Quick Hits, Vol. 98 (Cheap Trick, The Coup, The Monkees, Gang of Four)

So, another bad week for music, with two of those musicians' musicians passing away.  I knew Leonard Cohen's music, first because of the Natural Born Killers soundtrack (which is pretty excellent, BTW) and then because of "Hallelujah," like everyone else in the damn world.  Including Shrek.  And every bad contestant on American Idol.  I really didn't know Leon Russell's music, and just went back and tried some to see if I recognized any of it. I know a few tracks that other people covered, but otherwise I didn't know his stuff.  Despite my ignorance, RIP to both of those gents.

Cheap Trick - Cheap Trick.  Rolling Stone wrote an article recently about how Cheap Trick were these fantastic power pop rock guys who had been misunderstood or forgotten by time or whatever.  I knew "Want You to Want Me" and "The Flame," but I just wasn't sure that I knew anything else about these dudes, so I decided to check out the OG album, 1977's Cheap Trick.  I'll have to agree, this is actually a really good album.  No big hit, hook-filled tracks on here, but you've got pop rockers like "Taxman, Mr. Thief" or "Hot Love" and then pretty nice ballads reminiscent of something the Foo Fighters would do between shreds like "Mandocello."  Some of this actually reminds me of the Beatles.  Check out "Cry, Cry."  But the top song on the album is "He's a Whore," which tunefully rocks it out.

Power rock it, baby.  This is a good album.  Like, right now, even without knowing it for the past 40 years, it still sounds like fresh rock and good stuff.  Weird to think that, but its true.

The Coup - Kill My Landlord.  If you've ever read my stuff before, you'll know that I consider old school Ice Cube to be the best rap to be enjoyed.  This album came out in 1993, but it borrows from/pays homage to so many things off of Cube's 1991 masterpiece Death Certificate, and it just makes me love the entire thing even more.  Heavy on the old school soul samples like Cube, but they even use a sample of Cube from "Bird in the Hand" ("Blacks are too fuckin' broke to be Republican") that works so very perfectly.  They also quote him at other times with "once upon a time in the projects, yo" and "be true to the game," sample his voice again, and then copy a piano riff in the middle of "The Coup."  This is one of those albums where, on Spotify, the songs decrease in popularity as they flow through the album, with 122k for the first track ("Dig It") but only 10k for the last three songs. Here is that opening track, "Dig It."

I do dig it, man.  Classic rap stuff, I can't believe I never knew about this stuff back in the mid-90's, this would have been right up my alley.  Going to keep this one around and keep listening.

The Monkees - Good Times.  I don't know about you, but I freaking loved the Monkees when I was a kid.  The show would play on Nick at Night, and I owned a tape or two of their music/comedy, and I thought they were hilarious.  I didn't care that they were a manufactured band, I just thought it was funny stuff.  I used to walk around singing "I'm Gonna Buy Me a Dog" all the time.  Well, this new album touches the right nostalgic points, but it is a pretty straight-forward recitation of classic Monkees-sounding tunes.  No real humor, mainly just a classic 60's rock sound and voices that are surprisingly solid for these dudes being 70+ years old.  The most popular is the standout track "Me & Magdalena," which is this achingly pretty, very simple love song.

Apparently written by Ben Gibbard, that is a good tune.  "Birth of an Accidental Hipster" makes me think of Sgt. Pepper era Beatles.  "She Makes Me Laugh" is a bright, happy love tune.  Surprisingly good album in general, although I doubt I'll keep listening to any of it after today.

Gang of Four - Entertainment!  Another of the old school punk albums that Rolling Stone thought I should check out.  Or I thought I should check out because RS said it was important.  Whatever, I'm jamming with Gang of Four today.  This music definitely influenced Fugazi, and therefore it sounds pretty good to me.  These guys are still putting out music, with a new album in 2015, but since I've never heard it mentioned ever, I suspect it is weak in comparison to this album.  In fact, if you look at their top ten most popular tracks on Spotify, all ten are from this 1979 album.  Pretty damning review of their more recent music. While the guitar is angular and the vocals are straight-forward and monotone-ish, the bass lines give it a little funk heft that makes this sound better than other punk I've been listening to.  Also, the simplicity of the vocals makes it easier to hear the lyrics, which is good. The song that sounds most familiar is "Not Great Men," I think mainly because it sounds like it is an old Red Hot Chili Peppers track.

I ran a search on Spotify to see if that song had been covered by anyone else, and do not see any cover versions of the track.  Which is weird, because I swear I've heard it before now, although I don't think I've ever heard this album before the past few weeks.  Whatever, I like the funk groove.  Same with "Damaged Goods," or "Return the Gift."  If this is punk music, then it is nothing like the intense fire of most of that music that I am used to.  This is way more groove and funk based (and a hell of a lot better for it).  I'm actually going to keep this album around to keep jamming.