From the Pixies’ underrated 1991 swan song “Trompe Le Monde,” comes this nearly unheralded gem that epitomizes what makes the Pixies so great: layers of distorted loud guitars on top of pop melodies and intense shouted vocals. And all in 1 minute 35 seconds. In the year of Nirvana’s “Nevermind” and Guns n’ Roses’ “Use Your Illusion I and II,” “Trompe le Monde” was my favorite album from that year … and still is.
Enough already with the hand-wringing and speculation over whether Lucasfilm being sold to Disney is a good or bad thing for the “Star Wars” franchise! In my humble opinion, Lucas’s best film, hands down, is 1973’s “American Graffiti.” One of the best movies about teenagers ever made, it has more heart and soul than the entire “Star Wars” franchise combined (including the yet-to-be-made parts 7, 8, 9, who gives a s–t!). It was the blueprint from which the almost-equally excellent “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and “Dazed and Confused” were forged (all 3 films boasted amazing casts … before most of the actors/actresses became monstrously famous). Tellingly, Lucas only made this film after his then-wife (stellar 1970s film editor Marcia Lucas) challenged him to make a film that would emotionally involve the audience. Sadly, after “Graffiti’s” huge critical and commercial success, Lucas retreated to a world of Wookies, Mace Windu, Jar-Jar Binks, and a whole bunch of other s–t I couldn’t give two f–ks about.
Holy s–t! Stokes is well into his senior years, but he can kick the living crap out of any younger, heavier bands out there. True blues from the bowels of hell. I guarantee that this violent revenge song is one of the most intense tunes you’ll ever hear. Stagger Lee was a p—y. This has a lot of graphic and disturbing language and is not recommended for younger or more sensitive souls.
Arguably, Social Distortion’s best-known and most beloved song. I remember hearing it on a Walkman when I was walking to work one morning during the summer of 1990 and knew this song was an immediate classic. Mike Ness’s love for Johnny Cash is obvious here.
However, when I returned to college in the fall, I was chagrined to see how popular this song was for the wrong reasons. Don’t get me wrong. I was glad to see Social Distortion (one of the standout bands of the 1980s California hardcore punk scene) getting some hard-fought mainstream success and love from the masses. However, this harrowing song about addiction somehow got adopted as a drinking song for preppie frat boy idiots. Probably the same dolts that thought Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” was a patriotic song (except Bruce would have had to have known that simply having an anthemic song called “Born in the USA” with an album cover that has the American flag in the background during the height of Reganism would have picked up a lot of buyers who weren’t really listening to the lyrics … but I digress). Anyway, despite the bad taste of seeing jock dickheads, who would have beat the snot out of Mike Ness if they saw him on the street, singing his very personal song, this song is still a classic and still has power.
I missed this one a couple of days ago, but I just wanted to pay tribute to one of my all-time favorite character actors. I remember first seeing Lom when I was 5 years old in “The Return of the Pink Panther,” playing Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau’s character’s long-suffering boss Chief Inspector Dreyfus. He was quite good in any number of movies he appeared in, but in addition to Dreyfus, my favorites are the original “Ladykillers” from 1955, his KGB spy in “Hopscotch” (1980) and as the kindly neurologist in David Cronenberg’s “The Dead Zone” (1983).
Here is one of my favorite Lom / Dreyfus scenes, from the opening of 1976’s “The Pink Panther Strikes Again.” Dreyfus is leaving a mental hospital after being driven mad by being Clouseau’s boss, but goes off the deep end again after running into Clouseau. This is a bit slapsticky (director Blake Edwards’s stock in trade), but it still brings a smile to my face.
I can’t tell if this is the most boneheaded example of corporate marketing ever or deadpan comedic genius on the level of Andy Kaufman. It’s likely the former, but if you were a comedian trying to design something that would make hipsters lose their collective minds, you couldn’t do any better than this TV ad. Even better than the infamous “Freedom Rock” commercials of the late 1980s.
The bravura montage from one of Spike Lee’s best, and most underrated films “Summer of Sam.” This is the sequence where Adrien Brody’s character plays his guitar along to the Who’s “Baba O’Reilly” juxtaposed with clips of the craziness from his character’s neighborhood, along with the rest of NYC (including the Son of Sam murdering more people), during the summer of 1977. One of the best films of the 1990s and one that is sadly ignored / forgotten. Co-written by Michael Imperioli, Christopher Molisanti from “The Sopranos.” Due to graphic violence and language, not safe for work.
The king of nihilistic English folk does a transcendent cover of Britney Spears’ “Oops I Did it Again.” And yes, in Thompson’s brilliant hands, this is not only a brilliant cover, but I also now recognize it for the great song that it is.
Like Randy Newman, John Cale has been responsible for some of the most beautiful, sad, frightening, and darkly amusing music ever written. “Buffalo Ballet” is more on the beautiful / sad side than the hair-raising or mordantly humorous one. Cale’s equivalent to Newman’s “Louisiana 1927.”
The title track from Lynn’s Jack White-produced comeback album from 2004 and deserving of every accolade it received that year. For a long time, it was the highest rated album on Metacritic (97 out of 100) ever. A heartfelt tribute to Lynn’s parents and the eternal and enduring love they felt for each other.
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