This one’s been stewing for quite a prickly while. For the record, I hate mgdistrict’s iPod. It’s shiny-new, could eat fifteen of my turd-sized nanos and still be hungry, has a killer-sweet screen interface-thing… beautiful eyes…. I mean, come on!
And then… AND THEN!!!1!$!!… that bastard of a gadget goes and preempts a post I’d been planning so that mgdistrict would be able to resurrect a shatty 3 Song Shuffle?! Well you and your 800MB-of-Rock can go fuck yourselves, ‘Pod!
FUCK!!!!*
Well, guess what — I’m not letting it stop me. Whooo-o-o-o-no. I’m gonna post this one after all.
It happened one delicious rainy day (tangent — nothing, NOTHING better than rain in the summertime, ’specially on a super-humid day on which you make it halfway to work before realizing you’d made a terrible fashion decision that morning) that I was returning home via the Metro (yeah, here we call our subway system “the Metro.” I know! Adorable…) and had the Nano a-shufflin’. 
Up first came Television’s “See No Evil,” an old favorite of mine, as mgdistrict wrote a while back. This song is all in the back-and-forth of the two guitars, and the bass and drums only accent it (in a particularly awesome way). Wanna try something cool?! Listen to this track, but only with your right headphone in (remove the left one) — you’ll hear only one of the two rhythm guitars. It so happens that it’s the more bad-asser of the two, what with the sweet-ass rolling riff that just drives the verse straight into the chorus… Now, start the song again, and add the left headphone — holy hair nets!! Entire-band-as-rhythm-section equals shitchyea, in my book.
But as that Metro car went a-bouncin’ along those tracks, it dawned on me that as much as I love “See No Evil” for how it sounds, how it’s constructed — a bastion of hookitude — I have absolutely zero emotional reaction to the song. My head was bobbing along with the tune, sure. Some 30 years later, it’s still catchy as fuck. But, did nooo develop a shit-eating grin. No fired-up, “who’s up for golf-cart racing?!” reaction. No “this is the saddest song I’ve ever heard… I shall put it on repeat for the next 17 hours!” response. Not even, “I am at peace with the world right now….” Nothing. I found this revelation very disturbing to say the least. Is there not some inherent conflict in recognizing a piece of music — fuck, art in general — as being technically “about as good as it gets,” only to realize that it fails to elicit any gut-level reaction from you? It’s like meeting Gisele in person, who by all accounts is, you know… I mean… exactly!!… and your reaction is “Meh….” Doesn’t this bother any of you?
This quandary was racing through my head that day on the ‘Tro, but before I could get too far ‘long my Nano threw this one on next: The Kinks’ “Powerman.” Whoooa nelly. Talk about entire-band-as-rhythm-section… Let’s start from the beginning on this one. It too features a ridiculously awesome riff that seems shot out of a cannon. I mean, listen to the drummer try to keep up on the hi-hats. Tasty harmony over the b-section. Uh, the lead guitar’s lick around the 2:00 mark? C’mon… I think my ‘Pod did this on purpose, ’cause I just felt like picking a fight with each and every person on that Metro car for shitzengiggles. It’s infectious, this song. And I couldn’t figure it out. What does this song have that “See No Evil” lacks? Fuckin’ beats me…
But I’ll share my conclusion from that day: if “See No Evil” is Mario Lemieux from NHL ‘92, then “Powerman” is Gretzky. I mean, can’t go wrong either way — hall-of-fame choices, both — but if I had to choose I’m taking the cracked skull ‘n blood every time. Gotta feel something to know you’re alive!
“See No Evil” by Television (from Marquee Moon)
“Powerman” by The Kinks (from Lola Versus Powerman And The Money-Go-Round, Pt. 1)
* PS. Hey, ah, mgdistrict… Sorry I yelled at your ‘Pod. We’re cool, right?
I know next to nothing about either of these bands. You were the one who recommended Television to me, and while I’ve only listened to this album a couple times, I like what I’ve heard. It’s a great, to-the-point record that, in my view, has a lot in common with current indie rock (Ambulance, e.g.). I tried the right-ear-only tactic — cool effect.
This Kinks song is great — first time I’ve ever heard it. I’m sure I’ve heard more of their stuff, but the only one I know I know is the track on the Rushmore soundtrack — “Nothin’ in the World Can Stop Me Worryin’ ‘Bout That Girl” — which is fantastic.
Finally, I remain astonished that, while you were mentally formulating this post, mgdistrict’s 15000-song Podbeast spat out the same damn song on a 3 song shuffle. Even weirder, I had been planning a 12-post series in epic verse exploring the use of anthropomorphism in Jimmy Buffett’s “Don’t-Chu-Know.”
smitch, I had no idea “Nothin’ in the World, etc., etc….” was a Kinks’ song. Well shave my biscuit! That tune’s awesome. There are very few Kinks tunes I’ve heard that I didn’t appreciate on some level, let alone dig completely.
Speaking of “Rushmore,” this track — “Powerman” — was on ol’ Wessy’s latest: “The Darjeeling Limited.”
(((scheming…)))