What Teenage Fanclub Does to Me

Teenage Fanclub on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, September 2010

The same guys on unnamed British music show, circa 1992, performing “What You Do to Me.” While they have aged tremendously in 18 years, I look exactly the same.

Anyone who knows me or reads this blog regularly (which would be silly, since I haven’t posted anything in like six months, so if you have been taking the time to check each day, 1) I’m really sorry to abuse your enthusiasm; 2) let me explain to you how RSS feeds work) is probably aware of my affinity for Scotland’s Teenage Fanclub.

If I were a lazy music critic, I’d describe it as early 1990s grunge meets Big Star — I think someone else referred to them as “bubblegrunge.” At the essence, it’s great melodies, soaring harmonies, and great jangly 12-string guitar, over fuzzboxes.

If you know them, it’s either from their 1991 breakthrough album Bandwagonesque, or because I won’t shut up about them.

Bandwagonesque brought them acclaim (including a spot as musical guests on SNL, with guest host Jason Priestly, and also, this cranky Boston Globe review from 1992). It also brought them heightened, mis-set expectations — their label, DGC, had also just released a little album called Nevermind, and apparently expected similar return-on-investment from the Scots.

Spin picking Bandwagonesque as the Top Album of 1991 (even I might challenge that pick; an aside: 1991 is to albums what 1992 was to US Olympic Basketball Teams — take a minute and read this list; holy smokes) didn’t help.

At one point I was going to break down the entire album here, track by track. It was my Sufjan Stevens”I’m cutting 50 albums about each of the 50 states” moment –embarking on a journey that in our hearts we all know I’ll never come close to completing. While Sufjan did two states, I did one song.

(Sufjan, here’s a big idea for you: 1) combine the Dakotas into a single album; 2) Release “Texarkana” in 2013; I just provided a net savings of three albums, buddy!)

Anyway, after two overlooked gems (Thirteen and Grand Prix) on DGC and 2000′s Howdy!, the releases slowed to a trickle — 2005′s Man Made, and this year’s excellent Shadows. The songs have evolved with the band — with a matured focus on love, mortality, etc. (but I suck at figuring this stuff out so I could be totally wrong). For example, “The Fall”:

The leaves on the trees shield my eyes from the sun
But the leaves that I see they won’t be there for long
When I light a fire underneath what I wasI won’t feel sad only warmed by the loss

The nice thing about Shadows, other than the work itself, is that the boys are here in the States for the first time since 2005, and I saw them last week at Royale for an excellent, 80-minute, career-spanning set. They sounded great, and seemed genuinely pleased — both to be playing together, and to be playing for us.

Two bonus features:

1. Big room, small-ish crowd, so I got right up front. Since I am 6-6, I apologize for blocking everyone’s view.
2. Royale becomes some sort of douchy, vampire-themed Euroclub at 10, so Teenage Fanclub went on at like 8, and were done by 930, perfect for their aging fancbase. (Openers Radar Bros. went on at like 645).

Anyway, with the tour, there have been a slew of appearances and media interest, all with similar themes: great band, never made it here, check them out. Please, check these guys out. Or at least tell me you will.

Some great media clips from the tour:

“Ipod Shuffle: Norman Blake,” Boston Globe, September 24
“Scottish Rockers Face Middle Age at Ease With a Past of Near Misses,” New York Times, September 29
“Teenage Fanclub’s Flirtation with Stardom,” Chicago Tribune, October 1
“Teenage Fanclub Proves Three’s Not Necessarily a Crowd,” Wilmington News-Journal, October 1

Track One: “The Concept”

Wow, I’m actually following through on my earlier post re: Bandwagonesque. Here’s a look at Track 1, “The Concept.”

It opens with a blast of feedback that quickly cleans itself up into a seemingly oxymoronic stew of fuzz-laden guitar, gentle singing and strings. The contrast is the perfect means to communicate the song’s “ethereal yearning” (OK, I ripped that off from a review I read somewhere) happening throughout.

Anyway, I just checked out the lyrics and they seem pretty slight. There is also a certain slyness, though — “she won’t be forced against her will, says she don’t do drugs but she does the pill.” Who is she?

Meanwhile, there are strings and some beautiful harmonies that stand in stark contrast to the heavy, fuzzy guitar. We were at the brink of grunge’s explosion, but I think this album sparked (or attempted to spark) a power-pop resurgence while still sounding (then) contemporary. And this song is proxy for all of that. Yes, it’s an unabashed homage to Big Star, but frankly, I see nothing wrong with that. Its pop leanings also became the blueprint for the band’s more-Byrdsian jangle pop of their subsequent works.

The song ends with a repeated, “I didn’t want to hurt you, oh yeah,” riddled with sadness (I assume it’s genuine, perhaps I’m missing out on the joke) … and then goes into a long instrumental bridge with a pretty killer wistful guitar solo with strings. (When they performed this live on Saturday Night Live in 2/92, a fact I still find amazing, they cut out the bridge and went right into track #2, “Satan,” which sounded cool but much less wistful, obviously).

So, in short, fuzzy guitars, sly lyrics, wistful theme, power-pop harmonies with a great hook — pretty much everything I like in a song, and perfect fodder for a song I always insist on playing on those computerized bar jukeboxes that can download songs.