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December 24, 2007

albums you should own: matthew sweet/girlfriend

i don't know where you found yourself or what you were listening to in the summer of 1991. i was living in with my dad's family in new bern, north carolina - and i was listening to a lot of pop metal. and life was good. and then one day i woke up - turned on the mtv and suddenly everything changed. because the most revered and critically acclaimed one hit wonder of all time (nirvana for all the lay people in the audience) changed the landscape of what was popular. and i'm here to tell you i wasn't all that happy about it. it's true that pop metal had run its course and bands like bon jovi and def leppard were on their last legs - but still....although smells like teen spirit was a catchy little number there was never any danger that it was going to change the course of my existence. anyway, mtv figured out pretty quickly that the kids were going nuts for this formerly under the radar stuff and as such you suddenly saw a lot of videos popping up from bands you had barely - or never even heard of.

and that's how i first stumbled upon matthew sweet. the video for his song girlfriend was played fairly frequently probably because it was mostly anime and - therefore - it was considered groundbreaking at the time. it didn't hurt that it was a catchy little number. i know i liked it quite a bit. at the time i was basically an 18 year old shut-in because i had no job and no transportation so i wasn't buying a lot of music. i spent most of my days learning journey songs on the piano....until 3:30 would roll around - when my 8 year old brother kevin would come home from school. then we played basketball until the sun went down. that being said - if you don't think i could totally rock don't stop believing you would be sadly mistaken. because i totally did. brices creek road was never the same. and somewhere in the midst of my journey obsession i forgot all about girlfriend.

a couple of years later after i moved back to florida and started cleaning windows professionally - probably around '93 - i scratched together some cash and bought my first compact disc player. it was a little sony boombox i purchased at the target at the mall across the street from st. andrews presbyterian church p.c.a. - you know, the mall where adam walsh was kidnapped back in 1980...? anyway, it was pretty sweet - but at the time i didn't own any cd's so i went up to this little used cd place near the house in north miami beach and it was there that i found a used copy of matthew sweet's girlfriend album (it should be noted that i was still listening to alot of bad latter day def leppard at the time - adrenalize was not their finest hour)

and it changed my life. and what i mean by that is it changed the way i thought about music. i often tell people that this was the singular (cingular?) album that made me want to play guitar. i had no idea at the time who richard lloyd and robert quine were but i knew they were rocking my face off. and matthew sweet - wow. i don't know if there has been a better power pop song writer in the history of humankind. although now that i think about it a.c. newman is pretty rad as well.

not only is girlfriend a great powerpop record - it might also be the greatest breakup record of all-time. and the photo of tuesday weld on the cover...yikes!!! i was/am in love. i learned later on that our friend matthew was going through a divorce at the time the record was written and recorded and what this meant for me was that every song - especially songs like day for night - thought i knew you - and you don't love me - were right in my lori pinder obsessed wheelhouse. which reminds me - that good will hunting kid was full of shit. just because you completely alter the course of your life to go see about a girl - it doesn't mean she'll want to see you.

but i digress - i'm proud to say i still own the same copy of girlfriend that i bought back in the day - and even though i'm much less angsty than i used to be i'll still take it on road trips and crank it up. and when i do it takes me back to the salad days of young christopher - tawny and tan in his floridian paradise...playing beach volleyball in his spare time - which was pretty much all the time and life was good...and...where was i? oh yes, i would definitely say this was the first album that set me on a course to explore new music that was sort of off the beaten path. mr. sweet's follow up album altered beast is equally fantastic and it contains one of the greatest/darkest love songs ever recorded - someone to pull the trigger . it's certainly the best song matthew sweet has ever written. so - if someday you find yourself in a record store with some spare coin in your pocket pick up a copy of girlfriend. i'd love to know what you think. i know that i could easily burn a copy of it for you - but this is called album's you should own - not albums i'd like to burn for you.

Posted by young_christopher at 12:29 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

December 15, 2007

clear eyes full carts can't lose

i don't know how you feel about the films of kevin costner - he's never been a particularly engaging actor. his line delivery has always been somewhat hackey - except of course during his should have been nominated perfomance in robin hood prince of thieves. i left the theater thinking he might have actually been british. regardless of kevin's various cinematic crimes (waterworld, the postman, 3000 miles to graceland et. al.) alot of adult males find themselves sucked in by field of dreams. i haven't shed a single tear since the summer of 1989 but every time i watch that film my throat gets a little bit lumpy and i immediately call up my father and ask him if he wants to have a game of catch...actually that's not true. i don't even have a baseball glove. or my dad's phone number. but still....i love the scene at the end of the movie where the camera pans out over the cornfields and you see the blinking headlights winding their way toward heaven as darth vader voice overs emotively.

i felt like i was a participant in that final scene on wednesday night as i made my way out east brainerd road to our brand new chattanooga area publix. it helps the metaphor that east brainerd narrows to two lanes for the last mile or so. and you might not think the grand opening of a new grocery store would be all that big of a deal. but you would be wrong. mostly because publix isn't just another grocery store. and it's ambient lights sang out in the dark night like a gleaming jewel in a vast wasteland of bi-lo's and wal-marts. because prior to last wednesday those were pretty much the only options for grocery shopping in this town. we also have food lion but i don't want to know anyone who shops there.

when i finally got into the parking lot and found a parking space i was first-date giddy as i stepped out of the car. for a moment i even contemplated kissing the ground. and seriously y'all the parking lot was packed. and there was a line of people waiting at the front of the store...so i thought maybe there was some kind of raffle going on for a life time supply of boars head meat, but that was not the case. these folks were waiting in line for shopping carts! the store was packed with people. shopping and not shopping and generally taking in the smell of fresh produce. because i'm here to tell you that's not a common smell in these parts. bi-lo smells like warmed over seafood that's been sitting in an unflushed toilet for about a week and wal-mart...well wal-mart just smells like fat.

anyway - the place was too packed to get any grocery shopping done on wednesday so i went back last nite. and it was still ridiculously busy but i loaded my cart with one hand even as i wiped away tears of joy with my other. and it's true i had to give the lady in the deli pointers on how to make my sub but she was very nice and it was her only her 3rd day so i really didn't mind. and then with sub in hand and the shopping cart bursting at the seams i proceeded to the checkout line.

and as i unloaded my groceries - i overheard the woman in front of me asking the fresh faced cashier if publix had any kind of a bonus card. and the girl simply replied that publix does not use a bonus card they believe all their customers should get the same discount. and seriously, i could have kissed her - the cashier not the ignorant woman. because you really don't want to get me started on those damned bonus cards. i believe bonus cards to be directly responsible for global warming....among other things.

so all that to say - i'm pretty excited that publix has finally arrived. even though it's a 30 mile round trip for not so young christopher i will not be shy about frequenting the place. because the more business publix does the more likely they are to open up more stores in the area...and holy crap! i've got to go get in line for wilco tickets! who's going with me?

Posted by young_christopher at 9:49 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 5, 2007

let all the children boogie

is it too early to start compiling year end lists? apparently paste magazine doesn't think so. their current issue proclaims that the national made the finest record of 2007. and while (in the clearing stands a)boxer was indeed a great little record it - in my unflinching opinion - was not the best record of the last year. because every time i listened to that album i couldn't help thinking: this is really good but alligator was so much better.

my nominee for the top record of the year is without a doubt hissing fauna are you the destroyer by of montreal and i refuse to accept any argument to the contrary. because it's brilliant and complex and dark and glorious all at the same time. and it makes me want to move to norway and buy a drum machine and experiment with make-up. i have purchased and/or listened to an obscene amount of music this year and nothing touches this record in my inestimable opinion. but if i absolutely positively had to pick a top five it would go something like this:

1. of montreal ~ hissing fauna.... seriously, if you don't have this record go out and buy it. immediately. and if for some reason you buy it and don't care for it stop by 4808 and we can listen together while i fight you until you admit that you really do in fact like it.

2. random spirit lover ~ sunset rubdown. because even though this record is musically difficult and it might not necessarily be the first record i would reach for to burn a copy for a friend - spencer krug is a genius and this is the kind of record that i really like. it appeals to my inner music geek. and it's such a fantastic record to listen to at unreasonable volumes and it makes my heart happy. and i'm an idiot for not going that show. so there's that.

3. sky blue sky ~ wilco. take that pitchfork! this will never be my favourite wilco record but it is easily their most cohesive fully realized set and it's a fantastic driving record. especially late in the afternoon coming home from wherever i happen to may roam. the plaintive wail of tweedy is my compass.

4. emotionalism ~ the avett brothers. this is a relatively late entry onto this list but i assure you it absolutely deserves to be here. micah recommended this to me right before my trip out west. and this record proved to be a welcome surprise. sort of like josh brolin's performance in no country for old men. and you wonder - where'd that come from? because seriously - dude hasn't been that compelling since he rode his bike off that cliff in goonies

5. live at massey hall 1971 ~ neil young. i guess this doesn't really qualify as a new record. but it was released for the first time in 2007 and as far as live records go it ranks right up there with johnny cash's live at folsom. the sound quality is phenomenal and it's surreal listening to neil play songs like old man and heart of gold and the needle and the damage done and they're all brand new songs that most of the people in the crowd haven't heard yet.

honorable mention: broken social scene presents kevin drew ~ spirit if...; the national ~ boxer; okkervil river ~ the stage names; the everybodyfields ~ nothing is okay; teddy thompson ~ up front & down low; new pornographers ~ challengers; arcade fire ~ neon bible; band of horses ~ cease to begin....langhorne slim electric love letter e.p./engine e.p.s; ghostland observatory ~ paparazzi lighting...

crap! it's been a great year for music. if you don't believe me i'll make you a mix cd. the sexy results series has been retired but volume 1 of tickle me saint elmo has just been completed. and it's not too shabby. i love music.

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