Musings from the March Hare

Video Play List: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4DE45DF56E9A5013

Falling Down the Hole

01     Blue Pill Red Pill.  The Wachowski brothers were inspired by a very large collection of fiction and non-fiction books, graphic novels, and other works that were all swirled into The Matrix.  There are many references and parallels between Alice’s story and Neo’s including this pivotal scene. 

02     I’m Late!  Follow the White Rabbit.

03     White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane.  It is a moral imperative to include this track on any Alice in Wonderland compilation. 

04     Tea Party by Kerli.  I found Kerli when her first CD Love is Dead was released in 2008 and was curious how a singer from nowhere, Estonia could vault onto the US music scene.  I quickly put the disc into heavy rotation for a while.  How pleased was I to find her on the soundtrack to Tim Burton’s 2010 Alice in Wonderland adaption?  Pleased enough to include her entry here.

05     Who are You by Ezra Weiss.  This is the only track I don’t have a video for, yet it conjures vivid images all on its own.  It comes from a 2009 musical adaptation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that is a fun listen.

Feelings of Doubt

06     Don’t Come Around Here No More by Tom Petty.  This song has absolutely nothing to do with anything related to Lewis Carroll.  However, it is the best Alice in Wonderland themed video ever made.  Check it out in the accompanying video playlist.  Yummy.

07     Very Good Advice by Robert Smith.  A faithful and sorrowful cover of Alice’s tearful self-introspection originally sung in the 1951 Disney animated adaptation.  The Cure sorrowful?  Total typecasting.

08     The Girl That’s Never Been by Escape Key.  A fantastic story that could be about Alice after she is back or a modern day girl who thinks she is Alice or both.  Either way, everyone thinks she’s crazy, excepting Alice.  That’s right; I just worked Alice’s Restaurant into the liner notes.

Looking Up

09     Sunshine by Aerosmith.  I consider myself an Aerosmith fan, yet had never heard this track.  Turns out my fandom focused from Dream On to Janie’s Got a Gun.  It’s always nice to find something fresh from an artist you think you already know.  Great visuals in this video as well.

10     Alice in Wonderland by Neil Sedaka.  Neil’s massive popularity started a decline in 1963 that would last more than a decade.  This song was his best from that ugly year, briefly peeking at #17 on the charts.  Though I’m not sure how it got that high.

11     Wonderland by Monkey Majik.  Composed of two Canadians and two Japanese members, this band has been officially tapped to help celebrate long-standing relations between the two countries.  This recent light pop song is the emotional high point of this collection, so enjoy it while it lasts.

12     Falling Alice by Chick Corea.  He is one of the most important Jazz artists in the modern era (post-Coltrane).  His 5 Grammy nominations this year (including one for an instrumental track called Alice in Wonderland) push him to 61 total nominations and 20 Grammys.  Despite his own standing as an artist, he defines himself in terms of Lewis Carroll, referring to himself as the Mad Hatter and publishing under Mad Hatter Records.  In 1978 he released an album called The Mad Hatter that is derived from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and included this track.  He is on tour this month in Europe but will spend four nights performing sets in Seattle this May.

13     Alice by Stevie Nicks.  From the 2007 album The Other Side of the Mirror, this bit of self-introspection implies that like all things Stevie Nicks encounters, this book is about her.  And as is the case in all compilations, the Stevie Nicks track signals a turn away from the light.

Slipping Into Darkness

14     Jaberwocky by The Cruxshadows.  I had never heard of this band prior to making this CD, but I am now fascinated by them.  So many rock \ metal \ goth bands try to appear intellectual by including references to literature both popular and obscure (just like that book by Nabokov).  But this group seems genuinely influenced by literature, religion, mythology and history.  They recorded a track called Wake the White Queen for a Neil Gaiman tribute CD.  Though not on any album, during performances they are prone to break into Jaberwocky, the nonsense poem from Through the Looking Glass.

15     The Mad Hatter by Linda Eder.  Think Dirty Deeds by AC/DC, but more like something out of the play Sweeney Todd.  This song was written for the play Wonderland: A New Alice that ran on Broadway for one month in 2011.  Linda’s actual contribution to the show was a song called Anything Can Happen that was cut from the production.  Apparently she prefers to perform this song instead and she does it quite well.  I was very happy to find it for this compilation.

16     Alice by The Sisters of Mercy.  Produced by John Ashton of the Psychedelic Furs, this was the first great song from this fantastic 80’s English Goth band.  With a lead singer and songwriter prone to melodrama and all around madness, this group has changed line-ups more often that Yes.  Despite playing many previously-unheard songs in the shows they continue to put on, their distrust of even small labels and the whole music industry has resulted in not releasing any new material in more than a decade.

17     Alice by Tom Waits.  Another theatrical connection, most of this album was written for the opera Alice.  It is considered by some to be Waits’ masterpiece; the album received critical acclaim in every forum and sold well in many countries.  It was recorded in 2001, released in 2002 even though the songs were written at least a decade earlier before the opera launched in Hamburg and ran for 18 months.    Rather than being directly based on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, the opera Alice takes inspiration from feelings remembered and dreams recalled after reading the books.

18     Blue Alice by Ayria.  Warning, not safe for little ears for multiple reasons.  Ayria is another act I found while compiling this disc.  Coincidentally, or perhaps not, Ayria opened for the Cruxshadows on their 2008 tour.  This Canadian synthpop act puts on some fun live shows even while covering some pretty dark topics.  You can catch them on the 2013 Gothic Circus Cruise launching out of Point Canaveral on September 15.  THAT would be a trip down the rabbit hole.  Yeah, I dare you.  Highlights from 2012: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGzzlZw6FNc

Blue Pill by Cypher.

Portlandia

If, as the IFC show “Portlandia” tells us, “the dream of the nineties is alive in Portland”, it’s also very much alive in my CD collection. There’s a good reason for this: in the nineties, I was newly single at age 33, and within a year had moved to Minnesota, where I hardly knew a soul. It was there that I immersed myself in an active music scene and a vibrant, independent radio station. I heard many of the songs in this collection during the two years I lived there, and have a personal connection to many of them to this day.

I left Minnesota for Massachusetts at the conclusion of a tumultuous relationship. While my dating life was often strange and comical, the music kept me going. By the end of the nineties I was happily married to a fellow music lover, and the band played on...

As is the case with many compilations, I’ve sacrificed some content for the sake of brevity, but also in order to avoid pigeon-holing myself. I love Guided By Voices - and indeed I “discovered” them in the nineties - but I wanted to include some music that might not otherwise be heard. I started out with close to 50 songs but ultimately whittled my playlist down to what you see below. I hope you all enjoy it enough to put a bird on it!

1) “Sparky’s Dream”: This is one of my favorite songs in the world. The lyrics are inane, but the melody and harmonies are irresistible. Hearing this song makes me think I can do anything.

2) “Sunday”: I wasn’t familiar with The Spinanes until their second album “Strand”, which mesmerized me with its rich musical textures that weaved perfectly with Rebecca Gates’ voice. This song is from their debut album “Manos” and is slightly more raw.

3) “Dim”: I don’t know much about the band Dada except that I really love this song. It features silly-but-tragic lyrics, a memorable guitar riff and great two-part harmonies. What more can a poor boy ask for?

4) “Kung Fu”: I first heard this song while the credits rolled at the end of a Jackie Chan movie. It’s a driving rocker that could have been the soundtrack for the entire film. Ash is the first of 2 Welsh bands featured on this CD.

5) “New Loafers”: I had read an article about great music coming from Wales, and the 60 Foot Dolls were mentioned prominently. I bought their debut album “The Big Three” on the basis of the single “Happy Shopper”, but I like this song much better.

6) “Bright Yellow Gun”: I remember seeing Throwing Muses at First Avenue in Minneapolis and being impressed that the drummer didn’t have any cymbals in his kit. I chose this song because it starts out in high gear and never lets up.

7) “G Turns to D”: I first heard Sloan not long after moving to Boston and probably saw them five times within the year. One of my favorite concert moments occurred when they did a cover of Guided By Voices’ “Smothered in Hugs”. Robert Pollard joined them on stage after the first verse, and they were clearly as surprised as they were delighted.

8) “The World is Turning On”: The Pooh Sticks never took themselves or the record industry too seriously, but they sure cranked out some tuneful music. I have dreams of them performing this song on a rooftop, a la “Where the Streets Have No Name”.

9) “For Love”: I admit to having a fondness for Shoegaze music, but thought I’d spare the club the aural onslaught of My Bloody Valentine in favor of the more melodic Lush. I also saw them live in Minneapolis in what would be their final tour.

10) “Sideshow by the Seashore”: Luna is a band both Mary and I enjoy, although I prefer the melancholy “Penthouse” over the more light-hearted “Pup Tent”, which is Mary’s favorite. We’ve seen them live many times, and always enjoy Dean Wareham deadpanning “we can’t play that song” whenever he received a request.

11) “Celebrated Summer”: Okay, Husker Du broke up in 1987, but I first heard their music in the early 90s. Like an Oreo, this song has a sweet, soft center. Unlike an Oreo, it won’t rot your teeth.

12) “Eighteen Stories Down”: I bought the compilation album “Lemon Lime Volume 1“ at a used CD shop in St. Paul because it was cheap. I still have it because of songs like this one.

13) “Smog Moon”: Matthew Sweet wrote some great power pop, but I really love this slow ballad, featuring some killer pedal steel guitar work by Greg Leisz.

14) “Panic On”: I saw the band Madder Rose open up for Juliana Hatfield in Minneapolis. They tried to play the sort of rockers they thought the First Avenue crowd would want to hear, instead of lucious ballads like this one.

15) “Judy Staring at the Sun”: By the time I got to see Catherine Wheel in concert, they eschewed the loud-but-melodic dreampop of this song, which features Tanya Donnely on backing vocals.

16) “Butterfly Party”: This is another track from “Lemon Lime Volume 1“. Tizzy also seemed to abandon moody textures and surreal lyrics in favor of Boston obscurity, making this their high-water mark (in my opinion).

17) “I Got a Girl”: The Twin Cities boasted a great independent radio station, exposing me to a world of music I would have never heard otherwise. This was another tune I was able to find on a cheap compilation CD.

18) “Swivelchair”: I’m pretty sure my brother Mike gave me this EP, which I still prize to this day. I love Franklin Bruno’s ability to write engaging pop songs about office supplies.

19) “Waiting”: This is another song I heard on the radio in the Twin Cities from a local band who embraced their inner Husker Du while still writing beautiful love ballads.

20) “Nothing But Time”: And now for something completely different. Mary and I saw Royal Fingerbowl at the Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans, where they were clearly cranky about having to do a morning show, but were nonetheless stellar.

21) “Stratford-on-Guy”: This song is fairly well-known, but how could I keep it out of this compilation? Apart from its crisp, spare instrumentation and frank sexual lyrics, there’s the fact that the album parallels Exile on Main Street. Brilliant.

We're going to be there soon...

I've wrapped up the liner notes for my January CD, so now it's just a matter of printing out the artwork, burning the CDs and getting them in the mail, which I hope to do early next week. In the mean time, here's a teaser:

If, as the IFC show “Portlandia” tells us, “the dream of the nineties is alive in Portland”, it’s also very much alive in my CD collection. There’s a good reason for this: in the nineties, I was newly single at age 33, and within a year had moved to Minnesota, where I hardly knew a soul. It was there that I immersed myself in an active music scene and a vibrant, independent radio station. I heard many of the songs in this collection during the two years I lived there, and have a personal connection to many of them to this day.

I left Minnesota for Massachusetts at the conclusion of a tumultuous relationship. While my dating life was often strange and comical, the music kept me going. By the end of the nineties I was happily married to a fellow music lover, and the band played on...

As is the case with many compilations, I’ve sacrificed some content for the sake of brevity, but also in order to avoid pigeon-holing myself. I love Guided By Voices - and indeed I “discovered” them in the nineties - but I wanted to include some music that might not otherwise be heard. I started out with close to 50 songs but ultimately whittled my playlist down to 21. I hope you all enjoy it enough to put a bird on it!