Marc Fagel

Marking Time YouTube video by The Olivia Tremor Control - Topic

"Marking my words as I always do, still find it hard enough to say..."

2000 Great Songs #1268: Marking Time Music-obsessed retired lawyer, sharing a few thoughts on some choice cuts from my obscenely oversized music collection each day.

2000 Great Songs #1268: Marking Time. Gentle, evocative retro-psychedelia from the Olivia Tremor Control. Better in the overall context of the LP, setting up a longer psychedelic suite, but still awfully lovely and disorienting on its own.

Made it 2/3 of the way through the 1200s... so just in time to kick off your weekend, here's the playlist for songs #1201-1267 on the Top 2000:

Waxahatchee - Can't Do Much (Official Video) YouTube video by Merge Records on YouTube

"We will coalesce our heaven and hell, my eyes roll around like dice on the felt..."

2000 Great Songs #1267: Can't Do Much Music-obsessed retired lawyer, sharing a few thoughts on some choice cuts from my obscenely oversized music collection each day.

2000 Great Songs #1267: Can't Do Much. Waxahatchee polish the harder edges from their scrappy indie rock and pivot into jangly Americana, a beautiful, catchy, almost-ready-for-radio folk-rock tune with an earworm chorus.

Disappointed that Ex Void are no more.

Well, sure, I think that's the case for most rock music fans; but it's not really fair to use the Beatles/Stones/Who etc. as a benchmark for all that's come after. My annual year-end mixes for the past 10 years have been about 50% women-fronted bands whose parents liked the bands we grew up on.

Everything is much worse now. Thank god for musical escape (and for bands like DBT which don't let us just check out, as tempting as it may be).

I think it just became a less commercial force (much conversation around this in the Other Place generated by Billy Corgan's recent statements). I think critical "poptimism" also played a big role. There are still a ton of great guitar albums; they just don't get enough mainstream attention.

Drive-By Truckers - "Thoughts and Prayers" (Official Lyric Video) YouTube video by DriveByTruckersVEVO

"Perp walk them down the Capitol steps and show them how it feels... Stick it up your ass with your useless thoughts and prayers..."

2000 Great Songs #1266: Thoughts And Prayers Music-obsessed retired lawyer, sharing a few thoughts on some choice cuts from my obscenely oversized music collection each day.

2000 Great Songs #1266: Thoughts And Prayers. The Drive-By Truckers deliver the most pointed and poignant protest song of the century, pretty Americana jangle backing an emotionally grueling take on US gun culture & school shootings.

Was that a thing? I didn't realize they held that much sway.

I think their sound is a little divisive; some people I respect swear by them, others avoid entirely. I like a lot of their records, but definitely don't play them much beyond a few songs.

Brett Gurewitz - The Seeing Eye Gods - 02 - Psychedelic Suzy YouTube video by brshows

"I walk alone, my mind is gone..."

2000 Great Songs #1265: Psychedelic Suzy Music-obsessed retired lawyer, sharing a few thoughts on some choice cuts from my obscenely oversized music collection each day.

2000 Great Songs #1265: Psychedelic Suzy. The Seeing Eye Gods were a one-off project from the founder of indie label Epitaph (and a member of punk band Bad Religion), lo-fi retro psychedelia, a long-out-of-print home studio lark but... actually kinda cool.

Soul Asylum - Keep It Up (Official Audio) YouTube video by SoulAsylumVEVO

"I'm down here waitin' on a shattered heart, I'm gonna put it back together if it tears me apart..."

2000 Great Songs #1264: Keep It Up Music-obsessed retired lawyer, sharing a few thoughts on some choice cuts from my obscenely oversized music collection each day.

2000 Great Songs #1264: Keep It Up. Soul Asylum's 1992 breakthrough album generated a bunch of hit singles... this wasn't one of them, which always struck me as odd. Fun rave-up tune ideal for a morning commute or before heading out for the evening.

Counting Crows - Big Yellow Taxi ft. Vanessa Carlton YouTube video by CountingCrowsVEVO

Counting Crows & Vanessa Carlton:

So many songs in need of an update... $1,000 Wedding etc.

sarah mclachlan and others - big yellow taxi YouTube video by sarahmclachlanfan

Lilith Fair flashback:

Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi (Official Lyric Video) YouTube video by Joni Mitchell

"You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone..."

2000 Great Songs #1263: Big Yellow Taxi Music-obsessed retired lawyer, sharing a few thoughts on some choice cuts from my obscenely oversized music collection each day.

2000 Great Songs #1263: Big Yellow Taxi. I tend not to listen to the early folk-era Joni Mitchell records, preferring her later forays into more experimental, jazz-tinged pop, but this is one of those songs that's just never gotten old for me.

2000 Great Songs: Now Sortable! Music-obsessed retired lawyer, sharing a few thoughts on some choice cuts from my obscenely oversized music collection each day.

Because it's a Sunday afternoon and I'm procrastinating instead of grading law school papers, I've set up a database to track my ongoing 2000 Great Songs project. Why not?

I went back and forth between this one and Chicago.

Come On! Feel the Illinoise! Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition Part II: Carl Sandburg... YouTube video by Sufjan Stevens - Topic

"Oh, great intentions, I've got the best of interventions. But when the ads come, I think about it now. In my infliction, entrepreneurial conditions. Take us to glory, I think about it now..."

2000 Great Songs #1262: Come On! Feel The Illinoise! Music-obsessed retired lawyer, sharing a few thoughts on some choice cuts from my obscenely oversized music collection each day.

2000 Great Songs #1262: Come On Feel The Illinoise! Sufjan Stevens' mash-up of proggy baroque pop and over-the-top Broadway showtune revelry is, like the rest of the titular album, distinctly of its moment yet still jaw-dropping in its audacity.

Sunrise an hour late with some Sunday morning prog.

Stereolab - Jenny Ondioline (Official Video) YouTube video by Stereolab

"Life on Earth is a bloody hazardous affair; as in the city, the republic was collapsing away..." (???)

2000 Great Songs #1261: Jenny Ondioline Music-obsessed retired lawyer, sharing a few thoughts on some choice cuts from my obscenely oversized music collection each day.

2000 Great Songs #1261: Jenny Ondioline. Blazing hot Stereolab jam takes droning Krautrock & shoegaze and perks it up with shimmering, exuberant electropop. Crank it up and feel it crawl up and down your spine!

I remember when Son Volt & Wilco released their respective debuts, and the mass consensus seemed to be that it was Farrar who carried the spark. Me, I've always been a Tweedy guy, but I love Farrar's voice and enjoy a lot of his music.