So Yeah, I Feel Electric Pink in the Cheeks

I was just about to start writing an article about the incredibly nice Rocky Votolato when I got distracted by Spotify. I started with Rocky V, but then the "related artists" made me think about The New Amsterdams. Before I even pushed play, my eye was drawn to a band I haven't listen to in years--The Promise Ring.

The Promise is a bit of an acquired taste, but I absolutely love Electric Pink. I love the perfectly simple bass line and, of course, the lisp-y vocal.

For a long time after I first heard this song, every time I wrote a new song I would the steal the line "I live a small street/With very small shoes/But in a small house" as a place holder. It doesn't make any sense. And I love it.

Electric Pink [on Spotify]
I'd also recommend Happiness is all the Rage. 

Lemonheads Revisit 'It's a Shame About Ray'

The Lemonheads
With the Shining Twins
Tuesday, Oct. 25, at 9 p.m.
Urban Lounge

If you’re too young to remember the early ’90s, here’s a quick history lesson: There were a bunch of scruffy dudes in Seattle who took Black Sabbath’s big riffs and added a few extra layers of fuzz and feedback. They wore Doc Martens and screamed a lot and the media found a catchy little title to describe it all: grunge.

But before, during and after grunge there was a band called The Lemonheads. In the late ’80s, the three-piece act from Boston was basically a punk band, in the vein of The Replacements or Hüsker Dü. While bands all around them started playing heavier music, the Lemonheads got softer.

In 1992, the band released “It’s a Shame About Ray,” an album of upbeat pop songs that stood in stark contrast to the teenage angst of the time.

Frontman (and the only constant band member) Evan Dando found a way to fit the world into songs that rarely made it past the two-minute mark. There were bouncy rockers, soft-hearted ballads and flirtations with country music. With the addition of a ramped up version of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson,” the album was the perfect package.

“It’s a Shame About Ray” should have been the start of big things for The Lemonheads. But it never happened. The Lemonheads released two solid post-“Ray” albums, but Dando’s descent into drug abuse became a distraction and led to the undoing of the band.

Fortunately, it wasn’t the end of Dando. After a long hiatus, he released an endearing solo album in 2003 before reviving The Lemonheads name for a self-titled record in 2006 and a covers album in 2009.

Nearly two decades later, things have come full circle. Dando is back on the road, performing “Ray” in its entirety. The tour may be a throwback to another era, yet the songs sound just as good as they did during the height of flannel and goatees.

Let’s hear it for second chances.

Weezer Get Experimental

Weezer

Oct. 7, 2008

E Center

w/ Tokyo Police Club, Angels and Airwaves

The past year has been a strange one for Weezer. The band's normally reclusive and dictatorial leader, Rivers Cuomo, not only released an album of intimate home recordings but also relinquished some of his Weezer power, allowing each of his band mates to take a shot in the lead singer role on the band's new record. And the guys have never been happier.

Weezer guitarist, (and big brother of local artist extraordinaire Leia Bell) Brian Bell, put up with Cuomo's constant chiding and a bad cell phone connection to talk about their current Troublemaker Tour.

"We're definitely the most entertaining we've ever been in our career," Bell says. "The shows are getting progressively better, so I predict by the time we hit Salt Lake we'll be in full swing."

Bell says that the quality of recent shows results from the band feeling more comfortable with each other on stage than ever before. "Everybody's taking more responsibility in the show," Bell says. "Rivers is really performing. I don't want to give away too much of the show, but it's absolutely entertaining. People that have seen our shows for years and years say this is by far the best show they've seen."

Weezer has made a conscious effort as of late to push themselves out of their comfort zone, both onstage and in the studio. The most notable change on the "The Red Album" was Bell, bassist Scott Shriner and drummer Pat Wilson each taking a turn on lead vocals.

"That's what we went for on this album—what would be thrilling for us," Bell explains. "One of the things I mentioned was I'd like to sing and even write a Weezer song for this new album and we made it happen."

Cuomo also pushed himself in the songwriting. The album's centerpiece, "The Greatest Man that Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)," manages to switch genres a half dozen times in just under six minutes.

"Rivers was a little bit fed up with the pop song structure and wanted to experiment," Bell says of the song. "Theme variation structure is prevalent in classical music. He came up with different versions of the melody—the theme—and later we found out that the theme was very similar to a Shaker hymn. So that's why we call it 'Variations on a Quaker hymn.'"

When it comes to long term plans for Weezer, it's just about moving forward. "To keep making records and tour [is] success enough for me," Bell says. "But I would like each record to not rehash the past. To stay in the creative moment and come up with music that wasn't there before, that's one of the most fulfilling things you could possibly do."

"Our approach has always been to try to make something groundbreaking, otherwise what's the point?" Bell says.