‘Stomach Vs. Heart’ is the bizarre first track of Barenaked Ladies’ bizarre third album, 1996’s Born On a Pirate Ship. This song is a perfect example of the offbeat musical and lyrical sensibility that makes BNL such a love-them-or-hate-them proposition.
Personally, I can’t imagine anybody hating them. But I guess if you are turned off by show-offy, self-aware lyrics and general quirkiness, then you will be turned off by Barenaked Ladies.
I’ve been on the giving end of a whole lot of mixtapes but I’ve also received a few over the years. Most have been from an old high school friend with whom I’ve stayed in touch over the past two decades (even without the easy access of Facebook).
It’s funny, I think our correspondence has diminished over the years as technology made staying in touch easier. Back before email we would write actual letters, written out by hand, and exchange mixtapes to introduce each other to new music. That gave way to a pretty steady e-mail correspondence and frequent music recommendations, but not as many mixtapes.
It’s a shame when a great band goes out not with a bang but a whimper. Some, including the band itself, would argue that they have many albums left to give, but I consider 2006’s Barenaked Ladies Are Me their final proper release because (cue ‘Taps’) Steven Page subsequently left the band.
That’s like Paul McCartney leaving The Beatles, or Adam Schlesinger leaving Fountains of Wayne (different ends of the spectrum there in terms of impact, sure, but the same thing creatively speaking). Page is the co-writer of almost every Barenaked Ladies song and the lead singer of most of them. How does a band lose somebody like that and continue to be the same band? It doesn’t. Perhaps they’ll continue to make great music on the back of Ed Robertson, who wrote all of those great songs with Page, but it won’t be the Barenaked Ladies I’ve loved over the years.
I’m suspending this week’s Motown Weekend in order to finish off Barenaked Ladies theme week. The Motown clips will return next Saturday.
The band’s sixth studio album, 2003’s Everything to Everyone, was a disappointment relative to their previous efforts, in terms of both sales and quality. That’s not to say it’s a bad album by any means… it just feels a bit paint-by-numbers.
One problem that creeps into bands with one or two principal songwriters is the creative frustration of the rest of the band, leading to the inevitable inclusion of those band members in the songwriting process.
Two years after their success with Stunt, Barenaked Ladies released another album that reached platinum status in the U.S., 2000’s Maroon. The album follows the same template as Stunt, boasting tight production and a radio-friendly set of ballads and mid-tempo rockers. The first single, ‘Pinch Me,’ received a lot of airplay, though not nearly as much as ‘One Week.’
The song on Maroon I’ve always been most drawn to is ‘Conventioneers,’ a sordid tale of two co-workers who have an ill-advised affair while on a business trip. I love the combination of the very modern corporate hook-up story told against the backdrop of this old-fashioned jazz lounge music.
Meet Me In Montauk 