2015: Love All the Way to the Dirt

 

2015 started with such promise. My girlfriend, Sarah, became my wife, Sarah, on March 26, after which we honeymooned in Joshua Tree, even staying in the Gram Parsons Room at JT Inn. (Room 8 for those of you looking to follow that plan.) I saw a transcendent Replacements at the Hollywood Palladium in April, A Giant Dog tear down the Bigfoot Lodge in August, and was smack dab in the front row for Dave Alvin, Phil Alvin, and the Guilty Ones at the Troubadour in November. On September 6, I interviewed Bob Forrest, frontman and songwriter for Thelonious Monster, a two-part half-marathon in glorious mono. My daughters, Edie and Lu, are adorable, healthy, and (mostly) happy, we recently moved into a kickass new house, and my beloved Alabama Crimson Tide are 1 win away from their 4th college football championship in 7 years.

However, the year wasn’t all beer and fistpumps. On July 20, I lost my brother, Craig, to lung cancer. He was only 51 and was diagnosed 8 months before he passed away. I guess in a perverse way he was rewarded by not having to suffer THAT long, but that’s the lesserest evil there ever goddamn was. Our mother died of throat cancer 23 years ago at the age of 59. My dad died 3 years ago from complications due to Parkinson’s disease, but at least he was 82. He lived a full life, even if the end sucked for obvious reasons. Therefore, of the 4 people in the immediate Davis family — Craig and I were the only kids — 2 of those people didn’t reach 60. I’m 46, so my next 14 years will unavoidably be colored by the specter of imminent death. YAY ME!

 

A little bit of time goes a long, long way
To show you how little you’ve done
I wanna wrap myself in a purpose and hold on”
–Joey Kneiser, “For The Good Life”

In what may also be considered bad news, I want to announce that The Adios Lounge is going on indefinite hiatus after this post. I’ve loved the last 7-8 years of intense musicological dive bombs, but I’m fucking burned out. Craig’s death really took the wind out of my sails and it’s been a fight to regain any kind of creative momentum. Maybe it’ll be a few months or a year or forever, but I’ve gotta take a step back and rejuv. I don’t have the time or inclination to kill myself writing anymore and it’s not like I’m making any money off this. Thanks for all the kind words over the years, you have no idea how grateful I am for the support. I’m not opposed to writing, editing, or podcasting in the future, but life is going in a new direction for awhile. I’m OK, you’re OK, and that there is what it is.

So, allow me to close out The Adios Lounge with an old fashioned, TLDR retrospective of 2015. It started out as the Top 10 albums of the year, but fuck that. Instead, I’ve collated 27 tracks — a few of which don’t appear on albums — that best represent MY version of 2015. They aren’t organized in linear fashion, so the first song is #1, the second song is #2, etc. Rather, it’s a playlist arranged for flow and aesthetic impact, and it breaks down this way:

27 tracks
13 acts
12 albums
2 EPs
2 live shows
2 internet appearances
1 radio set
1 7″ single

 

Here’s the playlist and below are the songs and videos themselves. You can download the set as a zip file, but you’ll have to either sort by Comments (which are uniformly listed as Adios Lounge: Best of 2015) or put it together yourself manually. In the past, I might’ve retagged the album title as Adios Lounge: Best of 2015, but I want you to know the album (or single or EP, whatever) from which each track comes. I also would’ve put it on Spotify, but several tracks aren’t available there, and that stupid program slows my computer to a crawl. Fuck it.

THE ADIOS LOUNGE BEST OF 2015
Download playlist as zip file [214 MB]

1. Bob Forrest – Song About Songs
2. Bob Forrest – Lookin’ To The West [Live at Book Soup, Hollywood]
3. Joey Kneiser – For The Good Life
4. Joey Kneiser & Kelly Smith – The Wildness [Live at Standard Deluxe, Waverly, AL]
5. Brent Best – Robert Cole
6. Brent Best & Mike Nicolai – Gimme Back My Dog [Live on The Gadfly Hour]
7. Mike Nicolai – Where’s The Door Guy?
8. Mike Nicolai & Sabrina Ellis – All I Wanted [Live on The Gadfly Hour]
9. Sweet Spirit – My Poor Stupid Heart
10. Sweet Spirit – Baby Doll
11. Sweet Spirit & Britt Daniel – Paper Tiger
12. Low Cut Connie – Shake It Little Tina
13. Low Cut Connie – Me N Annie
14. Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin – Please Please Please
15. Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin – World’s In A Bad Condition
16. Dead Rock West – I Used To Love You
17. Dead Rock West – So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad)
18. Summer Twins – Dreamin’
19. Summer Twins – Demons
20. Courtney Barnett – Small Poppies
21. Courtney Barnett – Pedestrian At Best [Guardian Sessions]
22. Sink Tapes – Wanting One Blues
23. Sink Tapes – Meshes
24. Connections – Ayliah [Live on WFMU]
25. Connections – Cindy [Live on WFMU]
26. Will Johnson – Multnomah
27. Will Johnson – Nameless, But A Lover

The first few songs on my playlist are about the power of music, and that is no accident. I’ve tried to make The Adios Lounge be about a passion and love for great music, how different songs and musicians can connect with one another, even if those connections are accidental or one-way and separated by decades. We live in disturbingly angry times, a 24-7 temporal onslaught of internet bullies and emotional suicide bombers. As Phil and Dave Alvin sing, “I declare the world’s in a bad condition.” We’re subject to the whims of a victimocracy that doesn’t just tolerate, but actively encourages a narcissistic culture of entitlement and outrage. Mass shootings, Trump grumps, feminist jihadists, murder cops, social media sociopaths, gun nuts, and liberal America’s obsession with the white male chupacabra, that mythical scapegoat whom they believe relieves them of the responsibility of their own actions (it doesn’t). This is the America we live in. And yet, the beauty of music is that it not only transcends the stupidity and selfishness of humans, but also shows what humans are capable of when they’re properly focused on bringing people together, not driving them apart. Think about that. Music is so powerful it can make humans appear human.

1. Bob Forrest – Song About Songs
Survival Songs
Bandcamp

 

Survival Songs revisits 6 tracks from the Thelonious Monster catalog, 3 from Bicycle Thief, includes 2 newbies, an older tune that was never recorded, and a Zander Schloss cover. The album was recorded in Big Sur with producer Ian Brennan, who adopted the Rick Rubin/Johnny Cash minimalist production aesthetic, and that was exactly what Survival needed. “Song About Songs” is actually the Zander song, who you may know from either The Circle Jerks or his appearance in Repo Man, but he was also Thelonious Monster’s guitarist for many years. Here he plays 12-string guitar or bouzouki (it could be either) and sings vocal harmonies with Bob. In fact, they’re basically co-lead vocalists. The track is a meditation on the power of music as it accompanies you through good times and bad and ultimately “saves your life.”

There are songs like stones
That’s been around for all time
Some songs are like the diamonds
Coming up from the mines”

“Song About Songs” cleverly references “Dark As A Dungeon,” Merle Travis’ postwar coal miner’s anthem, and I think that’s a weirdly apt analogy. Obviously, mining is as hard and as physical an occupation as there’s ever been and songwriting … well, is the opposite of that. That said, miners aren’t inventing coal, they’re discovering it, and so it is with writers of song. I subscribe to the Townes Van Zandt/Keith Richards philosophy that songs are out there in the universe and it’s the songwriter’s responsibility to find them. If there’s a critical difference between harvesting coal and harvesting songs it’s that the magic of songs isn’t in the work that went into them, it’s in how they move the soul.

2. Bob Forrest – Intro Banter/Looking To The West
Book Soup, Hollywood
October 15, 2015
Recorded by Nate Pottker

When I was a kid nothing mattered more
Than Kiss and Led Zeppelin singing rock ‘n’ roll, singing ‘Rock And Roll’
Back then music used to mean so much to me
It don’t mean that much to me no more”

“Looking To The West” was originally written in 1987 for Thelonious Monster’s Next Saturday Afternoon LP and it remains a perfect distillation of the rock musician’s quandary. You have the utter joy of performing music and writing songs with your friends, but that joy doesn’t exist in a vacuum. On the contrary, that joy is beset on all sides by an industry that sees you as little more than product. As I’ve said on many occasions, the music industry is to music as fast food is to food. Or, as Neil Young sang in “Don’t Be Denied,” “I’m a pauper in a naked disguise/A millionaire through a businessman’s eyes.”

I’m glad Nate included the intro to this performance of “Looking To The West” because it’s Bob reflecting back on the conditions that produced “West,” and it includes a respectful nod to X. I saw the Monster perform this song numerous times in the 1990s and Bob usually changed the song’s references from Kiss and Led Zeppelin to X and The Replacements or Soul Asylum and The Replacements. I liked that better.

3. Joey Kneiser – For The Good Life
The Wildness
Bandcamp

 

If you’ve read The Adios Lounge for any length of time, you might know I’m a huge fan of Joey Kneiser. As far as I’m concerned, he’s as good as any American songwriter this century. His songs have heart, humor, and deep, deep roots, and even when his characters are flawed, you can tell he cares about them. Equally impressive is the fact that Joey plays all the instruments on his new solo album, The Wildness, so he’s not just a bandleader surrounded by hired guns, he IS the hired gun. And he’s here in the third and fourth positions on my playlist because The Wildness picks up where Bob Forrest leaves off. Where Bob writes about his love of music despite the depredations of the music industry, Joey writes about his love of rock ‘n’ roll as both blessing and curse.

Me, I got a heart hanging on by a guitar string
It’s been wrapped around my neck since I was young
And it’s the only thing that’s ever made me feel like someone”

Kneiser’s voice — in a literary sense — is fully realized, but econo. He doesn’t waste words. He offers a simple image of something that can kill OR heal, like the guitar string as umbilical cord and noose. That deceptive, homespun simplicity is an undervalued commodity in this world of hot takes and notice-me hysterics.

It’s worth noting that at least Thelonious Monster was part of a generation of bands who could take advantage of the music industry, even while they were being taken advantage of. They could tour and record and get a nominal amount of label support. By the time Glossary hit their stride in 2006-07, the industry wasn’t interested in trad rock ‘n’ roll bands who didn’t have a gimmick to hide behind and didn’t concede to trends. All Glossary had was a series of poignant anthems, sounding like heirs to Uncle Tupelo, The Jayhawks, Slobberbone, Springsteen, and The Band. Yeah, God forbid musicians have those horrible influences!

4. Joey Kneiser & Kelly Smith – The Wildness
Live From Standard Deluxe (Waverly, Alabama)
July 18, 2015
Bandcamp

 

While The Wildness was Joey’s official solo effort, it wasn’t his only release in 2015. In fact, a few weeks before The Wildness was released, his label, This Is American Music, quietly released a live album featuring just Joey and longtime vocal collaborator (and ex-wife), Kelly Smith, performing at the fabled Standard Deluxe in Waverly, Alabama. I like that the two albums give you both sides of the Kneiser dynamic. The Wildness splits the diff between rock ‘n’ roll and a steady country/folk hand, while Live From Standard Deluxe is strictly acoustic country/folk.

“The Wildness” is carried by a giant hook, great harmonies, and memorable lyrics. Where the first track on the album, “Run Like Hell,” represents the pure romance of rock ‘n’ roll (“The only truth we’ve ever known lives on the records that we stole”), “The Wildness” is cold hard truth.

Rock ‘n’ roll doesn’t lie
You just don’t wanna know the truth
It loved you more when you were young
Before you had so much to lose”

It also features one of the best choruses of the year, one that cleverly flips genders, and goes straight to the heart.

All the lonely girls
Sing the songs that lonely boys write
All the lonely boys
Want a lonely girl to spend the night”

All the lonely boys
Sing the songs that lonely girls write
All the lonely girls
Want a lonely boy to spend the night”

If nothing else, the Kneiser/Smith vocal magic deserves a shout-out. Their sound is as pure and true and southern as biscuits and gravy. In a way, they’ve always reminded me a bit of Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks, which is a bit ironic given that the studio version of “The Wildness” has a bassline straight outta Buckingham/Nicks-era Fleetwood Mac.

5. Brent Best – Robert Cole
Your Dog Champ
Last Chance Records / Amazon

 

Brent has been one of my favorite songwriters going back to his days in Slobberbone. However, where the Bone was a rock band with occasional country flavor, Your Dog Champ is a folk album with occasional country and rock flavors. It also has a unique backstory in that a handful of people, myself included, donated to the creation of the album back in 2010, but the project lay dormant for 5 years. It didn’t really bother me that much. I figured Brent would get it to us when he got it to us. In 2015, he got it to us.

“Robert Cole” is not only my favorite song on Your Dog Champ, it may be my favorite song that Best has ever written. It’s a remarkable achievement in storytelling. Born of familial dysfunction and a child’s loss of innocence, it contains cruelly precise images that are rooted in a sense of place and pain.

A sun so huge it shined, yeah, and it baked the blacktop underneath my toes”

“With a swell of shame of sadness I just froze, with a pain I simply can’t define”

“My father’s words returned to me from some stormy evening with my mother on her knees”

“I scanned the yard and house, secured no sign of mother’s work-worn blouse”

“My name is Robert Cole and tomorrow I am 9 years old”

 

While poking around the internet, I found this exchange between Best and Chris Campbell (whose photo graces the cover of Your Dog Champ). Brent’s response points back to my comment about the Townes Van Zandt/Keith Richards philosophy of songwriting. Sometimes a writer has to craft and shape a song. But, other times the song itself does the heavy lifting and the writer’s job is almost closer to taking dictation.

Chris: Can you tell me about the song “Robert Cole?”

Brent: I wrote that some time after Slobberbone broke up. I hadn’t really written in a while and then that just presented itself one night almost fully formed and really kinda got the wheels cranking for me again. It wasn’t really connected to anything else at the time, other than another song I had just written called “Aunt Ramona,” and I didn’t really know what it was for. Some time later I was contacted by Tim Lee, who was putting together the Larry Brown tribute album, Just One More, and then I knew what it was for. That was a cool little gift at a time when I was sort of rudderless. It’ll probably show up some day on an album of like-minded songs.
–Bandwagon, “Over the Wires: Brent Best,” November 30, 2009

6. Brent Best & Mike Nicolai – Gimme Back My Dog
Mike Nicolai’s Gadfly Hour, Episode 2
February 25, 2015

https://youtu.be/MsvyUGEALhg

“Gimme Back My Dog” originally appeared on Slobberbone’s 2000 magnum opus, Everything You Thought Was Right Was Wrong Today, and it’s revived here by Brent and Mike Nicolai, one of my other favorite 21st century songwriters. Normally I wouldn’t include such an old song, but hell, it was recorded in 2015. “Gimme Back My Dog” is one of those rare songs that no matter who I play it for, whatever their normal musical inclinations, whether they’re a grown-ass adult or a little kid, it puts its hooks in you and you stay hooked. I love the goofy “Crocodile Rock” flourish at the end here. That’s new to me and it feels fairly impromptu. Stephen King famously repped “Dog” in his novel, Black House (2001), but I like this later quote from Entertainment Weekly:

Ask me to name the greatest rock & roll song of all time and I have to say it’s a three-way tie between Slobberbone’s “Gimme Back My Dog,” Count Five’s “Psychotic Reaction,” and Elvis Costello’s “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding.”
–Stephen King, “Stephen King on why he loves Ahnuld and hates Celine,” February 1, 2007

7. Mike Nicolai – Where’s The Door Guy?
Exercises For The Wasted And Down EP
Used to be available on Mike’s Bandcamp page, but no more. Revisit from time to time because it may become available at a moment’s notice.

 

Given that only about 200 people have Nicolai’s Exercises For The Wasted And Down EP, it occurs to me that maybe I shouldn’t count something so exclusive. And then I remember that this is my blog and I can do whatever I want. “Where’s The Door Guy?” stays. As I said above, Mike is one of my favorite songwriters, an Austin, Minnesota, by way of Austin, Texas product. He has the uncanny knack of being clever without being cute, a folksinger whose sensibility is totally punk rock. I marvel at how the economy of his language weds irony and heart in such an understated way. Very Ray Davies and the world needs more of that.

“Door Guy” feels like a song about a guy who runs sound at a bar. In fact, the line, “Archie’s in ‘The Nest’ with a tallboy” is a reference to Rche, soundman for The Gourds (and Nicolai) back in the day. “The Nest” is the soundbooth at the Hole In The Wall, Austin’s excellent mid-campus dive bar that nurtured the likes of Prescott Curlywolf, Grand Champeen, Damnations, and Gourds, and where Nicolai was soundman after Rche. Another insider reference is in the line, “Thank you, Lawrence, for the spring into our step.” That is not a reference to a dude named Lawrence. Rather, it’s a reference to Lawrence, Kansas, college town and original site of the famed North vs. South Music Festival, of which Mike was a part, as were bands from both Minneapolis (North) and Austin (South).

FYI, Mike told me he’s about halfway through a new solo album, so hopefully we get that in 2016.

8. Mike Nicolai & Sabrina Ellis – All I Wanted
Mike Nicolai’s Gadfly Hour, Episode 6
July 15, 2015

https://youtu.be/Q38pGXmz2Ok

Here’s another performance from Nicolai’s Gadfly Hour, this time paired with one of my favorite new(ish) songwriters, Sabrina Ellis. Ellis is the whirlwind singer/songwriter/badass from A Giant Dog (who signed with Merge last year) and Sweet Spirit (who we’ll get to in a moment), and used to be in the late, great Bobby Jealousy. Here Mike and Sabrina tackle “All I Wanted,” the leadoff track from AGD’s Bone album (2013). I love the acoustic treatment, Ellis’ voice is — as usual — on point, and it’s making me look forward to A Giant Dog’s Merge debut, which should be released this spring.

9. Sweet Spirit – My Poor Stupid Heart
Cokomo
Bandcamp

 

Sweet Spirit had a busy 2015. They released an EP at the start of the year, a 7″ single in late spring/early summer, and their first proper studio album, Cokomo, in October. The full length shows an evolution in the band’s sound, which still blends pop, soul, and rock, but now incorporates some disco-y flourishes. I love “My Poor Stupid Heart” because it reminds me of a classic Ricky Nelson tune, but one with a Mexican salsa rhythm underneath. I dig how McCarthy miked the sound of falling rain because it gives the track a subtle vérité feel. Produced by longtime Spoon collaborator, Mike McCarthy, Cokomo also includes some distinctive Spoonisms. For example, that delayed guitar riff in the song’s outro is lifted straight from Spoon’s “Paper Tiger,” which we’ll address shortly.

But first …

10. Sweet Spirit – Baby Doll
Sweet Spirit EP
Bandcamp
Director: John Valley

Who doesn’t love a campy, gender-bending video that feels like Sparks by way of Silence Of The Lambs, by way of Pulp Fiction??? “Baby Doll” (sometimes spelled “Babydoll”) comes from Sweet Spirit’s debut EP. Lyrically, Ellis took a simple love gone wrong formula and twisted it (on a couple levels) by finding inspiration from an unlikely source.

Baby Doll” is a song about unrequited love, or lust, with a stubborn hook that insists:

Baby doll
I’ll see you later
No one knows that we’re together
Late at night, I like to dream you’re mine

I just wanted to write a song about not feeling as pretty or as adequate as the other girls, but deserving love anyway. My favorite song growing up was the calypso-infused ‘If You Wanna Be Happy,’ by Jimmy Soul. I remember my toothless grandmother in Mississippi singing it to me as a little girl, stomping her feet and clapping her hands. ‘Baby Doll’ could be considered my fan-fic sequel to ‘If You Wanna Be Happy.’
—Sabrina Ellis on MySpace, July 21, 2015

11. Sweet Spirit & Britt Daniel – Paper Tiger
7″ single
Bandcamp

 

Sweet Spirit joined forces with Spoon leader, Britt Daniel, for this one-off 7″ single, and it’s a goodin. It also highlights the versatility of the band. Listen to these 3 songs and you’ll hear 3 different flavors in each, but they all work together. “My Poor Stupid Heart” is an country ballad with a Mexican feel, “Baby Doll” is a pop song with a calypso feel, and “Paper Tiger” is a Dance Party USA, if my daughters are any indication. The interesting thing about “Paper Tiger,” though, is that Spoon’s original sounds nothing like this. As I wrote in August:

What’s not to like? The reboot takes Spoon’s starkly minimalist synth-pop original and cleverly repurposes it into a funky rock tune with horns. As weird as it might sound, I hear a Joy Division arrangement, aMiniature‘s angular pop sensibility, and the Rocket From The Crypt horns. If there’s an unsung hero it’s Jon Fichter, the man throwing down that fat, swinging bassline.
–Adios Lounge, “I Will No Longer Do The Devil’s Dishes,” August 30, 2015

12. Low Cut Connie – Shake It Little Tina
Hi Honey
Amazon
Video stars Adam Carpenter

As I noted above, I’m not ranking my favorite albums of 2015. HOWEVER, if you put a gun to my head and demanded a #1 album — not sure why you would do this, seems excessive, but nevertheless — it would be Low Cut Connie’s Hi Honey. Cokomo and The Wildness are close, but Hi Honey checks all the boxes. It makes sleazy R&B and rock ‘n’ roll sound fun again and I like that they’re co-led by a pianist, Jerry Lee Lewis devotee, Adam Weiner. (Guitarist/drummer, Dan Finneman, is the band’s other leader and songwriter.) Because Low Cut Connie was new to me this year, I’ll give them the nod.

How about another trip down Adios Lounge memory lane?

Hi Honey‘s lead single is accompanied by one of the funniest videos I’ve seen in some time. I don’t know who this Adam Carpenter cat is, but dude is a boogie-down Plastic Man. However, the video works because “Tina” marries “Honky Tonk Women”/”Tumbling Dice”-era Stones to a James Jamerson (bass) and Uriel Jones (drums) bottom end heard to brilliant effect on many a classic Motown recording. It’s a swaggering fuck machine of an anthem with a black gospel trio on backup vox and James Everhart’s killer Keith Richards-esque guitar licks playing off of Weiner’s steady right hand.
–Adios Lounge, “When it Comes to Bump ‘n’ Grind, I’m Tina Turner ’69,” October 6, 2015

13. Low Cut Connie – Me N Annie
Hi Honey
Amazon

 

You’re talkin’ about money
You’re talkin’ about success
I’m talkin’ about happiness”

If “Shake It Little Tina” echoes the Stones (via Motown), “Me N Annie” reminds me of The Faces. Weiner’s right hand again pushes forward as both the guitar and Will Donnelly’s bass pull back, creating a funky syncopation indicative of much of the band’s output. If the female harmony singer sounds familiar, she should. It’s Sabrina Ellis. What’s interesting is this collaboration actually preceded the existence of Sweet Spirit. According to an article in the Austinot:

The culmination of Sweet Spirit came after Sabrina was invited to record with band Low Cut Connie in November 2013. It was producer Thomas Brenneck who advised Sabrina to start a new band: “Steal if you have to; get the best players you possibly can.”
–“What About Bobby? Sabrina Ellis and Her New Musical Direction,” January 29, 2015

14. Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin & The Guilty Ones – Please Please Please
Lost Time
Yep Roc Records / Amazon

 

Downey’s favorite sons returned in 2015 with another album of throwback blues, R&B, and gospel covers. If you liked their tribute to Big Bill Broonzy and you like The Blasters, you’ll like this one. If you don’t like either of those things, who gives a shit what you think? “Please Please Please” is well known as James Brown’s very first hit, way back in 1956, and here it showcases Phil Alvin’s preternatural vocal power, even in his early 60s and twice a survivor of death. Bottom line: If you put a list together of all the singers who can equal this performance — white OR black — I’m guessing that list is pretty dang short. God bless you, Phil Alvin. God bless us all.

15. Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin & The Guilty Ones – World’s In A Bad Condition
KUTX Studios, Austin
Probably recorded November 2015

True confession: I knew The Adios Lounge was in trouble when I couldn’t finish a post about Phil and Dave. PHIL AND DAVE ALVIN! That’s not just in my wheelhouse, the wheelhouse was built AROUND my love of bands like The Blasters. Anyway, when Lost Time came out back in October, I came up with what I still think is a pretty good idea: A mega-post featuring the original artists doing the songs from Lost Time and 2-3 Dave and Phil covers mixed in. I thought it would be a kick to put both the source material and reboots in a new context.

I didn’t come close to finishing. Even now, the thought of doing all that research feels like an anchor on my chest. I put together a YouTube playlist and I’m pretty proud of it. But that’s easy. Anyone can compile a playlist. What made The Adios Lounge The Adios Lounge was the ditch digging other writers don’t do, unless they have book deals or university support. I still have the draft sitting there on WordPress, covered with dust, and mocking me with its incompleteness. Oh well. Just another reason the world’s in a bad condition.

FYI, if you’d like to view the Lost Time Video Playlist, there ya go. I like that Phil and Dave care enough about these old songs to breathe new life into them. It’s easy to be an asshole who dismisses everything pre-Beatles and pre-Zeppelin, let alone anything pre-Ramones. But, great music is timeless and deserves to live again, even if only briefly. If it’s perfectly fine that we want to see nostalgia acts like Paul McCartney, The Replacements, or The Weirdos — and it is fine, settle down entitled middle class elitists — than why shouldn’t Phil and Dave roast some older chestnuts on the sonic fire?

16. Dead Rock West – I Used To Love You
It’s Everly Time!
Amazon

 

Speaking of keeping great music alive, Dead Rock West was a surprising discovery this year. In fact, amusingly enough, I learned of their existence as the opening act for … Phil, Dave, and The Guilty Ones. Dead Rock opened their November 14th appearance at The Troubadour, and about 3 songs into the harmony-rich set I leaned over to my wife and said, “Sounds like the Everly Brothers.” Turns out the band had just released an album of Everlys covers and included 4-5 of those covers in the set. As a bigtime fan of Phil and Don, hearing those keening vocal harmonies faithfully realized was a thing of beauty. Good band, too. You might know their drummer as DJ Bonebrake of X. The electric guitar on this recording — though not at the Troubadour show — is none other than the always underrated Elliott Easton (The Cars).

17. Dead Rock West – So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad)
It’s Everly Time!
Amazon

 

One of my favorite Everly numbers and from a cover perspective you either nail those pure harmonies or butcher the damn song. There’s not a lot of wiggle room and certainly no orchestra or loud guitars to hide behind. Cindy Wasserman and Frank Drennen, the co-leaders and vocal partners of Dead Rock West, nail it, investing this song with all their talent and empathy. Just a beautiful homage to a beautiful sound. It’s Everly Time! isn’t just vintage in terms of content, the production itself also went old school.

Much of the equipment we used is from a bygone era,” explains Frank. “Microphones from the ‘40s, preamps the Doors used on LA Woman, Fairchild compressors, and 2-inch recording tape. Cindy and I had our own room where two microphones were set up. “Mark (producer Mark Linnett) had shrugged at the idea of us doing vocals live, but I confidently told him we would, though I certainly didn’t know we could. I especially loved singing all the slow, sad ballads,” he says.
–Excerpt from the Dead Rock West bio

 

18. Summer Twins – Dreamin’
Limbo
Bandcamp

 

I’ve seen Summer Twins a few times here in LA and for a young band they’ve done something I secretly wish all good young bands would do. They’ve improved with every show I’ve seen. They’re not a great band yet, but there are elements of greatness afoot. They tap into that classic, shimmering SoCal pop formula, part Beach Boys, part cholas listening to Art Laboe. Chelsea and Justine Brown are sisters — but not twins — with Chelsea (above left) on guitar/lead vocals and Justine (above right) on drums/background vocals. I always marvel that the petite Justine will throw down heavy, muscular fills throughout a Summer Twins set. Badass.

This quote totally nails the Summer Twins appeal.

I love old pop songs. That’s what I love to listen to. Like Roy Orbison songs that are dramatic with string arrangements. I’m all about that. But, it’s good to keep it simple, too. You don’t want to overdo it. You want the song — the melody — to speak for itself.”
—Chelsea Brown to Discussions Magazine, September 2009

19. Summer Twins – Demons
Limbo
Bandcamp

 

Introducing Chelsea Brown the guitar player. Her leads aren’t filled with a bunch of notes sprayed all over the goddamn place, but more in line with a Dave Davies aesthetic. Econo, but with a gnarly tone, and it works perfectly in “Demons.” I love the contrast between the sweetass melody in the chorus and the crunch of the guitar, especially the solo from 2:32 to the song’s outro.

20. Courtney Barnett – Small Poppies
Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
Amazon

 

There’s a lot to like about Courtney Barnett’s debut, Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit. Her lyrics are smart and clever and I can totally see why the New Yorker/Pitchfork demographic fell in love with her. Even though she doesn’t have great range, she’s smart enough to write songs that fit perfectly in that range, not unlike Lou Reed, one of her bigger influences. However, while her sing/speak vocal style sounds fresh now, I feel like it could become gimmicky. It’ll be interesting to see if subsequent releases are stylistically similar and if they wear out their welcome more quickly.

If anything, Barnett’s lyrics and vocals draw attention away from my favorite part of her game: her powerhouse guitar work. She delivers both super fuzz and big muff, and all without being particularly showoffy. “Small Poppies” is the best version of this Courtney, the way it uncoils and attacks, slowly undulating until it climaxes in shards of guitar. I don’t know if y’all know Bettie Serveert, but this song could’ve fit on their 1993 debut, Palomine. They were masters of the pop song that explodes into violence. If that dynamic was a genre it would be called Sam Peckinpop.

BAM! Still got it, motherfuckers.

21. Courtney Barnett – Pedestrian At Best
The Guardian Sessions, Ace Hotel, London
Published February 26, 2015

Put me on a pedestal and I’ll only disappoint you
Tell me I’m exceptional I promise to exploit you”

One of the things that immediately jumped out at me about the Courtney Barnett experience was that the bass, drums, and guitar were heavy and fluid, but they stayed out of each other’s way, leaving room for Courtney’s voice to shine through. “Pedestrian At Best” is very much indebted to Nirvana, what with its atonal guitar rage, self-loathing, and a song secretly carried by the bass riff. One thing worth noting is that this February performance must’ve been one of the last gigs as a quartet because most of the 2015 footage features Barnett leading a power trio. I guess if you’re gonna write Nirvana-esque songs, why not strip down to the 3-piece.

22. Sink Tapes – Wanting One Blues
Window Unit Blues
Bandcamp

 

Sink Tapes were one of my favorite discoveries of 2015. In fact, if it wasn’t for Low Cut Connie, the STs would be my favorite new band. Jersey boys who embrace two of my favorite things: Guided By Voices-esque lo-fi pop and mid-’70s Neil Young ditch digging. What’s not to like??? “Window Unit Blues” is obviously closer to the latter than the former, with Built To Spill and Dinosaur Jr serving as classic indie rock touchstones, and bands like The Men and Connections they’re obvious contemporaries. By the way, if you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m taking us to the finish line on the back of some big fucking guitars. Culturally speaking, mainstream America has turned into a bunch of guitar-fearing pussies, so I always try to encourage guitar badassery, not marginalize it. Granted, America has turned into coddling pussies for lots of other reasons, so maybe our move away from the guitar mirrors a larger cultural drift. Whatever the case, if I’m going out, I’m going out with the amps turned up to 11.

23. Sink Tapes – Meshes
Creases
Bandcamp

 

Sink Tapes are an impressive band, not just because they have a great sound, but because they’re crazy prolific. “Window Unit Blues” was the title track to their second album released in 2015, and if you count their compilation of B​-​sides and demos recorded between 2012-15 (In The Rug), that’s THREE freakin’ albums from last year! And that’s not even including a couple different singles thrown in for good measure. “Meshes” is closer to the GBV wing of influence, but I also hear the echo-y pop of early My Morning Jacket (think “Just Because I Do”). It appeared on their first full-length of the year, Creases. Of the 2 records, I’d probably recommend Window Unit Blues because it goes in a big rock direction a little more than Creases. But, both choices are solid.

 

24. Connections – Aylia
Live on WFMU, “Burn It Down!” with Nate K
April 12, 2015
Download

 

While most of the songs in this playlist come from albums, EPs, and singles, I listened to this set from WFMU’s “Burn It Down!” as much as any released product in 2015. Connections are one my favorite young bands and another group indebted to GBV both in terms of sound and — like Sink Tapes — an impressive catalog in a short amount of time. “Aylia” is the opening track on their Into Sixes LP, 1 of 5 releases they had in 2014 (including a studio album, a compilation album, 2 EPs, and a Record Store Day single). That said, 2015 was strangely quiet on the Connections front, save for an Aerosmith cover single (“Cryin'”) and this set. Rumor has it a new album is on the way and I’m just gonna go ahead and preemptively recommend it.

25. Connections – Cindy
Live on WFMU, “Burn It Down!” with Nate K
April 12, 2015
Download

 

Now that we have something in common
Faked out by an I.O.U.
Are you gonna ever come to your senses?
Are they even yours to use?”

If you ask me on the right day, this performance of “Cindy” was my favorite song of 2015. It jumps out of the speakers, loose-limbed and melodic, walking down that descending chord progression and right into my heart. If you’re like me, you’ll drink many beers and do David Lee Roth karate jumps off the couch. One of the subtly great moments of this performance is when singer, Kevin Elliott, cleverly switches up the lyrics to pay homage to the band’s host. Instead of singing, “Should we try another year of Mondays and the motions we’ll go through,” he sings, “Should we try another year of Mondays … WFMU.” Quality stuff. Daddy likey.

26. Will Johnson – Multnomah
Swan City Vampires
Undertow Records

 

I started this playlist with one of my favorite songwriters from the 1980s-90s and I’m ending with one of my favorite songwriters from the 1990s-2000s — though, obviously, both men are still going strong. Will Johnson was the lead singer and guitarist in Centro-Matic, who sprung to life indebted to indie rock heroes like GBV and Archers Of Loaf, but evolved into a band that married the introspection of Elliott Smith to the muscular, spacious dissonance of Silkworm. Centro broke up in December 2014 and Swan City Vampires is the first release from Johnson since the band’s demise. He continues the introspective part of the equation on “Multnomah,” which gives plenty of room for a piano and acoustic guitar to do an intimate dance underneath Will’s voice. An electric guitar enters the picture about halfway through the song, but isn’t overbearing about his introduction. The results are sparse and moving late night poetry.

27. Will Johnson – Nameless, But A Lover
Swan City Vampires
Undertow Records

 

And you said, ‘Something too familiar
Can sometimes be the bane.’
And you said, ‘You are nameless, but a lover
And you are completely my terrain.'”

The final song on my 2015 retrospective is right in The Adios Lounge sweet spot and a perfect way to end the proceedings. Will’s gnarly electric guitar — sounding like a stowaway from Neil Young’s Zuma album — punches you in the grill right out the box. That guitar spends the entire song pushing everyone forward, but the rest of the band pulls back, creating a wonderful tension characteristic of Johnson’s entire career. In particular, Matt Pence (of Centro) on heavy drum thwack and Britton Beisenherz on piano (who also engineered and mixed Swan City to wonderful effect) lay back against the beat, creating a pocket for the song to very subtly swing around. The way that Death Star guitar solo from 3:24-5:20 gives way to Pence’s drums and Beisenherz’s piano … that’s how you do fucking dynamics. Makes me wanna roll another number for the road.

DREAMS DON’T PAY NOTHIN’

That’s it, my friends. The Adios Lounge is now going on hiatus, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m going away. The Adios Lounge Facebook page is still active as is The Adios Lounge on Twitter. In the interests of full disclosure, my Twitter feed is just as likely focused on college football as it is quality music, but you’re a grown-ass adult. Deal with it. And while I may not have the time to do my deep dive research pieces, Facebook is good for little operetta drive-bys. If nothing else, the price is right.

As I said above, this could be a temporary vacation, nothing more. But, this fucking piece took almost a month to finish and pretty much confirmed what I’ve suspected for awhile now. It’s time to take a break, get my mojo back, and either come back in full effect or discover a new path. The downside to being me is that I’m a samurai in the age of the internet bully. The upside is I’m a motherfucking samurai. I’ll figure it out.

Everyone needs something to cling to
To love all the way to the dirt
That either kills you or heals you
Whichever finds you first”
–Joey Kneiser, “For The Good Life”