Quick Hits, Vol. 269 - oldies (Pearl Jam, Prince, Husker Du, The Meters)

Pearl Jam - Unplugged.  This disc randomly popped up on Spotify a few weeks ago, which was a very pleasant surprise.  It is awesome.  You can tell when it was in the evolution of Pearl Jam, because every song on here is from Ten (except for "State of Love and Trust," which was on the Singles soundtrack right around this time).  Only seven songs long, which is obviously disappointing, but they're damn good renditions of some of the classics from the catalog - "Jeremy," "Alive," "Even Flow," "Porch," "Black," and "Oceans."  I've always felt like "Porch" didn't get the love it should have - that track is a tightly wound nugget of rage that then soars when you hit the chorus.  Very singable and cool.  

Those hats.  That weird mouth shape that Eddie makes when he sings ooooohhhhhh.  He looks like he could still be in freaking high school, man.  They get a little jammy up in here and it kinda rules - as Eddie falls off his stool and wriggles around like a weirdo.  Of course, in the 28 years since this thing was recorded, PJ has turned into one of the biggest rock bands of all time, so it is cool to go on a spelunking tour of them at their young, raw, beginnings.  This is great.  Glad they uploaded it after all these years.

Prince - Sign o' the Times.  1987 album that just recently got a big fat reissue that includes 800 billion versions of tracks and other weird oddities.  I wasn't actually familiar with the album, but apparently some people think it is a top tier pop triumph that must be loved.  Wikipedia says: "Though not as commercially successful as Purple Rain, Sign o' the Times was Prince's most acclaimed record, being voted 1987's best album in the Pazz & Jop critics poll and since being ranked as one of the greatest albums of all time by several publications. It has been regarded by many critics as Prince's best album, ahead of Purple Rain. Writing for The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Michaelangelo Matos regarded it as "the most complete example of [Prince's] artistry's breadth, and arguably the finest album of the 1980s"  I'm not so sure I'm with them on that.  

"I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" is a jam.  "Sign O' the Times" is weird and cool.  "Hot Thing" is very hot - I think Tubbs and Crockett should be arresting some coked-up strippers to it right now.  But some are just quirky without much pleasure ("The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" is in this camp for me, or "Starfish and Coffee"), or "Adore" is just annoying.  Maybe I just needed to be there at the time when it was released - I think there is some real truth to that as an issue when I try to go back to an older album that some people love.  If you weren't there when it hit, to hear this sort of sound for the first time ever, then you might not hear it that same way.  But as of right now, this ain't in his top three for me.  So many of the songs seem kind of plodding - something I never imagined I would say about Prince, but like I'm listening to "Strange Relationship" right now and it just has kind of a metronomic drum beat as the main backing to everything else that's going on.  Doesn't seem especially danceable or funky.  Feels like a lot of these tracks are sparse like that, which goes against what I love about funky Prince.  I'll let this one go back to it's place in the 80's.

Husker Du - New Day Rising.  Husker Du is an interesting band to me.  I missed them back when they were making music.  This is a 1985 album - right about then I was probably listening to Huey Lewis and the News and Madonna.  And this is some pretty scuzzy punk rock/post-punk/post-hardcore stuff - not the kind of thing I would have noticed at all in 4th grade.  It wasn't until high school that I found a love for Fugazi and Helmet and other harder-edged music.  I loved Bob Mould's later band, Sugar, and wore out my copy of Copper Blue.  But it's nothing like this, Sugar's music was awesomely catchy pop rock, like something R.E.M. could have made, while this is mostly unpolished thrashing music.  Like, "How to Skin a Cat" is aggressively loud and unpleasant.  "Whatcha Drinkin'" is straight punk with the classic drumming, guitar fuzz, and screamed lyrics.  Sounds like a perfect song to mosh to.  The closest song to something that might be considered radio friendly is "Celebrated Summer," which sounds like something The Replacements might have made, but even that is pretty scuffed and loud.

It's too bad - I figured maybe I would get into the band now and become a super Du Head, but now I'm just going to know that this isn't my jam.

The Meters - Look-Ka Py Py.  Came onto this one because of that Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums of All Time listing, and it rules.  Funky as all get out, this sounds like something that either should be immediately sampled for a rap track, or it already has been sampled for a rap track.  The title track is the one with the most streams.

That absolutely was sampled by somebody - I can hear it in my head.  Hold on.  Nope, couldn't come up with it but it was Cypress Hill (and 29 other things that I don't think I have heard).  Loving this thing, such a great funky sound.