Kurt Pankau Dot Com

Kurt is going through his favorite records. Read the  explainer  or view  the master list . Artist:  Oasis Title:   (What's The Story) Morning Glory? Released:  1995 Genre:  britpop Americans will never understand just how huge Oasis were for a while there in Britain. The brothers Gallagher were working class rockers who emulated the Beatles with their candy-coated, drug-fueled, pop rock. Liam was the voice and Noel was the writing talent, and when Wonderwall  broke in 1995, it was huge.  (WtS)MG?  does what every artist wants in a sophomore album. It hones and doubles down on their sound. It pushes on their boundaries: Noel sings lead on a few songs--including a single--the album has two untitled instrumental fills, and then there's the seven-and-a-half minute closer. The songs are very earwormy, and I adore Noel Gallagher's lead guitar work. His fills are melodic and dynamic, but they're not overly flashy and the counterbalan...

I've added a new entry to the "Coming Soon" section of the old Fiction page. My story Carpools & Coworkers  has been purchased by Daily Science Fiction and will be appearing there in the near future. I don't have a date locked down yet, but you can always subscribe and get it delivered straight to your inbox whenever it does come out. ]{p

Kurt is going through his favorite records. Read the  explainer  or view  the master list . Artist:  Red Hot Chili Peppers Title:   Stadium Arcadium Released:  2006 Genre:  alternative funk There really isn't any other band quite like Red Hot Chili Peppers. Defined primarily by Anthony Kiedis's raps about sex and geography and the insane punk/slap bass playing of arguably-the-greatest-bassist-who-ever-lived Flea, RHCP's sound is a bizarre blend of not-quite-funk, not-quite-hip-hop, and not-quite-punk. It became one of the earliest things you could point to and call "alternative" back when we were all still trying to figure out what that word meant.  Stadium Arcadium  is the last album they recorded with their most successful lineup: Kiedis and Flea alongside drummer (and Will Ferrell doppelganger) Chad Smith and guitarist John Fruciante. The music was originally conceived to be released a series of EPs, but wound up being joined int...

Kurt is going through his favorite records. Read the  explainer  or view  the master list . Artist:  The Wallflowers Title:   Bringing Down The Horse Released:  1996 Genre:  adult contemporary roots-rock Bob Dylan was a funny looking man with an odd but unique voice who couldn't sing particularly well but managed to completely upend the 60's folk scene and become one of the most influential musicians of all time. His son Jakob is an extremely handsome fellow with a beautiful singing voice and hoo-boy his music has been hit-or-miss. Conveniently for us, The Wallflowers--technically a band, although Dylan is the only permanent member--were kind enough to put almost all of their hits on a single disc, their sophomore album  Bringing Down The Horse . Leaning hard on their roots-rock sound, the slide guitars and organs are front-and-center in the mix, just behind the vocals. They marketed this album directly to Counting Crows fans by puttin...

Kurt is going through his favorite records. Read the  explainer  or view  the master list . Artist:  Stone Temple Pilots Title:   Purple Released:  1994 Genre:  alt-grunge / hard rock Stone Temple Pilots appeared on the national scene in 1992, alongside other first-wave grunge acts like Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam. The "grunge" monicker covered a variety of musical styles: post-glam (Pearl Jam), punk (Nirvana), metal (Alice In Chains), and hard rock (Soundgarden). STP's debut Core  is a solidly in the "hard rock" camp, and the most popular singles from that album-- Creep  and Plush --are also its mellowest. They followed this up with  Purple , a record that transitions between their hard rock origins and the vintage pop-rock sound that would dominate their future records. I've mentioned earlier that "vintage" sounding bands are specifically aping Jimmy Page's guitar tone, and you can see the beginnings of that with STP on t...

Kurt is going through his favorite records. Read the  explainer  or view  the master list . Artist:  Alanis Morissette Title:   Jagged Little Pill Released:  1995 Genre:  alt-rock / adult contemporary Well this came out of freaking nowhere. A minor Canadian pop-star who was probably more famous for her brief stint on You Can't Do That On Television  records a DIY album with Glen Ballard in his bedroom recording studio and the thing explodes like a bomb on MTV and rock radio, selling sixteen million copies and spawning six hit singles. The lead single was the bolt-from-the-blue  You Oughta Know , featuring instrumentation from a couple of Red Hot Chili Peppers and more angst than people realized was possible in someone from Canada. It's a big, sloppy mess of an album. Ballard messed up the levels while tracking vocals for  You Oughta Know  and clipped the hell out of them, but it was a great take that sounded good in the ...

Kurt is going through his favorite records. Read the  explainer  or view  the master list . Artist:  The Brothers Four Title:   The Big Folk Hits Released:  1963 Genre:  folk The Brothers Four were wart of the 1960s folk music that also produced acts like Peter, Paul, and Mary or The Kingston Trio. It's the same movement that was parodied in A Mighty Wind , referenced in Inside Llewyn Davis , and summarily destroyed when Bob Dylan arrived on the scene. The band was best known for their take on Greensleeves  (the tune was borrowed for the Christmas hymn  What Child Is This , although the original is equally haunting and low-key bawdy). The Big Folk Hits  was another car album for me, and I associate it with vacations and long drives. It includes a variety of standards which that band didn't appear to update at all. Silver Threads And Golden Needles  is clearly sung from the perspective of a woman, but they don't change the...

Kurt is going through his favorite records. Read the  explainer  or view  the master list . Artist:  Tool Title:   Lateralus Released:  2001 Genre:  halfway between prog-rock and art-metal The poster of this video put the wrong album cover on it. My gateway to Tool was A Perfect Circle, which featured singer Maynard James Keenan doing more radio-friendly songs with his friend Billy Howerdell. Tool albums pre-APC tend to be didactic and philosophical, but starting with Lateralus, Tool's driving math rock began to feel a bit more introspective and personal. The lead single Schism  is about trying to heal a damaged relationship. "I know the pieces fit, 'cause I watched them tumble down." The Patient  is about wanting to help others without really understanding why. "If there were no desire to heal the damaged and broken met along this tedious path I've chosen here, I certainly would have walked away by now. And I still may." Disposit...

Kurt is going through his favorite records. Read the  explainer  or view  the master list . Artist:  St. Vincent Title:   Masseduction Released:  2017 Genre:  post-alt pop rock When Annie Clark, virtuoso guitarist formerly of The Polyphonic Spree, started her solo career, she took her stage name from the hospital where Dylan Thomas died. She's always been a bit of an eccentric--like that one time she  dressed like a toilet  for a benefit concert in Glasgow. Her music frequently feels more like a deconstruction of pop music than actual pop music, where songs feel sonically like they're mostly about the space around the melody. The result is a string of brilliant albums that are great to listen to but barely memorable. Masseduction  is a bit of a reinvention. Clark allows the pop elements to breathe and works all the sonic weirdness in around the edges, and the end product is a masterfully crafted, personal statement from a tru...

Kurt is going through his favorite records. Read the  explainer  or view  the master list . Artist:  Ace Of Base Title:   The Sign Released:  1993 Genre:  euro club pop Circa 1992, a Swedish pop quartet sent their "Mr. Ace" demo tape to an up-and-coming producer named DenniZ PoP. He hated it. It was basically unlistenable. But his car radio broke and the tape got stuck, so he had to hear to it over and over for weeks, at which point he decided that there was something salvageable in the song and he agreed to work with the band. Music. It's a glamorous biz, yo. The resulting album was called Happy Nation , which was released in the U.S. with some slight alterations as The Sign . It was not only a commercial juggernaut, but it became the template for an entire wave of pop music. After The Sign  was released, PoP would found Cheiron Studios and hire songwriter Max Martin, and together the would launch the careers of N'Sync, The Backstre...