LJ Idol Week #2 - Appendix - 10 Favorite Scott Miller Songs
Scott Miller created a bunch of outstanding music in his career. Three albums of note, if you think you might want to dive in to his music following that route, include Game Theory's Lolita Nation, The Loud Family's Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things and The Loud Family's Interbabe Concern.
Some selected highlights:
"The Red Baron" is a slow tempo number that features an especially lovely chorus and some fine power pop guitar work.
"Erica's Word" was their almost hit. If you're only going to listen to one of their songs, listen to this one. The video features some of the text-art that Miller loved:
"The Wait and The Knees" is about record contracts ("you'll be folded into threes until you bend at the waist and the knees") and features some intricate musicianship (note the drums), a few of Miller's signature experimental features (the "no one twisting his arms" sequence) and what he describes as his "usually whiny vocals."
Fans love the full length version of "Chardonnay," but this is the shorter version from the Lolita Nation album. This is a song about realizing you're never going to have a hit - the bottle of chardonnay he's saving for his first big hit might as well be drunk, according to the lyrics:
Game Theory's final album, 2 Steps From The Middle Ages, opens with this fabulous track. The title is a reference to a great Twilight Zone episode. The highlight of the song features some great vocal back and forth between Donette Thayer and Miller:
Miller's second band, The Loud Family, was essentially an extension of Game Theory. I think he changed the name in an attempt to increase chances of success, but it might have backfired. "Aerodelia" is a lovely song with one of the most upbeat lyric sets Miller ever wrote (and its still a little dark):
"Don't Respond, She Can Tell" is from my favorite Loud Family album, Interbabe Concern. Miller famously (to a hundred people) wrote "everything on this album is deliberate" on the cover. You can hear why some people might think it was a little less deliberate almost immediately on this track - the main percussive element is a marble being dropped over and over again:
This song breaks my heart. The lyric "I'm not expecting that I'll end up with you just because I need you/I shouldn't count on having air around me just because I breath/I've thought about it for a while now and I'm ok/with things not being ok."
Another gorgeous song, this one from Days for Days. Miller goes falsetto and its just perfect:
One final track - "Controlled Burn Parts 1 and 2" - which describes a little bit more of his frustration with his lack of commercial success:
The crazy thing is there are at least twenty other songs I could have shared just as easily as there. The world is not fair.
Some selected highlights:
"The Red Baron" is a slow tempo number that features an especially lovely chorus and some fine power pop guitar work.
Click to view"Erica's Word" was their almost hit. If you're only going to listen to one of their songs, listen to this one. The video features some of the text-art that Miller loved:
"The Wait and The Knees" is about record contracts ("you'll be folded into threes until you bend at the waist and the knees") and features some intricate musicianship (note the drums), a few of Miller's signature experimental features (the "no one twisting his arms" sequence) and what he describes as his "usually whiny vocals."
Fans love the full length version of "Chardonnay," but this is the shorter version from the Lolita Nation album. This is a song about realizing you're never going to have a hit - the bottle of chardonnay he's saving for his first big hit might as well be drunk, according to the lyrics:
Game Theory's final album, 2 Steps From The Middle Ages, opens with this fabulous track. The title is a reference to a great Twilight Zone episode. The highlight of the song features some great vocal back and forth between Donette Thayer and Miller:
Miller's second band, The Loud Family, was essentially an extension of Game Theory. I think he changed the name in an attempt to increase chances of success, but it might have backfired. "Aerodelia" is a lovely song with one of the most upbeat lyric sets Miller ever wrote (and its still a little dark):
"Don't Respond, She Can Tell" is from my favorite Loud Family album, Interbabe Concern. Miller famously (to a hundred people) wrote "everything on this album is deliberate" on the cover. You can hear why some people might think it was a little less deliberate almost immediately on this track - the main percussive element is a marble being dropped over and over again:
This song breaks my heart. The lyric "I'm not expecting that I'll end up with you just because I need you/I shouldn't count on having air around me just because I breath/I've thought about it for a while now and I'm ok/with things not being ok."
Another gorgeous song, this one from Days for Days. Miller goes falsetto and its just perfect:
One final track - "Controlled Burn Parts 1 and 2" - which describes a little bit more of his frustration with his lack of commercial success:
The crazy thing is there are at least twenty other songs I could have shared just as easily as there. The world is not fair.