Matt Levine's Top 50 #51
Matt Levine
visit Matt Levine's Top 50 on the web at http://www.iswest.com(or
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requests to me at fla...@ix.netcom.com For those of you on the west
coast and have not seen 120 minutes tonight or didn't see it at all,
Extra Fancy's video for "Sinnerman" is going to be/was shown.
-----MATT LEVINE'S TOP 50 #51-----
Matt Levine's Top 50 for the week ending 6/29/96
TW LW 2W WO Artist-Title
Peak
-----------------------------2 weeks at
#1------------------------------
1 1 2 31 *Smashing Pumpkins-Tonight, Tonight 1
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2 3 6 11 *Stone Temple Pilots-Trippin on a Hole in a Paper Heart 2
3 2 2 6 *Primitive Radio Gods-Standing Outside... 2
4 5 12 6 *The Cure-Mint Car 4
5 11 8 16 *Dishwalla-Counting Blue Cars 1
6 4 10 6 Metallica-Until it Sleeps 4
7 8 16 12 *Butthole Surfers-Pepper 7
8 9 14 4 *Soundgarden-Burden in my Hand 8
9 10 17 8 *Porno for Pyros-Tahitian Moon 9
10 17 18 10 *Garbage-Stupid Girl 10
11 14 35 8 *Goo Goo Dolls-Long Way Down 11
12 6 4 13 The Verve Pipe-Photograph 4
13 19 21 4 *Beck-Where It's At 13
14 7 1 12 Tracy Bonham-Mother Mother 1
15 15 15 4 *Sponge-Wax Ecstatic 15
16 13 9 12 Refreshments-Banditos 8
17 18 19 9 *Gin Blossoms-Day Job 17
18 20 5 12 *Alice in Chains-Again 5
19 12 7 10 Soundgarden-Pretty Noose 1
20 25 26 10 *Patti Rothberg-Inside 20
21 23 24 12 *Self-So Low 21
22 24 25 11 *Everclear-Heartspark Dollarsign 22
23 30 40 6 *Nada Surf-Popular 23
24 28 31 7 *Jerry Cantrell-Leave Me Alone 24
25 27 27 8 *Hunger-Vanishing Cream 25
--------------------------------Greatest Gainer-------------------------
26 39 -- 2 *Screaming Trees-All I Know 26
------------------------------------------------------------------------
27 29 33 6 *Radiohead-Street Spirit 27
28 22 22 20 Goldfinger-Here in Your Bedroom 3
29 32 34 15 *Oasis-Don't Look Back in Anger 23
30 21 13 12 Paul Westerberg-Love Untold 13
31 34 36 7 *Superdrag-Sucked Out 31
32 16 11 22 No Doubt-Spiderwebs 11
33 31 23 14 Dave Matthews Band-Too Much 7
34 26 29 7 Fugees-No Woman, No Cry 26
35 36 39 6 *311-Down 35
36 38 42 5 *The Why Store-Lack of Water 36
37 44 -- 2 *Cranberries-Free to Decide 37
38 46 -- 2 *Afghan Whigs-Going to Town 38
39 37 41 7 Magnapop-Open the Door 29
40 33 28 9 Imperial Drag-Boy or a Girl 26
41 49 -- 2 *Super 8-King of the World 41
42 42 49 3 *Patti Smith-Summer Cannibals 42
43 45 50 3 *Spacehog-Cruel to be Kind 43
44 47 -- 2 *Wallflowers-6th Avenue Heartache 44
45 48 -- 2 *Voodoo Glow Skulls-Fat Randy 45
-----------------------------Hot Shot Debut-----------------------------
46 NEW-->1 *Elvis Costello-You Bowed Down 46
------------------------------------------------------------------------
47 RE 48 3 *Foo Fighters-Alone + Easy Target 47
48 40 38 17 Stone Temple Pilots-Big Bang Baby 1
49 NEW-->1 *Tracy Bonham-The One 49
50 NEW-->1 *Cracker-Nothing to Believe In 50
OFF
-- 35 20 13 Cranberries-Salvation 3
-- 41 44 3 Deftones-Bored 41
-- 43 32 15 Rage Against the Machine-Bulls on Parade 10
-- 50 46 31 Smashing Pumpkins-Zero 1
Bubbling Under
TW LW WO Artist-Title
1 -- 1 Dave Matthews Band-So Much To Say
2 2 3 Adam Sandler-Ode to my Car
3 -- 1 Hayden-Bad as they Seem
4 -- 1 Ryan Downe-Scratch
5 4 7 Extra Fancy-Sinnerman
6 11 6 Dog's Eye View-The Prince's Favorite Son
7 1 4 $10,000 Gold Chain-Oh Sweet Nuthin'
8 3 4 Hazies-Skin and Bones
9 -- 1 Meices-Uncool
10 8 3 Summer Camp-Nowhere Near
11 5 10 Sammy-Neptune Ave.
12 13 2 Son Volt-Route
13 14 2 Poe-Angry Johnny
14 -- 1 Dishwalla-Haze
15 -- 1 ?-It's Alright, It's Okay
Least Favorite Songs
1 Bone Thugs 'n' Harmony-Tha Crossroads
2 Bryan Adams-The Only Thing that Looks Good on me is You
3 Celine Dion-Because You Loved Me
4 All 4 One-Someday
5 Alanis Morissette-You Learn
Recurrents
TW LW Artist-Title
1 -- Smashing Pumpkins-Zero
2 1 Spacehog-In the Meantime
3 3 Jars of Clay-Flood
4 2 Smashing Pumpkins-Bullet With Butterfly Wings
5 -- Rage Against the Machine-Bulls on Parade
Flashbacks
1 Cure-Boys Don't Cry
2 Pink Floyd-Hey You
3 U2-New Years Day
4 Clash-Rock the Casbah
5 English Beat-Mirror in the Bathroom
Commentary
I'm just going to do a commentary for this week's chart only because I
find the commentary to be the most boring part of the chart for me. I'm
also just going to give brief reviews for the CDs I have bought since I
have last done reviews.
"Tonight, Tonight" by the Smashing Pumpkins remains at the top this week
and it looks like it will remain there for awhile. "Trippin' on a Hole in
a Paper Heart" by the Stone Temple Pilots and "Standing Outside a Broken
Phone Booth With Money in my Hands" by the Primitive Radio Gods, which
swap positions this week with "Standing..." still bulleting are still
pretty far behind, but still could take the #1 position away from the
Pumpkins in 4 or 5 weeks. "Mint Car" by the Cure also bullets up to #4
because of increased airplay on KROQ and Y107. Dishwalla's "Counting Blue
Cars" makes a huge rebound from out of the top 10 from #11 to #5 because
of a large increase in airplay and finally making it to #1 on Billboard's
Modern Rock Tracks chart. "Until it Sleeps" by Metallica falls out of the
top 5 to #6 because of less radio airplay. "Pepper" by the Butthole
Surfers, "Burden in my Hand" by Soundgarden, and "Tahitian Moon" by Porno
for Pyros each move up one place to #s 7, 8, and 9 respectively. Garbage
finally has a second top 10 hit with "Stupid Girl after a drought of 45
weeks. Their first top 10 hit was "Vow" when airplay didn't play as much
of a factor in my chart. "Photograph" by the Verve Pipe falls out of the
top ten because of less airplay on KROQ and KTYD, and "Mother Mother" by
Tracy Bonham falls out of the top 10 because I'm just getting very sick of
that song.
The Greatest Gainer on the chart this week is "All I Know" by the
Screaming Trees. This song isn't as good as their #5 Billboard Modern
Rock Tracks chart hit "Nearly Lost You," but it's still pretty good and
will probably make the top ten next week. It's getting some play on KROQ
and probably a lot on 91X because I faintly heard it while browsing
through stations on my walkman. 91X is a really cool San Diego Modern
Rock station. The 2nd largest gainer is Dishwalla's huge rebound back
into the top 5. The 3rd largest gainer is "Stupid Girl" by Garbage
because I saw them at the KROQ weenie roast (see review below) and it
seems to be getting a lot of play on KROQ and MTV. "Popular" by Nada Surf
didn't get much airplay on KROQ this week, but I saw the video on MTV 5
times so it made a 7 place gain up the chart. "Inside" by Patti Rothberg,
a great song which I didn't think would go anywhere above the bottom fifth
of the chart, made it into the top 20 because Y107's been playing it a lot
and same with KTYD. The song just didn't seem like it would be KROQ
material when I first heard it, so I didn't think it could go anywhere. A
lot of stations play stuff just because KROQ plays it. Would "Popular" by
Nada Surf be all over MTV if KROQ didn't play it. No. The only other
song in the top 20 that KROQ doesn't play is "Day Job" by the Gin
Blossoms, but I knew it would make it up to the top 20 because it's the
Gin Blossoms, an established group, and every other station I listen to,
except Y107, plays it.
There are 3 debuts and one re-entry that make it onto the chart this week.
The Hot Shot Debut is "You Bowed Down" by Elvis Costello, which is getting
a lot of play on KTYD and enters at #46. At #47 are the Foo Fighters with
"Alone + Easy Target" which is the re-entry and it re-enters because of
more airplay on KTYD. "The One," the second single off of Tracy Bonham's
excellent album, The Burdens of Being Upright. It enters at #49 and it
got 3 plays last week on KROQ. And the last debut on the chart at #50 is
"Nothing to Believe In" by Cracker because I like the song and I didn't
want Billboard to debut it before me. I also saw the video 2 times on MTV
this week, but it is getting absolutely no airplay. Some entries next
week could be the re-entry of "Muzzle" by the Smashing Pumpkins which is
getting play again on KROQ and new entries by Blues Traveler with "But
Anyway," "Bad as they Seem," by Hayden, which are both getting play on
Y107, and "So Much to Say" by the Dave Matthews Band and is getting play
on KTYD
Album Reviews
Metallica/Load/A
Everyone's already reviewed this album and everyone's bought it, so I'll
make it short. It sounds way different than Metallica's older material
and a somewhat different from the self-titled black album, but I still
like it a lot. My favorite songs are "Ain't My Bitch," "Until it Sleeps,"
"King Nothing," "Hero of the Day," "Bleeding Me," and "Mama Said." I like
their slower songs unlike most people I know. I just wanted to state my
opinion on this album and not give a full fledged review on it because
everybody has this.
Soundtrack/Cable Guy/A-
The movie sucked, but that doesn't mean the soundtrack has to. I like
almost all of the songs on here, except for Cypress Hill's "The Last
Assasin" and the "This Concludes Our Broadcast Day" theme music. I think
this is a good collection. Even the Silverchair song, "Blind" is good.
My favorites are the singles, "Leave Me Alone," by Jerry Cantrell,
"Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money in my Hand" by the
Primitive Radio Gods, and the non-single "Download" by Expanding Man.
It's the coolest song. Jim Carrey actually doesn't have a bad singing
voice either. I don't suggest that you go see the movie, but I do suggest
that you buy the soundtrack.
Beck/Odelay!/A
I bought this album because of its extreme critical acclaim and didn't
like it that much when I first listened to it, but it really grew on me.
The raps got to me, but I've started to like them. My favorite songs on
the album are the singles though, with the best one being "Devil's
Haircut," which was actually the main reason I bought this album. This
song was Jed the Fish's Catch of the Day and I really liked it, so I
thought the rest of the album would be really good. Even if you don't
like what you hear the first time you listen to this album, you'll learn
to love it. My favorite songs are "Devil's Haircut," "Where It's At,"
"The New Pollution," and "Misty," with vocals that sound like they were
done by a resurrected Kurt Cobain. I think this is a great album to add
to your collection, but if you don't like "Where It's At," I wouldn't say
this album is for you.
Super 8/Super 8/A-
Whoa! another good album (this just seems to be a week for good albums).
After seeing them live at the KROQ Weenie Roast and them being the best
band, I decided to buy the CD at Tower Records for 9 bucks. I was
expecting a lot from it, but the album did fill my expectations. It opens
up with the song "Pain" which was my favorite song they performed at the
Weenie Roast and is my favorite song on the album. If you haven't heard
"King of the World" on the radio or have seen the video on MTV, Super 8
features a former rapper, Bronx Style Bob (I got his autograph on a poster
at the Weenie Roast), but Super 8's music sounds nothing like rap. I'd
describe them as a typical HORDE tour band (which they're on by the way)
that sounds like a combination of Living Colour and Lenny Kravitz. This
album is pretty cool and is worth it for 9 bucks. Other great songs are
"Fire" and "Natural."
The Why Store/The Why Store/B+
This is a pretty good album also that I picked up from Best Buy for 10
bucks because I had "Lack of Water" in my head. "Lack of Water" is the
best song on the album though. The lead singer, Chris Shaffer's voice can
range from sounding like John Popper's to Eddie Vedder's and I like that.
I think some songs on this album are really good, and some just plain
suck. I like the songs on the first half of the album a lot, but the 2nd
half has a lot of slow songs like "When I'm With You." If you have heard
"Lack of Water," I think you'll probably like this album. If you haven't
heard The Why Store, they sound like a cross between Blues Traveler and
the Nixons.
Hayden/Everything I Long For/B-
I have no clue why I bought this album. I saw it at Best Buy on sale for
$9.99 so I decided to buy it in a binge hoping it would be really good. I
like the songs "Bad as they Seem" and "Hardly" a lot, so I thought I'd
like the rest of the songs a lot. The album is pretty good, but it gets
monotonous at times and Hayden's voice can get quite annoying. However,
the lyrics are pretty good, so they make up for this. If you hate
acoustic guitar only music, don't but this album, but if you do, there's a
chance you'll like it. Hayden sounds like one of those folk singers of
the 60s my dad always made me listen to.
Concert Review
KROQ Weenie Roast/B
This is my least favorite concert I've been to probably because the venue
sucked. We had the crappiest seats. We couldn't see any of the bands on
the main stage or even the screen because there was something blocking it
because we were way off to the side and they only had one screen in the
middle of the stage. My friend William and I got all of this cool free
stuff from Tower Records like CD and cassette promos, stickers, and
posters. I got a Super 8 poster signed by the lead singer, Bronx Style
Bob, and the drummer. Now to the music. The first act to play was Super
8 and I think they were the best act of the day. They were on the 2nd
stage which was really cool and you could actually see the band. The next
band I saw was Failure, which is a local band that toured a lot with Tool.
They were pretty cool. In the middle of Failure's set, I went up to the
main stage where my crappy seats were and watched 311, who performed okay
and then the Verve Pipe, who's performance I enjoyed, but my friend
William didn't. During the middle of the Verve Pipe's set, I went down to
see the Voodoo Glow Skulls and I got a lot of free stuff from Tower
Records when they were performing because in the front of the stage there
was moshing, and I'm not a big mosher. You could still hear the music and
see the band though. They were pretty cool. After that, the Fugees
arrived late and there was a huge break between the Verve Pipe's and the
Fugees' performance. The Fugees' performance sucked. William hated it so
much, we went down to go see Unwritten Law at the second stage and eat.
Unwritten Law did a pretty cool performance. I guess Lush came on really
soon after the Fugees and I missed their performance and that sucked
because I heard Lush was good. After Lush, Goldfinger performed, and the
did the second best performance of the day behind Super 8. Dave Wakeling
from English Beat and General Public joined them on stage for "Here in
Your Bedroom," and same with some members of "Reel Big Fish." I didn't
see Weapon of Choice, who was on during half of Goldfinger's performance,
but William saw them and thought they were okay. Then Garbage came on
after Goldfinger, and I thought they were pretty cool, but William didn't.
After Garbage's performance, we went down to the food service/shop area
near the second stage because Dash Rip Rock was coming on for a 5-10
minute set and then Korn, who plays really loud was coming on. Since we
couldn't see anything from our seats, we just decided to go down and try
to win more stuff from Tower Records and we could hear the band. After
Korn was on, No Doubt came on. I hate No Doubt's music off of the Tragic
Kingdom album, but it's cool to see Gwen dance around on the stage, so I
saw them. It wasn't worth it because I had to listen to "Don't Speak,"
which is a song that sounds as bad as a Celine Dion song and Gwen didn't
put as much energy into her performance as she did at the weenie roast.
Everybody seems to like Tragic Kingdom but me. I do still like their
older stuff though so don't flame me saying that No Doubt's old stuff
rules. Okay, after No Doubt was the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who didn't
perform any of their good songs and I was disappointed. Then Kiss came in
with a splash after an hour long wait, but didn't play any of their good
songs during the first half of the performance, which is what I saw.
William's dad wouldn't let him go to any concerts for a year if we didn't
meet him at the ticket booth at 11:10, so we couldn't stay for Kiss's full
set. Overall, it was a cool day, but the performances weren't that good,
except for the 4 bands I saw on the second stage, Garbage's, and
Goldfinger.