Magnetic Fields

One of the all-time great unknown bands.

Magnetic Fields (aka Stephin Merritt's brain child) has been around since 1989 and has turned out more great anguished love songs than any other band in that time, but tragically, you still probably have never heard of them.

This is largely owed to their quirky sound and lack of any radio friendly singles.  Even the singles they do have are admittedly on the weirder side.  The fact that they all look like a bunch of middle-school music teachers doesn't help things.  The Fields are a tricky sort of band to crack, they make you search for their greatness.  It isn't going to be sitting on the surface, right their on the front page of Itunes for you to download.  But if you dive down, the treasures are more than worth the effort.

"100,000 Fireflies" may be my favorite song of all time.  It's originality and cleverness in the lyrics, the angelic tone coupled with the miserable state of depression and frustration the lyrics portray, it's a one of a kind type of honesty we all feel but rarely see in the open.

The band's (Merritt's) magnum opus comes in the form of 1999 69 Love Songs an actual compilation of 69 love songs written by Merritt.  The tongue-in-cheek title is a wonderful indicator of the bombast held within.  Songs that are in turn bitingly sarcastic and achingly sincere and run the gamut from pop to irreverent to bizarre experimental.

There are a few links on here making it easier for you to expose yourself to the Magnetic Fields if you were previously unfamiliar, but don't stop there.  Search far and wide, dive deep, the rewards are richer than you could imagine from reading this little article.

Magnetic Fields, supremely Underrated.

Random Music Review: Linkin Park

Who are the once and future messiahs of rock n' roll, Linkin Park?  I think not.

What's in a name?  Is it supposed to be Linkin Park, like a cool way of saying "Linking" like, "Yo, we be linkin'"?  Or is it the Nu-Metal spelling of the name Lincoln? Like in honor of our nation's finest president?  You know, Rutherford B. Hays.

I won't get on these guys too hard, because they were the class of the Nu-Metal genre back in their heyday.  Still, being the best Nu-Metal band is kind of like being the king of the booger eaters.

They also were the epitome of what you should listen to in you basement while you drew in your sketch book while wearing JNCO jeans and drinking Mountain Dew.  Just look at this music video...

Much like Kajagoogoo, Linkin Park were kings of their day. But, also like Kajagoogoo, they're lame now.

But here today, gone tomorrow.  Tragically, nu-metal has fallen out of the mainstream and so has Linkin Park.  While I won't call them overrated as they are mostly forgotten in the sands of Billboard time, they accured far too much fame in this lifetime to ever be considered underrated.  So, Linkin Park, I guess you're Rated Right.

Random Music Review: Aerosmith

It's the age old question: is it better to burn out or fade away?  Be The Beatles or the Rolling Stones?

The story of Aerosmith is nothing new.  A band that was once great, then larger than life, then slowly descended into lame, boring, marginality.  They used to sing about banging ladies in an elevator, now they have a so-so roller coaster in Disney World (it's okay, but like love in an elevator, over much too fast).  

Steven Tyler used to be the model rock star.  Howling, untouchable, with the occasional drug problem.  Then he became a gracefully aging woman sitting next to J-Lo on American Idol.

J-Lo can only pray she looks that good when she's 65.

Aerosmith fans still worship the band while also being convinced that they are perpetually snubbed by the rock gods and are the Rodney Dangerfields of rock n' roll.  Are they right?  Well, it depends which era of 'Smith you look at.

Peak of Their Quality: Toys in the Attic (1975)

Like early Scorcese, Aerosmith was largely overlooked during their greatest years in the mid-late 70s.  They would go on to greater success but they'd never match the musician ship and raw energy of their early classics, "Dream On", "Back in the Saddle" and "Sweet Emotion".  That energy would inspire many a future rocker including legendary rock band: Guns N' Roses.  Guns idolized Aerosmith, and much of their early musical stylings are modeled after 1970's Aerosmith.  They would later far surpass their 70s fame, but never again reclaim the quality.

Peak of Their Fame: Get a Grip (1993)

The band was churning out radio hits like babies from a catholic maternity ward in the 80s.  Four years made the gap between Aerosmith's pinnacle of success between 89's Pump and 93's Get a Grip.  Both spawned a slew of radio hits and while there is little question which was the better album (Pump, which also had one of the band's best songs "Janie's Got a Gun"), success is built up like a garbage heap and Get a Grip tops it off.  Also, "Cryin" played a very important role in my developmental years with the 17-year-old daughter of Tyler performing a strip tease for Alicia Silverstone in what is still a pretty risque music video to this day.

Peak of Their Hubris: Armegeddon (1998)

Michael Bay doesn't just ruin movies.

The downfall of Aerosmith began with one of their biggest hits.  While I personally always begrudged the existence of "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" for it's topping the Goo Goo Doll's "Iris" (My first love in music) there was no denying it was everywhere.  EVERYWHERE, like on my mom's easy-listening radio station light 100.5 WRCH everywhere.  It's not a terrible song, but the full orchestra and sheer schmaltzy-ness of it all were signs of things to come.  It wasn't long before they were emploring us to "Just Push Play" and everything was "Jaded".  Blech.

In the end, I paraphrase Stannis Baratheon:  Love them for the band they were, not the band they became.  Underrated (early career)  Rated Right (prime years) Overrated (Late Career).