I’ve seen some pretty good concerts during the past year.
U2, Green Day, and Eddie Vedder come immediately to mind. They’re all big names, with well-deserved reputations as terrific live acts. But one of my favorite shows of 2009 was also one of the least heralded — Grant Lee-Philips and the Winterpills at The Linda, WAMC’s performing arts studio. Located in a refurbished bank on Albany’s Central Avenue, The Linda is an intimate venue that draws an interesting mix of talent to the area, and it was a perfect showcase for Philips’ formidable talents.
A gifted singer-songwriter with a haunting and angelic voice, Philips is best known for his work with 1990s Americana/alt-rock band “Grant Lee Buffalo,” which had two modest hits: “Mockingbirds,” and “Truly, Truly.” But he’s released six solo albums since 2000; the one I own, 2001’s “Mobilize,” is lyrical and complex, with catchy, dance-able tunes, as well as quieter, more mysterious tracks that evoke feelings of hope and yearning. Earlier in his career, Philips seemed poised to break out of the dense pack of mid-level singer-songwriters and really make a name for himself, and as I watched him last Saturday I couldn’t help but wonder why that never happened. Why, I wondered, wasn’t this guy better known? Why wasn’t he playing to a packed audience at The Egg? At the end of the show, my friend was so entranced by Philips that she bought his new CD, “Little Moon,” and got him to autograph it. She then wondered whether Philips might be a better songwriter than Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. (For more on Philips, visit his website: http://www.grantleephillips.com/)
My short answer is: No. Among American singer-songwriters, Jeff Tweedy is sort of a god, versatile, daring and lyrically and aurally ambitious. But Philips is really, really good, too, and certainly deserves a larger following. Of course, everyone has their own list of bands and musicians they think merit more attention and acclaim. I’d put Philips at the top of any list of under-appreciated musicians and bands, as well as:
1. Paul Westerberg/The Replacements — I know, they’re my favorite band. Mid-show, when Philips informed the audience that he first played in the Capital Region with Paul Westerberg, I cheered. “That’s who my cat is named after,” I informed my friend. The Replacements were one of the great bands of the eighties, but they’re not all that well known. After they broke up, Westerberg kept recording; his solo albums are uneven, but interesting. Still, I defy you to listen to The Replacements song “Answering Machine,” and not think he’s some kind of genius. Though The Replacements received the respect of the nation’s music critics, they never really found the bigger fanbase they deserved.
2. Big Star — How good is Big Star? Paul Westerberg wrote a great song about them called “Alex Chilton.” Formed in 1971, Big Star has a sound reminiscent of The Kinks and the Beach Boys, and has been cited as an influence by R.E.M., Teenage Fanclub and Matthew Sweet.
3. The Afghan Whigs — The Afghan Whigs got lumped in with the grunge/alternative rock bands of the late 1990s, but never received the acclaim they deserved, even though they were about 10 times better than most of those other bands. Their sound drew more on soul and R&B than their contemporaries, and their songs were dark, catchy, musically adventurous and sexually provocative — too dark and twisted, perhaps, for a wider audience. Their original material was great, but so were their covers — the EP “Uptown Avondale” includes “Band of Gold” by Freda Payne, “Come See About Me” by the Supremes and “Beware” by Al Green.
4. The Screaming Trees — Sure, they weren’t as good as the greatest grunge bands, but the Screaming Trees were still really, really good. When I saw them in concert, they opened for the Spin Doctors and Soul Asylum, which seems positively criminal in retrospect. The band’s final album, “Dust,” is a near masterpiece that should have sold as many copies as “Superunknown” by Soundgarden or “Dirt” by Alice in Chains.
5. Jawbreaker — For a punk band, Jawbreaker knew how to write a song. Their lyrics were richly detailed, and lead singer Blake Schwarzenbach’s rough and gravelly voice was a perfect complement to the band’s dense and complex musical arrangements. Schwarzenbach is now an adjunct English teacher at Hunter College, but the 1994 album “24 Hour Revenge Therapy” will always kick ass.
6. The Drive-By Truckers — This Alabama alternative-country band should also be selling out The Egg. Their two-disc album “Southern Rock Opera” is a vivid portrait of life in the rural South that pays tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd, but also transcends its Southern rock influences. On songs about former Alabama governor George Wallace and the violence during the civil rights protests in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963, the band defends its southern legacy, but also critiques it.
7. Spoon — I’m not sure Spoon really belongs on this list anymore, as their most recent album, 2007’s “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga,” actually got the band on the radio. But if you’d asked me which rock band I felt deserved more attention circa 2003, I would have named Spoon. My friend Taylor burned me copies of two of the band’s early albums, 1998’s “A Series of Sneaks” and 2001’s “Girls Can Tell,” and I couldn’t believe they weren’t getting at least some of the accolades reserved for the It band of the moment, The Strokes. The band’s best album is probably 2002’s “Kill the Moonlight,” which perfectly showcases the band’s signature post-punk/poppy art-rock sensibility.
8. Marah — I haven’t listened to Marah in a long time (the friends who got me into this Philadelphia-based band report that their later albums are just not that good), but the band’s first two albums, “Let’s Cut the Crap and Hook Up Later On Tonight” and “Kids in Philly,” are really quite excellent, with lots of literate, Springsteeny, rocking tunes that paint vivid pictures of life on the streets and among blue collar workers. (Check out “My Heart is the Bums on the Street” and “Catfisherman.”) The band’s rich sound is shaped by a variety of instruments, including bagpipes, banjos, mandolins and harmonicas.
9. DeVotchKa — This is the band I’m always trying to get people into, although I’m not sure DeVotchKa is really under-appreciated. They’ve actually come a long way — I’m not sure how much farther they can go. The first time I saw this Denver-based quartet play was at my friends’ wedding, the second time was at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, Mass., and the third time was at a sold-out show at a temporary venue in New York City called the Spiegeltent. They also did the soundtrack for the hit film “Little Miss Sunshine,” and were featured in the trailer for the film version of the Jonathan Safran Foer novel “Everything is Illuminated.”
10. The Vaselines — Kurt Cobain wanted to join The Vaselines, a Scottish indie-pop band that specialized in cheerfully and sexually suggestive songs such as “Molly’s Lips” and “Monsterpussy,” which the band claimed was about a dead cat. Anyway, the compilation album “The Way of the Vaselines: A Complete History” is an absolute essential, right up there with “Ten” and “Pet Sounds” and all the other essentials. Really. Every time I listen to it, it makes me laugh.
Honorable mention: Neutral Milk Hotel The band’s 1998 album “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” is one of the best albums on the 1990s. I bought it after hearing Albany-based band Sgt. Dunbar and the Hobo Banned perform the whole thing from start to finish in a wild and high-energy show at Valentine’s.
I’m not sure the Meat Puppets can be classified as under-appreciated — they had a brief stint in the limelight back in 1994 with their unlikely hit “Backwater” — and Nirvana exposed the band to a much wider audience when it performed three Meat Puppets songs during a performance on MTV’s Unplugged series. Under-appreciated or not, the Meat Puppets are playing at Valentine’s in Albany on Friday, and since it’s been about 15 years since I’ve seen them in concert, I’m hoping to catch them. The band is also giving away prizes such as an autographed Meat Puppets II poster and an autographed copy of the band’s new CD, “Sewn Together.” Click here to learn more about how to enter the contest.
Got a comment? E-mail me at sfoss@dailygazette.net
