Did you know that Fastball are still together and playing shows?

That is all.

"Fire Escape" came up on shuffle play today. Great song.

They won't make it home, but they really don't care...
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 3 August 2006 00:11 (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

inevitable '90s revival. i still like "fire escape" and "out of my head"

These guys will never get old and gray.

Just heard "Fire Escape" at a Whataburger. That song has had quite the shelf life, no?

compared to the singles released directly before and after it, it hasn't had really any shelf life at all!

What I meant was for a single that, yes, wasn't as big as the other two, it's seems like it's the one you're most likely to encounter while you're out getting a burger or coffee or groceries or...

My parents got me the 'deluxe edition' of The Harsh Light of Day for x-mas 2000. The opening cut is a jam (and probably a better choice for a lead single than "You're An Ocean"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQs63Wqxp44

anyone can see the road that they walk on is paved in gold

i had that record, i think.

"Fire Escape", Whataburger, Again (they must have a loop or shuffle Muzak thing, "Spill The Wine" always appears)

Funny that this thread came up again. I was just listening to their 2009 album Little White Lies, which is once again pretty solid but not quite as great as I wish it was. Weird career trajectory: huge hits up front, then years in obscurity putting out the kind of promising albums that usually *lead up* to a big hit.

"fire escape" is an awesome song

yeah i liked that one more than the others.

the gas station closest to my apartment has some kind of really short music playlist on loop -- I've heard "Walk of Life" by Dire Straits go into "Breathe (2AM)" by Anna Nalick there while pumping gas like 20 times.

Oh hell, I'll put this up even though nobody will care but me. They put out a single last year, with video. Both pretty good. Reminds me of the Vapors somewhat. 6000 views, whoo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKZn6hg7Iq0

Memoir in a Melody: The Tragic Disappearance Behind Fastball’s ‘The Way’
http://www.biographile.com/memoir-in-a-melody-the-tragic-disappearance-behind-fastballs-the-way/31024/

just bumping this thread to congratulate Fastball on their recent top 10 hit!

I nearly did a spit take when I first heard that track on Z100

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cauU2IpFyA

I wonder how long it'll be before somebody does a similar thing with "Closing Time" by Semisonic. There's Gold in thar late 90s Rock Hits!

"out of my head" was a nice unassuming little gem on the radio back then

^^I remember reading a superb and eye-opening (to the ways of the music biz) piece on the band in the Austin American-Statesman in late '98 where they mentioned that they hoped "Out of My Head" would break big because then they would see genuine royalties from their label, as the initial money made by "The Way" and "Fire Escape" had all gone to recoup advances and other debts accrued (failed first album etc.).

this is so strange, I was just listening to this album yesterday because I'm *gasp* blogging about dumb CDs I bought in the late 90s

xxxp guy from semisonic has already written some recent big hits! there's an interview in the last tape op.

I wonder how long it'll be before somebody does a similar thing with "Closing Time" by Semisonic. There's Gold in thar late 90s Rock Hits!

The Chainsmokers - 'One Last Call' (ft. Bebe Rexha)

surprised that 'closing time' has 10x more spotify plays than 'the way'

^^I remember reading a superb and eye-opening (to the ways of the music biz) piece on the band in the Austin American-Statesman in late '98 where they mentioned that they hoped "Out of My Head" would break big because then they would see genuine royalties from their label, as the initial money made by "The Way" and "Fire Escape" had all gone to recoup advances and other debts accrued (failed first album etc.).

I thought "Out of My Head" was a big hit - heard that one way more than "Fire Escape", at least

I remember Mike Doughty singling out this album as being the epitome of all that was wrong about the $17.99 CD era, where you'd buy a CD for one hit and then feel duped when it turned out that the guy who wrote it was different than the guy who wrote the rest of the songs. Wikipedia at least seems to think that isn't true, so I wonder where that impression came from. Definitely not the first time I've heard that criticism. (that said, it was still a decent set of songs wasn't it?)

Oh, it was a hit...it was just eye-opening to me at 16 that they needed three hits off the album before they started seeing real money from the label.

the most surprising albums acquired in my family's household during the $17.99 cd era (in the sense that the single we got the album for was completely unlike the rest of the album) were, like, the sugar ray album with "fly" on it and the len album (actually enjoyed the latter tho!). amazing that a widespread lack of singles availability actually drove us to buy that many albums for so few songs (until napster came along obv)

From October: http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/7542085/fastball-out-of-my-head-interview-mgk-camila-cabello-bad-things-sample

I wonder how long it'll be before somebody does a similar thing with "Closing Time" by Semisonic. There's Gold in thar late 90s Rock Hits!

I play guitar and sing in a 90s cover band and both "The Way" and "Closing Time" are big crowd pleasers for sure.

The fact that this was released on Bad Boy makes it more amusing, given how they were known for blatant sampling of hit songs in the late 90s.

I remember Mike Doughty singling out this album as being the epitome of all that was wrong about the $17.99 CD era, where you'd buy a CD for one hit and then feel duped when it turned out that the guy who wrote it was different than the guy who wrote the rest of the songs. Wikipedia at least seems to think that isn't true, so I wonder where that impression came from.

Maybe it came from Natalie Imbruglia's Torn, which was a cover.

I play guitar and sing in a 90s cover band and both "The Way" and "Closing Time" are big crowd pleasers for sure.

― Lauren Schumer Donor (Phil D.), Wednesday, January 11, 2017 8:06 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what pedals do you use on "Soon", just curious

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx6aUDvzKUE

Doughty, my old housemate, was an idiot who made friends with some great musicians while working at his job at the Knitting Factory. I actually like a lot of his band's stuff, mostly due to everyone other than him (drummer was especially amazing), but both Fastball and Semisonic are miles greater than anything that Soul Coughing ever imagined. Doughty should not be quoted as an authority on anything seems self evident to anyone who's read his book (I forced myself to finish it). Anything that makes Fastball money makes me happy.

Aw man, Soul Coughing were miles ahead of those two bands. I mean they're fine as far as 90's power pop goes but SC went so much further, mainly because they had so much instrumental talent and could jam and funk all over those tunes. To that extent Doughty's limited songwriting was really an asset. I just found it odd that he seemed to single out Fastball in several interviews. Perhaps he was thinking of Cake, who really did have that sort of situation - Greg Brown the guitarist wrote a total of like three songs with the band, one of which was "The Distance", while John McCrea wrote everything else. Lo and behold their biggest hit sounded nothing like anything else they did, which must've cheesed off a few people. Funny enough I'm pretty sure Doughty and Dan Wilson worked together several times, at least on those mid-00's Doughty solo albums where he was trying to hit it big

Really thought I was ilx's soul SC defender at this point... whew. I'd definitely be more selective in my love than in 1998 but yeah, a better band than either Fastball (who seemed to have about 2.5 good songs, and a nice sound) or Semisonic (competent songwriters without too much else going on). No hate on either of them, but if they'd never existed it would make no difference, whereas Soul Coughing sounded like nobody else and had a couple of really great players.

Funnily, Cake dude and Doughty are kinda similar songwriters (and flagrant REwriters of their own material), just Doughty was a more distinctive lyricist. I suspect many Napster share folders boasted misattributed MP3s.

some fastball songs > ruby vroom > other fastball songs >>>> semisonic > vertical horizon

SS (the bassist from Soul Coughing) dated my good friend for a long time (until about two years ago). Was on Fiona Apple's bus when they got hit for weed in TX. Really stoned dude, just always high. Tbh, couldn't ever get that band's appeal. I just duck over to the lightning crashes thread sometimes if I need to remember an era where I mostly listened to rap (friend had a tape deck in his shower with only one tape: throwing copper).

The book by Semisonic drummer Jacob Slichter is worth a read for life in the 90s downslide of the alt.rock industry.

I wonder how long it'll be before somebody does a similar thing with "Closing Time" by Semisonic. There's Gold in thar late 90s Rock Hits!

Nah, the key is to sample a band's slightly lesser known, but still reasonably well charting follow up single.
So in the next few years we'll get I am God,You Make Me Come, and I Just Made You Say Underwear

xp I read through a few pages of that on Amazon, seems like a pretty good read. And a lot less depressing than Doughty's book, which was essentially "here are my grievances with literally every single person I ever worked it, also I was kind of a little shit those days too, fuck Soul Coughing, but hey I'm better now". Not to say it wasn't a massively entertaining book, just needed to take a shower afterwards

anyway this reminded me that Doughty has a new album, and FUCK!! it's actually pretty good.

I play guitar and sing in a 90s cover band and both "The Way" and "Closing Time" are big crowd pleasers for sure.

― Lauren Schumer Donor (Phil D.), Wednesday, January 11, 2017 8:06 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what pedals do you use on "Soon", just curious

― rip van wanko, Thursday, January 12, 2017 4:19 PM (six days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

All of them at once.

amazing that a widespread lack of singles availability actually drove us to buy that many albums for so few songs (until napster came along obv)

the weird thing about singles in the cd era is that they did exist, but really low in number? I remember being in high school in the mid/late 90s and we had some free day during orchestra while our teacher was doing auditions in another room or something and some classmates were listening to a cd and kept skipping back to one song. I joked with them that they should have just bought the single (which did exist for whatever song it was) and they looked at me like I was a complete alien.

tbh I mocked people who obsessively hoarded mp3s a few years later for copying entire albums when they really wanted one song

haha, in 8th grade i had band class 1st hour, and one day before class started i was treated to "one week" plus 5 seconds of whatever song came after that on the cd like 10 times in a row.

I wish I remember what the song was, but I'm going to pretend it was "The Way" for the purpose of the thread

hah we did that for the Aqua CD, which legit had 4-5 really good songs on it. the rest I remember zip about except for the first 3 seconds. "In the heat of the night, we are having a fiesta....*SKIP*"

CD singles were the dumbest thing. I get why you'd want the 7" vinyl, they're obviously much cheaper to produce, but CDs cost the same regardless of whether or not you put 15 minutes on it or 80. Alas I bought a good number of them because they cost so little and the collector in me was fascinated with the B-sides. Which were often terrible, by the way.

Heheh. I remember that exact thing with the Aqua CD, and "In the Heat of the Night" being the one that everybody would skip as if it was some agreed upon rule.

I don't recall CD singles being significantly cheaper than albums, at places where I would shop. Usually more than half the price of the album. Singles seemed like an even worse deal than albums, and most of the time I'd prefer to chuck in the extra $6 or whatever to maybe get some other good songs (I remember buying a couple CD singles and trying to like the B-sides and failing, so based on a few singles I proclaimed that B-sides were universally terrible lol). It was such a racket on the part of major labels that it annoys me that I have nostalgia for that era

Trying to think what CD single was my last one--probably "The Great Beyond" by R.E.M., which actually made sense as a stand-alone release since it saved one buying the Man On The Moon soundtrack. The thing about CD singles is they could be really cheap ($1-2) but for that price you sacrificed content (these singles would truly be 'singles'--just the topside and either a remix or another song) and packaging (almost always in those thin cardboard sleeves).

I felt some nostalgia at WalMart a couple years ago when I saw Meghan Trainor's label had done a physical single/ep for "All About That Bass" because her album wasn't ready yet.

the last time I remember being with someone buying a cd single in a store was with a college roommate and they had Mousse T. vs. Hot 'N' Juicy ‎– Horny on sale

I also bought "The Great Beyond!" Now those were some garbage B-sides, just generic live versions of some of their biggest songs. Zzzzz.

I actually spent $12.99 on an import of the Beastie Boys "Body Movin" single because I liked the Fatboy Slim remix so much. seriously would record an hour of radio at a time trying to capture it to no avail.

Oh man, now import singles were a real racket! I was a big Garbage fan and they spread so many worthwhile non-lp songs over numerous singles both domestic and imports--more than a few times I shelled out $10-12 for single tracks on those annoying Pt.1/Pt.2 British singles.

Like I was heartbroken one time because I bought a Brit "Stupid Girl" single for $12 at a "no returns" shop only to find it was a mis-press with the contents of a "Queer" single I ALREADY HAD.

north american bjork single completists

Nice read. Music journalism written longform...on a local TV news site.

http://www.kvue.com/news/local/fastball-the-way-lela-raymond-howard/459113059