It seems like Zeptember was just the other day, but here we are, in the midst of another theme week. I don’t understand the Led Zeppelin/Who rivalry, or why battle lines where drawn there, but having done this for both bands, I think Zeppelin wins. Narrowly, because while they have more songs I feel strongly about, The Who put out a lot, and a mean a lot, of songs I really like. Plus, you’ve got to admit, they’re the cooler band.
I was a late bloomer when it came to listening to The Who. I didn’t become truly interested in the band until high school but when it hit me it hit me hard and now I’m doing this list. I’d heard most of Who’s Next but my first copy, which was burned from somewhere was always messed up so I was always too frustrated to finish it. To this day whenever I hear the songs “This Song is Over” and “Getting in Tune” I just keep waiting for the tracks to start skipping. So my education of The Who primarily came from two other places. The first was the 1979 rockumentary The Kids Are Alright and the second was the massive Who box set I got for christmas The Who: 30 Years of Maximum R&B. No doubt an unorthodox introduction to the band but it gave me a great deal of respect for the group’s entire body of work. From that box set I heard dozens of Who b-sides and rarities that most people probably aren’t familiar with, so I like to think I have fairly good knowledge of the group’s music library, let’s begin.
Considering how much fun we had with our Zeppelin themed “Zeptember” week we here at Mildly Pleased have decided to do another rock iinfused, pun-inspired, theme week with “Whovember”. We all love The Who here at the blog at least to some extent, so it’ll be exciting to see why that is. In the same style as “Zeptember” we’ll countdown our personal favorite songs throughout the week.
For the sake of consistency we’ll follow the same order as our last theme week.
– Tuesday: John’s Top Ten Who Songs
– Wednesday: Sean’s Top Ten Who Songs
– Thursday: Colin’s Top Ten Who Songs
– Friday: Nancy’s Top Ten Who Songs
– Saturday: Kevin’s Top Ten Who Songs
Hopefully this will all join together and we’ll be posting up a storm anyway, anyhow, and anywhere, if that makes any sense.
Do you still like Call of Duty? I don’t mean the WWII shooters that started the franchise, I mean the multiplayer-focused more modern ones that have become as akin to November as the Saw film series was to Halloween. Every year, since 2007, we’ve gotten the latest entry in the series, and it hasn’t really evolved. It hasn’t needed to. Last year’s Black Ops is the best selling game ever. For better or for worse, the Call of Duty franchise is the dominant one for the medium, and the Modern Warfare games define it.
One of the seemingly endless stream of “threes” coming to gaming the last few months, Uncharted 3 had the odds stacked against it. After all, while the first game in the series was commendable, it wasn’t especially remarkable. So when that second game came out and basically defined the cinematic gaming experience, it raised expectations considerably higher for the third part of the trilogy. After all, how do you top one of the greatest games of the current generation?
I was definitely on board with the Battlefield franchise as soon as I saw the first game, 1942. It was the first time I ever played a conquest-style game like that before and it really impressed me. I’ve tried to stick with the series over the years, but I was hesitant to get involved in Battlefield 2, as it seemed like a departure from what I originally liked about the series. The Bad Company series kept the franchise relevant, but it had changed and adapted to the post-Modern Warfare world. I thought classic Battlefield was gone. And yet, Battlefield 3 is here, despite there being so many more games in the series than three.
I was hoping we could start Whovember this week but I didn’t want to spring it on everyone without any announcement so it can wait another week, but beware you have no been warned! Anyways, Colin an I had a good run reviewing nine debut albums in a row and although this is again a debut album it’s merely coincidental. I saw my opportunity to pay tribute to the cult kings of underground novelty pop and so here I am, presenting the 1986 debut album from Brooklyn duo They Might Be Giants. Comprised of vocalist/guitarist John Flansburgh and vocalist/multi instrumentalist (mostly accordion!) John Linnell, They Might Be Giants have had a prolific career producing a clever brand of offbeat pop and this is where it all began. Well actually the duo had recorded quite a bit of material before their actual first album. In the early 80s they created a service “Dial-A-Song” where you could dial a number to hear a song. Sounds bizarre but somehow it caught on and people started calling all these numbers to hear these novelty songs. This lead to They Might Be Giants recording at least 500 different songs before they were offered a record deal, wow, and this is their first record.
They Might Be Giants is a difficult band to pin down regarding any kind of genre or subgenre. It’s unfair to call them a novelty even though they have recorded a lot of silly songs, but they definitely legitimate songwriters and have written some great pop rock songs. The tying theme behind all these varying numbers is the lyrical wordplay and unusual subjects the pair often sing about. Look at some of these titles; “Youth Culture Killed My Dog”, “Absolutely Bill’s Mood”, “Chess Piece Face” sometimes I have no idea what these guys are talking about but I enjoy the ride. The record is probably best known for They Might Be Giants first breakout single “Don’t Let’s Start.”
There’s a magnificent blend of different and diverse instruments on this album and both members blend their sounds together well. John Flansburgh’s guitar work has a funky rhythmic flair brimming with energy and John Linnell wows with his aptitude for a whole splendor of instruments with everything from saxophone, to keyboard, to his trademark accordion. Though both members share lead vocal duties Linnell has always seemed to have the most success with producing the band’s hits propelled by his quirky charismatic singing voice.
Growing up in the 90s I’ve always had a soft spot for They Might Be Giants, most notably when their songs “Particle Man” and “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” were featured on Tiny Toon Adventures. As a matter of fact their album Apollo 18 is one of their first cds I can clearly remember listening to. With that being said I suppose it’s not that surprising that the pair started recording educational children’s music for a little while in the mid 2000s, though I’m glad they’re back to their old ways now. This band really is the definition of “cult band” as they’ve somehow been successful but are still only known by a select few. All I know is that I like this album and I’m proud to be a part of that cult.
Fun Fact: Last week’s CAT artist was Husker Du. Did you know that The Daily Show theme song “Dog on Fire” was written by Husker Du guitarist Bob Mould but was re-recorded by They Might Be Giants after Jon Stewart joined the show? It’s all connected man!
Favorite Tracks: “Don’t Let’s Start”, “Hide Away Folk Family”, “She’s an Angel”
