Friday Night Jukebox, CDLXVIII--Uncle Tupelo: Sandusky

 A Christmas miracle--only one day late!

My introduction to this week's tune--as it has numerous times before here on Friday Night Jukebox--came when my daughter sent me a copy of this week's album after I had told her how much I enjoyed the Greatest Hits CD she'd sent me earlier from this week's artist.  Turned out to be a great record--I listened to it for months driving back and forth from my home and Warren, MI where the tail end of my career in retail management had taken me....

I wrote about Uncle Tupelo in Jukebox XL (akin to last week more than four hundred FNJ posts ago), and like last week's post, I'm happy with the brief bio I wrote and don't have anything to add...other than to say how much I still enjoy listening to Uncle Tupelo.  One hell of a short-lived band.

"Sandusky" was the second to last track on their third studio album, the rather timely titled March 16-20, 1992.  The song was not released as a single, and though the album sold more than their first two studio efforts combined, did not chart either.

Fun Fact:  The album was named for the five days the band recorded it--and it's absolutely amazing to me how they managed to put together such a tremendous record in so little time.

Fun Fact #2:  The album was produced by Peter Buck of REM fame.  Buck let the band members stay at his house while recording the album so as to save money for the studio recording fees.

Jeff Tweedy said that "Sandusky" was the track he was most proud of and that the band created it in a collaborative effort while in the studio.  He also described the song as beautiful--and I think his description nailed it.  The song is a simple instrumental: it's basically an acoustic guitar with a banjo providing the backing vocals (so to speak), and the softly stated drums capturing the subtle nuances of its hopeful core (all of the instruments are played exquisitely).  For whatever reason, the song has always seemed to me to be the soundtrack for having survived some sort of tribulation and watching it in the rearview as you move on with your life.  As an F.Y.I., I have absolutely no idea why Sandusky (assuming it's named for the city of Sandusky, Ohio) was chosen as the title.  The city (famed for being the home of the amusement park Cedar Point) is believed to be named for a Wyandot word meaning water (it sits on Lake Erie), so maybe that holds a clue.  No matter--it's a moment where a band came together and created a little folk magic...and the world is always a better place with a little folk magic.

Enjoy:

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCXXVII--Local H: Bound for the Floor

 The alternative movement of the 90's was probably the closest the music business has ever come to the wonder that music created in the 60's and 70's--there were oodles and oodles of exciting bands, exciting songs, one hit wonders, and more than a few sleepers.  This week's tune features one of those one hit wonders from alternative music's heyday....

Local H got its start as a four piece band in Zion, Illinois in 1990 when four high school friends got together and started a band...and that's the spirit that's keeps us coming back for more rock and roll.  By 1993 the band had evolved into a two piece outfit, and continues to record and tour to this day in that incarnation.  Guitarist Scott Lucas has teamed with three different drummers since Local H got its first recording contract.  For their career the band has released nine studio albums, 7 EP's, and two live albums.  They've also released 15 singles with only one of them breaking into the Billboard Hot 100.  Local H is known for its many tours, and for its quirky concert ideas, among them letting a fan choose an album title of theirs out of a hat and performing that album in its entirety before breaking into a selection of their hits, or having a contest where bands perform a cover version of one of Local H's songs and having the winner open up for them on one of their tour dates.  Good times, I'm sure.

Fun Fact:  Local H got its name by taking a word and a letter from two songs by R.E.M.--"Oddfellows Local 151" and "Swan Swan H."

"Bound for the Floor" was released as a single in 1996 from their album As Good as Dead.  The song was the most successful chartwise of their career, reaching #46 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album would hit #147 on the Billboard 200 (and was later certified gold).

"Bound for the Floor" is a teenage anthem about the frustrations of a lack of confidence...which is a frustration pretty much most teenagers can identify with.  Lucas lets every teen's favorite emotion (anger!) fly in his vocals, and his three chord rock rules the day with his guitar.  The drums bash throughout driving the song down the power pop highway, as the chorus simply and repetitively pulsates around your ears.   Add in that it's one of the few (only?) pop songs to use the word copacetic (adjective meaning "in excellent order"), and you have a golden nugget from the angst driven glory days of the alternative movement.  

Lyric Sheet:  "And you just don't get it, you keep it copacetic/And you learn to accept it, you know it's so pathetic..."

Enjoy:

Peace,

emaycee