It’s strange. It’s like a dream come true. I’m really into Everclear (as should be obvious – ahem, ahem, ahem – ’tis a juggernaut that shows no sign of stopping) and for some reason I did not have a copy of their The Vegas Years
Just as an example:
They cover the damn theme song to “Land of the Lost”.
You can hear the original here. If you are a certain age, you can recite it by heart, and you also know where the dinosaur-roar comes in, and it fills you with a nostalgia for wearing Keds, a T-shirt dribbled with popsicle-juice, and the sound of crickets on a summer night as you race around the backyard with your siblings.
So to hear a full-on rockin’ version of that song by Everclear has totally made my … week? Life? Whatevs. I’m a simple girl, and I have simple pleasures.
The song itself is so short, there’s basically one verse, one chorus. We get the set up – about the “routine expedition”, etc., and then they fall down the waterfall to “the land of the lost” and that’s the end of the song.
Everclear builds the momentum, until finally – it is as loud and rough and exhilarating as any of their regular songs – and it amazes me that nobody has covered it before now.
Well. Pat McCurdy did, but that is only to be expected. Of course he did.
But right now, I’m all about Everclear, and the screaming guitars, and Arthur Paul Alexakis, singing as though it is the greatest punk rock song of all time.
And you know what? It kind of is.
Marshall, Will and Holly
On a routine expedition
Met the greatest earthquake ever known
High on the rapids it struck their tiny raft
And plunged them down a thousand feet below
To the Land of the Lost
(repeat ad nauseum)
I have got to get this.
I have been dying to write a post about Everclear. They were huge to me about this time ten years ago, when my divorce was picking up steam. You might have noticed a tinge of anger about relationships on Alexakis’ part, right?
Anyway – for a couple of years, Everclear just resonated with me in a way they probably couldn’t have a few years before or after.
And the covers sound fantastic.
Thanks!
Mitch – yeah, just a tinge! He seems to have come through that to the other side, though. I’m thinking of his lyrics to “Portland Rain” – which still has a melancholy to it, but no more of that anger.
The best thing about this album is that he does not do these covers ironically. They are all great songs – from Land of the Lost to Our Lips are Sealed – and he plays and sings the SHIT out of them. They are true tributes.
It’s great stuff – check it out!!
Oh and Mitch – let me know if you write something about Everclear. I’d love to hear.
Writing about Everclear: I have a great post about ’em in there somewhere – but I don’t dare post it.
The songs I remember the most – the big singles like “Malibu”, “I Will Buy You A New Life”, “Everything Is Wonderful”, “Father Of Mine” as well as some lesser-known stuff – are all tied in not only with the anger of the marriage falling apart, but of trying not to get shunted out of his kids’ lives; I was on the brink of fighting for custody of mine, and my every waking moment was focused on the impending war.
And I’d listen to Alexakis’ stories from the same trenches, and I’d get practically verklempt; he wasn’t just a singer, he was a brother in arms. He felt not just the anger, but the fear, the loss (or fear of loss), the betrayal, the deep pit of pain you feel watching you kids going through all this hell. Hearing some of Alexakis’ stuff gave me the same feeling I got listening to The River or Tim; “Someone else has been here; I’m not alone” – but in this case, much as I needed it, it wasn’t nearly as life-affirming.
There are times that I skip past Everclear on my IPod; the feelings it dredges up are just too intense, sometimes; it’s the only art I can think of (offhand, anyway) that gets that reaction from me. You’re one person, Sheila, to whom I suspect I don’t have to try to explain that.
And I don’t dare write about it on my blog; my ex-wife, with whom I try to maintain a constructive relationship, reads my blog (with a gimlet eye); more importantly, my kids read it, and I’m still picking up the mess from that time with them.
So the post stays tucked safely away – except for this comment, I guess.
Mitch – yes, yes, I have music like that too – that I can’t listen to because it brings up a particular and painful time.
But The Vegas Years is a truly joyful and fun album – see what you think.
It’ll be my payday treat!
Cool! If you don’t want to share your thoughts on your own blog for obvious reasons, come back and tell me what you think!