Reggie and the Full Effect - Greatest Hits '84-'87 (1999)

To start, I'd like to share the crooked path that I took last night to listening to Greatest Hits '84-'87 for the first time in a number of years: A contestant named Suzanne Goldlust, who I'm arbitrarily routing for, wins Jeopardy! (I'm a few episodes behind) → Start singing "Susanne" by Weezer → Go to the kitchen to make brownies, listen to "Susanne" → "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams" → Return of the Rentals → "Holiday" by the Get Up Kids → Greatest Hits '84-'87.

I was 17, a junior in high school, and had been dating this girl for over a year -- which in high school relationship time is practically a lifetime -- when she cheated on me, then dumped me before school, in the rain, on her birthday. After a couple weeks of me crying, writing terrible poetry, and generally moping around, my Mom took me to Record and Tape Traders and told me she'd buy me a CD of my choice, hoping to cheer me up. I had heard some of Greatest Hits '84-'87, and even though my initial reaction had been to hate it, when I saw it on the shelf, it called to me.

Friends, this record completely turned me around. It didn't just speak to my broken heart, my insecurities, and my profound teenage yearning: it translated them into the biggest, brightest, catchiest hooks I'd ever heard. (Kinda like that line about cocaine in Walk Hard: "It turns all your bad feelings into good feelings!") The language, which clearly was simplistic by design -- all "girl"s and "boy"s and "you"s and "heart"s and "never"s and "run away"s -- made it even more potent, as did the rich, shimmering synths, which sounded lifted directly from "Friends of P". Plus there were a bunch of dumb, fun sketches. I became obsessed, and played it over and over at home and in my friends' cars, as we all came to memorize and sing along to every goddamn word. Thus began our emo phases.

Some less personal background info for those who don't already know: Reggie and the Full Effect is the emo-power pop solo project of James Dewees, who played in Coalesce (that's him on drums), the Get Up Kids, and a bunch of other bands. Greatest Hits '84-'87 is, obviously, a joke name, as it was recorded in 1998 with two other Get Up Kids, then released the following year. It's the project's first album. Dewees is punker, cooler, and nicer than you. This record usually sounds cloying/grating to new listeners, and I get it. It's still my heart.

P.S. Thanks everyone for all the kind words on my last post. It truly means a lot to me, even coming from (sometimes anonymous) strangers on the internet.

Track listing:

1. Drunk Guy at the Get Up Kids Show

2. Girl, Why'd You Run Away?

3. Fiona Apple Can Kiss My Black Ass

4. What's Wrong?

5. Props to the Queen of Pop A.K.A. Keep on Climbin' That Velvet Rope Baby

6. Your Girlfriends Hate Me

7. Megan Is My Friend to the Max

8. My Dad - Happy Chickens (Kirksta Party-to-Go Mix)

9. Another Runaway Song

10. Drunk Guy Talks Chemicals to Us at the Get Up Kids Show

11. Your Boyfriend Hates Me

12. Pick Up the Phone Master P

13. Where's Your Heart?

14. Get to the Choppa

15. Better for You

16. Everything's Okay

17. Just a Reminder

18. Brandi's Birthday Song

So long

I finally figured out what was wrong

You should also listen to:

that dog. - Totally Crushed Out! (1995)

Tony Molina - Dissed and Dismissed (2013)

Imperial Teen - What Is Not to Love (1999)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Imperial Teen - Seasick (1996)

This band's first record, which is linked above, is very special to me. I don't have the same kind of personal connection to their second record, What Is Not to Love, but I did listen to it a ton while I was living in my first apartment, which was also the setting for what turned into a pretty toxic relationship, so it does carry a certain amount of nostalgic significance. It's more focused than Seasick, which kinda plays more like a singles collection than a cohesive record -- but this is a reflection of a band that has learned to play to its own strengths: scruffy, guitar-driven power pop balanced by a few wistful, strung-out ballads, all from a decidedly queer POV. One of the ballads, "Crucible", is one of my favorite songs ever recorded. And the only song that doesn't really fit either camp, "Alone in the Grass", finds them in hypno-motorik territory, and it's one of the best songs on here.

Track listing:

1. Open Season

2. Birthday Girl

3. Yoo Hoo

4. Lipstick

5. Alone in the Grass

6. Crucible

7. The Beginning

8. Year of the Tan

9. Seven

10. Hooray (Live)

11. Beauty

A cold charisma

Shotgun wedding

And I'm familar

With the Kama Sutra

Also listen to:

Popsicle - Lacquer (1993)

The Apples in Stereo - Velocity of Sound (2002)

The Resonars - Bright and Dark (1999)

Pitch-perfect Nuggets-style garage/psych pop worship, with a twist of Byrds worship. If my friend who hipped me to this had told me that it came out in 1969, I would have 100% believed him. They even have the severe stereo panning. Great cover of "I'll Keep It with Mine", too. This album and band are both completely new to me -- as I write this, I first heard it less than 24 hours ago -- so I can't really provide any context or information. But I very rarely rush to post something like this, so I obviously really like it.

Track listing:

1. The Golden Age

2. Bathyscope

3. Marina

4. Goodbye Melanie

5. Carrie Don't Care

6. Gina

7. Too Much Girl

8. Eden in Transition

9. I'll Keep It with Mine

10. If He's So Great

11. Under the Blazing Stars

12. Spider West

I can't help it if you might think I'm odd

If I say I'm not loving you for what you are

But what you're not

If you like this, listen to:

Gary Lewis - Listen! (1967)

The Misunderstood - Before the Dream Faded (1982)

The Apples in Stereo - Velocity of Sound (2002)

Related:

Marbles - Marbles (1993)

The Apples in Stereo - Science Faire (1996)

The Apples in Stereo - Her Wallpaper Reverie (1999)

It's been long enough since my last post that it feels like I should acknowledge it. But chances are, you didn't really notice, and if you did, you probably assumed that I was doing Christmas stuff, which I was. East coast family Christmas stuff. And now I'm back, and I want to give you something sweet before this cursed year of 2021 comes to a close.

So here's Velocity of Sound, the closest that The Apples in Stereo ever came to making a punk record. The instantly memorable hooks remain, but instead of ornate arrangements, fuzz guitar reigns, with the distortion often bleeding over into the vocals, underlining a surprising link between The Apples in Stereo -- whose most obvious influence has always been The Beatles -- and the joyfully simplistic songs of The Ramones. It's also kind of a breakup record, and the breakup in question is between frontman Robert Schneider and drummer Hilarie Sidney, who also sings lead on album highlights "Rainfall" and "I Want". The album's not billed as such, but most of its songs seem to address a strained romantic relationship, and the two divorced shortly hereafter. Bitter lyrics and sugary tunes: the classic power pop combo.

Happy New Year to you all. Please, please, please let this year be better than the last.

Track listing:

1. Please

2. Rainfall

3. That's Something I Do

4. Do You Understand?

5. Where We Meet

6. Yore Days

7. Better Days

8. I Want

9. Mystery

10. Baroque

11. She's Telling Lies (Bryce's Mix)

I just wanna have a secret or two

Also listen to:

Beulah - Handsome Western States (1997)

Elf Power - When the Red King Comes (1997)

Jon Brion - Meaningless (2000)

First solo album by composer/musician/producer Jon Brion, who's composed scores for a whole bunch of movies, including Magnolia, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (my introduction to Brion), and Punch-Drunk Love. Tuneful, sweet-sounding, yet deeply bitter songs that will land like a long lost friend to any fan of Elliott Smith in Beatles mode. He's obviously stayed plenty busy over the years, but I really wish he'd put out another record like this one.

Track listing:

1. Gotta Start Somewhere

2. I Believe She's Lying

3. Meaningless

4. Ruin My Day

5. Walking Through Walls

6. Trouble

7. Hook, Line, and Sinker

8. Dead to the World

9. Her Ghost

10. Same Mistakes

11. Voices

Love, it was nothing

It hardly hurt a bit

More like this:

Michael Penn - Resigned (1997)

Matthew Sweet - Kimi Ga Suki (Raifu) (2003)

The Three O'Clock - Sixteen Tambourines (1983)

An early gem from the Paisley Underground, i.e. an L.A. band making 60s psych pop by way of 80s pop rock. Apparently some people get annoyed by vocalist Michael Quercio's high-pitched, reedy voice, but I love it; he pretty much just sounds like Susanna Hoffs.

Track listing:

1. Jet Fighter

2. Stupid Einstein

3. And So We Run

4. Fall to the Ground

5. A Day in Erotica

6. Tomorrow

7. In My Own Time

8. On My Own

9. When Lightning Starts

10. Seeing Is Believing

Feel Ann go through you

If you like this, try:

Aztec Camera - High Land, Hard Rain (1983)

Michael Penn - Resigned (1997)

Popsicle - Lacquer (1993)

Swedish power pop of the 90s alt-rock variety. Short, punchy songs enlivened by elements of noise pop and shoegaze. Popsicle would have sounded right at home ripping through a set on the rooftop of Empire Records.

Track listing:

1. Hey Princess

2. Popcorn

3. Undulate

4. How Come We

5. Pale Honey

6. Irreplaceable

7. She

8. Template

9. True

10. A Song Called Liberty

11. Bird

12. Sandy

13. Slow

Tell me if you need me

I need you

If you like this, listen to:

Velvet Crush - In the Presence of Greatness (1991)

Imperial Teen - Seasick (1996)

Michael Penn - Resigned (1997)

Charming, Beatles-worshipping power pop from Michael Penn (brother of Sean and Chris.) I feel like I'm lifting this thought from somewhere, so forgive me if that's the case, but: There's something inherently sad about power pop, and it's not just that it tends to consist of a bunch of peppy-sounding songs about heartbreak and depression. It's that it always seems to be made by some scruffy dude, clearly out-of-sync with the times, pouring countless hours into crafting these sweet little guitar-pop nuggets that have precisely zero chance of becoming actual pop hits. I guess there may have been a little bit of space for music like this when Resigned came out, but Matthew Sweet already had dibs.

Track listing:

1. Try

2. Me Around

3. Like Egypt Was

4. Out of My Hands

5. All That That Implies

6. Selfish

7. Cover Up

8. Figment

9. Small Black Box

10. Comfort

11. I Can Tell

I am just one of a number of guests

That you'll drop after running a couple of tests

More power pop sad bois:

Dwight Twilley - Twilley (1979)

Brendan Benson - One Mississippi (1997)

The Smoking Popes - Get Fired (1993)

Brilliant first album by one of the most distinctive pop punk bands to ever grace our dumb world. The Smoking Popes never really fit the pop punk label, as their vocalist has a somewhat arch, sarcastic croon akin to that of Morrissey, and their dynamic, rough-around-the-edges songs have more in common with bands like Dinosaur Jr. than Green Day. This is probably why I never dug them back in the day, and have only learned to love them over the past few years as a jaded middle-aged crank.

Track listing:

1. Let's Hear It for Love

2. That's Where I Come In

3. Let Them Die

4. Double Fisted Love

5. Don't Be Afraid

6. Can't Find It

7. Off My Mind

8. Not That Kind of Girlfriend

9. Days Just Wave Goodbye

Let's hear it for letting someone totally ruin your life

You'd probably also enjoy:

Sloan - Smeared (1993)

The Muffs - Alert Today Alive Tomorrow (1999)

Sunshine Fix - A Spiraling World of Pop (1993)

Related:
The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One (1999)

Early Elephant 6 magic courtesy of E6 co-founder Bill Doss. If you're expecting this to be warm, fuzzy, wistful, lo-fi indie rock, just because it's an early E6 cassette: you're absolutely right, that's exactly what it is. "Turtle Song" is particularly great.

Track listing:

1. Listen for the Day

2. Love Athena

3. I'll Be Gone

4. You Won't Be

5. Queen Misery

6. Learn

7. Temptation

8. Turtle Song

9. Superman Suit

10. Leonard upon Entering the Fish Market (Speaks of Apple Butter)

But it's not me

That you see

It's only a feeling

That you believe

Similar listening:

Marbles - Marbles (1993)

Beulah - Handsome Western States (1997)

The Muffs - Alert Today Alive Tomorrow (1999)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
The Muffs - Happy Birthday to Me (1997)

RIP to Kim Shattuck, one of the greatest songwriters ever to grace the world of pop punk. Here's The Muffs' excellent, bittersweet fourth album, in which they largely stick to their established sound while branching out juuuust a bit -- there are a couple of ballads, and "Dear Liar Love Me" is pretty fucking weird. Thanks for all the great music, Kim.

Track listing:
1. I Wish That I Could Be You
2. Silly People
3. Another Ugly Face
4. Prettier Than Me
5. Clown
6. Your Kiss
7. Numb
8. I'm Not Around
9. Blow Your Mind
10. Room with No View
11. Dear Liar Love Me
12. In
13. Jack Champagne

Until you hate you will never know what love is
Until that day you will never feel a thing

You should also hear:

The Queers -
Love Songs for the Retarded (1993)

Matthew Sweet -
Kimi Ga Suki (Raifu) (2003)

Young Guv - Ripe 4 Luv (2015)

Classic 70s power pop-worship with a crystalline shimmer, plus two diversions into stoned, lo-fi electropop. Gonna see this dude play tonight, along with Tony Molina and Culture Abuse, getting hyped.

Track listing:
1. Crushing Sensation
2. Ripe 4 Love
3. Crawling Back to You
4. Aquarian
5. Kelly I'm Not a Creep
6. Dear Drew
7. Living the Dream
8. Wrong Crowd

Read the stars
Maybe they can explain

You should also listen to:

Dwight Twilley -
Twilley (1979)

Matthew Sweet -
Kimi Ga Suki (Raifu) (2003)

The Muffs - Happy Birthday to Me (1997)

Pretty much perfect SoCal power-pop-punk. Simple, old-school rock 'n' roll chord progressions shot through with thick alt rock guitars and punk energy, and carried by vocalist Kim Shattuck's gravelly yet sugary-sweet delivery. Think a snottier Weezer, circa Blue Album. It kinda seems like someone with good taste at Reprise tried really hard to make The Muffs famous -- I first heard them on the Angus soundtrack, they were also featured in Clueless and a few others -- but the world just wasn't ready, I guess.

Track listing:
1. Crush Me
2. That Awful Man
3. Honeymoon
4. All Blue Baby
5. My Crazy Afternoon
6. Is It All Okay?
7. Pennywhore
8. Outer Space
9. I'm a Dick
10. Nothing
11. Where Only I Could Go
12. Upside Down
13. You and Your Parrot
14. Keep Holding Me
15. The Best Time Around / New Jazz Daddy-O [hidden track]

And I will read your mind instead
And I could tell you that you are very dead

You'd probably also dig:

The Queers -
Love Songs for the Retarded (1993)

that dog. -
Totally Crushed Out! (1995)

Beulah - Handsome Western States (1997)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Beulah - When Your Heartstrings Break (1999)

Sweet, fuzzy, lo-fi indie rock. I saw Beulah sometime around late 2001 (maybe 2002) and my big takeaway, other than it being a really great show, was that I'd never seen a band less concerned about looking cool. Truly endearing, and with a seemingly endless arsenal of bittersweet hooks to match.

Track listing:
1. Maroon Bible
2. Law Low for the Letdown
3. Disco: The Secretaries Blues
4. The Rise and Fall of Our Hero's Reward
5. I Love John, She Loves Paul
6. Slo-Mo for the Masses
7. I've Been Broken (I've Been Fixed)
8. Queen of the Populists
9. Shotgun Dedication
10. Rust with Me
11. Delta
12. Dig the Subatomic Holdout #2

If it's any consolation
Remember we're fucked up together
So far

Also listen to:

Circulatory System -
Circulatory System (2000)

Elf Power -
The Winter Is Coming (2000)

The Apples in Stereo - Her Wallpaper Reverie (1999)

Related:
Marbles - Marbles (1993)
The Apples in Stereo - Science Faire (1996)

The weirdest, most psychedelic Apples in Stereo record. Pretty sure this was the first Elephant 6-related album I ever heard, having snagged it from my cooler older sister's room in a quest for non-punk music to help me through a breakup with a high-school sweetheart. Seven song-songs interspersed with a series of instrumental vignettes and sketches. "Strawberryfire" is a piece of Beatles worship for the ages -- it's almost too on-the-nose, but it's executed so beautifully that all is quickly forgiven.

Relatedly: I've been going back and replacing old links with higher-quality rips -- including almost all of the Elephant 6 ones -- so enjoy. And I haven't listened to all of them, so let me know if there are any issues with them.

Track listing:
1. I. Her Room Is a Rainy Garden
2. II. Morning Breaks (And Roosters Complain)
3. The Shiney Sea
4. III. The Significance of a Floral Print
5. Strawberryfire
6. IV. From Outside, in Floats a Music Box
7. Ruby
8. V. She Looks Through Empty Windows
9. Questions and Answers
10. VI. Drifting Patterns
11. Y2K
12. VII. Les Amants
13. Benefits of Lying (With Your Friends)
14. Ruby, Tell Me
15. VIII. Together They Dream into the Evening

I would do anything to be anywhere else

You should also hear:

The Boo Radleys -
Giant Steps (1993)

Beulah -
When Your Heartstrings Break (1999)

The Queers - Love Songs for the Retarded (1993)

Keeping the high school favorites train rolling with some of the greatest, catchiest pop-punk ever made. I'll admit that, as a grown-ass man, some of the un-PC shit makes me cringe a little, but if punk's not about starting an offensively-named band and playing songs called "I Hate Everything" and "I Can't Stop Farting", I don't know what it's about. Plus, "Fuck the World" and "Debra Jean" belong in the pop-punk hall of fame.

Track listing:
1. You're Tripping
2. Ursula Finally Has Tits
3. I Hate Everything
4. Teenage Bonehead
5. Fuck the World
6. I Can't Stop Farting
7. Feeling Groovy
8. Debra Jean
9. Hi Mom, It's Me!
10. Noodlebrain
11. I Can't Stand You
12. Night of the Livid Queers
13. Granola-Head
14. I Won't Be
15. Monster Zero
16. Daydreaming

Well, I was walking down the street
With my head held high
Thinking everything was alright
When a big fat bird came and shit on my head

Also listen to:

Alice Donut -
Bucketfulls of Sickness and Horror in
an Otherwise Meaningless Life (1989)

Tony Molina -
Dissed and Dismissed (2013)

Andrew W.K. - Party Til You Puke (2000)

So the other day Stereogum posted an article about the AWK conspiracy theories that've been hanging around since early in his career, which I'm not even gonna try to summarize here. At first, I was annoyed because a) it's been beat into the ground already and b) Andrew WK makes beautiful, perfect music that doesn't need to get muddied up by rumors based on what, if AWK were to be believed, amounts to a business partnership gone sour. However, the article isn't just a remarkably comprehensive analysis of said controversies, but actually functions as a complete re-evaluation of his work that aligns him with visionaries and reality-benders like Andy Kaufman and David Lynch.

Beyond all of that, though, it was a relief to see that I'm not the only fucking person in the world who noticed how fucking weird and dark a lot of his lyrics are. Take "I Love NYC" off of I Get Wet, for instance: while the meaning of lyrics such as "We are your mother-father/We are your fighter friend/You can't stop what you can't end" is anyone's guess, it is clear that "I Love NYC" is not, in fact, about loving NYC.

"Party 'Til You Puke" is another great example: what exactly do the lyrics "We dent/We dope/We choke/We gun/We kill/We stab/We rob/We steal" have to do with partying, exactly? Ponder this as you listen to the Party Til You Puke EP, which finds a young AWK presenting a raw, blown-out, but more-or-less fully-formed version of his id-driven insanity. It's way meatier than the below track listing might seem to suggest. And please, read the above-linked article, it blew my goddamn mind.

Track listing:
1. Party Til You Puke
2. Party Til You Puke (Remix)
3. Party Til You Puke (Shout Out Mix)
4. Dance Party (Anti Never Ending Music Mix)
5. I Want to Kill (Built It Up Mix)
6. Old Man [Couch cover]

We're not gonna die, and you can never kill us
We're not gonna die, and you can never hurt us

Sloan - Smeared (1993)

First album by Canadian power pop greats Sloan. Extremely 90s-sounding, with plenty of richly layered vocal harmonies and warm, shoegaze-y guitars.

Track listing:
1. Underwhelmed
2. Raspberry
3. I Am the Cancer
4. Median Strip
5. Take It In
6. 500 Up
7. Marcus Said
8. Sugartune
9. Left of Centre
10. Lemon Zinger
11. Two Seater
12. What's There to Decide?

Kiss me, kiss me
I can't wait 'til you kiss me

You'll also like:

The Boo Radleys -
Kaleidoscope (1990) + Boo Up! (1991)

Tripping Daisy -
Tripping Daisy (2000)

Tripping Daisy - Tripping Daisy (2000)

Fourth and final album of sunny, psychedelic alt rock from Tripping Daisy, completed and released in the wake of the death of guitarist/multi-instrumentalist West Berggen. Their most dynamic and adventurous record, Tripping Daisy was, in spite of the sadness surrounding it, a hell of a high note to go out on, and with only 500 copies ever made, one of the most glaringly obvious candidates for a reissue I can think of.

Track listing:
1. Community Mantra
2. Kids Are Calling
3. Stella Is a Planet
4. Soothing Jubilee
5. Drama Day Weekend
6. Tragiverse
7. Jim's Longtime Voice
8. One Through Four
9. You First
10. I Am Good
11. Halo Comb
12. This Cradle Song
13. Foot Dance
14. The Sudden Shift Worried Him

You will know for sure

The Boo Radleys -
Giant Steps (1993)

Matthew Sweet -
Kimi Ga Suki (Raifu) (2004)

Chad VanGaalen - Skelliconnection (2006)

The remarkable sophomore album by Canadian indie rocker Chad VanGaalen. Skelliconnection is the kind of album that sounds like a brain exploding with ideas -- colorful, earnest, energetic, and scatterbrained in all the right ways -- whose exuberance is matched only by its existential dread. I heard VanGaalen for the first time like a month ago and I feel legitimately bad for having slept on him for this long, so I'm making up for it by trying to get as many people listening to him as possible.

Also, thanks to "aaarg" in the comments section, I now know that VanGaalen makes trippy-ass animations like this one:



Track listing:
1. Flower Gardens
2. Burn 2 Ash
3. Red Hot Drops
4. Rolling Thunder
5. Viking Rainbow
6. Gubbish
7. Dandruff
8. Wing Finger
9. See-Thru-Skin
10. Wind Driving Dogs
11. Mini T.V.'s
12. Graveyard
13. Dead Ends
14. Sing Me 2 Sleep
15. Systemic Heart

Crazy for everything

You should also be listening to:

The Boo Radleys -
Giant Steps (1993)

Elf Power -
The Winter Is Coming (2000)