be a pop star in America, yet with almost no Asians on the pop charts from his youth in the ‘90s and the ‘00s to his young adulthood in the ‘10s, he felt he couldn’t achieve his dream so he went to school and began work as business analyst in New York. Nam decided to try music in South Korea, and he happened to get very popular. But with his popularity, he got really busy with roles that diminished him as a musical artist. He was so successful as an interviewer, he even named his 2016 EP, Interview. Being an interviewer had become his identity, but he wanted to focus on his music. Recording and releasing music in English was a splintering from the K-pop Idol world. His musical choices echo the trends in America rather than the trends with K-pop Idols. In 2021, Nam fulfilled his contract with CJ E&M. It was then that Nam decided to be a fully independent artist.


    WHAT IF BEING HAPPY ISN’T WHAT I THOUGHT? In addition to Eric Nam’s music career and television appearances, the singer has also become a podcast personality. Unlike the Korean TV show panel appearances and interviews shows, Nam’s Dive Studios are more of the singer’s creative output as he interviews K-pop celebrities on the Daebak Show, often focusing on fellow English-speaking K-pop celebrities. On several podcasts, Eric collaborated with his two younger brothers Eddie and Brian, giving fans an insight into the brothers’ upbringing and family dynamic. Somehow, these podcasts cast a light on his brothers and family life, yet Eric, always the interviewer, allows us into his brothers’ lives but we don’t see much of his personal life. But last year, Eric released his second LP, House on a Hill. The title track deals with the problem of chasing fame. The song speaks truth in clichés, and feels like the closest we’ve ever been to Eric as an artist. The album builds on these confessional themes, as if Nam is finding his voice after singing others’ songs for so long and after interviewing and reflecting others’ thoughts. “House on a Hill” is a song for everyone chasing success, but is afraid that it might actually happen. Nam suggests that happiness isn’t in the achievement and that he, and we, need to find other measurements to gauge our own fulfillment.

  • “River” by Miley Cyrus + Top 10 Albums of 2023 (numbers 1 + 2), Friday, April 26, 2024

    Last month, I started listing my top albums of 2023. Today, I’m going to reveal my top two albums of last year. #2 is Miley Cyrus’s Endless Summer Vacation. I never thought that there would be a day when Hannah Montana would claim the number two best album of the year in my taste. But Endless Summer Vacation was an incredible album. The album departs from her trip into rock music from 2020’s Plastic Hearts into country-flavored pop. I’ve talked about how the single “Flowers” overshadowed the album. The song serves as a thesis statement to the breakup album, but the other songs emphasize the process of breaking up and the happy memories of a relationship. The songwriting is excellent, and the instrumentation on the album is superb. Cyrus’s old-soul lullaby-like post-album addition “Use to Be Young” pair nicely with her smoky mezzo-soprano vocals. But the album’s charm is mostly in the songs that got minimal attention, from the summer-by-the-pool guitar track two “Jaded” to the sexy-sticky “Rose Colored Lenses.” Today’s song, “River,” is a simple song about dancing in the rain, and as Cyrus alludes to in Endless Summer Vacation (Backyard Sessions), the song is about (censored) “It’s nasty,” Cyrus says. I’m planning to do a deep dive on the album later. 


     

    #1 This Is Why by Paramore. Their 2017 record After Laughter ventured into pop- accessibility, which made sense given their success on their self-titled record. But This Is Why is an unexpected rocker. Many of us thought Paramore was done when lead singer Haley Williams released two solo albums in 2020 and 2021. But it turns out that the three remaining members of Paramore (Williams, Taylor York, and Zach Farro) are compelled to make music together. The year of 2023 was filled with all kinds of ups and downs for the band’s tour dates canceled due to Williams coming down with a lung infection, the ending of an exploitative 20-year contract which was followed by social media deletion and canceled tour dates. But the biggest news in the band had to be the revelation of the reason why for the album. The band explained on their episode of the Song Exploder podcast for the song “Liar” that Williams and York started a relationship was the undeniable chemistry that brought the band back together. But the backstory only enriches an already incredible album. Williams’ vocal performance is always on point for every record. The instrumentation on This Is Why makes the album great. York’s guitar work and Farro’s drums create a punk rock sound unfamiliar to the Emo/pop band. This leads Williams to sing with punk-rock conviction. It’s simultaneously raw and refined. The songs have breathing space. I’ve talked about the title track, “The News,” and “C’est Comme Ça.” But the other songs deserve discussion, too, from the airy “Running Out of Time” to hilarious “Big Man, Little Dignity.” And there’s also a remix album to get into. Paramore, you win 2023, and working with Talking Heads in 2024, you’re off to a pretty good start.



  • “Contact” (Complexus) by Falling Up, Thursday, April 25, 2024

























    The idea of a remix album has been around since the 1970s. In 1987 Madonna released her remix album You Can Dance, the second most-selling remix album ever after   Michael Jackson‘s 1997 Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix. Jennifer Lopez‘s remix album J to tha L–O! The Remixes, in  2002, was the first remix album to top Billboard‘s Hot 200 album sales charts.  There have been some notable rock remix records. Nine Inch Nails released Further Down the Spiral in 1995, remixing their classic album The Downward Spiral. In 2001 Limp Bizkit released New Old Songs, which sold 500,000 copies. However, I argue that it was another platinum remix album followed by a slew of Christian Rock artists to copy their style. The band is Linkin Park and the album was Reanimation, a reworking of their 12x platinum debut Hybrid Theory. 

    HE’S IN THIS PLACE TO QUESTION WHO YOU ARE. Reanimation featured collaboration between rockers and underground rappers. While the track listing of Hybrid Theory was different, every song had a remix. There were also a few additional songs and interlude tracks. In 2006, Falling Up was one of the biggest upcoming acts in Christian Rock and they drew comparison to Linkin Park for their use of electronics, hard rock sound, and collaborations in the genre. Unlike Reanimation,   Falling Up’s 2006 remix album Exit Lights draws on the band’s two prior studio albums: Crashings and Dawn Escapes. Exit Lights featured artists like Family Force 5’s Solomon Olds, Thousand Foot Krutch’s Trevor McNevan, and CCM singer Rachel Lampa. The album opened with a new song, “Islander, ” featuring several creepy instrumentals. Many of the remixes take on a darker approach to the original songs. At this point in the band’s career, members started leaving and the band started losing popularity. When they performed at Cornerstone in the summer of 2007, lead singer Jessy Ribordy seemed distracted, sometimes forgetting the band’s lyrics. The hype Falling Up had garnered started tapering off. 

    EVERYTHING WITHIN YOU WILL FEEL ERASED. I still listen to Dawn Escapes, particularly in the fall. It’s one of my first “driving” records, released the fall after the summer I got my license. The early tracks on Dawn Escapes set an uncanny mood, not quite a horror movie, but a “Thank God I’m in the warm car and not on the broke down on the side of the road” feeling. Taking a break from the intense guitar-driven songs, track 5 was a repetitive piano-arpeggio-driven song called “Contact.” The song evokes emotions and even inspired my sister and I to write a teen drama when we were in high school–we never finished it. The track was remixed on Exit Lights, but this time, an acoustic guitar replaced the piano. “Contact” (Complexus) still has an atmosphere to it, though rather than the rainy cold sound of the piano, the guitar makes it sound like an autumn or late spring or summer afternoon or evening. Based on Psalm 42:7, the song was featured on X Worship 2007, despite vague references to God and not being a particularly good song to sing as a congregation. The Bible verse, too, is vague. Is it baptism? Is it drowning? And what is this erasure? According to a user on SongMeanings.com, in concert lead singer Jessy Ribordy talked about “how temporary everything in life is, and how Jesus is the only thing you can put your faith in.” But following this thread too far can lead to a godly depression, so typical of believers. Erasing everything I am is erasing the person God made. Spending hours in self-reflection about what is wrong with me, trying to kill the sinful cancer could damn near kill me. And yet, how much do preachers and every religious organization want to reprogram me? How much do they want me to look just like them? Why? Because differences are scary. You start to wake up and realize that you were never following Christ, but your pastor. And you’re just left erased.

    Dawn Escapes (Original):
    Exit Lights (Remix):


     

  • “Is This the Real Life?” by Emery, Wednesday, April 24, 2024 (repost)

    BadChristian started as the provocatively-titled book, Bad Christian, Great Savior, written by three friends, Pastor Joey Svenson and Emery’s lead vocalist Toby Morrell and guitarist Matt Carter. BadChristian quickly grew into a brand–a podcast and a record label–that pushed back on the conservative, family-friendly branding of Christian entertainment that had been curated for years by Christian bookstores, radio, and other Christian media outlets. Emery began releasing their music through BadChristian. In 2018, they released their second LP on their own label, and just like Matt & Toby’s edgy podcast, Eve was the most interesting conversation piece to come out of Christian Rock that year.

    CALL IT TRASH, I CALL IT PEARLS. From its controversial cover (pictured above), a nude woman on her knees showing a naked buttocks, to its lyrical content addressing alcohol and drug use, profanity, lust, divinity, and homosexuality, Eve doesn’t leave listeners with definitive answers. But it asks some good questions. The first one is what is Christian music? When I was growing up, there was Christian music and secular music. Of course secular could mean the Carpenters which was ok, but it could also mean Korn or Eminem. A Christian bookstore was a safe spot where you could buy just about any CD without parental objections, unless of course, your parents were anti-rock music. There was no cursing, sex, or violence. There certainly were no naked people on the album cover. There were some anomalies to this. P.O.D. had album artwork reprinted on both The Fundamental Elements of Southtown and Payable on Death. Evanescence and MuteMath sued to be taken out of the Christian bookstore and section. A few early Tooth & Nail bands contained strong language (the label wised up to the money-making opportunity to keep a clean nose for the Christian bookstore). But in all of this heavy branding, how realistic was it to how adult Christians really   acted? The Christian music industry promoted a lifestyle in the fans that many of the bands didn’t even realize that they were promoting. Emery comes along and breaks free of the bullshit and starts to question whether Christian music can be Christian without censorship. And this journey continues on this provocative album.

    I STAY IN MY DREAMS, BUT I DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. “Is This the Real Life?” is an ontological discussion in the form of a song. Reality is a theme that Matt and Toby talk about a lot on The BadChristian Podcast. How do we know that life isn’t just a simulation? How do I know that I am real? How do I know that you are real? Are you just a program in the simulation? Am I? I’ve spent a lot of time wondering about these things myself. We only really get one perspective in this life. And the human experience is at most 100 years out of thousands of years in Earth’s history. I am one of 8 billion people alive today. Trillions have lived before me and trillions will live after me. I read somewhere that it only takes 3-to 4 generations to go by for you to be completely forgotten. That is unless you do something great or notorious, but even then only a small percentage of people will be educated enough to know about your dot on history only if it was significant enough. And I think about how I don’t know much about my great-aunts and uncles. And even if we can see their names, we can’t know their daily lives and struggles unless they happen to keep a journal. And even if they did leave a journal, there are so many journals to read. With trillions of lives lived, who could ever have the time to appreciate all of them and move us forward as a species? And I’m going to stop starting my sentences with and.

    For an in-depth analysis of this song, I will link to the Break It Down Podcast with Matt Carter. 


    Read 

    “Is This the Real Life” by Emery on Genius 

  • “Enemy Among Us" by Paper Route (update repost), Tuesday, April 23, 2024

     Paper Route’s debut record Absence was mostly word of mouth from the band’s existing fan base and getting on major tours with Paramore, Mutemath, and others, despite the band being on a division of a major label. The band’s established fan base, curated through touring and social media, had already been introduced to the band’s evolving sound on the Are We All Forgotten EP released on 2008 from the folk-electronic sound of their early efforts. Absence though was full electronic progressive pop, but one that started with a hypnotic acoustic piano loop.

    HE STOLE AS BEST HE COULD. The disorienting intro to the song “Enemy Among Us” is a reverberated piano. In the living-room-filmed album promotional performance video (see below) shows a drum set a top the electric piano as Chad Howat plays the song. I have no idea how the band recorded the song, but Absence is an album that I would like to know more technical specifics about how they captured certain sounds. Besides wondering what that synth tone at the beginning of “Are We All Forgotten” and the dirty bass distortion on “Gutter,” I wonder about the looping and drum programming on “Enemy.” Unlike Acceptance who had built up a fanbase in the Seattle Emo rock scene, Paper Route fans weren’t expecting hard rock from them. Absence starts as a pop record and then transitions into rock before coming back to pop and flirts with EDM all along the way. The band’s second record, The Peace of Wild Things stays mostly in the territory of pop, while their third record Real Emotion starts with the rock song “Writing on the Wall” before completely becoming a pop album. Listeners never knew what to expect from Paper Route, but what could be expected is that Christian-leaning progressive indie pop bands (i.e. Copeland, Deas Vail, Cool Hand Luke) rarely amassed the level of fans as the heavier ones (i.e. Anberlin, Underoath, Norma Jean).
    FELL INTO A HOLE. What makes “Enemy Among Us” so appealing is how chill it appears on the surface, but how creepy it turns out to be. It’s calm, but never safe. The lyrics seem to draw on falling down the rabbit hole, reminding listeners of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. On their next album, “Rabbit Holes” seems to draw on similar themes. While Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are fun and fantastical, they are not safe or peaceful. The rabbit hole in this song, though, introduces the listener to an enemy “who stole as best he could / our hearts.” It’s almost as if in the span of this 4:45 song, we’re introduced to a figure who is suspected to be the villain in a James Bond film or some film noir. You feel charmed by him, but you remind yourself to be careful about which information you give him. You are constantly telling yourself that although he’s friendly, he’s not your friend. You’re not sure what he’ll do with that information, but you certainly don’t want to be the loser in whatever this is. But Absence doesn’t appear to be a concept record. We don’t have the big reveal. We don’t have the fall out. What we have is the peace and the anxiety. We have the waiting. There’s interesting drum programming to keep us on edge, but the frantic piano and rock sounds of the following track, “Wish,” change the subject. Enemy averted?

  • “Lacerate” by Anberlin, Monday, April 22, 2024

    Anberlin has been accused of being a band that listeners can identify by every song. I never thought that this criticism was fair because the band has a range of songs of different tempos and tones.  The band did, however, seem to follow an album formula, particularly in their earlier work. But in  2022, the band decided to release an EP rather than a full album. The five songs on Silverline were a little more experimental for the band than their previous work. The electronic and post-hardcore elements the band developed after their breakup were best exemplified in the singles “Two Graves” and “Circles.” Even with the shock of the new Anberlin sound, I was confused when I heard the lead single from Convinced, the 2023 follow-up to Silverline. Rather than a zippy guitar riff from Joseph Milligan and Stephen Christian’s clear vocals, “Lacerate” starts a little slower than many Anberlin album openers with an ambient synth.

    SLOW FADE, SLOW FEIGN. The first voice we hear on Convinced is not Stephen Christian’s but rather guitarist Christian McAlhaney’s. The song doesn’t sound like Anberlin until Stephen Christian takes the chorus, but even then Stephen feels more like a featured artist on the song rather than Anberlin’s frontman. Adding to the chaos of the song is producer and collaborator Chad Carouthers, contributing a death-metal scream to the chorus and the song’s breakdown. While Anberlin is no stranger to heavy music, “Lacerate” feels like new territory for the band. It feels angrier than the band’s darker songs like “Never Take Friendship Personal.” Ryan Clark’s scream on the band’s opening track from their sophomore album sounded like teen-angst. Carouthers’ scream coupled with the darker highly-produced sound of “Lacerate” feels like a frustration that has festered for a long time only to be let out in abysmal desperation. 

    THE CADAVER OF TRUTH. I’m not sure how “Lacerate” fits into the timeline of Stephen Christian’s decision to take an indefinite hiatus from touring with Anberlin. The opening track to Convinced does feel like a way to phase out the band’s charismatic lead singer. Transitioning into heavier music and introducing Matty Mullins of the metalcore band Memphis May Fire as the band’s touring lead vocalist makes sense with a single like “Lacerate.” Anberlin fans seem divided on the Matty Mullins phase of the band. Mullins has an incredible range that can handle the new heavy direction of Anberlin. Still, Stephen Christian has been the voice of Anberlin for over twenty years. We don’t know the closed-door conversations as the band got back together, starting in late 2018. It seemed to be a reunion out of a new convenience of the music industry–not having to be ever-present and allowing social media to handle some of the more time-consuming factors in touring and promotion as well as tapping into a millennial listenership with money to spend on nostalgia. But in the “reconciliation” between the lead singer and the band, a fundamental difference seemed to remain: Stephen Christian viewed the band as a part-time gig to his pastorship and fatherhood, and the band seemed to view Anberlin as the main gig. Artistically, I think that Anberlin ending and becoming a supergroup fronted by Matty Mullins would be the best choice. But I think keeping Anberlin and playing the old songs may be a more financially beneficial choice. 



  • "Move Along" by The All-American Rejects (repost), Sunday, April 21, 2024

    When Jonezetta released their 2006 debut record, Popularity, they dedicated the album to their recently deceased fifth member. Keyboardist Timothy Jordan II took his life in 2015. Jordan had been a promising young musician from Arkansas, which had a small but notable musical scene since acts like Living Sacrifice, The Juliana Theory, Evanescence, As Cities Burn, and others got their starts in the area. Jordan became a touring member of The All-American Rejects just as their career started blowing up with TV performances and bigger tours. However, just before releasing TAR released Move Along, Jordan announced his departure and joined an up-and-coming band on Tooth & Nail Records–Jonezetta. Popularity is a very dancy, upbeat album and featuring Jordan on the keys. 

    THESE HANDS ARE MEANT TO HOLD. Jonezetta never memorialized Timothy Jordan in their two albums other than dedicating Popularity to him. However, The All-American Rejects wrote the song “Believe” about him, and fans also say that “Move Along” pays tribute to Jordan, as the song is an anti-suicide song. The best tribute, though, is As Cities Burn‘s album closer “Timothy” from their 2007 album, Come Now Sleep. A few years ago, for my after-school ESL music listening class, we listened to Jack’s Mannequin‘s “Swim,” a song I covered last month. I called the song a per aspera ad astra song, a Latin phrase translated as “through hardships to the stars.” The meaning of this phrase is that by enduring difficulties, we will overcome and become great. “Move Along” is a great pep talk of a song, particularly for a hard day. The video depicts the band going through a variety of hard, uncomfortable, or seemingly hopeless situations. However, the song begs the listener to “keep . . strong, like I know ya can.” 

    WHEN YOU FALL, EVERYONE STANDS. Often pushing through the difficulty can make it bearable. Moving on to the next thing can distract us from the failures we can’t fix. But in the moment, that failure is glaring. Relationships end, car accidents happen, tickets are issued, fights occur–“days when you’ve lost yourself completely” are painful to reflect on at night. Certainly, you want to redeem yourself or escape the misery. But holding on and reaching out makes us realize that we’ve all been there. Sometimes I’ve said, “I’d rather die than face what tomorrow holds” only to have something happen, like almost stepping in front of a bus, and I find myself instinctually fighting for my life. No, I guess I’d rather face tomorrow. I won’t doubt that this song has saved lives and helped many people through hard times. However, I do worry about “moving along” as a blanket-prescribed solution. The saying “Fake it until you make it” has some merit, but at some point, you have to be able to say, “I’m not happy. I need to talk with someone about why I’m unhappy.” Sometimes we “move along” too quickly. Just like you shouldn’t put off other emergencies, dealing with our mental health should be the top priority. For my mental health, I found that my close friends have gotten me through my darkest times. However, there are times when a friend is not enough. And that’s when it’s time to stop and seek help from a professional.

    Read the Lyrics on Genius.

  • "Closer" by Tegan and Sara (repost), Saturday, April 20, 2024

    The best music doesn’t happen in isolation but rather comes out of a community movement. I would define community, when it comes to music, as a mixing of artists who bring different ideas together ideas from various genres. The result of a musical community is stronger musicianship by all those involved. Collaboration, the meeting of minds, happens naturally. Throughout the course of my blog, I’ve talked about various communities. Tooth & Nail, Christian Rock, and evangelical communities are definitely the biggest themes. Tegan and Sara grew out of the Northwestern Canadian/American Indie Rock community in the late ’90s, and by 2013 became pop stars. 

    HERE COMES THE RUSH BEFORE WE TOUCH. Many fans may have been introduced to Tegan and Sara when Meredith Grey and Christina Yang danced to their early acoustic, angry girl music in Grey’s Anatomy‘s earlier seasons. The musical duo of Calgary-born identical twins Tegan and Sara Quin started on the acoustic guitar at home and eventually led to being signed on Neil Young‘s label, Vapor Records. The band gained traction in the indie scene. The White Stripes covered one of their songs, and co-writing with Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie also helped them gain indie cred in their early career. But in 2013, the duo changed directions. The result was the big-production, synth pop-driven Heartthrob. “Closer,” Heartthrob’s opening track and lead single, sees the sisters explore new lyrical territory in addition to their musical change-up. Tegan sings lead vocals, but Sara encouraged her to sing a straight-up love song, without the dark and dreary lyrical content the group had been known for. According to an article in Rolling Stone, Tegan’s lyrics were about “a time when we got closer by linking arms and walking down our school hallway or talked all night on the telephone about every thought or experience we’d ever had. It wasn’t necessarily even about hooking up or admitting your feelings back then.”
    THE LIGHTS ARE OFF AND THE SUN IS FINALLY SETTING. THE NIGHT SKY IS CHANGING OVERHEAD. In a video series the twins released talking about the songs on the album, Sara pushed the lyrics to “make things physical,” referencing high school romance. Tegan best sums up the atmosphere, stating to Rolling Stone, “These relationships existed in a state of sexual and physical ambiguity.” The music gives the impression of a late-’80s early-’90s slumber party, with the sisters singing karaoke on an ancient, faux wood entertainment stand in which the television is built–younger millennials may not remember that artifact–and childish games like spin the bottle and applying lipstick. The video celebrates couples of all genders and sexualities. Both Tegan and Sara are openly queer musicians from their musical inception and have used their music as a platform in recent years to advocate for equality. “Closer” scored pop radio play and has been featured in several television shows including Glee and Bojack Horseman. The song is a beautifully innocent track about desire–wanting to take things to the next level, but being too young, too naive, and too shy to do so.

     

  • “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana, Friday, April 19, 2024

     There might be one song that defines the ‘90s and reshaped music and the rock star for Generation X and future generations of music listeners. That song, of course, was the lead single from the 1991 sophomore record by Nirvana, Nevermind. “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Nirvana, and Nevermind didn’t invent Grunge. Alice in Chains, arguably, brought the sound mainstream before Nirvana did. The song “Man in the Box,” a hopeless rocker when the sounds of hair rockers were much more optimistic and hedonistic, reached number 18 on Billboard’s Modern Rock tracks.  But Alice in Chains didn’t lead the revolution, nor did Nirvana’s other contemporaries Soundgarden or Pearl Jam.

     

    HERE WE ARE NOW, ENTERTAIN US. Just as how F. Scott Fitzgerald set out to write a satire of the trivial lives and parties of the New York upper crust and subsequently gave literature and history the most condensed account of what the “Jazz Age” was in The Great Gatsby, Nirvana wrote “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” which resonated with teenage rebellion which had been closely connected with rock music since the ‘50s. While frontman Kurt Cobain and Nirvana were surprised of the band’s impact on the charts and eventually culture, it was the satire of teen rebellion anthems throughout the four prior decades of rock music from The Beatles to Mötley Crüe that reinvented rock music for the ‘90s. But Nirvana and Cobain weren’t the flamboyant stars rock musicians had been expected to be. Cobain was introverted and suffered from depression. Rather than masking his pain on stage, Kurt used his music to channel his feelings, delivering some of the most honest portrayals of himself in the absence of a stage persona. Today artists like Lana Del Rey and Billie Eilish credit Cobain’s stage authenticity as inspiration to show their audiences their truths. 

    I FEEL STUPID AND CONTAGIOUS. While Kurt Cobain’s “public display of depression” was a craved missing ingredient in the rock star persona, it was the singer’s views on social issues that keep him relevant even almost thirty years after his death by suicide in 1994. Cobain considered himself a feminist and spoke out against racism, sexism, and homophobia whenever he could. At one show, Cobain told his audience, “I would like to get rid of homophobes, sexists, and racists from our audience.” On another occasion, Kurt told his audience, “If you’re a sexist, racist, homophobe or basically an asshole, don’t buy this CD. I don’t care if you like me, I hate you.” He believed in counter- culture, the spirit in which rock music had been founded in the ‘50s and ‘60s, which had been forgotten in the ‘80s when the psychedelic Jefferson Airplane became the “corporate target” Starship and you could find a “DeadHead sticker on a Cadillac.” Cobain’s views were not shared with everyone in Grunge. In fact, post grunge tended to be libertarian at best and far-right at worst–think Aaron Lewis’ “Am I the Only One?” But Cobain was never concerned about fitting in with a movement. But thirty years later, other than a lawsuit surrounding the cover art, the music holds up, and artists still look to Cobain as a sort of prophet of inclusivity. Of all the forms of teen rebellion, isn’t that a much better vision for the future?