Slang Editorial :: Never Underestimate The Value Of A Holla'

Monday, August 03, 2009
The Aching-est Of Musical Blue Balls

This photo means nothing to me. But I just don't see how using a photo of Toad instead accomplishes anything

I was chatting briefly tonight with Sig Sauer about ridiculous people who make my brain want to explode (following first climbing out of my skull and spitting in their eyes).

After a few minutes of hair-pulling, she insisted that I give four minutes of my life to Adam Duritz and the Counting Crows, in the form of "Raining In Baltimore". I indulged her but explained that after listening to August and Everything After approximately one thousand five hundred ninety three times in Grades 6-8, I didn't think there were any emotional "Wows!" left in me for that one.

In listening though, I was reminded of an old song I used to love that still does get me, even as the years that have passed since its release just make it seem cornier and cheesier than it ever was. This song that I speak of is Toad the Wet Sprocket's absolutely delightful "Nanci", from 1994's Dulcinea.

Right. Yes.

In 2009, goojing for Toad the Wet Sprocket doesn't even really seem like a guilty pleasure, or a remembrance of the follies of a ridiculous past. It just seems like a "Really?" Even in their 92-94 "heyday", Toad were about a softpaw sissy of a band as you could get, and their music largely sounds like a "masculine" equivalent of Paula Cole or something. They were basically a lite version of Gin Blossoms ("Fall Down"), which probably says everything you could say about them.

But. They were also tuneful. Honestly. And not in a stab-yourself-in-the-neck-with-a-fork-to-die-before-you-hear-another-song Bare Naked Ladies kind of tuneful. And on "Nanci", they are something more than that. It's a simple pop song, and yeah, it's not very toothy, but wow, yes, these are heart-playing-with melodies on display and they are seriously effective on my heart and brain and ears and fingers (which keep double-clicking to play on the track on iTunes).

As I started talking with Sig about Nanci, I suddenly remembered that this song actually first "came back into my life" a few years ago, for the first time since Peak Listening Era (94-95), and I was so stunned by the way that its inexplicable sappy awesomeness was bludgeoning me into happiness that I begged Jay Greene (Renaissance man and general music master) to explain to me what it was that I so heavily killing my fuck. Below, a brief conversation from October 31, 2007:

JeffreyBeaumont: http://slangeditorial.net/mp3/toad-nanci.mp3
JeffreyBeaumont: so, please: tell me what it is that just floors me about the part starting at 1:18
jaychampionvinyl: descending D progression, similar to "Dear Prudence"
jaychampionvinyl: in the beginning at least
jaychampionvinyl: is it the "oh I'll change my mind" part?
JeffreyBeaumont: yeah, god. i just love that shit
JeffreyBeaumont: there's just something about hearing that drop that really gets me
jaychampionvinyl: just a descending bass line
jaychampionvinyl: but a good one
jaychampionvinyl: D to D7, I think
JeffreyBeaumont: it's the harmony with the voice, which is rising?
JeffreyBeaumont: or something
jaychampionvinyl: great leading progression

jaychampionvinyl: yeah, and the 7 chord lends a great sense of inevitability, because our ear DEMANDS that we hear the next chord, or else we jump out a fucking window screaming and lighting our hair on fire
jaychampionvinyl: so when they do play the chord, it saves lives
JeffreyBeaumont: wow. that's it then.
jaychampionvinyl: a hanging 7th chord is like musical blue balls to the 1oth degree

Wow.

Yes, Musical Blue Balls. Jay Greene, please, take a fucking bow for that one.

-----

Since I'm on this memory lane trip, please let me just offer three more tunes from the era (ish).

"Pennies" is a forgotten b-side by the Smashing Pumpkins from the Zero single, off Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. As I've said before, it's pretty tough these days to hear Billy Corgan's voice and not want to puke, but there are definitely a few shining moments that I still love and will always hold onto--and this is definitely one of them. A short and sweet note to what could have been, I played this track for myself a million times while pining for various lost loves in high school (Caitlin, Kirsten--I'll never forget you).

Another questionably epochal moment in my mid 90s adolescent life was the soundtrack to the film Empire Records. I never actually saw the film (pretty sure it was direct to video), but the soundtrack featured a handful of artists that said everything about the mid 90s for better or worse (Evan Dando, Gin Blossoms, Better Than Ezra etc). There are a bunch of cringeworthy clunkers on this record Among these is Dando's fantastic cover of Big Star's "The Ballad of El Goodo" and also an excellent Gin Blossoms number called "'Til I Hear It From You". I just discovered tonight though that this song was in fact co-written with late 70s/early 80s power popper Marshall Crenshaw, and so included now is a nice live recording of Crenshaw doing the song himself.

Finally, I've included the Built to Spill track "Terrible/Perfect", which is a far more tasteful track that did not come from my I-Didn't-Yet-Know-Better stage, but instead from a few years later. Found on the early b-sides comp The Normal Years--which I received for my 18th birthday from my first serious girlfriend--this is a great song for a person who's just starting to understand what indie rock might be able to mean for a human being$$$$.

LISTEN:

Toad the Wet Sprocket - "Nanci", from Dulcinea

Smashing Pumpkins - "Pennies", from the Zero single

Marshall Crenshaw - "Til I Hear It From You (live)"

Built to Spill -- "Terrible/Perfect" from The Normal Years

NOTES:

*** -- In a perfect transition of sorts, in ninth grade I traded my copy of August to an older friend in exchange for Depeche Mode's Songs of Faith and Devotion, which after receiving Singles 81-85, I'd come to realize I should never have passed up when it was the BMG album of the month in the Fall of 1993.

$$$$ -- Better still is their amazing cover of Daniel Johnston's "Some Things Last A Long Time" but I've already shared that one a few times over.

Labels: IMs, love, loved sounds, memories, mp3, music, old flames

posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 8/03/2009 02:06:00 AM 0 comments

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