And The Things You Loathe (Sing Your Life)

...The Rodney Dangerfield Voices of Rock - 5 male vocalists who demand the utmost respect (but aren't getting any)...

Adam Franklin of Swervedriver - "The Hitcher"

(Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?)

Hair-lines haven't been kind to those in Oxford, UK lately. Just ask Mark Gardener of Ride (seen: here) or Adam Franklin who shed his infamous dreds around the time Swervedriver went on an indefinite hiatus in 1999. Although Swervies finally came to their senses and provided us with a knock-out reunion tour this past summer, Franklin's dreds are still missing, but he and the band sound better than ever. In 1988, SWD jumped aboard the Alan McGee train (thanks to a demo passed across by their Oxford mates, hmph in Ride) and led a fairly successful career from the early-to-mid 90s', but somehow still didn't fit in with everything else. One element critics immediately associated them with was this monstrous guitar sound that was a mushroom cloud of heavenly goodness - supplied with ample riffs and soundscapes that could transcend the mind into madness without a single reach for another puff on a spliff. However, what everyone fails to mention is the fact that Adam Franklin possesses a powerful voice that often/always gets overlooked. It's soothing and hypnotic, never reaching any Corgan caterwals or grandpa Vedder groans and to top it off, the man's a poet. Take for instance this b-side, "The Hitcher" a Franklin staple as a solo artist (aka Toshack Highway) contains some of the sweetest streamlined love-song lyrics, disguised in metaphors and similies, and shines bright like a light from the parting clouds on a May morning. Here's a sample: "You're always far out in the midrange/All around the state boundary spillage signs/Somebody burnt down all the pylons/And you're my passport through these mines/I get this feelin', I wanna hitch a ride on your smile."

Adam Franklin - "The Hitcher" (YouTube live @ Jackpot Records Portland)
Swervedriver - "The Hitcher" (Stream @ last.fm)
Swervedriver - "Duel" (YouTube)

Rob Dickinson of Catherine Wheel - "Heal"

(His Name Is Love)

The hardest thing a friend of mine had to do recently was to say 'no' to Rob Dickinson's request to join his band as drummer for his solo stint, promoting his third-time-released debut, Fresh Wine For The Horses album. It'd be like me telling Radiohead I don't want to be their 4th guitarist, oh but what a 4th guitarist I'd make. Unfortunate circumstances aside (my friend is managing a ton of bands, plus his own label and playing drums for 2 others including his own), there are few out there besides the 'jock-jam' audience who truly appreciate the girth and beauty that comes from Dickinson's vocal chords. Like Swervedriver, Catherine Wheel didn't really blend in with the brit-pop and rave-scene at the time as their music was mostly guitar-driven, drowsy rock with Rob's echoed yelps steering the ship into certain unchartered territories. They were just another band who missed out on the Creation Records sweepstakes (blame My Bloody Valentine's over-spending on Loveless for that), as McGee decided to put all funds and faith in two brothers named "Gallagher" and instead of hearing "Phantom of the American Mother" or "Black Metallic" on radio-laced syndicate, we're ever-blessed with "Live Forever" and "Wonderwall" ad nauseam.

Rob Dickinson - "Heal" (YouTube live @ FM 94.9 San Francisco)
Catherine Wheel - "Black Metallic" (YouTube)

Danny McNamara of Embrace - "The Good Will Out"

(This Is Music)

Take a look at this pose... yeah that one, right there. Bands like The Verve, Oasis, and The Charlatans UK have all dawned this look before.... so why does Embrace looked so scared? It could be the fact that for most of their career North America and the rest of the World has looked at them as some kinda poseur act, a Verve-lite if you will or that behind that fake, 'tough' exterior (the one they're trying to cop in this photo) this West Yorkshire, UK 5-some are just a bunch of softies who spend Sunday mornings watching The Corries with Gran and helping mum peel potatoes for tea. If you've been one of the lucky ones who's purchased their debut, The Good Will Out on a whim, ya know because they do those Stone Roses rock poses on the album cover with all the pomp and swagger you could hope for in an outfit from the British Isles, then you know that McNamara and brother Richard are no flukes when it comes to making you wince because there ain't nearly enough lighter fluid in this world to keep your flame alight when these boys perform one of their million ballads. Sure, if you took all of em' and placed them beside something like "Sonnet" or "The Drugs Don't Work" their gold paint would flake apart during just one rainfall, but hey, I've been caught singing, "Come Back To What You Know" in the bath once or twice and "Fireworks" has been on epic-repeat since I was 19. But yeah, it's all in McNamara's voice who could guide you through the roughest of times if you'd just give him a chance. And if you get all the way through their debut disc, then you'll be fortunate enough to find the closer, "The Good Will Out" where the McNamara bros. are like the Appletons ('cept in male form of course) and if you see the crowd, they go ape-shit for these guys... You'll never understand what Danny is going on about, but you'll wait patiently with baited ear just like you would watching that bloated Keane singer reach for another plate of perogies.

Embrace - "The Good Will Out" (YouTube live @ Leeds)
Embrace - "Looking As You Are" (YouTube)

Grant Lee Phillips of Grant Lee Buffalo - "Mocking Birds"

(Mighty Joe Swoon)

If you claim to know a single thing about me, one of my most sacred 'things' is the fact that I adore Grant Lee Buffalo... well, the first 2 albums. Ever since I heard "Fuzzy" blaring from the stereo of a faraway pick-up truck while I was waiting for my dad to return from the bank, I just remember being transfixed to the sound, it was bewilderment and beauty all wrapped into one. Bewildered for the fact that I'd never know who sang this song as it chimed from one of CFNY Radio's ultra-independent hour-long specials and beautiful because this voice was so mysterious and haunting, but comforting like a pillow all the while. Jump forward to a few years later when I was waiting for my dad again and from a different pick-up truck altogether (I lived on a farm for 20 years of my life, hence my run-ins with Fords), I heard this same voice and felt that same feeling once again, "one day this ground will break and open up for me I hope it will, I hope it will" sang this unknown figure and again, this dark and enchanting feeling came across me once more. Because we were still living in the age of Aquarius rather than the Internet, it's not like I could just google the lyrics and figure out who it was, I had to run outside to hear the radio announcement name that artist and this time I had it pegged. Still it took me a while to finally get my hands on a GBL album (I would later borrow my older brother friend's cassette tape and it never left my car), but Mighty Joe Moon (to this day) gets a spot on my top 10 albums of all time. Singer, Grant Lee Phillips and band spent most of their early career on the road touring in 1993 and during that span they saw all of America for the first time. Out of these travels came tales about Texas - "Lone Star Song" (written about David Koreshs' cult) or forlorn twisted tales of love ("Happiness" and "Honey Don't Think") and other worldy history ("Last Days of Tecumseh" about the chief who died Chatham, ON Canada), the uncloaked Coventry girl "Lady Godiva and Me" and a brief history of time with the time-span of man's inventions and all its evils in "Sing Along." While all these great songs were written on the road and ready for recording, the major earthquake that rattled LA in early 1994 also claimed the house of Grant Lee and his wife, thus inspiring him to write the song "Mockingbirds" and hence the affermentioned lyric about the ground 'breaking.' Though the band has remained in relative obscurity despite sponsorship from bands like Smashing Pumpkins and R.E.M., Grant Lee Buffalo only really had a minor hit in "Truly, Truly" before calling it quits in 1998. Definitely one of the most underrated bands who definied the college alt-rock era and one of my favourite vocalists of all time. He's like Neil Young, except sligthly less annoying.

Grant Lee Buffalo - "Mockingbirds" (YouTube)
Grant Lee Buffalo - "Lone Star Song" (YouTube)
Grant Lee Buffalo - "Truly Truly" (YouTube live @ David Letterman Show)

Finn Andrews of The Veils - "Vicious Traditions"

(The Seldom Seen Kid)

The worst part about Finn Andrews (singer of The Veils) is that he was only 17 when he wrote most of the songs that appear on the band's debut, The Runaway Found. Kind of sickening when such talent and maturity could come from someone such an age, but what was even scarier was the prospect that he could only get better, and he did. Nux Vomica came out a few years later in 2006 and eclipsed its predecessor yet nobody was listening. I have a feeling the buzz of this band is slowly going to take shape and they're going to blow up big for all to hear. And if that never happens, I won't mind either. At Lee's Palace last Saturday, The Veils were openers for Liam Finn and never have I seen Lee's that packed, and let alone *that packed* for an opening act. Yet here they were in all modesty (hanging out with the crowd by the merch table before the show) and bringing up Rough Trade label mate, Basia Bulat to help sing a new number called, "Scarecrow." If that song along with others (something about 'sitting by the fire' and another one about a 'letter') are any indications of what the new album (to be released in March) will sound like, then I finally have a new album to circle on my calendar... and boy it's been years since I've been able to say that. A song that I've had plauging my mind for over a week non-stop is one from The Runaway Found called, "Vicious Traditions." At first I didn't think any thing of it because it was ever-brooding and seemed to plod nowhere, but after a few listens, I can't put it down now. Rumours have it to be written about Joseph Stalin, Jesus Christ or umm George Bush (isn't every song written about him, really), but hearing the lines, "he danced with devils in beautiful buildings" just sends a million shivers down my funny places. Those obsessed with all things Ashcroft and Bunnymen will appreciate the voice of Finn Andrews. I said to my friend during the show that it was hard to believe that this voice was coming from this frail, 50-pound New Zealander, and yet at the same time I thought, 'I can also thank this little shit for keeping this blog from instinction, and keeping me up on a weeknight writing to god knows who and about god know what.' Here


...and I wouldn't have it any other way


The Veils - "Vicious Traditions" (YouTube)
The Veils - "Wild Son" (YouTube)
The Veils - "Calliope!" (YouTube)