For all you jonesin' for some Loeb

Next week, I promise...

Reality Bites Soundtrack Pt. 1 of 2, Big Mountain

Few movies encapsulate an era like Ben Stiller's Reality Bites. That's not necessarily a compliment. I'd argue that only 1995's Empire Records bests it in the "middle-aged studio exec attempts to cash in on the humor and angst of the grunge generation using sub-John Hughes script, indie actors and eclectic soundtrack" department.

Released in 1994 and starring Gen X superstars Ethan Hawke and Winona Ryder, the film tells the story of four twenty-somethings living in Houston, TX in the mid-90s. Though Stiller and producers would later deny it, the initial idea was to make a film about the Generation X crowd and everything that went along with that lifestyle:

• shitty 9-5 jobs - Ryder is a morning show PA, Hawke is unemployed for the 13th time in two years while roommate/friend Janeane Garofalo works as a manager at the ultimate '90s microcosm, The Gap.
  
• relationships - Ryder's stuck in a love triangle between the wannabe philosopher, grunge rocker and all around loser Hawke, and the educated, successful yuppie-ish sell-out Stiller).
  
• pop culture-centric conversations - endless references to '70s kitsch--half of Hawke's lines are either quoting a commercial jingle ("I'm a Pepper", "This girl is cukoo for Cocoa Puffs!") or throwing down some trivial tidbit about Good Times or Diff'rnt Strokes.
  
• modern, sexually-based fears - at one point Garofalo takes an HIV test and fourth roommate Steve Zahn struggles with his sexuality.
• living off fast food - Ryder at one point works at a burger place and, while on a date with Stiller, pontificates on the joys of 7-11's Big Gulp.
• the fear of selling out and becoming like their parents, i.e. doing something not in the arts - Hawke repeatedly fails to live up to his potential due to the fear of selling out to "the man," Ryder sabotages her own job and later breaks up with Stiller when he dares to allow the MTV-like network he works for to edit a boring yet artistically sound documentary she made about her friends' lives into something commercial and entertaining.
• Janeane Garofalo - does anything scream "'90s!" more than the grungy, sloppy, deadpan, cynical, "I'm studying for an M.A. in gender studies so fuck 90210" humor of Ms. Garofalo? MTV even made a cartoon based on her persona with Daria--and to make her even angrier, didn't give her any credit.
  

Of course, all of this was done better two years earlier in Cameron Crowe's Altman-esque survey of Seattle singles in the grunge era, titled, er, Singles. Audiences' initial reaction to Reality Bites was markedly less than Stiller and co. had hoped. Despite the indie-cred the film gained by playing at Sundance Film Festival, Reality Bites failed to connect with the ever-cynical Gen X crowd, and didn't really connect with anyone else either, grossing a reasonable-but-not-impressive $20 million at the box office. In recent years it has become something of a hit on video and DVD, buoyed by the meteoric rise of '90s nostalgia in the latter half of this decade. If nothing else, the film is extremely entertaining as a time capsule of the brief time period when Doc Martens with Guess Jeans shorts was considered the height of fashion, Kurt Cobain was the new Jim Morrison and the worst thing post-adolescent white people had to worry about was how bad it would look if they worked at The Gap.

The soundtrack, however, was a different story. A mish-mash of '80s new wave and indie, '70s hits, new covers and contemporary alternative rock, the album played like your average '90s college student's mixtape, and somewhat inexplicably birthed two left-field hits: Lisa Loeb's "Stay" and Big Mountain's cover of Peter Frampton's "Baby I Love Your Way."

This week we'll focus on the latter--next week, Loeb will get her own entry.

So, Big Mountain was a reggae band formed in the early 1990s and hailing from the decidedly un-Jamaican land of San Diego. For some reason, early '90s audiences welcomed non-Jamacian white dudes playing reggae (see also: UB40) and believe it or not, Big Mountain had hit the Hot 100 a year or so prior to Reality Bites. "Touch My Light," from the album Wake Up, had reached #51 on the Hot 100. The minor hit spurred Bites producer Ron Fair to approach the band about recording a cover of Frampton's song for the soundtrack.

Why didn't they just include Frampton's original recording? I honestly don't know. The original Frampton recording (which reached #12 on the Billboards) is featured in the actual movie during a scene where Stiller playfully berates Ryder for not knowing Frampton Comes Alive! (the metaphorical overtones of Stiller's yuppie-ish love for corporate rock are not lost on this viewer). My guess is that licensing Frampton's original recording would have cost the producers too much money, and reggae bands--as anyone who has ever eaten at a restaurant in the islands can attest to--are dirt cheap. It's also probable that the producers were looking for a hit single for the soundtrack and took a page from the 1993's Sliver soundtrack, which featured a UB40 cover of Elvis' "Can't Help Falling In Love With You."

I'm convinced the black guys were hired for the picture and are not actually members of Big Mountain

Turning Frampton's song into a reggae jam wasn't much of a stretch--the original was clearly influenced by reggae with Frampton doing a sad white man's imitation of an island singer. Still, Big Mountain's version turns into a full-on soft rock reggae jam, with lightly plucked acoustic guitars, a prominent saxophone and three-part harmony. And if there was any doubt in your mind that this wasn't a group of non-Jamaican white (and Mexican) dudes with dreads from So. Cal, the video--which looks to have been shot at a lame resort in Sandles--quickly changed that.

Big Mountain - Baby I Love Your Way
by POMSNESTABOB

If reggae didn't die after this video, then it must have already been long dead, and this was merely another long, cheesy nail in the coffin. Any lingering memory of reggae that had concerns about injustice, poverty, religion (or basically that it had anything do with anything other than act as a soundtrack to your rockin' the gange and making love to your second wife on a beach in Sandles while a guy with dreads brings you a margarita) were washed away by this video. Dashikis, Steinberger guitars, unwieldy headset microphones, shots of Winona Ryder's ass in jeans...doesn't get much better than this, folks.

But as awesome as this version may be, it has nothing on the Spanish version, "Baby Te Quiero A Ti." Oh yeah, this actually happened.


Full disclosure: I recall loving the shit out of this song when I was all of 10 years old. As cheesy as it may be, it's infectious. That key change used to blow my mind. It made me want to play sax for about five minutes, and it very well could have been the first reggae song I ever really listened to (This could explain why I have no real use for reggae these days).

The song was a smash crossover, hitting #6 on the Hot 100, #1 on the Top 40, #10 on Adult Contemporary, #19 on Hot Latin Tracks (huh?) and #8 on Rhythmic Top 40 (double huh?). And thanks in part to that amazing Spanish version, the song was a worldwide hit. To make matters stranger--this wasn't the first time a cover of Frampton's song charted: in 1988, Will to Power had a #1 hit with their cloying medley of "Baby" and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird."

The Reality Bites soundtrack sold 1.2 million units and reached #13 on the Billboard charts. The track was also included on their album Unity, which reached #174 on the album charts.

So where did Big Mountain go from there? They released two more singles. The first, an original called "Sweet Sensual Love" was very much in line with the sound of their hit; that is, safe, soft-rock reggae with all the edges smoothed out. The problem? It wasn't a cover! It stalled at #80 on the Billboard charts. Lead singer Quino and co. must have had their dreads tied too tied if they thought folks wanted to hear their original music. Luckily, the group smoked some of that Jamaican Gold and decided the public wanted a smooth-reggae version of another classic feel-good favorite.

They chose The Youngbloods' "Get Together," which in 1995 was somewhat popular again, having been featured on the monster-selling Forrest Gump soundtrack. Featured on their 1995 album, the vaguely political sounding Resistance, "Get Together" featured production that would have sounded dated in 1988, but brought the goods on the "feel-good smooth reggae" front, so I guess for that reason it could be called a success. As far as I can tell, there's not much to separate it from any of those Reggae Tribute to Paul Anka album. Listening to this song makes me feel like I'm in a shitty bar in inland Florida, watching some sunburned middle-aged fat guy in a sales rack Tommy Bahama shirt order up yet another Pina Colada with one hand while he gropes the frizzy haired 35-year-old divorcee in the bikini top and belly jewelry with the other hand. If that's not a ringing endorsement, I don't know what is.

The cover trick worked a second time and "Get Together" did surprisingly well, reaching #44 on the Billboard charts, and #28 on the Adult Contemporary charts.

The band was dropped from Warner Bros. after on more album, Free Up, in 1997. Since then they've been recording some originals, but have mostly fallen to recording reggae cover albums that no doubt are played in Jamaican themed restaurants throughout the midwest. So check out the lazily titled Versions Undercover for Big Mountain's take on John Lennon, James Taylor and others, or just sit near the speakers next time you go to Bahama Breeze (order the West Indies Ribs!). Hell, Big Mountain might even be playing at your location! (They live off tips, people! Have a heart!)

One love!

Next Week: the sexy librarianness of Lisa Loeb
Download: Big Mountain - Baby, I Love Your Way
Download: Big Mountain - Sweet, Sensual Love
Download: Big Mountain - Get Together

Big Mountain website

Letters to Cleo "Here and Now"

What was it about '90s rock music that lent itself so easily to female-fronted rock groups? How many times did you turn on MTV to see a cute girl sporting a dress she probably stole from her grandma and a hair color not found in nature standing in front of a wall of Marshall stacks singing about how much guys suck? They certainly weren't invented in the '90s. Janis Joplin, Patti Smith and Debbie Harry had held their own as the only girl in serious rock bands decades earlier, and certainly the '80s had their share with Chrissy Hynde of The Pretenders leading the way.

To look at it from an academic point of view, perhaps it was inspired by third-wave of feminism, which started in the early '90s and suggested that women's sexuality was a positive thing that could be empowering, challenging earlier views of sexuality as exploitative. It also allowed women the ability to "take back" words such as "bitch" and "whore." But perhaps that's a discussion probably best left for the Meredith Brooks entry...

Whatever it was, it was certainly popular. Besides the ultra-feminist bands of the riot grrrl movement like Bikini Kill and L7 (the latter infamous for an incident at a concert in which the lead singer removed her tampon and tossed it into the crowd, shouting, "Eat my tampon, fuckers!" in response to mud being slung at the stage), popular bands like The Breeders, No Doubt, The Cardigans, Veruca Salt, Hole, Luscious Jackson, and Belly all featured women in prominent roles--usually serving as lead vocalist and songwriter. At this point I could probably use Freudian analysis to dissect why so many of those type of bands--that is to say, bands in which a small, cute female lead singer surrounds herself with an all-male backing band--were so popular with male audiences, but that sounds kinda boring, so instead, I'm just going to talk about Letters to Cleo and how cute Kay Hanley is.

Letters to Cleo was formed by Hanley and guitarist Greg McKenna in Boston in 1988. McKenna had begun another band and drafted Hanley, then a member of a new wave group. When that band dissolved, McKenna and Hanley decided to continue their partnership with a new power-pop based project. With the addition of Mike Eisenstein on guitar, Stacy Jones on drums and Scott Riebling on bass, the project became Letters to Cleo, named for a box of letters from Hanley's childhood pen pal named, er, "Cleo".

LtC spent a few years gaining a following and sharpening their skills in the Boston area before recording their first album, Aurora Gory Alice, released on the local Boston label Cherry Disc Records in 1993. The album was successful enough to gain the attention of major label Giant Records who signed the band and re-released the album in 1994. The band already had another album in the can--Wholesale Meats and Fish--but would have to wait another year to release thanks to the success of an Aurora track that had been included on the soundtrack for Aaron Spelling awesomely cliched and horribly acted prime time soap Melrose Place--"Here and Now."

Besides Hanley's cuteness, not much impressive about the video as evidenced by this video, complete with color commentary by these two dudes from Texas

Thanks to the exposure of the song on the soundtrack (and the show, where it was played during the closing credits) the song went up the charts and the band found themselves playing the single that they'd recorded some three years previous on hip late night shows for young people like Jon Stewart's short-lived talk show and Conan's still-in-its-infancy Late Night program.

Again with the pigtails, Kay? You're making it really hard for me to not go Freudian on you here.

Equal parts hard rocking grunge and power-pop--and buoyed by Hanley's powerhouse vocals-- "Here and Now" showcased the band's sound nicely, and the song turned into a hit on the Modern Rock chart (#10), and even crossed over to the Hot 100 (#56) and Top 40 (#40). Oh, and in case you're wondering, here the really fast lyrics during the chorus...

The comfort of a knowledge and I'll rise above the sky
above I'll never parallel the challenge of an acquisition
In the here and now...here and now

I'm pretty sure we'll all stick with mumbling our way through that part when it comes on the iPod, but thought it would be nice to see, right?

The follow-up, "Awake," came off Wholesale Meats and Fish--the sophomore effort that was finally released after the success of "Here and Now." "Awake," while still poppy, had a harder-edged sound than "Here and Now." With the guitars turned up and the sound a little messier, the band sounds almost Weezer-ish. In fact, one could call Wholesale Meats and Fish the band's Pinkerton, which would make Aurora Gory Alice their Blue Album--only, you know, not quite as good. It's also clear that the sweetness of Hanley's vocals has been toned down a bit--they're less overpowering here.

Letters To Cleo - New Music - More Music Videos

The sweetness of the vocals may be what ultimately kept Letters to Cleo from achieving real success. There's some really great power-pop here, but Hanley's vocals run the risk of being sickly sweet and free of the sort of attitude that would make Gwen Stefani and No Doubt so successful. As good as the melodies and music were, there wasn't a whole lot in this single to separate the band from the other girl-fronted rock bands of the day.

"Awake" went to #17 on the Modern Rock charts and #88 on the Hot 100.

Still riding high on the success of "Here and Now," in 1996 Letters to Cleo turned their attention towards recording cover songs for movie soundtracks, starting with a cover of The Cars' "Dangerous Type" for the soundtrack to the completely boring teen-witch movie The Craft.

While the song failed to chart, it probably went a long way towards getting them the role as themselves in 1999's underrated teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You. In the film--a retelling of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew--Letters to Cleo are mentioned as being the favorite band of Julia Stiles' character (the shrew). Later in the film, the band actually shows up playing a cover of Nick Lowe's "Cruel to Be Kind" alongside '90s ska no-hit wonders Save Ferris:

Caution: Clips include Heath Ledger which might make you sad, and Alex Mack, which might make you aroused

The film also features the band playing a cover of Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me" on the roof of the high school.

Fast forward to 1:48 to see the band on the roof...on second thought, dont'--this trailer is like a trip back in time. Watch the whole thing.

Letters to Cleo's music was also used in other forgotten teen girl-centric '90s films like Jawbreaker and The Babysitters Club. Kay Hanley also served as the singing voice of "Josie" in the horrific live-action Josie and the Pussycats movie. Sorry, no clip for that one--if you want to burn your retinas, do it on your own time.

A year later--after four albums, including 1997's Go! and 1998's Sister--the band called it quits after a final show in their home town in May of 2000.

Since then, each member has followed his or her own muse, with Kay Hanley releasing two solo albums (Cherry Marmalade in 2002 and Weaponize in 2008), drummer Stacy Jones forming American Hi-Fi and McKenna starting his own side project, Murder Capitol of the World.

But, like many one-hit wonders, the band has had to do some terrible things to make ends meet. I'm sure she's not proud of it, but on the 2007-2008 Hannah Montana tour, Kay Hanley sang back up for Miley Cyrus.

I know, I know. Take a moment. Pull it together. Now, let's move on.

Lucky for us (and for them, it would seem), in September 2008, the band announced their reunion, which kicked off with a series of shows that will continue May 20, 2009, starting with a free show in New Orleans and continuing into Texas. In 2008, the band also released an odds and sods collection, When Did We Do That? Find more info at their Myspace and official site.

Here's the band playing at a Boston club last December, with the band sounding as good as ever and, of course, Hanley looking as cute as ever. Even the evils of Miley Cyrus can't take down this sprightly woman.


Download: Letters to Cleo - Here and Now
Download: Letters to Cleo - Awake
Download: Letters to Cleo - I Want You to Want Me (Cheap Trick cover)

Freedy Johnston "Bad Reputation"

A funny thing about pop music is that there's always room for the singer-songwriters. A movement begun in the '70s thanks to the popularity of Bob Dylan (who was really just doing his best Woody Guthrie), "singer-songwriter" became a genre in its own right and was made popular by artists wielding nothing more than a piano or acoustic guitar, their sweet voice, and some lyrics that, more likely than not, told a story about heartbreak. Think: Paul Simon, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Carole King, Gordon Lightfoot, Don McLean, Carly Simon, Cat Stevens and a ton of other artists that you may have never heard of, but your parents love to play full-blast in their SUVs.

While there's yet to be a huge resurgence of the guy-and-his-guitar music since the '70s, its something that's really never gone away either. There's always a few breakthrough artists trickling onto the mainstream charts, and, incidentially, a lot of these turn out to be one-hit wonders (at least, as far as the mainstream is concerned), regardless of how talented they are (think David Gray, Daniel Powter, Aqualung). Many of these artists have similar histories--toil in the coffee houses for years, put out a few indie albums, get one brief shot at the big time, get played endlessly on VH1, and go back to square one. However, today's subject is such a good songwriter that, despite having a familiar history, he's managed to transcend it with critical acclaim and a fan-following.

Freedy Johnston grew up in Kinsley, KS--a rural farming town best-known for its distinctive location on the U.S. map: it's equidistant from New York City and San Francisco. Johnston was always musically inclined, but living in a town without a record store or music store of any kind, had difficulty developing his talent. At 16, Johnston bought a dirt-cheap guitar through a mail-order catalog, and at 17, convinced a friend to make the 35 mile drive to the closest record store so he could buy Elvis Costello's debut, My Aim is True. Moving to Lawrence, KS for what would be an abbreviated academic stint (he stayed less than a year at U of Kansas), Johnston immersed himself in the college town's music scene, which was then mostly New Wave. Johnston utilized his close proximity to an actual record store and began broadening his musical horizons, listening to everything from Neil Young to XTC to country music to Lawrence's local legends The Embarrassment.

In a move that sounds straight out of a Preston Sturges movie, Johnston left behind the farms and bars of Kansas for the coffeehouses and bars of New York, with nothing more than a four-track recorder and knapsack full of demo tapes. In 1989, four years after his arrival in the city, Johnston's music caught the attention of Bar/None Records--a respected, Hoboken, NJ-based label.

In 1990, the label released his debut, Trouble Tree--an album that was well-received by critics, who called Johnston a "post-punk Donald Fagen," despite its rough edges. The album did little business in the U.S., but became a minor hit in Holland and the song "No Violins" received some airplay. Unable to continue his venture monetarily, Johnston sold off a piece of the family farm--a painful decision, considering Johnston had inherited the farm from his grandfather (the incident is the subject of the album's lead track). The outcome was worth the risk as 1992's Can You Fly ended up on album of the year lists from Spin, Billboard, and The New York Times. Famed critic and Village Voice writer Robert Christgau gave it an A+ and called it "a perfect album." Critics compared his wry, character-based lyrics to the writings of Raymond Carver. Despte the lack of a single, DJs routinely played cuts from the album. Johnston's momentum was riding high, and he quickly signed to a major--Elektra Records, and drafted a mega-producer--Butch Vig (Nirvana's Nevermind, Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream) --to man the boards for is follow up LP.

1994's This Perfect World was deemed a fine follow-up by most critics, although most agreed that it lacked the consistent greatness of its predecessor. Rolling Stone named Johnston songwriter of the year for 1994. But others were dismayed at the album's slick approach--Johnston's champion Robert Christgau later called the songwriter's team up with the uber-slick Vig a "mismatch" but Vig's jangly (if admittedly a little too smooth) production gave Johnston his first and only hit: "Bad Reputation."

This Perfect World's leadoff track, "Bad Reputation" is an excellent example of Johnston's songwriting prowess--both melodically and lyrically--and melancholy vocals. The song features Johnston's speaker admitting his past as an unreliable lover--"do you want me now?" he asks in the refrain. Translation: "yeah, I'm a pretty sketchy dude--you still interested?" The song is gorgeous, beginning with Johnston's vocals and acoustic guitar before giving way to a full scale ballad, complete with guitars so jangly, The Byrds may have asked him to ease off on the treble. When the song breaks back down to just Johnston and his voice again, he proclaims, "nobody's gonna tell me who to love," a line that's at once sad and proud--and a perfect example of Johnston's songwriting style.

Despite lots of radio airplay--particularly on college radio--"Bad Reputation" wasn't a huge hit, though it did show up on three separate charts--hitting #54 on Billboard Hot 100, #29 on Top 40 and #28 on Modern Rock. Oddly enough, the song didn't show up on the Adult Radio charts, despite Johnston being tailor-made for the format. Maybe didn't help that the song's video would be nominated for Most Generic Video of all time.
"Let's film Freedy singing in the streets of NY, and intercut it with some funny/interesting looking locals and hot, arty looking chicks...but here's the kicker, it's all going to be in sepia tone. Yeah. Fuck with that, Hype Williams."

(Apologies for the annoying ad)

The song was also featured as the closing credits song for Noah Baumbach's supremely excellent post-college indie comedy Kicking & Screaming (no, not the one with Will Ferrell. The one that's actually funny). It was also featured in the not-half-bad trailer:

"Are you wearing mascara?" "No...yes."

Johnston's one and only real hit (if you could call it that) was, unlike many one-hit wonders, a great example of his work. It's not surprising that it didn't hit as much as Elektra might have liked it to--it wasn't grunge or post-grunge, and the big college rock explosion of Dave Matthews Band and Hootie & The Blowfish was just beginning to happen. There wasn't much room for a melancholy singer-songwriter with a strong pop sense.

Still, Elektra released a second single, and an excellent one at that. "Evie's Tears" is a gorgeous track. Buoyed by a sweet little Rickenbacker riff that might have had R.E.M.'s Peter Buck calling his lawyers, the song gives way to a creepy story about a guy disturbed by his girlfriend's admission that she was or is currently being sexually abused by a Catholic priest. No, it doesn't exactly go along with the otherwise jubilant music, but that's the brilliance of Johnston--marrying pop smarts with literary smarts. Still--not something one wants to hear Casey Kasem talk about for one of his "requests and dedications," so maybe we should be grateful the track didn't make it to the airwaves.

Though Johnston never again met the success of This Perfect World, he stayed on Elektra until 2001, and ended up scoring a minor hit on the Adult Contemporary charts with a play-it-straight cover of Edison Lighthouse's "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)". But despite a lack of big success, Johnston continued to be well-respected by critics and his fellow songwriters (he's been referred to as a "songwriter's songwriter" for his genius structure and lyrical ability) as well as maintain a strong following. The following has enabled him to continue recording and releasing albums, including a demos compilation in 2004 and a live album in 2006. In 2007, Johnston recorded a mail-order only album of twelve cover songs by other artists as eclectic as NRBQ, Dionne Warwick, Eagles, Marshall Crenshaw, Tom Petty, and Paul McCartney & Wings. The album, called, My Favorite Waste of Time, is available on his website.

Johnston has also left behind his adopted city of New York for my hometown, Nashville, TN. He's currently recording a new album titled Rain on the City, slated to be released sometime in 2009.

So while, no, Freedy Johnston did not become the next Dylan or even reach the status of the new Paul Simon--new Todd Rundgren, maybe?--he helped to prove that, every once in a while, the public just wants some good music that doesn't rely on fancy production, loud guitars or pained vocals. Shocking, I know.

Download: Freedy Johnston - Bad Reputation
Download: Freedy Johnston - Evie's Tears

Bonus download: Freedy Johnston - Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)

Read a recent interview with Freedy
Buy Freedy Johnston music from Freedy himself

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