CHIRP: The Chicago Independent Radio Project

Michael Bennett writes

Friday iPod/MP3 Shuffle -- Happy (Early) Birthday Joe Lally

Well, December 2 simply isn’t a great day for rock related birthdays. The big names? Britney Spears and Nelly Furtado, neither whom I felt like saluting. So let’s give a shout out to another member of Fugazi, who turns 48 tomorrow, Joe Lally. It’s a good time to do so, as Fugazi is releasing just about every scrap of every concert they have ever played. Lally has held things steady on the bass, and has even carved out a nice solo career. Let’s salute Lally by grabbing your iPod or MP3 player, hitting shuffle, and sharing the first 10 songs that come up.

1. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists — You Could Die (Or This Might End)(The Tyranny of Distance): A short little ditty from the second Leo album, and the one that really put him on map as a solo artist. He is a very expressive guitar player, which is highlighted on this number, which features just Ted’s voice and his electric twanger.
2. Mega City Four — Awkward Kid (Terribly Sorry Bob): A very typical early MC4 track from this collection of single releases. Mega City Four was a latter day British punk act that took a lot of inspiration from melodic artists like Buzzcocks and Husker Du. Lead singer Wiz had a naturally pleading and wistful voice which created a nice tension between the aggressive, intense music and his emotional, heartfelt singing.
3. The Original Mark Edwards — Sleepy Memories (Rewind Tomorrow): I think this dude was from Minneapolis. I got this album when I wrote reviews for Fufkin.com. This is simply a very well done indie pop record. Edwards clearly mastered the studio and his solid songs are augmented by smart arrangements and wonderfully layers guitars and keyboards. If he had gotten a break or two, he could have been a contender.
4. Talk Talk — Living In Another World (The Colour Of Spring): The third Talk Talk album found them introducing more organic instruments into what had previously been a synth-pop sound. So this track features guitars and a warm organ along with some keyboard gloss, creating an inviting mix of textures. This is a well-structured song that builds to a fairly emotional chorus with a great lead vocal by Mark Hollis. Radiohead owes a lot to Talk Talk.
5. Kraftwerk — The Robots (The Man Machine): From the second of the trilogy of classic electronic pop albums from this German quartet. Kraftwerk was the first band to fully exploit the dichotomy that mechanized sounds can have a strange warmth about them. Thus, while Kraftwerk songs are grounded in complex interlocking rhythm parts from various electronic instruments, there is always enough melody to keep the songs from sounding sterile. This tune has a Teutonic funk feel and, appropriately, robotic vocals.
6. Cee Lo Green — Under The Influence (Follow Me)(Closet Freak: The Best of Cee Lo Green The Soul Machine): After the success of Gnarls Barkley, a compilation of his earlier work was put together. What this package showed was that Danger Mouse did not deserve the lion’s share of the credit for the Gnarls Barkley, as it was very apparent that Cee-lo brought more to the table than his considerable vocal talent. Indeed, change the instrumentation on this cool R & B tune, and it could have wound up on a Gnarls album.
7. Astrid — Tick Tock (Play Dead): Astrid was an energetic pop band from Scotland. Their music was a very wistful brand of power pop that mixed the soulfulness of The Housemartins with a classic jangle sound. Fans of The La’s would really dig Astrid.
8. *Bobbie Gentry — Recollection (An American Quilt: 1967-1974): The woman who wrote and performed the country-pop classics “Ode to Billy Joe” and “Fancy” was a great talent. Gentry was a masterful storyteller who was comfortable with country, folk and pop idioms and wrote most of her best material. This is a simple character study and Gentry gives a dramatic reading. A truly underrated talent.
9. Ken Stringfellow — Spanish Waltz (Touched): Stringfellow’s solo material is more intimate than his work with The Posies. His songs evoke ’70s singer-songwriters, but other influences abound. This song is a classic ballad that builds up in energy and passion, with some nice bits of crunchy guitar.
10. The Orange Peels — Jane Lane (2020): This Bay Area band specializes in sunshiney power pop that is perfectly matched to the ever happy vocals of Alan Clapp. Which isn’t to say that the songs don’t have other undercurrents. The elements of their music are all familiar, but they put them together in an utterly distinctive way and all of their albums are littered with worthwhile tracks.