Pop Culture Gadabout
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
      ( 3/23/2005 07:47:00 AM ) Bill S.  


"WE HAD OUR PROBLEMS LIKE EVERYONE ELSE" – When Herb Eimerman, the DIY auteur of the ace pop-rock disc & I You, emailed me to ask if I'd be interested in hearing a disc he'd produced by the previously unknown-to-me singer/songwriter Russ Schneider, I'll admit I felt both flattered and mildly wary. I enjoyed Eimerman's highly quiet-&-melodic release, but I had to wonder whether yet another Illinois popster from the Northwest suburbs had it in him to do keep me going for the length of full disc's worth of mid-tempo 60's-inflected tunery.

In the end, Schneider's debut, Friday Night (UnderthedomE), stands up by itself: though the presence of Eimerman on guitar and backing vocals puts a familiar aural stamp on the disc, it's the singer/songwriter's own unique blend of naïve lyricism, Del Shannon angst and honest poppishness that ultimately coalesce. On more than one occasion ("You Don't Know," "Crash Your Party," "Beautiful Girl"), I found myself thinking, speed up the drumming, throw in some frenzied guitar chording and this could be a Ramones track. A suitably savvy group of pop-punkers could have a field day with much of this material.

The disc opens strongly with "Runs to Him," an updating of "Runaway" as sung by an abandoned married man (some nicely serpentine guitarwork takes the place of the Shannon classic's famous musitron solo), and if that high standard isn't maintained through the disc, well, chalk some of that up to the difficulty of keeping things crisp through twenty tracks and some of it up to the fact that Schneider's nasally voice doesn't carry off sustained ballad notes as effectively as it does the brisk rockers. At least one dreamy slow track, "Winter's Fading," sounds like somp'n that a good 60's girl vocalist – Leslie Gore, say – could've made a hit.

That noted, there are plenty of appealing songs on this disc, particularly for lovers of Boomer Era rock stylings with a tinge of 80's era sonic hollowness. The usual suspects get sound-checked – Beatle-ish guitar ring on "When I Fell In Love With You," spare Leiber-&-Stoller Lite Spanish guitar riff on "Only Lover," Grass Rooted folk-rock in "Don't Ask Why," Beach Boys summer sound and so on – but without the excessive derivativeness of many sixties torch-carriers. As a lyricist, Schneider works best covering themes of romantic betrayal: a few attempts at branching into broader commentary ("1969," which is not the Stooges classic) come across unintentionally silly. But anyone willing to quote from "Que Sera Sera" with a straight face isn't overly concerned with sounding foolish.

In one of my favorite songs, "Crash Your Party," Schneider imagines invading some lovely’s house with a group of uninvited friends ("I'll bring my friends along/And you won't like them/No, you won't like them," he sings, apparently unconcerned whether this pisses her off or not). With his matter-of-fact sing-songy delivery, Schneider neither revels in nor excuses what he wants to do, merely sees it at a means of getting the girl alone and away from that distracting party. I admit it: I'm a sucker for a sprightly pop song when it's centered on such a wrong-headed narrator. Helps to put my own screw-ups in perspective. . .
# |



Pop cultural criticism - plus the occasional egocentric socio/political commentary by Bill Sherman (popculturegadabout AT yahoo.com).



On Sale Now!
Measure by Measure:



A Romantic Romp with the Fat and Fabulous
By Rebecca Fox & William Sherman

(Available through Amazon)

Measure by Measure Web Page







Ask for These Fine Cultural Blogs & Journals by Name!

aaronneathery.com News
Aaron Neathery

American Sideshow Blow-Off
Marc Hartzman

Arf Lovers
Craig Yoe

Attentiondeficitdisorderly
Sean T. Collins

Barbers Blog
Wilson Barbers

The Bastard Machine
Tim Goodman

The Beat
Heidi MacDonald

BeaucoupKevin
Kevin Church

Big Fat Blog
Paul McAleer

Big Mouth Types Again
Evan Dorkin

Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog
Laura "Tegan" Gjovaag

Blog This, Pal!
Gordon Dymowski

Bookgasm
Rod Lott

Cartoon Brew
Amid Amidi & Jerry Beck

Cartoon Web Log!
Daryl Cagle

Clea's Cave
Juana Moore-Overmyer

Collected Editions

The Comics Curmudgeon
Josh Fruhlinger

The Comics Reporter
Tom Spurgeon

Comics.212
Christopher Butcher

Comics Waiting Room
Marc Mason

Comics Worth Reading
Johanna Draper Carlson

a dragon dancing with the Buddha
Ben Varkentine

Egon

Electromatic Radio
Matt Appleyard Aaron Neathery

Estoreal
RAB

Eye of the Goof
Mr. Bali Hai

Fred Sez
Fred Hembeck

Greenbriar Picture Shows
John McElwee

The Groovy Age of Horror
Curt Purcell

The Hooded Utilitarian
Noah Berlatsky

Hooray for Captain Spaulding
Daniel Frank

The Horn Section
Hal

The House Next Door
Matt Zoller Seitz

Howling Curmudgeons
Greg Morrow & Friends

The Hurting
Tim O'Neil

I Am A Child of Television
Brent McKee

I Am NOT the Beastmaster
Marc Singer

In Sequence
Teresa Ortega

Innocent Bystander
Gary Sassaman

Irresponsible Pictures
Pata

Jog - The Blog
Joe McCulloch

The Johnny Bacardi Show
David Allen Jones

Journalista
Dirk Deppey

King's Chronicles
Paul Dini

Let's You And Him Fight
One of the Jones Boys

Mah Two Cents
Tony Collett

Metrokitty
Kitty

Michael's Movie Palace
Michael

Nat's TV
Nat Gertler

Ned Sonntag

Neilalien

News from ME
Mark Evanier

No Rock&Roll Fun
Simon B

Omega Channel
Matt Bradshaw

Pen-Elayne on the Web
Elayne Riggs

PeterDavid.net
Peter David

(postmodernbarney.com)
Dorian White

Progressive Ruin
Mike Sterling

Punk Rock Graffiti
Cindy Johnson & Autumn Meredith

Revoltin' Developments
Ken Cuperus

Rhinoplastique
Marc Bernardin

Scrubbles
Matt Hinrichs

Self-Styled Siren
Campaspe

Spatula Forum
Nik Dirga

Tales from the Longbox
Chris Mosby

TangognaT

The Third Banana
Aaron Neathery & Friends

Thrilling Days of Yesteryear
Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.

Toner Mishap
B2 et al

Trusty Plinko Stick
Bill Doughty

TV Barn
Aaron Barnhart et al

Unqualified Offerings
Jim Henley

Various And Sundry
Augie De Blieck

Video WatchBlog
Tim Lucas

When Fangirls Attack
Kalinara & Ragnell

X-Ray Spex
Will Pfeifer

Yet Another Comics Blog
Dave Carter



A Brief Political Disclaimer:

If this blog does not discuss a specific political issue or event, it is not because this writer finds said event politically inconvenient to acknowledge - it's simply because he's scatterbrained and irresponsible.




My Token List of Poli-Blogs:

Alicublog
Roy Edroso

Eschaton
Atrios

Firedoglake
Jane Hamsher

James Wolcott

Lance Mannion

The Moderate Voice
Joe Gandelman

Modulator
Steve

Pandagon
Amanda Marcotte & Friends

The Sideshow
Avedon Carol

Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo
Skippy

Talking Points Memo
Joshua Micah Marshall

This Modern World
Tom Tomorrow

Welcome to Shakesville
Melissa McEwan & Friends



Blogcritics: news and reviews
Site Feed



Powered by Blogger



Twittering:
    follow me on Twitter