FYM JAM OF THE DAY: WILCO 'HOW TO FIGHT LONELINESS' -SUMMERTEETH

In our humble opinion vintage Wilco, with Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett together, was Wilco at their best. After gaining commercial momentum from 1996's masterpiece double-disc Being There (a personal favorite) the band found themselves with a bit more money aiming for a big breakthrough record with 1999's Summerteeth.

The original sessions were recorded in Texas at Willie Nelson's space in Spicewood. Tweedy was reportedly down in it, the darkness that is- missing his family and being away on tour (hence the somber vibe throughout the record). And depressed Jeff Tweedy equals Wilco lyrical perfection. After putting the album on the back burner to collaborate with Billy Bragg, ultimately releasing Mermaid Avenue, the band went back into the studio, this time in Chicago, where Jay Bennett stepped up to try some new production techniques. Using overdubs in Pro Tools (a first for Wilco) Summerteeth's production suddenly moved up a notch, delivering a quality album on a grander scale. After experiencing Summerteeth, the listener can pick up on all the beautiful production subtleties, and really appreciate the direction they were moving towards before recording their finest record, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

Today's Jam of the Day comes from the above mentioned album, and it's called How to Fight Loneliness. It's a shimmering tex-mex acoustic floater. Bennett's effortless organ/keyboard parts- paired with Tweedy's seemingly earnest lyrics take us on a sublime journey championing doleful sonic valleys (like a warm blanket filled with depression). It's the perfect comfort track/album to play on a grey Friday afternoon, alone, while your wife fly's across country to visit her sister (and sister's new baby). So how do you fight loneliness? See Tweedy's lyrics below. Cheers, FYM    :o)

Thoughts. Graphic. J Thomas Codling.

LYRICS:

How to fight loneliness, Smile all the time. Shine your teeth to meaningless, And sharpen them with lies. And whatever is going down, Will you follow around, That's how you fight loneliness. You laugh at every joke, Drag your blanket blindly, Fill your heart with smoke.  And the first thing that you want, Will be the last thing you'll ever need That's how you fight it. Just smile all the time, Just smile all the time, Just smile all the time, Just smile all the time.

FYM PRESS PLAY: MODEST MOUSE

Editors Note: It's amazing how tunes can take on entirely new meanings while listening to a track in the city/region the music was influenced by. (example: listen to Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden during the rainy season in the upper Northwest) 

In 1996 Modest Mouse released their first official full-length record,  This Is A Long Drive for Someone With Nothing To Think About. It's an album worth latching onto during rainy afternoons while self-diagnosing your habitual inner-worriment. Track three (Custom Concern) struck a particular cord of subjective appreciation when FYM first moved to Seattle. 

Imagine endless days (111 to be exact) of searching for a new career in a new town (David Bowie, Low reference) followed by repetitive morning walks seeing your wife off to her bus stop/new job, while you ask yourself how am I going to survive (get a job) and make this happen- the American Dream. The boundless emotional weight, could consume anyone's mind with the darkness (Black Lodge, Twin Peaks type stuff). Luckily music (Custom Concern by Modest Mouse) was there to ease the veiled spirit, and redefined our perspective on what was once considered to be important.

Custom Concern delicately opens with a dash of instrumentally despairing cultural sobriety. The songs relevance for FYM is the organic three act lyrical tumble through the stress ones society pressures the human condition to submit to. Issac Brock's unspoiled raw vocal yearning sets the focus with lyrics like: 

The custom concern for the people, Build up the monuments and the steeples to wear out our eyes. I get up just about noon, My head sends a message for me to reach for my shoes and then walk... (screaming) Got to go to work, Got to go to work, got to have a job..

Goes through the parking lot fields, Didn't see no signs that they will yield and then thought... This'll never end, this'll never end, this'll never stop.

Message read on the bathroom wall said, 'I don't feel at all like I fall' And we're losing all touch, losing all touch, building a desert. 

The dismal landscape Modest Mouse creates is an undeniably relatable warning. FYM's Jam of the Day is a motivational tune, that is- a warm blanket of blunt sentiment, refreshing the spirit to be true to the inner vision inside us all. We hope Modest Mouse will pull out this deep-cut live when they play the 2011 Sasquatch Festival this May! For more info go HERE. Cheers, FYM. 

FYM PRESS PLAY- Jam of the Day, Custom Concern: 

FYM JAM OF THE DAY: LAWYERS GUNS & MONEY- WARREN ZEVON

With Lawyers Guns & Money: Warren Zevon hold's FYM sonically captive, (this is our literal interpretation) as he describes an impressive tale of a US Diplomat down on his luck. Through the course of the tune, our imagination runs wildly along with Zevon's soaring guitar work, triumphantly unforgettable hook, as his unraveling archetype slowly becomes defiled.

(this is our version of how it makes us feel) We like to think of Zevon's character as a James Bond-like runner, wealthy and despicable (yet still giving us the feel of a charming under-dog) it's a story that never seems to tire even after multiple listens.

Warren Zevon also raises an important point, that enough of all three (Lawyers Guns & Money) can get one out of almost an sticky situation an FYM member could conceive of.

Lawyers Guns & Money closes possibly Zevon's greatest release 'Excitable Boy'. With other great tunes featured like: Werewolves of London, Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner, and Nighttime in the Switching Yard. It's indeed an FYM essential album.

Cheers, and listen to our Jam of the Day Below:

FYM PRESS PLAY: THE KINKS, 'PHENOMENAL CAT'

It seems wherever FYM lives, orange tabby alley cats find us.. Over the past few weeks Higgins (pictured below) has been a quiet presence on FYM HQ's window sill.

Peering through our shades, Higgins keeps us company. He seems to be digging on The Kinks lately... So in honor of his impressive dedication to playing in our planter out front, we present a delicate deep cut Jam of the Day by The Kinks with Phenomenal Cat:

Phenomenal Cat- Side Two: Track 4 off of the album, 'The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society'. Their 6th studio album, released in 1968, ended up being the last full-length The Kinks recorded together with the original quartet. It's a forgotten classic that deserves a much needed visit/revisit.

Cheers,

FYM

FYM JAM OF THE DAY: 'TALLEST TALES' BY MONDO DRAG, ALIVE RECORDS

While on Holiday in the Midwest,  FYM found ourselves reconnected, and ringing in the New Year with our buds Mondo Drag. We revisited New Rituals (2010 Alive Records Debut) recently, and rediscovered the epic Mississippi River roller Tallest Tales. The tune is only found on compact disc or digital download (not on the red vinyl- our  predominant music listening medium of choice).

Tallest Tales is special, starting out as a road weary grinding journey pushing West. Then the introduction of a female vocal apparition floating through ambient sonic valleys ignites the epic ending: an all-out gunfight in the desert showcase of instrumental prowess.

If you haven't checked out the rest of Mondo Drag's 2010 masterpiece New Rituals, buy it HERE.

Listen to forYoungModerns Jam of the Day:
 

Bonus Photos (Click to Expand), from New Years Eve with Mondo Drag:

FYM PRESS PLAY: THE KILLERS, BOOTS

Boots, is the latest and only piece of new material released by The Killers in 2010. Featuring Blade Runner sonic ambience, down and out Jimmy Stewart sampled from  It's a Wonderful Life, introduces The Killers fifth consecutive Christmas record:

Dear Father in Heaven, I'm not a praying man, but if you're up there and you can hear me... show me the way... I'm at the end of my rope and... show me the way.

Boots is possibly the most powerful of The Killers Christmas Singles Series. With lyrics like:

I wasted my wishes on Saturday nights, Oh, what I would give for just one more, I’d soften my heart and shock the world.

Flowers continues to champion writing thoughtful tunes about second chances, hope, and joy.

With a video directed by Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite), The Killers still embody the heart of Las Vegas Nevada, USA. It's hard not to imagine how prefect this tune would sound rolling down Flamingo Road during a December evening, reuniting with past vices, and loved ones alike. Just as the rest of The Killers Christmas Singles did, all proceeds of the sales from Boots go to (RED) continuing the fight against AIDS in Africa. The single can be purchased HERE. 

Cheers, 

FYM 

FYM JAM OF THE DAY: PULP "COMMON PEOPLE"

FYM's favorite 90's Britpop heroes PULP, have recently issued a statement on the status of the band:

Pulp have decided to get together and play some concerts next summer (2011). The shows will involve all the original members of the band (Nick Banks, Jarvis Cocker, Candida Doyle, Steve Mackey, Russell Senior & Mark Webber) & they will be playing songs from all periods of their career.

Pulp, who have been on hiatus as a band since 2002, also go on to say, This will be the first time that all the original members have been on stage together since 24th August 1996.

Pulp will start out performing select dates across Europe next summer. FYM is crossing our fingers the band will venture over to the States in 2011 as well. 

forYoungModerns Jam of the Day happens to be possibly the most important song Pulp ever released Common People. Check the 90's Disco 2000 chic video below: 

Common People is a foot-stomping dial-breaker, endlessly accessible for anyone out there scratching and surviving (goodtimes). The song has aged quite well since its release 15 years ago, continuing to stay as relevant as ever. Originally serving as an anthem for political change-striking a nerve in the British social class system. It's an honest tale of a rich girl  embracing the working class style/way of life for the purpose of being hip. But the tune runs a bit deeper serving as a timeless FUCK YOU to the upper-tier. And who can't get behind that...

If you have yet to hear Pulp's masterpiece Different Class, (the album which Common People is featured on) please DO go out and find it. It's one of the best albums of the 1990's you have never heard. 

Go to PulpPeople.com and check the well designed graphic slideshow/campaign (the Cooper typeface fits well) Pulp is using in order to promote their reentry this summer. WELCOME BACK.

Cheers,

FYM

FYM JAM OF THE DAY: NO PUSSY BLUES

With No Pussy Blues, Grinderman (members of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) embark on a journey poetically describing the ultimate primitive emotion that most men (and or women) inevitably have felt at one time or another in their lives. The best Nick Cave is live Nick Cave, check out this live version of our Jam of the Day:



No Pussy Blues, comes out blaring wicked baselines, peppered in with Nick Cave's beat poet lyrical pursuit, climaxing into the most aggressive release of guitar frustration we have ever heard/seen.  Since their 2007 release, Grinderman have come together again, releasing the excellent (unambiguously titled) Grinderman 2.

Nick Cave and Ginderman tour Australia this January, but we are hopeful for another leg supporting their latest release in the States in 2011. For now listen to the sonic bulldozer No Pussy Blues, and check out Grinderman's latest release HERE.

FYM

FYM JETSET: GREETINGS FROM COLOMBIA

Our publicist Nick 'don't call me escobar'  Codling, is blazing the skies, hitting up Cartagena Colombia for our buddy Bryan 'BK' King's bachelor party.

With Halloween around the corner, this Art Director, thought it would only be appropriate to go into the FYM archives and share this photo:

In Bryan and Nick's honor (pictured above left-right) may we present the most perfect scotch sipping jetset tune: Sinatra covering John Denver's Leaving on a Jet Plane.