Store’s Closed!
With 8 commenters and 6 emails, I think we’ve arrived at 10 folks taking advantage and grabbing a copy of Yeah No by The Used Kids, so from this point onwards, you johnny-come-latelys better drop a five-spot in a donation on the band. Please?
One of the commenters in the other thread mentioned Nato giving a useful and helpful critique after listening to the commenter’s band open for The Modern Machines a few years ago. I definitely get that. If you listen closely to Yeah No you’ll hear a lot of spontaneous crazy energy popping through your speakers. Thing is, you’ll also hear all kinds of very “crafted” moments, where maybe all the instruments except the guitar and drums drop out, or where just the bass carries the melody for a few measures, etc. etc. You hear some killer middle eights and bridges and codas. In other words, The Used Kids are just as skilled at careful songwriting craftsmanship as they are in getting a glorious riot of sound in the recording. It reminds me a ton of how those on those early Replacements albums, Westerberg managed to showcase brilliant songwriting chops even while he and the Stinsons were beating the crap out of those same songs.
And now I realize that in describing the wonderfulness of The Used Kids debut, all I’ve basically done over the course of two separate blog posts is talk about how much they bear influence of other artists. Thing is, that really misses the point, and the point is this: I know of very few other bands out there right now who so intuitively get what makes a great rock and roll song, and then know how to deliver on that. The Used Kids walk that razor-thin line between songwriting craftsmanship and ragged glory better than any band on the planet right now.
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I Will Now Sell At Least Ten Copies Of A Record.
If anyone cares to recall my 2006 best-of list, you’ll remember that I put Take It, Somebody by Milwaukee/Chicago brats The Modern Machines in the top three. I love that record; lead singer Nato Paisano (now just Nate Coles) managed to roll early Westerberg, Pirner, and even Skag Heaven-era Peter Searcy into one pleasing whole, and I was pretty bummed to hear that the band had broken up.
Turns out they haven’t, not really. My friend Joe who knows Nato and Danny (2/3rds of MoMacs) from their Chicago days let me know a few weeks ago that the guys have relocated to Brooklyn (because NY is where the rock is, yo), where they’ve put together a new band called The Used Kids. Now, if The Modern Machines were wonderful (and they were), The Used Kids go beyond even that: they’re brilliant and transcendent. Nato and Danny already had the drawly-midwestern 1980’s punk sound nailed, but now they’ve added another guitarist, Kate Eldridge, who manages to play these gloriously simple (but never facile) Johnny Thunders-esque guitar leads and the band has expanded their influences to include a sound that could almost be Springsteen doing Sorry Ma/Trash-era Replacements.
I know. You’re doubting that comparison. Doubt quails when you hear a song like “Dancing On The Edge Of The World”. Inhabiting a universe where nonstop “Whoahs”, count-offs, handclaps, and insistent Benmont Tench organ can be married to thick slabs of pure punk rock guitar glory, this song kicks off The Used Kids debut with what might just be the very best single rock and roll song to come out during 2009. “Edge Of The World” isn’t the only gem here–far from it. “Honorable Man” is a glorious hard-rock tale of unrequited love that could be Made To Be Broken-era Soul Asylum covering Phil Spector. “Midwest Midsummer” is the sound of new Brooklyners not easily letting go their roots to an amazing riff and bouncing bass. “I Miss My Records” might be my favorite track, if only for Kate’s amazing, mournful guitar lead over the main riff and a song that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Del Lords or Dictators album.
So here. Crank up your speakers or headphones.
Listen to “Dancing On The Edge Of The World”.
Now dig on “I Miss My Records”.
Now head to the release page for The Used Kids debut that features these gems, right here.
The album is called Yeah No. It might be the best record of 2009. You’ll notice that the sales/distribution method is “donationware”. You can download the whole album for free from a link on the page there…but the band politely asks for a donation of between $3 and $5. That’s a pretty easy getaway right there, y’all. Donate. Download.
Or…I’ve got an even better idea. The first 10 people who leave me a comment in this thread or drop me an email at chris {at} popnarcotic [dot] com can download the album for free with a clear conscience, because the ol’ blog here will drop a fifty spot on The Used Kids for you all.
So go to it. Bands this good making music this wonderful deserve to be heard. Make it so. (I’ll be sure to post when 10 folks have taken me up on the offer, so if you try to freebie the Used Kids hard work after that, you’re just being a cheap bastard.)
This Is What I Get For Doing My Own Greatest Hits Comp
While perusing the ol’ internet this morning, I happened to be checking new Tuesday releases and saw that there was a “greatest hits” compilation of The Apples In Stereo that was coming out. While that’s nice and everything, as someone who was in a tiny minority who didn’t care much for the last AiS disc (New Magnetic Wonder), I figured the disc would be heavy on that material and not so much on the Apples stuff that I personally loved.
Since I haven’t been to downtown DC in a long time, and since today was an absolutely glorious day (sun dappled and cool as the other side of the pillow) I figured I’d make my own Apples In Stereo greatest hits compilation for the ipod to accompany me for a nice museum crawl on a crisp pre-autumn afternoon. I just threw a bunch of songs on there from the first four or five albums/ep’s without really stopping to listen to any of them much, and then I was on my way.
I’ve always had a special affection for the first Apples album, Fun Trick Noisemaker. It came out when I was still working the counter at Euclid Records, and that album tends to bring back memories of afternoons spent in goofy, hilarious, better-than-Clerks conversations with the folks I worked with in more carefree days. I found out today it holds other memories, too.
I had been working in Chicago for maybe 6 months in ’99 or so when The Apples In Stereo played a show at Schuba’s (you can see a poster of that very show on John Cusack’s record shelf in the opening scenes of the movie High Fidelity). I went with some friends, and met a friend of a friend there named Kelli. Kelli was funny, smart, and quite lovely–way out of my league, I figured. Somehow we ended up hanging out a lot together, and then we ended up dating and spending a huge chunk of our time together. She had better taste in music than I do, and introduced me to stuff I’d never have even thought of giving a fair shake ’til she forced me to listen (yeah, she’d make me mix tapes; how cool is that in a girlfriend?) She was a big Elephant 6 fan (especially Neutral Milk Hotel, although she dug The Apples almost as much as I did), and the Apples song “High Tide” was one that seemed to be an essential part of the soundtrack of our relationship in its happiest days.
We broke up after she got a job in her degree field–she had a degree in international business and a minor in German and she got a dream job in Munich. We actually discussed me moving with her, but never too seriously, and although we tried to keep a long-distance relationship going for a few weeks, that sort of thing is pretty impossible given the circumstances. In 2004–about 3 or 4 years after she moved overseas–some of my friends who’d introduced me to Kelli were in DC and we went out for dinner and they informed me that she’d been killed in an auto accident six months before. They thought I knew, but it was news to me, and I was pretty crushed by it. As far as I know, she’s the only person I’ve dated who isn’t alive anymore, and at first it left me numb for a few weeks while I tried to process all that, and then it left me pretty sad for a good while afterwards.
Which is all in the past, now. Life goes on for the living, and days like today when the temperature doesn’t hit the 80’s and a cool breeze blows through the leaves and the sun chases the clouds off the sky are reason enough to be in love with these times. But as the metro pulled into the Smithsonian station this morning, “High Tide” came on my self-made Apples In Stereo compilation, and for a few minutes it was as if Kelli and I were walking up Chicago Ave in the Ukranian Village for beer and pinball at the Black Beetle….and I really hope no one at the metro stop noticed all the water in my eyes.
“This summer’s not over until we say goodbye
then will the tears roll out on the tide?”
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Popnarcotic 