Listening In: The '80s, the '90s and a Great Local Band

Welcome back to Listening In, my weekly chance to sneak a peek at your iPod. This column is all about what local people are listening to, and the hope is it will spark some musical discussion here.

The game is easy. If you want to play, send me an email with your name and hometown. Once a week, I’ll pick a name out of a hat and reply back. If it’s your turn, you send me the names of five songs you’re listening to (and your thoughts on them, if you want).

I will list those songs here, and comment on them, and then you’ll get free Patch gear. Simple! The most fun way to play is to hit shuffle on your iPod and send me the first five songs that come up, but you can also just pick five of your favorites.

This week’s contestant is Chris Bauler of Aurora. Chris is a superb musician himself, and plays in local band Small Shiny Things, among other projects. Chris hit shuffle, and these are the five songs that came up. His comments are in plain type, mine are in italics.

1. “Rotten Apple,” by Alice in Chains. Love this track. Lots of the classic Staley/Cantrell harmonies with some fantastic Mike Inez bass playing. Agreed. The Jar of Flies EP was the soundtrack to my sophomore year of college. Hard to believe both Layne Staley and original bassist Mike Starr are dead now.

2. “I Was Just Thinking,” by Teitur. Saw this guy perform at Schubas (in Chicago) following an XRT VIP show with Death Cab for Cutie, with about 40 other people. In comparison I was far more impressed by his meticulous arrangements, simple yet delicate use of lyrics and delivery than anything Death cab did. Very cool artist. I’ve just started getting into this guy. He’s Danish, and he has a number of albums after this one that were never released in the U.S. You’re right, very cool artist.

3. “Metropolis,” by the Church. Great tune. The song plays into the soft spot in my heart for the late ‘80s-early ‘90s college rock bands. The guitars are so dated but satisfy me nonetheless. Got to love the Church. A 30-year recording career, and still going strong. To me, these guitars aren’t so much dated as incredibly nostalgic. The sound takes me back to junior high. Love this band.

4. “Fly,” by Sugar Ray. Eek, I knew there would be a song to be embarrassed about. I got this song on a downloaded compilation of all the top 100 songs of the year from Q101 from 1993 to 2007. I keep this song for the collection and a reminder of how depressed I was in music when this song came out. 1996-2000 and change was a pretty dark period for music, especially pre-Napster/MySpace/Internet radio. The song is just unlistenable, makes me think of bad WB television shows about teenagers driving BMW's in California by actors in their mid 20's. I really can’t add anything else to that. Except to say that this guy has gone on to host reality TV, which seems to me to be exactly where he belongs.

5. “Echo,” by Surround Sound. A great song by a now-defunct Geneva band. I met Bobby (Lord), the lead singer, while having one of my all-day legendary cigarette breaks while attending Waubonsee. Great guy and great songwriter. This album was never released. Surround Sound broke up and their bass player went on to start Secret Colours, and Bobby joined Inspector Owl. They recorded two albums- one at age 17-18 and the other around 20. Both records floor me with the content of lyrics, imaginative arrangements and to put it simply, really great pop rock. Man, right on. Surround Sound was a terrific band, and this unreleased second album (Somebody Say Something) definitely would have made my top 10 list in 2009, had it actually hit shelves. “Echo” is a fine, fine pop song, and Bobby Lord is a songwriter far beyond his years. You can hear the entire thing here.

Thanks for playing, Chris. And thanks to everyone for reading. If you want to play Listening In, send me an email at andre.salles@patch.com.