Fantastic music blog Stereogum posted the 10 best Jens Lekman songs. I’m always excited when I see Jens get some media love and find their list accurate. “Night Falls Over Kortedala is an underrated masterpiece, and its track list runs the gamut of the Jens Lekman emotional and musical spectrums”…true.
Though, I was a little disappointed not to see one of my favorite songs, Maple Leaves make the cut. So take a moment and listen to a few of my favorites that didn’t make the list, and then head over the Stereogum and listen to their list. I’d love to hear what you all think.
And then of course, I’m reminded of the Jens Lekman – Jay Z mash up.
There aren’t very many people that believe me when I tell them that Stinkweeds (one of Phoenix’s few indie record stores) got their start in Mesa. Mesa, a city full of conservative religious types, doesn’t seem like a great place to sell indie, grunge, or punk albums. But it was perfect for me, my high school had open campus and I would frequently stop in and spend some of my lunch money on a few tapes or CDs. That location was right next to a Subway and always smelled like their bread. Those 99 cent meatball subs really helped me spend my record money wisely too.
It wasn’t long until Stinkweeds moved to Tempe, right next to Pita Jungle. This location made more sense and I found myself there frequently too. While Eastside Records (another classic Tempe record store) catered more towards punk records, Stinkweeds was in the middle of an indie pop phenomenon. I remember seeing a few bands there, and even more at their show space at Modified. As a side note, I put on a show at Modified when I was 18 to help fund my zine, they were incredibly supportive and helpful in making that a very successful night.
One of my all time favorite shows at Modified was The Aislers Set.
To celebrate Record Store Day, I stopped by Stinkweeds’ new location in Phoenix. While they’ve moved, they still have a reliable selection of indie pop records. There isn’t a Subway near by anymore so the scent of yoga-mat-bread doesn’t fill my nostrils. Today I picked up The Magnetic Fields’ Realism, Los Campesinos No Blues, and The Julie Ruin 7″. The Julie Ruin is such an exciting project for me because Kathleen Hanna is making great pop music mixed with punk. Kathleen Hanna continues to impress me in the way that her music evolves while staying true to her past, present, and future. Old Julie Ruin is so poppy it has hand claps and “cold coconut ice cream”, the new 7″ doesn’t disappoint either.
But all this reminiscing makes me long for a cooler Tempe. While I look to purchase a house in Tempe and do the adult thing, I can’t help but be jealous of how cool Phoenix has gotten. Tempe used to be the spot. I long for a Tempe that doesn’t cater to drunken jockocracy and completely out of hand fraternities. I miss dancing in front of Long Wongs and how a walk down Mill Avenue was full of freaks. I walked up to Mill Avenue last night on a whim and the whole thing made me sad, the only freaks were the ones I was meeting. I don’t know what it’s gonna take to change Tempe, or if Tempe is a lost cause. I know a lot of people around here want to defend the neighborhood for the freaks and take back what’s ours. The free-roaming peacocks seem to be a hint of what change should be coming for Tempe.
While we should support the businesses that we want to see in our neighborhood (Ash Ave Comics, Double Nickels, Tops, etc), that’s an empty way to make a neighborhood cool because duh you’re gonna do that anyway. I want to see more art everywhere. I want to see more gardens popping up in empty lots. I want to see an end to the bro take over. I want to see less cops. And more than anything, I want to see more freaks.
So let’s call this a “soft-opening” for this blog. I wanted to make my first entry today, even though this website isn’t quite ready, because it was around this time twenty years ago that I became more active in seeking out music that I truly loved instead of what everyone else was listening to. It was around this time that I stopped listening to safe music like Paula Abdul and started listening to Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and REM.
Twenty years ago on April 5, 1994, my pre-teenage life was shaken when news of Kurt Cobain’s death hit the air. None of my celebrity heroes had ever died before. My friends seemed more distressed than I was but I played my tape copy of In Utero until it wore down. It could have been the 12 year old girl hormones but I remember crying uncontrollably in my room. I remember when I found out, the morning DJs on 98 KUPD (Dave Pratt) announced it as I was getting ready for school. What a crappy day. In typical adolescent fashion, no one at my school understood. But no one at my school really did understand, everyone listened to rap or R&B and Tupac and Selena’s death were still in the future.
It wasn’t long after Kurt died that I started getting into indie pop music. REM, Beck, Sonic Youth, and Hole all made permanent homes in my heart. My summers in Cleveland were spent watching MTV with my cousin and learning about bands I had never heard of because radio in Phoenix was all oldies, hard rock, or rap (and still is) and we didn’t have cable. The internet was still a baby and we wouldn’t dream of downloading full songs over dial up internet because you’d miss too many phone calls. Despite having a huge 90’s grunge scene, Phoenix was and mostly still is, a place devoid of music with hand claps and female vocals (much love to Uber Alice and Chula though).
To celebrate Kurt Cobain and the twenty years of music he inspired for me, I’m taking a hint from KEXP and giving you a few of my favorite songs inspired or related to Kurt Cobain.
Imperial Teen is one of my favorites. The song “You’re One” takes the lyrics “peace and love and empathy” from the last line in Kurt Cobain’s suicide letter.
I guess this is a pretty obvious choice. REM’s song Let Me In was written and dedicated to Kurt Cobain.
Courtney’s song written about her crush and insecurities of dating Kurt Cobain; “I thought that he didn’t like me and that he liked this total poser idiot girl, so I wrote this song about him”.
Kathleen Hanna wrote “Kurt smells like teen spirit” on Kurt’s wall and then “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was born.
My older brother was visiting when I was about fourteen, he gave me my first Pixies album Sufer Rosa. Eighteen years later, I still have it and play it frequently.
Calvin Johnson of The Halo Benders founded K Records, Kurt had the logo tattooed on his arm. This is one of my favorite Halo Benders songs.
What I wouldn’t give to be involved in the Olympia scene in the late 80’s early 90’s. Here is The Go Team featuring Kurt Cobain, you might recognize the guitar.
“People of the universe!” 1991 The Year Punk Broke was a documentary about the Sonic Youth/Nirvana world tour. As a teenager, I watched and studied this video frequently and wanted my own teenage riot.
So let’s call this a “soft-opening” for this blog. I wanted to make my first entry today, even though this website isn’t quite ready, because it was around this time twenty years ago that I became more active in seeking out music that I truly loved instead of what everyone else was listening to. It was around this time that I stopped listening to safe music like Paula Abdul and started listening to Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and REM.
13summerdresses.com 