Is There Life In This Cartoon?

Back in 1990, I got my first CD player for Christmas. I was 14. A lot of my friends already had CD players, and dammit, I wanted one, too! My grandma not only got me a Sony Discman, but she also gave me some money to buy CDs with because she had no idea what I would want. So, I waited until my paper route paid off a little bit and went shopping.

Unfortunately, the Port Huron area is a cultural black hole. There was a Harmony House, but those are expensive, and when I was 14, the Best Buy did not yet exist. In the old downtown area there was Full Moon Records which was kinda cool, but I barely knew it existed at that point. Up in the north end there was Full Moon's sister store, Blue Moon. That was also kinda cool, but full of stuff that I hadn't discovered yet and I wasn't into taking risks with music at that point. So, I went to the stupid Disc Jockey store at Birchwood Mall. I bought a handful of CDs. I couldn't tell you everything I bought, but I know one was "Chronicles" from Rush, and another was "Bandwagonesque" from Teenage Fanclub.

I still have that Teenage Fanclub CD. It was their second album. I think maybe I was so into it because it was really rockin', but also a lot like the '60s pop that I liked so much. That album still gets pulled out once in awhile and played obsessively for three days at a time.

Their next album was called "Thirteen." It was more like the sound they've grown into now, i.e. more pop vocal harmonies and less 'grunge' like the second album. That killed their US following. Just like Sloan going from their first to their second album, Teenage Fanclub was unjustly pigeonholed as a grunge band. When both bands failed to deliver more of the same after their first big hit albums, US fans stopped paying attention.

Okay, that's not entirely true. Sloan has a massive underground following and constantly sells out shows here even though they can't get or keep an American record deal to save their lives. Teenage Fanclub has gone through the same problems. In fact, last year, Noel Gallagher of Oasis said in an interview that Teenage Fanclub were the "second best band in Britain." I'll give you one guess as to who he thinks is the best band.

That interview coincided with the release of possibly one of the best anthology albums ever released: "Four Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-Six Seconds: A Shortcut to Teenage Fanclub." If there was ever a 'best of' worth buying, this would be it. Plus it included four new songs. This is a band that started out sounding more like Badfinger or Big Star and instead has turned into a modern Crosy, Stills, & Nash. Not that they make folk music, but they are a band of three equals who each write consistently well-written melodic rock in the vein of the Byrds, the Beach Boys, Big Star, Badfinger, lots of 'b's, but also America, and maybe even the Moody Blues.

This year they released their ninth album, "Man-Made." Known for holing up at their home studio in Glasgow, it was a shock when they decided to go to Chicago to record with Tortoise's John McEntire. Personally, I think its even more odd that they would choose to record with McEntire. This is a man known for odd time signatures and avant-jazz, not melodic pop-rock.

The result is interesting, though, and its subtle. On the surface, this sounds like their best album since "Grand Prix" in 1993. That's probably because it is the best since then. But its more than that. When you sit down and listen, you start to notice little flourishes that may make you think of Stereolab. Don't get me wrong, its definitely a Teenage Fanclub record, but its these subtleties provided by McEntire that push the album a little further.

Teenage Fanclub were scheduled to play at St. Andrew's Hall a couple days ago. Unfortunately, ticket sales were very low, and the show was cancelled. I was pissed, I've been a fan of this band for so long and I've never had a chance to see them. Luckily I had to stop by the house before going downtown and my friend from ClearChannel emailed me to let me know it was cancelled. I heard there was a small unruly group of pop fans waiting outside the front door of St. Andrew's wondering what the fuck was going on. I was almost one of them.