Hidden Treasure – by Chris van Staalduinen
Hello music-lovers and welcome to my new blog – “Off the Deep End” where I will be exploring music stories, albums and artists in more depth. This column will run monthly at nightMair Creative and will be tweeted and posted to my Facebook shortly thereafter.
This first installment we will talk about finding new music through your old music, using some of my recent finds as an example. We all know of dozens of so-called “one-hit wonders” or albums with only one good song on them, but did you ever wonder what else the band did? I often do and sometimes I take the time to explore and find the hidden treasure that wasn’t released. I have often found that the released songs are the most commercial and therefore often “lesser lights” for me – going deep has paid huge dividends to my music catalogue.
The first example is Blink-182 and their 2011 release “Neighborhoods”. I’ve long been a fan of Blink and their speed punk sound – since 1994’s “Cheshire Cat”, but they didn’t release an album from 2003 – 2011 and I had kind of lost hope in anything new being decent, especially after my lukewarm reaction to the self-titled 2003 album. The only track I heard from “Neighborhoods” was the subdued “Love is Dangerous”. It sounded a little more grown up, but didn’t really get my attention. I decided to go deeper and see what else might be on the album – I’m so glad I did, as this is now one of my favourite all-time albums. There’s only one song that I don’t really like on it and it’s not the afore-mentioned “Love…” That one’s grown on me, if not to the level that the rest have. It’s like a mature Blink-182, with Tom’s voice having finally overcome its whiny sound and meeting up with the grown-up themed lyrics. The speed and fun are still there, but there’s more now. A couple of the tracks like “Ghosts on the Dance Floor” took me a few times playing through to grab me, but now they’re among my faves
Other examples of bands whose hits go far beyond their radio releases include Australia’s Powderfinger, American Hi-Fi and Unwritten Law. I had heard one track from each and upon downloading further tracks, found more and more to like. Powderfinger’s “My Happiness” was released to North American airwaves in 2000 and I had never heard of them before. After a manic downloading session a few years later, I had their discography and found “Passenger”, “On My Mind” and “Love Your Way” among new favourites (along with many others). American Hi-Fi had a couple of hits, the best known of them being “Flavour of the Weak” from 2001’s self-titled album. A good song, very catchy and I can see why it was given heavy airplay, however further albums brought me “The Art of Losing”, “The Breakup Song” and “The Geeks Get the Girls” – all songs I like more than the former. Unwritten Law’s “Seeing Red” was released in 2002, but is not near as good as “She Says”, “Save Me” or the amazing “Shoulda Known Better”.
Another example of going deeper relates to Florida band Against Me! who in 2007 released their album “New Wave” with the title track and “Thrash Unreal” being given heavy airplay. Both songs were alright, but I found I liked “Borne on the FM Waves of the Heart” and “Piss and Vinegar” more to my liking. I ended up with all four in my playlist and didn’t think too much about Against Me! for a while. In 2011, I was doing some updating of my playlist and thought I’d check out some more Against Me!, as I needed some new music. I downloaded their 2010 release “White Crosses” and fell in love. From the rousing title track to the angry “Bamboo Bones” and the heartfelt “Because of the Shame”, the energy, lyrics and ripping guitar riffs hooked me, big time. From top to bottom, this is now one of my favourite albums of all time – and I almost missed it!
If you want to go deeper into this band, there’s a much more interesting story, perhaps a truly original story, which is hard to do in rock and roll – most of it has been done before. It seems that lead singer Thomas Gabel had always felt trapped in his man’s body and in May 2012, he came out as trans-gendered and adopted a new name and a comfortable identity – Laura Jane Grace. Despite the rest of the band departing shortly thereafter, Laura kept the band name and with new members recorded a new album – Transgender Dysphoria Blues. This is the first time a band has had a male and female lead singer in succession – both of whom were the same person. Laura brings the same punk energy (read anger) and a new personal purpose to the band and it works.
Like a lot of music, it didn’t fully get me on my first listen, but I know myself and know that it’s often the third play through that hooks me. I will keep listening and know that despite what a few music executives think, going deeper into an album is often what brings me the greatest pleasure, musically speaking. What will be the greatest “hits” are subjective and this subject will continue to go deep into music to find the treasure -like most treasure, it’s often hidden and not easily seen by the naked eye. Follow my lead, go deep into your catalogue (or mine), explore music beyond “hits” and you may find lots of new (to you) music to enjoy for years to come.
PS – If you don’t already have them, here are some incredible albums to get you started – Powderfinger – Vulture Street; Unwritten Law – The Hit List (greatest hits); Weezer – The Red Album; Rise Against – Appeal to Reason and the aforementioned Blink-182 – Neighborhoods and Against Me! – White Crosses. Enjoy!
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