"A little bit of this. A little bit of that. A pot, a pan, a broom, a hat. . ."—Anatevka, "Fiddler on the Roof."
This is a blog about everything and nothing. A little parenting, a little humor, some poetry, news, essays, a lot of music. I don't want to waste your time, just send positive vibes into the blogosphere.
Oh, yeah, my name is Sarah Torribio. Enough about me, how are you?
The Beths are an exquisitely melodic alt rock group. Thanks to bouncy bass-lines, lead singer Elizabeth Stokes' pretty and sweet-accented voice--the clarity of Harriet Wheeler of the Sundays but more low-key--metronome-tight drumming and layered production, their songs are indie earworms.
The Beths are from New Zealand, which is unsurprising. So many great bands, from Ball Park Music to my longtime faves Men At Work and from Midnight Oil to the Wiggles, hail from the Antipodes.
My song of the day, "Dying to Believe," is off The Beths' 2020 album Jump Rope Gazers.
My song of the day, "It's Nice to Be Alive," by Ball Park Music, is a fun, sweet and happy pop tune.
I know. It's pretentious and
glib to make musical comparisons. But you've got to start somewhere.
There's a touch of the Strokes' elegant and timeless soundscape in this Australian indie rock band. Their coolness is also abetted by a secret weapon:
the harmonic marriage between the tinny, wistful and vulnerable vocals by
frontman Sam Cromack (he sounds more than a bit like Radiohead's Thom
York) and the girl-group cute backup provided by bassist Jennifer Boyce.
I know. I've had "555" by Jimmy Eat World, a single off the band's 2019 album Surviving, as my song of the day. Maybe even twice.
Given that the alt-rock/indie-rock/power pop band (I hate genre labels and I'm impressively bad at nailing them) formed in Mesa, Arizona way back in 1993, when I was one year out of high school, surviving is obviously this indie-rock quartet's strong suit.
I stumbled on this particular song like a year ago, late to the party as usual, and I keep going back to it. Generally, this revisiting is spurred by YouTube's AI reflecting my past listening preferences.
Each time I hear it, I feel a rustling around as it makes a place in my heart. Slow moves. I keep resisting, but I sense "555" is campaigning for a spot on my ever-changing top 100 songs. Only time will tell.
Yes, the video is weird and is meant to be, with Jimmy Eat World frontman Jim Adkins channeling villains from Dune as well as the Star Wars franchise. But the song is pretty, soaring, emotional, epic.
It puts to rest two notions. One is that Jimmy Eat World, whom I've happily seen live, is only capable of teen-pleasing power pop. (I don't know who really thinks that. I'm just fighting an imagined enemy, a straw horse. I'm like the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz: "Put 'em up, put 'em up.") Given that vocalist Jim Adkins is now 46, this song shows that musicians and bands cannot only withstand the slings and arrows of aging but can continue to rise to the top of their game.
It features the trademark lonesome serenade of Skiba, a prolific musician and singer songwriter best known for his longtime membership of dark-tinged power pop/punk band Allkaline Trio and his more recent stint as co-vocalist and guitarist with Blink-182. The prolific Skiba also expresses himself through solo projects side-chick bands Heavens and the Sekrets. In "Angel of Deaf," Matt vocalizes fire-bright poetic imagery--as usual--and whispers painful truths into a coffin-shaped confessional, all the while cursing the tide.
"Off the Map," another song off the 2010 This Addiction album by Alkaline Trio, is my song of the day. The Chicago-born Alkaline Trio is a punk band formed in 2001. It's a trademark Tune, with taut guitar and drums, great lyrics and melodious harmonies created by vocalists Dan Andriano and Matt Skiba.
At first I was like, "Oh, no. This sounds like Rush, and I can't like Rush." I know because I've tried.
But then, the yodeling exuberance and weirdness of the song and the Michigan-based band's presentation--not to mention the octave-straddling, gender-moot voice of lead singer Josh Kiska pulled me in like a fish following a shiny lure. "Heat Above" by Greta Van Fleet is my song of the day on Battlestar Eclectica.
I'm on a music binge. It's often the only way I can get myself motivated to work on large projects like screenplays. When I'm in the middle of them, I always feel like I'll never get it done.
I'm just catching up with some Alkaline Trio trio songs off the band's 2010 album This Addiction that I somehow missed. I haven't even started on the band's latest release, the 3-month-old EP "Is This Thing Cursed."
Anyhow, I'm most pleased with my song of the day, "Eating Me Alive."
My song of the day is "Mouthbreather," a 2019 single by the exceedingly badass indie rock band Saltwater Sun. I love the suggestively gutteral guitar and singer Jen Stearnes' powerhouse pout. Think Dale Bozzio meets Siouxsie Sioux.
Ohio-born folk rock band Saintseneca offers some lush and emotive alt/indie/folk rock in my song of the day, "All You've Got is Everyone." The band, Wikipedia tells me, has been around since 2007 and was founded by "singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Zac Little." Isn't that an impressive appellation?
If you don't sing along with "Back on the Chain Gang" by The Pretenders age 30, you don't have a heart. If you don't sing along with this song after age 30, you don't have a brain.
Sorry. I get a little authoritarian when it comes to the other side-of-the tracks/ intergalactic talent of Pretenders front-woman Chrissie Hynde. She's life itself, isn't she! (I'm paraphrasing a quote by Adele, who in one interview said the same of R&B songstress and Barbados beauty Rihana.)
Chrissie Hynde has that irresistible tough-girl exterior, underscored by her trademark long shaggy bangs. The message is clear, or perhaps two messages are clear.
One is back-off pugnacious: "You don't look at me, I look at you."
The other represents a flirtier sort of rebellion: "I have pretty eyes. If you're lucky, maybe one day you can see them."
In other fangirl admonitions, don't underestimate Chrissie Hynde's lyrical ability. I mean, has there ever been a better line than, "Like a brick in the battle was your part. In the wretched life of a lonely heart."
Chrissie he also plays a mean guitar. Thanks to her catchy, original and impeccable riffs, Pretenders songs find a cozy place in your heart and stay there.
In another note
You know how old people tell the same stories over and over? I'm heading there.
Every time I think of Chrissie Hynde, I can't resist recounting an anecdote from Morrisey's 2013 biopic, aptly titled "Autobiography."
(Easing a sim cigarette into a long ivory holder)
"So Morrissey is at a pub in England with his friend and fellow singer/songwriter Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders."
(lighting the cig with nicotine-stained fingers and inhaling deeply)
"The musical icons are enjoying a pint when a woman approaches Chrissie, breathless."
(exhaling a cloud of smoke toward my imagined audience.)
"The woman exclaims, 'Oh my God ! You're Chrissie Hynde. You used to mean so much to me.'"Chrissie's response to the backhanded compliment? "Well, I don't now, so fuck off!"
